Travel through troubled times and escape famine with the system

At the west gate of the city, Lu You sat under a large flag with the word "Lu" on it.

However, today, Lu Yi and Widow Zhou did not accompany him, but were recuperating in the courtyard.

This was Lu You's arrangement. After all, that small courtyard belonged to the Wen family. Lu You left the four guards given to him by Wen Chengbo there, which was relatively safe.

The four gates were closed at this time. In order to prevent someone from breaking in from the inside, Wen Chengjie had sent the garrison to clear the area near the four gates.

So there was not even a single civilian around Lu You, only teams of guards sitting cross-legged.

"Miss Lu, here's your lunch!"

A soldier in tight clothes came up to Lu You, holding a large coarse porcelain bowl and said.

"Ma Dazhi?"

Looking at the soldier who brought him food, Lu You spoke in confusion.

The person in front of her was none other than the wounded soldier who was hit by three arrows and whom she had rescued yesterday.

"Didn't Wen Chengjie say that he gave you a day off? Why are you here to deliver food today?"

Lu You took the porcelain bowl and asked curiously.

Ma Dazhi smiled shyly when he heard this.

"Your medicine is amazing. After a night's rest last night, my wound no longer hurts."

"It's just that my breathing is still a little laborious now, so I'm definitely not fit for fighting, but I can still do some chores like cooking. Aren't I here to help?"

Lu You looked at the food in the porcelain bowl. There was a bowl of yellow rice, a few pickled vegetables, and a few vegetable leaves. That was all there was in the bowl.

"Is this what you usually eat?"

"How is that possible?" Ma Dazhi shook his head and said, "Usually the rice is a little less than this, about a little more than half a bowl. Now that we are going to fight, we are given so much rice."

amount……

Lu You thought that what Ma Dazhi said was impossible, and what he meant was that the food he usually eats is better than this.

But I didn't expect that the other party would give such an answer.

"Eat less than this? Is there no meat in the meals of your garrison?"

When Ma Dazhi heard this, he was a little confused. He was stunned for a few seconds before he spoke with a smile.

"Miss Lu, you are joking. How can we soldiers eat meat?"

"In normal times, we have half a bowl of rice for every meal, which is a great fortune. Even so, many brothers are reluctant to eat it and bring it home to make porridge every day."

"You can still go home every day?" Hearing this, Lu You was even more confused: "No, isn't it forbidden to enter and leave the military camp without permission?"

Hearing this question, Ma Dazhi quickly waved his hands.

"Miss Lu, those are the troops stationed in various places. They were all captured from the villages in the counties below. Naturally, they cannot enter and leave the barracks at will. We are afraid that they will run into the forest and become deserters."

"And our city garrison was recruited from within the city. Everyone's home is in the city."

"Our wives, children and elders are all in the city, so they won't run away. So when things are peaceful, we can go back home and live there."

"Normally we take turns every three days, but in a situation like this, we can't go home."

To be honest, what Ma Dazhi said was something she had never thought of before.

But now after hearing what he said, Lu You suddenly understood why the siege was so difficult.

The soldiers defending the city are from the city, and their families are also in the city.

If the enemy really attacks the city, they will only be protecting their loved ones.

Who will step back?

Just like Ma Dazhi in front of him.

He was clearly injured, but he would not retreat at all. Since he couldn't fight, he came to deliver food.

The same thing happened to the people in the city.

Those stationed in the city are all their sons, husbands, and close relatives!

Once someone attacks the city, the people in the city will become the backup force for the city defenders without any need to be mobilized.

Those who were strong helped to carry weapons, stones and city defense equipment.

Those who were too weak helped to make fire, cook and take care of the wounded.

There are 160,000 to 170,000 people in this city, and at least 50,000 to 60,000 households.

When Lu You heard that the number of city defenders was only about 4,000, he thought the number was a bit small.

But now it seems that any random citizen in this city must be related to the soldiers guarding the city.

Where is this city?

This is simply a huge war machine!

Thinking of this, Lu You reached his hand under the table, and when he took it out, there was a steaming five-spice pancake in his hand.

"Brother Dazhi, I brought this myself, you can try it too."

When Ma Dazhi smelled the fragrance of the five-spice sesame cake, his eyes suddenly brightened up. He wanted to reach out to take it, but in the end he coughed lightly.

"Miss Lu, I just ate it. You should keep it for yourself."

"I've just eaten several of them. If you don't want to eat them, I'll throw them away." Lu You said as he pretended to throw them away.

Seeing this, Ma Dazhi quickly reached out to take it.

"Don't throw it away! This pancake smells so good. It would be a shame to throw it away!"

As he spoke, Ma Dazhi opened his mouth, took a bite of the pancake, and then praised it repeatedly.

"good to eat!"

"Sit down and eat slowly." Lu You said with a smile: "I just want to ask you something."

Hearing this, Ma Dazhi smiled and looked at Lu You: "You saved my life. You can ask anything you want. As long as I know it, I will definitely tell you."

Lu You smiled and said, "If you have 4,000 people, and you want to defend the city, with only 1,000 people on each side of the city wall, can you hold it?"

"Of course we can defend it." Ma Dazhi said proudly: "You don't know, these city walls..."

Having said this, Ma Dazhi's voice suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Lu You asked curiously.

"General Qian told me not to say it, so I forgot about it." Ma Dazhi looked around with a guilty conscience, and then he said, "Anyway, we can defend it."

"I can't tell you anything else, but one thing is certain."

"General Wen Qian said that no matter who wants to break into Qingzhou City, the enemy will not be able to enter the city unless 80,000 people are killed first."

Depend on!

Even though Lu You had guessed that the attacking party would suffer huge losses, he was still shocked that the loss of a city with only 4,000 defenders could cost at least 80,000 enemy lives.

That's a twenty-fold casualty ratio. This isn't a city at all, it's simply a meat grinder!

"Well, tell me, in such a big city, are there any dog ​​holes or something like that, places where we can leave."

[Negative emotions from Ma Dazhi +30, +30, +30...]

"How could there be a dog hole in the city wall? Wouldn't that leave a door for the enemy?"

Ma Dazhi said with a frown.

"The only place in the city that can connect to the outside world is the Jing River that runs through the city."

"It's just that where the Jing River flows, there is a thousand-jin iron gate blocking it, and there are countless iron spikes under the river surface."

"If someone goes down there, they will almost certainly die. There is no way they can get through it."

"Miss Lu, why are you asking about this? Are you a spy?"

Hearing this, Lu You gave Ma Dazhi a speechless look and said, "Do you think I'm a spy of the Jin soldiers?"

"I don't know." Ma Dazhi said cautiously, "A spy wouldn't write his identity on his face."

After hearing this, Lu You wanted to speak again, but he heard a bang from above the city gate and the sound of a drum.

Boom!

dong dong!

Boom!

dong dong! !

As the drums sounded, the soldiers who were sitting on the ground and eating dropped their bowls and chopsticks and ran towards the city wall.

Ma Dazhi looked up at Ximen Shang, his face flushed red.

"The Jin soldiers are coming!!"