Lu Peng was also helpless about the cavalry that could not be achieved quickly, but fortunately, he still had a back hand, that is, to recruit those horse bandits along the border and let them join his cavalry sequence.

Horse bandits, that is a ready-made cavalry, as long as they are recruited, and then they are integrated with strict discipline training, this is a shortcut, for this reason, Lu Peng did not hesitate to come up with generous conditions.

As a result, Zhao Yun replied painfully again: "I recruited horse bandits in the border areas, and according to the will of the lord, I forgave them for their original crimes and gave them the best treatment, and the result——"

"How did it turn out?" When Lu Peng saw Zhao Yun's expression, he knew that he was going to be disappointed.

"As a result, they only thanked the lord for his kindness and promised not to plunder our place again, but none of them accepted our recruitment."

"You didn't tell them about our good terms?" Lu Peng wondered.

"I told you." Zhao Yun lowered his head in shame.

"Did you not honor the terms I promised them?" Lu Peng looked at Mi Zhu dissatisfied.

Mi Zhu was very innocent: "We all know that the matter of the four generals is important, where do I dare to delay and intercept it?" You can go to my treasury now, even if I can't release the officials' salaries in time, the money for the four generals to recruit horse bandits will still be kept for the four generals. ”

Lu Peng's affection, this is obvious to all, who dares to delay the affairs of the four generals? What's more, it's not a personal matter either, it's a whole big picture.

Lu Peng was very depressed, but this was not the time to discuss this matter. In his heart, he can't and can't bear to blame the fourth brother, because Lu Peng knows that Zhao Yun is just a military general who leads troops to fight, but in fact, if you let him take care of the administrative side of things, it is definitely a landlubber on the shelf, and he can't do it, this is history, Liu Bei's three brothers, Guan Yu can guard one side, but Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun have always led troops to fight.

Liu Bei is not useless, he can become one of the three kingdoms, he does not have Cao Cao's treacherous and ambitious strategy, nor does he have Sun Quan's unique geographical advantages, but he has the wisdom to know people. It is precisely because Liu Bei is familiar with and masters the abilities and shortcomings of each of his subordinates that he has opened up a world.

It seems that in the future, when there are more ministers under him, he should assign a general who leads the army to join the army to make up for the lack of management of the generals.

"To what extent have we completed our expansion and training?" Putting down this thing that could not be completed for the time being, Lu Peng turned his head and asked Zhao Quan.

Zhao Quan replied respectfully: "Originally, we had 15,000 infantry, but after the lord began to issue a conscription order, we have now recruited 20,000 qualified soldiers. ”

According to Lu Peng's current investment in training and raising troops, the addition of 20,000 horses and horses has indeed reached the limit in terms of its financial resources; if it is according to other warlords, one out of ten, that is, one out of ten people should be a soldier, that is, it will be indiscriminately filled, which will not only reduce the local labor force, so that the local production and development lack stamina, but also let the combat effectiveness of his army plummet, and the final result can only be that the momentum is called hundreds of thousands, but in fact it is just a group of rabble, and after a battle, it may be a complete defeat.

Now the troops owned by Lu Peng, 10,000 soldiers, facing the 100,000 armies of other warlords, if they don't play conspiracy and tricks, make a dignified battle formation, Lu Peng's soldiers have absolute confidence and defeat the other party with one blow.

"However, against the cavalry of the grassland, if we rely on the infantry, there is still a root that is difficult to crack, that is, we can defeat them, but we can't expand the results, and in the end there will still be as the lord said, we can defeat the enemy a hundred times and a thousand times, but as long as there is one defeat, it will be a catastrophe, so I strongly recommend that the lord still take a defensive position against the Wuhuan of the grassland." Pan Feng cautiously put forward his own suggestions.

Lu Peng shook his head apologetically at Pan Feng: "General Pan's proposal is very loyal, but we must know one thing, taking a defensive position is equivalent to letting the Wuhuan people breathe and recover." And once they breathe a sigh of relief, our long border line is the point where they can break through at any time, and then our border line will be a sieve full of holes, which we can't guard against. ”

Standing up and walking to the front of the huge map of Youzhou, Lu Peng said with a melancholy face: "And you look at our terrain, we are a long and narrow terrain from east to west, narrow from north to south, once the Wuhuan people cut in, they can cut our entire control area in two, and isolate it into two sections, and then we will completely fall into a passive situation, if at this time, Gongsun Du in the east and Gongsun Zan in the west take advantage of the fire to rob, then all our efforts will become a dead letter." ”

In the face of Lu Peng's judgment from a strategic height, all the people couldn't help but gasp, the current situation of everyone, indeed, as the lord said, as long as the ruling area is cut off in the central part, then all the original efforts will be in vain.

"Therefore, we will fight this war against Wuhuan, and we will fight it if we don't fight, and it is better to fight it early than to fight it late, this is forced by the situation."

Seeing that the lord frowned and was in pain, Tian Feng stepped forward and said: "Why don't we strengthen the establishment of fortresses along the border, and use fortresses to block the invasion of barbarians, and wait for the barbarians to stop their troops under the fortress for a long time and become exhausted, so they will naturally go." ”

This is an ancient method of dealing with nomads by the Han people, but it can be regarded as stable.

At this time, Lu Peng stood up, walked to the lobby and paced bitterly: "Although this method is safe, there are also drawbacks here, the border between us and Wuhuan is too long, once 100,000 Wuhuan people go south, first we don't know where they fell from, we are on guard along the various fortresses along the border, we need too many people and horses, and the supply needs are huge, which we can't afford." ”

Mi Zhu deeply sympathizes, when it comes to money and food, Mi Zhu has a headache. Not to mention the salaries and drinks of the soldiers and soldiers who are guarding the border, it will cost countless people to rectify those border fortresses, not to mention that he is a small warlord, even if he was a dignified Qin, he also built a fortress to prevent border troubles and built a Great Wall, which collapsed a thriving old empire. How can this be good?

"The gain of trimming the edge plug definitely outweighs the loss, especially if we can't shrink like this, do you know when and where the Wuhuan people will call? A thousand days to prevent thieves is definitely not a way, the best defense is to take the initiative, Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall, did not be able to block the iron hooves of foreign races, the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not build a fortress, but let the Huns cry far away, there is a huge amount of money and food to repair the border plug, it is better to take out the training of troops and martial arts, take the initiative to attack, use these money and food to Wei Qinghuo to get sick, play a hundred years of stability, peace for all generations. ”

Listening to such bold words, the generals were all eager to try, but the Wenchen was sad and restless.