Raven City, Council Chamber.

Vega held his daily meetings here, and officers were updating him on the situation in the army.

"Report to the general. ”

The first to report were several division commanders: "Everything is normal in the army, although the weather has been cold recently, the training has not been left behind, and it is ready to attack the enemy at any time." ”

"Report to the general. ”

A staff officer of the second report: "The fortifications are basically maintained, and everything is normal in the nearby cities. ”

“......”

The officers ended with reports one by one, and finally the logistics minister with a sad face slowly stood up.

Seeing that the person standing up was the Minister of Logistics, Vega first raised his hand to stop him from speaking, then rubbed his forehead in pain, and finally picked up the tea on his right hand and poured it a few sips, before signaling the Minister of Logistics to report the situation.

"Report to the general. ”

The logistics minister said again and again: "The supply in the army is only enough for 10 days, if we don't get new supplies after ten days, I'm afraid we will ......."

The second half of the sentence is self-explanatory.

As a result, a shadow hung over the room, and every officer knew what would happen if there was no food.

Vega coughed, then said, "As usual, this news is sealed off to the entire army, and I don't want this news to leak out of your mouths, otherwise you will know the end." ”

"Yes, General. ”

The whole army gave reassurances to Vega, and of course they knew that once this news was leaked, it would not only give the enemy peace of mind, but also cause the whole army to collapse prematurely.

"General, IMHO. ”

A division commander could no longer help but say: "After all, it is not a way to drag on this matter? May I ask the general what good plan he has? If not, the subordinate officer has a plan to solve the current predicament." ”

Vega's eyes flashed with glint.

He made a gesture of please: "May I hear it." ”

The division commander was not hypocritical, he gritted his teeth and said: "According to the secret visit of the lower officials, we learned that every civilian household in the nine cities under our control has quite enough surplus food......

At this point, the division commander stopped talking.

Vega didn't continue to ask, but waved his hand and said, "Let me think about this matter, that's all for today's meeting, let's adjourn." ”

Everyone walked out of the conference room one by one.

In fact, this matter is not unthought by Vega.

After all, it is now after the harvest season, and every household must have enough surplus food, as long as these nine small cities are swept around, the problem of food shortage can be easily solved.

But it's really a thirst-quenching thing.

Once this is done, it means that he has lost the support of the people, and when the time comes, if there is a real war, I am afraid that these civilians will become the last straw that crushes him.

And the army, which has lost the hearts and minds of the people, will not go far at all.

This is also the difference between robbers and regular armies in history, no matter how powerful the bandits are, it will be difficult to become a climate after all.

Therefore, it is not a last resort, in the war, Vega does not intend to attack the civilians, but wants to build a good relationship with the civilians, and truly conform to the will of the people.

Take history as a mirror.

At the beginning, the Eighth Route Army won the hearts of the people with the iron law of "no crime in autumn" and grew all the way.

Therefore, looting the people's fat and ointment is completely a practice of killing chickens and eggs, which is also the reason why Vega once considered it, but abandoned this idea at the first time.

But this is no longer the case.

He has reached the point of exhaustion.

In front of Vega, the endless desert, the spring water in his hand has been used up, and only a bottle of chronic poison is left, either he chooses to die of thirst here, or he chooses to drink this bottle of poison, delay for a few days and then die slowly.

How to choose?

With a stroke of his pen, Vega wrote four large characters on a blank piece of paper -

"Borrow food" program.

In the end, Vega decided to "borrow" food from the people of Jiucheng to solve their urgent needs.

Please believe Vega, this time he is really "borrowing" food.

Just now, he had already had a flash of inspiration, and he had figured out how to use this 'borrowed grain' to throw the jade and let Theon take the initiative to reveal his flaws.

That's right.

If the enemy doesn't show his flaws, why not lure them in?

Vega, who has a wide range of ideas, wants to slap himself in the face, and even a sage will fall into hell because of some temptation.

Theon is at best a man with strong self-control, and as long as he is human, he will make mistakes. Although it is said that the opportunity is given by God, it is true that there are some means to artificially create opportunities and finally win the battle.

So how do you do it?

After spending a night making plans, at dawn, Vega gave a cruel order to the subordinates—

"Borrowed" grain from the people of Jiucheng.

Therefore, on that day, the 200,000 troops under the account of Vega, including the city of Jaco, took about half of the grain of each family by force.

"Don't! don't take our food. ”

"Please, we have 4 children in our family, and the rest of the food is not enough to survive the winter. ”

"Bandits, you bandits, get out of the east bank for me. ”

"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you! ”

“......”

The civilians complained that half of the taxes collected by the government after a year of hard work were now taken away by Vega, and most of them were close to collapse, and their original impression of the East Coast army had plummeted.

"Don't get me wrong, we're borrowing food. ”

Although the officers did not kill civilians without authorization under high-sounding excuses, anyone who is not a fool can see that this is simply the army's lack of food, so it is impossible to return their food if they are cut.

"Take it, it's your IOU. ”

These officers didn't care whether the civilians accepted it or not, and according to Vega's orders, they gave the family an IOU in the amount of denomination as evidence, so he slapped the voucher on the table and left directly with the food.

It's all about being a bitch and setting up an archway.

Some of the enraged civilians tore the IOUs to shreds on the spot and yelled at Vega's army.

Within a day.

Vega's army has become infamous and has been accused of being a bandit.

Now the civilians in these nine cities no longer hope that Vega's army can unify the dynasty, but hope that the forces of the Grand Prince can defeat Vega as soon as possible and behead Vega, a villain, for public display.

Some of them even think.

Even at the cost of his life, he could assist the army in the West Bank and bring Vega to complete defeat.

But Vega selectively ignored these circumstances, did not control public opinion, and did not order the army to deal with these people who like to follow the rhythm.

After looting the grain.

Vega simply ordered the cities to deliver grain to the granary city of Narra, and nothing else was done.

But these big moves obviously can't hide from Theon's reconnaissance troops.