Outside the city of Changsha, the city of Tanzhou Prefecture, which is covered with war clouds, the former site of Taoguan City, which is located five miles southwest, has become a place where flags are like forests and tents; In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Du Rang was opposed to Xiangzhou, and Tao Kan was the commander to discuss the reason for placing this city, and now it is the base camp of the Chinese army where the righteous army from all walks of life gathered.

I saw countless fast horses and rangers carrying messages, like hard-working worker bees, coming and going densely and frequently. On the other hand, on the heads of the gatehouses in Changsha, which are waiting for a strict battle, there are groups of figures and piles of old and tall equipment and materials.

Compared with the previous battles in several major cities, this Changsha City, which is the observation envoy of Hunan, is undoubtedly more ambitious, and the Xiangshui surrounds the danger of backwater on both sides, so these other rebel generals who do not have much experience in conquering the big cities also have to be solemn and cautious.

However, relying on the momentum and scale accumulated in several states, the rebel army now gathered under the city of Changsha is often claimed to be 100,000, and presents a terrible scene of banners and clouds all over the mountains, swords and guns like forests, and endless joint ventures.

Moreover, in addition to the joint camp of these rebels, there are a steady stream of troops and different flags joining in every day; This also made the military generals and officials who were following the deputy commander of the camp in the south, who were watching the enemy in the city, look at each other in shock, and even Li himself was forced to calm down and said the words of the scene that had accumulated morale, and promised a lot of rewards to the nearby defenders, and then hurriedly led people out of the city.

In fact, when he saw this scene, he was reminded of some of the unpleasant past of the Taining Festival envoy; It was a nightmare in Yanzhou, and the town army that he relied on to run the city fled back to the city almost first with a light victory and then with a complete defeat in front of a clay-legged army sent by Wang Xianzhi with only sticks and door panels; Not to mention the terrifying number of mountains and valleys.

He has ordered the officials and people in the city, regardless of whether they are rich or low, to send people to help defend the army; Therefore, according to the household level, each household had to take out one-third of the grain in reserve, or three men to pay one ding, or pay the same discounted money and grain; And all businesses and owners also have to donate 30% of their families to ensure that there is no worry.

Although the grass thief came in a big way, he was a little numb for a while, but he was a little overwhelmed and made a lot of faint moves; But in fact, as the director of Taining Jiedu in a town, the experience is still there, and with the joint assistance and advice of the generals and staff brought over by the family, at least in the current deployment of various measures, there are no problems and omissions.

He can also take advantage of this justifiable opportunity to make a good fortune; And he has even thought about how to make a good fortune after defeating these grass thieves in the future.

As for the 50,000 troops handed over to him by the imperial court, they also need enough money to properly encircle and drive them to work hard; It's just that he was too ruthless in his previous efforts to hold on to money, but he ignored the rewards and supplies of these soldiers for a long time, in addition to the 1,000 tooth soldiers he brought out from Taining Town, which was beaten by Wang Xianzhi, and the 3,000 Shence troops allocated by the imperial court, and the 2,000 local Tanzhou unity, which can ensure that the priority food and clothing are sufficient;

There are still a number of Jiangling soldiers, Qingzhou soldiers, Yunzhou soldiers, Nanyang soldiers, Yicheng soldiers or something, which were originally the elite soldiers drawn from various towns by the imperial court; After Wang Duo, who led the troops out of the town, delivered it to him, he basically ordered this generation to find land and eat on their own. Although it was inevitable that the local people were in a state of uproar and complaint, it also made the observation that he was in charge of greatly reducing the possible bleeding and expenses of the money bag, and the bag with his left hand turned from his right hand to the bag of his right hand;

Moreover, even if someone sued his benefactor and protector, Wang Duo, who guarded Situ, Shizhong, Jiangling Yin, Jingnan Jiedu envoy, Zhudao Xing Camp and Soldiers and Horses, and was named the Duke of Jin, was also rejected by a sentence of "I don't know the general situation" or "regard the overall situation as the most important".

As a result, bribing those who fled to join the army and sought to avoid disasters and disasters benefited the public, but he made a lot of money for his subordinates in the shogunate; Many people who followed him to the post even bought a house in the local area, and became the new owner of the farm.

Therefore, after a period of "stocking", the amount of money allocated by these troops is now very large; Some are routinely paid at various levels (considered to be more conscientious); Some of the soldiers were unbearable and fled privately but deliberately did not make up for the military quota, and continued to eat empty food and clothing and steal military registration on the spot, and both ended the result of eating benefits;

So that after some soldiers raised their tents and beat drums, less than three or four out of ten of them could gather in the school field, and then some soldiers scattered on the spot in horror after hearing that they were going to go to the city to defend against the enemy, and some soldiers from local backgrounds hurriedly took off their robes and returned home.

In the end, even if he turned a blind eye to the point and gathered it, not counting the Tutuan soldiers who came with their own swords, guns, drums and boards in those places, in fact, the available officers and soldiers were barely more than 30,000 heads. Therefore, he decided to open the treasury of the state town and arm these miscellaneous Tutuan troops to meet the needs of the army.

In this way, it is also a tax item that can be used to collect a sum of "purchase money"; As soon as the battle to defend the city starts, you can wipe out the weapons and armor that are short and greedy, as well as the falsely reported posts, on the grounds of war damage, and then you can ask the court for money and food for rewards, and even more farewell and future...

There was nothing wrong with it all, except for the grass thieves outside the city who were uncontrollable factors. Why don't you send an envoy to delay the negotiation with the snake? In this way, he also has more capital to tidy up his internal affairs and stick to it, well, just send the one he hates the most, Fan Zhongchu, you must know that he relies on the identity of the imperial court to grant the imperial history, and he has not been criticizing many of his actions.

He also said that the great enemy should pity the people at present, and now give him a chance to practice what he said to protect the people, and see if he still has the face to shirk it, so that those grass thieves who can be deceived are day by day, even if they are cut by these mud legs, they will not be sorry, but they will go to a troublesome day long.

As he thought so, he heard a mountain of whistling and exclamations, and then several black dots visible to the naked eye swept over the city with a broken arc, and crashed into the residential areas of the city, and there was a stirring of chickens and dogs. Suddenly, his face was like dirt, and he shouted in a pitch-changing voice like a duck:

"Where are the guards, come and take me to the safe haven."

。。。。。。。

In the city of Guangzhou, in the Fanshan Annex, which originally belonged to the residence of the Thorn History, the main hall originally used for entertaining guests has long been emptied, and only the bright and clean four walls painted with the lacquer paintings of the crane Ling Song remain.

On a sand table that is particularly enlarged to represent the southeast half of the world on the route of the Righteous Army's strategy, between the geographical models of the undulating mountains and rivers, large and small prefectures and counties, passes, and walled buildings have been successively planted with small flags identifying the various departments of the Righteous Army.

Especially now, as the main direction of attack of the army, the Hunan Observation Mission has jurisdiction over Yong, Shao, and Heng Prefectures, and almost most of them are occupied by dense signs, and even Lianzhou, Daozhou, and Binzhou, which are used as partial divisions on the side, are no exception;

However, the different colors of the logos also represent the different states of the rebel army, such as complete occupation, partial occupation, being in a state of see-saw with local local regiments, officials and soldiers, and even being besieged or trapped.

And the reaction and response to this court can only be described as dull and stupid, mediocre and weak and incompetent; The state and county soldiers and the united and regimental training armies that the local government could organize became a joke about the collapse and flight at the slightest touch in the face of the morale of the rebels;

Its will and determination to fight are even inferior to the earthen regiments and village soldiers that have been set up in various places; So much so that before the rebel army could reach the front, there were still strange examples of organized officers and soldiers turning into bandits on the spot and plundering, and then being disarmed and annihilated by local local soldiers. Of course, this is somewhat related to the fact that Jiangxi has not heard of soldiers for a long time.

Under this great momentum of rapid advance, in fact, not long after the start of the Northern Expedition, all kinds of booty from the front flowed like water, full of truckloads and ships were transferred to the rear. Along with it, there was also news about the front one after another, which served as a reference for Zhou Huai'an to grasp the movements of the rebel army and the material for daily deduction.

This was also part of the private agreement reached between Zhou Huai'an and the rebel generals who participated in the Northern Expedition; In addition to maintaining the rear grain routes and routinely transporting some military supplies; All kinds of goods that they could not get rid of for the time being, or materials and specialties that they could not get rid of for the time being, as long as they were transported to Guangzhou by the return transport team, they were valued and distributed by others;

Then it is folded and turned into all kinds of expensive and portable gold and silver treasures, or the food, grass, armor and equipment needed before the army, and let people pick it up or escort it back. This can be regarded as a special environmental product derived from the flea market that was mutually exchanged in the army at the beginning.

In this process, the Sanjiang Patrol Army took turns to send escort teams with several regiments as units to deal with those displaced people and bandits born because of the war along the way, which can be regarded as a disguised training and actual combat atmosphere experience.

Therefore, Zhou Huai'an now has two different sets of accounts in his hands. One set is an easy-to-understand part on the bright side, specially used to deal with the left-behind envoy Meng Yan, who is specially leading the army and garrison, and Lin Yan, the deputy envoy who has begun to indulge in feasting and pleasure and presents three days of fishing and two days of drying nets, so as to meet their most basic needs for support and dispatch;

There is a more complex and elaborate set of internal accounts, which are used to maintain the daily operation and operation of local tuntian and governance, as well as the need to secretly accumulate materials and financial resources. It is also the foundation of his governance of these places.

As a peasant rebel army that is used to wandering around, it naturally doesn't care much about these details; However, as a potential emerging power base modeled on the Southern Han regime of the fifth dynasty, it is a completely indispensable existence.

At this time, someone made an announcement, and cautiously walked to Zhou Huai'an, who was standing on the edge of the sand table, holding a push rod and watching and operating.

"Deputy Leader Qi, the actions of the spy in the city have been discovered again."

Zhong Yi, who is now the third lieutenant of the Guangzhou City Patrol Brigade, said in a low voice

"Oh, what is the situation, tell me about it."

Zhou Huai'an couldn't help but put down the pole of deduction in surprise;

In fact, after capturing the remnants of the government from Dongkezhai, he was quite attentive to arranging people to track them down; In terms of selection, the leaders of the old rebel army were completely abandoned, and these people who did not have much power to be selected from the army were responsible. However, the General's Mansion was a little unimpressed with this, and there was no follow-up, which brought the investigation to a halt.

And now that he has regained control of the governance of Guangfu in disguise, he did not hesitate to send additional manpower and resources to restart this work; It's just that after some drastic action, it is true that the deputy car has cleaned up a lot of dirt and dirt, but it still lacks a key clue for the main owner of the investigation.

"Didn't you always suspect that there were thieves in the General's Mansion, and even in the left-behind division, but you have been unable to find the essentials all the time?"

Zhong Yi was quite cautious.

"It's to simply leave a few live bait under it. Let the people of the investigation team and the census team take turns to keep an eye on it day and night. It also makes people go back and forth to check the left and near, and do the momentum of scaring the snake. ”

Zhou Huai'an couldn't help but sigh slightly, this subordinate has already learned to fish law enforcement without a teacher.

As a result, there were really a few people who were secretly suspicious of ghosts, and they couldn't help but go out to other places overnight,。。 And four of them have tried to get out of the city one after another. ”

"The last one left went to several places in a row, and finally disappeared in the Qingyuan Mansion in the Great East Gate."

Speaking of this, he took a slight breath before saying.

"It's because I don't dare to be good at it, so I'm here to ask the deputy leader for the next move...

"It's Qingyuan Mansion."

Zhou Huai'an couldn't help but sigh.

If he remembered correctly, this was the envoy in charge of military resources, food, armaments and equipment in the General's Mansion, and Huang Xin, one of the sons and nephews of the "Eight Sons of the Yellow Gate", occupied a special place in the city as a place to support concubines and entertain guests; A characteristic garden that originally belonged to a naturalized Hu Dajia and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to govern.

And this Huang Du envoy was once the nominal direct boss of Zhou Huai'an, the grain judge, so it is no wonder that even if he is as bold as Zhong Yi, he has to worry about his own thoughts. However, since Huang Xin and his dependents went north with the General's Mansion, there are only some old and weak people left in it to take care of the family, so the scope of the investigation has actually been greatly narrowed.

"Keep looking, why not. There must be no appeasement."

After Zhou Huai'an made such a calculation, he said to Zhong Yi righteously

"It's just a matter of paying a little attention to the means and skills. I need you to make a reason and say something. ”

(End of chapter)