Shucheng Shiting, buried hills and rocks, descends in four days! Wuwei even dropped when he heard the news.
Most of the Lujiang River is already in the hands of Lu Bu, but no one in Lu Bu's army is slack.
Although Lujiang is good, it can't afford to support the nearly 40,000 soldiers and horses of Lu Bu's army! Lujiang County has less than 20,000 households and a population of just over 150,000. This is because Lujiang is far away from the Central Plains and experienced wars.
A population of 150,000 raises 40,000 soldiers and horses? This is so militaristic, food land and population are major issues.
You can't let Lu Bu dismiss the trilogy! What is the difference between that and courting death
"How much food and grass are left in the Lujiang River in Gongtai!" Lu Bu frowned as he looked at the pile of copybooks on the table.
"There are less than seven thousand stones left in food and grass!" Chen Gong shook his head, seven thousand stones of food and grass seemed to be a lot, but in fact it was not much, and if it was just for raising soldiers and using it carefully, it would only be enough for twenty days.
If there is a war, the seven thousand stones will not be enough at all.
"What about the surrounding fields?" Sun Ce not only took away the soldiers and horses in Wancheng, but also transported away the grain and grass, so the capture of Wancheng did not get much grain and grass.
"Field?" Chen Gong smiled wryly, "My lord, it's only the beginning of summer now, if we want to have new crops, it will take at least three months!"
"Three months?" Lu Bujun couldn't even last a month.
"Can I buy it in the market?!" It takes several months to wait for the arrival of new grain.
"My lord, there is grain in this market but it's ridiculously expensive!" Chen Gong was very helpless. Grain and grass are gold in troubled times, but they can't be so expensive. It's so expensive that half a catty of rice costs a hundred dollars. Can only buy less than a stone.
Lv Bujun's shortage is very large, and it is said that tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass are needed. If they buy all of them, even if they sell Lv Bujun, they will not be able to afford it.
"It's in the hands of the people! Can you collect food?!"
"There is no surplus food in the hands of the common people." After all, it is not the time when new grain comes out, and it is impossible for the common people to have surplus grain in their hands.
"Let's borrow from those gentry and powerful families!" Lu Bu said.
"My lord, if you can borrow the way, you don't need to be so troublesome!" The rice and grain shops in Wancheng are basically owned by these gentry and wealthy families, but when Chen Gong went to borrow grain, they were shirked, or they were helpless. Food, or borrow a little.
You can't say that people don't borrow, and a family pays a few shi, dozens of shi. If it's just an ordinary family, this is already a family or even a few families' food, but this is a gentry! The gentry with tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. Why don't you borrow it? that is all! Everyone is crying poor, making you embarrassed to say something.
Especially the Zhou family, Chen family and Liu family were the main ones, and they didn't even see them behind closed doors. They only sent a foreign room to receive Chen Gong. Chen Gong can't go too far, because if he wants to govern a place, he must get the support of the local soldiers.
"Hmph!" Lu Bu slapped the table violently, "Don't you want to borrow it? Gongtai, you send someone to deliver a letter to the patriarchs of the big and small noble families in Lujiang, saying that you are going to entertain them in this eunuch's mansion!"
"My lord, you?!" Chen Gong was a little worried, for fear that Lu Bu would cut them all off in a fit of anger, and that would be a big problem. The Han ruled the world with gentry, and Chen Gong wanted to kill all these gentry, then If you really offend someone, at least Lujiang will fall into turmoil.
"Don't worry, I have my own discretion!"
The Zhou family in Wancheng.
In the hall, a middle-aged man was pacing up and down, holding a famous badge in his hand. This was an invitation letter from Lu Bu.
There are also some people sitting on the seat next to it.
"What is Lu Bu's intention in inviting me to wait?!" The middle-aged man is the head of the Liu family, the largest noble family in Wancheng, Liu Xuan.
This Liu family is really a Han family clan, not a Han clan clan like Liu Bei and Liu Mang who mess around with relatives, but the real descendant of Liu Zhen, the land marquis after King Jing of Zhongshan!
The Liu family has been rooted in Lujiang since Liu Zhen, and it is the dominant force in Wancheng. There was originally a Lu family who competed with him, but the Lu family has been undecided since Lu Kang's death.
Therefore, the big and small gentry in Wancheng are headed by the Liu family.
"Brother Liu, what intentions does the family slave of the three surnames have? Don't you just want me to give him food and grass! A dog who loses his family will not last long, so we must not give him food and grass to make him sit on the Lujiang River!" A sitting patriarch of the noble clan stood up. Get up and say.
"That's right, Lu Bu won the city of Wan, but it won't last long. If we give him food and grass, and he is defeated, where should we go to reason?" Another patriarch of a wealthy family.
"Lv Bu has an army of more than 30,000 anyway, can't he really defend Wancheng?!" Lu Bu was dismissive and naturally interested in Lu Bu.
Funding one party's princes, if the princes can achieve hegemony, they will benefit from the dragon's merits, and the family can also be promoted. If the princes cannot succeed, it is just a loss of family property, and the foundation of the gentry remains unchanged.
"Don't you see, Zhang Miao in Yanzhou, Cao Bao in Xuzhou?!" Someone sneered, "Chenliu Zhang Miao, the Zhang family is much bigger than everyone here, and the Cao family in Pengcheng is even more dominant in Xuzhou! But so what, Zhang Miao died, and the Zhang family was uprooted by Cao Cao. The former Yanzhou clan could only keep a low profile in the end.
And the Cao family was even more miserable. I thought that marrying Lv Bu would make the Cao family more stable in Xuzhou. Who would have thought that Lv Bu would make too many enemies, and in the end not only was Cao Mengde plucked a layer of skin, but also Liu Bei did a lot of harm. , Cao's family disappeared directly into the forest of nobles.
With these two as examples, who else would dare to support Lu Bu
"But if Lu Bu is not given military rations, what if he jumps over the wall in a hurry!" Someone worried, after all, the owner of Wancheng is Lu Bu, and it would be no good to piss off Lu Bu.
"Does he dare?!" This is the voice of the Patriarch of the Chen family, "Lv Bu killed my brother, there is no mutual hatred, I put my ugly words first, whoever supports Lu Bu will be against my Chen family!" His name was Chen Hui, and his clan brother was Chen Rui who was strangled to death by Lu Bu. The Chen family's prosperity was inseparable from Chen Rui's credit. With Chen Rui's presence, the Chen family could have a stable low position in Jiangdong Shilin.
"Patriarch Chen's words are true! If he dares to jump over the wall in a hurry, he will not only offend us, he will offend the entire Jiangdong gentry, and even the entire world gentry! At that time, there will be no place for Lu Fengxian in this world!" It is easy to kill a noble family, but killing a group of them is really a big trouble, even those big noble families are connected with each other.
For example, in the original Wancheng Lu family, although Sun Ce captured Wancheng and forced Lu Kang to death, more than a hundred members of the Lu family clan were implicated and killed. It stands to reason that the Lu family should no longer pose a threat to Sun Ce.
But in the end, Sun Quan still used the Lu family to reuse Lu Xun as compensation.
Why? Because these gentry have broken their bones and connected their tendons, it can't be said that some of the patriarchs present have a daughter of the Lu family as their main wife.
Not to mention the daughters of these people, the sisters married the Lu family as wives and concubines.
"And it's not that we don't give military food!" After driving Lu Bu to the point of life and death, it's really possible to kill and not offend the gentry. That's a matter of the future. A few stones, dozens of stones at most, so that Lu Bujun will not starve to death, nor will he be full, this is the right way!"
The patriarchs and patriarchs nodded one after another.
"Brother Zhou, what do you think!" The Patriarch of the Liu family turned his gaze to the Patriarch of the Zhou family who was drinking tea and said nothing.
Patriarch Zhou looked at everyone's gazes and put down the teacup indifferently, "I just want to say one thing! I wrote from my brother that they have already reached Xiakou, and the whole Jiangxia is going down in one day. It's up to you how to do it." own!"
Patriarch Zhou's words caused an uproar among the patriarchs below. Everyone knew who the Patriarch Zhou's younger brother was, so he had no doubts about his information.
Jiang Xia is about to be defeated, the days before Wancheng is taken back will be long! They have all seen Sun Ce's strength. If he had been lucky and prepared to take chances before, then now his goals are clear, and he must not give Lu Bujun food and grass.
Otherwise, when Sun Ce returns to the army, these opportunists will really be liquidated.
"Okay!" The Patriarch of the Liu family stood up as the leader, "Everyone, we will advance and retreat together for the banquet tonight!"
"Advance and retreat together!"
Night is slowly falling, and a war without gunpowder in Wancheng is about to begin! (To be continued.)