On the eighth day of the tenth month of the leap month, Maicheng.

More than 5,000 wounded soldiers of the two armies have now recovered more than 1,000 and continue to work here in Tianxin; Wounded soldiers died one after another, collapsed and begged for death, and nearly 1,000 people were reduced. The remaining wounded soldiers, who are less than 3,000, have basically stabilized and can wait for some time to recuperate.

One-fifth of the wounded soldiers were lost, and Tian Xin still felt a little incredible.

It would be incredible that someone else could feed a fifth of the wounded soldiers.

Now Tian Xin has actually rescued four-fifths of the wounded soldiers, and the generals and officials near and far have all praised and recited, which has increased Tian Xin's charm to twenty-five points.

Most of the wounded who were lightly wounded and did not hinder the march had been transferred with the army, and the wounded soldiers who remained in Maicheng were wounded soldiers who had lost their mobility.

Without this part of the lightly wounded soldiers who were easy to heal, Tian Xin's exploits in treating the wounded soldiers were even more brilliant.

Guan Yu and Guan Ping both sent their henchmen to Maicheng to learn Tian Xin's skills in rescuing wounded soldiers, and even Ma Chao sent his cousin Ma Dai to Maicheng to learn the skills of rescuing wounded soldiers in the name of teaching Tian Xin riding skills and riding warfare.

Many of Tian Xin's common sense of life is a lesson that our ancestors have condensed with their lives for generations.

Tian Xin has nothing to hide from this kind of experience, and the summary content is cataloged into a book, called "Epidemic Prevention and Rescue", which is taught to all armies.

In terms of war, with the recovery of Yiling City by Deng Fu and Xu Zuo, the Jingyi Pass was opened, and on October 18, Ma Chao led his troops to arrive at the mouth of the Tuoshui River by boat, and went directly to Linfu Zhutun without entering Jiangling.

The cavalry of Ma Chao's department, which made Tian Xin regret, was far less than he imagined, and he thought that with three thousand horsemen, there would be at least five or six thousand war horses.

But Ma Chao has 3,000 people here, and there are only more than 1,800 horses, which is enough to arm two cavalry battalions.

However, most of these horses are mares, and there are more than a dozen uncastrated stallions in the company, and if there is no war in the next few years, Ma Chao will breed horses in the valley north of Linfu.

The climate in Jiangling and Jingnan is hot and humid, which is not suitable for raising horses; It is also north of Linfu, and the valleys and hills on both sides of the Han River are suitable for raising horses.

But horses can only be ridden and fought after they are five years old, and a large number of war horses are bred in Linfang...... Not cost-effective.

And these 1,800 horses have to eat nearly 10,000 stone of black beans for their monthly rations.

Counting the rations of 3,000 soldiers, only 3,000 people moved to Jingzhou, and the monthly ration expenditure was about 5,000 stone of rice, millet, wheat, and 10,000 stone of black beans. By next year's summer harvest, the total military food expenditure of Ma Chao's department alone will be 30,000 stone for grain and 60,000 stone for beans.

Under such an extremely embarrassing situation of military rations, the Tuyi soldiers who had raised troops in the Jingnan area were successively dismissed by Guan Yu and returned to their hometowns.

Naturally, it was impossible to let these spontaneously gathered Tuyi soldiers return to their hometowns empty-handed at the first order, and they were generally rewarded with a horse of linen cloth or coarse silk, or let these Tuyi soldiers return to their hometowns with booty.

The more than 40,000 Yi soldiers who swarmed in the Jingnan area were appeased and returned to their hometowns, and more than 10,000 of them were selected to become soldiers, which were subordinate to the four counties of Changsha, Guiyang, Lingling, and Wuling.

The surplus of more than 10,000 soldiers in the four counties of Jingnan has a total of 120,000 stone in half a year.

Before and after the Wei army and the Wu army surrendered 40,000 troops, the rations were halved compared with the auxiliary soldiers, and the military rations were consumed at least 150,000 stone before the summer harvest.

Guan Yu, Guan Ping, Tian Xin, Xia Houlan, Lei Xu, Pang Lin, Guo Mu, Deng Fu, and Zhao Lei each had about 36,000 people, about 2,000 horses, and the total amount of military rations before the summer harvest was at least 350,000 stones, and beans were 200,000 stones.

Excluding the officials, the consumption of military rations in just half a year was 680,000 stones, and beans were 260,000 stones.

The current reserves of the Jingzhou army are less than one and a half months.

The military food reserves are stretched thin, and the plague is poisonous, and the collection of taxes and rents at the end of the year is almost impossible, so it is imperative to exempt taxes and rents this year.

If you don't exempt you, you have to take it all if you want it, and you can't favor one over the other. If they are all collected, the officials will visit the tuns and townships, which will accelerate the spread of the plague.

At such times, the less movement between towns and villages, the better, and the exemption from taxes has become inevitable.

Then, at the end of the winter month, all the members of the Jingzhou army will run out of food.

Whether or not more grain can be collected in a month and a half has become the biggest problem for the Jingzhou army at present.

Tian Xin had a deep headache for this problem, and what was even more troublesome was that in the above-mentioned hard expenditure on military rations, not counting the 6,000 people brought by Lu Yi, these 6,000 people had a half-year ration of 60,000 stones.

Do you want to farm in Maicheng, but the food is about to run out, do you honestly starve and suffer, or gather the army to fight in Jiangdong and eat the enemy?

The war has been dominated by food, fighting for food, and if there is no food, the army will be scattered.

While Tian Xin was meditating, Lu Yi led his 6,000 men to Huya Mountain outside Yiling City, accepted the warships brought by Xu Zuo, and reorganized a naval division force of 8,000 people.

Naturally, the soldiers of the Navy Division could not all use the people brought by Lu Yi, and Huang Quan participated in and was responsible for the preparation and training of the Navy Division.

Tian Xin also came to Huya Mountain to discuss the issue of military rations with Huang Quan and Lu Yi, the lack of food in Yizhou is not a secret, and the lack of food in Jingzhou is not a secret to Sun Quan and Lu Yi, and there is nothing to hide now.

There are two roads in front of the Jingzhou army, one is to send troops to Jiangdong to grab grain, and eat the enemy; One is to accept Sun Quan's peace and accept the compensation of one million stone of military rations.

Tian Xin brought the latest military information when he came to Huya Mountain Water Village, and reported to Huang Quan and Lu Yi: "Cao's army has contracted the defensive line, and Xu Gongming has recently retreated from Wancheng to Yexian to garrison. Tian Yu once again served as the county guard of Nanjun, and now there are only more than 100 people in Tianyu Province, and there are only 300 county soldiers, which is extremely empty. In addition, Jiangxia Wenpin only led his troops to retreat to Xinye, Jiangxia has all fallen into the hands of Sun Quan, and Sun Quan made the veteran Han Dang stationed in the counties left by Wenpin. ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Lu Yi, who hurried back to attend the meeting, Lu Yi's appearance, skin, and temperament were slightly worse than Guan Ping's, and he was insulated from the temperament of an elegant scholar, sitting there like a general with a tiger's back and an ape's waist, and his bearing was solemn.

Lu Yi was also observing Tian Xin and Huang Quan, and saw that Huang Quan and Tian Xin were not outside, Tian Xin was holding a tea bowl and talking, and after speaking, he blew tea soup; Huang Quan turned over the wheat cakes baked by the brazier, and his expression was casual: "What does filial piety mean?" ”

"General Zuo assists in the defense of Xiangyang, but Xiangyang is not lost; The guards are guarding Gangneung, and Gangneung will not be lost. And I led the newly formed army of the four counties of Jingnan to enter Jiaozhou through the Xiangjiang River, and I could transport back at least 300,000 stone of military rations within a month. With these 300,000 stone military rations, he can deal with Sun Quan. If my march is smooth, I can force Jiaozhou to surrender and transport Jiaozhou rice to Jingzhou, and our army will be able to hold each other until Yizhou rice is ripe. ”

When the rice is ripe, the Jingzhou army will have the initiative again.

Using grain to lure the Jingzhou army to a truce was Sun Quan's only means.

If Sun Quan is attacked, Sun Quan is very likely to burn all the grain that the Jingzhou army can grab.

Therefore, attacking Sun Quan to go to Jiangdong to grab grain, there is a great possibility of falling short.

Jiaozhou is different, Buqi will honor Sun Quan's order to burn grain, and the Shi brothers will not obey this kind of order that harms others and is not beneficial to themselves.

As long as the Buqi of Cangwu County is quickly defeated, the natural energy source of grain in the area controlled by the Shi brothers will continue to be transported to Jingzhou.

Lu Yi asked at this time: "General, do the people of Jingzhou have surplus grain?" ”

"Yes, but our army has strict discipline, and we will not demolish houses if we freeze to death, and we will not loot if we starve to death."

Tian Xin said with a smile: "The king of Han regards the people as his children and can't bear to harm them, and most of the officials in our army are from the poor family and the people's homes, and they are all willing to die." ”

Lu Yi, Xie Jing, and Xu Zuo's expressions all changed slightly, and they really couldn't refute it after thinking about it carefully.