Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 235 Human Life
The kitchen was steaming, and dozens of temporarily recruited masters were sweating profusely, steaming cakes for people.

In a war-torn land, every ounce of food is very precious.Abandoned farmland, dispersal of the people, and reminders from the government will severely impact agricultural production.The price of grain in Huaizhou has reached more than [-] yuan per bucket at this time, almost [-] times that of Xia Sui, which is hard to imagine in Henan, which is known as rich.

But Datong Maxing can get food!It is still a formal channel, the government opens a warehouse to release grain and sells it to them.The price is still very cheap, three hundred dollars a bucket.According to the current market in Huaizhou, a war horse can be exchanged for three dendrobiums and more grain.

This is still in Huaizhou. From time to time there are prairie horses passing through Hedong Town, and the price can't go up.If it is in other places in Henan where the war is approaching, or in Huainan and Jiangnan areas where there is always a shortage of horses, the price will rise a lot.

If there are a thousand cavalry on the battlefield, how much advantage is this?The generals will not be unaware of this.

"Save it and use it." Pei Tong watched the cooks knead the noodles one after another, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

The guy who cooked the rice smiled honestly, but his hands that kneaded the noodles did not change at all.

He knows that his boss is just kind and hard to give up, but his heart is still kind.Not to mention anything else, just getting rice and noodles from Li Hanzhi, preparing food for the households before leaving, and not being obviously greedy, this is enough to make people respect.

There are also some women and children in the kitchen to help.There is no need to pay them wages, just take care of the meals, which is very cheap.

Seeing Pei Tong sitting there feeling distressed, a little girl who was lighting a fire behind the earthen stove smiled at him.

The corner of Pei Tong's mouth twitched, and he smiled back, but it was uglier than crying.

A bit much for the money spent!Although Li Hanzhi sold grain at a low price, he also gave him a lot of horses before, and if these were included, the cost would be much higher.

But there is no other way, it would be nice if Li Hanzhi could sell you food.Pei Tong had vaguely heard someone say that this guy even ate human flesh when he was short of food, so what can't he do?If it was an ordinary businessman, he would probably have robbed him long ago. There are only things like war horses, which every warlord dreams of. After all, Li Hanzhi didn't dare to snatch them.

It is not that Chase Horse Bank has not been robbed.

In the past, An Shiru, the envoy of Yicheng Jiedu, snatched more than a hundred horses from them, but he never went there to do business again. An Shiru had no horses to use, and the cavalry became infantry after a few battles. Everyone You can see it all.

Furthermore, there are generally not many horses in the horse shops in Henan.If you want to buy it, you have to send someone over to discuss it, and then Datong Maxing will dispatch it from the Hezhong Mansion. Wang Chongrong's site is in a stable order and has a large amount of stock.

Baskets and baskets of flatbread were sent out into the yard, where they were soaked in vinegar, dried and collected.

Several children surrounded there, drooling.

Pei Tong sighed, and ordered his attendants to take some cakes for the children.

"Thank you for the reward from the General Office." The children, who were not very old but could speak fluently, came forward to thank them one after another.

Pei Tong looked at their skinny appearance and shook his head.

The warriors are fighting back and forth, what a crime, let's see how you beat them up in the local area!Everyone is dying, you know?
"Director, it's time to go." A follower walked in and reported.

"Let's go then. Go to Mengzhou. We have to find out. Whether Li Hanzhi's ranger did it or Sun Ru's people did it, we have to find out." Pei Tong got up and took the Whip, said.

Three hundred horses were lost in Mengzhou last month.It was supposed to be taken to Heyang to give to Sun Ru, but they were robbed halfway, and 20 people died. I don't know who did it.Pei Tong couldn't sit still in the river, so he took 200 people and personally escorted [-] to [-] horses to Huaizhou to deliver the goods to Li Hanzhi, and then crossed the river to the three cities of Heyang to investigate what was going on.

To be honest, he didn't want to come, he was afraid of death, but there was no way.

Hezhong and Shanguo, where the Wang brothers are in power, are relatively stable, and Hedong, which is controlled by the commander-in-chief's brother-in-law, is not bad, but Henan is really chaotic, mainly because there are many rebellious soldiers!

Qin Zongquan coerced Ding Zhuang at every turn, creating an army of tens of thousands to 10,000+.However, it is conceivable that the morale of this kind of troops is very low, and there are many fugitives.However, these fugitives often still carry their equipment, and after they travel to various places, they are a great disaster and very dangerous.

In addition, there were also some deserters in Zhu Quanzhong's army.They were not recruited by force, so they would not have escaped.However, Zhu Quanzhong implemented a strict system of pulling out and beheading the team. When the officer leading the team died, the whole team would be beheaded.

This is all evil!
Now the situation in Henan has also reached a critical point.

The area in the northwest is roughly controlled by Li Hanzhi and Zhang Quanyi (Zhang Yan).

This pair of brothers and sisters had been forced by Qin Zongquan to have nowhere to go to heaven and nowhere to go to earth.

In Dongdu, he was beaten and fled, and when he arrived in Heyang, he was killed and defeated.But they are also tenacious, repeatedly defeated.Qin Zongquan's people didn't have much awareness of managing the land. Anyway, they were robbing, and they would not live in one place for a long time. After they left, the two picked up the land like rubbish.

In the second half of last year, Li Hanzhi ran to Heyang Town, which was abandoned by Qin Zongquan's people, and Zhang Quanyi went to Luoyang with trepidation at the beginning of this year.As a result, a while ago, Qin Zongquan's department killed Sun Ru and brought thousands of people back to Heyang. Li Hanzhi was defeated and the five counties of Mengzhou were occupied, so he ran away to Huaizhou again.

Fortunately, Sun Ru didn't have any big ambitions, and he didn't bother to move after occupying Mengzhou, which gave Li and Zhang a place to stay.But even so, the two of them were like frightened birds, ready to escape at any time.

Otherwise, do you think Datong Ma Xing will ignore the recruitment of soldiers in Heyang Town and Henan Prefecture?Li Hanzhi said that this person is not much different from Sun Ru in essence, but Zhang Quanyi still has the idea of ​​​​managing the territory.But now the military is the most important thing, the military equipment is not enough, no matter how well the site is managed, isn't it all prepared for others?
Datong Horse Company has war horses that are scarce in war-torn areas, which destined them to be guests of various forces, including Sun Ru.

Pei Tong actually met Sun Ru once.He looks very elegant, but if you understand what he does, you would never dare to say such a thing.It is common to massacre states and counties and eat human flesh, and the level of brutality is no different from that of Qin Zongquan.

Sun Ru is a warrior, so naturally he also likes war horses.But in their current situation, whether it is Li Keyong or Hebei horse merchants, it is not easy to openly sell horses to them, they can only sell them privately, but the quantity is small and the price is high.Only Datong Maxing, the price is not too outrageous, and it is acceptable to exchange people, which makes Sun Ru very happy.

Pei Tong brought 200 people, all of whom were party members recruited on the Hengshan and Youzhou grasslands, as guards.

At noon on the 23rd, he arrived in the north of Heyang County, Mengzhou, and met a group of people who were retreating northward in a hurry. After a closer look, it turned out that they were from Heyang Datong.

"Li will do it, why go and return it?" Pei Tong was startled, stepped forward and asked.

He had some vague guesses, but now he still needs to confirm.

"It turns out to be President Pei." Li Fa looked shocked, and took Pei Tong's arm to send him on the horse. He said anxiously: "Go quickly, the general manager, there is a like-minded military academy in Sun Ru's army to tell him in private. A certain day, Qin Zongquan was defeated by soldiers from the four towns at the foot of Bianzhou city, and he wanted to gather the generals from all over the place to join him. Sun Ru wants to slaughter the city and leave, and he has probably already started to do it now."

"What!" Although he vaguely guessed it, Pei Tong was still very surprised, and said, "Why did they lose more than a hundred thousand troops?"

"Qin Zongquan attacked Bianzhou with 15 people. At the critical moment, more than [-] soldiers from the three towns of Yicheng, Tianping, and Taining were killed. Send soldiers and horses from all over the country to go south with him," Li Fa said.

Of course, this is all the information he inquired from Sun Rujun, which may not be accurate.But how to say, he thinks the details may be open to debate, but in general he is right.Qin Zongquan lost more than [-] troops, and hurriedly retreated to Zhengzhou, and lost confidence, he didn't want to fight Zhu Quanzhong anymore, and planned to find soft persimmons elsewhere.

"Why are the Zhu brothers so unwise? What benefits can they gain from helping Zhu Quanzhong? Didn't they almost fight for Huazhou?" Pei Tong was very puzzled. In the east, Xuanwu Town was separated from the states where Qin Zongquan was based. He helped Zhu Quanzhong defeat Qin Zongquan, and he couldn't get the territory, so it was no good at all.

"Zhu Quanzhong is cunning, capable of bending and stretching. He bowed down in front of the Zhu brothers and flattered him, earning them tens of thousands of troops to help." Li Fadao: "No matter what, it has come true. Boss, this Mengzhou is afraid It’s ruined, so let’s withdraw as soon as possible, lest there will be a change.”

When Pei Tong heard it, it was true.Sun Ru is about to massacre the city. Is it meaningful to investigate who has robbed the horse at this time?
However, he just got on the horse, and he hesitated again.

Just go back, the commander-in-chief knows, what will he say?
"General Manager..." Li Fa urged.

Pei Tong reached out his hand to stop him, and was silent for a moment.After a while, he squeezed out a smile and said, "Li will do it, it seems that you still have to go back to Mengzhou."

Li Fa's eyes widened, and he said in a trembling voice, "Boss, Sun Ru wants to massacre the city, why...why do you want to go back."

Pei Tong's face was a little ashamed, but he still said: "The five counties of Heyang have tens of thousands of people. Sun Rutu just wanted to prevent them from being left to Zhu Quanzhong. This hurts the peace of heaven. If we don't run into each other, it will be fine." Now, if we meet, and we don’t do anything in the end, what will the commander-in-chief know about us?”

Then why don't you go?Li Fa slandered in his heart, but it was hard to say the words, so he could only put on a bitter face and said, "Prince, why bother? Although the commander-in-chief will be happy to get more people back, and there may be a big reward. But This is Sun Ru, doesn't the general manager know about his virtues? He kills people at every turn and is extremely cruel..."

"Just tell Sun Ru, let him let the people go, and we will send people to gather them up. After that, we will give him [-] horses. Well, five hundred first. If the people are successfully taken away by us, there will be more horses." A thousand horses are offered. He is going to leave anyway, and this horse is free, so I will definitely be willing." Pei Tong said.

"General Office, how can we get rid of tens of thousands of people in five counties?"

"Sun Ru slaughtered the city, why didn't the people leave?" Pei Tong said: "Furthermore, Li Hanzhi fled from Guangzhou to Henan Prefecture and then to Heyang. Most of the subordinates are discouraged. I happen to know a few and ask them to help. We can go back to Xiazhou together afterwards. In addition, we have about [-] people in the horse company, which is enough."

"General Manager..." Li Fa was stunned.

He was not from the Yamen Army, nor had he ever fought in a war, so he was naturally flustered when he encountered this.But seeing Pei Tong's resolute appearance, his heart sank.

"Li will take care of it. It's not appropriate to delay this matter. Don't worry, Sun Ru usually treats us very well, so let's go."

Li Fa was stunned for a long time, but he had no choice, and finally he could only bite the bullet and say: "Since that's the case, I have nothing to say, so I'll go back to Mengzhou. If anything happens, please ask the general office to help take care of the whole family. "

After finishing speaking, he ordered a few people, got on his horse and headed towards Heyang.

Pei Tong stared intently for a long time, then stomped his feet, turned and left.

This time, he also fought.He is better informed than the others, knowing that the commander-in-chief's fight is going well, and there is an urgent need for a large number of Kanto population after the war. If he can help him solve the urgent need, the status of the Pei family in the town will definitely rise sharply.

As for the food needed for immigration, it is indeed troublesome, but there are actually ways to do it.

(End of this chapter)