In the court, Xiao Dongliang, the prime minister of Xia State, saw the situation the deepest. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

What Xiao Dongliang saw was far more than what was obvious on the surface, the imminent military disaster in Jiangzhou in Xia Kingdom, and more importantly, he also seemed to see that the entire Xia Kingdom was about to face a great crisis! Compared with the surrounding ministers who were still discussing the war, Xiao Dongliang's worries had spread far further.

Because, the crisis that Xiao Dongliang saw was a food crisis, an economic crisis! A great crisis that was about to break out among the people!

Xiao Dongliang could completely foresee, just as the emperor's anger at this time, the indignation of the ministers, and the war in the Xia Kingdom were like arrows on the bow! Once a war broke out on a large scale, it would affect a wide range of areas, and the resulting chaos among the people would inevitably be among the people.

Soon, in order to cope with the war, the landlords and gentry in various parts of the Xia Kingdom will definitely start to stock up on grain, and once they start to do so, it will inevitably cause a sharp rise in grain prices. The sharp rise in food prices has instantly increased the burden on the common people, who cannot afford to eat food and can only starve. Starvation is not the most terrible, I am afraid that the desire of the traders to hoard grain is not stopped, the government is not clear, and they also take advantage of the fire to rob, forcing the common people to sell their children and daughters.

Once the civilians are forced to the point where they can no longer live, the officials will force the people to rebel, and I am afraid that there will be civil riots!

Once the people in various parts of the Xia country rioted together, it would be tantamount to adding insult to injury.

Let's ask, if the Xia State has already started a war with the Xinghua Army, and the soldiers and horses have been deployed to kill the enemy on the battlefield, where can there be so many soldiers and horses to suppress the civil unrest?

When he looked back at these people, he was still full of ambition to fight the enemy, and Xiao Dongliang was even more anxious in his heart.

Xiao Dongliang thought about it, waited for the next court, and then went to the emperor's imperial study, and secretly reported his worries to the emperor, hoping that the imperial court would take measures in advance.

In fact, Xiao Dongliang didn't know that he was not the only one who had such thoughts.

Xia is a large country with a population of nearly 100 million, and above the court, there are more than just civil and military officials? In fact, there are naturally not a few people like Xiao Dongliang who have unique views. Therefore, Xiao Dongliang thought that only he was worried about the future of Xia Guo, but it was his own opinion. Xiao Dongliang could think that some of the court officials present had actually thought of it a long time ago.

It's just that it's one thing to think about it, and it's another thing to put it into action.

First of all, they didn't intend to tell the emperor what they thought in their hearts, but chose to keep silent, especially, seeing that at this moment, the emperor was so angry, he must have wanted to wave the army straight to repel the Xinghua army, and he might not be able to accept any other middle-of-the-road approach, so once their words were not what the emperor wanted to hear, I am afraid that they would only cause trouble for themselves;

Second, even if their concerns are good policies for the sake of the country, how can these courtiers, who have been officials for many years, not understand the underlying laws of officialdom? Any good policy that is beneficial to the people, if they put forward it before the emperor, will inevitably be suspected of being a high-ranking official, and it will also invite trouble for themselves.

Therefore, these ministers chose a more selfish approach that was different from Xiao Dongliang -- only thinking about their own family and their own career.

In fact, they are not only choosing to protect themselves at this moment, but most of them have already adopted the same approach - hoarding grain. Compared with Xiao Dongliang, who was still worried about the country and the people at this time, many of them moved much faster.

As early as a week ago, some wealthy families in Zhongzhou and Dongzhou were already very well-informed and began to hoard grain. Moreover, in addition to hoarding food to prepare for war, they also hoarded salt, gold and silver, in anticipation of troubled times. Not only that, some nobles who were deeply favored by the emperor of Xia also joined the ranks of making a fortune.

In short, the problems that Xiao Dongliang is worried about have actually begun to show signs faintly......

Jiangzhou, on the official road three hundred miles east of Huguan, Leon stood in front of a boundary monument, hesitating. At this time, behind Lyon was the main force of the Xinghua Army with 15,000 soldiers led by him.

This unit is standing on the official road, and there is a small fork in the official road, and along the small fork road, about a kilometer away from the boundary monument, is Huali Town.

"Commander, ahead is the town of Huali. It is the closest town to Huguan. Last time, in order to capture Yangcheng as soon as possible, General Wei Changhai did not lead his army into Huali Town. A Xinghua officer reported to Lyon.

Hearing this, Leon nodded, looked into the distance, and ordered: "This time, the purpose of our army's expedition to Jiangzhou is not only to attack Yangcheng, but also to expand the territory so that the empire can rule this land...... Since Huali Town belongs to the small town of the Empire, then we should take a look at Huali Town, so that the people of Huali Town can feel the strength of the Xinghua Empire's army. ”

Subsequently, Leon also learned from the mouth of the Xinghua officer that Huali Town was just a small town with hundreds of people, and if all 15,000 soldiers were stationed in this town at once, I am afraid that the number of soldiers would be too large for the town to bear. Therefore, in order to eliminate the pressure of Huali Town being forced to accommodate the army, Leon ordered the main army of Xinghua to camp nearby outside Huali Town, and then, he just sent a small detachment of Xinghua with a thousand people to enter Huali Town first.

The officer who led the team was a young officer named Wu Junjie.

Wu Junjie, who was the battalion commander of the Yunzhou Army, was also one of the officers who accompanied the army when Wei Changhai's troops went on the expedition. This time, in the battle of Jiangzhou, only the commander of the whole army was replaced, not a subordinate officer like Wu Junjie, so Wu Junjie still followed the Lyon army and continued to serve as an officer.

It's just that this time when he went out with the army, Wu Junjie's mentality was very different from the last time.

In fact, the last defeat of the Xinghua Army in Jiangzhou has always made Wu Junjie and a group of grassroots officers unconvinced for a long time. Because it was a loss that shouldn't have been.

Even, Wu Junjie actually secretly felt in his heart, and complained about Wei Changhai because of this defeat. In Wu Junjie's view, if it weren't for Wei Changhai's decision-making mistake at that time, he rushed to the battle, and only wanted to capture Yangcheng, regardless of the fact that the army should first make full pre-war preparations, maybe in the end, their Xinghua army would not have ended up withdrawing in a hurry.

Wu Junjie always believed that the third-rate cavalry of the Xia Army was not their opponent of the Xinghua Army at all. However, because of the mistake in strategy, Wu Junjie and the others have not had the opportunity to go to the real battlefield and compete with the Xia army, and such a defeat is undoubtedly equivalent to shame for Wu Junjie and other young grassroots officers.

Therefore, it was not easy to wait for the Xinghua army to fight in Jiangzhou of Xia again, and it was not Wei Changhai as the commander, but it was replaced by a more calm Leon to lead the army.

Leon ordered Wu Junjie to lead the Xinghua squad of the thousand-man regiment to enter Huali Town to investigate the situation, and Wu Junjie, who had accepted the military order, immediately carried out the task.

After all, a kilometer away is not far, and Wu Junjie doesn't have much time to think about things that are not related to the task.

The town entrance of Huali Town soon appeared in front of Wu Junjie.

It's just that when Wu Junjie led the army and slowly moved closer to Huali Town, he was immediately startled by the scene in front of him - Wu Junjie was surprised to find that the entire Huali Town could almost be said to be close to an uninhabited scene!

"I remember that although Huali Town is not big, it is not like there is no one on the street, right?" Wu Junjie muttered to himself with doubt.

It's weird, even weird! It's not a desert town!

But with the military order in hand, Wu Junjie cannot be allowed to continue to hesitate. So, Wu Junjie decisively sent a reconnaissance team of more than 50 people into Huali Town to investigate.

Wu Junjie learned Wei Changhai's lesson -- he needs to be cautious, and he must first send a reconnaissance team to investigate the situation first.

First, you can first determine the actual situation in the town, find out whether there is an enemy ambush, or whether something happened in the town, and then let the army enter, which can reduce the army from encountering great risks at once;

Second, Wu Junjie also has a layer of concerns, if he rashly leads the army into the town, I am afraid that it will also scare the common people, causing the people to have a preconceived antipathy towards the Xinghua Army, so the gains outweigh the losses.

Ten minutes later, the reconnaissance team sent back information over the intercom.

About three days ago, the town of Huali was ransacked by a gang of bandits, and most of the town's residents suffered heavy losses.

Wu Junjie was surprised and asked how many other residents there were in the town.

The scout captain told Wu Junjie that there were about a hundred, and most of them were old and weak, and they couldn't stay away from their hometowns.

Wu Junjie was sure that there were no enemies threatening the troops in Huali Town, so he led his army into the town.

Then, Wu Junjie sent troops to search the entire Huali Town, and asked the residents of the town to come over, and he wanted to find out the situation in person.

After a while, one hundred and three remaining townspeople from Huali Town appeared in front of Wu Junjie.

Of the 103 residents of Huali Town, there are 83 elderly people over 50 years old, 4 middle-aged disabled people, and 16 children.

Wu Junjie sighed, he sympathized with the townspeople, but could not change their living conditions.

"Adjutant, give each of them a small bag of fried noodles. Wu Junjie said.

The Xinghua Army prepared a lot of military dry food, of which pancakes were one of them. Of course, the most common in the Xinghua army are compressed biscuits and various canned foods. Compressed biscuits and canned food are reserve food, emergency use, and Wu Junjie can't give them. Under normal circumstances, the Xinghua army also has marching foods such as fried noodles and fried rice.

The residents of Huali Town were immediately surprised when they saw that Xinghuajun had given them food. Especially several old people, they knelt down on the spot and thanked Wu Junjie for his kindness.

"Teachers of Righteousness, you are the true Teachers of Righteousness!" exclaimed an old man.

Seeing this situation, the old and weak in Huali Town all knelt down and thanked Wu Junjie.

"If I had known that your army was sympathetic and caring for the small people, I would not have asked my son and daughter-in-law to leave their hometown...... People are cheap when they leave their hometowns, and they don't know if they can live. ”

"Yes, the army of the imperial court is not a good person, robbing the peasants' grain, just as fierce, and depriving us of our money......

As the people of Huali Town continued to complain, Wu Junjie gradually understood some of the things they encountered.

Huali Town originally had a township guard of about 100 people, and these township soldiers recruited children from the surrounding villages. However, the imperial court ordered the walls to be cleared, and all the officials ran away, and the township soldiers were naturally disbanded.

Without the villagers, many people began to take refuge from the war. In the beginning, people were a little hesitant to move. However, some bandits learned that there were no village soldiers in Huali Town, so they began to fight the idea of the town.

After several robberies, the residents, who had thought of living patiently, had to decide to leave their hometowns - if they did not leave their hometowns, they would be killed by bandits if they did not starve to death, and they would still have a chance to live if they left their hometowns. In the hearts of many young villagers, when they go to a prosperous place, even if the government will not help them, they can rely on their strength to fight for a way to survive.

Wu Junjie listened to the old man's speech and sighed again. However, it was impossible for him to afford the food and clothing of the old and weak in Huali Town. First, they were not yet the subjects of the empire; second, the Xinghua Army did not rob them, and it was already a well-disciplined army that did not disturb or hurt the people.

"Herald! Immediately report the situation in Huali Town to your superiors. Wu Junjie ordered the heralds to report the situation in Huali Town to the large army.

For Wu Junjie, Huali Town has no residents, has lost its due value, and should not stay.

In about ten minutes, the herald returned, delivering the commander's order.

"General Lyon ordered Wu Junjie's troops to return to the army. "The herald clearly communicates the order.

Wu Junjie listened to the order, bid farewell to the residents of Huali Town, and led the troops to return.

The main force of the Xinghua Army, Leon looked at the map and seriously thought about the situation of the Xinghua Army. Xia Jun's determination to strengthen the wall and clear the field was even greater than he imagined. On the marching map of the Xinghua Army, many small towns and villages may have no value.

The Xinghua army continued to march along the official road, and they had to pass through two small towns, which Leon simply abandoned without consideration.

The incident in Huali Town made Leon believe that the Xia army's strategy of clearing the wilderness was probably extremely harsh, and the supply depots of the Xinghua army could not choose some villages and towns. Such a town without defense, even if the Xinghua army occupies it, it is useless. Not only that, but also to divide some troops to guard.

Lyon's ideal temporary supply base, as well as the ideal pre-war headquarters, had to be a place of defensive value.

Tai'an, the closest county to Huguan, is the most in line with Lyon's requirements. Tai'an County has a large population and is a county seat, and the empire can rule in Tai'an County and win the hearts and minds of the people.

Tai'an County also has a well-established city wall, which is more than three meters high, which is suitable for defense.

The Xinghua army captured Tai'an County and built a supply depot, which could also shorten the supply line and improve the offensive efficiency of the Xinghua army. (To be continued.) )