"PS: It's a little short today, sorry."

———— the following text————

As Zhao Yu expected, as soon as Guan Shuo died, the Changsha Yishi under his command immediately collapsed, and his generals Liu De, Xu Bao, Tian Xu, Zhai Shang, Huang Kang and other generals, Xu Bao and Tian Xu were killed by Xue Ao, Zhai Shang was killed by Wang Shangde, and the rest of the people fled in all directions, leaving only Liu De and Huang Kang to lead the remnants of the army to flee to Jingchu Yishi, and retreat back to Jingzhou with the latter.

Changsha Righteous Teacher, so far in name only.

In the ensuing pursuit battle, Xue Ao boldly adopted the tactics he used when he was in Xianping County, Liangcheng, that is, he led the cavalry to Fanshui first, delayed the time for the rebels to cross the river, and waited for Wang Shangde and Li Meng to lead the army to catch up, and attack the front and rear.

In the face of the Jingchu rebels, who were panicked and had little fighting spirit, Xue Ao's tactics achieved unprecedented success.

At the beginning of June, Xue Ao, the general of the cavalry, Wang Shangde, the general of Nanyang, and Li Meng, the commander of Henan, led nearly 100,000 troops to chase to Fanshui, and besieged tens of thousands of Jingchu rebels in the area from Deng County to Fancheng.

Although the generals of Jing Chu Yishi, including Liu De and Huang Kang, escaped to Xiangyang on the other side of the river, everyone could see that the defeat of Jing Chu Yishi was only a matter of time.

On the other side, Xue Ao's elder brother, Zou Zan, the general of the Tiger Ben Zhonglang, led 100,000 'Taishi Army' to attack Runan County, which was occupied by Jiangxia Yishi.

Because Chen Miao had previously abandoned Runan County and led the army to the east to defect to the Jiangdong Yishi, this led to the Jiangxia rebels in Runan County being leaderless and scattered, and they did not dare to stop the 100,000 army led by Zou Zan.

Upon learning that Zou Zan had led a large army into Runan County, the remaining rebels in Runan County fled one after another, either south to Jiangxia County or east to Chen, which led to serious chaos in Runan County.

You must know that the righteous teachers are not thieves, after they conquer the city and county, they will also accept the management, replace the original officials, and continue to maintain law and order, and now, due to the fear of Zou Zan's 100,000 army, these Jiangxia righteous generals, officials fled, which led to the corruption of the law and order in the counties in Runan County, and some restless guys took the opportunity to make trouble, killing, looting, raping, and doing whatever they wanted.

What's even worse is that some of the green forest thieves who were vassals of the righteous master did not follow Chen Miao to Jiangdong, but chose to go south.

Hearing this, Zou Zan felt a headache.

To be honest, he would rather have a big battle with Jiang Xia Yishi than come to clean up this mess.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zou Zan had no choice but to slow down the offensive and send countless envoys to the counties to persuade them to surrender and recruit the remnants of the rebels to avoid further expansion of the chaos.

But it's a pity that the effect is minimal, after all, the news of the 'failure of the righteous teacher' has already reached Runan County, and the rebels who were originally stationed in the counties within the territory have fled with their belongings and food before they can wait for the envoys sent by Zou Zan to surrender, and who will the envoys sent by Zou Zan persuade to go?

In desperation, Zou Zan had no choice but to speed up the recovery of the counties.

At this time, his enemies were no longer Jiangdong Yishi, but those who took advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos - including the Green Forest Thieves.

He had to get back to the counties before these men could completely mess up the situation, and then restore order.

However, Runan County was a large county with nearly forty counties, and the land area of the county was twice the size of Yingchuan County, or even more, even if Zou Zan commanded 100,000 Taishi troops, he could not recover the whole territory in a few days.

As of July, for nearly a month, Zou Zan had only recovered more than a dozen counties in the west, including Pingyu County, and the eastern counties were already in ruin law and order at this time, and the situation was once worse than when they were ruled by Jiangxia Yishi, or even far worse.

In this case, Zou Zan urged his generals to recover the eastern counties as soon as possible, while trying to raise food, after all, the army and food are the best weapons to maintain public order and stabilize the people's hearts, even if it is a chaotic county, as long as a few thousand troops are stationed and another 100,000 stone of grain is raised, the people's will in this county will be stabilized immediately.

But unfortunately, although Zou Zan's troops were enough to be stationed in every county seat of Runan County, food was a major problem.

The counties in the western part of Runan are not bad, and the remnants of Jiangxia Yishi did not do anything to the granaries in the county because they fled in a panic, but in the eastern counties, except for a few counties where the granaries were set on fire by the rebels during the evacuation, the granaries in the remaining counties were basically looted by the locals, especially the local forces.

These people, apparently, will not honestly spit out the looted grain.

Of course, even if these people are willing to spit it out, it may not be enough for the people of Runan County to eat.

Where do you get food?

The only thing Zou Zan could think of was Yingchuan County.

At present, among the counties south of the river, only Henan, Liang, and Yingchuan counties have fully resumed agriculture this year—Jiyin and Jibei are not counted, because they are still in the hands of the rebels, and the harvested grain will not be at the disposal of the imperial court.

Among them, Yingchuan County was the only one that also had a good grain harvest last year.

The question is, this year, Yingchuan County has supported Henan County and Chen County, and at the same time has received a large number of refugees who fled from Henan, Chen County, and Chen Liu, will there be any spare strength to support Runan County?

In fact, even Zou Zan is not sure.

But there is no way, he must get a batch of food, otherwise even if he recovers the entire territory of Runan County, but because of this, half of the people in the territory will starve to death, so what is he protecting?

Half of the people of Runan County, that's hundreds of thousands!

After weighing, Zou Zan personally wrote two letters and sent them to Yingchuan County, one to Li Min, the guard of Yingchuan County, and one to Zhou Hu, the governor of Yingchuan.

At the same time, in Xuchang in Yingchuan, Zhao Yu took Niu Heng, He Shun and others to receive Chen Taishi, Mao Zheng and his party.

That's right, this old man who made Zhao Yu a little trembling and was afraid that the secret would be discovered, he returned to Yingchuan.

"I'm going to trouble Brother Xian again."

Mao Zheng, who came with Taishi Chen, greeted Zhao Yu with a smile.

However, Zhao Yu couldn't laugh.

As if sensing Zhao Yu's mood, Master Chen jokingly asked, "What, Juzheng, don't you welcome the old man?" ”

What else can Zhao Yu say?

He could only say against his will: "How dare you." …… The boss can come, but it's too late to welcome the lowly one? I just feel a little puzzled, as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, shouldn't you be on the front line at this time? ”

In fact, he didn't hate Taishi Chen, in fact, he also thought that this old man was quite interesting, he was just weak-hearted, for fear that this old man would see through his secret.

Hearing Zhao Yu's words, the old lady stroked her long gray hair and said with a smile: "Nanyang has Zhongxin and the little guy of the Wang family, it's enough, in comparison, the old man cares more about your Yingchuan side...... Juzheng, about spring ploughing, how are you doing in Yingchuan? ”

Zhao Yu immediately understood that this old man had originally come to inspect the farmland in Yingchuan County.

It's right to think about it, considering that on the side of Nanyang County, Xue Ao, Wang Shangde, and Li Meng are making great progress all the way, and there is really no need for this old man to worry about anything, in contrast, his harvest in Yingchuan County this year makes this old man remember.

A moment later, Zhao Yu invited the old man to his Governor Zhou's mansion, and out of courtesy, he also summoned his wife Jingnu to meet Taishi Chen.

Jing Nu naturally knew the identity of this Chen Taishi, and behaved respectfully in front of the latter, seeing that Chen Taishi nodded again and again.

Subsequently, Zhao Yu told Chen Taishi about this year's spring ploughing, and also swore to promise: "Yanling, Dingling, Zhaoling and other counties, the humble post has taken the advice of the boss, temporarily shelved the field dispute, and planted the grain first. ”

"Hmm."

Taishi Chen nodded with satisfaction, and then said with a straight face: "The old man came this time, the itinerary is more intense, tomorrow you take the old man to the southern counties to see, and then the old man is going to Henan County to estimate the grain production of Henan County this year." …… This year, it will depend on you Yingchuan and Henan counties. ”

Zhao Yu nodded, and then asked, "Isn't the boss going to Chen County?" Brother Shaoyan is currently stationed in Chenjun. ”

Taishi Chen hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Let's go later." ”

Zhao Yu pondered for a while and understood Taishi Chen's thoughts: This year, all counties in Chen County have delayed spring plowing because of the war, and they can't expect to produce much grain, so the importance obviously has to be ranked behind Yingchuan and Henan counties.

That night, Zhao Yu hosted a banquet in his house to entertain Mrs. Chen.

While everyone was drinking and chatting, Taishi Chen told Zhao Yu about the current situation in Nanyang County.

The reason why it is the situation and not the battle situation is because the battle situation does not need to be worried about this old lady, Xue Ao, Wang Shangde, and Li Meng have already attacked Fanshui, and it is expected to capture Jingzhou in one go before the end of this year, and completely eliminate Jing Chu Yishi, who is the leader of all the righteous teachers in the world.

What Taishi Chen is really worried about is still two words: food.

That's right, Nanyang County is also short of food.

Although Wang Shangde still has a considerable amount of grain in his hands, these grains are only enough for the army to eat, and they are far from the point of relieving the people in Nanyang.

If Wang Shangde could not find a way to raise enough food before the winter, Nanyang County would probably fall into post-war turmoil.

Fortunately, at that time, the grain of Yingchuan and Henan counties had already been harvested, and as long as they acted quickly, they would have time to support Nanyang and avoid the worst.

The next day, accompanied by Zhao Yu, Mao Zheng and others, Chen Taishi first went to the county guard's mansion to visit the county guard Li Min, and immediately, the group went to Yanling non-stop.

Due to receiving the news sent by Zhao Yu in advance, Chu Yan, who was sitting in Yanling, was waiting outside the city early.

Chu Yan had seen Taishi Chen before, but he was not a stranger.

After a few words of greeting, Chu Yan took Chen Taishi and Zhao Yu to inspect the farmland outside Yanling City.

This season, the crops in the farmland are already lush, looking at the crops that cannot be seen at a glance, the old lady nodded with satisfaction.

During this time, the group passed through a refugee camp.

Chu Yan explained: "These people fled from Chenliu and Chenjun, and I settled them here and provided them with food. …… I have sent 100 county guards to supervise these refugee tuns, so that they will not destroy the crops. ”

The old lady nodded in a complicated mood: "Please, be kind to them." ”

"Yes." Chu Yan clenched his fists and took his life.

He had long known that Taishi Chen was born in Chen County, so he was particularly attentive to those people who fled from Chen Liu, especially from Chen County, after all, he also understood that this Chen Taishi was their 'backer' in a sense, and as long as they won the favor of this old man, they would become more and more stable in Yingchuan.

After that, Chen Taishi took Zhao Yu to inspect Dingling, Yuncheng, Zhaoling several counties, due to the hasty itinerary, several counties Chen Taishi did not even enter the city, just rode a horse to the farmland outside the city to see a circle, and then took Zhao Yu and others to the next county.

To tell the truth, Zhao Yu and these people have never stayed on horseback for such a long time, and after two or three days, the inside of his hips hurts.

Seeing that Zhao Yu, Niu Heng, and He Shun were gasping even when they walked, he laughed and teased Zhao Yu and others: "It's better to be an octogenarian man." ”

Zhao Yu and the others were powerless to refute.

They also wondered where the old lady could get such good energy at the age of seventy-eight years.

No wonder Xue Ao once said that even if the old lady was thirty years younger, he was not sure that he would be able to defeat this old man.

Just three or four days later, Chen Taishi inspected the farmland in the southern counties of Yingchuan, and then returned to Xuchang with a satisfied mood.

At this time, it happened that Zou Zan's letter was sent to Xuchang, and after Zhao Yu read it, he also handed it over to the old lady for review.

At the beginning, seeing Zou Zan calling Zhao Yu a virtuous brother in the letter, the old lady still had an inexplicable smile on her face, but when the old lady learned from the letter about the current chaotic situation in the eastern part of Runan County, the old lady's face sank.

"Thieves who mess with the country, bring disaster to the country and the people!"

With an angry reprimand, the old lady slapped the table case fiercely, and actually cracked out a few cracks in the table case.

"Boss, please stop being angry." Mao Zheng was taken aback.

Not to mention Zhao Yu, even Mao Zheng, who has been by the old lady's side for several years, has never seen the old lady so angry.

Even when this old lady mentioned the rebels, he only expressed some inappropriate feelings.

The reason is very simple, the rebels, or the righteous teachers, still have a moral bottom line after all, and those guys who take the opportunity to make trouble are really just thieves.

Immediately, the old lady wrote a letter and sent it to Zou Zan, ordering Zou Zan to postpone the recovery of Jiangxia County and eliminate the evil gangsters in Runan County as soon as possible.

The next day, the old lady took Mao Zheng, bid farewell to Zhao Yu and his party, and set off for Henan County.

Seeing that this old man was seventy-eight years old, working tirelessly and running back and forth, Zhao Yu finally understood why this old lady was called 'loyalty'.

It's a pity that even this loyal old lady can't stop the upcoming chaos.

Including Zhao Yu.

The gangsters in Runan County are just a symptom, and it is not difficult to guess that there will be many thieves rising one after another in various places to occupy the vacuum after the defeat of the righteous teachers.

Of course, these thieves will eventually be wiped out, and the only thing that cannot be predicted is how many people will die in the meantime.