Lu Changyuan's words are true, and he is both a recovery and a king's master, which makes people listen very comfortably, and unconsciously a high hat that saved the people of Luoding from the dire situation was buckled on his head.

But if you think about it carefully, it's not like this, no matter how benevolent and righteous this Wang Shi is, no matter how he can solve the Li people in fire and water, but Wang Shi is also a human being, and he has to eat in his stomach, so it is absolutely impossible to have no food!

Zhou Shixiang was impatient to deal with these sophisticated officials, regardless of whether what they said was true or not, he waved his hand and said to Na Lu Chang: "We all know that the people are suffering, but now our army is in urgent need of food, if the soldiers can't eat enough, they won't have the strength to fight with the Qing army, and when the Qing army comes over, don't you still have to raise food for them!" So you don't have to say something useless in front of me and Lord Song, how you raise food for the Qing army, how you raise food for us! ”

After hearing this, Lu Changchang immediately complained bitterly: "There was a fire last night, and there is indeed not much food in the city right now, so please show compassion for the people and give the people in the city a way to live."

Lu Changchang is not unwilling to raise food, he also knows that no matter whether it is the Ming army or bandits who enter the city, this grain is their necessary materials like gold and silver, so the question now is not whether to raise or not, but how much food these people plan to want. If the number is large, it will also be difficult, after all, last night a fire caused half of the people in the city to suffer, and there is a shortage of food in a moment.

Zhou Shixiang thought for a while and said: "I don't embarrass you, although half of the people in the city have been affected by the fire, but still half of them have not been affected. ”

Song Xianggong added on the side: "Although there have been wars for many years, there are still some well-to-do families in Luoding City, and last night there was a Lin family in Datong Rice Shop who voluntarily paid more than a dozen carts of grain to help the victims. ”

When I heard Lord Song talk about the Lin family in Datong Rice Shop, Lu Changchang and those little officials obviously had strange looks on their faces.

"I don't care what method you use, in short, you must bring me food, otherwise, don't blame me for not being able to recognize people under the sword of the Ming Dynasty!" Zhou Shixiang intimidated again.

A small official boldly asked, "But I don't know how much food your army needs?" ”

"This"

Zhou Shixiang really didn't calculate how much food he needed, and he didn't even know how many people he could recruit as soldiers, and how could he know how much food he needed. At the moment, he said quietly: "Let me discuss this matter with Lord Song and then give you a quasi-number, now you go and raise some food to send to the affected people, and then transport some to the Yamen." ”

Lu Changyuan didn't know what Zhou Shixiang was doing, and looked at Song Xianggong hesitantly, waiting for this "Lord Song" to understand.

Song Xianggong had no opinion on Zhou Shixiang's arrangement, nodded slightly, and said: "General Zhou's words are the words of this official, you go to handle it quickly, without delay, this official will then personally inspect the victims, if you find that you are treacherous and slippery, arouse the anger of the people, and will not tolerate it!" ”

"Yes, sir."

Lu Changyuan responded in his mouth, but he scolded secretly in his heart, and saluted Zhou Shixiang again, and then led the person back with an aggrieved face. Along the way, he also calculated how much he could take the opportunity to knock on those big households, and who he should give to whom he should be gagged, so as not to leak the matter and let the bandits know.

As soon as they exited the lobby with their front feet, Zhou Shixiang slapped the table and scolded: "This surnamed Lu is unreliable, and he is playing tricks on us!" ”

Song Xianggong has been dealing with the yamen officials for several years, how do he not know their virtues, and said with a wry smile: "If you can't rely on it, you can't help it, whoever makes us have few people, we can only rely on them to maintain it now, if we don't have them, it will be even more difficult for us to do." After speaking, he paused, and said: "If there is a soldier and horse in hand, naturally there is no need to be verbose with these little officials, these people are used to seeing the wind and the rudder, and they don't know the pain in their necks if they don't hold the knife. ”

Zhou Shixiang nodded and said: "We have to pull people up immediately, otherwise, we have to tie our hands everywhere, and we have to prevent these people from making ghosts, this Luo Ding is afraid that he will not stay long." ”

After hearing this, Song Xianggong pondered for a moment, stared at Zhou Shixiang, and asked him, "What is Brother Zhou going to do?" ”

Zhou Shixiang said: "I want to recruit the young people in the city in the name of Brother Hu's Luo Ding, and expand the strength we have at hand first, as long as we pull people up, we don't have to be afraid of those little officials secretly stumbling on us, and then we can do more." ”

"We have the name of recruitment, but the team has to have money and food, dare to ask Brother Zhou, where does this money come from, and where does the food come from? What happens when the team pulls up? Could it be that Brother Zhou thinks that the more than 3,000 people in Luo Dingcheng can afford to support us? ”

Expanding the team, Song Xianggong naturally has no opinion, there are many people and great strength, even if they can't really defeat the Qing army, at least they can hold out for a while, so that they won't break the city today and run tomorrow. The key is that Luoding is too poor, and the population is too small, so he can't stay here for a long time, unless he is trying his best to get rid of the fish, regardless of the life and death of the people in the city, and robbing them of all the food, gold and silver in their hands, otherwise this ghost place can't raise too many soldiers and horses, otherwise why is the Qing army only stationed in Luoding with a total of more than 400 foreign commissioners, instead of a battalion of green battalion soldiers!

But if you really want to do your best, I'm afraid that without the Qing army to fight, the people in the city can unite to destroy Daqiao Mountain, and no one will come to join their team!

It's hard!

Zhou Shixiang had a plan, he said to Song Xianggong: "Let's squeeze out some of the grain from those big households first, and it's really not possible to apportionment some with the people who have not been affected by the disaster. ”

This is also a way, Song Xianggong touched his beard and said: "The grain can be collected from the big households in the city first, and we also have some in the village, and the two sides together can last for a month." Silver, I'm afraid that you hit Kong Guoliang's idea of silver, but I'm afraid it's not easy to move, Boss Hu's side is no problem, but what kind of temper Ge Wu's gang has, you must also know, pointing them out with silver, it's difficult! ”

"Ge Wu, I'll talk about them."

Zhou Shixiang patted his ass and got up to find Ge Wu and them. Seeing him in such a hurry, Song Xianggong couldn't help but be surprised: "Brother Zhou really wants to do a big job here in Luoding?" ”

Zhou Shixiang asked him rhetorically: "Don't Mr. Song want to make a big deal?" ”

"Me"

Song Xianggong did not answer this question directly, but turned a little worried: "Luo Ding's situation can't be hidden for long, and it won't take a few days for there to be movement on Deqing's side." When the Qing army comes, shall we go or defend? ”

Zhou Shixiang said: "The soldiers will block, and the water will flood!" If the Deqing Qing army really wants to come over, let's fight them! ”

"Hit? Can we fight? ”

Song Xianggong was not as courageous as Zhou Shixiang, and he was even more skeptical about the outcome of the battle.

Seeing this, Zhou Shixiang couldn't help but say arrogantly: "No one thought that we could take Luoding City in advance, but the fact is that we are in Luoding City now!" As I said before, there is no battle in this world that must be won or lost, and there is no battle that cannot be fought. As long as we are not afraid, we may not lose everything! Even if you lose, what does it matter! People are hanging to the sky, we didn't have a chance before, but now that we have a chance, why can't we fight with the Qing army! If you become a king or lose, you can only pay for one life, what are you afraid of! ”

"Good!"

Hearing these heroic words, Song Xianggong couldn't help but feel his blood welling up in his heart, slapped his hands fiercely, and shouted: "Brother Zhou is so courageous, so I will sacrifice my life to accompany Brother Zhou to fight with the Qing army!" ”