Thinking about the imperial edict issued by the Emperor to Prince Chen, he originally thought that as long as Prince Chen could complete the task of resettling the disaster victims this time, he would be able to become the crown prince smoothly and put an end to the plans of the First and Second Princes' factions.

But they didn't expect that a natural disaster would destroy the most important bargaining chip in Prince Chen's hand. Could it be that God really didn't want Prince Chen to survive? Then, after Prince Chen lost power, would those who followed him have any chance of surviving?

Xie Qichen sat in the main seat of the tent, his mind racing as he thought about countermeasures. Sun Miao, another deputy general in charge of logistics, said, "General, the food we have can only last three days at most."

As soon as Sun Miao said this, the deputy generals who were discussing whether to go to war suddenly stopped and turned their eyes to Xie Qichen.

Xie Qichen looked at everyone's expectant eyes and rubbed his temples. He didn't have any good ideas about food.

"Are we buying the food sent by the city residents at normal prices?"

"General, don't worry. We always remember this and won't take advantage of the people. We always offer high prices, but many people are unwilling to accept money. They say that we have worked hard enough to defend our country, and now is the most difficult time for the army. They are very happy to help, so how can they ask for money?"

"However, we also told the people about the Prince's military management philosophy, and they were very moved and received silver according to the amount of grain they had. But even if the people were willing to sell us grain, the amount of grain they could buy would still be limited."

The meaning of Sun Miao's words was very clear. That is, the people of Beiling City were willing to give up food for the sake of justice, but the food they had was limited. If they gave some of it to the army now, it would mean that the people would have to tighten their belts in the next few months and live a more difficult life than before, so that they could survive until next spring.

"Then send soldiers to buy food from farther places."

As soon as Xie Qichen said this, the atmosphere in the entire tent became very strange. Everyone fell silent and looked at Xie Qichen.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem? This is a special period, and we have to resort to some conventional methods. We have to ask soldiers to go farther away to buy food from the people. There's no other way."

"General, I've already tried the method you mentioned. If it doesn't work, you know we've been snowing for so many days, and the snow is as high as a person in some places. Otherwise, there wouldn't be an avalanche. Although it's not snowing much now, looking out from Beiling, it's all white. You can't even see the road. Where can we buy food?"

Xie Qichen also knew that what Sun Miao said was true. After so many days of blizzards, the northern border was indeed covered with white snow. If people went out at this time, they would definitely get lost. It can be said that the more soldiers sent out, the more casualties would be.

But even though he knew this, he was unwilling to accept it. He could not watch 300,000 troops starve to death.

He was not afraid of life or death, but there were still many young men in the military camp who had not even gotten married, and their best years were wasted. There were also many soldiers who had reached the age of retirement, saying that they wanted to buy a few acres of land, marry a wife, and live an ordinary life. There were also some soldiers who wanted to be filial to their parents.

There was also his good brother Li Mingfei who had saved his life. He had promised him that he would let him go home to visit relatives after some time, but after losing his life, none of this could be fulfilled.

No, he couldn't just sit there and wait for death. He had to think of a way.

But at this time he was also somewhat relieved, relieved that he had sent his wife and son to Beijing. If he encountered an accident, he believed that the government would take good care of them and ensure that Mingxuan and his wife would have no worries about food and clothing.