Yuan Shen secretly wondered about Yang Shu's intentions, while Yang Shu stared intently at Ding Zu, who was mixing the Sanhe soil under the wall, as if he wanted to write down the recipe.

Liu Fangzhi was not here, so he looked around, sizing up the soldiers and civilians who were building the city.

When I saw several large carts coming this way, I saw that there were several wooden barrels on the carts, which were still emitting hot air. They were obviously food for the soldiers and the people.

Liu Fang raised her head and looked at the sun, which was already at its zenith, and wondered, "Why are you eating at this time?"

Li Liang was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said: "Shang Shu thought this was a morning meal? No, it was a lunch meal..."

Lunch?

Doesn’t it mean that we have already eaten one meal in the morning and this is the second meal?

"In this case, is it possible to have dinner later?"

"Of course there is!"

Hearing this, Liu Fang became even more curious: "There are also civilian husbands?"

Li Liang smiled slightly and said, "I'm not afraid of the temple ministers laughing at me: After Lang Junyu defeated Nanliang three years ago, the number of people in Qingshui County dropped sharply, and now there are less than 2,000 households. Even if each household has six people, it only has less than 10,000 people. We support them."

There are only tens of thousands of people, so for me, Xihai, it is not difficult..."

This is not the same thing at all.

Why did the population of Qingshui County suddenly decrease sharply after the Battle of Chencang?

Naturally, he was smuggled to the West Sea by Li Chengzhi. The case had already been revealed, so Li Liang said he was not afraid of the temple ministers laughing at him.

Qingshui County has at most over 10,000 residents who speak truthfully, but this is only one county. And in the huge Longxi, including three states and three towns, there are not two hundred but one hundred and fifty counties like Qingshui.

If calculated this way, there would be at least 200,000 households.

If there is clear water everywhere among the two hundred thousand people, and each person only consumes one catty of grain a day, then one day is two hundred thousand catties of grain. What about one month or one year?

According to Cui Guang's judgment, if it is not bad, the food in the West Sea can barely survive, one season after another. It is no doubt ridiculous to say how abundant it is.

Therefore, what Li Liang said is true, and it can only be true for Qingshui. As for the people of other states, towns, counties, and counties, naturally they can only let it go.

What's more, Li Liang may not necessarily be telling the truth.

Liu Fang pondered for a moment, pointed at the few civilians who were receiving food, and then clasped her fists at Li Liang: "General, please excuse me. Can I ask you a few questions?"

A few old farmers were just eating a meal, what was there to ask in detail? Could it be that as Li Xiaozhang said, Liu Fangzhen was really curious about the people's livelihood in Qingshui City?

Suspicious in his heart, Li Liang responded with a smile: "Your Majesty, please!"

Liu Fang did not avoid him and walked straight to the car.

He was wearing a court uniform and a three-beam crown. No matter how inexperienced the people were, they knew he was a high official. Upon seeing this, they all dropped the porcelain basins and urns of soup and knelt down with their heads down.

But Ru Xihai's soldiers just stepped aside and looked at him curiously.

Liu Fang came to the car first and took a look into the two barrels.

One of the barrels contains cakes. The corn is mixed with wheat grains, bean sprouts, and many vegetable leaves. It must have been steamed in the morning, and it has already cooled down. The soldier in charge of distributing it holds a shovel in his hand and cooks it in twos and twos.

Can cut out a piece.

It's not too big, not too small, it's about two inches thick, about the size of a palm. And it's so thick that even if you can't hold it full, you can still eat it until you're at least seven to eighty percent full.

Wheat and beetroot are naturally common. They are often used as horse food in the army, and are also used as rations in poor families.

But the vegetable leaves mixed in the cake were rare. They were neither beetroot nor mugwort, but they were extremely green.

Liu Fang was suspicious, so she asked the gang leader for a piece and tasted it.

Nowadays, Xihai has grabbed enough land and captured enough cities. Although the people have not grabbed much, only 200,000 to 300,000 people in the three states and towns in Longxi, but compared with the entire size of Xihai, it is already small.

It turned over completely.

Therefore, the main strategic goal at this stage is to put the benefits into a bag and try to digest them as quickly as possible.

Whether it is land or cities, they need people to plant them and people to guard them. Therefore, the focus of the West Sea has changed from expanding the territory to stabilizing people's hearts and developing people's livelihood, and people have naturally become the top priority.

Therefore, we must not skimp on areas that shouldn’t be spared. When it’s time to win over people’s hearts, we must definitely do our best.

Naturally, Li Liang only obeyed Li Chengzhi's orders and never gave any discount: just like when attacking a city, he could persuade them to surrender, but Li Liang would never attack unless it was absolutely necessary.

After entering the city, not to mention robbing and kidnapping, Li Liang was able to push away even the tributes sent by officials, gentry and wealthy households to buy peace.

Regardless of how difficult it was for the imperial court, how could the people of Longxi, where Cui Yanbo and his troops were stationed, be wealthy?

The worst situation was in Qingshui County, which was the closest to Longshan and was the last to evacuate. The soldiers were the Chinese Army under Cui Yanbo's command, so the morale of the army was still stable, and it was considered to be frightened but not chaotic, and orderly.

When the officers and soldiers withdrew from Qingshui County, they almost robbed all the people's food, and even burned the millet, millet, etc. that would be ripe in two months to ashes.

Fortunately, everything is not like clear water. The officers and soldiers can take their time and clear the country. But most counties and counties are defeated instead of retreating.

Not to mention that the general took away the food and burned the young crops. Nine out of the ten armies abandoned their helmets and armor and fled in panic. Not only did they leave behind a lot of food, grass and war horses, but the people also did not suffer any disasters.

This was a bargain for Li Liang: of course he would accept all the food and grass for the officers and soldiers. If there was a wealthy family, aristocratic families and other counties and counties, and those who were not exploited too much and still had a surplus, Li Liang would buy some.

It is said that soldiers are like bandits. If they encounter such a reasonable person, both the nobles and the common people will not shed tears of gratitude, at least they will not dare to violate him.

What's more, what they gave me was real money.

Or gold and silk and other valuables, or iron farm tools, or cattle and sheep and other livestock, and even war horses, swords and guns and other weapons.

As long as you come to exchange, the price is easy to negotiate. Anyway, it will never be higher than the market price. Children and old men are not bullied. Including Minzhuang who helps people under the city and farmers who work outside the city, regardless of men and women, old or weak, they are all hired.

, rather than forced conscription.

In ancient times, there was Shang Yang who put up wood for the gate, but now Li Liang sells horse bones for a thousand gold, and the effect is as natural as an immediate effect.

It has not even been a month, and regardless of whether it is true or false, the rumor that "Xihai is the king's master" has spread in eight of the ten counties in Longxi.

At least the people are grateful from the bottom of their hearts: I have never heard that building a city wall not only provides food, but also earns wages?

As for the food shortage in the West Sea mentioned by Liu Fang, there is indeed a shortage, but it is not to the point of urgency.

First, Dunhuang is rich. Although there are more than 200,000 households in the town, it is more than enough to be self-sufficient. What's more, there is still a lot of surplus food in the official warehouses and townspeople's homes.

Therefore, Li Chengzhi sent millions of cattle and sheep to Li Song in exchange for food with the townspeople of Dunhuang, and then fed them back to Hexi and Longxi.

The number of livestock stolen from Tuyuhun and Rouran alone would be in the millions. If it was absolutely necessary, they could survive for three or two months by slaughtering all of them.

This is only the second step. The key point is that all the food and grass promised by the imperial court to Tuyuhun and Rouran in order to borrow troops have been robbed by Li Chengzhi.

There were more than 10,000 carts and nearly 200,000 stones snatched from the hands of these two Hu tribes, weighing more than 30 million kilograms in total.

Coupled with the grain reserves in Xihai, the remaining grain in the hands of households is just sitting on empty food. There should be no problem if it lasts for two years.

Therefore, the food shortage is only a relative term. If the imperial court can really call a truce, it only needs to give Xihai two years. The food produced in Longxi alone can support nearly 600,000 to 700,000 households in Xihai and the needs of a hundred thousand troops.

,

From this moment on, the imperial court thought that the trade route between Xihai and Nanliang for food exchange was cut off and it was imminent. In fact, Li Chengzhi no longer had to worry about food for at least two years.

This is military information, and naturally it is a secret among secrets. How could Li Liang tell Liu Fang that "I want to limit my food supply, but my husband doesn't allow it, so what can I do?"

"Why doesn't he allow it?"

Li Liang laughed and laughed: "I am just a retainer, how dare I question my lord? All I have to do is obey the order...it's only a thousand miles away. When the temple minister arrives in Zhenyi and meets Langjun, he will know after asking..."

As soon as he heard it, he knew that Li Liang was not telling the truth, but the two countries are now enemies rather than friends, and this is only human nature for Li Liang.

Even when he met Li Chengzhi, he never wanted to ask the truth.

Liu Fang sighed softly: "I'm so reckless!"

Li Liang repeatedly said he didn't dare and walked around the city with Liu Fang.

After asking Minzhuang and learning that the people who came here to build the city were not forced to build the city, but were hired, Liu Fang suddenly realized: Li Chengzhi spent a lot of money and food, just to win over the people?

After thinking about this, Liu Fang could not help but show hesitation even though the city had always been like a mountain.

Before leaving the capital, the Empress Dowager explained that there was only one route to Longshan, which was too thin. Moreover, Li Chengzhi had already occupied Qinzhou and Bogulu, so he could bypass Longshan at any time, either from the north to Gaoping, or from the south.

If you attack Chencang urgently, you can also invade Guanzhong.

Therefore, the land in Longxi must be recovered no matter what, and Li Chengzhi retreated to the west of the river. The Queen Mother even made it clear: Li Chengzhi wanted food, people, or divided Dangchang (now the capital of Gansu Province, a vassal state of the Yuan and Wei Dynasties)

There is nothing wrong with giving it to him.

But now it seems that Li Chengzhi is determined to occupy Longxi, otherwise he would not be able to spend such a high price to calm the people.

It is impossible for the imperial court to come up with something that makes Li Chengzhi's heart beat again. If there is a stalemate over this, or even falls apart, the war will inevitably start again.

As a result, the army conquering the south will have to be adjusted even if it is not...

Liu Fang suddenly felt extremely melancholy. How could he care to watch? On the pretext of being old and grieving, he wanted to take a break, so Li Liang invited him to the county government office.

The meal was already prepared, and after only a few hasty bites, Liu Fang was on her way.

Li Liang did not force him and sent him out of the county respectfully.

The convoy set off again, heading west in a mighty way.

Still heading west along the Wei River, it was now Shenshi (three o'clock in the afternoon), which was the hottest time. Liu Fang couldn't stand the humidity in the car, so she simply sat on the shaft.

Yuan Yuan was in charge of the military affairs for this trip, so he did not ride in a chariot but on horseback. Seeing Liu Fang's sad face, he rode his horse and came over.
Chapter completed!