The whistling north wind kept blowing, rolling up the leaves and dust on the ground, so that the sergeants on duty at the city gate could not open their eyes. A few leather-armored sergeants holding ash poles and spears crowded in the hole of the city gate to avoid the cold wind, and the people in ragged clothes came in and out from time to time outside the city gate, such as the people who did not bring large items into the city, the sergeants did not bother to get up to check, but just looked at them in a daze, as long as they were not Turkic-looking people. At this time, although it was not snowing in Yulin County, which was located at the junction with the Turks, the temperature had plummeted a lot.

A Sui army general on the city wall above the city gate silently watched the people coming in and out. In fact, at this time, the garrison was not much stronger than the people, and the winter clothes had not been issued for a long time, and the garrisons in the barracks had already canceled their drills, hid in military tents to avoid the cold, or gathered in piles of three or five together burning wood to keep warm. Eating two meals a day without meat does not allow the body to produce calories to ward off the cold.

It has been three days since the last Turkic cavalry raided the towns around Yulin City, because the news was received earlier, the last raid did not cause much financial loss, but the people outside the city moved into the city one after another. The general on duty at the city gate looked at the bleak late autumn scene in the distance, and shook his head uncontrollably.

At this time, a spear-wielding soldier beside him whispered: "General, do you think the Turkic cavalry will come to plunder again?" ”

"Probably not, the Turks have come several times in vain, and there is nothing to be done about our city, and it will be useless to come again. However, the greatest difficulty facing my Yulin was not the Turkic cavalry. Alas! The general of the city said with a soft sigh.

"Yes! Checkmate. The villain saw that the people who went into the city to avoid disasters were all blue-faced, and they were all single-clothed and foodless, even if Tang Gong was kind to porridge every day, but seeing that it was winter, this year seemed to be colder than in previous years, even if he didn't starve to death, he would freeze to death! Even the soldiers around him saw the impending crisis and were worried about the people of Yulin.

"General, look at the official road ahead, there seems to be a caravan coming. Wow! Lots of horses. On the other side, a soldier with very good eyesight suddenly shouted. The city gate officer hurriedly looked up at the courtyard.

"It was ordered that the caravan of horses should be detained as soon as they entered the city." The city gate officer ordered sharply. After hearing the order, the soldiers on one side immediately ran down the city wall to give orders to the officers and soldiers on duty at the city gate.

At the same time, the mansion of Li Yuan, the Tang Duke of Jinyang City.

"Sichang, what you said some time ago that Yang Guang, the king of Hedong Jin, promised to send me 500,000 stones of Jinyang grain, is it true or false? Why hasn't it been delivered? Li Yuan paced back and forth in the study with a lot of concern, and suddenly asked his son-in-law Chai Shao, who was standing on the side. At this time, Chai Shao had returned from Jingshi for many days, and had already brought a conversation with Yang Guang, the king of Jin, to his father-in-law Li Yuan in Wufeng Tower, but Li Yuan did not take the words of the king of Jin seriously at that time. He thought to himself, there was no reason why the King of Jin would suddenly be kind enough to help him, and there was a calculation in it. It's just that in the past half a month, the northern Turkic cavalry has continuously attacked and harassed the three northern counties, and the people of the three counties have taken refuge in the city for self-protection. A large number of refugees came south to Jinyang City, and there were many refugees in Jinyang City, which made the pressure on Jinyang City suddenly increase sharply. The daily opening of the warehouse for relief grain, so that the Jinyang treasury is gradually empty, originally this year's drought into the storage of autumn grain is less, plus the three northern counties have been looted by the Turks, and the fields are not harvested. There are several porridge relief places in the city, and the porridge is as thin as water, which arouses the anger of the hungry people and almost causes a civil uprising. Today, in the study, in addition to his son-in-law and think tank Chai Shao, there are also three people, including Shang Shuling's right servant Pei Lian, Neishi Ling Dou Wei and Guo's uncle Dou Kang, in order to discuss the current state of affairs.

"Father-in-law, Yang Guang, the king of the Jin Dynasty, once said that the grain will arrive before the snow this winter, and the snow is estimated to be in the past two days. I think that the grain of Hedong will not be far from here! For some reason, Chai Shao still believed in his cousin, who was several years younger than himself, so he said to Li Yuan with certainty.

"Humph! I don't think so. Li Yuan believed in his son-in-law, but he definitely didn't believe in the second prince of the Sui Dynasty.

"This king has already ordered the three northern counties, but there are horse-selling caravans in Hedong that are all intercepted, and people are not released! The king only needs his grain in exchange. Hum! Li Yuan turned his back and didn't look at Chai Shao, and said fiercely.

"Father-in-law, no! I Jinyang and that Yang Guang have long had an agreement to treat each other's caravans well, and now if their horses are seized, they will definitely lead Hedong to close the trade route to the Central Plains to me. Chai Shao met Yang Er in the capital, although he didn't see much, but he was thoughtful and already knew the character of his wife and cousin very well, if he broke the balance between the two sides, it would definitely cause a storm of revenge, in that case, Jinyang's development space would be limited, so he spoke out to Li Yuan.

"Sichang, this public plan has been decided, and Hugh has to say it again." Li Yuan turned around abruptly and said to Chai Shao in a heavy tone. After hearing this, Chai Shao had to take a few steps back, bowing his head and standing without speaking.

"Tang Gong, the lower officials think that the King of Jin said that it is the best policy to send the old and weak, women and children south to Hedong, one can reduce the pressure of the people of Jinyang who are unable to provide relief; Second, he can choose his strong male to be organized as our Jinyang People's Army, and send them to the three northern counties to assist the garrison to resist the southern invasion of the Turks; Three and one heir can survive this winter's crisis, so that the king of Hedong Jin can let the exiles return and reunite with the people who stayed in my Jinyang. "Uncle Dou Kang believed that the men in the forced conscription were used as hostages by the people, and the women and children who temporarily fled to Hedong were bound to return to reunite with their husbands or sons after they were killed. Therefore, he advocated accepting this suggestion of King Jin.

"Hmm----, what does Mr. Hyun Jin think?" After Li Yuan listened to his uncle's suggestion, he felt that he could adopt it for a while, but he still wanted to hear the opinion of his first adviser, Shang Shuling, the right servant of Pei Lian.

Pei Lin saw that Li Yuan asked him, and after thinking for a while, he stepped forward and said: "Tang Gong, what His Royal Highness the King of Jin has done in Hedong and Jingshi, the lower officials have paid a lot of attention, this son can be said to have great ambitions, and everything he does is dedicated to the people, quite like his father's style of Emperor Wen today." In Hedong, a new land law was implemented, and land ownership and use rights were separated, so that everyone had their own land, and the grain harvest in summer and autumn was abundant, and the weather was different. I also heard that there was a Heluo warehouse in Luzhou, hoarding millions of stones, and there was no pressure to take in the refugees who went south from Jinyang. Although what Uncle Guo said is feasible, if the people of Jinyang are dispersed and resettled after entering the east of the river, it will not be conducive to the unified return after the beginning of spring next year. ”

"Well, what Xuan Zhen said is extremely true. This king will write to the king of Jin, explaining this matter, so that he will not detain the people of Jinyang for no reason. Li Yuan felt that Pei Lin was far-sighted and thoughtful.

"Tang Gong, although my Jinyang has a poor grain harvest and does not have much grain in stock, I have accumulated a lot of iron ingots over the years. Nowadays, there are many hoards in the arsenal of armaments and materials of our Tang Army, and there is no need to rebuild them for several years. You can transfer some iron ingots to exchange more winter food with the king of Hedong Jin, and you can also let him treat me well to the people who have taken refuge in the south. Nei Shi Ling Dou Wei stepped forward and said.

"Well, Wen Wei's plan is very good! There is a risk of surplus of iron ingots produced by several iron mines in Jinyang every year, so I will take out part of it at this time in exchange for Hedong grain, which is the so-called taking what you need! Mr. Wen Wei, this matter will be handled by you, and it is advisable to exchange it for 100 stone winter food. Li Yuan's mentality gradually relaxed at this time, and it seemed that the problems that bothered him at first had been gradually solved.

"Father-in-law, take the horse that was detained-----" Seeing a smile on his father-in-law's face, Chai Shao hurriedly mentioned another old saying.

"Don't worry, the grain will naturally be returned to Hedong when the king arrives. It's just that I also lack war horses in my Jinyang army, ----so Mr. Wenwei can also take out the excess iron ingots and exchange them for some war horses in Hedong for my use. ”

"Yes." Dou Wei hurriedly agreed, then looked back at Chai Shao, and the two lowered their heads and smiled bitterly. Chai Shao thought to himself, I hope this move will not anger King Jin, it seems that he has to send a private letter to this cousin, talking about this matter, hoping to get his understanding, don't make a break up, and retract the promise of excesses.

Sure enough, as Chai Shao said, the convoy of 500,000 stone grain and grass given by the King of Jin arrived in Jinyang City on the afternoon of the second day. After Chai Shao got the news, he personally went to the city gate to greet him, and the generals who escorted the grain to Jinyang this time were the two generals Jin Jia and Tong Huan, and Chai Shao naturally recognized it.

Seeing Chai Shao greeting him in person, Jin Jia stepped forward and asked, "Chai Gongzi, why did your family privately detain my Hedong war horse?" According to the rumors of my Hedong caravan, as many as 8,000 horses were detained this time, what does this mean? It turned out that the Zheng family of the detained war horse caravan was on the way to Hedong to report the news when they met the two generals Jin and Tong who were going north with grain, and when they saw that it was their own general, they hurriedly stepped forward to inform them of the detention of the war horse. When the second general Jin and Tong heard this, they were furious, so they took the people of the Zheng family caravan and returned to Jinyang, asking them to be a witness, so that they could ask for horses from Li Yuan, the prince of Tang.

When Chai Shao saw this, he immediately turned red. had to tell the two of them his father-in-law's thoughts truthfully. After hearing this, Jin and Tong Er smiled bitterly. I think that Tang Gong didn't want to forcibly occupy his horses, but just played some careful tricks for food.

"I didn't expect that Tang Gong, as the king of a town, would be so scheming, and it would be difficult for him. However, as long as the conditions are right, there is no room for negotiation, but I am a little stingy! Tong Huan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Okay, Gongzi Chai, the two of us will not stay here for a long time, after the 500,000 stone grain is paid, I can bring Tang Gong's reply back to my lord by the way." Jin Jia said helplessly.

"Now that the two generals have arrived, there is no need to hurry back, and they will stay for one more day. Tonight, Chai Mou is the east, please be sure to enjoy the face of the two generals, Chai Mou also has a book trust that the two generals bring back together. Chai Shao said to the two with a smiling face.

"In that case, the two of us should be respectful and obey. Spend the night at the post station tonight, and take the book tomorrow afternoon to reverse Hedong. Jin Jia saw that Chai Shao put down his body and intended to befriend the two of them, and he was also a close relative of his lord, so he no longer embarrassed him.

At noon on the second day, the grain convoy of the second general of the golden boy was all loaded with iron ingots, and according to Dou Wei, the inner history of the Tang Dynasty, the chariot that was supposed to return to the empty air was loaded with heavy iron ingots that could be exchanged for millions of stone of grain and 5,000 war horses. With nearly 10,000 war horses seized by the king of Jin in Hedong as security, Li Yuan was not worried that Yang Guang, the king of Jin, would detain the iron ingots and not distribute grain and grass, so he first brought back a sufficient amount of iron ingots for the grain transport carts in Hedong, and only sent 500 Tang troops to escort him.

A total of 350,000 people took refuge in the three northern counties and Jinyang City, which Yang Er most hoped to see and get, began to migrate to Hedong County in the south under the guidance of Li Yuan's uncle Dou Kang and minister Pei Lian.

It's just that none of their monarchs and ministers thought that it would be impossible for these hundreds of thousands of people to return to their hometowns after entering Hedong County, and even the elite militia they had painstakingly recruited fled to Hedong one after another. This directly led to a sharp decline in the population of Li Yuan's territory in Jinyang, Shanxi, and the land was barren, which was no less than suffering a serious military disaster and looting. At this point, Li Yuan's forces were greatly damaged, and he could not pose a threat to Hedong County in a short period of time. This made Yang Er not need to worry about the military threat from the north, but he could concentrate on Luoyang, Zhongzhou and other places.

The first snow of the grassland finally fell from the sky.

The ignorant children chased and played happily on the vast grassland as if they were celebrating a holiday, steaming hot on their innocent cheeks that were black and red, and drinking the steaming goat milk that their mother had just squeezed out of the ewes. Some young herdsmen waved their scimitars in their hands, galloping across the grassland in twos and threes, constantly waving their knives and chopping wooden stakes.

Not far away was a large felt bag, and a few prairie soldiers armed with scimitars were walking back and forth, observing the surrounding situation vigilantly without saying a word. The thick animal skin curtain closed tightly, and the yellow light from the huge candle flame inside was particularly eye-catching in the night sky. There was a charcoal fire burning in the felt buns, and the oily leg of lamb was roasting on the fire rack. A sturdy man was eating and drinking the roasted mutton with the untieth knife in his hand, and sitting around him were four middle-aged men dressed as nobles on the grassland, each holding a wine and drinking under the service of the servants, and constantly whispering to each other.

"Dalit, is there really a calm in the palace of the Sui Dynasty, and the waves are not alarmed? Could it be that the extremely difficult King Jin you said took the initiative to withdraw from the battle for the storage position? The middle-aged prairie man who was eating mutton had an extremely gloomy face, and asked in a low and cold voice while eating.

"Back to the Great Khan, the small one was ordered to envoy to the Sui Dynasty, and the two sons of the emperor of the Sui Dynasty were fighting for the position of the prince, and the position of the prince was about to be lost. Forcing the princelings to take risks, contacting the envoys to take risks and using assassins to murder the King of Jin, once successful, the Sui court will be violently turbulent, and it is even very likely that the crown prince Yang Yong will force the Sui Emperor to abdicate. Unexpectedly, the king of Jin was rescued by a master, and he escaped with his life by luck, and the assassination was defeated. ”