The situation of the newly recruited 1,000 boys' army was very differentiated, both at the intellectual level and at the class level.

The young children of Yongxing City, both in terms of literacy rate and knowledge, are much higher than other young people, while the children of the powerful and powerful cannot read all the big characters.

The children of the powerful and powerful often gather together, and the young children of Yongxing City also have their own groups, in addition to the scholarly families, they tend to the children of the powerful and the Yongxing children, in Bai Liyan's view, the former is opportunistic, and the latter has a certain spirit of adventure and knowledge.

Each boy is issued with a short-edged horizontal knife and a dagger, a first-aid kit, a compass, a backpack, and even a quadruple telescope for a group of five, and a sextant for every fifty people.

Regardless of their backgrounds, all the young men were disorganized into the infantry section, organized into five groups, adjusted sporadically in a timely manner, and selected those middle- and upper-level elements who were smarter, more disciplined, and quicker in their ability to accept them, and organized them into 200 new talents.

This quota is not set in stone, and the survival of the fittest is to promote competition and mobility among personnel, strengthen the spirit of teamwork, and allocate limited high-quality military resources to those who are better young people.

After the one-year term of the infantry department, each junior is assigned a major again according to his personal ability and characteristics, and is transferred to the artillery department, the sailor department, the logistics department, the cavalry department, and the reconnaissance department, or stays in the infantry department to continue training.

It was the second day of the first month of March when he arrived in Shuotian, and Zhao Xun prepared a thin banquet in Shuotianzhi to wash the dust for Bailiyan.

"This trip has gone all the way, and the miserable situation of withering along the way, Yongxing Hou has seen it."

"Well, for this reason, I inspected places along the way and provided relief to some victims, which delayed a lot of time. Qiu Nannan County is very miserable, all the places along the way are full of starvation and bones, hundreds of miles of uninhabited, abound, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is miserable. ”

Bai Liyan said in frustration, the situation was worse than imagined. Zhao Xun is also not optimistic, he said:

"Although Pengyuan County has a large population, rebellions are still frequent, and it will take two years to completely restore farming, and according to the rebel prisoners and reports, there are still more than 2.5 million people in Shangguan and Ganfu counties.

And at present, Peng Yuan alone, this year, Qiu Nan, Peng Yuan need at least two million stone relief rations throughout the year, this marshal is worried that after the capture of Ganfu and Shangguan, the country will have no food available, do you have any arrangements before this trip? ”

Bai Liyan shook her head with a sad expression:

"Before the war, I was strict with the king in the morning, and it was advisable to take two counties, at most three counties. With the grain reserves and national strength of the salty country, the three counties are already the limit. Now take Ganfu, there are four counties.

As a result, there is a shortfall of at least 3 million stone of grain and grass that the state treasury needs to allocate every year, and if there were only 1 million stone, it can still be purchased from other countries, but now half of the 3 million stone can only be solved from the country.

And this is not counting the future recruitment of rebels, attached to the rebels and their wives and children, if you include a cadre and so on, the gap is as high as four million stones.

When I came down, there were only three ways to think about it on the road. ”

"Which three laws?" Zhao Xun asked.

"The first is to expand the collection of grain at any cost, there is a large amount of land in the south to grow wheat, and military rations can be purchased from the southern royal guests, but the price will be much higher because of the long distance. Second, after the war, all the wager battalions and people were stationed in Tuntian, Pengyuan County, which could solve the urgent need.

Third, grab food. The two counties of Dekang and Ganfu were originally the largest granaries of the Black Turban Army, and Pengyuan, Shangguan, Xiaguan, Changyin County and other counties were also important grain-producing towns. Based on the income of official grain in an ordinary year 30 years ago, it was about 1.5 times more than 1.5 times the period of peace in the land of the seven counties of Xianguo.

After the Zhi army sent troops, the rebels transported the grain and grass of the counties and half of the rations of the people across the river and hoarded them in Dekang County, although I don't know how much, but based on the population of the six counties and hundreds of thousands of troops, it is conservatively estimated that there must be as many as seven or eight million stones.

When the Zhi army crosses the river in the future, most of them will not occupy Dekang, but will give it to the eldest grandson, but if there is enough time, the Zhi army will definitely attack Dekang and rob the money and grain, leaving Sun Guo a blank land, so it is necessary for our army to cross the river to grab grain. ”

When the Black Turban Army retreated to Pengyuan, most of the grain and money stored in Pengyuan County were transferred to Wanchuan, and then transferred to Ganfu through Wanchuan, and then crossed the river from Ganfu to Dekang County.

The previous method of fighting local tyrants and distributing money and grain basically failed after entering the Sun Kingdom.

Zhao Xun confiscated almost all the bad officials and gentry and local tyrants in Pengyuan County, and did not take out 200,000 stone grains, 50,000 gold and silver.

Before the war, Bailiyan deeply assessed the situation of Sun State, and laid down two counties, which was the most economically calculated, and if it was attacked by force last year, most of them had already taken Wanchuan this year.

And to take the three counties, it will be very reluctant, now to eat the four counties, the food gap is at least three million stones, this is still an annual shortage, according to this gap needs to be subsidized for at least three years, the gap of more than 10 million stone of rations, is no longer a hole that can be filled by 100,000 wagon battalions.

Relying on imports, all countries are now using soldiers, and after the war, they have to provide pensions and relief, no one can make a hand, even if there is money, the price will not be cheap, the only thing that can supply grain relatively low is the military grain warehouse and the civilian warehouse hoarded by the royal guests in the south.

The hoarding of grain and grass in the southern border of Yuke is based on 300,000 soldiers and horses, and the amount of expenditure for four years is based on the fact that the war has basically subsided in 635 to the present, and the pension and expenditure have been removed, and the grain and grass storage have recovered in the past two years, and it is completely possible to raise enough military food from the south to transport it to the interior, but the price will be very high, and it can be exchanged for artillery and munitions in Yongxing City.

Besides, you can cross the river to defeat Dekang County and confiscate the black turban army food and grass, but the evil consequences will also be very obvious.

Now everyone is short of food, and the Black Turban Army is also short of food. Once the Eastern Front Okura was confiscated, it would not only cause the collapse of the Black Turban Army on the Eastern Front and accelerate the victory of the princes' armies on the Eastern Front, but also create a famine of tens of millions of people in the central region of the Sun Kingdom, so this move would hurt the heavens and reason.

"Zhao Shuai, I think that if our army's war can end this year, Xianguo will be able to draw out an additional two million stone grain within the year, plus there are still more than two million stone left in the big warehouse in the country, and there is no big problem before the autumn harvest next year, the focus is on the two years of Shengyuan, the war in various countries has not yet ended, and the princes are not rich in grain and grass. Therefore, if you can lay down Dekang County and intercept the grain and grass, you can still spend it for a year. In this way, it only takes another year to deal with it, and the internal troubles in the four counties can be solved. ”

"But to cross the river, not to mention that time is not allowed, our water army needs to borrow the road Zhiguo, if the Zhijun knows that our army is going to fight Dekang, the commander thinks that most of them will not borrow the road. If this is the case, without the response of the naval army, crossing the river to capture Dekang will become an extravagant hope, and it is better not to have too much hope. ”

"This is also where I am worried, I am afraid that there will not be enough time, the Changsun army will go south to occupy Ganfu, Shangguan, and Wanchuan, and then the solution will solve the urgent needs of our army, but I am afraid that the king will offend us."

"The matter of grain and grass is your internal affairs of the farmer, and the commander will ask you for grain when the time comes. Now there is another thing Ben Shuai wants to ask you, what is the situation with Gongsun Yue, and why is there no news so far? ”

"Don't hide it from Zhao Shuai, Gongsun Yue is afraid that he will be detained by the Black Turban Army, and he wants to use this as a bargaining chip to ask for a price from my country."

"Asking price! What do they still want at this moment? ”

Zhao Xun felt unbelievable, it was all up to this, what qualifications did he have to bargain, but Bai Liyan said:

"Does Zhao Shuai think that it is self-sufficient to talk about the Tao like this?"

"Well, now that the princes are attacking it, the troops are far above it, and they still want a price, so they don't want to kill themselves."

In fact, it is not, and the eloquent argument is seeking the best way out. My Xianguo is small, and I don't take my Xianguo in my eyes, so I want to get a better price than my Xianguo from other princes. If the next expectation is good, he will secretly make peace with Xu, Wei, Zhi, and even the eldest grandson at the same time, and repeatedly compare the increase of various countries. ”

"These thieves really deserve to be killed."

"Don't hide it from Zhao Shuai, I plan to buy the rebels with monetary interests and seek to win the three counties with the method of attacking the heart."

"Does the king know?"

"Well, the matter has been reported to the king. Otherwise, it may be difficult for our army to capture the three counties before the Changsun army enters the three counties. But whoever descends to me will receive gold, silver, and jewels. ”

Before the expedition, the Xian Kingdom Treasury and the Inner Government allocated 400,000 inches of silver, and the Yongxing Marquis Mansion and Yongxing City each allocated 50,000 inches of silver for the special funds for recruiting and rebelling.

Yongxing City also urgently printed 1 million leaflets, preparing to use hot air balloons to throw them into the rebels' entrenched city pass at a low altitude to publicize the Xianjun policy and break the morale of its military and people.

The leaflet is printed with the corresponding price code in detail, and the price is clearly marked for different official positions and military positions, and the more people are brought in, and the more people who donate the population, the more bounty they get, where is the fear that the rebels will not surrender.

People are self-interested, and the Black Turban Army has neither a sense of national identity nor a sense of identity of interests, and simply uses cults and power tricks to dominate the army, and the middle and lower ranks of military officers and soldiers and ordinary people have no interests at all.

The military battalion was repaired in Shuotian for two days, and Bailiyan rode with Zhao Xun to Dongpingguan under the control of the Black Turban Army to inspect the battlefield.

Wanchuan County as a whole is a basin landform, the area is no less than Sichuan Province, Dongpingguan is the east gate to enter Wanchuan, and it is also the only entrance from east to west, and the corresponding west side of Juxia Pass is the only gateway to enter Wanchuan from the west, and one of the two passes must be broken when entering Sichuan.

Its East Pingguan is six miles wide from north to south, there are three brick city walls inside and outside, three moats, about four zhang high, each city wall is 300 steps apart, the space in the pass is narrow, it is extremely unfavorable for the deployment of troops.

The mountains in the north and south of the pass are steep and abnormal, and Zhao Xun once sent people to use hot air balloons to reconnoitre, trying to find a landing site, and transporting troops into the pass, but several attempts failed.

Putting away the binoculars, Baili Yan pointed to Xiongguan two miles away and said:

"Zhao Shuai, have you ever bombarded it with artillery?"

Zhao Xun shook his head:

"There is a lot of grass and trees in the mountains, and the rebels string together logs to form mats at the head of the city, and then hang mud and straw bags, and the projectiles have little effect."

"It's really a refinement, so why don't you build a catapult to hit it?" Bai Liyan asked.

"The stones don't work well, and if there is a water source in the gate, it won't work to put grease on the fire. On the contrary, the defenders are well prepared, and the pass is also equipped with catapults and swarms of bees, as well as fire and thunder bombs, the range of its trebuchets is far above our army, a swarm of bees can reach up to 200 paces, and hundreds of thousands of arrows are overwhelming each time, killing and wounding huge soldiers on the front line, and under several battles, our army has suffered a lot of losses.

At the end of the previous year, it was reported that the Changsun army had 63 pounds of heavy artillery, and the firing range could reach six or seven miles. ”