Yecheng, Fengle Town. This town is only fifty miles away from Handan in a straight line. But by this time it was getting late. It was impossible for Cao Ang and his party to enter Handan when it was dark, and their only way was to stay in the local area for one night and return to their journey tomorrow morning.

Cao Ang was very anxious, he ran here almost non-stop, he couldn't wait to reach Handan tonight. Entering the area controlled by the Republican Army, alas, he was fast enough. Along the way, there were many places without delay. I just came here.

It was getting late, they could only spend the night, the local people happened to kill a batch of pigs, the locals all gathered, drink pig soup, those are pigs in the water, Cao Ang like a son generally will not eat these things. Because those soups may still smell of feces. But it tastes good.

Cao Ang wanted to know some of the situation, and he also beckoned his men to eat some. Although some people are very embarrassed, because he is a childe, such cheap meat should not be tried. But Cao Ang insisted again and again, and they could only follow.

"Uncle, do you often eat such meat and drink such broth here?" Cao Ang put down the chopsticks in his hand and asked. The fact that a prince like him can be approachable has already made the locals feel very honestly afraid. However, Cao Ang felt that this pig soup was not bad, and he could see that those children ate very fragrantly, and they were all over their hands, and after eating and drinking, they had to lick the oil in their hands. Because they don't usually have anything to eat.

"Hey, Gongzi doesn't know, our place is still stained with Handan, in previous years, I couldn't eat these things at all." A well-known local man explained.

"Handan, I don't know what the old man means?" Cao Ang asked puzzled.

"Our place is only 50 miles away from Handan, which has developed into a large city with a population of one million, and the people in it are not engaged in agricultural production, but the demand for agricultural products is very huge. Xiao Lao'er has been there a few times, and he is very surprised, but he also feels the richness there. The old man said. Cao Ang was puzzled, but he didn't mean to interrupt, he wanted to hear what was going on. After all, he was so interested in something like this that if he hadn't stopped here, he might have missed something.

"Childe, most of us here are offering some chickens and ducks, as well as pigs and sheep. These meats, slaughtered within a certain period of time, or sent directly to Handan, can get a good harvest, which is much better than simply farming. At the very least, the income should be more than three times higher. The old man explained, and when he heard this, Cao Ang was surprised, this kind of income is quite good.

"Therefore, around Handan, the villages and towns within about 80 miles are all intensively raised, and this kind of pig killing may be very common for us, at least, the children can eat some meat. In the past, during the Chinese New Year, children may not be able to eat meat, which is already very good. Not bad. The old man explained.

It is indeed the case, what the old man said is not very comprehensive, Handan's influence is very large, Handan City needs meat and poultry eggs, vegetables, and a variety of ingredients every day The amount of consumption is very large, and if it is in summer, the number of fruits consumed is also very large.

If it simply relies on the area north of Handan controlled by the Republican Army, as well as some mountainous areas, it will seriously affect the strategic food security of the Republican Army, and at the same time, the Republican Army's agricultural economic operation mode cannot meet such needs in a short period of time, because it requires some large-scale cultivation and more labor to solve such a problem. The IRA side is still tight.

But this demand exists, so Yecheng, located in the south, undertakes the task of this huge supply demand. The farmers around Yecheng are very keenly aware of this, they have raised sheep from the beginning to the special pig raising, because the speed of pork is fast, and the meat provided is very large, beef is impossible. Because of the long cycle of cattle, although the price of mutton is higher, the problem is that his cycle is relatively long, and there is not too much meat, so it cannot meet such a large demand in a short time.

In addition, there is a variety of poultry egg supply, so that Yecheng can meet the needs of Handan.

As for things like killing pigs and eating water, it is also extremely helpless, because the republican army has a great demand for pork, on the one hand, it supplies the huge demand of Handan City, and on the other hand, they will make canned food and store it as military food, and the republican army does not need such things as water, but these are also meat, and it is a pity to throw them away in vain. So the locals began to find a way to clean up, make, they used these pork in exchange for a lot of seasoning, or with ginger, garlic, or even some unknown seasonings to remove some fishy smell, did not expect that their pot of soup, it was still very delicious, there is meat, and there is soup, it is still very good to eat a bowl.

This is also because the weather is getting colder, and more pigs can be slaughtered, otherwise, they will not be able to eat at all, because in the past, they could not eat such things at all.

"Uncle, everything is ready. It's going to be sent over early in the morning, please rest assured. A middle-aged man came over and said this.

"Well, don't be sloppy." The old man asked.

"This." Cao Ang was curious. He didn't know what to prepare, and he looked very serious.

"Oh. When we kill pigs, we have to call for pig money, as well as sending pork to Handan, and sending pork money. There are also some filial piety, there is no way, these are all required by the government. Otherwise, we won't even be able to drink this broth. The old man seemed very satisfied, but Cao Ang frowned.

Under Cao Ang's questioning, the old man reluctantly told Cao Ang that he didn't kill a pig here, so he had to hand it over, twenty yuan of pig killing money, and twenty yuan of transportation money, in addition, there were ten yuan of filial piety money, if there were some road cards on the road, it was a lot of expenses, in short, killing a pig, they could eat the pig and go into the water, which was already good. In the end, they were a pig, and they could actually drop twenty dollars.

And these twenty dollars are what they spent a long time saving.

It is said that some young people with lively heads are reluctant to come back when they arrive in Handan. Because they can earn twenty yuan even if they sell for a day, twenty yuan, which can only be regarded as the lowest income in Handan, but this kind of income is far better than being poor here.

Cao Ang couldn't say why, maybe he knew why, the government, and all kinds of eating and taking. The wealth of the peasants was emptied, and in the end, they were able to eat a meal of pig soup and lose more than 20 yuan, which was already a very good income.

It is precisely because of the benefits that the government is so relaxed and allows them to breed so much pork.

Otherwise, it would be enough to punish these people with the crime of being an enemy.

The government also needs taxes, and His Majesty the Emperor needs a lot of money, and the looting is extremely tight, and the officials also need some. So, anyway, they had to relax a bit.

But Cao Ang can't say anything good, this may be that both sides have needs, and both can achieve their own goals. But is that really good? It seems that the people here are already very happy. Because they can still eat meat, even if it is the worst meat. But for them, it's already a very good thing. These things are things that can't be done in such a situation.

Perhaps, all the possible blame lies with the government. After all, the officials took far more than the peasants received directly. This is probably the result of a very heavy burden. If they could have known to take less, things wouldn't have turned out like this.

The situation in the imperial court was not very good, and when he left Luoyang, Cao Ang knew that there had been hundreds of peasant riots of all kinds in various places, large and small. Especially in Qingzhou, eastern Jizhou, and Youzhou, the situation is even more chaotic.

But the imperial court did not have time to take care of this. The situation is really bitter.

On the second day, Cao Ang quickly entered Handan. And the local people had already set off on the third watch. Because they have to complete the transaction in the morning market.

Handan is very prosperous. The road was full of people, horse-drawn carts, ox-carts, people on both sides of the road, their faces were very ruddy, they were very nervous, everyone was busy with something in a hurry, they couldn't seem to stop.

Busy, this is the first feeling of Cao Ang entering the area controlled by the Republican Army, which is an extremely busy place. Cao Ang suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

And state, within the temporary headquarters of Zhoucang.

"Trouble. We thought of going with the Wuhuan people. We wanted to give them a detour to intersperse, and the other party also wanted to detour to give us an intersperse, and now the two sides have bumped into each other all of a sudden. Zhou Cang was very annoyed and said that according to the plan, they should be able to hit each other by surprise, but now, they were caught off guard.

"Sir, our current situation is to figure out what is going on there, whether we can resist it, and if not, we will be in trouble in the end." A staff officer said from the side.

"Yes, it's a big deal, one battalion is being drawn at once, no, two battalions are going there for reinforcements. It's probably going to be a lot more complicated than we thought, and on the front, we're going to try to strike as hard as we can. In this way, some positive situations are contained. Zhou Cang said.