Chapter 709 Unexpected [Update]

Pius IX's insect repelling ceremony was still going on, but he felt that the sky seemed to be getting darker. Others present also felt this, and they looked up to see the dark swarm of insects blocking the sun in the sky.

At this time, Pius IX's pupils shrank. In fact, in order to ensure that there would be no accidents, he clearly ordered the burning of the surrounding farmland and used a scorched earth policy to stop the swarm of insects.

However, Pius IX overlooked one point. Locusts are not human. Their marching speed is much faster than that of humans.

Locusts can fly at a speed of up to 10 kilometers per hour and can fly continuously for 3 days, that is, they can fly about 720 kilometers in one flight.

Therefore, the isolation zone that Pius IX made ruthlessly was easy for locusts to cross.

So the holy city-Rome fell, and both those precious flowers and carefully trimmed trees became food for locusts.

Pius IX fled to the Castel Sant'Angelo before even completing the ceremony. This was not because locusts would eat people, but because the audience was scared away. Who would he perform for?

"Oh! God! There are too many locusts!"

Even though they had already fled into the church, there were still sounds of locusts hitting the door panels and glass outside.

The churchgoers saw the Pope in such a mess that they could not help but start praying, while the high-ranking officials came to the underground secret room under the escort of Swiss mercenaries.

In the secret room, there were not only fine wine and delicious food, but also beautiful women who had been waiting for a long time, and even a band and a children's choir.

Faced with the overwhelming locusts, Franz did not have many ways, because there was no strong enough insecticide, and pyrethrum was actually still not enough.

So all Franz could think of was chicken soldiers and duck generals. There were not many ducks in Europe, but chickens were easy to find.

Franz himself had many chicken farms and was the largest chicken farmer in the Austrian Empire.

At this time, Franz did not want to care whether it was laying hens or broilers, and directly transported one million chickens to northern Italy to fight locusts.

After all, the story of chicken soldiers and duck generals has been circulated for more than a thousand years, and is still used today. Moreover, it can not only eliminate locusts, but also fatten chickens and ducks to sell for money. Chickens and ducks cannot eat those high-protein foods at ordinary times.

However, the "quacking and killing" that Franz expected did not actually happen. The ducks seemed extremely powerless when facing this large desert locust, and were even scared to run around.

The locusts living in the grasslands of the East are not the same species as the African locusts they are facing at this time. Ducks do like to eat those small locusts, but they only like to eat wingless locust nymphs. They are not very interested in adults.

The size of the desert locust is three to five times that of the grassland locust, and it is more flexible and harder.

Moreover, the Tsar locust will secrete pheromones to change its own hormone levels, and even secrete something like benzyl cyanide, which will stimulate the duck's body to feel uncomfortable.

In addition to benzyl cyanide, if the number of locusts is large enough, it will also secrete hydrocyanic acid, which will directly cause most birds to show symptoms of poisoning.

So the 20,000 ducks that Franz had managed to gather were useless. Relatively speaking, the attack power of chickens is really not to be underestimated, but even a million chickens are helpless against hundreds of billions of locusts.

What's more pitfall is that the locals have been constantly eyeing these chickens and ducks, especially after the failure of the action to guard the fields, they began to rob them in the hope of recovering some of their losses.

Other countries are also concerned about the locust plague, because French agriculture has suffered from poor harvests for two consecutive years. If they encounter a locust plague again this time, they will have to import food from the United States.

Spain is facing a similar situation, even worse than France, after all, the French have colonies and money.

But the Spanish government is really poor. If locusts come, they can only catch as many locusts as possible and store them for winter.

Northern Italy has always been an important grain-producing area in the Austrian Empire. After the locust plague, the reduction in production has reached an exaggerated level.

Vienna, Regent Council.

"Damn it! We not only have to deal with a lot of locusts, but also a lot of Italians!"

Too many things happened this year, and Count Kolarov, as the Minister of Finance, clearly felt the pressure.

The Poles and refugee problems in the north, the ubiquitous cholera and crime, the border frictions and Swiss in the west, the Slavs in the east, the tsunami and locusts in the south, and the most difficult Pope.

Prince Metternich was also helpless. The Austrian Empire could not leave northern Italy alone, but how could the relief food for more than 10 million people be so easy to solve?

The Hungarians were very happy. Kossuth published an article in the newspaper calling for not selling a grain of food to Austria and starving these German villains to death.

Franz couldn't help but complain while holding the newspaper.

"Mr. Kossuth is still so naive, and it is the Italians who should suffer."

"You are so funny. If the Hungarians really don't sell food, there will probably be riots in northern Italy, right? And have you forgotten that the Polish Restoration Army is preparing to revolt in September?"

Ajani reminded, but she was not too worried about what would happen to Austria. After all, Franz looked confident, so there should be a solution.

However, the former was too disappointed with the Polish Restoration Army's intelligence confidentiality work, and all the plans were completely exposed to the enemy's field of vision.

You can get in by just finding a few people who claim to be Polish restorationists, and you can even buy a complete version of the uprising plan in Vienna for a few florins.

If they didn't fail, it must be because the other party didn't want them to fail.

"Don't worry, there is no need to worry about the source of food, and Hungarians can't stop selling their own food, and those revolutionaries also need to eat.

As for the Polish insurgents, I think you know better than me what kind of people they are.

But this locust plague has indeed disrupted a lot of things, and the destructive power is far beyond my imagination. Why are chicken soldiers and duck generals not useful?"

"Aren't you going to continue to recruit chickens and ducks to fight the swarm?"

Franz scratched his head.

"I don't have any other way. I can't ask for "God" like the Pope, right?"

"How do you know if you don't try?"

Ajani looked very serious.

"Okay. Locusts! Get out of my country!"

Franz raised his hands to the sky and looked very serious, and Ajani was also amused. After all, the former rarely did such outrageous things.

However, the two people who were amused in Schönbrunn Palace at this time did not know that the locusts actually turned around after eating northern Italy and flew to the Ottoman Empire.

(However, this was not because Franz's words really worked, but because the locusts could not fly over the Alps, so they turned to the Balkans.

There have been several large-scale locust plagues in history that turned around like this. The Austrians in the north made countless preparations, and then the former did not come.)