January 782, Far East, Kearney.

The sky was gray and windy. Shirakawa and her guards entered the city through the west gate. The half-orc city gate guards in brand-new uniforms looked at her documents very seriously, and then saluted her solemnly: "My lord!"

Bai Chuan nodded back, and seeing the surprise and admiration flashing in the half-orc's eyes, a burst of pride rose in her heart. In the past year, as the commander of the Northern Route Army, Shirakawa Qiben has conquered cities and conquered all the way, invincible, as one of the three major generals under the command of the King of Light, her reputation has spread in the Far East along with the magical legend of the King of Light, and is widely known to all ethnic groups in the Far East. But few people know that the protagonist of so many magical legends, the commander of the North Road Group who has repeatedly performed miraculous feats in the Far Eastern Righteous Army, is actually such a little girl in her twenties who looks delicate.

Shirakawa rode his horse and walked slowly. Although it is a cold winter, the streets are still prosperous. The road was swept clean, and there was not even a drop of snow. The streets are bustling with people and traffic. There are many large and small shops next to it, the buildings are gorgeous, and the whole scene is filled with a festive atmosphere. Shirakawa couldn't help but admire Ming Yu's ability to restore a city that had been devastated by war so quickly in less than a year that it had surpassed the pre-war level. Looking at the peaceful and prosperous scene now, who would have imagined that the nascent Far Eastern regime was in the midst of a war with the Demon Kingdom? In order to defend this fragile regime, hundreds of thousands of Far Eastern troops were still fighting against the Demon Army on the border?

A group of men and horses ran in front of him, and Bai Chuan recognized it from a distance, the cavalry at the front was Roger, who was waving his hand vigorously, and a little behind him was Ming Yu. She was pleasantly surprised, and stepped forward to greet her: "Why is Roger here too?"

The three of them gathered together and jumped off their horses. Before Shirakawa could stand firm, Roger had already opened his arms to her, and she threw herself into his arms without hesitation, hugging her tightly. She knew that in Roger's warm embrace, there was no love between men and women, he just wanted to express his warm feelings for his comrades who had not seen him for a long time. The hazy good feeling that existed in the past has now been sublimated into a nobler and purer feeling after countless tests of life and death. The current relationship is more like a brother-sister relationship than a comrade-in-arms.

"It's been a long time, Ming Yu, are you okay?" Bai Chuan greeted Ming Yu with a smile, the latter had been smiling and looking at them, but now he deliberately looked up at the sky and pouted: "What's good?

Before he finished speaking, Bai Chuan had already hugged him: "Come on, come on, let's hug one too, so that you don't have to eat dry vinegar over there." When the two hugged, she gently kissed Ming Yu's forehead and asked, "Is this psychological balance?"

"Hey, Shirakawa, you can't treat me differently! you didn't kiss me just now!" Roger yelled loudly from behind.

"Hahaha!" The three of them laughed and asked in unison, "I haven't seen each other for a year, are you all okay?"

Along the neat streets of Kearney, the three generals chatted as they walked. Shirakawa sighed to Ming Yu and said, "This city has changed so much! When I captured it a year ago, I remember that this place was not so large, and the population was not so large, let alone such a prosperous scene!"

Ming Yu smiled: "Yes! Kearney is our administrative center and military base camp, so it must have the appearance of a capital city, right? This city has now become the commercial and logistics center of the central Far East and the area controlled by our military." ”

He said it lightly, but Shirakawa knew that Ming Yu didn't know how much effort it took to achieve such results when the war was raging. She secretly sighed: People have talents in all aspects, some people are good at destruction, and some people are good at construction. In this year, although Ming Yu did not fight on the front line like himself and Roger, his survival played a key role in the victory or defeat. He recruited and trained new recruits in the rear, reorganized the new reinforcements and sent them to the front, established discipline and order for the rebel army, gathered and integrated the limited strength of the rebel army, arranged the rule and order of the newly occupied areas, raised supplies for the army, and organized civilian men and convoys to go to the front. Those trivial and complicated affairs, under his command, were handled in an orderly and proper manner. Even I could feel that the rebel army was getting stronger and more regular. In terms of administrative planning, Ming Yu is indeed a genius. His choice to serve as Chief of Staff for the post of Chief of Staff for Administration and Logistics was a fitting fit.

Shirakawa was curious: "How did you do it?"

"Quite simply, it's a tax cut, and business naturally develops. Compared to the rampant extortion on the side of the demons, our taxes are simply heavenly. In this way, merchants from all over the Far East naturally came to us. ”

"But after the tax reduction, hasn't our fiscal revenue decreased? What about our army's expenditure?"

Ming Yu showed a sly smile: "Our army's expenses?Does our army have expenses?Shirakawa, when did you pay your subordinates' half-orc soldiers?"

Shirakawa smiled. This is a great logistical advantage of the rebel army, and the people of all ethnic groups who participated in the rebel army came for lofty ideals such as zìyóu, liberation, and dúlì, and did not care about personal gains and losses. So Shikawa Xiu took the opportunity to say: "Now is a difficult time, we have to get through it together!" and saved the salaries of the rebel soldiers. The honest half-orcs only want to defeat the demons, and they don't care about him. Bai Chuan suddenly remembered that it would be more appropriate to change the name of Zichuan Xiu and call him "Zichuan Peeling".

Roger, who had been listening to the sidelines, was also interested and interjected: "But there are some expenses that are indispensable. For example, the loss of grain and grass, the replacement of weapons, the purchase of baggage equipment, medicines, and ordinary supplies. These things are inconspicuous, but when you calculate them, that's a lot of money!"

Ming Yu thought for a moment and said, "Actually, we have other incomes. The main income is the profit margin difference between the family's mainland and the Far East. Today, we are the largest - and only - supplier of mainland products in the Far East.

Although we don't levy taxes on merchants, as long as we raise the price of our products a little higher......" Ming Yu gestured and smiled meaningfully. Bai Chuan and Roger both understood, and they also smiled: "Dare to love you, you are a bright rabbit and a secret harvest?"

Ming Yu continued: "In addition, sixteen gold mines, nine diamond mining sites, and more than a dozen coal mines and iron mines in the central province have now fallen under the control of our military, and the output has been good. ”

Shirakawa interjected and asked, "Who is going to mine?" She knew that the shortage of human resources had always been the biggest problem for the rebel army in the Far East. Young and middle-aged men are all on the front, and only women, children, and the elderly are left in the rear, and productivity will inevitably decline.

"Shirakawa, in the Battle of Kearney alone, we captured tens of thousands of demon captives. The lord said that before the exchange of prisoners, they were idle, so why don't they help us to work! Not only do they have to mine mines, but they also have to farm -- I told you that with these captives of the demon clan, we have opened up tens of thousands of acres of military land, and we have already harvested it once in September. We gave all the food from that harvest to the people in the vicinity. ”

Roger was puzzled: "Why? The army also needs food!"

"My lord said that our war with the demons is a long-term war, and we must take a long-term view, and we can't fish with all our might. The Minsk province has been fighting for many years, and the people have suffered heavy losses from the war, and many families have not even had food for the winter. The people are the foundation of our rebel army, and if the common people freeze to death and starve to death, even if we win on the battlefield, it will be temporary. Moreover, a large part of our soldiers came from the province, and this batch of food was equivalent to being distributed to their families. This is necessary both from the perspective of stabilizing the morale of the military and from the perspective of winning the hearts and minds of the people. Now, the prestige of the adults among the people is very high, and the masses everywhere support us very much, and when we talk about the King of Light, there is a 'long live' everywhere. ”

"By the time of the summer grain harvest in May this year, all the grain in the military fields will be owned by our army, and with some of the grain collected from the people, we will be able to be self-sufficient in even the grain, and we will no longer have to import it from the interior of our family. When the time comes, the adults plan to use the money saved to buy the family's inland machinery and hire technicians to build our own arsenal and hospital in the Far East. ”

Listening to Ming Yu's eloquent conversation, thinking that the future of the Far East Army was bright, Roger and Shirakawa couldn't help but feel shocked.

The group walked through the business district, and in the distance, a majestic building at the end of the long street appeared in view, and Ming Yu pointed and said, "See, that was originally the governor's mansion of the Zichuan family, and later became the headquarters of the demon clan." Now, that's our command center, and we all call it 'Base Camp.'" ”

The three of them entered the neem building, and the guards on both sides stood solemnly and saluted: "My lord," Bai Chuan noticed that the earth soldiers standing guard in front of this building were not ordinary half-orc soldiers, but special forces of the Xiuzi battalion. Obviously, this neem tower was the part of the brain that was heavily protected by the rebel forces in the Far East.

Ming Yu led the two of them into an office that was richly decorated, with large leather sofas and large desks made of nan wood, and precious lamps hanging on the walls. Seeing the strange eyes of the two, Ming Yu smiled: "Don't get me wrong, I didn't squander public funds or fake public funds." This is an adult's office. In fact, these things were received by the commander of the demon garrison, and they didn't cost money. ”

The two of them were stunned. Shirakawa looked left and right, but he didn't see the figure of Shikawa Xiu. She was surprised, "What about my lord? He called us back, but what about the others?"

"Sit down first. After Ming Yu beckoned them to sit down, Shen Sè became solemn: "Shirakawa Qiben, Roger Qiben, from now on, what you hear is confidential, and it must not be leaked to the outside world, understand?"

"Yes!" both of them stood up at the same time.

"Sit down, sit down. Ming Yu waved his hand and said word by word a little sluggishly: "Your Excellency is not in the Far East at this time, he has already returned to the mainland of the family." ”

"What?" the two of them jumped up again: "This ...... This, how is it possible?" The family offered a reward of 100,000 yuan for Zichuan Xiu's head, and he also took the initiative to jump inside.

Roger was furious: "Ming Yu, you know that the adult did such a stupid thing, why don't you stop him?

Bai Chuan said even more sharply: "You have been derelict in your duties as the chief of staff, and you have also falsely passed on military orders, and I will hold you accountable on behalf of the soldiers on the front line!"

"Do you listen to me first?" Ming Yu spread his hands: "How can I stop him?" He didn't tell me at all, just left a letter and ran away! The letter said that during his absence, you will be the acting commander of Shirakawa, and if there is a heavy decision, it will be decided by the three of us after discussing it together. I see that things are serious, and I dare not make claims alone, so I summoned the two of you back to discuss. ”

As he spoke, he handed over a letter, which had already been opened. Roger took out the letter three times or twice, read it in a hurry, and handed it to Shirakawa. Shirakawa recognized it as soon as he received the letter, and it was indeed Shirakawa Shu's handwriting. It said that he had something to leave for a while, and Shirakawa took the command, and decided to discuss it with the three of them. The period signed at the end of the letter is five days ago.

"What the hell is going on?" Shirakawa's tone softened a lot, she had calmed down, she really couldn't blame Ming Yu, the elusive Shikawa Xiu has always liked to play the missing game, and no one can guard against it. He asked again, "Your Excellency didn't say that he returned to the family!"

"It all started a week ago......

"Ming Yu, I'm afraid we're in trouble!" Zichuan Xiu said lightly.

Ming Yu was startled. He knew that with his boss's silent xìng style, even if he was alone in the face of tens of thousands of demon armored beasts, he would just say: "In a minute, if we don't run fast enough, we will run into a little trouble." ”

"What's going on, sir?"

"Have you read the latest 'dìdūrì newspaper'?" said "latest" by Shikawa Xiu, which was actually ten days ago. Although Xiuziying dutifully collects all kinds of jīng newspapers every day in the eyes of dìdū, and sends them to the Far East along the trail through the Guqi Mountains, due to the long distance, when the news arrives, it often loses its timeliness. But Shikawa still researches this information with great enthusiasm. He often said: "News events are just phenomena, and I study the hidden laws and trends under the phenomena." ”

Ming Yu took a newspaper and hurriedly read it in the headline: ""Today's Special Offer in Landu Shopping Mall", "Exhibitionism Appears in Central Park", "Ruling the Department of Shao Cracked the Case of Extraordinarily Large Theft Gang", "The Blood and Tears of an Ignorant Young Woman", "The Senate Discusses the Bill on the Restriction of the Circulation of War Materials"...... War materiel?"

Zichuan Xiu patiently explained next to him: "Including rice, millet, wheat, grain, standard saber, standard spear, war horse, chain mail, heart armor, long-range strong bow, cavalry-style portable folding bow, arrows, sabers, ghost head knives, bayonet guns, cloth, and medical supplies." ”

"Isn't that almost all we want?" Ming Yu exclaimed.

"Well, the Elders of the Church of the Elders have passed the Material Act, declaring that the Zichuan family has entered a wartime state, and thirty-four materials are classified as strategic materials and are prohibited from circulation and trading. The prohibited commodities include four types of edible food, as well as medicines, weapons, war horses, and other materials that we also urgently need, all of which are listed in the list of prohibited goods. ”

Ming Yu's face turned pale all of a sudden: as the chief of staff in charge of logistics, he knew the logistics reserves of the Far Eastern Army best. The weapon is okay, although it is a little rudimentary to make it yourself, but it can still be used improvised. The most important thing is food and medicine. Now that the grain storage in the Kearney granary has been emptied, and there are still three months to go before this year's summer grain harvest, the only way out for the rebels is to rely on grain imports from the interior of the country. In order to buy grain from the merchants in the interior of the family, as early as a few months ago, Ming Yu was ready to send a large number of prisoners of war to the six provinces of Yun Province and Calais Province, as well as to develop the production of iron, coal, tin and other mineral materials, and the output is steadily increasing every month, who knows......

"We managed to raise the gold to buy food. Now we have gold, but we can't buy food!

The next day, the adults left, leaving only the letter. ”

Ming Yu finished speaking, and the room was silent for a while. Everyone knows that in a long war that lasts for many years, the loss of logistics supplies means a complete defeat. Now the only lifeline of supplies to support the rebel armies in the Far East has been cut off.

"Who else knows about this? The Zoe generals, Buson and Bran, do they know?"

"They don't know yet, only the three of us know now, and the adults have ordered it not to spread, so as not to shake the morale of the army. ”

"Why did the Senate make this law, is the family going to an all-out war with the Flowing Wind?" asked Shirakawa. Such restrictions on the flow of goods would be extremely detrimental to commerce, and should not be used lightly except during very urgent periods of all-out war. This made her feel incredible, the Zichuan family had just been defeated from the Far East, and was it immediately about to start a full-scale war in the west?

Ming Yu spread his hands: "I don't know, don't ask me." ”

Shirakawa asked, "Who is this bill primarily aimed at, and is it aimed at us?"

Ming Yu shook his head blankly: "I don't know." After thinking about it, he added: "Actually, we have always had informants in Dìdū, but they don't know anything about the enactment of this bill. After the implementation of the prohibition law, grain merchants could only sell grain to the military and local civilian monopoly departments, and were no longer allowed to sell it to private individuals. ”

"Ming Yu, did the adults tell you, where is he going?"

Ming Yu shook his head and said, "No." But I guess his disappearance must have something to do with our shortage of food. ”

Bai Chuan thought for a while before raising his head: "Ming Yu, how long can our current grain storage last?"

Ming Yu lowered his head and pondered for a while, and said, "If there is no large-scale action, save a little money, plus the surplus grain in the warehouses in various places, we can still support it for four or five weeks." ”

Shirakawa's heart tightened: that is, within a month, if things did not change, the army would begin to go hungry.

The three flags discussed for a while, and quickly made several decisions: First, I don't know when Zichuan Xiu will come back, but for the sake of prudence, from now on, all troops must save food.

Second, in order to economize on the use of grain, it is necessary to shorten the front. The troops stopped their external offensive and waited for the food crisis to be resolved. Therefore, Roger's siege of Tran Fortress was to be stopped, and Roger's legion withdrew from under Tran.

3. The whole army has adjusted the direction of its offensive from the original main attack in the east to the northwest. Because in the Northwest Province region, there are two provinces that are large grain producing provinces.

Due to the haste with such a major adjustment, there are many details that need to be coordinated and connected between the various legions to be discussed. The meeting lasted from the afternoon until 1 p.m. When he walked out of the office, looking at Zi Chuan Xiu's wide desk, Bai Chuan suddenly thought of a question and asked Ming Yu: "How many guards did you bring with you when you went back this time?"

Ming Yu was stunned for a moment and said, "I didn't bring any of them." He walked on his own. ”

Shirakawa let out an "oh", vaguely understanding Zichuan Xiu's intention: too many people will attract attention. Moreover, the reward of 100,000 gold coins is too moving after all. In case someone in the accompanying escort can't resist this temptation and goes to tell the truth, Zichuan Xiu is in a very dangerous situation. In this case, it is safest to go on the road alone. Her mind moved: Zichuan Xiu usually gives people a kind of nonchalant and big and big xìng grid, but in essence he is a very careful and cautious person. She prayed silently in her heart: "My lord, may you return safely!"

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