Yan Chongxi learned the news that Xiao Tianjian was coming to the ancient town in advance, so he rushed to the ancient town one step ahead of time to wait for Xiao Tianjian's arrival.

As soon as Xiao Tianjian arrived in the ancient town, Yan Chongxi immediately connected Xiao Tianjian to a courtyard used for inspection in the town, but this is now the headquarters of Yan Chongxi's first battalion.

"Why did the general come to the ancient town in person today? What is the matter of sending someone to order the last general, why bother you to make a trip yourself? As soon as Yan Chongxi connected Xiao Tianjian into the house, he immediately asked Xiao Tianjian.

Xiao Tianjian sat on a chair and smiled at Yan Chongxi: "I can't do this if I don't come here!" At present, a large number of displaced people have poured into our territory, and the food needed to resettle them is really not enough! If we don't solve this problem, then we may have a hard time in the next step! So I had to make a trip myself!

Let me ask you, how many ships do we have available on hand now? Also, how many of your men here are familiar with water? ”

After Yan Chongxi paused for a moment, he seemed to realize what Xiao Tianjian wanted to do, so he was slightly happy and immediately said: "Could it be that the general wants to rob the grain ship on the Yellow River?" ”

Xiao Tianjian smiled and said, "Not bad! Feng Gouzi just received the news the day before yesterday, saying that King Fu of Luoyang learned that there was a great hunger in Shanxi, and sent people to purchase 200,000 stone of grain from the Jianghuai area, which was going to be transported to Kaifeng through the canal, and would be transported from the Yellow River to Jiezhou in the near future, taking the opportunity to make a windfall, hum!

This dead fat man Fu Wang Zhu Changxun originally owned tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land, and his family wealth was more than 10 million, but now he still thinks that he has little money, so he has to take advantage of the great hunger in Shanxi to make a windfall, which is really not a thing! So since he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to get rich, then let's not cheapen him!

These 200,000 stone grain, we have to find a way to rob him, as long as we have these grains, then we have nothing to worry about in the future! ”

Yan Chongxi asked in surprise after hearing this, "There is such a thing?" That's a good thing! However, if these 200,000 stone grains are transported by ship, at least 100 of them will need to be shipped on a thousand stone boats, how can this blessed king be released from Kaifeng all at once? And it is estimated that the escort will not be short, can we eat it all at once? ”

Xiao Tianjian took a sip of water and said: "This matter should not be groundless, the news should be quite reliable, so I want to come here in person and ask you how many people are available now, and how many ships we have!" Let's see if we have a chance to loot this batch of grain!

Of course, it is said that it is 200,000 stone grain, even if this Fu Wang is powerful, of course he will not transport all the 200,000 stone grain at once, this time it is only the first batch of 50,000 stones, it is estimated that in a few days, it will be time to pass through the river in this area!

All we want is this first batch of 50,000 stone of grain, and as long as we do this, our food problem can basically be solved in a short period of time! As for the rest, our appetite is not yet big enough to eat them all! ”

After hearing this, Yan Chongxi immediately lifted his spirits, but after thinking about it for a while, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, and said to Xiao Tianjian: "This is a good thing, but I'm afraid it will be a little difficult to do!" We don't have many ships at the moment, and the boats that were snatched on the docks of the ancient town last year were basically destroyed when He Renlong came over at the beginning of this year! At the moment, all we can find are the Yellow River and the Haoqing River, as well as some small fishing boats on the Yun River.

As for the soldiers, I am afraid that there are very few brothers who are proficient in water, and most of the brothers are people who follow the general over in Shaanxi, basically they are landlubbers, if you want to find people who are proficient in water, it is estimated that there are not many people in the war camp, and if you want to find them, you can only choose from the township soldiers! After all, this area is the confluence of the three rivers, and there are many people who used to make a living by fishing all over the river. ”

After Xiao Tianjian stood up and walked back and forth in the room a few times, he thought nervously for a while and then said to Yan Chongxi: "This matter is really difficult to do, we didn't have this preparation before, and it is really not easy to do this in a hurry!" It seems that our strength is still a little weak! But after all, this opportunity is rare, and you have to do it if you don't have the conditions to create conditions! Even if we can't do it, we should practice it!

I also thought about it on the way here, this matter may indeed be a little reluctant, but even if it is reluctant, it must be done, even if it is a bowl of raw rice, we must try our best to eat it! These 50,000 stone grains are so important to us! No matter what you do, you have to rob him!

However, we also have our advantages, although we occupy Yuanqu County, but at the moment the government in Henan has not paid too much attention to us! Moreover, the Yellow River in this area is quite calm, and we have never done a ship robbery on the Yellow River, so the government would not have expected that we would suddenly do such a big vote!

At present, the ships on the Yellow River are still going back and forth between Jiezhou and Luoyang, and King Fu estimated that we would not expect that we would learn about his transfer of grain, and would attack his grain ship.

So be it! You go down now, and in this part of your camp there is still this area to select the best soldiers or village soldiers in the water, and find some more small fishing boats, and gather all the people who have been selected, and don't let them go home again these days, and prepare for this matter!" But remember, for the time being, only you and I know about this matter, don't let the wind out! The news was revealed, and King Fu found out about it in advance! Otherwise, we won't have a chance of winning! ”

After Yan Chongxi heard this, he saw that Xiao Tianjian had made up his mind to rob the Fu King's grain ship, so he didn't say anything more, he also knew that Xiao Tianjian belonged to that kind of activist, so he did what he said, and immediately began to arrange for people to go down to the first battalion of sentry men and horses and the villages along the river in the area they controlled to select the township soldiers with good water quality.

And Xiao Tianjian took Feng Gouzi along the bank of the Yellow River to inspect a circle, the current Yellow River is larger than the Yellow River that Xiao Tianjian has seen in later generations, although Shanxi is drought, but the amount of water in the upper reaches is not a lot, the river surface and quite wide, the widest place is several miles, when the righteous army was surrounded by the official army in Shanxi, it is the strategy of deception, taking advantage of the winter after the Yellow River froze, one day to cross the Yellow River, all the way into Henan, it can be regarded as exempt from the fate of being surrounded by the official army.

And now it is the end of April, the weather is quite warm, and the water of the Yellow River is relatively abundant, and the Yellow River in this area is not much different, and the river water is relatively gentle, so even after the Xingtianjun took control of Yuanqu County, it basically did not affect the river transportation on the Yellow River, through Xiao Tianjian's monoculars, he could clearly see that from time to time there would be some large ships full of goods on the river from time to time sailing in front of him from the side near the south bank, so he moved in his heart and gave birth to some ideas.

Yan Chongxi's movements were quite fast, and it took less than two days to select more than 200 township soldiers who had relied on water to eat among the surrounding township soldiers, these people lived on the banks of the Yellow River all year round, some of them were fishermen for generations, and some were farmers, but because they had lived by the water since they were children, they all had a good water nature, and twenty or thirty of them were selected from the soldiers of the first battalion, which was quite rare in the Xingtian Army.

What surprised Xiao Tianjian even more was that Yan Chongxi also picked out a deputy general named Yang Kunshan under his command, this person is a native of Ezhou, roughly in his twenties, and he was actually a water thief on the Yangtze River in the early years, but he was later suppressed by the government, and the group of water thieves who followed was scattered by the official army, and he escaped by luck, and then mixed into Li Zicheng's righteous army, with Li Zicheng to Shaanxi, Longzhou battle, he followed Li Zicheng to attack the city and was seriously injured, but when he died, he was rescued by Xiao Tianjian. After recovering from his injury, he was grateful to Xiao Tianjian for saving his life, so he followed Xingtianjun to Shanxi from that time.

After more than a year, this Yang Kunshan dared to use his life in front of the army, and he was quickly promoted from a pawn to the position of a team general, and became a middle-level officer in the Xingtian Army.

When Yan Chongxi asked who was good in the army, Yang Kunshan stood up and was brought over by Yan Chongxi, Xiao Tianjian asked about this Yang Kunshan, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he was looking for such a person, this guy said that he was talking about hijacking ships on the water, don't look at his age, but he is quite experienced.

Xiao Tianjian handed over the more than 200 people selected to Yang Kunshan's command, and asked him to test the water nature of these people separately, and eliminated dozens of unqualified ones, and the rest remained under Yang Kunshan's subordinates, waiting for Xiao Tianjian's dispatch.

At the same time, Yan Chongxi also collected more than 20 small fishing boats and two relatively large fishing boats in the nearby river, and handed them over to Yang Kunshan's gang for use.

Feng Gouzi has focused all his energy on the Luoyang side in the past few days, after King Fu's grain fleet came from Kaifeng, he first had to dock in Luoyang, and the Fan family, as a giant merchant in Shanxi, naturally often used ships to traffic goods from the south to Shanxi through the canal and the Yellow River, so as long as King Fu's grain fleet appeared, it would be immediately discovered by Feng Gouzi's men.

Although Xiao Tianjian didn't get the news too early, so many ships wanted to go upriver from the Yellow River and arrive at the Pinglu County Wharf in the south of Jiezhou from Kaifeng, but they couldn't go fast at all, so this also provided Xiao Tianjian with more adequate preparation time.

Taking advantage of the waiting time of just a few days, Xiao Tianjian followed Yang Kunshan and this group of newly assembled subordinates to start a high-intensity training in the Yellow River, and they did not have more time to prepare, only practiced some methods of robbing ships at night, and how to cooperate with each other to seize ships after boarding.

Doing things on the water is no better than fighting on land, Xiao Tianjian has no experience at all in this regard, and the reason why he wants to come here to do this this time is also forced to be helpless, and he has the idea of gambling on the boat, and now with a subordinate like Yang Kunshan, he handed over the entire scheduling arrangement of this matter to Yang Kunshan to be responsible.

After hearing Xiao Tianjian's plan, Yang Kunshan patted his chest and promised that he would rob King Fu's grain fleet for Xiao Tianjian!