This year, the farming in Otsuki Castle was lost due to the war, and the Persian merchants took the opportunity to raise prices, and although the lord of the castle appealed, the discussion and voting results in the Senate tended to be powerless.

Sima Dan tried to bargain with the Persians, but the price offered by the Persians, even if Jiabao subsidized it with all his household wealth, could not allow all the commoners to survive the winter.

One of the Persian merchants said: "If we go to war with Qiuzi, these grains can naturally be expropriated by the government, but now that there is a peace treaty with Qiuzi, the state cannot expropriate our grain in peacetime, but it seems that peace does not necessarily mean that there will be no death." ”

Sima Dan could only lead the largest group of Jin and Han serfs to buy grain from other countries as caravans.

Therefore, these thousand infantry are not national troops, but private soldiers, so they are all composed of Jin people.

He Guo is also a Jin Min of Yanzhou Road, he was a blacksmith, and the 1,000-person private army he led were all his voters, as a member of the Senate, he could only take the lead in leading them to survive when the voters were in crisis.

Liu Kang, the king of Yanqi, was not a monarch who liked to cower inside the city, and he led five thousand soldiers and horses to form a formation outside the city, ready to meet any attack.

Around Liu Kang, there was a group of about 200 knights whose costumes were incompatible with the Yanqi soldiers, all of them were wearing fur coats, not wearing armor, and wearing fur hats on their heads, but under the leather hats were all bald heads, all of them were thin and flat-nosed, and their figures did not appear to be tall, but they were extremely wide and horizontal, pressing on their horses like mountains.

Among the bald knights wearing a fur hat, a bearded leader rode alone beside Liu Kangzhi, looking at the infantry formation of Dayue City with a pair of rat eyes, and let out a cold snort in his nose.

Liu Kang was fifty miles away, slender in shape, wearing a piece of silver armor, looking quite chic, looking at Sima Dan, who had gradually approached from the hill, and muttered: "Could this be the legendary sage Prince Jin?" It's not unusual to look at their freshly laid infantry formation. ”

The voice of the bald-headed and bearded knight was like a bell, "This is just a phalanx of anti-cavalry, our bald and humble warriors only need a hundred people to break through such a formation, you didn't invite me here for this!" ”

Liu Kang hurriedly said: "My main defense is the Qiuzi heavy infantry, and these soldiers of Dayue only have breastplates, of course they are not the opponents of the Duoyan King, but since the king has come out today, let my subordinates see the methods of the bald warriors." ”

Duoyan sneered, "Your thousands of soldiers and horses are even more vulnerable, you can't beat the opponent's phalanx, you see, people's spears pointing at the sky are not chaotic at all, some of your soldiers actually sit on the ground, I really don't know how to train soldiers." ”

Liu Kang saw that this group of bald knights was also disorganized, and some were still laughing and scolding, and he was also angry in his heart, and did not answer Duoyan's words.

Duoyan laughed instead, "My sons are the same, they rely on their own combat strength, and your soldiers rely on formation, bite Dan, take ten people out to play, and show the king whether his gold coins are worth it." ”

Liu Kang was taken aback, hearing that the ten of them were about to rush towards the other party's thousand-person array, he couldn't help but shake his hand: "The king doesn't have to, wouldn't it be better to attack when necessary?" ”

"Haha! Still don't believe me? Wait a minute! When their people come up to talk to you, don't say anything, and then they will tear off their flesh and skin to show you. ”

Liu Kang saw that Sima Dan and his entourage suddenly accelerated, as if flying to an open space in front of the formation, as the king, he had to stand up and negotiate with the other party.

About 100 cavalry guards followed Liu Kang to meet Sima Dan.

The leaders of the two sides stopped their horses and faced each other half a stone's throw away in the autumn sun.

Liu Kang shouted: "The person who came is the Prince of Jin? Why do you want to be outside the city? ”

Sima Dan didn't beat around the bush: "We're here to buy grain!" There was no malice, because the matter was urgent, so he did not send a messenger first to ask His Majesty the King for forgiveness. ”

"Buying grain? We don't have enough of our own, we don't have anything to spare! ”

"Your Majesty, Dayue City has added a lot of people, and after a big war, a lot of land has been wasted, even if you work hard now, it will not be too late to use this winter as a supply, the old people in our city can only eat a meal in two days, and the children are starving to death a lot, so we have to come here to buy food, the price we pay is three times the usual price, I hope Your Majesty can reach this deal with us."

"Humph! Neither do you Persian merchants in the city sell grain, but tell us to sell it? ”

"We, the Senate, have decided to respect his private property rights, and the price they offer is too high, and even if they buy it, many people will starve to death."

"You Senate can watch your citizens starve to death? This has nothing to do with our Yanqi, the price of food here is more expensive, and you can't afford it. ”

Sima Dan was speechless for a while, what Liu Kang said was very reasonable, he came here because he didn't want to provoke a civil war, if it was in Rome, the Senate would never dare to make a decision to starve any citizen to death, because the citizens would definitely rise up to resist, but now this famine in Dayue City is only concentrated on the Han people and the people who came to vote for Jin, if they riot, then the whole country will be divided.

He Guo was also indignant beside Sima Dan: "Prince! In fact, wouldn't it be better to directly attack the Persian nose and destroy those opposition forces by the way? ”

"No, the country was divided at the beginning of its establishment, and no nation will believe that Dayue City can really merge with Yakawa and treat everyone equally, and the authority of the Senate cannot be challenged, so I'll talk to him later."

"Prince! We don't have many soldiers because of the problem of military rations, so it's not good to fight like this! ”

Liu Kang looked at Duoyan, Duoyan glanced at Biting Dan, and Biting Dan led a dozen riders to catch up with Liu Kang and them.

He Guo saw more than a dozen fierce-looking Huns, frowned, and was about to move forward, but was stopped by Sima Dan.

Liu Kang said loudly: "Our grain will not be sold, the Jin State is a big country, does the prince want to do the plundering of the Huns?" Suddenly, his face turned red, but fortunately the bald-haired knight didn't care.

Sima Dan felt a murderous aura from the biting Dan and them, and his eyes, which had been rolling in the blood pool, had been sucked by the biting Dan, and he replied to Liu Kang casually: "Who cares about these when they don't eat?" How about we get five times the price? Don't push us too far? ”

Liu Kang sneered, "Our grain is stored to prevent people from besieging the city, you'd better not fight our idea, besides, you have already surrendered to Qiuzi, how can I sell grain to the enemy?" ”

Sima Dan was speechless again.

Qiuzi also did not sell grain to Dayue City, and also asked Dayuecheng to hand over a piece of grain, for the sake of the hostage Shenmu, Sima Dan did not dare to tear his face with Qiuzi, and was fighting with Qiuci for the tribute of food, facing great pressure inside and outside.

Liu Kang was unforgiving, "Unless you declare that you are an enemy of Qiuzi, I can consider supporting some, and you can use it at double the usual price." ”

Sima Dan was angry, and he was about to have a seizure when he heard the words, but when he remembered the situation of the Han people in Dayue City, he forcibly suppressed his anger again, and said in a tone close to pleading: "We paid the gold coins, how about returning the grain to you next year?" Shouldn't you be under siege this winter, and if you don't do such a lucrative business, you won't save yourself from it? ”

"Yanqi was originally quite friendly with Dayue City, but you were the first to treacherously join Qiuzi, I heard that you are for a child named Shenmu Qiuzi, hum! What about the millions of souls in our two cities? Why don't you want to think about it? ”

Sima Dan couldn't bear to shout: "As long as you do this business and earn our gold coins, we can leave peacefully, do you really want to force us?" ”

Duoyan sneered, raised his right hand, and slowly pressed towards Sima Dan and the eleventh horse.

Whining...... The battle horns of the two sides sounded, and the formation spread outward, especially the Yanqi soldiers, and the cavalry on both flanks stretched out to both sides like eagles spreading their wings, surrounding the infantry formation of Dayue City from afar.

Sima Dan and the others unsheathed their swords and waited for the battle, but they laughed: "Wait, I'm not trying to attack you, it's too boring to do this, I'll bypass you and try your infantry formation." ”

"Boy, go back to the Jin Kingdom to be your crown prince, there is nothing to worry about here, the Han Dynasty is the orthodoxy of the Central Plains, I really don't understand why the Central Plains is like this. Alas......" Liu Kang sighed as if he hated his country.

Biting Dan and his entourage bypassed Sima Dan like a fly, and they rushed straight to the phalanx of the Great Jin infantry that had been assembled in the plain.

A hundred-person formation at the forefront of the infantry formation slowly moved forward, and the spears that were originally pointing to the sky were already flattened, densely stretched out in front of the front row of soldiers.

At the length of the spears, the tips of the seventy spears protruded from the front of the battle, and if the scattered horses rushed up, they would be strung on the shafts of their spears at once.

The men and horses that bite them do not have iron armor, and they are even more vulnerable in front of the infantry formation. But they did not charge.

When the bald knights were a hundred paces away from the infantry formation, eleven people dismounted at the same time, and slowly took out their weapons and longbows from their horses, and their weapons were different, mostly large axes, maces, large scimitars, long sticks, and so on, and then they took off their big fur coats, revealing their muscles.

The eleven soldiers were all ** upper body, looking coldly at the infantry formation dozens of steps away.

An invisible murderous aura surged over these scattered warriors, making them, who were much smaller in number, seem to suddenly be infinitely taller, and their momentum overtook the dense infantry formation in front of them.

One of them was left with a longbow in his hand and a huge shield on the ground to shield him from the rain of arrows that could rain at any moment.

With nine other people, with a huge shield in one hand and a weapon in the other, he slowly walked towards the infantry formation.

Those giant shields were already difficult for ordinary people to hold with their hands, but the bald warriors held them lightly with their left hands, and the long weapons in their right hands were as light as daggers, and as they approached, the muscles of their upper bodies slowly began to squirm, as if there was a flow of air hidden in their bodies, making people feel the amazing power lurking underneath.