As the sunlight shone on the earth, Li Qin slowly opened his eyes.
Looking at Zhuang Xiaoyu beside me, I have to say, yesterday was a really good day.
She lacked Jiang Qingyue's shame and timidity, but possessed a proactive gentleness.
Yesterday it was her, why don't we try Zhang Qianrou today?
Li Qin got up and called a maid to help him change his clothes.
Zhuang Xiaoyu, on the other hand, slept extremely soundly.
It's clear she was really tired yesterday and slept very soundly.
I got up to change without waking her.
Unlike Jiang Qingyue, who was tense and felt insecure about her surroundings, Jiang Qingyue was tense all over.
She's a very light sleeper; even the slightest movement from me can wake her up.
However, Zhuang Xiaoyu clearly felt very safe sleeping soundly next to her.
Li Qin didn't wake her, but told her to continue sleeping.
After getting dressed, he went to the main hall where matters were handled.
He knew that in just one night, countless government affairs had been added to the scene.
Upon arriving in the hall, Li Qin immediately noticed the urgent military intelligence report on the table.
After Li Qin opened the military intelligence report in front of him, he immediately saw that it was a report from his nephew, Li Xuanshang.
The report was that Geng Zhixiang in Kaifeng had been found; he had escaped by hiding in a high place.
Of the tens of thousands of soldiers who went with him, fewer than three thousand survived.
Looking at his report, Li Qin casually wrote down his instructions on the back.
Taking advantage of this major defeat, he completely stripped Geng Zhixiang of his military power and dismissed him from all his posts.
However, his title of Marquis of Jinshun was retained, and he was allowed to come to the capital to live out his retirement as a marquis, where he would certainly enjoy wealth and honor.
However, military power was completely lost.
As for his remaining troops scattered in various places, Li Qin ordered them to be swallowed up as well.
On the devastated land of Henan.
A group of refugees had just been driven away from the north by Li Qin's cavalry.
They fled south for their lives.
As they walked, people kept collapsing from exhaustion, gradually losing their lives.
As they traveled south, they encountered a group of disaster victims who came face to face with them.
One of the leading men stepped forward and asked:
"What are you doing? Why are you going back? Didn't they say that the Huai River region was already distributing porridge for disaster relief?"
Is there no way out for the people of Lianghuai?
The group of disaster victims walking back said:
"That's all. The officials and soldiers in Lianghuai said that their food supplies were limited and they could only provide relief to the disaster victims in Lianghuai. They told us, the disaster victims in Henan, to go to the local government in Henan for disaster relief."
"What did you say?"
The man in the lead was also shocked after hearing what he said.
The group of refugees who were walking back continued:
"You've come from the north? Is there no way to survive in the north either?"
The leading man waved his hand and said:
"No, there are enemy soldiers and government cavalry everywhere in the north. They drive us refugees away and kill us as soon as they see us."
They just won't let us go north to beg for food.
"What should we do? They won't let us go north, and they won't let us enter south. We're stuck in the disaster area in Henan, but none of the Henan government is providing any relief."
Are we just going to starve to death like this?
"The disaster victim who was walking back said with a look of despair."
Faced with the situation before him, the leading man made up his mind and stepped forward, saying:
"Everyone, we have no way out now."
The south, the south blocks us; the north, the north drives us away.
If we want to survive, there's only one way: attack the county town, open the granaries, and die a full-fed ghost.
"If you want to live, grab a sharpened stick and follow me."
As he spoke, he walked towards the distant Henan county town. Behind him, countless disaster victims, in their despair, made up their minds and followed him, walking together towards the county town.
This scene is happening everywhere among the disaster victims who have lost all means of survival.
After finding no way to survive in either the north or the south, countless disaster victims took up arms and began marching towards areas unaffected by the disaster and with food supplies.
Soon, the land of Henan was engulfed in flames of war.
As the disaster victims gathered, even those areas that had not been affected by the disaster and had surplus food had their grain looted by the disaster victims.
After running out of food to survive, they were forced to join the ranks of the disaster victims.
Most importantly, the imperial court in the capital, which was controlled by Li Qin in the north, did not want to waste its manpower and resources on these disaster victims.
The order was simply to instruct the border generals to prohibit the disaster victims from entering the country.
The southern court in Nanjing was already overwhelmed with dealing with the disaster victims in the Huai River region, not to mention that they also had to allocate grain to train their army.
The governors and generals of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Huguang and other places also chose to preserve their strength in this situation of uncertainty and the confrontation between the two dynasties.
No food was allocated to the disaster victims in Henan.
As for Henan itself, they simply did not have enough surplus grain to provide relief to such a large number of disaster victims.
The number of disaster victims is expanding to unaffected areas, and both the disaster area and the number of victims are increasing.
The Henan army, whose military strength had already been severely damaged, was powerless to stop it. Soon, with the expansion of the disaster-stricken population, the entire Henan province, except for Nanyang where Dong Zhonglou was located, became a disaster area.
On the land of Henan, order has basically collapsed, and there are refugees revolting everywhere.
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