Zhou Shixiang, who had not slept all night, found Song Xianggong the next day, and without waiting for him to ask, Song Xianggong confessed the fact that the rations allocated to the people of Xinhui had decreased.

The reason given by Song Xianggong is that "there is a difference between relatives and relatives", the public grain can only last for another two months, but the Qing army is far away from the siege, and after two months, he does not ask and knows that the city will run out of food, and then there will be no reinforcements outside, no grain inside, and the city will be broken only for a while. Therefore, in order to solve this crisis, or to give the Taiping army more time to wait for the situation, Song Xianggong had no choice but to reduce the supply of rations for the people of Xinhui since last month.

At the beginning, the rations of the people of Xinhui were two-thirds of the rear camp, and after half a month, it was reduced to one-half, and now one person is only given one piece of pancake a day, and the rest is completely cut off. How can the remaining 2,000 people in the city, men, women and children, live on a piece of pancake weighing less than one tael? But if they are given more food, what will happen to the Taiping Army's big family business? There were more monks and less porridge, and Song Xianggong could only ruthlessly deprive the people of Xinhui of their rations, so that they could squeeze out more food to supply the front and rear camps.

Song Xianggong's words made Zhou Shixiang speechless, reasoning, although many of those Xinhui people are his fellow villagers, it stands to reason that the Taiping Army he pulled single-handedly is his closest person, and it is also the strength he should preserve the most. In the case of food shortage, it is not impossible to abandon the people of Xinhui and save the Taiping army. However, Zhou Shixiang, who had a difficult conscience, still could not agree with Song Xianggong's proposition, and he insisted that Song distribute the grain to those people, but Song gritted his teeth as if he had eaten the scales.

Zhou Shixiang managed the army with a thousand households, and Song Xianggong managed the people with the general affairs, money, grain, and official duties, which was the division of labor set in Luo Ding that day, so Song Xianggong was absolutely unable to interfere in the organization and command of the Taiping Army, but in the same way, Zhou Shixiang could not interfere in everything in the rear camp, unless his opinion did not harm the interests of the rear camp, so that Song Xianggong would cooperate. For example, on the same day, the establishment of a back-camp security team and the establishment of a public treasury system.

Now that Song Xianggong insists on not letting go, Zhou Shixiang is anxious and angry, and he can't help it. It is not necessary to gather the officers and battalion elders for this matter to discuss, the result of this deliberation Zhou Shixiang does not need to think about it, and he knows that it is definitely not what he needs. If he forcibly ordered Song Xianggong to release grain with his authority of thousands of households, this would also go against the original intention of Zhou Shiyuan to set up a rear camp, and. This decision is likely to be contrary to the wishes of the Taiping army. The bald Jiang He, the Ge Zheng brothers, and Zhao Sihai's gang will support him, the thousand households, or Song Xianggong, the result is unknown.

Zhou Shixiang did not want to be a single husband, let alone split the Taiping Army because of this incident, but he was also unwilling to give up the more than 2,000 people. He told what he had witnessed last night, emphasizing several times that a ten-year-old girl was only worth two flatbreads.

"Without food, these people can only starve to death, starve to death!"

"Can we really bear to let those people die? Die for our cruelty! ”

"We oppose the Qing Dynasty in order to save the people of the Han family who have been poisoned by the Tartars, not to do the same thing as the Tartars! If we would rather let these people starve to death before our eyes, what difference are we from the Tartars! ”

"Last year, that is, last year, my parents, wife and children were brutally killed by the Qing army, and now, Mr. Song, are you going to force me to kill other innocent people again!"

"As long as I, Zhou Shixiang, is still in one day. As long as our Taiping Army still exists, as long as Xinhui City is still in our hands, I will never let the tragedy happen again! ”

Zhou Shixiang's almost roaring roar alarmed the guards outside the hall, and they rushed in nervously, then looked at each other and quietly retreated.

"That's it, since Qianhu insists on doing this, it is inconvenient for me to be this wicked person again."

Zhou Shixiang's fierce reaction finally relieved Song Xianggong, he was not a hard-hearted person, just a few months ago when the Taiping army had just occupied Xinhui City. He once admonished Zhou Shixiang in the city, hoping that Zhou Shixiang could sympathize with the remnants of Xinhui and prevent them from dying too innocently. But at that time, Zhou Shixiang did not have the kindness of a woman like today, but rejected him without hesitation. Right now. But the two sides were adjusted, and the good man of the day became the evil man, but the evil man had to be a good man.

Just when Zhou Shixiang thought that Song Xianggong was willing to give grain to those people, Song Xianggong said another plan.

"The matter of human trafficking in the city was reported to me in the early morning, so the matter was caused by the reduction of food, so I suppressed it and did not report it to you. Now thousands of households already know, and blame me for being ruthless, I have to save one or two. ”

Hearing Song Xianggong's strange words, Zhou Shixiang frowned: "How to save it?" ”

Song Xianggong said categorically: "But you can't put grain." ”

"If you don't put food, how can you let the people live?!" Zhou Shixiang was angry and anxious, and Song Fuzi was amusing himself for a long time.

Song Xiang announced that Zhou Shixiang would be calm for a while, and let him finish his words.

"Presumably, Qianhu already knows that the women who were sold are from the families of the people in the city, but does Qianhu know who those buyers are?"

Zhou Shixiang asked, "Who?" ”

"All of them are former battalion soldiers."

Although he already knew the answer in his heart, Zhou Shixiang still couldn't help but "hum".

Song Xianggong sighed: "Don't be annoyed by thousands of households, the soldiers who go to buy women may not be evil, and the fact may not be as unconscionable as thousands of households imagined." ”

"What does the gentleman want to say?"

"Although there are those who have married in our sergeants, there are also those who have not married a family, and as far as I know, most of the people who buy women are those who have not started a family."

"Unmarried?"

"According to the rules set by thousands of households, the rations of the soldiers in the front battalion are sufficient, and the ordinary soldiers have a catty and four taels of food a day, and there are more than the officers, and the family members can also provide for their families for their own use, plus the food allocated by the rear battalion, although there is not much food in the army at present, but there is no food deduction, so there is no shortage of food in the rear camp. Those who have not married in the army do not have to provide for their families, but they are more than enough for their own use, and they can even be used to help others. However, the food in the army is an iron rule set by thousands of households, even knowing that there is a lot of food for the soldiers, I dare not deduct it, so as not to violate the taboo of thousands of households, and annoy the soldiers in vain. ”

"Mr. did the right thing in this matter, at present, our army is trapped in a lonely city, and the spirit of the army must not be shaken."

Although there is not much food in the city, which can only last for two months, only the officers above the general flag know about this matter, and the ordinary soldiers do not know about it. Zhou Shixiang felt that Song Xianggong was steady and grateful, but he didn't know what he had to do with his request.

"When the soldiers have a surplus of food, but the people of the city are short of food, one more and one less, what do the thousands of households think will happen? Since ancient times, have there been fewer things to live on food? Isn't it a good thing for the sergeants to buy those who are going to starve to death and give them a way to live? ”

"How can it be a good thing for people to be forced to sell women!" Song Xianggong's truth made Zhou Shixiang cry and laugh.

I don't want Song Xianggong to say: "There is no absolutely good thing in the world, and there is no absolutely bad thing, if you haven't seen the scene of selling people, how long do you think these people can last, ten days or half a month?" What would the people do if they were to starve to death or sell them to live, and how could it not be a good thing for them to live with the food of those soldiers? ”

"What the hell is the gentleman trying to say?" Zhou Shixiang was a little confused.

Song Xianggong no longer went around in circles, and bluntly said: "Since the people in the army who have not started a family are interested in buying women to start a family, and thousands of households will allow them to be, so that under the premise of reducing the food supply, we can ensure that some people can live, why should we oppose this kind of good thing." ”

"Is it true that a soldier buys a woman to start a family?"

Zhou Shixiang said hatefully, Song Xianggong said it well, but what does the soldier want to do when he buys a woman, can he not know? These women are somewhat and military. What difference does it make to a prostitute!

Song Xianggong said indifferently: "Qianhuquan thinks so, and it is true." If thousands of households don't think so, I have no choice, but it is absolutely impossible to release grain to the public treasury, as the general affairs officer of the Taiping Army, I have to ensure the food supply of the Taiping Army, and in the case of not much grain in stock, I Song Xianggong will never mind being a wicked person! ”

Song Xianggong's words were very direct, and even threatening, which made Zhou Shixiang very uncomfortable, but he knew that Song was indeed planning for the Taiping army, after all, no one knew how long the Qing army would besiege the city, and it was always good to be able to save one more grain of grain now.

How to do it, Zhou Shixiang hesitated. The situation in the city was similar to that of the American troops stationed in Japan, Vietnam, and Korea in later generations, and when they had enough material resources than the local residents, the local residents did not send a large number of women to the beds of these foreign soldiers, so that the whole family could live.

Of course, the Taiping Army is not the American army, and it is 108,000 miles worse than the American army, but no matter how bad it is, it is better than those Xinhui people, two big pies can buy a young woman, or even a woman who has not yet married, but I think what point those Xinhui people have reached.

Although the original intention of the sergeants was not very good, their actions did give some people a way to live, even if it was a very short way to live, a very sad way to live, but it was also a way to live, and it was better than starving to death.

Full of warmth and lust. Desire, full of warmth and lust. Desire

Zhou Shixiang laughed at himself, an army trapped in a lonely city can also produce this phenomenon, which made him feel funny and pitiful, and even more felt that he was too a failure, failed to educate his subordinates, and failed to build a people's army that starved to death without grabbing food, and freezing to death without demolishing houses. Perhaps, this is the real army linked to the times, and it is the essence of the Taiping Army.

In the middle of the sound, Zhou Shixiang finally said to Song Xiang: "Okay, I no longer insist on my opinion, but I also ask Mr. to preside over this matter and turn the private office into an official office." ”

"Turning a private office into a government one?"

Song Xianggong was confused. (To be continued.) )