"The Great Retreat of Guangling?" Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong glanced at each other, both confused.

"Yes, Guangling retreated. In fact, he just took these people over the river, and Mi didn't know why the lord said that this matter was a retreat. However, this is exactly what the lord said in his letter, and naturally he has a deep meaning. Mi Zhu raised the letter in his hand again and said, "The lord said that all the people gathered on the bank of the Guangling River should be transported across the Yangtze River at all costs and in the shortest possible time!" ”

Mi Zhu is an honest man, Liu Xin's decision is too timely for him, this is exactly the result he expected, he knows Liu Xin's strength very well, as long as he crosses the Yangtze River, these millions of Xuzhou refugees will be saved.

Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong thought more deeply than him, and they could already see that Liu Xin's way could not only change the situation of the vast and sparsely populated area south of the Yangtze River, but also take the opportunity to weaken the strength of the counties in Xuzhou, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. In any case, there is only one way out for these Xuzhou people, and that is to cross the Yangtze River. No matter what Liu Xin's purpose is, judging from his determination alone, he can be regarded as a benevolent and righteous lord. However, determination alone is not enough, and what lies in front of the people is the surging Yangtze River, and if the people cannot be taken over the river, no matter how much ambition they make, it will be in vain. Therefore, after listening to Mi Zhu's words, Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong's faces did not have the slightest excitement.

Mi Zhu knew what they were worried about, and said with a smile: "There is a kind of big ship in the navy, which can transport three thousand heavily armed soldiers at a time, and the lord has ordered this group of ships to rush to Guangling day and night, and it is estimated that they will come in a few days." Moreover, the naval army stationed in Jiangnan now also has a lot of ships, and you have all seen that kind of building boat, so it is not a problem to transport more than 1,000 people at a time. ”

"But would that General Gan be willing to lend you the boat?" Zhang Hong didn't have much affection for the rough behavior of Gan Ning, and he refused to borrow a boat several times, so he didn't have much hope of using the ships of the Jiangnan Navy to transport the people.

Mi Zhu said confidently: "The lord orders it, who dares not to listen?" Wait, we don't have to beg him, he will come to the door soon on his own. ”

Among the princes' armies, the generals are full of things that disobey and advocate without permission, Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong have seen the generals of the navy these days, except for Huang Gai's behavior and a little more etiquette, Gan Ning, Zhou Tai, and Jiang Qin are all reckless and reckless, and Er Zhang really doesn't believe that they can do the order and prohibition.

When the two of them were about to doubt their faith, they suddenly saw a big man walking quickly in front of them in the dark, and said: "Gentlemen, Gan has been ordered by the lord to lead 56 ships and 15,000 sailors and soldiers to wait for the gentlemen's dispatch. ”

Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong looked at each other, and the person who came was Gan Ning, so they believed that what Mi Zhu said was true. Mi Zhu had already arched his hand and asked, "General Gan, I heard that the ships of the navy can sail day and night, I wonder if it is true?" ”

Gan Ning laughed and said, "Lord Mi, Gan is here to ask you gentlemen to organize 20,000 people to be transported across the river by the navy overnight. The lord said that in the shortest possible time, at all costs, all the people stranded on the bank of Guangling will be taken over the Yangtze River, and time will not wait for anyone, so I will ask a few gentlemen to work hard......"

Without waiting for Gan Ning to finish speaking, Mi Zhu, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong and the others couldn't wait to turn around and trot all the way towards the camp of the fleeing people, completely ignoring their image as a member of the Shi clan, facing millions of refugees, who would dare to delay now.

Liu Xin was ordered by Ma Yun that day, and finally made up his mind to bring all the Xuzhou refugees to Jiangnan, and sent three letters in a row, arranging for the meteor fast horse to be sent to Gan Ning, Yu Chuan and Mi Zhu respectively. Mi Zhu and Gan Ning were busy picking up and dropping off the people, and Yu Fu was not idle, so Liu Xin ordered him to mobilize the manpower of the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River to first circle a large piece of land on the south bank of the Yangtze River as a camping place to accept refugees from the north. It is no longer possible to take care of hygiene, accommodation, and epidemic prevention as well as in the refugee camps at the beginning, and the top priority now is to find a place where hundreds of thousands of people can be settled. In fact, Liu Xin did not know that there were already millions of refugees gathered on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

As soon as these three letters were sent, Liu Xin immediately came to the training center in the western suburbs of Xiangyang. Liu Xin implemented a rotation system for the garrison of his subordinate troops, because Xiliang was the focus of the current defense, and the entire Fifth and Sixth Army Corps were stationed there, while the First Army and the Second Army had just been rotated out and stationed in various counties. Now in the training center to rest are the third army and the fourth army corps, the last time Liu Xin used troops against the Xiongnu, these two army corps were stationed in various places, did not participate in that battle, and now are being withdrawn to the training center for rest and recuperation.

After so many years of development, the scale of the training center has expanded several times compared to the original, not only mountains, deep valleys, grasslands, lakes, but also specially built cities to simulate urban offensive and defensive battles. If there is no special war, almost all regiments have three months of rest and training in the training center every year, so the barracks and various ancillary facilities here are very complete, especially the school field outside the barracks, which is enough to accommodate millions of troops to be reviewed.

At this time, the 200,000 soldiers of the two major armies gathered on the school field, and looking down from the point platform, it still looked a little empty. Liu Xin cleared his throat and said loudly: "Soldiers, tell me, whose army are you?" ”

"We are all the lord's army! Long live the lord, long live, long live! ”

200,000 people shouted in unison, and the sound resounded through the sky and spread throughout Xiangyang City.

Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "Everyone is wrong!" ”

The generals looked at each other, not knowing what they said was wrong, from the day they joined the army, generals at all levels taught them in this way, whether they were under the banner of the Jingzhou Army or the banner of the Han Army, they only knew that their allegiance was Liu Xin.

Liu Xin paused for a moment and continued: "You are not my Liu Xin's private army, you are the army of the Han Dynasty, and you are a respected Han soldier!" ”

The whole school field was still silent, and the soldiers couldn't figure it out, what was the difference between Liu Xin's army and Dahan's army? In their opinion, if Liu Xin can let them live a good life, he should represent the Han Dynasty and the imperial court.

Liu Xin's voice suddenly became louder, almost roaring: "You don't belong to me Liu, nor do you belong to your officials at all levels!" You belong to the thousands of people of the Han Dynasty, and you are the children of the Han people! ”

Since ancient times, even in the Qin Dynasty, where the centralization system was the strongest, there was a very serious cult of personality in the army, and it was common for soldiers to regard generals at all levels as their masters, which is why after the Tang Dynasty, generals often stood on their own feet. Liu Xin didn't want to repeat the mistakes of history, he had to make the soldiers understand who they were fighting for. Of course, this situation will not change all at once, Liu Xin just seized every possible opportunity to subtly change the soldiers. In the past, he formulated military discipline and regularly arranged for soldiers to help the common people to work and enhance the relationship between the army and the people, and it was out of this consideration, but now, he has found another opportunity, so he will gather these soldiers here to give lectures.

The school field was very large and empty, Liu Xin raised his voice, and his voice could be transmitted far away, but after all, it was impossible for 200,000 people to hear what he was saying. However, the soldiers standing in the front rows could still hear it clearly, and the faces of these people showed a look of surprise, obviously Liu Xin's unheard words made their hearts feel a little turbulent. If it weren't for the strict military discipline, no one in the queue would have dared to talk to each other, otherwise everyone would have started talking about it a long time ago.

Liu Xin saw that his words had received a certain effect, and said loudly: "Now, there are hundreds of thousands of Han people in danger, as their soldiers, do we have the responsibility to rescue them?" ”

Under the leadership of the captains, 200,000 soldiers shouted in unison again: "Yes! ”

Liu Xin nodded with satisfaction and said, "These people will soon cross the Yangtze River and come to Wu County. However, they lack winter clothes, food, medicine, and tents to shelter them from the wind and rain, all of which need to be sent to them in the shortest possible time. Do you have the confidence to complete this mission? ”

"Yes!" This time the shouts were even louder and more neat than before.

Liu Xin continued to make the final mobilization: "Soldiers! Let's take out the martial spirit of not being afraid of death and hardship, and race against time and life to save those people who are full of expectations! ”

"Guaranteed to complete the mission!" Under Liu Xin's repeated sensationalism, all the young soldiers clenched their fists, and they all held back a ruthless strength in their chests to complete this seemingly no danger, but it was a very difficult task.

If the cotton clothes, quilts, food, medicines, and tents used by hundreds of thousands of people are put together, it is not too much to describe them as piled up. Under the traffic conditions at that time, it was all up to horse-drawn people to push and carry on their shoulders to transport so many materials from Xiangyang to Wu County, even if the roads there had been initially renovated, it was a very huge project.

An army of 200,000 was mobilized at once, which seemed to be a lot of people, but in fact it was nothing at all. Because Liu Xin knew that not counting the manpower needed to transport materials, hundreds of thousands of Xuzhou people fled to Wu County alone, and maintaining a good order would require a lot of strength. Moreover, these people will be gradually resettled in the counties under the jurisdiction of Wu County, Yuzhang, and Huiji in the future, and so many immigrants from other places will inevitably have some bumps and bumps with the local residents, and they also need to have enough manpower to mediate. If Liu Xin had known that millions of refugees had now gathered on the banks of the Guangling River, he would have been glad for his wise decision.

Liu Xin wants to do more than that, he also wants to use this opportunity to improve the cohesion of the states, counties and counties under his rule.