The sun never sets in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 744
It's a pity that in the early spring when there is no harvest, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng City can't even hope to get a bowl of delicious porridge.

Zhou Wang Zhu Gongyan had basically lost all his money and food, and there was nothing he could do at this time.

Kaifeng was repeatedly besieged, and the reinforcements from the imperial court became weaker and weaker. On the contrary, the number of rogues always multiplied. Li Zhongzheng believed that the ebb and flow would inevitably be difficult to last, and he could not choose to die here and fight with the rogues.

At this moment, Li Zhongzheng met Zuo Shouquan, an old acquaintance sent by Nanwang, "Nanming", a third-rank military attache, Henan Military Intelligence Department chief officer.

Followed by Zuo Shouquan, there was only one hundred cavalry from Henan, and Lu Wenhua, the sixth-rank officer of the propaganda team, led more than [-] auxiliary soldiers of the propaganda team.

This group of more than [-] people did not carry the banner of "God of War", nor the banner of "Nanming", but came to the Central Plains in the name of the guard of "Huaxia Big Bank".

Seeing Li Zhongzheng, Zuo Shouquan was blunt and told him that if he wanted to preserve the army and kill the enemy, he could only be guaranteed by guarding the cities along the river, because "Nanming" would send inland warships along the river for reinforcements at critical moments.

There is no doubt that Zuo Shouquan asked Li Zhongzheng to give up Kaifeng. This is because Huang Sheng, thousands of miles away, learned from the information sent back by the Military Intelligence Department that Li Zicheng, who appeared in history, had already opened the seal twice.

Huang Sheng, who was beyond his reach, was gathering troops to go to Liaodong. Emperor Chongzhen had already asked the Ming Dynasty civil and military forces to work together to eliminate the bandits in the mansion newspaper, and asked everyone not to wait or rely on foreign troops for help.

The "Nanming" of Daming's intelligence basically grasped it, and the meaning conveyed by the Dibao was understood even by ordinary agents of the Military Intelligence Department. This was a clarification of Daming's attitude and showed the bottom line, and the "Nanming" army was not allowed to get involved in the Central Plains.

Under such circumstances, the experienced Zuo Shouquan was sent to Henan on business. In order not to cause misunderstandings by Daming, he was surrounded only by No. [-] people who followed him in the name of "Huaxia Big Bank" guards.

The most important thing for Zuo Shouquan to do is to prevent Li Zicheng from besieging Kaifeng for the third time.

Because the thief was determined to besiege Kaifeng for the third time, he adopted the tactics of long-term siege, intending to let hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng starve to death.

After being besieged, the food in Kaifeng city ran out in three months, and the hunger was so severe that "everyone can eat each other".

Weak people cannot kill and eat meat and can only eat everything they can get, such as aquatic plants, Guanyin soil, leather, traditional Chinese medicine, etc., and even eat horse dung.

Finally, the army began to kill horses, and some soldiers even mixed up horse meat and human meat and sold them at three or four taels of silver per catty.Modern people can't imagine.

Hundreds of thousands of people starve to death in Kaifeng every day, but even so, the tenacious Kaifeng soldiers and civilians still choose to fight to the end.

One-eyed Li didn't expect the people of Kaifeng to be so stubborn. After being unable to attack for a long time, the trespassers frantically dug up the Yellow River embankment and flooded Kaifeng City.

In the painting "Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, the bustling Bianliang "full of the river and Han", only the two towers of bells and drums, the roof of the Zijin City of Zhou Wangfu, the top of Xiangguo Temple, Yanqing Temple, Tujie and other high places remain.

The man-made breach in history caused the yellow flood zone to stretch for hundreds of miles, causing Kaifeng to be buried by sand for up to 20 meters.

Sin!The common people lost millions, and those who survived by chance became destitute, and the cultivated land cultivated by their ancestors for generations became barren beach and saline-alkali land.

The prophet Huang Sheng couldn't judge whether Li Zicheng was still so crazy. In order to prevent problems before they happened, he issued an order to Zuo Shouquan, not to allow the "Da Ming" soldiers and civilians to stick to Kaifeng, lest the people become dry bones, the ancient capital become ruins, and the wheat fields become saline-alkali land.

Li Zhongzheng is not pedantic, he does not know that Henan has been beaten to pieces by bandits, and now there is no food for thousands of miles, and it is still impossible to save itself by production, because bandits will appear at any time, and ordinary people have to pay labor and seeds if they can't get harvest from planting wheat.

No matter how strong the city is, it is impossible to defend it for a long time without the soldiers and civilians being supplemented with food. When it is surrounded again, expecting an inefficient court rescue will definitely be ineffective every day.

Seven or eight years ago, Li Zhongzheng was surrounded by bandits in Yiyang County, Henan Province. This was the case. With the lessons learned from the past, he must be responsible for the hundreds of thousands of military and civilian officials in Kaifeng City.

Zuo Shouquan stated that he can provide military rations, but he can only choose to supply them to the cities along the river, because there is a great possibility that these cities will not be lost, otherwise the food transported to Daming by land and sea for thousands of miles may be cheaper for the rogues.

Today's Daming grain prices are extremely high, and the "Huaxia Grain Bank" has always implemented price-limited ration sales, with a maximum upper limit of two and a half silver coins per stone of polished rice.

Too many conscientious civil servants and military generals in the Ming Dynasty knew how difficult it was for the Huang family to stabilize food prices for ten years. Isn't it costly to transport thousands of miles of river and sea?Storage loss and handling costs are not small amounts.

Huang Shengyun's grain was brought into Daming to save more Han people, not to let the bandits eat enough and have the strength to harm the place.

Li Zhongzheng thought that this was more in line with the actual situation. It was feasible to lead the soldiers and civilians to the riverside to eat food nearby, which was less costly and safer!

It is impossible to blatantly take the army to the city by the river, but Li Zhongzheng can garrison Gwangju in a clever name, which is still under the jurisdiction of Henan. Although it does not rely on the Yangtze River, it has the Huai River to rely on.

Gwangju is a strategically important place between the Jianghuai River and the Han Dynasty. It is understandable that Li Zhongzheng moved his troops here as his base camp.

What's more, he just set up a nominal base camp here with bluff, leaving only 3000 troops to defend the city, and immediately transferred to Hankou New City when he found that bandits were aggressively invading.

Li Zhongzheng knew that the thieves were developing rapidly, and the officers and soldiers were gradually at a disadvantage. It was very important to preserve their strength. They must not disperse their forces and let the thieves attack one by one.

Hankou is a grain storage city established by the Southern King. It is backed by the natural danger of the Yangtze River. When the army turns into Hankou, it is not a problem for the soldiers and civilians to stay to help defend the city or escape to the sea.

Therefore, he set up the real base camp in Hankou, and he can be invincible by advancing, attacking, retreating or defending.

Since both sides are doing things in the spirit of saving the common people as much as possible, of course they will not worry about gains and losses. They started to evacuate the poor that day. Lieutenant General Zhang Xiushen led three thousand cavalry under his command to cooperate with Zuo Shouquan again.

The common people retreated, and King Zhou would not stay behind. When he left to move south, he wrote a note asking the emperor to give permission to stay away from Guangzhou temporarily, and return to the feudal domain when the situation improved.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were evacuated, and Kaifeng City was left with 1 horse guards led by Chen Yongfu, who was promoted to the general officer of Kaifeng. Fewer people needed to eat, and the food problem was basically solved.

Besides, he didn't need to defend to the death. He found that the rebels were powerful, so he could choose to retreat south to Gwangju. The rebels would also give them the siege of Gwangju, and the officers and soldiers could then turn to Hankou.

(End of this chapter)