Zhang Shan rejected Zuo Liangyu's offer to help eliminate the thieves Li Zicheng on the outskirts of Luoyang first, and for Zhang Shan, the thieves were never his concern.

He didn't solve the siege of Luoyang for half a year, not because he was afraid of Li Zicheng, but because he was worried about Zuo Liangyu. Now that Zuo Liangyu has accepted the order, the rear is already stable, and the Chu army can encircle and suppress the thieves with peace of mind.

For Zuo Liangyu's choice, Zhang Shan was very happy. He is not afraid of Zuo Liangyu, but if Zuo Liangyu refuses to accept the conditions he proposes, then he has no other choice.

When he came to Yuncheng, Zhang Shan prepared two sets of plans. The first plan was naturally that Zuo Liangyu accepted the order, disbanded the Yu army, and took 10,000 people north to be his Guanwai commander, and the remaining 20,000 people accepted the reorganization of the Chu army and incorporated into the new Central Plains Military Region. The other 50,000 horses were to be dismissed.

Although the Chu army had to come up with a million silver dollars for this plan, the problem that money could solve was not a problem for the Chu army. One million can solve Zuo Liangyu and the 80,000 Yu army under his command, which is still very cost-effective.

If Zuo Liangyu does not accept this condition, then Zhang Shan will only have one last choice left, that is, on this White Tiger Hall, he will directly ask Shang Fang's sword to kill Zuo Liangyu. This was a very risky plan, although there were only two of them in the hall and fifty of his guards outside, but there were tens of thousands of Yu troops inside and outside Yuncheng.

Once the situation cannot be controlled, Zuo Liangyu's subordinates will be in chaos, and he and his fifty subordinates may have to fold here. He didn't want to choose this plan unless he had to.

In addition to these two plans, there is no other good way to quickly solve Zuo Liangyu and his 80,000 subordinates.

Zuo Liangyu is a veteran ruffian, and it is difficult to send troops to fight him. He can't beat the Chu army, but he can run faster than a rabbit. Zhang Shan didn't have so much effort and Zuo Liangyu to consume, and he didn't want to make such a situation. The king of the county had already urged him to defeat the thieves as soon as possible, because the situation in western Liaoning might change. At that time, the Chu army will have to concentrate all its efforts to maintain stability in Gyeonggi and deal with possible rebellions in western Liaoxi, and there will even be Qing troops taking advantage of the fire to loot.

Now the result is finally happy.

Three days later, the Yuncheng army gathered.

Zhangshan's Huguang Town Soldiers and Horses, Cai Yuan's Denglai Town Soldiers and Horses, Zuo Liangyu's Henan Soldiers and Horses, more than 100,000 people gathered. The tents are continuous, and the flags are like the sea.

A million silver dollars have been shipped from the Four Seas Bank, real money and silver, all bright and dazzling silver dollars. There is not a single banknote and silver ticket.

Zuo Liangyu gathered all the soldiers and horses under his command near Yuncheng, he watched the Huguang Chu army and the Denglai Chu army arrive at the convergence so quickly, and looked at their neat military appearance and strict military discipline, all the same firearms, plus a large number of cannons. Seeing that the camp they had built outside the city was so strong, Zuo Liangyu, who was experienced, sighed greatly.

If you really want to talk to Zhang Shan, maybe he will be surrounded by these two teams under Liu Jun now, and if he really fights, even if he has more Henan soldiers. But there is certainly no half-point chance of winning.

Zuo Liangyu quickly selected 10,000 horses from his command, all of them were old subordinates for many years, and they had rich experience in battle formations, Zuo Liangyu selected these 10,000 horses as his troops to go north.

Then he changed the equipment of the 10,000 people. He collected the best armor and ordnance from the whole army and equipped them, and even distributed all the war horses in the army to these ten thousand people. All other firearms and artillery were all equipped with the same number of 10,000 people.

After such a toss, the equipment of these 10,000 people is not bad. Everyone has armor, and even has two sets of armor, one iron armor and one brocade armor. Each has a waist knife. A pair of bows and arrows, and a complete horse. There was even a firearms battalion of 3,000 men, each armed with a bird gun and equipped with more than 30 artillery pieces.

The 10,000 men also looted all the horses, mules, and vehicles of the whole army, and established a battalion of baggage vehicles of a considerable scale.

Zhang Shan knew all about Zuo Liangyu's small actions, but he didn't take it to heart. These ordnance, firearms, armor, etc., which Zuo Liangyu regarded as treasures, were just tattered in the eyes of Chu Jun. If he wants to, he will go, it doesn't matter.

After Zuo Liangyu picked up 10,000 horses, among the next 70,000 Henan soldiers, Zhang Shan and Cai Yuan sent the instructors and non-commissioned officers of the division and standard battalions under their command to personally assess and select the horses.

In the end, out of these 70,000 people, 20,000 horses were selected.

Then Cai Yuan and Zhang Shan each pulled out a federation under their own command, and with these two associations as the basic backbone, plus 20,000 selected Henan soldiers, they were reorganized to form a new Kaifeng Town.

The second dog, Zhang Guozhu, served as the commander-in-chief of this brand-new Kaifeng Town, while Cai Yuan was appointed as the commander of the Central Plains Military Region and the commander-in-chief of Denglai Town, and Yang Wenyue was appointed as the governor of the Central Plains, the governor of the military and political affairs of Henan and Shandong provinces, and was also in charge of the river.

This is one of Liu Jun's plans in advance, Zuo Liangyu accepts the appointment, so the next plan will be carried out.

As soon as Zuo Liangyu leaves, then Henan and Shandong will be under the control of the Chu army, from now on to Zhenjiang in Liaodong in the east, Hunan in the south, Sichuan in the west, and Shanxi in the north.

The four military regions of Guanwai, Zhili, Zhongyuan, and Chuanhu, as well as the nine provinces, were all roughly under the control of the Chu army. Although this control is not strong for the time being, with time, the Chu army will be able to fully control these places. Especially after the two provinces of the Central Plains were brought under the control of the Chu army, the Chuanhu in the south and the Zhili in the north were connected in the future.

first control the army, control the territory, and then step by step to intervene in local affairs, step by step, Liu Jun already has his own step list.

The remaining 50,000 Henan soldiers who were not selected were all dismissed, each with six silver dollars.

The six silver dollars were personally issued by the Chu army to each of the dismissed Henan soldiers, and there was no deduction at all. What surprised these soldiers the most was that outside Yuncheng, the Chu army also organized many merchants to recruit workers.

There are those who are recruited to go to Tuntian, there are mines to recruit miners, there are ordnance workshops to recruit workers, and there are also those who are recruited to go to Taiwan to reclaim wasteland, and there are hundreds of business workshops and a large number of workers recruited. And the conditions are not bad, especially with the Chu army as a guarantee.

"The Yangtze River Shipping has recruited crew members and wharf porters, the crew has five silver dollars per month, and the wharf porters have four yuan per month, and they also have food and accommodation, three meals a day, and a meal of meat and vegetables a day. On one side of the triangular apricot yellow flag of the Yangtze River Shipping, there are several tables, and the steward of the Yangtze River Shipping is shouting with a group of men.

"Is there really such a good treatment?" A Henan soldier who had just received six yuan of severance pay asked, he was only in his twenties, his family was gone in the bandit sweep a few years ago, and was later recruited into the army by Zuo Liangyu, and he has always been doing some auxiliary work for logistics and transportation, because of malnutrition, he is almost twenty, but he is very thin. In the selection of soldiers, in the end, he was not selected and was laid off. Fortunately, he got six severance pay, and he had no problem with being eliminated. He didn't really like life in the army, but he was a little confused about what to do in the future.

After seeing these merchants recruiting, he couldn't help but be intrigued, and invited a few companions who were also in the auxiliary camp to come and watch.

"This little brother, look at what you said, you don't look at whose industry our Yangtze River Shipping is, tell you that the big owner of the Yangtze River Shipping Industry is the property in the name of the brother of the county king. From the mouth of the Yangtze River to Chongqing, Sichuan, there are our family's merchant ships on the 4,000-mile river. Tell you, we have a thousand large and small merchant ships, think about it, a thousand ships, how big is the scale? A young fellow heard his suspicions and hurried over.

Liu Ke was greatly surprised, a thousand merchant ships, he couldn't imagine what it would be like if so many ships were parked together.

"How can there be a thousand boats, you lie?"

"Lie to you is a grandson, let me tell you the truth, our Yangtze River shipping is not ordinary from ordinary ships. We do have more than 1,000 merchant ships, but not all of them are our own. How to say it, let me put it this way, that is, the king of the county and his eldest brother established the Yangtze River shipping, invested a lot of silver, and then he also had dozens of large merchant ships, and then he united many shipowners who originally ran the Yangtze River, and those shipowners joined the Yangtze River shipping with their own ships, and owned shares according to the size of the ships. ”

"You get the idea, right? Our Yangtze River Shipping is a large ship operation of the Yangtze River jointly operated by many shipbuilders, with more than 1,000 merchant ships under its name, and its business is very wide, from the Yangtze River estuary to Chongqing, all sections of the Yangtze River are running. Now the business is very good, and there is an urgent need for manpower. Come to us, whether you are a crew member on a ship, or a porter in various docks and warehouses, as long as you are willing to endure hardships, then there will be at least four silver dollars per month, and you will be provided with food and accommodation, three meals a day, four sets of clothes, shoes and socks a year, and bonuses for the New Year's holidays. ”

Liu Ke was moved. This is much better than the treatment he was a soldier under Zuo Liangyu, he used to be a soldier under Zuo Liangyu, basically he was not paid, and he was in charge of eating. Occasionally, if you win a battle, you will be rewarded, or sometimes the army will rob, and they will follow behind and grab points.

"Can I do that?" Liu Ke asked, "Don't look at me thin, in fact, I have a lot of strength, only a little thin." ”

"It doesn't matter if you're thinner, you're still young, you can go to the boat and run the boat, if you are willing to endure hardships and work hard, you can learn the ability to operate the boat, whatever you learn, this salary will immediately increase a lot." The guy looked at Liu Ke a few times and said, "How about it, if you are interested, please hurry up and sign up, I tell you, although we need manpower, but to recruit here, it is also the meaning of the top." Otherwise, you won't be able to recruit anyone, no, you don't want to miss this great opportunity. After this village, there is no such shop. ”

Almost at the same time, there are many such recruitment flags outside Yuncheng, such as Huangzhou Shipyard, Yingcheng Salt Yard, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Jiangnan Qianzhuang, Sihai Bank, East India Company, etc., all of which are recruiting workers on a large scale, and the treatment is very good.

Not far away, Zhang Shan and Cai Yuan stood together, watching the lively scene.

"The county king's move is clever, so that the 80,000 Henan troops will be attracted, and there is no need to worry about them becoming a trouble."

"Of course, the king of the county has always been a good player."

Cai Yuan glanced at Zhang Shan, "Hey, if Zuo Liangyu refuses to transfer north that day, do you really want to kill him on the spot?" ”

"That's nature."

Cai Yuan couldn't help but shake his head when he heard this, "I really don't know whether to praise you for being brave or reckless, but fortunately, Zuo Liangyu knows the times." (To be continued.) )