In today's Zhumadian County, Henan Province, the joy of the autumn harvest makes people happy. The ears of wheat are thick and firm, full of vitality. People were about to raise their scythes to harvest when they overheard a woman exclaiming, "Oh, the clouds are coming, the clouds are coming!" It's going to rain! Let's dry! "People don't care, because, rural people who haven't been in the rain, who haven't worked in the rain!"
The locusts were exterminated in the mountains and are well-known in history
However, a muffled and desperate voice came, and it was a well-informed old man, "Locust! Ah, here comes the locusts! Let's get ready! "When people listened, they all stood up straight.
Many people have not seen such a position. The locusts that cover the sky are coming. Every time you pass, the wheat is eaten in an instant. The locusts beat everyone to their toes, they couldn't beat them, and they couldn't blow away. People are in despair. The crying quickly spread throughout Runan, Henan.
Just at the moment of this thousand guns, Chen Youxue of Zhixian County received the report and immediately called ya gong to whisper for a while, and Ya Gong quickly took the order. In just three days, the people of Runan organized men, women, old and young to fight. Although there are many locusts, people's hearts and minds are moving in unison. Both men and women, young and old, all went into battle, and each exerted all their strength.
At the same time, everyone carried lime dust, grass and wood ash, etc., and poured these things on the wheat. Still others lift colorful clothes with long poles. Others set off firecrackers.
While the people were busy, the army also came, only to see the soldiers raise their bird hammers, light fuzes, and fire in unison.
At night, Chen Youxue ordered many people to either raise torches or light bonfires and dig huge pits around torches or bonfires. Locusts, like moths, are all thrown at the sight of fire, and for three consecutive nights, there are countless corpses of locusts on the side of the pit.
Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci
In this way, after three days and three nights of hard work, under the leadership of Chen Youxue, the Qishan people hunted and killed a total of about 130,000 kilograms of locusts.
Chen Youxue was a very famous disaster relief minister during the Wanli Dynasty. There was not only a plague of locusts in The Mountains but also the flooding of the Yellow River, and Chen Youxue had made great achievements in the history of Qingqing in his tenure. As for his method of exterminating locusts, of course we have added it in the form of a story. For example, the method of hanging colorful skirts, setting off firecrackers, and sprinkling lime on wheat seedlings is not the work of Chen Youxue but the record of the great statesman, economist, and agronomist in his immortal book "The Complete Book of Agricultural Politics".
Xu Guangqi and his Complete Book of Agricultural Politics
The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration was issued in the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), and Chen Youxue was a jinshi in the examination for seven years (1589), so Chen Youxue basically did not use this method.
The method of killing locusts in the night bonfire has an ancient method, and its founder is Yao Chong, the famous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.
Yao Chong
However, the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" is the highest level of summary of the development of agricultural science and technology in ancient China, and it is also a summary of the experience of the Chinese people in fighting against locusts for thousands of years, and the Ming Dynasty has been fighting locusts almost every year for more than two hundred years. Xu Guangqi, the author of the Complete Book of Agricultural Politics, was one of the greatest scientists and broadest minds of the Ming Dynasty, especially the late Ming Dynasty.
In the late Ming Dynasty, when people's beliefs collapsed, the old Confucians were shattered by the people, and new beliefs were competing for who was the main one, Xu Guangqi even joined the Catholic Church in order to learn the cannon-making technology and to establish good relations with the Portuguese.
He was a bridge between Chinese and Western cultures, born on April 24, 1562, died November 8, 1633), zixian, xuanhu, Catholic holy name Paul, Shanghai County Fahuahui (now Shanghai), official to chongzhen imperial department Shangshu and Wenyuange University, cabinet sub-assistant. In addition to the "Complete Book of Agricultural Politics", the main representative works include "Geometric Origin", "Chongzhen Almanac", "Examination Worker's Notes" and so on.
Locust plagues recorded a total of 197 relatively large disasters in the Ming Dynasty, ranking fifth in terms of the degree of disaster damage among various disasters. For this disaster, the Ming rulers paid more attention to it, and also formed a relatively complete governance system. In the year of his reign, Zhu Di issued the "Locust Hunting Order" requiring locust hunting in various places.
How a generation of heroes Zhu Di dealt with locust plagues and corrupt elements
Since then, locust hunting has become a science. Chen Youxue in the story once specifically learned the method of catching locusts. In particular, Xu Guangqi, a later generation, was a great man, who pointed out the relationship between locusts and dry land, and put forward the policy of changing dryland into paddy fields. Moreover, it was clear that the plants that locusts did not like, such as mung beans, peas, cowpeas, hemp, alfalfa, sesame seeds, potatoes, etc., in the areas where he had ruled, Xu Guangqi had urged farmers to diversify such plants.
Moreover, our current spring ploughing and autumn ploughing also became the law in the Ming Dynasty, which has the factor of controlling locusts. In the Ming Dynasty, biological control methods were also adopted for locusts, such as raising ducks to remove locusts, catching insect eggs, and cutting ditches and killing insects and insects. Therefore, in terms of locust hunting, future generations should be grateful to the accumulation of the Ming Dynasty.
For other disasters and the operation and maintenance of the disaster relief system, Zhu Di, the son of Zhu Yuanzhang, as an emperor who had experienced war and experienced a difficult life, he very much agreed with his father's arrangement in the disaster relief system, so Xiao Zhicao ran this system casually, and what he did was mainly to refine the policies of Zhu Yuanzhang's period.
For example, if you find that you have encountered a disaster and have not reported it, and someone else has reported it, then kill it. During his 22 years of rule over the Ming Dynasty (1403 to 1424), he also killed many corrupt officials in this regard.
Yongle Dynasty's greatest contribution to the disaster relief system is the establishment of a structure of mutual supervision by institutions. First he sent lower-ranking officials to tour the places, similar to today's Central Inspection Group. Most of these lower-ranking officials have not experienced the baptism of the officialdom, do not understand the unspoken rules, and are bent on promoting the Confucian tradition. Coupled with the strong sense of meritorious service, they often form a certain deterrent effect on corruption.
Secondly, according to the joint investigation of the disaster by the Inspection Department, local officials and the Joint Administrative Department (Mintian Disaster), and the Metropolitan Officials (Military Field Disaster), in this way, the different departments monitored each other.
Conclusion: Loss of reverence, loss of faith, collapse of Daming
Among the super-large natural disasters at the end of the Ming Dynasty, earthquakes, droughts and floods were the main ones, supplemented by locusts, which were characterized by multi-level, multi-wide, wide-ranging and long-term. Many people believe that natural disasters are the cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and the reasons are divided into fundamental causes, important causes, primary causes, and secondary causes.
I personally believe that the lack of faith is the root cause of the Ming Dynasty, and natural disasters are an important cause and a direct cause. Is there a way to reduce its harm? Obviously, there is, because the territory of Daming is vast, and the occurrence or severity of natural disasters varies from place to place.
In this case, if the honesty and ability of the officials in the world can be in line with the Hongwu and Yongle periods, and more importantly, if the "Hongwu Wasteland System" is running well, it can be completely reduced.
Moreover, Li Zicheng's ability to enter Beijing and later the Qing army was not directly related to natural disasters, but to the lack of faith in the bureaucracy and the people at that time (the traditional Confucian Three Principles and Five Principles were often broken, but a new valuable belief system had not yet been established).
If the Yongle Emperor was still able to strictly implement the policy left by his father because he was born in the stage of fighting the world and understood the difficulties of starting a business, the emperors of later generations did not experience suffering, poverty, and war, and they did not have the psychology of "fearing" the common people in their hearts, and they would still do their best to maintain this "absurd government system" that usually seemed to be expensive and useless?