Just after the grain merchants in the Central Plains began to ship goods because they were worried that the harvest of spring grain would greatly affect the huge profits obtained from such high grain prices at this time, the empire's grain prices began to fall slightly, and grain prices dropped from the highest level. Eighteen gold coins per load dropped to 12 gold coins, and other miscellaneous grains fell below eight gold coins. However, adjustments were quickly made. The staple grains stabilized at around 14 gold coins, while the miscellaneous grains also hovered around ten gold coins per load. . Although the price of grain in the Central Plains has risen a lot, it has finally alleviated the food crisis in the entire empire. Even the Heshuo region has benefited from not being cut off from the mainland of the empire. However, this is not the case in some places. The skyrocketing grain prices cannot help It is said that it is priceless and has developed into a social crisis.
As the defender of the Anyuan Taiping Defense Army, Zhang Zhentian was a believer in the Holy Religion with strong beliefs. The Holy King undoubtedly regarded him as a god who could never be blasphemed or violated in his heart as he was a son of a farmer. When the Holy King entrusted him with the great trust of the Anyuan Mansion to march eastwards At that time, he had already made up his mind that everyone would die in the palace and everyone would die in the palace.
He has always believed that he can return the complete Anyuan Mansion to the hands of the Holy King who will return to Anyuan in the future. His 70,000 elite soldiers and countless loyal believers are the strongest support in his heart. He believes that he can use them to resist invasion from any party. , he still believed this even after Yulin, Pinglu and even Qinghe had fallen.
The betrayal of the Kaman people was not beyond his expectation. In his mind, those guys wanted to use the Holy Religion for their own purposes, but they just stabbed the Holy Kingdom in the back at such a critical moment. This wound can be said to be both It was deep and painful, and Li Wufeng was originally the most ferocious enemy of the Holy Kingdom. The brutality of the Northwest Army under his command and the threat to the Holy Religion were even much greater than those of the Kaman people.
The Kaman is just a wild dog. Although it looks ferocious, it only takes one bite. However, it still requires a lot of energy to slowly digest that bite of food. But Li Wufeng is different. Not only does he have an extremely huge appetite , what frightens Zhang Zhentian the most is the amazing digestion power shown by the other party. After operating for such a long time, Lulong, Pinglu and Longdong Tianshui were originally the areas with the strongest foundation of the Taiping Holy Sect, but they fell into the hands of Li Wufeng. Later, in just one or two years, the power of the Holy Religion was uprooted one after another, and countless elite disciples and loyal believers of the Holy Religion fell under the knife of Li Wufeng. Now, whether it is Lulong or Tianshui Longdong, if they want to find someone who dares to It cannot be said that there are no people who devote themselves to the cause of the Holy Religion, but they are very few. This is the news brought back by the envoys sent by Zhang Zhentian to contact the believers in the surrounding areas.
The bloody storm is enough to frighten too many people who do not have strong beliefs, and the soft corruption can make many people and forces who were originally loyal to the Holy Religion gradually turn to the enemy. They suddenly become the most ferocious enemies of the Holy Religion. Under their influence Under the guidance, there was almost no hidden power of the Holy Cult to escape, and Zhang Zhentian sadly discovered that he could no longer find any supporters around Anyuan Mansion who could help him.
With the fall of the three prefectures of Pinglu, Yulin, Qinghe, and Lulong, which had already fallen into the hands of the Northwest Army, Anyuan was the only remaining base of the Holy Religion among the five prefectures in Beiyuan, and it was also the strongest fortress of the Holy Religion. In addition to spending all his time inspecting and patrolling defenses and delivering speeches in the countryside to boost people's morale, Zhang Zhentian even intensified his efforts to find excuses to throw the gentry with some assets in Anyuan City into jail one by one, squeeze out all their gold and silver, and then search for an excuse. On a single charge, his entire family was executed.
Zhang Zhentian did not keep the wealth he obtained in his own pocket. In addition to giving a small portion to his subordinates, he spent most of the funds on building defensive weapons and strengthening the city's defense capabilities.
In a few months, he not only heightened and strengthened the entire city wall, but also built a new low wall on the outside of the city wall that was several meters shorter than the city wall, and built a large number of arrow forts on the low wall. and the Tibetan Arms Room. All the iron workshops in the city were forcibly requisitioned, and their only work was to make various weapons and arrowheads. Although the catapults were very crude due to technical reasons, under Zhang Zhentian's heavy reward and high pressure, six of them were installed at each city gate. There were cauldrons for boiling oil set up on the city walls every other There is one 20 meters away, and the entire city is filled with rolling logs, broken stones, and lime. Under the slope of the high wall in the west of the city, Zhang Zhentian also built dozens of iron pulleys after the ancients and hung them tightly with suspension cables. They were lined up in a row. If an enemy army came up from this side, just facing these dozens of iron pulleys would be difficult It will bring them endless shock.
Zhang Zhentian was a little tired after the inspection. He had hardly had a day of peace in the past few months. The pressure from the Northwest Army was so great that he had to pay close attention to threats from the north and the east day and night. The most troublesome problem for Zhang Zhentian now is no longer the military threat from the Northwest Army, but the food shortage in his own territory. Anyuan was not originally a large grain-producing palace, and could only be self-sufficient in food. When the Holy King and others left Anyuan, they successively transported a lot of the food that had been stored here. They originally expected to wait for the harvest in Xiaochun to be able to transport it from the neighboring Pinglu. A batch of grain was transferred to replenish the reserves, but unexpectedly, not only did Pinglu fall, but also the disaster spread across the entire eastern continent, making all hopes come to nothing. The locust plague that followed the spring drought caused 80% of Anyuan Prefecture to lose its harvest. The people of Anyuan Prefecture were already poor and did not have much food surplus. As a result, the food problem immediately became unavoidable. The first problem.
Although he had tried every means, the wealth of the wealthy gentry in Anyuan had been basically wiped out by himself, but Li Wufeng adopted extremely strict methods of clearing the country and fortifying the walls so that even if he had money, he could not purchase food from all around. Seeing that the food in the warehouse could no longer survive until July, people outside the city were swarming into the city in an attempt to find a bite to eat. Although he had strictly prohibited farmers from outside the city from entering the city to avoid greater pressure on the city, they all Even though the soldiers were from the local area, they secretly let many people into the city. After all, they were all villagers. Blood was thicker than water, and not many people could truly make a decision.
Today, a rare banquet was held in Fu Zun's house. His Excellency personally entertained a grain merchant who was said to be from the north. It has been a long time since I saw Mr. Fu Zun smiling so happily. The long-term pressure has made Mr. Fu Zun more happy than a year ago. He is much older, but today, the Lord of the Palace, who has changed into a long gown, is personally accompanying him to entertain the big grain merchants from the northern Jerok Principality. Even the guards in the palace can clearly feel the joy that permeates the palace.
Zhang Zhentian is indeed a little happy. Although he feels a little inappropriate for his general who is responsible for defending the northern key road to abandon his important tasks and run back to Fucheng, but think about the fact that such a large batch of food has to be transported from the north, and now outside Fucheng The situation in the countryside seemed to be getting out of control, and the other party had no choice but to do this. If the hungry and crazy people in the countryside really discovered this grain transport convoy, it would be difficult for one or two teams of soldiers to protect it. Think about it again, this confidant general has not returned to the capital for half a year. It is indeed too hard for the other party to stay at the remote pass in the north all day long. It is not a big deal to let the other party come back and relax.
Seeing the other party's eyes shining with excitement when checking the food, Pi Hongkui could tell that the other party really needed this batch of food. Touching the bags of grain and smelling the fragrance of the grain, Pi Hongkui couldn't help but sigh in his heart. All the way from Nanjie Locke, the entire Anyuan Prefecture was already a thousand miles away, and many places were barren. If it weren't for the Taiping Army with two thousand swords and guns unsheathed, I'm afraid those hungry people with green eyes would have pounced on them. Come up, it seems that Mr. Li's blockade policy has put Anyuan Mansion on the verge of despair.
While smiling and raising his glass, he was carefully looking at the surrounding environment. It seemed that all the important generals under Zhang Zhentian who were in the city should come to attend this banquet. Of course, except for the generals on duty, he did a rough count. , there were six out of the seven important generals, and probably one more was on duty at the camp.
Look at the soldiers guarding outside the banquet hall. There are four soldiers on duty at the small door on the right. Although they look very energetic, it can also be seen that they are not specially trained people. The two of them should be able to do it without any special training. Kill the enemy without alerting the soldiers outside the hospital. But the four people outside the banquet hall are a bit tricky. They are all very energetic and can be seen as being from the Lian family. I am afraid it will take some effort, but Pi Hongkui is not afraid, and he will not do this kind of thing once or twice. Well, if you can't even deal with these people, then you and your subordinates really don't have to eat this bowl of rice.
There seem to be two mobile sentries on the corner floor of the courtyard. Zhang Zhentian is a very generous guy on the outside, but in fact he is very cautious. By the way, there seems to be someone in the next room. I don’t know what they are doing. They should be on duty. Guards, these guys have to be taken into account. While he was thinking about it, the host opposite was already raising his wine glass and toasting again: "Come on, come on, Mr. Ouyang, Zhang will toast you again. Mr. Ouyang can take such a big risk to transport grain into Anyuan at this time. Zhang has to admire him, isn't Mr. Ouyang afraid of Li Wufeng's ban?"
Zhang Zhentian picked up his wine glass and looked at the other party in brocade clothes with a complicated expression through the candlelight. In any case, it was possible to transport such a large batch of food. Although the price was higher than the price of food in the empire, but In this situation, let alone one roll, even if it is another roll, you have to swallow it as much as you want. As long as you can survive until September, everything can start all over again. Is this grain merchant really that simple