Chapter 583: Leftover Supplies
Chapter 583: Leftover Supplies
Inside the Fuguo Restaurant, there was a loud thunderous sound, and then it became quiet again.
Soon, the door of an elegant room opened, and two Goguryeo merchants hurried away carrying a wooden box, without looking back, and went straight downstairs.
In the room, Duan Hongwei stared at the table full of silver in a daze. The other party actually believed him and gave him the full six thousand taels of silver.
Duan Hongwei walked to the window and looked down, only to see two Goguryeo merchants getting on a carriage, which was then hurriedly heading out of the city. It was estimated that they would leave the Sui Dynasty and return to Goguryeo today.
At this time, Li Luming walked into the room, looked at the silver on the table and smiled: "Do they believe it?"
Duan Hongwei smiled and said, "They are not stupid. They insisted on lighting a paper fire bomb in front of me as a test. After the explosion, they believed it. I guess they will leave Jiangnan Road today."
Li Luming nodded. "I guess they won't be able to get the coal essence, so they'll come looking for you in the end. You have to tell me in time."
"Please rest assured, I will report it in time!"
In the official room, Zhang Liang was reporting to Xiao Xia the intelligence he had just obtained about Luoyang.
"Your Highness, the two thousand porcelain fire bombs have been in the warehouse. Yuwen Shu thought they would be of little use in the war, so he ordered them to be sealed. According to our people, the situation of these porcelain fire bombs is not good."
Xiao Xia frowned, "What happened?"
"The two thousand porcelain fire bombs are only on record, but the real thing is nowhere to be found. The warehouse where the porcelain fire bombs are stored is full of war drums, and the fire bombs are nowhere to be found."
Xiao Xia sighed. Needless to say, he could guess that it must have been taken away by the Guanlong nobles, otherwise Yuan Xiaoju would not have come to him specifically to ask for the recipe.
Xiao Xia nodded, "I see, any other information?"
"There is also what Your Highness asked last time, about the situation of food and supplies after the withdrawal of troops from Liaodong. The emperor led all officials to withdraw by water, and then Xue Shixiong led the army to retreat. Among them, the military officer in charge of the warehouse was Li Dewu. Not long after he came back, Li Dewu was dismissed by the court.
Manager Qiao of the Imperial Court specifically asked Li Dewu about this. He said that before they left, all the soldiers who died of illness were cremated and buried deep, and the soldiers who were sick were taken away in carts. Although most of them died of illness on the way, no soldier was left behind in the Liaodong camp, and all the warehouses in the camp were sealed. He was very worried, saying that it would be a pity if so much food and supplies were given to Goguryeo for nothing. "
Zhang Liang presented a list to Xiao Xia. "This is the copy of the Liaodong warehouse list provided by Li Dewu. The emperor felt sorry for losing so much food and supplies after reading this list. He was so angry that he dismissed Li Dewu from his post and made him a commoner."
Xiao Xia took the booklet and looked at it carefully, his eyes lit up. There were 2.7 million dan of grain alone, 800,000 dan of black beans, 3 million dan of fodder, and various weapons and armors worth millions. There were also 5 million jin of pig iron, 3 million jin of copper, 500,000 strings of copper coins, 2 million pieces of cloth, and countless other supplies. There were thousands of large warehouses alone.
Xiao Xia was overjoyed, smiled and asked, "This Li Dewu must be Pei Ju's son-in-law!"
"Exactly! He is currently employed by us as a record officer in the Imperial Court. Your Highness should have seen the court news he copied."
Xiao Xia nodded, "I just saw it. The calligraphy is very good and the excerpts are quite insightful. This person is very talented and worth using."
Zhang Liang bowed and left. Xiao Xia paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. The Sui army withdrew hastily and did not understand the situation, but he knew that the plague was also raging in the northern part of Goguryeo. Even if Goguryeo had ten thousand guts, they would not dare to go to Liaoshui. Hundreds of thousands of people died of the disease. That place should be a death zone and no one dared to go in.
But once the host disappears, the plague virus will also die, and the plague should be gone. Now it is just a psychological fear that causes people to dare not go there. But in the early spring of next year, the Goguryeo people will go there.
How could such a huge amount of food and supplies be given to the Goguryeo people for free?
Thinking of this, Xiao Xia immediately ordered: "Go find Pei Wen'an!" Not long after, the military department's Tongpan hurried over, bowed and said: "Greetings, Your Highness!"
"I want to know whether the pigeon-message connection between Liaodong Peninsula and Donglai County has been established?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, it has been established."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Then notify Fei Qingnu and ask him to send someone to Ningyuan Town's Sui army camp to check the situation. If the food and supplies are there, ask him to find a way to transport them out!"
After entering December, Liaodong had several heavy snowfalls and was covered with ice and snow. That morning, a team of dozens of people appeared near Ningyuan Town on the east bank of the Liaohe River. This team came from the Liaodong Peninsula and was the Sui army stationed on the Liaodong Peninsula.
The Battle of Liaodong had ended half a year earlier, and the plague had gradually dissipated, but the hundreds of miles along both sides of the Liaohe River were still a death zone, and no one dared to come and check the situation.
In fact, as long as you take adequate precautions, you will not be infected even if there is a plague virus.
Everyone in the team wore thick masks and deerskin gloves on their hands.
The team walked into the deathly silent Sui army camp. There was not a single person or corpse to be seen. When the Sui army was retreating, they burned and buried all the bodies of those who died of illness. The sick Sui soldiers also died on the way. There were not many people in the camp, but the east coast of Liaodong was littered with corpses. Goguryeo still did not dare to come and deal with it.
The team arrived at the warehouse area, which covered a large area with thousands of large tents, all surrounded by fences. There was a seal on the gate and no one had ever entered.
The team broke the iron chain and entered the warehouse camp. Each tent door was also sealed, leaving it in the same condition as when they left.
The leading scout captain used a knife to cut open the big tent. This was the food tent. It was cold and dry inside the tent. Bags of wheat were piled up like mountains. One bag weighed one stone, and there were exactly ten thousand bags.
The lieutenant used a dagger to poke open a bag of grain, and wheat flowed down with a "whoosh!". The lieutenant caught a handful of wheat with his palm and spread it out to examine it carefully. It was not moldy and was well preserved.
There were a total of 270 grain tents, which meant there were 2.7 million dan of grain. Everyone then came to the weapons area, where all kinds of weapons were piled up like mountains. There were hundreds of thousands of pieces of armor alone, and more than one million swords and spears, all of which were new.
The captain's name was Li Guang. He was the garrison commander of Jian'an Fort in the northernmost part of the Liaodong Peninsula. He was ordered to check the supply situation in the Sui army camp in Ningyuan Town.
Li Guang had two tasks: one was to check the epidemic situation and the storage status of supplies; the second was to find a way to transport food and supplies out.
Li Guang and his men used the camp fence and two small boats to make two large sleds, loaded dozens of bags of grain on the boats, and everyone sat on the sleds and drove the horses. The horses pulled the sleds at a high speed, rushed into the Liaohe River in one breath, and then rushed south along the thick ice surface of the Liaohe River. Two days later, the sleds arrived at Jian'an Fort on the east bank of the Liaohe River estuary.
Li Guang immediately sent a pigeon letter to the commander Fei Qingnu, saying that the epidemic had ended and that the food and supplies were all in the camp and well preserved. He suggested that the food and supplies could be transported to Jian'an Fort by sled and stored temporarily, and then shipped away after the spring.
Ten days later, six thousand draft horses and ten thousand soldiers arrived at the city of Bishe by boat in two batches, and the team began to march north in a mighty manner.
The west bank of the Liao River soon became lively. Thousands of large sleds loaded with food and supplies were transported to Jian'an City. The busy process lasted for a month, and all the food and supplies in more than a thousand large tents were moved out. But even more fortunately, none of the 10,000 soldiers were infected with the plague.
(End of this chapter)