Liu Cong made this trip to the south, invited back two fierce generals Liu Pan and Huang Zhong, as well as three civil officials Jiang Wan, Pan Rui and Liu Min, and at the same time had the first contact with the three county guards, and both sides left a good impression on each other. Whether Liu Cong admits it it or not, this trip south is destined to provide great help to him in the future when he takes charge of Jingzhou. It's just that the effect won't be reflected until later.

When Liu Cong and the others returned to Jiangling from Linyuan County, it was already the end of June, and it was only a few days before Liu Cong's pre-arranged all-army martial arts competition.

And Zhuge Liang was also appreciated by everyone after listening to Huang Quan and others tell what Liu Cong did in the three counties, especially Zhuge Liang, he didn't think that Liu Cong was just passing by, but taking precautions and doing it intentionally. Liu Cong didn't explain this, sometimes it's a good thing to pretend to be confused appropriately in front of smart people. The more Liu Cong didn't explain, the more Zhuge Liang felt that his guess was correct.

After returning to Jiangling, Liu Cong threw Han Yi to Cai Lin for the first time, and when he was away, Liu Cong still had some time to take care of Han Yi, and after returning to Jiangling, he really didn't have time to deal with this little Lori. Besides, I am afraid that Cai Lin will misunderstand. Another advantage of handing over Han Yi to Cai Lin is to let Han Yi understand Cai Lin, so that he can retreat.

When everyone returned to Jiangling, Liu Cong re-divided the labor. At present, it is more than enough for the military generals to govern a county, including Wen Ping, Gan Ning, Wei Yan, Liu Pan, Huang Zhong, Wang Wei and Huo Jun. In terms of civil officials, Zhuge , Jiang Wan , Pan Rui , Liu Min , Liu Ba , Li Yan , and Zhang Bo are also reluctant. To put it exaggeratedly, Liu Cong himself felt that it was a waste to collect so many famous generals but nest in the small Nanjun.

Wen Ping continued to be in charge of Jiangling's military affairs, Wei Yan was in charge of training infantry, and Gan Ning continued to be in charge of the naval division. Two thousand men were selected from the existing infantry to form an archer battalion, which was trained by Huang Zhong.

Jiang Wan was appointed as the head of the Taishou Mansion, Pan Rui became Zhuge Liang's secretary, Liu Min was transferred to Zhijiang County, and the counties of Nanjun gradually came under Liu Cong's control. In terms of internal affairs in Nanjun, Zhuge Liang has the help of Jiang Wan and Pan Rui, and I believe that there will be more time for equipment transformation. Liu Cong also began to consciously increase tasks to Zhuge .

Of course, the skill is to complain to Zhuge from time to time, saying how the army is lacking weapons and equipment, and it is increasingly important to find ways to improve the performance of weapons. Zhuge Liang listened to it in his heart, and when he went back, he would naturally study it with Huang Yueying, which is a later story.

In addition, it is planned that after the all-army martial arts competition, 500 hardsuits will be selected as cavalry and handed over to Liu Pan for training. At present, there are only 200 horses raised in Gangneung City through various parties and the forty war horses transported from Youxian. Liu Cong's request was to keep the number of cavalry at more than twice that of war horses, and divide them into two groups, one for horse training, and the other for shooting and combat training.

The 200 team members who had been personally trained by Liu Cong were released back into the large army, and most of them served as captains and captains. Then, as usual, 200 students were selected for the next three-month special training. In Liu Cong's plan, he specially trains 800 grassroots officers every year, which is 2,004 in three years, which is absolutely good for improving the stability and loyalty of the team!

After leaving Gangneung for more than a month, everyone was busy reporting the situation, and there was good news in Nanjun. Li Yanzai's 3,000 mu of early rice in Zigui is about to mature, and the sown area of late rice is expected to exceed 10,000 mu. Liu Ba has planted 5,000 mu of early rice, but the harvest is expected to be average, and the late rice is expected to exceed 80,000 mu. Zhang Bo's public security county has also begun to take shape, and most of the families of military families have been resettled and allocated land.

The bad news is that Cao Cao followed the advice of the strategist Guo Jia and used the famous scholars of Qing, Hebei, You, and the four states as his subordinates, in order to win over the scholars. Yuan Shao's strategist Chen Lin was a famous soldier for a while, and before the battle of Guandu, he drafted a letter for Yuan Shao, with fierce rhetoric, counting Cao Cao's crimes, insulting and his family history. In order to recruit talents, Cao Cao took Chen Lin under his door, and made him and the famous Ruan Yu in charge of the bookkeeping office and specialized in clerical work. As a result, the hearts of the people of the four states were attached to Cao Cao.

After Yuan Shang was defeated by Cao Cao, he first defected to Lunu in Zhongshan County (now Dingxian County, Hebei), and then to Youzhou (now southwest of Beijing) to join his second brother Yuan Xi. Subsequently, Yuan Xi's generals Jiao Touch and Zhang Nan rebelled, attacked the Yuan brothers, and prepared to surrender to Cao Cao. The two Yuan Xi brothers fled to Wuhuan in western Liaoning (county Zhiyangle, now west of Yixian County, Liaoning).

In April of the tenth year of Jian'an (205), Zhang Yan, the leader of the Montenegrin Army, led more than 100,000 people to surrender to Cao Cao. Cao Cao named him the Marquis of Anguo Pavilion. 100,000 people, this Montenegrin army has surrendered like this, hey...... There is no room for Honghu bandits here in Jingzhou, and they only accepted 400 people.

These are the credits of Huang Quan's subordinates, although Liu Cong knows that he can't stop it, but he is still a little depressed, Cao Cao's recovery of Hebei is quite smooth. And he is still worried about hundreds of war horses, and large-scale armor is just a dream.

In a situation where the population and overall strength are far inferior to Cao Cao, elite soldiers are very important.

The only good news is that the state assassin Shi Gaogan has rebelled again!

Gao Gan was Yuan Shao's nephew, and Yuan Shao was appointed as the assassin of the state when Yuan Shao was alive. In the ninth year of Jian'an, Yizhou (now southwest of Taiyuan, Shanxi) surrendered to Cao Cao. In the second year, he took the opportunity of Cao Cao's army to prepare for the conquest of Wuhuan to rebel, and sent troops to guard Huguan Pass (now Taihang Pass in the northeast of Licheng, Shanxi) to guard Cao Cao. Cao Cao sent the generals Le Jin and Li Dian to attack Gao Gan, but Gao Gan refused to defend the danger, and Cao's army could not enter.

Gao Gan rebelled in advance, perhaps to save his cousin and alleviate his sins, but it also helped Liu Cong to a certain extent. No matter who in the north dragged Cao Cao for a day, he would buy Liu Cong a day to prepare.

Whether it can occupy an advantage in the confrontation with Cao Cao, in addition to talents, weapons and equipment are also a crucial factor.

Some time ago, Liu Cong was busy recruiting talents, and in the next step, Liu Cong plans to focus on improving the army's equipment, including the number of war horses, strong bows, strong crossbows and armor, etc. Just when Liu Cong was holding an all-army martial arts contest in Jiangling, news came from Xiangyang: Liu Biao planned to feast his ministers on the Mid-Autumn Festival, and scheduled to hold a martial arts contest on August 14 and a poetry contest on August 15.

The competition was organized by teams from the county to participate in the competition, Nanyang was represented by Liu Bei, and Cai Mao of Xiangyang was represented by the team, and each team of five people competed in a team competition. The poetry contest recommends no more than three people from each county to participate, and the county Taishou and Xiangyang celebrities are the judges. The winners of the civil and military conference will have a prize of 500 gold, and the second and third places will be 200 and 100 gold respectively.

Liu Cong didn't know whether he was happy or worried when he heard the news.

First, he was in urgent need of money to expand the army, but Liu Biao understated in Xiangyang that he wanted to take out 1,600 catties of gold to carry out this kind of activity to cheer up the Mid-Autumn Festival. Hey, if you want to do a state thing, you have to be in power.

However, since Liu Biao has drawn a big pie, although Liu Biao may be unintentional, it is purely a lively picture. But in Liu Cong's view, this is a rare opportunity to make money, and secondly, it is also an excellent opportunity to show his strength and improve his reputation in the state.

It's just that the poetry contest is good to say, with Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wan, and Liu Ba out of the horse, the only one who can match the entire Jingzhou is probably Pang Tong. And Liu Cong firmly believes that Zhuge Liang will be able to defeat Pang Tong in terms of poetry and writing, and even Jiang Wan will not be bad.

But this jousting tournament ......

Liu Bei's side, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, how can these three deal with it? In the team competition, five people participated, and if these three people didn't want to win one, the final champion must be Liu Bei's.

The key is that there are many people in Xiangyang who want to invite Liu Bei to Jingzhou, if he is allowed to lead his generals to sweep in all directions this time, wouldn't it be Liu Biao to set up a banquet to increase Liu Bei's prestige?

No, we have to find a way! He is definitely not the opponent of these three famous generals in terms of strength, although he is stronger in terms of skill, but these three are also experienced people, and it is only difficult to defeat them with agility and moves.

After thinking about it, Liu Cong decided to summon Gan Ning, Wei Yan, Liu Pan and Huang Zhong for a month-long special training.

The preliminary battle plan is that Wei Yan and Liu Pan will face the other two of Liu Bei's team to ensure victory, Huang Zhong will face Guan Yu, Gan Ning will face Zhao Yun, and he will deal with Zhang Fei and strive for a victory.

The reason why he thinks about it this way, Liu Cong focuses on Huang Zhong, although Guan Yu that Liu Cong knows is a martial saint, he is born to love arrows, whether the opponent is a famous general or a nobody, Guan Yu is always inexplicably hit by arrows.