Liu Yan saw that his son had considered all aspects maturely, so he nodded in agreement and said, "In this case, how many soldiers and horses do you plan to bring with you?" "In history, the reason why Liu Yan did not participate in the fight against Dong Jun was not that he wanted to, but that he was unwilling to put his son in danger, you must know that his three sons were all in Luoyang at that time, if he raised an army, Dong Zhuo would let them go? He values family affection, so he would rather endure the misunderstanding and scolding of the world, and insist on not wanting to raise troops. On the contrary to him is Yuan Shao, knowing that his uncle's family is in Luoyang, he still doesn't care about it, just to fight for a reputation, and raise troops against Dong, as a result, he killed his uncle's family, and he is extremely ruthless, perhaps because his father is such a person, Yuan Shao's sons have also learned a lot, and they don't miss brotherhood at all, so that in the end they almost fell out with brothers.

Liu Zhang said: "Five thousand is enough! After thinking about it, he said with some embarrassment: "When the child first came to Yizhou, the generals in the army were not attached to the people, and I am afraid that the military order will be difficult to carry out." Therefore, the child dared to beg his father not to match the child with a general. ”

Liu Yan said with a smile: "I know that those under your command are all powerful people, and they are extremely loyal to you, okay, I will completely hand over this army to you." I'll just give you a few military commanders to help you understand the situation of the army. But there are two conditions you must listen to, one, I let the famous general Yan Yan of Yizhou go with him, he has been on the battlefield for a long time, brave and loyal, with him, I am more assured of your safety; Second, there are 2,000 cavalry in Yizhou, I will give them all to you, and if there is danger, they can also take you out of the encirclement. ”

Liu Zhang naturally would not resist his father's transfer of Yan Yan, a famous general in Yizhou, to his command, and the cavalry was a big killer in the era of cold weapons, so he was naturally happy, but after thinking about it, he still said: "General Yan can go with him, but my father has not been in Yizhou for a long time, and there are cavalry, and no one dares to have two hearts on the Yizhou Plain, so the cavalry still stays!" ”

Liu Yan said: "In my heart, each of you four brothers is more important than Yizhou Mu, I would rather lose this position as State Pastor, than your brothers will be harmed!" ”

Liu Zhang's heart was moved, he knew that Liu Yan would not easily change his determination, so he said: "Father cherishes the child, the child understands very well, but why doesn't the child cherish the father?" What's more, there are still mothers, eldest brothers, second brothers, and third brothers in Yizhou, if the child takes all the cavalry away, the father's deterrent power to the counties will be greatly reduced, and if someone takes the risk, the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

After some arguments between father and son, Liu Zhang agreed to take away 500 horsemen.

At that time, Liu Yan decided to inform officials at all levels and ordered people to select auspicious days for troops.

Mother Fei and the three elder brothers were very worried when they heard that Liu Zhang was going to lead troops to fight against Dong, especially Fei's, who finally reunited with the family, but they had to separate their flesh and blood, pulling Liu Zhang to cry and whisper softly.

Four days later, in the Fuxian school field, Liu Yan read out the declaration of the chairman and swore to go on the expedition. Liu Zhang, dressed in military uniform, silk shirt and silver armor, took the sword symbolizing power from his father, stepped on his mount, and led 5,500 cavalry and Xun You and others out of Fuxian City.

Liu Yan, Liu Fan, and Liu Wei went to the city to look at it from afar, until the last soldier disappeared between heaven and earth, and then returned to the mansion.

Liu Zhang has no experience in leading troops to fight, but fortunately, Xun You, Xu Huang, and Huang Zhong are here, so he didn't make any jokes.

After camping on this day, Xun You and others came to Liu Zhang's tent, Liu Zhang got up to greet him, and said: "Gongda, Gongming, Hansheng, General Yan, everyone has worked hard!" In your opinion, how is the combat strength of this army? ”

It turned out that Liu Zhang had appointed Xu Huang and Huang Zhong as captains, and Xun You as the army. The 5,000 infantry was divided into two, and 500 elites were selected for training by Dian Wei and Xu Chu as Liu Zhang's personal guards; The remaining 4,500 people were organized into a battalion, led by Yan Yan and assisted by Huang Zhong; Five hundred cavalry were handed over to Xu Huang for training. In the past few days, they have all been in the army to understand the situation and be skilled troops.

Yan Yan said: "Childe, this time the state pastor is transferred to Gongzi is the first strong army of my Yizhou infantry army-Dongzhou Army!" This army is the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Nanyang, Sanfu tens of thousands of people into Yizhou, the state shepherd selected its elite training into the army, called the Dongzhou army, these soldiers and their families by the state shepherd's kindness, no one is grateful to Dade, bent on repaying the grace of the adult's life, so the morale is high, the combat power should not be underestimated! ”

Xu Huang said: "Yu Gongzi, I only have more than 2,000 riders in Yizhou, all of them are selected by the state pastor, and the training is hard and the food is abundant. According to the observation of the last general in the past few days, this army lives up to the name of a strong army, and it can defeat 2,000 infantry troops on the plain! ”

Xu Chu and Dian Wei looked at each other, and Xu Chu said: "The boys under Lao Hei and I are also good, obedient and strong, and they will not be worse than others in battle." ”

Liu Zhang nodded with satisfaction and said, "Although our army has a good foundation, we are going to face elite soldiers such as the Xiliang Iron Cavalry and the Xiyuan Army, and we should not be careless. You have to train your soldiers every moment so that they can truly become an army of tigers! ”

"The last general obeys!" Everyone said in unison.

After talking about training soldiers and marching to fight, it was getting late, and Liu Zhang ordered everyone to go back to their tents to rest.

On the fifth day of the army, everyone arrived at Ba County, and Ba County Taishou had already ordered the state pastor to prepare boats, grain and grass for Liu Zhang. After Liu Zhang thanked him, he commanded the army to start boarding the ship.

At this time, the Yangtze River has not reached the dry season, and the boat is extremely fast and convenient, Liu Zhang does not want to waste time on the march, so he begged Liu Yan to prepare a large number of boats for him, so that the soldiers do not have to hurry, they can train on the boat, and increase their combat effectiveness as much as possible, and there is a deep-seated reason for him to do this, which will be explained later!

On this day, Liu Zhang was holding a book of Sun Tzu's Art of War and was fascinated, he had read this book in his previous life, but he didn't know why it was, and now he has Xun You and other mentors and friends to explain, and he has benefited a lot. He was looking at it in a daze, and Dian Wei suddenly asked to see him outside.

After receiving the permission, Dian Wei led a small group of soldiers to salute and greet him.

Liu Zhang put down the book and said, "Qingwei, what are you doing?" Who is he? ”

Dian Wei said: "Childe, this person is one of the adult's personal soldiers, I don't think he is an ordinary person, so I brought him to ask to see Childe!" ”

Liu Zhang was surprised, he didn't expect that Dian Wei, a big old man, would stir up talents? It can't be like him, a well-limbed, simple-minded guy, right? The eight words of well-developed limbs and simple mind are by no means Liu Zhang's contempt for Dian Wei, in the words of later generations, they are nicknames! Such a person is loyal, has no ambition, and has him by his side, so that Liu Zhang can sleep at ease!

Liu Zhang raised his eyebrows, looked at the little soldier, and found that although he was dressed in ordinary soldier armor, he was full of heroic spirit, very extraordinary, he couldn't help but say curiously: "Oh, you can be valued by Qingwei, you must have something extraordinary, what is your name?" ”

The man stood like a pine, bowed slightly, and said: "Back to the adult, the villain's name is Zhang Ren, and now he is the head of the adult's personal guard!" ”