The enemy troops in the barracks refused to surrender, and Li Zhiyun had no choice but to order the artillery to be fired. The soldiers of the artillery battalion skillfully operated the red-coated cannons, loaded shells, filled gunpowder, and lit fuses.

The fierce shelling blew up the gate of the barracks, the courtyard wall also collapsed, and the entire barracks was exposed to people's eyes. The barracks were either blown up or ablaze.

As more shells fell, the entire barracks was engulfed in fire and smoke. The onlookers were dumbfounded, and they were stunned to see their broken arms and thighs flying into the air. In their eyes, these people who were circling around the wooden wheeled cart were not ordinary soldiers at all, but a group of heavenly soldiers and generals. They speculated that it must have been those rakshasas who ate women and children, causing the wrath of the Jade Emperor, who sent the Heavenly Soldiers and Divine Generals to kill the demons with thunder and lightning. Rakshasa is a Buddhist term for an evil spirit that eats human flesh.

After the shelling stopped, the smoke cleared, and the soldiers of the Forces nouvelles rushed into the barracks with shouts, destroyed the remaining enemy soldiers with their firearms, and occupied the entire barracks.

The new army conquered the city of champions, gained a foothold, and settled in the city. The larger barracks had been completely destroyed by artillery fire, and the team had to live in another barracks.

The next morning, Li Zhiyun took Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and Yinggu to the street. The streets are full of people, there are many more pedestrians than in previous days, and many shops have opened. It seems that after the elimination of the man-eating demons, the city has returned to its former vitality and liveliness.

Everyone walked for a while, and suddenly a person came diagonally from the side, and said to Li Zhiyun: "Little brother, are you an immortal?" Li Zhiyun took a look, and it turned out to be the old man he met in front of Zhuzi's house that day. He hurriedly returned the salute and said with a smile: "Uncle, you are mistaken, I am not an immortal." ”

"And who are you?"

Zhang Zheng on the side introduced: "He is the king of Chu in the Tang Dynasty. ”

"It turned out to be the prince, no wonder it was so powerful!"

Li Zhiyun looked at each other and smiled: "Uncle, may I ask your surname?" The old man replied, "The villain's surname is Hu, and he is a merchant in the city." The prince eliminated the man-eating demons and rescued the women and children, and the people in the city praised him......"

The two walked and talked. At this moment, a man in his thirties walked across from him, who walked staggeringly, fell to the ground as he walked, and lay there motionless. Li Zhiyun hurriedly ran over, looked down, and saw that the man was in rags, skinny, with a yellow face and closed eyes. He crouched down and tried his fingers under the wing of his nose, but he was out of breath.

Li Zhiyun stood up and was puzzled: "Why did this person die in a good manner?" Uncle Hu sighed and said, "He died of starvation." Every household in the city is short of food, and dozens of people like him are dying of hunger every day. When Li Zhiyun heard this, he turned around and looked at the other party in surprise: "Is it so serious?" Uncle Hu nodded with a heavy face.

After returning to the barracks, Li Zhiyun summoned two subordinate officers, Scarface, and several other generals to the lobby, and everyone sat around a desk. He got straight to the point: "Everyone, we have occupied the Champion City, and this will become our base ......" Scarface interrupted him puzzled: "Lord Wang, what is a base area?" ”

"It's the territory that has been occupied for a long time." Li Zhiyun said, "If we want to take root here, we must get the support and support of the people." Now that the people in the city are short of food, dozens of people are starving to death every day, and we can't sit idly by! The ancients said that to govern the army, you must first have enough food, and you must first feed the people. Therefore, the king intends to pull out half of the grain and relieve the common people. ”

The new army came to Huaixi this time and brought a large amount of grain and grass. They wiped out 5,000 Turkic men and horses on the ancient road of Mayi, and also seized a lot of grain and horses, except for half to Li Zhongwen, the rest were brought. Therefore, the new army now has enough food to eat for several months.

When Scarface heard that he was going to pull out food to help the people, he was worried: "Lord Wang, this is military food." If the food is donated, what will the brothers eat in the future? ”

"I've thought about this." Li Zhiyun said, "Zhu Cang has made the people in this area miserable, and along the way, I have seen many villages in ruins, and large areas of fertile land have been abandoned without cultivation. There are 3,000 brothers in the new army, and most of them can grow crops, so we can do it ourselves and have enough food and clothing. ”

"You mean Tuntian?" Scarface said, "But even if we plant now, the autumn grain harvest will have to wait until a few months later, and we are afraid that we will not be able to last until that time." ”

"It's not hard to solve." Li Zhiyun said, "We can first grow some fast-growing vegetables and eat them with food." There are many ditches and ponds in this area, and there must be fish and shrimp in the water, so we can mobilize our brothers to fish and catch shrimp. In addition, I inquired with Uncle Hu that there are several big mountains such as Tangshan, Yushan, Xingshan and Zhulian Mountain within the boundaries of Champion County, and the mountains are lush with forests and many wild beasts. ”

Li Zhiyun gushed that the generals present were all croppers before they became soldiers, plowing the fields, fishing and shrimp, and even hunting in the mountains, all of them were experts. They listened with enthusiasm and geared up, eager to do it immediately. Therefore, Li Zhiyun's proposal was quickly adopted.

After Zhu Cang's army occupied the Champion City, the officials in the county government were either killed or fled, and the people in the city were left unmanaged. Li Zhiyun asked Uncle Hu to recommend a virtuous and respected sage, appointed him as the county magistrate, and asked him to recruit some county officials.

After the grain transferred by the new army was transported to the county government, the officials of the county government and the lizheng of each square registered the population of each household and distributed the grain according to the capitation. Li Zhiyun took Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and two other guards, asked the two guards to carry a bag of grain, and everyone came to Zhuzi's house together.

As soon as Li Zhiyun stepped into the courtyard, he saw that Uncle Hu was also there, and he was talking to the old lady of the pillar in the courtyard. As soon as Uncle Hu saw him, he hurriedly greeted him, and pointed at him and said to the pillar lady: "Sister-in-law, this is the king of Tang Chu who saved your daughter-in-law and grandson." ”

Zhuzi and his daughter-in-law ran out of the house when they heard the sound, and Li Zhiyun saw that Zhuzi's daughter-in-law was the first woman to take the child out of the temple gate that night. She also recognized Li Zhiyun, and hurriedly knelt forward, excited: "Benefactor, thank you for saving me and the child." When Zhu Zi and his wife saw him, they quickly knelt on the ground.

Li Zhiyun hurriedly stepped forward to help the old woman up, and asked the two of them to get up quickly. He smiled and said to the old woman: "Auntie, your family is running out of food, right?" No, I've brought you a bag of grain. Then let the two guards carry the food into the house.

The old lady of the pillar thanked her again and again, and invited Li Zhiyun and the others into the house. Li Zhiyun walked in and took a look, the room was very simple, and there was no decent furniture. The pillar brought an old stool, wiped it with his sleeve, invited Li Zhiyun to sit down, and asked his daughter-in-law to pour water.

Zhuzi's daughter-in-law poured a bowl of cold boiled water with an open-ended pottery bowl, and walked over to serve it to Li Zhiyun. Li Zhiyun didn't dislike it, and took a few sips. When he put down the bowl, Zhuzi asked with a smile: "Lord Wang, can I join the army of the Tang Dynasty?" ”

"Oh? Why did you want to be a soldier? Li Zhiyun asked with interest.

"When you become a soldier, you can protect your wife and children from being snatched and eaten by demons!"

"Can you find a few more people?"

"Yes! Many of my buddies wanted to join the army of the Tang Dynasty. ”

The pillar's words reminded Li Zhiyun. He thought that if a popular armed force could be formed, even if the new army left, Zhu Cang's army would not dare to harm the common people again.

After Li Zhiyun returned to the barracks, he immediately asked Scarface to send people to set up a recruiting station on the street, and within a few days, more than 2,000 people were recruited, and he named this armed force "Self-Defense Army". When the New Army attacked the barracks, they seized a lot of weapons, many of which were damaged by the bombing, but many of them were still usable, and these weapons were equipped with the Self-Defense Forces. Li Zhiyun also selected a group of officers from the New Army and assigned them to be specially responsible for training the Self-Defense Forces.

As the new army took out food to help the common people, no one in the city starved to death. Scarface arranged for the purchase of farm tools and seeds, and when everything was ready, the Forces nouvelles left one battalion to defend Champion City with the SDF, while the remaining three battalions drove out of the city and set up camp in the middle of nowhere, starting to cultivate the ownerless wasteland.

Except for some merchants and handicraftsmen, the rest of the city residents had fields outside the city, and when they saw that the Tang army had gone outside the city to grow crops, they also picked up farm tools and went to their own fields to work hard. Others, who had moved to the city to escape the war, had returned to their villages to repair damaged houses and take care of the crops.

As a result, within a range of dozens or even hundreds of miles around Champion City, the original barren and deserted field was transformed into a vibrant field of hope again.

The location of Tuntian selected by Li Zhiyun for the new army was in Xingshan Yingjiazhai, 20 miles away from the city. The reason why he chose to settle there was that he didn't want to compete with the common people for land, and he wanted to give the fertile land around the county seat to the people to cultivate.

There were originally several villages in the area of Yingjiazhai, but because of the war, they were all in ruins. In addition to the barren fields, there are also large tracts of wasteland that have never been reclaimed, and if all of them are reclaimed, tens of thousands of acres of fertile land can be obtained. However, the agricultural season did not wait for anyone, so the new army had no choice but to pick some land that was easier to reclaim, and first reclaimed seven or eight thousand acres.