Liu Zheng actually thought of today's result a long time ago, because he lost too many soldiers and horses in the battle with Sun Jian, and it was impossible to defeat the entire Yangzhou with only the remaining manpower.

Therefore, this battle will be delayed, he needs to return to Jiaozhou to reorganize the army, and wait for the next day to fight again, but Liu Zheng is willing to wait, and others may not wait for him, so he needs a buffer zone, and Yan Baihu is in the middle, which is the most suitable buffer zone.

Once Liu Xuan's army comes back, the first to bear the brunt will definitely be Yan Baihu, when Yan Baihu faces Liu Xuan's tens of thousands of troops alone, the pressure can be imagined, but with Yan Baihu's strength now, he should not be defeated in a short time.

As long as Yan Baihu persists for a few months, he can give Liu Zheng enough buffer time, and it is not a problem to organize the soldiers and horses to come to Yangzhou again.

In this way, using a Huiji city for a protective line is more than buying and selling, for Liu Zheng, it is not a loss, but a gain.

As for Yan Baihu, he was sold by Liu Zheng, and he is still grateful for Liu Zheng's generosity.

Taking a step back, this time Liu Zheng not only did not lose, but he also made a lot of money, not to mention Sun Jian's more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, now they are all in Liu Zheng's hands, although they are all surrendered to the army, they can't be used directly to kill the enemy.

However, after Liu Zheng sent back to Jiaozhou for some training, he will definitely be able to replenish a lot of soldiers and horses to Liu Zheng's army, and this time when he entered Huiji City, Liu Zheng collected more than 10,000 troops in the city.

These surrendered troops were originally county soldiers drawn back from various counties by Liu Xuan, but because they were not his descendants, they were directly abandoned when Fan Neng broke through, and Liu Zheng and Yan Baihu's army entered the city, and Liu Zheng captured most of them.

These people are also a new force, and Liu Zheng escorted them back to Jiaozhou together, which became a reliable source of soldiers for Liu Zheng to select the new army.

With Liu Zheng's explanation, Xu You finally understood Liu Zheng's good intentions, and the sullen breath in his heart at the moment was finally comfortable.

At the same time, I also admire Liu Zheng's thoughtfulness.

"Lord, you are still amazing, I didn't expect to think of such a far away, I admire it, the lord is worthy of the lord I recognize, it is much smarter than me."

Xu You took advantage of the situation and slapped Liu Zheng's ass.

"Yes, yes, the lord is really powerful, I didn't think of it that much, I just thought that it would be a big loss to give up Huiji City to that Yan Baihu, and now when I hear the lord say this, I feel that not only do we not lose, but the 20,000 soldiers and horses who died have earned."

Gan Ning also followed behind Xu Yu and praised him.

Liu Zheng smiled dumbly, looking at Xu You and Gan Ning, he was also speechless for a while.

"You guys, hurry up and pack up and get ready to go back to Jiaozhou."

On the second day, as Liu Zheng said at the dinner before, he took his own people and horses to say goodbye to Yan Baihu.

Yan Baihu showed great reluctance at the beginning and kept Liu Zheng for a few words, but after Liu Zheng repeatedly resigned, he agreed to Liu Zheng's departure.

It took nearly three months before and after, and Liu Zheng's expedition to Yangzhou was also nearing the end.

Late August.

Liu Zheng has already returned to Jiaozhou with more than 20,000 people.

Of course, these 20,000 people are all surrendered troops, generally soldiers and horses originally belonging to Sun Jian, and the other part are soldiers and horses belonging to Liu Xuan.

Liu Zheng did not bring back the surviving part of the soldiers and horses, but asked Gan Ning and Jiang Qin to lead their remaining soldiers and horses respectively and garrison them in Houguan County.

Houguan County is not far from Huiji City, that is, a day's journey, if there is any wind and grass here in Yangzhou, it can be sensed at the fastest speed, and Houguan is also Liu Zheng's decision, as a place for Jiaozhou and Xuzhou shipping transfer station, it will develop into a large city in the future, and even directly establish a new county.

Therefore, the Hou official is more important, and there is no room for mistakes, and it is very necessary to send troops to station, not only to prepare for Liu Xuan's attack, but also to deter those Shanyue tribes in Huiji County.

Liu Zheng swept most of the Shanyue in the south of Huiji County within two months, and moved all those Shanyue people to Jiaozhou, but some people remained in Huiji County, so in order to deter that part of the people, Liu Zheng still decided to let Gan Ning temporarily guard Huiji.

Anyway, there won't be much fighting here for a while, and a few thousand soldiers and horses are enough to garrison.

And the situation in Jingzhou is also relatively good for the time being, with Zhou Cang guarding alone, and Xu Huang and Huang Zhong helping on their behalf, so there is no worry for the time being.

It's not that Liu Zheng doesn't want to send more people to Houguan County, it's just that Liu Zheng is currently recruiting not enough soldiers and horses, and the personnel can't be sent here.

Therefore, it can only be temporarily stationed here by Gan Ning's people.

After returning to Jiaozhou, the first thing he did was to deal with these surrenders.

Originally, according to Liu Zheng's meaning, these surrendered troops were dispersed, distributed to counties and counties in various places, organized into county soldiers, and became among the county soldiers of Zaichong, and a part of the men and horses were transferred to form a new army for training.

After all, these newly surrendered people can't completely win Liu Zheng's trust.

However, after thinking about it carefully, Liu Zheng continued to let Sun Jian's part of the soldiers and horses stay together, but they were divided into several teams and directly incorporated into the command of Zhou Cang, Guiyang County.

Zhou Cang unified the dispatch of these soldiers and horses, and strive to turn Sun Jian's 10,000 men into his own troops.

After dealing with Sun Jian's soldiers and horses, and then Liu Zheng began to deal with these troops under Liu Xuan, these people were originally county soldiers, and their strength was not very good, Liu Zheng had no hope, he could completely incorporate these people, and after thinking about it again, he made a simple inquiry among these people, and some of the people who were willing to continue to be soldiers, Liu Zheng scattered them into the county soldiers all over Jiaozhou.

For the other part, who were unwilling to continue to serve as soldiers, Liu Zheng asked them to disperse and live in various counties in Jiaozhou, just like the people of the Shanyue clan in Huiji County who migrated over.

Then he rushed to the Shanyue people who migrated over and recruited troops, so that Liu Zheng re-recruited 20,000 people in a month's time.

The 20,000 people were divided into several parts by Xu Huang and distributed to the counties in various places, and then 20,000 people were transferred from the original county soldiers in Chong County and directly distributed to Wen Ping and Gan Ning.

Gan Ning's third battalion suffered heavy losses, and these manpower could just be replenished, and the men and horses hired by Wen were the soldiers and horses of the fifth battalion that Liu Zheng planned to establish.

After experiencing the baptism of these battles, this kid Wenpin also has enough qualifications to become a general in his own right, but at present, if he wants to become a general, he still has some qualifications that are not enough.