After hitting the wall one after another, Shi Dayong knew that there was no hope of getting grain and grass from Xiaoguantun, and there was no one he knew from the Sichuan army, and the other party was also a guest army, so there must be no food and grass, if he went to them for help, he was no different from a single person looking for a single person.

The living will not be suffocated to death by urine, and in desperation, Shi Dayong asked Jiang Wanli to go to the nearest Shang County to collect grain by himself with the official document of the Ministry of War.

Since going south, the Jinzhou Army has been collecting military rations on its own, and it has been very smooth, so after Jiang Wanli took people to collect grain, Shi Dayong put his mind at ease, thinking that he could collect some first.

But no one thought that Jiang Wanli would also have no harvest in Shang County. When the magistrate of Nashang County heard that he was here to collect grain and grass, he hurriedly waved his hand and gave it back in one bite. Seeing that the one who came to ask for food was just a garrison, he even put on a stand of being a superior civil official, and ignored Jiang Wanli.

Jiang Wanli was angry, and repeatedly begged Shang County to give grain and grass to help, even if it was only for three days. However, this Shangxian county magistrate was determined to say that there was no food in the library for a long time, and there was not a single grain!

The county Cheng and others were worried that the Jinzhou army was also a soldier after all, although it was a guest army from Liaodong, but they were all soldiers with knives in their hands, if the county respected them, these poor guest soldiers might have something to do.

Therefore, you stepped forward and said a word, saying that it was not that you did not want to receive the military rations of Jinzhou, but that the military rations in the city had already been requisitioned by the Beijing camp. Speaking of the most rear, these small officials are even more complaining, implying that when the rebels cross the border, he Shang County can also avoid disasters with the strength of the city, and now it is good, as soon as the official army comes, he Shang County will be in the treasury. Not only did the government have no grain, but also the grain stores in the city had no grain, so that now the price of grain in Shangxian County has speculated, and in the past, three wen could buy four catties, but now it is thirty wen that can not buy one catty.

Natural disasters, man-made disasters, disasters on disasters, and the people are suffering.

The county Cheng, the lord Bo and the master of the county all had bitter faces, and Jiang Wanli's anger slowly disappeared, although I don't know if there is food in Shang County, but after entering the city, I really saw people gathering at the door of the grain store, it seems that there is really a food shortage crisis in Shang County, and it is true that people and localities are unwilling to accept help.

Unable to collect food, and unable to tear off his face to plunder the army, Jiang Wanli had no choice but to go back to recover his life and find another way

After listening to Jiang Wanli's narration, Shi Dayong sighed, if the place does not give grain and grass, he can't rob it, in that case, wouldn't he really become a rebel.

If he really sent troops to rob the people of food, not only would his conscience be uneasy, but I am afraid it would also give Gao Qiqian an excuse to exterminate him, so Shi Dayong would not take this desperate road until the mountains and rivers were exhausted.

Spread out the map and look at it, Shang County is the closest county seat to Pingdugou, except for Yanxing County, which is more than 60 miles away, but Yanxing County has long been burned by Chen Shi's fire. To rob the homeless people?

There were originally a few villages and towns nearby, but thanks to the rebels, ten rooms and nine empty rooms were left, leaving only some old and weak women and children, and where was there food for the Jinzhou army to collect. Even if you buy it with money, you can't buy enough food.

More than 1,000 people, the food they need every day is at least 1,000 catties, plus the war horses have to be fed, and they eat more than people. If there is no forage, I am afraid that these war horses will be able to make the Jinzhou army run out of food a week in advance.

What makes people anxious is that there is not much forage, and now that the weather is freezing cold, even self-grazing is not possible.

Food, food must be found as soon as possible!

Jiang Wanli said that if they really couldn't do it, they would send people to Cangzhou to collect grain.

Cangzhou and other places have not experienced military disasters, although they have also suffered natural disasters, but the situation is better than other places, and they should be able to collect some grain and grass to solve the urgent needs at hand.

However, Cangzhou is too far away from Pingdugou, there are more than 180 miles of land, and it is more than 300 miles of land back and forth. Not to mention how much grain he can give Cangzhou, even if it is transported back and forth, the Jinzhou army will not be able to afford it.

I'm afraid that if I bring back a thousand catties, I can eat half of it on the way, and the rest won't help at all. Besides, I don't know if people are willing to give it.

What can an army without food do to either plunder itself or disband on the spot?

Do you expect the soldiers to be like the armies of later generations who have gone through a long march of thousands of miles, and still hold on with strong faith on an empty stomach?

Grain, grain

Shi Dayong was so worried for two days in a row that he didn't even go to the temporary school ground where he trained the prisoners, and he was stuffed in his tent all day long.

On the twelfth, Pei Shaokuan was late, but he did not come to Pingdugou to report to Shi Dayong, but went straight to Xiaoguantun. If it weren't for the scouts sent out as usual to bump into them, Shi Dayong wouldn't have known that Pei Shaokuan was coming.

Originally, they didn't want to see Pei Ministry, they came if they wanted, and they didn't want to come and pull them down, so Shi Dayong didn't bother to pay attention to Pei Shaokuan.

The order had been given to reduce the daily ration by one-third, and the rations of the captives were reduced to one-half of the original supply. If it is not necessary, reduce the activities of the war horse as much as possible, so as not to consume more food and grass due to the loss of physical strength.

As a result, Pingdugou, which is approaching the end of the year, has no New Year's celebration at all, and it is lifeless.

The weather is getting colder and colder, and even if there is sun during the day, it is also very cold. Shi Dayong estimated that the temperature was more than ten degrees below zero, and God seemed to deliberately make fun of people, and the northwest wind blew whirring without anything to do, and the cold wind blew on the face like a knife cut, making life painful.

Although the weather is cold, fortunately, the Jinzhou army is from Liaodong, and they have long been accustomed to the cold weather, and the warm clothes are also prepared. But frostbite is inevitable, and many people's hands and feet are frozen, swollen and red, and covered with cuts.

The training of the captives did not stop because of the reduction of rations and the cold weather, and the horror of the eleventh slaughter, the captives participated in the training honestly, and no one dared to complain. It's just that most of their current training is focused on queue and slashing training, and the firing training of the fire gun has stopped. The Jinzhou army did not have enough gunpowder for these captives to practice firing live ammunition.

The more than 200 men under Qi Sanbao were used as a baggage battalion when they were reorganized in Shahe, not as soldiers, so their training intensity was much lighter. He practiced slashing for only one hour a day, and spent most of the rest of his time in the camp.

For Wang Tiande, Shi Dayong has no requirements, in the first battle of Xiaoguantun, Wang Bu did not join the battlefield in time without fear of war, and to a certain extent, he also saved the fate of the Jinzhou army, so he is still a little grateful to Wang Tiande and Shi Dayong. He was also given much more autonomy and basically didn't ask him about the camp.

Wang Tiande led his soldiers to participate in training on the school field every day, which was more time than the baggage camp, but much shorter than the captured soldiers.

On the second day after moving to Pingdu, Shi Dayong had a brief talk with Peng Dazhui, and Shi Dayong did not hide his current situation, telling Peng Dazhui that his remaining brothers could leave. They have fulfilled their promises, and they have proven themselves to be true men, and their bravery has won them freedom. From now on, they can leave Pingdugou right away. Whether they continue to be thieves or return to their hometowns to serve the people is up to them.

Peng Dazhui said that it was freezing right now, and their brothers had nowhere to go, if the general did not give up, they might as well let them live temporarily, and after the spring blossomed, their brothers decided to stay.

Peng Dazhui's decision made Shi Dayong a little surprised, and he didn't understand why the other party pushed out the freedom he had obtained again. But since they want to stay in the Jinzhou army, no matter what they think, Shi Dayong can't refuse people thousands of miles away, so he agreed with a smile. Later, Guo Yi was asked to build a separate camp tent for the Xiangma thieves, and the daily supply was the same as that of the Jinzhou army.

Guo Yi reported a situation to Shi Dayong, that is, Zhao Xueqi was a little wrong, he had seen this person leave the camp late at night, but he came back quickly, and he didn't know what to do.

Shi Dayong asked Guo Yi to secretly monitor more, don't startle the snake, he wants to see what Zhao Xiucai wants to do?

On the 14th, the last batch of horse meat, which had been reluctant to eat, was finally eaten, and only wheat and some sorghum coarse grains were left in the army, and some beans were left. There are not many of them, they can only hold out for another four or five days, if there is no food delivered in these few days, then Shi Dayong must make a decision - whether to lead his troops all the way back to Jinzhou or disband on the spot, and let the soldiers fend for themselves.

If you choose the former, you may be accused of being a rebel and exterminated by the army transferred by the imperial court when you don't leave the territory of Beizhili. Choosing the latter, Shi Dayong's trip to the south is a big joke. No one would have believed that this army, which could not even feed itself, would defeat the thief general Chen Shi in Shahe and repel the rebel Li Jiucheng's troops at Xiaoguantun. Even if Shi Dayong successfully returned to Jinzhou, his future will also become bleak. What would the Son of Heaven think of Shi Dayong, whom he personally met on the platform and called him "My Fat Cavalry General", couldn't even keep his soldiers and horses, and failed his expectations?

Losing the trust of the Son of Heaven, how can Shi Dayong gain a foothold in Liaodong again, you must know that Lu Dao, his backer Qiu Hejia, the governor of Liaodong, has been dismissed, and in Liaodong, without the support of the governor, what can Shi Dayong do. Therefore, Shi Dayong can't take these two roads, the only way he can go is to raise food, and only food can resolve his crisis!

On the 16th, Shi Dayong called Jiang Wanli and Shao Wu and asked them to bring out a bag of gold from Chen's goods, and after late at night, the two of them sneaked with him to Xiaoguantun.

"What are you going to do in Xiaoguantun, Gao Qiqian won't give us a grain of food, he is intent on starving us to death!" As soon as Jiang Wanli heard that he was going to Xiaoguantun, his face immediately showed a reluctant look, and he still deeply remembered the situation of going to Xiaoguantun to ask for food, and the days of seeing people's faces were really not fucking people's lives.

"Yes, Eunuch Gao has made it clear that he wants to put us to death, and the general can't help if he goes now, maybe he will be detained. This eunuch is the easiest to hold grudges, the general has offended him many times before and after, and last time he offended him in front of so many people, and said that he would kill him, can he not remember this hatred? Shao Wu also disagreed with Shi Dayong to go to Xiaoguantun to take risks.

Shi Dayong sighed: "At the moment, only Xiaoguantun has food there, if I don't go, what do so many of us eat and drink, do we really want to starve to death in this Pingdugou?" ”

Jiang Wanli hesitated for a moment and said, "Why didn't the general send someone into Beijing to find Wang Chengen, tell him about our situation, and ask him to help solve it?" ”

Hearing this, Shao Wu immediately nodded and said: "Yes, it is he Wang Chengen who wants the general to go south, and now we are short of food, so we should find him for this matter." I heard that Wang Chengen is a celebrity in front of the Son of Heaven, and he is more favored by the Son of Heaven than Gao Qiqian. ”

"Far water can't save the near fire, the food in the army is only enough to eat for three days, and now it's too late to enter Beijing." Shi Dayong shook his head helplessly, and asked Wang Chengen for help, this method is indeed good, why didn't he think earlier, with Wang Chengen's identity, he could solve his own predicament. But now it's definitely too late to go to him, I'm afraid that the people are still on the way, and the army will run out of food.

Jiang Wanli also knew that it would definitely be too late at this time, so he was silent for a while, suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly said: "Why don't we leave this Pingdugou and go directly to Shandong." ”

"The emperor wants us to be transferred to the governor of Shandong, of course he Shandong wants to take care of our grain and grass, yes, let's go to Shandong! Yu Qi is sitting here waiting to be killed, and is calculated by the high eunuch, it is better to leave this ghost place and go to Shandong, so that he can survive! Shao Wu is also in favor of going to Shandong to find food to survive, he is really fed up with this ghost place where birds don't, this ghost place is really desolate, there is not even a living creature on the nearby mountains, and he can't make a tooth sacrifice.

Shi Dayong shook his head and said: "Things are not so simple, do you think Gao Qiqian will let us go to Shandong?" ”

Jiang Wanli was stunned for a moment, and hesitated: "Eunuch Gao shouldn't send troops to chase and kill us, right?" Although we offended him, but after all, there was no rebellion, he really wanted to send troops to deal with us, what to explain to the court? ”

"If Gao Qiqian wants to get rid of us, he should have done it in Xiaoguantun that day, why let us go and let us come to Pingdugou? Didn't the general also say that he was a high eunuch afraid of the Son of Heaven? ”

"At this time, at that time, he senior eunuch didn't dare to kill me that day, but if we really want to go to Shandong, I'm afraid he will dare."

"Why?"

"If I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid that we are now under his high and hidden promotion, and it has nothing to do with Shandong."

"How is that possible?"

"It's impossible for Shandong to really forget about us, but there is only one reason why they didn't see any official documents coming, and that is that we are no longer promoted by Shandong."

"If we really return to the high eunuch to be promoted, then if we leave Pingdugou without authorization, isn't it a violation of the military order?"

"That's why he, the high eunuch, dared to send troops to hunt us down!"

"This"

"There is only one way to go now, that is, the sword mountain and the sea of fire, and the general can only walk once. Otherwise, what can be done? ”

"If Eunuch Gao was willing to give us food, he would have given it a long time ago, and if he insisted on not giving it to us, he would have forced us into a desperate situation. The general went to him now, afraid that he would not even see him, the high eunuch. ”

"Who said that Ben was going to go to Eunuch Gao?" Shi Dayong smiled.

"Not looking for a high eunuch?" Jiang Shao and the others were confused, "Then who are you looking for?" ”

"Find someone who can give us food." Shi Dayong patted the bag of gold, "I don't believe that there are people in this world who don't see money!" ”