Chapter 195 Food is plentiful

Chapter 195 Food is plentiful

Shen Nanzi pointed at the soldiers below the city wall and glared at her, "Feng Miaoyin, these soldiers are all subjects of your Huaiyang."

"They are fathers, husbands, sons, the pillars of thousands of families. You know you have lost, yet you still disregard their lives."

“Feng Miaoyin, you are not worthy of eating the rice of the people of Huaiyang, nor are you worthy of being the mother of a local lord.”

Shen Nanzi didn't want to say anything more to such a cold-blooded princess who didn't treat the people like human beings.

She pulled Xie Hongchen close, pressing a dagger against his carotid artery, "I didn't want my child to be implicated."

"Since you disregard the men of ordinary people, today I will use your son's blood to commemorate this war, so that you too can taste the pain of having your heart ripped out."

Feng Miaoyin's face instantly turned ashen, and she gritted her teeth, "Shen Nanzi, how dare you! He is a royal descendant. If you dare to kill the imperial grandson, you will surely be killed by the Xie family."

Shen Nanzi sneered: "I dared to start a rebellion, why would I be afraid to kill a royal grandson? You used a thousand taels of gold to kill my Cheng'er, if I show any mercy, I am not worthy of being a mother!"

As she spoke, Shen Nanzi pressed down with her dagger, and beads of blood gushed out from Xie Hongchen's neck.

"Stop! We surrender!" No matter how tough Feng Miaoyin was, she was still a mother. Now that the situation was already lost, why should she risk Xie Hongchen's life?

Her proud head stood stubbornly upright, her lips tightly pressed together, as she accepted the white flag handed to her by Shen Nanzi's subordinate.

She turned around and waved the flag downwards with a tragic air.

Suddenly someone shouted, "The Prince of Huaiyang has surrendered!"

The two armies, which were locked in fierce combat, were suddenly separated as if cut apart, and looked towards the city wall.

The battle flag of the Prince of Huaiyang has been replaced with the Chengjun flag, which has a red and gold border and black background with red characters.

Their Prince of Huaiyang was being held down and stood on the city wall, while the Grand Princess held a white flag that symbolized surrender.

Cheng Jun had clearly occupied the city walls of Huaiyang King's main city, but instead of exterminating them, he forced the Grand Princess to surrender!

The city gate below was breached, and Xie Chengze and Zhao Zhendong went up to the city wall.

Looking at the city gate tower, one could see that the soldiers were all wearing red scarves.

Shen Nanzi asked Xie Chengze, "Do you know how to say it?"

"Don't worry, Mother, I know how to explain."

As he spoke, Xie Chengze walked up to the edge of the city wall and stepped onto the stone that had been prepared for him to stand on.

He looked at the two armies below the city wall and said in a firm voice, "I am Xie Chengze, the grandson of the emperor, and also the Prince of Cheng."

"My purpose is to return to Luoyang to stabilize the court, not to cause internal strife in Yunhan."

"Whether it's the Cheng Army or the Huaiyang Army, they are all citizens of Yunhan."

“We are family, of the same blood. We had already discussed it with the Prince of Huaiyang. Family members don’t fight each other.”

"However, the Prince of Huaiyang went back on his word and besieged my Cheng army, which led to the conflict."

A gasp of surprise rippled through the city.

"Today, our Chengjun army will provide compensation to all the soldiers who died or were wounded. We will not let the soldiers feel disheartened, nor will we let their families rely on us without a care."

Upon hearing that there would be compensation for the wounded, some of the Huaiyang soldiers immediately dropped their long swords and shouted, "I surrender! We're not fighting anymore!"

Once someone started, others immediately followed suit, and the sound of knives being dropped gradually increased.

With the Prince of Huaiyang and his mother captured, the rest was a matter of course.

The rest was handled by the experienced Zhao Zhendong.

The next step was to take over the entire fiefdom, putting all military and political power, finance and taxation, people's livelihood, and city defense under the control of his own people.

A complete reshuffle was carried out from top to bottom, and from then on, the fiefdoms were under our complete control, and no one dared to have any dissent!

Shen Nanzi then took Feng Miaoyin and her son back to the Huaiyang Prince's Mansion.

Cheng Jun quickly took over the Huaiyang Prince's Mansion, and the mother and her two children were imprisoned in the woodshed.

People in the military are meticulous and efficient. In less than ten days, Shen Nanzi and Xie Chengze had finished handling all the major matters.

They opened the granary, released some grain, and provided it to people who couldn't survive the winter.

He also distributed the winter clothes piled up in the Prince of Huaiyang's mansion to the poor people.

The military reorganization was also completed.

I heard that Chengjun's winter clothes are warm, and he can eat three meals a day, including meat, and there's plenty of it.

Many soldiers volunteered to join the Cheng army so that they would not eat their family's rations and could save them for their loved ones to get through the winter.

Of the 50,000 soldiers in the Huaiyang Army, more than 45,000 remained.

Xie Chengze's army expanded rapidly. Zhao Zhendong, looking at the current size of Chengze's army, went to find Shen Nanzi with great concern.

"Your Highness, there are too many people! We don't have enough military pay!"

Shen Nanzi lived in the Huaiyang Prince's Mansion, where bills were piled up on the table.

"I've done the math, and our food supplies should last about..."

She was counting the numbers.

Zhao Zhendong grew increasingly anxious. "If the military pay is insufficient, we will cut back on expenses and eat two meals a day during marches and battles, and one meal a day during truce."

"Three meals a day is too extravagant."

"Furthermore, withdrawing some soldiers and sending them back will save us some resources."

Yang Zhendong had led troops for many years, and sometimes when the military pay was insufficient, he would reduce his meals with the soldiers.

Now all he can do is snatch some food from the mouth.

Shen Nanzi raised her eyes, "How can people fighting in war go hungry?"

"Sixty-five thousand soldiers, is that enough to deal with the King of Liang?"

Yang Zhendong thought to himself, "Who doesn't want to be well-fed? Isn't it because the military pay is insufficient?"

“The King of Liang has 50,000 soldiers, which should theoretically be enough to defeat him, but his soldiers are all veterans who have been trained for a long time.”

"We only have about 25,000 elite soldiers; the rest are soldiers whose training time and intensity are not as good as those of the King of Liang."

"There's also a Prince of Dai next to him, who might come to reinforce us. Our chances of winning aren't very high."

"It seems we need to send more troops, preferably veterans," Shen Nanzi muttered to herself.

Zhao Zhendong was dumbfounded. The military pay wasn't even enough, so how could they be thinking about increasing the number of troops?

Thinking about following the young prince, or worrying about military pay, should I write to Prince Jing and ask him to come up with a solution?

“The Prince of Dai?” Shen Nanzi looked at the map and found his fiefdom. Indeed, there was a piece of land that bordered the Prince of Liang.

Qinghe walked in and handed her a letter.

Shen Nanzi tore it open and exclaimed, "General Zhao, this Prince Qi has quite the ambition!"

"Today we have quietly arrived at the border of the King of Zhongshan, and are heading straight for Luoyang!"

She handed the secret letter to Yang Zhendong, "Is he, an imperial uncle, backing up Prince Ding after conquering Luoyang?"

Yang Zhendong said, "The Prince of Qi's fiefdom is not wealthy, and he doesn't even have three thousand soldiers to guard it. How dare he return to Luoyang?"

Shen Nanzi was also a little puzzled. "The key is that he bypassed the fiefdoms of the other two young princes, which is quite intriguing."

“Our current predicament is the issue of Prince Liang and the military pay. Prince Qi can wait and see.” Zhao Jiadong scratched his head at the thought of the military pay, which made him very anxious.

"General Zhao, what's wrong?" Shen Nanzi thought he had lice on his head. "He keeps scratching his head!"

Zhao Zhendong asked irritably, "How many days will our military pay last?"

"We still have enough for five months." Shen Nanzi worried about where to store so many supplies and whether the food would get moldy.

"What?" Zhao Zhendong's jaw dropped in shock. "Five months? How could there be so many?"