Liu Cong has to be very vigilant about the movements of the mountain bandits, this is also no way, the current situation, Cao Cao has the initiative, Jingzhou is really inferior to Yizhou and Yangzhou in terms of geographical location, even a little senseless loss, for Jingzhou, for Liu Cong may lead to changes in the situation in the future.

Therefore, as soon as he heard that Chen Lan wanted to move to Jiangxia, Liu Cong immediately sent the general Gan Ning and appointed Xu Shu as a military advisor (supervising the army). Gan Ning has long been accustomed to Liu Cong's arrangement. Since following Liu Cong, Liu Cong has emphasized victory, the reason is very simple, Jingzhou is weak, he can't afford to lose, and he can't afford to consume, that kind of war of attrition, a sea of people, Liu Cong will never dare!

As for the military advisor Xu Shu, Gan Ning is also very respectful, for no other reason, Liu Cong respects Xu Shu very much. When Gan Ning arrived in Jingzhou, Liu Cong was the first person to appreciate and reuse Gan Ning, and Gan Ning was convinced that Liu Cong had his own reasons for respecting Xu Shu.

And Jiangxia Taishou Ma Liang didn't dare to slack off when he saw that Liu Cong attached so much importance to it, and while hurrying to prepare grain and grass, he asked Huang Jie and Huo Jun to return to Gan Ning's account to listen to the order! Liu Cong's attention, coupled with Ma Liang's support, Gan Ning stayed in Shaxian for a day, and then led a total of 20,000 land and water infantry to set off towards the border.

Speaking of which, Chen Lan and Lei Shu are also talents, and when they saw that Yuan Shu was not good, they decisively led the team into the mountain, and even Yuan Shu was defeated and did not let him enter the mountain. Chen Lan's choice of the counties on the west side of Lujiang County as the base also had considerable considerations.

In the harmonious future, this is Dabie Mountain, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui revolutionary base! The team is entrenched in the mountains, down the mountain to the east is Lu'an, Hefei, to the west is Jiangxia's Qichun Kingdom, to the south is the Yangtze River, belongs to the junction of the three counties, and now it is the dividing point of the three forces, plus the cover of the mountain, Chen Lan and others are also mixed with the wind and water!

In the past, Chen Lan and others chose to go down the mountain to the east to plunder the counties of Lishan and Taihu Lake during the harvest season. This year, because Sun Quan began to attack Hefei at the beginning of the year, Cao Cao successively sent troops to increase the number of troops, and the entire Lujiang County strengthened its vigilance, especially Cao Cao's opening of Shaobi Tuntian, which made Chen Lan feel threatened, and the living space was seriously compressed.

That's why I wanted to try my luck in Jiangxia County on the west side of Dabie Mountain. In Chen Lan's opinion, the road to the east was gradually blocked, and the water battle of crossing the Yangtze River in the south was not something that they were good at.

And Gan Ning led the troops to go ashore not far from Xiakou, leaving two thousand sailors as a response, which was also Xu Shu's idea, Gan Ning led his troops to intercept the mountain bandits with great fanfare, in case the Chaisang naval army raided Jiangxia, then these two thousand people will take on the heavy responsibility of delaying and reporting the news, so that Shaxian City can prepare and Gan Ning's department can quickly return to defense.

As soon as the troops entered Qichun, there were displaced people running westward one after another, and when they asked, they learned that a few days ago, a small group of mountain bandits had entered Qichun, and in the past few days, there have been more and more mountain bandits, and some timid people have fled with their families.

Knowing that the mountain bandits had entered the border, Gan Ning urged his subordinates to advance quickly, and finally arrived at Qichun at ten o'clock in the evening. Seeing the arrival of the army, Qi Chun almost knelt down for Gan Ning. The notoriety of Chen Lan and others in Qichun City has long been heard of, and Qi Chun is only five hundred county soldiers, and some wealthy families have temporarily made up three or four hundred families to hand over to Qi Chun's command.

But in the face of more and more inbound mountain bandits, Qi Chunxiang can only do is to stick to the county seat and wait for reinforcements, the reinforcements are less than a day, there will be countless villages and towns nearby, if it is less than ten days and half a month, the mountain bandits may attack the county town to burn and loot, so Qi Chunxiang these days can be described as a year, fortunately, the reinforcements are finally here, and the scale is not small, there are nearly 20,000 people.

After entering Qichun, Gan Ning, Xu Shu and others inquired in detail about the details of the mountain bandits' rebellion in the past few days, trying to find out some of the mountain bandits' movements, but the results were very disappointing, these mountain bandits are really human spirits, sometimes go down the mountain in the middle of the night, rob in the early morning, seize property, food and disappear quickly, and the number of the team is very unfixed, sometimes five hundred, sometimes a thousand, so even how many mountain bandits have come to Qichun recently, no one can say clearly.

Gan Ning looked at Qi Chunxiang a little helplessly, shook his head, he can't blame, as the magistrate of a border county, he can guarantee that the city will not be captured by a large number of mountain bandits before the arrival of reinforcements, it is not bad, when Zigui rebelled, Zigui County Commander and County Lieutenant failed to support for a few days, and this Chen Lan's momentum is huge, and Qi Chun cannot take the initiative to attack, so it is understandable that he can't figure out the enemy's situation.

The local officials in Qichun were immediately ordered to organize grain and grass and settle the soldiers, and selected guides to prepare for a counterattack. Gan Ning, on the other hand, held a meeting of military divisions with several major generals.

"Strategist, what should I do with this situation now?" The order Gan Ning received was to expel the mountain bandits at the lowest cost, and it was impossible to wait for the mountain bandits to attack the county seat, and only before most of the towns and villages were disturbed, find the mountain bandits, and eliminate or expel them in order to stabilize the situation as soon as possible.

"Qichun is close to the mountains, and the mountain bandits come and go freely, and once they know that our army is stationed in Qichun, they will definitely close their doors or choose other counties and countries as their targets. It's hard for us to track down, so let's send someone to the mountains tomorrow to chop wood and see if we can lure some of the bandits. There are also many mountain people in the mountains, who are not familiar with Chen Lan and other mountain bandits, and some of them may have been plundered, and it may be much easier to expel the mountain bandits if they can get their support. "This is Xu Shu's first battle in the real sense of the word when he returned to Liu Cong, as a general of the expedition to the south, he was engaged in Zhonglang, and he just took the opportunity to show himself in the bandits.

"This plan is very good, tomorrow I will order the sergeant to pretend to be a firewood man to go up the mountain to cut wood, and then lead people to ambush at the foot of the mountain......"

"The general is the commander of the first army, and he can't take risks in person, just leave the ambush to Captain Huo and Captain Huang. Tomorrow, two lieutenants will be invited to set up an ambush with 2,000 infantry each on the north and south sides of Qichun to set up an ambush in the mountains and lead 5,000 troops to patrol the towns and villages to prevent the mountain bandits from continuing to attack. ”

"Hey, you're a military advisor, everyone else is a military advisor, and you're obviously stealing credit from me." Xu Shu arranged it like this, and Gan Ning didn't feel that there was anything wrong, so he had to joke. Liu Cong has always emphasized that it is easy to get a general in a thousand armies, and now he is also a general in Jingzhou, and it is the safest to dispatch in the middle before discovering the enemy's situation. So on the second day, everyone split up, with Xu Shubu moving the most.

And Chen Lan didn't expect the Jiangxia officers and soldiers to come so quickly. Chen Lan and Mei Cheng had only 5,000 people in their department, and the other 5,000 people were under the command of Lei Shu. Coming out to grab food is naturally not as good as attacking the city, so there are still 1,000 people left in the cottage, and the remaining 1,000 people are along the way as a response, and only 3,000 people really enter Qichun, and in order to improve efficiency, 3,000 people are divided into several shares, some are 1,000, and some are 500.

Xu Shu led 5,000 infantry from Qichun and advanced all the way to the mountain, which suddenly made Chen Lan and others feel the pressure. Originally, the combat effectiveness, weapons and equipment of the mountain bandits were inferior to those of the officers and men, and coupled with the numerical inferiority, once they encountered the officers and soldiers, they would definitely be defeated! As a result, some mountain bandits who were about to go out of the mountains to rob and rob retreated to the mountains to discuss countermeasures.

Xu Shu is a young man who has the ability to practice martial arts, a good swordsmanship, and the things of marching and fighting are naturally difficult for him, and the first day of patrol is fruitless, that is, the troops led by him are divided into two, and patrol back and forth along the mountain range, northwest and southeast, so that the mountain bandits are also helpless. For three days in a row, no more incidents of infestation in the township were reported in Qichun, but the mountain bandits also lost their trace.

These are all in Xu Shu's plan, according to Liu Cong's instructions, the first step of the army is to quickly stabilize the situation, now the mountain bandits no longer frequently come out to loot, the local people have gradually quieted down, and the phenomenon of fleeing with their families has decreased significantly. This is Liu Cong's first goal, rather than exterminate a mountain bandit, can not let the local people lose confidence in the ruler of Jingzhou, Liu Cong also counted on the people of Lujiang, Runan, Yuzhang and other counties to come, if Chen Lan is so disturbed, who will dare to come in the future?

Of course, stabilizing the situation is only the first step, since thousands of mountain bandits have descended the mountain, they will definitely not be willing to grab something, and the next ambush is the focus of Xu Shu's plan. Xu Shu soon proposed a bold plan to Gan Ning, five townships near the mountains in Qichun, each township arranged two infantry, Xu Shu took 3,000 to post, and 6,000 in Qichun City as a response at any time. And strictly require that it is strictly forbidden to enter the mountain in the near future, otherwise it will be punished as a gangster.