Cao Ang's ships transporting prisoners to Guangling County did not dare to use Cao Ang's banner.

It's not that this is illegal, in fact it is a very common thing for aristocratic families to recruit refugees for their own use, and some officials are even happy to see it happen.

After all, if the government is allowed to resettle the refugees, it will cost money.

The reason why Cao Ang kept this matter extremely secretive was that he didn't want others to know that Cao Ang was accumulating manpower through this matter. After all, recruiting thirty to fifty, three to five hundred, or even three to five thousand refugees and recruiting thirty to fifty thousand refugees,

There is still a fundamental difference.

The former is to enhance the family's strength, while the purpose of the latter is easily intriguing.

So Cao Ang came up with a strategy of reviving corpses. Cao Ang's ships that transported supplies and people were usually branded with the Mi family's brand.

In the past two years, the Mi family has risen due to refined salt. In the Jianghuai area, the business has been huge. It is not easy to make people suspicious of the name of the Mi family caravan.

However, there are pros and cons to this move.

The Mi family's reputation is too small, and neither black nor white can suppress it.

Cao Ang used the name of the Mi family, and in order not to be exposed on weekdays, he had to use money to clear the way like the Mi family. Whether it was the underworld or the white, he always spent money to avoid disasters.

However, the world is becoming more and more chaotic these days, and people are lacking in support. Even though the fleet has been very low-key, it still falls into the eyes of caring people and becomes a fat sheep.

In order to prevent being discovered, Cao Ang divided the 5,000 captives into five batches, using ten ships each time to transport 1,000 people and 200 people to escort them.

The fleet sailed once a day, and Meng was dispatched in the middle of the third batch.

From Meng Bei's point of view, the two sides were only a day's journey apart, so if something happened, both front and rear would be able to provide support.

The fleet headed south from the Huaishui River with a smooth sailing and soon entered the Huai River. The river became wider, there were more ships, and it looked even more peaceful.

On this day, the fourth fleet arrived near Tushan.

Because the fleet in front passed smoothly and nothing happened, the people responsible for escorting the fleet relaxed their guard.

Everyone temporarily parked near the shore, but early the next morning, they suddenly found that they were surrounded by a fleet of more than ten ships.

The steward Cao Dao immediately realized that he had encountered water bandits. He was experienced and knew that he could not escape at this time, so he immediately sent someone to negotiate with the other party and buy the way with money.

But Cao Dao underestimated the greed of these people.

Seeing that the fleet offered little resistance, the people on the opposite side immediately stepped forward to connect with the fleet, preparing to seize the ship directly.

At this time, Cao Dao also became nervous.

Why doesn't this water bandit follow the rules?

However, at this time, Cao Dao also knew that he could not confront the opponent. He only had 200 men in his hands, and he had to take care of more than a thousand prisoners. Once there was a conflict with the opponent, he would not be able to win.

And it doesn't matter if he is dead, there must be no mistakes among these more than a thousand prisoners.

So Cao Dao immediately gave the order to give up resistance, and then went to see the leader of the water bandits in person. The worst plan was to pay more to impress these people.

The water bandits on the opposite side saw that everyone in the fleet was very sensible and surrendered voluntarily. Therefore, they did not kill anyone, but after controlling everyone, they went to the cabin to take a look at the loot.

But seeing the crowd inside the cabin, these water bandits were also surprised.

After checking all the ships, the bandits determined that there was no cargo at all, only hundreds of people being transported.

This result made these water bandits a little confused.

It was promised that this vote would make a fortune.

These days, the Mi family caravan sends a fleet of ships every day, which has attracted some people's attention. Seeing the endless flow of ships, these water bandits naturally become greedy and prepare to seize the goods to increase their strength.

But now it was obvious that the calculation was wrong. The two leaders of the water bandits looked at me and I looked at you, but they couldn't make up their minds. When Cao Dao asked for an audience, they asked people to let him in.

The second leader of the water bandits had a bad temper. When he saw Cao arriving, he immediately asked: "Mi family, what tricks are you using? How can the goods you transport become human beings?"

Cao Dao had no choice but to accompany him carefully: "Your Majesty, we are the only ones we can recruit, so we really don't dare to deceive your Majesty."

At this time, the leader of the water bandits looked at Cao Dao and asked: "Training people? What are you doing to pull people? Where are you sending them?"

Cao Dao had no choice but to tell half-truths: "Yuzhou is in chaos, and there are wars everywhere. The officers and soldiers captured many people, and it was difficult to deal with them, so they sold them out. We, the Mi family, are the ones who transport goods, so we took these people captive." They were transported to Donghai, Guangling and other counties to open fields in manors, and some people bought them as servants."

The other party seemed to have heard of it and had no doubts about it.

At this time, the second leader muttered: "Since they are prisoners, many of them must be veterans. Why not keep these people to strengthen our strength."

What the two of them care more about is money and goods. After all, they don't want to rebel. But since they don't have the goods, they can use someone to replace them. They can't go in vain.

So the two of them openly took possession of these thousands of people as their own.

Cao Dao saw that the matter had reached this point and was of no use, so he immediately threatened to "give it all to the two kings", hoping that he could be allowed to return safely.

The people who rob the Tao actually know very well that they can't fish all the time, otherwise there will be no one around, so they rarely kill anyone indiscriminately.

The two also knew that they could not offend the Mi family too severely to prevent the Mi family from using all their strength to retaliate, so they left Cao Dao and his sailors behind after leaving the people and the boat behind.

Moreover, they were quite particular and even left a boat for Cao Dao to go back.

When Cao Dao got out of trouble, he immediately arranged for people to split up to report the news to the teams behind him, especially the teams at the back. If they were not prepared, they might fall into the trap of these water bandits again.

The last batch of fleet had not yet entered Huaihe River. When the steward who led the fleet learned the news, he immediately turned around and returned to Zhanghuatai. At the same time, he sent someone to deliver a message to Cao Ang.

He knew very well that Cao Ang had to take care of this matter.

Cao Ang was leading his troops to rest in Zhanghuatai at that time.

The Siqu troops had new equipment and had to practice it to familiarize themselves with the operation, so Cao Ang did not leave Zhanghuatai.

Cao Ang was also a little surprised when he heard the news that the ship was robbed. He knew that there should be a lot of water bandits robbing homes in the Huaihe River, but facing such a large fleet, it was the first time he encountered such a bandit who dared to rob without hesitation. .

However, Cao Ang didn't take it very seriously. He immediately wrote to Liu Miao, the governor of Jiujiang County, asking him to send troops to help suppress the bandits.

Liu Miao is the younger brother of Liu Rong, King of Langya, and has an extremely close relationship with Cao Cao. In other words, the relationship between the Langya royal family and the Cao family is extremely close.

Cao Ang was not worried that Liu Miao would not help him.

And Cao Ang was also preparing to lead his troops southward and join forces with Liu Miao to fight from the north and the south. After all, Cao Ang's fleet would rarely pass through the Huaihe River in the future. This group of water bandits were suppressed this time, which also served as a deterrent to surrounding bandits.

Otherwise, no one would be able to bear it if they were robbed every day.
Chapter completed!