Under Fuqi City, the trench was dug deeper and deeper, forming a long ditch that spread deeply to the southeast of Fuqi City.
I don’t know whether it was because it was not deep enough or for other reasons, but the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty never completely dug through the Tiebojia River.
Li Xuan stood on the sentry tower and looked at Su Hegui on the city wall.
Similarly, Su Hegui also stood on the city wall and looked at Li Xuan.
It seems that every day Li Xuan appears on the watchtower, Su Hegui will appear on the top of the city and stare at Li Xuan.
It's a pity that he is old and frail and has to go back at night, which gives some people the opportunity to play with their ambitions.
"My lord, will the people in the city really attack Su Hegui?" Su Baotong stood beside Li Xuan, looking at the city with some hesitation.
"It has been six days since the message was sent that day." Li Xuan raised his head, looked at the sky above the city, and said softly: "Now the food and grass in this city will be exhausted in four days. In the future, even those nobles will no longer give away money and food easily. By then, the people in the city will be eager to leave the city. At a critical moment of life and death, no matter how much hatred they have, they have to let go."
"Your Majesty, will the people in the city really let the people out of the city?" Su Baotong looked at Li Xuan worriedly.
What Li Xuan is doing now is to use various means to consume the food and grass in the city. All the food and grass consumption that should have been borne by the Tang Dynasty after the city was captured is handed over to Su Hegui. The soldiers under Su Hegui's command all come from the common people in the city. , if the people in the city really starve to death, those soldiers will definitely rebel against him.
But if the people were simply released from the city, then the predicament in the city would be solved immediately.
But the question is, will Su Hegui really release the people in the city?
Although it is said that once the people leave the city, the pressure of food will immediately be transmitted to Li Xuan, but once they leave the city, it will immediately affect the morale of the soldiers in the city.
This is a dilemma.
Similarly, for Li Xuan and others, once the people who suddenly leave the city are taken in, their food pressure will immediately increase.
This is also a dilemma for Li Xuan.
"I ask you, what is the purpose of coming to Fuqi City?" Li Xuan looked at Su Baotong, his expression became solemn.
Su Baotong was stunned for a moment and said: "Capture Fuqi City, solve the food shortage problem of the people in the city, and then recruit soldiers from the people in the city to attack Wuhai."
"In that case, how about leaving this problem to you to solve?" Li Xuan asked directly.
Su Baotong's pupils suddenly enlarged. He waved his hands in panic and said, "The prince is making fun of you. How can such a big matter be solved by my subordinates?"
Li Xuan shook his head calmly, looked at Su Baotong, and said seriously: "I am not joking. If you are really asked to solve the problem, what can you do? Think about your grandfather, Duke Xing, who faced such a problem. How will it be resolved?”
Seeing Li Xuan's serious look and hearing him mention his grandfather Su Dingfang, Su Baotong's face became much calmer, although it was still a little ugly.
He thought for a moment and said in a deep voice: "Although the Tubo people have confiscated a large amount of food from Fuqi City, there is still a large amount of food hidden in Fuqi City. As long as they can find all this food, they can solve the problem for a while. There is not enough food..."
"How long?" Li Xuan asked directly.
Su Baotong looked ugly and said hesitantly, "I don't know."
"Guess, use your intuition." Li Xuan stared at Su Baotong, wanting to see his war intuition.
Su Baotong pondered for a moment, then frowned and said, "Ten days. With the lowest disaster relief level, it will be enough to feed the people in the city for ten days."
"What about ten days from now?" Li Xuan asked again, "You have to know that our army will not have any food to supply the people in the city."
Li Xuan stared at Su Baotong. Su Baotong's face became increasingly ugly, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. He wanted to say something, but he never could.
Today, there is one and only one solution, and that is to use military rations to help the people.
Not to mention how long the relief can last, but this decision is definitely not something Su Baotong can make.
Even if he tried to forcefully send the food and grass out, no one in the entire camp would help, or even all of them would stop him.
In the entire camp, Li Xuan was the only one who had the authority to decide how to use military rations to support the people.
But Su Baotong could not persuade Li Xuan to use military rations to relieve the people.
Because so far, no one among the people in the city is willing to come out and surrender.
What's more, Li Xuan had no intention of accepting surrendered prisoners. This was not among his limited choices.
Seeing that Su Baotong was completely silent, Li Xuan patted him on the shoulder and said softly: "The ultimate goal of my coming here is to strengthen the military and attack Wuhai. However, the situation here is complicated. If you don't pay attention, Not only has the army's combat power not increased at all, but it will have been greatly damaged as a result. Therefore, when we come here, we must not lose anything first."
Seeing that Su Baotong was a little confused, Li Xuan smiled and continued: "That's what you just said, take down Fuqi City, solve the food problem of the people in the city, and then recruit soldiers from the people in the city. If these three of my king Doing nothing will have consequences."
"The food and grass in the city were exhausted, and the people died miserably." Su Bao blurted out the same sentence directly.
Li Xuan shook her head slightly and said, "That's not the case."
"If we do nothing, then the food and grass in the city will be exhausted, and all the people and soldiers in the city will starve to death. In this way, although I will have to bear some infamy, as the army moves forward, we no longer have to worry about any attacks from Tuyuhun. Threats, even the overall plan of Qin Ling will go bankrupt, which is beneficial to the overall situation of our country."
Li Xuan looked straight at Su Baotong and said solemnly: "So, no matter what we do here, we must put this first. Soldiers, food and grass, and the overall situation cannot be lost because of this, and the Tuyuhun people will only be weakened day by day." ... No matter what choice they make, they cannot show any signs of being powerful. This is the premise of everything, do you understand?"
Su Baotong nodded heavily. Even though Li Xuan made the words so clear, how could he still not understand?
"Very good. Once we have a bottom line, we can act accordingly. In this case, we will do the first thing you said and capture Fuqi City."
Li Xuan raised her head, looked at the city opposite, and then said softly: "With the current situation, we can win this city even if we do nothing. However, to prevent accidents, we started to build a dike in the upper reaches of the Buha River. If something happens that is beyond our control, then we will open the dam and release the water."
Li Xuan's expression turned cold, and Su Baotong looked at Li Xuan in disbelief: "I originally thought that the prince was just doing it as a deterrent..."
"That is for deterrence, but things always happen that are beyond our control. For example, Dayan Mangjiebo further to the west may lead his army to kill him. Don't forget, he is also the heir to the Tuyuhun throne. Now Murong Nuohebo came back after killing him. He is the first person who can't stand this, so he will inevitably take action."
Li Xuan said softly: "If tens of thousands of troops come over there, even I, the king, may have to flee in panic. At that time, for the sake of the overall situation, it will be inevitable to open the dam and release the water."
"This is the natural thing to do." Su Baotong nodded slowly.
Dayan Mangjiebo led his army to kill him. In this case, Su Baotong could accept it by destroying the dam and releasing water to destroy the enemy.
"Also, if something happens to the governor of Anle Prefecture in the north, causing Qinghai and Hubei to lose control, Tuyuhun can use that road to kill Shanzhou..."
"Then destroy the dam and release the water." Su Baotong said firmly this time.
Li Xuan smiled softly, then looked at Fuqi City opposite, and said softly: "There is one last situation, that is, there is a fire in this city, a big fire..."
"Destroy the dam and release the water."
"In this way, the first thing is done. Now, as long as we don't evacuate, Fuqi City will always be in our possession." Li Xuan looked cold, and then said: "Then we will It is the second thing to solve the food problem of the people in the city."
Food is the root of all problems.
The Tang Dynasty will not mobilize any food for the Tuyuhun people in Fuqi City, so the people in the city and Li Xuan need to work together to find a solution for this food matter.
"When it is my turn to solve the problem of food and grass in this city, then all of this city must surrender to our court and completely surrender to the Tang Dynasty... Only by becoming a commoner of the Tang Dynasty can this king be able to withstand the censure of the central government and the pressure of the Yushitai Impeachment to deliver food to the people inside." After Li Xuan finished speaking, Su Baotong nodded in agreement.
Only by becoming a citizen of the Tang Dynasty can one be qualified to receive their blessing.
Apart from this, nothing else will work.
"There are too many people in this city. After all, some damn people have to die. If you want to become a commoner of our court, you can't just say a few words." Li Xuan's eyes flashed with a hint of faintness. People who knew him well I immediately knew that everything in the future was hidden in this sentence.
"What the prince said is absolutely true." Su Baotong retorted speechlessly.
"As long as the people in Fuqi City completely obey my orders, then I will naturally allow them to survive completely. But if they are unwilling, or someone interferes, or even wants to control this city with me..."
"Whoever wants it will be responsible." Su Bao said categorically.
"Very good, if we can do this, it will be much easier for the people in the city to listen to my king's orders and recruit soldiers in the future." Li Xuan nodded and said, "So from now on, you will be responsible for the affairs in the city. Also, there are other people coming to see me outside, so you should meet them first to see what their plans are, and also let me see your abilities."
"Here!" Su Baotong's expression suddenly became solemn. Li Xuan just mentioned his grandfather Su Dingfang, which had aroused Su Baotong's sense of responsibility.
Li Xuan smiled, then turned towards his tent in the camp and walked in.
Opening the camp tent, dozens of soldiers were rushing back and forth inside.
A sand table is already being built quickly.
The entire place where Fuqi City is located, one of the most fertile pastures in the entire Tuyuhun Kingdom, has now completely fallen into Li Xuan's eyes.
…
In the light, looking at the entire sand table, Li Xuan frowned.
It is definitely not an easy task to solve the food problem for the hundreds of thousands of people in Fuqi City.
Of course, it's not too difficult.
The Tubo people casually took away the strong and strong people in the city, but there are still many middle-aged people in their forties and fifties left in the city, not to mention strong women and grown-up children. In this way, most of them are laborers. .
Not to mention, there are nearly 20,000 healthy soldiers, all of whom are strong laborers.
As long as the labor is used appropriately, there will be no problem in surviving this month.
After this month, the autumn harvest will begin in the Tang Dynasty.
Although this year's autumn harvest was poor and drought was severe, resulting in a shortage of autumn harvest for the court, the lack of autumn harvest was not due to a lack of food and grass in the court, but to a lack of wealth in the court.
As long as the wealth created by these Tuyuhun people is exchanged for materials from the DPRK, even if the prices are kept very low, they can still survive this disaster.
Of course, the details still need to be carefully crafted.
But now among all this, there is one person that Li Xuan needs to be wary of the most, Murong Nuohebo.
Murong Nuohebo, the governor of Anle Prefecture, the prince consort of Princess Honghua, General Zuo Xiaowei, the governor of Anle Prefecture, and the king of Qinghai.
The son of the former Tuyuhun King who wanted to restore his country.
(End of chapter)
