The third day of the seventh month.

It's another good day.

The sun is warm, the scorching heat is gone, and the cold air brought by the autumn wind blows through the county seat in the south, which always brings a touch of coolness to the city.

General's Palace.

Wang Cheng sat in the lobby, holding a roster in his hand, with a smile on his face.

"Good! All right! ”

He put the roster together, got up and said, "All nine hundred and twelve people have volunteered to join the army, and with this group of people joining, our men and horses have exceeded nine thousand!" ”

Liu Qingsheng, who was sitting at the bottom, got up and congratulated: "Everything is under the control of adults. ”

Wang Cheng waved his hand and said, "Although I am confident that I will take these people for my own use, I didn't expect that it would only take so much time, and it is only the sixteenth day of today." ”

"In the past, no one in Nanli was willing to join the army, and that was because they couldn't eat enough when they were soldiers. Now that the adults have arrived, the daily food is oversupplied, there is meat every now and then, and the military salary is not a lot, as long as these people are not fools, how can they be willing to leave? Liu Qingsheng said.

Wang Cheng gradually put away his smile, looked at Liu Qingsheng and said, "How about you say we will recruit again?" Just gather 10,000 horses, anyway, now we have food, grass and military salaries. ”

"No!"

Liu Qingsheng immediately denied it, explaining: "Nanli County has just suffered a heavy blow, and many Nanli brothers have died in battle, and now it is time to recuperate." If the adults are conscripted again, I am afraid that there will not be a few young and strong men in Nanli County in the future, and who will plant those crops at that time? If there is another accident, this Nanli County will really become a lonely city with only orphans and widows! ”

Wang Cheng's heart trembled when he heard this, he slapped the roster on his head with a "snap", and said, "I forgot about this!" ”

At the beginning, before Shi Baozheng left here, he told him to leave a few seeds for Nanli County.

is afraid that he will "use all the military force" and get all the young and strong men in Nanli County into the army.

"So, I, the general of the captive, still can't make up the staff?" Wang Cheng said regretfully.

Liu Qingsheng thought for a while and said, "Don't forget, my lord, now you are the governor of all military affairs in the southwest. If you want to gather troops, why don't you recruit troops from other counties in the Southwest? No matter how bad it is, those county recruits can always be requisitioned. ”

Southwest County has six counties under its jurisdiction, and Nanli County is only the westernmost county. Although the population is not as large as those counties in the hinterland of the Great Zhou, there are hundreds of thousands.

"I forgot about it!"

Wang Cheng secretly said "too careless", but then his face showed suspicion and said: "Having said that, if you transfer troops from other counties, will it cause dissatisfaction among local officials?" ”

"What my lord said is not unreasonable, rashly transferring troops from other counties will be a bit troublesome after all, after all, it is not the time for a full-scale war with the Xia Kingdom." Liu Qingsheng said.

"If you're in trouble, forget it!"

Wang Cheng waved his hand, as a soldier, he hated dealing with local officials the most.

Those people have been magistrates for so many years, and their stomachs are crooked, no matter how resourceful he is, he can't play these officialdom veterans. If they accidentally catch something again, then the fun will be great.

"My lord, it's not that I can't make up for the people, my lord forgot those captives of the mountain country?" Liu Qingsheng suddenly spoke.

Wang Cheng's eyes lit up, and he said, "You mean to incorporate those people from the Shanze Department into the army?" ”

Liu Qingsheng nodded and said: "Although these people have not undergone systematic training, they are skilled in archers and horses, and they are cavalry seedlings. They are now locked up, and we have to feed them every day. Instead of letting them eat and drink for nothing, let them work for us. ”

"And the adults have already moved their families here and set up homes for those people, even if they have any bad intentions, they will not die for us?"

Wang Cheng said with a smile: "If I remember correctly, there are more than 700 prisoners in that group, and if all of them are incorporated into the army, our entire army will have almost 10,000 people." ”

Thinking that he had an army of 10,000 people in his hands, he was suddenly proud in his heart.

An army of 10,000 people, lined up, black and oppressive, if you act together, what a powerful force will it be?

Because he was nurtured by his father as a child, he had a "general dream" since he was a child, fantasizing about one day being able to command a large army, and now it has almost come true.

Wang Cheng said solemnly: "This matter will be handed over to Mr., as soon as possible, they will be incorporated into the army as soon as possible, and the combat effectiveness will be formed as soon as possible!" ”

"Yes!" Liu Qingsheng should be down.

At this moment, a young man wearing red fish scale armor walked in.

He was in his twenties, tall, somewhat thin, with a pair of arms that almost touched the knees.

As soon as Wang Cheng saw him walk in, he immediately called out his name: "Zixiang!" ”

This young man is Liu Zixiang, who was originally a military marquis under Zhu Bangguo, a general of Jianwei Zhonglang, and now serves as a military commander under Zhang Han.

Liu Zixiang came to the front, "snapped" a standard military salute, and after being called up by Wang Cheng, he took out a document from his arms and handed it to Wang Cheng.

Wang Cheng opened it and looked at it, his face gradually showed joy, and said, "Okay!" Zhang Han really has the style of a famous general, and there is such a big gain in this battle. ”

When Liu Qingsheng heard this, he immediately remembered something.

When Wang Cheng left the Shaba River Valley, he left Zhang Han behind, and left him with 2,000 cavalry, which were used to carry out the second set of plans.

Liu Qingsheng said happily: "Could it be done?" ”

Wang Cheng nodded and handed the paperwork in his hand to Liu Qingsheng again.

Liu Qingsheng took it, and while reading, he read: "...... Our men and horses attacked Liuzhou on the second night of the first month of July, killing more than 1,000 Liuzhou defenders, obtaining 30,000 taels of gold, 150,000 taels of silver, 25 boxes of jewelry, 3,000 horses, more than 200,000 cattle and sheep, and countless ...... of grain and grass."

It wasn't until a while later that Liu Qingsheng still couldn't believe it.

At this time, Liu Zixiang, who was standing on the side, said: "General, because of the long distance, this time the mark only brought back those gold jewels, and the other seizures are still left in the Shaba River Valley." ”

Hearing this, Liu Qingsheng finally came back to his senses and said excitedly: "My lord, this is a big victory!" ”

"Not bad!"

Wang Cheng nodded and said, "This battle is the first big victory since the establishment of our army, and it should be rewarded!" Be rewarded! ”

Liu Qingsheng first nodded in agreement, and then said in a deep voice: "But don't forget, my lord, this battle is a sneak attack on Liuzhou as a member of the Shanze Tribe, if you reward Captain Zhang, wouldn't it be like telling the world that our army did it?" ”

He worried: "Now that the two countries have just experienced peace talks, our army has launched a surprise attack, how can you explain to the court?" How to explain to the king? ”

Wang Cheng's smile suddenly froze on his face, and he actually forgot about this important stubble.

He paced back and forth in contemplation, and finally made a decision: "Even if you can't come openly, you still have to reward!" ”

"...... like this"

Wang Cheng looked at Liu Qingsheng and said, "Sir, you will prepare a recital for me now, and show Han as the Zhonglang general and report it to the imperial court." Regardless of whether the imperial court agrees or not, Zhang Han is the Zhonglang general in our army. The other brothers will be promoted according to the size of their merits, and they will be directly stamped with my general's seal, effective on the same day! ”

Liu Qingsheng just wanted to say something, but Liu Zixiang on the side preemptively said: "The general is wise!" ”

"Hey!"

Liu Qingsheng looked at Liu Zixiang and sighed secretly, and said nothing.

"Zixiang, this document only says that it was captured, how about the casualties of the brothers?" Wang Cheng said with concern.

Liu Zixiang's smile quickly receded, and he said in a low voice: "Two hundred and eighteen brothers died, and more than three hundred were injured. ”

"Nearly six hundred casualties?"

Wang Cheng's brain was twisted into the word "Sichuan", and he could imagine the tragedy of that battle.

Liuzhou is separated from Nanli by hundreds of miles, and there is a Zhangzhou in the middle, so it is not a military town, and the defenders are only a few thousand, not more than three thousand.

However, Zhang Han and others rushed straight to Liuzhou from the Shaba River Valley at night, taking it by surprise and attacking it unprepared, and it stands to reason that the casualties should not be large, but the result was still so many dead and wounded, which shows that the battle must have been very difficult.

"Originally, we had already withdrawn from Liuzhou, but who knew that a martial arts master would be killed halfway, otherwise we wouldn't have killed and injured so many brothers." Liu Zixiang said with red eyes.

"No wonder!" Wang Cheng was stunned.

The appearance of a Martial Dao Grandmaster on the battlefield has a great impact, especially for the side that does not have a Martial Dao Grandmaster.

However, against Zhang Han's two thousand elite cavalry, they couldn't completely turn the tide of the battle, after all, they were all armed with iron-armed copper crossbows, which could attack or retreat, and they could consume people to death, unless they ran into the great grandmaster.

Wang Cheng looked solemn and said, "Zixiang, you should go to the field hospital now and take twenty medical personnel to the Shaba River Valley, bring all kinds of healing herbs, and be sure to save the life of the injured brother." ”

"Yes!"

Liu Zixiang responded, then turned around and walked out of the lobby.

When he walked away, Liu Qingsheng, who was holding back his words, immediately said: "My lord, my subordinates think it's inappropriate for you to reward Zhang Han!" ”

"First, pretending to be from the Shanze tribe to raid Liuzhou was an adult's plan, even if it was rewarded, the adult should be the first merit; Second, since the adults know that Zhang Han is a rare general, they should stay by their side, once the imperial court really appoints him as a general, they will transfer him away at any time; Third, Zhang Han and Chengyi are harmonious on the surface, but in fact they are secretly fighting each other, and now that Zhang Han has won, where will Chengyi live? Fourth......"

"That's it!"

Wang Cheng stretched out his hand to interrupt his words and said, "What Mr. said is true, but has Mr. ever thought that in the event of a big war, who will guard this southern county seat?" ”

Liu Qingsheng was stunned for a moment and muttered: "What do you mean that there will be a big war between the Great Zhou and the Xia Kingdom?" ”

Wang Cheng was silent, but his thoughts returned to the dream not long ago.

In the dark, the warning from that dream was getting closer and closer, as if it was about to happen.

Liu Qingsheng didn't interrupt Wang Cheng, but Wang Cheng's words spoke to his heart.

Once a big war occurs, Wang Cheng will definitely go out to lead the troops, and he will naturally accompany him and give advice to Wang Cheng.

If Zhang Han is appointed as a lieutenant general, he can logically take over all the defense of Nanli County, otherwise how can a single lieutenant mobilize the soldiers of the entire southwest county?

"In short, Mr. will prepare the recital as soon as possible, and before the official edict of the imperial court is issued, Zhang Han will be temporarily appointed as the acting Zhonglang general, and the clerks will be brought back by Zixiang." Wang Cheng said.

This time, Liu Qingsheng had no objections.

At this moment, another armor soldier ran into the lobby, looking anxious.

"General! Oh no! ”