The sound of bells and trumpets has been ringing in Guzhou for a long time, and now it is still ringing continuously around the main tent. For fear of spies sneaking in, worried about the enemy at night, and even more afraid of a fire outside the company tent, every night The soldiers on duty had no chance of resting, and they had to mobilize their energy at all times to guard every corner of Guzhou. They built high platforms to watch the enemy's movements, so as not to be taken advantage of.
With the current number of soldiers and horses in the Zhengzhang Royal Court, it is said that it is extremely difficult to surround the entire Guzhou and prevent the Xumeng Mansion's cavalry from approaching. It is not easy to defend a state, and the thieves are very powerful. A deadly battle would result in both sides losing. Fortunately, the rebels lost their troops outside Tianxi City and retreated in embarrassment, giving Guzhou a chance to breathe. Although there was not much food left, they could still manage to survive.
The succession of life extensions caused the soldiers and horses belonging to the Zhengzhang Royal Court in Guzhou to catch a glimpse of a few sparks in the dark night. Perhaps at first they were like fireflies a hundred steps away, but as time went by, From the initial series of losses in large and small battles, to the occasional three or two battles where we had a slight advantage, not to mention the successful defense of Tianxi City with tens of thousands of soldiers armed with strong bows and rushing carts but returning in vain. The Xumeng Mansion had been at war for more than a year, but the soldiers in the royal court were more energetic than before. A mere Tianxi city had only a few thousand guards. Even though reinforcements were added later and several times more soldiers and horses took turns to attack the city for more than a month, they were still blocked outside the city. Liuzhou and Bailouzhou were still not attacked by iron hoofs in the border towns. The news spread When they arrived in Guzhou, although the soldiers were suffering from hunger, their morale was much stronger than before.
When love is exhausted, things will change.
Hehan in the royal court had not used rice for several days. Even though the attendants persuaded him, he still excused himself by saying that he was too full to eat and gave away his own meals. When he went to the wounded soldier camp or the ranger camp, he sat firmly in the royal court, sketched the landscape of Guzhou, moved the original grain road position again and again, called Cen Shixiang to discuss it together, and did not rest for several days.
If we say that we are diligent in the war, it is not necessarily true. The lack of food and grass has nowhere to raise it. Now it has become a pressing concern in Guzhou. Not only the army has run out of food and grass, but also the people of Guzhou have no food left in their homes. Although it has not yet reached the tragic situation of starving to death in the fields, However, there are already elderly people who are short of money and food and cannot bear to go without rice for three days and two days. There are not a few old and young people who have died of illness due to hunger. A few days ago, the royal court sent personnel to go to the aunt. Inspections throughout the prefecture revealed that more than a hundred households, old and young, had died of starvation, sickness, and disease. The army was funneling the remaining grain and rice into the camps for wounded soldiers, making it even more difficult to survive. They even had to rely on the old year. The soft skin of weeds and elm trees fills the stomach, and even if it is difficult to swallow, it can still make the stomach feel more stable.
Hehan once sent letters to Liuzhou one after another, trusting and sending letters to skilled people to discuss the establishment of a new grain road. Recently, it can be said that he has been thinking very hard. He sent dozens of horses to deliver letters, and he also searched for tame birds in Guzhou. Famous experts and masters sent letters to pass letters, but even the knights who quietly sneaked out of Guzhou City to deliver the letter have returned several rides, but they still have not received a reply from the Liuzhou clan elders. After waiting in vain for several days, even the elders of the clan who were stationed in Liuzhou were not seen. After waiting in vain for several days, they finally returned in anger.
It was not until nearly ten days after the siege of Tianxi City that a thin and thin knight returned from Liuzhou. He brought a letter from the clan elder's house and handed it to the royal court. After reading the letter, Hehan's expression became gloomy for a moment. , ordered Cen Shixiang to enter the main account.
The sky view in the Great Yuan Dynasty has been good recently, but after Cen Shixiang stepped into the main tent, he noticed that He Han's face was very different. He didn't want to get into trouble, so he bowed and saluted, then sat down by himself and looked at the old table and desk alone. The pictures of mountains and rivers are clearly unwilling to seek boredom. The war in the Yuan Dynasty dragged on for a long time, causing serious damage to the soldiers and the people, as well as to the young Hehan who was about to succeed to the throne. Not to mention the current shortage of food and grass. The young Hehan gave up most of the food on his own initiative. Eating rice was a sign of excessive mental exertion, and then he couldn't get enough to eat. He was so anxious that his face turned pale, but he didn't speak. Cen Shixiang knew that it was not easy, so he didn't speak first, but waited for the person in front of him to speak first.
"The grain road has already found the most suitable boundary, there is no need to look further," the cold-skinned Hehan put his hand between his eyebrows to stop his frown. He had been suffering from frequent and unbearable headaches since the end of the last year. , up to this time, it still has not gotten better, but has become worse. I can barely bear it without getting angry. If the war is tense or I am in a critical situation, and I have to think hard, the pain will come all the time, and the dull pain of beating the drum will become more powerful. By now, it is often disturbing my rest and sleep, and it is difficult to rest at this time.
After a while, the letter disturbed my peace, and I had a splitting headache, so I was not very angry when I spoke, "Instead of thinking about where to open the grain road, you might as well read this letter, which is very clever at prevaricating. It's still cold now. Reading the letter makes you feel so warm that your skin turns red."
After receiving the letter, Cen Shixiang only read half of it and knew that the elders of the Liuzhou clan had made a decision. The person who wrote the letter was also smart. First, he explained in detail and in detail that the war in the Yuan Dynasty had been going on for many years, and the military was aggressive. There was not enough food, grass and manpower. The weak state is still unable to defend the border city. The battle at Tianxi City almost exhausted all the remaining troops. Although it is not a miracle, it still exhausted all the remaining troops. It is difficult to continue. It will take a long time to train before sending troops. I hope Hehan can forgive me. Not only that, the letter also pointed out that Gu Gu and Wu Lu secretly used the clan's old man's authority to send troops without permission, which was against the rules. Recently, they were not allowed to interfere with the affairs of the Liuzhou clan's old man's house. Although they sent troops to guard the Tianxi city, their merits and demerits On the contrary, they will definitely not act like this in the future, so after discussion in the government, the two people's orders were taken away and will be restored next year.
The cleverness of this letter is that it points out that Tomorrow Xicheng's defense has contributed a lot, but it has never been attributed to Gu Gu and Wu Lu. In the end, the credit goes to the Liuzhou clan old man. In this way, even if He Han has an order, it will hinder the defense. Tianxicheng's achievements could not force Liuzhou to send troops, let alone the opening of a new grain road. Secondly, these two clan elders were under the jurisdiction of the Liuzhou clan elders, and the royal court was only responsible for their management. As for the matter of confiscating the authority, the predecessor He Han had never interfered in the matter, and they divided their affairs between domestic matters and foreign affairs.
But in such a situation, there are no soldiers and horses from Liuzhou available. With the soldiers and horses from Guzhou taking care of guarding the main tent outside the royal court, it is almost impossible to open a new food road. If there are no heavy soldiers from Liuzhou to guard it, this food DaofeiBut it cannot be developed steadily. Even after it is developed, it will still suffer repeated losses. Not to mention the loss of troops, most of the food and grass will be plundered by the Xumeng Mansion cavalry. At that time, the number of soldiers was very small, and there was no food in one state. I was afraid that the Xumeng Mansion's cavalry would be trapped and killed in Guzhou.
"Dare to ask Hehan, how long can Guzhou's food and grass last?"
Cen Shixiang also frowned, but after asking, two clan elders came to report important military information. Hehan only spoke briefly and could last for more than half a year, so he listened to the general's situation first and read the pictures one by one in front of him. After marking, he chatted with the two clan elders for a few words, and sent his guards to allocate food for the two clan elders and their families, so as to avoid being hungry after working hard all day long in the war. After working hard for nearly half an hour, he sat down again and spat out a long sentence. Depressed.
"For more than half a year, I have said this to several other clan elders, but to my ears, it is too false."
"At the beginning of the war, my family retreated to Bailou Prefecture. I heard that Bailou Prefecture's granary was opened and the grain stored in it was widely used to feed the refugees. Fortunately, the grain stored in the three prefectures was rich, so among the three prefectures, there was still enough grain to celebrate the New Year. After the pass, the situation was still tight, and the ordinary people's rations were reduced to 60%. Although it was also difficult in Liuzhou, there was still food and grass transported to Tianxi City. The people in Guzhou had been hungry for several months. He Han said that there was still food left for half a year. It seems to be a cover-up, and I’m afraid it would be quite easy for a few clan elders to figure out the flaw.”
"In March, we still have three months of food left, but we have to reduce the daily distribution of food and rice by nearly half to survive the third month." Hehan put his hand on his eyebrows, the candlelight flickered for a moment, and he couldn't tell his expressions across the table. , seemed to be quite annoyed that Cen Shixiang had seen through the lie, and his face suddenly lost its temper.
"The army has run out of food and has nowhere to collect food. There is no food left in Guzhou."
Cen Shixiang spoke word by word and sighed deeply. Others may be able to hide it, but for Cen Shixiang, who also devotes all his energy to the war, he often rides horses to visit soldiers' camps and ordinary people's homes. Compared with Hehan, who is mostly focused on the war situation, he only visits more often. Many people know that the food and grass in Guzhou are almost dry, but they have never figured out a way to solve the problem, so they have not mentioned it until today.
After Hehan bowed his head and acquiesced to these words, Cen Shixiang's solution to the problem became very clear. A few days ago, soldiers and horses came from the east. They circled various passes one after another, and finally arrived on the east side of Guzhou. Thousands of soldiers broke through the most sparse military formation in Xumeng Mansion, but they still did not come to the royal court to report the news. The origin of this group of soldiers and horses is unclear, but the two leaders came to the royal court of Zhengzhang alone to meet with Cen Shixiang without ever meeting He Han. They explained the basic purpose of their visit, with the intention of making all the thousands of soldiers and horses return to the king of Zhengzhang. The court will use it, and after the main court wins this difficult battle, it will need to accept the important task and want to ask for it.
Want to be on an equal footing with the clan elders.
The plan given by Cen Shixiang was to unite these tens of thousands of soldiers and horses with the soldiers and horses that He Zhizhou had previously led, and follow the soldiers and horses of Zhengzhang Wangting to open up a road for transporting grain from the south of Liuzhou to the north of Guzhou. Since the elders of the Zhou clan are unwilling to send troops, there are still Wen Yu's tribesmen in Tianxi City. There is no need to fight. They only need to take over the troops from various tribes coming from Guzhou. The troops of the three parties, totaling tens of thousands, can firmly guard the grain road. . At the same time, money from all over the three prefectures was gathered and returned to Bailou Prefecture. People were sent to go around to several places to buy grain, rice, firewood and grass. Skilled craftsmen were brought from Bailou Prefecture to forge knives and armor, and grain, grass and baggage were transported to Guzhou through this grain road. , it can relieve Guzhou’s temporary troubles.
In the end, wars and battles all come down to money and food, as everyone has known since ancient times. If there is no clever plan, the two will have to waste a long time until one side is exhausted and in decline before they can win miserably. Cen Shixiang, who has dealt with wolves and falcons since he was young, knows this very well, but he has to So strong.
The wolf howls at the moon, and the snow begins to stop.
Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses marched along the devastated border road, heading straight north.
(End of this chapter)
