In the city of Tai'an, there was a withered scene, a small half of the city wall was beaten to tatters, and in the city, the people closed their doors, and everyone hid in their homes and shivered. Occasionally, the sound of horses' hooves came from the street, and the people hiding in the house were so frightened that they didn't even dare to breathe.

First, Tian Guofeng entered Tai'an City, and then last night, an army suddenly entered Tai'an City and started to kill, and the Wu family was almost slaughtered.

It wasn't until three days later that Zhu Youzhen led his troops into the city of Tai'an, and the city barely regained peace. Accompanying Zhu Youzhen into the city, there were naturally more than 1,000 Taishan bandits who surrendered. Now they have changed their appearance and become the official army of the Great Liang.

The armor of the Tai'an soldiers who were killed under the poor mountain was stripped off, and now they have become the equipment of the Taishan bandits, and along the way, they stepped into Tai'an City with great vigour, and immediately took over the defense of the entire Tai'an City with Zhu Youzhen's subordinates.

In Wu Kejin's luxurious mansion, where a lot of bloodstains could still be clearly seen, Cao Bin put a book of accounts in front of Zhu Youzhen.

Directly turned to the last page and saw the final approximate statistics, Zhu Youzhen's face finally couldn't help but show an extremely happy smile.

"This is just some statistics of floating wealth, as for land, shops, there are too many, in a short period of time, there is no way to count them." Cao Bin said: "Sure enough, he is a rich man." ”

"I've worked hard in business for two years, and the income is not as good as your one time." Zhu Youzhen said with a smile: "I finally understand why Li Ze is tired of fighting such a guy, kill a family, and the military budget for a year will be settled!" ”

"Your Highness, you can't do such a thing often, we still have an essential difference from Li Ze." Cao Bin reminded that he was a little worried that Zhu Youzhen was addicted to such things, in fact, under Zhu Wen's command, the powerful families abounded. "Wu Kejin is notorious and deserves it, and we can still put all this on the Taishan bandits, just say that they were killed by the Taishan bandits, and we just defeated the Taishan bandits later."

"I understand." Zhu Youzhen said with some regret. "Set aside some of this money to reward your subordinates, and in addition, take out some more and reward it to Tian Guofeng's subordinates."

"Yes." Zhu Youzhen nodded: "Third Highness, how are these people?" ”

Zhu Youzhen asked naturally the Taishan bandits.

"It was beyond my expectations." Zhu Youzhen was a little proud: "These people have a deep blood feud with Wu Kejin, and the conditions they put forward are that as long as I can put Wu Kejin's head in front of them, they will surrender to me, or do they think this is embarrassing me?" But they don't want to fall into my arms. ”

Zhu Youzhen laughed: "Kill two birds with one stone." The combat power of this Taishan bandit is quite strong, but what I like more is Xu Xiang, who is in the second place among them, and he is a reader with a very clear brain. ”

"Your Highness, Tai'an Mansion has been almost killed by us, what should we do next?" At this time, Cao Bin was a little worried, "I'm good at fighting and killing people, but I don't understand how to deal with the aftermath." ”

"I'll leave this matter to that Xu Xiang." Zhu Youzhen waved her hand, "I don't have time to delay here, I have more important things to do." This can be regarded as a test for him, if he can do it well, he can be greatly reused in the future. General Cao, I have a new idea. ”

"I wonder what His Highness is going to do?" Cao Bin asked.

"Tai'an is still very important to us, you stay here, with that Xu Xiang, and guard Tai'an for me." Zhu Youzhen said.

"Your Highness goes to Qingzhou alone?" Cao Bin exclaimed: "This can't be done, the responsibility of the last general is to protect the safety of the Third Highness." ”

"You take a thousand elites to stay in Tai'an, and I am ready to appoint Xu Xiang as the chief officer of Tai'an, and you are in charge of the military. The two of you work together to run Tai'an well, I will go to Qingzhou, once I have income, I will send a steady stream of manpower to Tai'an to persuade you, and you will be responsible for taking over. Zhu Youzhen said: "We can't hold the entire Pinglu, even if I go to Qingzhou now and I can take all the power from Hou Xiyi, it is impossible to hold it, but if we concentrate all our forces in Tai'an, we can defend it." ”

"That Tian Guofeng and Chen Fu, can you reassure?" Cao Bin was a little worried.

"This time I went to Qingzhou, I took 2,000 soldiers and horses from the headquarters, and then selected the most effective 500 people from the Taishan bandits, and the others stayed in Tai'an." Zhu Youzhen said lightly: "The families of these people are all in Mount Tai, the number of them is as many as thousands, I have ordered that all these people move to Tai'an, with these people in your hands, what can they do except obediently obey the order?" Besides, now they are under my command, and they can only do some charging work, they really want to be my henchmen, and the days are still long! ”

"If you have these hostages in your hands, there's nothing to worry about." Cao Bin was relieved. "Tian Guofeng and Chen Fu are both that kind of bandits, and it is very appropriate to use them to charge into battle."

"You go and arrange it, call Xu Xiang in." Zhu Youzhen picked up the account book on the table again and looked at it with interest.

When Xu Xiang walked in, his face was shocked, this was not pretending, but real, he really didn't expect that Zhu Youzhen would be so decisive in doing things, and actually killed the Wu family from the elderly to the children and babies.

"I have seen the Third Highness, and His Royal Highness Xie San avenged the blood and revenge for us." Xu Xiang shook the locality and said sincerely.

"I can make you return to your heart, I killed the Wu family, it is worth the money, I died some waste, and I got you elite soldiers, not bad. Moreover, this person is in Tai'an, where he is poisonous and poisonous, and killing him is not wronged. Zhu Youzhen smiled: "Are you still satisfied with this?" ”

"I am extremely satisfied, in the future, the Taishan bandits will only obey the orders of His Royal Highness, even if they go to the soup and the fire." Xu Xiang is colorful.

"Okay, that's what you want." Zhu Youzhen clapped his hands and said: "Next, I'm going to Qingzhou, Tian Guofeng and Chen Fu will go with me, the soldiers there are panicked, and they will immediately face the attack of the Tang army, and a strong general like them will come in handy." You, just stay in Tai'an. ”

"Your Highness, although I can't charge into battle, I'm not a useless person." Xu Xiang looked a little dissatisfied.

Zhu Youzhen laughed: "Of course I know, but I kept you in Tai'an because there is another use." Xu Xiang, you and General Cao Bin stayed in Tai'an. ”

"Huh?" Xu Xiang was a little stunned.

"Xu Xiang, earlier you boasted to me that you are a scholar, even if you are in the mountains, you know a little about the world, so now you tell me, Pinglu, can you resist the attack of the Tang army?" Zhu Youzhen asked.

Xu Xiang showed a look of embarrassment on his face, and said after a while: "If it is Hou Xiyi, I estimate that most of them will not be able to hold it, and if it is not good, it will be defeated quickly, but since His Highness has gone down, with His Highness's decisiveness, if he can obtain the command, maybe he will be able to hold it." ”

"I'm comfortable with this sycophant." Zhu Youzhen said with a smile: "But with the current situation of Pinglu, even I can't hold Pinglu." So, I need a rear, and this rear is Tai'an. I will appoint you as the prefect of Taean, and do everything you can to restore all walks of life in Taean and try to stabilize Taean. ”

Xu Xiang took a deep breath.

"It's not too hard to say. Your thousands of families in Mount Tai have all moved out, and settled down near Tai'an City, with these people, you have a lot of foundation, confiscated Wu's land, I will take them out and hand them over to you, by you to distribute, these fields, I hope to have some income after the autumn. ”

"I understand what Your Highness means." Xu Xiangdao.

"Tai'an will make every effort to build walls, fortresses, fortresses." Zhu Youzhen remembered the fortresses and fortresses under Tianping, and continued: "And after I go to Qingzhou, I will continue to plunder wealth from those places, and then transport it back to Tai'an, where money is easy to do." I hope you will use this money to build a powerful Tai'an in a short period of time, Cao Bin will stay here to take charge of military affairs, and he will work hard to reorganize an army here, and you will greatly assist in this matter. ”

"Yes!"

"Since Pinglu can't be defended after all, I will try my best to turn it into a white land, even if the Tang army occupies it, except for the white expanse of nothing, nothing else." Zhu Youzhen said viciously. "Gather the power of a town to build a rock-solid Tai'an, and lay a good foundation for our future development."

"Xu Xiang will definitely do his best to do things well for His Highness." Xu Xiang patted his chest and said.

"Go down and go to Cao Bin to discuss what you are going to do in the next period of time. You are civil, and you must work together in Tai'an to build a solid base for me to retreat calmly. ”

"Your Highness, how long will this time be?" Xu Xiang asked.

"I will try to support myself in Pinglu for more than half a year." Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said, "Half a year, it has already entered the middle of winter, and the military operations of the Tang Army will also stop, so that we will have another winter of preparation time in Tai'an." They take down a broken Pinglu, and it will also take time to rectify and pacify. If we want to launch another major military attack, we must wait until after spring ploughing, and by then, we may have already left Tai'an. ”

"Do you work hard to run Tai'an and then give up?" Xu Xiang's eyes widened.

"Of course not, but when the time comes, our main force will definitely have other more important things to do." Zhu Youzhen said with a smile.

The blueprint Jingxiang has already drawn for him, and what he has to do is to do his best to implement it.