Shen Tang was holding a meeting intensively to discuss where to send troops and personnel deployment, and Qiu Cheng was naturally not idle either.
Qiu Cheng asked for advice: "What do you think we should do this time?"
In the meeting hall, the atmosphere was solemn.
Someone tried to ask, "Can I borrow some food?"
Qiu Cheng frowned: "Who can I borrow from?"
Under the circumstances this year, the landlords have no surplus food.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have targeted Shen Tang.
Someone else said, "Why not write a letter to the leader?"
The leader he mentioned was the initiator of the Dragon Slaying Bureau—
Huang Lie.
Qiu Cheng thought back to Huang Lie's old nest, his mouth curled up, and he thought to himself: Huang Lie is a scoundrel, he still owes money and food to his family, and there are hundreds of thousands of refugees and bandits under him. People are still worried about how to feed so many mouths, how can he be willing to lend money
Everyone thought about the forces with which they had good relations.
There is food in places farther away, but it is not delivered in time.
Those who live closer are also poor and have to tighten their belts to make ends meet.
After some discussion, the mood became gloomy.
The focus of their meeting was not to worry about how strong Shen Tang's troops were - in fact, in Longwu County, no matter how much they recruited, they could not recruit many soldiers. Even if they could, they could not afford to support them, not to mention that there was Yonggu Pass to share the troops.
If Shen Tang wanted to send out troops, he could only mobilize tens of thousands of people.
It's impossible that just for the sake of taking over Sibao County, this guy would withdraw the guards from Yonggu Pass without any care and leave no one to guard the old nest
Qiu Cheng is not afraid of tens of thousands of people.
What he was afraid of was the subsequent problems if the two sides went to war.
In fact, his current situation is even worse than Shen Tang's.
At least Shen Tang is not short of food.
He is not only short of food but also short of money.
The wealthy families in Sibao County had already fled in the previous rounds of disasters, and Qiu Cheng couldn't find anyone to "borrow" money from. The only thing he was thankful for was that he was born in the Qiu family. During the years when the eldest wife was held hostage by Zheng Qiao, he had already raised the Qiu family's flag and took most of the Qiu family's resources. Relying on the relationship between in-laws and old friends, he was able to gather a batch of emergency supplies.
But it can only be used as an emergency measure.
The food and fodder must be sent ahead before the army moves.
The gap in the war cannot be filled by just this.
How to fill it in has become a difficult problem.
The batch of grain from Nanyu County can only last for a while.
At this time, someone quietly made a suggestion. Everyone present was a scholar with a keen sense of literature and a warrior with sharp ears and eyes, so they naturally heard it clearly. They also thought about this suggestion in their minds, but no one dared to bring it up.
Increase taxes on common people in the country!
Qiu Cheng was embarrassed: "Isn't this inappropriate?"
Although he said it was not good, he was also moved in his heart, and sighed: "In the past few years, the lives of the common people have been difficult. The previous two county governors were greedy and imposed heavy taxes, which made the people angry... How can I learn their methods?"
There is also drought this year, and food output has dropped sharply.
"Why not? If it weren't for the Lord's hard work in the past two years to let the people rest, who knows what would happen to Sibao County. Now that the Shen bandits are invading, the war is about to start again. If the common people don't want to lose their families, they should help. It's only natural."
The speaker was a burly middle-aged military officer.
He was filled with a violent aura.
When talking about the word "Shen Zei", he gnashed his teeth.
It was because the Ninth Grade Fifth Doctor whose head was taken away by Shen Tang was his brother. When he suddenly heard the bad news, he wanted to grow wings and chop Shen Tang off. Others might not want to fight this battle, but he was a staunch advocate of war and was full of fighting spirit.
At one moment, many voices echoed him.
Someone struck while the iron was hot: "My lord, going to war with the Shen bandits will do us more good than harm, and may be able to solve our urgent needs."
If he wins the war with Shen Tang, he will be able to annex the entire Longwu County and obtain all of his inheritance. Although Shen Tang knows that wealth should not be revealed, and has been very low-key in the past two years, it can be seen from the increasingly plump cheeks and improved complexions of the common people under his rule that Longwu County is a fat sheep. Judging from the relatively frequent business activities in Longwu County, the other party has a lot of money.
If the annexation is successful, the health will be restored to full in one go.
Qiu Cheng said: "How could I not know?"
Where there are winners, there are losers.
Winning is good, but what if you lose
Judging from the tone of Shen Tang's letter, he was afraid that there would be no chance of making a comeback, and he didn't think that the other party would stop there.
The current situation has pushed him to the edge of a cliff.
In this battle, only victory is allowed, not defeat!
Thinking of this, Qiu Cheng couldn't help but feel unlucky.
I thought my neighbor was a nice guy with a good reputation and a good temper, but I didn't expect that he was small in stature but had a bad temper.
After some discussion, everyone finally reached a consensus.
In extraordinary times, let the common people under our rule suffer for a while, and when the current crisis is resolved, we will annex Longwu County and compensate them at that time.
Only then did they discuss how to defend, guess where Shen Tang would attack from, and who should be sent to resist and guard one side.
During the whole process, Miao Shu didn't say a word.
Just looked more silent than usual.
She didn't speak until the end.
Everyone looked at her: "... I have heard that since ancient times, arrogant soldiers have often been defeated, and those who underestimated the enemy have rarely succeeded. There may really be a hidden dragon and crouching tiger under the command of the thief Shen... That day, we fought with his ambush troops. Let's not talk about the warriors under his command, but the scholars should be vigilant..."
"I don't like to hear that. What does 'arrogant soldiers often lead to defeat' mean? When did we become arrogant?" The general who advocated the battle frowned impatiently. He felt that Miao Shu was targeting him, and his brother's death was related to Miao Shu's incompetence. He was furious. "Before the battle even started, you have already lost your fighting spirit. You coward are trying to shake our morale. You deserve to be killed!"
"It is not advisable to boost others' ambitions and destroy your own prestige."
"Did you become completely cowardly after the battle with Shen Ze? Were you scared out of your wits? What do you mean by 'arrogance' and 'underestimation of the enemy'? When an ant looks at a rock, it sees a mountain as high and a ridge as steep; when it sees a puddle, it thinks the sky is deep and the sea is deep... Humph! You are nothing but an incompetent person!"
In fact, she realized she had lost her composure after she said that.
When he heard the ridicule from the people around him, his face turned pale.
Only one person supported him.
It was the eighth-rank official who went and returned with us that day: "What she said is not without reason. We were misled by the outside world before and really thought that the Shen bandit was just so-so. That's why we underestimated the enemy and harmed so many comrades. The Shen bandit dared to speak like that, maybe he really had the confidence."
Qiu Cheng spared Miao Shu's gaze for his sake: "Shun Niang, do you have a plan to deal with this?"
When Miao Shu heard this title, she clenched her hands in her sleeves secretly, her face full of shame, and she didn't dare to look up, for fear of seeing the strange looks from other colleagues - Qiu Cheng had never called her like this in public before, and always addressed her by her position.
Calling her "Shun Niang" with such an intimate nickname...
It's somewhat playful.
She calmed down and said, "Just now, there was a proposal to borrow food from the leader of the alliance. Although borrowing food is not appropriate, borrowing soldiers is possible. Not only the leader of the alliance, but all the forces participating in the oath can borrow soldiers. Even if it is not possible, we can put pressure on the bandit Shen. The lord has sent troops to fight against the tyrant Zheng Qiao with you in the past two years, but the bandit Shen is now attacking the lord. How do you know that he is not a supporter of the tyrant?"
"Since you are a supporter, you should treat the tyrant as an equal and attack him!"