The sudden entry of the Zhou family in Ganyang into the Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion can be said to have shocked the entire Han and Tang Empires.

Even if the Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion is relatively weak among the twenty-four Jiedu Mansions of the Han and Tang Empires, it still controls hundreds of thousands of troops, including tens of thousands of well-armed and powerful descendants.

How could it be easily swallowed by a local family in another feudal town?

The answer is simple, nothing more than the word "money".

This time, in order to counter several descendant troops of Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion, Zhou Rui took out almost 83 million silver coins to buy officers above the regimental level in several troops.

Of course, the problems of Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion itself are also one of the reasons why the Ganyang Zhou family can easily take over several descendant troops of Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion.

If 83 million silver coins are used to form a new army, it must be much more than the strength of the descendants of Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion.

But Zhou Rui thinks that this huge amount of money is worth it, even if it costs several times more silver coins, Zhou Rui is willing.

Although the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2nd and 3rd Mixed Brigades of Zhenwei Jiedu Province have not all returned to full strength, they add up to about 55,000 people, and most of them are veterans.

For the Zhou army troops, which are extremely short of veterans, it is tantamount to a long drought and a rainy day.

As for the loyalty of the 55,000 officers and soldiers, Zhou Rui was not worried.

After all the officers at and above the regimental level in these units take the money and leave, the remaining middle- and low-level officers and soldiers will enjoy the military salaries and various welfare benefits of the Zhou army.

The military salaries and various welfare benefits formulated by Zhou Rui are unsurpassed in the entire Han and Tang Empires, and the attraction to those middle and low-level officers and soldiers is absolutely unparalleled.

In addition, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Zhou Rui also decided to give all middle and low-level officers and soldiers in several units an additional half a year's military salary per person, with the standard referring to the army units of the Zhou family.

In fact, for Zhou Rui, the biggest harvest this time is not these tens of thousands of veterans, but the location of Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion - Linxing City.

Linxing City is a large city with a population of more than one million, and it is also the most populous city in Zhenwei Town.

In this way, it means that the Zhou family has an additional base area with a population of two million.

In addition to Linxing City, Tonghui City, the second largest city in Zhenwei Town, is also a city directly under Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion.

Tonghui City has an urban population of about 700,000, and the population of its surrounding villages and towns is also about 1 million.

Now stationed in Tonghui City, the Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion descendant troops, only the first mixed brigade of the Zhenwu Army remains.

The Fourth Division, the Second Mixed Brigade and the Third Mixed Brigade of the Zhenwei Army, which were originally stationed in Tonghui City, have now been incorporated by the Zhou family.

Song Shenghe led the 1st Infantry Brigade of the garrison division, and after successfully controlling the situation in Linxing City, he immediately sent 1 infantry regiment of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the garrison division to Tonghui City.

Zhang Jiafeng, the commander of the First Mixed Brigade, is the nephew of Xu Wanpeng, the envoy of Zhenwei Jiedu.

After he learned of the shocking changes in Linxing City, he immediately came to the city lord's mansion of Tonghui City, and Li Wenyuan, the city lord of Tonghui City, was Zhang Jiafeng's father-in-law.

"Father-in-law, what should we do?

My 1st Mixed Brigade has not recovered from its previous losses on the side of Jingyang City.

At present, the First Mixed Brigade has only more than 4,000 people, and with the city defense regiment of Tonghui City, the strength is less than 6,000.

Although we can temporarily recruit the strong men among the civilians in the city to help defend the city, we do not have enough weapons to arm the strong men. ”

Li Wenyuan stroked his beard and said: "As the saying goes, those who know the times are handsome.

Now Linxing City has been occupied by the Ganyang Zhou family, and four infantry divisions and two mixed brigades have also been incorporated by the Ganyang Zhou family.

There is only your first mixed brigade left in Tonghui City, and nothing can be changed.

In the future, Zhenwei Town will no longer be surnamed Xu, but will change its surname to Zhou. ”

Zhang Jiafeng said in despair: "How the Xu family finished speaking, it's over, and I still seem to be dreaming." ”

Li Wenyuan patted Zhang Jiafeng's shoulder and said, "Jiafeng, you can't be confused at such a critical moment.

The Xu family has no possibility of turning over, you must not go to the Xu family as a funeral offering. ”

Zhang Jiafeng's face was a little tangled at this time, "Don't worry, I won't be so stupid."

It's just that I am a little reluctant to hand over the military power like this. ”

"After all, you are Xu Wanpeng's nephew, if you still hold the military power in your hands, the Ganyang Zhou family will not rest assured."

"Alas—you're right, it looks like you'll have to take off this uniform."

On the afternoon of February 9, 1537, after the 1st Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Zhoujia Garrison Division in Ganyang arrived at Tonghui City.

Zhang Jiafeng, commander of the First Mixed Brigade of the Zhenwei Army, immediately led his troops to surrender, and since then, the two largest cities in Zhenwei Town have fallen into the hands of the Zhou family in Ganyang.

Zhenwei Town still nominally had 22 cities at this time, of which three cities directly belonged to Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion: Linxing City, Tonghui City and Jingsheng City, all of which fell into the hands of the Zhou family in Ganyang.

In fact, the city completely controlled by Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion still had Jingyang City before, but Jingyang City had been ceded to Fengwu Jiedu Mansion.

At present, Jingyang City is one of the cities directly under Fengwu Jiedu Mansion, and it is no longer among the 22 cities in Zhenwei Town.

It stands to reason that in the face of the strong dominance of the Ganyang Zhou family, the major families that control the other 19 cities in Zhenwei Town should follow the general trend and support the Ganyang Zhou family to form a new Zhenwei Jiedu Mansion.

However, after the Ganyang Zhou family took Linxing City and Tonghui City, the major families in the other 19 cities chose to remain silent.

In the various feudal towns of the Han and Tang Empires, the replacement of the Jiedu envoy is no longer news.

Whoever is stronger will be able to be a temperance envoy.

The Xu family was only a strong family in Zhenwei Town at the earliest, and more than thirty years ago, the Xu family took advantage of the war between Zhenwei Town and the Silver Wolf Empire to seize the position of Zhenwei Jiedu.

The reason why the major families in Zhenwei Town chose to remain silent was because these families were afraid that they would be burned.

Don't forget, the Ganyang Zhou family has provoked the powerful Silver Wolf Empire, and the Silver Wolf Empire has sent an expeditionary force for this purpose.

If these families now support the Ganyang Zhou family as the new Zhenwei Festival envoy, it is equivalent to giving the Silver Wolf Empire a reason to expand the war, and it is very likely that the entire Zhenwei Town will become the target of the Silver Wolf Empire.

As for whether the Ganyang Zhou family can defeat the Silver Wolf Empire?

These families simply did not think about it.

Even if the Ganyang Zhou family still has 11 battleships with all main guns, what can they do!

The results of the previous naval battle of Xiangshi Island have proved that only advanced warships are still impossible to build a strong navy, and a large number of naval professional and technical personnel who can skillfully control advanced warships are needed.

Moreover, this time, the Silver Wolf Empire also sent the strength of a group army, so that even Linxing City and Tonghui City would have to suffer the baptism of war.

There are even a few families in Zhenwei Town who are still secretly plotting, hoping to pick up a big leak in the end.