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After the frost, the days were as cold as day by day. Although it had not yet snowed, as long as the cold current from Siberia began to invade northern China, for those in the agricultural era, the stern and cruel winter officially began. In Lanzhou City, households who had just been assigned to the fields began to spontaneously make some simple farm tools, and some were anxious and even had already started to sort out the land. Unlike the lonely and gloomy late autumn in the north, Lanzhou City was full of vitality for a long time.

Whether it is a military household or a civilian household, they are full of longing for the future, and even forget that Lanzhou is just a grain of sand in the tide of troubled times and a candlelight in the storm. At the end of the Five Dynasties, northern China has become a place for all forces to compete. Some stormy waves can easily sweep the small boat in Lanzhou into the bottom of the sea.

At this moment, a dark cloud unknowingly enveloped the sky above Lanzhou.

"We can't buy food in Guanzhong Road and Hedong Road." Li Si reported to Chen Dehui with a frown. "Those big grain merchants clearly have goods, but when they hear that we are from Lanzhou, they won't sell it." Most of the merchants in this era were strictly controlled by the government, especially grain merchants. Not only did the Song State implement an economic blockade policy for the entire Northern Han Dynasty, but even within the Han Dynasty, Liu Jiyuan decided to detain Lanzhou. Prime Minister Guo Wuwei, who had already had a grudge against the Tuhun Army, immediately passed the order.

Governments in various places strictly prohibited the flow of food and grass into Lanzhou. Not only that, even several counties near Lanzhou escorted the excess food and grass to Jinyang to prevent the Lanzhou army from looting. At the same time, they implemented the order to cut half of the food and grass in Lanzhou army, and provided the forage needed for Lanzhou war horses as usual, but there was no grain. Although Chen De brought a lot of food and grass when he entered Lanzhou, after redeeming more than 10,000 Han people, the grain warehouse in Lanzhou suddenly became tight, not to mention leaving seeds for the beginning of next spring.

"The last general also sent people to the Zhe family to buy grain and grass in Yangjiajie Town, but the prefectures under these two towns have few people and many military forces, and there are no food stored among the people. The military food needs to be discussed with the Zheyang family." Li Si looked at Chen De who frowned and felt very uncomfortable. Chen De handed him the important task of buying grain and grass. Who knew that he was incompetent and finally had to ask the adults for it.

"Okay, I will write a book to borrow grain from Zheyang's two families." Chen De nodded, looked at Li Si who turned around and retreated, and his mind turned around and called him again: "At the same time, contact the Khitan of Shuozhou, I said that my Lanzhou is ready to redeem the gold that still owes to redeem the Han people, and I will buy them another batch of wintering food."

Ten days later, news from Daizhou and Prefecture confirmed Chen De's concerns. Liu Jiye and Zhe Yuqing both expressed regret for the food crisis in Lanzhou. Although they were a town, there was no problem to protect a thief who was desperate in the world, it would be difficult to disobey the imperial court's will tolerate Lanzhou. The food and grass in the Prefecture and Daizhou also relied on the support of the court. If the court knew that they had lent the rations to Lanzhou privately, it was estimated that the Yang family army and the Zhe family army would go hungry next year with Lanzhou.

In his reply, Zhe Yuqing and Liu Jiye explained the reason why they could not borrow food, and at the same time, they tactfully suggested that Lanzhou would make some kind of submission to the emperors of Song or Han in exchange for the court's understanding. After all, the lifeline of border towns is held in the hands of the court.

"Let the whole city go out to collect wild vegetables from tomorrow." After reading the letter, Chen De ordered Li Si expressionlessly, "Also, select soldiers and people who are good at knowing grass, draw figures, let the people collect grass seeds, and hand them over to the baggage camp to hide them properly. All the gold owed to the Khitan in Shuozhou was delivered, and at the same time, they told them that in addition to food and grass, our Lanzhou also had to buy a large amount of livestock." He thought to himself that he was short of food this winter and could not keep grain seeds. He was the beginning of spring next year and said that he would not have to plant grass and raise cattle and sheep.

The households in Lanzhou are currently under military control. In the afternoon of the same day, more than 10,000 households went out of the city to dig rat food and collect wild vegetables and grass seeds. In order to increase the enthusiasm of the households, the food for each household was reduced from two liters to one liter, and the rest were replaced by the wild vegetables and rat food they dug themselves. If you hand over a group of forage seeds, you can get a steamed bun in the baggage camp. The households had no complaints about this treatment. After all, there is no free meal in the world. In their eyes, the Lanzhou army was already doing a great good deed. As long as they survive this winter, everything sprouted in the spring, they could find something to eat in the wild.

In order to prevent the people from causing trouble outside the city, the commander of the Left Army, Xin Gu, was patrolling outside the city. When he arrived at a place where people were trapped and horses were exhausted, he rested in a wood. The soldiers were drinking water and eating dry food, while watching a female household digging rat food in the fields outside the hillside. They could see the situation outside the forest, but the people on the hillside could not see the forest. The wind was very strong on the hillside, which blew the woman's skirts and looked slim, making the soldiers look very interested.

At this moment, Zhu Huilan was kneeling on the slope not far away, carefully digging a rat hole with sharpened thick branches. She was a female streamer. Although she was close to the city gate that day, her foot strength was far inferior to that of a man. She only fought for a thin piece of land far away from Lanzhou City, but the area was very large, and there were several rat holes in the ground. The mouse was smarter than humans. In autumn, she could always find a lot of food and fruits to store in the cave.

At the beginning, Zhu Huilan was very afraid of rats, not to mention digging out rat food. She just went out of the city to collect wild vegetables and grass seeds, but it was almost late autumn and the grass and trees withered, so there were too few wild vegetables to eat. Even if there were, they were dug up by the men who took the lead. A liter of grain every day, and even porridge was not enough. One day, she saw a household digging a large rat hole. In addition to the young sons of a few mice, the grain and wild fruits were actually half a cloth bag. Looking at her

Zhu Huilan was in a deep mind and began to dig out rat food. While digging, she was frightened and afraid that the mouse would suddenly run out of the cave. Not to mention biting herself, she just imagined her furry look and felt that there were pairs of dark and bright eyes staring at her hatred. Zhu Huilan felt a cold war all over her body, and she wanted to give up several times, but her hunger forced her to persevere and continued digging bit by bit. Sweat flowed down her forehead, falling one by one on the cold earth.

The imagined rat did not rush out of the rat's hole, but slipped away quietly from another hole. Faced with the power of humans, the rat could only hide. Looking at the granary full of field mice, Zhu Huilan cheered and jumped up happily.

At this moment, a sinister voice came from behind her: "Whether the little lady has digged rat food, should she hand it over to the owner of this land?"

Zhu Huilan looked back and saw a hateful male household. She was holding an empty cloth bag in her hand and stared at the dug rat hole under her feet fiercely. She immediately retorted: "This piece of land is my mother, why are you pretending to be here?" She subconsciously waved the branches in her hand, trying to scare the man away.

The man smiled with a shameless smile and said, "How can you and I be so distant? Why don't you and I work together? How can we divide each other?" As he said that, his eyes were full of fierceness and he forced us forward step by step.

Zhu Huilan didn't want him to use his strength, so she had to swallow her anger and take a step back, watching the man put all the food in the rat's hole into the cloth pocket in his hand. Unexpectedly, after he tied his pocket tightly, he refused to leave. Instead, he took another step forward and laughed and said, "Why are you going out of the city alone to find food? Why are you better be a companion?" As he said that, he actually reached out and hugged him.

Zhu Huilan secretly regretted not leaving the city alone. She thought about it and took two steps back and said loudly: "If you mess around like this, my man knows, but he has to use a knife to settle the score with you!"

Seeing her face stern and holding something, the man hesitated and did not dare to step forward for a moment. Zhu Huilan was afraid that he would invade her, so she held the branch tightly in front of her. The man thought for a while and smiled and said, "Is it that my little lady coaxing me? If you have a man, how could you let a little beauty like you come out alone?"

Zhu Huilan was used to waiting for all kinds of people. When he heard what he said, he knew that he had believed it three points in his heart, and then sneered: "My man is a military ration. Today he is on duty. He has dozens of men under his command, all of whom are fierce and evil. If you dare to do anything, you will definitely kill you to die ugly!" Fengchen's woman is the best, how could she deceive the happy guest and give her money happily? The man was so scared that she really believed it. At present, all the households in Lanzhou were strictly controlled by military soldiers. It was not a joke to offend the military officials. It was about to start winter now, and she would just escape from Lanzhou. I am afraid that she would die of cold and starvation.

He felt timid, and laughed on his face, and kept saying, "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding." He turned around and wanted to leave. Unexpectedly, Zhu Huilan shouted unyieldingly: "Stop, you snatch the food from my mother's field, would you just slip away?" The man looked back at her standing with her hips on her hips, and was not as panicked as before. He thought to himself that this woman was really not a fuel-efficient lamp. There were only more than 10,000 households in Lanzhou City. If she didn't rely on her, she wouldn't be able to hide, so she had to pour the rat food in her pocket back to her original place.

After the bad guy walked away, Zhu Huilan let out a long sigh, squatted down and carefully put the hard-earned rat food into the cloth pocket he sewed. She was frightened just now and was sweating all over. At this time, a gust of autumn wind blew, and she couldn't help but shivered with coldness. She hugged the small half bag of food tightly in her arms, and suddenly felt infinite grievance and sorrow suddenly surged into her heart. She could not suppress her usual fierce and strong shell collapsed instantly, and she actually squatted on the cold hillside and cried bitterly.

The man was seen by these soldiers from afar. The soldiers smiled and bet that the man would be greedy for the sake of the robbery in broad daylight, and planned to watch the show first. At the last moment, he appeared to bring this person to justice. Unexpectedly, the woman shouted sternly to withdraw the traitor and forced him to return the traitor, which made the army tick all the men. I don’t know what she said, but actually surrendered the scoundrel. Finally, seeing Zhu Huilan squatting on the ground crying, the soldiers laughed and said that the woman must have been so happy that she had to return the food. Xin Gu recognized this woman as a household under his rule, and a complex and unexplained feeling surged in his heart.

On the evening of the day, Chen De received a reply from Han Derang from Shuozhou. Han Derang had completely suppressed the Khitan tribes in Shuozhou. Yelu Shilie committed suicide by taking poison. After receiving Chen De's request, Han Derang gave him an idea. Due to years of conquest by Song State, the Northern Han court had exhausted the grain reserves, so he received the grain from the Khitan. The Khitan also agreed to allocate a batch of grain and grass from the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. Han Derang told Chen De of the route of the grain truck, and said that he had greeted the Liao officials who were carrying the grain and grass. If the Lanzhou army intercepted the grain and grass halfway, they would take it themselves.

In the end, they were all borrowed by the Northern Han court and the Khitan. Together with Han Derang's reply, there were 50,000 sheep from the Khitan shepherd. A large number of livestock on the grassland could not survive the winter, so it was better to sell it to the Han land. Therefore, the price given by Han Derang was very cheap, with a 450-yuan sheep. If Chen De was willing, he could help Lanzhou collect more than 500,000 sheep before the winter began, which was worth 200,000 yuan. This group of 50,000 sheep was the sincerity of Han Derang. If Chen De was unwilling to buy more sheep mouths, then it would be a gift he personally gave to Chen De for the winter, without any charges.

Note: In the third year of Tiansheng (1025), if the ethnic minorities in the border prefectures in Shaanxi committed crimes, they would receive money from sheep to the official and atone for their sins according to the old rules, and each sheep was 500 document. ⑨ In the nomadic areas in the northwest, there was less money and more sheep, and the price of sheep was very low, which was about 500 document per sheep.

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