Early the next morning, Liu Jun swore to send troops.

Wang Kun, the chief eunuch, and Lu Weining, the governor and eunuch, also accompanied the army, and the two eunuchs, one supervised the merits and discipline, and the other supervised the grain and salary. Inspector Huang Daozhou and Yang Tinglin, the deputy envoy of the supervising army, both had to stay in Yunyang to continue to rectify and clean up the affairs of the guard, so this time, in addition to the two eunuchs supervising the military and supervising the salary, the emperor also sent a civil official to supervise the army.

The newly appointed Hubei Supervisor of the Army, Qu Shiyun, a fifty-year-old thin civil official, was appointed as the supervisor of the military according to the title of Inspector of Hubei Province, and was Yang Tinglin's deputy. Yang Tinglin had already carefully introduced the new supervisor to Liu Jun at last night's reception banquet.

This person is not small, at the age of twenty-six he was admitted to the Jinshi, Nanzhili is often an acquaintance, and he served as Yongfeng Zhi County, Jiangxi Province after the imperial examination, and he has quite a political achievement, his official reputation is good, and he is still a very good talent who writes poetry. Later, because of his father's funeral, he was worried at home, and it is said that he still corresponded with Western priests, and was baptized into the church, and had a foreign name Dormer.

Ten years ago, Ding Weiman returned to the court, and in the course of the promotion of the household department, he repeatedly impeached and reprimanded the ministers in power, and the emperor adopted his words more and became a famous fighter in the court. Of course, Qu Shiyun also has an identity, before he entered the foreign religion, he also worshipped Qian Qianyi of the Donglin Party as a teacher. Later, because of this identity, when Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru partnered to fight Qian Qianyi, who was originally going to enter the cabinet, they also degraded Qu Shiyun and returned to his hometown.

In short, after initial contact with him, Liu Jun had a very peculiar impression of this person, a foreigner, a Donglin party, and a Wei Zheng-style minister.

Speaking of which, Qu Shiyun is very kind to Liu Jun, perhaps because Liu Jun himself is a member of the Fushe Society and a disciple of Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng and others of the Donglin Party, the two talked very much under contact. In particular, although this person is said to be a science and Taoist official in the DPRK, he usually impeaches this and that at every turn, he has practiced a bronze tooth and iron teeth in the DPRK. But when chatting with Liu Jun, I found that this person is actually very talented, not only good at poetry, but also very broad-minded, and he is also very familiar with Western mathematics and physics and other new foreign things.

In particular, he also has a very open concept, which makes Liu Jun have a special sense of speculation, and there is not too much estrangement.

Also accompanying the army was Zhu Dadian, who he didn't want to go, but the emperor seemed to be very satisfied with Zhu Dadian recently. Therefore, it was specifically pointed out in the oracle that let Zhu Dadian command the soldiers and horses of Hubei Town, and Liu Jun was Zhu Dadian's deputy marshal. This is also an old routine in the imperial court, even if Liu Jun is now a governor, but the imperial court is still used to setting up a more senior civil official above the military generals, such as governors, governors, and even supervisors.

However, in fact, this time the Chu army went out, and the full power of the transfer and command of soldiers and horses was still in Liu Jun's hands. Now Zhu Dadian has also cooperated well with Liu Jun, Fubiao has also been given to Liu Jun, and the matter of military food and salary is also under Liu Jun's control, and he is only responsible for receiving gifts. Hold a banquet.

If it weren't for the emperor's dictation, Zhu Dadian would not be willing to lead the army. Anyway, in fact, he is just a nominal commander, and even his own Fu Biao has been handed over to Liu Jun, who else can he command. Now Zhu Dadian is completely in charge. How many troops to send, how to go, how to supply food, etc. Liu Jun had the final say, and then he nodded and agreed, and when he wanted to stamp it, he would press another seal, and there would be no objection.

Liu Jun transferred seven battalions to the south, with more than 20,000 men, including two battalions of Zhenbiao, one cavalry battalion and one infantry battalion, plus a teaching battalion and a baggage battalion, and then the three battalions of Fubiao under the name of Zhu Dadian, and all the students of the martial arts hall accompanied the army.

The other soldiers and horses Liu Jun did not adjust, and let them continue to train. Yunyang left two steps, one cart and three battalions, Liu Jun, the 4,000 soldiers of Yu Yiming in Kuizhou, and the 20,000 recruits of Qi Huang, he did not plan to move, the more troops were transferred, the heavier the task of transporting grain, grass and equipment.

The seven battalions of soldiers and horses bid farewell to the officials and businessmen who came to see off at the Yunyang wharf, many Yunyang people are really reluctant to leave the nine-headed bird, after these soldiers came, the order in Yunyang is much better, and these soldiers are relatively wealthy, and they often go to the street to buy something to eat when they are on vacation, not only have they never eaten vices such as overlord meals, but they will take the initiative to pay every time.

There were fewer fights in the city and on the docks, and law and order became much better.

"Are you coming back?"

"Lad, take two eggs and eat them on the way!"

Qu Shiyun stood on the deck of the ship leaning on the riverside, watching this scene with emotion.

"I have never seen it before, the nine-headed bird has been stationed in Yunyang for more than a month, and it has won such a reputation in the hearts of the local people, which is gratifying and lamentable. The military gate really brought out a good soldier. ”

"These are all our Chu Township soldiers, as soldiers, they naturally want to protect their families and defend the country, they just did what they should do."

Qu Shiyun sighed and said, "Having said that, looking at what the Ming Dynasty can do today, it can not disturb the people and even get the soldiers and horses that the people are so supportive, and the nine-headed bird is the only one." ”

The two eunuchs looked at this scene on the dock, and they were also very surprised, and couldn't believe it for a long time, was this real or a joke?

20,000 soldiers and horses sailed down the Han River, and thousands of sails competed.

From the lower reaches of the Han River to the upper reaches of the Han River, especially after crossing the Xiangyang section, there will be many dangerous shoals, and if there is no tailwind, the crew can only jump down the river to the shore to pull the fiber and tow the boat across the beach. The fiber rope is strangled on the stones on those dangerous beaches year after year, forming many fiber marks, which are called slender stones.

However, when going down the river, it is much easier and more convenient, and down the river, it is also the most relaxed and happy time for the boatmen, just pull the sail and shake the oar.

More than 20,000 people of the Nine-headed Bird carried hundreds of boats, carrying troops and artillery, which was faster and easier than taking the land route. Liu Jun and the others only carried a small amount of grain on the ship, and this time they went to Huaixi to suppress bandits, and Liu Jun did not need to transport grain all the way from Yunyang.

In the just-concluded autumn grain harvest, Liu Jun had already signed many grain purchase contracts with the grain farmers and paid the deposit in advance, so as soon as the grain was harvested this time, Liu Jun asked people to pull the silver county by county to collect the grain. The recovered grain was stored in the granaries of more than ten cities set up on the Yangtze River and the Han River.

Among them, in Hankou, Wuchang, Huangzhou, Qizhou, each city of the nine-headed bird granary has more than 100,000 stone of grain. The nine-headed bird only needs to send a few quartermasters to Qizhou in advance and let them prepare food in advance.

From Yunyang to Hankou, the road was smooth, and in only eight days, Liu Jun had already led his troops to arrive.

After the fleet arrived at Hankow, it was transferred to a larger river boat, and the grain, grass and ordnance prepared in advance were also ready to be loaded with the army. Then continued down the Yangtze River, and two days later, the army of more than 20,000 men arrived at the Anqing Fu wharf north of Nanzhili.

When the nine-headed bird arrived at the Anqing wharf, Shi Kefa, the governor of Caoyun and the governor of Jiangbei local military affairs, was looking forward to it.

Shi Kefa wore a black gauze hat and a red official robe, and a trace of white linen was revealed in the official robe, and he was still filial piety, and he was mourning at home, but the emperor issued an order to seize affection, and promoted him to the governor of Caoyun and the governor of Jiangbei.

This position is the original Caoyun governor and governor of Huai, Yang, Lu, Feng four prefectures, Xu, He, Chu three prefectures, this time the imperial court changed to Jiangbei governor, not only the original Fengyang and other four prefectures and three prefectures continue to govern, but also increased Anqing Prefecture, the entire Jiangbei Huainan region is under its jurisdiction.

Although the authority has increased a lot, there is also a great dilemma in front of Shi Kefa. With the bandits being defeated one after another, the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo in Jiangbei has become the last big bandit in the Ming Dynasty. If the bandits are not eliminated for a day, the governor of Jiangbei should be uneasy.

After this period of preparation, the emperor urged the commanders to launch a meeting to suppress it, and they completed the battle. After he took office, he cooperated with the governor Mei Zhihuan and the governor Li Changgeng to actively reorganize the troops and horses and train the new army, but they were trapped in food and salary, and the progress has been slow.

He did not think that the current official army was capable of exterminating the bandits in one fell swoop. If it can't be wiped out with a single blow, then a hasty attack may lead to failure, or even allow the bandits to break through and flee.

Shi Kefa once suggested to Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng that if they waited for another half a year, Jiangbei would be able to have a fighting army, and they would be able to finish their work in one battle and exterminate the bandits in one fell swoop.

But the emperor couldn't wait, and Mei Zhihuan also seemed to be very confident.

He later heard that the self-confidence of Inspector Mei and Governor Li came from the current Hubei General Army. It is said that the Hubei general soldier Liu Jun's subordinates have a very good fighting soldier and horse, called the nine-headed bird, Sichuan victory, I heard that it was this general soldier who led the troops to win, Liu Jun was able to capture Zhang Xianzhong alive and finally won the title of marquis.

But he inquired carefully, it was said that Liu Jun was just a small martial artist half a year ago, and his nine-headed birds were all recruited children of the township party, and it was only half a year since he became an army.

Shi Kefa felt that Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng were too confident, and with a new army like the Nine Headed Birds, Sichuan Zhijie might just be luck. But how can you rely on luck in war? Even fighting a war cannot always rely on risk.

Mei Zhihuan reorganized 30,000, Li Changgeng reorganized 20,000, Jiangbei already had 50,000 soldiers and horses, and this time the Chu army was transferred to the meeting, but Shi Kefa has always insisted, believing that fighting a war does not depend on a large number of soldiers. On the contrary, the more soldiers there are, the more chaotic it sometimes becomes.

But since he couldn't change the result of the suppression, Shi Kefa asked to come to Anqing Liu Jun's army.

He wanted to see what kind of character Liu Jun was in Zhennan, and he also wanted to keep an eye on Liu Jun, lest this young and proud Hou Ye act recklessly, and even supervise the Chu army, so as to avoid harassing the local people, looting property, etc., after the Chu army entered the country, it often harassed the local people, and even openly looted the place.

The fleet of the Chu army has arrived, there are hundreds of them, the white sails are like clouds, the river covers the sea, and the momentum is very amazing. (To be continued......)