Just one day after Wan Lei returned to Changping Post, the Northern War Army arrived in Beiping one after another. The situation in Beiping City immediately became extremely tense. Because the emperor came to help, if the liquidation was carried out at this time, the situation of the Beiping Army would be very bad.
.No, the generals did not wait for Wan Lei's instructions, but still did not open the city gate, and did not let the more than 100,000 troops of the Northern Army enter the city.
Facing the closed city gate, Sheng Yong, the commander of the Northern Defeat Army, was shocked. A few days ago, he had received an order from the emperor, asking him to lead the army back to defend Peiping urgently. The Northern Defeat Army had been marching day and night in the past few days.
When we rushed back, we were already exhausted and could not enter the city at this time. Many soldiers were very unconvinced and clamored for the defenders to open the door immediately.
If it had been a year ago, the Peking Army would definitely have opened the door. However, today is different from the past. The Peking Army dared to intimidate even the emperor. The small court army did not take it seriously and directly shouted outside the city: Generals can enter the city to see the emperor.
, the soldiers are not allowed to come within fifty meters outside the city, otherwise it will be a declaration of war.
Facing a gang of city bandits who were extremely violent, Sheng Yong was even more horrified and thought to himself: Could it be that the emperor has been coerced by the bandits? When he thought about this, how could he dare to enter the city, for fear that he would not be able to get out once he entered?
.So while he gathered his troops to surround the city and prepare for battle, he also shouted loudly into the city, saying that he wanted to see the emperor. If he couldn't see him, he would gather his troops to attack the city.
There was a commotion on both sides. When Tie Xuan saw that something was not going well, he immediately went to the north of the city to shout that in order to protect the safety of the Holy Lord, the city gate had been sealed and no troops could enter the city. The generals could only enter the city through the small gate to see the emperor.
Seeing an old acquaintance, Sheng Yong felt relieved again, but he still did not dare to take it lightly. He only sent a few generals into the city to explore the situation, but he himself still led his troops to surround the city.
Soon, the few generals rode into the city and met Emperor Jianwen and his entourage. However, instead of being rewarded, they received a scolding, whether it was Emperor Jianwen or Qi Huang.
The two ministers were very dissatisfied with the belated arrival of the Northern Defender Army. If these people had not rushed back earlier, they would not have had to suffer the humiliation of the Northern Defender Army.
Of course, they ignored one thing. They ordered the Northern Army to march north to suppress the enemy, and they called them back in a hurry halfway. Now that they have come back exhausted, they are scolding them for no reason.
The general immediately felt so suffocated that he had nowhere to vent his anger.
What can you do if you are not convinced? He is the emperor, and scolding you is only for the sake of leadership. Of course, after scolding you, you still have to do the actual work. The first thing is to mop up the Northern Army and rest on the spot, and protect the Holy Commander tomorrow.
Return south.
"Your Majesty, the Northern Sweeping Army has returned from a long journey. The troops are short of horses and trapped. Please issue an order to allow the soldiers to enter the city to rest." A partial general said.
"This..." Emperor Jianwen looked at Xu Huizu with a hint of help.
"Beiping City has just been pacified recently, and the army is not allowed to enter, so as not to disturb the people and cause chaos." Xu Huizu was a sensible person. He could see at a glance that Emperor Jianwen's difficulty was that he was now a semi-puppet. The order issued by the Beiping Army to the emperor was a choice.
To put it bluntly, if the order is unfavorable to the Peking Army, the Peking Army will resist the order and disobey it.
And Xu Huizu could also predict that once Emperor Jianwen swept the Northern Army into the city at the same time and the Peking Army did not agree, Emperor Jianwen's majesty as a king would be completely lost. In order not to lose his majesty as a king again in front of thousands of troops, it is better not to let the Northern Army invade the city.
It would be best for the Northern Army to enter the city.
Seeing that the beautiful city of Beiping could not be entered, the generals once again held their breath, but still did not give up. They said that because the northern sweeper army was in a hurry and they did not bring enough military rations, they asked the city to send more money. This request is not too much. The so-called emperor
There is no shortage of hungry soldiers. Soldiers must be well fed before they can command.
As soon as Emperor Jianwen heard this question, he was once again confused. It wasn't that he didn't want to provide military rations, but that besides having the title of emperor, he was a complete pauper. He didn't have any military rations or silver in his hands. Now all the military supplies in Beiping City were
Food and salary are all under the control of the Peking Army. If the Peking Army does not agree, not even a grain of rice can be produced.
"You will retreat first and set up camp, and the military rations will be sent out." Xu Huizu did not want to embarrass Emperor Jianwen, so he had to agree to provide food first and let these generals with many demands retreat.
He promised to provide food, but did Xu Huizu have food? No! So as soon as the people who wiped out the Northern Army left, he asked people to find Tie Xuan, and asked the food officer of Beiping City to give some food to the people outside the city.
The army came to the rescue. When the emperor asked someone to borrow food, it was embarrassing. Xu Huizu gave Qi and Huang another look.
He knew that it was not the Peking Army that was to blame for this. Without the Peiping Army, the city of Beiping would have been lost long ago, and Emperor Jianwen would have been taken as a prisoner by others. The city of Peiping was preserved by others, and the Peking Army should protect the food.
It's only the two idiots Qi and Huang who used their troops indiscriminately to end up in this mess.
What made Xu Huizu even more angry was that Qi and Huang always asked him to help wipe their butts after they had caused so many troubles. Now that they were about to ask others to borrow food, these two guys pretended to be dumbfounded and stepped aside.
Silence. Xu Huizu was even more cursed in his heart: Why didn't this kind of villain, who grabs credit when he sees success and hides when he sees trouble, not die early?
Even after scolding, the matter still had to be done. Since food was promised, food had to be obtained, otherwise the Northern War Army outside the city would mutiny. And after more than a year of continuous defeats, the imperial army had been defeated.
With a main force of hundreds of thousands, as the governor, Xu Huizu thought about it with his toes and knew that he really couldn't afford it.
Soon, Tie Xuan was "invited" to the main hall, and Xu Huizu didn't talk nonsense to him and directly asked him for food.
Now, it's Tie Xuan's turn to be in trouble. It's not that he doesn't want to give food. In fact, the city of Beiping is also short of food. Now there are only a hundred thousand stones of food in the granary, but there are more than 400,000 people in the city who are waiting for food. All this food is
If there is not enough to eat until the autumn harvest, if you take out some more and give it to others, the people will starve to death during the lean period.
"Master Tie, please save a few thousand dan of food first to save yourself. The court will not treat you badly in the future." Seeing that Tie Xuan didn't speak for a long time, Xu Huizu could only induce him.
"Mr. Xu, it's not that I don't want to give food to you, it's actually that Beiping City is also short of food. The spring plowing has not been planted yet, and the autumn harvest is still more than half a year away, and the people are starting to starve now. If I continue to let you take away food, I will be hungry in the future.
Anxious people can eat up their humble positions alive." Tie Xuan said with an innocent face.
"Pull out the grain now, and the court will replenish it for you later," Xu Huizu said.
"Well, I don't dare to call the shots. If the court breaks its word and doesn't provide food, I will be the biggest sinner in Beiping City. Hundreds of thousands of people will scold me to death."
"You Tie Xuan, how dare you slander the imperial court!" Emperor Jianwen immediately became furious, but other than scolding him, he could not do anything to Tie Xuan.
"Okay, I promise that I will replenish the grain for you. If something goes wrong, I will use my own Lumi to replenish it for you." Xu Huizu also has a big head, and it is no wonder that Tie Xuan said that the court
No, after all, the imperial court was not very authentic in many things.
Take the recent battle to defend the city of Beiping, for example. The Beiping army suffered heavy casualties, but the imperial court only pretended to issue an imperial edict "praise". As for the reward, there was not a single penny. Now they are asked to pull out the life-saving food. This
It's really too much.
With Xu Huizu's guarantee, Tie Xuan hesitated for a long time, and then agreed to withdraw one thousand dan of grain and asked the court to come up with 1,500 dan to make up for it within a month. Seeing that Tie Xuan had given usury to the court
On top of his head, Huang Zicheng jumped out again after hearing this, scolding Tie Xuan for being unfaithful and unjust. However, Tie Xuan was not angry at all. He said that he would borrow it if he wanted to, but he would stop him if he didn't. I don't want to borrow it yet.
Just because of these few stones of food, Xu Huizu rolled his eyes at Huang Zicheng and said: "I will pull out ten thousand stones and give you twenty thousand stones later."
"Ten thousand stones is too much. I will discuss it with the generals before I make a decision." Tie Xuan bowed his hands and retreated, leaving Jianwen and his entourage in the main hall looking at each other.
Tie Xuan left the main hall and was about to go to the generals to discuss whether to borrow food. He heard from several government officials that Wan Lei had come to the city again and was now discussing business with Grandma Liu in Siyiyuan. He immediately got on his horse and went
Siyiyuan rushed. He knew that if Wan Lei decided on this matter, the people in the city would not object.
Wan Lei entered the city early in the morning, and he also brought a lot of facial cream. Some of these things were for wholesale, and some were for supply to Grandma Liu. During the Peking Defense War, Grandma Liu donated all the facial cream she had on her hands.
In the plaster, Wan Lei has always made a clear distinction between public and private matters, so what he owes must be made up as soon as possible.
Since the war had just ended, most of the rich families in Beiping City were dead. The remaining people didn't even have the stomach to eat, and they didn't have the spare money to visit brothels, so the area around Fireworks Alley was very deserted. Even some old bustards were in the city.
Broken time ran away, so many promiscuous women became unemployed people without anyone to care about them.
The prostitutes have lost their jobs, but they still have to eat. How to make money to support themselves has become a big problem. They also want to find someone to marry, but there are many boys and girls in Beiping City now, and women from good families are worried about getting married.
The promiscuous woman is spoiled and cannot do any work, let alone no one wants her.
Fortunately, Grandma Liu is quite shrewd and she has long realized that these other people's "daughters" are still valuable, so she picked them back "for free" and raised them three times a day. No, when Wan Lei came to Siyi
When I went to the hospital, I found that Siyi Hospital was already overcrowded with prostitutes.
"Hey, what kind of wind has brought Mr. Wan here? Rare visitors, rare visitors." Seeing Wan Lei come in, a pretty prostitute thought it was the wind. Liu was happy, so she kept talking
She moved closer to him. When her sisters saw him, they also crowded forward. They were really too busy.
"Where's Aunt Liu?" Wan Lei raised his hand to fend off those overly enthusiastic women.
"Come on, come on, what are you doing in the way of Mr. Wan? Why don't you help carry things? You are a bunch of lazy guys." Aunt Liu has obviously lost a lot of weight. It seems that "adopting" so many "daughters" has exhausted her financial resources.
, No, when she saw a carriage parked at the door with more than a dozen boxes on it, she immediately smiled and said, "Mr. Wan is so considerate, he delivered the goods so quickly."
"Well, it's not easy for everyone with the continuous war and disaster. I know you are tight on money, so you can keep these goods for now and help me find a way to sell them elsewhere. The money from the sales will be converted into grain and shipped back. Now in Peking
The city is short of food and the price of food has skyrocketed. You will definitely make money by changing hands. Once you make money, you can pay me the price according to the price."
"That's a good idea, but as you know, there's a lot of chaos outside right now, so I'm afraid we won't be able to get out."
"Don't worry about this. I will find a grain transport team to escort you all the way. What you have to do is to quickly open up sales and turn the goods into silver and exchange them for grain." The reason why Wan Lei did this was to solve the problem in Peking.
When it comes to food shortages, the government cannot count on relief, so we have to rely on self-help.
There are 400,000 people in Peiping, and there is a shortage of food now. At least one stone of food must be prepared for each person to tide over the difficulties. The city of Peiping only has a hundred thousand stone, and there is still a gap of more than 200,000. This gap must be obtained from other places.
Therefore, Wan Lei must hurry up and act quickly to stock up on food before the imperial court imposes an economic blockade on Shuntian Prefecture.
This is why Wan Lei is eager to resume production. In addition to facial cream, there is also kerosene. He has made an appointment with Zhao Hongru to sell goods together for silver. At the same time, he sends people to stock up on food and sell it back, striving to sell it within a month.