With the arrival of food from the secret warehouse in the Yarumqi Mountains and the Shenhua tribe near Metasequoia, the food crisis in Metasequoia City has finally been alleviated to a certain extent.
Although the subsequent batches of grain and grass were occasionally harassed by Turks and horse bandits during the transportation process, Du Jian's grain convoy team was well-guarded and its members were mostly experienced caravan guards. Therefore, the enemy's small group with insufficient strength was Troops are often powerless and unable to cause much damage.
At the same time, Li Jiangyao frequently led teams out of the city for clearing operations, using the precise maps of the Pegasus Scout Battalion to use cavalry against cavalry and guerrillas against guerrillas, causing the Iron Pigeon Army and the Ghost Alliance Horse Bandits to suffer miserably.
However, Li Jiangyao was still worried about food at this time.
There is indeed a large amount of grain and grass stored in the secret warehouse of the Shenhua family, but after all, it is too old, and even if there is a cool and dry environment, most of it has become moldy and spoiled, making it inedible.
As for Kuliban, he could only go to the branch tribes of his family to borrow food in person. He could only do this once or twice at most, and he could not keep asking for food endlessly.
As Situ Wushou said, when food from outside began to pour into the metasequoia market, it did bring a big impact to the merchants who were reluctant to sell their goods. However, the bosses who are well versed in business are not in a hurry to take action. They are still observing and calculating silently to see how many chips the Protectorate has.
If businessmen continue to wait and see, the crisis will return to its original point, or even become worse.
Li Jiangyao called Ma Mu and Situ Wushou over, and the three of them closed the door, secretly plotted inside, and decided to stage an empty city plan.
The next day, Li Jiangyao sent an order to Du Jian: All grain trucks returning to the city must put sandbags on the lower floor of the carriage, and then stack grain bags on top. After the team entered the city, the door of the treasury was opened directly, allowing people outside to see that the bags of sand and soil disguised as food were piled as high as a hill. The bags of real food were opened for inspection on the spot and sold at low prices to solve the urgent needs of some people who were about to go hungry.
In this way, people who are waiting for the rice to be cooked will no longer panic, and those who still have some surplus food naturally don't have to worry as before.
At the same time, Li Jiangyao also used Shen Lie's tricks and spent money to hire a large number of idlers who had nothing to do with the city guard. He spread the word in private that the government was preparing to recruit a large number of civilians and vehicles, and the reward was estimated to be Twice higher than usual.
Because there is so much food stored in the secret warehouse in Mount Yarumqi, it would take several years to transport it all and it would be too much to eat. Lieutenant Li was thinking about whether to give it to the people for free.
The outrageous news immediately spread to teahouses and restaurants all over the city, and it became more and more mysterious.
Some people swore that they had actually gone to the secret warehouse with the grain transport team and saw with their own eyes that the entire mountain had been hollowed out and filled to the brim with rice and wheat.
At this time, the businessmen who originally thought that the goods were rare finally became a little unable to sit still.
They first tentatively released some grain and sold it on the market, but soon found that no one was interested in their goods.
The common people all gathered in front of the city guard's mansion. They would rather wait in a long queue to buy government preferential grains that were much cheaper than before.
Is this a big deal? !
Anyone who does business knows that inventory is often a double-edged sword.
When the market is in short supply, you can rest easy knowing that you have the goods in hand; but if the reverse is true, and there is too much stock, you will lose all your money at every turn.
More than a dozen large merchants who occupied the city's grain inventory quickly elected representatives and came to Ma Mu and Situ Wushou to discuss the restoration of normal market transactions.
Facing the anxious business representatives, Ma and Mu couldn't help feeling secretly happy, but they said that they didn't dare to make the decision without authorization, and had to ask the captain to make a decision if something happened.
Not long after, Ma Mu and Situ Wushou, who went to ask Li Jiangyao for instructions, turned back with sad faces.
The merchants looked trembling with fear, and saw Ma Mu spread his hands: "Let me tell you, I originally advised everyone to open their doors normally for business and sell food, but you were absolutely unwilling to do so. It's okay now, Mr. Colonel. I got really angry and told you to fend for yourself."
The business representatives looked at each other in confusion upon hearing this, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Situ Wushou calmly smoothed things over and said: "Everyone, please listen to what I'm going to say next. This wartime is different from usual times. We have to put the overall situation first in everything. Your shops were stocked up a while ago and were not sold. , caused quite a panic to Metasequoia City, and really made my family very angry. Of course, in line with the principle of fairness and voluntariness, our city guard has never blamed you. Fortunately, Master Mamu and you are all good friends, no I wish to see you suffer unnecessary losses, so I tried my best to mediate with the captain and came up with a good way to get the best of both worlds for everyone."
The merchants all looked surprised when they heard that there was still a way. The good way that Situ Wushou said was very simple: let the City Guards come forward to purchase the grains from various merchants in large quantities at low prices.
Low price? So how low is the price?
Situ Wushou showed a kind and cute smile: Mr. Xiaowei is very kind and decided to pay at a 50% discount based on the market price before the Turks sieged the city.
"Half price?!" the representatives wailed.
Ma Mu shrugged and snorted disdainfully: "What else? Mr. Xiaowei now has the full support of the Shenhua family. The food in the mountains is free of charge. You can pull as much as you like to the metasequoia. In order to please the people in the city, fight for yourself. With such a good reputation, he wishes he could give out free grain in the city every day. If that is the case, the inventory in your hands will have to rot in the warehouse. "
Hearing what he said, all the business representatives suddenly lost their temper. When everyone thought about it, this was indeed the case. Now that thieves are raging outside the city and the smoke is everywhere, it is impossible to have a place to ship goods; and in the city, we encounter such a rich and wealthy Captain Li, so he just doesn't play his cards according to the normal routine.
Instead of waiting until the end and losing all your money, it is better to cut off your wrist and seize the time to reduce the loss first.
After several fierce arguments, the grain merchants unanimously agreed to sell most of the grain in their stores to the city guard at half price.
In less than three days, the grain carriages of sixteen large merchant houses in the city shuttled between their warehouses and the city guard's mansion like flowing water. More than six thousand carts of grain were stuffed into Li Jiangyao's pocket in the blink of an eye.
This lively scene immediately attracted people from all over the city to watch. People couldn't help but talk a lot, praising Captain Li for his skill.
At the same time, everyone finally settled down and was no longer troubled by the problem of eating.
After one major matter was resolved, Li Jiangyao turned his attention to another matter.
At this time, more than 30,000 people from all over the world came to Metasequoia City to seek refuge, which was almost close to the previous permanent population of Metasequoia. Ma Muming's men set up a large tent area in the open space in the northwest corner of the city to temporarily house the homeless people.
In order to prevent spies from mixing in, Lin Feng once directed his brothers from the Pegasus Scout Camp to carefully screen the refugees and register them one by one. At the same time, he also separated young and middle-aged men from the old, weak, women and children.
Among the men, those who had served in the military, no matter which country they were from, were all organized into the city defense troops; the remaining men joined the civilian team to help repair fortifications and transport supplies.
If you join the army or do corvee work, you can receive corresponding food and salary, so you won't have to sit around and eat in vain all day long.
The elderly, women, children and the sick and wounded are provided with free daily quota rations by the city guard.
Li Jiangyao came to the refugee camp and happened to meet Ma Mu and others.
Ma Mu worriedly said to Li Jiangyao: "Sir, the situation is not very good."
Li Jiangyao nodded slightly: "Yes, there are more and more people here, and I don't know how to arrange it next?"
"That's not what I'm referring to," Mamu explained patiently: "The refugee affairs are pretty easy to handle. We've said hello to many inns and big businesses in the city, and they are all willing to try their best to help, providing accommodation and food. Even so. If so many people come again, there will be ways to deal with them in Metasequoia.”
"Then what are you worried about?" Li Jiangyao was a little curious.
Ma Mu sighed: "Well, the new group of people who arrived here yesterday are from Daban. According to them, there is a large army over there, as big as mountains and seas. The military flags alone are like dense forests, and they can't be counted. I can’t see the edge.”
Li Jiangyao suddenly became alert when he heard this: "Is there anyone who knows the details?"
"Yes," Ma Mu pointed behind him: "Sir, please come with me, they are all over there."
More than a dozen Chechi officials and soldiers bowed and saluted Li Jiangyao one after another, praising the captain for his life-saving grace.
Li Jiangyao learned that they were all from Dabancheng and quickly asked carefully about the latest situation there. He also reminded everyone not to add their own analysis and imagination when describing, and not to mention things that have been heard and heard, only to talk about what they saw with their own eyes.
Everyone understood that the matter was of great importance and did not dare to hide anything. They all carefully told what they saw and knew.
At present, Chechi is heavily guarding Daban, not only the Loulan army, which is the most ferocious in rebellion, but also the Turkic army and Geerhan's ghost alliance horse thieves. Some people also said that he saw the flag of Shule army.
As for the number of enemy troops, the fleeing Chechi soldiers were far more clear and reliable than the civilian officials. Judging from the battle flags and costumes alone, the bright flags of the various armies alone totaled hundreds of thousands of people.
This situation is also consistent with the confession from Zaire. However, Li Jiangyao still couldn't figure out why these rebel armies chose to gather in Daban.
Could it be that Che Chi's rapid reinforcements started to fight back? Or was deputy guard Zhang Sanpi coming from Anxi with the main force? It was even said that the teacher He Jingming personally went into battle and the troops left Zijin Pass?
No matter what the situation is, the counterinsurgency army should be in urgent need of accurate information about the enemy at this time, and this is precisely the duty and mission of the Pegasus Scout Battalion!
As a member of the Pegasus Scouts, Li Jiangyao has always maintained a high degree of sensitivity, and he cannot just sit back and ignore such an important situation. He immediately selected a group of experienced scouts to form an investigation team and personally led them to Daban , to explore the enemy's situation for the Zhenjiang Army.
