When Liu Cheng came to Qu'a, he did not ransack his home or even occupy his Qu'a county seat. This was not because Qu'a did not have Way of the Celestial Masters Native Clans, but because, Way of the Celestial Masters Native Clans is not the kind of independent existence that everyone in the Xu family has. Since Master Du Ming overpowered the Xu family and became the leader of South of the Yangtze Way of the Celestial Masters, and later accepted and integrated countless the North people, and made friends with countless dignitaries, he naturally has a certain style.
There is a family here at Qu'a. According to Immortal Register, Master Du Ming is a serious disciple. However, the following three Manor are already managed by Northern Migrants Secondary Clans.
In other words, if you want to take action again, you have to do something big. At the very least, you have to serve something big. Naturally, you have to wait a little longer to beg for food from others, so as not to alert others.
In fact, Liu Cheng's core task after arriving at Qu'a was to suppress bandits.
He wants to go south from Qu'a and move Three Rivers and Five Lakes, the most intimate area of South of the Yangtze, that is, Tai Lake and Tai Lake north The area facing the four small lakes, that is, the center of the so-called hinterland of the three Three Wus, Jinling, Wuxing, and Wu Commandery, will be cleaned up again.
It can't be done without cleaning up. In recent years, people's livelihood has been ruined in South of the Yangtze. A large number of bandits have gathered here, which not only threatens the richest Three Wu counties, but also seriously hinders the logistics and transportation within South of the Yangtze. Even Canal, which is sandwiched between the five lakes, is no longer safe.
This is the nominal main work given by Department of State Affairs.
Moreover, if we do not clear up these bandits, make some military achievements, and open roads, we will not be able to deter the main body of Way of the Celestial Masters centered on the south bank of Tai Lake, and it will be difficult to carry out further work.
Then just work.
It makes no sense that when the money is released, everyone is in high spirits and wants you to go into battle.
Wang Linzhi was sent as an envoy to Jinling to find his brother Wang Maozhi to request ships and people for cooperation. The latter was transferred from Langya to Jinling and became Jinling Administrator.
Then send Fan Ning to take the county officials in Langya Commandery to contact and visit the local nobles to inquire about customs... If you ask the serious Literati about these water bandits, they will definitely not know, but you have to ask them about the Manor's management, the prodigal sons of the inferior nobles, and the local grassroots officials. If they don't know, they are fooling people.
That's why county officials were asked to take action.
Xie Xuan and Zhang Zhong serve as sentinels and go to the front to inquire about the military situation. Don't capsize in the gutter. They just think that they can hit others, but others can't hit you.
Subsequently, the main force moved forward steadily, advancing from Qu'a along the west bank of Canal.
In late August, as the main body of the troops advanced to Xu Lake, the ships were gathered in place, and there was some feedback on intelligence. Liu Cheng gathered the personnel and held a military meeting at a local Manor place on the bank of the lake twenty miles east of Jinling city.
Then he realized that the problem was very troublesome.
"There are too many bandits, and there are countless names. We only found dozens of groups, and the four bandit leaders mentioned in the official documents of the imperial court are indeed among them..." Fan Ning, who compiled the information, spoke first.
"Then let's just take care of these four and shock them once or twice. Otherwise, how can we clean them according to Three Rivers and Five Lakes's terrain?" Liu Cheng can see clearly. "You can introduce them first."
"No." Fan Ning did his part and immediately rummaged through the documents in his hand. "Liao Xiong has the strongest troops. It is said that there are eight or nine hundred people, and they are in the west of Shi Lake and Tai Lake In the shore area, it is said that the leader of Liao People has his roots in the Wuxing Commandery mountains. His real name is actually Fan Fu. Because of his tall stature, he is known as Liao Xiong."
After finishing one sentence, Fan Ning first looked at Liu Cheng, but the latter just raised his finger to indicate that the former could finish reading in one breath.
"Immortal Maiden An Miao is a female bandit leader. She hangs out in the Gui Lake, She Lake, and Tai Lake North Coast areas. She often travels through Canal and steals the property of nobles' ships. She is the most troublesome group of gangsters for the local government., she is so elusive that she can't be caught no matter what. However, there are many female bandits in her tribe, and they are not very effective in fighting. She has been defeated in several encounters with the government, but she can always escape and come back... I heard from people that she seems to be from the Way of the Celestial Masters Manor. She claims to be able to clone herself and has magic, so she can't be caught, and her strength is unclear."
Liu Cheng still said nothing.
"There is also Yibing, Island Yi was born and has two to three hundred people. This person has always killed without scruples. He does not like to plunder people like others. Moreover, his basis should be that he is on an overseas island and often only takes advantage of the opportunity. Take a boat at night from the Song River or Lou River to Tai Lake, and then go to Tai Lake or Lower Reaches to rob."
"The last one is Xu Lake Chief, with six to seven hundred people, second only to Liao Xiong. As the name suggests, it is based on Xu Lake, and occasionally robs Shi Lake and Tai Lake. This The clearest situation is that Xu Lake fishermen gathered together. In recent years, the world has been bad, and the number of people has increased, so they have gradually plundered. Their water quality is very good, and there are many boats. There is a leader, but most of them are elders among them who come to discuss, and they are a bit like... like refugees on the water."
"Let's all talk about it." Liu Cheng urged after listening. "What are your ideas?"
"That Island Yi seems to be easier to handle." Someone immediately said. "He relies on his roots on an island in the sea, so he is unscrupulous. In this case, find local fishermen to find out where his island is, and then fight there directly; or block Song River 0 while he is in Tai Lake and Lou River, he will fight with other bandits in Tai Lake; but it is best to find out his whereabouts, wait until he enters Song River or Lou River, and block both ends, then he will be just a turtle in the urn."
After this person finished speaking, the Manor chapel immediately became quiet, and everyone looked straight over.
The reason couldn't be simpler, the person who said this turned out to be Wang Linzhi.
"Zhongchan, who taught you this?" Liu Cheng asked out of curiosity.
"It's Bandit Office who belongs to my brother." Wang Linzhi said frankly. "According to his statement, Wu Commandery suffered the most from this Island Yi. He had long wanted to capture this thief, but after asking there, he concluded that Island Yi's island was in Jinling here, so I want Jinling here to help send troops, but Jinling here feels that this Yibing has never robbed Jinling, and does not want to bother to hunt down, so in turn, it is suggested that Wu Commandery there cut off the river mouth..."
"Everyone, this is the reason why this Yibing and most of the other bandits can survive forever. Three Rivers and Five Lakes is right in the middle of three counties or even four counties. The terrain is complicated. You push me and I push you. That's why Department of State Affairs couldn't bear it and pushed us out." Liu Cheng laughed dryly, but looked at Wang Linzhi. "Zhongchan, how about leaving this Yibing to you? You go first Go to Jinling and let your brother release the order, take Jinling Bandit Office to find his lair, send troops to destroy it, and then go to Wu Commandery to find Wu Commandery Administrator Yin, explain the matter clearly, and ask him to wait for the message from Yibing. If Yibing really comes again, ask him to block the Tai Lake entrance and exit common to the Lou River and Song River. How about it?"
"Is it enough to just ask them to do this?" Wang Linzhi was a little uneasy.
"That's enough." Liu Cheng said with a smile. "As long as they are willing to do it in such a two-pronged manner, this matter will be your first achievement. If they can't do it, it will naturally be their business... Besides, I will also write the official documents with the two counties for you."
Wang Linzhi was still a little nervous, but in the end he bowed his hand and agreed.
"Okay, Yibing will ignore this for now." Liu Cheng continued to ask. "What should we do with the remaining three thieves?"
"If we think about it according to the principles of dealing with this Yibing, it seems that Liao Xiong can also use a similar method. Go to Wuxing, find local people to find out where his tribe is, and send troops directly from there to take his lair." Xie Xuan quickly learned the opposite.
As soon as this was said, Zheng Shengzhi and several Qu Army Commander nodded, and Wang Linzhi also nodded.
Yu Shao originally didn't want to say anything, but seeing Zheng Shengzhi like this, I really couldn't bear it. Are military and national affairs also something you use to impress your children?
He immediately said, "If this Liao Xiong leader is from Liao People and has his roots in the mountains, there will be eight or nine hundred people brought out to be water bandits. If there are hundreds of housekeepers in the mountains, thousands of women and old people who can get Spear, and a few good friends of the village, and they also occupy the geographical advantage of the mountainous area, can we really conquer it?"
"How can we not defeat a group of bandits?" Zheng Shengzhi immediately refuted. "We are a serious court Imperial Army."
"No, I didn't think carefully and underestimated the enemy." Xie Xuan, on the other hand, blushed visibly after listening carefully and immediately handed over to Yu Shao. "Yu Chief Registrar is right, you can't make others think they are vulnerable. I read in the book that no famous general has been defeated by the Shanyue barbarians before."
"That's the truth." Seeing this, Liu Cheng immediately made a conclusion. "No matter what, we can't take risks in the mountains. Even if we are undefeated, we can't afford to be entangled in the mountains."
When Zheng Shengzhi heard this, his expression remained as usual, but he just handed over his hand. "Lord is very considerate, which is beyond the reach of my subordinates."
"In military discussions, what is important is to collect opinions and fill in the gaps." Liu Cheng smiled and waved his hands. He had already seen Zheng Shengzhi's shortcomings and Yu Shao's angry youth, and quickly reconciled. "You can argue about right or wrong, but just remember the results when you leave this room... You are not allowed to get angry and care about these arguments and other people's mistakes."
"No." Xie Xuan agreed quickly.
Zheng Shengzhi followed immediately.
"My subordinates feel that we should use both suppression and appeasement." At this time, Fan Ning finally couldn't bear it anymore. "Duke Huan uses Wuling Man as soldiers in Jingzhou, and we can also use Liao People as soldiers."
"It's not impossible, but the imperial court is currently running out of money. After replenishing the posts last year and the first half of this year, where can we get the money and food to easily expand the staff now?" Liu Cheng said with a smile. "Should we use the thousands of stones of old food we transferred last time? In fact, Wuzi, the reason why we are suppressing bandits at this time is to restore the finances."
Fan Ning thought for a moment and continued, "My subordinates still think that they can be appeased. People like Liao Xiong should follow the example of Gan Ning when he was a Jinfan thief. Give him a certain personal official position and recruit him and some strong warriors, and his troops will be safe."
"That's right." Liu Cheng continued to ask. "How are you going to recruit him?"
"I'm willing to go to Wuxing Commandery." Fan Ning gave it up again and again.
Liu Cheng shook his head. "Your methods are all correct, but what does Xu Lake Chief say?"
"It's easier to appease over there." Fan Ning said sternly. "As long as we go around Xu Lake and rectify some Manors who illegally occupy the lakes, Xu Lake Chiefs only need a notice and a few locals to appease them, and they will live in peace."
"Excellent." Liu Cheng agreed repeatedly, obviously excited. "Excellent!"
Obviously, among these people, Wang Linzhi has really been raised to waste, Fan Ning and Xie Xuan are the best seedlings, but Xie Xuan is too young, while Fan Ning, who is seventeen or eighteen years old, is growing rapidly and is completely ready for use.
Others were also excited. They were excited because they heard the words "Remediate some Manor that encroached on the lake."
"But it's still wrong." Unexpectedly, at this moment, Liu Cheng, the commander-in-chief, changed the subject and rejected Fan Ning's opinion again. "If you put it this way, Wuzi, let's borrow the opinions of Jinling and Wu Commandery. The government uses force to deal with Yibing; it uses the method of recruiting heroes to give Liao Xiong official positions; it uses the method of appeasing the refugees to deal with Xu Lake Chief... Then how do we establish our authority and then deter the remaining small groups of bandits? Do we need to kill female thieves to establish our authority?"
Fan Ning was stunned for a moment, then asked sincerely, "Master Fu, must you establish your authority?"
"We are an army, not an ambassador to appease." Liu Cheng said with a smile. "How can two thousand serious imperial troops come out and not fight? And you are responsible for gathering intelligence, so you should know better. There are so many water bandits among them, and there are heroes like Liao Xiong among them. How can you really be convinced if you don't combine kindness and power? A bandit like Yibing is already very good. If the crime is extremely heinous, the people will be uneasy if we don't punish it... So, if we don't have an army, then it's okay to make do with borrowing knives to kill people and appease them. But since we brought the army, we should fight a war. Even after fighting a war, we can get twice the result with half the effort by dealing with the Manor over there at Xu Lake."
Fan Ning realized that what the other party said was right after hearing it halfway.
And for the first time, I clearly realized that even if each of my individual handling methods was correct, adding them together might not be correct.
So, he sincerely handed over his hand. "The Lord Fu is right, so we should find a way to set up an ambush, fight Liao Xiong on his way back from the robbery, and defeat him head-on. If he is still alive, we will appease him himself, and then go to appease Xu Lake Chief."
"That's right."
"I'm willing to go Wuxing." Fan Ning offered his orders again and again.
"Then go. You go with Xie Xuan. We will leave tomorrow. I will write you a letter to Shen Jin from my wife's family Shen Clan of Wuxing in the evening." Liu Cheng immediately agreed. "Let him help you. Make a plan. Let's start from Liao Xiong."
"No." Fan Ning and Xie Xuan accepted the order together.
At this point, Liu Cheng urged again, "Then how should we deal with this Immortal Maiden An Miao?"
No one said anything.
Obviously, whether you believe in Way of the Celestial Masters or not, the female robber comes and goes without a trace, flashes around, and uses magic spells.
"It doesn't matter." Liu Cheng is open-minded. "If we deal with the first three companies properly, and this Immortal Maiden An Miao is not a real god, the truth will definitely be revealed by then, and she There's no way to avoid it... Let's just pretend to be marching normally and continue to move forward steadily, passing Xu Lake and approaching Tai Lake to facilitate our response to Liao Xiong."
Everyone claimed it was.
After making a simple plan, Liu Cheng did not take a rest. Instead, he kept writing letters and official documents to Jinling and Wu Commandery formally requesting assistance in suppressing the bandits; he also wrote to Shen Jin asking him to help deal with Liao Xiong and take good care of Fan Ning and Xie Xuan; write to Gao Jian and ask if Gao Heng has arrived, and come as soon as possible; write to Liu Jili and Gao Rou to inquire about the situation in the court; in the end, it is inevitable to write to each of the wives and concubines, so that they can rest assured and cultivate themselves and not have any worries. I am working overtime to bring blessings.
After writing the letter, I took a map and looked at it again, messing around with my fingers. I first looked at the west bank of Tai Lake, but found that unlike the east bank, there was only one Middle River on the west bank, which was considered a relatively large river. It was also divided by Yixing City and Zhangpu Pass was locked, so he guessed that Liao Xiong should have his own waterside Fortified Manor on the west bank of Tai Lake, and the scale was not small, which meant that his movements could not cover up the local big houses.
As soon as I thought about this, I took out the letter to Shen Jin, pasted a piece of paper in it, and asked the other party whether he had cooperated with Liao Xiong. If not, who was the person who cooperated with Liao Xiong?
Then he looked at the map again, and couldn't help but move his eyes to the main activity area of Immortal Maiden An Miao. After finding those locations, he was surprised but quite surprised to find that this area seemed chaotic, but all of them revolved around Wuxi City.
But there is no reason for Immortal Maiden An Miao to put its nest in Wuxi City. However, if there are any mountains or big Way of the Celestial Masters Manor outside Wuxi City, you need to pay attention to it.
That's all, because I still didn't have much clue, not to mention that I had already decided to deal with the other three companies first, so I simply stopped thinking about official matters.
But I don't want to do business, my brain is still moving uncontrollably, and I think about my two children who are about to be born. What should I name them?
Autumn Sun Late at night, there was a slight chill. Liu Cheng I woke up with a start, and quickly wrote the word "winter clothes" on the paper. Then I returned to the bed and prepared to sleep. After staying for a while, I turned over and sat up again, and tore it to my wife. In my concubine's letter, I didn't mention any blessings or children. Instead, I just wrote to Awu about the scenery in Autumn Sun that he didn't notice at all on the way, and told A She about the four major bandits that he was about to pacify.
-------I tore off the dividing line of the rewrite-------
Emperor Taizu was ordered to attack the bandits of South of the Yangtze. The matter was complicated and tense. On the way, he wrote to the back, "From Qu'a to Jinling, there are three rivers and five lakes. We do not follow the waterways, but go straight to the highway. Along the way, the mountains and rivers are shining together, and the westerly wind is falling trees, which makes people overwhelmed."
-- "New Account of Tales of the World".Magnanimity, Chapter Six
PS: I would like to thank the new leader Xiaomi Liyi for being so cute. I am very grateful.