Metasequoia City's current situation is somewhat embarrassing. No one from the outside can get in, and no one from the inside can get out.
Since Duolun's Turkic horse bandit coalition withdrew, many small groups of Iron Pigeon Army and Ghost Alliance troops have been lurking in various directions outside the city, wandering around Metasequoia City all day long. As long as someone leaves the city, they will carry out raids and harassment, causing heavy casualties to many caravans.
After several serious robberies, no businessmen dared to travel to Metasequoia City.
In a sense, Metasequoia was invisible blocked by them.
In response to this situation, Lin Feng and Du Jian both led their own teams to go out of the city to eliminate these small groups of enemies, but with little success.
Although their performance in the attack on Metasequoia City was not very good, when it comes to guerrilla tactics, the Iron Pigeon Army and the Ghost Alliance Horse Bandits are both masters. Their style of coming and going like the wind and their strategic means of striking far and wide gave the Pegasus Scout Battalion, which was also good at patrolling, a headache.
Although Metasequoia is an important town on the Western Xinjiang trade route and has always been rich in materials, it has a large population after all, so it is impossible to sit back and have nothing all the time. At this time in the past, heavy snow would only block roads for a few months. After that, a large number of caravans would begin to trade, so that all materials in the city would always remain abundant.
However, the situation today is very different. For almost three or four months, starting from the first time that Geerhan's horse bandits came to attack the city, Metasequoia City basically did not carry out normal business travel and trade.
This is an extremely dangerous signal for a large-scale city.
Li Jiangyao had always thought that according to the statistics of the city guard, the food in the city was enough to feed the people for more than a year. However, what he failed to realize was that the food on the books was not equal to the actual food. The rice, white flour, cereals and beans were not actually in his hands, nor did they belong to every city resident.
Except for a small amount of official grain and military grain stored in government warehouses, most of the grain reserves are on the market and in the hands of merchants.
With the current tense situation, Xijiang Guimo and Metasequoia City are also in a state of turmoil and extreme panic, and grain merchants are often reluctant to sell their products easily.
This is not entirely for the purpose of hoarding and making huge profits. The most important reason is that no one can say to what extent the situation will deteriorate in the future and how long it will last. Therefore, no one dares to throw away things that may save their lives in the future in exchange for money.
There is less and less food available for trading on the market, and the price of food has naturally soared.
In recent days, Ma Mu couldn't help but worry about this matter. On one side, ordinary people were filled with resentment because they could not buy food. On the other side, businessmen were worried about mobs suddenly snatching food and kept asking the government to send troops for protection.
The conflict between the two sides is intensifying day by day, making the whole city nervous.
He really had no choice but to come to Li Jiangyao for advice.
At this time, Li Jiangyao was asking Situ Wushou about the customs and customs of Western Xinjiang, and also inquired about the news about Tieshi Mountain. When Ma Mu finished pouring out the bitter water, he turned to Situ Wushou and said, "Weren't you from the government department before? Don’t have any good ideas?”
Situ Wushou smiled bitterly: "I'm just trying to catch the ducks on the shelves, so I won't count them. However, Master Mamu, can we use the government's treasury to purchase some grain from merchants, and then sell it to the people at a fair price?"
Ma Mu sighed: "Oh, this is not a matter of who pays for it. Those grain merchants simply refuse to sell it. To tell you the truth, I almost wanted to lead troops and force them to open warehouses to stockpile grain!"
Situ Wushou said quickly: "Master Mamu, this is absolutely impossible! Whether you want to sell things or not is the freedom of the merchants. They have not done anything wrong or violated any laws. If we force them Forced buying and selling is not only unfair to the businessmen, but will also damage the good reputation of Shengtang's official and municipal institutions. No one will want to deal with us in the future."
Ma Mu said depressedly: "What should we do? We can't just watch the people in the city go hungry, right?"
"Lord Captain, the battlefield has its own rules, and the shopping mall has its own rules." Situ Wushou turned to Li Jiangyao and said, "I believe that the current crisis is caused by the inability of goods to circulate smoothly. Metasequoia City and the outside world cannot move goods normally. , will cause panic among merchants, and they will naturally not dare to ship goods easily, so they will wait and see what happens. But if we can transport some food from outside to make the market a little more comfortable, then merchants will gradually become more comfortable because of the goods. If you are too worried about the price falling, you will rush to sell your goods. In this way, the price will fall further and stabilize.”
Of course, Li Jiangyao understood the principles of market economy. He nodded slightly when he heard this, and Ma Mu nodded again and again: "This is indeed a good idea. As long as you allocate some soldiers and horses for us, organize a food transport convoy, and then use the treasury money to go to other places." Purchasing some grain from other places can at least solve a lot of troubles. But the current question is, where should we buy grain? According to the Zaire account, everything in Western Xinjiang is in chaos, and no one is better than the other. Where to go."
Situ Wushou muttered: "The only option is to go east and find a way. If it doesn't work, go to Liangzhou Mansion."
For some reason, when he heard him mention the word Liangzhou, Li Jiangyao suddenly felt inexplicably upset. He felt restless and uncomfortable all over.
He held his breath and concentrated, gradually suppressing the uncomfortable feeling, but the image of his teacher He Jingming could not help but appear in his mind.
Alas, Shen Lie has been away for more than ten days, and I don't know if Commander He has received any reminder from him.
"I'm afraid this won't work." Ma Mu interrupted Li Jiangyao's thoughts: "It's a long way to go to Liangzhou, and it's difficult to get back and forth in less than a month. Secondly, if the Turks want to disrupt Western Xinjiang, they will definitely focus on it. If we block the road to the east, we will be more likely to be attacked."
What he said was reasonable, and Situ Wushou couldn't help but be speechless for a moment.
At this moment, the guard suddenly came in and announced: Old Samour was outside asking for a meeting.
Li Jiangyao was surprised and hurriedly asked him to come in.
After a while, Samor walked quickly into the inner hall, followed by Kuliban, the young prince of the Shenhua family.
"My lords," Samour, with a bandage on his arm, saluted the three people in the room with great effort: "My little prince, I have something to say to the adults."
Kuliban took two steps forward, saluted Li Jiangyao, and said, "Sir, food is tight in the city now, and we hope we can do our best."
Li Jiangyao and the other three looked at each other in shock when they heard this, and thought to themselves at the same time: How could it be such a coincidence?
Mamu stood up quickly and asked Kuliban and Samour to sit down and talk in detail. It turns out that as the heir to the Shenhua family, Kuliban holds the contact information of the various branches of the family in Western Xinjiang. Although there is no black jade holy stone, it is not possible to command them legitimately, but in the name of the little prince of the family, it is not a problem to borrow some food from the tribes.
Many branches of the Shenhua family are far away from towns and form their own system in the countryside. In the short term, it should not have entered the sight of the Turks and rebels, so there is an opportunity to supply the current needs of metasequoia.
Samor added on the sidelines that the previous generation of princes of the Shenhua family also set up a large secret warehouse in the Yarumqi Mountains to store grain and supplies for the family's unexpected needs. Although there has been no one taking care of it for a long time, a lot of the food may still be edible because the secret warehouse is dry and cool.
The Yarumqi Mountains are within the Chechi Kingdom, not too far from Metasequoia City. As long as there are enough vehicles and guards, the transfer can be carried out.
Li Jiangyao and the other three were greatly excited after hearing this, and they all felt that this was feasible.
They quickly discussed the details of the food transportation operation with Kuliban and Samour. In the end, everyone determined that Mamu was responsible for organizing civilian workers and vehicles, and Du Jian led a food protection team of 500 people to accompany Samour to the Yarumqi Mountains.
Kuliban personally went to the Shenhua tribe near Metasequoia City to borrow food. In addition to his own personal guards, Li Jiangyao sent fifty Pegasus scouts to accompany him.
While waiting for the life-saving grain to be shipped back, the city guard first took out part of the grain stored in the warehouse and sold it at a fair price to temporarily alleviate the conflict and stabilize people's hearts.
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"kill!"
With a roar, Li Jiangyao jumped out and instantly cut down the Turkic cavalry running at the front with his Xingluo Knife.
Immediately afterwards, hundreds of metasequoia defenders rushed up from their ambush and surrounded more than eighty Iron Pigeon Legions.
For a moment, the two sides exchanged swords and guns. Li Jiangyao's Xingluo Dao was like an angry dragon shining with silver light. It was extremely agile and ferocious, flying and flashing among the enemies, bringing with it a shower of blood.
In just a short moment, this small group of Turkic cavalry was completely wiped out.
Ever since Du Jian's food convoy set off, Li Jiangyao personally led his troops out of the city to suppress the bandits. Today is already the ninth day. Counting the battle just now, there were a total of five battles and five victories, killing nearly 600 people from the Iron Pigeon Army and the Ghost Alliance Horse Bandits.
Li Jiangyao's actions were mainly to clear the way for Du Jian and the others, and there was absolutely no room for any mistakes in the life-saving food.
By the time his soldiers finished cleaning the battlefield, it was completely dark. The leading officer asked Li Jiangyao for instructions on where to camp at night.
Li Jiangyao spread out the map, brought the torch closer and looked carefully. After a while, he pointed to a place on the map: "I think it will be here tonight."
After saying that, he was waiting for the officer to respond to the order, but suddenly realized that the guy did not respond as simply as usual. Instead, he stared into the distance in a daze, as if he had not heard what he had just said.
Li Jiangyao followed his gaze and was immediately startled.
On the horizon in the distance, a large piece of torch light appeared in Muran. It was winding and seemed to be three or four miles long, and it was moving slowly towards them.
At this time, a guard asked softly: "Is that the enemy?"
Li Jiangyao shook his head gently when he heard this.
Although there are many torches, if you pay close attention, you can easily find that the team is scattered and moving very slowly, and it definitely does not look like an army.
Could it be Du Jian's grain transport team?
Li Jiangyao was full of doubts: But that's right. Judging from the size of the torches, there were thousands of people there, far exceeding the strength of the grain transport team.
He couldn't help but become vigilant, and quickly ordered his men to hide temporarily, and at the same time sent several scouts to investigate.
After a while, the scouts hurried back, followed by Du Jian, who was ordered to transport food.
As soon as Du Jian saw Li Jiangyao, he said happily: "Boss, are you here to pick us up?"
"Lao Du?" Li Jiangyao was curious: "What's going on? Where is the food?"
"The food is at the back!" Du Jian replied excitedly: "There are a hundred carts, and they haven't been pulled yet. My God, the Shenhua family is so rich!"
After hearing this, Li Jiangyao's heart finally fell to the ground: "That's good. What's going on with so many people?"
Du Jian explained: "Those were all met on the road. Several small countries nearby were wiped out by the Loulan people, and a large number of refugees were running around to escape the disaster. They heard that Metasequoia City was safe, so they all followed us back. .”
"how many people?"
Du Jian scratched his head: "I haven't counted it carefully, it must be at least ten thousand."
Li Jiangyao's heart sank. This was the first time he had seen such a large group of refugees with his own eyes. What's more important is that this is just a small country in the surrounding area. Counting the entire Western Xinjiang, I don't know what it will be exaggerated into.
He glared at Du Jian: "You are so brave. If you are intercepted halfway by the Turks or the Loulan rebels, you will be completely stupid."
Du Jian responded carelessly: "No, boss. The Turkic ghosts and Loulan people are no longer in this area. I heard from the refugees that they have all gone north."
