The people went southeast, the army entered the northwest, Liu Zhang re-mounted the war horse, and Fa Zheng rode together, marching between the hunting army.

"Lord, how about it, what I said is right, Fan Lixiang is still very proficient in playing." Fa Zheng glanced at Fan Lixiang behind him, and said to Liu Zhang in a low voice.

"Don't be happy too early, the people take food as the sky, if we let them not have enough to eat, it is useless to wrap up."

"What is the lord going to do?"

"Let's take Xiangyang first, let's drive."

The army crossed the Xiangjiang River, only saw the rangers of the Jingzhou soldiers, and did not encounter any resistance, and the report learned that Xu Shu had reduced all his forces to the city and stationed them in Xiangyang and Guxiangyang respectively.

Xiangyang City was originally in the west of Xiangyang, after Liu Biao pacified Jingzhou, he built a new city in the east, and set it as Jingzhou Prefecture, which is now Xiangyang City, and all the residents moved into the new city, and the original city site was built into a military base.

The Sichuan army came too fast, far beyond Xu Shu's expectations, before the soldiers could be trained, the Sichuan army had already set up camp on three sides outside Xiangyang City, wrapping Xiangyang and ancient Xiangyang, Xu Shu could only draw half of the sailors plus the original defeated soldiers, and the families of various clans voluntarily assembled 5,000 people, a total of 50,000, respectively to defend Xiangyang and ancient Xiangyang, once again forming a corner trend.

After all the elite soldiers of Liu Biao were killed, all the Jingzhou soldiers were left with new soldiers and sailors who could not fight on land, and there was almost no combat power at all, Xu Shu did not dare to take these people out to attack the camp of the Sichuan army, and the heavy rain has not stopped, and the Sichuan army cannot attack the city, and the two sides have reached a stalemate.

The seventh day of heavy rain.

The rain hit the roof, Liu Zhang and Fa Zheng sat opposite each other in a private house, half of the tents were demolished, the soldiers were worried that there was no place to stay, and when they arrived in Xiangyang, they found that they were really worried, under the encouragement of Xu Shu, as soon as the banner of the Sichuan army arrived, the people of Xiangyang fled from the wind, most of them entered the city of Xiangyang, a few entered the ancient Xiangyang, and some because the Sichuan army could not enter the city too quickly, and they all passed through the Han River to Fancheng Xinye.

As a result, the Sichuan army lived in a private house, which was much more comfortable than a tent.

"Lord, this time Deng Zhi has brought a lot of new siege equipment, the range of the catapult crossbow arrows is much farther than before, and the sample ladder has also been lengthened, as long as the heavy rain stops, we can attack the city, but." Fa Zheng paused as he spoke: "After many people in Baichuan who originally had no land went back, because the clan had moved away and there was no salary, the new county commander Jiang Wan sent them to build siege equipment, and now it is raining heavily, I am afraid it will cause a lot of obstacles." ”

"Tell the secretary to give them some wages, and ask the military doctor to ensure the supply of medicine to the workers first, urge them to take a hot bath before going to bed, and serve three meals, each meal must bring a bowl of ginger soup, and they are not allowed to skip drinking." Liu Zhang sat opposite Fazheng, it had been raining for the past few days, and he was refreshed at first, but now he is getting more and more irritable.

"Yes" Fa Zheng responded, and at this time two women walked in, one was Xiao Furong, and the other was dressed as a peasant woman, in her twenties, her face was still delicate and elegant, her hair was a little messy, and she was wrapped in a rag.

The woman's name is Sang Ye, after the Sichuan army was stationed in the village, they only thought that there was no one in the village, and after a day and a night, they found a woman hiding in the cellar.

Mulberry Ye claimed to be a native of Jingnan, married to Xiangyang, that is, the owner of the house where Liu Zhang lives now has been six years, the owner is a large family, scholarly family, but because of his bad background and no heirs, the master treats Mulberry Ye very harshly, not only the same as the current people, but also often beats and scolds, Sang Ye can't bear it, and when the master's family all fled to Gu Xiangyang for refuge, he secretly hid in the cellar.

At first, the muddy mulberry leaf was still a little scared when he saw Liu Zhang and the tiger and wolf soldiers of the Sichuan army, but later found that although Liu Zhang had a cold face, he was quite easy-going and did not drive her away, and the wife next to Liu Zhang often talked to her, and slowly got used to it.

Xiao Furong and Mulberry Ye each held a cup of tea, Xiao Furong smiled and said, "This is the goat milk tea I learned from Sister Ye, you can drink it and try it." ”

Two cups of tea were put on the table, Liu Zhang wanted to pick up the cup of tea with mulberry leaves, but finally chose Xiao Furong's cup, not because he was afraid that Xiao Furong would be sad, but because there was no need to let Fazheng suffer.

"Yes, it's delicious." Liu Zhang sighed and said to Fazheng: "That's right." ”

Fa Zheng nodded, his cup was really delicious, and Liu Zhang's cup was unknown to no one except himself.

"Drink more." Xiao Furong said excitedly to Liu Zhang.

"That's right, filial piety, I opened the bag at the beginning, Gao Pei said that it was written by the black-faced soldier who talked a lot, the heavy rain has been continuous for seven days, today is the seventh day, the heavy rain has no signs of slowing down, if it weren't for him, I'm afraid we will have to spend this month in Baichuan, Xu Shu will have time to train soldiers and horses, it seems that this person is a great talent, when will you call him over to see." Liu Zhang put down the teacup and solemnly said to the Fa.

Fa Zheng nodded: "This person may indeed be a great talent, I will go back and check his details, and then bring him to meet the lord, maybe we can get a great sage." ”

"Yes." Liu Zhang nodded.

Xiao Furong stood aside sullenly.

At this moment, a soldier entered the house, the rain flowed on the raincoat, and prayed: "Lord, the big thing is not good, the Yangtze River and Xiangjiang have burst their embankments one after another, and floods have occurred on both banks. ”

"What?" Liu Zhang stood up suddenly, and his face changed color instantly.

"Immediately order Huang Zhong to open a warehouse and release grain to help ......"

"My lord."

Before Liu Zhang finished speaking, Fa Zheng interrupted Liu Zhang's words and said: "Lord, it is enough to help Wuling Changsha and Xiangjiang on the first line, Jiangling, take a slow." ”

"Why do you need to be treated differently?" Liu Zhang looked at Fa Zhengdao.

Fa Zheng paused for a moment, originally reluctant to speak, but finally said: "Lord, I am not willing to watch the disaster victims displaced, but has the lord thought about it, where is the food used in our war until now?" The consumption of 100,000 troops is a huge number, all of which is supplied by Gangneung's original grain stockpile.

The city of Xiangyang is high and deep, even if the heavy rain stops, the ground is muddy and the walls are slippery, it is not a short time to be able to capture, we still need a lot of food, but the territory of Jingzhou we occupy, it is not an exaggeration to say that ten rooms and nine emptiness, there will be no taxes within two years, if the grain and grass in Jiangling are exhausted, we will have to transport grain from Chengdu, thousands of miles away, and the consumption on the road will be more than the current army.

The people along the Changsha and Xiangjiang rivers in Wuling are now basically in their hearts, and if we don't provide disaster relief, we will be chilled, but in Jiangling, not only has the people's hearts not recovered, we have to leave Huang Zhong with more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to guard, and the population is large, and the grain that helps Jiangling can help five Changsha and 20 Wuling, and we can't take care of it thoroughly, so we can only make a choice. ”

After Fa Zheng finished speaking, Liu Zhang was silent, Xiao Furong and Sang Ye both looked at him, and the soldiers knelt on the ground waiting for orders.

After a long time, Liu Zhang said slowly: "Order Huang Zhong to open a warehouse to release grain, give relief to all the victims, and treat them all equally, and order Yizhou Huang Quan to transfer grain to Jiangling." ”

"Lord ......"

"The people bear me, and I don't live up to the people." Liu Zhang interrupted Fa Zheng's words, turned around and entered the house.

Fa Zheng waved the sleeves of his robe and sighed, "Lord, when will you get rid of the problem of being wide on the outside and wide on the inside." Fa Zheng walked up to the soldier, bent down and said quickly: "You go to pass the lord's order, and by the way, bring a message to Huang Zhong, asking him to collect grain from the Jiangling clan at half price, and if you dare to disobey, you will exterminate the clan and raid the family." ”

"Yes." The soldier's expression twisted, and he said yes.

The soldier left, Fa Zheng stood up straight, and sighed: "Even so, the grain and grass can't last for a few days, Xiangyang City is high and deep, can it support the ...... to take Xiangyang?"

Fa Zheng shook his head and left, originally because the Sichuan army quickly arrived at the outskirts of Xiangyang, the victory was already nine out of ten, but he did not expect that the sky would fall on the disaster, and the transportation of grain from Jiangling and from Chengdu was by no means as simple as increasing the distance.

There were only Xiao Furong and Mulberry leaves left in the room, Xiao Furong sighed, sat down where Liu Zhang had sat just now, and picked up the teacup that Liu Zhang had drunk.

"Why is Madame sighing?" Mulberry Ye stood aside and asked.

Xiao Furong glanced at the side door, shook her head, did not speak, Sang Ye looked at Xiao Furong's eyes, understood what Xiao Furong meant, and said to Xiao Furong: "Actually, Madame doesn't have to worry, war is a man's business, we just need to take care of men, if Madame is unhappy, adults will be even more unhappy, Madam, do you say yes?" ”

Xiao Furong turned her head to look at Sang Ye, Sang Ye smiled at her, Xiao Furong felt that Sang Ye was reasonable, she should be happy, otherwise Liu Zhang would be even more infected when she saw her unhappy touch.

Xiao Furong pulled Sang Ye to sit next to her, and said to Sang Ye: "Sister Ye, then how do you say you can take care of men?" ”

Sang Ye and Xiao Furong sat side by side on the seat, a little unnatural, after all, he and Xiao Furong had different identities, but seeing Xiao Furong's pretty face waiting for advice, there was no one else here, Sang Ye reluctantly let go of the restraints.

"Madame is not an ordinary family, unlike the women's morals that ordinary people abide by, the life of adults is taken care of, Madame only needs to be able to feel the presence of Madame when adults need to understand and care, and the rest, Madame only needs to be like a state pastor's wife."

Mulberry Ye actually didn't know what Mrs. Zhou Mu should look like, but from a peasant woman, she was just an upgraded version of those noble ladies, talking to Xiao Furong on her lips, and envious of Xiao Furong in her heart.

In the past few days, Sang Ye can feel that Liu Zhang and Xiao Furong love each other, and men in this era can tolerate a woman like Liu Zhang, basically gone, and just now he gave an order to the soldier who reported the disaster, and Sang Ye saw it in his eyes.

"The people bear me, I don't live up to the people", Liu Zhang, as a big official, is also a good official.

(To be continued)