Chapter 171: A Lonely City

Now that Bai Gui has already started, the following killing rod will naturally have to be done by Bai Gui, and in the future, when the matter is over, Bai Gui will naturally be taken down.

Zhu Qizhen is clean and clean.

With Bai Gui's past achievements, it was just a few years of sitting on a cold bench.

Zhu Qizhen pondered for a moment and said, "Can't you go west this year?" ”

Guo Deng said: "It's not that it can't, it's just that grain and grass are a big problem. ”

Zhu Qizhen allocated a lot of grain and grass to the Western Expeditionary Army, and there was already a lot of grain and grass in the three cities of the Western Regions, and Yizhou and Gaochang were also able to produce grain.

Therefore, the grain and grass for the Western Expeditionary Army should be sufficient.

But once a war starts, food is consumed, and there is no bottom line.

Therefore, Wang Yue naturally couldn't fight with just enough grain and grass. The natural and man-made disasters in the rear of the Ming Dynasty made Wang Yue understand very well that for a long time in the future, the food supply will not be too sufficient.

Although the imperial court did not transfer all its transportation capacity to disaster relief, there was indeed not much left for the Western Expeditionary Army.

Wang Yue's best way is to gather troops in the valley and wait for the time.

This is the safest way to do it.

In other places, it can be surprisingly successful, but in the Western Regions, the Ming Dynasty is more of a disadvantage, whether it is from the support of the local natives or not, and the distance from the rear.

Although it is said to be a recovery of the homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties, in fact, it is actually a territorial expansion.

Zhu Qizhen sighed and said, "Then what about Yili?" ”

As soon as this statement came out, everyone didn't know what to say.

It's been ten months since Ili was surrounded, almost a year.

Yili and the outside news have long been cut off, and more than a dozen good hands have died in Jinyiwei, and only one news has been obtained, that is, Yili is still in the hands of the Ming army.

This is not because they have any connection with the Ili Ming army, but because they see the Tile Thorn army that surrounds the three outer layers of the Ili city.

It's true that Varspur retreated from the front, but it's also true that he took Ili.

Because on the whole, Ili is open to the northwest, and if the tile spur occupies Yili, it is sure that it will be in control for a long time, unlike the southern Xinjiang area, which is geographically shared with the Ming army.

It's not that the cabinet ministers don't care about Ili, but they know too well, and now the imperial court is powerless against Ili, and tens of thousands of people and more than 10,000 defenders can only resign themselves to fate.

Zhu Qizhen didn't have the interest to speak for a while, and said with a light flick of his sleeves: "That's it here today, let's talk about it tomorrow if there is something." ”

At this moment, Zhu Qizhen didn't know how to face himself.

He knew with his toes how hungry and thirsty the city of Ili was for reinforcements, but now he couldn't do anything.

Even if it's the Son of Heaven, he can't do happy things.

The lives of the people in Ili City are fate, and the lives of the soldiers of the Western Expedition are also fate, once there is no chance of victory, urge the front line to fight a decisive battle, once defeated, the three cities of Luntai, Gaoyang, and Yizhou may not be saved.

The Ming Dynasty's exploration of the Western Regions suddenly retreated to the Hongwu period.

This is something that Zhu Qizhen can't bear.

In the city of Ili.

In just one year, Zhu Yi's hair turned white. On one wall, Zhu Yi used a long sword to draw a line on the wall, connecting it with the previous strokes to form a straight character.

And on this wall, there is already a full half of the orthography of the wall.

From the first day of the siege, Zhu Yi began to record, but he didn't want to record so many days. Six orthography in one month, sixty in ten months.

He didn't know how many more he would have to write.

The hardships of the siege did not lie in the attack on the head of the city.

Because many times, siege warfare, and even very little offensive and defensive.

Without him, if he didn't really can't fight it, he wouldn't have chosen to besiege the city. Therefore, once the siege is launched, there will be very few sieges.

But at this time, it is more torturous than the siege.

The consumption of materials, the replenishment of personnel, and more importantly, the hearts of the people.

Ili is an important town operated by the Ming Dynasty, and the grain has been prepared for three years, which is still when the Ili army was there, and now most of the Ili army is no longer there.

There is more of this food.

This is Zhu Yi's greatest confidence.

At least food is not too scarce.

But even so, Zhu Yi has begun to restrict food, and all the vacant land in the city has been planted with melons, fruits and vegetables, and even tried to open up wasteland for farming.

It's just that even then, there won't be much food.

After all, Ili City as a whole is not too big, because if it is really too big, Ili City will not be defended by more than 10,000 defenders until this time.

But the city of Ili did not lack food, but it did not lack anything else.

For example, water sources.

The city of Ili is on the banks of the Ili River, and the groundwater is not too low, so it is possible to dig wells, but the Waspur people outside are ready to find ways to pollute the water source of Ili.

For example, throwing some dead livestock heads into the city, looking for water veins upstream, digging up groundwater and diverting it, and so on.

These are the crystallization of the wisdom of the Han people's offensive and defensive battles in the city for thousands of years.

As a result of these moves, the water level of the well in Ili City has dropped a lot.

On the one hand, Zhu Yi asked people to store water, stored water in all the containers in the city, and then sent people to dig wells, and in suitable places in the city, they all dug wells, and they were deep wells.

Find a way to dig down.

The problem of water will not be a problem for a while.

But after a long time, it is difficult to say.

The problem of medicinal materials is imminent.

Although Ili is an important land, before Shi Heng's death, no one thought that the situation in the Western Regions would be so repeated.

It is necessary to have three years of grain storage. But when it comes to medicinal materials, there is not much preparation.

So after the siege battle, Zhu Yi watched that many Ming soldiers were not seriously injured, but they had no medicinal materials, so they could only wait for death.

In particular, the military doctors of the Ming army were strengthened in Zhuqi Town, and in the city of Yili, there were more than 100 military doctors, and this part was the military doctors of the Ili army who went on the expedition, but they did not take them away.

Many of these medics are good, especially when it comes to trauma.

It's just that it's hard for a good woman to cook without rice.

These difficulties, although they are all very difficult.

But Zhu Yi has the confidence to survive.

The most unbearable thing is not these, but the human heart.

The biggest torment of a long-term siege is people's hearts.

Needless to say, Zhu Yi is the grandson of the king of Dongping County, and after the martyrdom of the Ming Dynasty, although he lost his title, he had a sense of arrogance in his bones.

And his family is in Beijing.

The Zhu family is a big family.

As soon as he bowed his head here and surrendered, the Zhu family of Chengguo Gong would be removed from the circle in Beijing.

Therefore, Zhu Yi has no other choice, and there will be no other choice.

I can't fight to the end, I just die.

really had this kind of psychological preparation, Zhu Yi seemed calm and calm.

It's just that not everyone is like Zhu Yi. Most of them were ordinary people, and they were able to calm down at the beginning of the siege, but after three months of siege, they began to feel apprehensive, and after six months of siege, they began to talk about it. After nine months of siege, someone has already come to ask Zhu Yi, when will the reinforcements come?

All kinds of rumors are going to spread in the city.

For example, King Yi was killed in battle, and tens of thousands of soldiers in Ili had been killed by the tile thorns.

For example, the tile spur has captured the Western Regions, and now that he has returned to Mobei, the imperial court does not know that we are still alive, let alone send people to rescue.

And so on and so forth.

The sergeant of the city had all kinds of thoughts.

If it weren't for the tile spur at this moment, and the other tribes, maybe some of them would want to surrender, after all, Shi Heng's vein and the tile thorn's feud was too deep.

However, in such a situation, Princess Yi, that is, Shi Heng's young daughter, the girl known as Mrs. Shi, is quite a father, and she trained all the maids in King Yi's palace in armor, and together with Zhu Yi, she patrolled the city every day to appease the hearts of the soldiers.

Sometimes, Zhu Yi has some regrets.

It's a pity that Mrs. Shi is not a man, otherwise she would be a member of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yi looked at the time, straightened out his armor, and went out of the city with his own soldiers, he led the team to walk in the middle of the street in the middle of Ili City, and the entire Ili City showed a situation where there were few strong men and many old and weak.

There's no way around it.

The Han people in Ili City are all family members in the army, and these troops are all in Luntai at the moment. This is also the reason why Mrs. Shi has to train female soldiers.

Because at this time, there is no distinction between the old and the weak, women and children, but everyone who gasps must participate in the defense of the city.