Jing-wang believed in Li Yu utterly, however, managing a locust plague was no small feat. After pausing briefly, Jing-wang held Li Yu’s hands with a concerned expression, as if asking him: are you sure?
Li Yu said with a hehe laugh: “I’m sure, but my methods might be a bit unconventional.”
Jing-wang didn’t care about convention. In comparison to controlling the locusts plague, he was more worried about Li Yu’s safety. Normally when the peasants managed locust swarms, they used fire. Although they can burn a lot of insects to death in a short amount of time, fire can lead to burn injuries. Xiao Yu was a carp demon, therefore, he must be very afraid of fire, right?
Li Yu can tell his apprehension and said: “Your highness, don’t worry. I won’t head into battle personally.”
To say it specifically, the ones going into battle won’t be him. QQ, don’t make him seem like some super impressive demon who can summon wind and rain or something. He was only a system fish. He was also very afraid of insects!
Jing-wang examined Li Yu diligently. Seeing that Li Yu really wasn’t joking, he finally nodded his head and allowed Li Yu to give it a try.
Li Yu asked for paper and brush and wrote a few methods all at once. To be honest, this was rather coincidental. Before Li Yu had transmigrated, some of the countries in his original world were also suffering from locusts plagues. His nation provided some assistance. Li Yu was curious and casually studied how to deal with locust plagues. Although he couldn’t remember everything, he remembered a few that he thought were especially interesting.
These were deep plowing, selecting grains, and duck army.
Jing-wang: ?
Li Yu did his best to explain each of the options in ways that could be understood in ancient times: “Deep plowing is talking about the fact that locusts originally spawn in the ground. When plowing, we should try to dig deeper to flip the soil. That way, the locust eggs will be exposed under the sun and…… dry out and die.”
“Selecting grains is talking about how locusts don’t actually eat all types of vegetation. If we plant more crops that the locusts don’t eat, then they won’t have food and naturally won’t be able to reproduce.”
Jing-wang was smart and understood these concepts with just a simple explanation. The two methods were both pretty interesting.
Jing-wang’s gaze landed on the third option. What the heck is a duck army? Was it the same duck… that he’s thinking about?
“Exactly what you’re thinking, your highness.” Li Yu blinked: “There’s a saying: everything has its weakness. Ducks eat locusts. The first two options work best after a locust plague. But it’s already too late to use them currently. Right now, we can gather a lot of ducks to relieve this emergent situation. This is called…… the duck army.”
Jing-wang: “……”
Jing-wang furrowed his brows. The methods that Xiao Yu provided… to say they’ve never been heard of wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
But Xiao Yu’s words also sounded very reasonable. At least, it didn’t need fire and didn’t cause any harm to living things. Jing-wang slowly nodded his head.
Some people living in Maple’s Landing already raised ducks. It wasn’t much; the families originally bought them to sell or eat.
Jing-wang ordered Wang Xi to go buy a few. Whether ducks will eat locusts, they just have to give it a test to know the truth.
Wang Xi took over the task personally and headed out in the morning before the day even brightened up. After two hours, he came running back, saying excitedly and repeatedly: “Your highness, it really worked! This old servant saw it with my own eyes. As soon as the ducks were released, they ate plenty of locusts. The entire time that I was there, they’ve been eating nonstop!”
Wang Xi came back to report in a hurry, so happy that one of his shoes almost fell off from running.
According to Wang Xi’s words, one duck can eat around 100 locusts all at once. Jing-wang made a rough estimate and also couldn’t help but feel excited.
Right now if he first reported to the Emperor and allowed the Ministry of Works to appropriate funds to buy the ducks, with how long it would take, the locust plague might become worse.
Jing-wang needed to use this opportunity. He ordered Wang Xi go wild and use the Jing estate’s wealth to buy all of the live ducks in the West Frontier. If there weren’t enough in the West Frontier, they can also send people to other nearby provinces to buy more.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Jing-wang thought: this was also a plan, and ordered Wang Xi to go do it.
A single duck didn’t really cost much. Jing-wang had plenty of money. The civilians of Maple’s landing were still grateful to Jing-wang for fighting back the bandits. After learning that Jing-wang wanted to buy ducks, all of the families that were raising ducks rushed to send ducks over. Plenty of people didn’t even want any money. Nearby provinces heard that Jing-wang was buying ducks to control the locust plague and all became extremely curious. Wanting to get in on the action, they also send ducks in flocks towards Maple’s Landing.
Jing-wang ordered the guards to receive the peasants along the road to maintain safety for the civilians traveling back and forth. It was also to prevent the bandits from profiting from this opportunity. However, once the bandits heard that Jing-wang was going to eradicate the locust plague, they sat back to watch the entertainment, temporarily not interested in stealing a few ducks.
Wang Xi very quickly gathered five thousand ducks and about a thousand little ducklings.
The ducklings needed to be fed and raised. The grown ducks were immediately enlisted into the duck army and rushed to the town that received the most damage from the locust plague.
Jing-wang also headed over himself. After a day, there was a heartening result. The duck army really could eat. In a mere half a day, a small group of ducks had already eaten pretty much an acreage of locusts.
Before, what gave the commoner the most headache was the short lifespan of locusts. If they used fire to burn one wave to death, another wave would very quickly emerge again. The fire can spread and cause collateral damages as well. Now they didn’t need to worry about anything. The ducks can eat continuously for days without stopping. There were also no other dangers so the damage was extremely low. After a town of locusts were pretty much all eaten, not even ten percent of the duck army were lost.
The ducks were really miraculous soldiers. With a smile, Jing-wang shared a thumbs up with Li Yu and continued to order Wang Xi to purchase ducks from all over.
However, something unexpected happened during this second purchase. Wang Xi had discovered that after some merchants learned that Jing-wang needed ducks, they bought out plenty of ducks from peasants at low prices ahead of time and stored them to sell them at high prices to Wang Xi.
Wang Xi was extremely angry and reported it to Jing-wang. Li Yu also would have never imagined this kind of issue would occur. After all, storing food and water was reasonable. Who would store ducks? Don’t they even care what time it was? The Jing Estate was using money and buying ducks in order to help the civilians eliminate the locust plagues. Who would be so heartless to make this kind of dirty money. If the locusts ate all of the farm crops, what’s everyone going to eat?
Really, for three times the profit, they didn’t even want to live anymore?
Jing-wang already had a stratagem ready. He gave Wang Xi a cool glance and ordered Wang Xi to record the names of all of these merchants and let them keep storing, no need to bother with them.
This time Wang Xi didn’t manage to buy a lot of ducks and was very worried that it’d affect what they were doing. Jing-wang, however, was very confident.
Buying chickens should work too, right? Jing-wang looked towards Li Yu.
“Chickens are fine! However, chickens don’t eat as much as ducks……” Li Yu hastily nodded. How did his highness know this as well?!
As long as they ate locusts, Jing-wang was fine. He ordered Wang Xi to also buy some chickens. On the other side, the duck farm that Li Yu suggested to raise ducks was built and ready. Jing-wang hired some courageous people to raise the ducks. Using locusts themselves as feed, the ducklings grew very quickly. Just as the previous duck army was almost depleted, the ducklings grew up. Not to mention, the duck army also made plenty of duck eggs.
Li Yu said happily: “Good thing your highness bought a lot the first time. Now we can continue!”
Wang Xi, who was a right and proper estate head manager and personal servant, now spent all of these last few days buying chicken and ducks, and incubating eggs. With a confident smile, Jing-wang took over all of the matters relating to the latter task. In pertaining to incubating eggs, his highness Jing-wang knew plenty.
As for those merchants storing ducks, they couldn’t sell them at high prices to the Jing Estate, so gradually they were unable to keep storing.
Ducks were living creatures, not like crops which would be piled inside a warehouse. They needed to be fed and cared for. Any slight carelessness would cause them to starve or run away.
Seeing that the Jing Estate no longer bought ducks, the merchants who were storing ducks all became dumbfounded. What were they supposed to do with all of these ducks then? However, at the West Frontier, who else but the Jing Estate would buy all of these ducks in one go?
These people were afraid of losing profit. Later on, they specifically came to apologize to Wang Xi with gifts. With Jing-wang’s hard reminder, Wang Xi held his ground and forcibly lowered the price again and again, pressuring so hard that the trash in these people’s bones almost exploded outward. In the end, at a price much lower than market value, Wang Xi finally accepted these ducks.
The duck army and duck farm have both started functioning properly. Li Yu went to visit the duck farm that Jing-wang built, touring around all over. Using the perspective of the modern man, he offered plenty of suggestions. Li Yu felt like the little ducklings inside the duck farm were also somewhat cute. In a moment of interest, he asked for two of the yellow ducklings to be raised in his own yard.
The fish babies saw the never before seen ducks and were extremely excited just like their fish dad. The crystal bottles almost couldn’t hold them in. Not only Bao#1, even the muddled-headed Bao#4 was very eager.
Li Yu was afraid that the ducklings would eat the little fishes and firmly refused to allow the fish babies to get close, only letting them look at the ducklings from far away.
Bao#4 really liked the pretty little ducklings. Once while Li Yu was taking a noon nap, he secretly jumped out of the crystal bottle, wanting to go play with the little ducklings
Speaking of noon naps, this was actually a habit that Li Yu developed after giving birth to the little fish babies. People say that those who slept a lot when they were younger would develop better in the future. Li Yu believed that the fish babies can also use some more sleep. Every day on schedule, he would accompany the little fish babies to take a noon nap.
The fish babies all had active and energetic personalities. While Li Yu was awake, they all obediently laid under the grass blanket with Li Yu. Once Li Yu fell asleep, the fish babies would sneak out of the blanket and play on their own.
Therefore, Bao#4, this fish, jumped out of the crystal bottle just like this. Fortunately, Jing-wang had the foresight to cover the floor with a thick heavy rug just in case. When Bao#4 landed on the ground, he didn’t actually get injured.
However, Bao#4 was still only a palm sized little fish. Completely forgetting that he couldn’t leave the crystal bottle and fish tank, he found himself in a difficult situation, unable to move at all. Not long after landing, he started feeling uncomfortable.
Bao#1, Bao#2, and Bao3, all swam to the edge of the crystal bottle and anxiously watched Bao#4 flail.
Younger brother was in danger!
Not caring about anything else, Bao#1 also jumped out, followed closely by Bao#2 and Bao#3. They all wanted to help Bao#4.
Originally, there was only Bao#4, this one fish baby, flailing on the floor. Now, all four of the fish babies were smacking the floor with their tails.
Li Yu only took a brief nap. Occasionally, he’d wake up to check up on the little fish babies. He discovered in such a brief moment, the fish babies actually jumped out of the crystal bottle one by one. Li Yu almost died of shock and hastily snatched the fish babies back in.
Bao#4 got quite a scare and stuck to Li Yu closely.
Li Yu was both angry and distressed. He fed Bao#4 some fish food, wanting to distract him.
Unexpectedly, Bao#4 ended up eating the fish food while still plastered closely to Li Yu.
Li Yu: “…….”
Li Yu wanted to know what’s going on with Bao#4 and coaxed Bao#4 to speak. Bao#4 said inarticulately: “Daddy, want ducky!”
Li Yu guessed that Bao#4 originally wanted to see the ducks. That’s why he ended up falling to the floor.
Why would Bao#4 like ducks this much?
Li Yu thought for a moment. With a devious smile, he brought Bao#4 to see a grown up duck. Bao#4 saw that the duck’s mouth was much bigger than when it’s smaller; its neck also became all long and twisted. It was a very tall and very fat, big duck. Thinking about the furry cute little duckling again, with a ‘WAH,’ Bao#4 started crying.
Li Yu finished bullying Bao#4 and went to bully Bao#1.
Bao#1 didn’t manage to save his younger brother, yet caused himself and his other two brothers to fall to the ground as well. Bao#1 realized that what he did wasn’t correct. When Li Yu came to find him, he immediately said to Li Yu: “Dad, I was wrong.”
Li Yu, who actually really liked to wander around himself: “Oh, what did Bao#1 do wrong? Let dad hear it?”
“I…… I was too weak, and didn’t manage to bring little brother back.” Bao#1 felt a bit sad, but also a bit embarrassed.
Li Yu: ???
Son, please wake up quickly. Your mistake has nothing to do with your strength, okay?!
Bao#1 didn’t know anything about Li Yu’s internal cursing and said extremely seriously: “I will become the strongest fish to protect my younger brothers and to protect dad!”
Li Yu: “…….”
Li Yu can practically see a glow behind Bao#1 representing his lofty ambitions. Really. Of the batch of fish eggs that he incubated, Bao#4 couldn’t even speak properly; yet Bao#1 was already able to articulate clearly a long list of aspirations.
“Bao#1 is a good kid.” Li Yu patted him with his fish fins as if comforting him and continued to say: “But you must remember to act accordingly to your own abilities.”
Bao#1: ?
Act accordingly to your own abilities? What did this mean?
Li Yu taught him: “It means you have to wait until you grow bigger, to be able to protect dad and your younger brothers.”
Bao#1 nodded his head in half understanding: “Then I want to grow up quickly.”
Li Yu: “…….”
What the heck. Although somewhat exaggerated, why did he suddenly feel comforted by Bao#1, what’s going on?!
Under the great efforts of the duck army, the momentum of the locust plague in the West Frontier has already been controlled. Although other regions were still unstable, according to the strength of the current duck army, it wouldn’t be much longer until the locust swarms were completely eradicated.
Despite eliminating the locusts this year, one can’t slack in vigilance for the future. Locust plagues were hard to manage, and most importantly, they can reoccur. However, now that they have plans to deal with the locusts, it won’t be serious even if they start up in the future again. Those who could in the West Frontier all started to raise a few more ducks.
Ducks were apparently a very good commodity. Not only can they be sold for money, they can be eaten and used to kill locusts!
In the end, what to do with the duck army that had gotten fattened by eating locusts, was a rather headache inducing problem.
Looking at all of these ducks, Li Yu’s eyes practically lit up. Thinking of something, he sucked back his drool and said to Jing-wang: “Your highness, how about we eat some roasted ducks!”
Jing-wang: “…….”
Jing-wang was a man who had already eaten the cucumber salad that Li Yu made without even changing his expression. So what if he had to eat some roasted ducks?
With a nod of Jing-wang’s head, the prototype of Quanjude was created in the West Frontier.
Translator’s note:
Thank You for the chapter ( ꈍᴗꈍ) ❤️
thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟
ohmygoddd the babies are so cuteeee! thank you for the chapter 🫶
omg that art is sooooo cute 🖤😍
that little fish drawing!! so cute!!
baby 1! you’ll grow up big a strong! becoming a strong soldier!
baby 4 you’ll be adored by your family and everyone around!
baby 3 and 2, we don’t know much about you two yet, but! you both seem like good followers so you’ll be smart scholars and good associates for your bigger brother!
my blood pressure SPIKED when bao #4 jumped istg
STOP! Bao #1 wanting to save his brother is too cute >_< and the way Bao #2 and Bao #3 unanimously decided Bao #1 was their leader is hilarious
I’m so glad the fish babies care for each other, i was worried fish baby #1 would become too mean