Sun Chuanting was very depressed these days, he originally expected that Fang Yuan's expedition to the west would be delayed for at least three months, and he would even be dragged by Li Zicheng in Huguang and unable to get out.

However, Li Zicheng was defeated too quickly in Huguang, and Fang Yuan completed his western expedition in less than two months, and returned to Nanzhili again, which was completely beyond his expectations.

What made Sun Chuanting even more depressed was that the imperial court did not send reinforcements to help the war, nor did it send military rations, but only sent an edict urging the war, and together with the edict, there were also letters from Ma Shiying and Huang Degong asking the court for urgent help.

Ma Shiying and Huang Degong stated in their letters that Fengyang had been besieged by the Xuanjia Army for more than half a year, and the morale of the army in the city was low. Because there are 200,000 troops and people in the city, the daily consumption of grain is amazing, and the hoarded grain and grass are also consumed.

In the urgency of military rations, Ma Shiying and Huang had no choice but to release the old, weak, sick and disabled people in the city, who could not participate in the defense of the city, to go out of the city to eat. In just two months, 70,000 or 80,000 people have been released, leaving only young and young women in the city.

The meaning of the imperial court could not be clearer, and Sun Chuanting was asked to immediately send troops to relieve the siege of Fengyang, otherwise Fengyang would fall, and Sun Chuanting would be the first to blame.

Sun Chuanting looked at the edict sent by the imperial court, and he was angry, and summoned the general soldiers stationed in various places to come to the meeting. The attitude of the general soldiers was surprisingly consistent, since the imperial court did not send troops to aid the military rations, they refused to fight a decisive battle with Fang Yuan and withdrew to Shandong to defend it.

Anyway, this time I have already made enough money to go south for four million taels of silver, and five thousand for young women, so it is better to accept it when it is good. This group of general soldiers who only wanted to support the army and respect themselves even thought of the reason for Sun Chuanting's retreat, that is, they put all the blame on Zhu Yihai, and deduced that Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, and Zhu Hongjia, the son of King Lu, rebelled in battle, and colluded with Fang Yuan to cause the siege of Fengyang to fall short.

This 200,000 Ming army is Sun Chuanting's baby bump, and it is also the only army that can resist Fang Yuan's Northern Expedition.

Coupled with the fact that all the general soldiers were unwilling to fight, if Sun Chuanting forcibly pushed them onto the battlefield, the consequences would be unimaginable in the face of the elite Xuanjia army.

Sun Chuanting paced back and forth in front of the army case, hesitated for half an hour, and finally agreed to the generals' proposal, decided to withdraw the troops back to Shandong, and pushed the fault of the division to Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu.

Fang Yuan's depression these days is no less than that of Sun Chuanting. Because Fengyang City continued to send people out of the city, it has reached nearly 100,000 people, and they are still old, weak, sick and disabled who only eat with their mouths open and have no labor.

There were only 10,000 soldiers left by Gan Hui to besiege Fengyang, and he was worried that the Ming army would mix in with the people who were sent out of the city and wait for an opportunity to make trouble. Coupled with the fact that Fang Yuan was not in Fengyang, who would dare to order the use of the military rations of the Xuanjia Army in front to provide disaster relief to these enemy starving people who were sent out of the city?

In desperation, Gan Hui could only write a letter to the emergency reserve granary in the rear for help, asking for help from the emergency reserve granary in the rear, asking for 20,000 stone to reserve grain to come to the relief of the victims. Ma Lin, who was in charge of the military fields in Zhejiang, was also very happy, and directly a month later, he sent a sergeant to send 20,000 stone of grain.

Gan Hui set up a military demarcation line outside Fengyang City, and the people who went out of the city must not cross the demarcation line, but could only stay within the military demarcation line.

These people, who were sent out of the city, entered, and were stopped by the checkpoints of the Xuanjia Army; If you retreat, you can't enter the Fengyang City Gate, so you can only stay in the buffer zone where the two sides are fighting, and you will be in a dilemma.

Gan Hui, on the other hand, sent people to deliver 1,000 stone of grain to the people in the buffer zone outside the city every day, so that they could cook their own food and temporarily sustain their livelihood.

Gan Hui originally thought that the people outside the city would be able to settle down for the time being, and wait for Fang Yuan to come back before making a decision on how to deal with these people. He led the army to Suqian City and guarded Suqian for the injured Li Zongze.

After the siege of Suqian was relieved, Fang Yuan and Gan Hui went to Fengyang Mansion to deal with the livelihood of the hungry people out of the city, but they found that the miserable situation of the people outside the city was shocking.

The hungry people actually began to eat people, all kinds of stumps and broken arms, livers, lungs and intestines, scattered all over the ground, it is simply the legendary hell on earth. There were at least 80,000 people outside the city before, but now a rough count shows that there are at most 30,000 left.

This tragic situation reminded Fang Yuan of the siege of Changchun during the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, which was no different from now.

Seeing this, he was furious, stared at Gan Hui and asked, "Governor Gan, you didn't let them live, nor did you provide disaster relief?!" ”

Gan Hui never expected the tragic situation in front of him, and hurriedly said, "Regent, I don't let them live, because I am worried that they will be mixed with the Ming army and spies and wait for an opportunity to make trouble!" I have sent a sergeant to provide 1,000 stone of food every day for disaster relief, and this is true! ”

Gan Hui immediately found the quartermaster in the army to testify, and the quartermaster also reported truthfully, "The army will send a thousand stone of grain every day, and there is no falsehood." If there is one stone of rice missing, I am willing to fill the life of my whole family. ”

Fang Yuan secretly estimated that one thousand stones was close to 20,000 catties of rice, and the eighty thousand victims outside the city could each get three or two meters a day. Although it is not enough to eat a big meal, it will not starve to death in a large area, and there must be fraud in it.

Fang Yuan also ordered the Xuanjia sergeant to find a few hungry people to ask about the cause of the large-scale starvation death.

An old man who was so skinny that he survived by eating human flesh rushed to Fang Yuan and kowtowed repeatedly, complaining with tears in his eyes, "Master Jun! The besieging army didn't let us go, and the grain sent was still mixed with most of the sand. ”

"There was no food supply, so we first ate the fish and shrimp from the lake outside the city. After eating fish, shrimp and crabs, I began to eat wild vegetables outside the city again. Eventually, the wild vegetables were gone, and the hungry people had to be eaten. Woo woo, help the military master, let us live! ”

Fang Yuan Tieqing helped the old man up, and ordered the whole army to immediately send military rations to vigorously rescue the disaster and save the surviving 30,000 people.

After the old man went down tremblingly, Fang Yuan's eyes flashed, he looked at Gan Hui, and said coldly, "Governor Gan, how do you explain it?" ”

Gan Hui was frightened, and said in a loud voice, "Regent, this has nothing to do with me, the military rations are allocated from the emergency reserve grain in Zhejiang!" ”

Fang Yuan was shocked when he heard this, and immediately called Gan Hui and went to the camp where military rations were hoarded.

Gan Hui commanded the sergeant to open a bag of emergency reserve grain transported from Zhejiang, and the blade passed through, and out of the mouth flowed out of the mouth was a mixture of half a meter and half sand.

Fang Yuan made people chop several bags of rice in a row, but it was still exactly the same situation. Even in his opinion, some are not half sand and half meters, but half sand and half a meter smaller.

Fang Yuan grabbed a handful of this kind of sand rice, spread it out in front of everyone, and said sharply, "Governor Gan, you said this is rice mixed with sand?" I think it's rice mixed in sand! The hungry people also want to thank you, and they are willing to put a little rice in the sand, but they don't give all the sand! ”

He threw it heavily on the ground, spilled it all over the ground, and was so angry that the quartermaster kicked him on the ground, and said angrily, "Fifty thousand lives should all be counted on your heads, and you should all be punished by military law!" ”

Gan Hui was wronged for no reason, and he was also furious, Chong Fangyuan half-knelt on the ground, and said in a deep voice, "Regent, I request that Jinyi guards be sent to investigate this case thoroughly. If Zhejiang's emergency grain reserves go wrong, it has nothing to do with the generals in our army; If someone in our army steals the military rations, I am not strict with my supervision, and I am willing to bear the responsibility for the crime together! ”

Fang Yuan squatted down, smashed his chest, and said coldly, "After the war, I will investigate this case thoroughly!" If it weren't for the responsibility of the generals under Governor Gan, I would have returned your innocence! ”