"How much military provisions do we have?" Zhou Lan asked. Song Hao replied, "We don’t have much military provisions, only enough for the army to use for two months. The follow-up supplies are estimated to take another month to arrive!" Zhou Lan fell into silence. Although Beiyuan Town was not affected by the drought, the weather had been favorable for the past two years, including this year, but Beiyuan Town had to support tens of thousands in the Camp. In recent years, the livelihood and military strength of Beiyuan Town have recovered considerably, but it still cannot be considered wealthy. Zhou Lan sometimes felt that her abilities had significantly declined; she used to manage everything smoothly in Chongshan Town, but since coming to Beiyuan Town, she felt that everything she did yielded little results. Now, Beiyuan Town hardly had enough money and food to support her in eradicating the bandits, let alone having more resources for disaster relief. "Alas, let’s borrow some grain from Chongshan Town. Send someone to ask Marquis Jing’an if we can borrow some food from Chongshan Town!" Zhou Lan said somewhat helplessly. To eradicate the bandits in Longyuan, the most important thing is not to kill those bandits, but to relieve the refugees. Only by allowing the refugees to have food and settle down will the number of bandits in Longyuan decrease; otherwise, the more you suppress, the more they will sprout. "Additionally, recruit refugees to build a camp for us, with meals included!" Zhou Lan had no choice but to find a way to settle these refugees first. She really couldn’t bring herself to massacre the refugees. Song Hao responded, and shortly after, several cavalry units rode out from the camp, shouting below the city. Upon hearing there was food, the refugees surged towards the camp without any hesitation. The soldiers began to maintain order, first allowing the refugees to settle around the camp, then starting to dig trenches and build the camp. Regardless of whether these trenches were useful or not, it’s important to find something for the refugees to do first. Zhou Lan has only twenty thousand soldiers under her command, but there were fifty or sixty thousand refugees gathered around. With the grain in Zhou Lan’s possession, it should last for a month; the refugees certainly won’t eat as much as the soldiers. The bandits in the city, seeing this, completely disregarded the refugees’ lives and were already preparing to escape. Bandits are never ones to defend cities; naturally, being bandits means roaming about. But while they wanted to leave, Zhou Lan didn’t want them to escape. At night, when the bandits quietly left the city, the large army Zhou Lan had ambushed suddenly emerged, defeating tens of thousands of bandits. A conflict that started with force but ended quickly was soon over. But Zhou Lan’s troubles were just beginning. She still had to settle five or six thousand refugees by her side. With no other option, Zhou Lan could only settle the refugees on-site, having her soldiers lead them in digging wells and farming land. During the great drought, it’s challenging to meet the irrigation needs with well water alone, but there was no alternative. Growing more grain can support one more person. Giving the refugees some hope is always better than letting them starve to death in the wilderness. But as a result, Zhou Lan could not eradicate the bandits quickly. She divided two thousand troops to garrison Longyang Prefecture City to settle the refugees, then divided forces to settle after capturing a city or eradicating a bandit gang. Eradicating bandits is easy, but settling refugees is troublesome, and furthermore, it requires constant transportation of grain supplies. In just one month, Zhou Lan captured the entire Longyang Prefecture, yet the provisions at hand were insufficient for her to continue clearing out the bandits. With no other choice, Zhou Lan could only stop in Longyang Prefecture to request money and food from the court. Chongshan Pass, General Mansion. Yang Chengye strode into the main hall of the General Mansion, where Niu Zhuang had been waiting for him. "Your subordinate pays respect to the General!" Yang Chengye saluted. Niu Zhuang quickly returned the courtesy, saying, "Greetings to the Marquis!" After exchanging formalities, Niu Zhuang spoke about the main issue, "General Zhou has already dispatched troops to Longyuan to eradicate the bandits. However, many refugees in Longyuan need to be settled, and Beiyuan Town is short of provisions. General Zhou is asking us in Chongshan Town to lend some grain!" Yang Chengye frowned slightly, "Didn’t the court provide any provisions?" ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝕟𝕖𝕥 "Alas, what available provisions does the court have?" Niu Zhuang said somewhat helplessly. The two exchanged glances, both remaining silent. They both understood the situation at the court; how to put it, the current court is nearly useless. The Cabinet Six Ministries and the Five Army Commandery are essentially unable to accomplish anything, nor manage anything. Whenever something arises, it falls on the local government, but if the local government could solve the problem, what would be the need for a central court? Chongshan Town has not received money or provisions from the court for several years now; currently, Chongshan Town is completely self-sufficient, having to rely on themselves for problem-solving. Although Chongshan Town is prosperous, there are some things that even they cannot resolve. For instance, iron ore. Technically, Chongshan Town has no right to procure iron ore; all iron ore allocations are managed by the court. Chongshan Town does not have iron mines; the Governor’s Office and General Mansion cannot meddle in foreign iron ore affairs, so now Chongshan Town needs the iron ore they can purchase on their own. Since taking on the role of General, Niu Zhuang has been feeling very powerless about this situation. "How much provisions do we still have?" Yang Chengye asked. Niu Zhuang thought for a moment and said, "We should be able to provide three hundred thousand shi! Giving away any more might affect us!" Although Niu Zhuang is a confidant of Zhou Lan, he cannot disregard Chongshan Town for Zhou Lan’s sake. Chongshan Town also consumes a lot of provisions; thirty thousand in the Camp, forty thousand in the Rescue Camp, all require money and food to support. "Then transport three hundred thousand shi over to General Zhou first! With these provisions, it should alleviate the urgent situation!" Yang Chengye said.