In the city of Chongqing (Chongqing), a scrawny green battalion Qing soldier stared at a huge mouse, his eyes shining brightly. He forced a mouthful of saliva, held his breath, and stared at the mouse, ready to pounce at any moment.

The rat also seemed to sense the danger, and a pair of mung bean-sized eyes looked at the ill-intentioned human in front of him, as long as the opposite person moved, the rat would quickly rush back into the small hole behind him. In fact, the rats also came out to look for food, there was nothing left in the city, and everything that could be eaten had long been eaten, and even the rats could not find anything to eat.

Just as the soldier was about to stretch out his hand to catch the mouse, the mouse "squeaked" and turned around and flew far away, causing the green battalion soldier to pounce. Who knew that an arrow suddenly shot from the side, nailing the rat to the ground.

A Green Camp archer stepped up and picked up the rat from the ground. The first Green Battalion soldier stepped up with an arrow and tried to snatch the mouse from the archer's hand, but the archer had already grabbed the mouse and stuffed it into his mouth, and swallowed the mouse in one bite.

At this time, Yucheng has been out of food for several days, since Guangyuan was attacked by the Western Expeditionary Army, and the grain and grass of the Qing army were burned, Yucheng's food began to be tight. On Chinese New Year's Eve, Li Guoying risked letting the grain transport team pass through the area of activity of the Dongdong Righteous Army, but who knew that he suffered a crushing defeat, Dong Xueli and Wang Yizheng were killed, the Qing army's sailors lost more than 7,000 people, more than 500 large and small warships, and all grain was lost.

Li Guoying had no choice but to adopt Zhao Liangdong's method, and once again made a dangerous move, asking for help from the Qing army in Hubei and Shaanxi, and transporting grain from the mountainous area in the upper reaches of the Han River to Taiping County (now Wanyuan City). As long as the grain transportation reaches the state, it can be sent down the river to Yucheng by water.

It's a pity that no matter how hidden the Qing army's actions were, they were still discovered by the Western Expeditionary Army. Needless to say, the result was that after robbing food and materials from the Qing army, and having enough food and clothing, the Kuidong Righteous Army immediately dispatched troops. Attack the Qing army's grain line again.

Shu Road is difficult, it is difficult to go to the blue sky, for the baggage convoy full of grain and grass, it is very difficult to take Shu Road. However, for the lightly armed Kuidong Righteous Army, as long as they held the dangerous place, they could easily cut off the grain route of the Qing army.

Li Guoying's plan failed again. More than 3,000 auxiliaries and more than 500 soldiers were lost, but not even a grain of grain could be brought in.

The plank road to the north of Guangyuan was destroyed by the Western Expeditionary Army, and the Qing army was working hard to repair it. But how could the Western Expeditionary Army allow the Qing army to easily bring in grain? The elusive Western Expeditionary Army was like walking on flat ground in the mountains, constantly attacking, attacking the Qing army who rushed to repair the plank road. In the evening, the Western Expeditionary Army also came out to set fires, and a fire burned down a section of the plank road that the Qing army had spent several days repairing.

The grain route was cut off, and all the grain in Yucheng was exhausted.

The Western Expeditionary Army took the initiative to evacuate Chengdu, and the Qing army occupied Chengdu again. Although winter wheat has been planted in Chengdu, it is only the first month of the lunar calendar, and the winter wheat will have to wait until March and April of the lunar calendar to mature. By the time they can harvest the grain in Chengdu, the Qing army in Yucheng will probably starve to death for more than half of them!

Li Guoying had no choice but to cheekily go to Wu Sangui for help, but when his 600 li was rushed to Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui only replied to the messenger sent by Li Guoying: "This domain has no surplus food on hand!" The food was given to you, what did you let the brethren of this clan eat? ”

Wu Sangui refused to borrow grain because he was well aware that the Qing court did not trust him. Wu Sangui was also secretly hoarding grain. In case the Qing court turned against him. In addition, Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao, who were originally left by Hong Chengchou to spy on Wu Sangui, are currently on Li Guoying's side. Wu Sangui wished that these two guys would die early and be born sooner, so that they would not cause trouble for themselves.

Li Guoying's messenger was so anxious that he was about to cry: "Lord, we adults just need to borrow some food, and we don't take it for nothing." When you defeat the thief, you will return it to you. ”

Wu Sangui sneered: "Borrow? It's quite light! Not to mention when you will be able to defeat the thieves, let's just say that the roads in western Sichuan are safe? You, Lord Li, will even lose Chengdu. If the vassal lends you grain. What should I do if I am robbed by thieves on the way? You let the brethren of this clan go to Shaanxi to eat your Shaanxi people? ”

But Liu Xuanchu, who was secretly eye-to-eye with the Western Expeditionary Army and hooked his shoulders, gave Wu Sangui a look, pulled Wu Sangui aside and whispered in his ear: "Boss, Li Guoying was ordered by the Lord of Long Live to suppress the bandits. Their grain and grass were burned by thieves, if you don't help him at this time, I'm afraid the court will be even more suspicious! Since they are going to borrow grain. Why don't we give them some rice bran and wheat bran, and moldy old grain! In this way, it is easy to explain to the court. ”

Wu Sangui took Liu Xuanchu's suggestion, so he turned to Li Guoying's messenger and said: "In order to be loyal to the imperial court, for the sake of your Lord Li's loyalty to the imperial court, I will lend you 500 stone of grain!" This is the ration of the brothers of this domain! I have lent it to you, and my brethren in this domain will be hungry for some time! In the future, you will have to repay double it! ”

"Thank you, Lord Wang!" When the man heard that Wu Sangui was willing to borrow grain, he thanked him repeatedly, "I will definitely report this matter to Lord Li after I go back, Lord Li is grateful to the prince, and I will definitely repay it twice in the future!" ”

"Humph!" Wu Sangui snorted coldly, "The ugly words of this domain are ahead, if this batch of grain is robbed by thieves when it passes through Xichuan, this domain will have no more food to borrow!" ”

Unfortunately, Wu Sangui's crow said that this batch of rice bran, wheat bran and moldy old grain had not yet been transported to Chengdu, and was intercepted by the Western Expeditionary Army in the mountainous area of western Sichuan. Wu Sangui's army saw that the western expeditionary army was strong, so he left the grain carts and fled for his life. The Western Expeditionary Army did not chase after Wu Sangui's people, but burned the grain and grass and retreated into the mountains.

Wu Sangui's way to borrow grain was also broken, and Li Guoying had no idea at all.

It stands to reason that in the war, when one side was cut off from food and grass, it was a good time for the other side to attack. At this time, Li Guoying really counted on the Kuidong Righteous Army to attack the city, as long as he came to attack the city, he would definitely bring food over. When the time comes, the Qing soldiers, who are eager to win, will definitely fight back and snatch food from the rebels. However, at this time, the Kuidong Righteous Army did not come to attack the city, which made Li Guoying restless, because the Righteous Army did not come to attack, and the Qing army in Sichuan, which was already in a desperate situation, would eventually lose its combat effectiveness completely. If Li Guoying wanted to save this army, he could only take them to forcibly break through and escape through the territory controlled by the rebels.

Although it broke through from Yucheng and went down the Yangtze River, it was still possible to rush out. However, Yucheng is the key to occupying Sichuan, and it took the Qing army more than ten years to occupy Sichuan. Li Guoying is really unwilling. At this time, he considered that there must still be food on the side of the toast in western Sichuan, and those toasts had already announced their return to the Qing Dynasty?

I thought about it for a long time. Li Guoying was really unwilling to rashly decide to give up Yucheng, but continued to stay here. At the same time, he also sent more than 2,000 horses to western Sichuan to find the local toast to beg for food.

In a blink of an eye, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Li Guoying still decided to let the Green Camp Qing Army have a good Lantern Festival.

Bonfires were lit in the barracks, and fish and shrimp caught from the river were boiled in large iron pots, game caught from the surrounding mountains and forests, slaughtered horse meat, and wild vegetables picked from the mountains and forests were stewed in the cauldrons. It gives off an enticing scent. However, this broth is made up of wild vegetables, which smell very good, and when you eat it, the wild vegetables are very bitter and difficult to swallow.

Craving meat? There is a little bit of meat and a meat bone in a pot, and dozens or even hundreds of soldiers surround a large cauldron, not to mention meat for ordinary people. Don't even try to grab the bones.

Take a bite of wild vegetables, which is bitter and hard to swallow. Take a sip of the meaty wild vegetable soup. But the taste is very wrong, as if there seems to be something missing in this soup, by the way, there is no salt at all! That can't be helped, the salt is all gone, and the salt outside can't be transported. The Qing soldiers could only eat light things.

The Qing soldiers drank wild vegetable soup and chewed wild vegetables and grass roots in their mouths, and passed the Lantern Festival in this way.

Soon another seven days passed, and the food in Yucheng had long been exhausted, and the mules and horses pulling the carts had been killed. Even the Eight Banners had to start killing their own horses. In the surrounding jungle, the birds, beasts and wild fruits were all eaten, and even the birds did not dare to fly over, for fear of encountering this group of hungry guys with green eyes. There are still fish to catch in the Yangtze River, and Li Guoying organized people to catch fish. However, the fish and shrimp caught every day are not enough for more than 100,000 Qing troops in Yucheng to stuff their teeth. The fish and shrimp caught can only give priority to the higher-grade officers and the eight banner lords in the city.

The ordinary Qing soldiers of the green battalion were miserable, even the rats in the city were eaten, and the rats and earthworms in the surrounding fields were also dug up and eaten. The Qing soldiers went outside the city to dig weeds and eat tree bark. But those things don't provide the energy that a person normally needs every day, and people starve to death almost every day.

At first, the Qing soldiers also dragged the starving people to bury them, but later, the starving people were eaten by the starving Qing soldiers.

In the barracks in the city, there was a dead air, there was no one guarding the city, and those who could still move ran out to find food; The immobile huddled in the barracks and waited miserably for death. A large group of hungry and skinny Qing soldiers around were waiting for people to starve to death, and once someone starved to death, it immediately became a delicacy for others.

Zhao Liangdong patrolled the camp with his own soldiers, but suddenly smelled a smell of barbecue in the air.

"Where is there still meat to eat?" Zhao Liangdong smelled the smell of barbecue and immediately became suspicious. Because he is a general, he has fish and shrimp caught from the river to eat, wild game from the mountains and forests to eat, wild vegetables dug up in the mountains, wild fruits and wild mushrooms to eat, and there is no need to eat grass roots and bark, let alone corpses. And Zhao Liangdong didn't know that his soldiers had begun to eat corpses.

Following the smell of barbecue, I walked into a barracks, only to see a bonfire lit in the patio in the middle of the large courtyard, and more than a dozen Qing soldiers surrounded a corpse, cutting meat from the corpse and roasting it on the fire. On the side, there was a corpse with only white bones left on its body, but its head still intact. Obviously, the corpse with only the skeleton left on its body must have been eaten by someone as well!

Seeing the terrifying white bones, and the soldiers directly grabbed a roasted leg to eat, Zhao Liangdong only felt that his stomach was overturned, and he vomited all at once, vomiting out the green filth all over the ground. It is an undigested wild vegetable, in fact, even a general like Zhao Liangdong mainly eats wild vegetables, after all, fish, shrimp and game are extremely limited. His soldiers mixed fish, shrimp, game and wild vegetables and stewed them in a pot for him to eat.

After waiting for a long time and vomiting out the contents of his stomach, Zhao Liangdong stood up and roared: "What are you doing here?" Even the corpses of your companions are eaten? ”

Although Zhao Liangdong was extremely cruel, he still couldn't accept such a reality when he saw his soldiers eating their companions. You must know that these soldiers are all soldiers he brought out from Ningxia, and they are all fellow villagers. They followed Zhao Liangdong to the north and south, dealt with He Tengjiao in Hunan, pursued Yongli in Guangxi, fought with Li Dingguo in Yunnan, and finally came to Sichuan to deal with the Kuidong Righteous Army. But I didn't expect that in Yucheng, they would eat their own people!

A soldier knelt on the ground and wept bitterly: "My lord! The villain can't help it! The villain is already too hungry to walk! Those who can walk have gone to dig weeds and gnaw tree bark outside the city, and the villain is here, if he doesn't eat human flesh, he will starve to death! ”

Zhao Liangdong burst into tears, and also knelt on the ground and cried: "Brothers, it's this official who is sorry for you!" Originally, I brought you out of my hometown to make meritorious contributions, so that everyone could be promoted and rich, and go home to glorify your ancestors! I didn't expect it to come to this point! But this has come to this, and I ask for your forgiveness, brothers! We are not for ourselves, but for the court! It is to repay Lord Hong (Hong Chengchou) for his kindness! Now that Lord Hong has been victimized by thieves, each of you must live well and avenge Lord Hong! ”

"My lord! My lord! All the soldiers came up to help Zhao Liangdong.

The fierceness in Zhao Liangdong's heart was stimulated, and he suddenly took out a human hand from the bonfire, put it in his mouth and gnawed it fiercely: "This official and all the brothers share weal and woe!" Remember today, everyone! When we break out, we must find a thief to repay this blood debt a hundred times! ”

Leaving the barracks, Zhao Liangdong immediately went to find Li Guoying.

"My lord! Brothers starve to death every day! If we don't give up Yucheng and don't need thieves to attack us, we will collapse ourselves! We might as well build a raft now and go down the Yangtze River! We're going well, and it's impossible for thieves to stop us all! Zhao Liangdong begged Li Guoying bitterly and asked to give up Yucheng.

"Give up Yucheng?" Li Guoying's beard stood up and his eyes widened, "Do you know how many years it took us to snatch Sichuan from the thieves?" If you give up Yucheng now, won't you lose the whole of Sichuan to the thieves again? Isn't the blood shed by our imperial court for more than ten years in vain? ”

"My lord, are we going to stay here and wait for the army's morale to collapse? When the time comes, we will defeat ourselves without a fight! Zhao Liangdong begged.

"Wait three more days! The person sent by this official to find the local toast in western Sichuan to collect grain and grass should be back soon! Li Guoying replied. (To be continued.) )