The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 150 The Li Clan of Longxi, Destroyed!

Gan Minglan naturally had no idea.

Her legendary life story became the hottest topic among the families of soldiers in the border town during the entire Spring Festival.

During this period, many of the older women I had met on Lunar New Year's Eve would bring several groups of unfamiliar older women to visit the next day.

Young people are impatient with this kind of socializing.

But for Roche, it was of great significance.

Her family almost completely cut off contact with her after her husband died.

Before her son got married, the mother and son spent their days in much the same way, even during the Lunar New Year.

No home has this kind of lively atmosphere with people coming and going!
Only the ancestral home of the Zuo family's direct line in Leyuan County deserves such a lively atmosphere.

Seeing her daughter-in-law's increasingly stiff face, Luo simply took over all the reception duties herself.

Every day, he would cheerfully welcome these women into the middle room.

Within fifteen minutes, gasps of surprise would erupt from inside the house.

Gan Minglan, dubbed by Luo Shi as her granddaughter-in-law who eats ten meals a day, had no choice but to hide in the east side room as her tool, a wet nurse.

Zuo Wenkang was another one who was shirking his duties.

He was busy having in-depth conversations with his wife at night, and he wasn't idle during the day either.

Based on Gan Minglan's dictation, he added that he had carefully recorded all the plans for the new year.
The enthusiasm of the families of soldiers from the border town to visit Yu Mian Luosha's home continued until the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

This day.

The quartermasters who went to Jinzhou returned to the border town with half the supplies they had expected.

In the military camp.

The quartermaster looked distressed.
"It was only a few days late, just a few days! Five days before we arrived in Jinzhou City, all six counties under the jurisdiction of Lintao Prefecture had begun to frantically hoard grain."

Prices in Jinzhou City are now only 40% cheaper than in Huaiqing Prefecture, and they were still rising and subject to purchase restrictions before we left.

Zhao Muyun's face was somber, and his eyes were bruised.

His voice was a little hoarse: "On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Xijing City has already been captured by Po Jun!"

The quartermaster, who had been on the road for the past two weeks, could hardly believe his ears.

The Li family of Longxi, a family with a thousand-year history, failed to defend its stronghold.

The generals who knew the situation informed him one after another:
"Po Jun has blocked all the transportation routes in Xijing City, and the people and soldiers in the city have been trapped for several months."

"Po Jun rose up during the autumn harvest season. The Li family lost a season's worth of grain in the Guanzhong Plain, so the city's supplies were naturally insufficient for hundreds of thousands of people to last for three or four months."

"Last December, Xijing City also experienced several heavy snowfalls. It goes without saying how difficult life was for the people. Even the soldiers guarding the city were not well-fed and did not have enough cotton-padded clothes or furs to keep warm."

"I don't know how the leader of Po Jun managed to turn the city's garrison against him. On the very night that the Li family foolishly held a banquet, thousands of garrison soldiers opened the city gates to Po Jun outside the city."

"They've committed a terrible atrocity! It's said that the Li clan didn't even spare infants just a few months old. It's easy to imagine how long the tenant farmers on the Guanzhong Plain have resented them."

The fall of Xijing City into the hands of Po Jun had a significant impact on the entire Shaanxi region.

The border town was also under the jurisdiction of the Sanqin Provincial Administration Commission!
At this point, all the generals turned their gaze to the Commander-in-Chief.

Zhao Muyun waved his hand:
"How many peasant uprisings have occurred in the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commission over the past ten years? Their goal is nothing more than to seize land and power. After overthrowing the Li family of Longxi, the largest aristocratic family, their next step should be to target Shangdu."

Everyone understood what he meant.

As a sharp dagger planted on the border, the nine border towns are not to be easily provoked by any displaced people's leader with a modicum of sense.

However, Xijing City was crucial to the distribution channels of grain in the Guanzhong Plain.

If Po Jun takes control of the merchants' warehouses, these northwestern border prefectures will inevitably be strangled by these people if they want to purchase large quantities of grain.

"With the grain you just bought, how long can the military rations of the five guard posts last?"

"Reporting to the General, we can hold out until the second day of the second month at the latest!" About twenty days!

The rations for 100,000 border troops were only enough to last for about twenty days!

What could be more urgent than this?

The answer is yes!

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Zhao Muyun received another official report.

The border town was hit by another devastating blow.

"What? The rebel army has also captured Tokyo?"

"What are those Yama Army and Clean Army soldiers sent by the imperial court doing! Didn't they say they had recaptured three cities not long ago?"

"What good is it if we recapture the three cities? All the people in those cities have fled!"

"It's not that the imperial army was too afraid of death, but that the number of righteous troops in Zhongzhou has already exceeded one million!"

"."

Good heavens, everyone exclaimed, "Good heavens!"

A million-strong army!

The entire imperial army combined has less than two million troops!

The number of displaced people in just one provincial administration office is this large.

Even with the best individual combat skills, the equipment of the bandit suppression army of only tens of thousands of people was no match for a million-strong force.

What worries the border troops the most is...

Both the eastern and western capitals are ancient capitals with a history spanning thousands of years, holding a pivotal position in terms of both geographical location and economic development.

Xi'an is an important transportation hub connecting the northwest and central regions, as well as the southwest and central regions.

For example, the goods entering and leaving Lintao Prefecture and Huaiqing Prefecture all had to pass through Xijing City.

Tokyo is adjacent to the main grain-producing areas of the Jianghuai region.

It also boasts a wide network of waterways and twelve land routes for access, making it one of the most important distribution centers for goods in the country.

Based on the current arable land area and population of the State of Bei.

If it weren't for the frequent natural disasters, the existing low-yield grain production would be enough to feed its people.

Although local powerful families may not be good at interpersonal relationships, they still play a role in stabilizing prices.

Now, the two ancient capitals are controlled by displaced people of unknown character; whether this is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.

It really is:

When it rains, it pours! The heavy snow has added another layer of ice!

One hundred thousand mouths need at least two meals a day.

Those who eat only porridge can only last for a month at most.

The quartermaster dreamed of digging tunnels to buy food for his 100,000-strong army.

For several nights in a row, Zhao Muyun had nightmares about most of the 100,000 soldiers starving to death.

The horrific scenes in his dream made even a seasoned general like him feel a chill run down his spine!
In the past few days, I have been discussing with the generals and quartermasters of the five major military posts the feasibility of buying grain in Sichuan and Chongqing.

The garrison generals, who usually loved to contradict each other, were surprisingly united this time:
"The distance is too far and the road is too difficult! Back then, when Mr. Zhuge Liang went to Shu to launch several northern expeditions, he failed several times. Wasn't that all because of the difficulty in transporting grain and supplies along the Shu roads?"

"The floods in Sichuan and Chongqing last year were also quite severe, and their population is quite large. It's hard to say whether grain prices are normal or ridiculously high."

"We dare not send too many troops to escort the grain-buying caravan now. Last year's snowstorm caused the Tatars unimaginable losses. They have a keen sense of smell; they'll seize any opportunity to raid the pass."

(End of this chapter)