In the drizzle, a ship docked.
"Okay, that's it, we can't go any further!" A military academy member came over and yelled.
The trackers were relieved and almost exhausted.
"Let's all go eat some broth and warm ourselves up." Duzhi Zhonglang ordered Yang Bao after he got off the boat.
The trackers looked grateful after hearing this, and then, under the leadership of the clerk from Duzhi Yamen, they went to rest in a thatched shed nearby.
It was raining lightly outside, and the rain was still dripping inside the thatched shed. There were several wooden basins on the ground to collect water, which looked quite shabby.
Someone brought a bucket of corn. After counting the heads, he scooped some out of the bucket and said, "You can wait until the day after tomorrow to leave. This will be your food. You can fetch water for cooking. There is firewood in the forage barn.
Just go and ask for it.”
After saying that, he took out another can of tempeh and said, "This is yours too."
Then he left and went to the next place to distribute rations.
The trackers lay on the damp straw mats, too tired to move.
I thought I would just pull it to the bank of the Yellow River, but I didn't expect that it had rained continuously for days and the Qinshui River surged. Some sections of the river were actually navigable, so I pulled the fiber all the way to the foot of Yewang City.
Think about it, how difficult it is to wear a raincoat in the heavy rain, and every step is slippery. The skin on your shoulders has grown and worn out layer by layer. Now it is covered with calluses, but it still feels stinging.
"Will the Silver Spear Army be hiring again this winter?" someone suddenly asked.
"Can't you afford it?" Someone's eyes lit up, then dimmed again.
"Maybe we will recruit some." Someone said: "Every year there are people who retire, die in war, are disabled, or die from illness. We have to recruit some, right?"
"That's not enough." Someone sighed and said: "Jishui, Bianshui, Suiyang Canal, Woshui, Yingshui, Rushui, Dahe, Baigoushui - I can't even count how many rivers there are. There are too many trackers.
You all want to be a recruiter, can you fight for it?"
Everyone was silent.
Being a tracker has a higher income, which is better than farming, but it is really tiring, and your life may be shorter than that of a farmer. In fact, you are exchanging your life for money.
And since you are selling your life, it is better to exchange for more money, such as silver spears and recruits for the Black and White Army.
The profession of trackers has a strict division of labor and a clear relationship between superiors and subordinates. Every time you pull a tracker, you are training in discipline and cooperation. Over time, it has almost become instinctive.
After joining the army, he was well fed, clothed and warm, and had meat, fish and cheese from time to time. He spent several years practicing skills, forming military formations, and fighting a few battles, and slowly he became a warworthy soldier.
The same goes for miners, dock laborers and the like.
They are able to endure hardships, have good discipline, understand the importance of cooperation, and have a strong tacit understanding with each other. These people are often used when recruiting new soldiers.
After lying down for a while, there was a noise outside.
The trackers were shocked. Could it be that the Huns were sneaking up on the Wild King?
Someone got up and went out to take a look and said, "There are sergeants coming back from the north. There are quite a few people."
An older tracker came over and looked through the rain curtain, only to see an endless number of sergeants marching on the vast wilderness, from north to south, in such a mighty way that it was impossible to tell how many people there were.
Is this... a defeated soldier?
A few more people came over and looked at each other in confusion after reading it.
"Don't panic." Finally someone with a calm mind spoke: "If the army was defeated, the guards at the camp would have panicked long ago. Judging from the way they looked, they should have withdrawn normally. Maybe Bingzhou's food was not enough.
Liang Gong dismissed some of his soldiers and asked them to go home."
"Look -" the man pointed to the other side of the river, where there were mules, horses and vehicles loaded with food heading north, preparing to enter Taihangxing.
Everyone was immediately relieved.
If they were really defeated, how could they have so much time to transport grain and grass to Bingzhou? There were still almost no guards? Instead of worrying about the defeat of Bingzhou, it is better to think about the troops who attacked Zhiguanxing.
They had helped carry the wounded twice on the bank of the Yellow River before, both of which were taken from the Zhiguan battlefield. They were terrible.
I heard from the escorting sergeant that these can all survive.
On the battlefield, the odds of recovery and death are about 50-50.
In fact, one can survive with minor injuries, while those with more serious injuries will basically die, except of course for officers. Even if they are seriously injured, their survival rate is still not low.
To put it bluntly, it’s not that injuries cannot be cured, but that doctors only have so many decoctions and it depends on who is given priority.
In addition, officers can also receive better service and care, better nutritious meals, and a better recuperation environment, which is not possible for ordinary soldiers.
"Stop looking, let's get water to cook." Someone suddenly shouted: "I'm so hungry."
"Where can I get the broth? The guy didn't tell me just now."
"Go out and ask."
"I heard it's not meat soup, but fish soup made from fish raised in Zhongli City, Heyang."
"That's okay, go and ask."
Everyone was chattering and quickly dispersed.
If the sky falls, there will naturally be warriors holding it up. What does it have to do with them? Filling the stomach is important.
On the other side, Yang Bao, with a big belly, began to inspect the Hepu camp.
This camp is under his control, and he also has soldiers under his command, and the scale is getting bigger year by year, which is called "troop transport".
Troop transport has a certain combat effectiveness. Chen Min relied on Hefei troop transport to quell chaos many years ago.
It's not very practical to transport troops into battle, but it's not a big problem to suppress the ground and transport supplies.
"Are the new prisoners honest?" Yang Baoxian asked the military academy who came to salute.
"The dishonest ones are all buried by the river." the military academy said with a smile.
"Don't be too cruel. After all, you are a prisoner and will be an official slave in the future. If there are too many casualties, it will be difficult to explain, and it will also ruin your job and mine." Yang Bao reminded.
"No." The military academy responded.
The two of them spoke in Donghai dialect throughout the whole process, and they were obviously from Donghai. At this time, people from the five counties of Lanling were also regarded as Donghai people. After all, they were separated from Donghai County not many years ago.
Yang Bao looked up at the sky again, his expression gloomy.
If it rains every day, you know it will rain, alas!
Under the heavy rain, the road was muddy, and part of it was even washed away. It was very difficult to repair it, but it took a long time.
Nearly 20,000 prisoners were captured in Bingzhou - half were locals in Bingzhou, half were Hu people - and they were taken to Hanoi one after another. Some were left on the spot to work as coolies; some were sent to Bianliang to build cities;
Some are active on various transportation lines to reduce the burden on people in Henan and Hebei.
The army was also demobilized a lot.
Yang Dan and Hou Feihu's troops withdrew a total of about 20,000 people, some of them retreated to Yecheng and the other to Yewang.
Food can be shipped to these two places, making it convenient to eat without the need for long-distance transportation.
I heard that Li Chong's Ministry will also lay off a considerable number of his men and go home to work on the farm. They are no longer needed to fight and cannot afford it.
In the evening, the rain stopped.
Yang Bao left Yewang in a hurry, preparing to return to Heyang to supervise the transfer of the next batch of supplies.
At the same time as he left, an army of livestock came out of Heyang Beicheng, driven by the herdsmen of Jinguyuan, and headed north towards Shangdang.
****
Henan actually has less rain than Jizhou and Guanzhong, let alone Bingzhou.
It can be seen that this year’s rainy weather is regionally specific.
So far, Bingzhou has received the heaviest rainfall, which is undoubtedly a disaster.
Kansai is second, but it cannot be said to be a disaster. It can only be said that there is a lot more rain than normal years.
Jizhou is similar to Guanxi, with more rain, but the impact is greater than Guanzhong, because during the winter wheat harvest in May, continuous rains greatly affected the harvest. Taking into account the impact of the war, life this year will be difficult.
Henan is slightly better, with slightly more rain, but it is only "slightly more" and has little impact on agricultural production.
Of course, Henan also has other difficulties. A relatively serious locust plague broke out in Xuzhou.
Some local households have planted winter wheat, so the impact is minor.
The other part is planted with spring millet. This year's harvest is considered finished, and relief is urgently needed.
Some locusts also flew to neighboring Qingzhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou, causing a certain degree of damage. Fortunately, the impact was not too great.
A large-scale locust plague also broke out in Jiangdong.
Over the years, disasters have occurred frequently in the north and relatively few in the south. This time it is finally their turn.
I heard that wealthy families in various places have tightened their grip on food and refused to send it out. Famine broke out in some cities that relied on food supplies from the countryside. Many people even starved to death in Jianye.
Under such a situation, Sima Rui and Director Wang were so anxious that they summoned representatives of the wealthy families every three days, negotiated or even compromised with them, handed over benefits, and asked them to provide food.
There are still some effects. But the locust plague is really serious, and famine is unavoidable.
This is the little glacier climate, which will give you a "surprise" from time to time.
A certain place looked good this year, but suddenly collapsed, the residents became refugees, and the refugees became starved to death. Then people ate each other, attacked and killed each other, bones were exposed in the wild, cities were in ruins, and household registrations were reduced sharply.
Now Jiangnan has stopped moving troops and is calming down. It is doing everything possible to save food in order to tide over the difficulties.
Fortunately, they are lucky. There have been no consecutive disasters, and their foundation is relatively solid. As long as there are no large-scale droughts, floods, locust plagues, etc. next year, they can still survive.
Shao Xun should be grateful that Yuzhou has been strong in recent years. There have been no major disasters, only one medium-sized disaster, and not many minor disasters. Otherwise, he would not know what to do now.
After receiving the news of locust plagues in parts of Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Yuzhou, Yu Chen hesitated.
But after hesitating for a moment, he finally made up his mind: allocate food for disaster relief.
If the skin is gone, how will the hair be attached?
Without the common people, where would the soldiers come from? Where would the supplies come from? Even if he was scolded by his son-in-law, he would also misappropriate part of the grain to provide relief to victims in various places.
Of course, he did not forget to write a letter to Jinyang explaining the situation in detail.
The wheat harvest in May has been completed, and there is still a lot of grain in the warehouse. Part of it will be appropriated now, and the rest will still be sent to the front. As long as the son-in-law suspends military operations, grain consumption can be reduced until August, when Henan's miscellaneous grains are harvested.
It can slow down a lot.
The letter was delivered to Jinyang on June 20. At that time, Shao Xun was wading through muddy water and patrolling both sides of the Fen River.
After reading, there was silence for a moment, and then he found Li Chong and asked, "Before, you said that there was less rainfall in Xinxing and there were no floods. Is that true?"
Li Zhong thought for a while and said: "Actually, there is more precipitation in Xinxing than in previous years, but compared with Taiyuan and Xihe, it is really not much. Maybe it is not just Xinxing that has less rain, but it may become less as you go north."
Shao Xun nodded.
Where the rainfall line is, it does become less and less towards the north.
Maybe in the past Xinxing, Yanmen and other places were a bit drier, but this year it's just fine.
So he quickly issued an order: "The continuous rain has soaked the roads, and the war cannot be fought anyway. You immediately take 30,000 people to the north of Xingxing, select the abandoned land, and plant beans. As much as you can harvest, you can make a profit from the seeds."
It won’t be a loss if you come back.”
"Many millet fields here in Taiyuan have been destroyed. It's a pity that we need to provide relief to avoid disasters. Choose some dry high fields and plant some miscellaneous grains."
"Send an order to Henan and Hebei to collect as many cattle and sheep as possible and send them over for grazing. There is no time for food to grow. After the flood recedes, the grass is extremely rich and perfect for grazing."
"In addition, send envoys north to the grasslands to trade cattle and sheep with gold and silk to see if they are willing. If they are not willing, ask how they will be willing. You can ask for a price for anything you want."
After saying that, he added: "Leave me ten acres of land, and I will plant it, and share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers."
Chapter completed!