Tianjing was surrounded by the Hunan army, Zeng Guoquan cut off the grain road to Tianjing, Li Xiucheng's hundreds of thousands of troops could not break through Zeng Guoquan's iron bucket array, Tianjing's grain storage could not support so many of his troops, and Tianjing had begun to have a food shortage.

After Yang Xiaoshan separated from Li Shixian and Tan Shaoguang, he had been thinking about this problem, and if he wanted to return to Tianjing, he had to raise some food.

"Lao Wu, how much more grain can we collect?" Yang Xiaoshan asked Wu Ruxiao.

Wu Ruxiao's face was bitter, and he replied to Yang Xiaoshan: "King Dong, you don't know, this time is different from the past, our heavenly kingdom can't go out of the city now, and those gentry and landlords in the countryside don't pay taxes and grain to our heavenly kingdom." ”

Yang Xiaoshan didn't expect that the Kingdom of Heaven had reached this point, and there was no food in the land of fish and rice, so he asked, "Then can we buy food?" ”

Wu Ruxiao frowned, and continued to answer: "Those big grain merchants don't dare to come to us, their grain has been covered by the Hunan army and the Huai army. ”

Yang Xiaoshan was silent, this battle can't be fought without food, people are iron and rice are steel, even if there are foreign guns in their hands, people still have to eat.

Wu Ruxiao saw that Yang Xiaoshan didn't speak, and said softly: "Shall we first restore the practice of collecting food during the uprising march?" ”

The so-called grain collection is to go to the countryside to forcibly collect grain, and when the grain squad encounters a village, they distribute empty bags according to the size of the village, and come to pick up grain the next day.

"We have already established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, don't do what the bandits do, let's borrow some grain from those rich families." Yang Xiaoshan shook his head and said.

"King Dong, let's be honest with you, the rich and big families have long been borrowed, and now the landlords in Sufu Province have no surplus grain." Wu Ruxiao said helplessly.

Yang Xiaoshan was speechless, the harm of the war to the common people is great, and everyone lives for a mouthful of food.

"In front of us is the boundary of Changshu, let's go to the village and buy some grain from them, the price is high, and we can buy a little is a little." Yang Xiaoshan has no choice, he is not an immortal, and he can't turn into food.

When you hear the name, you will know that there is more food here, and if there is no food here, there will be no more food.

"The village up front seems to be on fire." Wu Ruxiao pointed to the sky-high fire.

"What's going on? Let's take a look. Yang Xiaoshan knew that the world was not peaceful now, and perhaps the village had been robbed by gangsters.

As we approached, the air was filled with the smell of scorched earth, and a group of women walked forward on the village path, one by one, with their hands tied behind their backs, and ropes around their heads and necks.

"Damn, go so slowly, don't you want Lao Tzu to make you happy!" The soldier next to him held a leather whip, grabbed the blouse of the woman next to him, and tore it violently. The woman's breasts were exposed, and the soldier stretched out his dirty hand and touched the woman's breasts fiercely, and the people next to him laughed and scrambled to attack the poor women. For a while, the men's lewd laughter and the women's cries were intertwined, and there was chaos.

Incredibly, these soldiers were all dressed in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom costumes.

Yang Xiaoshan was furious, urged him to step forward, and scolded: "Which part of you are from? How can you rob people's daughters? ”

The tall and thin soldier at the leader of the team looked confused, and said with a look of indifference: "We are the Taiping Army of Changshu, and we are under the command of King Qian Guiren. This village can't pay the food, we use their women to count, what's wrong? ”

"Bastard! Take them all down for me! Yang Xiaoshan never expected that the military discipline of the Taiping Army had deteriorated to such an extent, in the past, the Taiping Army paid the most attention to the defense of men and women, and they would kill their heads if they touched a woman's hand, but now they are openly robbing people's women.

Yang Xiaoshan's guards swarmed up and arrested all of these Biwang's men.

"Why are you arresting us? Who are you? The tall and thin pawn at the head was still not convinced.

"See clearly, I'm the King of the East! Come on, enforce military law! Faced with such a shameless face, Yang Xiaoshan couldn't help it.

One of the guards raised his knife and cut off the head of the tall and thin pawn, and his comrades were stupid when they saw Yang Xiaoshan's formation, and they lowered their heads and didn't dare to speak out again.

"Untie them and let them go!" Yang Xiaoshan ordered.

The poor women clutched their chests and knelt down in thanks, "Thank you, my lord! ”

Yang Xiaoshan heard the word "king" very harsh, in the past, the common people generally called the Taiping army heavenly soldiers, it doesn't matter if they are called long-haired, now they are called kings, what is the difference between the Taiping army and bandits?

"Old Wu, what's going on with this than the king? How can any cat or dog be the king now? Yang Xiaoshan turned his head and asked Wu Ruxiao.

"Hey, don't you know the East King, in order to boost morale, the King of Heaven has been crowning the king, and now you can be crowned the king by giving money. The prince is divided into several ranks, and now there are almost thousands of our heavenly kings and little kings. Wu Ruxiao sighed and said.

"Nonsense!" Yang Xiaoshan couldn't help but scold, isn't this a joke! It's so easy to be a king, who is willing to work on the front line? Is this worthy of those soldiers who are crowned kings by virtue of their military merits?

"Now that our kingdom of heaven is declining, the king of heaven also wants to inspire everyone, and if he is crowned king, he will be able to marry a few more wives." Wu Ruxiao said in the end, his face was red, his voice was like a mosquito, and he couldn't defend Hong Xiuquan.

"Let's go to Changshu City, I want to see what this King wants to do? How the hell do you lead a team? Yang Xiaoshan gritted his teeth and said.

It is said that Wang Qian Guiren was also an opportunist, and he brought hundreds of fellow villagers to join the Taiping Army in Anhui, and he was a middle-level officer under Li Xiucheng's account. Li Xiucheng laid down a large territory in southern Jiangsu, and he happened to be assigned to this small city of Changshu. So Qian Guiren hollowed out his mind, curried favor with the king of heaven, Hong Xiuquan, robbed the people of fat and ointment, and created a pair of pure gold lions and a pair of golden phoenixes to give to the king, so he was named the king of the king.

And at this moment, this king is preparing to "turn into a demon" and dedicate Changshu City to Li Hongzhang.

"Have you all been arrested?" Than Wang Qian Guiren saw his henchman Luo Guozhongdao.

"I've all been arrested, and more than 500 Liangguang old man's hair have been controlled by me." Luo Guozhong raised his head and said, they want to rebel, knowing that the two old men in the team will definitely not agree, so they want these people to make a petition and dedicate it to the Qing Demon.

"Li Hongzhang, what did Master Li say over there?" Qian Guiren continued to ask.

"He asked us to continue to fight the banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not to startle the snake, and in a few days he personally brought people over to accept Changshu City." Luo Guozhong smiled and said, as long as Changshu is sacrificed, they can continue to be officials in the Qing court.

Their sweet dreams are still happening, and Yang Xiaoshan, the king of the East, has already arrived near Changshu.