While most of the people were feasting and resting for days, I was busy counting the inventory and storage in the city with Lu Wuguan, with the pro-direct regiment, the army and the Yuhou group.

All in all, this venture into Xuzhou is a big gain. Compared with the huge amount of consumption we have had all the way down before, this time after getting such a large amount of input from Xuzhou, the rest is far more than enough.

This battle of Xuzhou was not fought in vain.

Although the part located in the outer city of Xuzhou has been burned and destroyed by the enemies who are raging everywhere, just the various material warehouses abandoned by the commander in the inner city of Xuzhou and Yacheng are enough to give the remaining soldiers and civilians in the city to continue to defend the inner city, and they are quite ample to hold on for more than half a year.

Although we have added the consumption of tens of thousands of foreign troops, it is no longer a problem to maintain the current level of consumption and support the green and yellow until the turn of spring and summer when the whole winter has already passed halfway.

Not to mention those military materials that have been hoarded in all kinds of ways, except for daily necessities such as food, clothing, salt, tea, wine, sauce, etc., have hardly been passively used.

The most important thing is that we have found hundreds of thousands of catties of barreled gunpowder, including both finely researched and shaped large-grained gunpowder and paper-wrapped fine-grained gunpowder, which is undoubtedly a kind of timely rain for me, a unit that relies on firearms to exert its combat effectiveness.

Although the previous battle outside Xuzhou City was successfully expelled, the result of opening up supplies and letting go of the fight was that most of our remaining inventory had been consumed.

In addition to the spare gunpowder in the hands of the formation, there is no surplus of one or two bases in the stocks that have been distributed to the battalions. That is, the intensity of several encounters.

Therefore, although a small part of it is damp due to poor storage and random placement, this result is enough to be satisfying.

On the other hand, although the departure of Shuai Si made my original calculation of extorting benefits and conditions such as identity, status, qualifications, soldiers, and supplies come to naught, it also brought another new opportunity.

Now, as the Northern Crusade Army, I can become the only remaining supreme command sequence in the Xuzhou generation and even in the entire Huaibei of Henan, and justifiably requisition these supplies and annex the remnants of friendly troops.

Theoretically speaking, if the other side is unwilling to obey, it can also deal with all kinds of "desertion" or "disobedience and disrespect" in the name of practicing battlefield military law.

As the defenders of Xuzhou City, there are still more than 8,000 people including wounded soldiers after the war, except for the remaining five battalions under Cui Bangbi's name, more than 3,000 battalions and escorts, the rest are scattered in six or seven numbers.

Under the strength of the people, it is not too easy to reorganize and annex them. Even Cui Bangbi, the commander of the garrison, who was the highest ranking of the defenders, expressed some willingness to lead his troops back, as long as I could give him a position at the head of the battalion.

However, I politely declined, after all, the situation has changed a lot.

There was also a commander there before, and he had to be restrained in all kinds of things, and he could only wait for the opportunity to merge the damaged allies to strengthen his own power.

But now it's different, what I need to annex is their respective numbers as the ceiling and reason for further expansion of my forces. Especially when there is territory and soldiers, it can be used as a supply and support to ask for more money and food from the country.

Even if the country wants to dismantle or reduce these troops after the fact, when negotiating with the DPRK and China, there are enough cards and bargaining chips for a fait accompli to bargain.

Therefore, I very clearly told him that in the case that the commander is temporarily unable to perform his functions, I need to retain his name as a camp protector. For this purpose, we can even draw capable soldiers from my command to help them replenish and enrich this camp escort.

Even other military trumpets can be handled in this way, but they must be under the banner of my northern recruiting army, and they will act under the unified command, and accept the reorganization and deployment of personnel.

When he heard this decision, or after the decision, Cui Bangbi's face almost changed, as if he was a little relieved and relaxed, and sighed a few times like some regret and loss, and finally he was still in a very complicated mood, and took the lead in announcing his acceptance of the decision in public.

This result naturally makes some people happy, and some people are worried, and they are happy that at this time of fierce battle and death, they can hug their hard enough thighs, and there is the collective strength of the army to rely on; The concern is the loss of old power and status, or the control and restraint of subordinates.

However, under the personal demonstration of the generals of the camp escort led by Cui Bangbi, at least on the surface, there were not many people and things who dared to openly oppose and resist this result. And for most of the ordinary soldiers in the middle and lower classes, they are generally happy to see it.

After all, after the defeat on all fronts, there was a stormy situation and an uncertain future. Most of those who survived would instinctively desire to be sheltered and held together by the collective army of the army.

So, after receiving sufficient supplies and rest, the soldiers and horses in Xuzhou City once again entered a vigorous army rectification movement.

At least, after the brutal siege of the city, those who are in the position of corpses, old and frail, and all kinds of unqualified ingredients that are hypocritical and indiscriminate, have been naturally eliminated by the battlefield.

The rest are soldiers who have a good will to survive and experience, plus a little battlefield luck. So it's not hard to just make it up.

And the judge who stayed in the remnants of the Shuai Division's organization was also very conscious of being regarded as an outcast, and he did not add any trouble to my actions.

It's just that when I happened to discuss in front of the deployment how to reasonably bypass these left-behind divisions, as one of the praise paintings of the auditors, the former junior Su Changsheng said an unintentional word, but suddenly reminded us like waking up from a dream.

"Excuse me, why do you want to bypass these left-behind officers?"

As the so-called authorities are obsessed, I have regarded Shuai Si as some kind of external control, and I have been respectful of it for too long. Forget all about jì,

Why can't we continue to use the name of the Division, even if it is an incomplete Frontier Military Division, it is also a legitimate Division. What's more, there are only a group of unlucky people who have been abandoned by the big people and have no resentment at all, and they also have enough practical needs and security guarantees.

So, after I asked the soldier who had always been an ornament to comfort him, he paid a visit to his home, and gave enough quid pro quo and guarantees.

This judge, who has the right to stay in the executive department, took the remaining personnel and documents of the executive department, and entered my bank account in a grand manner, which can be regarded as an endorsement of some kind of Cheng dù externally, and it is also an indirect statement internally.

Even the left-behind personnel of the Department of Power and Administration have corresponding functions, and they are also qualified to issue documents and notices at the corresponding level in the form of an order.

At least until the commander who withdrew south announced that he would resume his functions or be officially revoked, I could continue to use this name to make a big banner and seek maximum benefits and convenience for both public and private purposes.

This is another unexpected benefit after laying down Xuzhou

On the edge of the surging Yangtze River

The Tian'an Hall where Jiang Ning is walking is already a state of anxiety and hurry, and the atmosphere does not dare to mess around, these days one bad news after another, all of which make people a little insensitive, and all kinds of silence.

It took a quick announcement of a Pegasus to break the suffocating atmosphere again.

"Tell you...... Jiangbei to report"

"The envoys of the Southeast Military Department have arrived in Yangzhou and are waiting to meet ...... in Jiangdu."

This news made the courtiers and officials who listened to the palace in an uproar again, but there were also all kinds of discussions, and even the imperial history of the palace who was in charge of order couldn't be suppressed for a while.

In fact, after these handsomes broke through the siege of Xuzhou, they kept running south, so it only took four days to pass through the thousands of miles of Lianghuai and go straight to the Yangtze River. After being blocked by the river, it stopped again.

It's just that, as the price of a successful thousand-mile turnaround, the soldiers who went out to break through together at the beginning had already lost more than half of them when covering the crossing of the river.

Therefore, those who were finally able to arrive at the edge of the Yangtze River with them were already less than two or three of the ten stops, and they were all lightly armed and unkempt wolf bèi.

Despite this, these military leaders seemed to have been affected by the bad news and crisis in the north, and even if they had looked at the surging river, they still felt uneasy, and soon found an excuse to ask for an audience.

"This group of killers, and the face to escape and come back......"

The prison man shouted angrily.

"The national dynasty is in Dugi Province, in Henan and Huaibei. What about the soldiers of Huainan?"

"Could it be...... They have left them behind?"

But no one dared to answer or respond.

"Can anyone tell me what the situation in the north is like......

"The king is angry, and the ministers think it is ......"

An old minister with a wrinkled face said in a soothing voice

"It's still the same as the middle way......"

"The relevant people in front of the general are invited to ask the specific reason in court......

Compared with the chaos on the eastern route, the situation of the middle route army was better, under the leadership of the commander Wang Duanchen, after exiting Taigu Pass all the way, they regained a foothold in the Xiangzhou area, trying to clean up the mess, but because the responsibility of the army in front of the palace was too heavy, so that there must be enough people to come out to take care of it.

Therefore, when everyone else was killed or disappeared, Wang Duanchen could only continue to serve in front of the ransom army with the white body of being deprived, pending further punishment from the rear.

"Kyoguchi Urgent ......"

A voice that broke the oppressive atmosphere again.

"The three envoys who are in Yangzhou have already boarded the ship with Sui Hu and come to Jiangning......

"What ......"

The prison country shouted in surprise.

But at the same time, these marshals only wanted to return to the relative safety of the south bank of the Yangtze River, so they forcibly requisitioned the transport ships to cross the river, and they did not care whether they were comfortable and stable, and had already taken the first step to follow the messenger through it.

"Jingkou 100,000 are in a hurry to report ......"

Another voice shouted

In fact, something worse was already happening, because these commanders passed the buck to each other, and did not explain the personnel who had arranged the follow-up management, so they took ships and left.

And those surviving high-ranking generals also followed suit, leading their own soldiers to rob ships and crossing the river one after another.

As a result, these starving and unfortunate surviving soldiers had nowhere to place them for a while, and they could not find anyone to make decisions.

Consciously abandoned, they suddenly panicked and mutinied, and they had already begun all kinds of burning, killing, and looting on the other side of the Yangtze River, and the rising smoke column could be clearly seen even in Jingkou.

Therefore, when these bigwigs boarded the dock near Jiangning with the joy of the rest of their lives after the catastrophe, they saw not the lieutenant envoy or the minister who led the audience, but the sergeant in front of the palace who came to arrest him.

The audience was canceled, and the prison in Jiangning Stone Town would be the only place where the former military leaders would stay for a long time to come.

And the subsequent effects caused by this are even more severe and worse than they think.

In fact, as they fought all the way under the banner of Shuaishi for the roads and supplies they encountered, as well as the remnants of the soldiers who were left behind, the result of the ruin spreading everywhere.

The states and counties along the way, which had not yet been completely shaken, rushed to the top of the grain station and the patrol troops and horses, and the general collapse of the people's hearts and minds collapsed as a result of the collapse of order, and they rushed to abandon the defense and flee.