Chapter 733 Hungry People

"Abide by the order!" The confidant bowed to accept the order, and then smiled and agreed, "What Your Highness said is very much! In the spring famine, there are hungry people moving to ask for food, which is common, how many are hundreds of thousands. It must be the false words of the officials of the prefectures and counties! Mr. Zhong moved here like this, which is really confused!"

"Forget it, he was ordered by his father to guard the old land of Ma Chu, Hunan, with a high position and a powerful position, and you can't just say it!" Lu Runxing casually scolded his confidant. When his confidant took the order and retreated, Lu Runxing thought carefully in the house for a while, and finally decided to withdraw 4,000 elite troops from his own army and reinforce Chen Zhang, so that he could quickly end the Liang army in Hannan and reverse the current unfavorable situation. As for the matter of the Hunan civil rebellion mentioned in his heart, he did not take it seriously.

Since last winter, it has not rained in all prefectures and counties in Hunan for nearly five months. The fields on both sides of the road have dried up and cracked holes everywhere. Apart from a small number of withered weeds, there is not even a crop. The skins of locusts, elm and other trees have been peeled off by hungry people, revealing the undying white endothelial, and are connected to the white bones everywhere next to the road. After Ma Chu's years of fierce battle with Lu Wu, the local people have been exhausted and have no accumulation of storage. They originally thought that the war has subsided and can enjoy peace, but they did not expect that the Wu army attacked Jingxiang, and the grain tax was even heavier. They suddenly encountered drought. After eating the last bite of food, the people could only leave their hometowns and migrate to all places with food such as the county town and prefecture town.

Hengzhou, facing Chenzhou to the north and Yongzhou to the west, the Xiaoxiang water system winds through its land, and can go to the southwest hinterland by waterway, and from south to north to Hunan. Those who go to Hunan must use this place as a key. After Lu Fang ceded this place from Ma Chu, Zhong Yangui served as the remnant of Hunan. Although he set up his shogunate in Tanzhou, he asked the general Zhou Hubiao to lead a new army to garrison here. On the one hand, he could protect Tanzhou, and on the other hand, one of the remnants of the Ma family in the southwest, he could quickly send troops to resist and not escalate the situation. After Zhou Hubiao came to Hengzhou, he repaired the Hengzhou walls, enriched the arsenal and grain warehouses, and made it an important stronghold for Lu Wu in Hunan.

However, the four gates of Hengzhou City are now closed and are heavily guarded, as if they are facing a great enemy. The ones surrounding this strong city are not the remnants of Ma Chu, nor the barbarians in the southwest, but the thousands of hungry people who are withered and ragged clothes. These thin people who have been tortured by hunger have handed stones and wooden sticks to scatter the surrounding Hengyang City. The Wu soldiers on the top of the city are warriors who have been fought for a lot of battles, and the weapons in their hands are beyond the reach of the hungry people outside the city. But when they see the crowded ocean outside the city, they can't help but lose their eyes.

"Flaghead, when will those guys outside the city stay?" A young Wu Bing beside the female wall asked bored to his companion beside him.

The Wu Bingsheng who was asked was burly and was cleaning his mesh barrel with strips and cloth. When he heard the young companion’s question, he put the cleaned barrel aside and replied with a smile: “Why, I can’t stand it anymore. Why don’t you go down to the city and ask yourself?”

"Don't!" The young Wu Bing who asked was busy waved his hands: "The day before yesterday, when I was caught on the bridge, I was still separated by a moat. I felt that those guys looked a little creepy, like hungry wolves, and their eyes were penetrated into your bones. If I went down now, I wouldn't be swallowed alive!"

"It's good if you know!" The flag head re-oiled the cleaned-up bullet and replied: "The guys outside the city look like humans, but they are actually ghosts, or a group of hungry ghosts. You have always heard Buddhist scriptures recited by the monks in the temple. If you do a lot of evil things before your lifetime, you will end like this after your death! When do you want them to wait? When they eat all the food they can eat, they will leave."

When the young Wu Bing heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "Eat all? What else can I eat outside the city now? So many people have eaten up all the food they can eat long ago?"

"And, grass roots, tree bark, rats, Guanyin soil, aren't there still human flesh? Can these be eaten for a long time?" The flag head had been coated with oil. While carefully checking his mesh rope gun, he said coldly. At this time, a vocal voice came from the city. He carefully observed the situation from the perforation, and said in a deep voice: "Those annoying bed bugs are coming again, hurry up and light the fuse." He looked back at his young companion who was still dazed, and showed a hint of sympathy in the first part of his cold eyes, and whispered: "If you don't want to be torn to pieces by these guys and eat them into your stomach, do it quickly!"

Next to the moat, six or seven hundred hungry people were crowded together, shaking the grass bags and firewood bundles filled with soil into the moat, trying to fill out a path to the city gate. For those who have been tortured by hunger, it is very difficult to carry heavy earth bags and firewood bundles. Many people even suddenly fell to the ground halfway and could no longer move, but the people next to them carried the earth bags without saying a word and continued to move towards the moat. The dense sound of firearms began to sound on the top of the city, and the scorching lead bullets broke and tore the thin bodies of the hungry people, but this did not stop people from moving. The hungry people seemed to be deaf, and continued to stagger bags of soil and firewood bundles into the moat, as if they were deaf, and they continued to stagger bags of soil and firewood bundles into the moat, as the moat became shallower and shallower.

At this moment, there was a sudden loud noise, as if a thunderbolt was set down on a sunny day. A large area of ​​hungry people filling the trenches fell. It turned out that the guards on the top of the city saw that the conveyor could not stop the hungry people from filling the trenches, so they brought a long cannon. This smoothbore cannon that was firing six to seven pounds was the largest caliber firearm equipped in the Wu army's field troops. If it was at a close range, launching a shotgun could cause very terrifying damage. The dense shotgun swept out four or five feet a square open space beside the crowded moat. The movements of these numb hungry people finally became slow. After a while, the defenders fired the long cannon again, killing many people. The hungry people finally retreated in despair.

On the top of the city, the young Wu Bing looked blankly at the corpses lying in a row under the city. At six or seven steps to his right, the muzzle of the copper cannon that had just been fired was emitting white smoke. Several gunners were washing the long-handled wool brush in the vinegar bucket beside them, preparing to clean the gunpowder residue that was not burning clean in the cannon chamber. Suddenly, he turned his head and said to the flag head behind him who was taking the fuse from the clip: "Flag head, I don't know what happened, I feel very uncomfortable now. It's not because I have killed someone, you know I have killed someone..." Speaking of this, Wu Bing didn't know what to say, so he stopped.

The flag head raised his head and looked at the young companion with a hint of sympathy: "I understand your feeling. These people are different from those killed on the battlefield. If we don't kill them on the battlefield, they will kill us. I feel at ease. But these poor people just need to have stutters and live..." The flag head stopped and the air became heavier when he said this.

The more than 100,000 refugees outside Hengzhou were not completely unorganized. They formed more than 100 small groups of people in the villages, and were distributed in disorderly manner in various villages outside the city. Most of the original owners of these villages had already escaped into Hengzhou City, and only a very small number of those who had no time to escape were killed by these refugees. Only a very small number of them had to be in danger and could they escape the disaster with a strong defense against the walls. Songjiazhuang in the east of the city was one of them.

This Songjiazhuang is located on Qingquangang in the east of the city, which is more than 40 miles away from the city of Zhou. Because there are several clear springs on the hill, it can irrigate thousands of hectares of fields. Therefore, the severe drought that began last winter did not affect the residents of the village. Seventy percent of the Songjiazhuang are Song clans, which are quite united. Among them, the Songjia Erlang is a famous tycoon in the underworld in Hunan. There are nearly a thousand guests in the family. They have built villages since the end of the Tang Dynasty. If the government is powerful, the two taxes will be paid, and the government's orders will not enter the village. This time, the hungry people surrounded Hengzhou and attacked the village twice, but they were all defeated. The owner of the village gave more than a hundred stone of grain to several groups of hungry people, and no one will be besieged, forming a subtle situation.

In the lobby of Songjiazhuang, a fat man with black face sat in the head seat, and there were more than ten hungry men sitting in the two sides. Although the fat man with black face was short, his eyes were extremely bright and his eyes were quite powerful. It was the mysterious shopkeeper Song who passed by Shang Jinzhong that day, and the owner of Songjiazhuang - Song Erlang. Song Erlang's face was filled with smiles and said, "You are responsible for your care and restraining your tribesmen these days, so that the fields and houses in the Songjiazhuang are safe. Song thanks you here first!" Speaking of this, Song Erlang stood up and bowed to everyone in the hall.

It turned out that the more than ten men in the hall were leaders of refugees outside Hengzhou City. Song Erlang used both soft and hard these days, which also made them see their own methods. A few days ago, they suddenly said that it was his birthday and invited these people to have a drink of water and wine. These people have also eaten Song Erlang's benefits to more or less, and they also knew how powerful he was. After receiving the invitation, most of them came. Seeing Song Erlang so much, they hurriedly stood up and returned the gifts. The oldest one smiled and said, "The Master Song is so polite. Originally, today was the birthday of the Master Song. We shouldn't have come empty-handed, but now everyone has escaped from the famine and there is really no one to give to him at hand!"

"Don't say it, don't say it!" Song Erlang waved his hand and smiled, "You are here today, Song is full of affection. How dare you ask for any gifts? In this year, how can you have a happy birthday? In fact, you are also asking you to have a glass of water and wine together to have a happy day, and you will forget the tragic things outside for the time being!"
Chapter completed!