Chapter 295: The Natural Disaster Strikes

Just as the Northern Frontier Camp was filled with jubilation, with everyone celebrating the harvest, slaughtering pigs, and eating meat.

Outside Shiya City, however, it was a scene of misery.

The parched fields were covered in deep, cracked fissures.

A few ragged, starving people, thin as reeds, wandered about with vacant eyes.

Suddenly, someone discovered a small puddle at the bottom of a ditch that hadn't dried up yet, and they immediately rushed over frantically, lowering their heads to drink, completely disregarding the muddy, turbid water.

The surrounding starving people immediately crowded forward, fighting over it frantically.

"Water, we found water!"

"It's mine, give it to me!"

Starving people in the distance heard the noise and rushed over, pouring in one after another.

But the puddle was only a small pool, and those who couldn't grab any water began to beat each other.

Just then, a strange buzzing sound came from the distant sky.

Someone looked up and was astonished to find a gray mist appearing in the distant sky.

The gray mist moved continuously, approaching rapidly.

The starving people who were fighting stopped one after another and looked up.

Someone asked in surprise, "Eh, what is this?"

The gray mist drew closer and closer, blocking out the sunlight.

The crowd looked up and finally saw its true form.

"Bugs, it's a swarm of locusts!"

"The locusts are here!"

"Oh heavens, so many swarms."

Everyone stared at the dark, dense swarm of locusts, all stunned.

The swarm in the sky, like a dark cloud, swept over rapidly.

"Run!"

Among the stunned crowd, someone let out a heart-wrenching scream.

The villagers woke as if from a dream, and with a whoosh, they scattered and ran wildly.

The locust swarm swept over at high speed, pouncing onto the plants on the ground and gnawing frantically.

Yannan was arid, but there were still some drought-resistant trees with deeper roots that had a few sparse green leaves remaining.

However, as the locust swarm pounced, the few green leaves left on the trees vanished in an instant.

The locust swarm flew to the mountains, leaving not a single leaf behind; all the foliage was gnawed clean.

The locust swarm pounced onto the edge of the dried-up ditch, and the small puddle that the starving people had just been fighting over dried up instantly.

The locust swarm flew into the fields, and the withered wheat seedlings were also gnawed to nothing.

The villagers fled frantically, wrapping their heads with tattered clothes and running wildly toward their homes.

Some elderly and weak villagers could not make it home in time, and the locust swarm pounced frantically onto them, gnawing incessantly.

"Ah, help me."

Locusts have sharp mouthparts and usually do not bite people, but when they gather in large numbers and cannot find enough food, they feel their living space is being squeezed and will attack the crowd out of self-defense or madness.

The villagers who could not make it home were instantly surrounded by a large, dark mass of the swarm, turning into human-shaped black "bug-men."

Dense swarms of locusts pounced onto the people, opening their sharp mouthparts to gnaw at the human bodies.

Several villagers were bitten until they were a bloody mess, letting out bursts of painful screams.

Some bold villagers, seeing the locusts ravaging, immediately took lit torches and rushed out the door, swatting hard at the swarm in the air.

However, although the raging fire burned many locusts to death.

Even more locusts quickly filled the gaps.

The endless swarm simply could not be killed off!

For a time, screams from villagers came from every village; everyone was under attack by the locusts.

……

"Prince, an urgent report from Shiya City."

An urgent letter was delivered into the hands of Xiao Moting.

Xiao Moting scanned it quickly, his sword-like brows knitting tightly together.

"The garrison soldiers of Shiya City say that a once-in-a-century plague of insects has occurred there, and now the surrounding villages are all being attacked by locusts; crops, trees, water sources... all have been swept away."

"Moreover, more than four hundred villagers have been bitten by the swarm; some have been bitten until their bodies are a bloody mess, bleeding incessantly, falling into a coma, and are on the verge of death."

Qin Zhan looked shocked.

"A plague of insects? Since the founding of Daliang, this has never happened."

Xiao Moting pondered, "Perhaps this is the natural disaster mentioned in the secret letter sent by Er Gou."

He raised his head, his gaze passing through the window to look at the distant Northern Frontier farmland.

Bai Wei had sent a large batch of Agricultural Machinery, seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides... The more than one thousand mu of wasteland in the Northern Frontier had already been reclaimed with her help and planted with various crops, looking lush and green as far as the eye could see.

The farmland had just harvested over ten mu of baby bok choy, with a high yield; it was considered a bumper harvest, and the Northern Frontier Army was full of joy, planning to plant edamame in the fields after finishing the bok choy harvest.

Besides that, the corn, wheat, Chinese cabbage, radishes... in the other few hundred mu of farmland were all growing promisingly.

Everyone had hope in their hearts and worked with extra vigor; as long as these crops grew, everyone would be able to survive the cold winter in the Northern Frontier this year safely, and it would never be like last year where people starved to death.

But now, a plague of insects had appeared!

Although the plague was currently near Shiya City, if it could not be contained, the locusts would head north all the way to the Northern Frontier Camp.

By then, not only would the farmland of the Northern Frontier Camp be lost, but all the nearby villagers would also suffer along with it.

The villagers had just brought back seeds and pesticides from the Northern Frontier Camp, and many had already sown the seeds in the fields, where they had broken through the soil and sprouted.

If a locust swarm were to strike at this critical juncture, everyone's hard work would be completely wasted.

The seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers that Bai Wei had gone to such great lengths to send would also all go down the drain.

Xiao Moting pondered in his mind, his handsome face sinking as he did so.

He looked up and said in a deep voice.

"Qin Zhan, immediately assemble an elite force and rush with me to the vicinity of Shiya City to wipe out the swarm."

Qin Zhan was stunned, "Shiya City is still far from Beijiang; are we going over there to exterminate insects?"

Xiao Moting nodded affirmatively.

"Following the mountain range from Shiya City northward leads directly into the territory of Beijiang."

"It is arid over there; with nothing to eat, the swarm will soon follow the mountain range into Beijiang, and by then, it will be a catastrophe."

Once he mentioned it, Qin Zhan also realized the situation, his expression changing drastically.

"The locust swarm will devour crops and trees; the corn and wheat seedlings we just planted in our fields... they will all be gnawed clean."

"The seeds the villagers took back won't be able to grow either!"

Xiao Moting said, "If we let the swarm migrate here, it will be too late. I fear that before winter even arrives in Beijiang this year, the land will be littered with the starving and corpses everywhere. By then, Yuan Canghai won't even need to send troops to Beijiang; he will win without a fight."

"I understand." Qin Zhan hurriedly cupped his hands, "Prince, this general will go immediately to urgently muster troops and lead them to Yannan to exterminate the insects."

Once Qin Zhan left, Xiao Moting immediately wrote a note to inform Bai Wei of the situation.

"Bai, a locust plague has broken out in Shiya City!"

"It really is a locust plague!"

In Qingshan Village.

Bai Wei had already received the note sent by Xiao Moting, and her heart tightened.

She had just asked Zhou Yuchuan about the "natural disaster," and it had arrived so quickly.

Zhou Yuchuan had speculated that a locust plague usually follows a great drought; she had not expected him to be right.

I fear that this time, the natural disaster in Beijiang is locusts!