Apart from the fact that the Xu family was actively guarding against bandits and had even engaged in small-scale confrontations, other news in Tongbai Mountain was not very optimistic. Deng Gui, Jin Longquan, Tang Tiande, and Cheng Yi eventually left with worried looks on their faces.
Xu Wukun asked Zheng Tu and Yin Peng to guard the gate.
"Just tell me what you want to say. Old Zheng and I are very close now!" Xu Huai opened the door and peeked into the yard to see that no one was coming in or out. He didn't ask Zheng Tu to leave either.
Since they had not been able to contact each other directly before, Xu Wukun and his men knew that the rebel army had suffered repeated setbacks in Huaiyuan and had not gained any advantage, but they were not clear about the specific situation here.
He knew that Yin Peng was Xu Wuliang's apprentice and had stayed in Huaiyuan with Xu Huai these days, so he could be trusted. However, he did not expect that Zheng the butcher, a well-known ruffian in the butcher shop, had also become Xu Huai's die-hard supporter.
"Yuhuangling is relatively stable, but the current situation is far beyond the imagination of many people. We also sent people to cross Nanling and take a detour from Suizhou to Biyang to see the county's deployment . At the moment, it seems that we can't place too much hope on the county and the road department!" Xu Wukun said with emotion, "Now the head of the family and the third and fifth masters are worried that the situation in Huaiyuan will not last long, so they asked me to take the risk to sneak over to find you to see if some things have been prepared in advance..."
"I take my men out for a walk every day and bring back three or five heads. What's there to worry about in Huaiyuan?"
Xu Huai shook his head, feeling dissatisfied with the fact that Xu Wufu, Xu Bosong, and Xu Zhongyu were still weak and anxious, and said,
"There is nothing to worry about in Huaiyuan. There is enough food. Unless the enemy army attacks at all costs, we can hold out until winter. However, Zheng Hui is so self-righteous that he has made so many moves in Tongbai Mountain. I have seen through him. He thinks highly of himself and wants to control everything . He is destined not to take risks..."
Wang Bing sat aside and said, "If the enemy army really wants to attack Huaiyuan, there are too many uncertain factors for them. We don't need to worry about this for the time being. Now we should focus on the enemy army's movements towards several large forts..."
The matter of defense is more of a contest of human hearts and wills.
The defenses of the Hedong market seemed simple, but the military and civilians became more determined as they defended. Deng Gui and others controlled the situation in the market and the military camp. If the bandits, who were short of soldiers and armor and had no weapons, really wanted to attack, they would inevitably pay a heavy price.
What Wang Bing is worried about now are those big clans who have retreated to their various fortresses.
The Tang, Jin, Zhou and other families are all large clans with two to three thousand members, but unlike the Xu family, they had not made sufficient preparations and mobilization before the situation worsened. After the bloodbath in Zhongjiazhuang, they thought Huaiyuan was undefendable and hastily withdrew to the fort.
On the one hand, the hidden dangers of internal conflicts among the major clans still exist; on the other hand, the preparations of food, fodder, weapons and other supplies are seriously insufficient.
Especially food.
The entire Tongbai Mountain area has a large population and limited land. Every year, the area has to exchange large amounts of grain from outside for tea, medicine, raw materials, lacquer, tung oil, bamboo, wood, copper, iron and other minerals to make up for the shortfall.
In previous years, after May and June, the Huai River rose, and rafts were used to carry commercial goods out of the mountains to purchase grain, cotton, linen and other fabrics from Xinyang, Yingcai and other places. This was the peak period for the exchange of bulk materials.
However, since February and March this year, Hutouzhai had twice brazenly broken into Zoumadao and robbed and killed merchants and travelers, which had already caused a sharp decline in trade; and when Zhongjiazhuang suffered a bloodbath and the bandits became restless, trade between Tongbai Mountain and the outside world was basically cut off.
Such a serious bandit problem will inevitably seriously interfere with the farming of each family.
The Tang, Jin, and Zhou clans were all powerful, and the big families would have stored plenty of grain. However, the livelihoods of the poor farmers, who made up the vast majority of the population, became even more difficult, and they were facing a serious famine problem.
At this time, if the big families in the clan have a clear understanding of the situation, or if there are strong figures in the clan who stand up to take charge of affairs and provide timely assistance to the poor families who are short of food, there will be no chaos.
The problem is that Wang Bing doesn’t think all the big players can see the situation clearly, and this is what he is most worried about.
Now that Xu Wukun has finally sneaked in, he is most concerned about these details.
"Those big investors are not so stupid that they cannot see the situation clearly at this time?" Zheng Tu asked puzzledly.
He has been following Xu Huai these days and has had the opportunity to listen to Wang Bing, Deng Gui, Lu Xiong and others analyze the situation and arrange defense matters. His vision has improved rapidly.
"It's true," Xu Wukun said with a wry smile, "Two days ago, there was a riot in Shibaliwu where poor households robbed food. I heard that it was several big families in the Tang family who were unwilling to give out food for nothing and only wanted to lend the food to those poor households who were short of food, but they didn't expect that some people would become more angry because of this. Although the grain robbery was suppressed by Tang Wenzhong, and it is said that the leaders of the riot were tied up and beaten to death by Tang Wenzhong according to the clan law, the bandit army obviously smelled blood. Tang Tiande was here just now, so I couldn't say it clearly, but the bandit army did seem to gather in Shibaliwu in the past two days, and it seems that they want to attack Shibaliwu..."
"How could the dignified Tang family be so short-sighted?" Zheng Tu found it unbelievable.
Xu Huai kicked him and said, "You have gained some experience following Wang Xianggong, so you don't know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is. You think everyone will sacrifice their personal interests for the public? In Huaiyuan, if Wang Xianggong hadn't acted decisively and Deng Gui hadn't been smart enough to intercept the money and food when the families were fleeing, would you still be able to eat well now?"
Huaiyuan's defenses seemed simple, but in Xu Huai's opinion, it was not a big problem.
The first is that a large amount of money and grain were intercepted in the early stage, and there were sufficient supplies; the second is that Wang Bing and Deng Gui had enough prestige, good organization, and relatively reasonable distribution of supplies. Among the more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians besieged in Huaiyuan, the number of Wuzu and Xiangying was expanded to 400, and there were another 600 men and more than 1,000 women and children who were organized to participate in inspections, city construction, weapon casting, etc., in an orderly manner; the third is that the post station chief Cheng Yi used to have nothing to do and liked to drink, but he was good at craftsmanship. After Huaiyuan was besieged, he took over more than 200 craftsmen, men and women, and was responsible for making swords, bows, shields and spears, making leather armor, etc., and even made several usable three-ox crossbows according to the "Wujing Zongyao" approved by the court.
To put it bluntly, the military and civilian population in Huaiyuan is not large, but it has gathered a group of relatively far-sighted people in Tongbai Mountain at that time.
Even if the enemy troops attacked regardless of casualties and the streets could not be defended, they would eventually have to retreat to the military camp. They would be confident that they would be able to stop the enemy troops, who had simple weapons and poor training, from going outside the camp walls.
The biggest headache now is clans like the Tang family, who are still stubborn even when facing death.
It is normal to think about it. Xu Huai did not feel anything surprising. If it were not for the "meat-eaters being vulgar", ignoring the accumulation of contradictions and watching them intensify, how could there be so many troubles?
However, it is useless to be angry at the Tang family manager for being ignorant of the current situation. The conflict in Shibaliwu has already intensified once. Even if it is suppressed, it will only be temporary. The rapids hidden under the water may become more dangerous.
The rebel army was gathering in Shibaliwu at this time. The internal conflicts within the Tang family could not be alleviated. If Zheng Hui were to secretly send people in to add fuel to the flames, Xu Huai could hardly imagine that Shibaliwu could escape this disaster.
Xu Huai is not too worried about the severe damage suffered by the Tang family, but if Shibaliwu is lost, it will trigger a series of serious consequences, which is the most worrying thing.
The development of the situation over the past month has far exceeded Xu Huai's initial expectations, which has also made him pay more attention to analyzing the possible evolution of the situation.
In a little over a month, the number of bandit troops swelled to eight or nine thousand. This was actually not that terrifying, at least it was not to the point where Lu Si could not control it.
In fact, as long as Tangzhou can have a strong enough person to take charge, such as Wang Xiaocheng, and gather Tangzhou's troops and resources, it will not be difficult to divide and annihilate these bandit troops in Tongbai Mountain who seem to be numerous but have no foundation.
This has a lot to do with the fact that the big clans mainly live together in the shallow hilly areas on both sides of the Huai River and in the transition area extending from the main ranges of the North and South Ridges.
The big clans gathered together and built fortresses. On the one hand, they were strong, but on the other hand, they controlled large tracts of arable land resources in Tongbai Mountain. They were also close to large-scale streams and rivers. In Tongbai Mountain, they were secondary nodes besides core nodes such as Huaiyuan and Yushanyi.
If each family really radiates out, they can control a large area deep in the abdomen.
As long as the fortresses of the big families are not lost, the scope of the bandit army's activities will be controlled, and the food and fodder resources they plunder as well as the civilians they can coerce and incite will be restricted.
However, every time the bandit army captured a large fortress, their strength would be greatly improved.
If the Tang family's Shibaliwu fell, Xu Huaicai would not feel heartbroken except that the three or four thousand Tang family members would be ravaged by the bandits. However, this would mean that tens of thousands of stones of Tang family's grain, hundreds of thousands or even millions of strings of property, and a large amount of weapons and armor would fall into the hands of the bandits, which meant that hundreds or thousands of Tang family members themselves might be bewitched or coerced into surrendering to the bandits.
A large number of small and medium-sized villages that had previously protected Shibaliwu would be exposed due to the fall of Shibaliwu. They would be unable to fight against the powerful bandits. They would either be easily conquered by the bandits or would have to directly surrender to the bandits and become their accomplices.
With the successive fall of Dawu and Dabao, other major clans would inevitably be shaken.
Faced with the large-scale siege of the enemy army, would they choose to surrender more easily? Or would the clan leaders and wealthy families in the clan located at the mountain pass simply abandon the fortress and the lower-level clan members and flee to Xinyang or Biyang city with their families to avoid disaster?
The speed at which the situation in Tongbai Mountain had deteriorated was beyond Xu Huai's imagination. It was even more difficult to imagine how the situation would deteriorate sharply in the next stage if the rebel army was not curbed.
Xu Huai pondered for a long time, and asked Xu Wukun: "How many mobile troops are there in Xiema Mountain?"
"There are less than a hundred people in Xiema Mountain and Jinshagou," said Xu Wukun.
There is chaos and war now, and many people have fled to Yuhuangling for refuge, but Xiemashan and Jinshagou can only select trustworthy or controllable people, and the size of the army cannot be expanded much; and even if the Xu family accepts some refugees who are related to them, they already have 600 clan soldiers and have no intention of expanding too much for the time being.
"What do you want to do?" Lu Xiong frowned and asked Xu Huai.
"Zheng Hui, Chen Zixiao and others thought that by building a few strongholds outside Huaiyuan and stationing 1,800 to 1,900 rabble there, they would be as solid as an iron barrel formation and be able to trap us to death. They can then free up their hands to do other things. Of course, we can't let them do what they want!" Xu Huai said, "I will break through their self-righteous iron barrel formation and not let them go and attack Shibaliwu! Tang Wenzhong and other idiots are so stupid, but we still can't watch them being destroyed so easily!"