There is no longer the excitement of entering the city just now.

Quan Zicai glanced at the white bones placed randomly not far away, and the weak residents lying on the ground to greet the army on the side of the road, his face became more and more ugly, and he asked in a sullen voice to Cui Li, who had just surrendered beside him;

'Cui Shoubei, how many households are there in the city? ’

Cui Li saw that Quan Zicai's face was ugly, and he didn't dare to touch his moldy head, so he hurriedly beckoned the servants around him to ask him.

After hearing this, his face was a little unbearable for a moment, and he didn't dare to look directly into Quan Zicai's eyes, so he whispered; There were probably more than 1,000 families and more than 600 defenders. ’

Although Cui Li's voice was small, the two were very close to each other, and his words still reached Quan Zicai's ears clearly.

After listening, Quanzi suddenly realized that it was dark in front of him, and there was a roar in his mind. Even the lieutenants next to him became very ugly after hearing this.

The scene was suddenly very quiet, and Cui Li, who lowered his head, secretly looked at Quan Zicai's reaction. I saw that the other party's face had turned pale, without the slightest blood.

Suddenly, Quan Zi collapsed to the ground, clutching his head and crying bitterly;

"There used to be millions of residents in Bianliang, Tokyo! Unexpectedly, in just a hundred years, there are only a few thousand people left in the city. How can I explain to Your Majesty and the world. ”

was crying, Quan Zi suddenly rolled his eyes, and in front of the public, he fainted directly on the ground.

'General! Checkmate...! Call the doctor. Cui Li and his subordinates, who were always paying attention to him, immediately screamed in a hurry when they saw that he actually fainted due to grief.

It's night, the huge Kaifeng City, looming in the night, like a ghost.

Only a few torches were lit sporadically at the head of the city, and a few lights were lit in the living room in the back hall of the garrison mansion in the city, bringing some light like ghost fires.

"Smack...!" The guest door is opened.

Then a trembling doctor came out of the room.

The doctor didn't wait for the whole son to gather and come forward to ask questions, and opened his mouth to comfort him first; "Rest assured, generals! General Quan fainted only because of excessive grief, and my husband had already given him a silver needle, and now General Quan has woken up.

Oh! When you came out, General Quan specially instructed the old man to tell you to go in. ”

"There's Dr. Law! Come on, send the old man back safely, and double the consultation fee. Vice General Quan Zicai first thanked the old doctor, turned his head and ordered the soldiers on duty outside the door to take the doctor away.

"No! Old gentleman's please. ”

After the doctor left, the lieutenant general led the generals into the house.

As soon as they entered the door, they saw Quan Zicai leaning on the bed wrapped in a turban, and a green-clothed maid was feeding him porridge opposite.

Hearing the sound, Quan Zi raised his eyes and saw that the deputy general had brought his subordinates in. Quickly swallowed the porridge in his mouth, stretched out his hand and pointed to the chair next to him and said to the crowd;

"Sit down!"

"No!" When all the subordinates saw that Quan Zicai looked fine, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

After everyone finished sitting, Quan Zi waved away the green-clothed maid who was feeding porridge in front of him, and asked the deputy general with a sideways face;

'Has the city defense been arranged?' How long will our food last? ’

When the adjutant general heard this, he hurriedly stood up and took two steps forward and replied; "I've already arranged for the change of city walls, and by this point I should have taken over completely. Just ......"

"What about the grain? Say...! "Food is his focus. Quan Zicai saw that the deputy general was struggling, and his voice couldn't help but raise a little.

The adjutant general gritted his teeth and stared at his boss with burning eyes, so he had to confide in the truth;

"The food we brought was not much, although it was replenished in Nanjing Yingtianfu, but it was only enough to support it until now.

Tokyo is in ruins, and we... We've done the math. Even if you do your best to raise money, you can hold on to about six days at most. Moreover, the Mongols dug the embankment of the Yellow River, and now the southeast and Huai areas are already a muddy swamp, and the grain transportation can be described as protracted. Unless... Shi Dashuai in the Jinghu area is willing to transport grain, otherwise he will ......"

The lieutenant's meaning was only understood. Like Zhao Yao's thoughts, Quan Zicai was also full of confidence when he first entered the Central Plains, but then he was directly hit. Because it is really expensive to transport grain from the Lianghuai region, and the Central Plains region is ten rooms and nine empty, there is no way to supply them on the spot. The longer it travels into the hinterland of the Central Plains, the more serious the food problem becomes.

Quan Zicai was already keenly aware that the key to the success of this operation was not the victory or defeat of the battle with the Mongols, but whether the grain and grass in the rear could be supplied in time.

Thinking of this, Quan Zicai was annoyed with Shi Songzhi. This guy doesn't have a sense of the overall situation, if he can transport grain from his Jinghu area, how can there be a dilemma of running out of grain, and the success rate of recovering Sanjing this time can be increased by at least fifty percent.

But, no but!

Therefore, Quan Zicai had no choice but to say to the deputy general; "Shi Songzhi don't think about it, collect the rest of our food, if the supply is reduced by a quarter, it can barely support General Zhao Kui and them.

In this way, you immediately arrange three ways of people. The first way is to keep an eye on the Mongols on the north bank of the Yellow River to prevent them from sneaking up.

The second way to Lin'an reported success, saying that we had recovered Bianliang in Tokyo, and asked for credit for our subordinates to urge the imperial court to supply grain and grass quickly.

The third route informed General Zhao Kui and asked him to take a large army to Kaifeng to meet and study the next military action. ”

After hearing this, the deputy general hurriedly responded and took a group of subordinates out to do the things that Quanzi had only explained.

At the same time, Zhao Kui, the chief general of the Song Army, looked at Zeguo in the darkness in front of him with an iron face.

In the faint light of the torches, his hands were clenched tightly, and the green tendons on his raised forearms were protruding. The calf stood directly in the pitch-black mud, and there was a rattling sound from time to time as he walked.

He was okay, but the soldiers behind him were drowned directly to the base of their necks, and from time to time they were poured into their mouths with streams of muddy water, and their faces were as white as evil ghosts.

From time to time, there was a gurgling sound of water behind him, and some soldiers drowned directly, so that the people next to him could not be saved.

After Zhao Kui heard this, the corners of his mouth twitched, and his face turned bluer.

After three days of continuous rectification in place, Zhao Kui led 50,000 embarrassed troops to set off on a detour.

The Yellow River burst formed a yellow flood area in a radius of thousands of miles in the southeast of the Central Plains, and the roads were silted, causing the grain roads to be blocked. Zhao Kui had no choice but to take the army on a detour to Kaifeng City, and at the same time send people to rescue in the direction of Lin'an.

By the time he and Quan Zi met in Kaifeng, it was already fifteen days later.

On the Mongolian side, after determining that the third son of Ogedai Kuochu would lead troops to reinforce Tachar, Kuochu immediately recruited thousands of Nayan troops in 500 miles near the Nan River, and organized a large army to go straight to the Han land.

This time, Kuang brought a total of 20,000 cavalry, and with the 20,000 or 30,000 troops in the hands of Tachar, the total strength of the Mongols in this conquest approached 50,000.

The current Central Plains is full of treacherous clouds. The already small number of people in the Central Plains have once again been hit hard.

On the south bank of the Yellow River, the Mongols had already exhausted all food supplies when they retreated. Most of the southeast was washed into a swamp by the water of the Yellow River. The southwest region was completely destroyed by the last Caizhou War.

It can be said that except for a very few lucky people who sporadically hid in the mountains, the southern part of the Central Plains and the northern part of Huaiyang have completely become a deserted and uninhabited no-man's land.

Just half a year after the armistice, the people broke out in this ancient fertile land, and once again because of the war in an instant.

"Mom, I'm hungry!" A little boy of three or four years old crawled on the back of an unkempt woman and shouted softly.

"Shhhh ... Don't make a fuss. There will be food later, you can eat some kapok mats first. ”

When the woman lying on a sorghum heard the shouts on her back, she pulled out a rhizome of a small plant from the hem of her robe.

First he looked at it reluctantly, and finally gritted his teeth and stuffed the rhizome into his mouth and chewed it.

The rhizome didn't taste good, the rough particles inside made her teeth hurt when she bit it, and from time to time there was a stream of bitter juice splashing out of the rhizome.

But it was such an unpalatable food, and this woman actually had an expression of enjoyment as if she had eaten some mountain delicacy.

But soon she showed a hint of annoyance, and saw that she quickly chewed the loose rhizome in her mouth, turned her head and smiled and fed it to the mouth of the doll on her back.

This child is very sensible at a young age, carefully eating the food in his mouth, except for frowning from time to time because of the bitter taste, he lies quietly on his mother's back the whole time, without crying or making trouble.

Because my mother said when she came out that it was dangerous here! But he didn't know where the danger came from, but he felt that his little face was pressed against his mother's back, and his heart was unusually comfortable and stable.

His mother was right, it was dangerous.

Because if you look down from the sky, you can see that the mother and son are quietly climbing behind a tree on the ridge of the mountain more than 100 meters away from the Song army camp. At this time, the Song army under the mountain was packing their luggage and preparing to continue their journey.

From the southeast, a Song army herald suddenly rode a horse, and happened to pass fifty meters under the feet of the mother and son.

When the woman saw this, she was so frightened that she hurriedly covered her son's mouth on her back to prevent him from making a sound. He slowly moved two inches back, then reached out a hand and pulled a waddle of leaves in front of him.

The herald on horseback is in a hurry to deliver the message, how can he have time to pay attention to the ridge overhead! It can only be said that the woman was too careful.

After the herald entered the Song army camp far away, about five minutes later, the woman let go of the boy who was already holding back her little face and flushed, slowly patted her heart that was about to beat out, and breathed a sigh of relief.

As if sensing her nervousness, the boy suddenly kissed her dusty face, and then crawled on her thin back again.

The woman smiled, not even as bright as the sunlight through the leaves.

As soon as the herald entered the camp, he panted and rolled over and dismounted, and ran towards the Chinese army.

At this time, the camp of the Song army was almost cleaned up, and Zhao Kui and several generals were looking at a map.

"General, a letter is here." The lieutenant next to him tugged at his sleeve and reminded.

By the time Zhao Kui moved his gaze back from the map, the herald had already run to them. Zhao Kui asked; "What?"

The herald hurriedly pulled out a letter from his waist, "General, a letter from Lin'an!" ”

Zhao Kui was overjoyed, snatched the envelope from the herald's hand, and couldn't wait to open it to check it, the expression on his face was sad and happy, which made the generals look inexplicable.

After a while, he finally saw Zhao Kui stuffing the letter back into the envelope, and the deputy general couldn't wait to ask; "General Zhao, what did Lin'an say?"

Zhao Kui saw that the generals were all looking at him, and only then did he tell the words in his heart.

The letter said; Our request for help has been received by the imperial court, and now there is no food in the imperial treasury. In order to supply food, the imperial court has organized food in various places, but it will take some time. ”