The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 225 Smoke from cooking, fighting for food

June twenty.

Xinye, Guards camp.

Inside the handsome account.

"Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai haven't left Nanyang City yet?" Liu Sheng read the news sent back by the Nanyang spies and couldn't help but sneered, "It's true that if God wants to destroy them, they must first make them crazy."

At first, Liu Sheng learned that Nanyang had been captured by Li and Luo. What he was most worried about was that after the two men plundered money, food, and people, they immediately destroyed Nanyang City and ran away.

In this case, if he wanted to retaliate, he would have no choice but to attack Henan Prefecture - which was not in line with the Wei tribe's strategic plan.

But now that the two of them are still staying in Nanyang City, don't blame him for being rude.

Before, he attacked Nanyang because he was really short of soldiers and horses.

However, Shen Wandeng returned yesterday with more than 3000 cavalrymen rushing to aid Ye County.

Shen Zhaoxian, who was stationed in Yuzhou, and Huang Gan, who was stationed in Biyang and Tangxian, also said that the local garrison and civilian warriors had been trained for a long time and were sufficiently qualified for defense work. A regiment of standing troops commanded by each of them could be called upon at any time.

In addition, the Red Lady asked Zhang Guying to bring a regiment of the Fourth Brigade from Queshan to Xinye for support.

Liu Sheng's available personal guards and standing troops have been increased to more than 2, and he can definitely have another battle with Li and Luo in Nanyang!
···
Nanyang City.

Outside the west city gate, break into the camp.

When Nanyang City was captured, because there were few troops around him, Li Zicheng only controlled the west gate, and the military camp was set up outside the west gate.It is convenient to enter the city and to retreat at any time.

The other three city gates are all controlled by Luo Rucai.

Therefore, most of the city was occupied by Luo Rucai's troops.

This morning, Li Zicheng was reading a letter from Li Guo in his tent.

Although there were many generals under his command, Li Zicheng trusted his eldest nephew Li Guo the most.

In addition, some time ago, the spy he sent to Shaanxi sent back news that Fu Zonglong had succeeded as the governor of the three sides, was gathering and training troops in Xi'an, and seemed to be leaving Tongguan and entering Henan at any time.

Li Zicheng had been besieged and suppressed by the Ming Dynasty for many years, and he also had his own understanding of the Ming civil servants.He believes that Fu Zonglong can be ranked among the top five in terms of the actual level of the encirclement and suppression of the rebel army.

The remaining four are Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, and Zheng Chongjian.

Therefore, Li Zicheng was still quite afraid of the newly succeeded Trilateral Governor Fu Zonglong.

Therefore, after Li Guo captured Ruzhou, Li Zicheng ordered him to return to Luoyang to strengthen the defense of Lushi, Yongning, and Mianchi.

In this letter, Li Guo conveyed some important military and political affairs of Henan Province.

The main reason is that the famine in Henan Prefecture has become more serious.

Although this year's drought came later and was not as serious as last year, because Henan Prefecture has been affected by military disasters since last autumn, and there are not many people who can farm safely, so the food they can receive this year is not as much as last year.

The summer harvest has just passed, but many places in Henan Prefecture are still plagued by famine, and cannibalism has become a common phenomenon. Military advisor Li Yan is very worried about this.

After reading the letter, Li Zicheng frowned. He felt that the scar in his blind eye was pulsing and aching, making him particularly irritable.

'Why is it so difficult to sit in one place? '

'That boy named Liu occupied Runing Mansion and also occupied Nanyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion. How did he deal with the years of famine? '

'It's really not as comfortable as being a bandit. No matter what's gone, you can rob his mother and eat his mother. '

'···'

After thinking wildly for a while, Li Zicheng felt that he still had to find a way to collect more money and food from Nanyang and bring it back.

He couldn't control the hungry people in Henan Prefecture, but he had to take care of the soldiers under his command.Otherwise, if a quarrel breaks out, he, the King of Chuang, may not be able to suppress it.

At this time, Luo Hu, a cavalry general under his command, came to the tent and reported loudly: "King Chuang, Luo Rucai's people have robbed another family that we are targeting!"

Li Zicheng walked out and asked with a gloomy face: "What exactly happened?"

"That family was probably hiding in the cellar and cooking secretly. There was light smoke coming out of the vent for a while. Our people noticed it first and rushed over to find the entrance to the cellar when Luo Rucai's people came running.

Taking advantage of the large number of people, they drove the people out. After finding the cellar, they took away several stones of food stored in that family! "

The war disaster has been going on for so many years, and the people are not stupid, and many of them store food in cellars.And many people have more than one cellar at home. If you don't tell them, it will be difficult for outsiders to find the entrance to the cellar.

It has been seven or eight days since Li and Luo captured Nanyang City. Now, no ordinary people can be seen in the entire Nanyang City.

Most of the young and strong men were recruited into the army by Li and Luo, and a few died.

As for the remaining people, they are like mice, huddled in their homes or hiding in cellars.

Therefore, the grain harvesting team under Li and Luo now looks for smoke wherever there is smoke.

Smoke means someone started a fire to cook, which means there is food to grab.

Most people don't dare to light a fire to cook, but there are always various reasons why they need to risk making a fire.

Li Zichen felt that the benefits were unevenly distributed after the capture of Nanyang City, and wanted to find an opportunity to talk to Luo Rucai.After hearing this, he thought it was an opportunity and immediately said angrily: "How unreasonable! Call the cavalry and go find Luo Rucai to reason!"

"Order!"

Now Li Zicheng's infantry has increased to more than [-], but the cavalry is still only more than [-], and more than half of them are inferior horses and mules.

At this age, people had nothing to eat and naturally could not afford to raise mules and horses. Therefore, Li Zicheng could not replace the mules and horses he lost in Nanyang, so he had fewer cavalry than after the battle of Jitan.

After a while, Li Zicheng led more than [-] cavalry to the outside of Luo Rucai's camp in the north of the city.

Although Luo Rucai loved to enjoy himself, he was also cautious and did not station himself in the city.Because he was stationed in the city and it was inconvenient to evacuate - he was ready to run away at any time.

Luo Rucai's camp was very large, stretching from the north to the east of the city.

Because the number of soldiers and horses under Luo Rucai's command has now returned to more than 6. If the women he plundered into the army are included, the number may be as many as [-]!

Li Zicheng saw that the outer layout of Luo Rucai's camp was chaotic and the defense was lax, and he suddenly had the idea of ​​​​leading his cavalry to rush in and kill Luo Rucai.

But he knew very well that Luo Rucai's old camp must be heavily defended. If he really rushed in with his cavalry, he might not be able to kill Luo Rucai.

Even if he really killed Luo Rucai here, it would be difficult to control Luo Rucai's generals, and he would probably take advantage of Liu Sheng.

If he wanted to devour all Luo Rucai's tribe, he would have to wait until Luo Rucai went to Henan Prefecture.

Rumble.

Luo Rucai also came out with more than [-] horses.

Seeing Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai burst out laughing and said, "Brother Li, why did you think of E Lao Luo here? Come on, why are you bringing so many cavalry? It's really nervous."

Li Zicheng said with a straight face: "Nervous? Why weren't you nervous when you asked your men to grab our food?"

"Well, since when did someone steal your food?" Luo Rucai looked puzzled.

Li Zicheng didn't bother to say more, so he asked Luo Hu to tell the whole story.

Then he said: "Lao Luo, now that you have more troops and you have really contributed to the attack on Nanyang, the Tang Prince's money and food will account for [-]% of it, so I won't say anything.

But when we were collecting grain in the city later, your people occupied the east, south, and north, and kept running to the west. Now they robbed the grain cellar they discovered. Isn't it too much? "

Luo Rucai didn't argue with Li Zicheng after hearing this - he really didn't want to get into trouble with Li Zicheng.

So he turned around and feigned anger: "That bastard doesn't follow the rules and dares to steal the food that the invading army wants?"

No one responded at all to the few cavalry generals behind.

Luo Rucai has more than [-] soldiers and horses under his command, and there are only a few cavalry generals at the moment, so naturally no one will take the blame.

Luo Rucai didn't really want to find out the subordinate who "made the mistake", he just showed it, and then smiled at Li Zicheng and said: "Brother Li, this matter really can't be found out at the moment.

Besides, with your status, it would be a joke to go to war for a few stones of food.

In this way, if I give you fifty shi of food, it will be regarded as an apology. How about that? "

Li Zicheng frowned and was silent for a moment.

Although Luo Rucai's men only stole a few shi of food in this incident, Luo Rucai gave him [-] shi, as if he had taken advantage, but he felt very uncomfortable.

At this time, Luo Rucai said again: "Is the one hundred stone head office enough? Brother Li, you also have to be considerate. We have 6 to [-] people to support, and there is not much food left."

After hearing this, Li Zicheng knew that unless he wanted to break up with Luo Rucai now, this would be the only way.

Then he said: "I believe, Lao Luo, you didn't mean to teach your subordinates to come here to steal the food, but from now on, you must not let your subordinates come to the west again."

Luo Rucai smiled and said, "I'll teach them a lesson when I get back. I promise there won't be a next time! Quick, go get a hundred shi of food for King Chuang!"

A personal attendant responded and entered the camp.

Next, just as Luo Rucai was about to communicate with Li Zicheng for a while, he saw a horse galloping towards him, approached Li Zicheng and whispered something.

Li Zicheng's expression suddenly changed.

Luo Rucai asked curiously: "Brother Li, what happened?"

Li Zicheng thought for a while and decided to tell Luo Rucai the truth.

"Liu Sheng is probably coming to Nanyang to punish us - his men found many scout horses from the Wei tribe near Hengshan Temple."

Hengshan Temple is in the south, on the west bank of Baihe River, more than [-] miles away from Nanyang Fucheng.

Luo Rucai didn't expect that Li Zicheng would put the probing horse so far away, and at the same time, he was secretly glad that Li Zicheng had set the probing horse far away, otherwise they wouldn't know that Liu Sheng was here.

So he asked: "If it is true that Liu Sheng leads the troops, what should we do? Should we fight or leave?"

Li Zicheng couldn't help but said yin and yang: "You have twice as many soldiers and horses as Fou, and you account for the majority of Nanyang City. Aren't you the one who should make the decision on such a big matter? Why do you ask Fou?"

(End of this chapter)