Li Siye looked around at everyone, and as he expected, the first one to stand up and criticize must be General Ma Phosphorus.
Ma Li clasped his fists carelessly and asked calmly: "I dare to ask General Li, it's okay not to bring baggage, and it's okay not to call in auxiliary troops, but it's unrealistic to not bring cooking utensils and build rice. Let me ask you about the fifty
What kind of dry food can last for fifty days without spoiling? Even dried biscuits will go rancid in ten or twenty days, right?"
"That's a good question," Li Siye responded with a salute, turned to the guard guarding the door and said, "Go to Shule Military Camp and ask someone to bring over a bag of dry food."
The guards folded their hands in response and ran to the Shule Army to deliver the order. Everyone looked amused. Gao Xianzhi nodded and smoothed his beard. Fumeng Lingcha's sitting posture was no longer so upright. He closed his eyes and waited.
"Report, the dry food bag has arrived!"
Fu Meng Zhongcheng quickly opened his eyes and came out of his dormant state. Yan Xiaosi walked into the hall carrying a bag of dry food, handed it to Li Siye and crossed his arms before exiting.
Li Siye took out a few biscuits that were harder than bricks from the bag, first presented one to Fumeng Lingcha with both hands, and then distributed it to everyone like giving out wedding candies, saying at the same time: "Please try it, everyone. Although the taste is not very good, but
The shelf life is definitely long enough.”
Ma Phosphorus bit a piece hard with his incisors, and his mouth was full of dry powder. He nodded and said, "It tastes pretty good, but it's really hard to swallow without some water. What is it made of?"
"Put flour, highland barley flour, and corn flour into a bucket or iron pot and stir-fry. Add salt and a small amount of mutton oil. If there are any seasonings that are better, stir-fry until boiling hot. Let it cool in the sun and then put it into an iron mold and tamp it.
It turns into a hard block. This is our homemade compressed biscuit. It can be stored as fried noodles without compression. As long as it is kept dry and not soaked in water, there will be no problem in eating it within sixty days."
There were still a few bacon strips in the dry food bag. Li Siye also distributed them to everyone and said: "We don't use salt cloth or vinegar cloth, but use salt to cure the dried meat. We not only carry the meat, but also carry the salt."
Ma Phosphorus took it and tasted it. He took a few sips and said, "It's so salty! This meat is not marinated in salt. It's like a piece of meat marinated in salt."
"It's a little salty, but the more salt there is in the meat, the longer it will last."
Ma Phosphorus nodded convincingly, raised his hands and said, "If that's the case, then I don't have any problem."
Yaya Kang Huaishun also stood up, faced Li Siye and retaliated with his fists and asked: "Now that the dry food for people has been solved, what will the livestock eat? General Li said that each person has a camel and a horse, but our Anxi Army has not yet achieved that everyone has a private horse.
How can the camel-horse soldiers transport fifty days of dry food on camels?"
Li Siye responded immediately without thinking: "Now in spring and summer, the grass and trees are luxuriant. There are pastures thousands of miles away from the Suiye River. As soon as you leave Dunduo City and cross the Zhenzhu River, you will find the pastures. The horses have no worries about eating and drinking. As for some soldiers who have no horses, Wang Zhengjian said
The cavalry army led by the general, each with two or three horses, can temporarily switch to walking and lend the horses to soldiers who do not have private horses. If this is not enough, the oxen for transporting baggage can also be transported on camels, and they can also be transferred
It should be enough for the city to borrow and buy camels and livestock from the passing caravans and common people."
Fumeng Lingcha came to Wang Zhengjian and asked, "General Wang, can I borrow the horses from your cavalry army?"
Wang Zhengjian stood up and crossed his hands and responded: "The cavalry can dismount and walk, but they will only engage the enemy after reaching Suiye River. Without the cavalry, how can we take advantage of the victory and pursue the enemy? How can we cover up and defeat the enemy?"
Li Siye bowed his hand to Wang Zhengjian and said, "General Wang, don't worry. During the march, you will eat less and less dry food. After entering Suiye River, the soldiers with private horses can transport two people with supplies on camels and return the horses to the cavalry."
"
Fumeng was in a good mood at this time. He looked at everyone with high spirits and said, "Who has any objections? If there are no objections..."
"My subordinates still want to ask," but Ma Li stood up and looked at Li Siye with bright eyes, almost trying to refute him: "Tu Qi Shi Khan's tooth tent is set up in Suiye City. If Mohe Khan
How about shrinking our troops in Suiye City and not being able to get out, waiting for our army to consume dry food? We have no baggage, no bed crossbows and other siege equipment, how can we take down Suiye City?"
Before Li Siye could speak, everyone started to argue with Ma Phosphorus: "This is General Ma Phosphorus, you are not thinking carefully. The people of Tuqi Shi live as nomads. In May and June, the summer grass is lush, and the cattle and sheep rely on the pastures to gain weight."
, they imprisoned the cattle and sheep in the city, how can they feed them? So they will definitely not hold on."
Ma Phosphorus was very thick-skinned. Regardless of the arguments of these people, he continued to ask the question: "What if Mohe prepared in advance, harvested the forage and stored it in the city, and then retreated to Suiye City after an unfavorable encounter with our army, waiting for our army to run out of food and retreat?
"
This idea is quite cautious. If Mohedagan is really so cautious, it is connected with the brain circuit of Ma Phosphorus, which is an issue that must be considered.
Li Siye thought about it for a while, but he still couldn't come up with a countermeasure. Gao Xianzhi finally refused to be silent anymore, stroked his beard and smiled and said: "I will complete the plan for General Li. The Dumo branch of one of the sudden cavalry Shi Hei's troops is in ruins.
There are activities in the Yili River area west of Yecheng. Our Anxi Protectorate has sent people to contact them. The Dumo tribe has expressed its willingness to submit and join our army in the crusade against Mohe Dagan. In addition, Bahanna King Ashilanda also led 10,000 people.
With all our troops, we will attack westward via Talas."
"No matter how fully prepared Mohe Dagan was at the time, it was impossible to corral all the hundreds of thousands of livestock into Suiye City. Our army attacked head-on. Ashilanda and Domo were responsible for gathering and capturing the remaining troops.
All the captured cattle and sheep are rations for our army. If he cowers in Suiye City, we will fight him to see who can endure it. This is called fighting to support war."
"What a man who relies on fighting to support fighting." Fumeng Lingcha patted the case and said, "You all worked together and finally completed Li Siye's tactics. Now, the whole army listens to my orders!"
He put his riding whip on the desk, stood up tall, looked at the people below, and loudly ordered: "From now on, the entire army will prepare, fry dry food, marinate meat, assign camels and horses, and remove excess burdens.
Set up on your own, each carrying dry food for your own use for fifty days, no, only forty days! You are not allowed to join others with your own hands, and rush to Suiyechuan for a long distance to defeat Mohedagan."
After Fumeng Zhongcheng's order, the entire Anxi army was mobilized. The fire chiefs began to organize the soldiers to bake compressed biscuits, transport the heavy yaks, and Qingniu unloaded the vehicles and assigned them to the soldiers to carry the heavy loads.
The military camps of each army were chaotic, but orderly. The cavalry handed over horses to the infantry, asked each other's names, and had to have a team present to guarantee it.
Jia Chonghuan had to run around even though his body was covered with wounds. In addition to donating all his own property, cattle, mules and horses, he also personally requisitioned cattle and horses from the people of Bohuan City and wrote down IOUs. When the Anxi army returned from defeating them, no matter how many cattle and horses they had,
We already have them all. As for the camels from the business travelers in the past, they are also requisitioned first. The business travelers can go to the Anxi Protectorate with their IOUs in exchange for silk cloth and money.
On the other side of the river were the requisitioned sheep. After being slaughtered one by one, they were dissected into strips of meat, marinated in salt, and hung under the branches of Populus euphratica trees for air-drying. The smell of sheep could be smelled ten miles away.
The beach of the Diaohuan River is close to the dense forest, and thousands of buckets are lined up on the river bank. The soldiers bring the grain here, grind the flour with a stone mill, and pour it into the buckets to stir-fry.
Even after dark, the outside of Diaocheng City is still bustling with people, surrounded by the smoke of countless fires. The green smoke rises in the sky and blocks the moonlight, but it never dissipates.
Where there are people, there is a market. Where the army gathers, the market is bigger. The Kangju dancers from the Orchid Restaurant in the city got into their carriages just after dark and took them to the military camp outside the city to perform dances.
In the middle of the bonfire is their stage.
Fu Meng Zhongcheng was generous and generous, and he did not stop such entertainment activities. As long as it did not interfere with his grand plan, he himself was very happy to watch these women wearing trumpet-shaped beard skirts spinning gracefully. There were many dancers in the army.
An expert, he could stand up under the pull of Kangju Nu, clapped his palms, twirled and sang, causing bursts of cheers.
Li Siye sat cross-legged and watched quietly, thinking to himself, isn't this the Anxi that Zhang Xiaojing said he was nostalgic for? A magnificent place where deserts and forests, mountains and pastures coexist. The outline of the Tianshan ice peaks is in the distance. The snow clouds in the Tianshan Mountains are often closed.
Thousands of peaks, thousands of ridges, and snowy Cuiwei. People who have lived here for a long time have naturally become mellow and honest, unlike the cunning and cunning politicians of Chang'an who are confined to the city.
A young man sneaked up to him, half squatting and half kneeling on the ground, crossing his hands and saluting: "General."
Li Siye looked back and whispered quickly: "What are you doing? Get up quickly, you are now the Khan of the Tenth Surname. Don't cross your arms to others."
Chuilu whispered silently: "Others can't, but for you."
"Neither can I."
Sitting quietly next to Li Siye, he seemed to have something to ask, but he hesitated to speak. Fortunately, Li Siye was enjoying the dance of the Kangju girls and didn't look at him.
"Everyone in the family is fine."
"Um."
"Ms. Wu, Mrs. Chen, Madam, and... Mei'er, are they all okay?"
Li Siye finally turned around and started to look at Chu Lu, which made the young man wonder whether he had guessed what he was thinking.
"They are all very good. You still have some conscience. You have not forgotten them since you became Khan."
Chuolv quietly pressed her chest, saying in her heart that I will never forget, it has been engraved in my heart like a knife.