Outside the south gate of Julu City, white snow is flying and the wind is howling.

It was breakfast time, and in the camp outside the south gate, there were long lines of people getting porridge. The peasants in ragged clothes were shivering in the wind, and they all craned their necks to see how long it would take for them to arrive.

Under a porridge shed, a large urn was hung on the bonfire. A Zhuozhou Army soldier picked up a wooden spoon and served a bowl of porridge to the civilian husband, and then urged him to leave quickly.

The civilian husband looked at the clear soup-like wheat porridge in the bowl, and asked pitifully and cautiously, "Master, are we out of food or what? Are we going to run out of food?"

The soldier who was sharing the porridge glared at the civilian husband, scratched his neck, and scolded angrily, "Who said there was no food? There is plenty of food! Let's go! Next one!"

After being scolded by the soldiers, the civilians did not dare to ask any more questions. They walked aside with the gruel and squatted down beside a tent, sucking the gruel while it was hot.

The farmer looked into other people's bowls and saw that the porridge in other people's bowls was also very thin, so thin that people could be clearly seen.

The soldier who just divided the porridge said that there was no shortage of food, but there was always food. But if there was food, why was the porridge so thin?

The farmer had some considerations in his mind and became worried. He was thinking about what he would do if there was no food.

At the same time, in another part of the camp, at the porridge shed where the porridge was distributed, the porridge was as thin as water. A civilian man filled a bowl of porridge and couldn't help but ask, "Master, are we...

Are you going to run out of food?"

The soldier who was responsible for dividing the porridge was relatively honest and honest, and did not reprimand him. He said truthfully, "We have been eating very little these days, and I don't know anything about the food."

Without asking why, the man took the bowl and left.

The same as elsewhere, no matter whether the cook said there was food or he said he didn't know whether there was food or not, even if the cook said there was food, the people would see that the porridge was not very thin and they would not believe what they said. If the cook said he didn't know, the people would just

More random guesses.

Uneasiness spread in the camp.

This is the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the third day of snowfall, and the third day of food shortage.

Above the southern gate of Julu City, Liu Bei and Li Mengxi stood side by side under the city tower, looking at the vast camp outside the city.

Liu Bei asked, "Xi'er, do you think it would be possible to sell grain today?"

Li Mengxi thought for a moment and said, "I'll go down and have a look..."

"No!" Liu Bei stopped him.

Li Mengxi looked at Liu Bei in confusion. He didn't understand why Liu Bei blocked him.

Isn't it right to investigate the situation and then make a decision?

Meeting Li Mengxi's doubtful gaze, Liu Bei sighed, looked at the endless camps outside the city, and said, "It is wise to protect yourself."

"At this time, all the people are hungry. Xi'er, you said you should go and have a look. When the people saw you, they gathered around and asked why it was so gruel every day. What was your reply?

Saying that there is still food, so that everyone should not be anxious? If you say this, the plan will be exposed.

Saying that the military rations are about to run out? Saying this will deceive everyone and damage your credibility.

Even if you keep silent, how can you be safe? How can you avoid causing trouble when you appear in public affairs? If the people see you avoiding answering, they will have doubts. When things happen later, everyone will doubt you."

After some sincere warnings, Liu Bei said earnestly, "You should stay away from the land of right and wrong."

Li Mengxi looked at Liu Bei for a long time, stunned for a long time. Finally, Li Mengxi fell silent.

What Liu Bei said makes sense.

Of course, you should avoid the place of right and wrong if you can.

No wonder Liu Bei asked the flag bearer to wait below when he went to the city.

I was still confused at first, but now I understand Liu Bei's intention. Liu Bei's approach is very clear, that is, he deliberately hides his traces, does not let the flag stand high on the top of the city, and prevents the civilians outside the city from seeing it.

Otherwise, when the peasants were hungry, cold and in dire straits, they looked up and saw Liu Bei's flag flying carelessly at the top of the city. At this time, no matter how stupid they were, they could vaguely connect the two things together and vaguely feel that there was a shortage of food.

Vaguely related to Liu Bei.

Protect yourself with caution. Li Mengxi was taught that this is the way to protect yourself with caution.

There is no way to go down and inspect the military camp in person. If you go in person, you will be tainted with right and wrong.

However, even without going down in person, Li Mengxi could roughly estimate the general situation of the hundreds of thousands of people outside the city.

For three days in a row, they had only two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, and each meal only had a bowl of gruel. The gruel was so thin that you could look in the mirror. After three days of no food, the people were so hungry that their chests pressed against their backs. In addition, the heavy snow fell.

Flying, the cold wind is howling, the people are cold and hungry, and the people have reached their limit.

Li Mengxi suggested, "Otherwise, we can start selling grain today to raise money."

Liu Bei thought for a moment, "Yeah." He nodded, "Not right now, he just had breakfast and will wait until he regains his energy.

Wait until noon, when it’s lunch time, stop porridge, and don’t divide a bowl of porridge, and then after the meal time, it’s not too late to sell grain again.”

Li Mengxi glanced at Liu Bei and smiled.

Liu Bei's plan was very clever.

Generally speaking, a person who has just eaten, even if he just drank a bowl of gruel that can look in the mirror, no matter how thin the gruel he drank, his physical and mental state is satisfied at this time.

If you bring grain to him and sell it, he will never buy it immediately.

There is only talk of selling food to people who have not eaten, but I have never heard of people selling food to people who have just eaten.

This is the first point. The time to sell grain should not be before or after meals.

The second point is that Liu Bei said that lunch would not be given and that grain sales would start after the meal.

The wonderful thing about this is that at lunch time, there should be food, but the people are waiting for the porridge and they can't help but start to worry about something going on. This is equivalent to doing nothing, and the people are doing it themselves first.

He started to panic.

As soon as the peasants panicked, their nervousness heightened. Then after dinner, in the afternoon, they asked the soldiers to push the grain carts to sell grain. 100% of the peasants were afraid that they would not be able to buy grain, so they rushed to grab it.

purchase.

Liu Bei used this skill of mind-attacking very well, and it feels a bit like the business strategy of later generations.

Therefore, it has been decided to start selling grain to raise money this afternoon, and Liu Bei and Li Mengxi went down to the city and prepared to go.

To raise money from selling grain, the sales amount is the military grain sold, and the money raised is the money from hundreds of thousands of people.

The amount of military rations was huge, and the number of hundreds of thousands of soldiers was even larger, and the affairs involved were extremely numerous.

There must be grain carts, liters, buckets, scales, pockets, and empty carts containing money. There must also be enough people who know how to use the scale. The price of selling grain must be clearly explained. The troops responsible for maintaining order must be arranged early.

At this time, it was extremely fortunate that although there were not many of the titles and promotions that were in urgent need in the army, there were still hundreds of them.

Some of these weighing tools were brought with them before leaving Zhuozhou, and more than half were bought along the way during the previous march.

At that time, after the caravan was established and all kinds of materials were purchased along the way, Li Mengxi did not even think of the use of things like the bucket. At that time, he thought that at most it would be a useful tool for distributing military rations.

, although he did not expect the great use in the future, at that time, Li Mengxi ordered the caravan to buy some scale beams and buckets. His original intention was just to facilitate the distribution of rations, and it was only for this purpose.

I never thought that my careful preparations at that time would be of great use now.

Liters, buckets and scale beams are usually of little use, but when it comes to selling grain, if there is no scale beam, the farmers' desire to buy grain will be reduced by half. This is normal. If the seller does not have a scale, the buyer will subconsciously worry about the shortage.

Give, and never be happy that you can get more.

If the people's impulse to buy grain is reduced by half, their plan to raise money will be miscalculated by half, and half of the money will be raised.

Who would have thought that a few dozen steel scales bought two months ago would be the key to raising money in the winter two months later.

If Li Mengxi could foresee the future and make early preparations, this would be called a miraculous plan.

But Li Mengxi didn't expect that in the future, the preparations he had made early would still be used for the funeral. What is this? Planning is like a ghost?

Ghosts are erratic and unpredictable.

Those who plan things like gods clearly know the development of every step, make arrangements in advance, and follow the plan every step of the way.

Those who planned things like ghosts didn't understand what happened. The enemy didn't know why they bumped into the elite in the wilderness. The person who planned the trouble himself didn't understand why the enemy bumped into this place out of nowhere. Both situations were confusing.

Then the Xilihutu conspirators won, as if they had seen a ghost.

——

Time passed, and by noon, it was supposed to be meal time. The hungry people were eagerly waiting for the meal, but there was no movement. Under the porridge shed, the fire did not even rise, and they had no intention of cooking porridge.

The peasants waited patiently and anxiously until after noon, but still no cooks came.

Finally, the villagers saw the cooks coming.

I thought a fire was about to start, but what I saw was that the cooks had taken away all the firewood and pottery jars.

The villagers felt uneasy when they saw this, and asked the cooks what they were doing, and whether they were still going to eat today.

The cooks didn't answer, but said that there was an order from above to dismantle the shed and take away the firewood.

The civilians watched the cooks leave, and a feeling of extreme uneasiness pervaded the camp.

After waiting for a long time, the city gate opened, and countless soldiers escorted the grain carts and filed out of the city. After leaving the city, the grain transport team separated on the left and right and circled towards the camp outside the city.

Two moments later, hundreds of grain transport teams surrounded the camp, and there happened to be grain trucks near every corner of the camp.

Each team of grain trucks, in addition to the number of grain trucks ranging from one to ten, also has many empty trucks filled with baskets and other containers.

Each grain team also has a large number of soldiers, as well as a hawker responsible for selling grain. The hawker carries a complete set of tools. The big ones have buckets, the small ones have liters, and the smaller ones have scales. There are various sizes of weights, ranging from large to large.

To seven or eight children.
To be continued...