Chapter 577 Center of gravity (3)

The soldier smiled silly twice, opened the remaining pottery jar in his hand, drank it close to his mouth, and immediately spit it out, cursing, "It's so sour!" Then he smiled at Xu Wuji and said, "Please calm down, General, please calm down. The Yixing treasury is very strange. The wine is sour and there is not even salt. Why don't you ask the general to wait a moment before the villain goes to several surrounding markets to find some!"

Xu Wuji smiled. How could he not understand the plan of the soldier? Since ancient times, if a soldier is in the army, if he wants to make money, he will only have two ways out. One is the reward after making meritorious service, and the other is the various spoils and plundering gains after winning the battle. Although there are some wealth in the Yixing treasury, it has been registered by the military officials for a long time. It is not their turn to share the money. What remains are the wealth of the common people in various markets. These soldiers can't even find salt, and it is obvious that they want to find an excuse to make money.

"Okay, my family is a little tired, go and rest, so you go, don't make the noise too much, disturbing Qingmeng!" Xu Wuji yawned and said with a smile. The soldiers beside him were overjoyed when they heard his promise, and they were all thanking him for making a move, but they heard Xu Wuji say coldly: "But there are two things you must understand first. First, two hours later I will see you all return here. Second, there are seventy brothers guarding prisoners in the yamen, and you must not miss one of them. If you forget this general, my family will use this knife to remind him." As he said this, Xu Wuji slapped the hilt of the knife on his waist and made a muffled sound.

The soldiers were overjoyed when they heard this. They cleverly stepped forward and sang a fat promise, and said with a smile: "Please rest assured, you and your brothers will definitely not lose your feelings. If someone is not here within two hours, if you don't have to do it, everyone will not be able to let him go! Yes?"

Everyone replied in unison: "Not bad!"

Xu Wuji snorted coldly, without saying much, turned around and walked towards the government office. As soon as he turned around, a smug smile appeared on his face. In recent years, his house arrest in Hangzhou has really made him feel suffocated. This time, Lu Fang released him out of the cage, and he secretly made up his mind to make a brilliant contribution to release the prefectures and counties or lead the army alone. Although the situation in the world has changed now, his uncle died long ago and his old subordinates have long dispersed. If he wants to get up again, the only way is to win over the morale of the army assigned to him as quickly as possible. Therefore, when he attacked Yixing City, he was the superior of the general. He first beat drums at the place where the arrows and stones were located below the city, fought and killed the enemy generals to break the city; after breaking the city, he indulged the soldiers to plunder the people's wealth to win people's hearts. At this time, he saw the effect, no wonder he was secretly happy.

When Xu Wuji entered the gate, he saw more than a hundred Huainan army prisoners sitting in the yard in front of the hall. These prisoners were all uneasy and were frightened by their fate. At this time, a crying and wailing sound came from outside. The sound was like a whip whipping the prisoners. Many people saw Xu Wuji coming in. In terms of obedience, they had already identified this person as a general of the Zhenhai Army. They did not dare to plead for fear that they would annoy each other. Instead, they looked at Xu Wuji with a begging for mercy, hoping to get a better future.

"Yixing lost? So fast?" Li Jian frowned: "As far as I know, Yixing's city is quite solid, and there are many mountains on the border between Huchang and the two prefectures, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. How could it be lost so quickly?"

Li Yu smiled bitterly and said, "That's a thing in the past. After the last armistice, the Yanzhai Village was already in the hands of Zhenhai Army at many passes on the border of Changhu. After Guangde fell into the enemy, Zhenhai Army could flow down from Jingxi at any time and beside Yixing's back. So I left only hundreds of soldiers there, just as a post, and it was a matter of loss."

"So that's it!" Li Jian nodded. If according to what Li Yu said, Yixing had become a "dead spot" in military tactics, and too many left-behind troops would only become bait in the mouth of the enemy. It makes sense to abandon it and not accept it. But if this is the case, the enemy troops from Huzhou would have no dangerous pass before they arrived in Changzhou. Thinking of this, Li Jian asked: "How many troops do the enemy have in each of them? Who is the commander? Did Li Changzhou know?"

"The road to Suzhou is Wang Foer, and the road to Huzhou is Lu Fang personally." Speaking of this, Li Yu's voice suddenly became low: "I heard from the spy that the enemy troops from both sides are waving, and the team stretches for more than ten miles, but I'm afraid there are less than 40,000 to 50,000 people!"

"What? Forty or fifty thousand people?" Li Jianhuo stood up suddenly, his face full of unbelievable surprise.

"That's right, I didn't believe it at first, so I went to Henglin Town to see what happened with my own eyes." Li Yu's face was also very serious.

"Then have you seen it?" Li Jian couldn't help but ask directly.

"There are many enemy rangers, and I dare not get too close, but seeing the Zhenhai Army's strong appearance." Li Yu said this, his face became heavier, as if he was applying a layer of black paint: "I'm afraid even if there are not 40,000 or 50,000, it's not much different!"

Hearing Li Yu say this, Li Jian couldn't help but sit back in his seat and sighed dejectedly: "How could there be so many! I'm sorry that Lu Fang has only more than ten states under his jurisdiction, and the southern household registration is not as dense as the northern one, and it's only one million to die. There are actually 100,000 troops. How is this possible?"

It is no wonder that Li Jian has such an incredible look. After the Huang Chao Rebellion in the late Tang Dynasty, production across the country was greatly damaged, and the household registration was even lowered to a low point. In the Battle of Qingkou, Yang Xingmi took out 30,000 people. Later, although there were more than 100,000 troops in the north, which were forced to recruit the troops to fight defensive wars at the end of the road, and it was impossible to use them to fight offensive wars at all. Otherwise, the consumed materials alone would lead to the disintegration of the entire army. For example, Lu Fang was able to organize such an army in the territory of more than ten states. In Li Jian and Li Yu, this was simply a myth.

Perhaps because he had known this news for a long time, Li Yu's condition was better than Li Jian. He was silent for a while and said in a deep voice: "In my opinion, Lu Fang has been working hard on the country over the years and does not use troops to the outside world. It is the purpose of today. However, our internal fight is coming to life and death. There are continuous fires in Guangling City. Otherwise, how could this scene be like today."
Chapter completed!