Plan to cut off the nine states

After the great victory, the number of horses of the Jiangshi Army increased sharply. Tang Weitian liked cavalry, so he only recruited more than 1,500 people from the army, but he wanted nearly 2,000 horses and several vehicles. Yang Mengjun and others thought that he wanted to escort Xu Chu to Bingzhou, so they met all his requests without hesitation.

Tang Weitian left 500 people behind to escort the grain and grass and protect Xu Chu's safety. He led 1,000 people and ran in front. Soon after setting off, he changed direction and headed straight for Xijing. The journey was surprisingly smooth. No one in the towns and cities passed by resisted, and they all opened their doors and surrendered.

The news of the defeat of He Rong's people had already spread, and everyone thought that this "Jiangshi Army" was sent by the victorious army.

Qinzhou had been through several wars and had just been thoroughly plundered by He Rong's people. The population in the city was sparse, and the large city had only a few thousand people. Some small cities were even empty, with gates and walls collapsed, and only wild beasts could be seen between the houses, but no human figures.

Tang Weitian recruited the people wherever he went, asked them to sort out their property, and went to Xijing with the following army. However, he did not leave anyone to supervise. He did not care if someone hid or escaped. He just left a message: "The army will rebuild Xijing, and all food will be transported there in the future."

Xu Chu led 500 soldiers and a caravan to follow behind, collecting people along the way. At first, few people were willing to follow. Seeing that there was food on the car of the army, it seemed that they would not rob their property. More and more people joined the team. When they were about to arrive in Xijing, the number had increased to 5,000 to 6,000. Most of them were families, with a minimum of three or four people and a maximum of dozens of people.

Xu Chu accepted them carefully, selected leaders from the big families, and then secretly observed and promoted those who acted fairly to officials.

Before leaving, He Rongren set a fire in Xijing, burned down the city gates and a large number of houses in the city, and chiseled several gaps in the city wall, but he acted hastily and did not destroy it thoroughly. From a distance, Xijing still stood tall and magnificent.

There were no garrisons in the city, and some civilians were hiding.

Xu Chu had already made arrangements. After Tang Weitian arrived, he did not enter the city immediately, but camped outside a city gate and sent soldiers to inform the whole city: Tang Weitian, the general of Tiancheng Zhenxi and the general manager of Qinzhou of the Jiangshi Army, took over Xijing from today, and ordered everyone to go and pay homage quickly.

Although the name was loud, the effect was not significant. Only more than a hundred people came out of their hiding places and came to kowtow to General Tang in fear.

Tang Weitian returned the greetings, then let them all go and waited for Xu Chu to arrive.

Xu Chu led the new leaders he selected along the way to Xijing the next morning. These new leaders had stronger appeal. They called out nearly a thousand people on the same day. After that, people came out every day, and finally reached more than 5,000 people - this is the entire population of Xijing, plus the people who followed along the way, just over 10,000, and most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled, and only 20% to 30% of them won the battle.

Even so, Xu Chu did not recruit these people into the army, but distributed houses and fields to them, letting them take care of their families first.

Xijing covers a large area, with an outer city and an inner city, which is larger than Dongdu. Xu Chu chose to keep a better corner and distributed all the houses. He allowed the people to go to other places to dismantle broken walls and pick up stones and wood to repair their own homes. He also encouraged everyone to open up wasteland and cultivate in the city.

The abandoned Xijing has regained vitality, but there is only one line, and it may be interrupted at any time.

Just a few days after entering the city, Tang Weitian began to face the dilemma of food shortage. The people in the city could barely feed themselves and had no spare energy to feed the soldiers.

Tang Weitian was most concerned about food. When he heard that there was little food left, he was very anxious and came to Xu Chu for advice: "I will take the troops out to look around, maybe we can find some food from the nearby city."

"Xijing is already so dilapidated, and other places will not be better than here. If you take the troops out, you won't find food and will disturb the people. Listen to me, send the leaders among the people out of the city and announce to the people to recruit more people."

"Recruit people? Then the food will be even less, and you don't allow me to collect food from the people." Tang Weitian was very reluctant.

Xu Chu smiled and said, "The people are the source. Without the source, where does the water come from? If you want to be a general, you can't just fight."

"But I really only know how to fight."

"Don't worry, learn slowly."

Tang Weitian shook his head, "I can't learn it. Anyway, you are here to make the decision. I will just focus on fighting for you."

"I will leave soon."

"Huh?" Tang Weitian was shocked, "Where is the young master going?"

"Bingzhou."

"What should I do? I must go with you and can't stay in this damn place. Alas, one of my biggest dreams when I was a child was to come to Xijing for a day, not buying anything, just wandering around. Now I am here, but Xijing is like this - alas."

"You must stay." Xu Chu said seriously.

"Why?" Tang Weitian was unconvinced.

"Because you are a martial arts master, unparalleled in the world."

Tang Weitian grinned, "Young Master is really good at praising people, but I still don't understand why you want to stay in Xijing."

"If someone like you stays under someone else's command, you will be at most a fierce general. If he is strong, you can still use your skills. If he is weak, you can't do anything and will suffer from him."

"Young Master is right. When defending Hanzhong City, He Rong had many soldiers and generals. I had no way to deal with him. I was so bored in the city, and General Tie would not allow me to go out."

"He is protecting you, but he can't use you either."

"Neither can Saint Jin and General Mengjun?"

"No, they are both at the end of their strength. After pacifying Liangzhou, they need to rest and have no intention of expansion. They don't need your skills."

"Only Young Master can use me."

"Me neither."

"Then who can use me?"

"So you have to stay in Xijing, gather the people, and hold on to the city. If there is a good harvest this autumn, you can send troops to follow the prefectures and counties next year. According to my estimation, you can capture at least half of Qinzhou. Then sit back and watch the events in the Central Plains and watch the heroes. Ups and downs, choose the person you like to join, at least you will be a prince in the future. "

Tang Weitian giggled twice, "Can I still be made a marquis? How surprised would my parents be if they heard this."

"But you have to remember two things."

"Well, I will definitely remember what the young master told me."

"First, you must not compete with the people for profit. You must try your best to recruit the people and cultivate wasteland in the city while the weather is still there. However, before the harvest, you must not requisition or snatch food, and you must not abuse the people's power until the farming season is slack. Then repair the city walls and gates.”

"Remember." Tang Weitian nodded.

"Second, don't be good at waging war. If someone is willing to surrender to the army, you can accept it, but don't send out troops this year. Focus on defending the city. If anyone comes to compete, just drive them away. Don't chase them. Everything has to wait until next year."

"Oh, concentrate on defending the city, I remember that too. But... I don't have food. I tighten my belt, I can last for about ten days at most. A full soldier is easy to control, but a starved soldier cannot be suppressed even by gods. "

"I will find you another batch of grain. You can think of a solution yourself. If it fails, you would rather kill the horses for food than rob the people of their surplus grain. Whether Xijing can be revived depends entirely on this."

"I won't rob it, but I don't want to kill the horse either. It is said that there are many wild animals outside the city. Can I take people to hunt?"

"Okay. Anyway, I will try my best to send you food and grass so that you can survive this year. Next year, you will be all on your own."

"No problem." Tang Weitian was simple-minded and could easily be encouraged. He didn't expect how difficult it would be to be independent.

In the afternoon of the same day, Xu Chu invited more than ten leaders of the common people, most of whom were elderly, to formally introduce them to General Tang to serve as officials.

There were several former officials among the people, but Xu Chu did not use them. He also reminded Tang Weitian not to use them: "Xijing has just begun to flourish, people's hearts are unstable, and everything needs to be simplified. The old officials have too many rules and can easily cause civil unrest. At least they must not be used this year." ”

"I won't use it in the future." Tang Weitian has not liked old officials since he was a child.

Xu Chu was leaving the next day, but Tang Weitian couldn't keep him, so he had to hold a banquet to see him off. He also invited Princess Fangde and toasted: "I change my previous statement. Not all Zhang's daughters are bad people. The princess is quite good. Young Master I'll leave it to you, but you two are both weak, and you don't know who is taking care of whom. In short, the young master is a smart man, and you are not stupid either. You will definitely be able to figure it out without me having to worry about it..."

Tang Weitian rambled for a long time, becoming more and more confused as he talked. Zhang Shiqing smiled after listening and said, "Understood. I'll drink this glass of wine and talk about my feelings."

"That's what I mean!" Tang Weitian was overjoyed and drank it all in one gulp.

Zhang Shiqing also drank up the wine in his glass. The two of you pushed the glasses to change and drank to their heart's content. Xu Chu stood aside as a spectator.

Tang Weitian drank more, and finally said with a loud tongue: "If you don't talk about anything else, just talking about drinking, you still need the princess to take care of the young master - hey, one is the princess and the other is the young master. You two are very destined."

Zhang Shiqing kept laughing, and after saying goodbye, he said to Xu Chu, "Do you really want to leave him alone in Xijing?"

"Um."

"You are so brave."

"It depends on his luck." Xu Chu said with a smile.

The two of them went back to their rooms to rest, and set out on horseback early the next morning. Only Ma Jin and more than ten people were escorting them. Tang Weitian did not turn around until they were thirty miles away, and swore: "I will bear in mind the young master's instructions and will never send troops this year." , The furthest distance from the city is no more than thirty miles.”

Xu Chu and his party went north, and a few days later they met the Jizhou army on their way back home.

Yin Fu and Xu Chu had already made an appointment to meet up, and had waited all day for this. They were very happy to meet and said with a smile: "Mr. Xu really has no time to spare, so he actually took the time to go to Xijing."

Yin Fu is quite sensible. He has no idea or spare power to occupy Qinzhou now, so he does not make any comment on Xu Chu's unexpected move. When Xu Chu asked to borrow food, he was also very generous and allocated a team of troops to make a special trip. Sending food and grass to Tang Weitian would be enough to support him for at least another month or two.

The war in Liangzhou went very smoothly. As Xu Chu expected, the army pressed on the border, and Liangzhou immediately fell into chaos. King Qiang led his troops to retreat south. The soldiers and people in the capital released the old King of Liang and refused to admit Yang Mengzhi into the city behind closed doors.

When the Jizhou army left, Yang Meng's army had already led troops into the city. As for how to expel the Qiang soldiers and capture Yang Mengzhi in the future, it was his own business.

Yin Fu was filled with emotion, "I heard that Mr. Xu wrote a letter of divorce to the Golden Saint. It's really... didn't everyone expect that it is really irreversible?"

In fact, there are two letters of divorce, one to divorce the wife and the other to divorce the husband.

Xu Chu replied: "The golden saint is not kind to others, I should not delay her any longer."

"Haha, what the Golden Saint said is similar to this." Yin Fu did not pursue the question any further. He held a banquet to cleanse Xu Chu and met all the generals. When they talked alone again, he said: "Yang Tongcai has become more and more domineering recently. Even before he returned to Jizhou, he had already begun to strive for merit. "

"We can start tomorrow."

"So fast?" Yin Fu was surprised.

"If Yang Tongcai enters Bingzhou, bad things will happen. Master Yin, please follow my plan."