After many days, the fleet that went down the river to Guizhou also brought the news that Jiangling, an important town in Jingnan, easily changed hands.

"This is General Cao's thank you."

The person who came was Cao Shixiong's personal soldier, and he respectfully presented a stack of self-respecting gifts to Zhou Huai'an.

"The first batch of items on these ships are specially added to the virtual army. There are good kinds of silk, silk, gold and silver utensils, treasures, books, books, etc., and there are hundreds of craftsmen and family members and dependents. ”

"There are more things that are still on the ship later, so I would like to ask your officials to accept them with a smile."

"Well said. Everything is easy to say. ”

Zhou Huai'an couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and smiled unceremoniously. This is also the first time that he has taken the initiative to directly intervene and influence the wave of change and historical trend set off by the rebel army in the mode of some kind of prophet and divine stick; Judging from the results, it is clear that it is a relatively favorable start.

After all, in history, the encounter and ending of Gangneung City was much more tragic than it is now. When Wang Duo heard that the Li army was defeated, he ordered Liu Hanhong, the general of the army, to guard Jiangling, and led the army to Xiangyang. As a result, after Wang Duo left, Liu Hanhong led the crowd to plunder Jiangling and burned the city for several days, resulting in all the dead and wounded of the people; There are no two or three out of 10 local households; As one of the few prosperous cities in the world since the Tang Dynasty, the wealth and resources accumulated over the years have also been destroyed.

Therefore, on the basis of strengthening the basic strength of the rebel army, it is also a good thing to save and preserve more people and wealth in the areas along the way, and convert it into indirect help for yourself. And after initially having the reputation and expectation of this clever calculation, the next few things that are carried out secretly will be easier to produce the effect of half the effort.

Now Cao Shixiong is taking advantage of the situation to take advantage of the adventure to attack, after scaring Wang Duo away in advance and expelling Liu Hanhong, most of the population and goods in Jiangling City still remain intact and fall into the hands of the people in the rear compartment represented by Wang Chongyin and Cao Shixiong; This is equivalent to opening a channel for Guangfu in a short period of time, leading to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River basin and the inland hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River.

Of course, the premise of this is that they must be able to gain a firm foothold in a short period of time, defend against the counterattack and calculation from the imperial court, and ensure that all this in front of them will not be easily invaded by others. This further strengthens the other party's dependence on their own needs and cooperation in disguise;

After all, although the headquarters army near Huangchao can provide more help, it also means that under the demand of the large number of people, it will undoubtedly hand over the vast majority of the results and gains of the battle, as well as the dominance of the local situation. On the contrary, in the long run, they will not be able to share their achievements in leading Guangzhou, but will be able to provide more things.

Of course, this is also a disguised encouragement and impetus to occupy the rear wing of the Jiangling Army, and gradually break away from the influence of the Huangchao headquarters, which is completely a righteous and upright means that the other party will not regret and retreat.

And that's just the beginning. Zhou Huai'an is also trying to break the tradition of the rebel army, and never cares about and focuses on a certain historical inertia of the gains and losses of one city and one place; In some of the key areas they conquered, they supported the establishment of some local forces and provisional regimes subordinate to the rebel army; Of course, this effort also lies in some more long-term layouts.

For example, through this means of supporting the subordinate forces of the large and small rebel armies in the places along the way that the army has plundered, it gradually erodes and squeezes the national resources and strategic space that the Tang Dynasty can mobilize; For example, from the south to the north, the blood transfusion channel from the Jianghan Plain and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River basin was cut off from the imperial court, and in the east-west direction, the connection between the upper Jiannan Sanchuan and the lower Jianghuai region belonging to the imperial court was blocked;

It can also be said that this is also a kind of gradual change in the strategic situation in the balance of forces. Even after the main forces of the rebel army accumulated enough mistakes and declines in the future, they inevitably suffered a general defeat; There is also enough strategic buffer and room to accommodate retreat, to continue to preserve the remaining living forces, and to continue to fight and maneuver with the imperial camp for a longer time.

Of course, the ultimate goal of Zhou Huai'an's attempt to promote all this behind the scenes is also to gather strength for himself to expand his territory, gain more time and geographical buffers, etc.; Therefore, the priority choice to give advice and guidance has to be a volunteer general like Cao Shixiong, who is quite happy to cooperate with him and has close contacts in his daily life, he does not have the habit of raising white-eyed wolves without giving up his previous suspicions, or giving away favors for no reason and arousing suspicion;

Originally, in his expectations, the best and most ideal object was actually Huang Chao, but the lessons of reality soon taught him what is called his own pattern and historical limitations; He also has no certainty and confidence to be able to control the will and determination that this generation of heroes has formed; Not to mention the various variables and accidents brought about by those who have long gathered around Huang Chao, all kinds of people with different demands and thoughts.

Therefore, the breakthrough point that he can choose to make efforts and attempts can only fall on Cao Shixiong, who is still a mere general but has considerable influence and connections in the rear army; As for the others, they are either not high enough to obtain the qualifications to be independent, or they are just inappropriate or out-of-reaching.

Naturally, this aspect of consideration and consideration cannot be explained to others.

After the change of hands in Jiangling this time, Cao Shixiong not only obtained a relatively intact famous city of Dayi as his foundation, but also controlled the relatively developed shipbuilding industry and shipping hub in disguise; Therefore, we were able to quickly collect local ships in a short period of time and organize a sufficiently large southbound water transport fleet to come to Guangzhou.

Therefore, when this vanguard fleet returned, Zhou Huai'an also had people additionally loaded with salt, wine, marching rations, altar meat, dried vegetables, bacon, preserved sauce, and even shoes, socks, clothing, blankets and other recent production military materials in response, so that this other people who had entered Jiangling could expand more conveniently.

In addition, according to the list of subsequent fleets, in addition to the traditional gold and silver silk silk goods used for cash, Zhou Huai'an will also get more than 500 collar iron armor, 2,000 leather armor, 3,000 swords, guns and regimental badges, as well as more than 5,000 horn bows and wooden bows, and a large number of ordnance, including more than 3,000 crossbows; They are all captured from the local officers and soldiers, or they are standard armor stored in the arsenal of Gangneung Prefecture, and they are also like timely rain for the Sanjiang Army, which is currently accumulating strength.

Therefore, the shock and touch of these dozen boats of thank-you gifts for Zhou Huai'an was just a matter of a while; Subsequently, he ordered that most of these things should be classified in the public school, except for the books and pictures, which were left for sorting and screening.

Like silk silk, gold and silver artifacts, they were auctioned off and disposed of on the spot, and replaced with military reserves for the rebels; and the craftsmen were directly charged into several baggage teams; For example, Lehu or something set up a corresponding singing and dancing instrumental music performance team, which was used for entertainment in the army and daily mobile propaganda paper.

Of course, after summoning his subordinates to announce these decisions, Zhou Huai'an ordered them to choose what they wanted from among them, with the upper limit of what they could take; As a reward and reward for their efforts to work together for the community during this time.

During this period of time, they were each responsible for many different responsibilities such as mining, smelting, road construction, river control, tuntian, transshipment, and even clearing out mountain bandits, barbarians, and heroes.

Naturally, there was another scene and atmosphere of joy and excitement; For example, Huo Jun, Ge Congzhou, Zhang Guiba Triple Star, as well as Zhong Yi, Luo Nian, Lin Ming, Wang Ziming and other juniors, participated in and saw this kind of thing for the first time, and they were deeply touched and didn't know how to express it.

In fact, even Huo Jun, who was the most stable and reserved, couldn't help but be a little out of shape and called the lord on the spot, and vowed to do his best for the great cause he would achieve in the future, at the expense of himself. Because he seems to have consciously that he was not recognized and truly included in the inner circle of this emerging group of rebels until this moment.

Therefore, the most calm performance was Ge Congzhou, who was surrounded by Zhou Huai'an, but he couldn't help but be in a burst of laughter, but he also asked in a low voice with some doubts:

"Don't the leaders keep any of these goods for themselves?"

"Actually, the most valuable things have been left behind by me."

Zhou Huai'an didn't care at all.

"It's those books. Strictly speaking, it is a variety of knowledge that can be used to improve people's livelihood and help others change their circumstances. ”

"Don't you think this is the most precious and valuable treasure of time? . . .

"As long as you can learn the truth and apply what you have learned, this is also a treasure that no one can easily take away."

"Even those officials and powerful families can encircle, suppress and kill those capable people and people with lofty ideals by unscrupulous means, but they can't stop the likes of 'General Wang Hou Ning' and 'the people are not afraid of death, so why should they be afraid of death', and the concept and spirit of asking for the people's life to resist injustice will survive and spread for a long time."

Then, he tapped lightly on the table in his hand, calming the noise again.

"I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new charter as well,"

"I intend to do the law that all places and military gains must be included in the sacred treasury of the Gongzhong, and I begin to push from top to bottom to the places."

"The daily needs of the sergeants and soldiers of the army are according to the ration of rank and rank, and they are all taken from the public school."

"Of course, in wartime, it is still different, and the battle before the battle is based on the team and the fire, which can be based on the specific merits of the soldiers, the degree of division of labor, and the attendance performance... Each shares half of it, and the remaining half still goes to the public. ”

"You can have objections and suggestions...

"Respect the command."

"But by the command of the leader."

"That's a good idea, but please follow it."

Suddenly, there was a large number of voices that were convinced or felt sobbing in response. This also made Zhou Huai'an a little relieved, at least his subordinates have not yet formed too obvious vested interests and groups, even if there are individual noises that can't be turned in private, it is difficult to stop the overall trend.

(End of chapter)