Thus, a quarter of the rice seedlings were still lost.
After harvesting the rice seedlings, without a moment’s pause, they turned to cut down all the wild grass on the plains and in the hills.
A square kilometer of locusts can consume the amount of food sufficient for 35 adults in one day.
Their destructive speed is extremely fast.
Li Yu’s Grandpa hammered his weary back and said to Li Yu, who was also cutting grass, "I’ve lived for so many decades and have only seen a locust plague once, this being the second time.
Only, this locust plague is hundreds of times more severe than the last. The previous one was like a gust of wind, sparse and scattered, flying away in an hour or two. Today’s plague, wow! It’s not just getting worse, it’s like hail pouring down.
It’s been so hot before, then so cold, and now locusts, these are truly hard times."
Li Yu straightened up, sighed, and said to Grandpa, "Grandpa, don’t worry, there will always be a way. As long as there are people, there’s a world."
Grandpa looked at Yutong, who was cutting grass on the other side, and then said to Li Yu, "That’s right, as long as there are people, there’s a world. I want to be a great-grandfather."
Li Yu followed Grandpa’s gaze, getting the hint.
Indeed, it was about time.
After four hours of hard work, everyone had cut down all the green wild grass, pasture, and even green leaves in the mountains and fields.
Anything edible by cattle, sheep, fish, pigs, chickens, and ducks was stripped clean.
According to Li Yu, it’s better to harvest all these themselves rather than letting the cursed locusts have it all.
The sky was darkened by locusts.
For the younger ones at the base, this was their first encounter with locusts.
Dapao, looking at the sky covered as if by a black curtain and seeing locusts covering the pine trees in the mountains, couldn’t help but curse out loud, "Damn it, these things really aren’t picky eaters, they eat fucking everything, even pine needles!"
Li Tie beside him wrung out his sweat-soaked shirt, squeezing out the sweat.
Then he said to Dapao, "My big brother said, we’re eating these things for dinner tonight! Deep-fried, spicy flavor."
Dapao looked at Li Tie and said, "Let’s take a break, we’ll go catch more locusts in a bit. There must be billions of these locusts, I reckon."
The two chatted, watching locusts swarm over the mountains, occasionally slapping any that fluttered onto them.
In the Inner and Outer City, after the rice and grass were harvested, people began to catch locusts.
Apart from those catching locusts, more than twenty people were processing the rice and grass, picking out the locusts that jumped out again.
The construction of the second Outer City was also temporarily halted. With so many locusts, one couldn’t see objects more than twenty meters away.
Furthermore, the dense cloud of locusts didn’t make it completely dark, but it did cover the sun thoroughly.
Outside the base, some Zombies were also spotted. Going out to build the Outer City was too dangerous now.
Therefore, the construction of the second Outer City was suspended.
As time passed, there seemed to be no end to these locusts.
The locust swarm continued to fly towards the Southern direction in the sky.
This was already the sixth hour since the locusts had arrived, and by a rough estimate, this swarm could span tens to hundreds of kilometers.
By now, all the green plants inside the base had been almost completely devoured.
Li Yu reached down to the ground, where the thickness was about the size of his hand spread wide. Now there was no need to use nets, simply stretching out both hands and sweeping a few times could fill a basket full.
A pit had been specifically dug to place the locusts, covered with a layer of thick plastic film to prevent the locusts from flying out.
At the pit, Old Lü, who was pulling the plastic film, said, "So many locusts can also be good news for a lot of Survivors, when hungry, they can eat anything."
While Li Yu swept locusts into the basket, he said to Old Lü,
"Locusts are like a gust of wind, the caught locusts will only last a while to eat, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. After the locust plague, nothing grows, and later, even wild vegetables will be gone."
Hearing this, Old Lü also felt the truth in his words and said no more.
Under such a locust plague, for many Survivor Bases, especially those attempting to grow their own crops, this was a bolt from the blue.
Previously, during the planting of early rice, they faced extreme drought and hot weather, without water, crops could only wither and die.
But at Big Camphor Tree Base, with the Mountain Pond reservoir, the water problem was solved, and they managed to survive.
Later, during the late rice planting season, extreme cold weather arrived, and many crops froze to death.
Big Camphor Tree Base also survived because they had prepared indoor cultivation facilities in advance, relying on solar photovoltaic heating.
Now, in this vibrant spring, damn it, another locust plague has arrived.
No wonder large-scale groups hadn’t emerged; with such frequent natural disasters, plus the threat of Zombies and food shortages, how could one carry on.
Just as Li Yu had predicted, this locust attack was an utter disaster for many Survivor groups.
By Poyang Lake. At Xunyang River.
A settlement of a thousand people now looked at the bare land.
The rice plants were left with only the stalks, too tough to be eaten by the locusts.
But the crops they had worked so hard to grow, were now just...
A burly middle-aged man looked numbly at the devastated land. Around him stood a few men who seemed to follow the burly man’s lead.