Country color

Chapter 72: The Big Fist of the Sandbag
In the early morning of the next day, there was little smoke in the forest, and the common people snuggled together to keep each other warm.

Last night gave everyone a good weather. Although the wind blew all night, fortunately there was no snow.

Li Chongjiu ordered Tanzong to lead people to find two or three people who could play drums, give them a few drums left by Wang Mazi's men, and beat the drums with his hands in front of them.

Li Chongjiu told the people that everything is like an order in the army, and the leather drum shall prevail. If the leather drum sounds, you will move forward, and if the leather drum stops, you will stop and rest. If you do not hear the sound of the leather drum, it means that you have fallen behind.

In the jungle, they rubbed for a while. At Mao's time, everyone finished packing up, the sky was still dark, and there was only a little light in the east, and all the people started to walk together.

Li Chongjiu and Tan Zong are now leading the young men together with the brothers from Shaolin Temple to lead the way, while the common people follow behind, and if they can't follow, they can only listen to them. That's it.

Among the people on the road, the old and the young carry each other, supporting the elderly, and the women hold the babies, taking care of each other and moving forward.All the way, the voice of calling children and calling mothers continued.

Li Chongjiu personally led the young and strong to the front, maintaining a forward speed of three to four kilometers per hour, resting every two hours, and Li Chongjiu sent ten scouts like this from time to time to scout the terrain ahead.

After walking for more than half a day, a twenty-foot-wide river appeared in front of us. People who asked the way knew that it was the Sushui River, which ran directly into the Yellow River. If you go up the river, you can reach Jiangjun.

In winter, there is no need to worry about flooding along the river. Li Chongjiu is currently stationed by the river.The common people, regardless of the coldness of the river, jumped into the river, caught fish, picked up some mussels and snails, smashed them open with stones, and ate them.

However, there are more than 3000 people here. There are too many monks and too little porridge, and the fish in the river are all caught in a few strokes.On the contrary, Li Chongjiu ordered Qingzhuang to go out together, took dozens of large nets, and went directly to catch fish in the shallow water upstream, and caught nearly [-] catties of fish.

Li Chongjiu ordered more than a dozen women to start cooking the nearly two hundred catties of fish, and asked every young and strong man to eat one. Except for a small amount of fish that was given to the women and children who took care of the children, the rest were all bandaged as an emergency. For military rations.

On the next day, Li Chongjiu continued to beat the drum and marched for three consecutive days at the same hour of Mao.

Going upstream straight up the Sushui River is getting shallower and shallower, and the food is getting less and less as you go, so Li Chongjiu decided to turn the road to Guan Road.Without the river water supply, everyone is hungry for a day.

Li Chongjiu counted the number of people that night, and found that in the past three days, more than 200 people had been lost or disappeared. Some of them were too weak to keep up with the team, and some left voluntarily. normal range.

It took another two days to enter Jiangjun from Hedong County, and there was no food for another two days. The people who followed Li Chongjiu all had disheveled faces. Sorry.

Seeing this, Li Chongjiu knew that he couldn't hold on any longer. He was entering the boundary of Xia County, so Li Chongjiu decided to take more than 20 people including Tan Zong into the city to buy food.

After bribing the city guards, Li Chongjiu and Tanzong entered the city.Xia County's defenses are loose on the outside and tight on the inside. At least two regiments (Note [-]) of county soldiers are stationed in the city.

Right now, the huge Xia County is full of people, and the garrison is full of people.At the beginning, Li Chongjiu thought it was because he was harassed by refugees, so the people in the nearby villages had to go to the city to escape. Later, he found out that most of the people stationed in the city were business travelers.

From Hedong County to Jiang County, it was originally the main road for transporting Lu salt (Note 10,000) to Taiyuan County.However, in Jiangjun and Fenyang counties in front, there are [-]+ bandits such as Chai Baochang and Mu Duan'er entrenched, and the officers and soldiers are currently unable to get through the official road.

When the salt channel is broken, not only the people who rely on it for food will worry, but even the merchants will be more worried.

You know, from the Central Plains to Shanxi and Hebei, you must pass through the Yellow River.On the Yellow River, there are three main ferry crossings, namely Pujin, Mengjin and Baimajin.

Pujin is located to the east of Xijing, and the river can be crossed from Guanzhong to Hedong in Shanxi, which is also the road that Li Chongjiu just passed from Xijing to Hedong.

And Mengjin is in the north of Luoyang, crossing the river to Hanoi County. This is also the place where King Wu of Zhou defeated the Yin and Shang Dynasties and met eight hundred princes to swear to be teachers. Li Chongjiu crossed the Yellow River from Shangdang County to Shishan at the beginning.

However, due to the looting of the water boats in Wagangzhai, the officers and soldiers not only blocked the Heyang floating bridge, but also detained all the ferry boats at the ferry crossing. As a result, Li Chongjiu had to make a big circle and cross the river from Pujin.As for Baimajin, needless to say, it is currently the hardest-hit area for bandits.

Therefore, the break of Hedong made it impossible to pass through to Taiyuan County, so a large number of traders blocked here.

After Li Chongjiu heard about it, he really wanted to drop by and take this business, but the merchants didn't trust them, they were refugees.

Therefore, Li Chongjiu could only go to the rice shop in the city to buy rice as usual.

It’s okay if you don’t buy rice. Once you buy rice, you really gain a lot of knowledge. Even if you go to two or three rice shops in the city, they all hang up the sold out signs, and the only rice shop that is in operation is There was a sea of ​​people, and countless people held bags of rice, shouting and looking outside the door.

Many young and strong beat each other for a good position. The old man was stomping his feet, the child was crying, the order was very chaotic, while the county soldiers guarding the rice store were doing nothing, just holding long guns, either happily Watching, or looking up at the sky.

"Senior brother, don't worry, let me fight my way with a pair of fists, and I will definitely buy rice today."

There are many people who have seen it, but Tanzong is eager to try it.

Li Chongjiu squeezed out from the crowd, shook his head, and said, "There's no need to line up."

"Why?" "120 coins a bucket!" Li Chongjiu broke out these words in a deep voice.

"Eating people!" Tan Zong couldn't help exclaiming.

"All rice merchants like this should be killed." Li Chongjiu said with hatred. It is really a troubled time to eat people. In the seventh year of the great cause, the price of rice was six yuan a dou. This year, it is forty yuan a dou in Xijing. In Xia County, no matter how expensive the price of rice is, it should not exceed sixty cents a bucket, but it has risen to this point today. It can only be said that the rice merchants are hoarding and taking the opportunity to drive up the price of grain.

"No conscience, no conscience! You actually bought rotten rice for 120 Wen." An old man passed by dejectedly holding half a bag of rice.

"It's good to have food." The person on the side comforted, looking at the old man with half a bag of rice, his eyes showed greed.

In such a world, it is no wonder that everyone is against each other. In this sluggish Xia County, the only one who can compete with the prosperity of the rice market is the Renshi next door.The common people there are selling their sons and daughters, and there are people who are waiting to be sold everywhere. A girl of twelve or thirteen years old can buy a slave for two or three pennies as long as she sells her hand.

Let's go, and think of a way, Li Chongjiu took a last look at the rice market and said, it's not that he doesn't buy rice, but even if he buys rice, if he takes out all the money on his body, it won't be enough for three thousand refugees to eat.

It's too expensive to afford.

Li Chongjiu and Tanzong came out of the rice market, and when they were passing an inn in the city, they suddenly heard a heavy object hammering inside.

I saw a woman in a fancy red dress, kicking her foot on the table, shouting: "You are such street slaves, you actually bullied my old lady, have you seen a fist the size of a sandbag?" Li Chongjiu heard the voice It sounded familiar, turned around and saw that the woman in the inn who was furious was none other than Sun Erniang, the head of the Li Family Escort Bureau.

Note 200: The military system of Sui County, two brigades and one regiment, [-] people, with a school lieutenant.

Note [-]: Lu salt is the salt produced in Jiezhou Yanchi.

(End of this chapter)