If you don't consummate the marriage for three years and then marry a successful educated youth

The others chimed in, "Yes, the director is right. We should go back and wait for news, and then hold a meeting in two days to discuss the autumn harvest. That would be a safer approach."

Hao Ren leaned back in his chair and said with a smile, "I have no objection. I will listen to the leaders in everything. I will do whatever the leaders say. That way, I can't go wrong, right?"

"If there are indeed losses due to the locust plague, we should do as the leaders say. They certainly won't ignore us starving."

"That's right, it's safest to listen to the leader. I've never seen a locust plague before, who knows if it's real or not."

The captain closed his eyes, pursed his lips, and remained silent.

These people have no idea how terrifying that thing is. He saw it with his own eyes, and he remembers how terrifying it was even more than thirty years ago.

Liu Hongbing raised his hand: "Count me in. No matter what the leaders arrange, my Chaoyang brigade is going to do pest control. Even if it's all for nothing, it'll just take up more manpower and time."

"But if we do nothing and something happens, I won't be able to explain it to the people in the brigade."

Hao Ren looked at him in surprise: "Hongbing, you..."

Liu Hongbing said in a deep voice, "Alright, stop talking. One thing at a time, public matters are public matters and private matters are private matters. I am now the captain of the Chaoyang Brigade, so I have to do what I should do."

"It's your business if you don't want to investigate, but I'm going to investigate and deal with the pests."

"Captain Jiang, if there's anything I don't understand, I'll call you later for guidance. I hope you won't hold it against me for personal reasons. Thank you."

The captain looked at him with a complicated expression: "Yes, you're right. One thing at a time. It's better to overthink than to be unprepared. We'll discuss it again after the meeting."

"Okay, thank you for your help."

The meeting ended an hour and a half later.

Director Shen hurriedly left the meeting room with the photos in his hands, asking someone to drive him to the town mayor so he could find someone who could handle the matter and make a decision on the next steps.

The remaining men surrounded the captain, tentatively asking, "Captain Jiang, are those really insects in the photo? Did you see them with your own eyes? Could they just be ordinary grasshoppers?"

"You'll know whether it's true or not once you go and see for yourselves. I've already told you the address. It's only an hour or two by bike. You'll understand everything once you see it."

"You're right, we should go and take a look."

Hao Ren followed Liu Hongbing and watched him walk over there, pouting and feeling somewhat depressed.

Liu Hongbing pushed the people aside, looked at him and said, "Let's go, I'll go check on the situation. Let's leave now, don't waste time, the sooner we deal with it, the better."

"Okay, come with me."

The group gradually left the conference room.

When Jiang Lie saw the people come out, he called out, "Hello, Uncle Liu! Hello, Uncle Hao!"

"Yes, Little Hunter is here. I'll go with you to see how serious the place your father mentioned is. I'll go back and arrange for the people in the brigade to work."

"Okay, Uncle Liu, please follow me."

Hao Ren hesitated for a moment, but still followed, just to join in the fun and see if the things in the photos were real or fake.

The group arrived at the riverbank, parked their bicycles, and went down the slope. As they got closer, the black grass became more and more obvious, and upon closer inspection, they saw that the grass was hopping around and munching on the green grass.

The riverbed was no longer green; all that could be seen was writhing black, which was terrifying to behold.

With each stomp of Liu Hongbing's foot, he could kill a whole bunch of them; they were densely packed on his shoes and trousers, bouncing around everywhere. His face was grim: "Is this monstrosity covering the riverbed for kilometers?"

The team leader nodded: "Yes, we cycled from upstream to downstream, for several kilometers, and it's still spreading downstream. There's just too much of it."

"We can't even finish eating all the chickens and ducks. Now we're just waiting for news from the director to see if we can talk to the chicken and duck farms and let the chickens and ducks out to eat insects to relieve some of the pressure."

"With so many locusts, even if we have chickens and ducks to eat, we probably can't stop the locust plague. The climate this year is a bit abnormal, and that doesn't even include the locusts from other communes."

"This is only the situation in one commune brigade. Even if we spend a lot of time and effort to deal with it here, the locusts will still fly over if other places are not dealt with."

Hao Ren laughed and said, "Yes, there's no way to stop it. Instead of wasting time and effort dealing with these insects, we should think of ways to prepare for the autumn harvest."

"Harvest them early to minimize losses. Besides, these locusts won't devour all the fields at once. It's all about luck; maybe they won't fly over here."

"We can speed up the autumn harvest, it won't delay anything, what do you guys think?"

Liu Hongbing turned to look at him: "So, you've decided not to participate in dealing with these larvae, right? Don't you think about what would happen if your own brigade were infested with locusts?"

"Do you think the locusts will eat the grain nearby, or go through the trouble of flying a long way to eat the grain of other brigades? Hao Ren, what are you thinking? If we don't deal with this, who will suffer first?"

Hao Ren looked over and said with a smile, "Our Red Sorghum Brigade is backed by mountains, but we don't have as many rivers as the Xiangyang Brigade, so there aren't many larvae, and we won't suffer any damage."

"As for locusts flying in from other places, it's not so easy for us to fly over to eat our food, since we're backed by mountains."

"Alright, I've seen what I needed to see. I'm going back now."

Liu Hongbing watched his retreating figure, his brows furrowing slightly: "Never mind him, take me to other places to take a look. Tell me three ways to control these larvae."

"How is the fire-baked bread made? It's made by drying the worms in the sun and feeding it to the chickens and ducks. Take me to see how it's made."

"The brigade needs to prepare for the autumn harvest in advance, and there are not enough people to spare. I can spare some women and children to deal with insects. The work is not heavy and is suitable for them."

The captain nodded and said, "Okay, come with me."

The three walked about a hundred meters and looked at the person who was constantly sweeping larvae into the fire pit. Flames leaped up, bringing waves of heat: "...You dug the place where the fire was going to be burned into the dry riverbed."

"Yes, it's close by, so it won't take time for people to climb up and down. We can find a dry riverbed, dig a pit, fill it with coal and firewood, and once it's lit, we can just sweep up the larvae."

"They can only hop around and can't fly. If you're fast enough, you can kill quite a few in a day. As for crushing them, drying them, and feeding them to chickens and ducks, that's too slow. We'll talk about that later."

Liu Hongbing pressed his temples, looked through everything, and then rode his bicycle back to the brigade with a heavy heart.

On the other side, Director Shen was also busy. In two days, he ran around to the town mayor and the county mayor, and then reported to the higher levels. He looked quite haggard, but after waiting and waiting, he still hadn't received any news.

Two days later, when the meeting was held, the atmosphere was somewhat tense.

"Captain Jiang, how's it going on your end? How's the initial treatment of those insects going? How much of the riverbed have you cleared?"

The captain nodded: "Director Shen, only one-tenth of the riverbed has been cleared. Through observation, it can be confirmed that as long as the speed is fast enough, it can exceed the hatching speed of the larvae."