After the beginning of autumn, there was a continuous light rain for several days. The streets of Xiangyang are sparsely populated, with only a few beggars wandering in the rain, and rice shops hanging signs that are sold out or closed. Even the price of rice in the opening has risen to ten times the price per bucket, which is already ten times that before the war, so that many people are afraid to leave.

This calamitous city will experience a major war almost every ten years, and the painful memory of the last Mengyuan siege for six years is still vivid, so at the beginning of the war, many rich families have fled with their families, and those who have surplus money have begun to accumulate food and salaries, and the poor will also do their best to collect what they can eat in case they need it, because no one knows when the war will end.

At the beginning of the war, the Song army fought for a long time without success, the commander was wounded again, and Fancheng was lost and recovered, and everyone thought that the Song army would soon withdraw and the war ended. But just when everyone felt that the situation was turning optimistic, another bad news came, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty led a large army to conquer Xiangyang. Fancheng was conquered again in one day, and the main general Shi Bi fled back to Xiangyang in embarrassment, and the pontoon bridge connecting the two cities was burned down, and traffic was cut off.

Immediately afterwards, the Song army captured the Guanghua army, and the warships of the Song army cruised on the Han River, and the water traffic in Xiangyang was also cut off. In recent days, some people who fled into the city from outside the city said that the Song army sent troops from Yicheng to conquer more than 20 forts on the outer defense lines of Wanshan and Da Xian Mountain, and advanced the battle line to the banks of the Han River. It is said that they have begun to cut down wood and build pontoon bridges, and they want to attack the hinterland area.

'Boom, boom, boom...... Suddenly there were several explosions in the city, and the shops in the street closed their doors one after another, but the beggars looked up unhurriedly and watched the tail flames in the air drag through the haze sky and fall into the barracks south of the city. As well-informed people in the city, they knew that as long as they avoided the important places of barracks, government offices, and warehouses, they would not suffer unjustified disasters.

'Bah, Bah, Bah......' A rocket exploded near the mansion, and the dust on the beam fell and fell into Shi Bi's wine glass, and he took a sip and immediately spit it out, thinking about it, he even spilled the wine on the ground.

"Stay out of the way!" The waiter beside him urged.

"What to avoid, the more timid you are, the more arrows will look for you, Lao Tzu has been through a hundred battles, and has always been against the rain of arrows on the battlefield, and has suffered countless injuries, don't you still live well until now?" Shi Bi nodded his wine glass and motioned for the waiter to pour the wine, but his butt didn't move a bit, disdainfully authentic.

"Chief, I think today is different from the past, the enemy's fire meteors are all coming in the direction of the palace, so it's better to avoid it!" The waiter's hands trembled a little, and he poured the wine and said in a trembling voice as he cleaned up.

"The mansion is so big, there are so many houses, how do you know that it will fall here!" Shi Bi picked up the wine glass and drank it in one gulp, then picked up a piece of meat with his hand and threw it into his mouth and chewed.

"Chief, the sword and gun have no eyes, and the fire meteor of the Southern Dynasty is not long-eyed, so I can't say where it falls!" The waiter poured the wine and listened to the whistling of the rockets as they dived, and tried to persuade them to leave.

"If you dare to spill the wine again, Lao Tzu will kill you!" Shi Bi couldn't see the cowardice and cowardice the most, and when he saw that the waiter's hands were shaking, he couldn't hold the wine jar, so he yelled at him.

"Yes...... Be! The waiter answered, but his hands trembled even more, and he could not pour into the glass.

"Waste, get out!" Shi Bi looked at the waiter's panicked appearance, and his heart was even more angry, he picked up the wine glass and threw it on the ground, grabbed the wine jar and poured two sips, kicked the waiter to the ground and shouted.

"Yes......" The waiter grinned in pain, and greeted the eight generations of his ancestors in his heart, but he didn't dare to resist, and crawled out with his mouth in response.

In fact, Shi Bi's mood has not been very good recently, not to mention that the surrounding mountain forts have been constantly conquered by the Song army, and the Song army stationed in Fancheng will fire cannons at Xiangyang from time to time every day, how much depends on the mood of the Song army, sometimes a few, sometimes more than ten, and the goal is also determined, as if to tease them again. Although he knew that the Song army would not take advantage of this to cross the river, it made people panic, and the people walking outside developed the habit of looking at the sky, and they also pricked up their ears and listened to the sound when they slept.

'Boom! Shi Bi poured two more sips of wine, and suddenly there was a muffled thunder in his ears, the doors and windows were shaken, and the wine jar on the table jumped twice. Frightened, he suddenly stood up, looked left and right in a panic, and then looked at the roof, and there was no damage before he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Steward, stay out of the way!" Then Alihan hurried in and said.

"No, Ben Shuai is here, can it fall on my head?" Shi Bi, who had the intention of going out to hide, saw that Alihan came to persuade him, but sat down again and waved his hand.

"It's okay, the subordinates are also here to accompany the manager." Alihan knew his temper, and the more he persuaded him, he shook his head with a wry smile, and sat down with his hands under him.

"Just accompany Ben Shuai to drink and talk!" Shi Bi originally thought about it, but after a few more persuasions, he borrowed the donkey from the slope to find another place. But he didn't persuade him, which made him quite embarrassed, and asked another waiter to rearrange the dishes and chopsticks.

"Chief, the southern army of Fancheng has been harassing the dock with artillery fire in recent days, and dozens of ships moored outside the city sneaked into the water last night and slipped away." Alihan took a sip of his wine and said with some frustration.

"If you hadn't listened to me earlier, wouldn't it be easy to burn the ship with a fire, and now this one has surrendered to the enemy, and tomorrow the other has run away, but it will be used by the enemy." Shi Bi said with a sneer.

"Alas, if the boats are burned, not to mention that those ship owners will make trouble, and we will also cut off our water access, how will we carry supplies at that time, and then who will dare to come to Xiangyang again." Alihan sighed. The way to scold you in my heart is to save trouble, but I didn't expect the consequences, once the city is broken, I can't even run.

"So what? Thousands of large and small ships could not be dragged ashore, or they would be scuttled into the river, so that the enemy could not cross the river by boat, and the Han River could be cut off. Whoever dares to make trouble and kill a few people is good, those southerners are all timid as mice, and they are all honest if they scare and scare. Shi Bi smiled.

"Chief, at present, the southern army has captured all the fortresses in Jiangnan and Jiangxi, the battle in Gucheng is tight, and Fancheng is in the hands of the enemy. The roads of Xiangyang have been cut off on all sides, and the reinforcements have not arrived for a long time, so I am afraid that the day when the enemy will attack the city is not far away. At this time, it should be the time when the soldiers and civilians in the city are working together to defend the city, if we forcibly destroy all the ships on the dock, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the people in the city, and it will be unfavorable for us to defend the city! Alihan advised.

"You don't have the courage to do things now, and after thinking about things, you can't achieve anything in the end, which is no different from real gold Khan. If he had succeeded to the throne at the beginning, he had taken the opportunity to concentrate all the elite troops to go south, and took advantage of the unstable foothold of the Southern Dynasty to drive out of Jiangnan, how could there be today's disaster. However, after he succeeded to the throne, he was worried that the kings of the steppe would not accept the rebellion, so he did not dare to transfer them to the south to fight, and left heavy troops to watch, resulting in no soldiers to fight, so he had to make peace with the enemy and rule the river. Shi Bi snorted coldly and complained.

And he didn't have the courage of Kublai Khan, he listened to the slander of the Han people, deposed us and other old ministers who should fight a hundred battles, and favored the Han ministers. How is it now? Two years allowed the thieves of the Southern Dynasty to gain a firm foothold, and they immediately raised troops to invade the north. Zhenjin Khan transferred Boyan to the northwest again, and only used the cowardly Xue disciples of Yuxi Timur to lead the troops, and what insight did he have, as a result, Zhongji threw all the 200,000 troops in Jiangdong, so that the two Huai had no soldiers to defend, and the commander of the southern army drove in. ”

"If the two Huai are not lost, how dare the enemy of Huguang offend my Jingxiang. And now the Han Confucians want to negotiate peace with the Southern Dynasty, but the little emperor of the Southern Dynasty ignored it at all, and still led the army to attack, and the Mongols lost their faces. Xiangyang was trapped, and they were worried that sending reinforcements would anger the Southern Dynasty, but they wanted us to try to hold Xiangyang without losing it, what is the reason for this? Shi Bi said indignantly.

"The governor still has to be cautious, he will be impeached by those courtiers if he discusses the government and slanders the Great Khan." Alihan knew that Shi Bi had always been angry about his idleness, dissatisfied with the Great Khan, dissatisfied with the Great Khan's favor of Hanchen, and full of disdain for those juniors. If he drinks too much, he dares to say anything, but he can't have any scruples.

"Haha, impeaching me, what a joke. When Genghis Khan and his ministers discussed, they all spoke freely, and no one was punished for disrespectful words; The first time I went to Beijing to meet Kublai Khan, and when I saw that I could raise a crown and hold a strong bow, I immediately rewarded me with five horses, gave me the name Ta Raban, and granted me the post of commander of the march to lead the army to attack Fancheng. Shi Bi still didn't care, and talked about his glorious history back then.

"Governor, the affairs of the DPRK and China are not something we can worry about, nor can we reverse it. At the moment, I am still thinking about how to defend the city, and these days the southern army is harassing with artillery every day, which has already made the soldiers and civilians panic. Today, he actually broke into the government office and blew up several servants in the backyard, and he had to take countermeasures as soon as possible! Alihan knew that if he didn't intervene, this grumbling old man could tell you about the past for three days and three nights, so he could only forcibly change the subject.

"What do I do?" Shi Bi sighed and said, "The range of the enemy's artillery far exceeds the range of our army's catapults, and it is coming from a high place, and it cannot be stopped by ordinary methods, unless Fancheng is captured, there is no way." ”

"That'...... Can it only be left to the enemy's wreaking havoc? Only then did Alihan realize that the old man was not confused, and he had long known that it was difficult for his side to defend himself against enemy artillery fire, but he still asked with a glimmer of hope.

"Of course not, I see that the enemy's artillery fire seems to have a limit, and it can only reach the northern city, and they have been in a row for several days, but one of them fell into the government today, which shows that the southern city is still safe. The targets of their bombardment were mainly military camps, barns, and government offices, and so far none of them have fallen into civilian houses. Shi Bi spread out the city map and pointed out.

"The governor is right, as long as we withdraw our troops to the south of the city, or scatter them in civilian houses, we don't have to worry about enemy artillery fire." Alihan suddenly had an idea.

Although the enemy occupied Fancheng, they knew that it would be difficult to break through the city from the north city, otherwise they would not have gathered heavy troops to attack the fortress on the south side. They are just doing this to disturb the morale of our army and to provoke a popular uprising, and my insistence on refusing to evacuate the government is also to stabilize the morale of the army and the people. Shi Bi drank a glass of wine and said.

"There must be a Southern Dynasty in the city, and today the government was attacked, and I suspect that there is a small target for the enemy. Therefore, a curfew will be imposed from the beginning of the day today, and the people in the city are not allowed to raise fires. In addition, those who enter and exit the city gate are strictly checked to prevent the Southern Dynasty from entering and passing on the news. And since you are worried that the boats on the dock will cause a civil uprising, you will dismantle all the oars and put them in the city, so that they will not be able to run if they want to. ”

"The chief manager has a good plan, and the subordinate admires it!" Alihan didn't expect that this old man really had two times, and the problem that had plagued him for a long time was solved by him in a few words, and he hurriedly saluted and said, "At present, there are still tens of thousands of people living outside the city, do you also include them in the city?" ”

"You don't have to!" Shi Bi waved his hand and said, "The rice planted outside the city can be harvested in another twenty days, and at that time, the lifeblood of the farmers will be the lifeblood of the farmers, and if you forcibly move them into the city at this time, you will definitely fight to the death." If it is not too late for them to relocate after they have harvested the rice, then we will not only have taxes to collect, but also grain to defend the city. You must know that grain and grass are the foundation of long-term perseverance, even if you have a few more stones, it is good. ”

"Well, it's up to the manager." Alihan nodded, "The lower officials still have an inquiry, and as soon as the war broke out, the grain merchants in the city began to reluctantly sell, which caused the price of grain to skyrocket, and the price of rice has been ten times that of previous years. So that the poor people in the city have no rice to cook, and there will be chaos in the long run. ”

"Prefect, you have to be calm, now the people have more or less food for a few days in their homes, and they will not take risks. The price of rice in the city has skyrocketed, and those profiteers will not sell it but will continue to buy grain and hoard it, and those wealthy families in the countryside outside the city will continue to transport grain into the city when they see that it is profitable. In this way, without our urging, a large amount of grain will be brought into the city, and then as soon as we close the city gates, we can levy all their grain for the purpose of defending the city. Shi Bi smiled.

"What do you think the Lu clan of the Southern Dynasty was able to trap and defend Xiangyang for many years, and what did it take to drive the soldiers and civilians of the city to defend the city for them? It's not just the fortified city, it's the food. You haven't experienced this kind of war, gold and silver are useless at that time, no one cares what kind of official you are, the most valuable and useful is food, and human life is the cheapest, a full meal can make people go into battle and kill! ”

"Once the mountain forts on the outskirts of Xiangyang are lost, the city is besieged, and foreign aid is cut off, we hold the grain in our hands, which is equivalent to holding the lives of the soldiers and civilians in the city. If they want to be fed, they have to obey our orders, and those poor people have to thank us for our kindness, so that their old and young will not starve to death, how can they not fight to the death. So don't be in a hurry, always come step by step, and wait for the best time to make a move! ”

"The lower official has been taught!" Alihan's admiration for the old man deepened, and he used to think that he acted recklessly and carelessly, but in fact he was the most shrewd, and he had already seen through people's hearts......

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