Chapter 280 The Terrifying Locust Plague
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……
On the day after locusts appeared in Hampshire, Baron Florence woke up from a peaceful sleep and let out a long yawn.
His territory is located in the eastern part of Erin County, close to the Ferdoro County that was once ruled by the Fox family.
So for the past hundred years, his family has been relying on the Fox family.
A noble baron, but he has to show a gentle and obedient posture and figure in front of the Fox family, playing the role of the bad boy's henchman in the knight's story.
At Raven's press conference, Florence even pimped Gul'dan.
Now that the Fox family has been destroyed, he must work hard to become a minion of the new Lord Governor.
He stood dazedly in front of the Angel's Glory. The mirror surface was not large and could only reflect his slightly thin face with a goatee, but it was enough.
Trying to open her eyes, Florence smiled in the mirror, and tried to adjust her posture so that the eight teeth she showed were reduced to six. The nobles from the royal capital didn't seem to like straightforward flattery. .
Even though she didn’t have a hat, Florence still took off her hat, with a look of astonishment on her face, and eyes with three parts surprise, three parts admiration and four parts joy:
“Your Majesty, Governor, Why are you in such a remote place?"
He has received news that Marquis Anthony will go to a town not far away to inspect today, and he has to create an "accidental encounter."
So, the image must be taken care of.
Putting away her smile, Florence picked up the ivory comb and took care of her beard:
"Come, change clothes."
The well-trained maid entered the house and dressed Florence After putting on a decent outfit, he was not satisfied, so he changed several pieces back and forth before deciding on his match.
On his head is a soft fedora hat pressed down on the bottom of the suitcase. It is dusty and looks a bit old. His upper body is a black turtleneck tuxedo made of cotton mixed with silk. The wrists have been polished twice with a file, as if they have been worn. It has been worn for many years; the lower body is a pair of brown leather pants that do not match well, and the leather shoes under the feet are obviously intact but still have three rivets.
"Master, I have to say that this outfit is not in line with your status as a noble." Florence's wife frowned.
Florence shook her head and said: "You don't understand. Marquis Anthony called for strict frugality. If we don't dress like this, how can we reflect our intentions?"
Every noble has his own way of survival. Florence's way of survival is to cling to the strong man's lap - no matter who the strong man is.
Some people may think this is a trend, but Florence prefers to call it "humanity and sophistication."
Kissing his wife goodbye, Florence specially selected an old spring outing horse, and headed east, escorted by knights wearing only leather armor.
On the way, he began to rehearse the scene of the meeting.
If they met by the river, they would pretend not to see the Governor and go drink the water from the river.
If you meet in a town, you should bargain loudly with the roadside vendors.
If we meet in a village, if we meet in a village...
Florence's train of thought couldn't continue because he heard a dense buzzing sound.
It’s time for these knights to take good care of themselves. By whispering so blatantly, do you think I don’t exist?
"Stop arguing." Florence waved her hand impatiently: "I'm thinking!"
"My lord, it's not us!" the knight next to him said aggrievedly.
“If it wasn’t you, what else could it be—” Florence turned around and was about to continue the scolding, but the second half of the sentence was stuck in her throat, and she couldn’t say it anyway.
He saw a cloud, a dark cloud, a dark cloud that was raining heavily.
Sweeping in from the west, it blocked the sky and the sun, and there was almost no sunlight.
Dense raindrops continued to fall from the sky, covering the wilderness and dyeing it black.
The buzzing and vibrating sound is getting closer and closer with the arrival of this dark cloud!
Moreover, there was not only a buzzing vibration, but also a dense sound like the friction of gravel.
Florence's eyes widened and her mouth opened wide:
"That...what is it!?"
With a whoosh, a black shadow suddenly rushed over and was intercepted by the knight next to him. He opened his palm and handed it to Florence.
This is a bug. Perhaps due to the backlash from the force of the collision, a thick green liquid gushes out from its pincer-like mouthparts, carrying a grassy smell that makes people almost want to vomit.
But it was not dead yet. It had four short, two long and six jointed limbs struggling, and its mouthparts were also squirming. It tore off one piece from the knight's leather glove and began to devour it.
“Locusts!!!?”
This endless cloud is actually made of locusts! ?
Florence felt that her mind went blank. She knocked the bug out of the knight's hand, tightened the reins, and squeezed the horse's belly with her legs:
"—Run!!!"
With her head lowered, just like she was avoiding arrows on the battlefield, Florence ran for her life, squeezing her horsepower at all costs.
But the buzzing sound was getting closer and louder, gradually
like thunder!
The knights' horses were about the same as Florence's, or even worse, and because they wore leather armor and carried various weapons and were heavier, they inevitably fell behind Florence. .
A horse neighed, and Florence couldn't help but look back. Her scalp suddenly exploded.
On the last horse, half of the body was covered with locusts the size of a fist. Half of the back butt and the entire right leg were dripping with blood, and no trace of skin could be seen. traces of passing.
"Go away, you damn bugs!" The fallen knight stood up, drew out the long sword from his waist, wrapped it in blue fighting spirit, and slashed with the sword!
There was a popping sound, and several locusts had their bellies chopped into pieces and disintegrated in mid-air. However, before they landed, they were swarmed by a group of similar locusts and ate them up in mid-air. Er Jing, only a few pieces of fine wing membranes fell on the ground.
One, two, ten or eight locusts are nothing, but here, there are locusts all over the mountains and plains!
The knight waved his long sword, but he could not stop more and more locusts crawling on him. They were densely packed, like a colorful armor made of locusts. The sharp mouthparts tore He opened his leather armor and cotton lining and burrowed deeper inside.
"Ah——" A heart-rending scream sounded, carrying a sense of extreme fear.
No one wants to be eaten alive by bugs.
“Save me, Lord Baron!!”
Faced with this cry for help, Florence gritted her teeth, turned her head away, and swung the whip hard to slap the horse's buttocks.
The screams were getting farther and farther away, and gradually disappeared, unable to be heard by the ears, but they echoed in Florence's mind.
He ran all the way, and heard more falling sounds and screams. He knew that another knight had fallen from his horse and was in a certain death situation.
"Ah!!! Get away, you damn bugs!!"
"Save me——"
"I curse you, Florence -"
But he didn't dare to look back or stop. He could only run forward with the wails and curses of these people.
He felt that his body was getting heavier and the spring horse under him was getting slower and slower.
When there was severe pain in her ears and blood flowed down her cheek, Florence realized that she had been overtaken by the swarm of insects.
Florence silently drew out her self-defense dagger and secretly made up her mind that once she fell from the horse, she would give herself a happy life!
The spring outing horse turned the corner, and Florence's eyes lit up because he saw a flag not far away. The blue flag has a green clover and a golden cross star inlaid around it.
That’s the flag of the Edwards family!
Under the flag, there was a group of people standing there, headed by Marquis Anthony!
Florence, who had already fallen into despair, had the brilliance of life blooming in her eyes: "My Lord Governor, I am..."
Before he finished speaking, the war horse under his crotch whined and fell to the ground.
Florence also rolled to the ground, and there were several popping sounds. It was because he crushed a few locusts that had no time to escape. The sticky liquid and dust stuck to his body. Lawrence ignored his nausea and rushed towards Anthony with his legs spread.
50 meters...
No, only 30 meters, he can run into Anthony's team and escape!
Maybe he was too excited, or maybe it was the interference of the locusts. He suddenly staggered on the ground. When he got up again, what he saw was the back of Anthony and his party, and the direction drifting farther and farther away. flag.
"No, wait for me, save me! I am Baron Florence!"
A feeling of weakness came from his heels, and Florence fell to the ground again before he could stand firm.
For many years, his energy has been focused on flattery, and the second-level fighting spirit has long been unable to exert its due power. In a hurry, even the fighting spirit armor cannot be condensed.
He looked back and saw that his pants were torn to pieces, and the skin on his heels seemed to have been rubbed with a rasp. A swarm of locusts landed on them, tearing them apart with their sharp mouthparts. His yellowish Achilles tendon.
It was only because of his excitement that his body consciously blocked the pain, so that he did not notice it.
With meaningless groans coming from her mouth, Florence stopped looking and used her hands and feet to chase Anthony's flag, but she could only watch it getting further and further away...
Insect The crowd obscured his vision, and he was still crawling forward until he touched a U-shaped shallow pit.
Florence knew that she had been completely abandoned.
The locusts covered Florence like a blanket. At first, she felt hot, then weak, and then, the severe pain came up like a tide.
He buried his head in the ground, tears pouring down his eyes. He wanted to give himself a break, but his consciousness clearly ordered him to move his arm. Although his arm was still in severe pain, there was no reaction at all. .
Florence didn't know what was happening, but her increasingly cold body told him that he was going to die.
"Anthony..." Florence gritted her teeth:
"I curse you!!!!"
The next moment, he felt his throat was a little itchy and tight. Then a locust covered in mucus and blood came out of his mouth.
This was the last scene Florence saw.
His body was covered by swarms of insects, and a long trail of blood was drawn behind him. Locusts crowded on top of it, gnawing at the soil mixed with blood.
I don’t know how long it took, the locusts went to look for food elsewhere, leaving only broken bones on the ground.
It can be seen that starting from the bones of the horse, Florence's bones are scattered on the road, from ankle to calf, calf to thigh.
At his morgue, only a head, a right arm separated from the body, and most of his ribs were left.
If you raise your vision further, you can see that there are only swarms of insects between heaven and earth!
...
Anthony barely slept a wink and returned to Hovey City in two days.
But he did not rest, but immediately came to the conference room and unfolded a newly drawn map of the Nord province.
“This locust plague is more serious than we expected.” Anthony did not avoid his mistakes: “Relying solely on traditional response methods is no longer useful. We must deal with it seriously.”
“Treat this locust plague like a war!”
Including Akori, Anthony's personal guards all nodded. The overwhelming swarm of insects and the tragic death of Florence really impressed them deeply.
“I have never seen such a big locust.” Akori was also frightened: “What is going on?”
“Perhaps there are abundant grasshoppers in their growing environment. The magic element may be an ancient species that has suddenly revived, and the Church of Light will say that this is a divine punishment sent by the Lord of Light." Anthony's personal alchemist and aide Peng Si said: "But these are not important. What is important is that we must. How to deal with this locust plague?"
Anthony stared at the map and suddenly said: "Do you have any ideas?"
Pence, a well-dressed, white-faced middle-aged man, heard Anthony's words. After thinking about the problem for a while, he said: "This kind of extraordinary size and physique can be called a monster. Considering their size, there must be at least one insect king commanding and dispatching among them."
Anthony raised his head and asked: "You mean, kill the insect king?"
"This..." Pence looked troubled: "I'm afraid it's difficult, just how to position it in the insect swarm is a challenge. Problem, and killing the insect king will only cause them to fall into short-term chaos. If it cannot cause large-scale damage to the insect swarm, a new insect king will be born soon."
After saying this, The conference room fell into silence again. This method was no different from no method.
After a long time, Anthony sighed: "Acori, record."
"Yes, Lord Governor!" Acori immediately picked up the pen and paper.
After clearing his throat, Anthony said: "Now, in the name of the governor, I order the 'warning area' as a unit to fight against this rare locust plague."
"Heathside, Bell, Erin, Fei Erdoluo and other southern four County, as well as the three eastern counties of Arag, Bili, and Cambri, are under my personal control as the No. 1 alert area."
"The three central counties of Hodges, Mansa, and Wilt, as well as Derby and Lanxia are two northern cities County, as the No. 2 Alert Area, is managed by the Earl of Tyrone. "
"The five northwest counties of Xuefeng, Savery, Shippok, Essex, and Hampshire serve as the No. 3 Alert Area. Presided over by Baron Raven. "
"On the day the order arrives, a noble must obey all requests from the person in charge of the security area to which he belongs, automatically hand over military command, and is obliged to maintain communication channels with the person in charge. Smooth. ”
"Any noble who disobeys the order will be punished with treason!"
Akory wrote it down one by one. It was nothing at first, but by the end, his brows could not help but frown.
Pence also noticed something was wrong: "Your Majesty, Governor, is it really okay to hand over such great power to a baron like Raven?"
Anthony smiled bitterly: "If you still If there were other candidates, I wouldn't choose him."
Seeing that Anthony had not raised his head, Pence followed his gaze to the map, and gradually understood Anthony's handling method.
The reason why the five northwest counties were handed over to Raven was probably because he did not want the Slater family to take this opportunity to expand their influence.
After all, power is easy to give out but difficult to take back.
And currently, Anthony holds 7 counties, Tyrone has 5 counties, and Raven also has 5 counties. This undoubtedly reflects Anthony's responsibility, and no one can find problems.
"Okay, that's the decision." Anthony patted the table: "Acori, copy and publish this order immediately, and take the air route."
"No matter what How about it, I want it to be delivered to every corner of Nord province before the locust plague covers the entire territory!”
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a snap, and a lost locust hit the window. Perhaps because of the force, it exploded into a ball of black-green paste and slowly slid down the window.
It’s like the death knell sounded by the god of death.
……
(End of this chapter)