In April, wheat is harvested in various places. First it is Henan (south of the Yellow River), Hedong, and around mid-April, it is Shandong (east of Taihang Mountain), Hebei, and Guanzhong.
Due to climate reasons, only spring wheat can be grown in Northland and Hexi. In Northland, it is a little earlier, and the harvest is around mid-May. In Hexi, it is even later, and the wheat does not turn yellow until early June.
It is only the beginning of May, which is the time of grain filling, but it is also a good time for roasting wheat.
Cut off the connecting rods of the wheat ears, soak them in salt water for a while, then set up a small fire at a little distance to burn the wheat husks until they are charred black, then rub out the wheat grains in a dustpan and you can eat them.
I am used to eating fine rice and thin noodles, and this food is particularly delicious occasionally. Wei Yu's face was as mushy as a tabby cat, her cheeks were so bulging, and her mouth was so full that she couldn't even speak.
Li Chengzhi had stopped letting her eat for a long time, but Wei Yu didn't care. He was slurring something in his mouth, and his arms were flailing to grab it from the dustpan.
"I really can't eat anymore, otherwise I will definitely get bloating..."
Li Chengzhi pushed her with one hand and pulled the dustpan away from her with the other hand. Wei Yu refused, and sneered into Li Chengzhi's arms.
Suddenly, I feel the pearls are round and jade-like, and the light fragrance hits my nose.
In a moment of confusion, Wei Yu snatched one away.
Gao Wenjun was helpless and scolded in a low voice: "It's broad daylight and Jingmo and I are still here, why don't you tell me to be on guard?"
"I'm asking for a few grains of wheat to eat, but do I still need to guard against others?"
Wei Yu was so righteous in his words, "Sister, your control is too lenient?"
You thought she was pretending to be crazy, but her big eyes were full of innocence. You thought she really didn't understand, but she stayed in Li Chengzhi's arms and refused to get up. After eating, she even pulled the hem of Li Chengzhi's robe to wipe her hands.
Gao Wenjun was so angry that he could only scold the idiot secretly. But Zhang Jingmo covered his mouth and chuckled.
Li Xiaoxian was about to come in to deliver the newspaper when he happened to see this scene and quickly closed the courtyard door with quick hands and eyes: "Mr. Lang is busy, please wait a moment!"
"Li Zhonglang, do you think I am blind?"
Cui Guang was standing outside the door, watching clearly, and couldn't help but sneer: "May I ask what your Duke is busy with, making love to me, chatting and laughing?"
Li Xiaoxian smiled awkwardly and didn't know how to reply. Fortunately, Wei Zijian was still on the side and helped him out.
"How can you be so leisurely and elegant at this time?"
Wei Zijian was also very surprised. He muttered something and then shouted from the other door: "Chengzhi, I'm here with Shangshu..."
Wei Yu froze at first, and then turned over with a look of panic on his face: "It's over... It's over... Father must have seen it, otherwise Li Xiaoxian should have repaid him long ago..."
The Wei family has been a noble family for generations and has a very strict etiquette. If he dared to be so arrogant in his natal family, Wei Yu's hands would have been swollen by Cui Huirong. When he saw Wei Zijian's voice at this time, there was no reason not to panic.
Zhang Jingmo handed her a silk towel to wipe her face, but Gao Wenjun sneered: "I will tell my aunt the next time I see her..."
The cooked duck's mouth was still hard. Wei Yu was scared to death, but he refused to admit defeat at all: "Just tell me, can I still be afraid of you?"
The two were bickering, but Li Chengzhi had already stood up and hurriedly went out to greet them. He stood outside the door and bowed to the two of them: "I have met the minister, my uncle!"
This is a side courtyard and is not suitable for entertaining guests, so Li Chengzhi invited the two of them to the central hall.
Cui Guang took a closer look inside and saw a pond dug in the courtyard with dense shade from trees. There were lounge chairs and a small table under the trees. On the table were placed dried fruits, preserved meats, wine jars, pots and the like.
There was a fishing pole and a fish basket standing beside the chair, and a small stove was placed on one side. The lamb liver was being roasted until it was sizzling with oil, and the aroma of mutton and roasted wheat came to the nostrils.
"If it's as Zijian said, is it really so elegant?"
Cui Guang exclaimed in surprise, moved his index finger greatly, and stepped over the threshold: "Don't go to the central hall, just stay here, grill some of the sheep's liver, and then ask someone to cut some fresh meat..."
Northerners either boil or roast meat, and Xianbei comes from Donghu and is better at this. Cui Guang has long been used to it. But when it comes to good roasting, there is no other restaurant besides Li Chengzhi.
It was also because of Li Chengzhi's curiosity that he asked Hu merchants from the Western Regions who trafficked pepper to get fennel and cumin from India.
Naturally, there is no chili, so I can only squeeze some ginger juice and replace it with garlic juice, but it is still delicious. Even Yuan Ke, who vomits when seeing meat, once praised it...
Cui Guang was not polite at all and stepped into the side courtyard without waiting for Li Chengzhi to refuse.
Whenever he met Li Chengzhi, he never looked good, but when he met Gao Wenjun and others, he was always polite.
Seeing Gao Wenjun and others greeting him, he stopped and bowed solemnly: "Sorry to trouble you three ladies..."
After saying a few greetings, the three female family members left the side courtyard. Cui Guang sat on the recliner with great dignity, and called Li Xiaoxian to pour wine and barbecue for him.
It wasn't that Cui Guang was disdainful, but that everything discussed later was confidential and Li Chengzhi had to be served by his confidants. So Li Xiaoxian had already gotten used to it, and he felt that Cui Guang favored him.
After evacuating the idlers and deploying heavy troops outside the courtyard, the three of them sat down.
Cui Guang bit Zhigan and asked vaguely: "Both Li Song and Huangfu are unstoppable and invincible. It's time to pursue and pursue while we are victorious. Why do you want to retreat?"
Li Chengzhi was shocked and his hair stood on end: "Who said I was going to retreat? How could I not have known?"
Including the military orders passed to Li Song, Li Feng, Huangfu Rang, Li Liang, and even Da Xi and Zhang Jingzhi, they were all limited to the time when the situation was good, and they never mentioned a word about retreating. How did Cui Guang know about it?
?
"Although I am old, I am not ignorant. You can hide your little thoughts from others, but you cannot hide them from me..."
After saying this, Cui Guang pointed at Wei Zijian again, "Of course I can't hide it from Zijian!"
Wei Zijian pondered for a moment and said in a low voice: "If you don't already have the intention of retreating, you should take advantage of the momentum of victory and plot Guanzhong to lay the foundation of the emperor. If you are stationed in Guanzhong, you should naturally build weapons and stock up on food and grass.
, purchase a supply of military supplies and transport them to Wuwei and Jincheng as soon as possible for the use of the army.
Although Shangshu and I are staying at home, we still know a little bit about the goings-on in the city: A few days ago, you suddenly ordered the iron factory and armor factory to stop working, and also ordered the Ministry of Civil Affairs to dispatch craftsmen, Zhuang people, women, old people, etc.
Anyone who can walk has been recruited by you and sent to Zhangye, Wuwei, and the north of Mount Heli.
At first, the minister and I thought it was because the people were not strong enough, so they were sent to transport grain and build forts. But after listening to gossip, we realized that they were all going to herd sheep?"
Li Chengzhi was startled, then breathed a sigh of relief.
He almost thought that Cui Guang and Wei Zijian could read his mind and guess what he was thinking, but unexpectedly, it was a mistake of coincidence?
It was also because these two people did not know how many livestock had been captured in Xihai. If they really sent people to herd sheep, then Xihai would not have to do anything.
This was because there were so many captive cattle and sheep: just after the great defeat of Rouran, nearly a million cattle and sheep were collected from Zhuoxie Mountain and Junji Mountain.
However, Huangfu Rang and Li Liang made a fool of themselves and beat the three Tianzhu to pieces. The Salt Lake was nearly a thousand miles wide from north to south, and was full of ownerless cattle and sheep.
Li Shi led the herdsmen and five thousand people on the horse farm, but they drove cattle and sheep every day, and they were almost exhausted to the point of vomiting blood.
Although the exact number is not available, according to Li Shihui Bing, the livestock captured by the three tribes of Tianzhu alone must be over one million, no matter how small they are.
This is two million, and the soldiers and civilians in the West Sea are worth 200,000 households. If they all go to graze, who will cultivate the land, fight the wars, and build the weapons and armor?
Of course, we couldn't just let it go, so we had to kill them and make them into dried meat for military rations.
Fortunately, there is a lot of salt, so it is easy to prepare: dig a pond on the spot near the salt lake, slaughter the cattle and sheep, cut them into pieces, and submerge them in it. It can be soaked in four or five days. It will not rot even in the middle of summer.
Most of the livestock surrendered from Rouran were transported to Dunhuang to help Li Song govern the people and farm the fields, while a small number were slaughtered by Li Feng on the spot and made into military rations like Li Shi.
Those women who were old and weak who had been helping workers in various factories were sent to help Li Shi and others slaughter cattle and sheep.
As for the strong people, they were all sent to the Qilian Mountains to collect sulfur with Li Shixian and Li Chengxue.
The rhetoric of shepherding is just used to deceive people.
Unexpectedly, Cui Guang and Wei Zijian made a mistake and accidentally guessed that he had the intention to stop fighting.
I can't stop.
Just because the gunpowder accumulated in Xihai for more than four years was almost used up in less than a month?
Nitrate is easy to handle, and charcoal is easier to handle, but sulfur cannot be mass-produced.
In the past, it would have been possible to purchase some from Guanzhong and Luoyang through Hu merchants, or to smuggle some from Nanliang through Tuyuhun. But now that the war has continued, the Silk Road has been cut off, and Tuyuhun has become a mortal enemy, these two roads can be considered complete
broken.
The only solution now is to scrape it off the stone bit by bit.
However, water from far away cannot quench the thirst of nearby people. Just the little sulfur collected every day to supply nearly 100,000 troops and 5,000 or 6,000 cans of large and small artillery is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket and is just a pipe dream.
The so-called tiger and old man are still in great power, which is the most appropriate metaphor for the Yuan and Wei Dynasties at this time.
Even if the imperial court suffered a series of defeats, lost troops and generals, and could no longer sustain food and grass, it lasted for a month but never came down. But if it were really a sword-to-knife or a gun-to-gun battle, it would be far from being invincible in the West Sea.
Because fighting a war is essentially based on national strength and accumulation.
And this happens to be Li Chengzhi's shortcoming. Just like today's Xihai, he is at most a wolf cub that has just learned to walk. It looks fierce, but in fact it has just learned to show its teeth.
If there is no more gunpowder, let alone just learning to walk, I am afraid that it will be worse than a wolf cub that has not been weaned. No matter how ferociously you scream, it will be hard to get rid of the milky sound. No matter how old the tiger is, the wolf cub will really not know whether to live or die.
If you push it up, it's just a matter of opening your mouth to be swallowed.
Therefore, instead of letting the enemy expose the fact that the West China Sea is a foreign power and a domestic power, it is better to accept it as soon as possible and avoid making mistakes.
Therefore, Li Chengzhi never had the ambition to plot in Guanzhong. The reason why he fought on both sides was that he was forced to the edge of the cliff and mustered up his courage to give it a try.
As the saying goes, take life and death lightly and do it if you don't accept it. Li Chengzhi is already prepared to be successful if he doesn't succeed.
If he dies, there is no need to talk about anything. If he is lucky enough to survive, then he will lead the remaining troops to Dunhuang. If not, then he will go to the Western Regions.
If you can't defeat the Yuan and Wei dynasties, can you still defeat a few small countries in the Western Regions that drink blood from their flesh and blood?
But who would have thought that it would be as if God had an eye and suddenly gave him a trick, how to fight and how to win?
Li Chengzhi even wondered if he was possessed by Liu Xiu and suddenly became a son of the plane?
On April 19, Li Chengzhi received a report from Shandan Racecourse that Tuyuhun had recruited more than 90,000 elite cavalry, known as 200,000. They met in Salt Lake on April 18. The troops were divided into six groups, four of which followed King Zuoguli.
After entering Nanmen Pass, only the southern part of Tianzhu was temporarily stationed in the north of Salt Lake.
Huangfu Rang said that he had made arrangements. On the night of the 21st, when Murong Xiao led his army out of Nanmen Pass, he would join forces with Xi Zuo who was lurking in the south of Tianzhu, and attack the south of Tianzhu who was staying in the Salt Lake at night.
Although it was only regarded as a casual game at the time, Li Song and Huangfu Rang had been setting up operations in Tuyuhun for more than four years. There were not a thousand but eight hundred spies placed in various ministries. Therefore, Li Chengzhi concluded that this battle was a sure win.
However, in order to prevent Tuyuhun's counterattack, after much deliberation, he ordered Daxi and Zhang Jingzhi to reorganize the army. When the news of Huangfu Rang's victory came, he ordered them to march eastward to rush for reinforcements.
Sure enough, only two nights and one day later, at dusk on April 22nd, Huangfu Rang sent his cavalry again to report that the southern part of Tianzhu was caught off guard and was completely defeated in just one night. Moreover, because Huangfu Rang had expected the enemy to
First, he formed his troops in the east of the Salt Lake in advance, so the news was not leaked, so he thought he could repeat the old trick and use it against Murong Xiao.
Huangfu Rang also said that he had secretly contacted Li Han, who was the former military camp commander of Murong Xiao, the famous king of Tuyuhun, and agreed to cooperate with outsiders to attack Nanmen Pass on the night of April 23rd.
This has been deduced a long time ago. The purpose is to use the power of thunder to bloom in the center of the hinterland of Tuguhun first, making it difficult to see the head and tail, and to be caught off guard. Then, when you are sick, you will be sick, and give you another blow at the key point of the lower back, so that
You know how powerful it is, and you know how scary it is.
By that time, even the Yuan and Wei Dynasties promised Tuyuhun a golden mountain, and Murong Xiao had to withdraw his troops.
For this reason, Li Chengzhi also gave Huangfu a sixteen-word policy: surprise the enemy by surprise, attack when he is unprepared, and attack as fast as you can.
Of course, a strategy is just a strategy. Whether it can be realized or not depends on whether Huangfu can implement it properly, whether God will give him face, and whether he is lucky. Therefore, even Li Chengzhi himself is not sure of victory.
When he entered Shanshan, Cui Yanbo claimed to have millions of soldiers under his command. Naturally, Li Chengzhi didn't believe it. But even with a discount, he should have 300,000.
Adding the more than 60,000 troops from Tuyuhun, this is an army of nearly 400,000 people. And how many troops did Huangfu Rang have in his hands?
Counting all the people transporting grain and artillery, the herdsmen at Shandan Horse Farm, and the herdsmen, there will be more than 40,000 people.
The enemy's force is ten times greater than his own. If Huangfu fails to make a surprise attack, he may be surrounded by Murong Xiao and Cui Yanbo. Even though he has two thousand cannons, large and small, but the so-called ants kill an elephant. If Cui Yanbo and Murong Xiao dare to kill the fish, they will be killed.
Regardless of casualties, Huangfu's army would most likely be destroyed.
By then, the number of troops in Xihai will be reduced to at least three-thirds of ten. And this is only the second step. The most important thing is that Li Chengzhi has no more troops to dispatch. To the south and east of Zhenyi, he can only open the door wide for Cui Yanbo to invade.
At that point, Li Chengzhi will only have two options: fight to the death or escape as soon as possible.
But even Li Chengzhi himself did not expect that not only would this battle go smoothly, but Huangfu Rang would also demonstrate the essence of "blitzkrieg"?