"Master Yuhou, can we still defend this city?"
Jia Ping stood on the top of the city and was silent for a while after listening to the casualties reported by his men. At this time, a wounded soldier on the side suddenly asked in a low voice.
To be honest, since the establishment of the Guards, they have never fought a tough battle. In almost every battle, they rely on their equipment advantages to crush the enemy.
Nowadays, although they have the advantage of equipment, they have never encountered a situation where the number of enemies is too large and they can be killed by all the energy.
So it was inevitable that all the soldiers felt a little uneasy.
The morale of the entire team has dropped a lot.
Jia Ping knew something was wrong the moment the soldier opened his mouth. Sure enough, as soon as the soldier finished speaking, the soldiers around him who had been making noise just now because they were doing various things stopped. The surroundings suddenly became extremely quiet.
Everyone looked at him with expectant but somewhat... complicated eyes that they didn't quite believe.
Jia Ping took a deep breath. He knew that now was the critical moment. If things went wrong, they might not have to wait for the enemy's next wave of offensive, and their military morale would collapse.
After all, I still have too little experience!
Jia Ping sighed, he was an old guard, not the first batch of recruits, but the batch of two thousand people brought by King Yun from the capital.
These two thousand people had all been to the northwest battlefield and fought with the barbaric Huns with real swords and guns. They had encountered many situations, and it was not like they had never encountered more brutal battles than this.
So he didn't feel any disappointment or despair after losing the battle. Such a battle was no big deal to him.
But for the new recruits of the Guards.
Yes, they are recruits. In Jia Ping's view, these people are still just recruits.
Although they had gone through the Battle of Desheng Lake and the first two battles when they invaded Nanli County, they had always fought with favorable winds.
I have never encountered any difficulties, and I have never really crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. I am not a bloody veteran.
Facing their first defeat, they were all confused. They were confused about the outcome of the battle, and also confused about their own way forward.
At this moment, they urgently need someone to affirm them and show them a clear way forward.
Facing the gazes of all the soldiers, Jia Ping did not say anything awe-inspiring, but walked slowly to the wounded soldier who had just asked him a question.
This wounded soldier must have been hit by a falling stone thrown by a catapult in the previous battle. His entire right hand was broken. He was sitting on the ground at the moment while the military doctor was resetting his hand and splinting it.
Jia Ping came to him and squatted down to meet his uneasy expression. Looking at him, he suddenly showed a kind smile and asked, "When did you join the army?"
The wounded soldier was stunned for a moment, and then immediately replied: "Returning to Mr. Yuhou, the younger one joined the army in the autumn of the 22nd year of Tiansheng."
Jia Ping nodded and said with some emotion: "Based on this, you have been in the army for more than half a year."
The wounded soldier nodded: "From mid-October of the 22nd year of Tiansheng to mid-July of the 23rd year of Tiansheng, it has been nine months since I joined the army."
"Nine months...nine months..."
Jia Ping murmured and repeated the time, and finally asked with the confused expression of the wounded soldier: "How is your family? Has there been any change compared to before joining the army?"
Mentioning this, the face of the wounded soldier who looked decadent just now instantly changed to a happy expression, and he replied with a smile: "Very good! To be honest with Mr. Yuhou, I am the first person to come to Yunzhou County from Guan Nei." Born into a group of refugees.
Last year, there was a severe drought in northern Liaoning, and the harvest of ten acres of land in my family's land was completely cut off. In order to survive, my family had no choice but to sell the land to Landlord Liu in the village for 2 taels of silver per acre.
I originally thought that I could get through that year with these twenty taels, and when spring came, I would go to the city to find a job as a clerk first, because no one could suffocate to death.
but……"
Speaking of this, the wounded soldier's expression suddenly became depressed, as if he recalled something bad.
Most of the other soldiers around him had joined the army at that time and had similar backgrounds, so they probably guessed what he was going to say, and their expressions also dropped.
Jia Ping noticed something was wrong in the atmosphere, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he looked at the wounded soldier and signaled him to continue talking.
The wounded soldier took a deep breath and slowly narrated with a trembling voice that was suddenly hoarse: "First, the price of food increased. The original price of ten cents per catty of food increased crazily. In just two days, it went from the initial ten cents to ten cents. Times, one penny per catty.
Fortunately, the twenty generals who sold my land could still buy twenty bushels of grain, which was barely enough for our family to survive the winter.
But what people didn't expect was that the grain stores in the city suddenly stopped selling grain. All the stores had sold out signs. However, even in the morning, people still saw large trucks pulling more than a dozen carts of grain.
But they just don’t sell it!
Even if we pay two cents per pound, they won’t sell it!
In the end, with the intervention of the government, only one hundred kilograms were sold for sale.
Mr. Yuhou, do you know how many people there are in a county?
A whole hundred thousand upwards!
What can one hundred kilograms of grain be enough for?
I didn't even get a pound, so the grain store closed the door immediately.
But the funny thing is that their food price signs are still exposed.
Then something terrible happened! "
Speaking of this, the wounded soldier's face showed an expression of panic but gritted his teeth and wanted to eat people alive.
He said with hatred: "Those abominable group of profiteers, it's only been one day! It's only been one day!
They increased the price of food tenfold! One tael of silver and one pound of grain!
They were not satisfied with this and only took out a small amount of grain for sale. At this time, everyone was already panicking. Even if the grain was at this price, everyone was afraid that they would not be able to buy it in the future, so they quickly bought up all the grain that was put out for sale. .
I also grabbed ten pounds.
But then on the second and third day...
Two ounces make a pound, three ounces make a pound, four ounces make a pound, five ounces make a pound!
In the end, my family sold the land they relied on for a living, and the twenty taels of silver we got in exchange could only afford two kilograms of grain.
This still depends on robbing.
At this time, everyone has understood that the appetite of these profiteers will not be satisfied. If you don't grab it now, it will be more expensive in the future.
Everyone spent their money and fought tooth and nail for those few kilograms of grain. If it wasn't a few kilograms of grain, it would be their lives!
There are four people in my family. What can a mere 12 kilograms of grain be enough for?
Even if we live frugally, within half a month, our family has already reached the point where we have no rice to cook with. At this time, all the things at home that can be sold have been sold out, and at this time, the price of food has already risen... It’s twelve pounds per pound!
Where is the food? This is gold!
We couldn't afford to eat at all, so my parents secretly threw themselves into a well at night in order not to burden us.
My wife also wanted to leave, but I rescued her.
In order to survive, our husband and wife became refugees. As we walked all the way, we watched more and more people walking together around us, and then fewer and fewer.
There are many people joining, but there are also many people "leaving" every day. Along the way, everyone eats whatever they see. In order to survive, they can eat bark, grass roots and everything. Humans are really inferior to animals!
Some people eat rubbish and die, and some people become food for others..."
The wounded soldier's eyes began to shed tears. The man who killed three poisonous soldiers in a row while wounded in the battle just now couldn't help but shed tears.
Finally, we were driven by the government offices from all over the country. When we arrived at Liaoyun Pass, the closed door was opened and we were driven out. Before leaving, someone told us that if we wanted to survive, we should keep walking north. Where is the imperial city? Where can I survive?
Then we went all the way north to Yunzhou City. Fortunately, there was no shortage of grass outside the pass, and there was no shortage of ground dragons and other insects. We, as a couple, finally arrived at Yunzhou City..."
(End of chapter)
