Two shouts came from the time of shabu-shabu, put down the dishes and chopsticks, Bailiyan walked out of the fortifications, and saw a royal guest squatting on the ground and looking down:

"General Wei, the southern expeditionary army of Xianguo has reached twenty miles outside the north gate, and the marshal asks the general to go and respond quickly."

"Great!"

Bai Liyan was overjoyed, and then called:

"Jiang Jie!"

"What do you command?"

"Go, hire some people to slaughter more cattle and sheep, wash and peel them, hang them up and freeze them and cut them into slices, ready to catch the wind and wash the dust for the army."

"No!"

The army was half a month longer than expected, and the wind and snow all the way were not easy, and I don't know how many people froze to death, frostbite, and pulmonary edema.

Riding alone to the north gate, changing to a two-horse sled, Baili Yan drove the sleigh out of the city, and faintly saw in the telescope that the long procession was slowly marching on the vast snowfield, stretching for several miles without seeing the head.

The appearance of the sleigh is undoubtedly a little more convenient for the vassal states of the Central Plains to transport supplies in winter, and before arriving at Qianyue Mountain, Bailiyan has not heard that the sleigh has appeared at the moment, but the sleigh is a little heavier, but the speed is still very fast.

The two armies marched in the opposite direction, driving out of seven or eight miles, and the southern expeditionary army was clearly visible to the naked eye, and the army was wearing cotton clothes and sheepskin jackets, and its movement was extremely slow.

Sikong Nan, Lu Gao and others also discovered Bailiyan, and they broke away from the brigade and quickly went south in a horse-drawn sleigh.

"General... General, the end will be too late, please punish the general! ”

Sikong Nan was very excited, Bailiyan jumped off the sleigh and climbed two steps to help the generals up:

"Caused by the weather, any crime will be forgiven."

"General Xie's grace of innocence."

Everyone's hands and feet were cold and blue, but they still performed a solemn salute, and they were all very emotional.

"Brother Sikong, it's not easy to go all the way."

"Alas...... The last general was derelict in his duty and lost more than 300 brothers along the way. More than a dozen people froze to death yesterday alone. The rest either died of high fever or froze. It was already snowing when they left the city, and the army was burdened by the baggage, so it took twenty days to go to the city. When I arrived in Zicheng, I learned that there were sleds in the local area, and the last general ordered people to dismantle the wheels, hubs, and axles overnight and changed them to sleds, and bought more than 500 sleds from Zicheng, so it was delayed for four days, and then finally arrived in Yuecheng, and learned that the general was in Tiannan Pass, and this kept going south to meet the general. ”

"Brothers are fortunate, Wei is here for the fathers and elders in his hometown, thank you brothers!" Baili Yan bowed, and the generals were in awe.

"The general is righteous, and we will follow it to the death." Everyone spoke in unison.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Wei has prepared cattle and sheep, hurry up and return to the city with me."

The Southern Expeditionary Army suffered hardships and losses of more than 300 men and horses along the way, and a large number of baggage purchases along the way became a great burden. Thanks to Sikong Nan's improvisation, he dismantled the heavy vehicle and changed it to a sled, and forcibly pulled the road with horses, and walked for more than half a month to reach Yuecheng.

It was already dusk when they arrived at Tiannan Pass, and the flying eagle beast was still hovering in the sky, and the stone hanging on its claws had not found its target for a long time.

"General, is that what you just said about the Eagle Beast?" Sikong Nan pointed to the sky.

"Exactly. This eagle is extremely huge, grabbing dozens of catties of boulders like probing for things, and can swoop low to peck people's heads. In the past few days, more than a dozen people have died from the pecking of the beak of the eagle. ”

"Then why don't you shoot it with a bow and arrow?"

Bai Liyan smiled bitterly:

"The Flying Eagle Beast flies three hundred feet high, and it is difficult to shoot. However, our army has carried two sets of hot air balloons this time, which may be of great use. Let's go, after entering the city, I will drink hot sheep soup first, and then I will wait for you to talk carefully. ”

The arrival of the Xian army did not attract the attention of the princes' armies, on the contrary, it had been numbed by the air raids of the past two months.

After dark, the intensity of the terrorist attack has weakened, especially the intensive air raid a few days ago, the flying eagle beast is extremely tired, yesterday it was also smoked by the black smoke of the coalition army, after being plucked and disemboweled, with a wooden pole of more than 20 meters, stabbed in mid-air, in order to deter the flying eagle beast.

Entering the station, each battalion organized to trim and clear the snow and set up camp. Sikong Nan, Lu Gao, Su Hong and other generals went into the underground bunker and drank a bowl of "sheep soup", but the taste was quite bland:

"General, we don't have any taste for this mutton soup." Su Hong smacked his lips, quite picky.

"You know what, it's called a soup. Jiang Jie, go and bring the beef and sheep slices. ”

"Yes!"

The generals didn't know why, so after sitting down, they watched Baili Yan scald the meat slices back and forth in the pot with chopsticks a few times, and the red beef slices quickly turned white and ripe, and they were dipped in soy sauce and sent to the mouth, which was quite delicious.

"What are you doing in a daze, hurry up and taste Wei's mutton and beef shabu, how does it taste."

Under the encouragement of Bailiyan, the generals competed to try their skills, and Su Hong croaked again:

"Wow, this meat slice is really amazing, tender and fragrant, cooked if you want to be cooked, and raw if you want to be raw. Along the way, the hardships have been in vain. ”

"As long as you talk a lot, such a delicacy can't stop your mouth."

"Hehe, it's all a general's magic method, doesn't the last general want to say a few more words, and forget about it when he talks about it."

Su Hong scratched his ears and cheeks and snorted haha, Sikong Nan said at this time:

"It's really too bitter along the way, whether it's rice, wheat or beans, it's undercooked, let alone meat. Fortunately, the general was wise, and he came to fashion a lot of preserved meat, sugar paste, and preserved fruits, or he wouldn't have to eat along the way. ”

"Yes, it is really bitter for you, brothers. When you arrive at Tiannan Pass, you should be able to catch your breath. How much money is left on the way, and how many months will there be enough food and grass to last? Bai Liyan asked.

"When the last general arrived in the city, he received a secret letter from the general, and handed over the herbs and hemostatic powder to Wang Tan, and obtained 3,000 stone dried meat and cured meat. After that, he bought some coal, dried meat, leather clothes, and 60,000 stone wheat, and now there are more than 10,000 inches of silver, and 60,000 or 70,000 copper coins.

There was too much wheat, and this time he only brought 5,000 stones, and the rest was still galloping and Wang Tan was watching for the time being. Coupled with the grain and grass left over from this trip, there are about 8,000 stone of grain and grass with the army, but there is a lot of dried meat, and there is no meat to eat for a while, but at the moment, I am afraid that the grain and grass brought into the customs with the tour is not enough, not counting meat and preserved fruits, at least 60,000 stone will be needed to survive this winter. ”

"What Brother Sikong said is extremely true, I'm afraid that if you look at the entire Central Plains, the southern border is the most lacking in meat. However, it will be difficult to say that the war will expand next year. As for grain and grass, I have used 20 telescopes, first from the marshal in exchange for some grain, grass, and coal, and the remaining 40 telescopes have agreed with Gongliangwen to exchange grain, grass and coal.

It is estimated that there is a gap of at least 30,000 stones, which can be supplemented by livestock, dried meat, and preserved fruits, and the rest of the deficiencies are traded on the spot with silver coins and Song copper coins, no matter how expensive they are, they must first mix them up at the beginning of this year and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and then transport the grain and grass from the country when the spring opens. ”

At this time, Lu Gao answered:

"The grain and grass have been solved temporarily, it's not a matter if the rice is not cooked, is it possible that the people in the south eat raw rice?"

"There are two ways to do this. There is a fire pit in the local area, bury the pot stove in the ground, and then cover the ground, leave a hole in the air, and simmer, this method can burn the rice thoroughly until it is eight or nine ripe. The second method is still to paste thin cakes, which were made by our army on the march and thinner, and then pasted on the copper plate after applying vegetable oil, which can also be used locally. It's really not good, you can cook more with fierce fire, but it consumes so much coal.

In addition, there is a way to fry with vegetable oil, but at present, vegetable oil is scarce, and the cost of transporting it thousands of miles is extremely high. "Bailiyan only thinks about how nice it would be to have a pressure cooker now.

On the night of the army's entry into the city, the battalions ate hot shabu-shabu and drank delicious broth, and the reward after the hardships of the road comforted the physically and mentally exhausted soldiers. At night, most of the time the barbarian flying eagle beasts were overtired, and except for sporadic air raids, they spent a quiet night.

On the second day, when it was dark and the barbarian air raid had not yet begun, Bailiyan quickly inspected the battalions and checked the combat readiness.

All the way to 4,000 miles, 329 people died, 183 people froze to death on the road, the rest died of altitude sickness, and a very small number died of fierce beast attacks.

The camp was in a hurry last night, and the southern expeditionary camp was busy redeploying all morning, and in the afternoon began digging fortified bunkers.

The grain, grass, and coal promised by Gongliangwen were delivered in full, and forty binoculars also arrived in the hands of Zhiguo, and were soon distributed to the front-line generals of Zhiguo.

There was still a gap of nearly 30,000 stone in the grain and grass of the Xian army, and Bailiyan could only go to the camp of the Song State and trade it with copper coins and inch silver.

This time, the head of the Song Kingdom will be the great Sima Shutong, a rather young and promising Great Sima, only thirty-nine years old. Of course, compared to Bai Liyan who worshiped the doctor at the age of twenty-three, Shu Tong is still far away, but I have to say that Shu Tong is a rare general in the Song Kingdom for many years.

It is rumored that this person is good at strategy, but he seems to be such a casual person, and his appearance is not at all hidden and quite a city number one.

The situation of the Song State in recent years is simple and simple, and it is complicated and complicated, the Song State is a vassal state of the Jin State, and the prince Mi Zheng has a cowardly personality, and continues to maintain the relationship with the Jin State after ascending the throne, but the Song State is the same as the Xu State, which is the industry of grassland farming and animal husbandry, and the character of the people is more bold.

The Song State claimed to be a vassal of the Jin State for decades, and the national strength of the Jin State was declining day by day, and the dissatisfaction with the Jin State below the self-related state was increasing day by day. In addition, the Jin State first attacked the Xian State, and then stationed troops in the Qi State, in the last two or three years in the Xianxi suffered a big defeat, and now the southern border is in danger, and the Jin State does not send troops, the Song State has become the shield of the south gate of the Jin State, all kinds of unrighteous actions, causing the Song State to complain, and there are great signs of taking the opportunity to oppose the Jin.

Shu Tong is not good-looking, but he does things without leakage. Because the Song Kingdom had a large amount of territory in the south, it was not scarce to have a large reserve of grain, grass, cattle and sheep in a short period of time, and Shu Tong was also very good at being a man, so he bought and gave 40,000 stone of wheat, 1,000 sheep, 300 cattle, and thousands of bundles of forage.

But if you calculate carefully, Shu Tong is actually not a loss. Not to mention that these 40,000 stone wheat is a drop in the bucket for Shu Tong, a thousand sheep and 300 cows, in this big winter, how much forage and concentrate feed must be eaten in the city, even if they don't starve to death and freeze to death, they are slaughtered in the pot, and they are not allowed to be stoned to death by the barbarian air raid.

At the same time, he also got a verbal promise from Bailiyan that when the war in the south ended, Xianguo would supply steel weapons, binoculars, and urgently needed living materials and small commodities to the Song State, and the Song State would provide military horses, cotton, soybeans and ploughing cattle to the Xian State.