The Disabled Tyrant’s Pet Palm Fish [Transmigration] - Chap 88

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Chap 88
Jing-wang believed in Li Yu utterly, however, managing a locust plague was no small feat. After
pausing briefly, Jing-wang held Li Yu’s hands with a concerned expression, as if asking him: are
you sure?

Li Yu said with a hehe laugh: “I’m sure, but my methods might be a bit unconventional.”

Jing-wang didn’t care about convention. In comparison to controlling the locusts plague, he was
more worried about Li Yu’s safety. Normally when the peasants managed locust swarms, they
used fire. Although they can burn a lot of insects to death in a short amount of time, fire can lead
to burn injuries. Xiao Yu was a carp demon, therefore, he must be very afraid of fire, right?

Li Yu can tell his apprehension and said: “Your highness, don’t worry. I won’t head into battle
personally.”

To say it specifically, the ones going into battle won’t be him. QQ, don’t make him seem like
some super impressive demon who can summon wind and rain or something. He was only a
system fish. He was also very afraid of insects!

Jing-wang examined Li Yu diligently. Seeing that Li Yu really wasn’t joking, he finally nodded
his head and allowed Li Yu to give it a try.

Li Yu asked for paper and brush and wrote a few methods all at once. To be honest, this was
rather coincidental. Before Li Yu had transmigrated, some of the countries in his original world
were also suffering from locusts plagues. His nation provided some assistance. Li Yu was
curious and casually studied how to deal with locust plagues. Although he couldn’t remember
everything, he remembered a few that he thought were especially interesting.

These were deep plowing, selecting grains, and duck army.

Jing-wang: ?

Li Yu did his best to explain each of the options in ways that could be understood in ancient
times: “Deep plowing is talking about the fact that locusts originally spawn in the ground. When
plowing, we should try to dig deeper to flip the soil. That way, the locust eggs will be exposed
under the sun and…… dry out and die.”
“Selecting grains is talking about how locusts don’t actually eat all types of vegetation. If we
plant more crops that the locusts don’t eat, then they won’t have food and naturally won’t be able
to reproduce.”

Jing-wang was smart and understood these concepts with just a simple explanation. The two
methods were both pretty interesting.

Jing-wang’s gaze landed on the third option. What the heck is a duck army? Was it the same
duck… that he’s thinking about?

“Exactly what you’re thinking, your highness.” Li Yu blinked: “There’s a saying: everything has
its weakness. Ducks eat locusts. The first two options work best after a locust plague. But it’s
already too late to use them currently. Right now, we can gather a lot of ducks to relieve this
emergent situation. This is called…… the duck army.”

Jing-wang: “……”

Jing-wang furrowed his brows. The methods that Xiao Yu provided… to say they’ve never been
heard of wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

But Xiao Yu’s words also sounded very reasonable. At least, it didn’t need fire and didn’t cause
any harm to living things. Jing-wang slowly nodded his head.

Some people living in Maple’s Landing already raised ducks. It wasn’t much; the families
originally bought them to sell or eat.

Jing-wang ordered Wang Xi to go buy a few. Whether ducks will eat locusts, they just have to
give it a test to know the truth.

Wang Xi took over the task personally and headed out in the morning before the day even
brightened up. After two hours, he came running back, saying excitedly and repeatedly: “Your
highness, it really worked! This old servant saw it with my own eyes. As soon as the ducks were
released, they ate plenty of locusts. The entire time that I was there, they’ve been eating
nonstop!”

Wang Xi came back to report in a hurry, so happy that one of his shoes almost fell off from
running.
According to Wang Xi’s words, one duck can eat around 100 locusts all at once. Jing-wang made
a rough estimate and also couldn’t help but feel excited.

Right now if he first reported to the Emperor and allowed the Ministry of Works to appropriate
funds to buy the ducks, with how long it would take, the locust plague might become worse.

Jing-wang needed to use this opportunity. He ordered Wang Xi go wild and use the Jing estate’s
wealth to buy all of the live ducks in the West Frontier. If there weren’t enough in the West
Frontier, they can also send people to other nearby provinces to buy more.

Li Yu gave another idea and said: “Your highness, don’t just buy big ones. Buying some young
ducks is worth the effort as well. We can make a farm specifically for raising ducks. Ducks grow
very quickly so they should be able to come in handy for the locust plague!”

Jing-wang thought: this was also a plan, and ordered Wang Xi to go do it.

A single duck didn’t really cost much. Jing-wang had plenty of money. The civilians of Maple’s
landing were still grateful to Jing-wang for fighting back the bandits. After learning that Jing-
wang wanted to buy ducks, all of the families that were raising ducks rushed to send ducks over.
Plenty of people didn’t even want any money. Nearby provinces heard that Jing-wang was
buying ducks to control the locust plague and all became extremely curious. Wanting to get in on
the action, they also send ducks in flocks towards Maple’s Landing.

Jing-wang ordered the guards to receive the peasants along the road to maintain safety for the
civilians traveling back and forth. It was also to prevent the bandits from profiting from this
opportunity. However, once the bandits heard that Jing-wang was going to eradicate the locust
plague, they sat back to watch the entertainment, temporarily not interested in stealing a few
ducks.

Wang Xi very quickly gathered five thousand ducks and about a thousand little ducklings.

The ducklings needed to be fed and raised. The grown ducks were immediately enlisted into the
duck army and rushed to the town that received the most damage from the locust plague.

Jing-wang also headed over himself. After a day, there was a heartening result. The duck army
really could eat. In a mere half a day, a small group of ducks had already eaten pretty much an
acreage of locusts.
Before, what gave the commoner the most headache was the short lifespan of locusts. If they
used fire to burn one wave to death, another wave would very quickly emerge again. The fire can
spread and cause collateral damages as well. Now they didn’t need to worry about anything. The
ducks can eat continuously for days without stopping. There were also no other dangers so the
damage was extremely low. After a town of locusts were pretty much all eaten, not even ten
percent of the duck army were lost.

The ducks were really miraculous soldiers. With a smile, Jing-wang shared a thumbs up with Li
Yu and continued to order Wang Xi to purchase ducks from all over.

However, something unexpected happened during this second purchase. Wang Xi had
discovered that after some merchants learned that Jing-wang needed ducks, they bought out
plenty of ducks from peasants at low prices ahead of time and stored them to sell them at high
prices to Wang Xi.

Wang Xi was extremely angry and reported it to Jing-wang. Li Yu also would have never
imagined this kind of issue would occur. After all, storing food and water was reasonable. Who
would store ducks? Don’t they even care what time it was? The Jing Estate was using money and
buying ducks in order to help the civilians eliminate the locust plagues. Who would be so
heartless to make this kind of dirty money. If the locusts ate all of the farm crops, what’s
everyone going to eat?

Really, for three times the profit, they didn’t even want to live anymore?

Jing-wang already had a stratagem ready. He gave Wang Xi a cool glance and ordered Wang Xi
to record the names of all of these merchants and let them keep storing, no need to bother with
them.

This time Wang Xi didn’t manage to buy a lot of ducks and was very worried that it’d affect
what they were doing. Jing-wang, however, was very confident.

Buying chickens should work too, right? Jing-wang looked towards Li Yu.

“Chickens are fine! However, chickens don’t eat as much as ducks……” Li Yu hastily nodded.
How did his highness know this as well?!

As long as they ate locusts, Jing-wang was fine. He ordered Wang Xi to also buy some chickens.
On the other side, the duck farm that Li Yu suggested to raise ducks was built and ready. Jing-
wang hired some courageous people to raise the ducks. Using locusts themselves as feed, the
ducklings grew very quickly. Just as the previous duck army was almost depleted, the ducklings
grew up. Not to mention, the duck army also made plenty of duck eggs.

Li Yu said happily: “Good thing your highness bought a lot the first time. Now we can
continue!”

Wang Xi, who was a right and proper estate head manager and personal servant, now spent all
of these last few days buying chicken and ducks, and incubating eggs. With a confident smile,
Jing-wang took over all of the matters relating to the latter task. In pertaining to incubating eggs,
his highness Jing-wang knew plenty.

As for those merchants storing ducks, they couldn’t sell them at high prices to the Jing Estate, so
gradually they were unable to keep storing.

Ducks were living creatures, not like crops which would be piled inside a warehouse. They
needed to be fed and cared for. Any slight carelessness would cause them to starve or run away.

Seeing that the Jing Estate no longer bought ducks, the merchants who were storing ducks all
became dumbfounded. What were they supposed to do with all of these ducks then? However, at
the West Frontier, who else but the Jing Estate would buy all of these ducks in one go?

These people were afraid of losing profit. Later on, they specifically came to apologize to Wang
Xi with gifts. With Jing-wang’s hard reminder, Wang Xi held his ground and forcibly lowered
the price again and again, pressuring so hard that the trash in these people’s bones almost
exploded outward. In the end, at a price much lower than market value, Wang Xi finally
accepted these ducks.

The duck army and duck farm have both started functioning properly. Li Yu went to visit the
duck farm that Jing-wang built, touring around all over. Using the perspective of the modern
man, he offered plenty of suggestions. Li Yu felt like the little ducklings inside the duck farm
were also somewhat cute. In a moment of interest, he asked for two of the yellow ducklings to be
raised in his own yard.

The fish babies saw the never before seen ducks and were extremely excited just like their fish
dad. The crystal bottles almost couldn’t hold them in. Not only Bao#1, even the muddled-headed
Bao#4 was very eager.
Li Yu was afraid that the ducklings would eat the little fishes and firmly refused to allow the fish
babies to get close, only letting them look at the ducklings from far away.

Bao#4 really liked the pretty little ducklings. Once while Li Yu was taking a noon nap, he
secretly jumped out of the crystal bottle, wanting to go play with the little ducklings

Speaking of noon naps, this was actually a habit that Li Yu developed after giving birth to the
little fish babies. People say that those who slept a lot when they were younger would develop
better in the future. Li Yu believed that the fish babies can also use some more sleep. Every day
on schedule, he would accompany the little fish babies to take a noon nap.

The fish babies all had active and energetic personalities. While Li Yu was awake, they all
obediently laid under the grass blanket with Li Yu. Once Li Yu fell asleep, the fish babies would
sneak out of the blanket and play on their own.

Therefore, Bao#4, this fish, jumped out of the crystal bottle just like this. Fortunately, Jing-wang
had the foresight to cover the floor with a thick heavy rug just in case. When Bao#4 landed on
the ground, he didn’t actually get injured.

However, Bao#4 was still only a palm sized little fish. Completely forgetting that he couldn’t
leave the crystal bottle and fish tank, he found himself in a difficult situation, unable to move at
all. Not long after landing, he started feeling uncomfortable.

Bao#1, Bao#2, and Bao3, all swam to the edge of the crystal bottle and anxiously watched
Bao#4 flail.

Younger brother was in danger!

Not caring about anything else, Bao#1 also jumped out, followed closely by Bao#2 and Bao#3.
They all wanted to help Bao#4.

Originally, there was only Bao#4, this one fish baby, flailing on the floor. Now, all four of the
fish babies were smacking the floor with their tails.

Li Yu only took a brief nap. Occasionally, he’d wake up to check up on the little fish babies. He
discovered in such a brief moment, the fish babies actually jumped out of the crystal bottle one
by one. Li Yu almost died of shock and hastily snatched the fish babies back in.
Bao#4 got quite a scare and stuck to Li Yu closely.

Li Yu was both angry and distressed. He fed Bao#4 some fish food, wanting to distract him.

Unexpectedly, Bao#4 ended up eating the fish food while still plastered closely to Li Yu.

Li Yu: “…….”