In the blink of an eye, it is the middle of the first month of the tenth year of Jian'an, Yecheng, Jizhou.

Lao Cao is not a reckless soldier. After spending so much effort to conquer Yecheng, the base camp of the Yuan clan, the army on the opponent is now resting.

In any case, conquering Yecheng is tantamount to shaking the foundation of the Yuan clan, and for a long time, the Yuan clan has been Lao Cao's most powerful and terrifying opponent. Now that he can sit in the gorgeous palace in Yecheng to drink and talk and laugh, Lao Cao will always be a little complacent, at least at this time, he is lying on the throne on all fours, listening to Guo Jiayu report things everywhere.

Everything else is easy to say, basically all of them are expected by Lao Cao, but there is only one thing that caught Lao Cao's attention:

"Bonghyo, what did you just say? Not long ago, two bands of pirates clashed at sea off the coast to the east of Nanpi? ”

Guo Jia nodded vigorously: "One of them is Guan Cheng, who has been plundering the counties of the East China Sea for a long time (a character mentioned in the biography of Cao Cao in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), and his people take Chunyu as their nest. When the autonomous public army attacked Hebei, Guan Cheng took advantage of the chaos to plunder the people along the coast of the plains and Nanpi. As for this other team......"

Lao Cao frowned: "Can't find the origin?" ”

Guo Jia shook his head: "I can't find it, I've never heard of this group of pirates before." However, according to the detailed report sent by Jia, there were no less than 5,000 people in charge, and about 300 large and small ships, which were almost destroyed in the First World War! Later, he found a few thieves who drifted back to the shore and escaped from death, and learned from them that this group of pirates who suddenly appeared had only a dozen ships, but they were all huge ships that they had never even seen, and at the time of the naval battle, they had never even raised their sails. In the words of these little pirates, the naval battle together is really a tiger into the flock...... No. They are not even sheep. Compared to those giant ships, those ships of theirs are no different from chickens and ducks at all! ”

Guo Jia's description is very apt, and Lao Cao is not a person who has never seen a ship. After hearing Guo Jia say this, Lao Cao could roughly imagine the scene at that time, and immediately locked his eyebrows and said: "More than 5,000 people, more than 300 pirates." It was almost destroyed in one battle...... The combat power of this group of pirates with no origin should not be underestimated! Fengxiao, is it true that you can't find out where they came from? If there is something to be done, Lone would like to take this group of pirates under Lone's account, and it will be of great use in the future! ”

At this time, Lao Cao actually already had the heart of the southern expedition, and when he heard that he had such water combat power, he would naturally be tempted.

Guo Jia shook his head again: "I can't find it." Generally speaking, although pirates do things at sea, they will always have their own nest of docking. However, along the coasts of Qing, Xu, and Youzhou, I have never heard of such a group of pirates. According to those little pirates who escaped death, this group of pirates came from the east, and it is unknown that they may be pirates from a certain country in Dongyi. ”

Dongyi is the collective name of the Han Dynasty for the three Hans, Wa and other foreign areas in the east.

"Dongyi!?"

As soon as Lao Cao heard this word, the two thin eyebrows almost didn't screw together. Lao Cao is also a self-aware person, and understands that although his current strength has increased greatly, it is still unrealistic to want to reach out to Dongyi. On the other hand. Lao Cao is now full of confidence in the great cause of unifying the north, but for such a Dongyi pirate fleet that suddenly came out. Maybe it won't be a big trouble in the future, but it will definitely give Lao Cao a headache. In case of any event, if this powerful pirate fleet is a fleet secretly supported by some Dongyi country......

Guo Jia is the person who knows Lao Cao's thoughts best, looking at Lao Cao's expression, Guo Jia smiled faintly: "Don't worry, lord." Ruojia expected that this group of pirates was by no means the fleet of a certain country in Dongyi. Because most of the Dongyi countries are poor and impoverished, they definitely don't have the strength to afford such an elite giant ship, and ordinary pirates are even more impossible. ”

Lao Cao raised his eyebrows: "What does Feng Xiaoyan mean?" ”

Guo Jia smiled again: "My lord still remembers that there was a person who built several sea ships that could go to Yizhou overseas a few years ago and used them to do business. Just really. No one here in the Central Plains knows where he will be able to go. ”

Lao Cao reacted: "Are you talking about Lu Yihao?" ”

Guo Jia nodded: "Maybe Jia doesn't know much about the national conditions of the Dongyi countries, but Jia thinks that it is impossible for these poor countries to build such a sophisticated sea giant." He seems to be the only one who is capable of building such a great ship and has dealings with all parts of the coast. ”

Lao Cao narrowed his eyes: "Feng Xiao's words are wrong, when it comes to the business of ships, Dongwu should be the most." ”

Guo Jia shook his head: "Don't forget, the Soochow Sun clan at this moment is still reluctant to take care of itself, where can they have the spare strength to send such an elite fleet north?" Moreover, since the death of Sun Ce in Eastern Wu, Sun Quan succeeded to the industry without a crown, and the strong in the territory was not convinced, if there was really such an elite fleet, just stay in its territory to deter the heroes, how could it be allowed to go north to plunder? In contrast, Lu Ren's kid didn't have such concerns. In addition, one is that he is proficient in this way, and he can completely build elite sea ships; Second, this kid has been in business for many years, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is making money every day, and he has Yizhou as his home, so he can not only build it, but also afford it. ”

Lao Cao nodded suddenly, but in a blink of an eye, anger surged up: "This Lu Yihao! What the hell is he trying to do? Back then, he promised to defect and didn't remember his sins, but now he has done the work of a pirate, which is really an inch! ”

Guo Jia advised: "Don't be annoyed, lord. First, Jia is still only speculating, and he does not dare to conclude that this group of pirates is sent by Yihao; Second, if he was really sent by Yihao, he should also disdain the pirates, so Jia expected that he intended to make profits, but he was not really doing robbery. ”

"How so?"

Guo Jia analyzed: "Since ancient times, it is difficult to escape the word fame and fortune, at least although Yihao, this kid has no intention of being an official, but he is very interested in making money to support his family. And he didn't have the power to compete for the county, and took the county that could produce the goods he needed as his own. If he fights with the lord, he will lose to the sky. He was a smart man and would never make such a loss-making deal. Therefore, Jia carefully thought that his fleet would fight with the thieves, most of them happened to meet on the way to trade, so he simply came to the black and black, and destroyed the pirates who might have hidden dangers in his shipping lane. ”

Lao Cao's brows eased a lot after hearing this, and after thinking about it again, he smiled and said: "If this is the case, Yihao can also be regarded as Yu Gu's merit...... Forget it, ignore him. Fengxiao, in your opinion, what should you do now? ”

Guo Jia also said with a smile: "At present, the spring cold has not subsided, and the army of the lord has been exhausted so far, and the money and food mobilized from Xu Du are still a little unable to keep up. In this way, the lord may wish to rest the army for a little more time, one is to wait for the spring to be warm so that the army can use the army, and the other is to send all the grain and grass so that the army has no worries. Besides...... Let's take a look at the Yuan brothers, whether they will be bitten by Yihao's mosquito. As far as I know, Yihao built a city and settled in Yizhou, and there are not a few displaced people who have been gathered. And he has an enmity with the Yuan brothers, if he can make the Yuan brothers unhappy, he is very willing. ”

Lao Cao laughed, and Guo Jia also laughed. However, when Guo Jia was laughing, he secretly said in his heart: "Stinky boy, the lord still doesn't know that you actually know the truth about Wan'er's death, and I can only help you here." But don't overdo it......"

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Will the bite be too annoying? The actual situation is that in the next month or so, Yuan Tan is almost annoyed!

But how could Lu Ren send people to rob along the coast? To put it bluntly, it is nothing more than taking advantage of the war to grab the population in a hurry. For this reason, Lu Renke specially told Shirley to ask Gan Ning, who had returned from Luzon, to form a fleet to do this.

Who is Gan Ningna? When it comes to getting on a boat and robbing these things, that's Gan Ning's old business! And at this time, Gan Ning was already "cool and strategic", and he had a good grasp of when he could fight and when he couldn't. Especially after defeating the pirates in Guan Cheng in one fell swoop, Gan Ning recruited nearly 2,000 people, and the strength of the fleet has also been greatly expanded, and with these people, he has become familiar with the geographical environment of the coastal area.

In short, from the first tentative attack to the subsequent successive captives, in just two months, Gan Ning took nearly 10,000 people from the coast of Nanpi and defeated Yuan Tan's army several times...... Of course, all small troops. really encountered a larger force, Gan Ning ran quite fast. Anyway, as soon as they got on the boat, Yuan Tan's troops could only stare dryly.

Of course, the captive population was sent to Yizhou. And it is not difficult to settle these people, not to mention that when Gan Ning defeated Guan Cheng, he easily brought the money and food accumulated by Guan Cheng to Yizhou, just said that Yizhou was already vast and sparsely populated, and Lu Ren and Shirley had already made preparations to receive a large number of displaced people.

After receiving the news, Shirley of Yizhou will immediately use the reserve transport fleet to rush to support, send a large amount of money, food and military supplies, and then send the captured northern people to Yizhou. To put it simply, this method is like a relay in the division of labor, Gan Ning's task is to fight and rob, and the task of transportation does not need Gan Ning to bother, and it also has a good guarantee in efficiency.

It's just that in this way, Yuan Tan can't bear it here. In itself, he had to deal with an offensive that Lao Cao in the west could launch at any time, and his east was the sea, so he didn't need to leave any troops, but the appearance of the Ganning fleet made him have to divide part of his forces to take precautions, but where could he prevent it?

Don't say that Yuan Tan is useless, here you have to think about how long the Ming Dynasty's widows gave the Ming Dynasty a headache. With the current strength situation, Yuan Tan is far inferior to the Ming Dynasty, but the strength of Gan Ning's fleet may be far above those Japanese robbers.

On the other hand, Lao Cao of Yecheng was very happy when he heard the news, so he simply asked the army to rest a little longer, and it was not too late to send troops when Yuan Tan was bitten by "mosquitoes". Anyway, this pirate fleet has always been bounded by Qingzhou, and has never been to the coastal area of Xuzhou to make trouble.

And in this way, Lao Cao and Guo Jia have been roughly able to determine that this pirate fleet of unknown origin was sent by Lu Ren. Because in addition to the previous analysis, there is another obvious thing about this pirate fleet, that is, they rob the population too fiercely, which has too many similarities with the Yizhou caravan that has been sheltering and relocating a large number of displaced people. As for that bit of population, the nouveau riche Lao Cao really didn't pay attention to it...... (To be continued.) )