Fenghou

Chapter 1025 Interception

The so-called one leaf knows the autumn, from the equipment and treatment of Donghu soldiers, Chen Qing knew that Wanyan Wushu's current financial resources and strength had obviously declined.

In fact, this is also inevitable. The cruel oppression of the Puppet Qi State has exhausted the people and property of the people in the Central Plains. The most important reason why Wanyan Wushu can recruit hundreds of thousands of people at once is that soldiers can eat enough. .

Han soldiers don’t have high requirements, they are satisfied with enough food, but Jurchen soldiers can’t, they have to eat meat, but now, the meat reserves in the Bianliang ice cellar are all empty, and the butcher shops on the street have also closed and gone bankrupt, and there is no meat. It can be sold, there are only some livestock and thousands of sheep left in the Wanyan Wushu army, this amount of meat is not enough at all.

Bianliang has [-] Jin soldiers, including [-] Donghu soldiers and [-] Jurchen soldiers. The Donghu soldiers are already the same as the Han soldiers. They only have noodle cakes, and at most they can drink some broth. , only a thin layer of minced meat could be sprinkled in the dough, so that the soldiers complained and their morale was obviously low.

The wheat harvest has already started, and it will be harvested within ten days at the latest, and the war will start in ten days at the earliest. Seeing that the war is imminent, the soldiers are depressed day by day. In the final analysis, the food is not good.

This is a big deal, and Wanyan Wushu has been worrying about it for the past few days. He sent two hundred sheep conscript teams to all parts of Kaifeng Mansion to search for sheep, and forcibly conscript them for military use, not only sheep, but also cattle, pigs, dogs, and poultry. All forced together.

Of course, there will be no mules, donkeys and horses. They have searched round after round, and they have been searched long ago.

Fan Gong persuaded Wanyan Wushu worriedly: "Your Majesty, other conscripts are available, but cattle are still not required. Cattle are the lifeblood of the common people. Without cattle, the land cannot be cultivated. Big things will happen. Let us let it go." Soldiers should not requisition cattle, but return the cattle to the local government.”

Wanyan Wushu knocked on the table angrily and said: "Most of the soldiers have returned, but so far, only [-] sheep, [-] pigs, [-] dogs, and more than [-] poultry have been recruited. [-] soldiers need [-] sheep for a meal, how many days do you think these foods can last?"

The lord was already angry, Fan Gong still bite the bullet and said: "But more than a thousand cows can't eat for a few days, and offended the people, so why bother, I suggest you ask Wan Yanchang for help!"

"What help!"

Wanyan Wushu stared, "They have a large amount of mutton sent from Shangjing, and a large part of it belonged to us, but he found various excuses and refused to send it. Now I beg him?"

"My lord, it doesn't matter if you lower your head once. You can find the place later. He destroyed the alliance and refused to rescue him. If the Central Plains falls, will the emperor let him go?"

Wanyan Wushu let out a long breath and said: "The cow waits a while, after getting the mutton from Hebei, it won't be too late to return it to the government!"

Wanyan Wushu then wrote an eagle letter and sent it to Wanyanchang of Daming Mansion with the eagle letter.

At dusk that day, Wanyanchang received an eagle letter from Bianliang. In the letter, Wanyan Wushu asked for [-] slaughtered sheep to be sent to Bianliang by boat.

There has been no contact between Wanyan Wushu and Wanyanchang for nearly two months. The main reason is that Wanyanwushu is very dissatisfied with Wanyanchang's attack on Taiyuan Mansion without authorization, so he ignores him. Naturally, Wanyanchang is also very angry, and also Too lazy to explain to Wanyan Wushu, the two ignored each other, which was equivalent to a cold war.

The fact that Wanyan Wushu took the initiative to write a letter asking for mutton this time was a manifestation of Wanyan Wushu's soft compromise. Although his tone was very blunt, he asked for [-] slaughtered sheep and asked for door-to-door delivery, but Looking at it from another angle, this is actually Wanyan Wushu asking for help from Wanyanchang.

It's just that Wanyan Wushu's words and tone in the letter annoyed Wanyan and Lisa a bit.

"What is must, what is must, we are his logistics camp, we can send him whatever he wants, without even saying a word of request, what does he think of us? Marshal, in my opinion, he won't send it , see if he changes his words?"

Wan Yanchang said slowly for a while: "Wu Shu has always been proud, and he will not bow his head to me unless he has to. It is estimated that his stock of meat is exhausted, and the Jurchen soldiers started to make trouble, so he wrote to me. When I am emotional, I still have to support when I should, otherwise he will sue the emperor, and I will not be able to bear it."

Wanyan and Lisa didn't expect Wanyanchang's attitude to compromise, so he could only sullenly say: "Even if the marshal wants to send it, but the Yellow River has been blocked by the Song army, we can't send it to the Yellow River!"

Wan Yanchang said indifferently: "The Song Army only has more than [-] ships. How far can he blockade? Let's send it to another place instead of Kaifeng Mansion. We will cross the Yellow River from Jezhou, then take Jishui to Juyeze. It can be transported to Bianliang, and as for the safety along the way, he will figure out his own way, and I will only be responsible for transporting it across the Yellow River."

"Although what we sent was frozen mutton, I was afraid that the time in Bianliang would be too long, and the meat would stink."

This is indeed a big problem. It takes at least half a month on the road, and the meat has long been smelly. Wan Yanchang pondered for a moment and said: "Then send it to Puyang. There is an ice cellar in Puyang. They can store it in the Puyang ice cellar first, and then eat it by themselves." Find a way to transport it back to Bianliang."

This method is good, making Puyang a transit, and the distance across the Yellow River is also the shortest.

Wanyan and Lisa bowed and said, "I'll make arrangements for the humble job!"

There is a Yuanhe restaurant near the east gate of Daming City. This is the intelligence point set up by the Intelligence Department of the Western Army in Daming City. In addition, there is a shop selling sheepskins. There are twelve scouts in total at the two points. The leader is Liu Zhen, the shopkeeper of Yuanhe Restaurant, the shopkeeper Liu Da. He is the real commander of the scout battalion. He is about forty years old.

So the intelligence department took a fancy to him and transferred him to serve as the intelligence director of Hedong City. Except for Yanshan Mansion, all information points on Hebei Road are under his jurisdiction.

Liu Zhen also received a pigeon letter from Xu Chang, asking him to pay close attention to the sheep storage pen and mutton warehouse in Daming City, keep an eye on the other party's mutton out of the warehouse, and contact Niu Gao's fleet at any time.

Jin Bing's sheep and horse city is located in the northeast of Daming City, covering an area of ​​thousands of square meters. There are two million sheep in captivity, and thousands of Jin Bing are responsible for taking care of them. Liu Zhen immediately sent five men to the nearby hills and woods to monitor.

But apart from Yangma City, the focus is on Jin Bing’s meat depot. Liu Zhen has also considered that it is unrealistic to transport live sheep from Daming to Bianliang. The solution is to ship frozen mutton.

Jin Bing’s meat storage is the ice storage of the former imperial palace. There are three in total. During the summer season, the imperial palace consumes a lot of ice every day. Now these three huge ice cellars have become Jin Bing’s grain storage, storing a large amount of mutton inside. and wine.

Liu Zhen focused on these three ice cellars.

Of course, the ice cellar is also transported to the outside through the Cao River. Every day, there are boats to transport mutton to the military camp. The time is usually at night.

This is the case almost every day, and then fresh mutton will be transported into the ice cellar by cart.

That night, in an inn on the Caohe River, several spies were staring intently at the Caohe River. During the day, there were already signs that hundreds of flat-bottomed tugboats had already entered the ice cellar area.

There was movement on the Caohe River. A group of [-] cavalrymen had already rushed to Caohe River and waited by the Caohe River.

"Here we come!" A scout scout pointed to the distance and shouted.

I saw a long fleet of ships appearing two miles away, with a lantern hanging on each ship, continuously sailing out of the ice cellar area, it was the fleet during the day.

The two spies continued to stare at the fleet, and the other rushed to inform Liu Zhen that the city gate had been closed, and Liu Zhen was also waiting in a courtyard outside the southern city, which was also an intelligence point for the Western Army.

Liu Zhen got the news that the mutton fleet had come out, and he immediately sent two of his men to ride to the Yellow River.

(End of this chapter)