With the arrival of the secret vault of the Yarumqi Mountains and the grain of the Shenhua tribe near Metasequoia, the food crisis in Metasequoia City has finally been alleviated to a certain extent.

Although the later batches of grain and grass were occasionally attacked by Turks and horse bandits during the transportation process, because Du Jian's grain protection team was well guarded and most of the members were experienced caravan guards, the enemy's small forces with insufficient troops were often weak and difficult to cause too much damage.

At the same time, Li Jiangyao frequently led his troops out of the city to clear the city, using the accurate map of the Pegasus scout camp to fight cavalry against cavalry and guerrilla against guerrillas, making the Iron Pigeon Army and the Ghost League horse bandits miserable.

However, Li Jiangyao was still worried about food at this time.

The secret vault of the Shenhua family does store a large amount of grain and grass, but after all, the year is too long, and even if there is a cool and dry environment, most of them have become moldy and spoiled, and they are inedible.

And Kuliban personally went to the branch tribe of the family to borrow food, at most he could only do this once or twice, and it was impossible to ask for it endlessly.

As Situ Wushou said, when the grain from outside began to pour into the metasequoia market, it did bring a lot of impact to the merchants who were reluctant to sell their goods. However, the bosses who are well versed in business are not in a hurry to make a move, they are still silently observing and calculating, wanting to see how many chips there are in the hands of the Duhu Mansion.

If the businessmen continue to wait and see, the crisis will return to square one, and it may even worse.

Li Jiangyao called Ma Mu and Situ Wushou, and the three of them closed the door, conspired inside, and decided to sing an empty city plan.

The next day, Li Jiangyao sent someone to send an order to Du Jian: All grain wagons returning to the city must put sandbags on the lower layer of the carriages, and then stack grain bags on them. After the team entered the city, the gate of the treasury was directly open for people outside to see, and the bags of sand disguised as grain were piled up as high as a hill. Real grain was opened and inspected on the spot and sold at a low price to solve the urgent needs of some people who were about to go hungry.

In this way, the people who are waiting for the rice to be put into the pot will no longer panic, and those who still have some surplus food will naturally not have to worry as before.

At the same time, Li Jiangyao also used Shen Lie's tricks to spend money to invite a large number of idlers who had nothing to do with the city guard's mansion, and privately preached everywhere that the government was preparing to recruit a large number of people and vehicles, and the remuneration given was estimated to be twice as high as usual.

Because there is too much grain in the secret warehouse of the Yarumqi Mountain, it will not be able to eat all of it for a few years. Captain Li was pondering whether to give it to the people for free.

One spread ten, ten spread hundreds, this outrageous news suddenly spread all over the city's teahouses and wine shops, and the more you talk about it, the more mysterious it becomes.

Some people swear that they have really followed the grain convoy to the secret storehouse, and they have seen with their own eyes that the whole mountain has been hollowed out, and it is full of rice and wheat.

At this moment, the businessmen, who originally thought that strange goods were to live in, finally couldn't sit still.

They tentatively released some of the grain to sell on the market, but soon found that their goods were not in demand.

The common people all gathered in front of the gate of the city guard's mansion, preferring to wait in a long line to buy the government's preferential grain, which was much cheaper than before.

Is this worth it?!

Anyone who does business knows in their hearts that inventory is often a double-edged sword.

When the market is in short supply, you can sit back and relax when you have goods in your hands; But if it is reversed, there will be too many goods to press, and you will lose all your money at every turn.

More than a dozen large merchants who occupied the city's grain stocks hurriedly elected representatives and came to Ma Mu and Situ Wushou to negotiate the issue of resuming normal market transactions.

Facing the anxious business representatives, Ma Mu and the others couldn't help but be secretly happy in their hearts, but they said that they didn't dare to make decisions on their own, and they had to ask the captain to decide something.

It didn't take long for Ma Mu and Situ Wushou, who went to ask Li Jiangyao for advice, turned around and came back with a sad face.

The merchants looked trembling, and saw Ma Mu spread his hands: "Let me tell you, I persuaded everyone to open the door normally to do business and sell grain, but you were unwilling." Now, the captain is really angry, and says that you should fend for yourselves. ”

The representatives of the merchants looked at each other when they heard this, and they didn't know what to say for a while.

Situ Wushou unhurriedly played a round next to him and said, "Everyone, please listen to the next word." This wartime is different from peacetime, and we must focus on the overall situation in everything. Your firms stockpiled goods and did not sell them a while ago, which caused a lot of panic in Metasequoia City, and really annoyed my family. Of course, in line with the principle of fairness and voluntariness, our city guard has never reproached you. Thankfully, Mamu-sama and you are good friends, and I don't want to see you suffer unnecessary losses, so I tried my best to mediate with the captain and came up with a good way to get the best of both worlds. ”

When the merchants heard that there was a way, they all showed a look of surprise, and the good way that Situ Wushou said was very simple: the city guard government came forward to buy the grain in the hands of various merchants at a low price in large quantities.

Low price? So how low is it?

Situ Wushou showed a kind and cute smile: Lord Captain is very kind, and decided to pay a fifty-fold discount based on the market price before the Turkic siege.

"Half price?!" The delegates wailed.

Ma Mu shrugged his shoulders and snorted disdainfully, "What else? Lord Captain now has the full support of the Shenhua family, and the food in the mountains doesn't need money, so you can pull as much as you want to metasequoia. In order to please the people of the city and give himself a good reputation, he longed to distribute free food in the city every day. If that were the case, your stock would have to rot in the storehouse. ”

Hearing him say this, all the business representatives suddenly lost their temper, and everyone thought about it, and this was indeed the case. Now that the bandits are raging outside the city, and the wolf smoke is everywhere, it is impossible to have a place to ship; And in the city, he met such a wealthy Lieutenant Li, but he didn't play his cards according to the normal routine.

Rather than dragging it out until the end and losing all your money, it is better for the strong man to break his wrist and seize the time to reduce the loss first.

After several fierce quarrels, the grain merchants unanimously agreed to sell most of the grain in their business to the castle guard at half price.

In less than three days, the grain wagons of sixteen large merchants in the city shuttled between their warehouses and the city guard mansion like flowing water. More than 6,000 carts of grain were stuffed into Li Jiangyao's pocket in the blink of an eye.

This lively scene immediately attracted the people of the whole city to watch. People couldn't help but talk about it, and they were all admiring Captain Li's skill.

At the same time, everyone finally settled down and was no longer bothered by the problem of eating.

After a major matter was resolved, Li Jiangyao paid attention to another matter.

At this time, there were more than 30,000 people from all over the country who came to Metasequoia City for refuge, which was almost close to the size of the permanent population of Metasequoia before. Ma Muming's men set up a large tent area in the open space in the northwest corner of the city to temporarily house the homeless people.

In order to prevent the infiltration of spies, Lin Feng once commanded the brothers of the Pegasus Scout Camp to carefully screen the refugees and register them one by one, while also separating young men from the old and weak women and children.

Among the men, all those who had been in the army, regardless of the country, were all included in the garrison; The rest of the people joined the people's team to help repair the fortifications and transport supplies.

If you are in the army or conscription, you can receive the corresponding salary, so that you will not sit idle all day and eat for nothing.

The elderly, women, children, and the sick and wounded are provided with a daily ration free of charge by the city warden.

Li Jiangyao came to the refugee camp and happened to meet Ma Mu and others.

Ma Mu said to Li Jiangyao worriedly: "My lord, the situation is not very good. ”

Li Jiangyao nodded slightly: "Yes, there are more and more people here, and I don't know how to arrange it next?" ”

"That's not what I mean," Ma Mu patiently explained, "the refugees are all in good hands, we have greeted many inns and big merchants in the city, and they are willing to help as much as they can, providing shelter and porridge and food. Even if so many people come again, there is a way to cope with it in Metasequoia. ”

"So what are you worried about?" Li Jiangyao was a little curious.

Ma Mu sighed: "Alas, the new batch of people who came here yesterday are from Daban. According to them, there was a great army over there, like a mountain and a sea, and the military flags alone were like dense forests, which could not be counted or could not be seen. ”

Li Jiangyao suddenly became alert when he heard this: "Is there anyone who knows the details?" ”

"Yes," Ma Mu pointed behind him, "Come with me, my lord, they're all over there." ”

More than a dozen Chechi officials and soldiers bowed to Li Jiangyao one after another, and kept praising the captain for saving his life.

Li Jiangyao learned that they were all from Daban City, and hurriedly asked about the latest situation over there. He also reminded the crowd not to add their own analysis and imagination to the description, and not to mention those things that have heard legends, but only to talk about what they have seen with their own eyes.

Everyone understood that the stakes were high, and they did not dare to hide anything in the slightest, and they all seriously told what they had seen and known.

At present, there are not only the most ferocious rebel Loulan army, but also the Turkic army and the ghost alliance horse thieves of Gelhan. It is also said that he saw the banner of the Shule army.

As for the number of enemy troops, the fleeing Chechi soldiers were far more clear and reliable than the civilian officials. Judging from the perspective of battle flags and costumes alone, the banners of the various armies alone add up to more than 100,000 people.

And this situation is also consistent with the confession from Zaire. It's just that Li Jiangyao can't figure out why these rebel armies chose to assemble in Daban for the time being.

Could it be that Che Chi's speed reinforcement division has begun to fight back? Or did Zhang Sanpi come over from Anxi with the main force? even said that the teacher He Jingming personally went into battle and went out of Zijin Pass?

In either case, the counterinsurgency army should be in dire need of accurate information about the enemy at this time, and this is precisely the duty and mission of the Pegasus Scout Battalion!

As a member of the Pegasus scouts, Li Jiangyao has always maintained a high degree of sensitivity, and he cannot sit idly by and ignore such an important situation, so he immediately selected a group of experienced scouts to form a reconnaissance detachment, and personally led them to Daban to investigate the enemy's situation for the Zhenjiang army.