When the siege of the Daimyo's Mansion was carried out to the most critical moment, an iron box was escorted all the way from Jiangning Mansion to Weizhou.

Zhu Gui, who was handling intelligence in Weizhou, was shocked when he saw this iron box!

Because, in the intelligence system of the Heavenly Dao Army, this seemingly ordinary iron box represents the highest authority, it is made by the best craftsmen in the world, with a secret lock, if there is no special key, it cannot be opened at all, and there is an internal mechanism, if someone violently disassembles it, the things inside will be burned, and it has not been used since it was built, this is the first time, although it is placed in front of Zhu Gui at this moment, he is not even qualified to open it as the intelligence leader of the Heavenly Dao Army, and he can't open it.

Zhu Gui didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly rushed from Weizhou to the Daimyo's Mansion with the iron box overnight, and wanted to hand it over to Zheng Fei's hands, only Zheng Fei was qualified to open it!

But when he arrived at the Daimyo's mansion, it was already late at night, and the soldiers of the guard regiment said that the commander had rested, and that it would be dawn in another hour, and that he would talk about it tomorrow.

If it was something else, Zhu Gui would have done it, but this iron box made him not dare to delay for even an hour, and insisted that the guards went in to report, saying that there was an urgent matter that must be reported to the commander immediately, and the guards had to do it.

Zheng Fei was woken up from a deep sleep, and when he heard that Zhu Gui had rushed over from Weizhou overnight to ask for a meeting, his heart moved, knowing that something must be wrong, and his sleepiness was completely gone, so he immediately summoned Zhu Gui in,

When he saw the inconspicuous small iron box in the hand of Zhu Gui, who walked in quickly from outside, he immediately understood why Zhu Gui was so eager to see him, and then ordered Li Sangen to take out a special key and open the iron box, only to see that there was only a folded paper in the iron box.

Zheng Fei took out the paper and unfolded it, only looked at it twice, and Zhu Gui, who was on the side, clearly saw Zheng Fei's hand holding the paper shaking slightly.

"Third watch, go and summon them all." Zheng Fei frowned and said without raising his head,

Li San hesitated even more, and glanced at the darkness outside, "Now?" ”

"Now, right now!"

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Zhu Wu, Wu Yong, Pang Wanchun, Hua Rong and others all rushed to the Shuai tent as quickly as possible after receiving the letter, and they were greeted by a thunderbolt news----- the food and grass of the Heavenly Dao Army was about to be supplied!

The letter was written to Zheng Fei by Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng, who were far away in Jiangning Mansion, and they said that not long after Zheng Fei led his army north, many places in the south had suffered floods, and Huaidong had suffered a great drought!

In order to provide disaster relief, Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng and others ordered the garrisons and militias to participate in disaster relief on the one hand, and ordered the Yicang to open wide range of Yicang to relieve the victims, but compared with the huge number of millions of victims, the food contributed by Yicang is only a drop in the bucket. At the same time, Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng also had to raise a steady stream of grain and grass to be transported to the front line.

It must be known that although the total number of Tiandao troops on the front line, even if you add the hundreds of thousands of Liaoxia troops who have surrendered, it is only 700,000, which is indeed not much compared to the millions of victims, but the consumption of grain and grass in the war is not only the consumption of the army, but also the consumption of grain transportation to the front line.

In the past two months, Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng have been busy and have been struggling to raise grain and grass, trying to meet the needs of both the front line and the disaster area. But today, as the damage spreads further, it is becoming more and more difficult for them to sustain themselves.

The real question that arises is whether to give priority to relief to the victims or to ensure the supply of food and grass on the front line.

So, Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng had no choice but to send a secret letter to Zheng Fei, waiting for Zheng Fei's decision, the reason why they wanted to use the highest level iron box to transmit news was that they were afraid that this matter would be known by the enemy.

Everyone was taken aback by the news, and now at this critical moment, this kind of problem has occurred, which is simply terrible! They also knew that there was a natural disaster in the rear before, but they didn't expect it to be so serious, because Zheng Fei had also sent a letter to ask Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng about the disaster, Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng's reply every time was not a big problem, please rest assured that the commander and the front-line soldiers and so on, now it seems that they don't want Zheng Fei and the front-line army to be distracted by food and grass, so they have been pretending to be nothing, but in fact, they are gritting their teeth and holding on.

In addition to grain and grass, Hu Sanniang and Gongsun Sheng also mentioned another thing in the letter, that is, the current financial situation of the Heavenly Dao Army is also worrying. Although the areas occupied by the Heavenly Dao Army are all rich lands of the Great Song Dynasty, the land of fish and rice, and the taxes are extremely rich, the current expenditures of the Heavenly Dao Army are also huge, and Zheng Fei has always implemented high salaries. At the same time, Zheng Fei was also willing to spend money on the army, not only to support the food, clothing, shelter, and transportation of a million-strong army, but also to spend huge sums of money to manufacture advanced weapons and firearms, which added up to an astronomical amount.

Over the years, the expenditure of the Heavenly Dao Army has only barely balanced, and now that such a big battle is fought, the finances are stretched, and all kinds of problems have erupted, but compared to the urgent food and grass problem, it is not so serious.

Zhu Wu, Wu Yong and others immediately started a discussion and discussed countermeasures.

Zheng Fei fell into hard thinking, but the focus of his thinking was not on grain and grass, but on finance and the many problems hidden behind it.

The problem of grain and grass is more caused by accidents, it can only be said that God does not help, or God does not want to watch the Great Song Dynasty be destroyed, and he has to give Zheng Fei another problem, but Zheng Fei has already been aware of the financial problem, he has always been very clear that under his own policy of strengthening the army, the expenditure of the Tiandao Army is very huge, this is a problem that cannot be ignored, the reason why there will be huge problems in the middle and late stages of the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to the emperor's mediocrity and traitorous ministers, the more important problem is the three redundancy, namely: redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses. If corrupt officials and corrupt officials secretly suck the blood of the Great Song Dynasty, then the three redundancies are clearly and legally exhausted the power of the Great Song Dynasty.

Although the huge expenditures of the Heavenly Dao Army were all spent in the right place and did not flow into the pockets of corrupt officials and corrupt officials, the problems caused were very similar to the three redundancies of the Great Song Dynasty.

Zheng Fei has always wanted to solve this problem, but unfortunately the reality forced him to do it immediately, the generous treatment and guarantee is the material basis to ensure the strong combat effectiveness of the Heavenly Dao Army, and now is also the time to use troops, especially when the Jin Army is about to go south, it cannot be easily changed.

The best way to meet the huge expenses of the Heavenly Dao Army is to find a way to get more money. This is also the fundamental reason why he first wanted to attack the south, that is, to take the rich land of the south into his hands.

But God just played a big joke on Zheng Fei, after he conquered the south, he immediately found that the harvest was more of a mess that had been made by the Great Song Dynasty and the Huashi Gang, and the basic economy was on the verge of bankruptcy, so in fact, he did not get much help from the south, on the contrary, to some extent, he had to pour money into it.

As a result, the financial pressure on the Heavenly Dao Army was even greater. At the beginning, Zheng Fei's best choice after discovering this problem should actually be a temporary truce, vigorously restore the economy of various places, and after the southern vitality is restored, he can provide strong financial support for the Tiandao army to attack the Song Dynasty and resist the invasion of the Jin army that will come later.

But it's still that problem, the reality makes it impossible for Zheng Fei to do this, and the time left for Zheng Fei is getting less and less, and Zhao Huan also attracted the Liaoxia army, forcing Zheng Fei to send troops.

So in fact, what Zheng Fei is facing now is not just a problem of food and grass, but a matter of life and death, it can be said that once the financial problem gets out of control, the foundation he has worked so hard to build is likely to collapse in an instant, at least it will be greatly damaged by this, and he is not able to make a difference in the subsequent invasion of the Jin army!

Thinking of this, Zheng Fei only felt that it seemed a little abrupt, he felt that this time the problem of grain and grass did not seem to be a problem given to him by God, but an opportunity, this is a wake-up call from God to himself in advance, so that he still has a chance to save, otherwise, if it is delayed until the final decisive battle with the Jin Army, it will be really fatal!

"Commander, what do you think?" Seeing that Zheng Fei was always silent, Zhu Wu couldn't help but ask curiously, the hall instantly fell silent, and everyone looked at Zheng Fei,

Zheng Fei raised his head and said, "There is nothing to hesitate about this question, we must protect the victims first!" Don't forget the foundation of our Heavenly Dao Army, if we don't care about the lives and deaths of the common people, what face do we have to call ourselves Heavenly Dao Army? ”

Everyone nodded and agreed, but everyone's faces still inevitably showed a look of regret, protecting the victims first means withdrawing the army, and the current situation is so good, it is an excellent time to destroy the Song Kingdom, so give up in vain and say that it is a pity that it must be false.

Zheng Fei also sighed in his heart when he saw everyone's reaction, and he regretted this matter no less than anyone else, because he knew that giving up the destruction of the Song Dynasty now would most likely mean that he would not be able to complete the destruction of the Song Dynasty before the invasion of the Jin army, but there was no way, for the sake of a more long-term plan, he could only do this!

However, even if he wanted to do this, Zheng Fei was not ready to withdraw his troops in vain, so he immediately smiled and said, "Disaster victims, we must save them, this soldier, we must also withdraw, but before withdrawing, we also have to make a fortune before leaving!" ”

When many people heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up, and Zhu Wu blinked and smiled, "Commander, what do you mean......?" ”

Zheng Fei waved his hand, "Forcing Song Guo to negotiate peace, if you want to leave, you have to ask them to let us go!" ”