Although Guo Lin'a was skeptical, his hunger still prompted him to ask: "Could it be that the Ming army still sent relief food?" ”

"Not really." Feng San glanced at the sturdy arms of Ai Songgu and the others, and nodded with satisfaction, "Merchants who transport grain for the army are often short of manpower, so they will recruit some people nearby to help with the work. You don't have to ask, just follow me closely and make sure you have enough to eat. ”

An hour later, Aisungu finally got to the porridge shack, but the porridge was just finished. When the porridge man saw that they were in rags, he described them as pitiful, so he carefully washed the porridge bucket and gave each of them bowls and buckets of water.

Ai Songgu had a bowl of underwater stomach, but he was still so hungry that his heart was close to his back, and he immediately grabbed Feng San and said, "Let's go, let's go to Jiangning!" ”

Another day and a half later, Feng San led the four of them to a pass, and saw seven or eight hundred people busy around dozens of carts.

A middle-aged man saw Feng San and immediately greeted him: "Old Feng, you are walking really slowly, the army has been here for a few days." He pointed to the people in the carriage on the north side, "Steward Li is there, go quickly." ”

It turned out that these refugees who fled the famine actually formed an "organization" and followed the Ming army from afar to wait for the opportunity to "work".

Feng San responded, and first told Ai Songgu that they would only work and not talk to anyone. Then he trotted to find Steward Li, turned around and pointed to Ai Songgu and the others, and said with a smile on his face: "Just those four are all my distant relatives, honest and powerful." Their wages will be handed over to me together. ”

"Alright, let's go and move the grain."

"Okay!"

Feng San went back and took the four Jianyu and followed Zhao Ji's men to a row of extremely tall carriages.

The cars were peculiar in shape, more than a foot long, but the wheels were very small, and the wheels were resting on two wooden poles three inches wide. Such a large cart was loaded with grain and rice, which weighed 14,500 pounds at least, but the two carts were tied together with ropes, and only three horses dragged them.

How did they know that using wooden rails to transport grain is extremely horsepower-saving, even two horses can pull these two cars, and Zhao Ji got on three horses in a hurry.

However, the wooden track of Nanzhili was only repaired to more than ten miles south of Nanjing for the time being, and it was necessary to change the carriage here before it could be transported to the Ming army camp in Jiangning. From Guangde to Nanjing, the first line uses wooden rails for transportation, almost morning and evening, and horses and manpower are not used much. On the contrary, in the last 20 miles or so, thousands of people had to be mobilized to carry the grain in the wooden rail car onto the ordinary carriage.

Ai Songgu carried a sack of grain and rice, hummed and carried it to the car more than ten steps away, threw it down, and then turned around to carry a bag, until he was so tired that his back hurt, and he couldn't help lamenting in his heart that he was so depressed that he was so depressed that he worked as a coolie for a barbarian......

But he was leading his troops to fight at the beginning, and he and several henchmen didn't have silver taels on them, and they all threw away their weapons for fear of being suspected.

At dinner time, Zhao Ji's buddies shouted at everyone to start a group.

Aisungu was holding a bowl of brown rice and almost cried out in excitement, but after a few bites, he rushed to the edge of the rice bucket and filled the bowl again.

On the side, Feng San proudly touched the wages of the four people in his arms, and smiled at Ai Songgu: "Brother Ai, eat slowly, there are still several buckets on the stove, and you will be full." ”

"Eh, it's a good ......" Ai Songgu ate four large bowls in a row, and then he felt relieved, hiccuped, and asked Feng Sandao, "I heard that the imperial court is going to use troops against Huguang, but this grain is going to be shipped over there?" ”

The middle-aged man who greeted Feng San before continued: "I've been working here for a few days, and the grain and rice have been moved into the Jiangning camp, and I haven't even seen the shadow of the boat on the river, so I don't see it." ”

Guolin A remembered that Zhebuku had said that most of the Ming army in Nanzhili had been transferred to Huguang, and looked at the mountains of grain and grass, and couldn't help but wonder: "How many troops are there in Jiangning, and they need so much food?" ”

"Who knows this, but a few days ago, the camp was only two miles square, and yesterday it was extended to four or five miles away......

Guolin'a and Aisungu glanced at each other, and were about to ask again, but they heard someone say in a loud voice: "Bring me the guide." ”

When the two turned their heads, they saw more than a dozen people coming with knives, and from time to time they clicked on a few refugees to check the road guide, which was the policeman patrolling nearby.

When they walked up to Esongu, they looked at his loose braids, stretched out their hands, and said, "Lu Yin." ”

The latter's heart tightened, and he hurriedly said: "I was chased by the Tartars and lost my ......."

"Huh? Sounds like your accent is from outside the gate? ”

Guo Lin hurriedly said: "No, no, my second master's throat is broken." We are Shandong......"

The policeman immediately turned his attention to him, "You can speak official language, are you a scholar?" ”

"Back to the master," Guo Lin'a was also nervous, "recognize a few words." ”

"Is it famous?"

"The little one is blunt, and I haven't passed the test."

The policeman pointed to Guolin'a and motioned to the person behind him, "Take him away." ”

"Yes!"

Feng San hurriedly took out his own way and stepped forward and said, "Official, they are all small relatives, and they are definitely not meticulous ......."

"I know." The policeman glanced at him, "Just by looking at him, you know he's on the run." The imperial court wanted to transport grain to Huguang to quell the chaos, and the county recruited a lot of people to work, but there was not even a literate one in Shiping Village. He pointed to Guolin, "I'll take him to the village to keep accounts." Rest assured, it must be better than him working as a coolie here. ”

"I ......" Guo Lin'a and his own general glanced at each other, but he was worried that refusing such a good thing would make people suspicious, so he had to nod, "Thank you, sir." ”

That night, Ai Songgu tossed and turned and couldn't sleep, always worried that Guolin'a would be recognized and affect himself, and remembered that Jiangning actually had a large number of Ming troops stationed, and he couldn't help muttering in his heart, could it be that the news of Zhebuku was wrong?

The more he thought about it, the more wrong it became, and before he waited for dawn, he took two guards and excused himself to find his "cousin", said goodbye to Feng San, and rushed in the direction of Jiangning.

The three of them circled around Jiangning, and sure enough, they saw a large military camp in the east of the city. When he wanted to get closer to see, he was politely stopped by a team of dragon guards with firearms seven miles away from the camp, telling them that there were no refugees in the camp, and there was good porridge in Jiangning City next to it.

Ai Songgu had no choice but to stay outside the Ming army's patrol range until dark, and then quietly climbed a nearby mound and barely saw the whole picture of the Ming army's camp composed of firelight.

He was also a man who had been familiar with the battle formation for a long time, and it only took him half an hour to roughly count the number of fires in the camp, and he couldn't help but be shocked - no wonder so much grain and rice arrived during the day, and it turned out that there were no less than 20,000 troops stationed here!

Oops! He frowned, although there were fifty or sixty thousand horses in Yangzhou, but Prince Yu only regarded Nanzhi as empty, if he rashly went south and was ambushed by the southerners, he would be in danger!