"Although you lost the bet you made with me, have you forgotten what the bet was?"

"Of course I remember, isn't it the position of the third battalion, the battalion commander, I lost, the position of the commander of the third battalion, won't it be my turn."

Gan Ning replied to Liu Zheng, obviously a little frustrated on his face.

Originally, the position of commander of the third battalion was about to be acquired, but it just floated in vain in front of him.

Seeing Gan Ning's depressed look, Liu Zheng immediately continued to say a word to Gan Ning.

"Although the bet I told you is the position of the commander of the third battalion, I didn't say whether to lose or win, just when you lose, the position of the commander of the third battalion will be given to you."

Liu Zheng originally intended to give the position of commander of the third battalion to Gan Ning. Especially at this time, he was in need of someone to train these newly recruited surrenderers.

Although Gan Ning in history was born as a water thief, it should be normal to be a commander of a naval army, and it is also an advantage, but when Gan Ning served in Wu in history, he almost never commanded a naval army, and he led infantry to fight.

It is conceivable that Gan Ning, as an infantry general, is also competent, and in the recent period, Liu Zheng and Gan Ning have also had some exchanges, understanding Gan Ning's strength, there is one, although he is still young, he only needs to be given some experience, and he will become a great weapon in the future.

"Lord, is this true?"

Liu Zheng's words, as soon as he said it, Gan Ning's originally depressed face immediately showed a hint of surprise.

Then he looked at Liu Zheng, expecting Liu Zheng's affirmative answer.

Liu Zheng smiled, looked at Gan Ning, and continued to speak at him.

"Do you think I'm joking with you?"

"However, there are also conditions for you to be the commander of the third battalion."

"On what terms?"

"See those surrenders on this playground?"

Liu Zheng pointed to the surrendered troops in the Cangwu City school yard at this time, the number of these surrendered troops was five or six thousand, although the old, weak, sick and disabled were uneven, but they were more or less some soldiers and horses, if they could be absorbed, for Liu Zheng, it would also be able to enhance a little combat power.

He does not have many soldiers and horses under his command, and if he wants to rule the entire Jiaozhou, it is impossible to do it with the current 20,000 horses alone.

Therefore, he must also recruit some new troops as much as possible in Jiaozhou, and the fastest way to recruit new troops is naturally to collect the soldiers and horses before surrendering.

"What does the lord mean, let me incorporate these surrendered troops?"

Gan Ning looked at Liu Zheng's fingers, and his eyes fell on these surrendered troops.

"Well, we have to establish a third battalion, and the men and horses, naturally, have to be selected from these descending troops, give you a month, select men and horses from these descending troops, and you can also recruit and train a third battalion in this Cangwu City, can you do it?"

Liu Zheng said his thoughts to Gan Ning in a commanding tone.

Gan Ning immediately agreed without hesitation.

"Don't worry, don't say a month, give me half a month's time!"

While speaking, Liu Zheng could still see the excitement on Gan Ning's face.

Liu Zheng knew that being able to become the battalion commander was the most exciting thing for Gan Ning, so he patted Gan Ning on the shoulder, and after giving Gan Ning a few words of encouragement, he asked Gan Ning to communicate with those surrendered troops by himself, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, the things that Liu Zheng needed to consider at this time were far more complicated than the surrender of thousands of troops.

Although it didn't take much effort for him to get a Cangwu County. But he defeated Cangwu County, which means that he officially confronted the imperial court and declared an uprising.

Next, the imperial court will definitely no longer treat him as a small group of bandits, but as a thief with the ability to conquer cities.

Although Jiaozhou, where he is now, is geographically remote, and by the time the imperial court notices him, it may be a few months later, but Liu Zheng can't relax.

What he wanted was that before the arrival of the imperial army, he would occupy the entire Jiaozhou, and then rely on the land of Jiaozhou to compete with the imperial court.

Following the example of Zhao Tuo, the martial king of Nanyue, he used the land of Jiaozhou to fight against the Han court for nearly a hundred years.

If it weren't for the later period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the military strength of the Han court was greatly improved, and Emperor Wu was in the middle of the country and started a conquest of Nanyue, maybe Nanyue would have been able to continue to exist for a long time.

And the current Han Dynasty is actually far inferior to the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Not only is the emperor missing, there are many uprisings around, and even within the imperial court, there are many hidden dangers.

In the next few days, while consolidating the military defense of Cangwu City, Liu Zheng immediately dispatched scouts under his command and began to take Cangwu City as the center, gradually spreading outward to find out the surrounding intelligence.

At the same time, he asked Huang Zhong and Xu Huang, each of whom led five divisions of soldiers and horses, to attack other counties in Cangwu City, and he wanted to control the entire Cangwu City in a short period of time.

Liu Zheng originally wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to pursue Zhu Fu directly, but after thinking about it, if he pursued Zhu Fu, he would have to go deep into the hinterland of Jiaozhou.

After all, in Jiaozhou, Zhu Fu's strength is only one of them, and the local indigenous powerful forces are what worries Liu Zheng even more, so he still decided to come step by step and little by little.

first occupied Cangwu County, and then gradually expanded downward, trying to control the entire Jiaozhou under his command in the next half a year.

And to control the entire Cangwu County, the first problem in front of Liu Zheng is the taxi family of Guangxin City.

The influence of the Shi family in Jiaozhou is not as strong as in history, and several brothers of Shi Xie are not the Taishou of other counties in Jiaozhou at this time, and their Shi family can only have some say in Cangwu.

Therefore, if Liu Zheng can get the support of the Shi family, regardless of other counties, Cangwu County alone, will definitely be able to be controlled in a short period of time.

In order to be able to control Cangwu County as soon as possible, Liu Zheng led 3,000 soldiers and horses to return to Guangxin City on the second day after he occupied Cangwu City.

Come and negotiate with Shi Xie, the head of the Shi family.

This time I came to Guangxin City, and it was very different from two days ago.

At this time, the matter of the Wuyangling ambush, after the spread of some deserters, has already spread to the entire Cangwu County, as the Cangwu Taishou Shixie, how could he not know.

He stood on the city tower, looking at Liu Zheng, who only had 3,000 soldiers and horses outside the city, and fell into deep thought for a while.

began to think about what Liu Zheng said to him before.

Cooperate or perish.

This time, Shi Xie had to pay attention to Liu Zheng's words.