After the beginning of autumn, light rain continued for several days. There were few pedestrians on the streets in Xiangyang City, with only a few beggars wandering in the rain, and rice shops had sold out and closed signs. Even the rice price of opening up had risen to a price of ten times that of pre-war times, which made many people look timid and could only shake their heads and leave helplessly.

This disaster-ridden city will experience a war almost every ten years. The last six years of siege of the Mongol Yuan are still vivid in my mind. Therefore, at the beginning of the war, many wealthy families had already fled their families, and those with extra money began to store grain and raise wages. The poor would do their best to collect food for food in case they didn't need it, because no one knew when the war would end.

At the beginning of the war, the Song army was ineffective in fighting for a long time, and the commander was injured again. Fancheng was lost and recovered. Everyone thought that the Song army would withdraw soon and the war ended. But just as everyone felt that the situation turned optimistic, another bad news came. The Southern Dynasty emperor led a large army to attack Xiangyang. Fancheng was captured again in one day. The chief general Shi Bi fled back to Xiangyang in a panic. The floating bridge connecting the two cities was burned and the traffic was cut off.

Immediately afterwards, the Song army captured the Guanghua Army. The Song navy's warships were cruising on the Han River, and the water transportation on Xiangyang was also blocked. In recent days, some people who fled into the city said that the Song army sent troops from Yicheng to conquer more than 20 fortresses on the outer defense lines of Wanshan and Xianshan, and pushed the front line to the coast of the Han River. It is said that they had begun to log and build ships, build floating bridges, and wanted to attack the Fuli area.

‘Boom, boom, boom…’ Suddenly, a few explosions sounded in the city, and shops on the street closed the boards one after another, but the beggars looked up calmly as they dragged their tail flames across the hazy sky and fell into the barracks in the south of the city. As well-informed people in the city, they knew that as long as they avoided the barracks, government offices and granaries, they would not suffer unintentional disasters.

‘Ph, ph…’ A rocket exploded near the government office. The dust on the beam fell and fell into Shi Bi’s wine glass. He took a sip and spit it out immediately. Thinking about it, he even poured the wine on the ground.

"Go away!" the waiter beside him urged.

"What are you avoid? The more timid you are, the more arrows you will find. I have experienced many battles and have been rushing towards the rain of arrows on the battlefield. I have suffered countless injuries. Haven't you lived well until now?" Shi Bi clicked the wine glass and signaled the waiter to pour wine, but his butt didn't move at all, and said disdainfully.

"Master, I think today is different from the past. The enemy's fire meteors are all coming towards the government office. Let's avoid it!" The waiter's hand shook a little, poured the wine over, and said tremblingly while cleaning up.

"The government office is so big and there are so many houses, how could you know it just fell here!" Shi Bi picked up the wine glass and drank it in one sip, then picked up a piece of meat with his hand and threw it into his mouth and chewed it.

"Maintain, the swords and guns are eyeless, and the fire meteors of the Southern Dynasty are even more eye-catching. I can't tell where to land!" The waiter poured wine and listened to the howling sound of the rockets diving, and tried to persuade him to leave with fear.

"I dare to spill the wine in a long and long way, I will kill you!" Shi Bi was the most timid and cowardly. Seeing that the waiter was shaking his hands and couldn't hold the wine jar, he roared at him.

"Yes...yes!" The waiter responded repeatedly, but his hands trembled even harder and could not get into the wine glass.

"Bause, get out!" Shi Bi looked at the waiter's panic and felt even more angry. He picked up the wine glass and threw it on the ground. He grabbed the wine jar and drank two times, kicked the waiter to the ground and shouted.

"Yes..." The waiter grinned in pain, greeted his ancestors eight generations in his heart, but did not dare to resist, and he rolled and crawled out.

In fact, Shi Bi is not in a good mood recently. Not to mention that the surrounding mountain forts were constantly conquered by the Song army, and the Song army stationed in Fancheng would fire artillery at Xiangyang from time to time every day. It depends on the mood of the Song army. Sometimes a few, sometimes more than ten, and the target is also determined, as if they are teasing them again. Although he knew that the Song army would not use this to cross the river, it caused panic. People who were walking outside developed the habit of looking at the sky, and they also pricked their ears and listened to the sound when they were sleeping.

‘Boom!’ Shi Bi took two more sips of wine, and suddenly there was a muffled thunder in his ears. The doors and windows were shaking and the wine jars on the table jumped twice. He was so scared that he stood up suddenly, looked around in a panic, and looked at the roof again, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Master, please avoid it!" Alihan hurried in and said.

"No need, I am here. Can it fall on my head?" Shi Bi, who was determined to go out to hide, sat down again when he saw Alihan coming to persuade him and waved his hand.

"Okay, my subordinates are here to accompany the general manager." Alihan knew his temper and became more and more excited as he persuaded him. He smiled bitterly and shook his head, and sat down and said.

"It just happened to be with me to drink and talk!" Shi Bi had already thought about it, and he persuaded him for a few more words, so he took the donkey to find another place. But he didn't persuade him, which made him quite embarrassed and asked another waiter to redesign the bowls and chopsticks.

"General Manager, the South Army of Fancheng has been harassing the dock with artillery fire recently. Dozens of ships moored outside the city secretly went into the water and slipped away last night." Alihan drank a sip of wine and said a little depressed.

"Why wouldn't you listen to me earlier? Isn't it easy to burn the ship with a fire? Now, the one who surrenders to the enemy today and the one who will run away tomorrow, and will be used by the enemy." Shi Bi sneered.

"Oh, if the ships are burned, not to mention that those ship owners will cause trouble, but also cut off our water access. How to carry supplies at that time, and who dares to come to Xiangyang again?" Alihan sighed. The way he cursed you in his heart is easy to deal with, but he didn't expect the consequences. Once the city is broken, he can't even run away.

"So what? Thousands of ships of all sizes cannot be dragged to the shore, or they will sink all the ships into the river, so that the enemy can't drive the boat across the river, and cut off the Han River channel. It would be better if anyone dares to make trouble and kill a few. Those southerners are all timid people, so they will be honest if they scare and scare." Shi Bi smiled.

"General Manager, the Southern Army has seized all the forts in Jiangnan and Jiangxi. The war in Gucheng is tight, and Fancheng is in the hands of the enemy again. All the roads on Xiangyang are cut off, and reinforcements are delayed. I am afraid that the day when the enemy attacks the city is not far away. At this time, it should be when the army and civilians in the city are working together to defend the city. If all the ships on the dock are destroyed, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the people in the city and will be unfavorable for us to defend the city!" Alihan persuaded.

"You no longer have the courage to do things. After thinking about it, you will achieve nothing in the end, which is no different from the True Jin Khan. If he had made a quick decision to concentrate all his elite troops to go south and take advantage of the Southern Dynasty's foothold and expelled from Jiangnan, how could there be today's disaster? But after he succeeded to the throne, he was worried that the kings of the grassland would not accept the rebellion, so he did not dare to transfer them to the south to fight, and left heavy troops to monitor them, resulting in the inability to fight, so he had to make peace with the enemy and divide the river and govern." Shi Bi snorted coldly and complained.

"And he did not have the courage of Kublai Khan, and he believed the slander of the Han people, and deposed us all for the old ministers who fought against him. How is it now? Two years have allowed the thieves of the Southern Dynasty to gain a firm foothold, and he immediately launched a military attack on the northwest. Zhen Jin Khan transferred Boyan to the northwest, and only led his troops like Yuxi Timur. What did he know? As a result, he was trapped and threw all 200,000 troops in Jiangdong, resulting in no soldiers to defend both Huaihuai, and let the Southern Army enter."

"If the two Huai Rivers are not lost, how dare the enemy in Huguang invade our Jingxiang? Now the Han Confucians are going to negotiate peace with the Southern Dynasty, but the young emperor of the Southern Dynasty ignores it and still leads the troops to invade. The Mongols are all lost. Xiangyang is trapped, and they are worried that sending reinforcements will anger the Southern Dynasty, but we will try to defend Xiangyang. What is the reason?" Shi Bi said angrily.

"The general manager should be careful about his words, discuss the government affairs without any objection, and slander the Khan, and he would be impeached by those court officials." Alihan knew that Shi Bi had always been resentful of his idleness, was dissatisfied with the Khan, dissatisfied with the Khan's favor, and was even more disdainful of those juniors. He dared to say anything after drinking too much, but he could not be scruples.

"Haha, it's a joke to impeach me. Genghis Khan discussed matters with his ministers, and he spoke freely, and never punished anyone for disrespectful words. The first time I went to Beijing to meet Kublai Khan, I saw that I could raise a tripod and hold a strong bow, and immediately rewarded me with five horses, named Talahun, and granted the position of marching chief to lead troops to attack Fancheng. He could only use those Confucian scholars, so how could he not be defeated?" Shi Bi was still indifferent and talked about his glorious history back then.

"General Manager, we cannot worry about the affairs in the court, nor can we reverse them. Now we are still thinking about how to defend the city. These days, the Southern Army has been terrified by artillery every day, which has already made the military and civilians feel anxious. Today, it actually entered the government office and killed several servants in the backyard. We should take a countermeasure early!" Alihan understood that if he did not interrupt, the old man who complained about his past deeds for three days and three nights could only forcefully reverse the topic.

"What method do I have!" Shi Bi sighed, "The range of enemy artillery is far beyond the range of our army's stone throwing machine, and it attacks from a high place. It is impossible to stop it with the usual methods. Unless you capture Fancheng, there is nothing you can do."

"Then... can you only let the enemy rage?" Alihan then realized that the old man was not confused. He had long known that his side could not defend against enemy artillery fire, but he still asked with a glimmer of hope.

"Of course not. I can see that the enemy's artillery fire seems to have a limit, and I can only reach the North City. They have only been in the North City for several consecutive days, but one of them has fallen into the government office today, which shows that the South City is still safe. The targets of their bombardment were mainly military camps, granaries and government offices, and no one has fallen into the private houses so far." Shi Bi spread the city map and pointed.

"The general manager makes sense. As long as we retreat our troops to the south of the city or scatter in private houses, we don't have to worry about enemy artillery fire." Alihan immediately had an idea.

"There are only a few soldiers in the north of the city to monitor it immediately. Although the enemy occupied Fancheng, they knew it would be difficult for them to break the city from the north city, otherwise they would not have gathered heavy troops to attack the Xianshan Fortress on the south side. They were just to disrupt our army's morale and to inspire civil war change. My insistence on refusing to evacuate the government office is to stabilize the morale of the army." Shi Bi said after drinking a glass of wine.

"There must be a detailed work of the Southern Dynasty in the city. Today, the government office was attacked. I suspect that it was a detailed work of the enemy to indicate the target. Therefore, from the hour of You today, the curfew was implemented. The people in the city were not allowed to raise fires. If they found that the fire was in contact with the enemy, they should immediately dispatch troops to round them up. In addition, those entering and leaving the city gates were strictly investigated to prevent the Southern Dynasty from entering and leaving the news. Since you are worried that the boats on the dock would cause civil unrest, then demolish all the sails and paddles and place them in the city. In this way, they would not be able to run away."

"The chief manager is good at making plans, and I admire you!" Alihan didn't expect that the old man would really have a chance. The problem that had troubled him for a long time was solved in just a few words. He quickly bowed and said, "At present, there are still tens of thousands of people living outside the city. Will they also be brought into the city?"

"No need!" Shi Bi waved his hand, "The rice planted outside the city can be harvested in twenty days. At that time, the lifeblood of farmers is the lifeblood of them. If you force them to move into the city, you will inevitably fight to the death. It is better not too late to wait until they harvest the rice before moving. At that time, we not only have taxes to collect, but also have food to maintain the city. We should know that food and grass are the foundation for long-term persistence, and even a few stones of grain is good."

"Well, let's follow the general's plan." Alihan nodded, "The officials still have something to ask about. As the war broke out, the food merchants in the city began to be reluctant to sell, which caused the price of grain to soar, and the rice price was ten times that of previous years. As a result, the poor people in the city had no rice to put on the pot, and they would be in chaos in the long run."

"Magistrate, you must be calm. Now the people's homes have food for several days and will not take risks. The rice prices in the city soar, and those unscrupulous merchants will not sell them and will only continue to buy grain and hoard them. The rich households outside the city will continue to transport grain into the city when they see profitable. In this way, we do not need to urge the levy, and a large amount of grain will be transported into the city. At that time, once we close the city gate, we can confiscate all their grains to defend the city," Shi Bi smiled and said.

"What do you think the Lu family of the Southern Dynasty was able to conquer Xiangyang for many years, and drive the whole city to defend the city for them? It's not just this deep and treacherous city, but food. You haven't experienced such a war, and gold and silver were useless at that time, and no one cared about what official you were. The most valuable and useful thing was food, and human life was the cheapest. A full meal could make people fight!"

"Once the mountain fort outside Xiangyang is lost, the city is surrounded and foreign aid is cut off, and we hold the food in our hands is equivalent to holding the lives of the soldiers and people in the city. If they want to eat enough, they have to obey our orders, and those poor people still have to thank our kindness, so that their young people will not starve to death, so how can they not fight to the death? So don't be too rush to do things, always come step by step, and wait for the best time before taking action!"
Chapter completed!