"Okay! The damage caused by the storm is too great, so we have to change the siege. Then encourage the common people to attack the city gate. There are millions of people in Jinling City. Let's see, if we can't feed these millions of mouths, what will Li Xiao do to feed him? Save

We can still use the food that came down." Ma Shiying laughed contemptuously when he heard the Liao soldiers retreating.

"Li Xiao is such a person. He can't bear the heavy casualties of the soldiers. When he fought with the Dutch in Macau, it was supposed to be a great victory. But because of the heavy casualties of his troops, he cried like a mother.

It's like we are kids. You didn't see it at the time!" Ruan Dacheng was also gloating on the side.

"Let the common people go. It's hard to deceive people nowadays anyway. Those fools have been used up, and it won't be that easy to deceive them again. Just leave if you want! Don't waste food in the city!"

"Master of the Ministry of War, we can't let them leave like this." Ruan Dacheng suddenly smiled sinisterly.

"If you don't let them go, you still let them stay here to waste food? Do you think you have other ideas?" Ma Shiying was a little puzzled, but as long as Ruan Dacheng showed such an expression, he must have a bad idea.

"Master of the Ministry of War, do you think we should charge some... uh... exit fees from those who want to leave the city?" Ruan Dacheng gave a sinister smile.

"Exit fee? This is a good idea. If you want to leave the city, you have to pay some silver money. Anyway, there is money in Jinling City now but there is no food. Rather than starve to death here, it is better to hand over the gold and silver, pack up and leave.

Mr. Ruan, your idea is a good one. It not only brings benefits but also saves trouble. Okay, let’s just follow this idea and collect the out-of-city fee!

Haha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" Ma Shiying laughed so hard that she couldn't breathe, thinking that she must take this Ruan Dacheng with her from now on. This guy is so good at making money!

"What do you think Wen Tiren and the others are doing now?" Smiling, Ma Shiying suddenly thought of his old rivals in the city.

"He...maybe also thinking about how to deal with Li Xiao!"

Wen Tiren was indeed thinking about dealing with Li Xiao, but he was not as happy as Ma Shiying. He was anxiously running around the room like a donkey.

"Li Xiao is so ruthless. All the people in the city will be gone. What else can we use to threaten the Liao soldiers? When the people are almost gone, Li Xiao will immediately resume the attack. The overwhelming artillery fire will tear us into pieces."

"Li Xiao will care about human lives, but he will never care about property damage. If he can kill us, he will even dare to blow up the palace." Wen Tiren roared angrily.

"Uncle, I will send people to stop those people right away. But that big ball in the sky is dropping leaflets all day long to confuse people. I asked people to shoot them with guns, but they can't reach them."

"There's nothing you can do about it. You can't knock that thing down yet. What's being thrown is leaflets now. When the people are almost gone, what's thrown is probably explosive packets. I don't know how Li Xiao's brain is so long. With that thing, it's all over.

The sky was floating above our heads, and Li Xiao watched every move we made.

Damn it! Stop those people who want to leave the city immediately. They are our hostages, our source of troops, and our shields.

Go quickly!" Wen Tiren gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do.

"Promise!" Wen Tao agreed and hurried to stop the people who wanted to leave the city.

"Look, this is written by Yang Xiucai on Dongjie to his family, saying that he is doing well outside the city and that the Liao soldiers still take care of the food."

"Didn't you say beheading? Why do you still care about the food?"

"And this one, written by Shopkeeper Feng of West Street. I recognize his handwriting, and it is definitely written by him."

"No way...! They all say that the Liao soldiers are all demons who kill people for fun. How can they care about food? I'm afraid they were forced to write it."

Various rumors began to spread in the city. As the siege prolonged, the rumors became more and more unreliable, sometimes reaching the level of changing three times a day. In the morning, it was said that Liao soldiers were kind to people leaving the city and not only took care of food.

They also built thatched huts to live in. At noon, there were rumors that everyone who came out of the city had been killed. A big hole was dug in the ground, and the corpses were piled up so that the arms were resting on the legs. There were not only the corpses of adults, but also the corpses of children. It was a tragic situation.

It’s simply too horrible to look at!

In the evening, the rumors came back again. They were talking good things about the Liao soldiers again!

The people listened to one thing and another. They also became at a loss. Many people didn't know what to do. A large group of people crowded together all day long, just like thousands of sparrows gathered together. Officials

As soon as the official messengers of the family came, they immediately became like birds and beasts.

As time went by, the people's enthusiasm for listening to rumors gradually weakened, because every family's food reserves began to gradually decrease.

Before the Liao soldiers besieged the city, Ma Shiying and Wen Tiren had been fighting for more than a month. Those who had relatives in the countryside would have gone to their relatives' homes to take shelter. During the war, they were not allowed to open their doors for work, so the residents of Jinling could only sit at home to eat and store food.

When the Liao soldiers besieged the city, the rice jars in many homes were already half empty. Now that the Liao soldiers have besieged the city again for more than half a month, many poor people's rice jars have bottomed out. Only then did they realize that even if they were holding

There is no money left to sell grain. The grain store was robbed by soldiers in the city half a month ago. Now, the owner of the rice store doesn’t have much grain left at home.

Another half month passed, and some people began to be unable to bear it and wanted to leave the city. But in the West City controlled by Wen Tiren, no one was allowed to leave at all. Every intersection was guarded day and night by soldiers with guns. The East City controlled by Ma Shiying was better, as long as they surrendered

With the money, you can leave the city.

Anyway, I couldn't buy anything to eat with my money, so I simply took some valuable things from home to bribe the soldiers and went out of the city. No matter what, I couldn't starve to death in the city...! Legend has it that when they arrived outside the city, the Liao soldiers also

Take care of the food.

Ten more days have passed, and more and more people are fleeing the famine in the city. There is nothing we can do about it. As long as people live, they need to eat. The city is not as good as the countryside. In the countryside, if you are hungry, you can dig some wild vegetables and get some small fish.

Fill your stomach with shrimps or something.

What is there in the city? If we were not in the south of the Yangtze River, almost every house would have a well. I am afraid it would be difficult to drink water!

The people in the east of the city are fine, as long as they take money, they will be fine. The place controlled by Wen Tiren in the west of the city is much worse. The people first have to avoid the patrols of the soldiers and sneak to the east of the city, and then bribe the soldiers to leave the city. In order to

There was a way to survive, and the people took out the valuable things at home one after another.

"Look, that's not from Wang Xiucai's house. Did she come out too?"

"Poor woman! The man became a death squad and did not come back, and the child was killed in the bombing. Now she is the only one left. Does her family have money? What can she give to those soldiers?"

"Women don't need money, their bodies are money. Hehehe!"

"Get out! No ivory can come out of a dog's mouth."

"You can spit out ivory from your mouth! I saw it with my own eyes. I heard that she had done it half-closed in order to earn a living. Many people saw that soldiers came into her house."

"Really or not, her man is a scholar, and he died for the imperial court. Doesn't it mean he doesn't get any compensation?"

"Pension? Who will give you pension! A hundred taels of silver were deducted and reduced to only twenty taels. In these days and months, what can twenty taels of silver buy? If she didn't keep the door open, she wouldn't starve to death.

Already."

"Bah! I didn't expect to be such a little whore."

"The men and children are dead. What can she, a woman, do? She is a stupid man. She is willing to die for the court. What will she get in the end?"

"The official word has two mouths. In the final analysis, it is us people who are unlucky. Alas...!"

"Those people in the government deserve to die. They deceived men into working for their lives. Now that the mother-in-law and children are out of the city, they still have to collect money. It's really evil."

"There are no good people among officials!"

While people were chatting, Wang Xiucai's wife and a guy who looked like an officer walked into a house next to the city gate.

"What are you going to do with these people?" Looking at the thatched huts all over the mountains and plains, Zhang Huang couldn't help but shook his head.

"Those with relatives and friends will be given travel expenses to live with them, and those without relatives and friends... will be sent to Liaodong. Liaodong has the best mass base. When these people arrive in Liaodong, they will not make any noise." Li Xiao looked at the dense thatch.

Room, and some scalp numbness.

If it weren't for potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn, we really wouldn't be able to feed the people all over the mountains and plains. Yanziji was busy unloading goods every day, and every boat was full of these grains. However, it was not empty when I left, and I took away a lot of it.

Jinling citizens.

The south of the Yangtze River is prosperous and densely populated, but Liaodong is extremely short of population. Where tens of millions of people could live in later generations, there are now less than two million people. This is the result of Li Xiao's continuous immigration to Liaodong.

The black soil in the Northeast is oily even if you pinch it. What a wonderful place, but now the population is pitifully small. Liaodong is not bad, but a little further north, there are cases where one person occupies dozens or even hundreds of acres.

Move these people to Liaodong and assign them to various production teams. In two years, the grain output in Liaodong can still increase.

In these days, the world can only exist if there is food. If you want the people of the world to obey you, you must first feed their bellies.

"We have put a lot of effort into increasing the population of Liaodong. Well, what should we do about Jinling City? The population has been drained, and it looks like it won't be able to recover in ten years."

"There's nothing we can do about it. I don't want to lose too much. How many states and counties in Jiangnan have surrendered to us now?"

"Man Ye led his troops southward and encountered little resistance along the way. Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Wuhu, Huzhou, Jiangzhou, and Tanzhou all surrendered. Man Ye's military report the day before yesterday also said that he had surrendered

When we arrived at Changzhou and Wuxi, the county magistrates there had already come out of the city to welcome them. Now Man Ye is complaining, saying that there is no easy war to fight, and he wants to come to Jinling to join the war."

"Jinling! Haha! There is no need for him! The people sent by Mr. Sun took over Yangzhou, and Cao Wenzhao also came to Jinling. Now there are three main divisions gathered here, plus eight garrison divisions. Jinling City has been surrounded

Just like Tietong, there is no room for Mr. Man. It is better to let Mr. Man squander the land and occupy all the places in the south of the Yangtze River for me as soon as possible. If Jinling City does not surrender for one day, I will trap him for one day. If he does not surrender for two days,

I trapped him for two days.

When did the people in Jinling City get tired, hungry, thin, and exhausted? I just ate them in one bite! I just want to see how long an isolated island can last."

"They can't hold on much longer! I've been observing over the past few days and found that the attitudes of Ma Shiying and Wen Tiren are very different." Zhang Huangyan looked at Li Xiao with a smile.

When Li Xiao saw Zhang Huangyan's smiling face, he knew that this old bastard was full of bad things, and bad things were brewing in his belly again.

"Tell me, what do you want to do?"

“Divide and conquer!

I heard from people who came out of the city that Ma Shiying was still collecting money from the people who were leaving the city at this time. As long as they were willing to spend money, leaving the city was not a problem. It was different with Wen Tiren, who was still stubbornly refusing to let the people come out.

Big difference! Big difference!" Zhang Huangyan shook his head.

"What a difference!" Li Xiao knew that this old bastard was waiting for this.

"Wen Tiren is an expert. He can see where the situation is going. These people are his shield. With these people, he can continue to fight against us. As for Ma Shiying, he is still trying to make money at this time. He can't get out.

Yes, what is he doing to make money? Where to spend it?

There was only one answer. Ma Shiying was still thinking about spending money in the future. But what Wen Tiren was thinking about was... to make a last-ditch resistance with all his life. Although he would surrender, he would have to be forced to the point of desperation.

As for Ma Shiying, as long as he is given suitable conditions and promised wealth, it is not difficult at all to get him to surrender. People like Ma Shiying only think about the word wealth.

Therefore, if the cost of recruiting Ma Shiying is lower, the conditions for recruiting Ma Shiren will be higher."
To be continued...