The ninth son of the emperor was demoted at the beginning. I have a famous Chinese general.

at the same time.

Jiannan, Mianzhu City.

A siege is underway.

Yue Fei was leading his army to launch a fierce attack on Mianzhu.

Mianzhu is the northwest gateway of Jiannan. If Mianzhu is captured, the entire western part of Jiannan will be completely exposed under Yue Fei's eyes.

Yue Fei did not originally have to attack Mianzhu. His mission was to force Jiannan to withdraw his troops.

But when he led his army to the city, he unexpectedly discovered that the defenses of Mianzhu City were poor and there were not many defenders at all.

It turned out that Zhou Guangde, the defender of Mianzhu, was so scared when he learned that Yue Fei's army was approaching that he fled Mianzhu overnight.

Zhou Guangde was the brother-in-law of Zhang Ju, the governor of Jiannan, and became the governor of Mianzhu with the help of his sister.

But this person is cowardly and timid by nature.

Upon learning of this, Yue Fei immediately ordered an attack on the city.

Prepare to capture Mianzhu City as the army's base and headquarters.

When a large army is dispatched, it cannot be a wasted trip, and some benefits must be gained.

What Your Highness lacks most is, of course, population.

Yue Fei then prepared to plunder the population and wealth of Mianzhu and its surrounding areas.

The main general fled, and Mianzhu City was leaderless.

It was captured by Yue Fei in less than half an hour.

Afterwards, Yue Fei immediately led his troops into Mianzhu City and began to build city defense fortifications.

Half a day later, several armies set out and began to sweep through the surrounding counties, plundering people, food, and money.

There is actually no need to plunder the population. In years of severe drought, people cannot even get enough food to eat.

As long as they are provided with food, the people will of course be willing to migrate with the army in order to survive.

As for robbing money, the targets are of course the wealthy businessmen, landlords, or powerful families.

To this end, Yue Fei sent out only Hun cavalry, which had a good deterrent effect.

In just five days, all the wealthy gentry and powerful families in Mianzhu and its surrounding areas were looted.

Over the course of five days, they looted nearly two million in gold and silver, and abducted nearly 100,000 civilians.

On the sixth day, Zhang Ju arrived with his army.

Yue Fei had completely looted the area around Mianzhu and retreated to Mianzhu City.

"Damn it! How dare you plunder the people of Jiannan!"

Seeing all this, Zhang Ju's face turned pale.

But he could only curse a few words, there was nothing he could do.

Yue Fei had an army of 80,000 and Mianzhu City as his support. Even if he gathered all the troops in Jiannan, he would not be able to take it.

He also understood that Yue Fei's army would withdraw sooner or later and could not stay for long.

He just needs to make sure he doesn't suffer any greater losses.

"Send the order, return to Mianyang immediately, and the entire army will hold out to the death."

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Ju said through gritted teeth.

"As ordered!"

Many generals received the order and the army turned around and returned.

Yue Fei did not pursue him, as his goal had been achieved anyway.

Not only did they gain a large population and wealth, but the Jiannan Army also withdrew from Xuanwu.

After asking for instructions from Ning Quan, Yue Fei led his troops back after a few days of rest.

When they came, there were 80,000 soldiers. When they left, there were still 80,000 soldiers, but there were nearly 100,000 more civilians.

Therefore, the returning team was huge, stretching for hundreds of miles, and was quite spectacular.

The return journey naturally had to pass through Tubo territory, but Tubo dared not move and could only watch the army pass by from afar.

..........

Xiping City.

When Ning Quan learned that Yue Fei had captured 100,000 civilians, he suddenly felt a little overwhelmed.

Of course he wants more people, but he also has to be able to feed them.

He doesn't have much food left now.

The little remaining space and food are for emergency use.

Fortunately, the sky is endless.

At this time, Xiang Yu received news from Xizhou City.

Aruna knew that Ning Quan was short of food, so she immediately purchased 200,000 dan of food for Ning Quan after returning to the Western Regions. The food has now been shipped to Xizhou.

Aruna also told Ning Quan a piece of news that the Kingdom of the Arabs had grain for sale because there was no drought in the Arabs.

In addition, there is another good news.

That is, Aruna gave birth to a daughter for Ning Quan.

Ning Quan was ecstatic upon hearing the news.

I wish I could run to Loulan immediately to hug my daughter.

Unfortunately, he couldn't get away because the Xuanwu War had not yet ended and the situation in Daqian had not yet stabilized.

Ning Quan still admired Xuanwu Jiedushi Zhao Shijie very much.

Even after the coalition forces retreated, this guy still managed to hold on for ten days before collapsing in the face of the crazy attack of 300,000 Daqian troops.

And this guy was also very cruel. He committed suicide when the city was broken.

But no matter what, after paying a huge price, Daqian finally took Xuanwu.

Next, as long as the crisis in Xiangzhou is resolved, the situation in Daqian will be stabilized.

Ning Quan also waited until he received this news before setting off to return to Xizhou.

Before leaving, Ning Quan handed over the affairs of Hexi to Changsun Wuji and the military affairs to Guan Yu.

Guan Yu followed Yue Fei into battle and is now on his way back.

But it doesn’t matter. Changsun Wuji will take charge of it temporarily.

.........

Seven days later, Ning Quan returned to Xizhou.

At this time, Li Wanyue had also moved from Hulun to Xizhou, and it had been four days.

Upon learning that Ning Quan had returned, Li Wanyue was overjoyed and hurried out of the city to greet him.

"Husband."

When she saw Ning Quan, Li Wanyue threw herself into his arms.

Although they hadn't seen each other for only two months, she still missed him very much.

"lady."

Ning Quan hugged Li Wanyue with a smile on his face.

"Husband, this expedition was very tiring, wasn't it?"

Li Wanyue asked softly.

"Haha, it's not hard."

"As long as I see the lady, all the hard work is worth it."

Ning Quan said half-jokingly.

"Hate!"

Li Wanyue gave a coquettish sound.

"I will pay my respects to Your Highness."

As he was speaking, Man Chong and Xiang Yu came up and bowed to Ning Quan.

"No gift."

"You have worked hard during this period."

Ning Quan smiled and waved his hand.

"Your Highness is too polite. It's not hard for us." Man Chong and the other two said hurriedly.

"Okay, let's go into town and talk."

Ning Quan nodded, then went into the city with everyone else.

"Your Highness, the ransom has been paid to the Arabs, and I have ordered the release of all the captives."

After entering the palace, Man Chong reported.

"Well, the deal is settled, so just do it normally."

"By the way, has the Arab envoy left?"

"I heard from Aruna that there is grain for sale in the territory of the Arab Empire, and I want to purchase a batch of grain through him."

Ning Quan suddenly said.

"Your Highness, the Arab envoy has not yet left. I will send someone to invite him."

Man Chong responded quickly and sent someone to invite him.

Soon, the Arab envoy arrived, it was the same Niger who came last time.

"Nigel has met His Highness!"

"Well, no gifts."

"I have come to you to do business. I would like to buy some food from you. Is that possible?"

Ning Quan went straight to the point.

"I wonder how much food Your Highness needs."

Nigel asked.

"The more the better, at least one million stones!" Ning Quan said directly.

"What? Your Highness wants one million koku!"

Nigel was startled.