Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 178: Rush to the rescue
In three days, Bai Tu rushed from Hefei to Shouchun with a total of 50,000 elite troops gathered from counties along the way.
From the perspective of forced march, it has been very successful and can even serve as a model.
However, when Bai Tu arrived in Shouchun, he still saw a ruined city...
In terms of strong walls and watchtowers in the secondary cities, Shouchun is not as good as Hefei, the core military city of Huainan. However, in terms of prosperity, Shouchun surpassed Hefei.
After all, it was the former capital of the Chu State in the pre-Qin period. Although it was a backup plan after being threatened by the Qin State, Shouchun was also the seat of Yangzhou at least in the Han Dynasty. As for Jiangdong... it was at most a gift "purchased" from Huainan.
When Yuan Shu ruled Huainan, this was also his base camp. The county had a registered population of nearly 200,000 in Chengji, and Shouchun City had a population of more than 100,000 - many of whom were outsiders whose registered residence was not in Huainan, and there was a large floating population.
It can't compare with the old Luoyang, Linzi, Jiangling and other old cities, but at least it's not inferior to Xiangyang...
Especially when Luoyang was burned down by Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shu was widely favored before, Shouchun was even ranked among the top five major cities in the Han Dynasty.
However, when Bai Tu arrived, all he saw were ruins!
The outer city wall had disappeared when Shouchun Ji ran away , and after entering from the inner city wall, one could see the ruins of houses, and even signs of burning in many places.
Fortunately, Lu Bu's vanguard troops had arrived two days ago, and the disaster relief order in the city had been basically restored.
According to Lu Bu, when they arrived, there were indeed a large number of rebel troops causing trouble in the city.
However, there were also a small number of generals from Huainan or even from Shouchun County who began to help the residents of Shouchun hide after Yuan Shu's main force left, and even formed groups to engage in street fighting to stop the attack.
And the noble families who settled in the city also played a role...
When Yuan Shu's main force came to "collect taxes", they chose to meet Yuan Shu's demands as much as possible. When Yuan Shu's main force left and only the chaotic army was left, the hundreds of servants in the mansion played a role and temporarily formed a new city guard.
Although their base camps were all in Wubao in the countryside, in Shouchun, a family could still gather hundreds or dozens of servants.
Even if it was mainly for self-preservation, it did objectively limit the range of activities of the rebel army, and at least the north of the city did not suffer too much damage.
However, for ordinary people living in other urban areas, it would be better if they could escape to the north of the city where the wealthy and powerful families lived in time, otherwise...
According to current statistics, more than 10,000 people in Huainan were killed or injured, the economic losses are incalculable, and countless women suffered misfortune.
These rebel troops did not even think about defending the city. After Lu Bu's vanguard arrived, hundreds of Bingzhou generals broke into the inner city and easily drove away and killed a large number of rebel troops, beheading thousands of people - they were all real "generals", that is, real people.
When fighting against the Qiang and Southern Xiongnu in Bingzhou, there were often battles that required entering the inner city to rescue the civilians. Therefore, for these grassroots generals, the street fighting in the inner city with the soldiers who had left the city was not unfamiliar.
And the way they dealt with it was also the familiar "no pardon for surrender"...
Of course, those generals who turned against the enemy to protect the people were not considered to have "surrendered", but were simply put under temporary custody.
After Bai Tu's main force arrived, they immediately began to deploy on a full scale to clear out the rebellious troops that had escaped from Shouchun and were causing trouble in the countryside.
"It's a pity that we don't have enough time to catch up with that bastard!" Bai Tu said regretfully.
After all, when Lu Bu arrived, he had to rescue Shouchun first. When Bai Tu arrived in Shouchun, Yuan Shu had probably crossed the Huai River and entered Runan County.
That was the base camp of the Yuan family in Runan, and most of the troops that Yuan Shu took with him were recruited in Nanyang and Runan.
Seeing that Bai Tu looked unhappy, Lu Xun said, "My lord, don't blame yourself. No one thought that Yuan Shu would be so cruel."
"That guy might be trying to escape." Bai Tu speculated.
Historically, in order to leave the drought-stricken area and avoid Cao Cao's troops, Yuan Shu wanted to go to Qingzhou to join Yuan Shao the next year, and even proposed to give the title of emperor and the imperial seal to Yuan Shao.
However, he was unable to set out due to the obstruction of Cao Cao and Liu Bei, and later died on the march.
Now that Yuan Shu has decided to leave Shouchun, he is most likely going to run away, so he will make a final fortune.
Moreover, at this time, the country under Yuan Shu's rule was completely dependent on Runan for survival - under Yuan Shu's rule, only Runan still produced grain.
Although moving to Runan at this time would require a lot of manpower, it also shortened the food supply route.
"Hard Drive, you just gave orders to Sun Ce and Zhou Yu. Do you want them to send troops to Runan?" Lu Bu asked.
"Yes, Yuan Shu is doomed. I'm afraid he won't stay in Runan for long. He will definitely go north to meet up with Yuan Shao. By then, Runan may be in the same danger as Shouchun." Bai Tu said.
"My lord, Runan is where Yuan Shu's clan is located..." Although Lu Xun did not explicitly say it was impossible, he still reminded him in a low voice.
"So he won't do anything rash? Haha, provided that he is not crazy." Bai Tu said.
"Military rations. If there are enough military rations, there is no need for anyone else to come. The army in Shouchun is enough now." Lu Bu said.
Lu Bu wanted to say that it was easy to attack Runan, but he was reminding Bai Tu that there was no food.
There are still more than 100,000 mouths to feed in Shouchun, and most of them have just been looted. At most , they have left some food for the last few days in order to reduce the resistance.
After Bai Tu arrived in Shouchun, he had to continuously transport military rations...
Even in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "If you want to be rich, build roads first" is absolutely a golden saying!
Even in a small peasant economy and self-sufficiency, roads are still very important. Otherwise... apart from anything else, the cost of transporting military supplies would be a despairing thing.
When Bai Tu first arrived in Jiangdong, Hua Xin sent him a batch of grain from Yuzhang. Yuzhang sent out 50,000 shi, but when Bai Tu received it in Qu'a, only 30,000 shi were left...
Almost half of the food is consumed during transportation.
One of the reasons is certainly that Yuzhang is an area with many mountains and forests, but transporting grain from Jinling and Dantu, which are on the south bank of the Yangtze River like Qu'a, to Hefei costs almost one-third of the labor force. Especially now that Huainan is experiencing a drought, many routes even require carrying a large amount of water, which means more manpower and greater consumption.
In other words, if the grain was transported from the rear area of Jiangdong, two shi could only equal eight dou, and if it was transported from Wujun, or Zhenze area, two shi could only equal one shi and two dou at most.
Before Huainan resumed production, going to Runan to fight would definitely be a "burning food" thing.
"I understand. But let my second brother and the others go to Hefei first and take back Shucheng." Bai Tu said.
Shucheng was the seat of Lujiang County. For this purpose, Bai Tu specially invited Lu Kang to Huainan.
After Yuan Shu left Huainan, only Liu Xun in Lujiang was still resisting stubbornly.
Whether the attack on Runan can continue depends on the extent of the salt fields and fishing teams. This directly determines whether the food and grass in Baitu are sufficient. However, Liu Xun in Lujiang can basically say GG in laughter...
