Chapter 88
King Jing trusted Li Yu completely, but controlling the plague of locusts was no small matter. King Jing paused and held Li Yu’s hand. His eyes were filled with worry, as if asking him, “Are you confident?”
Li Yu chuckled. “Yes, I am. But the method may not be very honorable. ”
King Jing didn’t care about being honorable. He was more worried about Li Yu’s safety than whether or not he could stop the plague of locusts. Generally, when people treated locusts, they usually used fire. Although it could kill a lot of insects in a short time, there was also the danger of being burned. Xiaoyu was a carp spirit, so he should be afraid of fire, right?
Li Yu saw his concern and said, “Your Highness, don’t worry. I won’t do it myself.”
Or rather, he wasn’t the one who was going to do it. Don’t think of him as a powerful spirit who could summon the wind and rain. He was just a system fish, and he was also very afraid of insects!
King Jing looked at Li Yu carefully. Seeing that he wasn’t joking, he nodded and allowed him to try.
Li Yu asked for a pen and paper and wrote down a few rules in one breath. It was a coincidence. Before Li Yu transmigrated, some countries in his original world were suffering from a plague of locusts. His country gave them some help. Out of curiosity, Li Yu roughly studied how to control the plague of locusts. Although he didn’t remember everything, he found it very interesting and remembered a few of the rules.
They were: deep plowing, grain selection, and duck army.
King Jing was confused.
Li Yu tried his best to explain them in a way that the ancients could roughly understand. “Deep plowing refers to the fact that the locusts’ eggs originally grew in the soil. When plowing, the soil is dug as deep as possible. The eggs will be exposed to the sun and will … be burned to death by the sun.”
“Grain selection refers to the fact that the locusts don’t eat all the crops. If we plant crops that the locusts don’t eat, then the locusts will have less food to eat and naturally won’t cause trouble.”
King Jing was smart and understood immediately. These two rules were indeed interesting.
King Jing’s eyes fell on the third rule. What was duck army? Was it the … duck he was thinking of?
“Your Highness is right.” Li Yu blinked. “As the saying goes, everything has its nemesis. Ducks can eat locusts. The first two items should be too late for the locust infested areas. Your Highness can now get more ducks to solve the urgent situation. This is called … the Duck Army. ”
King Jing: “…”
King Jing furrowed his brows. He had never heard of anything that Xiaoyu had mentioned, especially the Duck Army.
However, Xiaoyu’s words made sense. At least they were not being burned, and there was no danger to their lives. King Jing nodded slowly.
Some families in Maple Town raised ducks, but there weren’t many of them. They were originally used to sell them for money and for their own consumption.
King Jing ordered Wang Xi to buy a few ducks. Whether ducks could eat locusts or not, they would know after trying it out.
Wang Xi personally took on this task. He got up early in the morning and left before dawn. In less than two hours, he ran back and said excitedly, “Your Highness, it really worked! I saw with my own eyes that the ducks ate a lot of locusts as soon as they landed. From the moment I left until the moment I came back, they kept eating and didn’t stop! ”
Wang Xi rushed back to report the news. He was so happy that he almost lost one of his shoes.
According to Wang Xi, one duck ate more than a hundred locusts in one breath. King Jing roughly estimated and couldn’t control his excitement.
At this time, if he reported to the Emperor first and asked the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds to buy the ducks, the locust infestation would become more serious.
King Jing needed this opportunity to let Wang Xi go all out. With King Jing’s wealth, he could buy all the live ducks in the western border. If the entire western border wasn’t enough, he could send people to buy from nearby provinces and counties.
Li Yu suggested another idea, “Your Highness, don’t just buy the big ducks. You can also buy some small ducks to raise. You can set up a place to raise ducks. Ducks grow very fast and can catch up with the locust infestation!”
King Jing had an idea. This was also a good idea. He ordered Wang Xi to do as he said.
A duck wasn’t expensive. King Jing had money. The people of Luofeng Town were grateful for King Jing’s victory in defeating the bandits. When they heard that King Jing wanted to buy ducks, those who raised ducks at home rushed to send them over. Many people didn’t accept a single cent. When the nearby provinces and counties heard that King Jing wanted to buy ducks to cure locusts, they were very curious. They also wanted to join in the fun and sent flocks of ducks to Luofeng Town.
King Jing ordered the imperial bodyguards to provide support along the way to ensure the safety of the people. He was also afraid that the bandits would take advantage of the situation. However, when the bandits heard that King Jing wanted to cure locusts, they were waiting to see King Jing’s excitement. For the time being, they didn’t want to steal a few ducks.
Wang Xi quickly gathered five thousand live ducks and nearly a thousand ducklings.
The ducklings still needed to be fed, so the live ducks formed a duck army and rushed to the towns that were most affected by the locust infestation.
King Jing also went there in person. After a day, there were gratifying results. The duck army really had a big appetite. A small group of ducks could eat almost all the locusts in an acre of land in half a day.
In the past, the people had a headache because the locusts didn’t live long. Even if they tried to burn a wave of locusts, the locusts would quickly grow back and cause a fire. Now, they didn’t have to worry at all. The ducks could eat for several days without stopping. There were no other risks and the losses were very low. When the locusts in a town were almost all eaten, the duck army only lost less than ten percent of its members.
King Jing smiled and gave Li Yu a thumbs up. He continued to order Wang Xi to buy ducks in the surrounding areas.
However, there were some accidents during the second purchase. Wang Xi found that some merchants knew that they needed ducks and stocked up a lot of ducks from farmers at a low price in advance. They wanted to sell them to Wang Xi at a high price.
Wang Xi was furious and reported it to King Jing. Li Yu didn’t expect such a problem to occur. After all, it was reasonable to stock up on water and food, but who would stock up on ducks? King Jing spent money to buy ducks to help the people deal with the locusts. How could someone go against their conscience and earn this kind of money? If the locusts ate up all the food, where would they go to eat?
Really, they dared to give up their lives just because they were offered three times the profit.
King Jing already had a plan in mind. He glanced at Wang Xi lightly and asked Wang Xi to note down who the people were. He told them to stock up as much as they wanted and not to pay attention to them.
Wang Xi didn’t buy many ducks this time and was worried that he would miss the important business. King Jing, on the other hand, was very confident.
It should be fine to buy chickens, right? King Jing looked at Li Yu.
“Chickens are fine too! But chickens can’t be eaten by ducks … ”
Li Yu nodded quickly. His Highness even knew about this!
King Jing was satisfied as long as they could eat locusts. He ordered Wang Xi to buy some chickens as well. On the other side, King Jing also finished the duck farm that Li Yu asked him to set up. He hired a few daring duck farmers and used locusts as food. The ducklings grew very fast. Just when the duck army at the front was about to run out of ducks, the ducklings grew up and the duck army laid a lot of eggs.
Li Yu said happily, “Fortunately, Your Highness bought a lot the first time. Now we can continue to grow!”
Wang Xi, the dignified head of internal servants in the King’s Mansion, had only been buying chickens and ducks and hatching eggs these days. King Jing smiled confidently and took over the latter’s work. When it came to hatching eggs, King Jing also knew a lot about it.
As for those who were hoarding live ducks, before the King’s Mansion could buy them at a high price, they gradually ran out of stock.
Ducks were living creatures. Unlike food, they could be piled up in the warehouse. They had to be fed and taken care of. If they were careless, they would starve to death. Many of them even ran away.
Seeing that King Jing no longer bought ducks, those who were hoarding ducks were dumbfounded. What should they do with so many ducks? But other than King Jing, who else in the Western Frontier could afford to buy so many ducks in one go?
These people were afraid of losing money, so they went to Wang Xi to apologize. Wang Xi was reminded by King Jing, so he straightened his back and lowered the price again and again. These people were so angry that their bones were about to explode. In the end, the price was much lower than the market price, so he bought the ducks.
The duck army and the duck farm were operating normally. Li Yu went to King Jing’s duck farm to take a look. As a modern person, he made a lot of suggestions. He felt that the ducklings in the duck farm were quite cute. On a whim, he asked for two yellow ducklings and raised them in his own courtyard.
When the baby fish saw a duck that they had never seen before, they were as excited as their father. The crystal bottle almost couldn’t contain them anymore. Not only Da Bao, but even Si Bao, the little muddle-head, was eager to give it a try.
Li Yu was afraid that the ducklings would eat the little fishes, so he insisted that the baby fishes not get close. He only allowed them to look at the ducks from afar.
Si Bao liked the beautiful ducklings very much. Once, when Li Yu was taking an afternoon nap, he secretly jumped out of the crystal bottle and wanted to play with the ducklings.
Speaking of afternoon naps, it was actually a habit that Li Yu developed after giving birth to the baby fishes. It was said that humans developed better if they slept more when they were young. Li Yu thought that the baby fishes could also sleep more. Every day, when it was time to take an afternoon nap with the baby fishes.
The baby fishes were all lively and active. When Li Yu woke up, they would obediently burrow under the seaweed blanket with Li Yu. When Li Yu fell asleep, the baby fishes would burrow out of the blanket and play on their own.
Si Bao, a fish, jumped out of the crystal bottle just like that. Fortunately, King Jing had the foresight to spread a thick blanket on the ground as a precaution. When Si Bao landed on the ground, he wasn’t injured.
However, Si Bao was only a palm-sized fish. He completely forgot that he couldn’t move without the crystal bottle and the fish tank. Not long after he landed, he felt uncomfortable.
Dabao, Er Bao, and San Bao all swam to the edge of the crystal bottle and anxiously watched Si Bao flapping his wings.
Little brother is in danger!
Dabao also jumped out without a care. Er Bao and San Bao followed closely behind. They all wanted to help Si Bao.
In the end, only Si Bao was flapping his wings on the ground. Later, all four baby fishes were flapping their tails.
Li Yu had only taken a short nap. From time to time, he would wake up to take a look at the baby fishes. After a while, he realized that the baby fishes had all leaped out of the crystal bottle. Li Yu was scared to death and hurriedly brought the baby fishes back.
Si Bao was scared out of his wits. He clung tightly to Li Yu.
Li Yu was angry and heartbroken. He couldn’t reprimand this careless child. He fed Si Bao some fish food in an attempt to divert Si Bao’s attention.
Who knew that Si Bao would continue to cling to him as he ate the fish food.
Li Yu: “…”
Li Yu wanted to know what was wrong with Si Bao. He tried to tease Si Bao. Si Bao said incoherently, “Daddy, I want duck duck!”
Li Yu guessed that Si Bao had wanted to see the duck, but he had fallen to the ground.
Why did Si Bao like ducks so much?
Li Yu thought for a while. With a mischievous smile, he brought Si Bao to see the duck that had grown up. Si Bao saw with his own eyes that its beak had grown bigger than when it was young. Its neck had also become longer and longer. It was a very tall and fat duck. When he thought of the cute and fluffy duckling, he burst into tears.
After Li Yu bullied Si Bao, he went to bully Dabao.
Dabao didn’t manage to save his little brother. Instead, he caused himself and his two other little brothers to fall to the ground. Dabao realized that he had done something wrong. When Li Yu came to look for him, he took the initiative to say to Li Yu, “Father, I know my mistake.”
Actually, Li Yu also liked to wander around. “Oh, Dabao, what did you do wrong? Tell me about it.”
“It’s … I was too weak. I couldn’t bring my little brother back.”
Dabao felt a little wronged and embarrassed.
Li Yu:???
Son, wake up. Your mistake isn’t that you’re too weak, okay?
Dabao didn’t know that his father was ridiculing him. He said very seriously, “I want to be the strongest fish. I want to protect my little brother and father!”
Li Yu: “…”
It was as if Li Yu could see the lofty aspirations behind Dabao. Seriously, even though they were hatched from the same batch of eggs, Four Treasures couldn’t even speak properly, but Dabao could clearly say a long list of aspirations!
“Dabao is a good child,” Li Yu comforted him with his fin and said, “but you have to remember to act according to your capabilities.”
Dabao:?
Act according to your capabilities? What does that mean?!
Li Yu taught him, “You have to wait for Dabao to grow up so that you can protect your father and little brother.”
Dabao nodded as if he understood. “Then Dabao has to grow up quickly.”
Li Yu: “…”
Oh my, although he felt that it was a little exaggerated, he was inexplicably touched by Dabao’s words!
With the efforts of the duck army, the locust plague at the western border was under control. Although there were still occasional occurrences in some areas, with the current strength of the duck army, it wouldn’t take long for the locusts to be completely eliminated.
However, after eliminating the locusts this year, they couldn’t let down their guard so easily in the future. The locust plague was difficult to treat, and the main reason was that it would recur. However, with the miraculous method of curing locusts, it wouldn’t be a big deal even if it happened again in the future. The people at the western border who could afford it started to raise more ducks.
It was said that ducks were good things. Not only could they be sold for money, they could also be used to eat meat and kill locusts!
How to deal with the last group of fat ducks that had eaten the locusts was also quite a headache.
Li Yu’s eyes lit up when he saw so many ducks. He thought of something and gulped. He said to King Jing, “Your Highness, why don’t we eat roast duck?”
King Jing: “…”
King Jing was a man who could eat cucumbers personally slapped by Li Yu without batting an eyelid. What was a mere roast duck to him?
