Struggle in the early Tang Dynasty

……

On the high ground, in a simple tent that has just been set up, Guo Ye and his subordinates are eating breakfast, two steamed buns for each person, a portion of rice soup, and a small portion of pickled vegetables.

After a whole night of starvation, Kang Bao, Pang Feihu and others, including Guo Ye, were almost starved of hunger. They were devouring food one by one, and the sound of eating in the entire tent kept coming and going.

After about a while, Guo Ye burped, wiped the corner of his mouth, and said, "Other things can be done step by step, but we can't be careless about one thing."

After finishing speaking, he looked at Fatty Zhu who was chewing steamed buns with vicious eyes, pouted his mouth angrily, and motioned for him to say.

Fatty Zhu immediately put the steamed buns in his arms into his arms, wiped his mouth indiscriminately, and said, "Old Zhu told my brother before that our food and grass can last for ten days at most. But the climate on the border of Tubo is really too cold." Well, the brothers can’t keep out the cold if they eat too little, and at least two dry meals a day can fill their stomachs, so the food and grass we brought can barely last for about six days.”

"Dangdang!"

The wooden bowl in Kang Bao's hand fell to the ground, and he exclaimed in surprise, "What is it? Fatty Zhu, don't be kidding, how can we have enough food and grass for six days? To take down Ali Tucheng, with our three thousand Longxi troops, we can do it in six days." How can we have enough time? Let’s not talk about how many troops the opponent has, let’s say that the opponent’s strength is comparable to ours, so it will take ten days and a half months to buffer it? Let alone capture the entire city.”

After hearing this, Fatty Zhu also had a bitter face, spread his hands and sighed helplessly: "Then I have nothing to do, we didn't expect to have Ali Tucheng before we set off, did we? Captain Kang, you If you think Lao Zhu's several hundred catties of meat can be used as food, you can just slaughter it."

"Bah, don't disgust me." Kang Bao looked at Fatty Zhu with disdain, and spat, "No matter how fat you are, Fatty Zhu, you still can't match a big fat pig. I don't have the habit of eating human flesh."

"Hahaha……"

As soon as Kang Bao's joke came out, everyone was immediately amused and the tense atmosphere in the tent was relieved.

"Hiccup~~"

Guan Jiujiu burped suddenly, leaned in front of Guo Ye, and smiled flatteringly: "Brother, in fact, it is not impossible to solve the problem of food and grass, but I have an idea, maybe I can provide the rations for our Longxi army Last for half a month."

"Oh?"

Guo Ye's eyes lit up immediately, and he shouted with great interest: "Come on, don't be tricky, tell me quickly!"

Chapter 223 Things Are More Complicated Than You Think

Guo Ye urged, Guan Jiujiu naturally didn't dare to betray him anymore, and after a guilty look at Fatty Zhu, he whispered, "Well, don't we have [-] mules accompanying us this time when we go out of Sichuan? It's really not possible, we can... "

"no!"

Before Guo Ye could make a statement, Zhu Fatty put his hands on his hips and yelled at Guan Jiujiu, "Shacai surnamed Guan, are you crazy for wanting to eat meat? Damn you, you beat up my three hundred mules!" The idea, you bastard, without this mule, who will carry the load?"

Guan Jiujiu's idea was to hit those [-] mules, and these [-] mules were dispatched by Fatty Zhu. Now that he was scolding him for a while, he immediately felt more guilty, and slowly lowered his head.

However, he was still a little unconvinced, and he muttered: "Don't be fooled, this person will starve to death by then, so how can he care about the life and death of the mule?"

"What do you say?"

Fatty Zhu was so angry that he continued to shout aggressively.

"Stop arguing!"

Guo Ye waved his hand and stopped Fatty Zhu from being unreasonable.After thinking about it, he shook his head and said, "If we really want to slaughter these three hundred mules, it's not impossible. As Guan Shuban said, people will starve to death by then, so there's no way to care about the mules' life and death. From time to time, Lao Zhu, you are too hot."

"Ok?"

Guan Jiujiu's eyes lit up immediately, and he looked up at Guo Ye. It's still the military commander who understands my old Guan's heart.

Now that little brother Guo has spoken like this, what else can Fatty Zhu do, so he can only glare at Guan Jiujiu, this annoying guy.

Now that the ration problem during this period has been resolved, Guo Ye returned to the topic and asked Pang Feihu: "By the way, is Zhao Jiuchou back? I asked you to arrange for him to take people to investigate the situation around Ali Tucheng last night. How about it?" ?”

Ever since Zhao Jiuchou surrendered to Guo Ye, maybe it was because he surrendered halfway and couldn't get along with everyone.This guy has been living a relatively low-key life, Guo Ye can only temporarily arrange him under the command of Pang Feihu, who is the most mild-tempered, as his deputy to train him.

Originally, he planned to hand over the matter of surveying the terrain and inquiring about intelligence last night to Cheng Erniu, but Cheng Erniu and his scouts were so tired that they slept until dawn.

Helpless, he had to arrange for Zhao Jiuchou to take someone out overnight.

Pang Feihu was just about to say that Zhao Jiuchou and others hadn't returned all night, but there was a sound of heavy footsteps outside the camp, and it seemed that someone was walking towards this side.

It is said that it is not bad to talk about people during the day and ghosts at night.

Zhao Jiuchou dragged his haggard and tired body into the tent.

After entering, this guy didn't say hello to anyone, he directly punched Guo Ye, and said slowly: "I'm back, I caught a few shepherds on the way and interrogated them. Maybe, the matter is a bit serious."

Guo Ye understood Zhao Jiuchou's character. This guy doesn't talk much, but his sentences are full of sincerity, and he won't exaggerate or brag.

Hearing his words sound a little heavy, could it be that he really found out something special?

Everyone also held their breath and looked at Zhao Jiuchou without interrupting.

Guo Ye waved and motioned, "Sit down, speak slowly!"

"Well!"

Without being pretentious, he walked directly to a mound, sat down carelessly, untied the water bag on his waist and gulped a couple of gulps, then said with a shake of spirit: "Although this place is the border between Datang and Tubo, But because of the barren terrain and sparsely populated areas, it has always been an area of ​​no concern. In addition, the remnants of the Sui Dynasty of the Yang family have escaped here for more than ten years, and they have been keeping a low profile and never causing trouble. Army's attention."

Speaking of this, Zhao Jiuchou suddenly felt it was funny, and the corner of the man's mouth grinned for no reason, and he said with a chuckle: "Hehe, if it wasn't for the deputy general named Hua Ming being kicked in the head by a donkey, and Mr. Well, maybe we won't find out about Ali Tucheng's tricks either. Hehe..."

Even after he finished speaking, he thought it was funny, everyone burst out laughing and ridiculed that idiot named Hua Ming.

However, Guo Ye looked at Zhao Jiuchou with a very twisted smile. If he really didn't smile, he would be fine. A smile is uglier than crying.

Guo Ye also smiled indifferently, raised his hand to signal everyone to be silent, and then said to Zhao Jiuchou: "Go ahead and find out something."

"Hmm." Zhao Jiuchou restrained his aggrieved smile and continued, "Those shepherds are Tibetans. They have been herding sheep on the border for many years and can speak a few Chinese. Ten miles away from the city, there is a city of Tuva, which is the old nest of the descendants of the Yang family, because the Yang family horse farm is hidden near the city of Tuva. Hehe, these Tubo people often have contacts with the Yang family horse farm, so, It's no big secret."

"what?"

This news was indeed shocking enough for Guo Ye.

He got up suddenly, and asked with some surprise in his words: "You mean, Ali Tucheng is just the outer city of the remnants of the Sui Dynasty, and there is another city? It's only been ten years, and it's on the border of Tubo. To create two cities, this descendant of the Yang family has a lot of background and great abilities."

Zhao Jiuchou still acted calmly when the sky fell, and replied to Guo Ye calmly: "That's right, I went to check not far from Ali Tucheng today. It seems that their reinforcements have arrived, at least they are back on defense." 3000 people. According to this calculation, there are still a large number of troops in Tuva City. Besides, didn’t those Tubo shepherds say that? Yang’s horse farm has contacts with Tubo. Then, maybe you, my lord, will attack Ali Tucheng. These remnants of the Sui Dynasty can still attract reinforcements from Tubo to attack us on both sides, when the time comes..."

Zhao Jiuchou didn't finish his sentence, but everyone guessed what he was going to say next.

Fatty Zhu and Guan Jiujiu, two people who are not good at fighting, have already turned extremely ugly, especially Guan Jiujiu, whose hands on his knees trembled a little, obviously a little more nervous.

Everyone looked at me, I looked at you, and said nothing, but they knew that things were not as optimistic as they imagined.

Guo Ye, on the other hand, kept silent, thinking about things with his head bowed in silence.

After a while, he suddenly raised his head, his face remained unchanged, and told Zhao Jiuchou, "You are tired after a busy night, go down and rest."

Zhao Jiuchou was still not pretentious, got up suddenly with a huff, and walked out of the camp swaggeringly.

When they reached the door, Guo Ye chased after them loudly: "How did you deal with those Tibetan shepherds?"

Zhao Jiuchou didn't turn his head, but replied coldly: "To be on the safe side, this subordinate made arbitrarily high claims, and everything was resolved on the spot."