Lock and secure

"Well, let's go there!" Lin Mo touched Zhang Xiaoxiao's head, his eyes full of longing.

Fifteen days later

The rebels occupied Linguan County and spent the next ten days harvesting crops from the surrounding counties. The rebels, who were approaching Linguan County, and the Linguan County guards and the Red Guards who came to support them were deadlocked for ten days.

The number of more than 20,000 rebels increased to nearly 40,000 in just a few days, and small-scale rebels continued to join.

Looking at the densely packed rebels a hundred meters outside the city wall, Red Eagle female general Jiang Weiwei frowned.

Zhou Dazhuang, the captain of Linguan County, also had a serious expression on his face.

"General, the total number of troops in the city is only about 30,000. The number of rebels is increasing. What should we do?!"

"We can't let them increase their numbers. Delaying this will only put us in a more passive position. Right now, food and fodder can only be mobilized from the capital. If we delay any further, we will all starve to death in over a month. We must leave the city to fight tomorrow!"

That night, on a cliff near the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the capital, two men were slowly climbing up, grabbing vines. Their destination was the cave in the middle of the cliff.

The young man climbed quickly, but halfway up he couldn't help but complain, "Your Majesty, why did you build a secret passage in such a dangerous place? You didn't even build a road. It's really tiring!"

The man behind me chuckled, "I never thought I'd need it one day, and I didn't expect the first time I'd use it would be by myself."

The boy continued to climb up, and suddenly he heard a "ah" sound behind him. The boy flew down at an extremely fast speed, grabbed two thick vines, and caught the hand of the man who was sliding down.

"Look, it's so hard to walk, and the wound has opened up again. Just step on the bump there and don't move. Wait for me to come up and pull you up."

The man nodded weakly and said apologetically, "Thank you, Bi'er."

After the man had a firm grip, the boy flew over the eaves and walls, swung on the vines a few times, and then reached the bottom of the cave. He grabbed the vines at the entrance and rolled over to the ground steadily.

The man below saw that he had disappeared and said anxiously: "Bi'er! Bi'er?!"

The boy was very indifferent, "I'm here."

Hearing the sound, the man felt relieved.

After a while, Xiao Bi pulled the man up and sat on the ground exhausted.

The man pulled him up and checked his hand. He was heartbroken when he saw several horrific bloodstains on his palm.

Xiao Bi withdrew his hand indifferently, "It's okay, just a minor injury, let's go."

Seeing his indifferent look, the man called out to him.

Xiao Bi stopped with an impatient look on his face.

Suddenly, I was pulled into a warm embrace and then bitten.

The two separated. Xiao Bi blushed, gasped, and wiped his mouth violently, as if he was used to being bitten by dogs. He turned around and walked inside without paying any attention to the man.

The man hurried to follow.

"Is Bi'er unhappy?"

The boy snorted coldly.

-

In the Zhongsheng Temple, the chaos in the capital finally reached here.

As Yuanzhou is adjacent to Jingzhou, although the war is burning in Jingzhou, even far away in the southern part of Yuanzhou, the war still caused panic among the people.

The people were afraid of war because it meant enlisting, dying, and collecting taxes and grain...

Luo Yao knew about the crisis in the capital through Li Xian and Du Bing, and sent Du Bing back to the capital to see what happened.

In the past few days, news has come that a few people in the community know that the capital is in danger. Although the foot of Daci Mountain is relatively peaceful, there are signs of chaos in the county, and fewer people come to worship in the temple.

The Zhongsheng Temple is dedicated to saving all living beings. Although the temple is small, it is well-known. The monks are giving out porridge more and more frequently. In the past, they gave out porridge once every five days, but now they give out porridge once every three days in the past ten days.

The abbot was very frugal and in order to save more refugees, the monks' meals became more and more vegetarian.

Seeing the monks eating only rice soup and vegetables every day, Luo Yao couldn't bear it and donated most of his gold, silver and banknotes. It was the first time in his life that the monks saw gold, and they burst into tears.

After donating the money, Luo Yao found another way to save money: buy up large quantities of unwanted soybeans. Since most people don't know how to cook soybeans, they're cheap and could save a lot of money. They also replaced the porridge with tofu pudding. While the process was a bit more complicated, it was incredibly filling.

After giving them some advice, Luo Yao went to the porridge distribution site several times.

The mountain has become a bit chaotic these days, so Luo Yao plans to go down the mountain with the monks to distribute porridge and purchase a batch of supplies.

In times of war, who knows where the war will spread to, so we can only stock up on more things in advance.

Daci Mountain is high and the road is long, so the carriage can only go to the mountainside. Early in the morning, Luo Yao, A Shi and A Xian set off with the main force.

Luo Xinchen insisted on following them down the mountain, so there was no choice but to put him in a small backpack and carry him down the mountain.

After going down the mountainside, they changed to a horse carriage and drove into the town at the foot of the mountain. The carriage stopped next to the porridge stall at the entrance of the town. A group of four people entered Daci Town with a cart and a backpack.

The town was indeed much more deserted than the last time they came, and some shops were closed.

There were fewer vendors, so after a quick stroll through the town, a few people went straight to the grain store.

Luo Yao planned to try his luck and visit all the grain shops. They donated most of the money. Although the remaining money might not be spent by an ordinary family in dozens of lifetimes, no one knew where the war would spread and how long the chaos would last, so they had to save money where possible.

As soon as he stepped into the town, Li Xian keenly noticed that something was wrong. There seemed to be very few disaster victims in the town!

The north of Dacheng Kingdom suffered from drought this year, but the emperor has already ordered a large amount of grain to be sent to the north. Logically, there should not be any victims who have to cross the Anxi River!

Li Xian was absentmindedly waiting in front of the grain shop with a basket on his back, keeping an eye on all directions and observing the people on the street.

Luo Yao is choosing the food to buy.

"One hundred kilograms of refined rice, one hundred and fifty kilograms of fine flour, eighty kilograms of soybeans..."

After a round of shopping, this store was the cheapest and had the largest variety. He ordered a bunch of things. Seeing the clerk sweating profusely, Luo Yao started a conversation with him.

"Little brother, I came to your store a few days ago and it wasn't this cheap, why is the price so low today?"

"Sir, you bought a lot. To tell you the truth, the Great Cheng Kingdom is about to be in chaos. Our master has connections with the higher-ups and got the news early this morning. It will be chaos in a few months at most!"

"Are you talking about the crisis in the capital?" Luo Yao's face was solemn.

Logically speaking, the rebels should go straight to the capital, after all, the rebels are people who want to change the dynasty.

A populist uprising might spark a prairie fire, but the Great Cheng Kingdom had just enjoyed a year of peace, recuperation, and tranquility. Who would want to riot when their people were well fed? This rebel army was probably the privately raised soldiers of a treacherous official. Without popular support, it certainly wouldn't be able to spread like wildfire. This guy spoke as if this rebellion could grow stronger.

The clerk sighed, "Yes, the turmoil in the capital is going to escalate. My master said it will spread. We've been rushing to sell our grain and head south these days."

Can these soldiers raised privately by reactionaries still grow stronger?

It is not easy to support an army. Ten people need to eat at least ten kilograms of rice a day, not to mention tens of thousands of people. That is all pure silver!

The guys quickly loaded and weighed the food, and several people worked together to move the grain onto the cart. The waiter also carried up half a sack of something and said that it couldn't be sold, so he gave it to them.

Ah Shi opened the bag, took a look, and touched his head. He didn't know what the thing was, but he thought it would be a waste if it was given to him.