tall and rhubarb

When the weather gradually warmed up, everyone realized that something was wrong. There were obviously more bugs this spring than in previous years, and as the temperature got higher and higher, there was a trend of more and more bugs.

The bamboo forest behind Gao Chang’s yard is now occupied by dense black insects. They are everywhere on bamboo leaves, branches, and bamboo poles. Standing in the yard at dusk and looking out, it should be green in spring The bamboo grove has turned into a thick dark green at the moment.Every time Gao Chang and the men in their yard walked through the bamboo forest, they could see bugs falling down in succession in the bamboo forest. The people in the yard called it "the rain of insects".

The situation in the field is also very bad. The vegetables that were planted a while ago were already half-ripe. Recently, the number of insects has skyrocketed, and the vegetable field has been quickly occupied by them. Basically, the vegetables have been destroyed. Only the vegetable stalks are left, and tuber crops such as radishes and potatoes are also eaten by insects underground in large areas.

Cut the vegetable stalks back, wash them, cut everything up and stir-fry them, but you can eat them, but how long can these vegetable stalks last?In this case, the flood of insects does not give the vegetables a chance to mature at all, that is, there is no way to save seeds. Their vegetable seeds are originally limited, and now they are used less and less.So the people in the yard discussed and decided not to grow vegetables recently. When the frogs in the field hatched and the birds came back from the south, the number of those crazy bugs could probably be controlled.

In addition, the process of going out has also become very difficult. In the past, men went out at night, although it was dangerous, but it was still refreshing and clean. Now it is different, densely packed with bugs.Those winged bugs are always flying around, sometimes bumping into your eyes, or into your mouth and nose, and maybe even crawling down your ear canal.

Those bugs without wings will not look very beautiful, such as fat and fat cabbage bugs, they cling tightly to the vegetables, and it takes a lot of effort to get them all off, and one accidentally breaks the bugs If it is wet, it will flow out a sticky liquid, which is quite unappetizing on the vegetables.

Before leaving the yard, the men in the village must put on full armor. They must wear the bamboo hats on their heads, and usually wrap their cheeks and necks with cloth under the hats.The collar must be fastened. If the collar is too large, wrap it with another piece of fabric. The sleeves and trouser legs must be tightly tied with shoelaces to prevent bugs from getting into the clothes.

But no matter how to prevent, those bugs are still pervasive. When the bugs crawled into the clothes, the usual way for men is to use their hands to force it from the outside, directly crushing it to death, and sometimes asking the people in the same industry to help crush it to death. .Although the process is a bit disgusting, it's better than letting bugs crawl all over your skin.

In order to protect their yard from harm, as soon as spring came, the men went to the field to catch frogs and toads. They also made a small pool in the yard and sprinkled some soil in it for the frogs to lay eggs.The frogs caught recently are also a little different from the previous ones. They are not only grumpy, but also very courageous. A frog in Zheng Chunhua's house had an affair with a centipede as soon as he arrived at his house. The centipede was as long as a grown man's palm. As thick as your index finger.

When Zheng Chunhua brought the frog to the yard, half of the centipede's body had already entered its stomach, and the other half was still writhing outside.This person probably thought it was fun, so he made it out for everyone to see, but the people in the yard were terrified, and they all found hay to smoke insects, and smoked every corner and wall of their house thoroughly. There was a wind of insect repellent.

These frogs are indeed powerful, much stronger than the toads that Gao Chang caught before, probably because those toads were dug out by Gao Chang when they were still sleeping in the hole, but these frogs have actually experienced the blue sky. The baptism of the sun, after eliminating a considerable part of the survivors.

Fortunately, no matter how fierce these frogs are, they have never attacked humans. It is probably because humans are too large, and there is no possibility of swallowing them given their size, but the frogs have very strong teeth. not to force.

Compared with the frogs that are always croaking and jumping around, Gao Chang still prefers quiet toads, although they look uglier and have poisonous skin.When spring came, Gao Chang caught a few toads from the ground and brought them back. Some of them were kept in the house, and some were put outside by him. Animals like toads don’t like to move, so they were brought by Gao Chang to the bamboo forest. The food there is also very rich, and they will live in peace as they encounter.

The ditch behind the old long house was removed, and it was in the bamboo forest. Now go in and dig a shallow pit, which becomes a hotbed for the toads to breed their offspring.Although plants began to grow randomly regardless of the seasons as soon as they were exposed to the sun, its impact on animals was obviously not so thorough. For example, these amphibians would not start mating and laying eggs until the temperature was suitable.

What worries Gao Chang is that as the number of frogs and toads increases, the number of snakes will also increase.In winter, Zheng Guoxi was once bitten by a pine root snake, and passed out after a while. If he hadn't been bitten by a wild boar and drained the poisonous blood, he would have reported to Lord Yama by now. Speaking of his life Also big enough.

In the past, the poison of the pine root snake was not so strong. In the local area, it has never been heard that someone passed out after being bitten by a pine root snake. As long as the wound is treated in time and some detoxifying herbs are taken, basically there will be no serious problems.

The problem now is how to prevent snakes from entering their yards. This issue is very important, and it is directly related to whether people in the yard can sleep peacefully.

The last time they went up the mountain to repair the water pipes, they also got rid of a few snakes. Although snakes looked scary in the past, they are not very aggressive. If you don’t provoke them, most snakes will not Actively attack humans.But now the snake is not only more poisonous, but also very irritable, and will be bitten if it is not serious, which is really too dangerous for the villagers.

There are not many poisonous snakes in their local area, and the most common ones are bamboo leaf green and pine root snakes, because there are many bamboo forests and pine trees in the local area, and these two poisonous snakes survive in such an environment.What people are worried about is that the plants grow wildly under the blue sunlight, and the bugs have already multiplied wildly. So, will things like snakes also reproduce in large numbers?Regardless of whether the snakes will attack their yard or not, they have a large bamboo forest in their backyard, and even if one or two crawl in from time to time, they will not be able to bear it.

On this issue, the men in the village got together for several meetings, but the results were not great. In the end, Old Ninth Uncle stood up and spoke.

"Gao Chang, I see that the piglets in your house are growing well, and the ditch dug behind the house is also pretty good, but after a while, when the piglets are all grown up, the place looks a bit cramped."

Gao Chang smiled, this dead old man wanted him to contribute to the pig's efforts, so he said directly: "It's better to have a small place, and they will run around when the pig house is too big. They only eat food and don't grow meat."

"How about food? What food do you have in your house? I saw you throwing bamboo shoots down all day long. Let me tell you, let's widen that ditch and circle around our yard. There is a snake!" If the rats want to crawl into our place, they have to go through the wild boars first, and the dozen or so pigs are also very hungry recently, so it’s good to look after the house.”

Old Ninth Uncle’s idea is really good, and Gao Chang also thought about it, but no one brought it up, so he didn’t want to rush to collect it. The things delivered to the door are worthless, if something happens accidentally Well, everyone will have to blame him then.It will be different when others ask to come to the door: "If you want to dig a ditch, you dig it, anyway, the pig belongs to my family." Gao Chang raised the condition without hesitation. How wronged?

"You, are you afraid that you will be at a disadvantage? Who in our yard has taken advantage of your family?" Seeing what Gao Chang said, Old Ninth Uncle knew it was over.

"That's not yet." Except for the benefits that Gao Chang gave away by himself, no one has really taken advantage of him. Speaking of it, Gao Chang has never been taken advantage of a few times in his two lifetimes.Now that he is accompanied by the descendant of the Inugami, and he is still cultivated, others will not even try to pluck the hair from him.

"But Old Ninth Uncle, such a ditch is not easy to dig!" Although it was for the safety of the yard, some people still felt that Gao Chang took advantage of this matter.

"How about we keep our own domestic pigs in it too? My two piglets have been raised in the yard for a while, and they don't seem to be afraid of the sun anymore."

It was Zheng Zhanpeng who said this. He was the first one to go to Gao Chang's house to rent toads, and he was the one who rented four toads with twenty chili seeds.There are two domestic pigs at the door of his house, and now it’s almost time to breed them. If the domestic pigs and tall wild boars can be raised together, the door of his house is quiet, and the two pigs can’t do it well. You can also rub some food from the wild boar's mouth.

He has long heard that wild boars like to mate with domestic pigs. Those wild boars who are thick, strong, rough-skinned and thick-skinned rarely dislike white and tender domestic pigs. When the time comes, they will take pity on them , The food for the two pigs in my family will be settled.The guy was crackling with wishful thinking, completely ignoring the fact that one of his two pigs was a boar.

"How do you know that they are not afraid of the sun now? I'm telling you, don't be greedy and put the two pigs in the house together. If you live in the yard, you won't be afraid of the sun outside? Then let's live in the yard. Wait for a while, can you go out to bask in the sun? You young people, don't be so confused, you only have one life!"

Old Ninth Uncle didn't speak, so Zheng Guohong taught Zheng Zhanpeng a lesson. Recently, there are some rumors in the yard, saying that many of the animals outside can survive the sun, and maybe people can too.The older people felt very worried when they heard what they said. Everyone saw it on the first day when the blue sun appeared. No one can survive under this weird sun, even if it really exists. Opportunity, then who can guarantee that their children will have this luck?Again, there is only one life.

"This pig has been raised by people for thousands of years, and it has degenerated long ago. Let alone those poisonous insects, snakes and ants, wild boars will also degenerate after mating with it. It is hard to say whether they will be able to eat snakes by then. The stomach of this wild boar is called pig stomach, and the stomach of a domestic pig is called pig belly, do you know how much difference there is between them?" Old Ninth Uncle knows a lot about these medical matters, now that he said this, It can be regarded as completely cutting off Zheng Zhanpeng's desire to mix domestic pigs and wild boars for breeding.

"Then let's dig a big ditch and raise wild boars for Gao Chang's family?" Zheng Zhanpeng was unbalanced.

"If you catch wild boars in the future, you can also keep them in it." The village chief comforted Zheng Zhanpeng in a timely manner.

The lethality of this sentence is definitely great enough, even if there is still dissatisfaction, everyone has no choice but to swallow those complaints into their stomachs unwillingly.Is this wild boar anyone can catch?In case one accidentally bumps into it and can't even run, who would be stupid enough to catch a wild boar?

The project of digging the pig trench started soon. Everyone didn't dare to get hoes up and down from the side of Gao Chang's pigpen, so they dug from the other side of the village. The soil dug out had to be transported to the low-lying area not far away. Sometimes when you encounter a big rock, you have to use a shovel and an iron chain.

It took ten days of hard work to dig out the deep ditch. The earth walls on both sides were also built with thick and solid stone walls. The terrain in the ditch varies from high to low. Puddles, if water accumulates in them at that time, they will gather in the low-lying areas. People in the yard only need to hang a bucket down to bring the water up.

When this ditch was connected with Gao Chang’s pigpen, Gao Chang went down by himself. These days he said he would not help, but he would not help. When he was digging a hole behind his house, these people were free. Now it's their turn to work, and that's what they should be.On the last day, they brought a bundle of wires down and tied up the twelve and a half piglets so that they wouldn't bump into the working men.

After the completion of the project, the quality of life of the twelve piglets in Gao Chang’s family immediately improved qualitatively. The wider the place is, the better it is. run around.You can always find some small bugs and the like to eat in every corner. There are too many bugs outside, and it is inevitable that some people who don't have eyes will run into the pig trench to die.

The pond at the back of Gao Chang's yard was also demolished, and another was dug in the bamboo forest.The question now is whether or not to pull the water pipe into the yard, the opinions of the village are not uniform.Some people think that it is not safe to pull the water pipe, and things like snakes and insects will crawl in along the water pipe. Some people say that it is even more unsafe to get water outside the yard. It is dangerous to climb the ladder to cross the pig trench, and it is dark outside It is even more perilous.

In the end, the majority defeated the minority and decided not to pull the water pipe into the yard. A pulley was installed opposite the pig trench. The men went outside to fetch water, and the women were responsible for pulling the buckets hanging on the rope. Removed the rope from the pulley to prevent something from crawling down the rope into the yard.