Early the next morning, Jieshan City.

"Did the big cannibal sent someone to attack the city last night?" Li Bai got up, walked slowly into the public room, and asked Niu Moudao who was on duty last night.

"As usual, no, no big food soldier attacked the city." Niu Mou answered weakly.

"It's great." Li Bai said with a smile: "Soldiers don't have to spend any more time."

"It's better to say a few less words, as it will take a lot of effort." Niu Mou said, and asked again: "What is breakfast today?"

"Bread, six taels per person."

"What about six taels left? I thought I couldn't even hold on."

"Yesterday, some cotton residue was found from a certain house and mixed it into flour to make bread. It is only enough for each soldier to have six taels."

"There are fresh things in the baking pancakes. Forget it, as long as you can eat it. Let's go and have a meal." Niu Mou stood up after saying this.

"I still have to be on duty..."

"The big cannibals can't attack the city. Go and have a meal." Niu Mou said again and walked out of the public housing slowly. If it were in the past, he would still reach out to pull Li Bai. But at this time, in order to minimize physical energy consumption, this movement has been quit for more than half a year.

Li Bai hesitated for a moment and followed. As Niu Mou said, the big cannibal hasn't siege for a long time, and most of them don't know how to do it today. It's more important to fill in the hungry stomach first. Although it will be even hurried after filling in.

They walked slowly towards the cafeteria, arrived soon, took a meal and found a place to sit down. Niu Mou looked at the so-called black bread placed on the plate in front of him, then closed his eyes and picked it up, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Don't eat too fast, you will choke." Li Bai said.

"You have to eat quickly. If you eat quickly, I can still feel full in an instant. Eating slowly can only make you hungry more hungry." Niu Mou said.

"That's right." Li Bai thought of this, and smiled and picked up his own bread and stuffed it into his mouth.

The "noodle cake" tastes not delicious, but it is actually very unpalatable, not like noodle cake at all. But he didn't mind the taste at all. While eating, he looked at the other people in the cafeteria who were eating. Everyone ate this kind of "noodle cake" with no disgust on their faces.

The food supply in Jieshan City is actually worse than what the rebel deserters said.

As early as February last year, due to the rapid consumption of reserved grain and the Dashi Army showed no sign of relief, they could not obtain any food from the outside world at all. Generals such as Li Bai and Niu Mou had already begun to consider the issue of food.

In order to avoid the exhaustion of food before the cannibals rescued the siege, on the first day of March, Li Bai ordered the quota system to be officially implemented in the entire army. The quota of the soldiers' food was almost half compared with the previous average consumption, and no more than thirteen taels per meal were allowed. At the same time, the grain from the people's homes was forcibly confiscated and deposited into the official warehouse.

After eating like this for a month and a half, more than half of the food was consumed, and the rescue of the Great Food Army seemed to be far away. Li Bai ordered the quota to be reduced to no more than ten taels per meal, and no more than twenty taels per day. Moreover, this is the quota for the soldiers in the army, and those who were not in the army were only half.

In addition, the generals received some preferential treatment before, and vegetables and meat were not included in the quota and were exclusively for the generals; at this time, all these things had been eaten up, and the preferential treatment of the generals was also cancelled, exactly the same as the soldiers ate every day.

Of course, the generals were dissatisfied with this, but Li Bai and Niu Mou took the lead in eating only this little food. Moreover, after seeing the granary, everyone knew that there was indeed very little food, so they could only accept it.

Twenty taels, according to the unit of measurement of Westerners, is about 750 grams, which is far from enough for the human body. The soldiers' originally rosy faces turned pale or sallow, and their originally sturdy bodies became thinner day by day.

After a month of this, some soldiers couldn't stand it. They also knew that there was really not much food in the city, and they would be useless even if Li Bai was killed. They secretly escaped from the city and surrendered to the cannibal. It was not until this time that Aziz learned about the situation in the city.

Afterwards, Aziz sent troops to attack the city. To be honest, although the Tang soldiers in the city had become thinner at that time, they were actually not as thin as Aziz described, and their arms were still thicker than the spear pole. It was probably because the sky was dark that day and the soldiers fleeing back were very close to exaggerating that Aziz thought so.

This persists until mid-July. Even if you have tried your best, even the quota of twenty taels cannot be maintained. Li Bai lowered the daily quota to ten taels of grain, and at the same time mobilized soldiers who did not need to be on duty in the city to dig wild vegetables, grass roots, and tree bark in the city. He cooked a large pot every day and distributed it to the soldiers.

Under this situation, a second surrender occurred, and nearly one hundred soldiers wanted to escape from the city and surrender to the cannibal. However, because Li Bai tried his best to stop him, only a few people successfully escaped. The person who stopped him was executed.

Aziz launched a second siege at this time. The figures of the Tang soldiers during this siege were not much different from what he described, and the soldiers had no strength at all. As long as the big food soldiers dared to fight close to each other, they would fall down at once. However, the big food soldiers were scared and were scared when they saw the Tang soldiers wielding their weapons, and turned around to escape. The city was lucky to be defended.

In early September, wild vegetables, grass roots and bark were all eaten up, and grain reserves continued to decline. This time, Li Bai did not lower the grain quota, but the soldiers suddenly found that the dough cakes they gnawed every day had become hard and the taste became unpalatable like wood chips; everyone called it sawdust dough cakes.

A general went to ask Li Bai. Li Bai didn't want to answer at first, but when asked, he could only tell them: the ingredients for making dough cakes have changed, 60% of which are flour and 40% are impurities; and the varieties of impurities are varied, including oats, wine koji, oil residue, cotton residue, and edible parts of wood, etc.

The generals were immediately angry and felt that Li Bai was going to kill them; some people accused Li Bai of secretly eating all-fried noodles. Li Bai immediately said that from today onwards, he would eat in the cafeteria every day, and be served at the same window as everyone else; if someone found him stealing food in the bedroom or public room, he would be struck by lightning immediately.

The generals did not believe it very much at the time, but Li Bai had already said this, and they could no longer doubt it. They could only leave in confusion, thinking in their hearts that they had to watch whether they would go to the cafeteria to have dinner every day.

To everyone's expectations, Li Bai really ate in the cafeteria every day, and the food was the same as everyone else, and he persisted from September until this time. Only then did the generals completely convinced him, even Niu Mou no longer fought for power; no one dared to disobey Li Bai's orders.

But even so, the food is still gradually consumed. After the Chinese New Year's Day on the second day of the first lunar month this year, the quota was reduced to eight taels, six taels for breakfast and two taels for dinner. At the same time, all the medicinal materials that would not cause serious damage to the body after eating were distributed as grain for soldiers to satisfy their hunger.
Chapter completed!