Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 150 My Strongest Enemy
My name is Wang Hou (Hou), and I am a warehouse keeper in charge of the storage of food and fodder for 100,000 soldiers under Cao Sikong.
I am so panicked now !
"Please make your choice!" Lord Cao Cao was looking down at him with full majesty.
If I give him another chance, I will definitely not look at that one more time...
…
Half a month ago, the army began to run short of food. The person in charge of food and fodder was General Ren Jun, who was in charge of agriculture. However, Ren Jun could not be blamed for this. The original expedition plan was to transport food from Yingchuan, Chenliu and Liangjun to the front line at any time. Moreover, the food to be transported in the original plan had already taken into account the food harvested this autumn.
After all, Cao Sikong has been so idle in the past two years, just like a lazy writer. It is impossible to save manuscripts, so how can he save the manuscripts for the next day? Shouldn't the manuscripts of the day be written on the same day?
However, starting this summer, Ren Jun discovered that the climate was not right and there was too little rain. At the beginning, he just thought that the military farming plan could not meet expectations and that more taxes needed to be collected.
But as the rain became less and less, and even into autumn the country entered a drought mode, it was impossible to collect taxes, and the government even had to open warehouses to provide relief!
As for transporting food from further back, it would not only take a long time, but also incur greater losses...
Even... even if we wanted to collect grain from the people in Huainan in advance, it was already impossible - the drought in Huainan was the most serious, and the achievement of "no harvest" was basically predetermined.
Ren Jun had been paying close attention to the military farming situation in the three counties and reporting to Cao Cao from time to time. Cao Cao now had to face the reality. Before the next batch of food and fodder arrived from the rear, the army might explode or even mutiniate due to lack of food.
The military morale of the Chengji world is mainly composed of two parts. One is the mentality of the grassroots officers such as sergeants, squad leaders, and dubo. If the minds of these real humans change, naturally the Ji-made soldiers under their command will also be affected by them; the second is the morale of the Ji-made soldiers themselves. Lack of food is one of the ways to quickly reduce morale.
So Cao Cao called in Wang Hu, a warehouse manager, to take the blame... Ren Jun came from a noble family and was one of the first nobles to join him, so he was not suitable to take the blame.
He had always suspected that it was Wang Hu, not only because of his position, but also because when he was leaving the tent that day, he took a closer look at Cao Sikong's boots!
Half a month ago, Cao Cao gave Wang Hu an order, which was to replace the large measure with a small measure and reduce the soldiers' military rations...
Although this will weaken the combat effectiveness, it can still temporarily stay within the lower limit of Ji-zao soldiers. However, it is still inevitable that the sergeants and squad leaders in the army will begin to be dissatisfied, and the morale of Ji-zao soldiers will gradually decline.
The army that Cao Cao built up with the surrendered Yellow Turbans as its backbone obviously had no ideals or ambitions, and its military discipline was so-so. Encouraging them to overcome the difficulties together would only cause greater dissatisfaction.
Therefore, Cao Cao came up with a good idea. Half a month later, when discordant voices had already appeared in the army, Cao Cao called Wang Hu and gave him a multiple-choice question...
"Or lend me your head."
"Or take a hundred thousand dollars and get out of here to Jiangdong!"
"If you can disappear for ten years, you can come back later and I will take care of your wife and children."
"If you let me hear from you within ten years, you will have to lend me the heads of your entire family!"
Facing the unreasonable Cao Sikong, Wang Hu knelt down and said, "My Lord! I really didn't mean to look at your boots. I didn't see anything!"
Cao's army has now reached the outskirts of Shouchun City and entered an offensive mode, having stationed troops outside the city for a long time.
Therefore, as the commander-in-chief, Cao Cao had time to decorate his tent very elegantly, so that everyone had to wear slippers before entering. However... after all, it was a military camp, so there was no waiter specifically to look after shoes and boots.
As a result, half a month ago, Wang Hu discovered a "weird" scene. After seeing Cao Cao coming out, Wang Hu happened to find that Cao Cao's insole was about to come out, so he went over to help push it back - huh? Why can't he push it back?
Hmm? Are the lord's boots solid?
Hmm? The insole of the master's shoe... is nearly a foot thick at the heel?
I think my lord is a tall and handsome man...
Wang Hu was sweating.
"Very good, it seems you want to lend me your head." Cao Cao said coldly.
"Wait... Lord! I choose the second option!" Wang Hu felt that going to Jiangdong and hiding his identity for ten years was better than kneeling down now.
Besides... my wife is almost the same size as General Dian, so what is there to be afraid of?
At this time Xu Chu also came in and directly carried Wang Hu out. Xu Chu would handle other matters.
Xu Chu was also Cao Cao's guard, deputy chief of the guards, and his strength was second only to Dian Wei, but... like Dian Wei, he was just an ordinary local tyrant, not good at commanding troops, and... couldn't learn!
Anyway, after today, the entire army will know that Wang Hu, who embezzled military rations, has been beheaded by the wise and decisive lord. The next batch of military rations will soon arrive, so as onlookers, we can just welcome the new warehouse manager.
As for ten years later?
Even if another Wang Hu appears ten years later, who will remember or care about what happened today?
The reason why Cao Cao chose Jiangdong was that he felt that Jiangdong was the safest place. After sweeping across Huainan, he would make an alliance with Bai Gong, and then turn around to fight his old friend Yuan Shao. If he lost, all would be over. If he won... he would just issue an imperial edict and ask Bai Gong to surrender and offer his land!
Maybe... ten years later, Jiangdong will be under my control, Cao Cao thought to himself as he looked down at the kneeling Wang Hu.
Cao Cao was not very reassured about Wang Hu staying in Huainan, but if he went to Jiangdong... there should be no problem, right?
After decisively beheading "Wang Hu", the army under his command expressed their delight at the news and said that their lord was wise, and continued to attack Shouchun with high morale. It seemed that the morale of the army had been restored.
The only thing that made Cao Cao feel guilty was that he had already gone to ask his ally Liu Bei for food, but the news he got was that Liu Bei had no food either...
As the envoy, Xun You suspected that the governor of Liuzhou deliberately did not want to borrow grain, but he found that Liu Bei's army had already started to exchange large measures for small measures.
"Is this true? Then in Gongda's opinion, how many days can Liu Bei's army hold out without falling into chaos?" Cao Cao narrowed his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.
In Cao Cao's opinion, Liu Bei would not be able to come up with such a brilliant idea as his. If the ally's army rioted, should he...
"There won't be any unrest in the short term," Xun You said.
"What? Could it be that he is also..."
"When I was in the army, I found that Lord Liu would personally patrol the camp every day, and would often review himself with tears in his eyes. After that, the morale and spirit of the army would inexplicably improve," said Xun You.
Cao Cao: ???
"This should be a special strategy." Xun You said confidently.
"He is indeed... my strongest enemy!"
