Hong Chengchou was noncommittal on the surface, but nodded secretly in his heart, he really had a deep understanding of the situation that Liu Cheng said, after He Huchen was killed, there were a lot of excerpts in the court to impeach him, if it weren't for an ally to press him down, I was afraid that he was no longer in this position, you must know that Yang He had not lost a deputy general soldier at that time.

Liu Cheng saw that Hong Chengchou did not speak, and knew that he had already talked about the itch of the other party, so he continued: "The so-called code is that the defenders from all walks of life according to their key points, directly import grain and salt, Huanxian County has been a barren land since ancient times, and the local grain is only enough for the people to eat for seven or eight months a year, so many thieves have come at once, I am afraid that this winter may not be able to survive, as long as it survives until next spring, it can be won without a fight." It's just that this strategy has to be delayed for a long time, and the Governor may not be able to use it. “

Hearing this, Hong Chengchou nodded, he was very clear about the situation of the Ming army under him, and it was more difficult for them to go to the ravine and ditch to fight the thieves, but it was not a big problem for each to defend their own defense area, after all, their small fields and mansions were all there, and they would definitely not let the thieves fight over. But as Liu Cheng said, if it drags on like this, I am afraid that the old men of the imperial history will be paid hard and their hats in vain will be buttoned down, and the patience of today's son is not very good.

"What about the best policy?"

"The end of the old will break the old back, the two thieves in the eye, nearly 2,000 prisoners, if the superintendent will be the old and weak, claiming that the court is generous, Nian Er and others are the people of the court, the northwest has been famine for many years before raising troops to survive, now only the head of the thief, the rest do not ask, if there are people who turn against the right, the court also has a heavy reward. In this way, there will be a rift among the thieves. “

"Well, you're trying to get rid of the wolf!" Hong Chengchou smiled: "Sounds good, but I don't know if it's feasible?" “

"Your Excellency!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "Lao Hui Hui and Ge Liyan are known for their fierce and good fighting among thieves, and now they are broken by the last generals. If you tempt them to take advantage of them, they will have an effect. ”

Liu Cheng's explanation made Hong Chengchou smile with satisfaction on his face, he is not the kind of scholar who talks on paper, he knows that in fact, since ancient times, the use of tactics is nothing more than a virtual and real corresponding, showing it as a blessing and a curse, Liu Cheng's move looks simple, but the timing is very cleverly chosen, but it is in line with the art of war.

"Okay, then leave this matter to General Liu!" Speaking of this, Hong Chengchou's face changed. solemnly said: "It's just that the thief Cao Cao and a tiger can't let go!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Liu Cheng got up and gave up his hand, then took a step forward and said in a low voice: "Lord of the Army, among the two thieves who will break the old and return to the old and the Ge Liyan, there are quite a few captures, and please go and check it out." ”

"Hmm!" Hong Chengchou laughed: "This time, the thieves and soldiers have also worked hard, so let's use it to reward the soldiers!" "Hong Chengchou is also a person who knows the importance of things, a military general like Liu Cheng who is knowledgeable and can fight. He can't be too serious about money, and he still understands the truth that "when the water is clear, there are no fish".

"Thank you for your understanding!" Liu Cheng bowed, took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, and carefully presented it. smiled: "The villain chose a few things among them, and it is not worth anything, adults can play with the body in their spare time, please smile!" ”

Hong Chengchou's gaze swept the gift list slightly. Seeing the three hundred taels of gold written on it, he couldn't help but jump slightly, this is not a small amount, and he casually put the gift list into his sleeve. smiled: "Okay, General Liu, you go back and do it well!" “

Liu Cheng was able to get out of his way, and Du Guoying, who was waiting outside, hurriedly greeted him and asked, "General, what is the next step for Inspector Hong?" ”

Liu Cheng didn't answer, just jumped on the horse, and walked for a while before he whispered: "Master Inspector plans to appease." “

"Fund?" Du Guoying was stunned when she heard this, and a trace of disappointment appeared on her face. Liu Cheng saw it in his eyes, did not speak, and whipped twice on the horse's buttocks, the mount ran in pain, Du Guoying hurriedly followed, the two ran for a while, and they had already come out of the city, Liu Cheng made a gesture, and the guards behind him hurriedly slowed down the horse. Liu Cheng and Du Guoying had no one within a radius of six or seven steps.

"Xiao Du!" In private, Liu Cheng usually calls Du Guoying Xiao Du, and calls his uncle Du Ruhu Lao Du: "You have followed me for almost two years, right?" “

Du Guoying was stunned when she heard this, and she didn't know why Liu Cheng suddenly mentioned this stubble, so she hurriedly whispered: "The adult has a good memory, and the last general will follow the adult for more than a month and two years!" “

"Yes, time flies so fast, it's two years younger in a blink of an eye!" Liu Cheng smiled: "The paperwork for the military department to promote me to deputy chief soldier has come down, and I plan to promote you as a general, and when everything is done, I will lead a battalion alone." “

"Thank you for the promotion!" Du Guoying was overjoyed when he heard this, he was just a thousand generals when he heard the mutiny, and after the mutiny, he naturally went from the beginning to the end, starting from the beginning from the small soldiers, but now it is only two years before he has climbed back to the general, and his uncle before the mutiny, this promotion speed is only available to those nobles. He hurriedly jumped off the horse, kowtowed to Liu Cheng twice, and said, "The villain must do his best to repay the grace of the adult's reconstruction!" ”

"Get up!" Liu Cheng also jumped off the war horse and helped Du Guoying up: "Xiao Du, to be honest, you are still a little short of being this general, if it weren't for the fact that there is really no one under my hands, you must build a shelf, I plan to grind you for two years, and then promote you up." ”

Hearing Liu Cheng's words, Du Guoying couldn't help but be surprised again, and a little unconvinced, unexpectedly when he suddenly heard these words, he was not convinced that he secretly wanted to say that he rose fast, you Liu Chengsheng was faster than me, and besides, I just defeated Lao Huihui and Ge Liyan, and I also have real merits, why do I say that I am still a little worse? He was thinking about it, but heard Liu Cheng continue.

"Xiao Du! Command and dispatch, break the formation and kill the enemy, you are not bad, but it is a pity that you have to be a general, and these alone are not enough. ”

Du Guoying had already suppressed the emotions in his chest at this time, and said in a deep voice: "Please also point out the master!" ”

"Let's take an analogy, are you a little disappointed when you heard me say that the Inspector plans to appease you?"

Du Guoying wanted to deny it, but when he looked up, he saw Liu Cheng staring at him, his eyes were like torches, and when the words came to his mouth, he swallowed them back, and said in a low voice: "Yes, I am a little disappointed!" He paused for a moment, and said in a slightly louder voice: "Lao Hui Hui and Ge Li are known as fierce among the thieves, but they are also vulnerable in front of our army, why don't you take advantage of the situation to destroy them all, but appease them?" Speaking of this, he suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Isn't it that Inspector Hong is jealous of his ability. I'm afraid that the credit for your master's work will be too great, it's not good-"

"Alright, alright, the more you talk about it, the more outrageous it becomes!" Liu Cheng was a little embarrassed by the rich imagination of his subordinates: "Let me tell you the truth, I proposed this strategy myself, and I am jealous of my ability." Lord Hong is a civil servant, I am a martial artist, and both sides perform their duties, so what is there to be jealous of? “

"Your Lord, your idea?" Du Guoying's eyes widened and asked, "My lord, why do you want to be appeased?" You're now the deputy commander-in-chief. Fight two more battles, make more achievements, at least be a general soldier, even if it is knighted, isn't it impossible? “

"Don't you have anything else on your mind besides being promoted to a knight?" Liu Cheng was almost speechless by Du Guoying: "Xiao Du, haven't you read "The Art of War" in the past? ”

"Why are you reading that?" Du Guoying said with a smile: "I am from a family of generals, so it's good to know how to arrange troops, and those are all read by civil officials." ”

When Liu Cheng heard this, he remembered that after the nobles from the Ming Dynasty who fought in Tumubao buried Emperor Yingzong and the 500,000 Ming army, the Ming Dynasty adopted the military system of literature and martial arts, and the children of generals like Du Guoying. There is no need to think about anything other than charging into battle. As a traverser who worked in the Ming army for two years, Liu Cheng scoffed at many people on the Internet in his previous life who attributed the reason for China's military weakness after the Song Dynasty to the institutional problems of emphasizing literature over military force. are all the same group of people, the Sui and Tang dynasties used to be in the prime minister, so it was called heavy martial arts and light literature. That is the martial spirit, which is good; After the Two Song Dynasty, civilian officials replaced military positions, that is, emphasizing civil affairs over military force, which was called weakening the national armed forces. It's bad, isn't that? The Ming Dynasty did not use civilian officials to supervise the garrison from the beginning, but the problem is that the world has been peaceful for a long time. For several generations, the lords and nobles forgot all the eating skills of commanding the troops to fight, and as a result, they showed their cowardice in the civil fort, and the three major battalions were lost, not to mention, even the Son of Heaven was captured by the Tile Thorns. As a civil official, Yu Qian collected the embers, not only repelled the invasion of the Watters, but also forced the other party to send Emperor Yingzong back. Comparing the two sides, the great emperor is not a fool, and naturally uses civilian officials to unify the army, judging from the history of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, civil officials are actually not bad, even in the last years, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting are all commanders above the level. In fact, what is needed to supervise and lead various armies to fight is not to charge into battle, but to manage and coordinate, logistics and transportation, and political strategy; Master Jinshi can stand out in the selective examination of tens of thousands of to one, IQ must be above the level, and then he has served in a number of administrative positions, and he must have a considerable understanding of management and operations research. But the result was that Xiang Du Guoying, a disciple of a disciple, had nothing else to do in his mind except to behead and make meritorious contributions and climb up, and Liu Cheng had to spend effort to re-educate on basic strategic culture.

"Xiao Du! It's not good to win a war, Xiang Yu won a hundred battles, but Wujiang killed himself when he was defeated. It's not enough to win battles, you have to be good at using them! Liu Cheng saw that Du Guoying still looked inexplicable, and knew that the other party still didn't understand what he meant, so he had to continue to explain: "Sending troops to fight, to put it bluntly, is to force the enemy to do what he was unwilling to do. As long as you can achieve the goal, it is enough to fight more battles, and even harmful, understand? “

"I don't understand what adults say, the more victories the better, how can it be harmful?"

"Xiao Du." Liu Cheng patiently explained: "Take this flat thief as an example, in fact, after Lord Hong's dispatch, the thief has been driven to this area of Huanxian County, our battle cleanly broke the old Huihui, Ge Liyan two thieves, the group of thieves has been frightened, if the adults are a little appeased, there must be those who are willing to surrender, even if there are fierce people, seeing that others have fallen, their own strength is weak, and they can only disarm and surrender, even if there are one or two stubborn people, at that time they can also attack the thieves, and they can calm the chaos without hurting me, isn't it the best?" But if you continue to fight as you say, even if you can win one or two battles, the thieves see that there is no way out, they are likely to join forces and support the most fierce and wise person as the head of the thieves, and fight to the death with me. If you lose, it will also hurt the prestige of the court, the war will prolong, the money will be wasted, and the disaster will be endless! ”

Hearing this, Du Guoying also understood, and nodded convincingly: "My lord sees thousands of miles, and the end will admire!" ”

"Xiao Du! This time, I will promote you as a general, you have to use more brains, and you can't just fight and kill. The soldier is like the sword on the waist of you and me, hiding its edge on weekdays, raising its sharpness, not out of the sheath, it is enough, out of the sheath to behead the enemy, forcing the enemy to disarm and surrender, do not fight at will, understand? “

"Yes, the last general must be careful in the future!" Du Guoying nodded yes.

Cao Cao learned of Hong Chengchou's appeasement notice from a small leader of his men, who had two distant cousins under Lao Huihui, one of whom died under a spear while guarding the village, and the other who was taken prisoner. The lucky man was released six days later, and he was given a few pieces of dry bread in exchange for the loss of the thumb of his right hand forever, so that he could not draw a bow or wield a sword, but he could farm. Before leaving, he stuffed a notice in his arms, which read the notice of the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou, Lord Hong: As long as they are willing to lay down their arms, all thieves can be appeased - except for Cao Cao, Luo Rucai and a tiger Li Guo, and Hong Chengchou also generously announced that any thief who sent the heads of these two people could not only be exempted from the previous crime, but also be promoted to the capital and rewarded with five hundred taels of silver. So he decided to try to send the news to Cao Cao's camp to see if he could exchange it for some money.

"Huh!" Cao Cao spat and twisted his beard under his chin and said with a smile: "This Hong Chengchou is so stingy, my Cao Cao's head is only worth one Du Si plus five hundred taels of silver?" “

"Big Boss!" Compared with Cao Cao, Li Guo's expression was much more serious: "I heard him say that the official army released all the prisoners in Lao Hui Hui and Ge Liyan's camp, and the other leaders must have also gotten the news, but now there is no leak of any rumors, in my opinion, the situation is not good!" ”

Cao Cao ignored Li Guo, he smiled and said to the fifth lady beside him, "You go and get a hundred taels of silver." After a while, the fifth lady took the silver and came over, Cao Cao took the silver, walked to the person with the letter and said with a smile: "This brother, I bothered you to run this trip and brought me this news, this hundred taels of silver is the cost of the journey, but unfortunately your right thumb is gone, otherwise I would not have left you as a leader, but it is not as big as the capital given by the official master!" At this, he burst out laughing. (To be continued.) )