The coalition army's capture of the Central Plains people did not go well, and it took more than 30,000 people to take away after passing through seven villages and coaxing and deceiving.

Different from the Central Plains villages in Posong Province, the population of the villages inhabited by the Central Plains people in Songdia Province exceeds 10,000, and there are even 20,000 villages, which are equivalent to a large county town in the Central Plains, in which there are both men and women, young and old, and only 30% are young and middle-aged, even if the men between the ages of 16 and 45 are counted, it is only 40%.

"General, these Central Plains citizens are all iron-hearted, they just don't get on the boat, and continue to go on like this, where can our army withstand such a toss."

Bai He said dissatisfiedly, and his heart was angry. Bai Liyan was very indifferent, and said calmly:

"Don't worry, their best days are ahead."

"What does the general mean by this, is there still an immortal law to make them change their minds."

"Huh!" Bai Liyan sneered, and then said: "You don't want to think about it, our army swept away three or four adults from each village, which is equivalent to a loss of three or four percent of the tax, and the Jin Xuedi people now maintain a huge military strength, and its cost is very amazing."

And unlike our Central Plains princes' army, except for the generals, the soldiers have no salary, and the Jin Xuedi soldiers have as little as half a silver coin per month, and as much as one or two silver coins per month, and their annual expenses are as much as tens of millions of silver coins, which is not counting the pension they need for their deaths. Now that the war has been going on for more than five years, their financial and tax expenditures are so great that I estimate that most of them have exceeded the gold and silver materials accumulated in their treasury in the previous thirty years.

Now our army has swept away the original people, and the remaining Central Plains people who are unwilling to go will face more heavy taxes next year, so the officials will force the people to rebel, and then the pain of skin and flesh, and the hunger of the stomach will always be real. ”

The information obtained from long-term battles and plundering shows that the gold and silver mines of the Jinxuedi people are very large, not ordinary, and their finances are far more solid than those of the vassal states of the Central Plains, coupled with the political stability, the national unity, the large number of slaves, the developed commodity economy, and the speed of financial accumulation is extremely fast.

Therefore, as early as more than 400 years ago, the military system of the Jinxuedi people generally implemented a system of full salary in wartime, no salary in peacetime, and family tax reduction. In this way, civilians were encouraged to join the army, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the common people to join the army, coupled with the incitement of the church.

As a result, its military strength has also swelled rapidly from 300,000 or 400,000 in the early days to more than 800,000 or even one million, and this time it has more than doubled.

But no amount of gold and silver can withstand the gold-swallowing beast of war. In contrast, the Central Plains Army generally adopted the system of compulsory conscription by all the people, but it has the advantage of protracted warfare, coupled with the huge population base, which is far more able to withstand attrition than the Jinxuedi people.

In the Central Plains, all those who served as soldiers, only ate food and did not pay salaries, and after their deaths, they reduced or exempted their family taxes, issued a small amount of pensions, and even did not pay pensions, which greatly alleviated the financial difficulties of the princes and kings.

Now the war has been going on for five years, and the last three years have been the most tragic, with far more than one million casualties. The death and disability alone is a huge amount of pension expenses, and an army of more than 2 million yuan needs at least 3 million silver coins a month, which is more than 20 million silver coins a year, and no matter how rich the treasury savings, it cannot withstand the consumption of 1 or 200 million silver coins in five years.

The treasury was wiped out, and the financial pressure was bound to be passed on to the common people, and the slaves of the Central Plains bore the brunt. At present, these Central Plains people who have been poisoned by superstition will not leave, and when they will increase the rent and levy next year, and they will not eat three meals, they will regret it.

The fleet continued south along the tributaries of the Po Song River, and thanks to the maps seized from the merchant ships and the oarsmen leading the way, the boat continued to sail smoothly. But what puzzled Bai Liyan was that the cavalry that had been pursuing the coalition forces two days ago suddenly disappeared, and only its warships were still trailing behind.

Two days later, during the night, the fleet arrived at Shnak, and without waiting for the ships to dock, thousands of Central Plains civilians gathered on the shore. Bai He immediately put down the boat and let people go ashore:

"Tell the fleet, the clipper boat docks, ready to land!"

"No!"

At this time, Jiang Jie suddenly stopped:

"Slow General Bai, something is wrong on the shore."

"Isn't that right? What's wrong? ”

"You see, among the villagers are Jin Xuedi people wearing priestly robes, and the villagers are all armed with hoes, pitchforks, and sickles, and thousands of people gathered on the shore are all men, not a single woman or child, this is not like welcoming our army, but it has been prepared for a long time, and I am afraid that it will be fraudulent."

"How can this be, our army is here to save them."

"This matter is strange, when the docking is suspended, inform the adults that it is."

When he was young, Jiang Jie came to the cabin, Bai Liyan had just fallen asleep and had not yet fallen asleep:

"Lord Qiyu, our army has arrived at the village of Synak, and the situation on the shore seems to be a little abnormal."

"Anomalous? What's the anomaly? ”

"The villagers all gathered by the river with farm tools and torches, and there were also priests from the Jinxuedi people, and they were all men, and there were no women or children, and the situation seemed to be unfavorable."

"Let's go, let's see!"

When I came to the deck, there were many torches on the shore, and there was a faint sense of restlessness and anger. Seeing this strange situation, Baili Yan frowned and said:

"This is not right, even if the news of the arrival of our troops downstream reaches Shinak, there should not be such a large number of men gathered, which has never happened before. Fang Liang! ”

"What does the general command?"

"Go, take someone to take a small boat, take a detour from the east side, touch him, and the two lonely villagers will catch him and ask him."

"Yes."

Bai Liyan judged at this time that most of the enemy cavalry, whose whereabouts were suddenly unknown a few days ago, were directly related to the situation in front of them.

When Fang Liang led people off the boat, Jiang Jie said at this time:

"My lord, there are six or seven thousand men on the shore here, some old and some strong, but there is not a single woman or child, and there is no one who even looks lively, which is very strange."

"You are right, some of the Central Plains people in Songdia believe in religion, some do not believe, it is absolutely impossible to be organized by the Jinxuedi people to resist our army knowing that our army has arrived, which is indeed abnormal."

The villagers on the shore without exception carried farm tools under the organization of the priest Jin Xuedi, and guarded the river irritablely, obviously not welcoming the coalition army, but making sufficient preparations, as long as the coalition army landed, they might be beaten to the head and bleed.

About three moments later, Fang Liang led people to arrest two lonely villagers, and the resistance was fierce.

"Fang Liang, untie them."

"General, these people are obsessed, and they are very vicious."

"Just two reckless men who are not enough, let them loose."

"Yes!"

Fang Liang motioned to his subordinates to release the ropes of the two, and as soon as they were relieved, the two of them opened their teeth and danced their claws, and said unintelligible "spells" in their mouths, as if they were dancing gods.

Bai Liyan looked at it, walked in and said:

"Just by reciting a few words from your mouth, can you curse us to death!"

The two were also shocked when they heard the news, and one of them said in horror:

"How can you say our words!"

"You are human, and General Ben is also human, is there any difference!"

"No, you are devils, you are human beings who kill people without blinking, and do all kinds of evil, and your rhetoric can't deceive us!" The man shouted violently, shouting the devil after himself.

Bai Liyan's face darkened, and most of her heart understood.

The Jinxuedi people used the superstitious logic of primitive religion to perceive good and evil in the world, and fabricated illusory spiritual oppression, and described the coalition army as a disaster through the deception and intimidation propaganda of religious public opinion.

Thinking of this, Bai Liyan remained silent and asked again:

"Ben will ask you who the devil is and why are you afraid of the devil!"

"You are you, you have the mark of the devil on your head, the devil will ravage our women, you are the devil sent by the devil to arrest our women, you are ......"

The man spoke incoherently and logically confused, pointing to the bun on the top of Bailiyan's head, saying that it was the mark of the devil. Obviously, it is the trick of Jin Xuedi to demonize the coalition forces and sow discord.

At this time, the generals were discussing, and Jiang Jie whispered in front of the mountain:

"My lord, it seems that the crux of the problem lies in the women and children in the village. His subordinates speculated that it must have been Jin Xuedi who took the women and children in the village away and took them hostage, instilling heresies in the villagers, so as to deceive people's minds. If our army hastily lands on the shore, it will be attacked by them, and then it will be fratricidal and defeated.

The subordinates suggested that they should look for oarsmen or soldiers from the village of Sshnak from the fleet, and show up to explain the reason. ”

Baili Yan frowned and shook his head:

"It's useless, the right to speak is in the mouth of the priest, and if the priest says that the oarsmen and soldiers of Shnak have been demonized by our army as comrades, it will be self-defeating."

"Then our army will not have nothing to do."

"This may not be, go get the map!"

"No."

When he was young, Jiang Jie brought a map of the rivers of Songdia Province. Different from the previously seized administrative map, the river map is extremely rough, only rough identification of rivers and cities, without detailed locations of villages and mining areas, and the sailors marched all the way west, relying on oarsmen to lead the way.

The nearest town to Schenak is Kelownas, about 400 miles southwest of it.

Unlike the Central Plains of Posong Province, which were all settled in the eastern and southeastern periphery, the enslaved Central Plains people of Songdia Province were scattered all over the country and surrounded by other Jinxuedi villages nearby, often one or two Central Plains villages, surrounded by four or five Jinxuedi villages.

Therefore, the administrative scope of a main city or small city is equivalent to one-third of the counties in the Central Plains, and villages are dotted around, and villages cannot be called traditional natural villages, but should be administrative units between towns and counties.

"This is the small city of Kelownas." "Our army will land on the shore south of Shinak tomorrow and send 3,000 cavalry to the villages of the Jinshedi people to burn and kill, forcing them to flee to Kelownas. Remember, you can only burn and not loot. ”

"What if the Jinxuedi cavalry kills me?"

Bai He asked, and Jiang Jie broke the mystery in one sentence:

"Categorically not, all the auxiliary corps of Jin Xuedi people in Songdia Province have been transferred to Posong Province, and there are not many auxiliary soldiers left behind in the great Songdia, and the cavalry that pursued our army here before must be used to coerce and move away the women and children of the Central Plains villages in various places, so it must be divided into several teams of men and horses and go to various small cities to defend.

And Jin Xuedi people expected that our army was insufficient, and they would never dare to rashly attack the small city held by thousands of cavalry and tens of thousands of people's troops, so they would suddenly withdraw, and at this time the troops must have been divided.

Our army sent 3,000 cavalry ashore, and most of them would not be besieged by their main force, and even if they did, they would only have to flee at full speed and flee back to the ship. ”

"Jiang Jie is right!"

Bai Liyan affirmed Jiang Jie's statement, and Bai He was puzzled and said:

"Then why burn down the village of the white-haired thief, isn't it a waste of time?"

"No, our army is burning and killing outside, and its cavalry scattered to various small cities will definitely not dare to attack easily, but will think that this is our army's plan to lure the enemy. In fact, the people were forced to pour into the small city for refuge, so as to consume the grain and grass in the city.

The Jin Xuedi people moved the women and children of the Central Plains to a small city, which was nothing more than to act as hostages to intimidate the men of the Central Plains. It would never have expected the population of the small town to increase in a short period of time, so there would not be too much food in the city, and once the population increased dramatically, it would die of starvation. At that time, our army only needs to besiege the city with more than 10,000 people and cut off its entry and exit routes, and what can it do! ”

"But how long will it take to besiege the city, and what if soldiers and horses from other places come to help?"

"No, there are only more than 30,000 cavalry following our army this time, and there are dozens of small cities in Songdia Province, it is impossible for them to take care of everything, and after the division of troops, they will inevitably be divided into various places, and the exchange of news is extremely inconvenient, so there is no possibility of a big attack in the short term."

Songdia Province is located in the rear, coupled with the vast land, relatively small population, and the jurisdiction area of the prefecture-level administrative units is too large, the main army is evacuated after the transfer of troops from the province, and the combat readiness is extremely lax, far inferior to Posong Province, and it will not put arsenic on the flour in the village and move the grain and grass of the villagers to the small city as it did at the beginning.

Therefore, the cities of Songdi Adam were not prepared for war, and the population of a small city ranged from 350,000 to 780,000, and the population of the subordinate areas under the jurisdiction of the small city was 15 to 200,000, which was almost the same as that under the rule of Dingyang City, but the wealth was comparable to that of Guangxin.

In a short period of time, the villagers in the jurisdiction will rush into the small city, and it will be impossible for the refugees to carry and transfer the family rations, and the population in the city will increase dramatically, coupled with the women and children of the Central Plains who have moved in, the pressure on grain and grass in the city will increase sharply, and the rations will be quickly consumed, and they will soon fall into famine.

At that time, the local Central Plains people will be driven to Kelownas, and the people will watch the famine break out in the city, and the first people to eat will undoubtedly be the women and children of the Central Plains, to see if the stomach is tight, or the gods and ghosts are powerful.

Having made up their minds, the fleet quickly left the Schenak, headed southwest along the river, and the next morning landed 3,000 cavalry fifty miles south of Shnak and burned inland. The fleet slowed down and maintained a speed of fifty miles per day to accommodate the cavalry burning. During this period, there were constant reports from scouts, and they encountered organized villager resistance, all of which were blown up by a burst of gunpowder by the coalition cavalry.

After the winter, the temperature is as low as zero, and the light snow continues for several days, Bailiyan opened a hot pot on the deck, enjoying the snow scene while eating, and the black smoke rising in the distance added a bit of desolation to the war.

"My lord, this spice is really a good thing, I heard that the spices of the Jin Xuedi people are worth a lot of money in the Central Plains."

"No matter how good it is, what's the use of not being able to get it back, taking a step back and saying that it won't help if you can't plant it if you take it back."

"What the Lord said is that if you can't use it for me to make money, you can only sit and eat nothing."