Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 610: King of Daliang
"How much military rations do we have?" Zhou Lan asked.

Song Hao replied: "We don't have much military rations. We can only supply the army for two months. It will take another month for the follow-up military rations to arrive!"

"..."

Zhou Lan fell silent.

Although Beiyuan Town was not affected by the drought, with good weather in the year before last, last year and this year, Beiyuan Town still has to support tens of thousands of town soldiers.

In recent years, the people's livelihood and military of Beiyuan Town have recovered a lot, but it is still not rich.

Zhou Lan sometimes feels that her abilities have declined a lot. She used to be able to do everything with ease in Chongshan Town, but after coming to Beiyuan Town, she feels that everything she does is ineffective.

Now Beiyuan Town does not have enough money and food to support her in suppressing the bandits, and there is even less money and food for her to provide relief to the victims.

"Hey, let's borrow some food from Chongshan Town. Send someone to ask Jing'an Hou if he can borrow some food from Chongshan Town!"

Zhou Lan said helplessly.

If you want to wipe out the bandits in Longyuan, the most important thing is not to kill them, but to provide relief to the refugees.

Only by providing food to the refugees and allowing them to settle down can the number of bandits in Longyuan be reduced. Otherwise, the number of bandits will only increase.

"Also, go recruit refugees to build a camp for us and provide them with food!"

Zhou Lan had no other choice but to find a way to resettle these refugees.

She really couldn't do anything like massacring the refugees.

"Here!"

Song Hao responded, and a moment later, several cavalrymen rushed out of the camp and shouted to the city.

When the refugees heard that there was food to be had, they rushed towards the camp without any hesitation.

The soldiers began to maintain order, first allowing the refugees to settle down around the camp, and then began to dig ditches and build the camp.

Never mind whether these ditches are useful or not, first find something for the refugees to do.

Zhou Lan had only 20,000 soldiers under his command, but there were 50,000 to 60,000 refugees who gathered around him.

The food and grass in Zhou Lan's hands should be able to last for a month. The refugees certainly don't eat as much as the soldiers.

When the bandits in the city saw this, they didn't care about the lives of the refugees at all and were ready to escape.

Bandits will not defend the city. Since they are bandits, they naturally need to roam around.

But they wanted to leave, but Zhou Lan didn't want to let them leave.

At night, when the bandits were secretly fleeing the city, Zhou Lan's ambushed army suddenly rushed out and defeated tens of thousands of the bandits.

A battle that started off well but ended swiftly.

But Zhou Lan's troubles had just begun.

There are still 50,000 to 60,000 refugees around her, and so many refugees need to be resettled.

With no other options, Zhou Lan could only resettle the refugees on the spot and let his soldiers lead the refugees to dig wells and cultivate land.

During a severe drought, it is difficult to irrigate the fields relying solely on well water, but there is no other way. Producing a little more food can feed one more person.

It is always better to give refugees some hope than to let them starve to death in the wilderness.

However, this meant that Zhou Lan would not be able to quickly wipe out the bandits. She sent two thousand soldiers to garrison Longyang City to resettle the refugees, and then she would send troops to resettle the refugees whenever she captured a city or wiped out a group of bandits.

It is easy to wipe out the bandits, but it is troublesome to resettle the refugees, and to resettle them, food and fodder must be continuously transported.

In just one month, Zhou Lan conquered the entire Longyang Prefecture, but the food and supplies she had were no longer enough to support her continued efforts to wipe out the bandits.

With no other options, Zhou Lan could only stop in Longyang Prefecture and ask the court for money and food.

……

Chongshan Pass, the general’s headquarters.

Yang Chengye strode into the lobby of the general's mansion, where Niu Zhuang had been waiting for him.

"I greet the general!" Yang Chengye bowed.

Niu Zhuang quickly returned the greeting and said, "Greetings, Lord Marquis!"

After the two men exchanged greetings, Niu Zhuang talked about business, "General Zhou has sent troops to Longyuan to wipe out the bandits, but there are many refugees in Longyuan who need to be resettled, and Beiyuan Town is short of food and grass. General Zhou is borrowing food from our Chongshan Town!"

Yang Chengye frowned slightly, "Didn't the court provide any food and fodder?"

"Hey, where can we find food and fodder in the court?" Niu Zhuang said helplessly.

The two looked at each other, both speechless.

They all understand the situation in the court. How should I put it? The court is almost non-existent now.

The six ministries of the cabinet and the five military governorates can do nothing and have no control over anything. Once a problem occurs, the pressure is placed on the local governments. But if the local governments can solve the problem, what is the role of the central court?
Chongshan Town has not received any money or grain allocated by the court for several years. Currently, Chongshan Town is completely self-reliant, and they have to find ways to solve everything on their own.

Although Chongshan Town is wealthy, there are some things that Chongshan Town cannot solve.

For example, iron ore.

In theory, Chongshan Town has no right to purchase iron ore, and all iron ore is allocated by the court.

There is no iron mine in Chongshan Town, and the Governor's Office and the General's Office cannot interfere in iron mine affairs in other places, so the iron ore needed by Chongshan Town can now be purchased by themselves.

Since Niu Zhuang took over as general, he felt very helpless about this situation.

"How much food and grass do we have left?" Yang Chengye asked.

Niu Zhuang thought about it and said, "We should be able to come up with 300,000 shi! Any more might affect us!"

Although Niu Zhuang is Zhou Lan's confidant, he cannot ignore Chongshan Town for Zhou Lan.

The food and fodder consumption in Chongshan Town is also very high. The 30,000-man town standard camp and the 40,000-man reinforcement camp all require money and food to support.

"Then we'll transport 300,000 shi of grain to General Zhou first! With this batch of grain and grass, we should be able to cope with the emergency!" Yang Chengye said.

"Ok!"

Niu Zhuang nodded.

After the two men reached an agreement, they immediately arranged for soldiers to transport food and fodder to Beiyuan Town.

Three hundred thousand shi of grain is a lot, enough to feed an army of 100,000 for a year, but in Longyuan, this amount of grain is simply a drop in the bucket.

How many starving people are there in Longyuan?
Estimated to be two to three million!
Although many people starved to death in Longyuan in the past two years, Longyuan is a province. During the Chengping period, the population of Longyuan had reached more than 8 million.

Today, only two or three out of ten people live in Longyuan, but it is still a large number.

With the help of Chongshan Town, Zhou Lan captured two more prefectures, but she could no longer attack further.

Not only was there a shortage of food and fodder, but the troops under her command were also insufficient, because she needed to divide her forces into different areas to resettle the refugees.

Compared with her, Suzhou Town and Longbei Town attacked much faster. In just three months, the troops of the two towns surrounded and suppressed hundreds of thousands of bandits, driving the bandits to flee everywhere like plowing a house and sweeping holes.

As to whether they killed bandits or refugees, no one was investigating at this time.

……

Daizhou, Longnan.

Outside the city, more than 200,000 bandits surrounded Daizhou City, and the bandit army’s camp was more than ten miles long.

This group of bandits should be the largest one in the three provinces of Longyuan. Compared with those mobs, the bandits in front of them not only have neat camps, but also have many elite soldiers with armor.

The leader of this bandit group was the famous King of Daliang. King of Daliang did not refer to the king of Daliang, but because the leader of this bandit group was originally the head of the bandits in Daliang Mountain.

Whenever bandits started a rebellion, they would give themselves powerful nicknames, such as Black Tiger King, Nine Heavenly Kings, King Daliang, etc. These nicknames became well-known names.

When they become powerful, all they need to do is to make known their name and many bandits will come to join them.

Generally speaking, thieves will not use their real names to avoid implicating their family and friends.

King Daliang was a man of insight. He was born into a military household and his ancestors had served as guerrilla generals. However, the family fortune had long been squandered by his ancestors, and in his generation, he was just an ordinary military household.

When he was young, he worked as a horse dealer, selling horses from Longbei Town to Longnan. He traveled all over the country for several years and accumulated some money, but later his money was taken away by his captain.

He happened to be out selling horses that day when a captain came to his house with several servants, arbitrarily accused him of a crime and began to ransack his property.

His old mother tried to stop them but was beaten up. His wife tried to protect her but was also beaten up.

When he returned home, his old mother was still dead and his wife was dying.

In a rage, he broke into Qianhu's home and killed all thirteen members of his family.

From then on he became a bandit.

At the beginning he was just a small follower, but after traveling all over the country for several years, he not only became smart and knowledgeable, but also made great progress in training and became a warrior.

The boss thought he was a good man and married his daughter to him.

Later, his father-in-law went down the mountain to rob and was killed by the bodyguards. Then he naturally became the king of Daliangshan.

He had been entrenched in the Daliang Mountain as a bandit for ten years, trained hundreds of veteran bandits, and gained considerable fame in the green forest circles of Longnan.

Then the drought came.

When the three provinces of Longyuan were in chaos, he took a group of old brothers down the mountain to plunder.

At first, he just wanted to rob some money and food to feed his brothers.

But who knew that more and more people would come to join him, and in just half a year, the number of his men increased from a few hundred to more than 20,000.

With more subordinates, there won’t be enough food.

And he can't chase people away, otherwise his prestige will plummet.

There was no choice but to continue looting with his men.

In the past, he used to rob the gentry and the wealthy, but now the gentry and the wealthy can no longer satisfy him, so he can only choose to attack the city.

When he captured the first county town, the number of bandits under his command reached 50,000. When he captured the first provincial capital town, the number of bandits under his command reached 100,000.

Just like a snowball, the number of bandits under his command kept increasing, and now has reached more than 200,000.

Moreover, he did not want to take a group of refugees with him like other bandits did. He only wanted the young and strong, not the old, the weak, women and children. It was not that he was ruthless, but he really could not afford to support so many people.

He had conquered most of the cities in western Longnan, and now he had come to the city of Daizhou.

Standing in front of the tent, King Daliang looked at the strong-walled Daizhou City, his rough face full of solemnity.

This was already the twentieth day of their siege of Daizhou City. The corpses outside the city were piled three feet high, but they still had not captured this fortified city.

"Report, my king, thirty catapults are ready. General Su asked if we should attack the city immediately?"

A bandit came running to report.

Although they are bandits, they are also organized.

It is actually inappropriate to call them thieves now, as they have evolved into an army.

The King of Daliang not only reorganized the bandits under his command, but also trained more than 40,000 elite troops, including generals, armored soldiers, archers, and 3,000 cavalry. He even trained his soldiers in military formations.

Their rebel army may not be as strong as the border troops, but it is many times stronger than those garrison soldiers.

They even learned how to make catapults, and they were also able to make other siege weapons.

"The army is leaving the camp and preparing to attack the city!"

At the command of King Daliang, horns blew and drums beat in the surrounding area for more than ten miles.

More than 100,000 troops gathered towards Daizhou City and surrounded it.

On the city wall, King Dai Chen Zhaoxuan looked at the bandit troops gathered outside the city with a dirty face, his eyes filled with unconcealable fatigue.

That’s right, this Daizhou is Chen Zhaoxuan’s fiefdom.

After Chen Zhaojun ascended the throne, he came to Daizhou City to establish his fiefdom.

The prince of Darong is actually a nobody and has no real power at all.

However, Chen Zhaoxuan didn't care about these. As long as no one disturbed his practice, he would stay in the palace every day without going out.

What happens in the court has nothing to do with him, and the rebellion by bandits is not his business.

So in the past two years, he has been practicing peacefully in Daizhou City.

But he didn't expect that bandits would attack Daizhou City.

Then he was trapped in Daizhou City.

There were not many soldiers in Daizhou City. There were only 30,000 civilians, 2,000 useless garrison soldiers, and several hundred guards from the royal palace.

Faced with two hundred thousand bandits besieging the city, Chen Zhaoxuan could only muster the people in the city to defend it.

The battle had lasted for twenty days, and the soldiers and civilians in the city had reached their wits' end.

If it weren't for the King of Dai who personally went to defend the city, Daizhou City might not have survived until now.

"Your Highness, I'm afraid we can't hold on for a few more days!" Liang Zhiman, the provincial governor, came to Chen Zhaoxuan's side and whispered.

The highest-ranking official in the city is Liang Zhiman in front of him. As for the prefect, haha, the prefect received the news and ran away before the bandits arrived at Daizhou city.

By the time Chen Zhaoxuan received the news, the enemy army had already arrived at the city.

"Do we have any reinforcements?" Chen Zhaoxuan asked somewhat miserably.

To be honest, he didn't quite understand why it turned out like this.

Although he is now in his thirties, he has never cared about state affairs, and of course he does not care about people's livelihood. He only cares about his own cultivation.

Do you think he is wrong?

It seems there is, but it seems there isn't.

In Dayong, it is a taboo for princes to interfere in court or local affairs. A prince like him should be the one who can make everyone least worried.

He is just a martial arts fanatic, a simple martial arts fanatic.

"No!" Liang Zhiman said bitterly.

Where can we get reinforcements in Longnan?

The army of Beiyuan Town is still in Longyuan, the armies of Suzhou Town and Longbei Town are still in Longxi, and there is no capable army in Longnan at all.

Chen Zhaoxuan silently watched the bandit army outside the city preparing to attack the city.

Liang Zhiman lowered his voice and said, "My Lord, you have a high level of cultivation, you can break out from the north gate!"

"What about you?" Chen Zhaoxuan's voice was a little hoarse.

It shouldn't be difficult for him to break out on his own, as he has already reached the seventh level of acquired cultivation. Although there are warriors among the bandit army, none of them are very strong.

(End of this chapter)