Lin Xiaoman's mouth was dry from talking, and Yang Hanmo finally accepted the coup that had taken place in the palace and returned to the real issues.
Anyway, the position of crown prince will never be his, and the most urgent thing is food.
After thinking about it, Yang Hanmo decided to arrange Lin Xiaoman to go to the county town in the rear. That was his territory and safety was guaranteed, although the county town was about to run out of food.
Lin Xiaoman refused to leave. "Brother, what's going on? Are you going to capture Taiyi City? Let me help you with your strategy!"
"Fighting is a man's business, and you are just a girl..." As a person with typical ancient thinking, Yang Hanmo did not want Lin Xiaoman to stay in the barracks. After all, it was not decent. But before he finished speaking, he saw Lin Xiaoman picked up a small iron plate on the table, and with a squeeze, the small iron plate turned into a lump of iron.
Yang Hanmo immediately shut up, his eyes filled with horror. This would take at least fifty years of practice to achieve, right?
"Brother, what's wrong with girls?"
"Girls are the most considerate. Xiaoxi, you're so thoughtful of me. I'm so touched!" Yang Hanmo's desire to survive was particularly strong. He then asked weakly, "Xiaoxi, how old does your master look like?"
"About seventy or eighty."
The older he gets, the more powerful his skills become. Yang Hanmo can only say: Jealousy has distorted my face.
"Brother, are you out of food? Didn't the imperial court provide disaster relief? Why are you surrounding Taiyi City? Is there food inside?"
"Alas, we're almost out of food. There's been no disaster relief from the beginning. I'm afraid Father has no idea how serious the disaster is here. In the entire Tongzhou, only Taiyi City has food now, and there should be a lot of it. But that bastard Sun Tongmao refuses to open the granaries and even directly closed the city gates. I have no choice but to fight."
"How many soldiers are there in the city? How many soldiers do you have? Doesn't Tongzhou have a military governor? Are they all in Taiyi City?"
"Originally, Tongzhou had 50,000 soldiers, but the Hu people invaded the border, and the army was pulled to the border to fight. There are about 5,000 soldiers defending Taiyi City, and I have 10,000 soldiers here..."
Defending a city and attacking a city are definitely not the same thing.
As for the city wall of Taiyi City, Lin Xiaoman estimated that under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to take down the city without 50,000 elite soldiers.
"Besides..." Yang Hanmo was distressed. "There are at least tens of thousands of refugees near the city wall. If a fight breaks out, the innocent civilians will be harmed."
Their current situation is very passive.
"Brother, isn't Tongzhou your fiefdom? You are a prince after all, how come a prefect is riding on your head?" Lin Xiaoman was so disappointed. It has been nearly six years, and he couldn't even get his own fiefdom settled. Look at that bastard Prince Qing, he already has four states.
Why is there such a big gap between people?
Well, the dog man is the protagonist, and this cheap brother is just a background role.
"The guy named Sun has been in Tongzhou for more than ten years. He is the local tyrant and a local emperor. I have no money and no soldiers. When I arrived in Tongzhou, I was just a commander with an empty 'throne'. It's not easy for me!" Facing Lin Xiaoman's contempt, Yang Hanmo felt aggrieved.
He was a poor prince with no power, no father's love, and no grandfather. He was sent to this remote Tongzhou where he was unfamiliar with the place. It was already amazing that he could develop such a powerful force today.
Over the years, he has been working hard in secret, using towns to surround county towns, and county towns to surround prefectural cities. He finally took control of more than half of the county towns and formed an alliance with the local Jiedushi. He was about to bring down the prefect Sun Tongmao, but at this critical juncture, his buddy Jiedushi was actually transferred to fight in the war. Now he didn't know whether he was alive or dead.
The firepower allies left, and then there was the unfortunate snowstorm again.
Is he easy?
I just want to shed a few tears of sympathy for myself.
"Brother, how long can your food supply last? If we don't appease the people and start arable land now, it will be too late. Besides taking Taiyi City, we need to find another way."
"Probably, we can only hold out for a month. Besides Taiyi Prefecture, there's not much food left in other counties." Yang Hanmo said helplessly, "We're all starving to death. Who would still want to farm? Besides, we don't have any seeds. All the seeds have been eaten as food."
"Youzhou and Huaizhou, our neighbors, are out of your reach. However, Fengzhou is so rich, so they must have a large surplus of grain. Minzhou next door should also have some surplus grain. We can buy from them. Brother, you are a prince after all. If we buy in your name, they will at least give you some respect."
'Borrowing' is impossible, but buying is definitely no problem.
"Look at me..." Yang Hanmo pointed at his own bitter face, "Do I look like I have money? If I did, I wouldn't be so worried here!"
despise!
Lin Xiaoman suspected that if she hadn't come over, this extra brother might have been killed.
"Yes!" Lin Xiaoman took off his bag and slammed it on the table proudly. "I knew Tongzhou was a poor place. Fortunately, I was well prepared."
"This is..." Yang Hanmo's heart trembled. He opened the bundle in disbelief, and then, my god! It blinded his eyes!
So many banknotes!!
"This is what I 'borrowed' from my mothers and sisters, a total of 500,000 taels. This should be enough to tide us over."
Lin Xiaoman had learned about the economic level. A family could live for a year with 10 taels of silver.
I'm afraid there are only a few hundred thousand people left in the entire Tongzhou. If we hold on for half a year and grow enough food, the crisis will be over.
Hearing Lin Xiaoman's words, Yang Hanmo swallowed silently. What a lot of money! And, "Xiaoxi, what is this?"
Yang Hanmo picked up the fist-sized pearl that was pressed on the silver note.
Dozens of pearls of various sizes are glittering and beautiful.
"There was a fight in the palace. I wanted to take advantage of the chaos to steal the imperial seal and give it to you, but I couldn't find it in the imperial study. I guess my father took it with him. As the saying goes, a thief never leaves empty-handed, so I snatched a few night pearls. These beads are unmarked, so I can sell them secretly. It shouldn't be a problem."
Yang Hanmo: Awesome! My sister!
Please accept my knee!
"Fortunately, you didn't steal the imperial seal, otherwise our father would have broken our legs." Yang Hanmo silently wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Today is a day of great surprises and joys.
With money, the problem became simple. There was no need to surround the Taiyi City. Instead of leaving hundreds of scouts to monitor the place, Yang Hanmo's army set out and retreated directly.
There are too many robbers and disaster victims, so buying food requires armed escort.
Moreover, now is a good time to formally take over the counties and win over the hearts of the people.
Once all the county towns in Tongzhou and Taiyi Prefecture are taken, they will be in our pocket.
With money, there are a lot of things to do. After changing into men's clothes, Lin Xiaoman stayed with Yang Hanmo as his "brother" and served as his military advisor, making full use of his intelligence and talents.
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