Fire?
Where did it catch fire?
Nie Xun's groggy brain seemed to have been cut by something. He immediately sobered up and grabbed someone.
"Where did it catch fire?"
The person did not recognize Nie Xun. He rushed to put out the fire with a bucket and replied hurriedly, "The granary caught fire."
Nie Xun did not come back to his senses for a long time, as if he did not hear what the person said.
At this moment, the military doctor who was in charge of taking care of Nie Xun realized that he was missing and hurried out to look for him.
The military doctor rushed forward to support Nie Xun. "Counselor, where did you go? You still have a fever!"
Nie Xun grabbed the military doctor's arm and stared at him with bloodshot eyes. He asked word by word, "Where did it catch fire?"
The military doctor's expression froze and he said awkwardly, "Counselor, your health is more important. Leave it for now. The generals have already sent people to put out the fire. It will be under control soon. Don't worry. Go back to the tent and rest. We'll deal with it tomorrow. "
Nie Xun's voice suddenly became sharp and he asked sternly, "Where did it catch fire?"
The military doctor answered with bloodshot eyes, "It, it's the granary —"
Nie Xun choked when he heard this answer. He saw the world spin and his vision went from bright to dark. Soon, he passed out.
The fire burned until dawn before it was extinguished. Less than one percent of the food was saved.
On the afternoon of the second day, Nie Xun finally crawled out of the gates of hell and slowly woke up. However, he was not as energetic as before. His eyes were haggard. The military doctor who took care of him also noticed that there were several strands of white and gray hair on his head. He looked much older.
"Counselor, counselor is awake —"
"Counselor is awake!"
Nie Xun was so tired that it was difficult for him to even speak. However, he forced himself to sit up and slowly looked at the crowd.
"The granary caught fire last night. Did you find out the cause?"
Because of the high fever, Nie Xun's throat was dry and hoarse. It did not sound like a man in his prime, but more like an old man in his seventies.
The high-ranking officers looked at each other, but no one dared to step forward and answer.
Nie Xun was not in a hurry. Instead, he looked at them coldly.
He changed the question. "Is the fire under control?"
One of the deputy generals stammered, "It's already been destroyed."
Nie Xun asked again, "How much food did you save?"
The deputy general said, "The fire was fierce last night, and the night wind was strong. In addition, the weather has been hot and dry recently. The fire was hard to contain …" Nie Xun looked at him silently. The deputy general was ashamed and ashamed under his gaze. He decided to say, "The rations were badly burned. Not a single one of them survived!"
After he finished speaking, everyone stared at him accusingly.
The military counselor was already in a very bad situation. If he didn't know how to speak tactfully, what would he do if he really angered the other party?
Nie Xun did not faint. It was as if someone had pulled out his backbone. His back and shoulders had collapsed, and he looked dispirited and dispirited.
"Not even one out of a hundred survives …"
He muttered to himself repeatedly, which made people feel sad and uncomfortable.
Originally, they could survive until the autumn harvest, and Chenzhou could survive for a while. Unexpectedly, a fire burned all the rations they had.
He let out a long sigh, knowing that there was no way to fight this battle. Chenzhou had no other choice but to surrender.
Nie Xun could stubbornly defend to the end, but could the soldiers with low morale endure hunger and defend Chenzhou?
He asked again, "Did you find out the cause of the fire in the granary?"
Everyone looked at each other, and finally, one person stood up to answer.
"Yes, we found out …"
Nie Xun asked, "What happened?"
In order to prevent the enemy from attacking the granary, Nie Xun sent a large number of soldiers to guard it. The patrols were rotated every 15 minutes, and the location of the granary was a top secret. How did the enemy still manage to burn the granary under such a strict defense? If it was not a man-made disaster, could it be a natural disaster?
The deputy general stammered, and after a long while, he finally said a few words and slowly pieced together the whole story. This matter had to start from the time Nie Xun sent people to capture the black-hearted rice merchants. He used the excuse that "rice merchants were selling old rice and creating trouble" as an excuse to arrest many rice merchants and confiscate their grain reserves.
Those who had the capital to hoard so much grain in troubled times and make a fortune from the war were naturally not small merchants.
Among the rice merchants who were arrested, one was a rich man in Chenzhou. His family had been doing business for generations and had accumulated a lot of wealth.
In order to redeem his family, the rice merchant's younger brother was willing to exchange 200,000 dans of grain reserves.
As expected of a tycoon, 200,000 dans in one go. Coincidentally, Chenzhou was in urgent need of grain, so this business couldn't be missed.
Nie Xun rubbed his eyebrows and thought hard. Finally, he found the relevant memory.
This was also allowed by him.
Although it was despicable for the rice merchants to take advantage of the situation to raise the grain price, many rice merchants had backers behind them. They were either opened by the local gentry or had business dealings with them. No matter how angry Nie Xun was, he couldn't kill them all. He could only make an exception and release them after paying a certain amount of ransom.
The rice merchant's younger brother used 200,000 dans of grain to redeem his older brother. However, he couldn't gather so much grain in such a short time, so he could only send it over from other places. The first batch of grain was 50,000 dans. The other 150,000 dans could only be settled with an IOU and a letter from his family.
Nie Xun asked, "50,000 dans of grain? Did you check it when it was stored? "
The deputy general said, "All carefully checked. Every bag is real."
50,000 dans of grain was a large amount. Naturally, they couldn't open every bag and pour it out for inspection. They could only do random checks.
The cooks who carried the grain could also tell if it was real by touch.
Unexpectedly, the grain depot caught fire that night.
The night wind helped and the fire spread quickly.
After fighting the fire for a whole night, there was not a single grain depot left.
When the deputy general sent troops to catch the rice merchant, he had already escaped with his family last night. They couldn't even catch him.
"Sure enough, I still lost." Nie Xun curled his lips mockingly.
The deputy general said helplessly, "Counselor, we still have to think of a way."
Nie Xun smiled bitterly, "The grain we saved is not even enough for the soldiers to eat for a day or two. What's the use of thinking of a way?"
Unless the immortals could make grain out of thin air, there was no way to fight.
At this moment, Nie Xun hoped that Feng Jin could lead troops to fight. At least, he could drag a few people down with him before he died.
However, Feng Jin didn't do as he wished. Not only did he not send troops to attack, but he also sent people to start a fire in front of the formation to cook.
Feng Jin said, "It's not a loss to use 50,000 dans of grain to exchange for Chenzhou."
Meng Hun laughed, "In order to curry favor with the lord, that merchant not only doesn't want us to compensate for the 50,000 dans of grain, but also wants to give us 200,000 dans of grain."
The situation in Dongqing was becoming clearer. These merchants also began to choose sides and invest. However, their lord was not so easy to curry favor with.
Feng Jin said, "We have to ask the lord whether we accept it or not."
Merchants chased after profit, and those with ulterior motives were few.
They only had profit and money in their eyes. Chenzhou saw that Xia Kingdom was about to collapse, and it was normal for the merchants with keen senses to take the opportunity to change sides.
Feng Jin took advantage of the merchants' desire for profit and took the opportunity to give Nie Xun a heavy dose of medicine.
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