The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 309 North-South Situation

In August, the grasslands are full of blooming wild flowers in all colors, which is the most charming time of the year. However, the grasslands outside Guihua City have become a purgatory on earth, with corpses everywhere. Some of the dead bodies are from the Dashun and some from the Mongols. There are broken limbs everywhere, and many carts have overturned on the ground, with white rice flowing out of the broken pockets. Teams of Mongols are cleaning the battlefield, collecting armor and weapons, and finishing off the enemies.

Several princes of the Ulanqab League were looking around the battlefield with their personal guards. Every step their horses took left a bloody hoof print, and the bright red blood soaked the entire battlefield, showing how brutal this battle was.

The Khalkha prince pulled the reins.

The whole group stopped.

The Khalkha Prince started to curse: "Damn it! We used more people to fight against fewer, and it was an ambush. We almost let these Han cavalrymen who were escorting food and grass rush out. What kind of battle is this!"

The face of the Prince of the Urad tribe turned green and yellow, but he didn't know what to say.

The Prince of Maoming Anbu nearby spoke up: "We didn't expect that the cavalry of the 3,000-man battalion would be the ones escorting the grain and grass this time. The Han people are too cunning."

The Fourth Prince: "Although there was a little accident, we did capture the Han people's food supplies and didn't let any Han people escape."

Prince Maoming Anbu laughed: "In another month, the first heavy snow will come to the north of Yinshan Mountain. Let the Han people starve!"

Everyone laughed.

Khalkha Prince: "The Han people are not fools. They must be suspicious after not finding us for such a long time. They may have headed towards Daqing Mountain." At this point, he glanced in the direction of the Great Wall. "The grassland is so vast that it is unrealistic to block the news. We must cooperate with the Chahar tribe to defeat the Datong and Xuanfu guards one by one before the Han court reacts, and then concentrate our forces to deal with the withdrawn Beijing camp."

Prince Maoming Anbu nodded and said: "The main force of the Beijing Camp has retreated, and with the help of the White Road of Yinshan, it will be enough for us to defeat the Datong and Xuanfu guards, and then ambush the Beijing Camp at the foot of Daqing Mountain and wait for them to tire themselves out!"

After hearing this, the Prince of Urad and the Prince of the Four Princes nodded in agreement.

At this time, a burst of hurried horse hoof sounds came over, and everyone looked over.

A Mongolian nobleman rode up on horseback, pulled the reins in front of the crowd, and announced loudly: "My Lords, we have also taken Suiyuan City."

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding Mongols burst into thunderous cheers.

Khalkha County Prince: "Speed ​​is of the essence in war. Everyone, take a rest and set out after dusk to defeat the severely weakened Datong guards first."

Henan Provincial Government Office Hall
All the officials who could come came, but they just stood there silently, and no one said a word.

Jia Zheng was sitting at the desk at the top of the table, flipping through the account books in an anxious manner. After more than a month, he had lost a lot of weight. His cheeks and eye sockets were sunken, and his eyes were bloodshot. His usually sparse, shiny black hair was now half white and was lying in a messy mess. He had completely lost his former elegance and refinement.

Before the imperial court had the chance to appoint a governor for Henan, the White Lotus Rebellion broke out in Henan. Jia Zheng, the governor of Henan, became the highest official in Henan Province, or to be more precise, the highest official in Kaifeng City.

With a "bang", Jia Zheng slammed the table with his palm, shaking the inkstone and pen holder on the table high.

The officials who were standing there in a daze were all frightened.

Jia Zheng stood up suddenly and walked quickly back and forth in the middle of the hall. When he reached the table, he stopped suddenly, slammed his palm on the table, and shouted: "Food, food, where can I get food!"

All the officials bowed their heads.

For more than half a month, not a single grain of food had been brought in. All officials understood that the White Lotus rebels wanted to trap Kaifeng and turn the hundreds of thousands of disaster victims here into rioters.

In order to open up the grain route and get in touch with the outside world, Jia Zheng ordered the government troops to take the initiative to attack three days ago, but they were ambushed, and only more than 500 of the 3,000 patrol battalions escaped.

The people had long run out of food, and the relief grain that had been shipped in and the stock in the granaries were also about to run out.

Jia Zheng suddenly pointed at the grain department of Henan and said, "You are the grain department, you speak!"

Henan grain official: "My Lord, the grain in the warehouse can last for five days."

Jia Zheng: "Then let's confiscate the house!" The Henan grain official understood something and asked cautiously: "Excuse me, sir, whose house should we confiscate?"

Jia Zheng: "Whoever has food will have his house raided!"

The officials looked at each other in bewilderment. In Kaifeng City, only the gentry's homes had food left, and there was not a small amount of it!
Henan's grain commissioner swallowed his saliva and said, "There must be a crime."

Jia Zheng stared at him and said, "If you can persuade them to sell the grain to the court, we can spare their property. Can you do that?"

The grain commissioner of Henan opened his mouth and said that he had already visited those gentry's homes a long time ago, but they would not sell it no matter how much money was offered.

"Without food, none of us can survive and wait for the imperial court's reinforcements! If they were willing to send people to repair the levee, this situation might not have happened. In such a critical moment, they are still only thinking about protecting themselves. Don't they even understand the principle of 'no eggs will be left unbroken when the nest is overturned'?! Or are they planning to collude with bandits and betray the imperial court!"

Jia Zheng, with his red eyes, looked particularly scary at this moment, and when he spoke of this, he slapped the case with a loud clapping sound.

The grain commissioner and other officials in Henan were all silent.

Jia Zheng suddenly swept the lottery box on the table to the ground and shouted, "Search their houses immediately! If we don't search their houses, we will all be torn to pieces by the victims!"

The grain commissioner of Henan was really scared this time, and quickly picked up a command arrow from the ground and said: "I will take people to search the house immediately!" After saying that, he hurried out holding the command arrow.

Jia Zheng waved his hand and said, "You all go and get busy."

Officials: “Yes.”

Just as the officials left, Zhou Rui hurried in and whispered in Jia Zheng's ear, "Master, Zhengzhou has fallen!"

With a buzzing sound, Jia Zheng's eyes went dark and he was about to fall backwards.

Zhou Rui quickly hugged him: "Master! Master!"

Jia Zheng forced himself to stand up: "Listen, don't tell anyone."

Zhou Rui: “Yes.”

Jia Zheng said weakly: "Carry me back."

Zhou Rui's eyes turned red: "Yes." He answered and carried Jia Zheng on his back and walked towards the back hall.

At this time, Luoyang had lost its former prosperity. There were ruins everywhere. The streets were empty, with only teams of soldiers patrolling the streets.

A gust of wind blew, picking up the fallen leaves on the ground, and they swirled all over the sky, making the scene look even more desolate.

In the yard, Zhang Cheng, dressed in casual clothes, sat alone on the stone steps, staring in the direction of the capital city in a daze.

He was awakened by the sound of footsteps and looked towards the courtyard gate.

A big man came in and reported to Zhang Cheng: "General Zhang, the man surnamed Bai did not enter the city, but went directly to Tongguan."

Zhang Cheng frowned. Bai Hongzhi didn't go into the city to meet with the remnants of Qinglongtang?

The big man: "Just got the news that Wang Ziteng decided to attack Ruzhou and not go to Kaifeng."

Zhang Cheng was shocked. Not going to save Jia Zheng?
The big man said: "Should we report this to the general?"

Zhang Cheng stood up and said, "I'll go write a letter. Let's pack up and go to Shaanxi."

(End of this chapter)