In the Taiji Hall, all civil and military officials gathered together, and a court meeting was being held under the auspices of Qin Rouniang. The content of the court meeting was naturally inseparable from the current defense issues in Beijing.
"Food, food is the most critical and urgent issue in Beijing today." Cao Yidao, "How to raise food and how to save food are the top priorities we need to pay attention to."
"How about the warehousing in Shangjing City?" Qin Rouniang asked.
"Back to the Queen Mother, there are now a total of twenty large warehouses in Shangjing City, each of which stores one million tons of grain. This does not include the grain stored in the cellars of the wealthy households in the city and the grain stored by the merchants. In the short term, There will be no shortage of food, but considering that the capital city will need to be defended for a long time, and the Northern Army will be besieged for a long time, it is better to plan ahead." Zhang Minghao, the Minister of Household Affairs, stepped forward and said.
"It sounds like a lot, but in fact it won't take long. There will be millions of soldiers and civilians in Shangjing City!" Qin Sheng sighed, "If you count everyone's name, there won't be many!"
"Queen Mother, I have a plan that can alleviate the food problem!" Wang Jinglue said as he left the team.
"Wang Shangshu, what good advice do you have?"
"Expulse the old, weak, women and children in the city and leave them to find their own way out." Wang Jinglue said loudly.
"No!"
"No!"
Qin Rouniang and Qin Sheng said almost in unison.
"Wang Shangshu, this strategy is absolutely impossible. If this happens, won't it make people in the city panic? Most of the soldiers guarding the city have their families in the city. If we expel these people from the city, how can we let them defend the city with peace of mind? These people are here In the city, these soldiers will have worries and defend the city desperately." Qin Sheng said.
"Old General Qin is right, this strategy will not work." Qin Rouniang shook her head.
"Queen Mother, if this is the case, we can deal with them separately. The families of the soldiers can stay in the city, and the others can be driven out of the city." Wang Jinglue said: "Queen Mother, there are hundreds of thousands of mouths. Without them, we can go up. The food in the capital can last twice as long or even more."
Cao Yi also stood up, "I think Wang Shangshu's words are reasonable. Besides, driving 200,000 people out of the city has another wonderful effect."
"What else is there to do?"
"Increase Yun Zhao's burden."
"If Yun Zhao doesn't care, these people will starve to death in the wilderness. They hate not him, but us." Qin Rouniang said.
"Your Majesty, you don't care about so much now. If these people stay in the city, in the end, when food is in short supply, they will still be dead. They will be the first to starve to death. It's better to let them go out of the city to fend for themselves earlier. There may be a way to survive. I'd like to say something that I shouldn't say. At the last moment, the tragedy of exchanging children and eating them is possible. This is not uncommon in history. Now they are expelled. Going out of the city will actually give them a way to survive." Wang Jinglue said.
"Master Wang is right, and I'm sure Yun Zhao will take care of it. As long as he takes care of it, it will delay his attack on the capital. This also buys us some more time, doesn't it? Yun Zhao's logistics supply line is stretched It's very long. Although he has captured Jingzhou now, more still needs to be transported from the north. Hundreds of thousands more mouths will make him tired of dealing with it," Cao Yida said.
"Expulse these people from the city. What if the Northern Expeditionary Army takes the opportunity to attack the city?" Qin Rouniang's heart was pounding, but she couldn't help but feel a little worried.
"Absolutely not!" Wang Jinglue said: "Thousands of refugees leaving the city will block their attack channels, unless Yun Zhao kills all these refugees. But Queen Mother, the same thing happened in Luzhou. At that time Yunzhao stopped the advance of the army until the refugee problem was solved, so I think he will do the same thing this time."
"In that case, let's do it like this! General Qin, you will handle this matter together."
Qin Sheng sighed and said, "Yes, Queen Mother."
"Next, let's talk about armaments, storage in the armory, production in military workshops, etc. If we take over the defense of the city, I'm afraid the number of arrows that will be consumed will be an astronomical number." Qin Rouniang changed the topic.
The minister of the Ministry of Industry was leaving work and was about to speak. Qin Niang suddenly turned out of the back hall, with a look of sadness on her face. She bowed her head in Qin Rou Niang's ear and whispered a few words. Qin Rou Niang narrowed her eyes slightly and scanned her eyes slowly. The ministers stood up slowly and said, "My ministers, I am very sorry. His Majesty the Emperor is crying and making a fuss in the back. I have to go and comfort him. Please wait for a moment."
The ministers were stunned for a while at first, but the little emperor was only just two years old, so these things were inevitable. Watching Qin Rouniang walking towards the back hall, everyone gathered together, but the topic still couldn't be separated from the current situation.
In the back hall, the little emperor was sitting quietly. Qin Chi had a look of panic on his face, but Lin Zhiyuan, who was standing beside him, had a calm look on his face.
"What's going on?" Qin Rouniang sat on the chair with her sleeves rolled up, her eyes sharp.He glanced at Qin Chi like a bird.
"Queen Mother, this is General Lin Zhiyuan, the vanguard general under General Lou Xiang."
"General Lou Xiang's vanguard officer? Why did you come back to the capital?" Qin Rouniang looked at Lin Zhiyuan.
Lin Zhiyuan took a step forward and knelt down respectfully, "Go back to the Queen Mother. I have been ordered by General Lou to return to the capital to report an urgent matter to the Queen Mother."
"What is so urgent, and what else can be compared to responding to the urgent need of General Su Can?" Qin Rouniang said coldly: "Lou Xiang actually sent all his pioneer officers back?"
"Back to the Queen Mother, I did not come back alone. I also detained a large number of people and came back at the same time."
"A large number of people were detained? Who?" Qin Rouniang's eyes slowly narrowed, feeling something bad in her heart.
"They are from the family of Cao Shoufu and the family of Wang Shangshu of the Ministry of War!" Lin Zhiyuan lowered his head and whispered.
Qin Rouniang's heart trembled violently, and she took a long breath, "What does Lou Xiang mean by giving the people from Cao and Wang's families to me?"
"Going back to the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother sent a decree to send General Lou to meet General Su Can. Just as we were preparing to leave, the Chief Assistant sent someone to General Lou to ask General Lou, to ask General Lou"
"explain!"
Lin Zhiyuan seemed to be startled. He raised his head and looked at Qin Rouniang. His words, which had been stuttering, suddenly became fluent. "The chief assistant said that he could not hold on to the capital anymore and let General Lou take his family and some wealth with him. He ran to Shuzhou and said that he had made arrangements there. He also said that he and Wang Shangshu would rush to Shuzhou later, occupy the land there as kings, defend Shuzhou to the end, and then negotiate with Yunzhao to get the land allocated for it. king."
Qin Rouniang's face turned pale in an instant. Cao Yi and Wang Jinglue's status and role in Shangjing City were very important. These two people acted like this to put Shangjing to death.
"Why didn't Lou Xiang do as they asked and instead took their family members back?"
"Going back to your Majesty, our general thought about it and finally felt that he could not live up to your high expectations. He decided to storm Bukou, rescue General Su Can, and then help your Majesty to guard Shangjing. So he sent some people to send these people back to Shangjing. Leave it to the Queen Mother to handle." Lin Zhiyuan said.
Qin Rouniang touched her forehead with her hand, and felt the veins on her head beating constantly, blood rushing straight to her brain, and waves of dizziness coming over her.
"Mother, are you okay?" Qin Niang hurriedly stepped forward and gently rubbed Qin Rou Niang's temples.
"It's okay!" Qin Rou Niang slowly opened her eyes, "Qin Chi, immediately sent people to block the passage out of the palace, and sent additional snare operation team members outside the Tai Chi Hall. No one is allowed to step out of the Tai Chi Hall without my order." "
"Yes!" Qin Chi responded loudly and walked out quickly.
"Qin Niang, go to the front hall and ask General Qin to come over."
"yes!"
Turning to look at Lin Zhiyuan, "Get up, it's rare that Lou Xiang is finally loyal for once. Please explain these situations to General Qin in detail later."
"The general knows it!"
Qin Rou Niang leaned back on the chair and sighed: "Zi Yan, Zi Yan, if you don't leave, how can Cao Yi do these things? Qin Chi, it's really too far behind!"