Hengyuan Town is thirty miles away from Yongkang Village, out of Yongkang Village along the official road to the south, it takes half a day to arrive. In order to prevent the attack, the grain collection team was divided into three marching formations more than 100 meters apart, the front team Cao Ergou walked in front with the fire as a scout, the rear team was filled by Huang Dagen and the fire personnel, and the rest walked in the middle.

During the march, Ouyang Xuan followed Li Shuang and Yu Zhu closely, talking about the grain requisition as he walked. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, the collection of grain in Sichuan was not the responsibility of the army, but was responsible for the special agency sent by the imperial court, which was a very oily and watery errand. However, since the beginning of the Mongol invasion of Shu, the official governance order has collapsed, the people are poor, and thieves and tyrants are rampant and lawless, and this errand has become a thankless errand. In particular, the Mongolian army stationed in Lizhou, north of Tunchuan, has recently intensified its efforts to attack and harass western Sichuan, and there are often Mongolian army scouts and horsemen in the countryside of Chongqing Mansion to plunder, and going out to collect grain has become a high-risk job, and the generals of Chongqing Mansion who were originally vying to go out to get oil and water have called illness or found excuses to push off the task, and this unfortunate errand fell on Li Shuang, who was in charge of public security. This task is dangerous, and in the preparation for going out to collect grain, Pan Tongzhi still makes difficulties everywhere, such as not giving the accompanying rations, on the grounds that Chongqing Mansion does not have much grain in stock to eat the collected grain; and if they do not send ships forward, for fear of being taken away by the Tartar cavalry; For another example, Li Shuang originally planned to borrow a few more bows to increase his strength, but was rejected by the official in charge of military quartermasters, on the grounds that the city defense of Chongqing Mansion was more important.........

"They just want to drive us out of Chongqing Mansion, it is best to be able to collect grain, and if we can't collect grain, it will be a pity to be killed by the Tartar soldiers......" Li Shuang said indignantly. These words shocked Yu Zhu next to him, he pulled Li Shuang by the hand, and said in a low voice, "My lord, be careful that the wall has ears."

Li Shuang was still angry, stopped talking, and turned the scolding to Yongkang County. Chongqing Mansion passed through Yongkang County Road, and the villages on the side of the road had already been empty, and a few villagers hid early when they saw that a grain collection team was coming. There were two small forts along the way, but the villagers did not escape, and there should be more than 100 people in the scale, and it is estimated that there is some food. But the guards on the wall closed the door when they saw the grain team coming from a distance, and Li Shuang went to call the door without replying or opening the door, but just threw out some dry cakes, which were not enough for the grain team to eat for a day. Rao is Li Shuang has a heart of compassion for the people, if it were replaced by other grain collection teams in Chongqing Mansion, it is estimated that they would have broken through the fortress long ago and robbed it inside.

The encounter in Yongkang County just now made Li Shuang even more angry. Yongkang County ordered Cheng Jinyong to sit on the chair of the Taishi in the main hall, and did not invite Li Shuang and Yu Zhu to sit down, and after waiting for the two of them to stand and finish speaking, Bai rolled his eyes and said: "You wait to go back and report to Pan's system, Yongkang County is still difficult to maintain more than 2,000 mouths in the city, where is there surplus grain to transport Chongqing Mansion?" The people in the city are waiting day and night for Chongqing Mansion to bring food to relieve their hunger." Without waiting for Li Shuang and Yu Zhu to answer, Cao Zhengyong, the lieutenant of Yongkang County on the side, said, "Next month is the birthday of Lord Yao Shi'an in Genting City, Lord Xie and this official are worried about the congratulatory gift, where is there still money and food to send to Chongqing Mansion?" "Ouyang Xuan is familiar with the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, and as a senior traveler, he has also visited Genting City. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, after Yu Jie, a famous minister, ruled Sichuan, with the help of the Banzhou Ran brothers, he presided over the construction of a mountain fortress defense system to restrain the Mongol cavalry, among which the most famous eight fortified fortresses are known as the "Eight Pillars of Sichuan", and the Genting City located on the Tuojiang River is one of them. Overlooking the western Sichuan Plain, this Genting City is the most important fortress guarding Chengdu. Due to the Mongols' plundering of Sichuan several times, resulting in the destruction of western Sichuan Prefecture, the Southern Song Dynasty court moved the official offices of Chengdu Fu Road and Tongchuan Fu Road to Genting City. As the most important fulcrum of the resistance to the Mongolian army in western Sichuan, Genting City has 8,000 elite soldiers, and is the mountain city with the largest garrison of the "Eight Pillars in Sichuan". The guardian will be Yao Shi'an, who is corrupt, crony, and monopolistic, and Genting City is run as a private domain by him. He colluded with the ministers of the imperial court headed by the prime minister Xie Fangshu, and even Yu Jue, who was the supreme governor of Sichuan at the time, was unable to enter Genting City because of his obstruction. Yu Jue was framed and unjustly killed by Uncle Xie Fang and other traitors in the court, and he was one of the important accomplices. Cao Zhengyong hinted at Li Shuang Yuzhu, Yao Shi'an for Xie Jinyong and his backstage, and Pan Tongzhi of Chongqing Mansion even if he was the top boss, he couldn't help them.

"The army can't manage the people, how can Pan's control manage the affairs of grain requisition?" Ouyang Xuan knew that Song Taizu was founded because of the "Huangqiao Mutiny", and in order to prevent the military generals from abusing their power, the implementation of the national policy of the two Song Dynasty was to control the military with literature, and to limit the power of the military generals everywhere from the system design, which was also the most fundamental reason for the dull tactics and low combat effectiveness of the two Song Dynasty.

"Brother Xuan didn't know that since Chongqing Mansion was slaughtered by Tartar soldiers a few years ago, the officials and people either died or fled. The imperial court originally planned to abandon the capital city, but due to the importance of the military position, it was restored, and for a long time there was only a garrison and no officials in charge of the people. The imperial court also planned to send officials to govern the people, but because this place was a place of four wars, there were still Tartar soldiers from time to time, so the people sent were not sick and could not come, so the requisition of grain and other matters were replaced by Pan's control and power. Li Shuang explained. Since Ouyang Xuan joined the team, everyone no longer called him an elder, but called him Brother Xuan to show his closeness.

"After the Chengdu Mansion was slaughtered by the Tartars, the old city has not been restored, and it is still in ruins," Yu Zhu added.

The weather was hot on a summer afternoon, and everyone walked very fast, although Ouyang Xuan was a perennial exercise, he could only keep up. He secretly admired the hardships and hard work of his comrades, all of them were yellow and thin-skinned but walking like flying, last night they did not sleep all night but were full of entrails, and today it was a rapid march, but no one complained. It is said that although the trip to Yongkang City did not collect food, it was not for nothing. Just now I learned from Yu Zhu's mouth that Huang Dagen used 200 catties of pickled horse meat to find the officials in the city treasury and secretly exchanged 50 catties of salt, which was a hard currency like gold during the war. Huang Dagen's salt is carried by Huang Dagen alone, but he can also keep up with everyone's footsteps.

When the sun was setting, I saw the town of Yokohara from afar. Li Shuang ordered Cao Ergou to take people to explore the road, and the rest of them hid in the small forest next to the road to rest. After a short time, Cao Ergou and the three people who went to explore the way returned to everyone's hideout: "Lord Li, I will take a closer look, there is nothing abnormal in Hengyuan Town, and there are no Tartar soldiers and bandits nearby." Everyone was about to set off, but Li Shuang stopped everyone from affirming military discipline before ordering to enter Hengyuan Town. Compared with the corruption and brutality of the Mongol soldiers, although the Song soldiers were not thirsty for killing, they often harassed the villagers, and the common people were afraid to avoid them.

Ouyang Xuan followed everyone into Hengyuan Town silently, Cao Ergou's words just now made him very puzzled, and a thought kept spinning in his mind: Song Bing is afraid of Tartar soldiers, is he still afraid of bandits? ”