Zhao Daiwen did not want to cause trouble for himself. He felt that he could not afford to provoke these bandits. At the same time, he knew very well that the only effective way to completely solve the crisis of bandits was to get enough food as soon as possible. Without food, the bandits would never be wiped out completely. Because most of the bandits at this time were poor people who had nowhere to go. If they went out of the city to kill 1,000 bandits, they would lose at least hundreds of elite soldiers. Among the 1,000 bandits killed, 900 were probably ordinary people who had nowhere to go. Therefore, Zhao Daiwen was more reluctant to take action. He was a kind person. As long as he could avoid conflict, he would do his best to avoid it.
However, Old Zhao was a little unkind. He was not willing to do anything. He kept dragging it out and left all the problems to the Tang dynasty to solve. Especially Ang Lee, who entered first, would definitely be troubled to death.
If the small imperial court of Dongnu Province had the courage, they could solve this crisis by themselves. However, in this way, they would not be merged into the Tang dynasty so smoothly. Their lack of courage was also a good thing.
If there was a strong leader, he would definitely confiscate all the food in the country when there was a shortage of food. He would collect all the hidden food of the rich families and then supply it to the market normally. This could solve the problem of the ordinary people having nowhere to buy food. Even if the whole people were half full, it was better than the rich families being full. It was much better for the poor to have no food. As long as the whole people had food to eat, even if they were half full, they would not become bandits on a large scale.
In addition to the unified supply of food, the people could also be mobilized to build irrigation works to minimize the losses caused by the flood and quickly replant food. They could not stop planting food just because the mountain floods continued. They had to find ways to divert the flood to other places or build high enough protective embankments to prevent the flood from washing away the crops. In this way, as long as they could survive until the harvest season, the crisis would be resolved.
Of course, it was not easy to do this. Not everyone had this ability. It would offend many people, especially the rich families. They were not ordinary people. Forcibly confiscating their food would arouse their jealousy. If it was not handled well, it would cause a large-scale rebellion and the consequences would be serious. Therefore, they did not have the courage to do this. Even the imperial court of the Tang dynasty did not have such courage when it encountered such a crisis. It was equivalent to threatening the interests of all the nobles.
The only people who could do this were the revolutionaries of the later generations. Only they had the courage to do this. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't be able to do it.
In Zhao Daiwen's view, as long as they defended Guichang City and protected the food in the city, there would not be any big problems. The only thing they had to guard against was the loyalty of the army. If the soldiers betrayed them, the consequences would be serious.
After the rebels and bandits left, Zhao Daiwen and some of the high-ranking officials also left the west gate and returned to their respective residences. After a night of torment, they were exhausted. In order to prevent something like this from happening again, Zhao Daiwen added two more sentries to each city gate, with two centurions leading the troops to guard the city gates. The number of soldiers guarding the city gates was doubled. Moreover, these two centurions were mobile. They did not stay together all the time, and the city gates that they guarded were also switched back and forth.
Zhao Daiwen believed that as long as they adopted this strategy of mutual supervision, they could prevent the people guarding the gate from colluding with the rebels. In addition, they also carried out an investigation in the city. Those who were on good terms with Zhao Changkong, Bai Yong, and the others in the city were all under control.
Through a series of activities, Guichang City was becoming more and more impregnable. However, half of the southern part of Dongnu Province was facing a major crisis. The rebels and bandits who left developed all the way to the south and directly occupied many cities in the south. They adopted the strategy of surprise attacks at night. How could the small cities that lacked defense withstand the surprise attack of more than ten times their forces? All of them fell. The road to Nanzhao was naturally controlled by the rebels and bandits. Through the absorption of the bandits in the south, the total number of rebels and bandits had exceeded 20,000. They could be considered a very powerful force.
In the face of such a crisis, Zhao Daiwen and the others still did not take any active measures. This was because they really did not have the confidence to solve this problem. Moreover, Dongnu Province would soon belong to the Tang dynasty. Letting the Tang dynasty handle this problem was a good way to shift the blame. After all, the Tang dynasty was strong enough. Letting the Tang dynasty solve this problem was the most appropriate thing to do.
Li An's team followed the only small path and advanced quickly. Because they had suffered a loss before, the entire team became abnormally cautious as they advanced, afraid that they would suffer another heavy loss.
When they came to a small city, Ang Lee did not hold back. He directly asked his men to live in the city and use the thick city walls to increase his sense of security.
At the foot of the Sacred Mountain, there was a small city called the Sacred Mountain City. This was a city with a population of 3,000. In fact, it was not considered small. In Dongnu Province, it could be considered a big city. After all, there were not many cities in Dongnu Province. Any city could be considered a large gathering place.
This Sacred Mountain City was guarded by 2,000 soldiers. Because this place was really important, the Imperial Court of Dongnu Province did not dare to be careless. Once this place was lost, the road to Central Sichuan would not be accessible. In order to prevent the road from being cut off, enough soldiers and horses must be stationed here.
With 2,000 soldiers and 3,000 civilians, this small city was very lively. However, having more people was not necessarily a good thing. This was because there was a shortage of food. The more people there were, the more food they would need. There were 5,000 people in the Sacred Mountain City. The amount of food consumed every day was not small. For this reason, a large scale granary had to be maintained in the city to ensure that everyone had enough to eat.
But the people outside the city, as well as the bandits in the Sacred Mountain, had run out of food. It was already considered good if they could eat 20% of their fill. Because of this, the people and the bandits naturally got closer and closer. Gradually, the people became bandits and joined the bandits, increasing the strength of the bandits. And as the bandits got stronger and stronger, the threat they posed to the Sacred Mountain City also increased. These bandit groups weren't strong enough, but if they joined forces, their strength would be very terrifying. A group of three to five hundred bandits wasn't a big deal, but if there were more than ten of them, then their strength would be very terrifying. It wasn't impossible for them to break through the Sacred Mountain City.
The situation in the Sacred Mountain was getting worse and worse. Previously, there were only a few small bandit groups. After the food shortage, these bandit groups began to grow rapidly. At the same time, new bandit groups were born. Some groups were made up of villagers. Because they did not want to join other groups, they formed their own bandit groups to better survive.
In addition to robbing, these new bandits also hunted and gathered. They even dug up roots, cut tree bark, and ate soil. As long as they could survive, they were willing to do anything. Robbing was just one of the ways to survive. Some villagers were forced to become bandits to prevent others from robbing them. This was because the villagers gave people the impression that they were too weak. Once they became bandits, it meant that no one dared to provoke them.
From the outside, there was a slight difference between a village and a bandit lair. A village was an open residence where anyone could enter and leave. A bandit lair, on the other hand, had defensive facilities such as arrow towers and walls. After these villages were upgraded to bandit lair, they would build walls around the village and set up arrow towers and other defensive facilities in the village.
Some villages with better conditions could barely fill their stomachs. They did not need to go out to rob. However, they were very worried about being robbed by other bandits. Therefore, they would also make themselves into bandits that no one dared to provoke. They would mobilize the villagers to build defensive facilities, write a certain stronghold at the entrance of the village, and build a few powerful arrow towers. In this way, bandits without enough strength would not dare to provoke them.
At this time, the rich families in the village were generally willing to take out their stockpiled food to feed the entire village. In exchange, the villagers had to listen to the command of the rich families. They built defensive facilities together and prepared defensive offensive weapons, such as spears and crossbows. These were definitely necessary weapons. With a certain level of strength, it would be better to deter bandits who wanted to rob, so the bandits would not dare to act rashly.
In the current situation in Dongnu Province, the best way to protect oneself was to show as much strength as possible. At the same time, it was better to hide the food one had. Showing strength could better avoid being robbed, and hiding the food had the same effect. If the surrounding bandits knew that a village had a rich family and a large amount of food, then even if the village was organized by the rich family and had relatively powerful weapons, it would be difficult to avoid being robbed. One group of bandits would not be enough. If two or three groups of bandits attacked together, they would always be able to win.
In this case, the most terrible thing was the traitor. Once the traitor revealed that a village had a large amount of food, it would bring a terrible disaster to the village, and the village would never have peace.
In the Sacred Mountain, there were already many rich villages that had been robbed. In these rich villages, there were rich families, and the rich families had more food, so it was normal for them to be robbed. People in the distance might not know where the rich families were, but the nearby villages and bandits would definitely know. When they were hungry, they would naturally have ideas about the rich families. Even if the rich families armed the whole village, they would not be able to withstand the attack of hungry people from many villages. It was normal for them to be robbed.
This was simply a human tragedy, and this kind of human tragedy happened frequently in various places in Dongnu Province. There were tragedies happening almost every day, which made people sigh endlessly.
These man-made tragedies further increased the predicament of Dongnu Province. Once a conflict broke out, it would not reduce the population and there would be fewer mouths to feed, but it would cause a huge loss of food. Would the rich families be willing to let others rob them of their food? Under the influence of despair, they would burn their stored food, leaving those who robbed them with nothing. In a situation where there was not enough food to begin with, a large amount of food was burned. As a result, the situation of food shortage became even more serious, and more and more people would have no food to eat.
The desperate rich families would burn their food, and more rich families would think of ways to move their food and family. They dared not live in the mountains more and more. Their ideal place to live was naturally Guichang City. If it was not possible, they could go to other cities. As long as it was a city with defensive power, it would make them feel safe. At least it was safer than the remote countryside.
As a matter of fact, as soon as Li An's group entered the Sagely Mountain City, five hundred soldiers left the city and rushed towards the mountains in the distance. Their mission was not to exterminate the bandits, but to pick up people. The captain in the lead was the son of a wealthy family fifty miles away. Recently, his father had sent a letter to his son, informing him of the safety of the village and requesting his son to lead the troops to defend the village and protect his family.
However, their son was a soldier and had to obey the orders of the Dongnu Province's imperial court. He could not transfer soldiers and horses to defend his family without permission.
His family was under threat in the village, and as a son, he couldn't just stand by and do nothing. He thought about it and decided to do something. He chose to lead the army to the village and bring his family to live in the Sagely Mountain City. At the same time, he also took away all the food they had stockpiled. Moving to the Sagely Mountain City was the safest option.
At this time, Ang Lee and a thousand men under his command entered the Sacred Mountain City and increased the city's defense. Therefore, the captain felt that this was a good opportunity. He wanted to rush back home as quickly as possible and move his family and a large amount of food. If he moved quickly, he could return home in a day and a night.
"The people in the city look like they are emaciated! They are all as thin as firewood. I don't see any fat people! "
Ang Lee sighed as he walked into the Sacred Mountain City and looked at the people in the city.
Because they did not have enough to eat for a long time, the people in the city were very thin and weak. Their complexions did not look too good either. Every one of them looked listless. There were not many people on the streets either. Most of them were probably lying at home. This way, they could minimize the exhaustion of their energy and prevent them from getting hungry so easily. In the future, when food was scarce, the best way to fight hunger was to lie in bed and not move. This was because exercise would deplete the body's energy, and the way to replenish the body's energy was to eat. In order to reduce the depletion of the body's energy, the only effective way was to lie down and not move. Although this was not very healthy, it would at least reduce the hunger. The feeling of being hungry was not a good feeling, so in order to not starve, they could only use this method.
The few people on the streets were also listless. Almost all the shops were empty. Some of the people were holding expensive jewelry and wanted to exchange it for food on the streets, but no one cared. No one even tried to snatch these treasures. It was clear that in an environment where food was scarce, many people did not care about metal jewelry. There was nothing more important than staying alive.
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