Chapter 39 Chapter Thirty-Five

The LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your stick over the sea, so that the water may still fall on the Egyptians, their chariots, and their horsemen." Moses stretched out his stick over the sea, and when day broke, the sea water returned.When the Egyptians escaped from the water, the LORD threw them into the sea, and the water flowed back, covering their chariots and horses, and there was not a single one of Pharaoh's army that followed Israel into the sea.But the Israelites walked on dry land in the sea, and the water made a wall on their left and right.In this way the LORD delivered the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians that day.The Israelites saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians by the sea.When the Israelites saw what the Lord had done to the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and his servant Moses.

The grasshoppers came like a cloud before lunch that day.At that time, the sun was just right, hot, dry and cracked. When the crow screamed on the tree, its tongue was like a red bean hanging on the branch. The bullwhip that keeps cracking.Suddenly all the chickens in the village happily ran to the head of the village, gathered into a pile, and cuckooed happily. The dogs followed behind their masters, never leaving a single step, even if they kicked them, they refused to leave alone.The villagers had a premonition that something terrible was going to happen, and they sat at the door of their own houses with horror on their faces, not saying a word to each other.The women no longer cook with peace of mind. The noodles are boiled in the pot, but people are walking around in the yard.At this time, Sima Lan led a group of children and ran down from the mountain ridge, yelling Come—come—the black whirlwind is coming—an adult asked: "How can there be a black whirlwind until the end of autumn? "

He stood in front of the man and pointed out of the village: "From east to west, flocks of old crows blow over." There is the sound of beating gongs in the village, Dang!when!when!when!when!From this alley to another alley.Sima's laughing call, caught in the panting of the gong, filled a whole village at once: "Save the rapeseed──" "Throw away the corn to preserve the green rape---" "Who dares to throw rapeseed to protect maize? Let's settle the score after autumn──" Footsteps began to sound like thunder and lightning in the village. Men and sensible children ran towards the divided rapeseed fields with sacks, loincloths, old clothes and trousers and other things that could be whipped.The women, boys and girls aged three and five, all ran out of various houses with foreign porcelain iron basins, dowry copper basins, bronze mirrors, unused iron shovels and hoes and other various metal utensils. .They followed behind the men, forgetting to button the clothes they had unbuttoned in the courtyard due to the sweltering heat, and their breasts danced in the air like white rabbits out of cages.No one panicked anymore, only amazed and pinkly excited on every face of the villagers.They all saw the crow flying from the sky over the village towards the distance due west.The sparrows twittered and made a mess on the slope or the wall.The dogs followed the people's feet, their eyes turned into red balls, bouncing around and stopping to look back from time to time, as if something was chasing after them.Sima Lan and her two younger brothers took off their cloth shirts and followed behind their father like puppies. When they ran to the rapeseed field on the north slope of the village, the cloth shirts were broken by the locust tree by the roadside. mouth.The three dwarf elder brothers, Sen, Lin, and Mu, followed their mother, holding a broken washbasin and an old gong in their hands, as if they were about to enter a long-awaited drama with joy.

When people flocked to the center of the village, the sun was still golden red, but when they left the village, the sun became slightly dim.A sound of sand flying over the head could be heard, first strong and then weaker from outside the village.It sounded from outside Ralou Mountain.Among the dense sounds, there are dull and violent impacts that explode in the distance of the sky intermittently, like thunder cannons in a field of firecrackers. Later, when the villagers sat together, they recalled that the sound was that the big grasshopper flew into other big grasshoppers.But at that time, no one paid attention to the sound, only Sima Lan followed Sima with a smile and ran away with a shoe. When he turned around to pick up the shoe, a grasshopper fell from the sky and fell into the socket of his shoe. , he found that the grasshopper had no head, but its legs and wings were still intact, and it could still fly and jump in mid-air like a chicken whose head had been beheaded.He raised his head and looked at the headless grasshopper flying away, and he saw a layer of yellow golden sand flying in the sky, completely covering the sunlight.

On the mountain ridges, in the gullies, and among the woodlands, it suddenly became dark.A gust of cool, damp and greasy wind blew across the hillside.The pungent fishy smell similar to the smell of highland barley wafts all over the mountains and plains.He finally understood that the plague of locusts that the villagers were talking about had arrived.He was a little surprised, and couldn't figure out how there were so many grasshoppers in the world. It seemed that all the grasshoppers in the world were concentrated on the Ragui mountain range.He called Dad——Daddy—and ran to the rapeseed field on the north slope, and saw that a large piece of rapeseed was dark black under the swarm of grasshoppers that blocked the sky.He thought it was lucky that the grasshopper flew across the sky and flew away from the Palou mountain range. If the grasshopper had slipped past the ground, what would have happened to the rapeseed.Sima Lan saw her father rein in the rapeseed field like a frightened horse, and a large group of grasshoppers flew over Sanxing Village.When Sima Lan and his younger brothers stood under their father, the sunlight fell again.Rapeseed began to alternate with yellow and green on the field again, like a huge piece of cloth with green background and yellow flowers spread on the hillside.There is a fishy floral scent again.Sima smiled and threw the sack on the ground, sat on the sack and looked up towards the sky.Sima Lan, Sima Lu, and Sima Hu were beside their father, imitating their father's appearance, sitting on their own cloth shirts, with their little faces parallel to the sky.

After the large swarm of grasshoppers flew past, the scattered grasshoppers left behind for some reason could not fly high as if they could not take advantage of the wind. It fell like raindrops.There was a magpie on the edge of the rapeseed field, which flew up to a person's height and then fell down from mid-air.Sima Lu went to catch the magpie, Sima smiled and took the magpie and touched the magpie's belly, saying that it was too much grasshoppers to fly.Putting his index finger into the magpie's mouth, the magpie gurgled and vomited out live grasshoppers all over the ground, and then flew away from Sima Xiaoxiao's hand.The Sima family stared at the white-bellied magpie flying away from the field until it disappeared into the sky. Sima Lan went over and stomped the live grasshoppers vomited out by the magpie to the edge of the ground one by one. Said that the grasshopper swarm had passed, and it was time to go home for dinner.Sima smiled and glared at him, then turned his head and called to a piece of rapeseed in the distance, is it Yang Gen's child?You call into the next rapeseed field, saying that I said that every family cannot leave the rapeseed field to death of starvation.Lan Yanggen stood on a rock at the head of the field and called out to the next rapeseed field—the village chief said that every family could not leave the rapeseed field to death from starvation—and the call was passed down from field to field. In a blink of an eye, wherever there is rapeseed in beams, ditches, forests, and rivers, there are hot and sticky screams—the village chief said that he could not leave the rapeseed field even if he died of starvation—the village chief said that there are big stocks The swarm of grasshoppers is still behind──The village chief said that if the rapeseed of the family cannot be kept, the people of the other family will not be able to live past the age of forty──When the villagers summoned them like this, Sima Lan listened carefully under a locust tree. Once again, he ran wildly in his heart like a horse.At this moment, he realized that the power of the village chief was like the swarm of grasshoppers flying across the sky just now. He wondered why Lan Baisui said that our Lan family would also be the village chief one day.He Leng Ding'er felt a cold and gloomy fear of Lan Baisui from the bottom of his heart.He looked at his father's face looking up at the sky under his eyes, and the cold fear slowly dissipated from his heart again.However, he saw his father's face slowly turn from glowing black to pale, and just as he was wondering why, his father stood up from the ground.Father put the sack in his hand and stood at the easternmost edge of the rapeseed field, staring straight at the distance of the hillside without moving.Sima Hu walked over and pulled Sima Xiaoxiao's lapel, looked at the boundless sunlight and said, Dad, what did you see?Sima smiled and said with a pale face, lying on the ground to listen.The Sima family's Sen, Lin, Mu, Lan, Deer, and Tiger all put their ears on the ground, like a row of dogs lying on the field.They heard an earth-shattering sound coming from the ground, rumbling like hundreds of herds of horses running towards the mountain from outside the mountain.Sima Lan said, Dad, it seems that there is a river underground.Sima smiled and didn't look at this fourth child who would have a famous feat in history in the future. He told his wife to beat the gong so loudly that the sky was full.Immediately afterwards, Sen knocked on the basin, Lin knocked on the shovel, and Mu knocked on the hoe.The ear-piercing metallic sound began to tinkle, blue and white, from the fields of Sima's house, and the whole Palou Mountain would resound contagiously.The sound of yellow gongs, green hoes, hoarse and cracked red washbasins, and the sound of brittle and hard bluestones hitting bluestones made Sanxing Village shake the trees and shake the house, the sharp soil flew, and the pots and bowls were recorded. Jumping up and down is uneasy.

The men began to stand on the top of the field as if they were facing an enemy, and saw a black whirlwind blowing from the east end of the mountain ridge to the west end, and the sound like flying sand and rocks was really like what Sima Lan said, like there was a river underground—— Two batches of grasshoppers flew over, and they no longer flew over from a high altitude to block out the sun, but flew over like a tornado on the ground.All the villagers saw that the flying grasshoppers rolled over like the head of water rushing down the river beach. They were black and rumbling like countless wheels rolling forward. They were in front of Sima's house. On the lower left, I came across an old elm tree. The leaves of the old elm tree were flourishing and dense. In the early spring, the elm money on the tree was enough for the village to steam for three days. All the leaves were gone, all were eaten by grasshoppers, and a elm tree was bare without a trace of green, as if a night of severe winter had made all the leaves fall.The Sima family's eyes widened suddenly, looking at the old elm tree at a loss, the metal utensils froze in their hands.Leng Ding'er, except for the flood-like sound of grasshoppers, the Sima family was in a strange silence.The other villagers also suddenly fell silent, needless to say they all saw the scene of the grasshopper flying over the elm tree.Sima Lan suddenly wanted to pee.He clamped his legs and still peed on his pants, and the hot white smell rose from his ankles.He knew he was scared to pee by the swarm of grasshoppers.He took a step forward, held Sima Xiaoxiao's hand tremblingly, and called out "Dad", Sima Xiaoxiao woke up from the stupefied jingle, bent down and picked up a piece of rubbish, and hit his wife, shouting, "Knock it fast, you're stunned." No matter how stunned, the grasshoppers flooded the rapeseed field──the sound of the gong suddenly woke up from the dementia.The second sound was louder and harsher than the first sound, and in the sunlight, the sound was like red, orange, yellow and green arrows shooting in all directions.The sunlight was shaken by the beating of metal so that the water patterns trembled together, accompanied by women and children tearing their throats, as if a gust of wind was blowing against the grasshoppers—the Emperor of Heaven, Emperor of Earth, and rapeseed belong to heaven and earth King, grasshopper, you live around the rapeseed, and I will make you the king of the world in the coming year.The call of this ballad is hoarse and chaotic, moving against the metal sound like a violent stone flow.But the grasshoppers still flew towards the rapeseed.The golden and brilliant fragrance of rape blossoms is like a road that carries the grasshoppers over.The smallest grasshopper that arrived first was as thick as a human finger, flying in the air with white and shiny arms.Sima Lan saw a maize field in front of him, which was green at first, but after the grasshopper flew over, all the leaves disappeared, and he could clearly see the dry and cracked loess in the field exposed under the sky, and the cracks in the ground were like spider webs in the crop field.Sima smiled and started to pick up the big sack, and the big grasshopper landed on the edge of the rapeseed field like walnuts, persimmons, and red dates.Mother led her elder brothers Sen, Lin, and Mu, beating gongs, shovels, and rusty hoes to run around the edge of the rapeseed field like crazy, saying that the emperor, the emperor, grasshopper, you are the king of the world── The ballad also flew out of his mouth like a green belt, whipping the grasshopper that broke into the rapeseed field from under his father's sack.Sima Lan started to wave his newly sewn coarse cloth shirt. He stood one foot away from his father, and the deer and tiger were five feet away from him.Like a barrier, they blocked the three-and-a-half-acre rapeseed field, waving their arms, and the sacks of clothes kept spinning up and down.There was a strong smell of grasshopper's blood in the sound of the wind.The grasshoppers that had been whipped to death rained down on the feet.Sweat poured down my feet like rain.The sun had already moved from overhead to the west of the village, and the wings of the grasshoppers that fell in the sunlight swirled down like the husks and awns of wheat rising from the wheat field, and flew up immediately when they met the Sima's waving.Sima Lu and Sima Hu imitated their three elder brothers and howled. They were so focused on the game, no matter how thick or thin the grasshopper was, they swirled and whipped the grasshopper, and the sweat thumped from their foreheads onto the grass.The large piece of corn in front of me has completely lost its green color.Dead grasshoppers made a layer of beans drying under their feet.Those grasshoppers who were intimidated by the impact of metal knocking in the rapeseed field flew and landed towards the corn field.Push the rape tree to sway, like swaying in a strong wind.Mother began to knock and run in the rapeseed bed, knocking from one bed to another, shaking the grasshoppers above the rapeseed flowers so that they did not dare to land on the yellow flowers and green leaves.However, at this moment, a large swarm of grasshoppers came over the sky and covered the sky, and the white squeak sounded like water rolling from the ground, and then I felt black clouds moving all over the mountains and fields.Wherever the dark clouds went, the ground was clear of birds' eggs, and even the rolling-pin-like corn stalks left by the first batch of grasshoppers dropped from three feet high to two feet high.The cyan smell of grass blood permeated the whole world.The khaki sack waved by Sima Xiaoxiao was stained dark blue by the dead grasshoppers. The green blood of the grasshopper dripped down the sack, and the limbs and legs of the grasshopper stuck on the sack were as dense as a forest. densely arranged.Sima smiled like a lunatic, roaring something out of his mouth, white foam hung on his lips, and the loud insults made his face turn purple with excitement.The sunlight shattered into pieces under his whipping.Grasshoppers piled up under his feet.Stepping on the dead grasshopper, he seemed to be running on a piece of green broken grass.Sima Lu and Sima Hu had no strength, and when the grasshoppers were pressing towards them like a collapsing wall, the six-year-old Sima Lu called out to his mother, saying that I was tired, and squatted on the ground to rest.As soon as he squatted, the grasshoppers leaked into the rapeseed field like a flood that broke the embankment.Sima Sen raised a shovel head above his head and struck.He saw his sixth younger brother, who was taller than himself, squatting on the head of the field, so he dropped the shovel head, ran over, grabbed Sima Lu's shirt and waved it in the air—you go knock on the shovel, Sima Sen said, knocking on the shovel can The grasshopper's head shook off.Sima Lu said that I was hungry, my arms were sore and my stomach was growling.The big brother who is a dwarf doesn't say anything anymore.Sima Sen stood where Sima Lu had run past, while running, jumping, and whipping, he looked at Sima Lu squatting on the ground with his chin raised.He wanted to kick Sima Lu, but there were too many grasshoppers, and he couldn't spare the time to kick.The sunlight was stained green by the grasshopper's blood, the sky was dark purple and blue, and the broken legs and heads of the grasshoppers collided left and right in the air.The air is full of bloody grass and fishy smell.Sima Xiaoxiao ran and beat on the pile of dead bodies, and the fallen grasshoppers screamed and neighed, crying all over.Sima Lan was on his father's side, twirling in place, the waving shirt twisted into a ball in the air, and the grasshoppers that touched the shirt fell down one after another, and jumped onto his legs, feet and crotch again.Sima Hu, who was less than five years old, was still trying to imitate his father and brothers, yelling, but his cloth shirt was not as powerful as they were.Grasshoppers that flew over the barrier and ran to the rapeseed field from them waving like crazy, howling and wolfing down on the rapeseed, the rapeseed flowers fell like frost, and the remaining rapeseed stalks shook like thorns on the cliff in winter Non-stop, making a hoarse whine of desolation and coldness.The sound of metal beating in the rapeseed field remained undiminished after a long while. When the sound came, the grasshoppers had to fly up from the rapeseed tree and fly towards the corn field outside the rapeseed field.Another piece of maize field leaves were all gone, and the green in the field immediately turned to earthy brown. The pagoda tree forest on the hillside was green not long ago, but now there are only bare branches and tree trunks left.Grasshoppers can be seen falling on the branches of the locust tree like bunches of green grapes, weighing the locust tree like a bow and shaking in the air.The sun was already in the west, and the blood-red sunlight turned into a vivid grass-green, and the white clouds in the sky were also dyed with the blue-yellow color of grasshoppers, turning half green and half yellow in the sunlight, like thick sheepskin floating in the air.The ravines and gullies on the Palou Mountain are filled with the smell of blood grass.Headless and tailless swarms of grasshoppers are still flying westward endlessly.The men of Sanxing Village each guarded a rapeseed field. Flying bags and cloth shirts screamed in the air, metal sounds clanged, and the songs of driving away grasshoppers were chaotic and chaotic, like dam water bursting on all sides.The dead grasshoppers on the hillside were like fallen sand and stones, and the corpses of grasshoppers in the sand ditches were piled up into dams, blocking up the clear water that flowed all day long.The crow that flew back from nowhere screamed and circled in the air for a while, then flew away somewhere without landing.Sima smiled and saw his neighbor in his rapeseed field, taking off all his clothes and waving a broom naked. The thing between his legs was swinging back and forth like a hammer. It fell to the ground.When the group of grasshoppers behind saw the broom, they turned around and flew into the woods or other crop fields.Behind the neighbor, the rape blossoms are still bright yellow and still fragrant.He said Sen, hurry home and get a bamboo broom.But he saw Sima Sen sitting on the pile of grasshopper corpses like a ball of mud.Said Lan again, hurry home and get a bamboo broom.But he saw Sima Lanpao lying on the pile of dead bodies again, panting heavily, his face was pale, and beads of muddy yellow sweat hung on his forehead like dead grasshoppers.He turned around and wanted to call Lin or Mu again, but he saw his six children limp like six lambs in the rapeseed field, only he and his wife were still running, beating and waving.The swarms of grasshoppers are still not thin, they are still dense like balls, rolling towards the rapeseed field in black.He threw away the green and bloody sack, went to the rapeseed field and plucked the two largest rapeseed trees, and immediately went back to the field to smoke the grasshoppers.The fragrance of the rapeseed flying in the air fell down one after another under his swing, and the flying grasshoppers swarmed the rapeseed head-on when they smelled the fragrance.There was the sound of green leather whips swishing in the sky, and the grasshoppers were bloodied in the sound of the whips, and died in groups under the whips of the rape trees.Sima Lan watched her father's flying rapeseed, and ran into the rapeseed field, pulled out one and smoked it.The seven men of Sima's family stood up again, stretching apart in a row, waving a row of rapeseed, the sound of the gong behind them was accompanied by the scream of the woman foaming at the mouth, dancing in the rapeseed field like a song and dance, dead ants Grasshoppers spread layer after layer under the rape tree like autumn leaves.Under the feet of the seven men in the rapeseed field, there was a soft beach of corpses, and the flying feet kicked up the grasshoppers like a piece of mung bean shells—the sun had finally set.Jiji waah yelled a few times before disappearing from the other side of the village, and the scent of grass and blood left behind was rotten and white in the heat, and it began to flow quickly towards the outside of Palou Mountain.The mournful yellow-green chirping of grasshoppers all over the world ceased from strong to weak.

Finally, the Sima family of eight sat on the top of the field. The villagers of the three surnames are all sitting on the heads of the fields of rapeseed flowers. A day of fierce battle between humans and insects has passed.