Pricing is wishful thinking, and weapons have always been priceless during the war years.

That's what Boduan, the captain of the garrison of Rochefort, thought.

They were all dying of starvation, and he had bought almost all the food he could buy in two months since he was stationed in Rochefort.

Because they came from the seaports in the north near the lowland countries, Boduan's brigade had very few arrears of military salaries, and they were richer than others, so the first days of the garrison were relatively good, but no one could stand it after a long time, since the farmland outside the city was robbed by the Ming army, and the price of grain in the city skyrocketed, driving other materials to double up, and they could not afford to buy food.

There was no logistical problem, and the last supply of the troops arrived four months ago and will be supplied until next spring, but due to famine in the city, their military rations were diverted by the church and distributed to the residents, and later not only did the residents have no food, but the army also lacked supplies.

The birds that flew over the city of Rochefort were killed.

The inhabitants fled northward in large numbers, and those who remained were able to survive, and the undisciplined armies were divided into small groups under the leadership of their own squad leaders to raid houses, loot churches, and sometimes have the audacity to attack the residences of the nobles, sometimes to be repulsed, sometimes to grab some valuable utensils, but no food.

No one has food, and money has become useless.

Boduan's flag officer was calling out to him, and several soldiers were carrying linen pads to bring the clay soup pot off the fire, and a strange fragrance wafted from the hot pot, wafting a few green leaves that were rare in winter, and more were withered yellow and dry leaves, and a few small insects that could not be named and cooked.

The flag bearer took a bowl and put it in front of Boduan, the dizziness and abdominal cramps caused by hunger made this strange bowl of soup seem extremely tempting, although the taste was indeed terrible, but it could fill the stomach temporarily.

He had to figure out something, or his team would lose their minds like those men.

Just a few days ago, a squad leader had gone out of the city with some of his soldiers and never returned, and rumors were circulating in the city about him, and some said that the squad leader had gone to join his men in Bordeaux and lived a life that would fill his stomach; Others say that he fled north to the county to serve as a mercenary; There are also nobles who say that he is dead, not far outside the city, and is attacked by the Ming army.

Boduan thought that the first theory was very likely, that the captain had surrendered to the Ming army, and that the captain had been doing well during this difficult time, because one of his soldiers was a local, and he married his daughter to a Ming soldier in Bordeaux, as if it was 'facing forward' or somewhere, and in a few days they would be able to dig up some jerky and something like that in the southern woods, and all those who knew about it were envious.

But having one person eat as an occasional snack could not feed the entire squad, and their commander found out about this and put the soldier to death, believing that the execution was most likely the reason for the entire squad to defect to the Ming army.

"We've got to find a way, we've got to get out of the city, and I've heard that the army is giving some land to their outsiders on the north bank......"

Before Boduan could finish speaking, the flag officer, whose eyes were sunken with hunger, swallowed his saliva and said weakly: "I know that one of the musketeers of Jacques's squad saw it from afar when he was patrolling, and they were repairing the castle, and when they saw the soldiers, they did not attack immediately, but sent someone to spread the word that they were buying muskets and armor and exchanging them for flour; He also said that he would recruit long-term workers and take care of the rice. ”

"The captain wants to take us to surrender?" The flag officer said, looked at the captain Boduan and licked his lips, his face was both expectant and worried, and slowly shook his head: "We should survive this winter, it will be difficult to go home alive after surrendering, maybe we can be transferred to another place after winter, if we want to surrender, maybe...... Don't you surrender? ”

For some reason, Boduan felt a little disappointed that the flag bearer and the soldiers were a little disappointed when they heard that he was not going to surrender.

He said to the flag bearer: "You are the flag bearer, and you swore at the flag presentation ceremony that you would protect the flag with your life." ”

"I know, don't worry, captain, I can go with the flag."

Boduan didn't speak, his eyes looked at the flag officer for a long time, and then he looked around at the soldiers around him and said: "Those armed peasants have food and equipment, they have stone axes and wooden sticks, let's rob them, if everything goes well, the team can get enough supplies for this winter." ”

No one answered.

The atmosphere was very awkward at one point.

After a long time, the soldiers look at me, I look at you, and finally pushed out the flag bearer: "Captain, we lost twenty-seven men in the battle three months ago, and the battle was very valiant, and the musketeers joined the infantry with short swords after shooting all the ammunition, and no one fled. ”

"But in the subsequent retreat, sixteen people froze to death, were seriously wounded, and thirteen escaped and disappeared, and now only ninety-four are able-bodied, and half of these ninety-four people can only drink one hot soup of dead leaves a day, and we have no artillery, no gunpowder, only sharpened sticks, and people are so hungry that they can't walk."

"It's sixty miles from the nearest armed peasant stronghold, and it's cold outside the house, and I might find a little food on the way, but I'm not sure how many people will be left there and whether I'll be able to fight."

"But there's food there." Boduan sighed and looked at the dry leaf soup in the bowl that had been drunk cleanly: "If this continues, the insects and dead leaves will be eaten, as long as we can get there, we can grab food, we still have a lot of muskets, and those are just some farmers with wooden sticks." ”

"They don't know we don't have gunpowder."

"As long as you are scared, you will obediently hand over the grain." Boduan also felt that it was difficult to speak, so he stood up and comforted: "I know that the march is tiring, but you still have to put on your armor and bring your belongings, we will occupy it until the winter, and we cannot stay here any longer." ”

What Boduan didn't say was that many people had died in the city because of the hungry soldiers and the inhabitants, and he feared that if this continued, there would be a plague and even more chaos.

The nobles and mercenary leaders have become difficult to restrain their troops under hunger, and each captain is trying to find a way to make a living for his soldiers.

Boduan thought that he had chosen a relatively easy path, using professional soldiers to deal with the poorly armed peasants, and still have the advantage of troops—he really couldn't understand why Chen Jiujing would make such a stupid move.

This is not to blame him, but only to blame the actions of the Ming immigrants in the New World is too small, and the Spaniards are unwilling to renew the shame after returning home, and people are silent about everything that happened on the border of the New World, so it has not yet reached France.

As the pioneers of a new land, they must rely on the fact that they dare to occupy the land on the battlefield, for example, the destination of Boduan's trip at the moment, the owner of the manor closest to them is named Ding Hai, a man outside the mouth of the Great Wall who was cut off by Qi Jiguang's reform of the border army.