Because Jiangdong's army stopped at Wan County and there was no food route to Shouchun, Cao Cao couldn't borrow food from Bai Tu.

Another half month later, although Cao Cao and Liu Bei successively transferred food and grass, they saw that there was no harvest in Huainan, Guangling, and Shouchun. They still ignored all kinds of strategies and defended with all their strength.

Moreover, due to the effect of Zhong's founding of the country, Yuan Shu's army became much braver indeed. Ji Ling even fought Zhang Fei for more than thirty rounds before he was defeated and fled. His military strength was far superior to that before.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei, let alone being unsure, will capture Shouchun before they run out of food. If this continues, even if Yuan Shu opens the door and offers to surrender now, will they be able to accept it?

Huainan alone has a population of 1.5 million, plus parts of Yuzhou and Jingzhou. Even now, Yuan Shu has a population of more than 3 million. In good years, this is the potential for war, and in disaster years, there are 3 million mouths waiting for food!

Even if Yuan Shu surrenders now, Cao Cao and Liu Bei cannot save this disaster.

When the world was at peace, local governments could still have some food reserves. However, with the advent of war, they were busy collecting military rations and it was not enough, and the local ability to resist natural disasters was greatly reduced.

Finally, in November of the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao and Liu Bei retreated one after another.

Not only did they withdraw from Shouchun City, they even withdrew their troops from Huainan. Cao Cao had captured most of Runan, and Liu Bei had completely withdrawn his troops from the northern part of Guangling County.

Judging from the current situation, next year's spring plowing can be omitted. Staying here at this time is almost the same as going deep into the desert, relying entirely on supplies from the rear!

When Liu Bei left, he cried bitterly to the people, saying that if the people were willing to leave with him, even if he starved to death on the road, he would not lose a bite of food for the people.

However, firstly, it is difficult to leave the homeland, and many people still want to rely on the old grain, grass roots, tree bark, etc. to endure. Secondly, there is a problem of trust and the speed of news transmission. Only a small part of them are willing to leave!

In the end, he brought 70,000 to 80,000 people with him, crossed the Huaihe River, and returned to Xiapi. It became a good story for a while and greatly improved Liu Bei's popularity among the people.

At the same time, Bai Tu from Jiangdong was heartbroken when he saw the disaster situation of the Huainan people reported by the Wind Guards. He resolutely sent troops to Xunyang Ferry, Ruxukou and Guazhou after Cao Cao and Liu Bei withdrew their troops.

Wan County also occupies the stone pavilion to the north, and there is no need to force the dangerous stone road.

Ordinarily, fighting at this time is definitely a disadvantage, but if Bai Tu only wants to occupy these three ports, there will not be much hindrance.

To the north of Xunyang Ferry is Qichun City, Ruxukou is next to Chaohu Lake, further north of Chaohu Lake is Hefei, and to the north of Guazhou is Guangling City.

These three are all big cities, Qichun is slightly worse, and the other two can be said to be fortified cities behind walls that are difficult to conquer without a hard fight.

Bai Tu did not want to conquer the fortress, but carried forward the spirit of caring for his compatriots and boundless love to help the people in Huainan who were guarding the disaster from crossing eastward!

In addition to the already controlled Wan County, four places along the north bank of the Yangtze River and the downstream section between Huainan and Jiangdong are under Baitu's control.

In December, Bai Tu sent out a large number of scouts in Huainan, not to detect the enemy's situation, but to announce the news to the people of Huainan. As long as they arrived at Xunyangdu, Shiting, Chaohu, Guazhou, any of the four military camps of the Yangzhou Army

, can obtain relief food and go to Jiangdong to avoid disaster.

The stone road is more difficult than a large army, but there are scattered civilians and refugees. Unless it is a truly dead-end and dangerous road, the "easy to defend, difficult to defend" attack will be ineffective against the civilians.

In history, after Cao Cao occupied Huainan, he wanted to forcibly relocate the people. As a result, the people were afraid and went south to Jiangdong in large numbers. In contrast, Yuan Shu's control is now even worse, and besides Jiangdong, Xuzhou and Yuzhou

, can’t afford to feed so many victims!

Bai Tu not only promised that in the disaster year, he would ensure that every household would be "young and strong, and the whole family would have food", but also promised that after Huainan was recovered, he would arrange for everyone to return to their hometowns.

Only during the Three Kingdoms period would the warlords understand that the true strength of a force is not how much farmland it occupies or how many weapons and horses it has, but how much labor it has!

Taking Jiangdong alone as an example, the most fertile land for water conservancy projects is the northern part of Yuzhang, which is now Poyang County, and the northern part of Wu County, the plain near Zhenze.

After the construction of these two water conservancy areas is completed and fully cultivated, the cultivated land will reach 1.5 million hectares. One hectare is 50 acres in the Han system. If one household cultivates 100 acres, it can support 750,000 households if it is released to the people.

It is larger than the total population of Jiangdong now. Even if all the hidden households are dug out, there may not be so many people.

And if it were taken over by the government, with all the oxen available, and several types of plows suitable for large flat fields have been developed, hundreds of thousands of young people would be needed to work in the fields, and the income would be enough to make the white image

Like other travelers, food taxes in other areas are exempted!

Therefore, "people" are the real foundation. Before, Bai Tu was like a hamster, saving so much relief food, wasn't it just for "people"?

Even if the people are unwilling to leave and still need to consider it, they can still receive enough rations for a family for several days at the garrison in Baitu. They will be the best propagandists!

With Baitu's popularity and the fact that the relief grains were really "distributed", not to mention the villagers living outside the city, even in big cities like Hefei and Guangling, there were people sneaking out of the city quietly.

After Yuan Shu got the news, he angrily ordered that all cities in the north of the Yangtze River be under martial law and patrols be strengthened. If any unruly people were tempted, they could be killed on the spot.

However, for Lu Mian, Shu Shao and others who are actually in charge, it is obvious that they cannot fully implement the orders of the Lord or "Your Majesty"!

The current drought leaves them little room for maneuver. It is easy to stop the refugees from fleeing to Bai Tu, but what happens next?

Yuan Shu only asked them to use all their strength to intercept the people, but he did not allocate food for disaster relief, and he did not even have a plan for disaster relief.

Do you want to watch them starve to death?

As for killing on the spot, Lu Mian and Shu Shao tacitly pretended not to hear it.

Not to mention that Yuan Shu's Nanyang direct descendants were all concentrated in Shouchun, such as Qichun, Guangling, and the defenders in Hefei City. Most of them came from the local area. If you dare to do this, a mutiny will occur in minutes.

Moreover, their own moral bottom line does not allow them to do this.

Generally speaking, at this time, you can do it yourself as long as you throw dirty water on your opponent. It is difficult, but it is very easy to spray others!

It can be said that Baitu sent people to Jiangdong to be slaves. The old, weak, women and children had to starve to death, and the young and strong would wear shackles to dig mines. Or even bolder, it can be said that Baitu wanted to use human flesh as relief food.

In fact, Yuan Shu did this kind of guidance and propaganda, but the effect was too small!

The golden voice of "Killing a person is like killing my father" is still echoing in my ears. On one side is Yuan Shu, who is violently conquering Huainan, and on the other side is Bai Tu, who cares about the people and is brave. The multiple-choice question "who to believe" is too simple.

Guangling City, where Shu Shao was located, had a slightly better disaster defense situation, so he took it upon himself to open warehouses and release grain to the people, which temporarily calmed down the people of Guangling County.

However, Yuan Shu was criticized for misappropriating military rations, and he directly sent people to summon Shu Shao back.

During Yuan Shu's chaos, more than 300,000 people crossed the river to the east throughout December, equivalent to the population of more than half of an ordinary county!

Moreover, Bai Tu understood that these were the homes of Huainan people, and many of them still had food in storage and were looking forward to next year's harvest.
Chapter completed!