10 days, 15 days, 20 days, 1 month......

From the heavy snow in the first month to the beginning of the ice and snow to melt.

When the time enters March, when the snow and ice begin to melt. Jingnan, as an isolated and dead city, has completely changed its appearance - the trees in the city have been cut down, even many houses have been demolished, and the beams, doors and windows are used as firewood for cooking.

There is a lot of grain in the granary of Jingnan, and at least for a long time, grain can be supplied. Now every household can receive grain according to the head of the person every month, wheat and corn, although not much, but barely enough to fill their stomachs, they also planted potatoes, pumpkins and other things in their yards and roadsides, and when the harvest is time, they will not worry about eating. Firewood was limited compared to food, and despite the tens of thousands of tons of coal and a large number of trees brought in before the war, firewood was still extremely scarce compared to the large population in the city.

After a month and a half of besieging the city, many people had to tear down the doors, windows, tables and cabinets in their homes in order to raise the fire and cook, and even the beams of the side rooms were also broken off.

However, this is also limited to some poor families. Most families can still afford briquettes. And you can buy briquettes in the city.

But everybody knows. Sooner or later, these briquettes will be sold out, so now there are some people in Chengli who will buy as many briquettes as possible, but they don't use a single briquette, just burn all kinds of firewood. After all, briquettes don't smoke when they burn. When the siege finally passed, it may be the few wisps of cooking smoke coming out of the house, which will kill the whole family. But burning briquettes is different, burning briquettes does not smoke. As long as the family doesn't talk about it, it is naturally impossible for outsiders to know that the family is still cooking there.

On the sixth day of the third month, just after noon, Zhang Degong came out of the house, carrying ten taels of silver in his arms and a black cloth bag in his hand. He came out this time to buy some coal to go home, of course, he can't use that coal now, and now every day, he will come to line up to buy coal. Then they are beaten into briquettes and stored at home.

For many years, he has believed in the saying that people have no long-term worries, but they must have near-term worries. As long as you are prepared, the family will always survive. Just like now, his family not only has thousands of catties of coal, but also hundreds of catties of grain. On the one hand, the food issued by the imperial court is only enough to eat eighty percent full, and he just let the family eat half full, and he is over 50 years old, he knows that it is not yet the most difficult time, and in the end, it may be those mouthfuls of food that saved the lives of the family.

Soon, he arrived at the coal stack in the city, and as usual, there was a long queue in front of the coal stack, and people from every household lined up to buy coal. Of course, there are not many people in these families like him, who buy coal back and save it. The vast majority of people have no plans for the future.

"Hey, Sanye Zhang, I've given you a gift."

As soon as Zhang Degong lined up, someone over there saluted him, which was extraordinarily polite. This is just the number of flag-bearers. False etiquette.

"Yo, isn't this the fifth master, have you eaten?"

After a polite conversation, the two chatted.

"I said, what's the price of coal today?"

"What's the price? Seeing the price of the sky, I said, the masters are really enough, this city is besieged, they are rising every day, seeing the sky a price, they don't think about it, if the Ming army attacks in, no matter how much silver, in the end it will still be cheap? ”

The tone of the five is full of irony, as we all know, the coal stacks in Jingnan City are the business of the masters, such as the prince and Baylor, and the coal mines are of course also their business, but now, the coal mines outside the city have been occupied by the Ming army, and the masters only have the coal stacks in the city. It stands to reason that now that Jingnan is besieged, the masters should take out the coal and work together with the minions, but instead of doing so, these masters have raised the price of coal. But even so, everyone dares to be angry and outspoken, after all, everyone is afraid of being beheaded as a spy.

"Hey, cheap guys? Perhaps, when the time comes, the people will directly dedicate the city and become the prince of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"What? Just that bunch of goods? Will people use them in the Ming Dynasty? What about the prince? I'm just a bunch of pigs, you don't look at what kind of characters the princes of the Ming Dynasty are, not to mention those princes of the Zhu family who sealed Zhuxia and educated the people, it is Li Dingguo, this king with a different surname, that is also a great military achievement......"

"It's not a great military achievement, this time, it can be regarded as another merit to destroy the country......"

"Hey, what do you say is wrong with our Great Qing Kingdom? When the country was founded, what a hero it was, and if he pulled out a Baylor casually, he could suppress the Ming Dynasty, but now, no one in the Manchu Dynasty can use it. ”

"No, look at the current prince and Baylor, there is a master who can go on horses and fight."

"Look at what you said. Prince An is also a well-known figure, and there is also a prince of Li, what happened to the prince of our Great Qing Kingdom? Why is it not as good as the Ming Dynasty? ”

"Compare? It's comparable, that's fighting with others. ”

"Come on, come on, don't make any noise one by one, didn't you see that there are soldiers patrolling the city over there, be careful to cut you with a knife."

The reminder on the side made everyone who was originally complaining hurriedly silenced, this time, there is no shortage of heads in the city, I don't know how many Han spies have their heads cut off, as for whether they are spies...... I'm afraid only the devil knows.

Why are those people considered spies?

Isn't it because they talk irresponsible like this and slander the court!

"What, if they dare to come, they will suck him to death with one mouth......"

The five snorted and squinted their eyes.

"Your ancestors raised troops with Emperor Taizu's state, and I dare to say that my ancestors are spies, looking for death!"

"That's not it, your five ancestors, but the history of the country, who is a spy, you can't be old?" Although the compliments of others made the five quite embarrassed, but when he saw the patrol soldiers, he still took the initiative to silence him, and he could say it to the fullest, but it was not worth it if he lost his head.

As for what ancestors...... When you cut off your head, who the hell will ask your ancestors, you don't love the Xinjueluo family.

When they were complaining word by word, they didn't stop at their feet, and they kept squeezing forward with the crowd, and the crowd in line shouted from time to time, saying a thousand ways and ten thousand, at this time, coal is the most important, and the grain court is still distributing grain, saving some food, and barely being able to eat seven or eight percent full. But coal is different, coal is all in the coal stack, without coal, there is no way to cook, and the family may have to go hungry.

"Queue up, queue up ......"

The crowd was noisy, and the city patrol soldiers over there shouted from time to time that the big guys lined up, but it was just a shout, and it was useless. The crowd was still noisy.

Jin Fu, who was riding on a horse, saw the noise near the Fuji Coal Stack, and he couldn't squeeze to the front, so he could only ride a horse and watch from the back of the crowd. Ever since the siege, he has been roaming around the city on horseback every day.

Although he is the prefect of Jingnan, the soldiers and civilians in this city are usually not in awe of him, after all, the banner people are under the control of the infantry yamen, as for his prefect, most of the time, that is, the ears of the deaf, it is just an ornament, after all, there are no people in the Qing Dynasty except for the flag people. Now everyone is only scrambling to buy coal, so naturally they can't care about him.

Jin Fu didn't care about this, he just stood in the distance, looking at the chaos in front of the coal stack, looking thoughtful. After a moment, there seemed to be a slight change in his heart to the eyes of the people who watched there.

The people in the back seemed to be lined up, but in front of them they were in a mess, and people were scrambling, shouting at the coal sellers, and then throwing the money in, and giving him a bag of coal. Some of those who had no strength were even pushed outside, and they waited in line for half a day, and they couldn't buy any coal. Among the people in the queue, in addition to the elderly and half-old boys, there was also a group of officers and soldiers wearing uniforms, who rushed to the front and forcibly added coal to buy coal. The people in front of the queue were naturally unconvinced, refused to give way and complained. The officers and men began to fight indiscriminately.

"Hey, what a mess...... But it's all made by people! ”

Jin Fuchang sighed, his brows furrowed and tense, and his expression was full of worries about the current situation.

Everyone knows that a long-term siege will definitely lead to fluctuations in people's hearts and unstable morale, and it is natural for fights to occur, but basically there will be no uncontrollable situation. Now the soldiers and people in the city are even resentful. As soon as the officers and soldiers patrolling the city come, they will immediately silence them, which is why the infantry yamen will kill several people in the name of spies every day, just to deter the instability of the city.

"If it goes on like this, it's going to be messy."

Looking at the people who were in a mess, he muttered to himself.

"You can't just press it like this. It's not a long-term solution. We'll have to find a way to solve it. ”

After leaving the coal stack, he was thinking about the chaos he had seen before, and a few thoughts were rolling in his mind from time to time.

As soon as he returned to the yamen, someone came to him, saying that Prince An had asked him to go immediately, and that he would immediately wait for a meeting on important matters. As soon as he heard that it was Prince Kang's invitation, Jin Fu dared to be the slightest slack, after all, now Prince An is the general of Yasukuni, commanding the world's soldiers and horses, speaking of which, Tuhai is now responsible for guarding the city, but in fact it is under the command of Prince An. Counting it up, that is, the Dingyuan General in the south, Prince Li Jieshu can be compared to it, but now this single prince is in charge of her. So he immediately rode his horse and ran towards Prince An's mansion.