In early spring, Youquan County, located in the south of the Yangtze River, still has a bit of new green.

Just yesterday, after half a day of fighting, 1,500 defenders from Youquan, led by Han Lie and Xu Huang, 2,000 men and horses, broke through the city in one fell swoop, and the defenders appointed by Yan Baihu were stabbed to death by Xu Huang's axe blade gun and horse in the resistance to enter the city.

Although it was only one day, order had been restored to this small city in the south of the Yangtze River, and the original Youquan County Cheng and Lord Bo were re-invited by Han Lie to continue to hold his original position, responsible for maintaining order in the city.

Xu Huang temporarily held the position of county lieutenant, responsible for the maintenance of law and order in the city, as well as the surrender of prisoners.

Youquan is just a small county, located in the middle of Haiyan and Yuhang, so he usually has no defense, which is also the reason why Han Lie was able to take the city by surprise and in one fell swoop.

But the next attack on Yuhang City, but not Han Lie's current forces can shake, as Yan Baihu's base camp of Yuhang City, is a big city in the east of Wu County, with more than 10,000 households, and the population of the whole city reaches more than 40,000, second only to Wu County, the seat of Yu Wu County.

Moreover, Yan Baihu has nearly 5,000 men and horses in Yuhang, if he has the heart to defend and rely on the strong city defense, he is afraid that Han Lie will do his best, and it will take a lot of time, so after capturing Youquan, Han Lie did not continue to send troops, but sent scouts to Yuhang to inquire about information, and then released the Sparrowhawk, urging Guo Jia to lead the follow-up troops and horses to rush to Youquan Huihe.

On the occasion of the garrison by the fist, Chen Jiao also rushed over from Lou County, after seeing the ceremony, Chen Jiaozuo said: "Lord, fortunately, I don't disgrace my life, although Lord Gu did not explicitly agree, but in my opinion, as long as we take Yan Baihu, Gu Yuanxi will inevitably lead the crowd to attach to the lord, otherwise he just doesn't know the current affairs, then it is useless for this person to stay." ”

Although Chen Jiao is a scribe, he is a fine person, and his courage is different from ordinary people, and he often has surprising words, just like just now, when he said that it was useless to stay, he obviously meant to launch a military operation against the Gu family and slaughter them to achieve the effect of killing chickens and monkeys.

"Ji Bi is worthy of being a handsome man, this matter will be discussed later, a few days ago I have received a report, the soldiers and horses under the command of the military division have entered Lou County, presumably they will arrive at Youquan in a few days, Yuhang Yan Baihu is also actively preparing for the war, I think it is ready to die and struggle, this battle is afraid that it can end in a short time, in order to ensure the safety of the next grain transportation along the way, I hope that Ji Bi can go to Wu County, appease Xu Gong, the county lieutenant of Wu County, and if necessary, you can hint at him, I can recommend him to take over the post of Wu County Taishou." The reason why Han Lie paid attention to Xu Gong was that he received a letter from Guo Jia yesterday that the defenders of the river wharf in Wu County were heavily guarded, and they seemed to be wary of our army.

Xu Gong is the lieutenant of Wu County, if he restricts himself now, then the next battle of Yuhang will give birth to many drawbacks, and it will also have a great impact on his plan to encroach on Wu County, but now Han Lie's main enemy is Yan Baihu, even if he knows that Xu Gong is restrained, he can't openly turn the gun and start a war against Xu Gong, if this is the case, he will lose the righteousness of sending troops to Wu County, and he will also lose the heart of Wu County's scholars.

"The lord's move is very good, Xu Gong is a person, he seems to be loyal and traitorous, the rebellion of Yan Baihu in Wu County, to put it bluntly, is caused by his inaction, Chen Junshou urged him to send troops several times, he has coped with things, Chen Taishou is also helpless about this, Gai promised that Gong is from the Wu County clan, and has been an official in the county for many years, the relationship is intertwined, and it cannot be suppressed by force."

Chen Jiao obviously knew a lot about Xu Gong, nodded happily, and said: "Xu Gong spent fifteen years from the county magistrate to the post of county lieutenant, if he has no extravagant hopes for the post of county guard, it is obviously a cover-up, in fact, Xu Gong covets the post of county guard, in the Wu County clan, it has long been known, but this person's clan strength is only influential in Wu County, but the reputation of Wu County is very weak, plus this person has always been ruthless, and there is no virtue, so Wu County's family disciples have no good impression of him. ”

"This is also the reason why he has not been able to serve as the county guard of Wu County, but in recent years, Xu Gong seems to have found his weakness, and he has made friends with the famous people in exile in the north, as far as I know, Xu Jing, a famous man in Yuzhou, is now a guest in his house, and seems to be quite courteous.

"Ji Bi's words are very much in line with my heart." Han Lie nodded happily and said: "Although Yuhang City is strong, Yan Baihu is not popular, when the follow-up of Guo Junshi arrives, and under the strong attack of my heavy troops, most of them will be March, and at the latest, they will definitely be able to take Yuhang." ”

"The subordinates hereby wish the lord an early victory." Chen Jiao stayed in Youquan for only one night, then took the gifts prepared by Han Lie and went to Wu County.

For several days, while Xu Huang was rectifying the prisoners he had collected, he was also responsible for recruiting capable men and wise men with skills in the barracks.

As a traverser, Han Lie knows one thing he knows very well, that is, Jiangdong is now full of talents, and many of them are hidden among the people of the poor family and the exiled scholars in the north.

For these talents, Han Lie can't look for them one by one, of course, even if he has the heart to look for them, he doesn't know where the talents live, so the only way can only be to recruit talents, but the matter of recruiting talents is not something that can be achieved overnight.

The first is convincing, the second is influence, for this reason, in the pre-Qin era, in order to convince the people, Shang Ying adopted the method of migrating wood and establishing faith, and King Yan Zhao in order to expand his influence, he adopted a trick to buy horse bones, and finally won the recognition of the public.

Therefore, in order to make the recruitment order convincing and influential, Han Lie deliberately posted a notice next to the recruitment order in front of the barracks, and put a few things next to it, one is a stone mill weighing 100 catties, anyone who can lift the stone mill above his head will be immediately appointed as a general, with a reward of 1,000, and those who can lift the stone mill to walk back and forth for 20 steps will be appointed as a military candidate with a reward of 3,000, followed by a three-stone strong bow, as long as he can pull the full moon, he can be rewarded with a thousand dollars, and the general will be appointed, and those who shoot three arrows will be appointed as a military candidate, and the reward will be 3,000; If you don't want to stay in office, you can take the money and leave.

This is the criterion for selecting military officers in the army, followed by the standard of civil officials, that is, the four treasures of the study, requiring those who can write any of the five classics silently, they can serve as county officials with a reward of five hundred, those who write two articles can appoint officials with a reward of two hundred stones, and a reward of one thousand, those who write three articles can appoint officials with a reward of two thousand, those who write three articles can appoint officials with a reward of two thousand, those who write four articles can appoint officials with a reward of three hundred stones, and those who are more than three hundred stone officials, with a reward of three thousand, and so on.

As soon as Han Lie's recruitment order came out, it caused a violent shock in Youquan, and for several days, recruits and onlookers gathered, but after a few days, there were only ten people who could lift the stone mill, none of them could lift the stone mill to move, and there were three people who also pulled the strong bow, but there was still no one who could shoot three arrows.

Most of these people came out of the reward, and only five people remained. On the side of the literary examination, the applicants are much more deserted, there are very few people who read books in these years, and even fewer people can read the Five Classics by heart.

Although Han Lie was somewhat disappointed with this result, he didn't care too much about it, after all, the six counties of Jiangdong have a territory of thousands of miles, and it is not surprising that Youquan is just a corner of the place, and there are few talents.

On this day, Han Lie went out of the city to meet Guo Jia, and when the follow-up troops led by Dian Wei entered the city, Xu Huang hurriedly came and said: "My lord, today a young scribe came to recruit, this person is not only proficient in classic literature and history, but also found that this person is also proficient in the art of war, it is really a rare talent, but this person is unwilling to go out, after answering, only to take away the reward and go, after the subordinates inquired, only to know that this person is Guangling people, the family is living here hard, today to apply, is also completely for the money, obviously the family really can't open the pot, otherwise this person is afraid that he may not come to apply. ”

"Oh, there is such a wise man, I ought to have come to visit me as a sign of sincerity." Han Lie saw that Xu Huang admired this person very much, so he was naturally curious, so he nodded and replied.