The meeting began in an extremely tense atmosphere, except for a few important generals stationed at the Gyeonggi Gate, almost all the high-ranking officials of the Han army and government gathered at the residence of the generalissimo Zhongnanhai, and even Dai Zi, who had been immersed in the ordnance manufacturing factory, was ordered to attend the decision-making meeting.

There were 170,000 powder cartridges outside the city, and there was nothing more frightening than any other work.

Everyone present knew the seriousness of the matter, and there was an air of worry and gloom in the hall, which used to be carried out in such deliberations, and many officials tended to whisper to each other secretly below, but this time everyone was silent, and all of them were straight, and even the officers who were rude and rude and loved to make gags tried their best to control their expressions, and they were all silent.

Lin Feng's face was pale, and the high-intensity paperwork that had not slept for several days made his eye frames deeply sunken, and at this moment he was exhausted, he shook his head weakly, and swept his gaze from one end to the other.

There was a pang of disappointment in his heart - it was a sign of helplessness.

The meeting had just begun, and it had been cold for almost a quarter of an hour.

Seeing that no one was silent, Li Guangdi shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly, whether it was from the official rank or the scope of authority, this head cannon had to be fired by him. He cleared his throat and coughed dryly, "Ministers, the commander has already made it clear that at present, millions of displaced people are pressing the border, and the situation in Gyeonggi is critical. ”

“……”

Lin Feng had no choice but to name him personally, "Pei Gong, you have always been resourceful and quick-witted—in your opinion, what should be done in this matter?!" ”

"Da Shuai ......" Zhou Peigong frowned, groaned slightly, and said slowly, "Da Shuai is not ignorant, the elite of the lowly position, the army is cunning, this kind of people's livelihood economy, it is not possible to know it......" Seeing that Lin Feng was quite unhappy, he smiled bitterly, "But at the moment, it is extraordinary, and I dare not take it lightly - I dare not deceive the marshal, these days I led the army and General Wang Dahai to consolidate the city defense day by day, check the displaced people, and also visited and discussed this matter. The solution can be between the easy and the hard!! ”

"Oh?! …… This...... Pei Gong, how do you say this?! Lin Feng was stunned, looking left and right, and all the civil officials in the hall were also puzzled.

"Humble duty means that it is not difficult to get through the current difficulties, but the difficulties will be difficult in the future!" Zhou Peigong stood up and arched his hand, "The day before yesterday, I went through the grain account book of my Han army, and according to the above figures, I can supply the soldiers and civilians around my Gyeonggi until next summer, but if you want to help this group of displaced people, it is absolutely impossible - so this matter is a dilemma, if you don't help them, they will definitely rise up, if you give them relief, my Gyeonggi soldiers and civilians will also accompany them to starve to death, some people think about it, if you want to get through this pass, maybe you can only follow the story of the original Song Dynasty......"

"Co-opt the young? Dismiss the old and weak 、......" Lin Feng couldn't cry or laugh.

"The marshal doesn't know, these homeless people are not in a group, they have visited many times these days, and learned that most of these more than 1.7 million people are from Shanxi, Anhui, Henan, Suiyuan and other places, this kind of Diao people have different voices and customs, or rely on clans, or rely on regions to live in groups, and have never shared the same voice, and even because of the lack of food, they are more hostile to each other, so I think that our Han army can divide and conquer as much as possible......"

"Pei Gong is cautious!" Lin Feng couldn't help but stand up, and said in an accentuated tone, "The slaughter of the people will be pointed out by thousands of people, and this matter must not be mentioned before the moment of life and death!" …… If the sword is opened, what ......will you and I be in the future?"

"It's a matter of life and death!!" Zhou Peigong unceremoniously interrupted Lin Feng's words, his eyes were blazing, and he looked at Lin Feng without giving in......

"This matter must not be ......" Chen Menglei was shocked, couldn't wait to jump up, fell to his knees with a thud, and after apologizing to Lin Feng, he turned his head to Zhou Peigong and glared angrily, and scolded, "Peigong is stupid, this strategy to destroy the country - have you ever known the fate of the thief and Zhang Reyi that day, if we follow suit, what is the difference between it and the thief?" When the people's hearts are lost, the crowd of the world will attack them, and we will not be able to bury ourselves in a hill!! ”

Lin Feng waved his hand to stop Chen Menglei's fierce speech, he understood what he meant, Li Zicheng liked to play this set the most at the beginning - mobile combat like locusts, every time he killed a place, he robbed everything he could, destroyed everything he could, let the landlord become a corpse, let the rich peasants and middle peasants become poor, and let the poor become his soldiers, so that the anti-civilization and anti-human war method can indeed achieve the short-term benefits of the military group at the beginning, but it is absolutely uncontrollable in the later stage- When the army does not fight for political purposes, but purely for the purpose of robbery, then the war loses any meaning.

History has long proved this, and Li Zicheng succeeded in this way, and thus failed - his army was in a better position in the broken north, but if it drove to the south, it was immediately met with fierce resistance from all classes except the poor peasants, and whether he was strong or weak, the landlord class and the intellectual class rarely compromised with him.

The fact that the landlords in Jiangnan could endure the enslavement of foreign races, but could not accept Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, is very telling, and the mode of war against humanity is unacceptable to any reasonable person.

Thinking of this, Lin Feng let out a long sigh, raised his hand to signal Chen Menglei to stand up, turned his head to look at Zhou Peigong, and said regretfully, "What Pei Gong said is extremely true—but this matter will never work no matter what," he said with a wry smile, "Not to mention how difficult it is to train five or six hundred thousand soldiers, does Pei Gong think that we will be able to control this five or six hundred thousand army in the future?" INTERVIEWER Do you remember the stories of Beijing and Tianjin some time ago? At that time, we had so few men and horses, and the military discipline was not maintained, if we really organized five or six hundred thousand 'Han troops' who lived exclusively on looting, then who would control them? -" He looked gloomy, holding out a finger and pointing to his nose, "Is it you- or me?!" ”

“…… Alas!! That's why I said that this matter should be between 'easy' and 'not easy', and it will be inevitable in the future......" Zhou Peigong sighed and bowed his head silently.

"There are a lot of such things in the history books, I remember that Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms suffered this loss - when he barely collected the remnants of the Yellow Turban, these brutal soldiers immediately ransacked Xuzhou, killing thousands of miles of bones and mourning all over the wilderness - you are all understandable people, do you think that with Cao Cao's political wisdom, he will do such a stupid thing?" Lin Feng smiled bitterly, "Hehe...... 'revenge for killing my father', a clumsy excuse of last resort!" ”

"With Cao Cao's strength, it's not enough to control this kind of chaotic army, can we do it? - It's not the Three Kingdoms now, there are Wu Sangui's Great Zhou Army and Manchu Yu in the south of the Yangtze River, there are Mongolian Geldan Tuxetu troops in the north, and there is Liaodong Manchu Nest in the east to regroup, Pei Gong! If we lose this righteous name again, then what are we left with?! ”

The words made everyone's hearts heavier and heavier, and there was silence in the hall for a long time, Li Guangdi sighed slightly, and reluctantly lifted his spirits and said, "Everyone, this matter is not without other solutions......

Li Guangdi stood up, crossed Chen Menglei and Zhou Peigong in the hall, arched his hand to Lin Feng, and then turned around and faced everyone in the hall, "Colleagues, in fact, we have been ignoring one thing before-we have been worried about relief, but have you ever thought about whether we must use rice and grain for relief?!" ”

The officials were stunned, and the hall whispered to each other, but they didn't understand what Li Guangdi meant.

Li Guangdi smiled slightly, he looked up at the bird's nest on the roof, casually flicked a little dust on his clothes, and said lightly, "What can I eat?" What can be eaten to live? What are the homeless people out there eating now? - Have you ever thought about it?! ”

Chen Menglei was slightly startled, and suddenly felt that Huo Ran was cheerful in front of him, and blurted out, "Yes...... Displaced people can eat everything...... Wild grasses, tree bark, sorghum stalks, Guanyin soil......"

Lin Feng cut off his words and nodded, "Yes, now our goal is to make them barely able to survive, so that most of the stronger people can survive this winter—as for what to eat, it doesn't matter!" ”

Chen Menglei slapped his thigh, "That's right—we now have a province of Zhili, if we use all our strength to collect wild vegetables, tree bark, grass roots, elm tree leaves, and other miscellaneous things......"

As if suddenly moving away from the mountain that covered everyone's eyes, the atmosphere in the conference hall suddenly became lively, everyone was talking loudly, and an officer said in a loud voice, "Marshal, we have a Baiyangdian Lake in Baoding, where the reed roots can be eaten, and there are a lot of edible old lotus roots and fresh fish in the mud......"

"Are you from Baoding?!" In a noisy voice, Lin Feng pointed to the officer who was speaking, and asked with a smile.

The officer stepped forward and made a thousand, "Returning to the marshal, the mark was cast with General Sun Sike, and his hometown is in Baiyangdian!" ”

"Hehe, yes, yes, it's hard for you to be an officer, and you still know this kind of livelihood, it's really rare!" Lin Feng praised loudly, glanced at it, and looked at the civil officials next to him who were dissatisfied.

The civil officials suddenly felt that their faces were gloomy, and one of the civil officials sitting at the end stood up angrily and knelt down towards Lin Feng, "Dashuai, after discussion, I feel that in addition to those wild things, other bean cakes, black beans, horse dregs, barley, oats, etc. can also be transferred from the stock and supplemented with other miscellaneous grains...... Weeds and the like, this matter is complicated, not only to facilitate production and preservation, but also to let the displaced people eat, civil affairs have a lot to do with it, and it is definitely not an idea that can be implemented immediately......" He glanced at the red-faced officer beside him, and looked at Lin Feng proudly.

"Oh?! …… Hey, yes, yes, you guys think well! Lin Feng laughed, "Sir, please, what's your name?" Where are you working right now?! ”

"Humble Tang Bin, originally from Henan, is now serving as the treasurer of grain and straw under Lord Li......"

"Good, good! Listening to Lord Tang's remarks, Ben Shuai suddenly opened, I don't know if you have any other way?! In the jealous eyes of the officials, Lin Feng personally walked down and stretched out his hand to help Tang Bin. He casually flicked Tang Bin's body to share the floating soil, "Don't be nervous, let's talk slowly." ”

Tang Bin's expression was excited, his shoulders shrugged and he couldn't stop trembling slightly, he reluctantly settled down, and said in a deep voice, "Dashuai knows, our northern land is bitterly cold, and the days of ice often reach several months, and the number of displaced people is huge, so if you want to rely on sundries to survive the strategy, you must make detailed preparations!" ”

"Yes, yes, yes!" Lin Feng slapped his hands and praised it, looking at Tang Bin with appreciation, "Lao Tang is right, everything must not be taken for granted, civil affairs is important in practice, it is one thing to say it, and it is another thing to do it, we can't take it lightly!" - Old Tang, you continue. ”

"Yes, Dashuai!" Tang Bin was much calmer at the moment, he raised his head, broke free from Lin Feng's support slightly, and thanked the officials in the court who were higher than him one by one according to the rules of officialdom, and then said eloquently, "According to the humble opinion, if we really want to act according to this method, the first thing we do now is not to raise food, but to build a grass hut!" ——This matter is extremely important, since our Han army has made up its determination to provide relief and pacification on the spot, it is bound to send more people to control the displaced people, according to the regional clans of these displaced people, these displaced people outside the city now seem to be disorganized, but in fact it is not the case, as far as Tang knows, these displaced people are often a township, a village, a place and a county of collective escape, at the moment can master them are mostly the old people in the clan, for example: if our Han army sends some irrelevant public servants to distribute grain, grass and wild vegetables, regardless of whether they are corrupt or not, Let's just say how much of these wild things that are distributed can reach the hands of the homeless?! If our Han army does not rebuild the rules and morals, those strong bullies will definitely make waves and bully the weak, so wouldn't it be half the effort?! ”

"Tsk...... Good words, Mr. Zhenguoshi!! Lin Feng slapped his ass at the right time, Tang Bin's heart was overjoyed, and his bones suddenly lightened a few taels.

"Therefore, according to what we have seen, we must send a large army, first lure them with grain and grass, and then divide them into groups - with a limit of three hundred to five hundred people to form a village, help build a barely sheltered shack, and then order the old man who is known as a prestige in his clan as his leader, and in the future, all the goods donated by our Han army will be distributed and disposed of by the old man of the clan, so that it will be difficult for our public servants to be corrupt; Second, the yamen has a lot less turnover expenditure; The three rules must be very fair when they are distributed, and the old and weak can have hope; Fourth, even if something goes wrong, no one can blame us, and if you want to blame them, we can only blame them for the injustice of the elderly, even if there is turmoil, we are easy to control it; The five common people and clans will definitely be admired, the hearts of the people will be harvested, and the name of the handsome benevolence and righteousness will definitely spread all over the world - this is a plan to kill several birds with one stone!! Tang Bin's face involuntarily floated a little proud, and he knelt on the ground again, "This is a big man, I hope the big man will accept it!" ”

"Strong !!" Lin Feng was stunned for a while, and suddenly a word popped out, helped Tang Bin up again, and said sincerely, "Mr. is really talented!" Turning his head to look at Li Guangdi, he scolded lightly, "Jin Qing has never fulfilled his responsibilities, Lao Tang is so knowledgeable, you actually let him commit to the little official - you are the head of the civil officials, this talent is simple, but you have to pay more attention!" ”

Li Guangdi smiled and said, "Uncle Kong, his subordinates have always relied on him, and these days he has presided over the livelihood of our Han army, which can also be regarded as a high authority, and the commander is responsible, and his subordinates dare not accept it!" ”

In fact, Lin Feng himself didn't have any concept of this "treasurer" position under him, he originally thought that he was just a warehouse head, but when he heard Li Guang say that it was so important, he also blushed at the moment, smiled wryly, and patted Tang Bin's shoulder heavily, "Anyway, this position of treasurer is too wronged by Kong Bo!" Looking at Tang Bin, who was grateful, Lin Feng groaned slightly, and asked tentatively, "Kong Bo, you are a young talent, and I am also young and high-level, so we don't want to talk about seniority, I ask you now, if Ben Shuai orders you to be in charge of these 1.7 million displaced people, do you have the courage to do it next?!" ”

Tang Bin smiled proudly, and bowed to Lin Feng without being humble or arrogant, "The ambition of my subordinates in my life is to assist the Lord Ming to level the world, if it is not a certain wild words, this is only a million homeless people, and the subordinates may not be in their eyes!" ”

"Haha, I actually met someone who is more arrogant than me!" Lin Feng laughed and pointed at Tang Bin, looking around at the Han army officials in the hall, "But I really appreciate people like you—Tang Bin listens to orders—"

Tang Bin Shi Shiran flicked the placket of his shirt and fell to his knees.

"From today on, you will be Li Guangdi's deputy, in charge of this relief!" Lin Feng restrained his smile, strode back to his seat, and ordered, "This matter is a matter of life and death for the Han army, you must go all out!" Now I command:-"

"From today onwards, all the people in the territory of the Han Dynasty must make every effort to collect wild bark, grass roots, wild vegetables, grass seeds, etc., before the freeze, and pay a certain amount according to the household - remember, no grain, only grass, if anyone dares to take advantage of this, regardless of the official rank, they will be killed on the spot, and there is no need to give me!"

After the civil officials received the order, Lin Feng said to Zhou Pei, "Pei Gong, you can draft a military order, and order Zhao Guangyuan's headquarters in Xuanhua to fully cooperate with the local yamen and purchase food from the grassland herdsmen, as long as we can eat it, we will all load it and transport it back to the hoard!" ”

"Order Zhao Liangdong and Liu Laosi, who are stationed in Datong and the front line in Dezhou, to close the border from now on and prohibit the entry of displaced people, and at the same time cooperate with the Jin merchant horse team to smuggle grain and grass in Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong as much as possible. ……”

Speaking of this, Lin Feng groaned a little and said to Zhou Pei, "Give an order to ** Sheng, and return to Beijing to report on work from now on." ”

Zhou Peigong was slightly stunned, and when he raised his head and met Lin Feng's gaze, he didn't dare to say more, and lowered his eyes to concentrate on the record.

Looking at Zhou Peigong, who was drafting the military order, Lin Feng suddenly turned his head and whispered to Tang Bin and Li Guang, "Two gentlemen, after you go back, tell those businessmen in the Chamber of Commerce that I am vigorously buying seeds and farm tools here, and ask them to think of more ways," he paused, as if he hesitated slightly, and then continued, "In addition, when you separate the displaced people, try to move them in the direction of Shanhaiguan!" ”

"Ahh …… The lord ......" Li Guangdi and Tang Bin immediately understood what Lin Feng meant, and looked at each other in shock.

"I can't ......help it," Lin Feng said with a gloomy face, pointing to the map on the wall, "Now Shanxi, Henan, and Anhui are unable to use troops, and Shandong is close to the Qing army's million main forces, at this moment, we must not destroy the confrontation between them and Wu Sangui - if we enter Shandong to stimulate the rear of the Qing army, the consequences are extremely unpredictable!" Although it may not lead the Qing army brigade to the north, it will definitely be very disadvantageous to our army! As the saying goes, persimmons pick up soft pinching, Liaodong is fertile and rare-earth, and the army is empty, we have to look for them! ”

“…… But......" said Li Guangdi anxiously, "...... But Marshal, we are in danger everywhere now, both the military and the government are trembling and walking on thin ice, if the war starts at this time, I am afraid ......"

"I can't help it," Lin Feng shook his head painfully, as if trying to get rid of something, "Do we have a choice now?" What will happen to these millions of displaced people after the spring begins next year? Is there any other way we can do it? - Don't look at the heated discussion we just now, do you really think that these bark and grass roots can stand up to the problem, alas...... If I'm not mistaken, these 1.7 million displaced people can survive seventy percent of this winter, which is already a blessing to invite heaven......"

"This ...... Alas......" Li Guangdi and Tang Bin were silently calculating, and they had nothing to say for a while. Seeing these 500,000 or 600,000 people inevitably die, this heavy feeling is really beyond words.

"So we have to find a way out for these people," Lin Feng said coldly with a gloomy face, "It is precisely because the situation is critical that we must attack!" ”

Looking at the two of them with hesitant faces, Lin Feng said in a deep voice, "The sword of the Great Han must open up the land for the plough of the Great Han!" ”

“……”

He turned away and didn't face them anymore, and his tone was resolute, "There is no need to discuss this matter again, Ben Shuai has made up his mind, even if there are thousands of dangers, he will die without regrets!! ”