"Your Excellency, you saved the villagers of Orchid Village without asking for anything in return. On behalf of everyone in Orchid Village, I would like to express my gratitude to you again." Before he could get closer, Mr. Hong bowed to Lu Yunyou and thanked him again, and then said slowly: "The original members of Orchid Village The villagers all thought of coming back when they were fleeing, so they hid some grain in many places, and I plan to take out all the grain and give it to you to repay your kindness."
"Mr. Hong, Brother Li just told me this. You should keep the food you have hidden for yourself." Thinking of the villagers' difficulties, Lu Yunyou didn't feel that he had helped the villagers a lot, and it was even harder to accept the kindness of the two.
"Sir, there are not many people left in the village now, and there is not much food to eat. Please accept our kindness, otherwise the villagers will be really sorry." Seeing Lu Yunyou politely rejecting their kindness, Mr. Hong was a little surprised, thinking that they had done something. Something is wrong.
"The younger generation understands Mr. Hong's wishes, but I still have to go to the city to collect food. Let's wait until then." Those villagers are much more pitiful than them, and Lu Yunyou really doesn't want to take their things.
"As far as I know, the city lord of Qu City is not a good person. He may have already escaped with his money. Tomorrow, when you come to the city to ask for things from them, they must be empty. Because of this, I want to give away all the food." I'll give it to you, and try my best to repay your kindness to us." But in order for Lu Yunyou to accept their kindness, Mr. Hong specially told Lu Yunyou about the situation in Qucheng.
As for the situation in Qucheng, according to some of Li Shuangxi's previous statements, Lu Yunyou has always had a mentality of avoiding reality, but now that Mr. Hong has given such a certain statement, he can fully conclude that the situation in the city is as bad as he thought before. .
After arriving in Qucheng tomorrow, food and grass will become the top priority. With his brows furrowed, Mr. Hong and Li Shuangxi's kindness has become irresistible to Lu Yunyou.
"Why is Mr. Hong so sure?" Lu Yunyou sighed and asked helplessly.
"If the old man's guess is correct, the matter in Qucheng should be related to the banditry problem that has always existed nearby." After taking a breath, Mr. Hong continued: "I don't know something, sir. There is a mountain next to Qucheng and Qincheng. Its name is It’s called Xiaoyin Mountain, and there is a bandit village on the mountain. Originally, there were not many people in the bandit village. Although occasionally caravans would be blocked and robbed by them, the problem was not very serious.”
"It's a pity that due to the war between the two countries, the two cities have not sent anyone to suppress the bandits for a long time. Nowadays, more and more people are joining the bandits, and the banditry problem has become more and more serious. People in the cities must have escaped early. It has something to do with the banditry problem," the more he said, the more certain he became. Mr. Hong just wanted to tell Lu Yunyou what he knew.
"Have those bandits been to the village?" Seeing that Mr. Hong seemed to know a lot about the bandits, Lu Yunyou suddenly became interested.
"Maybe our villages are too poor. Those bandits only came once and kidnapped many girls in the village. The villagers were too angry and dared not speak out. They could only swallow the bitter water in their stomachs," said Hong. There was a scowl in the old eyes, which was resentment towards the bandits, but the helplessness revealed in his cloudy eyes was also extremely obvious.
For some reason, after listening to what Mr. Hong said, Lu Yunyou always felt that the Star Army would be related to those bandits. In addition, Mr. Hong also said that the bandit stronghold was not far from the two cities. Based on his understanding of the habits of the bandits, he There was still a little more worry in his heart. Now it seemed that this food collection was far more difficult than they expected. They didn't know how the other two groups were doing. Now that things had happened, he had to think carefully about contingency measures.
"Mr. Hong, you guys go back and rest early. I still have some things to deal with." Seeing that Zhang Jiutian, who had just left, had returned with some rations, Lu Yunyou didn't plan to stay any longer. He wanted to go back and consider some things.
"I understand that the Lord has important things to do. Shuangxi, please go and serve the Lord." He agreed readily. Mr. Hong did not want to waste Lu Yunyou's time at all. After several brief exchanges, he had already seen Lu Yunyou's character. Not bad, and my expectations for Lu Yunyou have also increased a lot.
In fact, Mr. Hong wanted to find all the food hidden in the village and give it to Lu Yunyou. He originally wanted to please Lu Yunyou, but now it seems that Lu Yunyou didn't think about this aspect at all.
After Zhang Jiutian distributed the food, Lu Yunyou walked closer and looked at the two children. The two children were eating barbecue with cheerful smiles on their dirty faces. It was exactly what Lu Yunyou wanted most. The scene I saw.
However, military affairs were important, and matters related to the villagers were put aside for the time being. Lu Yunyou wanted to go back and think about the food requisition first.
Not long after, returning to the General's Palace, Lu Yunyou asked Zhang Jiutian to go back to rest, leaving only Li Shuangxi with him. Because it was difficult to arrange accommodation for Li Shuangxi, he could only let Li Shuangxi stay with him for the time being.
Under a weak oil lamp, Lu Yunyou unfolded the border map given to him by Qi Lianhai, and then successfully found their location on the map, and then roughly determined the location of the bandits' stronghold. From Qucheng to Qincheng, there is a flat river. It's just that there is a mountainous area on the right side of the two cities, and the bandits are hiding in the mountains.
Due to its remote location and frequent raids, the bandits have not been able to develop and grow over the years. Also because of their remote location, they have not been completely eradicated by the people of Qucheng and Qincheng for many years. According to Mr. Hong’s It is said that in the past, those bandits would engage in road robbery from time to time.
But today is different from the past. As the number of people fleeing to bandit villages continues to increase, the number of bandits has expanded several times in a short period of time. It is currently unclear how many bandits there are in the mountains. However, according to what Mr. Hong said, the location of Qucheng is The forces are all afraid of those bandits, which shows that the bandits are not easy to deal with.
Fortunately, there are troops here. Lu Yunyou is not worried about how powerful the bandits are. What really makes him feel embarrassed is that the situation is unclear. Not only about the bandits, he does not know the situation in Qucheng and Qincheng, so he carefully After thinking about it, he planned to wait until Qucheng and send someone to investigate the situation in Qincheng as soon as possible.
The sooner he knows the situation, the sooner he can make a decision. As the leader, he knows very well that Yan Nantian has given him full authority to collect grain from Qu and Qin cities. Whether it can be done well will naturally depend on his personal ability. If the levy is confirmed tomorrow, It would be a wrong act to directly ask Yan Nantian for help after the food crisis.
In any case, after realizing that there were many difficulties in collecting food, Lu Yunyou already understood the importance of handling the current affairs, large and small.
Next, looking at the map, Lu Yunyou began to think about it carefully. As the fire light danced, his thoughts also jumped. At the same time, Li Shuangxi not far away sat below, looking at Lu Yunyou and dozing off, because Knowing that he couldn't help Lu Yunyou, all he could do was not to disturb Lu Yunyou.
Time passed little by little, and by the time Lu Yunyou made his preliminary plans, Li Shuangxi had already fallen asleep on the table. Calculating that it was not early, Lu Yunyou simply lay down on the blanket where he was sitting to rest.
Early the next morning, when Lu Yunyou woke up, Li Shuangxi had already brought water and other things for washing.
After briefly washing up, Lu Yunyou took Li Shuangxi out with him.
The sky outside was still gray, but there were sounds from all over the village, and wisps of smoke came out of the chimneys. Some soldiers were already queuing up to eat, and some soldiers were practicing casually. There were people everywhere as far as the eye could see. Early in the morning, the whole village was filled with vitality.
While Lu Yunyou was looking around, Xing Hu and Wang Yihou came over. After saying hello to each other, the three of them talked about going to Qucheng sooner rather than later. Xing Hu and Wang Yihou both I agree with the decision to rush to Qucheng as soon as possible.
It is worth mentioning that when facing the two of them, Lu Yunyou always felt that the situation was forcing him, so that he who was not too anxious about collecting food became more and more eager to complete the task as soon as possible.
In addition, he had already considered clearly last night that he would let Zhang Jiutian stay with the five hundred star troops today and bring all the living villagers from the nearby villages to Orchid Village while hunting the ferocious beasts nearby.
Five hundred people was not too many. When he announced the decision, Wang Yihou had no objections, while Xing Hu was just curious about his approach. In short, neither of them had any intention of interfering with Lu Yunyou. After all, from the beginning Five hundred men were divided from the army, which had little impact on their subsequent trip to Qucheng to collect grain.
After Zhang Jiutian was informed, Lu Yunyou discussed with the other two generals about sending out the army. Before the army set off, Lu Yunyou decided to send a few people to Qucheng to inquire about the situation according to Wang Yihou's advice, and then had a meal with the two generals. After breakfast, Lu Yunyou led more than two thousand star troops to Qucheng.
