As time goes by, the remaining food in Huangzhu Mountain is getting less and less. In order to expand the source of food, everyone in Huangzhu Mountain, led by Liu Bagou and others, has already started to go up the mountain to pick wild fruits and dig.
For wild vegetables, we also organize manual hunting and fishing.
However, the food obtained through these methods is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the thousands of people in Huangzhushan.
As a last resort, everyone in Huangzhushan also began to cut back on food and clothing. Except for those young adults who needed to do heavy physical labor, everyone else began to eat less.
However, even so, everyone in Huangzhushan cannot support the autumn harvest in one month.
There is even a more important issue, that is, during the busy summer season, although a lot of land was cleared at that time, the food grown after the autumn harvest is enough to last for at least five hundred years until next year's summer harvest.
But now that nearly five hundred people have surrendered from Shuilong Village, the food that was originally enough for the autumn harvest has become insufficient once again.
In other words, even if a thousand people in Huangzhushan have survived this month and supported the autumn harvest, they still will not have enough food from the autumn harvest to the next summer harvest.
No matter whether they are near or far, there is not enough food for the one thousand people in Huangzhushan!
For this reason, Liu Bagou, Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren discussed and even quarreled every day, and the focus of the quarrel was whether to go out to collect grain, especially whether to attack Fengjiazhuang.
Previously, Huang Xueren, who wholeheartedly supported the attack on Fengjiazhuang, sent a few people to sneak out of the mountain, evade the officers and soldiers setting up roadblocks at various intersections, and went to Fengjiazhuang outside the mountain and several other villages that might have large amounts of food to spy on the military situation.
And successfully brought back important information!
"Now it is certain that there is food in Fengjiazhuang, and there is a lot of it. Our people have seen with their own eyes that the granary in Fengjiazhuang is full of food. If we can grab the food in Fengjiazhuang's granary, even if it is the autumn harvest
There is no harvest at that time, but it is enough to sustain us until next summer!" Huang Xueren continued to persuade everyone to attack Fengjiazhuang.
At this time, Li Xuan asked: "Besides Fengjiazhuang, aren't there other villages? Are there a lot of grain stores in those places?"
Of course, Fengjiazhuang is not the only one among the various villages outside the mountains. There are many other villages.
But at this time, Huang Xueren shook his head lightly and said: "Our people have also visited several other villages that are more suitable for starting, but these villages are ordinary villages. They don't want to be just one family's industry like Fengjiazhuang. Although there are grains in other villages,
, but they are all too scattered and there are not many.”
"We also got news that the Ming army outside the mountains collected grain from nearby villages. Most of the food in those villages was taken away by the Ming army. Now outside the mountains, apart from Fengjiazhuang, there are probably only
There is a lot of food in Longhua Town where the Ming army is gathered!"
"There is some trouble in Longhua Town!" Li Xuan frowned slightly. If there were many concerns about attacking Fengjiazhuang, then Longhua Town was not someone they could provoke.
Why?
Don't forget that because Longhua Town is close to the mountains, it has become an important camp for officers and soldiers since summer. There are at least five to six hundred officers and soldiers stationed in it, and these officers and soldiers are regular guards transferred from nearby state capitals. At that time
The officers and soldiers who defeated Fang Dongquan and his party were these officers and soldiers.
If everyone in Huangzhushan wanted to go out to 'collect grain', they would be lucky if they didn't meet most of these officers and soldiers, who would dare to take the initiative to provoke them to go to Longhua Town to seek death.
"Fengjiazhuang is too close to Longhua Town. If we attack Fengjiazhuang, the Ming army will know it in less than half a day, and we will be in danger by then!" Fang Dongquan has always been firmly opposed to attacking Fengjiazhuang, because he knows better than anyone else the recklessness.
The dangers of attacking Fengjiazhuang.
This is not to say how strong Fengjiazhuang's own defense is, but because Fengjiazhuang is too close to Longhua Town, and more importantly, if you want to go to Fengjiazhuang, you have to pass through Longhua Town. If you want to sneak to Fengjiazhuang without telling the officers and soldiers,
, which is basically impossible.
It was on the way to Fengjiazhuang that Fang Dongquan met a large number of officers and soldiers.
Li Xuan naturally knew Fang Dongquan's worries, but he still said calmly: "If we attack several other villages, will we be able to obtain enough food to sustain us until the summer harvest?"
"Unlikely!" Huang Xueren replied without hesitation: "After all, the amount of food we need is not a small amount. Even if all the food in those villages is harvested, it will not be enough for us. Moreover, doing so would be really harmful.
His Majesty’s reputation as a holy king!”
Hearing this, Li Xuan took another look at Huang Xueren. This man actually considered whether harvesting grain would affect his reputation.
But he also understood this. Whether it was the previous Huangzhushan or Shuilong Village, you said they were bandits. In fact, they were bandits when they went out and for the people when they came in. When they didn't go out to rob,
They are all honest farmers, working in the fields on weekdays.
But when they go out to rob, they will turn into bandits and robbers.
But bandits also have their own ethics. For example, they know that rabbits don’t eat grass near their nests, so they basically won’t rob some small villages near the mountains. They are also quite friendly to hunters and mountain people who enter the mountains, because these people in the deep mountains
Bandits also need to obtain supplies from the outside world through these people, especially broken promises, iron tools, etc.
Secondly, these mountain people living on the edge of the mountains are all miserable. They don't have enough to eat, so there will be extra food and money for them to grab.
Even in some villages outside the mountains, they generally do not take action easily. Even if they do, they usually only rob part of the food and leave them with rations to survive. This method is somewhat similar to paying protection fees.
Although the protection fee is a little small, it comes every year. However, if all their food rations are taken away, these people will starve to death or flee.
If all these people have fled or died, who will they rob next year?
"According to your statement, don't we have any other option besides attacking Fengjiazhuang?" At this time, Qian Mengjiu, who had rarely spoken in such court discussions, also spoke:
"But attacking Fengjiazhuang is so dangerous. Can General Huang guarantee that we will succeed? Even if we succeed, how many brothers will not be able to come back alive?"