Sun Tu, who was far away in Qingzhou, didn't know that he had really been regarded as a thorn in the flesh by Gao Yu and Liang Shicheng, and wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. Of course, even if he really knew the attitude of the two, he might not be too relieved, far away from the court, Qingzhou is his territory, will he still be afraid of them?

And the more critical point is that now Sun Tuzheng is concentrating on the two major matters of raising the people and strengthening the army, how can he have the heart to worry about other details.

Although they regained control of Qingzhou and killed those officials, the soldiers and civilians of Qingzhou were still greatly injured after all, but it was not possible to make up for it by killing a few officials and exporting their evil spirits. For more than half a year, the life of the people has been difficult, many people have been unjustly imprisoned, or forcibly conscripted into the army, and some have fled directly, far away from Qingzhou.

Therefore, after Sun Tu returned to power, the first thing to do was to release those people and give them sufficient compensation, as for the old and weak who were forcibly conscripted into the army, they naturally had to be let go. Fortunately, Gao Xiang and other officials did not transport away the money and property looted from this place, and after the silver money taken from the people of Qingzhou was confiscated by Sun Tu, they were returned to the people, but there was no need for the government to come up with additional compensation.

With Sun Tu's proper handling and pacification, the people of Qingzhou, who already had great respect for him, naturally settled down again, and even soon after the news broke, some of the people who fled returned one after another. At this time, people are the most resettled, if there is really no way to live, who wants to leave their hometown and run to another country to work hard to make a living?

In fact, the problems of the people are easy to solve, and it is even more difficult to rebuild a Qingzhou army like more than a year ago. Because the damage of the Qingzhou Army this time was too great, not only the ordinary soldiers suffered countless casualties and fled, but the middle and low-level officers were even more ineffective.

The only good thing is that the money and food in the army are quite sufficient. The Qingzhou Army is regarded as a wealthy township army in hundreds of cities in the Great Song Dynasty, not only because Sun Tu will not deduct the salaries of soldiers and soldiers, but also because they have obtained a lot of money, food and property because they have even leveled the three mountain thieves before, and these materials are piled up in the military warehouse a year ago.

In fact, all this money and food were originally embezzled into their own pockets by Hormer and others, but like Gao Xiang and others, they were not in a hurry to send these embezzled proceeds out of Qingzhou, but just left them in their mansions. When Sun Tu came back and wiped them out, all these belongings, including the family funds they brought from elsewhere, also fell into the hands of the Qingzhou army, which made the army's materials increase.

However, sufficient money and food still can't solve the problem of scarcity of soldiers, even if Sun Tu has sent people to deliver news everywhere for more than a month, and has also sent out various examples, but the number of veterans of the Qingzhou Army who have returned is still not much, only two or three hundred.

This is very understandable, although the Qingzhou army at its peak had five or six thousand people, nearly half of them were the surrender of the Sanshan bandits. At that time, they were also forced to join the Qingzhou Army in order to save their lives, and they were far from the point of completely returning to their hearts.

After experiencing the changes in the past six months, especially after seeing the senseless casualties, these people naturally had the idea of fleeing. So even if they really saw Sun Tu's example elsewhere, they would never come back at this time. Those who can come back are all local soldiers in Qingzhou, and they can be regarded as the backbone members of the Qingzhou Army.

In this way, between one entry and one exit, the number of the current Qingzhou army is not much different from when Sun Tu came back, it is still less than 2,000 soldiers and horses, and the only thing to be thankful for is that the combat effectiveness has improved a lot.

The daily drills also resumed, and the barracks, which had been silent for more than half a year, once again resounded with a burst of uniform, imposing shouts, which spread far and wide throughout the city, so that the people could feel at ease. In the past, I didn't realize it, but after the changes in the past six months, everyone found that the Qingzhou Army had become a patron saint in everyone's minds, and only when they heard the sound of such drills, they were safe.

But Sun Tu is obviously not satisfied with this, and has been thinking of ways to recruit troops and horses from elsewhere in recent days, but at present, the effect is not obvious.

Today, after coming out of the barracks, Sun Tu gathered all these important people under his command together. When everyone gathered, they were surprised to find that there was a special person in the hall - Hu Rong. Although she is dressed as a man at this time, she looks particularly heroic, but the unique feminine atmosphere of women is still very different from the masculinity of everyone.

For Hu Rong, everyone actually recognized it in their hearts, and they also knew how much she had contributed to Sun Tu before, and many people still thought behind her back that she would become Sun Dujian's second lady sooner or later. But even if she has a noble status, it is still a little surprising to appear in such a serious meeting, and I don't know what kind of medicine is sold in the gourd of Sun Dujian.

Hu Rong also felt a little awkward sitting in the middle of this large group of old men, and peeked at Sun Tu who was sitting above him from time to time, if he hadn't forced himself to come, he would have wanted to leave at this time.

After everyone arrived, Sun Tu ignored everyone's strange eyes, and asked Qi Desheng first: "Are there more soldiers who have come back recently?" ”

Qi Desheng shook his head with a wry smile: "At the beginning, dozens of brothers could come back every day, but now they can't come back one or two a day, I'm afraid it will be difficult to increase the number of soldiers in our army in the future." ”

Sun Tu frowned: "Is there any progress in going to other state capitals to recruit soldiers?" ”

This time it was Yang Zhi who answered, and he also said with a bitter face: "Last year, there were really many people who came to join the army, but this year the situation is completely different, and few people come." This should be affected by the heavy casualties of our Qingzhou Army before, coupled with the fact that the Liangshan bandits are now powerful, everyone knows that after joining the army, they will likely go to war with the Liangshan bandits, and ordinary people dare not come. ”

"Yes, a hundred years of Yangwen and martial arts suppression have dissipated most of my eldest Song boy's blood." Sun Tu also said with a worried face: "But just with the two thousand people at the moment, let alone making meritorious contributions, it is very difficult to hold on to my Qingzhou acre and three points of land." So I thought that the soldiers still had to find a way to expand! ”

"It's easier said than done...... Unless you use the same means as Gao Xiang and them to force strong Ding to enlist in the army, I am afraid it will be difficult to achieve results in a short period of time. Huang Wenbing didn't say much confidently.

Seeing everyone's sad looks, Hu Rong was also a little anxious, but she didn't know much about this fact, and she couldn't say anything to boost people's hearts for a while, so she could only bow her head. But then, she found that Sun Tu was actually looking at herself at this time, which made her both ashamed and a little confused, what was he staring at herself at this time?

Others also found out about this, and they were also full of suspicion, but they didn't ask questions for a while, which made the scene a little embarrassing. And Sun Tu looked at Hu Rong for a while before he slowly spoke: "Originally, I didn't plan to use this method, but now it seems that only in this way can I strengthen the Qingzhou Army in a short period of time." ”

"Is there really a way for the eunuch?" Everyone's spirits suddenly perked up, and they hurriedly asked. With their understanding of Sun Tu, he would never talk nonsense about such a big thing, he must have really had an idea.

Sun Tu looked at Hu Rong and said, "There are too many men in my Qingzhou City who have joined the army, so it is naturally impossible to forcibly recruit other young men into the army." But it's not only men in the city who have the heart to serve the country, but women are actually the same, so I plan to recruit women in the city next and train an elite female soldier! ”

"What?"

"This ......"

Everyone in the hall exclaimed in surprise, all of them looked incredulous, if it weren't for the fact that this was really coming out of Sun Tu's mouth, they all thought it was someone who was stupid and said crazy things!

Who would have thought that Sun Tu would hit the woman with his idea in order to solve the problem of the shortage of Qingzhou army? What female soldiers are you still planning to train, not to mention knowledge, you haven't even heard of it. What is the use of a group of effeminate women to serve as soldiers?

After being silent for a while, it was Ruda who took the lead in speaking: "San Lang...... Governor, don't make up your mind to settle the affairs of the soldiers. This woman is a soldier but something that has never been heard of, how can they go into battle to kill the enemy? ”

"Yes, Eunuch, once this matter is really done, but how the world thinks of our Qingzhou Army, I am afraid that the imperial court will think that my Qingzhou Army is not right!" Yang Zhi also said out loud.

"To be a woman's husband and children at home, it's just a matter of sewing and mending, what is the matter of picking up knives and guns......"

Everyone said their objections one by one, but before Sun Tu could react, Hu Rong's face turned red when she heard it, and her eyes showed anger. After enduring it for a while, he finally mustered up the courage to shout: "Who said that women must not be able to compare with men?" If you don't believe me, you can try it with me! ”

"Well said, Sanniang has always been a woman who does not let her eyebrows, Yang Zhi, Qi wins, do you really dare to say that you can beat him?" In the midst of everyone's stunnedness, Sun Tu asked with a smile, but this made these difficult answers, so he could only keep his voice shut and not argue with Hu Rong.

The smile on Sun Tu's face gradually faded, and he said: "In the fields of my Qingzhou City, we can always see many women working behalf of their husbands, and there are many things in the family that they are helping men do, so why can't women replace men in the army alone?" Sanniang's martial arts are not under all of you, so other women can also be trained into a hundred battles, since Qingzhou men can no longer be recruited, why can't they be recruited into some women? ”

These questions were thrown one by one, and none of them could answer. At the same time, they have also understood, I am afraid that Sun Tu has been planning this matter for a long time, and today he only came here to persuade them.

This is really a bold and groundbreaking idea.