Liu Xinda got up, walked to the edge of the highland, and looked at the burning Gaojiazhuang in the distance.

The Gao family, whether it is a descendant or a side branch, was basically cleaned up in this purge, except for a few fish that slipped through the net, and the villagers living around Gaojiazhuang also suffered this unwarranted disaster, and were arrested by Liu Xinda on the charge of being a co-defendant.

These people, of course, are wronged.

The Gao family cares about such a secret thing, but I am afraid that even the people in the non-inner circle of the Gao family will not know, let alone these ordinary villagers.

But Liu Xinda needs such people.

I don't have a chance to try to get people, let alone give him such a big mouth.

As Teng Jian said, Liu Xinda's rule in Jiujiang was extremely cruel.

At the beginning, Liu Xinda and he wanted to run Jiujiang well and create a stable basic market, but this statement only lasted for two months, and after Liu Xinda completely controlled Jiujiang, the policy changed completely.

Describing Liu Xinda's rule in Jiujiang is not enough to describe his series of behaviors.

A large number of wealthy households and landlords were arrested, killed, and closed on various charges, their floating wealth was confiscated, the land was recovered, and the houses and female dependents were given to the generals under Liu Xinda's command. And the living people were thrown into one military camp after another by Liu Xinda.

These people have no rights at all, they work in the fields in shackles, and they are driven into the fields as soon as the chickens crow, so that they can return to the huts to rest in the middle of the month, and the food they can get every day is barely enough to keep them from starving.

The high-intensity labor, the lack of adequate nutrition for the body, and the inability to have sufficient rest, made these cantonments die every day for serfs.

But Liu Xinda didn't care at all.

At present, in most places in Jiujiang, except for the reclaimed points under the military administration, the self-cultivated peasants are almost completely gone. And Shang Jia, except for Liu Xinda, who nodded and agreed, the others have long disappeared.

Liu Xinda is desperately trying to make money.

Is he greedy for money?

Outsiders may think so.

But Teng Jian knew that Liu Xinda was not greedy for money at all. For so many years, Liu Xinda's life has been quite frugal, far inferior to those of ordinary wealthy families.

Part of this accumulated wealth was filled into the official treasury by Liu Xinda, and the other part was used by Liu Xinda for military expenses.

Now Liu Xinda's subordinates have been divided into two parts, one with 5,000 people, which is Liu Xinda's core subordinates, and he spared no expense to build it. The military salary of these 5,000 people is enough to compare with the salary of the soldiers of the Northern Tang Army. And their equipment is getting better day by day.

Liu Xinda, who got the money, was desperate to arm this core army of 5,000 people.

These 5,000 people had nothing else to do except train and fight. And Teng Jian and Liu Xinda's son Liu Buwu are the two commanders of this army, each leading 2,000 people, and the other 1,000 people exist as Liu Xinda's personal guards.

In order to ensure the morale of these 5,000 people, Liu Xinda took great pains, and he even set up military prostitutes in the military camp, and many of these military prostitutes, except for the female relatives of those who committed crimes, were looted.

Heavy investment naturally pays off.

This army, which was originally a division of a hundred battles, not only is its combat effectiveness rising steadily, but even its morale and loyalty to Liu Xinda are also rising day by day.

The other 5,000 people belonged to the second-line troops, and these people were poorly equipped, and their main function was not to fight, but to collect money for Liu Xinda. In addition to running these settlements, they also served as robbers, horse thieves, bandits, and a series of tasks. The target of their robbery was not only limited to Jiujiang, but they even crossed the boundary of Jiujiang and infiltrated other areas of Jiangxi, burning, killing and looting, and doing all kinds of evil.

The commander of this second-line army is Liu Xinda's nephew Liu Chen.

Liu Xinda did not allow his 5,000-strong core army to be tainted with these vices. The army under the command of Teng Jian and Liu Buwu had extremely strict military discipline. However, Teng Jian knew very well that the strict military discipline of the soldiers of the 5,000 core troops was guaranteed by the second-line troops in exchange for all kinds of evil.

In Liu Xinda's view, the second-line troops are just tools that can be discarded at any time, and it is no pity to die, anyway, he can get more people to join this force at any time.

The human heart is inherently evil.

It takes a lot of effort to get people to follow the rules, but if you want to tempt people to do evil, you just need a little temptation. And once a person gets on such a thief ship and tastes such sweetness, it will be difficult for him to wash his hands and change his ways.

"We can't beat the Northern Tang people." Liu Xinda said: "You know this fact, and I know it. Even now, our army's combat effectiveness has reached the peak of what I think, and this army has led soldiers to fight all their lives, and the current army is the strongest force I have ever led. But I still don't think they can beat the Northern Tang people. Without him, I have only 5,000 such an army, and I have earned it in exchange for doing all kinds of evil. ”

Teng Jian also sighed: "It is too expensive to raise such an army. ”

"Yes, it's too expensive, but we don't have a knack for making money, so what can we do but use these cruel means to get what we want?" Liu Xinda said helplessly: "But in the Northern Tang Dynasty, there are hundreds of thousands of such an army. ”

Teng Jian was silent for a moment and said, "General, since this is the case, our enemy can't be the Northern Tang Army, right?" ”

"Of course not." Liu Xinda chuckled and said, "Take this army that I have worked so hard to run to meet the Northern Tang Dynasty, and in the blink of an eye, it will be wiped out, so what do I want?" ”

Teng Jian shuddered: "Then our enemy is just Qian Wenzhong?" ”

Liu Xinda laughed again: "Do you know why Li Ze suddenly stopped fighting when he won a big victory?" Do you want to understand why Shi Zhuang agreed to my conditions and connived at me to leave? ”

"I didn't figure it out." Teng Jian shook his head and said, "I don't understand, General, why do you still have to fight to the death with each other when you know that we are not the opponents of the other party?" If it really doesn't work, we won't have to surrender. ”

"Surrender?" Liu Xinda said gloomily: "Do you think I haven't thought about it? It's a pity that the Northern Tang people won't allow me to surrender. ”

"What is the reasoning? We have been enemies of them for many years, but surrendering to them is a good thing for them. Teng Jian was puzzled.

"They are counting on us to disrupt the whole of Jiangxi!" Liu Xinda said: "I want to be a bitch, but I also want to set up an archway, so I can say that I am a person like Shi Zhuang." They forced me to betray Xiang Zhen, forced me to Jiangxi, in order to survive, in order not to be settled by Xiang Zhenqiu, in order not to be annexed by Qian Wenzhong, I can only desperately enhance my strength, in this way, I will clash with these people in the Southern Alliance, and in the end, it will inevitably be incompatible. They're ready to follow us and pick up the bargain! ”

"General, since we understand the other party's intentions, what should we do?" Teng Jian looked at each other blankly, only to feel that the future was bleak. The world is so big that there is no place for these people of their own.

"What to do? Of course, it is a request to live. Liu Xinda's face was hideous, "I can't beat Li Mi, I can't beat Shi Zhuang, can't I beat these wastes under Qian Wenzhong?" When we have grabbed enough in Jiujiang and accumulated enough, when the Northern Tang people think that the time is ripe and want to get rid of us, we will run away and go to grab a piece of land in Qianwenzhong. Then it's a matter of replenishing people, accumulating wealth, and then moving on to the next goal. ”

"But then, what is our ultimate goal?"

"Of course I have an end goal!" Liu Xinda nodded and said: "We go all the way to the south, defeat all the people who want to stop us along the way, we go to Jiaozhi, go to Annan, as long as our fists are hard enough, these wastes of the Southern Alliance can't stop us, as long as we run fast enough, the Northern Tang people can't catch up with us." I don't believe it, we ran to those places, and the Northern Tang people would chase after us and beat us. ”

"Are you going somewhere?"

"Only if you are far enough can you avoid the demon Li Ze!" Liu Xinda shook his head and said: "Tengjian, there's nothing to be sorry for, others say that Jiaozhi, these places in Annan are places of poor mountains and bad waters, and they don't know about these places." When you really get to that place, you will understand that the wealth there is no worse than ours. ”

"Those places, I'm afraid it's not so easy to stand on."

"We can escape from Li Ze's men, and we can still be afraid of those barbarians, when we occupy those places, I will also be an emperor, and when the time comes, we will seal you a big piece of land, and let you also be a king." Liu Xinda laughed, but in Teng Jian's opinion, this laughter was a little poignant.

"Brother, in Datang, we have no way out. The only thing we can do is to hold these powers in our hands and find a way out for ourselves. Liu Xinda patted Teng Jian's shoulder: "You now understand why I'm so unscrupulous, right?" I also need to get enough money to collect more weapons and equipment, more war horses, so that we can bring all the forces together. Only by letting our soldiers know that with us, there will be innumerable money, then we will be invincible, invincible, all the way south, to our final destination. ”

After listening to Liu Xinda's disembowelment words, Teng Jian finally understood why Liu Xin was so abnormal after reaching Jiujiang. Everything is a last resort. And behind these last resorts, there are some people who are persecuting openly and secretly.

They are just a knife to be manipulated, just a tool man, but even if they are tool people, they want to find a way to live! They also don't want to be discarded after being used, and even carry a series of charges to make a stench for 10,000 years.