A rush of footsteps sounded from under the city, Zhang Xutuo's spirit was shocked, and he turned to look at the city tower, only to see Qin Qiong, who was wearing chain mail and the nail leaves crashing into the city tower, and quickly ran up to the city tower, Zhang Xutuo's eyes flashed a glimmer of hope, and he stepped forward, and his voice trembled slightly: "How is it, what did Taishou say?" ”

Qin Qiong's face was grim, and he shook his head: "It's still the same, Yuan Taishou said that he had already written a request for disaster relief food to the imperial court and the Supreme, but the army was far away in Liaodong, and he hadn't replied for a while." He said that if the matter is urgent, you can take care of it with all the powers, General. ”

Cheng Zhijie, who was standing beside Zhang Xutuo, punched out hatefully and smashed on the battlements, a pile of ice and snow splashed everywhere, and his voice was like thunder: "Bird! Yuan Wendu is this guy, obviously he doesn't dare to take responsibility, as a county guard, he doesn't open a warehouse for relief, is it possible that we still need to open military rations privately? ”

Zhang Xutuo gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice: "Yizhen (Cheng Zhijie's words, since Zhang Xutuo led his troops into Qi County, Cheng Zhijie came to vote, and was deeply impressed by Zhang Xutuo's character and talent in the process of suppressing bandits and counterinsurgency, and volunteered to stay in the army to become a partial general. ”

Cheng Zhijie said hatefully: "But he is a parent official, there are obviously tens of thousands of stones of grain in the official warehouse, isn't it all purchased from these hungry people in the middle of last year for military rations, if he hadn't forcibly expropriated them, how could these hungry people be hungry like this." Don't have any food to spare? Now the army that crossed the sea has set out. What else does he keep for that grain? Hundreds or thousands of people starve to death every day. The surname Yuan never looked at it, does he still have a conscience? ”

The corners of Zhang Xutuo's mouth twitched, this time he didn't stop Cheng Zhijie again, Qin Qiong said in a deep voice: "General, these are not our duties, we have already set up shacks here for the hungry people, and built some temporary tents, these are what we need when we march and fight." The holy order was also issued as early as a month ago, asking us to wait for the rebellion in Shandong to be quelled, and then to cross the sea, as a backup, the last general knew that the general was kind-hearted and loved the people, but this was indeed beyond our ability, and it was better to pull out the camp and go to sea as soon as possible. ”

Cheng Zhijie's eyes widened, and he said sharply: "Shubao (Qin Qiong's words), how can you say such a thing?" We will serve the country in the army. Isn't the battle on the battlefield for the sake of the people's peace and contentment? Watch these people suffer. How can we see death without saving and walk away? ”

Qin Qiong replied calmly: "Everyone has his own life, we are soldiers, we have been ordered by the king to save these people, General Zhang may be held accountable in turn, and we have used our military rations, and we can't cross the sea to fight at all, can you bear this responsibility?" ”

The muscles on Cheng Zhijie's face were trembling slightly, and the beards on both sides of his face were moving, but he couldn't speak, so he could only sigh and turn his back to look at the people who were struggling and wailing.

Zhang Xutuo closed his eyes and said slowly: "How long is our army's military ration enough to eat?" ”

Qin Qiong was slightly stunned, and just as he wanted to say something, Zhang Xutuo raised his hand and stopped his words: "Shubao, I didn't ask you, I asked the quartermaster." ”

A quartermaster in leather armor and holding an account book flipped through the account book and said, "Our army has 30,000 men, and the military rations are enough for a year, which is enough for 80,000 stones." ”

Zhang Xutuo nodded: "How many hungry people are there outside the city?" ”

The quartermaster immediately replied: "A few days ago, according to the orders of the marshal, statistics were made, and there are now more than 210,000 people in various places outside the city. ”

Zhang Xutuo sighed, opened his eyes, and said slowly: "I will pass on my order, 80,000 stone of grain, all made into gruel, to supply the people outside the city, should be able to survive three months." ”

Qin Qiong's face changed greatly, and she hurriedly said, "Dashuai, don't be like this!" 80,000 stone of grain was given to the hungry, so what should we eat? Also, what about crossing the sea? That's a mountain of military orders. ”

Zhang Xutuo's eyes flashed coldly, and his angular face was full of perseverance: "This matter was done by me Zhang Xutuo alone, it has nothing to do with you, just do what I say." Ten days later, there will be 100,000 stone of military rations in Huainan that will be transferred to Licheng and transported to Donglai as a supply for the army of General Lai and General Zhou to cross the sea. ”

This time, even Cheng Zhijie couldn't calm down, and arched his hand: "Dashuai, you must not be like this, we will release military rations privately, at most you will be punished for the crime of cutting first and then playing, after all, it is for the people, and there is a fate, but if the general's military rations are moved, their army will fight overseas, if something goes wrong because of lack of food, then all of us will be exterminated." ”

The more Cheng Zhijie said that he was more and more afraid, his voice was trembling, and finally he simply knelt down with a plop: "Dashuai, think twice!" With his words, the surrounding sergeants and generals also knelt down and said in unison: "Big handsome, think twice!" ”

Zhang Xutuo's voice was not high, but it revealed a sense of calmness and majesty: "I have made up my mind, you don't need to persuade me anymore, this matter is all my doing, and it will not affect you." I will write a recital to the Supreme, Shandong is the rear of the army crossing the sea, and it is also the only place for the grain from the south of the Yangtze River to the north to Liaodong, and the millions of troops are fighting outside, and this logistics place must not cause an accident, which is also the purpose of the Supreme and the imperial court to send me here. ”

As soon as he turned around, he put his middle finger and index finger together in his right hand, and pointed at the victims outside the city, and his voice was a little higher, and he said: "Now there are hundreds of thousands of hungry people outside the city, and every day someone freezes to death, and every day a new hungry person comes. At that time, we will cross the sea with these 80,000 stone grain, but what if these hundreds of thousands of hungry people rebel and capture Qi County? These hundreds of thousands of us are alone overseas, and we will all become lonely ghosts and ghosts when the time comes! ”

Qin Qiong gritted his teeth and said: "General, but this matter of soothing the people is the duty of Yuan Taishou, and there are 200,000 stones of grain in his Licheng warehouse, which is really not good, we should also let him open a warehouse to release grain." ”

Zhang Xutuo said coldly: "I am a county officer, he is a guard, I am under him, I am a soldier, he is a civilian official, each has his own responsibility, he does not open a warehouse to release grain, I will impeach him in the twists and turns, but this does not mean that I, as a soldier, can interfere in local affairs, if this precedent is opened, there will be careerists who take the opportunity to divide and make chaos in the future, how is it good?" Pass my general's order and distribute military rations! Yoshizhen, you are in charge of this. (To be continued......)