Chapter 1217 Natural Disasters Arrive

Many years later, people still have fresh memories of the six-year natural disaster in Gaia.

October 10, Mongolian steppe, northern border.

On the grassland in autumn, the weeds below the knees are gradually withering and yellowing, and the herdsmen in white clothes are busy harvesting pastures to prepare cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock for the long winter.

The thick cylindrical haystacks are scattered on the vast prairie, like guards, silently guarding this ancient prairie and the sacred land of herdsmen.

For Mongolian herders, this is a good harvest year.

The flood disaster that affected the Central Plains in the first half of the year did not affect the northern grasslands at all. The weeds are lush, the cattle and sheep are strong, and the flocks of sheep are like clouds embedded in the grasslands, which makes people happy.

Immediately afterwards, the empire won another battle in the west and annexed the Western Turkic Khanate in one fell swoop. The Khan was so happy that he exempted the herdsmen from taxes for the second half of the year.

Double happiness is coming, and you can have a good year.

The herdsmen had ruddy faces and were full of energy, and they finished harvesting the pastures before winter came.

At this moment, there was a sudden buzzing sound in the distant sky. Some herdsmen straightened their backs and raised their eyes to look into the distance, but saw a black cloud suddenly appeared on the skyline.

The black cloud seemed to stretch on both sides, and the edge could not be seen at a glance. The sound of "buzzing" came from the black cloud.

"Strange, why do the clouds make noise? Is it going to rain?"

The weather in the prairie is unpredictable, and sudden rain is common.

The herdsmen were wondering when they saw the black cloud rushing towards them at a speed visible to the naked eye. The closer they got, the louder the sound became, and when they gathered together, it made one's scalp tingle.

At this time, all the herdsmen were attracted by the black clouds and looked up into the distance.

Closer, closer.

"Well, that's not a black cloud."

There are sharp-eyed herdsmen, looking at the sweeping clouds, their voices are trembling.

"Uncle Wule, it's not Heiyun, what could it be~~~" The young herdsman listened and joked with a smile, not taking it seriously, obviously not aware of the crisis coming.

In the twinkling of an eye, the black cloud has overwhelmed.

"Locusts, it's locusts, the plague of locusts has come~~~"

Looking at the black cloud, Uncle Wule muttered to himself, recalling the locust plague he had encountered in his childhood, his wrinkled face began to turn white, obviously recalling some bad memories.

Grasslands are originally locust plague-prone areas.

The young herdsmen couldn't laugh anymore, because they also saw clearly that the so-called black cloud was just a swarm of countless locusts flying in the sky.

Wherever the swarms pass by, not a single blade of grass is left.

Guo Dun, a poet of the Ming Dynasty, described the scene of the locust plague in his "Ode to Flying Locusts" in this way: "The locusts cover the sky and are colorless, and the wild old fields are weeping with blood."

The scene in front of me will only be more terrifying than what is described in the poem.

Because the scale of this locust is really too big, looking around, the sky and the ground, southeast, northwest, front, back, left, and right are all densely packed locusts, just like breaking into a worm's nest.

No one knows how many locusts there are, or 100 million, or billion, or tens of billions.

Uncle Wule fell to his knees, devoutly worshiping the god of the grassland, and praying for the protection of the gods. Around him, there were locusts flying up and down that covered the sky and the sun, which was truly terrifying.

The young herdsmen were at a loss when they saw it.

In the vast grassland, there is no place to hide at all, allowing the body to be swallowed by locusts.

"Quickly, form a circle around the haystacks and hide in."

Some people reacted, unwilling to be caught without a fight, and greeted their companions. While driving away the rain of insects, they struggled to form a large circle of haystacks one by one.

Only Uncle Ule was still praying, turning a blind eye to the locusts around him.

This swarm of locusts flew from Siberia. They had just hatched from their eggs and were at the hungriest time in their lives. They ate whatever they saw.

The black clouds that the nomads first saw were but the outposts of the swarm.

The further back, the denser the insect swarm, it is no longer a black cloud, but a wall of insects, densely packed, almost no gaps can be seen, it is extremely frightening.

Just as the herdsmen surrounded the haystacks, Uncle Wule was overwhelmed by insects.

There was a brave young man who ventured to Uncle Wule, trying to drag Uncle Wule into the haystack circle, but Uncle Wule was unmoved and just kept praying.

Seeing that the insect swarm was getting denser and denser, the young man had no choice but to retreat.

For herdsmen living in the grasslands, it is not difficult to build a temporary residence with haystacks. Not only are the haystacks surrounded in all directions, but even the top is covered with haystacks.

Hundreds of haystacks form a closed space.

The herdsmen hid inside, covering their bodies with their clothes, shivering.

The swarm of insects that covered the sky and the sun roared past, and the grassland that was covered with pastures a moment ago became bare in an instant, leaving nothing behind.

Even the huge haystacks were eaten up by locusts at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After a full two hours, the herdsmen hiding in the haystacks could no longer hear the scalp-numbing "buzzing" sound, so they opened the haystacks in fear and walked out.

What was presented in front of them was a doomsday scene.

The pastures that everyone worked so hard to harvest are gone, and even the haystack houses surrounded by a circle are only left with a thin layer. Looking around, only the bare land is left.

Not far away, Uncle Wule was lying on the ground, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.

Everything is like a dream.

"Woo~~~"

Among the crowd, the sound of crying suddenly sounded, and the crying became louder.

"It's over, everything is over..."

The shepherds weep, weep for the pasture, weep for their livestock, and weep for themselves. Without grass, the livestock will starve and cannot survive this winter.

For herdsmen, livestock is the life of the family.

Thinking of this, I burst into tears.

And this crying is just the tip of the iceberg, not enough to describe this natural disaster.

On that day, tens of billions of locusts crossed the border from Siberia and rushed into the Mongolian grassland, setting off the largest and most tragic locust disaster in history.

From the Wokuotai Khanate in the west to the Daxia, Liao and Jin provinces in the east, no one was spared.

The large scale and wide influence are rare in the world.

The entire Mongolian steppe was covered by locusts, which descended from north to south in a vast and unstoppable manner. Wherever they passed, there was no grass left, the herdsmen wailed, and the lives were devastated.

The Mongol Empire fell into unprecedented panic.

Genghis Khan ordered the whole army to prepare for war, treat the extermination of locusts as a war, fully cooperate with the herdsmen, hunt and kill locusts, and minimize losses as much as possible.

An army of one million roared over the grassland.

…………

The natural disaster caused by Gaia is of course not limited to the Mongolian grasslands.

Almost at the same time as the plague of locusts broke out in Mongolia, an unprecedented plague of locusts also broke out in the Central Plains, especially in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins, overwhelming and inexhaustible.

Especially the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, which is an area with a high incidence of locust plagues, have suffered the most severe disasters this time.

For a while, extermination of locusts became the mainstream in the wilderness.

Throughout October, China launched a mighty locust extermination campaign. In order to keep the pasture and the soon-to-mature second season crops, the people everywhere went crazy.

Use nets to catch and kill, use fire to burn, and even cook and eat them.

But it didn't work.

The swarms of insects come and go like the wind, whistling past like a hurricane, the killing of the common people is only a drop in the bucket, and the grain and grass production in the affected areas is reduced, or even no crops are harvested, which is almost a foregone conclusion.

In ancient times, there were no pesticides in modern society, and there was no way to use airplanes to spread pesticides.

The coming winter must be a cold one.

Not only the Huaxia District, but in October, natural disasters occurred frequently all over the world. In the African continent, locusts were also rampant. Compared with the Huaxia District, it would only be worse than the Huaxia District.

There are folk sayings that "every drought brings locusts" and "long droughts lead to locusts". The drier the area, the easier it is for locust plagues to break out. The arid African continent is naturally the first to bear the brunt.

In addition to locust plagues, there are typhoons, heavy rains, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, diseases...

In the history of mankind, all imaginable natural disasters, like the opened Pandora's box, were released by Gaia and spread all over the world.

The game world fell into an unprecedented disaster.

The people are weeping, and the lord is mourning.

No one expected that Gaia would be so ruthless and decisive, and it was a lesson for the lords and the people of the world—there are unpredictable things.

The smooth weather in the past will no longer exist.

It wasn't until October passed that the situation improved slightly. The exhausted people began to inspect the losses and check for gaps under the organization of local officials.

The situation reported from various places made every emperor frown.

This natural disaster will definitely have a profound impact on the global situation. The first thing to bear the brunt is the price of food. Since mid-October, the price of food in Huaxia District has been soaring...