Theoretically, the sweet potatoes underground should not be eaten by locusts. At most, they will lose the vines above. However, as long as the roots are still there, the sweet potatoes can still grow in the future. However, after all, the theory is just a theory. No one can be sure of the actual situation. They must investigate it on the spot.

Li Xiu was also worried about this, so he left the room with Yang Nong and asked Yang Dui and several other chief officials of the Ministry of Agriculture. Then he left the yamen together. Although there were sweet potatoes in the yamen, they had been driving away the locusts in the past two days. Therefore, the number of locusts in the yamen was too small, which was not enough to see the situation of the sweet potatoes under the locust plague.

In fact, there is no need to go far. The Ministry of Agriculture is very close to the Lijiazhuang. The surrounding farmland is also from the Lijiazhuang. Most of the farmlands are planted with sweet potatoes. Therefore, they picked up a piece of fields and walked in. The sweet potato fields in the past were all green. Even if the weather was dry, the sweet potatoes were very drought-resistant, so they grew much better than wheat, and almost all the vines in the field were about to spread out.

However, just three days after the locust plague arrived, most of the green on the ground had been lost, especially the fresh leaves, which were almost all swallowed up by locusts. Even the tough vines were now full of locusts. When Li Xiu and the others arrived, every step they took would startle a piece of locusts.

"The leaves have been eaten up, but they don't even let go of the vines. It seems that they will not leave without eating all the food they can eat!" Yang Nong picked up a vine that had been bitten from the ground and spoke with a sad face.

Li Xiu squatted down and carefully observed the remaining vines. He found that many of the vines had been bitten off. In addition, the weather was too dry, so these vines had withered a lot. Only some vines connected to the roots looked a little alive, but locusts also liked to eat this vine the most because they had moisture to supplement their needs.

"Yang Dui, dig out one tree!" Li Xiu said at this time, and ordered Yang Dui who was holding the tool. At that moment, Yang Dui immediately agreed, waved his hoe and dug down a sweet potato. In a short while, several fist-sized sweet potato tubers were dug out.

"At last, we were not wrong. The roots and stems of the sweet potatoes were not damaged. As long as the locusts leave, they can grow vines again!" Yang Nong bent down and picked up a few pieces of sweet potatoes, and said with joy on his face. No matter how raging the locusts are, they still can't eat the sweet potatoes underground. Moreover, these sweet potatoes have been growing for half a year and can be considered as filling their stomachs.

Li Xiu also picked up a piece of sweet potato and looked at it. Then he smiled and said, "These sweet potatoes are still a little smaller, but it doesn't matter. For example, you can eat half of the land and leave half of it. After the remaining sweet potatoes grow vines again, you can wait until autumn is over before harvesting. Then the sweet potatoes will grow bigger, and they will be dried into dried sweet potatoes until next year!"

There is no fixed harvest season for sweet potatoes. You can eat them as long as they grow rhizomes. However, according to Guanzhong's custom, they usually harvest every six months. Some people like to let sweet potatoes grow for a year. In autumn, the sweet potatoes grown in autumn can be large enough. In addition, the sweet potatoes harvested in autumn can also be put into the cellar. With the help of a low temperature and hypoxia environment, they can be preserved for a whole winter. Even if you take out fresh sweet potatoes to sell during the Chinese New Year, you can make a profit.

Since we are investigating the situation of sweet potatoes under the locust plague, we naturally cannot just look at one piece of land. In fact, Li Xiu and Yang Nong are planning to take a walk in the entire Xinzhu County to collect the sweet potatoes in various places. So after seeing a few pieces of land here, we are going to ride a horse to other places to take samples. This is very hard, and young people like Li Xiu and Yang Dui are fine, but Yang Nong is so old that he will definitely not be able to bear it.

"Mr. Yang, why not go back and rest first, let us leave the rest!" After seeing a few nearby pieces of land, Li Xiu immediately advised Yang Nong, the weather was so hot, Yang Nong was old and sick, he had been coughing just now, and then he had to ride a horse. Li Xiu was really worried about his body, so he spoke up.

"The prince-consort is right. Uncle, don't compare with us young people. My uncle told me yesterday that I would give you more rest. If your illness worsens, I'm afraid I'm the first one to let me go!" At this time, Yang Dui also begged with a bitter face. Yang Nong's body was indeed not as good as before. After only a few pieces of land were transferred, he was already out of breath and his cough became more serious, so Yang Dui didn't dare to let Yang Nong continue to do this.

Yang Nong is usually a very strong person, but at this time he felt that his body could not hold on anymore, especially the sun above his head, and there was a ball of fire in his body. It was useless to drink no matter how much water he drank, so he could only nod helplessly and said, "Okay, then I'll leave the next thing to you. I'll go back and have a rest!"

Seeing that Yang Nong finally agreed to go back, Li Xiu and Yang Dui were relieved. At that moment, Li Xiu sent two guards around him to help Yang Nong back to the Ministry of Agriculture for rest. He and Yang Du and others rode on horses and moved along Xinzhu County. Finally, they even went to Qingtian County next to him for a walk. Since the smallpox was eliminated, Qingtian County has returned to normal. In addition, there are many fertile fields in Qingtian County and more sweet potatoes planted.

Through the investigation of the sweet potato fields in various places, Li Xiu and others found that the sweet potatoes in other places were similar. The leaves and vines on the surface were destroyed, but the rhizomes underground were very intact, which will become life-saving food in Guanzhong area this year.

However, compared to sweet potatoes, other crops are much worse, such as wheat and grains, all swallowed up. In addition, corn is eaten by locusts and only a bare stem is left. Fortunately, I knew in advance that there might be a locust plague, so the Ministry of Agriculture has recovered most of the corn seeds and planted only a small part of the corn this year. It seems that the harvest will definitely be out of stock this year.

After transferring to the farmlands of the two counties, they had no time to eat at noon, so they dug a few pieces of sweet potatoes to fill their stomachs. In addition, Li Xiu also noticed that the water level of the rivers in the two counties was also very low, and some ponds had dried up because it had not rained for a long time. If this continues, it is probably a drought after the locust plague.

When it was getting late, Li Xiu and the others rode back to the Ministry of Agriculture on horseback. At this time, they were all exhausted. Yang Dui and others rushed to the cafeteria for dinner as soon as they arrived at the yamen. Li Xiu was also preparing to go home, so they went to say goodbye to Yang Nong. However, when he just pushed open Yang Nong's door, he couldn't help but exclaim, and then rushed in anxiously!
Chapter completed!