As for the surrounding people, when they heard that Liu Bei had made such a big sacrifice, they felt a little guilty. Since Cao's army ran out of food and water in Longquan County, neither the soldiers nor the people in the city had enough food for a day. Liu Bei is even more so, he eats less on weekdays, the state capital only eats two meals a day, and supplies the remaining food to the people or the military camp, it can be said that Liu Bei has been hungry for many days, and now in order to make up for this gap, he actually reduces one meal a day, which is not enough to maintain the long-distance rotation of a person's physical functions, and in a few days, Liu Bei will be so hungry that his whole body is weak, and he doesn't even have the strength to walk. In this way, Liu Bei had no energy to command the soldiers to resist the 30,000 Cao soldiers outside the city.

Of course, the food gap of twenty quintals is too great, and even if Liu Bei voluntarily reduces the grain used by the state capital, it is only a slight patch. Pan Feng narrowed his eyes, and immediately followed Liu Bei's example, and also voluntarily reduced the food consumption in his house. Liu Bei's righteous act seems to have infected many soldiers, and one by one the soldiers have followed suit, and many soldiers even proposed to volunteer to eat only one meal a day to make up for this gap.

The old man, who was called Linggong by Liu Bei, saw this scene in his eyes, sighed loudly, and saluted Liu Bei.

"The prince of the house is the head of an army, how can he be hungry? The old man still has a lot of food in his house, and he voluntarily allocates ten loads of money to the people, and the lord can take out ten loads. ”

Linggong is the patriarch of the Longquan people, and he governs a large clan, so he naturally knows the truth of taking precautions, and hides a lot of grain in the granary in his mansion in case of emergency.

Hearing that Linggong was willing to take out food to help, Liu Bei's heart suddenly decreased a lot, but Liu Bei still made a few excuses on the surface, and only after Linggong's insistent attitude was willing to accept it.

Liu Bei and Linggong talked for a while, secretly observed the surroundings, and saw many corpses of local people. Liu Bei's face changed slightly, and he suddenly pulled out the double-strand sword on his waist, and Linggong didn't know what Liu Bei wanted, so he couldn't help but take a few steps back, but Liu Bei actually held the sword with both hands and handed the sword to Linggong.

"This sword is made of dark iron, and it is worth hundreds of gold. Just now, because of the grain grabbing, Liu's soldiers killed many people by mistake. People cannot be resurrected after death, and Liu knows that he is not to blame, but now he still has a heavy responsibility, and he can only use this sword as compensation. Linggong can sell this sword in exchange for some silver taels to the relatives of the deceased, and after the difficulty of Longquan is solved, Liu will be impartial according to the law, and return you an axiom! ”

"The prince of the palace must not, this is the sword of the king, how can it be sold! What's more, the food grabbing is all our fault! ”

"Don't say more, our soldiers fought on the battlefield to protect their families and defend the country and save the people from the scourge of war. Now the soldiers under my command are killing the people, which is really putting the cart before the horse, and the sin cannot be forgiven. I also hope that Linggong will not postpone and accept this sword! ”

Liu Bei made a gesture and gave it again, and Linggong was moved by Liu Bei's benevolence and righteousness, and insisted on not wanting it. The natives behind him also spoke one after another, persuading Liu Bei to take back his sword.

Liu Bei's successive acts of benevolence and righteousness extinguished the resentment of the local people of Longquan, not only that, but many of the local people who originally had the heart of rebellion were secretly guilty, and secretly scolded their conscience for being taken away by dogs.

Liu Bei's means of winning the hearts of the people can be described as superb, after the grain grabbing, the soldiers and civilians in the city are not only as strong as fire and water, but they are all willing to defend Longquan for Liu Bei, even if they pay for their lives, they will not hesitate.

A few days later, Cao Cao stood on top of a certain peak, raised his eyes and looked down at the scene in Longquan City below, and after looking at it for a long time, Cao Cao sighed with a little embarrassment.

"Where is this Liu Xuande, Longquan County has been cut off from food and water, for nearly half a month, but there is no movement in the city except for the accident a few days ago. And since then, the relationship between the military and the people in Longquan County has increased instead of decreasing, and there is a great tendency to share life and death with the big-eared thief. ”

"Lord, Liu Xuande has always been good at using benevolence and righteousness to win people's hearts, but I am afraid that the soldiers and people in this city will be deceived by him, and even life and death will be put aside, and they are willing to die for him."

Guo Jia, who was standing behind Cao Cao, smiled and had the taste of watching a good show.

"Benevolence? I didn't expect that this set could still be applied in this troubled world. However, no matter how much he does, he is still dying. ”

The corners of Cao Cao's mouth were upturned, and the smile on his face was somewhat similar to Guo Jiana's playful smile, and the two of them gave people the feeling of cynicism. Of course, both of these people have natural talents, and it is precisely because they can see through many things in the world and then manipulate them in their hands that they will give people that cynical feeling.

While the two were talking, a scout general with uneven armor and a little embarrassed hurriedly came to report. Cao Cao didn't look back, but when he heard the hurried and panicked footsteps, he knew about it, and he frowned slightly, and said coldly first.

"The recalcitrant people in this city did not receive the secret letter, but caused the arrows to shoot you back?"

The scout general couldn't help but be shocked, he hadn't reported it yet, Cao Cao actually knew everything, and secretly slandered Cao was really a god.

"The lord is clever, as the lord said, according to the recalcitrant people guarding the north gate not only did not receive the letter, but fired arrows indiscriminately, shooting many soldiers of our army! Moreover, they even said that the prime minister slandered his loyal ministers and harmed the innocent, for..."

The scout general was halfway through his speech, but he didn't dare to say any more. Cao Cao laughed, and then continued his words.

"These recalcitrant people are saying that Cao is a thief? And besides, there is no way to be in cahoots with me? ”

The scout general lowered his head, not daring to answer, but his face already showed that it was just as Cao Cao said. Cao Cao raised his eyebrows and made a gesture to signal the scout general to retreat, and as soon as the scout general gave up his hand, he retreated according to the order.

"It seems that this battle will continue for a while."

Guo Jia sighed unexpectedly. As for Cao Cao, he laughed instead.

"Hahaha. Interesting, really interesting. I would like to see how long Liu Xuande's benevolence can confuse these recalcitrant people. While life and death are approaching, people are often the most likely to lose their nature and reveal their viciousness. I, Cao Mengde, never believe that anyone can bear the threat of death from beginning to end and die for others! ”

30,000 Cao troops, the daily consumption of grain is huge, Cao Cao has fought repeatedly, and there is not much grain left in the army, at most it can only last half. But Cao Cao did not panic at all, let alone rush to attack Longquan. Because once this is the case, he fell into Liu Bei's trap, Longquan County is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and Liu Bei's defensive measures are extremely sufficient, even if there are 100,000 soldiers, it will be difficult to break through Longquan in half a month. If Cao Cao loses patience and raises troops to attack, he will surely suffer heavy casualties, coupled with the shortage of food, so he will only be forced to retreat in the end.

And for Cao Cao, Longquan County is just a place of projectiles, just like chicken ribs that are tasteless and discarded. The reason why Cao Cao spent so many troops and food to attack Longquan was just to take advantage of Liu Bei's downfall to give a fatal blow with lightning speed and eradicate this great trouble.

But if this battle fails, Cao Cao will have to put aside the matter of exterminating Liu Bei, because he will have to face next, sitting in the land of Sanzhou, with nearly 700,000 soldiers under his command of the northern giant Yuan Shao, Yuan Benchu. At this time, Yuan Shao had mostly received the news that his brother Yuan Shu had been destroyed by Cao Cao, and Xuzhou had fallen into Cao Cao's hands. When Yuan Shao heard this, he would inevitably be anxious, and he would not dare to let Cao Cao's power continue to expand, and he was anxious to fight Cao Cao to the death.

Cao Cao knew in his heart that the battle between Yuan Shao and him would determine the position of the world's number one giant, and whoever could have the last laugh would be the king who was most likely to win the great cause of the world in the future.

For this, Liu Bei also saw it thoroughly, this is also his only hope, as long as he can hold this battle, he will be able to get another chance to survive, take advantage of the fierce battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and then secretly accumulate strength, and make a comeback.

As for the Battle of Longquan, although there is no blood on the surface, in fact, the fight is already in full swing in secret. What Cao Cao and Liu Bei are fighting secretly is patience, and of course, the most important thing is human nature. The humanity of the people of Longquan. If the people of Longquan can withstand the threat of death without food and water, the loser will be Cao Cao, who has the upper hand, but if not, it will be Liu Bei who will be wiped out.

Time flies, and for Cao Cao and Liu Bei, every day is a torment. Cao Cao did not act for a long time, and the morale of the soldiers in the army inevitably declined, coupled with the daily food dwindling, many soldiers guessed that there was not much food in the camp, and it was inevitable that people would panic. For Liu Bei, his suffering can be described as even more tragic, he is almost mentally stressed every day, the food in the city is almost exhausted, and the patriarch of the Tumin clan in the city has exhausted the food they have stored. Although the natives in the city rarely complained on the surface, as the feeling of hunger and thirst grew, many of them were already so hungry that they went insane, and even several groups of natives wanted to rush out of the city gate and go out to forage for food. But fortunately, they were all stopped by Liu Bei's soldiers in time, otherwise as soon as the city gate was opened, the Cao army outside the city seized the opportunity to enter the city, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

One night, on the wall of the north gate, more than a dozen local people were quietly deliberating. Then the night grew darker, and most of the natives guarding the city walls were yawning, their eyelids were rolling, and most of them were in a state of semi-sleep. At this moment, several agile natives tied the head of the city wall with hemp ropes and escaped from the city by taking advantage of the darkness of the night.

The natives jumped to the ground and ran out of the city, where they soon disappeared into a mountain forest. These men, who were so hungry that they could not bear it, came out tonight to hunt some prey from the mountains to satisfy their hunger. They wandered through the mountains, and each of them had a faint green glow in their eyes. As long as they can remove the hunger in their stomachs that tortures them to death, even if a big tiger appears at this time, they will not hesitate to pounce on it and fight the big tiger.