Chapter 587: Into the City

"I know a little bit. Hong Lao nodded, and then continued: "The city lord of Qucheng is not a good person, I am afraid that he has already fled with his money. Once the city lord escapes and the city loses order, those families with a certain amount of power will not stay long. The general will go to Qucheng tomorrow to ask them for things, and I am afraid that the building has already been empty, so the old man thought about giving all the food to the adults, and tried his best to repay the kindness of the adults to the villagers such as us. ”

Regarding the situation in the city, according to Li Shuangxi's previous statement, Lin Xuanzhong's heart has actually been in the speculation stage, and he has a kind of psychology of avoiding reality, but now after Hong Lao gave such a positive statement, Lin Xuanzhong can already conclude that the situation in the city is as bad as he thought before, and he can't help but sink in his heart.

If it is really as Hong Lao said, after arriving in Qucheng tomorrow, grain and grass will become the primary problem. Therefore, Hong Lao's kindness, Lin Xuanzhong, who didn't want to accept it very much at first, became unable to refuse in a blink of an eye.

"Does Elder Hong know why the people in the city are running?"

"This matter is also related to the problem of bandits that have always existed nearby, adults don't know, there is a mountain on the side of Qucheng and Qincheng, the name is Xiaoyin Mountain, there is a bandit village on the mountain. Originally, the number of bandits was small, and the two cities were constantly suppressed, although there were occasional caravans that were robbed, but the problem was not very serious. ”

"It's a pity that because of the war between the two countries recently, there is no manpower to suppress the bandits, and more and more people on the other side have joined the bandits, so that the problem of bandits has become serious, and there is a threat to both cities. The fact that those people want to flee early has something to do with the problem of banditry. ”

"Have the bandits ever been to the village?"

"It may be that our villages are too poor, those bandits have only come once recently, and they have taken away a lot of girls from the village, and the villagers naturally dare not speak out, and they can only swallow the bitterness in their stomachs one by one," Speaking of this, a trace of resentment flashed in Hong Lao's eyes, obviously resentful of those bandits, but the helplessness shown in his cloudy eyes was also extremely obvious.

I don't know what's going on, but now listening to Hong Lao's words, Lin Xuanzhong always feels that the army will have something to do with those bandits. In addition, I heard Hong Lao say just now that the bandit village seems to be not far from the two cities, and I can't help but have a bad premonition in my heart, I'm afraid that this time the grain collection may be much more difficult than imagined. I don't know what the situation of the other two roads is, but now Lin Xuanzhong has to go back and think about the contingency strategy.

"Elder Hong, you guys go back and rest earlier, I still have a little thing to deal with," noticing that Zhang Jiutian, who had left just now, had already returned with some rations, and Lin Xuanzhong planned to leave immediately.

"The adult has something important to deal with, the old man understands, you can follow and serve the adult," Hong Lao responded very cheerfully, through a few brief exchanges, Hong Lao already knew Lin Xuanzhong's personality very well, and his expectations for Lin Xuanzhong in his heart also increased a lot. In fact, Hong Lao wanted to find out all the food hidden in the village and give it to Lin Xuanzhong, originally out of the intention of currying favor with Lin Xuanzhong, but now it seems that Hong Lao is a little stingy, but Lin Xuanzhong didn't think of this aspect at all.

After Zhang Jiutian distributed the food, Lin Xuanzhong deliberately approached a little closer and glanced at the two children. The two little boys were holding the meat and gnawing on it, their dirty faces were filled with happy smiles, which was exactly the scene that Lin Xuanzhong wanted to see, but the two little boys seemed to chew very hard, and the scene of biting the flesh of the fierce beast made Lin Xuanzhong feel funny, and when he looked back, Lin Xuanzhong also knew what was going on.

At present, the military affairs are important, and the matter related to the villagers is put aside for the time being, and Lin Xuanzhong must go back first to think about the matter of requisitioning grain.

Not long after, back in the general's hall, Lin Xuanzhong asked Zhang Jiutian to go back to rest, leaving only one Li Shuangxi by his side. Because it was difficult to arrange a place for Li Shuangxi, he had to let Li Shuangxi stay in the general's palace for the time being.

Under an oil lamp, Lin Xuanzhong spread out the border map given by Qi Lianhai, and then successfully found his current location from the map, and then roughly determined the location of the bandit village. From Qucheng to Qincheng, there is a flat river, but there is a mountain on the right side of the two cities, and those bandits are hidden in the mountains.

Due to its remote location and frequent purging of the country, it has not been able to grow for many years. Also because of the remote location, it has not been completely eradicated by Qucheng and Qincheng for many years, according to Hong Lao, but from time to time he will do some roadblock robbery.

Unfortunately, now is different from the past, after some people deliberately fled to the bandit villages, the number of bandits increased several times in a short period of time. Although the specific number of those bandits is not known yet, according to Hong Lao's words, the family forces in the city are afraid of the bandits, and it is obvious that those bandits are not easy to deal with.

However, with the army here, Lin Xuanzhong was not worried about how powerful those bandits were, what really made Lin Xuanzhong feel embarrassed was that the situation was unclear. Not only about those bandits, but also the situation in Qucheng and Qincheng was also unclear, so after careful consideration, Lin Xuanzhong planned to wait until Qucheng and send someone to investigate the situation in Qincheng as soon as possible.

The sooner the situation is ascertained, the sooner he can make a decision, as the commander of one party, Lin Xuanzhong knows very well that Yan Nantian has handed over the matter of requisition of grain in Qu and Qin Ercheng to himself, and whether he can do it well naturally depends on his personal ability. If tomorrow determines that the situation is bad and asks Yan Nantian for help directly, it will only be a wrong behavior.

After realizing that the current situation is relatively bad, Lin Xuanzhong understands the importance of handling the affairs in front of him.

Next, facing the map, Lin Xuanzhong pondered it carefully, and with the beating of the candle, his thoughts also jumped. At the same time, Li Shuangxi, who was not far away, sat below, dozing off while looking at Lin Xuanzhong, because he knew that he couldn't help Lin Xuanzhong's relationship, Li Shuangxi naturally wouldn't bother Lin Xuanzhong.

Time passed little by little, and by the time Lin Xuanzhong made his initial plans, Li Shuangxi had already fallen asleep on the table. Thinking about it, it was not early, Lin Xuanzhong simply lay on the blanket he was sitting on, holding the long sword and sleeping without even taking off his clothes.

Early the next morning, when Lin Xuanzhong woke up, Li Shuangxi had already sent the water and other things he needed for washing. After saying hello to Li Shuangxi and washing up briefly, Lin Xuanzhong took Li Shuangxi out.

The sky was still gray outside, but there were sounds everywhere in the village, wisps of cooking smoke came out of those chimneys, some soldiers were queuing up to eat, some soldiers were practicing by themselves, and there were figures everywhere, and the whole village was full of life in the morning.

When Lin Xuanzhong was looking around, Xing Hu and Wang Yiyao came over, and after greeting each other, the three of them talked about going to Qucheng. Sooner rather than later, Xing Hu and Wang Yiyao were both in favor of rushing to Qucheng as soon as possible to find out the situation in the city.

In front of the two, Lin Xuanzhong always had a feeling that the situation was compelling, so that Lin Xuanzhong, who was not too anxious about the grain requisition, also wanted to complete the task as soon as possible.

Lin Xuanzhong had already thought about it last night, and asked Zhang Jiutian to stay with three hundred soldiers today, while bringing all the villagers who were still alive in the nearby villages to Orchid Village, while hunting the fierce beasts nearby.

Three hundred people are not more, no less, Wang Yiyao has no opinion, Xing Hu is just curious about Lin Xuanzhong's behavior, neither of them has any intention of interfering with Lin Xuanzhong, after all, three hundred people are separated from the entire army, and it will not have much impact on their next trip to Qucheng to collect grain. After explaining Zhang Jiutian, Lin Xuanzhong discussed with the other two generals about going out into the army.

Before the main force set off, Lin Xuanzhong sent a few people to Qucheng to inquire about the situation according to Wang Yiye's advice. Then he had breakfast with the two generals until the main force set out.

Ten miles away, less than an hour, the army rushed to the north gate of Qucheng. From a distance, the so-called city pass is only built by a low wall, except for the location of the city gate, the city wall on both sides is only about two or three meters high, less than half the height of the city wall seen before, it can be said that it is not a city wall at all, and it is more appropriate to describe it as a wall.

Despite this, after getting closer, Lin Xuanzhong still found that there were many refugees outside the city, scattered against the wall, and it was obvious that the two or three meters high wall still kept them out of the city.

Seeing the army coming, the refugees got up from the ground one by one in a panic, looked at the army with a frightened face, and some of them ran away because they were afraid. The reaction of those refugees was not unexpected, but Lin Xuanzhong didn't pay much attention to it, and Lin Xuanzhong's attention was on the city tower at this moment.

There were no guards in front of the city tower that was only three or four meters wide and on both sides of the city tower, and the city gate below was closed, and when Lin Xuanzhong wondered why there was no one, the two sentinels sent to check the situation before came out over the wall.

ran all the way to the army, and the two immediately told Lin Xuanzhong the news they had discovered. According to their accounts, the refugees from outside the city were indeed gathered from various villages, and there were nearly 100 men and women. Aside from the refugees, the two also inquired that the north gate had not been opened for several days. A few days ago, the refugees outside the city soon disappeared after hearing the constant screams from inside the city, and even the people who were supposed to guard the city gates disappeared.

It's a pity that the two spies didn't find out the situation in the city, and although they climbed over the wall to get in, they didn't find ordinary people around the city gate. Fearing danger if they went any further, the two wandered around the city gate for a while before returning to their lives.

After getting a certain amount of information, while becoming more and more confused about the situation in the city, Lin Xuanzhong had a bad premonition more and more. After a brief consideration, Lin Xuanzhong immediately ordered someone to open the city gate.

Not long after, several soldiers who had climbed over the wall opened the city gate from the inside, and then the army entered the city directly. Out of the city gate, the field of vision in front of me is much wider, and when I look ahead, there is no figure on an empty avenue. Looking at the scattered houses, everything has a dilapidated atmosphere.