After being busy for more than two months, the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and the Ministry of War has come with a document to the effect that Zhu Hao has trained the troops in a good way and has made meritorious contributions to suppressing bandits. Although he was a little reluctant to leave Yangzhou, Zhu Hao was still very excited, after all, he finally had a formal official position, which was equivalent to having formal official rights and influence, and ordered someone to write a letter and prepare 10,000 taels of silver to send to Ma Shiying to express his gratitude. Ma Shiying reciprocated the favor and allocated 500 war horses to him, giving him the idea of forming cavalry.

After more than ten days of preparation, Zhu Hao took the expanded 2,000 troops to the north by land, most of the craftsmen and equipment in the armory room, the foreign devil Heman and other logistics personnel and a large number of silver taels walked along the canal. Sun Deqi and Wu Cai stayed in Yangzhou and continued to expand the base.

Chen Xiyao and other family members are busy with business and have not gone north for the time being. Liu Zebin, commander of the canal division of the official army, was ordered by Ma Shiying to lead 30 warships to escort along the river.

Liu Zebin is the younger brother of Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong, Zhu Hao saw that although this person lacked talent in water warfare, he was an upright person, so he deliberately accepted it.

Xuzhou is 700 miles away from Yangzhou, if the rapid march can be reached in five days, the brigade is very slow, Zhu Hao took the uncle and nephew of the Liu family and a hundred guards to ride first, and walked for three days to come to the boundary of Xuzhou.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of horses' hooves, Li Dong's eyes were sharp, and he said, "Young master, there's a horse over there." I saw a black-clothed knight crouching on a horse more than a hundred meters away, galloping this way, and not far behind him, more than a dozen horsemen shouted and chased after him.

After a while, the black-clothed knight rushed to Zhu Hao's eyes, fell off his horse with a thud, and neighed: "Good man save me!" "Then he fell unconscious.

Zhu Hao saw that this person was pale, and there was a sharp arrow stuck in his back, which had already penetrated through his chest, and his injuries were very serious. Before he could react, more than a dozen horsemen chasing after him galloped to him, and the first person was wearing a flying fish suit, and asked proudly, "Who are you?" Dare to take in criminals. ”

It's Jinyiwei! Zhu Hao recognized the outfits of these people, to be honest, he didn't have a good impression of Jinyiwei, these people relied on the emperor's pro-army to do all kinds of evil.

"Zhu Hao, the new general of Xuzhou, who are you who dare to be a murderer on the street?" Zhu Hao asked unceremoniously.

"It turned out to be General Zhu, but I can't hide it, this person committed a human life, and we will arrest him on the orders of the commander." The leader saw that Zhu Hao was an officer, and he didn't dare to be too presumptuous. Now that wars are frequent, the emperor is too busy to take care of himself, how can he still be in the mood to take care of Jinyiwei? Moreover, since the establishment of the East Factory, the status of Jinyiwei has been declining, and many people have a problem even eating, and there is no prestige at all.

Zhu Hao knew that nine out of ten of the crimes convicted by Jinyi Wei were crimes that he wanted to add, and when he saw that the injured man had a righteous spirit between his eyebrows, he had the heart to save people, took out three hundred taels of silver and handed it over: "Ben Jiang has nothing to do with this person, but seeing that he is pitiful and a dying person, let me do good deeds, and these money brothers take it to drink." ”

In this troubled world, nothing is more important than silver, and the person who led the team saw that the silver really had bright eyes, and looked at a few people behind him, put away the silver, and said seriously: "Since General Zhu is chasing the murderer for us, then thank you here, and leave with a humble position." After saying that, the group of people stopped looking at the people on the ground, and they left quickly.

Zhu Hao ordered the injured man to be lifted to the horse, and Lang Zhong in his own team rescued him, and the group slowly walked towards Xuzhou City.

After more than an hour, the city wall of Xuzhou has appeared in front of you from afar, tall and majestic, only a little worse than Nanjing.

Xuzhou is a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times, the strategic location is very important, the canal connects the north and south, is the throat of Shandong, Henan, north and south Zhili provinces, the terrain is relatively flat, compared to the relatively scarce natural resources of Jiangnan, Xuzhou is rich in coal and iron resources, which is also an important reason why Zhu Hao likes here.

After entering the city, Zhu Hao settled most of the people, and only took Li Dong and a few others to the prefect's yamen with light clothes.

Although Xuzhou is an important town in Huaibei, there is no general army, and the prefect concurrently serves as the town guard to manage the political army, before coming Zhu Hao inquired about the prefect called Wang Yinzu, in his early sixties, he is kind, good woman, and has no ability, Zhu Hao, the general, is the actual supreme general of Xuzhou City.

The two met, and the guests and hosts sat down, Zhu Hao inevitably presented a thick red envelope, and Wang Yinzu's already chubby old face was even more happy, thinking that this young man really knew how to do things. Coupled with the care of Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, it is even more pleasing to the eye. Zhu Hao sighed privately, officials are so greedy for money, how can Da Ming not die?

"My lord, the young man will guard Xuzhou in the future, aiming to suppress the thieves outside and the people inside, so I hope that the adults will support me in matters related to military affairs." Zhu Hao couldn't avoid a burst of officialdom.

"It's easy to say, the little general is young and has already made military achievements, and he has to be valued by the governor, the future is unlimited, Xuzhou is in need of a young talent like the little general, although the armament matter is to be done, there is no need to ask me for instructions, who dares to stop it, this official will come forward to treat him."

Although the prefect is in charge of the military, in recent years, almost all of the imperial court's military expenses have been allocated to the officers and soldiers on the front line to suppress bandits, and the food and salary of the local garrison have been short for several years, and they can't eat empty salaries and can't get oil and water, and they have to find ways to raise money by themselves, Wang Yinzu has long wanted to push out the mess of the army, just Zhu Hao took over, I heard that this young general has a thick family background, so let him toss it, as long as I don't ask me for food, Lao Tzu is too lazy to care, anyway, if I win the battle in the future, the credit will be indispensable to me, this is Wang Yinzu's idea.

"My lord, how many soldiers and horses are there in Xuzhou now, and how are the armaments?" Zhu Hao first wants to find out the bottom of his family.

"Alas, this, little general, you also know, our army of the Ming Dynasty has long been not the beginning of the founding of the country, and there are no outsiders here, I will tell the truth about some things, in recent years, it has not been very peaceful, the imperial court's financial resources are becoming more and more stretched, and they can't afford to support so many people, and many local soldiers have deserted, at first the old man can still control it, and then flee in batches, we have a total of three guards in Xuzhou, originally about 16,000 soldiers, but now only four or five thousand people, most of them are still old and weak." Wang Yinzu shook his head, looking ashamed.

It seems that this Wang Yinzu is not useless, and he has some knowledge. In fact, Zhu Hao had expected it before he came, but he didn't expect the shortage to be so serious, and it is estimated that the further north he goes, the more powerful it will be.

"This is easy to do, our Xuzhou is still safe for the time being, I will recruit soldiers if there are no soldiers, I will find a way if I don't have money, I just hope that the adults will give support."

"No problem, although the little general let go of his hands to do it, I will never ask, and come to me if there is trouble." Wang Yinzu was very polite.

The two chatted for a while, Wang Yinzu left Zhu Hao to eat and wash his dust, Zhu Hao proposed to call the generals of the three guards to get acquainted, Wang Yinzu was also happy, and immediately went to arrange a banquet.

The guard system has existed in name only in the late Ming Dynasty, and the military households have fled seriously, the original command of the guard post has long been abolished, and the three guards in Xuzhou are actually three battalions, which are governed by a guerrilla and two garrisons, all of which are subject to the prefect.

The dinner was held in the prefect's yamen, and in addition to Zhu Hao and Luo Yunqu, there were also the chiefs of the three guards. Wang Yinzu enjoyed it so much, he specially called a few singers to accompany him, and the atmosphere was passable.