When Pei Liao had already transported all kinds of military supplies prepared last night to the border city of North Vietnam, Nalan Ye, who was in the city of Shulang, was already sitting in the city lord's mansion, listening to the report of his guards.

This small city on the border with North Vietnam is similar to every border city, but it is even worse.

Dilapidated, depressed, the streets are potholed, and the houses on both sides are mostly in disrepair and crumbling. Occasionally, the signs outside a few shops were in tatters, the tables and chairs were dirty, and there were few people inside. Under the baptism of perennial war, the people here have become completely numb, and the relief food of the imperial court that they eat all year round is basically only the old, weak, sick and disabled, like the walking corpse.

The children on the street were the only ones who seemed to have a little bit of life, but the ragged clothes, skinny, pitiful eyes, when they saw the Xichu soldiers passing by, they swarmed and hid on the corner of the street and did not dare to make a sound, and only when the team left did they cautiously poke their heads out to peek, and then looked everywhere for edible leftovers.

The situation is far worse than that of Ning Hai. Ninghai is one of the border cities of Western Chu where Pei Liao and others are temporarily resting, and compared to Ninghai, it is simply synonymous with dirty and messy.

It is no wonder that there are 50,000 guards but they are not useful, and when Nalan led the troops to raid at night, they did not do too much resistance and collapsed, and they were defeated and retreated. After Nalan Ye occupied the city and checked the situation of the whole city, he understood why he won the previous battle so easily.

Originally, he came with the idea of avenging Luo Qingluan and completely solving the problem of his henchmen for Western Chu, but after Nalan Ye understood the situation in the border city of North Vietnam, he sent someone to understand the situation in the city, and the idea of hating Han Xun was more of a kind of coldness that burned the plain.

In this way, North Vietnam, since five years, no, it should have been six years ago, after that defeat, it was completely decayed, and there was no longer the possibility of trying to govern the country and enduring humiliation to defeat Western Chu. Although Han Xun, the emperor of North Vietnam, never forgot to take revenge, and even took the dynasty seriously and rectified a group of officials, his personality was extreme and stubborn, cold and ruthless, and after suffering the heavy blow of the death of his parents, he became more and more gloomy.

Nalan Ye didn't know much about the situation in the capital of North Vietnam, and even if there were spies from the Dark Night Hall mixed in, he didn't find much news. Originally, he thought that this initiative to attack North Vietnam would encounter fierce resistance, so he chose the plan of sneak attack from the beginning, but he did not expect to win the first battle, and became more and more determined Nalan Ye's idea of directly attacking the capital of North Vietnam.

In order to take revenge, Han Xun has been so selfish that he doesn't care whether his subjects live or die, and it seems that North Vietnam will die sooner or later. Rather than lingering and struggling, it is better to end it with Western Chu, and wait for the territory of North Vietnam to be incorporated into the territory of Western Chu, which may be a better choice for those ordinary people who are just to be fed and clothed.

"Marshal, these are all materials left by the City Lord's Mansion, and they haven't had time to burn down, and they're all here." The soldiers put the batch of materials they were holding in front of Nalan Ye and retreated.

According to Nalan Ye's prediction, he should have taken a short rest and continued to advance after capturing the Suan, but he changed his initial mind after seeing the situation of the people in the Suan.

If he could win this war with the least number of troops, Nalan Ye was naturally reluctant to let his soldiers sacrifice. He wanted to take advantage of the ills of North Vietnam itself, the refugees of North Vietnam, and use them to achieve his own goals.

Wars are never fair, only wins and losses. The winner is the king, the loser is the villain, and history is written by the winner. Even if a few people in North Vietnam know his mind and give Nalan Ye a hypocritical and black-bellied hat, as long as Xichu can give these Beiyue people who are about to be forced to die a way to live, I think most of them will be willing to become subjects of Xichu.

Backbone dignity, loyalty and patriotism, that is what some defenders who have read books and stand and talk without backache use to coax the foolish people, when the people can't even eat, and the house has no tiles, they just want to live, because ants are still greedy.

Wang Kuidong, the original lord of the city, committed suicide at the last moment when the Western Chu army attacked. For such a city official who would rather die than surrender, even if he was just a small enemy country five-grade official, Nalan Ye also admired it, but after reading these remaining information, he understood better that Wang Kuidong didn't want to live, but he could only die!

As the lord of the city guarding the border, the most important duty is that the people are in the city, and the city is destroyed. If Wang Kuidong dared to leave the people behind and escape, then Han Xun, the emperor of North Vietnam, would not let him go, and he would be wanted for the rest of his life. And Wang Kuidong still has family members and relatives, and if he dies, he can still be named loyal, otherwise he is afraid that he will be beheaded all over the house.

His heart became heavier and heavier, Nalan Ye slowly closed the file, and only said in a half-loud voice: "How is the situation in the city now?" ”

Yuan Xing, who was standing on the side, immediately said: "Back to Marshal, there are still one hundred and eighty-five households in the city, less than one percent of them are young and middle-aged, and most of them are sick, and the remaining four hundred and thirty-one women, children, and elderly people, and forty-two children. All soldiers were strictly ordered not to harass the people for no reason, and some seriously ill households were given decoctions. But the marshal ......"

After giving a general report on the situation in the city, Yuan Xing asked tentatively: "We have been staying in the city for seven days, if we don't continue to go north, I am afraid that the North Vietnamese court will have countermeasures, and if the next battle starts again, I am afraid that our soldiers will be killed and injured more." ”

"Well, this king has his own opinions, so there is no need to worry."

"Also, Marshal, yesterday there were already some of the little soldiers below who said that some of the people in the city were begging for food from our soldiers, and it seemed that they were really going to starve to death. It is ...... that these North Vietnamese people dared to ask for food for their lives from the enemy army."

Speaking of this, Yuan Xing was also ridiculous.

If it weren't for the order of the king of Chu to harass the people of North Vietnam before entering the city, and not to touch anything of them, otherwise, these unarmed ordinary people of the enemy country would have been slaughtered by the Western Chu soldiers who occupied the entire city.

Wildfires burn inexhaustibly, and spring breezes blow and regenerate.

To be merciful to one's enemies is to be cruel to oneself!

For the soldiers of Western Chu, North Vietnam is a mortal enemy, and the people of North Vietnam are also mortal enemies, if it were not for the fact that North Vietnam took the initiative to provoke and try to annex Western Chu before, where would there be the earth-shattering battle six years ago that changed the fate and status of the two countries?

Originally, even if Western Chu wanted to destroy North Vietnam, it would not be so fast, but the Emperor of North Yue provoked three or four times, and all kinds of conspiracies and tricks wanted to kill Nalan Ye, the god of war of Western Chu, which was absolutely intolerable. Western Chu's counterattack was ahead of schedule, and it was menacing and unstoppable, but none of the soldiers expected to hear such an order from the king of Chu before breaking the city.

Well, those North Vietnamese people are not threatening, just don't move them. But the army of Western Chu had only been stationed in the city for seven days, and there were already people of North Vietnam who shamelessly came to them to beg for food. Xichu is an expedition this time, and the grain and grass are already precious, and they have to save them themselves, where can they give more to the enemy?

Nalan was silent at night, and his face sank like water.

For this situation, he took it into account from the beginning, and even planned to take the initiative to show favor in a certain situation. But I didn't expect that before he took the initiative, the people who had been living for a long time would reach this level, if they really couldn't live, where would they come to this point?

Yuan Xing's meaning, Nalan Ye knew, either kill all these long-cherished city residents, stay behind a few thousand people to occupy, and the rest of the large army continued to attack the capital of North Vietnam; Otherwise, we must make a decision as soon as possible to directly capture these long-cherished city citizens and completely occupy this city.

Not attacking and defending like this is just a waste of precious time and precious supplies. Moreover, it is already winter, and the soldiers of Western Chu cannot fully adapt to the climate of North Vietnam, and if the weather is colder, they are afraid that most of them will suffer frostbite, which is not conducive to the war.

With a move in his heart, Nalan Ye wrote a letter quickly, and then sealed it with fire paint: "Send this military situation back to the capital immediately, and it will be urgent for six hundred miles." ”

"Yes, Marshal." Yuan Xing responded.

……

By noon, it was still cold, and finally the snow had stopped, and the sun was still cold on my body, and I couldn't feel a trace of temperature. There are gradually more figures on the street, sparse and sparse, wandering the streets in twos and threes.

Most of them are old people and women with yellow faces and thin muscles, with panicked and vigilant looks on their faces, and there are women carrying vegetable baskets, walking in hiatus, for fear that someone will see the contents of the basket and snatch them. There are a few men who are also dressed in shabby clothes and wandering the streets with sad faces, originally they could still have work, but since the army of Western Chu broke through the city, everything has changed.

Even if no one disturbed their lives, the actions of these Western Chu troops stationed in the city still brought a shadow to everyone, and no one would believe that they could survive, and now it was only temporary, and they might die under the enemy's butcher's knife one day.

"Mother, I'm hungry, I want to eat......" Under the eaves of a dilapidated house, a hungry skinny child trembled and pulled the corners of a woman's clothes, revealing a pitiful expression.

Most of the woman's figure almost blocked the doorway, and her eyes looked around vigilantly. Hearing the child's voice, she hurriedly pulled the child over, squatted down and scolded in a deliberately vicious tone: "You know to eat, eat, eat, there is no food at home for a long time, your mother hasn't eaten yet, you rabbit cub want to eat?" I won't starve you! ”

said so, but she saw that the child was hungry and weak, and she hurriedly pulled him into the house in distress, squatted down and looked outside first, and then whispered: "Dog, don't say you want to eat outside next time, you know?" Otherwise, those bad people in Xichu will come and rob us of our things, and we will starve to death! ”

"Woo...... Mother, I know, but I'm hungry......" The child seemed to understand and was about to cry.

The woman hurriedly closed the door, rushed to the window and looked out twice, then turned back and went into the bedroom, and found an oilcloth bag in the jar under the bed, opened it layer by layer with trembling hands, and found a hard and cold yellow bran bread with a palm.

She was just about to take it out, but after thinking about it, she only broke half of it, and the remaining half was wrapped up and hidden under the bed as usual, and then she went out to hold the child, handed it to him, and said, "Okay, take it and eat it, eat it slowly......"

Seeing the child chewing greedily and laboriously, it took a long time to choke on a mouthful, and the woman's tears were about to fall. Just as she wiped her tears, she suddenly heard a loud voice from the street outside: "Everyone listen, our marshal doesn't want to implicate innocent people because of the war between Western Chu and North Vietnam, everyone's work has been cut off in the past few days, and the grain is gone, the marshal can't bear everyone to starve to death, so he specially gave porridge at the gate of the city lord's mansion." If you don't have food at home, if you are willing to go, you can line up in front of the city lord's mansion within half an hour, and you won't wait for ......."

The woman was shocked, and could not believe what she had heard.

"Those who line up within half an hour can get a bowl of hot rice porridge, the quantity is limited, first come, first served......" When the voice sounded again, and gradually went away, the woman was shocked, suddenly opened the door and rushed out, leaving only one sentence: "Dog, you and grandma are at home, don't run around, my mother will go to get the porridge back, you know?" ”