When Fang Dongquan and the others went out to arrange for the troops to start retreating, Li Xuan and Zeng Ziwen looked at the map and began to study the next step.
At this time, Zeng Ziwen showed his greatest value. Not only was he extremely familiar with the situation in Zhengtai County and its surroundings, but he was originally a member of the Ming Army and was extremely familiar with some of the Ming Army's routines.
Zeng Ziwen pointed to a simple hand-drawn map: "To the northeast is Longhua Town, further ahead is Zhengtai County, and behind us are mountains, so we'd better head northwest!"
"This will not only avoid the enemy troops in Longhua Town, but also maintain the threat to Zhengtai County due north, so that the enemy troops will not dare to make large-scale movements!"
Li Xuandao: "If we go northwest, the land is barren and there are no big villages. I'm afraid it will be difficult to find enough food for the army by then!"
When the army is out and only carries food for seven days, no matter which direction it goes, one of the most important issues must be considered, and that is whether it can get enough food on the way!
Originally, they were planning to go towards Zhengtai County, and the area near Zhengtai County is the most fertile place in the entire Zhengtai County. As long as they get to Zhengtai County, they don't have to worry about not finding enough food, but if they go northwest
If so, it would be a bit troublesome.
Zeng Ziwen said: "Your Majesty, although there are no large villages or villages in the northwest, there are many small villages. Going all the way to the northwest is enough for us to obtain enough food, and it will not cause panic and attention from the Ming army.
, which is conducive to our follow-up actions!”
"The total number of our troops is only five hundred. The food required is a large amount for Huangzhushan, which is short of food. However, we can still get enough food outside. Although there is not much food in those small villages,
Just a little bit is enough for our family to eat!"
After hearing this, Li Xuan nodded slightly: "In that case, let's go northwest and stay for a while to see the situation!"
What Zeng Ziwen said is right. Although their new army of the Tang Dynasty claims to be a large army every day, its actual combat strength is only three hundred and five hundred, and the number of young men who transport the baggage is only five hundred.
There may be a lot of people like this in the mountains, but they are nothing compared to the vast world outside the mountains.
Although Zhengtai County is located inland and the area is barren, it is large enough, so the population is quite large. Zhengtai County's own account books record that there are 20,000 households, making it a medium-sized county. But in fact, the entire Zhengtai County has
The population is probably as many as one hundred thousand.
It's just that most of the population in this era was located in the countryside or even deep in the mountains and forests, and a considerable part of them were hidden households. It is difficult to completely count this part of the population, so the ancient officials themselves did not know who they were under their rule.
How many people there are can only be approximated, and this number is only limited to the known range, and hidden households are not included in the calculation.
Compared to the nearly 100,000 people in the huge Zhengtai County, the mere 500 people Li Xuan brought out were nothing. They could just rob a few villages and find enough food to eat.
And this is based on the fact that you can't rob a village with special weapons, and you can't take away all the food in a village. You have to leave necessary food rations for them, and the excess food can be taken away.
Liu Bagou had long advised Li Xuan that as the Tang Dynasty was an orthodox dynasty and the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was doing justice, they could not rob as they had in the past. Even if they wanted to rob, they could not rob the food of the villages near the mountains.
Empty.
Even Fang Dongquan and the others agreed with this.
Why?
You robbed all the people's food rations at once. These villagers either starved to death or escaped. Who will you rob next time?
Therefore, when the new armies of the Tang Dynasty go out to collect grain, they all use the protection fee model. They will leave necessary rations for these villagers and will not rob them all. Moreover, the main targets are some large landlords, not the poor.
.
The reason is not that Li Xuan cherishes the common people and discriminates against the landlords and rich people, but that only enough food can be found in the granaries of these landlords and rich people.
Those ** didn't even have a rice vat at home, so they couldn't rob much.
Even when they were in Fengjiazhuang, they only robbed a large amount of grain stored in the Fengjiazhuang's granary. For the ordinary tenants in Fengjiazhuang, the farmers' grain was basically untouched.
Li Xuan felt that if he went northwest, he should be able to find many wealthy landlords. If he could rob them all, he would not have to worry too much about insufficient food.
Li Xuan's prediction was finally right this time. After they turned around and retreated that day, they headed northwest. The next day they met a small village. After some threats, they didn't even need to attack directly. The landlord took the initiative.
A lot of food was given away, and even meat such as chicken, duck, pork, etc.
This time of intimidation made Li Xuan feel that he had found a new bright road, that is, he could obtain a large amount of food without robbing.
In the past, they usually directly robbed people. If they do this, people will definitely resist. Even if they surrender in the end, there is still a process of resistance, which will cause some trouble for the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
If it was just a threat, and it was clear that they would take the food and property and leave, I believe that many of the landowners would be willing to spend money to eliminate the disaster.
So, in the next few days, Li Xuan followed the same pattern, specifically looking for those medium-sized landlords and wealthy people. As soon as he arrived, he showed off more than 500 people outside, and then began to threaten them, saying that if they don't give out food to pay homage, they will be punished.
Words like killing all the chickens and dogs and leaving no one behind.
But if you are willing to take the initiative to contribute to the food supply, I will leave immediately without any hesitation.
Occasionally, he would encounter some tough situations. He had hundreds of guardians, villagers, tenants, etc. to protect the village, and he was unwilling to spend money to eliminate disasters. Towards these people, Li Xuan only had one attitude: "Uncle, I don't get along."
You know it, let’s go!”
However, in most cases, the landlords and wealthy people will take the initiative to give away part of the food. Although the amount cannot be compared with the income from direct robbery, it is still quite considerable.
The most important thing is that this avoids frequent battles and causes casualties to the new army of the Tang Dynasty!
This is very important for the new army of the Tang Dynasty, which has only more than 500 people and only 300 soldiers. If one or two people die in a battle, in ten or twenty battles, there will be dozens of people, and they
It would be difficult to handle if there were too many casualties outside.
Even if it is possible to recruit some young men outside and recruit them into the army, these untrained young men are of no use at all and can at most be used as civilians.
Although the new army of the Tang Dynasty required a very short training period due to the large number of musketeers and spearmen. Two or three months would be sufficient, but these two or three months of training cannot be omitted.
There is no way to train these young men on the road, and there is no way to recruit untrained farmers into the new army to fight.