Just as the sky was dawn, milky white mist covered the Sui army camp like tassels, and also covered the fields and forests on both sides of Pengze Lake. At this time, a large group of Tang soldiers appeared in a forest about a hundred steps away from the northeast corner of the Sui army camp.

The chief general Shi Huaiyi rode on the war horse and stared at the Sui army camp through the thick fog. The Sui army camp seemed particularly deserted. There were no soldiers on the two mail towers. Through the gate, the camp could not see the unique steaming scene of the military camp in the morning.

Shi Huaiyi felt a little doubt in his heart. What he saw was an abandoned military camp. Have the Sui soldiers been completely exposed?

"General, what should I do?" several generals asked in a low voice.

Shi Huaiyi gritted his teeth and ordered: "Get in!"

Three thousand soldiers rushed out of the woods with a shout and rushed towards the Sui army camp. They broke open the gate and rushed into the Sui army camp.

The Sui army camp was not tents, but brick houses. However, the Tang army rushed to the lake and still could not see a Sui army soldier. The Sui army camp, which covers an area of ​​thousands of acres, turned out to be an empty camp.

Shi Huaiyi felt something was wrong in his heart. He ran to the lake and looked at the dock. He imagined that some warships and hundreds of cargo ships should be parked on the dock, but there was only an empty water surface in front of him, without a warship or cargo ship.

Shi Huaiyi had already realized something, and he shouted: "Follow me to the warehouse!"

He turned his horse's head and led thousands of Tang soldiers to the warehouse group several miles away

Li Xiaogong's 20,000 troops arrived at the Sui Army camp in Pengze Lake half a day later than Shi Huaiyi. The army was one mile away from the Sui Army camp. Shi Huaiyi hurriedly came up and knelt down on one knee and said, "I am here to apologize!"

Li Xiaogong was shocked and asked anxiously: "What happened?"

"Your Highness, I am a step late. The Sui army camp was already an empty camp. All the soldiers and officials had evacuated. There was no ship on the dock, so we found nothing."

"Where is the food still there in the warehouse?"

Shi Huaiyi smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, there is nothing in the warehouse, and there is no moldy rice grain on the ground."

"What!"

Li Xiaogong shouted in disbelief: "What's going on?"

Shi Huaiyi turned around and said, "Bring it up!"

Several soldiers took a white-haired old man, Shi Huaiyi said: "This is an old beggar that Bei Yi caught in the warehouse. He has been hiding in the warehouse for almost a year. Your Highness will know when he asks him."

The old man was so scared that he knelt down and kowtowed, "Give up your life!"

Li Xiaogong asked with a horse whip and said, "Where has the grain in the warehouse gone?"

The old man said tremblingly: "General, the warehouse has never had any food. After repairing it, it is closed there and no one guards. There are beggars living in every warehouse. When the army retreated yesterday, everyone fled back to the county town. Because I was old and weak, I did not return to the county town."

Li Xiaogong was stunned when he heard this. He took out the naval army deployment map from his arms, which clearly stated that it contained 302,600 stones of grain, 443 cargo ships, and three cross-aircraft ships.

He asked anxiously: "Are there any cargo ships in the lake, the big ones?"

"Did the general say the storm?"

"Yes! Is there?"

The old man thought for a while and whispered: "I came here once a year ago. Many of us went to the riverside to see it, and then we never saw it again. There were never any straits in the lake, and there were only warships in the lake. They all left a few days ago. I had never seen any cargo ships."

Li Xiaogong couldn't say a word for a while. The navy deployment map they had worked hard to get was actually a problem. Where was the agreed food?

"Your Highness, I have also seen the warehouse of the military camp. All the food and food supplies have been transported away, and nothing has been left."

Li Xiaogong suddenly realized that the problem was serious. They had a strategic misjudgment. There were not enough transportation tools, so it was difficult to guarantee food transportation. The Eastern Expedition was first lame, but what made Li Xiaogong even more uneasy was that the Sui army transported all the supplies away, which was obviously not a coincidence. It was very likely that the Sui army had already known that they were going to the Eastern Expedition. He had to report to the emperor about this matter. If they were not investigated clearly, they might have suffered greater losses.

"General, what should we do?" Shi Huaiyi asked in a low voice.

Li Xiaogong thought for a while and said, "The whole army went south and retreated to Poyang County!"

Since Pengze County cannot get what they want, they have to retreat south first and occupy important cities and wait and see what changes are happening.

The 20,000 army abandoned the Sui army camp in Pengze County and began to turn around toward the southward Poyang County.

Because Baling County is close to the Yangtze River, tall and wide, and has complete facilities, it replaced Jiangling City and became the logistics center for this Tang army's Eastern Expedition.

The city stored 300,000 stones of grain, more than 100,000 sets of soldiers and armor, as well as a large number of military supplies such as bows and crossbows, arrows, tents, blankets, war drums, flags, etc. In addition, there were 400 seized cargo ships in Baling City to transport food and armor to the Tang army.

Currently, there are 10,000 Tang troops stationed in Baling City, led by General Qin Wutong. In addition, there are 30,000 civilians collected from various counties and temporarily stationed in the city, making the city slightly confused.

But Baling County is also a prosperous city. It is located at the confluence of Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River. Materials transported from the southern counties are transferred here. A large number of merchants make a living here, making the city full of shops, dozens of large and small business shops, wine shops, inns, and brothels everywhere, showing a vibrant scene.

However, since the Tang army launched the Eastern Expedition, Baling County has also strengthened its control over the county town. Generally, it is only allowed to leave the city but not enter the city. Every morning, only open the south city gate for an hour, allowing farmers outside the city to sell vegetables on both sides of the city gate for an hour under the surveillance of soldiers, and then leave.

In addition, the Tang army imposed a strict curfew at night, and pedestrians were no longer allowed to go out after dark. If the curfew order was violated, no one would be punished for ten days of detention in the dungeon. It was these strict punishment measures that made the streets and alleys of Baling County become deserted at night, and there was no pedestrian. If you really didn't have time to go home, you would hide in brothels or inns for a night and wait for dawn before going home.

Early that morning, just dawn, the South City Gate was still open as before. More than a hundred vegetable sellers who had been waiting outside the city rushed in. They carried baskets and drove carts, ran to the wall as fast as possible to occupy the seats, and started setting up stalls and selling vegetables. After an hour, everyone would be driven out of the city, so time is money for them.

The city also waited for hundreds of county residents who bought vegetables, most of whom were housewives, so when the vegetable stalls were set up, they rushed forward and began to select vegetables around each vegetable stall and bargain.

More than 20 soldiers patrolled each other in front of the vegetable stall with their knives, monitoring every vegetable seller.

Among the dozens of vegetable farmers in the west, there is a young man selling eggs. He is very thin. He comes to the city to sell almost every day with a basket of eggs. His business is very good and he will sell it in a short time. He will leave the county town in the first batch. The soldiers guarding the city also know him, and many soldiers secretly come to buy a few eggs.

At this time, a very vulgar middle-aged man slowly walked forward and asked, "Are there any goose eggs sold today?"

The young man selling eggs glanced at him and shook his head impatiently, "I only have eggs and duck eggs, but I don't sell bird eggs."

"Then twenty eggs!"

The young man put twenty eggs into a straw bag and handed them to the other party, "The last twenty-five eggs, old customers, you will count as two hundred cents!"

The middle-aged man took out two strings of money and handed it to him, took a straw bag and turned around and left. The young man bought the eggs and cleaned up the stall and left the county town with a bamboo basket full of money. He rode a donkey tied outside the city and left.

Many soldiers knew the middle-aged man who bought eggs. He knew that his surname was Wang and he was the shopkeeper of the Chengnan Tavern. Chengnan Tavern is a small tavern, only more than fifty steps away from the city gate. Because the city entrance is good and the business is good, the owner of the tavern also opened an inn next door, called Chengnan Tavern, which includes all the meals and accommodations.

Because the wine shop is too close to the city gate, many soldiers will look for opportunities to secretly buy a bowl of wine. Everyone is familiar with this vulgar shopkeeper. Knowing that his surname is Wang, a brigade coach secretly smiled at him: "Tonight, we brothers are on duty, so shopkeeper Wang prepares more wine!"

"Don't worry! You have as much as you want."

Manager Wang slowly returned with a straw bag. He walked into the wine shop, took a pot of wine, went out from the back door of the wine shop, and entered the inn next door. He was also responsible for the inn. He walked to the room at the end of the second floor and knocked on the door.
Chapter completed!