In fact, it is not just Shen Bing who is worried about food issues.
Li Si went to see Ying Zheng in Handan with a memorial compiled from intelligence collected from all parties.
At this time, Ying Zheng was overjoyed that Shen Bing had captured the King of Chu. He was enjoying the sound of building while drinking wine in the tent. From time to time, he would bang the table in time with the rhythm and let out a few praises.
Li Si hurriedly walked into the tent, cupped his hands next to Ying Zheng's case and said:
"I have something to report."
Ying Zheng was a little unhappy and replied:
"Why are you so anxious? Let's wait until we finish listening to this song."
Li Si didn't speak or step back, and just kept the posture of cupping his hands.
Ying Zheng originally wanted to ignore it and continue enjoying himself, but Li Si seemed a little out of place just standing on one side, and after a while even Ying Zheng lost interest.
"That's all..." Ying Zheng waved away his servants in disappointment, and asked Li Si with a thorny tone: "Is the prime minister going to do something more urgent than Shen Bing's capture of Shouchun?"
Li Si replied:
"Although it's not as good as Shouchun, it's not far away."
Ying Zheng said "Oh":
"Let me tell you, I would like to see how the Prime Minister captured another Shouchun."
Of course Li Si knew that Ying Zheng was displeased, but he remained unmoved and said:
"Your Majesty, our army has conquered the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei, and Chu in the past few months. Although we are invincible, our territory has grown too rapidly."
"But the State of Zhao has suffered from years of disasters and has been waiting for food relief."
"The Wei State also destroyed more than half of its fertile fields when Shen soldiers flooded Xiang Yan."
"In Chu State, Xiang Yan built a wall to clear the country and took away and relocated a large number of laborers."
"And my country, Great Qin, has exhausted its food reserves due to successive campaigns..."
Li Si’s analysis is correct.
The newly conquered countries all have food problems of one kind or another, and even Qin is no exception.
Therefore, everything has two sides: it is not good to win too slowly, and it is not good to win too much suddenly.
This is especially true of Chu State.
Chu was the only country that was prepared to retreat.
In order not to leave food to the Qin army, his soldiers deliberately destroyed and burned crops along the way, leaving behind mostly the old and weak who needed food.
Although Shouchun snatched back some laborers in time due to Shen Bing's clever plan in Ruyin, these laborers were only a drop in the bucket compared to the relocated population.
Ying Zheng waved his hand impatiently and said:
"Didn't we seize a large amount of grain in Ruyin and Shouchun?"
"Besides, the harvest is less than two months away, so why should the Prime Minister be so worried?"
Li Si replied:
"Your Majesty, although there is plenty of food in Ruyin and Shouchun cities, it is only enough for Shouchun and our army."
"There are still hundreds of thousands of people in Chu who have no food or clothing."
"Although the harvest is less than two months away at this time, according to my calculations, even if all the food we produce is used for the people, it can only last for two months."
"When……"
There is no need to say more about the next question.
If all the harvested food is only enough for more than two months, how can it be sustained until the next harvest?
By then, let alone fighting, the survival of the people will be a problem.
And if people's lives become a problem, the political situation will inevitably be unstable, and there will be chaos everywhere...
Ying Zheng did not dare to think further, and his expression gradually became serious. He stood up and walked back and forth in front of the case a few times, and then asked:
"Then in the Prime Minister's opinion, how should we solve it?"
Li Si replied:
"Your Majesty."
"As far as I know, crops in the north of Yan State cannot survive the winter due to the cold winter, so crops are usually planted in spring and harvested in autumn."
"It's spring at this time. If we can sow the crops of Yan State in Wei, Chu and other places... we can harvest them in a few months."
"We won't have to worry about food then."
Ying Zheng immediately agreed:
"It's a clever idea, so I'll act accordingly."
"I will ask King Yan to send you some more food!"
If King Yan heard this, he would probably feel another 10,000 grass and mud horses galloping past him.
It is said that King Xi of Yan originally aroused public resentment in order to collect the food requested by the Qin army... This time the public resentment was not as easy to calm down as usual.
Because this takes away the food that the people use to survive the winter and save their lives. If the people cannot survive, they will of course steal, rob or turn into bandits.
However, there are still a small number of people who fall into the wild and become bandits. The winter in Yanland is extremely cold. If you fall into the wild and turn into bandits, you are almost seeking death.
But even this result is not optimistic, because the number of murders in Yan State this winter has been dozens of times higher than in previous years.
Most of the people who were robbed were merchants and officials with money and food, and there were even several small-scale riots.
King Xi of Yan almost turned the capital upside down but could not find many rebels.
The reason is that the soldiers in the army are often from poor families, and many of them are victims themselves, so the officials and bandits become a family...
This may not seem like a big deal, but it shows that the hearts of the Yan people have been dispersed.
There is a saying that goes, "The heart is like a wild horse, easy to let go but hard to take back." Once the heart is scattered, it will be difficult for Yan Wangxi to take it back again.
Under such circumstances, Ying Zheng once again asked King Yan to send food, wouldn't it make matters worse?
But of course, what Ying Zheng said was not "send", but "borrow" very politely.
However, everyone knows that this food can never be repaid.
But King Yan had no choice. If he didn't send food, the Qin army would come to the city again the next day.
At this time, King Yan did not dare to offend Qin.
You must know that the Qin State conquered Wei and Chu one after another after attacking Yan... This almost made King Yan's jaw drop with joy.
On the other hand, he was secretly rejoicing: Fortunately, he surrendered early, otherwise he would have been captured like the kings of Wei and Chu.
Among them, King Wei was beheaded after surrendering... This may be because Ying Zheng was not ashamed of King Wei's fake behavior.
On the other hand, Yan Wangxi scolded Prince Dan again in his heart:
"This guy has no vision. He even said that if we unite several armies, we can defeat the Qin army and help Zhao regain their lost territory."
"Unexpectedly, the Qin army could not only defeat the Yan Dynasty coalition but also defeat Wei and attack Chu."
"It would be easy for him to die, but he leaves us here in a difficult situation."
King Yan was delighted but did not think about it. The reason why the Qin army was able to attack Wei was entirely because of the large amount of food he provided.
Because he was extremely afraid of Qin, King Yan did not dare to refuse Ying Zheng's "borrowing grain".
And it was extremely fast. The first batch of grain was immediately prepared and transported upstream from the Yellow River to Handan...
At this time, spring has entered and the temperature is getting warmer, and the mouth of the Yellow River has thawed.
And although the Yellow River has flood seasons all year round, spring has the gentlest flood season and the shortest flood season, so spring is the most suitable for shipping and building water conservancy facilities.
There was no problem in transporting wheat seeds. Yingzheng directly transported these wheat seeds from the Yellow River to Daliang, and then from Bianshui River to Shahe River to various parts of Chu State.
Starting from Daliang Bianshui, you just go downstream, so it doesn't take long.
The problem on King Yan's side has been solved, but there is still a problem on Li Si's side:
"It's good to say that the Wei State has plenty of labor among its people. As long as it is properly deployed, it is not difficult to overcome the difficulties."
"But Chu State... has food but no labor to cultivate it."
"Our army is fighting the Chu army along the Huaihe River, and we cannot all garrison the fields..."
Ying Zheng thought for a while and replied:
"Use prisoners of war from the Chu army as laborers to farm the fields."
Li Si shook his head:
"Even so, it is far less than the number of farms."
Ying Zheng said again:
"Let women also go to farm..."
This may be true. It's a life-and-death moment, so why can't women work in the fields?
However, this is just the wishful thinking of a high-ranking person like Ying Zheng.
Women in ancient times had nothing to do at home. They were either weaving or "pounding rice" at home all day long, otherwise the whole family would not be able to eat.