Zhou Xing replied: "My lord, our five-step strategy of defeating thieves, calming the people, farming, training troops, and attacking is still in the stage of defeating thieves, so we must continue to defeat thieves."

Liu Bei nodded and asked: "Want to continue to pursue Guan Hai?"

"No," Zhou Xing said, "if Guan Hai fled after this defeat, he must have fled back to Luxiang and hid in the mountains. Luxiang is far away from here, and it is not easy to enter the mountains to suppress the bandits. Muping County gathered thousands of people with money.

Thousands of people have also gathered in Wangying, Dongmou County. We should attack these two thieves first, and then attack Guan Cheng and Guan Hai."

"Well, Mouping County is close to here, so we should attack this bandit first. Otherwise, if our soldiers and horses are far away in Lu Township, Huang County will be defenseless, and this bandit may come to attack."

"My lord, we have captured a lot of thieves this time. We can take the best of them as soldiers and train them so that they know military orders and how to form formations, and then send out troops to fight against the thieves."

"Okay, since all the people who were in charge of the system last time are available, these yellow turban soldiers will be easier to persuade."

Liu Bei was confident in persuading these Yellow Turban soldiers to use them for his own purposes.

Zhou Xing seemed to remember something and said: "My lord, there is something that I must do now."

"What's the matter?" Liu Bei was a little confused.

"Although the current governor of Qingzhou is Kong Wenju, Yuan Shao will definitely come to fight for the land of Qingzhou. Since we have settled here, the lord should write a letter and send someone to Yecheng to inform Yuan Shao and show his kindness to avoid becoming his enemy. In this way, we

Only then can we live and develop in Dongnai with peace of mind."

Since arriving in Donglai, Zhou Xing wanted to persuade Liu Bei to do this, but he first dealt with Guan Tong and then Guan Hai, and now he has slowed down.

Liu Bei was a little hesitant and worried: "I don't know if Yuan Benchu ​​is willing to let me stay in this county."

Zhou Xing guessed what Liu Bei was worried about and asked: "My lord, is it because he helped Gongsun Bogui before?"

"Yes, a few years ago when I was the Prime Minister of Pingyuan, I, together with Gongsun Bogui, became enemies of Yuan Benchu. I am afraid that he will remember this grudge and not want me to stay here."

Zhou Xing smiled calmly and said: "My lord, you can rest assured. Yuan Shao is the fourth and third prince of the Yuan family, and he is not an ungrateful person. Although my lord was once an enemy of him, he was helping Gongsun Bogui at that time. Now my lord and Gongsun

Bogui has nothing to do with him anymore, so he is no longer an enemy of Yuan Shao. As long as the lord explains it in the letter, I believe Yuan Shao will understand."

"If we can turn enemies into friends with Yuan Shao and get his approval, then we will have better development in Donglai." Zhou Xing continued.

Of course Liu Bei understands this.

Now Gongsun Zan has built the Yijing in Youzhou and stocked up grain and grass. He only defends but does not attack. He is a threat to Yuan Shao, but the threat is not too great.

I once fought for Jizhou with my senior brother Gongsun Zan, but later I saw that Gongsun Zan was not a kind person to the people, allowed his subordinates to rob the people, and was ungrateful and trustworthy. Therefore, I took the opportunity of rescuing Tao Qian to stay in Xuzhou, and thus fought with Gongsun Zan.

They parted ways and had no contact with each other.

As for Qingzhou, Yuan Shao will definitely come to fight for it. With Kong Rong's strength, it is impossible to hold it. Even if he leads his own troops to help, it will be difficult to hold it.

Unless you contact Gongsun Zan and ask Gongsun to send troops from Youzhou to contain Yuan Shao, in that case, you may still be able to defend Qingzhou.

But Liu Bei no longer wants to have contact with his senior brother. Even if he is willing to contact him, Gongsun Zan may not be willing to send troops to help him now.

It seems that we can only hope that, as military advisor Zhou Xing said, Yuan Shao is a generous man and does not care about the past.

Liu Bei immediately wrote a letter to Yuan Shao in accordance with Zhou Xing's wishes.

The letter first scolded Lu Bu and scolded him for taking over his own Xuzhou.

Lu Bu and Yuan Shao are at odds, scolding Lu Bu might make Yuan Shao have a favorable impression of him. The enemy of his enemy is his friend!

He also said that he did not have the ability to govern the state. At the same time, he knew that Donglai County in Qingzhou was relatively chaotic, with more bandits and bandits, and the people were having a hard time, so he came here. He wanted to eliminate the bandits and make the people of Donglai live better, so he did not

I have wasted my status as a clan member of the Han Dynasty.

The reason why he mentioned the Han clan clan was to make Yuan Shao respect him a little, which also made him favor him more.

Later, he explained that he was an enemy of Yuan Shao because he helped Gongsun Zan, but now he has no contact with Gongsun Zan. He does not want to be an enemy of Yuan Shao, let alone help Gongsun Zan.

Then he said some words of praise for Yuan Shao, and finally said that as long as Yuan Shao needed it, he would definitely do his best, so he should rest assured.

The main meaning is to express to Yuan Shao that he does not want to be his enemy, saying that he does not have the ability to govern the state, that is, he has no ambition to seize the state, and will not compete with him for Jizhou, and even Qingzhou will not compete with him.

As long as Yuan Shao believes in these two points, he can develop steadily in Donglai County.

Liu Bei found Sun Qian and asked him to go to Yecheng in Jizhou to meet Yuan Shao in person and hand over the letter to him.

Sun Qian is from Qingzhou and a disciple of the great scholar Zheng Xuan. It is most appropriate for him to go, and Yuan Shao will give him some face.

After sending Sun Qian away, Liu Bei and Zhou Xing went to persuade the prisoners.

From the more than 3,000 Yellow Turban prisoners, 2,000 strong men were collected, and the rest, the old, weak and injured, were released back to their hometowns.

As for whether they really go home or return to Guanhai, we can't control this, at least not yet.

It was useless to keep them, there was no food to feed them, so I could only persuade them to go home and farm hard, and promised them that Liu Bei would be able to wipe out all the bandits in the county in half a year at most.

Both Liu Bei and Zhou Xing are confident about this, especially now that they have obtained another two thousand soldiers, half a year is enough.

Liu Bei brought more than 1,500 troops from Xuzhou, and obtained 800 troops from Guan Tong. Now he has gained another 2,000 troops. After excluding the loss of more than 100 troops, there are now a total of more than 4,000 troops.

Not much, but not too little, after all, there is only one county now.

Liu Bei asked Guan Yu and Liu Zheng to be responsible for training these newly recruited soldiers, mainly to let them understand military orders and disciplines, know how to form formations, and some simple techniques to kill the enemy.

Guan Yu was quite serious and rarely talked. Perhaps he felt that he had nothing to say to these people.

Liu Zheng was a forthright man and a native of Qingzhou, so he was deeply loved by these newcomers.

Liu Bei made Liu Zheng, like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, serve as commanders of other departments.

Liu Zheng has meritorious service, and he is from Qingzhou. Reusing him can make other Qingzhou people see hope, and more Qingzhou righteous men will be used by Liu Bei.

Among the county officials, Liu Bei replaced some people, dismissed those without virtue and talent and returned home, and then recruited some knowledgeable people through the meritorious officer Li Ye and the county magistrate Wang Xiu.

During this period of time, Zhou Xing had a leisurely time. Apart from sending people to find out information about Cong Qian, Wang Ying and other bandits, he concentrated on studying military books every day.

After reading "Sima Fa", he started to read "Six Tao". It was not difficult to finish reading, but the difficulty was to understand.

Zhou Xing did not seek to understand them all at once, but memorized them first and then slowly pondered and understood them later.

Half a month later, Liu Bei began to make preparations to personally lead 3,000 troops to Mouping to fight against the thieves in five days, leaving Guan Yu to defend the city.

However, Kong Rong, the governor of Qingzhou, sent people from Linyi, saying that Yuan Shao had sent his eldest son Yuan Tan to lead 20,000 troops and horses to attack. The army had already reached the plain, and Liu Bei was asked to lead troops to help him defend the city and repel the enemy.
Chapter completed!