Chapter 277 - Three Gone (1/2)
The Yu Family didn’t have the time to consider those people’s reactions. Everyone wished they had eight arms at this moment.
Ever since Old Yu heard that a plague of locusts was coming, all he could talk about was grain, grain, and grain! Although he had not completely recovered from his illness, he insisted on going with Yu Hai on the family’s horse cart to and from town to procure grain that everyone liked to eat. All of the storage rooms and cellars in the house had been crammed full with coarse and fine grain. In addition, they even secretly stored a few hundred catties of grain in their house in town.
Under Yu Xiaocao’s leadership, Liu Hu and all of the family members, began to harvest all of the corn that was already ripe. Baskets full of corn were then transported back to the house on the donkey cart.
Yu Xiaocao carefully avoided other people and promoted the ripening of the corn using the little divine stone’s power. The little divine stone’s current capabilities allowed it to ripen one mu of corn every hour. She worked until night fell before all ten mu of corn was completely ripened. Following that, the one mu of potatoes was also ripened.
Liu Hu abandoned his half-built house and took his family of five to work crazily within the corn fields. Other than Little Fangping, who had just turned six, all of the other members were well versed with hard work. Even Liu Yaner, who wasn’t much older than Xiaocao, was harvesting corn and managed to do more than half of what older people could do.
Madam Liu sent Yu Hang to go to the docks to bring Yu Xiaolian, who was doing business there, back. While he was there, he also passed on the news that the old immortal had told Yu Hai to his two maternal aunts. Madam Han didn’t even bother to help Xiaolian clean up the stall once she heard the news. She hurriedly rushed back home. The Liu Family had planted more than a dozen mu of sweet potatoes and they needed to harvest them all that night. Currently, the sweet potatoes were only the size of a person’s fist but harvesting some was still better than having no harvest due to the locusts.
Madam Liu and her two daughters rushed to harvest all of the vegetables in their courtyard. The ones they couldn’t finish now could be used to make dried vegetables. Recovering after a locust swarm was a slow process. After the locusts passed, there would be a long period of time when there wouldn’t be any vegetables to eat. Even if the vegetables they harvested rotted, it was still better than leaving them for the locusts to eat! That being said, with the mystic-stone water on hand, the freshness of the vegetables could be preserved for a period of time.
The father-son pair, Old Yu and Yu Hai, worked unrelentlessly in the corn and potato fields with the rest of them after they crammed all of their storerooms full of grain. Because they were afraid that the locusts might come early, the Yu Family didn’t even rest at night and chopped corn stalks the entire time. The family had two work animals along with some rabbits and other pets. All of them required fodder. Thus, they also needed to transport all of the corn stalks back home and store them.
Like this, everyone worked without stopping for the next two days and nights in order to store all of the crops in the fields back at home. Even the recently planted sweet potato seedlings were also pulled up. Luckily, the Yu Family’s residence had been enlarged during the last set of renovations and they had many rooms. The two wings of the courtyard had both been used to store grain and food. All of the vegetables that were harvested from the vegetable garden at home filled up an entire room. Everyone made sure to lock all of the rooms very tightly and they even used mud to fill in any cracks in the door and window sills. Once everything was in its place and ready, the Yu Family members, who had all worked their hearts out for the past two days, were finally able to close their eyes and go to sleep.
There was a clamor of news in the village on the morning of the third day. Yu Xiaocao and her family all came out to see what was going on and saw a sheet of dark gray clouds from the south roiling forward as it covered the sky. The villagers often saw dark clouds. However, this was the first time they saw dark clouds such as these, which almost touched the ground.
As the dark gray clouds got closer and closer, someone in the village hollered, “Locusts! Countless locusts! Quickly, quickly harvest any grain or vegetables that hasn’t been taken already!!”
For the past two days, some of the villagers, who were counting on their luck, only harvested a portion of their sweet potatoes. Furthermore, nothing had happened for the past two days so it allowed some people to relax further. There were also some villagers, who had harvested all of their crops, who started to have complaints within their hearts. They grumbled that if the news about the plague of locusts were false, then it would have harmed them from harvesting more crops in the future.
Now, when those people who had those doubts saw the panicky expressions of their other villagers, they rejoiced that they had listened to the words of the village chief and Yu Hai and had harvested everything they could. As for the villagers who didn’t listen, all of them regretted their actions deeply. Even if they wanted to harvest what they could now, how could their speed compare to the speed of the flying locusts? The insects would all be there before they could even get to the fields.
It was truly a disaster that hadn’t been seen in a hundred years. The swarm of locusts covered the entire sky and formed an impenetrable wall. The countless army of locusts flew as they pursued the ‘three gone’ policies——eat until it’s gone, gnaw until it’s gone, and bite until it’s gone. Every bit of vegetation that could be devoured was not spared as the insects passed. Even a layer of tree bark was gnawed off from the trees. As for the more tender saplings, they also could not escape the damage from the evil locusts. The only thing left on the samplings were pitiful little trunks that could barely support themselves.
The main forces of the locusts very quickly arrived at Dongshan Village. The swarm descended onto the old elm tree at the mouth of the village and the tree was immediately engulfed by what looked like a dull brown layer. Locusts crawled all over the trunk, branches and leaves of the tree. The sound of their nibbling rustled and pricked the villagers’ ears.
The whole village was soon engulfed by the locusts. They covered the ground, the houses, the farming tools...the whole area was carpeted with a layer of insects. Even the air above the ground was still swarming with flying locusts. If a person stepped outside at this point, just a single step could smash more than a dozen locusts underfoot. People needed to use clothing to wrap their heads when they went outside as the feeling of locusts striking their bare skin was not a pleasant sensation.
The villagers who hadn’t harvested all of their crops before all started to cry loud howls filled with remorse. In a split second, almost all of their crops had been covered by countless locusts. By the time they tried to harvest them, all that was left would be some pathetic roots in the ground.