Beside a bonfire burning outside the mountain pass, a group of Yangzhou officers and soldiers sat around. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Some of them were baking their rain-soaked clothes, while others were munching on dry food that was hard to swallow.

After a long journey, the escort Minfu finally arrived at the destination, but in the face of the majestic Taihang Mountain, everyone's hearts were a little heavy.

The journey was arduous, and no one could understand the difficulties of the road better than them, let alone continue to climb the mountain and build Taoist temples.

The wet wood made a crackling and exploding sound, and a group of people and horses came not far away, and the soldiers who were roasting the fire saw the people coming, and they wanted to stand up and salute, but they were waved by the other party to signal that it was not necessary.

The person who came was Tang Ao, and since he joined the project of building the Five Elements Temple, he had gone up and down the mountain no less than fifty times in a month.

Every time a man arrives, he will personally greet him, hoping to resolve the grievances and dissatisfaction in the hearts of the people and soldiers as much as possible.

Li Xian issued an order to build the Five Elements Concept for Tang Ao, and the conscription of civil servants in the name of conscription, this system inherited from the pre-Qin dynasty to conscript the people and serve is notorious.

Whenever the forced labor increased, a large number of families fled.

Although the people requisitioned by the Yangzhou army were originally fugitive refugees, if they were not appeased, they would still flee again.

If the number of people fleeing is too large, the day when the Five Elements Concept will be completed is far away.

Tang Ao clothed the sleeping soldiers in semi-wet clothes, added firewood to the fire, or helped turn the roasting leather armor.

Compared with the possible resentment of the people, the mentality of the Yangzhou soldiers is much better, because they all know that they are helping Tang Ao build a Taoist temple, Tang Ao is one of the backbones of the Yangzhou army, and they can be proud of doing things for Tang Ao.

After appeasing the soldiers of the Yangzhou Army, he led people into the mountain pass.

The mountain col should be more lively, this group of people is preparing dinner, the Yangzhou army is short of food, first of all, we must ensure the army's military food.

Therefore, the people's food and grass are slightly insufficient, and they only have two meals a day, mainly corn and miscellaneous grains, and they are hungry but also not full.

"Second uncle, can you still eat this grain after it has grown gray hair? Don't be like Uncle who has diarrhea and died after eating. ”

A young man in his early twenties opened the grain bag and said worriedly.

"Go get some rain to wash it, there are not many gray hairs, and washing them can also satisfy your stomach, but if you have yellow hair and green hair, you can't eat it, and you will die."

The person who was called the second uncle by the young man pointed out.

"Patriarch, what about the bacon distributed by the Yangzhou army? Cut a piece for the villagers to satisfy their hunger! The weather must be very cold after this spring rain, and there is no oil and water in the stomach, and the big guy is unbearable! ”

Most of the requisitioned people are in the neighboring clans, which is convenient for the management of the Yangzhou army, and there are clan elders and patriarchs, so it is better to coordinate disputes within the people.

The old man in his fifties, who was called the patriarch, sighed: "The court is also merciful, although we are requisitioned to serve this heavy conscription, but we are not shortened rations, and we are given meat, so your grievances are smaller!" This is to meet a good emperor, you did not experience the famine and rebellion at the end of the Sui Dynasty, it is a good time to be born, when I was young, I saw thousands of homeless people starving to death, not to mention the grain, the grass roots and bark were eaten up! ”

"Patriarch, did you really eat human flesh at that time?" The young man who spoke first asked curiously.

The patriarch cut off a piece of bacon, carefully wrapped the large piece of bacon, cut the cut piece of bacon into dices smaller than a small fingernail, threw it into the boiling porridge water, and said, "Then is there a fake?" The worst time is not only to exchange children to cook and eat, those who have not yet swallowed their last breath can not escape the fate of being eaten, those years are really bitter, and the comparison between the two will know how good the days have been since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. ”

"I don't think it's any better?"

The young man was frightened by what the patriarch said a few times, felt even colder, and leaned closer to the fire and said: "We haven't fled with our families, we originally thought that His Majesty the Emperor would be benevolent and righteous, and that he could beg for food and live with His Majesty the Emperor, but I had ever thought that he would be conscripted into conscription, but I heard the patriarch say that this conscription is the most bitter, and it is said that Qin Shi Huang conscripted and repaired the Great Wall, and many people died, and there are dozens of bones buried under the Great Wall!" Will we be buried under the mountain after we finish cultivating the Taoist temple? ”

After the young man finished speaking, he became even colder, as if he was frightened by his own words.

The patriarch and the others also fell into silence, only the boiling porridge water was tumbling, and the aroma of rice and meat was emanated.

But at this time they didn't seem to be very hungry.

Tang Ao grew up eating hundreds of meals in Chang'an, how could he not know the sufferings of the people, and read a lot of books, ancient and modern, how could he not know the rise and fall of dynasties and the situation of the people.

Originally, he wanted to appease these displaced people, but his steps stopped, and he drew inferences from one another, this would not be the worry of these displaced people in front of him, and it was likely to be the worry of all the people who were requisitioned.

It seems that Xue Chang's cash-for-work proposal is still a bit imperfect, at least it has not made the people understand the difference between building Taoist temples and building the Great Wall.

The scale of the Five Elements Temple is indeed not small, but compared with the Great Wall, it is tantamount to seeing a small thing.

The difficulty in building the Five Elements Temple is the difficulty in transporting building materials, and it takes seven days for a team of 500 people to transport a two-zhang long piece of wood to the Five Elements Mountain.

And the Five Elements Concept requires thousands of woods, and thinking about it will make the people desperate!

Moreover, wood alone cannot build the Five Elements Temple, not to mention the metals of gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin, but also to burn bricks, build plank roads, and so on.

Tang Ao returned to the peak of the Five Elements Mountain, which had not yet been leveled, and saw Lin Zhiyang watching the wind and scenery at a glance.

This kid is now more and more disobedient to discipline, especially since the advanced foundation building period, relying on the magic power he has learned to cause trouble.

Looking at Lin Zhiyang, he couldn't help but think of himself when he was in the fairyland, he was also young and frivolous, and he couldn't wait to poke a hole in the sky.

"Aren't you going to return to the Mirror Flower World with the Nine Princes? Why haven't you left yet? ”

Tang Ao came to Lin Zhiyang's side silently and suddenly said such a sentence, and Lin Zhiyang was almost frightened.

Lin Zhiyang looked back and saw Tang Ao full of displeasure and said, "Didn't I see that the eldest brother was short of manpower to build the Five Elements Temple, so he stayed to help!" ”

Tang Ao's face suddenly darkened, and he cultivated the Five Elements View to leave his natal imprint, and he was most taboo about using cultivators' methods.

Lin Zhiyang knows what kind of temperament he has too well, if he tries to save effort and come up with a few techniques, won't he make his previous efforts go to waste?

Tang Ao unceremoniously picked up Lin Zhiyang, and regardless of the objections of this kid, he directly opened the door of Zhongmiao and threw it into the Mirror Flower World, so as not to stay in Datang and ruin his big business.

Although Lin Zhiyang was thrown by Tang Ao, his voice was still echoing in Tang Ao's ears.

"I'm kind! Isn't there a shortage of food? Then drive to the mountain! Just like hunting in the Great Wilderness Snow Field, there is always prey that can fill people's stomachs when Taihang Mountain is so big......"

Tang Ao pondered a little after Lin Zhiyang left, and then smiled.

Lin Zhiyang is right, Yangzhou army food and grass is insufficient, but Taihang Mountain stretches for 800 miles from north to south, and there are countless beasts and birds in the mountain.

Even if it is insufficient, it can improve the food of the people, so that the people can increase their strength and speed up the progress of building the Five Elements Temple.

When Wang Bo and Xue Chang listened to Tang Ao's thoughts, Xue Chang was the most active, hunting in the mountains was similar to marching, gathering thousands of soldiers to hunt, not only were they not afraid of large beasts, but they didn't have to worry about getting lost in the mountains.

It can even let the people take turns to join in, which greatly alleviates the heavy labor caused by the construction of the Five Elements Concept, at least in terms of mentality.

Since Xue Chang was rescued by Tang Ao and joined the Yangzhou Army, after more than ten battles, he has grown from a young boy to a senior officer.

His own experience and family art of war allowed him to quickly formulate a perfect plan for hunting in the mountains.

Three thousand Yangzhou troops and five thousand people, swept the Taihang Mountain from south to north, and there should be a lot of beasts and birds obtained.

At this time, the harvest from hunting is also easy to preserve, so that the soldiers and people can eat meat for a month, and at least 100,000 stone of grain can be saved.

The military order is like a mountain, Tang Ao threw the construction task of the Five Elements Temple here to Wang Bo, and he and Xue Chang ordered the soldiers and horses to go into the mountains to hunt.

The five thousand people and their wives were armed with branches sharpened into long sticks, first roughly demarcated a place, and used the method of beating grass and startling snakes to drive the wild beasts into the pocket array of the Yangzhou army's ambush.

Then 3,000 armor soldiers swarmed up, slashing swords and stabbing swords, and it only took one day to hunt hundreds of muntjacs, antelopes, and even a few tigers and leopards, as well as hares and wild boars and other prey.

It greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers and the people, after all, this is all food that can satisfy the stomach, or meat!

Next to a mountain stream, the Yangzhou army disembowels the prey caught to take the meat, and the people process all kinds of animal meat a little and then smoke it with fire, which can increase the time that meat is available.

Xue Chang sat beside Tang Ao, biting the roasted golden buttery and shiny beast meat, and the beast meat sprinkled with salt was extremely delicious.

Xue Chang didn't know that the meat in his hand was the meat of that kind of beast, the meat quality was not as good as that of cattle and sheep, but it tasted much better than pork.

Tang Ao turned the long wicker branch in his hand, and the wicker was wearing a few pieces of muntjac meat, and asked the clerk beside him, "Has the processed meat been counted?" How much can be left over after removing the food from the mouths of these 8,000? ”

The clerk was the first group of people to follow the Yangzhou Army to rise up, and he was originally a prisoner in the mine, but after a few years of private school, he knew how to calculate, and quickly told Tang Ao the statistics.

"In addition to the three-day rations we used to hunt in the mountains, the surplus is enough for 5,000 people to eat for a day, but the meat is mixed, except for the slightly better tasting muntjac antelope, most of it is wild boar and hare meat, and there are even a lot of snakes and rats."

"At this time, as long as it can be eaten, it is collected, in addition to birds and animals, there are many wild vegetables and plants that can be eaten, and let the people dig some up, eating meat alone is easy to eat and even get sick, adding some wild vegetables will be better."