Chapter 393: Life in troubled times is like grass In the summer and autumn of 202 AD, there was a severe drought in Yanzhou, and the locust plague was infested, and the grass seedlings in many places in the central and northern parts of Yanzhou became dead grass, and the grains were not harvested.
This is not the first major drought in Yanzhou, and the drought of 194 was even more terrifying and desperate.
That drought made people remember a name, that person was called Cheng Yu, Cheng Yu who used human flesh as the preservative.
In the aftermath of that drought, Yanzhou's millions of people were halved and starvation was rampant.
After a lapse of eight years, although after Cao Cao's governance in recent years, the severity of this drought is not as desperate as eight years ago, and the people have changed their children to survive, but for the people of Yanzhou, it is still a huge disaster.
Years of governance and savings, all swept away by the battle between the Gongsun clan and the Cao clan, the people have few surplus food, all rely on the autumn harvest to save their lives, now the drought and locust plague are parallel, it is destined to be difficult to survive.
In the vast land of hares, fish, turtles, shrimps, crabs, snakes, frogs, and voles, only poisonous toads and winged birds were left alive, and later, even the birds were not exempt from dying under the nets and slingshots. and the wild vegetables that spread all over the mountains have long been eaten, but even so, people are still starving to death one after another.
Many counties and counties have already begun to open warehouses for grain relief.
Sanyang County, Fanghe County, is one of the hardest hit counties.
At the entrance of the county ya, a porridge shed was set up, several iron kettles that were big enough to cook cattle were steaming on the firewood stove, countless hungry people lined up, and the officials waved horsewhips and scolded the hungry people who cut into the queue from time to time, and the officials in charge of distributing the porridge were also scolding.
The porridge was divided with a large wooden spoon with a long handle, and the population was one spoonful, no matter how large or small the bowl was.
The sweet porridge was drunk so loudly that I don't know how many tears dripped into the bowl, and hundreds of tongues licked the bowl after a while, and after drinking a bowl and then lined up, a few sacks of broken grain and several large wooden buckets of water were poured into the cauldron.
Even if the porridge was very thin, the food for disaster relief was still not enough to support it for a long time, and most of the good grain in the granary had been swept away by Cao Jun.
On the outskirts of the city, from time to time you can see the corpses lying on the side of the road, which are hungry people who have not been able to make it to the county, but no one has the strength to bury them, even if it is a close relative, because the little energy consumed by burying the corpse may also determine a person's life and death.
It is only the situation of Fang and County, and it is also a microcosm of the whole Yanzhou.
The whole of Yanzhou is in an emergency, and relying on the grain stocks of various counties and counties and the relief of large families is simply a drop in the bucket.
Junshui River, north bank.
More than 100,000 Gongsun troops camped along the river, and the camp tents were dotted all over the river, covering more than ten miles along the river, and the edge could not be seen at a glance, and the same was true for the Cao army on the opposite side, and the two sides arranged more than 50% of the troops on both sides of the Junshui River.
The drought makes the water level of the river lower and lower, and the shallowest place is only two or three meters deep, and if it goes on like this, it will not take a month, I am afraid that the 30,000 cavalry of the Gongsun army will be able to wade across the river, so the Cao army on the opposite side is simply unable to block the impact of the Gongsun army's iron cavalry, and can only flee.
The situation is becoming more and more favorable to Gongsun Jun, but Gongsun Bai is about to face a difficult choice.
In order to stop the impact of this catastrophe, the only way to stop the impact of this catastrophe is to transfer all the grain from the four northern states to Yanzhou to help the victims.
The southern part of Jizhou is adjacent to Yanzhou, which is also seriously affected, and once the north and south are balanced, Jizhou can only protect itself.
There is not much grain and grass that can help Yanzhou, and the state and Youzhou are bitter cold places, although there is surplus grain in the hands of the treasury and the people, but it is not very much, and only Liaodong is really rich in grain and grass.
However, there were as many as one million people to be helped, and it would take at least three or four months to give money, and it was not until Gongsun Bai planted a wave of potatoes in Yanzhou north of the Yellow River until they matured, and perhaps the famine could be alleviated a little.
There are more than 1 million hungry people in Yanzhou, and more than 1 million catties of grain are consumed every day, which is more than 100 million catties of grain in more than three months.
On the one hand, we must help the victims, and on the other hand, we must raise troops to go south to conquer Cao Cao, an army of 300,000 people, people eat horses and chew, and the daily consumption of grain and grass is also amazing, no less than the grain consumed by more than a million Yanzhou people, and no matter how smooth the war is, it cannot be ended in ten days and half a month.
A tyrant like Cao Cao, it is impossible to kill Xu Du in a few months and a half, which also requires the consumption of hundreds of millions of catties of grain and grass, according to the measurement system at that time, it is six or seven million hu of grain and grass.
Obviously, although Gongsun Bai has abundant grain and grass, it is still not enough to support the grain and grass of more than one million disaster victims and 300,000 troops at the same time.
In front of him, he was faced with two choices: either go all out for disaster relief, withdraw the soldiers and horses, and appease the victims on the one hand, and on the other hand, the army will plant potatoes in Yanzhou Tuntian, and help millions of Yanzhou people through the life-and-death situation, and then the southern expedition plan will fall short, giving Cao Cao a chance to breathe, and the battle of the Central Plains will be more variable; Either go all out to attack Cao Cao, at this time Cao Cao is the vitality is greatly injured, the weakest time, and Gongsun army has many generals, excellent armor, maybe three or five months, you can directly smash Xu Du, kill Cao Cao, so that the entire Central Plains will gradually return to Gongsun Bai, hegemony can also be achieved, but the result is to abandon millions of disaster victims, not to mention let them fend for themselves, but a large number of disaster victims starve to death is inevitable.
In the big tent of the Gongsun Army, the strategists and generals gathered together and were arguing.
The generals are also divided into two factions, to Gongsun Bai's regret, these generals who are accustomed to life and death on the battlefield have long been as hard as iron, except for a few generals such as Zhao Yun, most of the generals adhere to the view of "taking advantage of your illness and taking your life", and refuse to give up the excellent situation of sacrificing the blood and lives of countless soldiers, and ask to continue the southern expedition, capture Xudu in one fell swoop, and completely win the battle of the Central Plains.
The three major strategists, Xu Shu failed to attend the meeting on time for some reason, and Guo Jia and Pang Tong were also arguing, arguing, and refusing to give in to each other.
Pang Tong said excitedly: "Pang Tong knows that the ambition of Wei Gong lies in the peace of the people, the world is peaceful, and now the land of Yanzhou is full of hunger and mourning, how can Wei Gong ignore millions of living beings, Wei Gong should suspend the offensive and make every effort to help the people of Yanzhou, so as to show the benevolence and righteousness of Wei Gong." ” Guo Jia did not give in, and his expression was also very excited: "The life of millions of Li Shu is fate, is it not the life of those soldiers who died on the battlefield that they are not destined for today's victory, but countless soldiers have exchanged their lives and blood, and now the Cao thief has panicked like a lost dog, if he does not beat the water dog, once the Cao thief gets a chance to breathe and regroup, then the advantage may no longer be there, and the blood of tens of thousands of soldiers in the north will be shed in vain, and he will fight again in the future, How many more soldiers will die, do these soldiers who follow the lord and die deserve to die?"
Pang Tong said loudly: "Relief for the victims is the righteousness of the world, as long as the Duke of Wei occupies the righteousness, he will come from all directions, why worry about the world not now the lord has won most of Yanzhou, although he occupies his land, but has not yet won the hearts of the people in the land of Yanzhou, the foundation is not stable, I am afraid it will be difficult to stabilize it in three or five years."
If we give all-out relief, how can the millions of people in Yanzhou not fight to the death and do such a thing that kills two birds with one stone, and how can it be compared to the gains and losses on the battlefield for a while?"
Guo Jia still refused to retreat, and continued to argue: "If you go down with one drum and occupy Xudu, even if Cao Thief does not die, the five states of the Central Plains will already be in the owner's pocket."
At that time, the lord will give relief to the victims, encourage farming, and promote high-yield grains such as potatoes and sweet potatoes, and once and for all, millions of living beings in the Central Plains will be stabilized.
This is a short-term pain to endure, and a long-term pain, why not" In comparison, although the number of generals led by Zhao Yun was far at a disadvantage, because of Zhao Yun's incomparable status in the army, the argument between the generals was much gentler than the argument between the two strategists.
The voices of the two are getting louder and louder, fighting for red faces and thick necks, no one can convince anyone, only that they almost didn't fight each other, if it is usual, Gongsun Bai really wants to know what the scene will be like when the two armed forces 15 scumbags fight, but at this moment he is also in turmoil, and he has no care.
At this moment, a burst of singing suddenly sounded outside the tent, which was not very high, but it was extremely penetrating, and soon suppressed the noisy noise inside the tent.
"You don't see, Broken halberd sinks into the sand and ten thousand bones wither, There is no rooster sound for thousands of miles in the red land The yellow sand is scattered and the wind is sluggish, Turbulent clouds and decaying grass with slanting sun The mournful cry of the wild goose, The dark night is like a screen.
You don't see it Flying locusts are like rain and fire; Dust flies in the river, wild fields are barren. selling children and women and leaving them alone; Hungry like a mountain of crows.
Rather for the peace dog, Don't mess with people You don't see it ” The song was melodious and agitated, full of endless desolation and sorrow, coupled with its great sense of rhythm and rhyme, all the generals in the tent were moved, and some even burst into tears.
At this moment, Gongsun Bai suddenly understood what it meant to "cry when singing a long song", even though it was more than ten years of horse fighting career, he was used to seeing life and death, and his heart was already as hard as iron, but at this moment, he felt that his throat seemed to be blocked by something.
Damn, this kid sings so fucking bullshit In the midst of the singing, a man with his head scattered, bare arms, bare feet, and a face full of sorrow, slowly walked into the big tent.
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The person who came was Xu Shu, who had been out for many days I saw him holding a stack of yellowed dough cakes in his hand, striding forward, and then knelt down in front of Gongsun Bai's case, crying: "The last general will go out of the camp to investigate the people's situation in Yanzhou for the lord, and I have come to report it." ” He put the stack of dough cakes on Gongsun Bai's desk, took a dough cake from the top, held it high, and said excitedly: "This dough cake can allow the most beautiful virgin among the homeless people to sleep with you all night, if it is not a virgin."
He broke the piece of bread and said lightly, "It's only worth half a half."
He took another loaf of bread and smiled worse than crying: "One loaf of bread buys a married woman, and it belongs to the buyer for life." ” He added another: "Two, you can buy a girl, and the face should be good." ” "Three, you can buy a boy."
In the end, he put down two more loaves of bread, leaving only one: "With just one loaf of bread, the most loyal and weak can become outlaws, killing people without blinking."
After Xu Shu finished speaking, he knelt on the ground respectfully.
Inside the tent, there was silence, and no one answered.
After a long time, Gongsun Bai stood up, helped Xu Shu with both hands, and said excitedly: "I have made up my mind, so that Pingzhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou and Jizhou will gather grain and grass with the strength of the whole state, transport it to Yanzhou, and make every effort to help the victims.
All the military horses are withdrawn to the north bank of the dungeon, and the fields are planted on the spot, and potatoes are cultivated, except for the soldiers and horses of Gaoshun on the east road, the rest of the soldiers and horses of the roads are not allowed to attack south, otherwise they will be punished according to the order, and there will be no forgiveness."
It's after twelve o'clock again, so it's the old rule, and today's third watch is unfinished
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