The Liu'an defenders have a strong fighting spirit. No, it should be said that their loyalty is relatively high. Most of them are the children of Lu Fan's father-in-law's family.
People who have eaten with their family for generations have long been accustomed to obeying the orders of their master.
He gave the order and led dozens of people to stand up and fight back. Those who carried the urn, those who moved the rocks, and a few who held long forks tried to push the flying ladder away from the battlements.
The ant siege is easy to deal with, just go down the ladder and smash it.
Unfortunately, there was a group of elite crossbowmen below the city that he had never seen before. As soon as the defenders showed up, there was a "buzz" sound, the bow strings vibrated, and thousands of crossbow bolts were fired at the top of the city.
There was a continuous scream, and twenty or thirty soldiers near the crenel were shot like hedgehogs and died instantly.
Before the defenders could throw out a few rolling stones and hammers, they were suppressed again.
Lu Fan was lying on his back on the city wall, with blood pouring out from his mouth and nose. There were more than ten crossbow arrows stuck in his chest and abdomen, and his eyes gradually dimmed.
The general died in the battle, with more than half of the casualties, and the defenders no longer had the will to fight. Several loyal family members carried his body, rushed down the city wall without looking back, and returned to the government office to report the funeral.
The rest of the people fled separately.
The criminal camp successfully rushed to the city wall, and many people followed the footsteps of the deserters and rushed into the city.
"Xiao Lang, why don't we try our best to occupy the city wall and defend Lu'an County? Maybe we can find a way out."
The close family general persuaded Lei Tan on the chaotic city wall.
But he shook his head. There was no hope of success. Although most of the people in the crime camp were children of the Lei family, the bravery of the imperial army had already frightened these people out of their courage and they were unable to organize themselves at all.
Even if it's a lucky chance, everyone only has a Huanshou sword in their hands, and there aren't many defensive supplies in Lu'an City. How can we fight this kind of battle?
I had finally managed to hide my identity as the legitimate son of the Lei family and avoided being killed, so why should I seek death?
I will definitely encounter better opportunities in the future.
"No, Lu'an is already a dead place, let's look for other opportunities to escape." He firmly rejected the general's proposal.
"Xiao Lang..."
"Silence!"
The general wanted to persuade him again, but Lei Tan quickly interrupted him because the supervising team had already followed the footsteps of the criminal camp and climbed to the top of the city.
A few people did not dare to attract the attention of the supervising team and took advantage of the chaos to sneak down the city wall. The idea of defending Liu'an was naturally abandoned.
The siege went smoothly. In the afternoon, the Forbidden Army took complete control of the city's defenses. However, the turmoil in the city did not subside until late at night.
It was not the defenders of Lu'an who continued to resist, but the people from the criminal camp who took advantage of the chaos after entering the city to rape, plunder, commit arson and murder, and committed many evil deeds. Some of them broke into people's homes to try to hide and escape.
In order to quell the chaos, the soldiers of the Forbidden Army were extremely busy, which was even more tiring than attacking the city.
When the criminal camp attacked the city, only thirty or fifty people were killed, but when they caused chaos in the city, more than seven hundred people were beheaded in the street. No one knows what the purpose was?
"I gave you enough food so that you could fight. Since you are so energetic, the rations will be halved in the future!" Liu Xiang stared at the people from the criminal camp who were brought to the military camp in the city, and wished he could kill the remaining 4,000 people as well.
"We have repeatedly issued orders not to disturb the people, but in the end they turned a deaf ear? If we do it again in the future, if one person breaks the law, the whole team will be beheaded!"
He originally had some pity for the poor people among these people, so he did not practice joint sitting. Although he would carry out the most dangerous siege operations, he never liked to attack by force, and would try his best to arrange long-range support. Most of them could still survive.
came down.
If you work in a hard labor camp after the war, you will basically not be mistreated. If you are lucky enough to catch up with the amnesty, you can still be reclassified as a citizen.
But these people don’t live up to expectations!
Then don't blame him for being cruel.
After collecting the weapons and keeping people under strict guard, he returned to the county government office to arrange relief for the victims and appease people's hearts.
If there is no crime camp, these things can be arranged in the afternoon.
"It's something that fails to accomplish anything but fails to accomplish anything." He couldn't help but curse again, having some hesitation about setting up a crime camp.
As he expected, the city had very little food in its treasury, the big households had already fled, the young and the strong had been drained away, leaving only tens of thousands of old and weak people. The exact number had to be calculated again.
"Fortunately, we have been prepared in advance, Zilong. I will leave the disaster relief to you. Tomorrow morning, someone will read out the notice to calm the people in the city."
"Your Majesty is kind and kind, and I will do my best to provide disaster relief and bring peace to the people." Zhao Yun accepted the order with his hands raised.
Liu Xiang nodded and casually put the yellow book on the table: "The records in the yellow book of national registration are not true. You have to arrange for someone to re-count. Also, send a message to Shu County and ask Gao Shun to arrange for the people to continue transporting here.
Grain, urge Lu Su to collect grain and grass from those wealthy families as soon as possible."
After speaking, he turned to look at Dian Wei: "Tomorrow we will send two thousand Qingqi out of the city to destroy the Lei family's manor Wubao outside the city. All personnel will be escorted back to the city."
He wanted to pacify Lu'an as soon as possible.
Lujiang County is the place he values most. It is surrounded by mountains to the west and lakes to the east. It is an important land channel for the Huai River to connect to the Yangtze River. Two rivers flow through the territory, and there are large tracts of high-quality farmland along the coast.
In addition, when he mentioned Lu'an, the first thing that came to his mind was Lu'an Guapian, which is one of the top ten famous teas in China.
Of course, there was no Lu'an Guapian in the Han Dynasty. It was a method of making tea that only appeared in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. However, during the Tang Dynasty, this was the origin of famous tea, Qiyun Mountain at the northern foot of the Dabie Mountain in the west of the city.
Qishan Yunwu Tea has been famous for thousands of years.
Liu Xiang didn't know if there were tea trees in Qiyun Mountain in the Han Dynasty, because tea in the Han Dynasty was still a niche product, mainly used for hangover and medicinal purposes. It was not a mainstream drink and was not taken seriously by people. Only Bashu produced tea cakes, and the only one in Chengdu.
A tea trading center is not large in scale.
This is not possible. Tea can be treated as a national pillar-level commodity.
As a Chinese, you know this.
Not to mention the Ancient Tea Horse Road in later generations, and the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty and beyond, tea has become the main commodity in foreign trade transactions.
Unfortunately, due to changes in the landscape, apart from the tea-producing areas of Bashu in the Han Dynasty, he could only find Lu'an in Lujiang County.
Other famous teas that I can remember, such as West Lake Longjing, are produced near West Lake in Zhejiang Province. But this was the Han Dynasty and West Lake had not yet taken shape. Where could he find it?
There is also Dongting Biluochun, which is produced on the Dongting Mountain side of Taihu Lake. It should be the Taihu Lake area in Wu County. You can actually look for this, but you don’t know which mountainous area Dongting Mountain is and the target is not clear, so it will be a lot of effort.
.
There is also Huangshan Maofeng. At this time, Huangshan is still an inaccessible place. The people sent there probably will not be able to come back alive. The same goes for Junshan Silver Needle. Dongting Lake is still part of Yunmeng Daze. Going to Junshan will mean death.
There is also a tea-producing area in Lushan Mountain, and you wouldn't be able to survive if you went there.
Anxi Tieguanyin is produced in Fujian Province. In the Han Dynasty, it was an area where native people lived in the Jiaozhi Prefecture. It was completely unrealistic to send people to find tea-producing areas.
Regardless of whether he knows how to make these famous teas, he can't even find the place of origin. In the Han Dynasty, those areas were all swamps with no human traces. He sent people there and narrowly escaped death.
Therefore, Lu'an has become the second largest tea-producing area that can be grasped.
If Liu Xiang wanted to promote tea as a product, he first had to solve the problem of production.
The history of Chinese people drinking tea can be traced back to ancient times. In fact, it has been popularized throughout the world during the Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties. Everyone from officials to servants has heard of the name of tea and knows that it is a good thing.
But why hasn’t it become a mainstream drink?
Too little output is the biggest reason.
It’s too expensive, I can’t afford to drink it, and I’ve never seen it before, so naturally I don’t care about it, let alone develop this kind of product.
The habit of drinking tea and entertaining guests did not exist in the Han Dynasty.
Liu Xiang wanted the Han people to develop this habit, and then sell it to foreigners at a high price, making a lot of money.