On 20 February, the Yongwei Battalion had marched to the boundary of Guide Prefecture in Henan, which was the intersection of Shandong, Henan and Anhui, and was also close to the northern part of Jiangsu, where the ancient city of Shangqiu was later established.

When Zhu Cihong walked out of the dragon chariot and moved his lower body, he looked around and was completely shocked by the scene in front of him.

I saw a white expanse all around, this was not snow, but the bark of all the surrounding trees had been stripped away, and the bare trees looked extremely dazzling in the sun, and a few homeless people in the distance were fighting for a piece of bark.

The rivers on the ground were all dried up, and the nearby fields were full of wide cracks, and there was nothing left in the fields, because they were all eaten up, and not even a leaf of wild vegetables remained.

As the army marched on, the more cold it became, and the villages and towns they passed, ten rooms and nine empty, starving and scattered, bones strewn strewn, and abandoned dead babies could be seen everywhere.

There is no scene of wild dogs eating human flesh in later movies, because as long as wild dogs appear, they will be surrounded by hundreds of people, killed and eaten directly, and some people are even cutting the flesh of people who have starved to death.......

When the army was marching, these people who were looking for food nearby only glanced at it casually, and they were not afraid of the officers and soldiers, let alone the honor guard of the Son of Heaven, because they were already faint from hunger, and they could not distinguish between the east and the west, and they did not have any property on them.

Although there is also a drought in Shandong, it covers less than half of the area, and the extent of the disaster is incomparable with that here.

The soldiers of the Yongwei battalion looked at the surroundings in a daze, and many of them who had been homeless soldiers were even more bitter, thinking that they had also been one of them, if there was no crown prince in Beijing to provide disaster relief, build a city and divide the fields, they would have turned into a handful of loess a long time ago, maybe they would have been eaten by others.......

Thinking of this, many soldiers secretly swore in their hearts that they must cherish the good days now and die for the crown prince all their lives!

Most of the sights along the way are like this, with countless victims wandering around, desperate to find something to feed their stomachs, and some even drink dirt and water into their stomachs to reduce their hunger.

Through the dragon chariot, Zhu Cihong's heart twitched for a while, he lowered the curtain, drove away the palace maids serving in the dragon chariot, and sat alone in tears streaming down his face.

Subsequently, he ordered the cannibals to be driven away, the soldiers to collect the bones, bury them together, and distribute some military rations to the nearby victims.

But there are too many victims, and there is not much military rations, if it goes on like this, before it reaches Fengyang Mansion, the Yongwei battalion will become like a disaster victim, Zhu Cihong had to reluctantly order the army to continue marching.

When passing through Xiayi County, the prefect of Guide Prefecture and officials from nearby prefectures and counties had already arrived in front of the city, and they hurried here two days in advance after learning of the crown prince's honor guard route.

In the Xiayi County Yazhong, Zhu Cihong sat in the first seat and looked coldly at the various local officials standing on both sides of the column below.

"Guide to the prefect of Defu!" Zhu Cihong said coldly.

"The minister is here!" The prefect of Guide Prefecture fell to the ground with a crawl.

Zhu Cihong said sharply: "There is such a situation in the territory of Guide Mansion, how did you become the governor of this place?" If you disappoint the court like this, what's the use of the dynasty raising you? Come! Please Shang Fang Sword! ”

The prefect of Guide Mansion collapsed to the ground in fright, and shouted: "Your Highness spares your life, the minister is wronged!" ”

All the officials were stunned, took a breath of cold air, and felt uneasy in their hearts.

Zhu Cihong said: "What grievances do you still have? ”

"Your Royal Highness, since the year before last was broken by the thief Li Zicheng, the survival of the people has been difficult, now after the drought, the price of rice is rising all the way, especially the merchants and rich households are closed, the government can't even buy food, how to relieve the disaster, the people from eating tree bark, eating grass roots, and eating soil and stones, eating people, seeing the neighbors eat each other, ethics and morality are gone, the minister is also sad!"

After speaking, the prefect howled and cried, and his face was full of sadness.

Zhu Cihong was slightly surprised, he thought that the prefect would shirk his responsibilities and cover up the evil deeds under his rule, but he didn't expect to directly tell the truth about the various situations under his rule.

Zhu Cihong sighed, did not kill him, and said to him: "Your head is stored here first, and after you go back, you will immediately open a warehouse for disaster relief, organize the gentry and rich merchants to donate grain, and if necessary, the palace will allow you to use officers and soldiers to raid the rich merchants who have stored grain!" The palace will also report the situation of the return to the Defu to the emperor, and let the household department allocate food for you for disaster relief! ”

"Thank Your Highness for not killing!" The prefect wiped the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly thanked him.

Henan is not within the jurisdiction of his trip, and even if he kills the prefect, there is no suitable person to take over the Guide Mansion, so let him make meritorious contributions.

On the second day, the army continued its march, and when it reached the territory of Anhui, an incident occurred that made him furious.

Long Xiang did not receive reports at night that Sun Yingyuan, who set off from the waterway, since the march from Xuzhou to Xiao County, because the grain and grass were exhausted, and the government had no grain and grass along the way, there was a food shortage crisis in the army, and many soldiers in the army began to rob the surrounding people's homes.

Sun Yingyuan once arrested Liu Shijing, the magistrate of Xiao County, and asked why he didn't supply grain and grass to the Yongwei Battalion, and Liu Shijing, the magistrate of the county, cried out sadly: "General Sun, you can kill me, my county really has no food!" ”

Sun Yingyuan sent someone to investigate the granary, and found that the granary was empty, and there was not even a mouse, so he had no choice but to let the magistrate go.

The sergeants and soldiers of the army were starved for several days, and they had to march every day, and some of them had been homeless people before joining the army, and they were really frightened by hunger, so they remembered what the officers and soldiers did when there was a famine in their hometown, and they began to rob the food of the people's homes in the villages and towns in the south of Xiao County.

After the incident, Sun Yingyuan ordered all of them to be arrested and tied up, but he couldn't bear to correct them, he felt that it was a pity that the soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion did not die on the battlefield.

A Qian general named Gu Wei ignored everyone's opposition and forcibly beheaded all the soldiers under his command, including his own brother, he said: Military discipline cannot be abolished, His Royal Highness issued the "Seven Killings Order", and we must obey it.

After the two armies met, Sun Yingyuan immediately knelt down and pleaded: "The last general is not strict in governing the army, please punish His Highness!" ”

Zhu Cihong looked at him and said: "Military discipline, the emphasis is on persistence, otherwise it is just empty talk, go and get thirty military sticks yourself!" ”

Zhu Cihong felt pain in his heart, before the war, the army had become like this, the Yongwei Battalion, which had always been strict in military discipline, was still like this, what other officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were like, and the people were the people who suffered in the end!

Zhu Cihong held a military discipline meeting in the looted villages and towns of Xiao County, and ordered all the soldiers who committed the crime to be shot on the spot, and all the robbed people were compensated tenfold.

At the Military Discipline Conference, Zhu Cihong set up the Military Discipline Department, with General Manager Gu Wei as the minister, with the power of supervision, arrest, trial, and execution, and the Military Discipline Department was not under the jurisdiction of any official, but directly reported to the crown prince, and the trial result was handed over to the crown prince for final decision.

After the meeting, Zhu Cihong really realized the importance of logistics, which was a lesson in blood, and he began to plan to reform the Yongwei Battalion.

As the army continued to move south, the grain and grass in the army became more and more insufficient, seeing that the crown prince was worried, Li Tingbiao said: "Your Highness, the government has no food, and the people have no food, but the gentry and other rich merchants and officials have it, and the minister heard that many officials and rich businessmen collude to hoard grain, and they are unwilling to take it out even if it is rotten.......

Zhu Cihong's face was cold, and he said, "Don't want to take it out?" Do you keep the grave? ”

Yang Tinglin and the others, who were driving on the side, were shocked, and he said: "Your Highness, the interests of this gentry cannot be moved, if they are pressed, the consequences are unimaginable!" ”

"It's just a moth in some countries!" Zhu Cihong snorted coldly and said coldly: "Lone swears here that he will return to the prosperous world in his lifetime, no matter who obstructs him, Lone will definitely let him die without a place to be buried!" ”

He clenched Shang Fang's sword and looked at Li Tingbiao and said, "Jinyi Wei will go to Suzhou City first and investigate thoroughly!" ”