The news came with both joy and sorrow, and the joy was that the bald man and Tie Yi, who were named Jiang He, fulfilled their mission and successfully led their troops to infiltrate the copper mine to defeat the mine supervisors, and persuaded more than 400 miners in the mine to join their relatives in the Taiping camp.

Tie Yi was worried that Tie Yi was convinced of the "three haves" concept of Taiping Camp promoted and guaranteed by Zhou Shixiang, and in line with the idea of taking care of his hometown fathers, he even publicized the benefits of Taiping Camp in the villages around Lao Fengzhuang, which led to hundreds of people in the surrounding villages enthusiastically responding. In this way, the number of old and infirm women and children increased to as many as 2,000.

In addition, the bald man may have been too convinced of Zhou Shixiang's principle of expanding the team, or he understood it too well, and even carried forward the concept of "sustainable development". The only valuable thing may be the 200-odd young people who can only be called farmers.

In addition, what is even more odious is that the young and strong masters of Deqing who Zhou Shixiang had promised to go home in Xihedu were also taken back by the bald men again halfway, which not only made the reputation of the Taiping camp worse, but also made Zhou Shixiang bear the notoriety of breaking his word.

Compared with the bald man's actions, the consequences of his series of actions on the Taiping Camp are not exaggerated, and the reputation of the Taiping Camp near Deqing is simply infamous, like bandits. Within a few days, the villagers went to the Deqing County Ya to hand over a stack of papers that were half a person high, and the crowds outside the Yamen and the Green Camp station who asked for troops to rescue people knelt down one after another, and the people in the city even heard the three words Taiping Ying, as if they were hearing a tiger, and cursed again and again.

Lu Gongming, the county governor of Deqing, was also frightened by the Taiping Camp's crazy kidnapping, if it weren't for the Taiping Camp really retreating westward according to the agreement, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to sit still in the yamen.

Tang Sanshui, the president of the green camp, regretted it: he knew that the Taiping camp liked to kidnap people so much, and he should have done this business by himself, and he had a short way to make money. In addition to remorse, he did not rush or scold the people who knelt outside the barracks and asked for troops, but just ignored them and let them cry. The official document to the house has been reported, this will be another report to the Ming army to kill a horse gun to rob the people in the territory is not impossible, as long as the county seat is not lost, the people outside the city are killed and captured by the Ming army, and it is a big deal. The only thing to worry about is whether the chief soldier will promote himself to garrison after receiving the official news in the house, and whether he will send troops to recover Luoding.

In the former, Tang Sanshui is naturally 10,000 willing, who is not happy to be promoted and rich. The latter, however, was 10,000 unhappy, Luo Ding's poor mountains and bad waters, Hugh said that the news he heard was only that the bandits occupied the state city, that is, it was not occupied by the bandits, and he was not willing to send troops to take the credit for recovering the lost land. Besides, it is difficult to say whether Luo Ding is still occupied by bandits at the moment, what if this will be occupied by the Taiping camp? It's okay to fight bandits, but it's not possible to fight the Taiping camp! God willing, everyone will be promoted and rich, and you will be exempted from sending troops to fight

When the bald man swaggered and triumphant, standing in front of him like a great hero, Zhou Shixiang really couldn't cry or laugh, holding the bald man's hand and sighing again and again, his cheeks couldn't help twitching, he really couldn't say a word, and he didn't know where to start. This behavior made the bald man even more proud, thinking that Zhou Shixiang was so excited about his own merits that he couldn't express it.

Tie Yi, the representative of the miners, was naturally received by Zhou Shixiang, and after saying a word of encouragement, Zhou Shixiang pulled Song Xianggong, who had already frowned, to the city.

Under the city gate, more than 4,000 old and weak women and children, more than 400 miners, plus more than 200 young people who were captured by the strong and strong, and more than 100 masters who "went and returned", more than 5,000 people were pouring into Luoding City.

The influx of such a large number of people has greatly strained the shelter available for resettlement in the camp, and the daily consumption of food has multiplied.

If the Taiping Camp wants to grow, it is natural that people are urgently needed, but that refers to the young and strong, not the old and weak, women and children. Luoding is located in the mountainous area, and after years of war, the territory has long been deserted, simply can not bear so many people to live and live, more importantly, Luoding is located between the Ming and Qing defense lines, there is no possibility of recuperation. Even if this were possible, it would not be possible for the camp to be able to feed such a large number of people without relying on external forces in a few years.

The elderly, the weak, women and children, the army, food, development.

For a whole day, Zhou Shixiang's mind was haunted by these words, raising soldiers requires money and food, and the old and weak women and children outside the army need countless money and food inputs, compared to raising soldiers, the support for the old and weak women and children is undoubtedly a bottomless pit, there is no return in the short term, and there may not be a return in the long term.

Zhou Shixiang's promise, or his big words have been released, so he can't break his word and refuse these old and weak women and children to join, if he does this, then the Taiping camp may really only rely on forced captives to expand its power in the future, which means that the people's hearts are lost. The problem is that the people's will is not what is in front of them, what matters is those miners, Zhou Shixiang does not want these more than 400 miners who can be immediately transformed into combat effectiveness to lose trust and hope in the Taiping Camp, so no matter how difficult it is, he has to grit his teeth and bear the more than 4,000 old and weak women and children.

In addition to the original more than 2,000 people in the rear camp, the number of old and weak women and children who need to be supported in the Taiping camp is now nearly 7,000, and the young and strong soldiers, including the miners and the newly taken back, are only more than 1,300 people, and the materials seized from Deqing and the food provided by the Deqing Green Camp can only last for a month. After a month, if the camp does not have a new source of food, the whole camp will run out of food.

Once the food is cut off, you don't need to know it with your brain, and the general trend is set. Throughout the ancient and modern times, there is no army that can maintain the food shortage, and the current Taiping Camp is not an iron army of faith cohesion in later generations, but just a group of rabble, so Zhou Shixiang must take measures to nip the food shortage crisis in the bud.

The first means he took was to immediately attack the large families in the city and the common people who did not participate in the Taiping camp, plundering them all their supplies and food for military use, and the second was to leave Luoding and seek a territory where stable logistics could be supplied in order to maintain the long-term anti-Qing struggle.

After eating a bowl of porridge cooked by Lin Wan'er for him, he told the other party that he would send troops to raid his father's home.