The cavalry all led their horses into the woods. The woods were quite large and it was not difficult to hide two hundred horses.
Jiang Xiaochun's lieutenant Tielin assigned scouts to patrol around to prevent anyone from approaching the forest. The scouts were in teams of three. After going out, they set up checkpoints around the forest.
We went deep into the forest and lit several bonfires. The bonfires were deep in the forest and did not need to be seen by people outside the forest.
In addition to Jiang Xiaochun's inner treasury guards, there were also some inner treasury clerks and some handymen in the forest. When he broke out from the inner treasury, Jiang Xiaochun took all the grain stored in the inner treasury with him. Naturally, none of the horses were left behind, but the warehouse
There are still tens of thousands of taels of cash in it, so I can't take them all out. I've assigned some to each individual, and the rest can only be thrown there.
Jiang Xiaochun sat down by the bonfire. Feixin had already handed over a roasted duck leg. Jiang Xiaochun was not polite and took a bite. While eating, he said: "Shuning City's defense has been done very well.
The army is also very brave. It seems that it will not be easy for the rebels to capture Shuning City. However, the rebels are divided into two groups, and the north and south sides have besieged the city gate. I roughly estimate that their strength is no less than five thousand now.
Although the city cannot be broken by the crowd, it can be done to trap Shuning City."
"I am only worried now that the princess and Mr. Qin are in the city. Will there be enough food and grass?" Feixin said worriedly: "Once there is a shortage of food in the city, the people in the city will start to make trouble without the rebels entering the city."
Jiang Xiaochun said: "The magistrate of Shuning County is Dong Guangxiao. This man is extremely brave and can be regarded as one of the few people in the Dong family who is both civil and military. He has the Dong family as his back, and his backing is not weak. I believe that since he dares to stand firm and wait for help, he should be there early."
We are ready. On the rebel side, the granary was burned down. I don’t know how much food was saved. But in my estimation, even if some were rescued, it would not be much and it would not last long. Shuning City has a radius of 100
All the villages within the village have been looted by the rebels. No matter how much they want to rob food, they will have nothing left to rob."
Feixin sighed: "The Qian family in Suzhou has enough money and food. If there is a shortage of food here, there will definitely be relief there." He raised his hand and stroked his beard and said: "I just don't know if the imperial court has sent reinforcements. If now
The reinforcements have already set off, and it will take at least half a month to reach Jiangnan from Kyoto day and night, so I'm worried that the princess won't be able to hold on."
"The food we have here can't last long." Fat Fish suddenly said: "When I left the inner storehouse, I took out all the food stored in the inner storehouse. I just counted the remaining food. At most, it was only
I can last two more days."
Jiang Xiaochun frowned and suddenly felt that the duck meat in his hand was no longer fragrant.
"Starting from tomorrow, the rations will be halved." Jiang Xiaochun thought for a moment: "Master Fei will continue as usual...!"
Feixin shook his head and said: "You have to go out to harass the rebels from time to time, and you should have a full stomach. Even the saints are not short of hungry soldiers. I and these civil servants have also halved, but even so, it will only last for two more days.
Still can’t solve the problem.”
"Commander, if it doesn't work out, I will lead a team to look for food." Tie Lin on the side said: "We have money from the inner treasury. We will go all the way south and enter Hangzhou, where we can buy food. Shuning County
The rebels have all gathered under Shuning City, and the road to Hangzhou should no longer be blocked. The round trip will only take three or four days at most, so we can provide enough food."
Feixin nodded and said: "What Lieutenant Iron Commander said makes sense. This is actually a good idea."
"But what we brought out was the inner treasury silver. We used the inner treasury silver without authorization. This...!" Jiang Xiaochun was trusted by She Yue and abided by the rules. Now he wanted to use the inner treasury silver, but he was still a little hesitant.
Feixin smiled and said: "The princess is so smart, how can she care about this matter? Commander Jiang, if the princess really wants to take the blame in the future, I will bear the responsibility."
"Master Fei is exaggerating." Jiang Xiaochun secretly felt ashamed, thinking that he was a little rigid and could not be as bold as a civil servant. He said to Tielin: "Take some brothers and silver coins and go south to buy food. It's only ten million yuan."
Remember, you must not rob people of their food, otherwise you will have to deal with it under military law."
Tie Lin hurriedly said: "Commander, don't worry, the general will never dare to violate military regulations." As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of footsteps, and a man hurried over and panted: "Your Majesty, there is a group of people heading towards Linzi.
Come over here!"
Seeing that it was the scout he sent out, Tielin immediately stood up and asked: "Which direction?"
"North." The scout said: "They are large in numbers. We looked at them in the moonlight from the slope. They were completely dark. There were also packhorses and vehicles. They seemed to be transporting a lot of supplies. I estimated that there were at least two to three thousand people.
.”
Jiang Xiaochun, Feixin and others all changed their colors slightly.
Fat Fish frowned and said, "Is it the rebel reinforcements coming from Suzhou City?"
"The rebels' food and grass were burned just last night. Even if Suzhou City gets the news, it can't fly so fast." Jiang Xiaochun shook his head, looked at the scout and asked, "Did they raise a flag? What kind of equipment do they have?"
The scout replied: "There was no flag, they marched all night, they were very fast, and they had no armor. They were all wearing coarse cloth. They were definitely not officers and soldiers, and they were certainly not men and horses from the Suzhou Battalion. They made no sound when they marched, as if they were afraid of being caught.
People discovered that it was less than five miles away."
"Except for the Queen Mother Association, no one in Suzhou can gather so many people." Tielin said: "Commander, it seems that they are really reinforcements from the rebels."
Fat Fish shook his head and said: "No, Commander, if it is reinforcements from the rebels, there is no need to march secretly."
"It's too late to evacuate now." Jiang Xiaochun thought for a moment and ordered: "Send the order and everyone is on alert and ready to fight."
Under the dim moonlight, the Neiku cavalry used the big trees as cover, prepared their bows and arrows, and quietly waited for the team to appear.
Jiang Xiaochun, on the other hand, held a sword in his hand and his eyes were as bright as a torch, and everyone held their breath.
It didn't take long before I saw a team appear in the distance. It was dark under the moonlight and there were quite a few people.
The team came straight towards the woods, but stopped immediately outside the range of the arrows. Soon, four cavalry were seen coming out of the team, riding towards the woods.
Jiang Xiaochun could clearly see that the equestrian skills of the knights were very average, and their skills were much worse than any of his own cavalry. They were obviously not regular cavalry, and these people did not wear red scarves like the Queen Mother Congregation.
Seeing Tielin bending his bow and setting an arrow, Jiang Xiaochun raised his hand and waved it, signaling not to act rashly.
The few cavalrymen arrived at the edge of the forest and dismounted. Two of them walked directly towards the forest. Jiang Xiaochun immediately made a gesture. Tielin also passed the gesture on. Outsiders could not understand these gestures, but the inner library cavalrymen could not understand them.
But it's crystal clear.
As soon as the two men entered the forest, several cavalrymen hiding behind the big trees swarmed forward. Before the two men could resist, they rushed forward and pushed them to the ground.
One person had already shouted loudly: "There is an ambush, run quickly...!"
When the two cavalrymen outside the forest heard this, they turned around and left without saying a word. Although the cavalrymen in the inner library had already bent their bows and ready arrows, they were all well-trained and did not shoot arrows easily without Jiang Xiaochun's order.
After the two cavalrymen turned back, the team over there responded quickly. Many soldiers rushed out from the team. Many of them were holding shields. The shield-hands quickly formed a long shield wall, and then rushed toward Lin.
Push through.
Jiang Xiaochun frowned when he saw that the opponent's reaction speed was extremely fast, and he was obviously well-trained. The Queen Mother's congregation did not have the ability to react so quickly. The opponent's advance was only about twenty steps away from the forest, and he stopped immediately. Then he heard something over there.
A rough voice came: "Who are you from?"
Jiang Xiaochun heard his voice full of anger and said in a deep voice: "Who are you?"
"Let them go and let everyone go their own way." The other party said coldly: "If we really want to fight with swords, it will be useless to both sides."
Although Jiang Xiaochun judged that the other party was not a rebel, he did not know where the other party came from, let alone whether he was an enemy or a friend. Suddenly he saw Tielin approaching and whispered: "Commander, look!" He handed it over!
One thing is a bunch of crude pendants hanging around the neck, with a piece of fish bone hanging on it.
This is naturally not an ordinary fish bone spur. There is no way a large fish weighing dozens of kilograms would have such a fish bone spur. Moreover, this fish bone spur has been processed and carved, and it looks very delicate.
"They were picked from the people we just caught." Tielin said, "They seem to be fishermen!"
Jiang Xiaochun's body trembled. He thought of something and said in surprise: "Is it the Taihu pirates?"
"How could the Taihu pirates land here and come here?" Tielin also looked solemn: "Commander, this is something fishy."
Jiang Xiaochun thought for a moment and suddenly said loudly: "I wonder where Leader Linghu is?"
As soon as these words came out, there was silence for a while. After a long time, the rough voice was heard: "Who are you?"
Jiang Xiaochun said to Tielin: "I'll go out to meet them. If anything happens, you can lead a group of protection guards to break out."
"The Taihu pirates and the Jiangnan family are incompatible. If they are really Taihu pirates, they are not enemies."
Tielin whispered: "Friends and enemies are unknown, Commander, if the Taihu pirates have already colluded with the Jiangnan family, then...!"
"If that's the case, and Jiangnan is in danger, we will just fight to the death with them." Jiang Xiaochun did not hesitate, stood up, sheathed his sword, walked directly out of the forest, walked forward slowly for about ten steps, and finally stopped.
He glanced at it and said in a deep voice: "Jiangnan Neiku Commander Jiang Xiaochun is here, please lead Linghu to come out and talk!"
"Are you from Neiku?" The voice on the other side looked very surprised.
Jiang Xiaochun nodded and said, "Yes, who are you?"
Soon, a person walked over from the opposite side. Under the moonlight, I saw that the person was in his thirties, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, a high nose and a wide mouth, a square face, wearing a brown cloth robe, and a knife at his waist. He was a few feet away from Jiang Xiaochun.
He stopped three or four steps away, looked up and down, and saw Jiang Xiaochun wearing exquisite armor. He cupped his hands and said, "Taihu Tu Kuohai!"