In the middle of summer in June, even in the morning, it is very hot, especially after the morning sun rises in the east, and the blazing sun seems to be able to dry up all the water on people's bodies.

But even in such weather, there is still a team running around Jiangzhou City at a uniform speed and neatly, and their uniform slogan makes many Jiangzhou people inside and outside the city look sideways: "Be loyal to the country and protect my Jiangzhou!" ”

This team was naturally the Jiangzhou Township Soldiers, who had been ignored by everyone in the city before, but since they conducted a series of drills under the command of the newcomer Sun Tuanlian in May, they have gradually gained the attention of many people. Especially in the past month, they have been running around the city every morning shouting slogans, which is even more special.

You must know that now the soldiers and horses in the Great Song Dynasty are not to mention the township soldiers, even the Xiang Army and even the forbidden army have not practiced like this team every day, and perhaps only the last elite Western soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty who will fight against the Xixia people at any time will maintain such a tradition.

And what is even more eye-catching is that the exercises of this township soldier on weekdays are completely different from what everyone imagined, some people have seen these township soldiers squatting and jumping in a row in the barracks from a distance, looking like frogs, it is really ugly and ridiculous. Some people have even seen these villagers lying on the ground, relying only on their hands and feet to exert their strength on the ground, supporting the ups and downs of their bodies, which is really indecent.

When these rumors spread everywhere in the city, in the eyes of many people, the village soldiers became an extremely strange army, and everyone even secretly said that the new Sun Tuanlian was a madman who did not understand military affairs, and only relied on the background of the court to obtain this official position. It's just that it's hard to say whether this statement was spontaneously thought up by the people or a rumor deliberately spread by someone.

Only those who are in the ranks of the township soldiers know how much the entire army has changed by these seemingly strange drills arranged by Sun Tu. In just over a month, the original muddy village soldiers have been reborn, the soldiers are much stronger than before, both physically and mentally, people who will be out of breath at the beginning of the run, at this time they still have the strength to run three sections of the city wall, only the sweat on their heads shows that they are doing a vigorous morning exercise.

When turning back to the north from the east city wall, Yang Zhi in front of him suddenly shouted: "Sprint with all your strength, the first hundred people who will return to the barracks at the earliest today will have meat to eat!" ”

With these words, the soldiers who had always left their spare strength immediately shouted loudly, and suddenly exerted force under their feet, and rushed towards the military camp in front with all their might, and in a roar, more than three hundred people galloped away like wild horses that had escaped from the reins, and everyone was not to be left behind.

After more than a month of training, everyone has become accustomed to the reward and punishment system advocated by Sun Tu. Every day he would prepare a mouthful or two of fat pigs for the soldiers, but only the best of the day's drills would be entitled to meat. At first, it was the first fifty, and later it was increased to a hundred.

With this reward in the past, the training of the soldiers these days is extremely hard, even if they have been trained to the point that they can't walk the day before, they will still rush to the barracks in time to join the ranks of the drill the next day. What is surprising is that as the practice lasts for a long time, they clearly feel their progress, and now their whole bodies are no longer as sore as before at night.

When all the men had gone to the barracks and rested for a while, a group of soldiers brought them food such as water and dry cakes. After eating, these sergeants would first do a few sets of frog jumps and push-ups specially prescribed by Sun Tu, and then Yang Zhi and Luda would take them to practice the battle battle tricks of guns, sticks and swords.

Although there are only five or six moves to come and go, but the soldiers are extremely serious, each move will use the strength of the whole body, until noon, everyone will disband in the camp to rest, and wait until the sun sets in the west before a new round of drills.

Today's exercise looks no different from usual, the only difference is that Sun Tu did not watch from the sidelines as usual at this time, and gave instructions from time to time. In fact, today's Sun Tuanlian did not appear in this military camp at all, but at this time, he was actually in the state office.

The second hall of the state government, the main hall of the Zhizhou official hall, at this time, more than a dozen important civil and military officials in Jiangzhou City were all present, and after seeing the gloomy face of Taishou Cai Dezhang, the expressions of these people also looked extremely solemn. These people gathered together, but no one spoke for a long time, and only when someone took a sip of a teacup did they make some noise.

After being silent for half an hour, Cai Taishou spoke: "Presumably you should have known what kind of situation my Jiangzhou will face this time, right?" ”

Everyone glanced at each other a few times, and they all nodded silently, only Sun Tu, who had been in the military camp recently and didn't care about other things, was still at a loss: "Taishou, what happened here?" ”

Several colleagues looked at him in surprise, but only Yuan Wang opened his mouth to explain: "Just three days ago, three official ships from Tokyo were attacked by bandits on the Xunyang River. Among them, there is Jiang Qian, a Jiangzhou official who has just come down from the position of a waiter in the Ministry of Works. In the end, only two boatmen jumped into the river to save their lives and brought the news back to Jiangzhou City. ”

Sun Tu finally understood why everyone present was so nervous, that is, he was also shocked by hearing this change, and he couldn't calm down for a long time. The squire of the Ministry of Works is already considered a high-ranking official in the court, even if he has become a general, his status is also here. Those bandits actually dared to attack him, and the nature was no different from killing officials and rebelling.

What's even more troublesome is that this group of water bandits has been a disaster on the Xunyang River for more than a year, as local officials, they have been resigned to it, and have no idea to exterminate it, so that today's disaster has been caused.

"This official used to tolerate those water bandits because he didn't want to use his troops recklessly, but I can't imagine that they not only didn't think about fighting back, but intensified, and this official will no longer tolerate them. This time, we must completely wipe out this group of bandits before the imperial court orders a reprimand, do you have any ideas? Cai Jiu waited for a moment before he expressed his intentions.

Everyone bowed their heads slightly, and secretly said in their hearts that Cai Taishou's words sounded good, but in fact, he was just excusing himself. As early as last year, after the water bandits appeared in the Xunyang River, in fact, Jiangzhou City had sent troops and horses several times to exterminate them, but the result was that each time they returned with a feather, especially the one in March this year, which suffered heavy losses, not to mention more than 100 officers and soldiers, and also took the lives of several military attachés.

It was precisely because of the government's unfavorable suppression of bandits that the arrogance of those water bandits became more and more arrogant, and the entire Xunyang River was completely blocked, and even attacked the official ship and killed the high-ranking officials of Zhishi this time.

But with the number of soldiers and horses in Jiangzhou City now, can it really be wiped out? All those who know the inside story feel that they have no bottom in their hearts, so they don't dare to take too much of it.

Sun Tu fell into contemplation after being shocked, in fact, he had been thinking about a question, why this water bandit, known as "Fierce Jiao", was so rampant, and even made the government send troops several times to return home, to say that there is no greasy inside story in this, he can't believe it.

Although the Great Song Dynasty was weak, it was not necessarily difficult to control the place with the combat power of the official army compared to the former Tang Dynasty or the Liao State in the north. But the officers and troops here in Jiangzhou have been defeated by the water bandits one after another, which is too abnormal, they are not good at many people, and they occupy the absolute geographical advantage of Liangshan heroes.

Thinking of this, Sun Tu couldn't help but glance thoughtfully at Lin Henian, the capital eunuch not far in front of him, he commanded the battle several times to suppress bandits, is the problem on him?

His guess was suddenly interrupted by Cai Jiu's roll call: "Sun Tu." ”

Sun Tu hurriedly lifted his spirits, got up and clenched his fists: "Obey the order." ”

"I heard that you have worked extremely hard to train the township soldiers in the past two months, have you ever thought of taking this opportunity to make meritorious contributions to my Jiangzhou?" Cai Jiu's eyes showed a hint of expectation as he spoke.

Sun Tu immediately responded: "Xiaguan has already heard that there are fierce Jiao all the way to the water bandits who do a lot of evil on the Xunyang River, I am willing to lead the township soldiers to attack and break this thief!" ”

Cai Jiugang smiled with satisfaction at this answer, and Lin Henian, who was already a little nervous, immediately got up and said, "Taishou, the lower officials think that this is too dangerous. In the past year, our officers and troops have suffered heavy losses under the hands of these bandits on several occasions, and in March this year, we sent thousands of troops, but we were unable to bargain with them, and it was even more impossible to win by relying only on 300 village soldiers, but on the contrary, we only increased casualties......

"What does that mean?" Without waiting for Cai Jiu to react, Yuan Wang had already taken the lead in asking questions.

Lin Henian replied with a tacit understanding: "In fact, in the past few months, the lower officials have learned from the pain and thought of some ways to break the thief, as long as the troops are enough, they will be able to break the thief in one fell swoop." Sun Tuanlian, the township soldiers under your command should indeed be trained in actual combat after this period of training, are you willing to obey the orders of this official and jointly send troops to suppress thieves? ”

At the same time as he had just expressed his intentions, Yuan Wang looked at Cai Jiu, who had already changed color, like a double reed: "Taishou, the lower officials think that what Lin Dujian said is very true, it is impossible to break the thief with only a township soldier of more than 300 people, but if you let the Xiang army and the township soldiers join forces, you will be able to win in one battle!" ”

Looking at the performance of these two people singing and singing like a double reed, Sun Tu knew that this time even Cai Jiu would not insist on sending only his own people to suppress the bandits.