Hearing Xie Yixiang report this series of identities, the sergeants at the city gate were already shocked on the spot, and they didn't know whether what this twenty-year-old girl said was true or false. After a while, a sergeant finally stepped forward and said, "The brothers are rough men and have never seen anything of the world. Since the girl said she was...... It's someone sent by this imperial court, and we can't tell the difference, so I asked the girl to move, meet Lord Fang with us, and let Lord Fang decide. ”

Seeing that his words had shocked these sergeants on the spot, Xie Yixiang didn't say anything more, and didn't bother to ask for his horse back, and said coldly: "Lead the way." The sergeants didn't dare to slack off, so they hurriedly separated two people from the team and led Xie Yixiang to Ningyi City. Along the way, Xie Yixiang looked around, but saw that both sides of the street were in dilapidation, and every house was closed, as if it had just been looted by bandits, and there was not a single vendor setting up a stall along the street.

Seeing this scene in the city, Xie Yixiang couldn't help but ask the sergeant in front of him, and said: "At present, although Ningyi City has been surrounded by King Heng's rebels, I heard that King Heng once passed down the military order of 'no soldiers are bloody, no one is killed', so he did not order the rebels under his command to attack the city, but only forced your Lord Fang to surrender with a siege. In this case, the rebels outside the city can be regarded as 'saluting first and then soldiers', but why is the city in such a situation?" When the two sergeants in front heard this, they both sneered, and one of them replied: "It is true that the rebels have never launched a siege, but their vicious heart is ten times more terrible than the siege! You must know that in the past nearly a month, the entire Ningyi City has been flooded, not to mention the people in the city, not even a fly can fly out, but the rebels still want to let the people outside in, the purpose is to exhaust the grain and grass in the city. If Lord Fang insists on refusing to surrender, I am afraid that it will not be long before all the people in this city will be starved to death!"

Xie Yixiang suddenly realized that King Heng's rebels were fighting such wishful thinking, wanting to cut off the source of grain and grass in Ningyi City, and take the entire Ningyi City without spending a single soldier; no wonder there were so many refugees in the city, even these soldiers guarding the city had to go and grab food from children. She couldn't help but ask in a deep voice, "How long can the food in the city last?" The sergeant smiled, but did not answer, and the other sergeant couldn't hold back and said in a loud voice: "As early as three days ago, Lord Fang ordered us to slaughter all the military horses and cook horse meat to satisfy our hunger. Right now, if you can still find a living animal in this Ningyi City, then you have the ability!"

While speaking, the three of them had already turned an intersection, which was where the yamen in Ningyi City was located, but the gate was closed. In front of the yamen, there was a large open space, and hundreds of refugees were sitting around at this time, all of them were scrawny, listless, and glazed-eyed, apparently caused by hunger. It was just around noon, when I saw that the side door next to the yamen had been opened from the inside, and several officials lifted a steaming bronze tripod out, emitting bursts of tempting fragrance, which was obviously cooking food.

The hundreds of refugees outside suddenly boiled over, rushing to the bronze tripod, and the officials who carried the tripod hurriedly stopped drinking, and shouted: "All of them have lined up for me! If anyone does not follow the rules, everyone will not eat!" After greeting them for a long time, the hundreds of refugees outside the yamen barely cleared the line and went to the bronze tripod in turn with bowls.

Xie Yixiang saw clearly that these officials actually used this bronze tripod as a cooking cauldron, but boiled a full of bran to feed the pigs. If you look closely, almost all of the soup in the dingzhong is white, and there is no more than a little chaff crumbs in the bowl of each refugee who comes forward to receive it, which causes everyone to curse repeatedly. Among them, some refugees hated and said: "The army of King Heng outside the city is also the orthodoxy of the royal family, and this time the army is in the name of 'Qing Jun's side'." Now that the grain and grass in Ningyi City have been exhausted, and the iron clothes are also considered to be loyal, it is better to surrender in Kaicheng, and it will not humiliate his ancestors, why bother us to starve and suffer?" A refugee next to him immediately spoke in agreement, and said: "But isn't it, I heard that King Heng's army has already prepared five thousand catties of rice, and there are also a large number of fish, meat, vegetables and fruits, as long as our Lord Fang is willing to lead the people to surrender, King Heng will immediately send these foods into the city." ”

Hearing these discussions of the refugees, Xie Yixiang couldn't help but sigh secretly, it seemed that the shortage of food in Ningyi City was imminent, and he didn't know what this Lord Fang would do. At that moment, she followed the two sergeants into the yamen through the side door, and passed through several courtyards one after another, and came to the back hall of the yamen. I saw that the back hall was full of busy officials, and in front of a few of the cases, a thin man in his fifties was in disheveled clothes, and he was reading the documents in front of several cases. It was as if he hadn't slept in days, his eyes were bloodshot, and his unkempt hair was draped behind his back, and if he hadn't been wearing the official uniform of the fourth rank of the imperial court at this moment, his appearance would have been like that of a madman wandering on the street. The sergeant who led the way stepped forward and whispered something in the ear of the sloppy man, and the sloppy man's eyes suddenly lit up, he got up and looked at Xie Yixiang, and laughed loudly: "It turned out that Miss Xie San was here!

Xie Yixiang was secretly shocked in her heart, it turned out that this sloppy man was really Ning Yi's Taishou Iron Clothes, which showed that the siege of King Heng's rebels had already made this Ning Yi Taishou anxious. She hurriedly returned the salute and said some polite words on the scene, and the lord Fang also casually greeted a few words, and then her nose was sore, and she choked up and said: "Xiaguan served in front of General Xie's account in the early years, and he was a staff member in the army, if it wasn't for the promotion of the general, how could there be a subordinate who is too guarded today? It's just that I didn't expect that General Xie suddenly drove the crane to the west, it was such a surprise, the subordinate shouldered the heavy responsibility of Ningyi City, and he couldn't go to Jinling in person for a while to mourn, which is really ashamed of General Xie's cultivation in the past!" When the words fell, the whole person was already in tears.

Xie Yixiang didn't expect that this Lord Fang was still his father's old department, and he was half an acquaintance, so he hurriedly spoke out to convince him. The Lord Fang sighed a few more times, and then asked: "Dare to ask Miss Xie San to come today by order, but what edict did the emperor pass down? Or is it that the imperial court finally sent rescue troops to lift the siege of Ningyi City? Alas, in fact, what Ningyi City lacks most now is grain and grass, as long as the grain and grass are sufficient, but with our iron coat for one day, don't say that it will be guarded for one year or two years, even if it is guarded for ten or twenty years, this Ningyi City will never fall into the hands of the rebels!" By then, his voice had become more and more excited, and even his hands were waving along with the sound of talking.

Hearing this, Xie Yixiang knew that this Lord Fang had no idea of surrendering to the Hengwang rebels at all, and couldn't help but admire. I didn't expect that this thin court four-grade Taishou actually had such a bloody side, but he was not lost to those heroes who licked blood with knives on the rivers and lakes. In addition, this Lord Fang is his father's old ministry in the past, Xie Yixiang will no longer expire at the moment, and directly confide the truth, saying that he was not actually sent by the imperial court, but the head of the case in the Jinling Torture Arrest Room, and this time he was chasing a tragic "human kitchen case", so he chased all the way to Ningyi City according to the clues.

Unexpectedly, when Lord Fang heard her words, his face gradually became ugly, and in the end, he was even more iron-blue, glaring at Xie Yixiang fiercely with a pair of bloodshot eyes, and asked in a deep voice: "Arrest the murderer? You ran to my Ningyi City alone to arrest the murderer?" As he spoke, he couldn't help but slap the few cases beside him, and shouted: "King Heng's 30,000 rebels are besieging the city, and the grain and grass in Ningyi City are running out, and it is at the time of critical survival! What murderers are you looking for, what are you kidding?"