When Fang Dongquan and the others went out to arrange for the troops to start retreating, Li Xuan and Zeng Ziwen began to study the map and what to do next.

At this time, Zeng Ziwen reflected his greatest value, not only was he extremely familiar with Zhengtai County and the surrounding situation, but he was originally a thousand households of the Ming army, and he was even more familiar with some of the routines of the Ming army.

Zeng Ziwen pointed to a simple hand-drawn map: "Our northeast direction is Longhua Town, further ahead is Zhengtai County, and behind us is the mountains, so we had better go to the northwest next!" ”

"In this way, not only can we avoid the enemy troops on the side of Longhua Town, but also can always maintain the threat to Zhengtai County in the north direction, so that the enemy army will not dare to make a big move!"

Li Xuan said: "If you go to the northwest, this land is barren, and there are no big villages, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find enough food for the army at that time!" ”

When the army is away from home, and it only carries seven days' worth of food, no matter which direction it is going, one of the most important questions must be taken into account, that is, whether they can get enough food on the way!

Originally, they were going to go to Zhengtai County, and the vicinity of Zhengtai County is the most fertile place in the fields of Zhengtai County, as long as they get to Zhengtai County, they don't have to worry about not finding enough food, but if they go to the northwest, it will be a little troublesome.

Zeng Ziwen said: "Your Majesty, although there are no big villages and big villages in the northwest, there are more small villages, all the way to the northwest, it is enough for us to get enough food, and it will not cause panic and attention of the Ming army, which is conducive to our follow-up actions!" ”

"The total number of our army is only five hundred, and the food required is a large amount for Huangzhushan, which is short of food, but if you are outside, you can still get enough food, although there will not be too much food in those small villages, but our family will take a little enough for us to eat!"

After hearing this, Li Xuan nodded slightly: "Since this is the case, then let's go to the northwest and stay for a while to see the situation!" ”

Zeng Ziwen is also right, although their new army of the Tang Dynasty calls itself a big army every day, its actual combat strength is only 3500, and the young and strong people who transport the baggage are only 500.

This is a lot of people in the mountains, but it is really nothing to the vast world beyond the mountains.

Although Zhengtai County is located inland, the place is barren, but the place is big enough, so the population is really a lot, Zhengtai County's own account book records that there are 20,000 households, it is a medium-sized county, but in fact, the population of the entire Zhengtai County is afraid that there are as many as 100,000.

It's just that most of the population in this era is located in the countryside or even deep mountains and old forests, and a considerable part of them are hidden households, and it is difficult to count this part of the population thoroughly, so the ancient government itself does not know how many people there are under its rule, and it can only be an approximate number, and this number is only limited to the known range, and the hidden households are not counted.

Compared with the nearly 100,000 people in the huge Zhengtai County, the 500 people brought out by Li Xuan are considered a hair, and they can find enough food to eat in just a few more villages.

Moreover, this is based on the fact that they cannot rob special guns on a large scale, and they cannot take away all the food in a village, and they must leave the necessary rations, and the excess food can only be taken away.

Liu Bagou had long advised Li Xuan that the Tang Dynasty, as an orthodox dynasty, and the Tang New Army, as a righteous matter, could not be robbed as casually as before, and even if they wanted to rob, they could not rob the food of those villages near the mountain.

Even Fang Dongquan agreed with this.

Why?

If you rob all the people's rations at once, these villagers will either starve to death or flee, and who will you rob next time?

Therefore, the current Datang New Army goes out to collect grain, and it is a protection fee model, which will leave the necessary rations for these villagers, and will not be all snatched up, and the main target is some large landlords, not those poor people.

The reason is not that Li Xuan cherishes the people and discriminates against the landlords and tycoons, but that only in the granaries of these landlords and tycoons can he find enough food.

Those ** don't even have a rice jar at home, and they can't grab much.

Even when they were in Fengjiazhuang, they only grabbed a large amount of grain in the Feng family's granary, but the grain of the ordinary tenants and farmers in Fengjiazhuang was basically untouched.

Li Xuan felt that if he went to the northwest all the way, he should be able to find a lot of landlords and old money, and if he robbed them, he didn't have to worry too much about the lack of food.

And Li Xuan's prediction was finally right this time, after they turned around and retreated that day, they went all the way to the northwest, and the next day they met a small Zhuangzi, after some intimidation, they didn't need to attack directly, the landlord took the initiative to send a lot of food, and even chickens, ducks, pork and other meat.

This intimidation action made Li Xuan feel that he had found a new bright road, that is, he could get a large amount of food without robbing.

In the past, they generally robbed directly, and this person would definitely resist, even if they would surrender in the end, but there was still a process of resistance, which would cause some trouble to the Datang New Army.

If it is just a matter of intimidation and a clear statement that they will leave after taking the food and property, I believe that many of those landlords are willing to break the bank and eliminate the disaster.

So, in the next few days, Li Xuan concocted the same method, specifically looking for those medium-sized landlords and old wealth, and as soon as he went, he put more than 500 people outside, and then began to intimidate people, saying that if he didn't take out food and filial piety, he would kill the chickens and dogs and so on.

But if you are willing to take the initiative to honor the grain, the uncles will leave immediately, and there is no ambiguity.

Occasionally, I will encounter some hard stubble, relying on my own hundreds of nurses, Zhuang Ding, tenants and the like to protect Zhuangzi, and I am unwilling to break the wealth and eliminate disasters, for these people, Li Xuan's attitude is only one: "Uncle is not with you in general, let's go!" ”

However, in most cases, those landlords and old fortunes will take the initiative to give away a part of the grain, although the amount cannot be compared with the direct looting income, but it is also quite considerable.

The most important thing is that frequent battles are avoided in this way, and casualties are avoided to the new army of the Tang Dynasty!

This is very important for the Datang New Army, which only has more than 500 people and only 300 soldiers, if one or two people die in one battle, there are dozens of people in ten or twenty battles, and it will not be easy for them to lose many casualties outside.

Even if you can pack some young people outside and fill the army, these young people who have not been trained are of no use at all, at most they are used as people's husbands.

Although the new army of the Tang Dynasty is also very short because of the large number of musketeers and spearmen, two or three months is sufficient, but these two or three months of training cannot be saved.

There is no way for these young men to train on the road, and there is no way for untrained farmers to replenish into the new army to fight.