Finalizing the idea of stealing Ru Ying to pass on the loss, Tao Ying immediately pulled in the two accomplices Lu Su and Chen Deng, and soon discussed the plan of the expedition, planning to send 4,500 troops to beat the poor Yellow Turban thieves He Yi and Huang Shao and rob them of their money and food...... Oh no, it should be said that they are going to enforce the Han Code and confiscate their illegal gains in accordance with the law.

The commander of the Western Expedition is, of course, Tao Ying himself, the military division is Lu Su, and the army composition is a gentleman's army that has expanded to a thousand people, led by Tao Ying himself, and Tao Ji is the deputy; The Xuzhou army sent more than 1,500 troops, led by Xu Sheng; In addition, there is a Langya army of about 2,000, led by Sun Guan, the general of Langya named by Tao Ying - although Sun Guan has obviously changed his attitude towards Tao Ying, but considering his close relationship with Uncle Liu Huang, Tao Ying can only take him with him to rest assured.

As for staying in Xuzhou, Tao Ying also made a major adjustment, that is, let Zang Ba lead the remaining more than 5,000 Langya troops to move to Liuxian County, so that Zang Ba could closely monitor Uncle Liu's every move at close range, and it could also play a buffer role when Cao Lu went south, and buy time for the rear preparation. Xuzhou City continued to be controlled by Tao Qian himself, assisted by Cao Bao and Chen Deng, and discussed and acted in a consultation. Then Tao Ying asked Chen Jue to move to Xiapi and assist Xu Tan, the general of Xiapi, to guard the city. In the two counties of Langya and Donghai, Tao Ying did not make any adjustments, and continued to let Yin Li guard Langya, and Xu Xuan, the minister of the East China Sea, sat in Donghai County.

Deputy Director Tao's adjustments are the brainchild of careful discussion with Lu Su and Chen Deng, so that Zang Ba can stay in the county, which can not only use the strong combat effectiveness of the Langya army to buffer the enemy's sudden attack, but also avoid the conflict between the Langya army and the regular army of Xuzhou, which has not been reorganized, and cause civil strife; Cao Bao and Chen Deng assisted Tao Qian to guard Xuzhou, Cao Bao's loyalty is of course unquestionable, do not worry about his defection, Chen Deng is resourceful and proficient in military strategy, with his advice, it is enough to prevent the enemy from using tactics, and it is enough to deal with the enemy's envoys, and to gain time with the snake.

And as long as the two cities of Liuxian and Pengcheng are not lost, and the iron ore accounts for eighty percent of Xuzhou and half of the money and grain in the hinterland of Xiapi, it can basically be as stable as Mount Tai, even if the enemy goes deep into the capture of Pi alone, the solidity of the following Picheng and Chen Qi's old annihilation of the giant slip, coupled with the natural danger of the two navigable rivers of Yishui and Surabaya, are enough to deal with the enemy for a long time, and persist until Tao Ying leads the army back to help - considering the military food situation of Lu Xiaoqiang and Cao Laoda, as long as the Pengcheng granary does not fall into the hands of the enemy before this, Maybe there is no need for Tao Ying to lead the army back to help, just this ice and snow can starve to death Lu Xiaoqiang or Cao Boss to die of deep lone army.

Of course, with the current strength of the Xuzhou army, it is impossible to be perfectly prepared, at least the defense of Langya and the two counties of the East China Sea is quite weak, among which the Langya County guarded by Yin Li is better, and the combat effectiveness of the Langya army in the five counties of Xuzhou is absolutely second to none, even Boss Cao does not dare to provoke easily, which can be said to be relatively safe. Donghai County is different, the strength is only three or four thousand, and the combat effectiveness is quite average, which is definitely the biggest flaw in Tao Ying's defense plan. Therefore, after Tao Ying explained and arranged the defense plan, Cao Bao, the general of Xuzhou, immediately became anxious.

"Childe, no, Donghai County's defense is too weak." Cao Bao objected fiercely: "Let's not say that the East China Sea has too few troops, when Xu Xuan, the minister of the East China Sea, used to be a Taishou in Runan, he was a well-known general who often failed, and he couldn't even clean up a group of Yellow Turban thieves, how could he compete with the army of Cao Ying and Lu Wenhou?" Moreover, the East China Sea is also an important grain producing area for us, and there is a lot of money and grain, if Lu Wenhou wants to tear his face with us, it is impossible not to fight the idea of Donghai County! ”

Tao Ying smiled, but didn't speak, Lu Su and Chen Deng also laughed, and then Chen Deng smiled: "General Cao, what are you anxious about?" Do you think that Childe can not see the danger of Tokai-gun? ”

"Why does that son still despise Donghai County so much?" Cao Bao asked suspiciously.

"Because Gongzi very much hopes that Lu Wenhou will attack the East China Sea!" Chen Deng's words were astonishing, and he smiled and said: "The East China Sea is indeed rich in money and grain, but General Cao seems to have forgotten, who is most of this money and grain?" I'm afraid that seventy percent of them are the richest people in Xuzhou, right? If Lu Wenhou dared to enter Donghai County to burn, kill and loot, who would be the first person to fight with Lu Wenhou? ”

"Huh." Cao Bao laughed, patted his forehead and said: "Confused, most of the money, food and property of Mi Beijia are in Donghai County, my hometown, Lu Wenhou killed and plundered Donghai County, it is not necessary for us to take action, Xiao Pei's Xuande Gong will be the first to fight with Lu Wenhou." ”

Chen Deng and Lu Su looked up to the sky and laughed together, but Tao Ying scolded with a straight face: "Uncle Cao, Brother Yuanlong, although Mi Bei has a bad father's enmity with me, but I would rather teach the people of the world to bear me, and stop teaching me to bear the people of the world, since he has resigned and returned to his hometown, he is still our people of Xuzhou - so if there is a situation where the Marquis of Lu Wen invades the East China Sea, I will never allow you to order Xu Xuan to only guard the city and not save the Mi family's manor, let alone deliberately send someone to lead the way to rob the Mi family's manor and dock fort!" Remember? ”

"Childe is so ruthless." Chen Deng and Cao Bao muttered in their hearts together, and replied neatly: "No! On October 25, Tao Ying bid farewell to Tao Qian and Xuzhou Wenwu, led an army of 4,500 cavalry out of Xiaoguan and entered Peiguo, and entered the hinterland of Yuzhou.

Let's give a general introduction to the situation in Yuzhou, the position of Yuzhou Thorn History in this period is very funny, there are three Yuzhou Thorn History! One is Sun Ben, the assassin of Yuzhou appointed by Yuan Shu - friends are not mistaken, it is indeed Sun Ce's uncle and Sun Jian's younger brother Sun Ben, but this Sun Thorn Shi is very aggrieved, and he has not even stepped into the land of Yuzhou after being sealed, and has been arranged by Yuan Shu to deal with Liu Xuan, Yan Baihu and other fierce people in the south of the Yangtze River.

The second Yuzhou assassin is named Guo Gong, which is the official position of Yuan Shao's reward, but this Guo assassin is also not stationed in Yuzhou, but has betrayed Yuan Sangong, and is following Lu Wenhou to play with Cao Boss in Yanzhou, and is currently stationed on the front line of the confrontation with Cao Boss, so there is no way to manage and control the land in Yuzhou.

The third Yuzhou Assassin Shi said earlier that it is our famous Uncle Liu Huang, and the official position is Tao Qian to Li Dao and Guo Yan to ask Uncle Liu Huang for a title, and at the same time, Uncle Liu Huang is also the only one who is really stationed in the land of Yuzhou, but it is only Xiao Pei stationed in the northeast corner of Yuzhou, and only controls the city of Xiaopei, and Peiguo City, which is also controlled by Tao Qian, Peiguo City and Xiaoguan, the county seat of Peiguo County, Yuzhou, Tao Qian did not hand them over to Uncle Liu Huang at all, but directly controlled these two in his own hands - it can be seen that It is not unreasonable for Uncle Liu Huang to want to harm Tao Qian.

By the way, the current county minister of Peiguo County in Yuzhou is the old fox Chen Qi, but this old fox basically doesn't take care of things, and hides in Xuzhou City all day long to engage in some conspiracies with his son to ensure his family's interests in the five counties of Xuzhou. And the Xuzhou army, which was greatly injured, could not spare extra strength to recover the other cities of Peiguo County, so it controlled the west gate of Pengcheng, Xiao Guan, and the county seat Peiguo City, and other places were tossed by mountain bandits and thieves - anyway, Peiguo County was also the hardest hit area by war and famine, the population has plummeted, and a large amount of land has been abandoned, even if it is collected, it is also the life of money and grain, so before the comprehensive strength is restored to a certain extent, even Deputy Director Tao is not interested in this land.

Even such an important official position as the history of assassination is so chaotic, the chaos in Yuzhou can be imagined, almost become a paradise for the Yellow Turban remnants and bandits and robbers, and quickly cultivated He Yi, Huang Shao, He Man, Gong Du and Liu Pi and a large number of outstanding bandits and robbers, the local government is powerless to suppress, can only hide in the city and defend the city, the people in the countryside are even more miserable, those who have a little financial resources like the loser Lu Su build a dock to protect themselves, those who have no financial resources can only live in other places or resign themselves to fate, and many places are really exposed in the wilderness, there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles.

After the nonsense was finished, back to business, Deputy Director Tao led the army of the Western Expedition who presided over the national law out of Xiao Pass, and arrived at the city of Peiguo in less than two days, Peiguo Shou General Han Zhi and the county officials hurriedly led the crowd to greet him, and respectfully invited Tao Ying to enter the city to rest, and Tao Ying saw that the houses in Peiguo City were dilapidated, the streets were withered, and the people had vegetables, and they couldn't bear to enter the city to disturb the people again, so they thanked Han Zhi and others for their kindness, and admonished a nonsense routine such as protecting the territory and the people, and loving the people, and then asked Han Zhi to arrange a few local guides who were familiar with the geography and people's conditions, and led the army to continue westward, all the way to Cao Boss's hometown of Qiaoxian.

Among the guides arranged by Han Zhi for Tao Ying, there is a veteran soldier named Li Lang, who is still a bachelor in his forties, and has worked in the team of yellow turban thieves for several years. He interjected and asked: "Li Lang, I heard that among the thieves in Yuzhou, there is a man named Zhou Cang, who is very good at martial arts, and he is probably active in that area?" ”

"Childe asked King Zhou of Woniu Mountain?" Li Lang was taken aback, and hurriedly replied: "Childe, you are mistaken, it is a mountain king named Zhou Cang, but he is active in the area of Changshan Country in Jizhou, which is thousands of miles away from this Runan. ”

"No wonder people on the Internet say that Lao Luo failed geography and was killed by him, I still remember that Guan Lao Er met Zhou Cang on the road to Runan, but I didn't expect it to be in Zhao Zilong's hometown." Deputy Director Tao was very depressed, and said that Lao Tzu's wisdom tank luck was not bad, and he brought Chen Deng and received Lu Su, but the military generals were too bad, and there was no military general who could handle it until now. But that kind of tactic is used too much, who will dare to be fooled in the future?

"Even the mountain king of Jizhou knows so well, it seems that you are still very well-informed in this regard." Lu Su didn't have the same thoughts as Tao Ying, so he smiled at Li Lang and asked, "Li Lang, since you know the bandit industry so well, then let me ask you, in your opinion, how should we fight to quickly eradicate the yellow turban thieves in Ru Ying's area?" The faster, the better. ”

"This ......." Li Lang, who was sharp-tongued, hesitated for a moment, scratched his head and said: "Military advisor, according to the villain's opinion, I'm afraid this is not easy, He Yi, Huang Shao, He Man, Gong Du and Liu Pi are all human beings, they will run if there are more officers and soldiers, they will fight if there are fewer officers and soldiers, and they will run if the situation is not right." Therefore, although Childe is invincible and invincible, if he wants to completely eliminate them, I am afraid it is not so easy. ”

Lu Su and Tao Ying glanced at each other, and both felt that this veteran soldier was reasonable, although the Junzi Army was definitely not afraid of fighting and fighting, but Runan and Yingchuan were enemy-occupied areas after all, no matter how fast the Junzi Army flowed, it was in vain for the enemy who was familiar with the geographical road to hide and not see you, if the time was delayed for too long and the enemy led the nose too far, Xuzhou would be in trouble once there was a change.

At this time, Sun Guan, who was also born as a bandit, came up and suggested: "Childe, anyway, we are here to grab grain and money this time, so let's just rob the people directly, not far in front of Chen Guojun, we have eight trebuchets to break through the county seat of Chen County, at least tens of thousands of grains." While robbing the people, he looked for the lair of He Yi and Huang Shao's gang of dog thieves, and robbed them again when they found them. ”

Tao Ying and Lu Su were dumbfounded together, both of them are strict in governing the army and paying attention to the people's hearts, the most disgusted to rob innocent people, the target of this western expedition is only the Yellow Turban Liukou in the Ruying area, and they never thought about robbing the people at all, but Tao Ying and Lu Su did not carry a lot of military food this time, and the sky is enough for a month.

"Childe, do you want to rob the people?" Li Lang's eyes lit up over there, and he quickly recommended himself: "Son, the villain is willing to show you the way, there is a county seat in front of you, and the people in the city are still rich, and what they have is money and food when they are defeated." ”

"Childe, that's a great idea." Taishan thief Sun Guan instigated: "Qian County is close to Chen Guo County, we can not only grab grain but also store grain, and in the future, we will grab the grain from the Yellow Turban thief, and there will be a place to hoard it, so that it can be transported back to Xuzhou in the future." ”

Tao Ying smiled bitterly, pointed to the gentleman's banner on his head, and said to Sun Guan helplessly: "Zhongtai, I know you have a good idea, but don't forget, I am the chief general of the gentleman's army, the gentleman's army is a teacher of morality, a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, guarding justice, rejecting evil, freezing to death without demolishing houses, starving to death without looting, how can I do the evil act of robbing the people?" robbed the people, where will I have the face to play the banner of a gentleman in the future? And the face of the deputy flag of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith, gentleness, courtesy, and frugality? ”

Sun Guan, who had heard about how the Junzi Army abused Sun Ce, almost didn't laugh out loud, and just wanted to say Childe, what are you pretending to be in front of the last general, but Li Lang next to him preemptively said: "Childe, we can pretend to be a yellow turban thief to rob it!" In the past, when we were in Peiguo City, our General Han Zhi did this, leading the brothers to disguise themselves as yellow turban thieves, robbing the people, robbing business travelers, and robbing everything. ”

"Huh? What a great idea! Deputy Director Tao's eyes finally lit up, and his heart said yes, under the banner of the gentleman's army, you can't rob the people, but if you rob under the banner of a yellow turban thief, you don't have so many scruples - just like my former boss and director, let the demolition team pretend to be hooligans to clean up the nail households.

"That's a great plan!" Lu Su's eyes also lit up, and he hurriedly suggested: "Childe, this matter is feasible, our army can pretend to be the Yellow Turban thieves who have wandered into the hinterland of Yuzhou, not only can they not have too many scruples, but they can also justifiably contact other Yellow Turban thieves, take the opportunity to find out where they are storing grain, and then launch a surprise attack." Break the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

"Childe, these things are on us." Sun Guan and Li Lang replied in unison, and then Li Lang, who was fast-mouthed, didn't care that Sun Guan was the boss, and hurriedly said: "Childe, the villain knows all the incisions and black words of the Yellow Turban Thieves, and can be responsible for liaising with other Yellow Turban Thieves and keeping and figuring out their grain nests." ”

"Childe, the actions of a large group of yellow turban thieves can be wrapped around the last general." Sun Guan rubbed his hands, his eyes glowing green with excitement, "I haven't done this for several years, and the last general is really a little itchy." ”

"Very good, fortunately, I brought General Zhongtai by name." Tao Ying laughed, reined in the war horse, pointed at Li Lang with a horsewhip, and said with a smile: "You're not bad, don't go back to Han Zhi, just follow me, serve in my personal army first, and I will definitely promote you if I have the opportunity." ”

"Xie Gongzi promoted." Li Lang was overjoyed, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed.

"Stop moving!" Tao Ying waved his whip and ordered, shouting: "Camp on the spot and rest, and leave tomorrow." ”

The order was conveyed, and the Xuzhou army quickly stopped, and Tao Ji, Xu Sheng and other generals ran over and inquired about what was going on, Tao Ji asked, "Second brother, what's wrong?" Why stop moving forward? ”

"Of course it's a good thing." Tao Ying grinned, pointed at Xu Sheng and ordered: "Wen Xiang, immediately take five hundred people and this Li Lang back to Peiguo, bring Han Zhi's full set of household goods dressed as a yellow turban thief, and if the rags are not enough, use the money and grain to buy from the people in Peiguo City." Tomorrow before dawn, we must bring here four thousand five hundred sets of torn clothes, and all the yellow turbans that wrap around the head, and if there is not enough, bring back other cloths and yellow dye, and dye them yellow. ”

Xu Sheng inexplicably agreed, and Tao Ji exclaimed and asked, "Second brother, what are you going to do?" If you don't wear a brand new military uniform, what kind of ragged clothes do you wear? Are we an army of gentlemen or an army of beggars? ”

"That's right, from now on, we will not be a gentleman's army for the time being, put away all the flags." Tao Ying waved his hand with a smile, and shouted: "Remember, from now on, I am not your second brother Tao Ying, from now on, I am the ...... of the old generals of the Digong General Zhang Bao, and Wu Tiande, the Demon King of the Mixed World!" ”