Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 109: Love for the People

then,

Wu Gui, the prefect of Chuzhou, gave a warm reception to the Huaiyin envoy who had been under house arrest.

Of course, he had absolutely no other intention.

Chuzhou has not yet reached the point of direct surrender.

According to Wu Gui, he simply admired General Fang's character, which was why he entertained General Fang's envoy, and that was all.

During these few days, no clues were found about the previous grain route. The government troops seemed to know that the situation had been exposed, so they hid themselves and stopped secretly transporting grain.

Fang Yong sent people to conduct a thorough investigation on this matter and absolutely would not allow any more food to be transported to Chuzhou from outside!
At the same time, Fang Yong's own army had used up more than half of its food and fodder, so he ordered Xue Dacuizi to bring people to transport food over.

The food and fodder had been prepared long ago and were quickly transported to Jinling. After Shen Tu took over, he sent people to deliver them to Chuzhou.

However, Fang Yong forgot to remind Shen Tu that the terrain in Chuzhou was rugged and difficult to travel, and it was somewhat difficult for the grain transport troops to deliver grain and fodder, and there were some errors in the connection.

In order to resolve the matter, Shen Tu consulted Fang Yong and issued a temporary military order.

As long as anyone can assist the Huaiyin army in transporting food and fodder, regardless of their background, they will be rewarded with food according to their contribution!
No one expected how this policy would develop into.

Soon after the decree was issued, a large number of people suddenly emerged in Chuzhou, which was originally "vast and sparsely populated".

One by one, ragged civilians emerged from the mountains and forests. Their skinny bodies burst out with strength that surpassed that of the Huaiyin soldiers, and they pushed the grain carts along the rugged road.

After working so hard for a whole day, the reward is just three or four taels of coarse grains.

They just want to stay alive and have something to eat.

Fang Yong personally saw an old man pushing a cart with his granddaughter.

The old man was wearing some rags that barely counted as clothes.

The granddaughter was naked, wrapped only in some hay, and covered in dirty black mud. She could even be said to be a savage. If it weren't for the emptiness, Fang Yong would not have noticed that this was a girl.

It is hard to imagine how the grandfather and grandson survived in the deep forest.

There were some damaged and worn-out clothes and uniforms in Fang Yong's army. He took out some of them as rewards to those civilians who had made great contributions to the Huaiyin Army.

The people are naturally grateful.

The old man knelt on the ground and kowtowed in thanks.

Whether Fang Yong did it for show or to win people's hearts, he personally helped the other person up.

This made the old man cry even more.

We had a brief chat.

Fang Yong asked about their life in the mountains.

The old man replied: "I fight with mountain monkeys for wild fruits, fight with flying birds for grass insects, live in caves to protect myself from tigers and wolves in the severe winter, and cover myself with dry grass to hide my shame."

It is hard to imagine how cruel these few short sentences are.

The people who had been farming for thousands of years ended up returning to their original state.

Fang Yong was amazed at their tenacious ability to survive, but also lamented the endless hardships of their lives.

During the conversation, Fang Yong suddenly thought, would someone like the old man who survives in the mountains know the hidden food route of the government army that he has never been able to find?

Fang Yong asked the old man further.

"Grain route?"

The old man lowered his head and thought.

Fang Yong didn't expect the old man to answer it directly. He just suddenly thought of this. It didn't matter even if the old man had never seen it. There were countless people like the old man who survived in the mountains and forests, and it was very likely that they had seen traces of the government troops.

But at this moment, as if luck favored Fang Yong, the old man thought of something and suddenly raised his head and said:

"General, I do have some impression of this old man, but I don't know if it's what you're looking for."

Fang Yong said quickly:
"Please speak quickly."

The old man recalled and organized his words, then said:

"About six or seven days ago, there was a kid named Niu Dan who hid in the mountains with us. He went out hunting and died in a wild horse pit. He was killed by someone, and it was very likely that it was the government troops."

"How do you know?" Fang Yong asked. The old man replied, "Because if it was killed by wild animals or disaster victims, they would not leave behind corpses and clothes."

After getting the clue, Fang Yong quickly sent people to investigate.

Liang Lie's injuries had not yet healed, but he still volunteered.

Fang Yong felt that Liang Lie had some ability and wanted to promote him, so he gave him the task.

At this time, Liang Lie had been promoted from a team leader in charge of fifty people to a captain in charge of two hundred people.

The old man and his granddaughter were given a full meal, changed into new clothes, and then quickly followed Liang Lie to the so-called Yemakeng.

When they arrived at the location, they found a depression in the forest with a lot of stinky water and mud. The body was naturally gone.

Liang Lie was not discouraged and took his soldiers to conduct a careful survey nearby.

In fact, the soldiers of Huaiyin Army had been here before, but the mountains and forests were vast and there were many plants and trees, so it was impossible to check every footprint one by one, so they left after a simple inspection.

Now that they had a clue, Liang Lie ordered his men to conduct a thorough investigation, leaving no blade of grass or tree untouched.

Sure enough, the trace was soon found.

In a forest, although it was well hidden, Liang Lie still found a secret path.

The surface of this road seemed to be covered with grass and trees, just like the wilderness, but the grass and trees around it grew in a crisscross pattern and showed signs of being broken. Liang Lie, who was born a hunter, almost instantly determined that this was a dark road.

The grass and trees growing on both sides were dumped there artificially in order to cover the road, which is why the grass and trees grow in an interlaced manner.

About seven or eight miles along the road, there is a river.

There are traces of landing on the riverside. It is likely that the government troops transported grain from this river, then transported it to the vicinity of the city through a secret road, and then quietly transported grain into the city through a secret door at night.

After basically confirming the general situation, Liang Lie sent a team of people to guard the vicinity, and he quickly rushed back to report to Fang Yong.

After listening to Liang Lie's report, Fang Yong basically agreed with Liang Lie's judgment.

So he immediately sent people to secretly guard this road.

And so the siege continued.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Although the Huaiyin Army was extremely elite, the attackers were at a disadvantage in the siege anyway. Even with the bonus of sophisticated equipment, the number of casualties was no less than that of the defenders.

As for the missing soldiers, Fang Yong started recruiting locally.

Thanks to the temporary policy issued by Shen Tu earlier, a large number of people came out of the mountains and forests.

After helping to transport the food and grass, these people had no means of livelihood and were ready to return to the mountains. Fang Yong felt a little bit sorry when he saw this scene. After thinking about it, he decided to solve the military settlement problem in advance.

This saves these people from having to go back to the mountains and suffer.

To be honest, Fang Yong is a little too chaste.

Organizing military settlements in advance would increase his pressure significantly. Even though the people were very cooperative, he would still need to allocate an additional portion of military force to take charge of their supervision.

The best way is to wait until Chuzhou is captured before setting up military settlements. Only by taking it step by step can we be sure of success.

But...looking at those people who are already in such a mess.

Those who have become savages...

Be a little nicer to the people.

I was once a commoner too.

In this way, military settlement was implemented ahead of schedule.

Lianghuai is a region of high production, and with a double harvest, Fang Yong does not have to worry about food shortages.

After the policy of military settlement was implemented, more people came out of the mountains and forests.

In fact, some of them were beyond Fang Yong's expectations.

There isn't enough land to go around.

Are there so many people in Chuzhou?
Upon questioning, it turned out that many of them were from Chaozhou and even Hefei!
In this case……

(End of this chapter)