Almost everyone was shocked by the return of Liu Xiu and his entourage, and even Xia Yu felt a little incredible: Liu Xiu not only brought back the two hostages of Lou Lu and Lou Ban, but also swaggered through the camp of the Xianbei people, and ...... Caught the wind crack.

"Deran, you were born to be a general." Xia Yu walked slowly on the city wall, stopping from time to time to say a few words to the soldiers, and said to Liu Xiu with appreciation: "Just your composure is enough to make your enemies tremble." ”

"Thank you for the compliment, I don't dare to be ashamed." Liu Xiu hurriedly said a few words of modesty, and then praised the situation: "When I just entered the city, I just took a casual look, and I felt that Ningcheng was simply solid, and the Xianbei people would definitely return in vain this time." The adult is indeed a famous general who has been on the battlefield for a long time and has made great achievements, and it is my Liu Xiu's honor to be able to fight side by side with the adult. ”

Xia Yu smiled slightly: "Returning in vain? Not only that, but I'm going to make them bleed. However, what I am worried about now is that the Xianbei people will retreat without a fight after seeing the city defense. Deran, before you leave, you said, do you have a way to let Huai Zong attack the city? ”

Liu Xiu smiled slightly: "Yes." ”

"Why?" Xia Yu's interest increased greatly. The Xianbei people are mainly cavalry, but attacking the city is not something they are good at, Xia Yu has been the northern land guard for several years, and the Xianbei people have attacked almost every year, but they have hardly attacked the city. They gave full play to the speed advantage of the cavalry, plundered on a large scale, and then fled before the Han army could react, even if the battle was a field battle, and they would never be stupid enough to attack the city.

Although the strength of the Xianbei people is strong, in terms of the attack and defense of the city, the difference between their strength and that of the Han people cannot be calculated.

Xia Yu didn't believe that the Xianbei people would come to attack the city until now, if it weren't for the more than 2,000 people who were recruited to help, and Liu Yu had not sent troops to support, he only had 2,000 cavalry in his hands, but there were 30,000 Xianbei people outside the city, he would have killed them a long time ago. Now he has insufficient troops, so he can only retreat in the city and wait for reinforcements, of course, he hopes that the Xianbei people will attack the city, so that he has enough confidence to hold Ningcheng, and may give a fatal blow when the Xianbei people can't attack for a long time and are upset.

The premise is that the Xianbei people will come to attack the city, otherwise he can only watch the Xianbei people burn and loot in the upper valley.

"Because we have hostages." Liu Xiu said.

Xia Yu stopped, leaned against the female wall and looked at the Xianbei camp outside the city, and suddenly said a clueless word: "Although you have captured the wind crack, Huai Zong and Dou Gui are the heroes of the Xianbei people, and the other is a famous son of my Han people, will they make such a stupid choice, De Ran, are you too confident?" ”

Liu Xiu said neither humbly nor arrogantly: "Self-confidence may not succeed, but if you are not confident, you will definitely fail." He paused, and then said, "Besides, we have no other way than to defend the city." Although the adults are both wise and brave, the disparity in strength is too great, as the adults said, Huai Zong and Dou Gui are not incompetent, even if Wei Huo Zaishi may not be able to defeat them in the field. ”

Xia Yu sighed helplessly, although he was a little depressed in his heart, it was not aimed at Liu Xiu, on the contrary, Liu Xiu's words made him feel very iron, he patted the female wall, turned around and continued to walk forward, turned around on the city wall, went down the city along the horse road by the city gate, and walked into the crowded but well-organized city. The open space along the base of the city wall has been filled with all kinds of war materials, and the logistics personnel composed of displaced people are divided into three groups: strong men, strong women, and old people and children, who are engaged in different jobs. Although the city was full of people, it was well organized and not cluttered. When Xia Yu and the others passed by, those homeless people bowed down one after another, although most of them were still yellow and thin, but the numb expression before was not very visible, and there was more vitality.

"Mr. Zixing is worthy of being the son of a great Confucian, and his ability to appease people's hearts is beyond my reach, and with the help of the people of Taiping Dao from the side, these homeless people are now very relieved." Xia Yu turned his head and said with a smile: "I'm really worried that after the battle, they won't leave. ”

"Isn't that good?" Liu Xiu asked rhetorically: "Emperor Xiaowu defeated the Huns because of his immigration to Tunbian. Now, if tens of thousands of people come to Shanggu to come to Tuntian, at least the military rations of the adults will no longer have to reach out to the Assassin Mansion, and the displaced people will be grateful to the adults if they have a place to live under the protection of the adults. ”

Xia Yu shook his head: "The matter of immigrating to the border is very complicated, and it is not something that I can do as a captain of Wuhuan Guard. If you are interested, you may wish to discuss this matter with Mr. Zixing, and it may be better for him to come forward and suggest to the Assassin's Mansion. He paused, and said with some dissatisfaction: "Lord Thorn Shi's reinforcements have not arrived for a long time, and I still expect him to support my Tuntian?" ”

Liu Xiu heard Xia Yunong's unhappiness, so he didn't dare to interject, so he had to pretend not to hear. After chatting with Xia Yu for a while, he returned to his residence in the city. As soon as he entered the yard, he was startled, nearly 100 children of about ten years old were practicing calligraphy, although one by one they were dressed in tatters, and many people were still freezing their noses, but the attitude was one by one, and they were serious with their little hands that were frozen like chicken feet, and they were learning words one by one. With a bamboo whip in her hand, Mao Yan slowly walked through the crowd, stopping from time to time to look at it, praise it, or touch the child's head to show approval.

"Sister-in-law, when will you start teaching too?" Liu Xiu smiled: "Don't you like to fight, why don't you go at this time?" ”

"Deran is back?" Mao Yan raised her head, smiled and glanced at him, "Zixing won't let me go to the city, he said that these children are running around in the city, not only are they prone to accidents, but also waste their time, so gather them together and teach them to read." ”

"Hehe, this is a pre-rehearsal, right?" Liu Xiu squeezed his eyes and teased.

Mao Yan smiled shyly, glanced at those children, big and small, and thought of how exciting it would be if she gave birth to so many children for Lu Min. She was stunned for a moment, and then she was a little embarrassed to hide it: "How are you doing?" Have you met the Captain? Have you seen your brother? ”

Liu Xiu answered one by one, Mao Yan was very happy when he heard him say that the task was completed successfully, and finally frowned and said: "Deran, you have a chance to say to the captain, the food he allocated is too small, especially these children, when they are growing up, how can they eat only one liter of rice a day......

Liu Xiu frowned, the food standard of a normal Zhuang Ding in the Han Dynasty was six liters of rice, and the food standard for women and young men between the ages of seven and fifteen was three liters**, while the girls between the ages of seven and fifteen and boys under the age of seven were two liters of four, and now Xia Yu only gave one liter, which was less than half of the quota. There is no meat to eat in these years, and this liter of rice is three or two meters, how can it be enough to eat.

"How so? Did Zhuo County have no food later? ”

"Yes, the grain captain of Zhuo County has not moved, but the food allocated by other counties has all been collected by the school captain, we have to supply the troops in addition to the army, but also to supply these children, the food gap is too big." As soon as he heard that there was food in Ningcheng and recruited displaced people, the surrounding displaced people flocked to it, and soon the number of people exceeded their original expectations. As soon as he saw this, Xia Yusheng was afraid of the lack of food, so he immediately ordered the ration supply standard to be reduced, and closed the city gates, no longer accepting displaced people into the city, despite this, the number of displaced people in the city still surged to more than 10,000 people, greatly exceeding the number of soldiers.

"This battle should not be delayed for too long, for if it exceeds a month, people will starve to death in the city." Mao Yan looked at the sky in embarrassment, "But looking at the sky, there is at least a month and a half before it snows, and the Xianbei people besieged the city, and even if there is food outside the city, it can't be transported in." ”

Liu Xiu scratched his head very much, a month? According to the previous estimate, it will only be the most lively in a month.

"The son has already quarreled with the captain a few times about the food." Mao Yan sighed: "Actually, we can't blame the school captain, we can only say that we underestimated at the beginning, but we didn't expect so many homeless people to come." Originally, I was counting on them to help defend the city, but now it seems that it is only afraid that it will backfire. ”

"It's a real problem, and it looks like we have to speed things up." Liu Xiu turned to look at Zhang Ming, who was surrounded by several sect members, and said to Lan Lan, who was following closely behind him: "Miss Lan, please tell Zhang Envoy, explain the difficulties in the city to the homeless people, and try to make them understand the difficulties of the school captain." ”

Lan Lan responded.

Liu Xiu turned to Mao Yan again and said solemnly: "As for these children, I will try my best to ask the captain for some food, but sister-in-law, don't expect too much, I'm afraid it's not easy to eat at this time." ”