Day after day, time slipped away imperceptibly in the fingers, and there was not much war under the city of Kaifeng, but the food in the city became more and more tight, and Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, sent messengers one after another to Hebei to ask for food.

Yan Yunjing, the governor of Hebei, had no choice but to organize thousands of people, each carrying three buckets of grain, escorted by 3,000 officers and soldiers, and planning to cross the Yellow River at night and transport grain to Kaifeng.

This time, Wang Xie, the superintendent of the imperial army, resolutely objected, he believed that the 3,000 soldiers could not protect the people who transported the grain, and it was impossible to transport it into the city.

Yan Yunjing had no choice but to give up, but he couldn't help Zhu Gongyun repeatedly sent messengers to urge, concealing Wang Xie, and tentatively sent five hundred soldiers, each carrying three or four buckets of grain, to cross the Yellow River by boat and land at Qinggudui west of Kaifeng.

Unfortunately, not long after these soldiers landed at Qinggudui, they were discovered by the cavalry of the Mandate of Heaven patrolling on the embankment, and all 500 soldiers were captured and their food was confiscated.

Li Zicheng does not value this bit of food, but thinks about the matter itself.

Five hundred soldiers, one hundred and sixty stone of grain, if it is not a temptation, it is that the city of Kaifeng has reached the point of exhaustion, for a mere one hundred and sixty stones, they will risk crossing the river, and the soldiers of the Heavenly Mandate Army outside the city are very small, such a big price......

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Li Zicheng's mouth, and it seemed that the strategy of "besieging" the city was initially successful.

Five hundred prisoners of war, after a simple training, joined the ranks of the young and strong, and became the miscellaneous servants of the Mandate of Heaven.

The first few prisoners of war, excluding those who were incorporated into the Mandate of Heaven Army, there are still more than 18,000 people, plus these 500, it is almost 20,000, and the Mandate of War Army itself has recruited 30,000 young people, so it is already 50,000.

The farming around Kaifeng is basically over, and the wheat harvested outside the city has been threshed and dried, and there are 50,000 miscellaneous labors, which is too much.

The release of prisoners of war is unlikely to be realized, knowing that there is no food in the city, the prisoners of war generally will not return to the city, if they are left to fend for themselves, these soldiers who have been in the army are very likely to gather as thieves because of food problems, and harm the local people.

These people were the remaining prisoners of war, and even if the Mandate of Heaven wanted to expand its army, they would not be recruited from among them.

It can't be raised in vain, in Li Zicheng's heart, Huaxia is in a time of tribulation, and no one has the right to live a parasitic life, and must support themselves.

Li Zicheng thought for a long time, thinking of the previous events in Xining and Lanzhou, and the prisoners of war generally helped build roads and make some contributions to the future of China.

Now in Henan, the war has not been extinguished, it is impossible to build cement avenues like Xining and Lanzhou, however, the roadbed of the official road is not bad, and in the future, you can directly pour the cement avenue to save the time of road repair.

Which stretch of road is most needed?

Li Zicheng unfolded the map of the march and pointed at the map.

Kaifeng has always been the capital of Henan, once the Mandate of Heaven Army takes Kaifeng, it will basically end the war in Henan, Henan will enter the economic recovery period, not surprisingly, Kaifeng is still the capital of Henan Province.

However, Li Zicheng learned from the experience of later generations, because of transportation, Zhengzhou became the center of Henan, and everything revolved around Zhengzhou.

In this era, Kaifeng or Zhengzhou, which one is more suitable as the center of Henan?

If you look at it geographically, Zhengzhou is closer to the center, but Kaifeng has a longer history and is still a famous cultural capital.

Li Zicheng immediately smiled, Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, who is the center of Henan, it does not matter for the time being, first build a real cement avenue, connect Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, the opportunity is equal, it depends on how these two cities will be positioned and developed in the future.

On the march map, the official road between Kaifeng and Zhengzhou is not blocked by mountains, only some rivers, and there is a Zhongmu County in between.

Li Zicheng took Song Xiance as the supervising army, divided 30,000 young and strong, according to the standard of cement avenue, first expanded the roadbed of the official road between Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, if time permitted, in the future, it will extend to Luoyang to the west, or turn south, and establish the Kaifeng-Zhengzhou-Xuzhou triangle, this official road passes through Runing Mansion, and can also extend from Xinyang Prefecture to Huguang Wuchang Mansion, and can also pass through Xiangcheng and Nanyang, and extend to Xiangyang Mansion in Huguang.

Compared with the Mandate of Heaven army strolling outside the city, in Kaifeng City, Gao Mingheng is at a loss, although the Mandate of Heaven army did not attack the city, but there is a lack of food in the city, and it is difficult to maintain the soldiers on the head of the city, and the grain transported by crossing the river in Hebei Province was intercepted by the Mandate of Heaven Army......

The price of grain in the city is soaring upwards as if it were on a rocket, yesterday it was 821 stones, and today it has risen to 1221 stones at noon.

What to do with Kaifeng City? How can the food problem be explained?

Outside the city can not be counted on, can only integrate the food in the city, he decided to use extraordinary means, in order to Kaifeng, he did not hesitate to bear the infamy of the future.

Gao Mingheng assigned food tasks to the wealthy merchants and eunuchs in the city, and according to the wealth he knew on weekdays, he needed to hand over a certain amount of grain as military rations for soldiers.

He knew in his heart that no matter whether the wealthy merchants and eunuchs in the city had stored grain or not, they would not hand it over easily, and if they fed the soldiers, they might be the ones who died.

The law of thunder is not enough, the means of thunder must be used!

Gao Mingheng naturally did not personally collect food from these people, but gave an explanation, and then handed over the errand to the soldiers guarding the city, this kind of dirty work, the soldiers are the most suitable.

The soldiers were indeed the most suitable for urging food, and they invented a very simple method: each household, first announced the amount of grain that needed to be collected, and if the master did not give it, or the food given was not enough, they would catch the young children, prick their skin with large needles, threaten the master of the house, and increase the number of large needles on the other, and in serious cases, the young children would be pierced with hundreds of large needles......

There are even more unscrupulous soldiers, who fancy the eldest girl and the little daughter-in-law, so they increase the amount of grain without authorization, until they can't squeeze oil and water, so they force them to sacrifice themselves in the name of releasing them out of the city to dig wild vegetables.

Some large families, with neither food nor beautiful female dependents, were tortured to death by the soldiers, but the soldiers still refused to let go, and they had to be turned over boxes and cabinets to search for food!

However, despite all the efforts of the soldiers, they did not collect much food.

Even digging three feet into the ground in a large family, it is still not satisfactory, and they really don't have much food.

Forcibly requisitioning grain from large families has made many wealthy merchants starving, and in extraordinary times, the silver in their hands cannot buy food, even if they have mountains of gold and silver at home, they are also starving like ordinary people.

The city was full of hunger, the streets and alleys were full of corpses, the whole Kaifeng City, the smell of corpses was diffused everywhere, Gao Mingheng began to let the soldiers drag the corpses out of the city in time to bury, and then the soldiers in order to reduce physical exertion, directly piled up the corpses in the city, and swept away the fire.

The rate of death and wounding is much faster than the speed of collecting corpses......

There was also a problem with the military rations, and some soldiers knew that Kaifeng City had no hope, so they used the excuse of going out of the city to attack the thieves, but after leaving the city, they quietly surrendered to the Mandate of Heaven Army and never returned......

The life of the common people is even more difficult, not only is there no food, but even the salt, sauce, oil, and even the bran of the pigs in the house have been searched by the officers and soldiers.

The big families were not much better, and in times of famine, no amount of silver could buy food, so they could only wait at the city gate every day to dig wild vegetables, just like ordinary people, but they would generally miss the property, real estate, and shops left in the city, and generally return to the city in the evening.

It's just that the female dependents in the family suffered, and every time they went out of the city, they had to bribe the soldiers at the city gate with young and beautiful female dependents......

Since the people have their own way of survival, since they can't get out of the city and have no food, some people have the idea of children, as long as their children leave the sight of their parents, they will be secretly taken away and become someone else's meal.

The soldiers found that there were fewer and fewer corpses in the city, and as long as they were not found in time, someone would take the initiative to help clean them up, and finally only a pile of hard bones remained......

After all, it is someone else's child who eats, and his heart will not be too entangled, but the child will not be too much, what should I do after eating?

Fathers eat their sons, husbands eat their wives, brothers eat their brothers, and in-laws eat each other, and so on......

In the southern city of Kaifeng, there was an old couple who were so hungry that they could barely walk, but there was not a single grain of rice in the rice tank, so they discussed eating their daughter-in-law.

The old man sighed and said, "After eating her, what should my son do?" I'm still waiting to hold my grandson......"

The old lady gave him a blank look and scolded: "Hug your grandson? Don't think about it, it's been almost a year, and the belly doesn't move, I'm afraid it's a hen that can't lay eggs...... Is our family going to raise her for nothing? ”

The old man shook his head, he didn't know if he could bear it, or if he was reluctant, maybe he was worried that his son would not be able to get his mother-in-law in the future.

Seeing that the old man didn't speak, the old woman became even more bold, "While you still have some strength...... When she can't move her hands and feet, she is in the prime of life, can you help her? ”

The old man pressed his belly into it with his hand, drank two more sips of water, and still couldn't quench his hunger, so he let out a long breath and whispered: "You go and bring the knife, I'll sharpen it faster......"

"Hey...... the old lady became happy, took the kitchen knife from the kitchen, ran back carefully, and whispered close to the old man's ear: "You sharpen the knife quickly, the knife will be sharpened quickly, I will trick her into the firewood room, help you press her, you do it quickly, so as not to cause ......trouble."

When the daughter-in-law saw her in-laws looking sneaky, she was suspicious, and when she heard it against the wall, she was taken aback, and while her father-in-law was still sharpening her knife, she hurriedly crept out of the house and ran back to her parents' house in one go.

The mother was stunned, "Girl, our family didn't pick you up, why did you come back, did you quarrel with your in-laws?" ”

The daughter cried: "Father-in-law and mother-in-law want to eat ...... daughter"

The mother was taken aback, comforted her first, coaxed her daughter, pushed her into the bedroom, closed the door with her backhand, and found her father who was wandering outside, "How is it, haven't found it yet?" ”

"No," the father shook his head, "there are too many people looking for the dead right now......

"Well," the mother sighed, "my daughter is back......"

"Daughter?" The father frowned, "We haven't eaten anything ourselves, what should she do when she comes back now?" ”

The mother looked around and saw that there was no one around, so she whispered, "Her father-in-law and mother-in-law want to eat her...... She secretly learned the information, so she fled home......"

"These two beasts ......"

"What's the scolding like, you have to think of a way......"

"What can I do, I've only drunk two sips of cold water so far," the father said angrily, "Do you want to send her back to her mother-in-law's house?" ”

"Isn't it eaten by her in-laws when she sends it back?" Mother said: "Why do our family's flesh and blood have to be cheaper than others? ”

"Ah...... You mean......" Father was shocked.

"Is there any other way?" The mother lowered her head and whispered, "You haven't found the dead body until now, how long can you hold on?" Once you're hungry, it's useless to regret it......"

The father nodded, returned home, and killed the daughter with the mother, first eating most of the tears in his eyes, and then chopping off the remaining meat and putting it up, and stewed the bones......

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