Zulang's camp is located on the bank of the Longshu River (Hangbu River) between the Lujiang River and Feixi, a relatively high flat land.

Since the beginning of the spring ploughing, Zu Lang has taken a large number of Jiujiang displaced people to escape the war between Sun Jian and Ou Xing, and drifted down the east of the river.

It is now the middle of May, and this year's cultivation has long been abandoned, and even if we find a place to settle now, it is impossible to receive food during the autumn harvest. If it is not robbed, it will definitely starve to death in large numbers by winter.

When he was first in exile at the beginning of the year, Zu Lang did not know how many people were with him, because at that time he had not yet stood out and been elected as the commander of the sect by the public.

But it is estimated that there must be twenty or thirty thousand people. After three months of wandering, only 10,000 people remained, and the proportion of men in the prime of life has also increased again and again, reaching half.

Obviously, women and children, the old and the weak, because of their poor ability to travel, are gradually left behind, left behind, and even starved to death.

The rebellion of the stars is not a big war from the perspective of God in the Han Dynasty. But for the local people, it was easy to destroy three or five counties.

On this day, Zu Lang was worried about the matter of storing grain, and suddenly heard the noise outside the account, he thought that the men and horses who had gone to the Longshu River to fish in the barrage had returned, and hurriedly went out to inquire about the harvest.

As a result, a subordinate named Zhou Tai ran in quickly and reported: "Marshal, there are hundreds of elite cavalry soldiers outside the camp who suddenly visited, and the person headed by himself claimed that Li Su of Youzhou was ordered by the imperial court to go south to recruit Danyang soldiers, probably to appease us." ”

Don't think the title "Da Shuai" is strange, the "Zong Shuai" and "Hao Shuai" of Jianghuai in the late Han Dynasty are all called "Da Shuai" by their subordinates.

Whoever let these frogs at the bottom of the well have no constraints from the court etiquette, and they can pretend to beep as much as they want internally.

When Zu Lang heard this, he was slightly happy, because he thought that "these people can be recruited by the imperial court and eat the emperor's grain".

He has four or five thousand men under him, and it's not too much to ask the court for a captain, right?

"Let's go, Youping, you lead the way, I'll greet you personally!" Zu Lang immediately ordered Zhou Tai.

After more than ten steps out of the account, Zu Lang saw an elegant and handsome young scholar riding a horse.

There were two other strong guards next to him who didn't look easy to deal with, both of them were nine feet tall. This is particularly noticeable in the generally shorter southern population.

The cavalry behind the scholar also escorted a few slaughtered old cattle and twenty jars of wine, which were obviously used by the labor army, which made Zu Lang more and more relaxed.

These cow wines were actually bought by Li Su in Shucheng next door after a little detour of more than ten miles before arriving at Zulang's camp.

"The last general, Zulang, has seen a bad trip." Zu Lang also doesn't understand the rules of officialdom, but since others give him gifts, he calls him nondescript.

The corners of Guan Yu's mouth twitched slightly, but fortunately, his beard was thick, hiding his disdainful expression: Just you, the leader of the homeless people, are you also worthy of calling yourself the "last general"?

However, Li Su obviously didn't care about this, and put on a very familiar appearance, chatting with Zu Lang, and pulling Zu Lang into the account.

Li Su is good at understanding people's hearts, knowing that when he sees people, he talks about people, and when he sees ghosts, he talks nonsense, and he must not pay attention to etiquette when he is like Zulang, but go straight to the topic.

After a few words of politeness, Li Su immediately made it clear what he meant: "Danyang thief Zheng Bao is a harmful place, entrenched in Chaohu Lake, and I heard that there are occasional conflicts with General Zu." Now, he is even more bullying and tyrannical in the market, threatening other Danyang Shanyue Hao chieftains with force, and not allowing them to sell their troops to the imperial court.

We are acting on the orders of the general, and since Zheng Bao obstructs it, we should destroy it. As long as General Zu is willing to cooperate with us, after the matter is completed, I will protect your official position, and the displaced people you lead can choose a place in the southwest of Chaohu Lake to Tuntian, and I will cover up the tax exemption for you. The captured Zheng Baotun grain, cattle and sheep can also be distributed to you, and I only take Zheng Bao's troops to go down the mountain to become stronger and stronger. ”

As for the gold and silver money in Zheng Bao's hands, Li Su deliberately did not mention it.

Because a considerable part of it is the public money paid by Wu Qiu Yi to Zheng Bao to buy soldiers, it cannot be regarded as war trophies, of course, the goods must be returned to the original owner.

As for the livestock grain, it is inconvenient to transport thousands of miles, so it is good to leave it to Zulang.

However, Zu Lang was subconsciously a little disappointed: "Aren't you here to recruit soldiers?" I also have thousands of strong people here, and I just lack food, so I might as well recruit them. ”

Li Su's heart tightened, but he remained silent on the surface, and at the same time secretly glad that this Zulang didn't seem to have a deep city, so he put forward what he wanted.

These heroes and shuai have never read any books, and the wisdom of being a man in the market and the wisdom of the rivers and lakes are also slowly honed out through experience.

Maybe five or six years later, Zu Lang can become a warlord who is so cunning that he breaks his wrists with Sun Ce, but now after all, he has just become the leader of the exiles and lacks the experience of commanding.

Therefore, Li Su did not refuse directly, but pretended to be satisfied and said: "I look at the general's subordinates, but there are also strong people, so Su will naturally try his best to recruit and give money in full." However, this time the recruitment of troops is to go to Youzhou to crusade against Zhang Chun and Wuhuan's rebellion, and he must make it clear to the soldiers, so as not to flee halfway. I think, it's better to fight Zheng Bao first, I still give enough money, and the quick money that can be obtained by fighting a battle is not better than leaving my hometown for thousands of miles to go on the Northern Expedition? ”

The reason why the Danyang soldiers were regarded as the best soldiers in the world by the warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty was not purely because of the combat effectiveness of individual soldiers, but because the Danyang soldiers had a tradition of being mercenaries.

The biggest problem with other recruited soldiers is that they are very useful when defending their hometowns, and once they go out for a long time, their morale will be wild, and the soldiers will flee more than once.

Li Su was not worried about the quality of these homeless people in his heart, and even if Li Su was relieved, he said that it would not count, and it was Youzhou Mu Liu Yu who finally judged the completion of the task.

Therefore, he just wanted to temporarily stabilize Zu Lang and let Zu Lang be cannon fodder, so he was just a hypocrisy.

……

After Li Su's fancy labor, persuasion, and promises, Zu Lang, who was already tormented by lack of food, was finally forced by internal and external pressure to agree to attack Zheng Bao with Wuqiu Yi, and agreed to send troops to fight in two days.

However, in this process, Zu Lang also gradually saw some problems: Li Su agreed to hire his people on the surface, but on the other hand, he did not relax his determination to fight Zheng Bao at all, obviously wanting the Jiujiang Liumin Army to be cannon fodder to consume a wave first.

In addition, Zu Lang is not a professional mercenary dealer after all, and he has not formed a mechanism like Zheng Bao's selling people and taking commissions, so Li Su can easily contact those small leaders under Zu Lang and bypass Zu Lang, a "middleman who makes the difference".

As a result, Zu Lang couldn't receive the advance payment if he wanted to, and he was fooled by a little labor gift. And if Li Su directly paid the displaced soldiers, the dead would obviously not have to pay at that time.

Zu Lang obviously didn't want his people to be cannon fodder, and he also wanted Wuqiu Yi to take the lead and defeat Zheng Bao, and then he would take his descendants to steal the results.

Therefore, his last resistance was only to euphemistically insist on his direct command of the troops: if there is a real war, how to deploy these thousands of people is still up to Lao Tzu!

Li Su also knew what calculations he had in his heart, and he didn't force himself with Zu Lang, only saying that he could be the supervisor and coordinate in the middle.

At the same time, Li Su did not forget to establish a good relationship with some middle-level officers under Zu Lang, giving them rewards and publicizing the benefits of loyalty to the imperial court and promotion.

For example, Li Su found that there were two cadres under Zu Lang, named Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin. He promised the other party about 200 stone to the petty official.

Seeing this, Zu Lang also vaguely felt that his plan of "not contributing to work" might not be able to be implemented smoothly:

"If Li Su is allowed to buy people's hearts and seal officials and make wishes like this, it will be difficult for these 5,000 homeless people to say who they will listen to...... No, we can't let him be the 'prison army' and force us to take the lead! We have to think about our brothers! ”

For this reason, Zu Lang racked his brains, and on the eve of the army, he finally made a suggestion to Li Su: "Don't drive, Zheng Bao's strength lies in its ability to have both land and water, and once it is unfavorable to engage with the officers and soldiers, it can also return to the small island in Chaohu Lake."

In my opinion, in order to completely defeat Zheng Bao, it is better for our troops to divide into two routes, and I will bring my own land route and march from west to east from the south bank of Chaohu Lake. Don't drive another army, lead our ships, and also lead one or two thousand people to march from the waterway of the Longshu River - the Longshu River goes more than 30 miles to the east, that is, from the west bank of Chaohu Lake into the lake, and then crosses the lake for 40 miles, you can reach the mouth of the water.

If I had been defeated after engaging the land men and horses of Captain Wuqiu, and lured Zheng Bao's main force to pursue and leave the mouth of the lake, and had led the waterway soldiers to attack the mouth from behind the side of the lake, wouldn't I have been able to capture the water village of Zheng Bao and cut off his retreat back to the lake? ”

Originally, the Chaohu Lake water system, the upstream is mainly through the Longshu River and other rivers, the Huai River water into the lake, and the downstream flows out of Chaohu Lake from the mouth of the Xu, through the water of the Yangtze River and finally into the Yangtze River.

So Zu Lang's plan is actually quite reliable militarily speaking. Moreover, Zulang's people came from Jiujiang, and they were originally adrift by waterway along the way, and there were just enough boats available, but the boats were generally small.

At first glance, when he heard Zu Lang's suggestion, Li Su was still shocked, secretly wondering that this guy who had never read a book actually knew the art of war when he was fighting? Could it be a natural talent for combat?

But after thinking about it, Li Su immediately became suspicious.

"Zu Lang is afraid that he doesn't want to transfer me away and prevent me from supervising his main army, so he can't do anything, right? What can I do...... It's better to agree for the time being, and then see the opportunity to act and find a way to capture the army......"

Li Su couldn't find an excuse to object, so he first stabilized the surface and prepared to take one step at a time.

Zu Lang saw that Li Su agreed, and thought that Li Su had fallen for his plan.

On the eve of leaving, Zu Lang thought about it and called his henchman Jiang Qin, who was in charge of sailors and ships, to his side.

"What do you command?" Jiang Qin listened carefully.

Zu Lang commanded in a low voice: "Gong Yi, you should also know that tomorrow Buddha Xiao will send troops, Youping and I will take the land route, and you will be supervised by Li Su to take the water route." But Li Su's fight is completely to take advantage of us, let us fight with Zheng Bao and lose both, so that he and Wu Qiu Yi can sit and reap the benefits. We must consider the lives of the thousands of brothers under our account, and we must not be greedy for temporary wealth. ”

Jiang Qin's eyes rolled: "Does the marshal want me to delay slowly and send troops to help?" It's not hard to do, I let the soldiers do a little bit of tricks when they are driving the boat, when they are maneuvering the sails, so that the boat can go slower, and those northerners can't see the flaws......"

Zu Lang subconsciously looked left and right vigilantly, and further lowered his voice: "If Li Su doesn't know how to do it, you just delay time." I'm afraid that he will still urge you to enter the army, and use the court to reward and punish you, what should you do at that time? ”

Jiang Qin couldn't think of it, and he didn't dare to think: "What does the big marshal think?" ”

Zu Lang took a deep breath and looked terrible: "The reason why I let you take the waterway is because the rivers and lakes are unpredictable. You can give him the best boat and make some moves on the boat first.

These northerners are not good at water, if they drown in Chaohu Lake, everyone will say the same thing, and it will be difficult to pursue Qiu Yi when the time comes. As long as Qiu Yi and Zheng Bao lose both, he won't dare to do anything to us-

Gongyi, as long as you do this well, you will be my second brother from now on! When I say goodbye tomorrow, I will pretend to set off, but in fact, as soon as Li Su leaves, I will take the army to stand by.

We're going to do it for half a day, and if you find a chance to do it, make an accident as soon as possible, and then send a secret envoy back to inform me. If you don't wait for the secret envoy within half a day, then I will have to find another way to delay the march when you don't have a chance to succeed. ”