Neither Zhou Shizhong nor Zhou Yuanlang are stupid people, and they will not play tricks on this kind of thing.
More importantly, Zhou Yuanlang knew very well that Shen Yi himself did not agree with the surrender, so they could not let Shen Yi find faults and exploit them.
Therefore, after the surrender ceremony in the morning, the entire Southern Conquest Army put down their armor and weapons in the afternoon and surrendered, and began to accept the reorganization of Zhou Huai's troops.
This is probably the first time in a hundred years that an army of more than 10,000 people has been recruited into an army of more than 50,000 and nearly 60,000 people.
Even Shen Yi had to work all day long. In the evening, he roughly completed the list of the Southern Conquest Army and then started to adapt it.
If you want to use this army, you must break it up and integrate it into the Huai'an Army. Otherwise, it will not be used. However, this is also a long task, and it will be difficult to do it in less than a few months or even half a year. arrive.
In other words, for the moment, the surrender of the Southern Conquering Army has the biggest effect for Shen Yi, which is to reduce the number of 50,000 to 60,000 troops in his rear, rather than giving him an additional 50,000 to 60,000 troops. of human hands.
While Shen Yi was reorganizing the army, Li Mu had been talking to the Zhou family and his son. Zhou Shizhong and Zhou Yuanlang were very respectful to Li Mu, almost groveling for each other.
In the evening, after Shen Yi was finally busy, he returned to the Chinese army tent to rest. At this time, Li Mu was already waiting for him in his Chinese army tent.
Seeing Shen Yi walking in, Prince Jin stood up and smiled at him: "Thank you for your hard work, Zi Heng. How did you do your errands today?"
"Don't mention it."
After Shen Yi bowed his hands to Prince Jin, he sat on the chair with some annoyance, shook his head and said: "It's so complicated. If I hadn't brought all the staff here, I wouldn't be able to sort it out on my own in ten days and a half. The clue, and..."
Mr. Shen clenched his fist and said, "That bitch Zhou Yuanlang..."
Prince Jin reached out to pour a cup of tea for Mr. Shen, and said with a smile: "It is obviously a great good thing to be able to successfully surrender the Southern Army. Why is Zi Heng so angry?"
Mr. Shen took the tea with both hands, lowered his head and took a sip, then sighed: "Your Majesty, I have already written to Shandong during the day, asking Shandong to adjust grain here."
Prince Jin was stunned for a moment, then he came to his senses, lowered his head and took a sip of water, and said slowly: "Cangzhou is out of food."
Shen Yi said "Yeah", still a little annoyed: "I should have thought of it earlier. Cangzhou is not big in the first place, and they entered Cangzhou temporarily. It was impossible to prepare food in advance. After entering Cangzhou, the Left Route Army cut them off from the Northern Qi Dynasty. With Zhou Huai watching behind them, they have no place to get food."
"After several months, the natural food and grass are exhausted."
Shen Yi exhaled helplessly: "I have been busy with the Northern Expedition during this period. I have been thinking about Yandu. I have not paid attention to Cangzhou at all. That's why I was tricked by this guy Zhou Yuanlang."
He put down his tea cup and groaned: "All the food in Cangzhou City has been collected by them and sent to the army. Now famine has begun in the city. Half of the people in the city have no food. If I don't agree to surrender, They will have ten days at most. They will have to be forced out of the city, and they can only go south to Shandong to rob food, and they won’t even have a chance to go north!"
"At that time, Zhou Yuanlang had chosen the right day to surrender today. He also calculated that their food could only last for a few days. If the food was exhausted, even if some in the southern army were unwilling to surrender, there was nothing they could do. Under the pressure of their father and son, It will be much smaller.”
"I should have known this, when I was talking to Zhou Yuanlang."
Mr. Shen clenched his fist and said.
"You can be more forceful, and you don't even need to send the internal guards to take risks to rescue his family."
Prince Jin on the side gave Shen Yi a cup of tea and said with a smile: "These are all small things. It's a big deal if the Southern Army really surrenders. Zi Heng should calm down and don't take it personally."
Shen Yi sighed: "I'm not annoyed that I was tricked, but I'm annoyed that we paid some unnecessary price."
Li Mu nodded understandingly and said softly: "Yes, if I had known that Cangzhou was already in such a difficult situation, the princes of the Zhou family would not have to pay."
"But no matter what, I made fifty or sixty thousand soldiers and horses for nothing. This business is a sure profit."
"And it's a lot of money."
Mr. Shen said "hmm", took a deep breath, and smiled with relief: "He tricked me, and I stabbed him in the dark, so it was even."
Having said this, he looked up at Li Mu and said: "The father and son will be sent to Jiankang in a few days. Do you want the prince to follow them back to Jiankang? First, escort them back, and second, follow them." Your Majesty, I would like to ask for instructions on the matter of traveling to the palace."
Li Mu smiled and said: "Even if I follow them back, I can't use the word "escort". Their father and son are now colleagues in the same dynasty as we are."
Shen Yi smiled: "Just consider him a colleague."
Prince Jin also lowered his head to drink tea and said: "I do have to go back for the palace matter. Since you have asked me, Ziheng, I will just go back with the father and son. I will also take credit for the surrender. "
Shen Yi smiled hoarsely: "Your Majesty should be the main person responsible for the surrender this time. Speaking of which, I am the one who took the credit from His Majesty."
"Who am I?"
Li Mu shook his head and said: "It's just a good investment, so I got some advantages."
He looked at Shen Yi and asked, "Ziheng, how many days do you want to stay in Cangzhou?"
"Um."
Mr. Shen said: "With so many people, it is difficult to sort them out and then divide them into other armies. There are only more than 10,000 people in Zhou Huai, so it is impossible to directly escort these people to various armies. Therefore I will stay here for a few more days."
"In the past few days, we still need the cooperation of their father and son, especially Zhou Shizhong."
If Shen Yi now has 100,000 people in his hands, he doesn't have to go to such trouble now. He can directly integrate these soldiers of the Southern Conquest Army into his own army, and then slowly digest them. Now, he needs to eat them bit by bit. Go down.
The first step is to let these soldiers take the initiative to go to various armies of the Huai'an Army to prevent them from escaping along the way or causing chaos.
This requires a little patience.
The first thing to do is to break up the original organization of the Conquering South Army, then divide it into parts one by one and send them to the Left Route Army or the Right Route Army.
Then the remaining part can be handed over to the leadership of Zhou Huai, so that this partial division of the Huai'an Army can grow accordingly, and then it can take on the main attack along the way.
For the next five days, Shen Yi has been working on this matter. Fortunately, General Zhou Shizhong was quite cooperative. In addition, most of the soldiers of the Southern Conquest Army were Han Chinese. Shen Yi told them After receiving the welfare benefits of the Huai'an Army, most of these people are still willing to continue to fight in the army.
After all, if you join the Huai'an army at this time and enter the new dynasty in the future, you can say that you are a Huai'an soldier.
If you give up your job at this time, after the world is settled, others may point their noses in their noses and call them "Qi Gou".
Five days later, there were only 10,000 soldiers left in Cangzhou's Southern Conquest Army, and the others were already on the road and sent to other armies.
The remaining 10,000 people had been dispersed and reorganized, and were slowly integrated into his own army by Zhou Huai.
It was also on this day that Li Mu "escorted" the Zhou family and his son to go south together and return to Jiankang.
Shen Yi gave it to them.
The main purpose is to give one to Prince Jin, and incidentally to the Zhou family and his son.
After bidding farewell to Prince Jin, Zhou Yuanlang took the initiative to step forward, bowed his hands to Shen Yi and said goodbye, then lowered his head and said: "Congratulations, Lord Marquis, the Northern Expedition has achieved 100% success."
Shen Yi looked calm: "If the old land is not returned, the Northern Expedition will not be completed. There is no such thing as 70% or 80%."
Zhou Yuanlang smiled and said no more.
Zhou Shizhong stepped forward, his eyes slightly red: "Master Hou, the officers and soldiers of the Southern Conquest Army are all Han people. I sincerely ask Master Hou to treat them kindly."
"rest assured."
Shen Yi nodded.
"They will definitely have a better life in the Huai'an Army than in the Southern Conquest Army."