The Qing army scattered and broke through, and the old battalion baggage was also divided into several units, and the families of Xu Yong and other generals were under key protection, and the vehicles and livestock were fully equipped, so they rushed to the nearby Luotian County early, and continued to flee north after a short rest.

The families of ordinary soldiers did not have this kind of preferential treatment, dragged and walked very slowly, and there were not many soldiers to protect, after leaving the city, they were constantly pursued and killed by the cavalry units of the Ming army, and were soon dispersed, one of them fled east to Xishui County, and was caught up by Ti Zhaorong's cavalry by the Xishui River, and all of them were taken prisoner.

The general who led the troops inspected the prisoners, and found two big fish, an old man and a young man, Niu Venus and Niu Yan. It stands to reason that Niu Yan, as the prefect of Huangzhou in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, has the responsibility to defend the land and cannot abandon the city and flee, but he still fled greedily for life and fear of death, but it is a pity that he was arrested by the Chu army again.

Since this kind of big man has been caught, of course Wang Kefan wants to see it, as soon as the father and son of the Niu family entered the Zhongjun Hall, they immediately fell to the ground and pleaded for mercy.

"Please spare your life! Spare your life! Niu Yan kowtowed very violently, smashing the green bricks to the ground, his forehead was black, and he kept begging for mercy hoarsely, but his father was even more clever, as soon as he knelt down, he burst into tears, and his voice trembled, and he seemed to be in a very sad mood and very weak.

"The sinners have gone astray, and the old age is not guaranteed, although there is no way to regret it, but in vain, please ask the military to give the old man a death!" After Niu Jinxing finished speaking, he also leaned down and kowtowed heavily, and a stone hidden in his hand slid to his forehead, and when he raised his head again, his face was covered with blood.

Niu Yan looked at him in surprise, and his body couldn't help but shake slightly, but he couldn't find the stone in his eagerness, so he had to lie on the ground and bite his lower lip violently, and he also made himself bloody.

Wang Kefan didn't look at him squarely: "How to deal with the Niu Governor's Mansion, this town can't make the decision." I have to ask the court for orders to make a decision again, but ...... If the prefect of Niu can make some contributions, the town can also help say a few good words. ”

"Please command the military gate, the criminal minister is willing to serve the dogs and horses!" Niu Yan's response this time was very fast.

Wang Kefan smiled and said: "You are the prefect of Huangzhou, you must know the truth of this mansion well, my army is just short of food, as long as you can identify a few large grain farmers and raise two thousand loads of grain, I will protect your life without worry." ”

"Well, now is the season of scarcity. Huangzhou Mansion has just been poisoned by Tartars, and there are too many 5,000 quintals of grain, I'm afraid it will be difficult to raise ......" Niu Yan had an embarrassed expression, but after he glanced at Wang Kefan, he immediately changed his words and said: "But the criminal minister is willing to do his best." Even if the Huangzhou Mansion is turned upside down, it will raise these 5,000 loads of grain for the military gate. ”

Wang Kefan nodded. Said calmly: "That's good." 5,000 guarantees your life, 4,000 guarantees your whole corpse, and 3,000 quintals can only guarantee your beheading, you can do it yourself. ”

Niu Yan's body trembled violently, and he couldn't help asking, "What if it's only two thousand quintals?" ”

"Two thousand quintals of Ling Chi."

Niu Yan was even more frightened, and asked again, "What about a thousand quintals?" ”

"A thousand quintals? A thousand quintals of annihilation. Wang Kefan was very dissatisfied and asked, "What." Can't the prefect of Niu even find a thousand loads of grain? ”

"Yes! Yes! I can find it! ”

"That's good, you go down to do something, I'll talk to Ling Zun." Wang Kefan called Jingliang and followed Niu Yan to find food.

Although Huanggang City was burned by the Qing army. But the rich merchants in the city should still have some hidden grain stocks, depending on how much the cattle can dig out. It's really not good, you can also go out of the city to get food, the area around Huangzhou Mansion is the land of fish and rice, there are many wealthy villages, let Niu Yan lead the way, and the Chu army can also raise some food for emergencies.

Jingliang is a central officer of the Chu army, and when he goes out, he represents Wang Kefan, although the official rank is not high, but the power is very great, Zhou Guodong's old qualifications have to give him some face, and he will definitely be able to successfully complete the task if he comes forward to coordinate the food.

Seeing that Niu Yan went out, Wang Kefan said to Niu Jinxing: "Niu Xiang, you can also go down and rest, and I will send someone to send you back to Huguang and hand you over to Xingguo Hou for disposal (Xing Guohou, Li Guo). ”

Niu Jinxing's body shook suddenly, and he still knelt and asked in a trembling voice: "Is there a place for the military gate to be old?" Although the old man does not dare to compare himself with Zhang Liang and Xiao He, he is also familiar with Wen Tao's martial arts strategy, and can plan a thing or two for the military. ”

Wang Kefan shook his head: "The Tao is different, don't conspire with each other!" ”

Niu Jinxing sat on the ground with weak legs, cold sweat trickled down his forehead, and he asked for a long time: "May I ask the military gate, I have no grievances with you in the past and no enmity in the near future, why do you want to put me to death!" ”

Wang Kefan looked at him closely, and whispered word by word: "Because of your corpse vegetarian meal, the Han family has been ruined!" ”

Niu Jinxing's eyes suddenly widened, and he exclaimed in astonishment: "You, you are a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, why do you say such things?" ”

Wang Kefan's voice was lower, and his tone was more firm: "I am a Han first, and then a courtier of the Ming Dynasty. ”

……

In the afternoon of the same day, a special meeting was held in the military hall of the Chu army to discuss the grain issue.

After the Chu army entered the city, they did not find much grain in Huanggang City, only the situation in Jingliang was better, and with the help of Niu Yan, he opened the granaries hidden by the two big families and found more than 600 loads of grain.

But this is far from enough, 600 loads of grain, that is, more than 60,000 catties, is not enough for the Chu army to eat for three days, and some more relief to the people has to be distributed, and the gap is even greater.

In addition, the Chu army also captured a large number of prisoners, both the green battalion soldiers, and the family members of the green battalion, plus the original prisoners in Xianning City, there were more than 4,000 people, and they could not be starved to death.

Zhou Guodong proposed to build yì: "We can't eat enough ourselves, so we should not give porridge to the people." ”

Lu Renqing was born poor and had different views: "Then how can it be done!" These people are all refugees, who have just been rescued from the tiger's mouth, and if they are starved to death by the Ming officials and soldiers, they will give up some gruel, and it will not cost much food. ”

Teng Shuanglin also agreed with his opinion, but from a different angle: "Yes, we have just recovered Huanggang, and we must appease the people, otherwise the foundation will be unstable, and the battle behind will not be able to be fought." ”

Gu Zongfu retorted: "Of course, if you have food, you have to buy people's hearts, what can you say if you don't have food?" ”

He called appeasing the people's hearts as buying people's hearts, and his words were very ugly, Teng Shuanglin immediately quarreled with him, and Wang Kefan frowned and stopped them.

"As long as it is a human being, it has the right to eat, what is there to fight for." He made a decision: "As long as there is no food in the army, the porridge must be given up, the Tartars have just burned Huanggang City, gritted their teeth at the critical moment, and the people will remember our benefits for the rest of their lives, and we will find a way to do it without food." ”

Wang Kefan doesn't want to see the people starve to death in vain, and he really wants to take the opportunity to buy people's hearts, he is the commander of Caojiang, and Huangzhou Mansion will be his territory in the future, as long as he gives up a few days of porridge, he can make the people grateful to Dade, so of course he has to do things that are beneficial and costly, and he has to do a lot of work.

As for the difficulties encountered at the moment, finding a way to solve them is that if you see difficulties, you will be a turtle with a shrunken head, and you will not be able to do anything big in your life.

Gu Zongfu rolled his eyes and began to raise the bar again: "The words of the military gate are light, can food fall from the sky?" ”

Wang Kefan smiled slightly: "Food will not fall from the sky, but maybe someone will send ......"

……

In Xishui County, Sun Baian was anxious.

The green battalion of Huangzhou was scattered to break through, Xu Yong and Xu Bin both went to Luotian, but Sun Baian fled to Xishui with a troop, and fought with Ti Zhaorong's cavalry on the way, and the killed lost their armor, and finally fled into Xishui County with only more than 100 people.

Xishui is very close to Huanggang, as soon as Sun Baian entered the county, he arranged to prepare for war, but there were countless defeats in the city, and Sun Baian could not be impeached.

This was nothing, Sun Bai'an had no choice but to slap his ass and leave, and went to Luotian to find Xu Yong, but there was a sudden abnormal situation in the city, which made him very worried.

It is said that the Chu army captured a lot of green camp captives and old camp family members, and was ready to execute all of them, but if they were willing to ransom people with grain, they could exchange one load of grain for one old camp family, three loads of grain for a green battalion soldier, and five loads of grain for a low-level officer.

After hearing the news, the officers and men of the Green Battalion and the families of the Green Battalion could not sit still, the officers and men of the Green Battalion wanted to save their wives and children, and the families of the Green Battalion wanted to save their husbands.

Some people moved relatively fast, risked pushing the grain to Huanggang to try, and actually rescued people, and they also saw a lot of heads in Huanggang City, it is said that the Chu army could not afford to raise so many prisoners, and began to kill people in batches.

Now it can be a hornet's nest, everyone has money to buy grain, no money to grab grain, there are dozens of riots a day in Xishui City, the price of food has also been raised to the sky, whoever has enough food, will be sent to Huanggang together. Those rebellious soldiers took the opportunity to make waves, some of them sold grain while grabbing grain, and some started a business with a clear price, and they will help you redeem people with money, and Tong Suo is not bullied.

This is a capital enemy!

Sun Bo'an tried to stop it, but he only had more than 100 people under his command, and he couldn't stop those large groups of rebels at all, and his subordinates were also secretly raising food to save their family and brothers.

A family member has a load of grain, and a green battalion soldier has five loads of food, this price is not low, and there are still many people who can't afford it, but the Chu army has released another word, and the city wall bricks of Xishui City can also be replaced, a family member has 20 wall bricks, and a green battalion soldier has 100 wall bricks, and they will release people when they see the bricks.

The bricks of the city wall are thick and big, and a hundred wall bricks can build half a low wall, which is not a small number, but for the green battalion soldiers and the families of the green battalion, it is a good deal without capital.

In the end, Sun Bai'an himself dismantled thousands of city wall bricks and sent people to Huanggang, and many of his soldiers were taken prisoner, and they could be exchanged for one by one. (To be continued......)