As Guo Chong said, Qianzhou is indeed such an extremely poor place with little food.

Not to mention compared with many rich places in the Central Plains, even compared with Sichuan, Shu and southern Yunnan, which are also located in the southwest, this area is also so poor that it is called a lot of heart, and many times it is necessary to buy a large amount of grain from outside to barely support it.

In fact, not only now, in history, and even hundreds of years later, the land of Qianzhou is still one of the poorest areas in China, and it is the government that has made great efforts to improve the local economy little by little, so that everyone can live a good life......

Perhaps because of this, Qianzhou is not like the other two places in the southwest that can emerge several large tribal families, from beginning to end, only one Long clan is the local king and hegemon, stretching for hundreds of years.

In the eyes of the Long family, this shortcoming of Qianzhou is good for their family, at least before this accident, they thought so......

Then, during this summer, everything changed.

Sun Ning quickly made a decision, and instead of directly marching with a blockade, with only 30,000 or 40,000 people, divided into five teams, the entire important passage between Qianzhou and Sichuan, Shu and the Central Plains was blocked.

At this time, the complex and dangerous terrain used by Qianzhou for self-protection was taken advantage of by the imperial court officials and soldiers.

If it is an attack, these high mountains and mountains will naturally become a nightmare for every soldier who enters Qianzhou, but once the offense is changed to defense, then the construction of fortress walls or something, you can completely rely on the terrain to create an extremely strong defense line.

When the scouts in Qianzhou discovered that the official army was building a large number of buildings at the junction of the two provinces, they thought that this was the preliminary work for the official army to enter Guizhou, so they quickly sent back this important information.

Naturally, the people of the Long family did not dare to relax in the slightest, and immediately made full preparations for defense, just waiting for the officers and soldiers to enter their own territory, and then use all kinds of terrain to let them encounter head-on attacks and boost their morale.

But as a result, the wait was two months.

In the past two months, the officers and troops did not really set foot in the territory of Qianzhou, but continued to build fortress defense lines, and by the time the Qianzhou side finally realized that there was a problem, it was already after August.

Moreover, five or six lines of defense in all directions were gradually taking shape, and they completely missed the last chance.

It was only at this time that the Long family vaguely guessed the purpose of the imperial court, and in a panic, they could only take the initiative to attack and try to open the passage.

But this time, they are attacking the enemy's length with their own shortcomings.

If it is a jungle war, a sneak attack or something, relying on their familiarity with the terrain, the Qianzhou soldiers and horses under the Long family may still be able to wrestle with the official army, and if it is a city defense battle, they may still be able to occupy a lot of upper hand.

But once it becomes the besieging party, and launches an offensive in front of the fortress where the official army has already been arranged and has a firm foothold, it is to bring humiliation upon itself.

After only two battles, the Long family lost its troops and generals, causing thousands of casualties, and the other soldiers and horses had long lost their fighting spirit and retreated.

And this battle made the Long family even more convinced of the true intentions of the imperial court, and it also made them more and more frightened.

Once the entire Qianzhou road to contact with the outside world is completely cut off, then hundreds of thousands of people in this area will be left to fend for themselves.

However, with the small amount of grain produced in Qianzhou and the barrenness of the land, it is simply impossible to feed hundreds of thousands of people.

In such a dangerous situation, the Long family had no choice but to continue to send troops and horses to constantly harass the official and military defense lines in all directions, trying to open the gap, and on the other hand, thinking about entering southern Yunnan and obtaining supplies from there.

It's just that the latter strategy hasn't been implemented yet, and it has directly hit a wall and declared a failure.

Because in August and September, the southern Yunnan side, which had received orders from the imperial court, also began to build a defensive line between the two places, and the three families of Mugao Duan actually cooperated for the first time to form a coalition army, and deployed defenses at the junction to prevent any Qianzhou people from passing through the main road.

The three families had already expressed their submission to the imperial court, and they were all willing to take out tens of thousands of troops to serve, so they were naturally very willing to cooperate with such an errand that only needed to be deployed at the junction of the two places and did not have to fight with their lives.

What's more, they already have a certain contradiction with the Long family in Qianzhou, and seeing that the Long family is so iron-headed, they are naturally happy to fall into the well, making them pay a heavy price, and their vitality is greatly damaged, and it is best that the Long family is completely finished.

Therefore, the defense line on the southern Yunnan side was even tighter than that of the Sichuan and Shu sides, and then not only the avenue was locked, but even some small roads and mountain roads were actually laid down by them, and they were stared at to prevent the people of Qianzhou from passing.

At this time, all roads were cut off and blocked, and there was no way to do it up and down Qianzhou.

In the first few months, they could still hold on to a certain amount of luck, or constantly try to break through the defense line by various methods, or feel that the imperial court might not be able to spend months or even a year wholeheartedly to blockade the entire area, and there is still hope for their own family.

But as time went on, from summer to autumn and from autumn to winter, the situation was completely different.

The road leading to the outside of Qianzhou is still blocked, and perhaps a few people can go out through the dangerous trails on those mountains, but important materials and food are not expected to be transported in at all.

And the local food, after entering this winter, has finally bottomed out!

Qianzhou is not rich in the first place, and it is impossible for the Long family to spend money early to buy a large amount of grain and hoard it as a contingency - in fact, their granary really has a lot of food, but there are many people who can't stand it.

In order to buy people's hearts, or to unite the soldiers and horses under their command, anyway, in the past few months, the Long family has taken out the grain like flowing water. Then there is another way to enter, and no amount of food can withstand the consumption of the military and civilians in the entire Qianzhou region.

Layue should be a good day for everyone in the world to recuperate, wait for the arrival of the New Year, and eat a few good meals and dishes.

But now all parts of Qianzhou are gloomy and miserable, everyone is hungry, and they don't know if they can have food tomorrow.

This is true even in Longzhou, where the Long family's base camp is located, not to mention other remote small counties.

And in such desperate and tormented circumstances, in the end, some people couldn't hold it back.

Before the Chinese New Year, a series of riots broke out in Qianzhou, some people stormed the official offices everywhere, snatching the little food left into their own hands, and some people were quickly extinguished and killed by the soldiers and horses of the Long family who had been prepared for a long time because of the riots.

But this is not the most deadly, what frightens the Long family the most is that a large number of people who can't survive have chosen to leave their hometowns, run out of Qianzhou, and surrender to the imperial court.

……

Happy New Year, everyone!!!!

The first update in 2023, asking for votes, there is a way to be on the first day at the beginning of the year!!!