"What's the matter, can't Zhonglang General still take the time to see each other?"

Yan Xing, who was draped in his body, waited for a long time at the gate of the Chinese army with two personal guards, and when he saw that Niu Fu's personal soldiers who ran to report came back at a trot, there was no order to let them go, and he couldn't help but ask a question.

The soldier Niu Fu who was asked by Yan Xing became a little embarrassed, and he couldn't say why, and when Yan Xing saw the other party's shirk, he knew that Niu Fu was probably not in the big tent again.

This is not the first time that I have refused to see myself!

In the Battle of Linfen, after successfully thwarting the aggressive advance of the Baibo army led by Guo Taiqin, Yan Xing took advantage of the situation to reverse the situation of the Baibo army marching south and conquering the city, and the two sides are now facing each other on the line from Baibo Valley to Pingyang and Xiangling, and beware of each other launching a large-scale general attack.

For the side of the Baibo army, the 50,000 or 60,000 troops who originally went south to attack Linfen have exceeded 30,000 Bai Bo soldiers who were damaged and scattered, and finally followed Guo Tai and other Qu Shuai back to Pingyang City, only 20,000 remnants, and the morale was depressed, and the vitality of the Baibo army was already greatly damaged.

And Yan Xing's side, although three battles and three victories, thwarted the surging offensive of the Baibo army, but after all, there are few major generals, under the successive battles, the soldiers in the army are also seriously injured and reduced, and the strength seems to be barely maintained at eight or nine thousand, but the real soldiers are less than 5,000 people, Yan Xing's soldiers and horses are completely relying on the power of victory to deter the enemy, more than self-preservation, want to attack the city garrisoned by the Baibo army, but there is no power.

In addition to restrictions on morale and troop strength, considerable internal problems have also arisen on both sides, which have constrained both sides from continuing to use troops.

The Baibo Army was originally a loose alliance, and all parties pushed Guo Tai as the leader, so when fighting a tailwind war, the Baibo Army had unlimited scenery and a hundred times the momentum, but now it has been defeated in successive battles, and even the main force of Baibo led by Guo Tai himself was defeated in the hands of Yan Xing's Xiliang Army.

Yan Xing is trapped in the army's food problem, relying on the two counties of Jiangyi and Linfen, it is already barely supported to support the less than 5,000 soldiers in the headquarters, and it also has to rely on the military logistics supply of Anyi and other places in the south, and now after the successive victories, Bai Bo has captured more than 20,000 people, plus those fleeing refugees who have successively returned to Jiangyi and Linfen, Yan Xing's command has suddenly increased more than 50,000 mouths to eat food.

In this way, relying purely on the supply of the two counties, the military rations transported from Anyi, and the seizures on the battlefield are not enough to make up for the shortage of rations under Yan Xing's command, and this shortage of rations will become more and more with the passage of time and the increase in the number of prisoners and displaced people.

If you count the food expenditure on repairing canals and tuntian fields and building water conservancy that Yan Shi talked about before, then this astronomical amount of food shortage is enough to drag down this small army of soldiers and horses under Yan Xing's command.

The situation is so difficult, but this battle must continue to be fought, and the follow-up civil affairs must be carried out one after another, and the seeds for grabbing grain must also be prepared and distributed, otherwise next year's northeastern border of Hebei will be another great famine full of sorrow.

It was precisely because of this imminent situation that although Yan Xing knew that the military situation of the confrontation with the Baibo army in front of him was still unclear, and a small setback on the battlefield would still shake the hard-won situation, he had to rush back to Anyi in person, ask for help from Zhonglang General Niu Fu, ask him for help, and ask for more grain and grass baggage.

Although since the Baibo Rebellion, Hedong County has been ravaged by the Baibo bandits, but the warring areas and the fallen cities are all located in the northeast of Hedong, while the cities of Anyi, Yishi, Puban, Fenyin and other cities in the southeast of Hedong have not been warned, and the profits of salt and iron in Hedong are also concentrated in the south, so the treasury of the cities in the south still has a certain amount of wealth and grain to meet the needs of emergencies.

Yan Xing took a fancy to the wealth and grain in the cities in the south, and he knew that the soldiers and horses were the meat of Niu Fu's heart, so although the soldiers and horses under his command were seriously reduced, he did not propose to let Niu Fu reinforce the soldiers and horses, but only asked Niu Fu to allocate the resources of the treasury in the south to supply the grain and straw of the army and horses.

However, Niu Fu's cold reaction really chilled Yan Xing's heart, Niu Fu was not only stingy with the soldiers and horses in his hands this time, but also hesitated for a long time when Yan Xing asked for additional grain and straw from the southern cities to support the army fighting in the north, and finally he was vague and did not accept Yan Xing in person.

In the next few days, just like today, Niu Fu avoided Yan Xing, or rather, he himself was no longer in the big tent of the Chinese army at all.

After eating soft nails many times and being rejected by Niu Fu, Yan Xing's face was naturally not good-looking, and the Niu Fu personal soldier also knew that the young general in front of him was the famous Dangkou Captain in Hedong recently.

"Ahem, cough, cough"

A few coughs broke the embarrassing scene, and when the Niu Fu personal soldier looked back, he was immediately relieved, it turned out to be Hu Chi'er, the leader of Niu Fu's personal soldiers.

Hu Chi'er paced forward slowly, smiling without smiling, and after glancing at the embarrassed Niu Fu soldier, he turned his gaze to Yan Xing.

"It turns out that it's Captain Yan again, what's the matter, there is something to find the general again!"

"Military affairs are urgent, I have to meet General Niu Zhonglang!"

When Hu Chi'er heard this, he smiled, poked his head out, and whispered beside Yan Xing:

"Captain Yan, if you want me to say, since the military affairs are urgent, it is better to hurry back to the front army, your matter, the general said that he would consider it, so he naturally would not easily agree to you, or die of delusion, if you delay the military situation because of this, you can't afford to bear this responsibility!"

After finishing speaking, Hu Chi'er retracted his head and looked at Yan Xing proudly, although he couldn't see the angry look on his face, but he was embarrassed by this Yan Xing, Hu Chi'er was still comfortable, he deliberately paced next to the gate again, accompanied by one or two sneers, as if it was a merciless mockery.

"Thank you very much!"

Yan Xing looked at Hu Chi'er's smug appearance of the villain, and he had no intention of arguing with him, and after saying a word, he left straight away with his personal guard.

Hu Chi'er saw that he couldn't provoke Yan Xing, his face couldn't help but be gloomy, he looked at the back of Yan Xing and the others leaving directly, and the anger of being ignored rose in his heart, and he spat on the ground hatefully.

"Phew! A lowly general, who was lucky enough to make some military exploits, dared to act in front of Naigong, look at it, sooner or later you will know how powerful Naigong is! ”

···

In the night Yan Xing tent

"Uncle Sheng, I haven't seen you for a year, and I've gained weight!"

Yan Xing smiled when he saw Gan Ling stepping into the tent, and Gan Ling's body was indeed a little more blessed than his previous sturdy appearance, he looked at his body when he heard this, smiled bitterly, and said:

"Since I arrived here, I don't hear the sound of the battle in my ears, I just train some soldiers every day, and then I go to the army banquet, eat wine and burn, how can I not get fat, and the hip meat has been revived!"

As he spoke, Gan Ling came to Yan Xing's face, held down the long sword at his waist, raised his skirt armor slightly, and sat down on the pu mat opposite him with his legs bent.

Looking at Ganling's familiar face, Yan Xing sighed:

"I've been suffering you these days, Uncle Sheng!"

Gan Ling waved his hand and said solemnly:

"Big brother doesn't need to be like this, you and my brother have already promised each other in life and death, since it is for the sake of the big plan, there is no reason for the tomb to be postponed!"

Speaking of this, Gan Ling raised his eyebrows, and then continued:

"Big brother is here, but it's for the sake of the army's food and straw?"

"Well, although the Baibo army was repelled by my army, but the hundred-legged insects, dead but not stiff, the current army is still facing off with all sides of Baibo, the outcome is especially unclear, the army can only barely support the grain and straw, but if you take into account the captured Baibo soldiers and the displaced people who have returned, only relying on Jiangyi and Linfen, and they are unable to support it, and because of this, my brother has to travel back to Anyi in the starry night, and I want to ask to see General Niu Zhonglang!"

Yan Xing nodded, and briefly explained the battle and current situation in the north to Gan Ling.

After Gan Ling listened, he shook his head and said:

"The eldest brother came here to ask for food, if he pinned his hope on Niu Fu, he was afraid that he would have little effect, Niu Fu was shallow and timid, had no wisdom to do anything, favored Wu Bu, and despised Jian'er, now Luoyang fell into the hands of Sun Jian, Niu Fu was anxious day and night, only afraid that Sun Jian would lead the army to cross the river to seize his Anyi City, at this time, not only would he not transfer a reinforcement, but even the grain in the treasury was also used by him as an occasional need, where would he be willing to take it out to deal with the war in the north."

Yan Xing listened to Gan Ling's words, and was silent for a while, judging from Niu Fu's performance in the past few days, this is indeed the case. Niu Fu had been frightened by Sun Jian's troops who had successively defeated Hu Zhen, Dong Zhuo, and Lu Bu, and he was now wholeheartedly engaged in dealing with Sun Jian's soldiers entrenched in the Luoyi area in the southeast, choosing to shrink his forces while gathering grain and grass, and preparing to defend Anyi City to the death.

As long as it does not threaten Anyi in the south, he is absolutely unwilling to take care of the affairs of the Baibo army, and the soldiers, horses, grains, and straw, which are important people and things to defend Anyi, are still too busy to take care of themselves at a critical juncture, where can they be allocated to Yan Xing's department.

Yan Xing had seen these things thoroughly in the past few days, and he sighed before he told Gan Ling about his other plans:

"When I came, I also discussed with other people in the army, if I can't do anything, in addition to the grain in the treasury, there are many surnames in Anyi, and there is also a surplus of food in the family."

"Brother wants to borrow grain from the Anyi family?"

"Hmm!"

When Gan Ling heard Yan Xing's affirmative reply, he was silent for a moment, but there was a heavy look on his face, obviously he was not optimistic about Yan Xing's plan.

The tent fell silent for a while, and after a while, Gan Ling, who bowed his head slightly, raised his head and suddenly said:

"In fact, in addition to these two strategies, there is another plan!"

Sensing the resoluteness in Ganling's words, Yan Xing suddenly cast his gaze on Ganling's somewhat gloomy face, only to see that Ganling was also looking at Yan Xing with blazing eyes.

The two looked at each other like this for a while, and finally Gan Ling took the lead in looking away, and Yan Xing then also retracted the sharpness in his eyes, turned to look at the dark desk in front of him, and said in a low voice:

"This plan is related to tens of thousands of living beings in Hedong, and I will never use it until the last resort!" 10