Valley Emperor

It is too dangerous to chase directly at night, but Diao Leixun can't let the pseudo-Tang bandit army run away without a trace. Although he did not let the army move that night, he still sent scouts to monitor the pseudo-Tang bandit army.

Wait until the next morning to continue the pursuit with the troops!

If you don't chase it, you can't do it. Su Jiakang's messenger arrived with his letter in the early morning. In the letter, Su Jiakang was no longer polite and scolded him directly, and even threatened to write a letter to the governor.

This made Diao Leixun feel a lot of pressure. He didn't sleep well that night, and he couldn't sleep well himself. Naturally, the next day before dawn, he called all the soldiers to start cooking on the fire. is to embark on the journey again.

But even if he started to chase again, he himself knew very well that the pseudo-Tang bandit army would not be able to catch up. The spies reported that the pseudo-Tang bandit army did not stop when it was dark yesterday, so that after one night, Those pseudo-Tang thieves have already run away almost twenty miles away.

Although the traces of these pseudo-Tang thieves have not been lost, it is basically impossible to catch up.

But even so, he still had to bite the bullet and continue to pursue. This was not to make a contribution to catching up with the annihilation of the pseudo-Tang bandit army, but just to avoid the punishment from above.

Yesterday evening, Ying Tianhu's fiasco, although the main responsibility lies with Ying Tianhu, but Ying Tianhu is still the deputy Qianhu in his Tongan Qianhu Office, his subordinate, Ying Tianhu's failure, In fact, it was his failure.

In order to avoid punishment from above, he must show a dedicated appearance!

As for Su Jiakang at the back, he was determined to annihilate the main force of these pseudo-Tang thieves, and continued to put great pressure on Diao Leixun.

As a result, Master Wang of the Tang Dynasty once again played a game of circles with the Ming army in the mountains.

Even in order to better contain the Ming army and prevent the Ming army from losing the motivation to pursue, Li Xuan kept the distance between the two sides at a distance of more than ten miles, and even brought the distance to within seven or eight miles for a time. Let the Ming army see the hope of catching up.

Just as the Ming Army and the Tang Wang Shi were circling in the mountains, Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi also returned to Huangzhu Mountain successfully with the baggage team.

When they came back, they not only brought a lot of food, but also brought together more than 30 craftsmen and other craftsmen who were attracted by various promises, such as women who were half-forcibly caught this time out of the mountain or who were full of food. Back to Huangzhu Mountain.

The arrival of a large amount of food finally eased the food crisis that had been shrouded in Huangzhu Mountain. With this batch of food from Fengjiazhuang, and the army was eating the enemy outside, there were hundreds of people left for Huangzhu Mountain. The food needed by the young and strong, so the ordinary old and weak women and children in the mountains save a little, which is theoretically enough to support them until the autumn harvest.

Seeing a large amount of grain being carried into the warehouse, Liu Bagou also smiled: "With these grains, we can support us until the autumn harvest. After the autumn harvest, we will be able to harvest enough grain here."

Huang Xueren said with a tired look on his face: "That's good, it's good to be able to survive until autumn, but now that there are so many of us, even after the autumn harvest, I'm afraid there won't be enough food!"

Liu Bagou smiled and said, "When we are busy in the summer, we are busy from morning to night, planting all the places where we can grow food, and in a few days I plan to bring people to start construction. The ditches and flood control facilities will never repeat the disaster of this spring. After the autumn harvest, we have harvested enough food for 5,000 people, and maybe there are more!"

"That's true!" Bai Yun said curiously on the side: "Now we have only a little more than 4,000 people in total, and now that the army is still outside, we can save a lot of food. In this way, we can also kidnap from outside. The population of several villages has come!"

The population growth of the Tang Dynasty never depended on natural growth, but was extremely dependent on captives.

The captives included prisoners of the Ming army, hostile bandits and their families, as well as ordinary villagers captured from outside the mountains.

In order to expand the strength of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Bagou and Li Xuan both wanted to expand the population, while Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren, the bandit leaders, were also very keen to capture more soldiers and more power. The captives supplemented the strength of the Tang Wangshi.

Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, whether it was the emperor Li Xuan, the chief assistant Liu Bagou, or the generals like Fang Dongquan and Wang Danxu, they were all very keen to capture prisoners.

The last time they left the mountain, they just brought back more than a thousand ordinary villagers.

This time, the reason why I didn’t have this plan at the beginning was because of the lack of food in Huangzhu Mountain. The original 4,000 people could not be fed, let alone a large group of people. However, since the food crisis has now been After the initial relief, it was normal for Liu Bagou and Huang Xueren to think about expanding the population.

Therefore, Liu Bagou nodded: "It can be done, but it is up to His Majesty to decide how to do it!"

Capturing hundreds of thousands of prisoners to expand the population is a major strategic issue for the Tang Dynasty. Liu Bagou and Huang Xueren naturally did not dare to decide on such a strategic matter without authorization. Li Xuan, who was recruited in person, let Li Xuan decide for himself.

In the past six months, Li Xuan's influence in the Datang Dynasty has been growing, especially when the Guards became famous in the first battle, and the subsequent establishment of the Datang New Army allowed Li Xuan to finally effectively control the armed forces of the Datang Dynasty. Even if this control still requires compromise with Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, and Wang Danxu, but as the supreme commander, he cleverly took advantage of the contradictions of Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, and Wang Danxu, and always put himself in the position of the arbiter. , and thus completely controlled the entire army.

Now it is impossible for Li Xuan to let the soldiers kill Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren, but Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and Wang Danxu are also unwilling to disobey Li Xuan, so that others can find an attack without infringing on Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and their vital interests. own excuse.

Therefore, Huang Xueren also said: "This matter naturally needs to be reported to Your Majesty, and let His Majesty make a decision in person. When this matter is over, I will bring the baggage team to meet His Majesty!"

Bai Yunqi also said: "The army that Your Majesty has brought has been holding down the Ming army for many days. I am afraid that there will be a crisis of running out of food. We'd better set off in two days to meet His Majesty!"

Liu Bagou said, "So good!"

After speaking of this, Liu Bagou paused and continued: "But the army is outside, and the priority should be to feed the enemy!"

Liu Bagou didn't say it very clearly, but Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi were not stupid. Naturally, what Liu Bagou meant was that they should not let them take too much food. If the army outside was short of food, it was best to Go directly to the outside of the mountain to 'harvest grain'.

And the food here in Huangzhu Mountain needs to be eaten by the old, weak, women and children in the mountain. If you take too much away, there will be not enough food in the mountain.

But Liu Bagou definitely couldn't take the initiative to say such words, because once he said it, he would be suspected of framing the army.

Especially now that Li Xuan is still taking the army out to deal with the Ming army. If Huang Zhushan said that Huang Xueren and the others would not be allowed to take away the food, what would happen if the army was really short of food? Liu Bagou was the leader. Fu is also unwilling to take responsibility, nor can it bear the responsibility.

So after Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi heard it, they didn't speak, they just said in unison: "This is what it should be, if you can get more grain, you still need to get more grain!"

They didn't say that they didn't bring food, but said to try to "harvest food" outside.

Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi did not stay in Huangzhu Mountain for a long time, and they set off again the next day, but the number of people who set off again was less than half, only less than a hundred people, and the food they carried was not enough. The more important materials are actually all kinds of weapons.

Including more than a dozen muskets and ammunition made by the workshop of the Ministry of Works recently, in addition to arrows, swords and other weapons supplies.

After all, no matter what kind of weapons, they are actually consumables, and the attrition rate of individual weapons is still very high. It is also very common to have gaps in the waist knife.

Not to mention lead bullets, gunpowder, arrows, which are pure consumables. In a battle, archers can shoot more than ten arrows, and a few will have seven or eight arrows. Although some of these arrows are fighting It can be recovered later, but this is based on the early stage of cleaning the battlefield after winning, and the number of arrows that can be recovered is not much. If it is defeated or the time is in a hurry, these arrows may not be recovered. of.

To maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops, timely replenishment of equipment is very necessary.

Early this morning, Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi took the baggage team to the expedition again. When they went to the edge of the mountain to meet with Li Xuan~www.wuxiaspot.com~ The Queen Mother Bai in the palace sent someone to bring a large bag of things and asked Huang Xueren and the others Send it to Li Xuan.

Empress Dowager Bai, who was worried about her son's safety, didn't put anything messy in the package, so she put a steel waist knife and a piece of soft armor that she specially asked the craftsmen to build.

In this package, there are also things sent by Dong Yunyun and Ye's. Dong Yunyun gave a pair of clothes that she claimed to have sewed by herself, but in fact most of them were clothes that Pearl did for her, and Ye's gift was her own. Sewn leather gloves.

Going upstairs and watching the baggage team go away, the Queen Mother Bai sighed and then slowly turned around and went down the stairs, murmuring softly as she walked, "It's all a bunch of trash, and Xuan'er has to let Xuan'er go to war. go!"

After listening to the old mother who was behind her, she couldn't help but muttered in her heart. When you set out on the expedition, your old man encouraged your son to go on the expedition. What did you say to establish prestige, completely control the new army, and avoid letting the generals below you? They took control of the army and rebelled.

However, these old women who can follow Queen Mother Bai are really stupid peasant women. They all have the unique shrewdness of women. Naturally, they know what to say and what not to say, so even if they hear this, There were some murmurs in my heart, but no one dared to say it.