"Lord, something bad is going on!" Pang De hurriedly rushed in.
"What's the matter?"
"Could it be that Yuan Shu led his army to kill us?"
Guo Jiafa looked at each other.
Wang Ding said: "What happened?"
Pang De said: "The people in the city gathered to rob the military rations."
Wang Ding was shocked now. The group of people he saw when he entered the city were now trying to steal military rations. Where did they get the courage?
Wang Ding frowned and said, "What's going on?"
Wang was not afraid of a group of unarmed common people snatching military rations, but now the army he led was advancing lightly, with all their baggage at the rear, and each person could only carry three days of rations.
The army still has to fight with Yuan Shu's soldiers and horses. Even if Wang Ding sympathizes with these people, it is impossible for his soldiers to give his dry food to the people now.
"Go out and have a look." Wang Ding stood up and walked out of the dilapidated prefect's mansion.
It was quite quiet outside the prefect's mansion, with only a few hundred people standing and watching from a distance.
Zhang Xiu, who was guarding outside the prefect's mansion, was armed with a spear and hundreds of soldiers. They were all so murderous that the common people did not dare to approach.
It's just that more people are gathering every moment.
They already knew that almost all the dry food carried by the soldiers outside had been given to other people.
If they want to survive now, they can only come to the governor's house and pray to the prime minister to give them a bite to eat.
None of the soldiers under the Prime Minister's command would harm them, and the Prime Minister should not do any harm.
This is the self-comfort in many people’s minds.
Jia Xu said: "Lord, we must disperse the people as soon as possible."
If people are allowed to gather, it will become increasingly difficult to control them. We cannot really kill these people.
Wang Ding came to support Xuzhou, not to massacre the city.
He nodded and said: "Zhang Xiu, disperse the people."
There is no extra food in hand, and he has no choice now. It is impossible to conjure food out of thin air.
Zhang Xiu led a group of soldiers and horses and rushed towards the gathered people.
"Spread out, there is no food here."
The cold spear is still very intimidating.
Seeing this, most of the people were desperate and retreated, but a small number of people still stayed in place.
They were so weak that they almost fainted from hunger.
If they leave they will starve to death, if they stay here they will be killed. They choose to stay here.
"Lord, kill all the rest." Jia Xu suggested again.
At this time, these people must be feared. Dispersing some and killing some are enough to stabilize the situation in the city.
Wang Ding looked at the more than a hundred people in front of him, including old people, children, and women. Without exception, they were all in ragged clothes, unkempt hair, and sallow complexions.
Some supported each other, and some simply sat on the ground, just looking at the prefect's mansion and Wang Ding eagerly.
If it were Cao Cao, he might have already taken action at this moment.
But Wang Ding hesitated.
Even after these years of war, the Mo Dao in his hand has killed countless people.
But he never took action against defenseless people.
Faced with such a group of pitiful people, Wang Ding could not swing his butcher knife after all.
If so, how different is he from Cao Cao?
"Lord, we can't keep these people," Fazheng also said.
It is better to kill a hundred people than to wait until more and more people gather and kill a thousand people or ten thousand people.
Wang Dingdao: "Put them all in prison."
Wang Ding did not kill these people in the end.
Zhang Xiu took the order and imprisoned all the old, weak, women and children who were reluctant to leave into an empty prison.
It's just that this can only relieve the position for a while. Soon, more people will gather outside the prefect's mansion.
Unless they are allowed to see corpses all over the ground and rivers of blood flowing, so that they dare not approach the prefect's mansion, otherwise these hungry victims will always have a glimmer of hope in their hearts.
"Where is Yuan Shu's army?" Wang Ding asked.
He was unwilling to swing his butcher knife at these hungry people, so he could only vent his anger to Yuan Shu.
Sima Yi said: "It's in Guangling, a hundred miles south of Pengcheng."
Fa Zheng said: "Lord, if we pursue now, the soldiers may be exhausted, and the food and grass will not be enough to support the army to reach Guangling."
Yuan Shu's army passed through the border like locusts and swept away all the food, which indeed had a great impact on Wang Ding.
The baggage troops were still in the rear, and each of the troops arriving in Pengcheng only carried three days' worth of dry food.
Originally, I wanted to rest for a while in Pengcheng, just in time to wait for the rear supply troops to arrive.
Now Wang Ding feels that he can no longer stay in Pengcheng.
If you continue to stay here, there will inevitably be greater conflicts with the hungry people in the city.
"Leave the city in half an hour." Wang Ding ordered.
Pengcheng cannot stay any longer.
There are still many corpses in the city that have not been cleared in time, so we can only wait a little longer.
Outside the prefect's mansion, hungry people gathered from time to time. Most of them were driven away by Zhang Xiu. The few who were unwilling to leave were imprisoned in prison.
Half an hour later, Wang Ding led the army and left Pengcheng.
In the city, tens of thousands of hungry people watched the army leave, but their hearts were empty.
Although thousands of people were imprisoned, they were not afraid in their hearts.
Compared to other warlords, Wang Ding's soldiers and horses were very gentle towards them and did not harm anyone.
The people who were imprisoned in the prison suddenly had a steamed bun and a bowl of water placed in front of them.
Some people thought they were starving and hallucinating. It was not until they picked up the steamed buns and took a bite that they were sure it was not a dream. They hurriedly picked up the steamed buns and started to eat them.
But no one noticed that at the same time the soldier put down the steamed buns, he also quietly opened the iron lock of the prison.
Wang Ding led the army to evacuate from Pengcheng and move towards Guangling County.
Along the way, there were countless refugees.
The sudden appearance of the army panicked the fleeing refugees.
Even if he saw many people lying on the roadside, Wang Ding could only turn a blind eye now.
The army was not advancing very fast, and Wang Ding had to wait for supplies from the rear.
When they left Pengcheng, they immediately notified the baggage troops to urgently deliver a batch of food.
Even if Wang Ding believed that his soldiers were more effective, he could not use his exhausted troops to deal with Yuan Shu's troops.
Thirty miles out of Pengcheng, the army arrived at a village.
The village that originally had about a hundred households now has only a dozen people left.
The rest were either killed by Yuan Shu's troops or had fled.
Those who stay in the village are almost waiting to die.
Wherever Yuan Shu's army passed, Wang Ding truly understood what it means to be thousands of miles away.
"Zhang Xiu, bring some food to these old people." Wang Ding ordered after entering the village.
It's just food for more than ten people, so he can still afford it.
With an army of 30,000, each person lost a little bit of dough, which was enough to feed these people for several days.
The army rested in the village for two days, and Fan Chou delivered a batch of grain and grass.
Leaving ten kilograms of rice for the people in the village, Wang Ding led his army and galloped away.
On the same day, we arrived fifty miles outside the city of Guangling County.
At this time, Yuan Shu's general Han Yin led an army of 30,000 troops and was still stationed in Guangling City.
Facing the sudden appearance of the Han army, Han Yin did not panic.
Along the way, he fortified the walls and cleared the country, collecting all the food. He did not believe that Wang Ding's army could still find something to eat on Xuzhou's territory.
As long as he holds on for three days, the Han army will naturally be defeated.