It's a pity that in this early spring, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng City even got a bowl of fragrant porridge.

Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, had basically exhausted his money and food, and he could not do anything at this time.

Kaifeng was repeatedly besieged, and the reinforcements of the imperial court became more and more weak, on the contrary, the number of people and horses of the rogues always doubled, Li Zhongzheng believed that it would be difficult to sustain the advantages of one and the other, and he could not choose to fight with the rogues in this dead place.

At this moment, Li Zhongzheng met Zuo Shouquan, an old acquaintance sent by Nanwang, the military attache of the third grade, and the chief officer of the Henan Military Intelligence Department.

Zuo Shouquan came with only one hundred cavalry from Henan, and Lu Wenhua, the chief officer of the propaganda team, with more than 20 auxiliary soldiers of the propaganda team.

This group of 100 or so people did not play the banner of "God of War" or the banner of "Nanming", but came to the Central Plains in the name of the guards of "Huaxia Daqian Village".

Zuo Shouquan saw that Li Zhongzheng was outspoken, and told him that if he wanted to protect the army, killing the enemy, and making meritorious contributions, only by guarding the cities along the river would it be guaranteed, because the "Nanming" would send inland warships to reinforce along the river at a critical moment.

There is no doubt that Zuo Shouquan asked Li Zhongzheng to give up Kaifeng, which was learned by Huang Sheng, who was thousands of miles away, through the intelligence sent back by the Military Intelligence Department, that Li Zichengsan, who appeared in history, had already opened Kaifeng twice.

Huang Sheng, who was beyond the reach of the whip, was gathering troops to go to Liaodong, and Emperor Chongzhen had already asked the Ming civil and military forces to work together to eliminate the Liukou in the newspaper, and asked everyone not to wait and not rely on foreign troops to come to help.

Daming's intelligence "Nanming" basically mastered, and even ordinary agents of the Military Intelligence Department understood the meaning conveyed by Di Bao, and Daming clarified its attitude and also showed the bottom line, not allowing the "Nanming" army to get involved in the Central Plains.

Under such circumstances, the experienced Zuo Shouquan was sent to Henan on a business trip, and in order not to cause misunderstanding in the Ming Dynasty, he only had one hundred and ten people around him who followed in the name of the guards of "Huaxia Daqian Village".

The first important thing that Zuo Shouquan had to do was not to let Li Zicheng besiege Kaifeng for the third time.

Because the thieves were determined to besiege Kaifeng for the third time, he adopted the tactics of long-term siege, intending to starve hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng to death.

After the siege, the food in Kaifeng City ran out after three months, and the hunger was so desperate that "everyone cannibalism" was in a desperate situation, and it was no longer surprising that people were knocked out of their bones and sucked bone marrow.

Weak people can't kill people and eat meat, they can only eat everything they can get, such as aquatic plants, Guanyin soil, leather, traditional Chinese medicine, etc., and even eat horse manure.

In the end, the army began to kill horses, and there were soldiers who mixed horse meat and human flesh for sale, and the price was three or four taels of silver per catty. Modern people can't imagine it.

Hundreds of people in Kaifeng starved to death every day, but even so, the tenacious Kaifeng soldiers and civilians still chose to fight to the death.

One-eyed Li didn't expect the Kaifeng people to be so stubborn, and when they couldn't attack for a long time, the thieves were desperate and dug up the Yellow River embankment to flood Kaifeng City.

The Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan's painting "Qingming Riverside Map" on the prosperous Bianliang "full of cities into river Han", only the bell and drum two floors and the roof of the Purple City of the Zhou Palace, the top of the Xiangguo Temple, the Yanqing Temple, the Tujie and other high places.

A man-made breach in history caused the Yellow Flood area to stretch for hundreds of miles, causing Kaifeng to be buried by sediment for up to 20 meters.

O iniquity! The common people have lost millions, those who survived have become destitute, and the cooked land cultivated by their ancestors for generations has become barren saline-alkali land.

The prophet Huang Sheng could not judge whether Li Zicheng was still so crazy, and in order to prevent trouble, he issued an order to Zuo Shouquan to prevent the "Ming Dynasty" soldiers and civilians from defending Kaifeng, lest the common people become dry bones, the ancient capital becomes ruins, and the wheat fields become saline-alkali land.

Li Zhongzheng is not pedantic, he doesn't know that Henan has been beaten by the Liukou, and now there is no food for thousands of miles, and now he can't produce to save himself, because the Liukou will appear at any time, and the common people will have to take labor and seeds if they can't get the harvest of wheat.

The army and the people could not get food supplements, no matter how strong the city was, it was impossible to hold it for a long time, and when it was time to be surrounded again, it was necessary to look forward to the rescue of the inefficient imperial court.

Seven or eight years ago, Li Zhongzheng was surrounded by rogues in Yiyang County, Henan Province, and this was the situation, and with the experience of the past, he had to be responsible for the hundreds of thousands of military and civilian officials in the city.

Zuo Shouquan said that he could provide military rations, but he could only choose to supply them to the cities along the river, because it was very likely that these cities could ensure that they would not be lost, otherwise the grain that would be transported to Daming by sea and land would be cheaper.

Today's Daming grain prices are extremely high, and the "Huaxia Grain Bank" has always implemented price rationing sales, with a maximum limit of two and a half silver coins per stone of milled rice.

Too many conscientious civil officials and military generals in the Ming Dynasty know how difficult it is for the Huang family to stabilize grain prices for ten years, and don't thousands of miles of river-sea combined transportation cost? Storage loss and handling costs are not a small amount.

Huang Shengyun's grain into the Ming Dynasty was to save more Han people, not to let the Liukou have a full stomach and have the strength to harm the place.

Li Zhongzheng believes that this is more in line with the actual situation, and it is feasible to lead the army and civilians to the riverside to eat food nearby, the cost of food is smaller, the safety is higher, and it is feasible!

It is impossible to blatantly bring the army to the riverside city, but Li Zhongzheng can set up a name to garrison Gwangju, which is still under the jurisdiction of Henan, although it does not rely on the Yangtze River, but there is the Huai River to rely on, and it can also transport grain by water.

Gwangju is a strategic location between the Jianghuai River and the Han River, and it is understandable that Li Zhongzheng moved his army here as a base camp.

Moreover, he only bluffed here to set up a nominal base camp, leaving only 3,000 men and horses to defend the city, and when he found that the thieves were attacking in a big way, he immediately turned to Hankou New Town.

Li Zhongzheng knew that the thieves were developing rapidly, and the officers and men were gradually at a disadvantage, and it was particularly important to preserve their strength, and he could never disperse his forces to let the thieves break through.

Hankou is a grain city set up by the king of the south, backed by the Yangtze River to explore, the army turned into Hankou, the army and civilians choose to stay to help defend the city or flee to the sea is not a problem, no matter how many people come to besiege it.

Therefore, he set up the real base camp in Hankou, and he could be invincible if he could attack and retreat.

Since both sides are doing things in line with the idea of rescuing the common people as much as possible, of course, they will not suffer from gains and losses, and they began to evacuate the poor people on the same day, and the deputy general Zhang Xiushen led the 3,000 cavalry under his command to cooperate with Zuo Shouquan again.

When he set off to move south, he wrote an excerpt asking the emperor to take refuge in Gwangju for the time being, and then return to the domain after the situation improved.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people evacuated, and Kaifeng City was left to Chen Yongfu, who was promoted to the chief military officer of Kaifeng, to lead 10,000 horses to guard, and there were fewer people who needed to eat, and the food problem was basically solved.

Besides, there was no need for him to defend to the death, and when he found that the thieves were strong, he could choose to retreat south to Gwangju, and the thieves besieged Gwangju and gave them them, and the official army could then move towards Hankow.