Chapter 303 Responsibilities

Chapter 303 Responsibilities

Chapter 303 Responsibilities
"Don't let them get away!"

"Kill them all!"

"You came to Yingchuan to kill people, and you treat us like nothing?"

After a brief mobilization, the officers of the government troops immediately ordered their men to mount their horses and, without caring about the nuisance of the locusts, chased them for a while. When they intercepted a part of the enemy troops, they dismounted, defeated them, and let them disperse on their own.

This process was repeated until most of the enemy's baggage train driving large carts was cut off.

Chen Yougen used his sword to lift open the curtain covering the carriage, and a fishy smell hit him in the face, mixed with flies flying everywhere, making people feel nauseous.

"Hmph!" He snorted coldly and said, "Put all the food away and put it on the cart. Bury the jerky to prevent it from harming anyone."

The soldiers immediately began to clean up.

Horses definitely won’t eat the so-called “meat jerky”, and they aren’t happy to eat it.

The food was of various kinds, ranging from millet, wheat to beans. It was obvious that the thieves took whatever they could get and collected every bit of food they could.

For two consecutive years, droughts and locusts have alternated, coupled with war, and the people's food reserves have been almost squeezed out. Large-scale deaths this year are inevitable.

This tragic world is almost comparable to the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty. I hope it doesn't last that long.

The Yu family soldiers who were chasing with the government soldiers smacked their lips, feeling a little sorry. They had never eaten human flesh, but they just subconsciously felt it was a pity.

There were still some valuables in the enemy's baggage train.

A head of the Yu Family Village guests saw it and his eyes lit up, and he subconsciously reached out to take it.

"Bang!" Chen Yougen's heavy sword slashed hard on the carriage, and wood chips flew everywhere.

"Get out." he shouted angrily.

The leader of the farmhands was dissatisfied and wanted to argue, but he was quickly pulled away.

"This is a vicious man, why did you mess with him?"

"This man is cruel and bloodthirsty, and he always kills people mercilessly. Don't mess with him."

"He is just a greedy person. He will not have a good ending in the future. Just wait and see how he dies. Stay away from him for now."

Everyone tried to persuade him, and the farmhand chief finally calmed down and went to clean up the battlefield with a gloomy face.

Chen Yougen was alone with a sword, patrolling back and forth on the battlefield.

Armor, food, and property, wherever he pointed his sword, the palace soldiers took them away. The people of the Yu family dared not say anything but to be angry and could only avoid him.

"General, what should we do with these people?" General Chen Jingen ran over and pointed at a group of men and women tied up in a car.

There weren't many people, only about a hundred or so, and they all had one prominent characteristic: the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled.

Or an old man with white hair and beard.

Or very young children.

Or a half-naked woman.

Chen Yougen walked over.

He saw it just now, but he didn't have time to pay attention to it.

Just as Yu Jia Mu Qu said, Chen Yougen is a vicious man.

On the battlefield, a heavy sword cut flesh and blood everywhere. So far, the heads, arms, legs and feet he had cut off would be enough to fill a cart if they were piled up.

He also looks fierce, and likes to stare at people, and there is no one he is not afraid of.

However, now everyone in the car looked at him with numb eyes, neither afraid nor happy, as if they had lost all emotions long ago and turned into zombies.

"Is this a rookie?" he asked slowly.

"Yes...right." Chen Jingen replied uncertainly.

I haven't heard the name "Cai Ren" for a long time.

To be fair, except for a few perverts, no one likes to eat people.

Even when Zhang Fang's troops took away more than 10,000 official and private slaves from Luoyang when they withdrew, it was because there was not enough food, certainly not enough to support them to return to Chang'an, so they killed people and ate their meat.

If the army has enough food, who would eat people for no reason? Isn't it disgusting?

"Give one Hu Bing to each old man, able-bodied man, and healthy woman, and let them disperse on their own." Chen Yougen waved his hand and gave the order.

"Yes." Someone quickly went to carry out the order.

"Self-dispersion" means leaving things to themselves. Whether you eat locusts or soil, I can't control it and I can't do anything about it.

Chen Jingen quickly brought a basket of Hu bing, which was all cold, hard and rough dry food, even soaked with sweat.

He had people untie the vegetarians in the car and then distributed dry food to them one by one.

When they saw the food, the vegetables seemed to come alive, and there was a little light in their eyes.

"Take the cake and eat it quickly. Then get out." Chen Jingen said loudly.

There were sporadic voices of thanks from the vegetable people.

The old men, strong men and healthy women took the Hu cakes and immediately ran away, wolfing down the food as they ran.

Before long, most of the people dispersed, leaving only eight or nine young women hugging a dozen children, still there.

The women begged the soldiers for some water.

Chen Jingen sighed, took off the cowhide water bag from his waist and handed it over.

The bodyguards followed suit and took off their water bags.

The women thanked him profusely and fed their own children first before eating a few bites themselves.

They were so careful that they even picked up the crumbs of the Hu pancake that fell on the ground and put them into their mouths.

Chen Yougen waited patiently on the side.

After a long time, when he saw that they had all finished eating, he said, "Get in the car."

The women screamed and began to tremble subconsciously.

Are they still raising them as food? I heard that some beast soldiers like to eat women and children...

"Just get in the car when I told you to. Why are you dawdling?" Chen Yougen raised his voice and shouted.

The women did not dare to resist. They wiped their tears and took their children to the car.

"Drive!" Chen Yougen waved his hand and got on a carriage first.

There were two or three women and four or five children sitting in the car, crying.

Chen Yougen turned a deaf ear and drove towards Yujiawu Fort with the car full of women and children, just like he did when he drove the emperor.

When he reached the gate, he stopped.

He looked at the stunned Yu family members at the gate and said, "There are 24 women and children in total. I would like to trouble Yu Dianxue to take care of them for me and move them out when I come back."

After a pause, he pointed to several oxcarts piled with treasures on the battlefield and said, "The money is here, Yu Dianxue can take it yourself." After that, he jumped off the carriage, turned around and walked towards the palace soldiers, saying, "Everyone get on the horse, follow me to chase the enemy! This time, I will kill him head by head."

"Kill him and make his head roll." The soldiers cheered and said in unison.

******
It was two or three days later when Li Chong received the news from Changsha.

With locusts everywhere, it was difficult for people and horses to travel, and it was already difficult to get news.

Zheng Dong, Zhang Gu, Yu An and others looked at him eagerly.

"Send a message to the fort master Liu of Yushanwu, and have him lead 3,000 fort guards to set up fences on the road to the south."

This blocks the road that bypasses Liang County via Yangdi.

"Order Lou Quan to lead 2,000 Luyang garrison troops to station in Xiangcheng."

This is to block the other road leading into Guangchengze.

"Order Shao Shen to lead two thousand men from Ganchengwu to the south and station at Green Willow Garden."

This is to protect Shao Xun's family.

Generally speaking, these second-line troops will not be easily mobilized.

Their fighting capacity is relatively weak. They are scattered around as civilians in peacetime and serve as soldiers in wartime. There has just been a locust plague, and the grain harvest may not be completely completed. Even if it is completed, there are still many follow-up tasks to be done, so it is troublesome to mobilize them.

But since you have already decided to lead your troops in pursuit, there is no need to look ahead or behind, just go ahead.

"The rest of you, follow me and head to Yangxia. Also, send someone to report this to the Lord."

After giving the order, Li Chong no longer hesitated and led his troops eastward.

It can be seen that his style is relatively conservative.

As others have commented on him, he thinks too much and tries to take care of every aspect.

He is incapable of doing things that would magnify the danger to himself and create opportunities for battle. He is not brave enough, but he is perfect for stabilizing the rear.

After the army moved eastward, the locusts seemed to have become less numerous, but they still hindered the advance.

Along the way, there were bare trees and fields everywhere.

In places like Yuzhou, planting winter wheat is not very common, and most families still sow millet in the spring. After the locust plague, this year's harvest is considered a waste.

The only remedy is probably to plant a batch of short-growing crops, such as beans, after the locust plague is alleviated, and harvest as much as possible to recover the losses as much as possible.

There seemed to be more and more refugees on the roadside.

At first glance, it does not seem strange, because there have always been many refugees in Sizhou, Yuzhou, Jingzhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou and other places, and the disputes between residents and refugees are a common topic. There are many debates in the court, not to mention among the people, and fighting incidents are often heard.

But if you listen more carefully, you will find that many refugees speak with local accents, which is surprising and at the same time makes you feel heavy-hearted.

The cause of refugees may not always be war, and war is not even necessarily the main factor. Natural disasters are the real "killer".

If we could rely on stored food to withstand last year’s severe drought, how would you respond if there is another wave of locust plague this year?
Perhaps some people can still scrape together their family assets and barely get by with the little savings they have left, but there are more people who cannot.

With no food, the impact of war and despair about the future, it is not surprising that a large number of refugees emerged.

Li Chong brought with him more than 2,000 guards and 3,000 young men as auxiliary soldiers, a total of 5,000 people. They were fully equipped with sophisticated weapons and gear, and looked like they were not someone to be trifled with. However, there were still a large number of refugees who were eyeing them covetously, lingering in the distance and refusing to leave.

Hunger tormented them, and all they could see was food to fill their stomachs, which even made them temporarily forget the threat of death, leaving only the instinct to eat.

Can they still be called human beings in this state? Perhaps they have become walking beasts, because they do not even spare their companions.

Li Chong is a typical professional soldier.

He is usually polite and courteous to others, likes reading, is gentle and elegant, and has always been praised by others.

At this time, he implemented what was perhaps the most reasonable yet most ruthless strategy: sending people to shoot arrows from a distance to drive away the refugees who dared to approach.

Whenever a refugee was shot dead or injured, cheers would immediately break out across the plain.

The refugees who were in good health dragged the dead and wounded back and slaughtered them on the spot, regardless of whether they were dead or not.

There were many haggard people sitting on the roadside, and from a distance they looked like sculptures.

In front of them were clay pots of various sizes, with floating bones boiling in the pots and the aroma lingering in the air.

The women were naked, lying on the ground with their legs apart. Whenever they saw someone coming, their eyes immediately flashed with hope. It was obvious that they were using their bodies to exchange for something to fill their stomachs.

All he needed was a little biscuit crumbs or a small bag of locusts to do whatever he wanted with her.

In this difficult world, dignity is not worth mentioning.

Some old people were rubbing "meat balls" on the ground.

The origin of the meat was very suspicious, and it was not entirely meat. At least half of it was mixed with soil, and some locusts - to be honest, locusts were not so easy to catch for these people who were about to faint from hunger.

And even this kind of "food" is still snatched away by people.

From time to time along the way, we saw some huge steamers with smoke rising from them. In the steamers were balls of "food" wrapped in cloth, which vaguely looked like small children.

The army marched in an orderly manner.

Even warriors who were used to seeing killings still got goose bumps when they saw such a tragic scene.

It's not that I'm scared, but I feel creepy.

When people turn into animals, into beasts, and abandon all dignity and etiquette, everyone feels sad.

In such a world, we still have to squeeze out food and resources to fight wars...

Whose fault is it?

Who should be held responsible for this?

Who will save the people?

The sound of horse hooves rang out.

Soon, two messengers came galloping over from afar. After dismounting, they quickly handed a military order to Li Chong.

"Your Excellency has ordered that the troops be divided into two groups. The light troops should advance quickly to Yangxia and Chenxian to intercept the grain ships, detain half and release the other half," the messenger added.

Li Zhong was startled and asked, "Are you not going to pursue the enemy?"

"Your Excellency said that Shi Le can fight at any time, but the most important thing is to save the people first, and save as many as possible." The messenger replied: "If the Xiongnu are spying on Luoyang because of the lack of food, he will lead his troops to fight the bandits back."

Li Zhong was silent for a long time.

No heavy hammer is needed to play the drum.

There is no need for any grand words to touch people's hearts.

At critical moments, just be brave enough to take responsibility.

Can't you save the nobles and not the common people?
What is the purpose of training troops and fighting wars? If it is just for the pursuit of military victory, then it is putting the cart before the horse.

"Distribute some of the military rations." Li Zhong ordered, "Tell these people that those who can keep up should go to Yangxia and Chen County."

(End of this chapter)