He looked at the howling northeast wind, but fortunately they completed the task in time.
Otherwise, the hot air balloon would not be able to accurately deliver bombs under such strong winds.
This time, the flight altitude of the hot air balloons was increased. Only five hot air balloons lowered their altitude due to airflow disturbances and were shot down by the Ming army.
There were also some hot air balloons that were blown to the southwest by the suddenly strong wind and landed somewhere unknown.
Each group of hot air balloons has a staff officer who records the extent to which they destroyed the Ming army's granaries.
This record can be used as evidence of the hot air balloon soldier's meritorious service.
Ding Degui also used this record to make statistics on the destruction of granaries by hot-air balloon troops.
He took the statistical records with him to the governor's camp.
Ding Degui saw the King of Qin and the main officers of each army waiting for him in the camp.
After saluting, he said: "Your Majesty, I led the hot-air balloon troops and have basically destroyed the granary in Mengjin County.
There were eleven granaries in Mengjin County, and we completely destroyed ten granaries.
There is a granary in a remote location, and it is difficult to hit it with bombs dropped from the air. Only a few hits were made, but it was not completely destroyed."
Su He heard that the hot air balloon force had completed its planned goal.
He immediately applauded and praised: "The hot air balloon unit has perfectly accomplished its strategic goal.
If we destroy the granaries in Mengjin City, the Ming army will soon run out of food."
Su He asked all armies to surround Mengjin County tightly and not allow even a grain of grain to enter Mengjin County.
The armies continued to conduct tentative sieges and maintained strong pressure on Mengjin County.
They continued to launch feint attacks and mobilized the Ming troops in the city to defend the city.
If the Ming army mobilizes a large army to defend the city, it will consume the food stored in the city more quickly.
The Ming army only mobilized a small number of troops to defend the city. The feint attack immediately turned into a main attack and captured Mengjin County.
The hot air balloon took off on the spot and observed the movements of the Ming army in Mengjin County from a high altitude.
…………………………
Lu Xiangsheng saw that the sky had darkened and the hot air balloon of the thief in yellow no longer took off.
He ordered: "Rescue the grain in the granary immediately, and grab as much food as you can.
All the food is gathered together and arranged by Mr. Sun and I."
Lu Xiangsheng approached the granary, and the soldiers he led extinguished the fire and then excavated the granary.
It was found that the granary was completely burned, and all the food was turned into charcoal ash, making it inedible.
Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting investigated the conditions of all eleven granaries in Mengjin County.
It was found that except for the granary located in the corner, only some of the food was damaged, and a lot of it was turned into popcorn.
The grain turned into popcorn can only be eaten immediately and cannot be stored for a long time.
The remaining granaries were destroyed by thieves in yellow clothes.
A large amount of stored grain has been burned completely and is completely inedible.
When Sun Chuanting saw the situation in the granary, he thought of going to support Daling River City himself.
He still remembers the tragic situation in Dalinghe City.
The Daling River has been short of food for a long time. After the food is out, horses will be eaten first, and people will be eaten last.
I hope that such tragic things will not happen here in Mengjin County.
But looking at the current situation, the situation will develop in this direction.
There is only so much food left, which is not enough for over 100,000 people in the city for half a month.
Even if they are extremely economical, what will the Ming army in the city eat after half a month?
When Lu Xiangsheng saw how little food was left, he suddenly felt dizzy.
When he was besieged by thieves in yellow clothes before, he never despaired.
He stood firm in Mengjin County, and with the help of the fortified city and artillery, he was able to deal with the thieves in yellow.
Now the food has been destroyed by thieves in yellow clothes, and the city will soon run out of food.
How can these tens of thousands of Ming troops defend the city if they don't have enough to eat?
"Inform the entire army that starting from today, they will only eat one porridge every day.
The artillerymen on top of the city can eat porridge twice a day."
Lu Xiangsheng could only choose to reduce his daily food intake so that the remaining food reserves could last a little longer and wait for the situation to change.
…………………………
Su He stood outside the Chinese army camp and watched a huge hot air balloon rising from the camp.
It is connected to the ground with thick ropes.
Now the wind is howling, and the hot air balloon is swaying back and forth high in the sky, looking precarious.
The flag waved a few times on the hot air balloon.
The soldiers began to use a winch to pull the thick rope.
The hot air balloon high in the sky also reduces the firepower of the blowtorch.
In this way, the hot air balloon can descend steadily and will not be blown away by strong winds.
The hot air balloon basket touched the ground, and Ding Degui immediately stepped out of the basket.
He saw Qin King Su He waiting here and reported: "Your Majesty, we have been observing for the past few days.
It was found that the cooking smoke in Mengjin County was reduced by more than half.
Most of the smoke rises at dusk.
The Ming army has begun to save food. I observed through the telescope that many Ming soldiers were weak, sallow and thin.
There were only the elite Ming troops who defended the city on the city wall, especially the artillery.
Their faces look rosy and plump, so they should be able to eat enough."
Su He said happily: "It seems that the results of the battle are greater than we imagined. The Ming army has saved food.
Eat only one meal a day.
By doing this, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army will be rapidly reduced.
You continue to observe the Ming army in the city, do not miss any detail, and evaluate the combat effectiveness of the Ming army at any time."
Su He notified all armies at the same time, asking all armies to continue to maintain strong pressure on Mengjin County.
The Ming army was under strong pressure so that more soldiers would be fed and the city's stored food supplies would be consumed faster.
…………………………
"Dad, I'm hungry."
"Xiao Shi, your father and I are hungry too."
"Dad, you said we should join the army with Mr. Lu.
Just to have enough to eat and support the family with military pay.
I haven’t seen military pay for several months.
Now I can't even eat enough.
Those who are officials can have enough to eat.
We, the big soldiers, have run out of food now."
Shi Datou held the musket in his hand and covered his growling stomach.
"With guns in our hands, we will never be the first people to starve to death.
The military households in the guardhouse have begun to rob the people in the city of food.
Let's wait until night and gather some brothers to go to local people's homes to grab food.
I saw someone grab a chicken, and someone else grabbed a big fat pig.
We must act as soon as possible, otherwise all the food will be robbed by those military households."
"Dad, Mr. Lu has repeatedly issued orders to restrain the military discipline of our Tianxiong Army. Can we go directly to grab food?"
"Xiao Shi, you said that we are almost starving to death, why do you care about military discipline? Life is the most important thing now.
Maybe at some point we will be dragged to the city wall to defend the city.
I'm so hungry now that I can't even lift a knife. Going up the city wall is not asking for death."
The Tianxiong Army, led by the sentinel commander Shi Datou, quickly gathered nearly a hundred people and approached the residential area with swords and guns.
"Master Jun, this is the only food we have in our family.
If you take away the food, my children and I will starve to death."
"If we don't take away your food, we will starve to death."
Tianxiong's army completely ignored the people's cries and started grabbing food.
And he searched the house carefully, not sparing any corner, and tried to find the food hidden by the people.
Xiaoshi came to his father with a look of horror on his face.
"Dad, we are fighting with the military households in front.
We found a big fat pig, and those military households, relying on the strength of their numbers, were ready to snatch our big fat pig."
When Shi Datou heard this, he immediately raised the knife in his hand.
"How dare you snatch food from us, brothers, come and kill me.
No one can take away the food in our hands."
Tianxiong's army and military households fought each other for food.
The military households were outnumbered and quickly gained the upper hand.
Shi Datou directly raised his musket and fired at the officer opposite.
Tianxiongjun immediately put down his sword and took out his musket.
The bangs of musketry rang out, and they quickly gained the upper hand.
Take the big fat pig and grain with you and return to camp for a hearty meal.
…………………………
Lu Xiangsheng looked at Shi Datou and Wang Xiaoer who were kneeling down in the hall with a dark face.
"You have grown up, and you dare to fight each other.
In your eyes, do you still have me as the governor?
All those who participated in the fire will be beheaded in public display."
Lu Xiangsheng did not favor the Tianxiong Army. Now is an extraordinary period, and he must strictly maintain military discipline and his own authority.
Food is getting less and less, from one porridge a day to one every two days, and there are fewer and fewer rice grains in the bowl.
Because of extreme hunger, now is the time for the soldiers to complain.
Once military discipline is relaxed, the Ming army will escape control.
Once these Ming army generals thought of surrendering to the yellow-robed thieves, they opened the gates of Mengjin County.
Once this happens, it will directly lead to the defeat of Mengjin County.
Lu Xiangsheng must maintain his authority and prevent this kind of thing from happening.
…………………………
Ding Degui reported to Qin King Su He about the situation in Mengjin County.
"Your Majesty, there is less smoke in Mengjin County now.
I also saw quite a few Ming troops.
They went to the ruins of the burned granary to search for food that might have survived.
The Ming army has begun to rob the people in the city of food.
I saw that in many places where people live, the smoke from cooking has disappeared."
When Su He heard what was going on, he still had a smile on his face.
After hearing what happened next, the smile on his face gradually disappeared.
The Ming army had begun to run out of food, and Su He had experienced the feeling of hunger.
When a person is in a state of extreme hunger, his sanity will gradually disappear.
Even though people know that eating dirt will lead to death, they will eat dirt without hesitation just to satisfy themselves and become a dead ghost.
What's more, for the Ming army, looting the common people was a common occurrence and had no moral burden at all.
There are only a few thousand women and children left in Mengjin City. It is unknown how many people will survive after the city is destroyed.
All Su He can do is to capture Mengjin County as soon as possible.
…………………………
"Just give me this stuff, don't you deserve a beating?"
Zu Kuan, the commander-in-chief of the Guan Ning Army, looked at what the soldiers brought up.
Half a bowl of rice porridge and a plate of stewed radish.
"You are just feeding the cat! I want to go into battle to kill the enemy, so bring me half a bowl of rice porridge.
I can count the rice grains in the rice porridge one by one."
Zu Kuan usually eats, but with this small bowl, he can eat six bowls of rice in one meal.
The generals like the rebels who besieged Mengjin County before were able to eat a piece of meat every meal.
Now when we enter Mengjin County, we are surrounded by thieves in yellow clothes, and they have to go to the city wall to be bombed every day.
The meat was gone long ago, and he could understand the difficulty here.
Now I can't even eat enough and can only eat half a bowl of gruel every meal.
When the soldier heard Zu Kuan's scolding, he said aggrievedly: "General, we will make as much military ration as the military rations given to us by the superiors."
Zu Kuan slapped the table and said angrily: "Why are you so stupid? There are military rations distributed from above.
Give me priority and let me eat well so that I can have the strength to command the army in battle."
The soldier looked helpless and said: "But general, we have been out of food since yesterday.
Not a grain of grain was given out. This little grain was the food stored privately by the cook. We dug it out and made half a bowl of porridge for you."
When Zu Kuan heard this, he finished his meal quickly and went directly to find Sun Chuanting. He couldn't wait any longer.
Zu Kuan walked to the place where Sun Chuanting usually worked, and he found that many generals were coming.
Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting heard that many generals were asking for an audience.
They knew why these generals came.
Since yesterday, the granary has been completely empty, and they can no longer distribute a grain of grain.
Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting met these generals.
Zu Kuan raised his voice and said first: "Master Sun, Master Lu.
Our army is now out of food and there is no way to delay it any longer.
Now we can only choose to fight to the death.
We used our last rations to feed the soldiers, and we rushed out with the whole army.
Staying in Mengjin County now will lead to a dead end."
Zu Kuan's opinion is very clear, while they still have some strength left, let's fight directly.
If we delay for a while longer, the soldiers' physical strength will be exhausted.
If you want to go all out at that time, there is no way to go all out.
Sun Chuanting refused directly and said: "Leaving the city now is a dead end.
The thieves in yellow have been prepared and have deployed heavy troops outside the city.
They tried every possible means to capture Mengjin County, but they were waiting for our troops to leave the city.
We have tried to break through before, but there was nothing we could do during the period of complete victory.
The firepower of the thieves in yellow was too strong. Before we could get close to the thieves in yellow, most of the army was annihilated by the thieves in yellow's firearms.
The only way now is to wait for reinforcements."
General Jin Guoqi knelt down towards Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting and begged: "Master Lu, Master Sun, let's kill horses for military rations!
New Year's Eve is just a few days away, and many wounded soldiers have died due to lack of food and worsening injuries.
With what we have left, we can't just starve to death and not even see the New Year's Eve.
All the pigs, cows, and chickens in the city were caught, and even the rats were eaten by the hungry soldiers.
The only remaining war horses no one dared to kill were now the only animals that could be used as military rations.
We can’t eat dumplings on New Year’s Eve, but we must give the soldiers a full meal.”
All the Ming army generals present knelt down to Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting.
They expressed one idea: to solve the military ration problem as soon as possible.
Because the soldiers at the grassroots level are starving, some of them are now disobeying military orders.
When hunger spreads again, these people are likely to rebel.
Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting exchanged glances.
They had not planned to kill the horse before, this was to give themselves a chance.
Killing the war horses means that they lose the ability to break through.
We can only wait for reinforcements to arrive, and work together from inside and outside to conquer the yellow-robed thief camp.
Sun Chuanting said helplessly: "Kill the horse!"
Guan Ningjun brought the largest number of horses, and only Sun Chuanting nodded so that this matter could be carried out.
The Ming army began to kill the horses. The unpalatable horse meat gave the Ming soldiers hope of survival and brought smiles to their faces.
Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting frowned. They couldn't survive long on the war horse. Then they would completely run out of food. What would they do?
