Early in the morning of August 24.

As a burst of drums and trumpets sounded, flags of various colors fluttering in the wind slowly removed the gates of Huzhou. Behind these banners were a group of officers and soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty who were dressed in bright armor and full of spirit, they lined up neatly, and their weapons were flashing a little cold light in the rising sun, which made many people in front of the city gate feel a burst of awe in their hearts.

It is also felt that the whole momentum of this group of officers and soldiers is becoming more and more public, and with the sound of the order, the army began to move to the south, which is really murderous, majestic, and majestic.

After getting Sun Tu's approval, several generals did not delay any longer, and it only took two days to prepare, and they set off south today. Next, the nearly 100,000 troops will divide their troops into three routes and go south to capture various state capitals and county seats, clearing the obstacles ahead for the next complete pacification of the Fangla Rebellion.

With the experience and confidence accumulated after winning the previous battles, the spirit of these Great Song Dynasty officers and soldiers is very different from when they were in Jinling, there is no cowering and timidity, and some only have the belief in the victory of the anti-army. Especially when several main generals walked out of the city gate slowly on horseback, all the soldiers shouted in unison: "The pacification of the thief rebellion is today, and our army will win!" The roar soared into the sky, startling the birds that had just come out of the woods.

And after feeling the performance of the whole army, Zhang Gon and the three of them were even more high-spirited, laughing nonstop, and then they took out their swords, pointed ahead, and shouted: "The army is leaving!" There was another shout of cheers like a tsunami, and tens of thousands of troops suddenly picked up speed and strode straight to the south.

Judging only from their mental outlook and performance, it can be inferred that the whole army has absolute confidence in this southward march to quell the chaos, and in their view, this southward march will lead to the collapse of the enemy who is expected to be invincible, and when they will take Hangzhou, they will only see when they can get there.

This is certainly a gratifying progress, but there are also people who have a lot of bad taste in their hearts, at least many Shandong soldiers who stayed in Huzhou City looked dissatisfied, and a veteran of the Qingzhou Army who stood at the head of the city and watched the army show off his might and go away was even more snorting, and said disdainfully: "What kind of majesty in front of Lao Tzu!" If it weren't for our brothers working hard in front to take this Huzhou City, they would have retracted in fright. ”

It wasn't until the words came out that he noticed that there were a few more people around him, and when he turned his head to look, his face changed in fright, but it was Sun Tu and Zhu Wu and a few other henchmen who came to the city leader to send the army off, obviously listening to his whining words.

Just when the veteran was nervous and didn't know whether to take the initiative to admit his mistake, Sun Tu's hand gently put on his shoulder and patted it again, without the slightest intention to blame him. After a while, he said: "Dong Ping, Yang Zhi, although you have not said it explicitly, you are actually deeply dissatisfied with my concession, right?" After all, this is a low-hanging fruit, but it is easily taken away by others. ”

"I don't dare." Dong Ping, Yang Zhi and other generals who accompanied him hurriedly replied in a low voice, but in exchange for Sun Tu's smile: "You don't dare to say it, so you still have this idea in your heart." In fact, not only you, I am afraid that all the brothers who stayed in Huzhou on my orders are unwilling or dissatisfied with this, but it is not good to tell me directly. This time, a few people stopped talking, everyone had already understood, he had something to say. It was Song Jiang who said with a smile at this time: "Actually, General, it is reasonable for you to make this arrangement." Our army has repeatedly fought during this period of time, captured Danyang, kept Changshu, and broke Huzhou, which battle is not a hard battle to the death, the soldiers have long been exhausted, if they continue to blindly greed for merit to go south, once they become the end of the crossbow, the damage will be too great, so it is the safest idea to stay in Huzhou temporarily. ”

Sun Tu glanced at him and smiled lightly: "This is indeed an aspect that I consider, but not all. In the past nearly a year, the officers and men of our Shandong army have made enough contributions, and the price we have paid is also very great. The previous rewards have not yet arrived, so why do we have to grab the credit again, to take all the merits of the Jiangnan Quelling Rebellion, but not to give other soldiers and horses a chance to make meritorious contributions?

"Only by giving the credit of this thief to several armies, and our Shandong army occupies the absolute first credit, then when he is rewarded by the imperial court, we can get more benefits. Therefore, at this time, letting Huaibei, Jingnan and other Xiang troops go south is not to let them snatch the credit that belongs to us, on the contrary, it is to use their strength to make the credit bigger. ”

In this regard, other people's reactions were still a little sluggish, but Song Jiang, who had many years of experience as an official, understood in an instant: "The general is wise and respectable." ”

In fact, this is a strategy to play with the imperial court and share the credit. If Sun Tu relied on the authority of his commander of the three armies to suppress the other officers and troops, it would not be difficult for them to make much contribution, and even with his iron fist, coupled with the strong combat power of the Shandong army, it was really likely that he would completely pacify Jiangnan with his military horses.

But can this really give him and the Shandong army the greatest benefit? Only those officials in the court who are suspicious of them, and who are enemies of Sun Tu, will obstruct them, at least to severely discount their merits, and even have results such as high merit and no reward.

But if Sun Tu dragged all the other soldiers and horses into this great victory, and everyone showed their merits to the imperial court together, the situation would be completely different. Don't look at the soldiers of these military horses don't seem to have too much status, but in fact, they have their own backers behind them, in this case, in order to obtain more benefits, these generals will naturally make the imperial court recognize that it is a great merit to pacify Jiangnan through their own ways, so that the Shandong army, which is the first merit, can naturally maximize the benefits.

It's nice to eat alone, but if you have a big appetite, you can only eat more when you're eating with a lot of people, because the ingredients are more abundant. And what Sun Tu has to do now is to make this table of meals bigger and more hearty, so that more people can participate. This also corresponds to the previous imperial court's attitude towards the reward after taking Huzhou, if it weren't for the big victory near Suzhou later, the credit for breaking Huzhou might have been forcibly suppressed......

With Song Jiang's explanation, the others understood, and their hearts were unwilling to calm down, but they had a few more complaints about the imperial court, and they felt that the officialdom was deep, and it was really not something that they could understand through as a straight martial artist.

Dong Ping frowned slightly after that and said: "General, I am still a little worried about my humble position, if we really let them conquer the city and finally defeat Hangzhou together, then the credit of our Shandong Army was not covered by them?" ”

This question really aroused the concerns of other people, yes, no matter how much credit you have made in front of you, how crucial it is to defeat Suzhou and Huzhou, but once Hangzhou is finally taken, and even killed or captured the thief Fang La, the head of the thief is replaced by another army, this merit is someone else's, and their Shandong army has worked hard and finally become a wedding dress for others.

Sun Tu shook his head and laughed: "You guys are too worried, if Hangzhou is so easy to fight, why do I have to garrison here to rest?" Don't look at the rebel army is now declining, but they still claim to have hundreds of thousands of troops, and their strength is still above the officers and armies of all walks of life, how can they be easily defeated? As for Hangzhou, it is even more unlikely that it will be broken in a short period of time, Pang Wanchun and Fang Shifo are still there, and this battle will be repeated. ”

Seeing that Sun Tu was so sure, everyone believed it. After all, over the years, almost every judgment Sun Tu made was accurate, which made his soldiers convince him early and take his orders as a guideline.

Sun Tu then said: "And this is also very beneficial to our Shandong army in other armies." If they lose in Hangzhou or elsewhere, won't they have to rely on the officers and men of our Shandong Army to break the enemy and capture the city in the end? Everything in the army is based on strength, as long as we are strong enough, we can convince them, and we will be able to make these soldiers and horses with me in the future. Even, relying on their word of mouth, maybe when all the armies in the world will respect our Shandong army, so that our position will be difficult to shake! ”

This is Sun Tu's most far-reaching idea in this matter, and now he is not just focusing on the small profits in front of him, but has begun to lay out the future. He knows very well where his strengths and fundamentals are, only when the Shandong army is strong enough and famous enough to become the supreme existence in the eyes of the world's army, can he, the commander of the Shandong army, become a hero and idol in the hearts of all sergeants. And once you have this layer of divine light protection, no matter how many traitors in the court have conspiracies, don't think about attacking yourself easily.

Others may not see as far as him, but they are enough to be impressed by the foresight of their own generals, and they immediately clasped their fists and said: "The general has a long-term vision, and he can't compare with us, and the humble rank admires ......."

Sun Tu hurriedly helped the two of them up, and said with a smile: "Of course, all this I said is just an idea, if you really want to do it, you and the brothers below have to work together and go all out." But there is one thing I just want you to remember that the battle of Jiangnan is far from the time to be pacified, and in the end, it can only be my Shandong army officers and soldiers who can take Hangzhou and calm the chaos! ”

"Humble duty understands!" Everyone responded loudly in unison, and even the unwilling soldier just now straightened his waist and shouted loudly. Then, someone suddenly shouted: "The Shandong army will win, and General Sun is mighty!" ”

This cry quickly spread, and the defenders of the entire Huzhou City roared at the same time: "The Shandong army will win, and General Sun is mighty!" This movement was not even smaller than the tens of thousands of troops who went out of the city, and it spread far away, reaching the ears of those soldiers and horses, but they were a little confused for a while, and they didn't know what the Shandong army was doing......