The fighting in Jiangning was also forced to stop.
"Dang Dang Dang~"
After the golden ceremony, both the offensive and defensive sides withdrew their troops and returned to their camps.
Six warships, twelve tankers, and more than thirty other ships on the river rushed to the temporary docking point on the north bank.
A camp was surrounded on a higher ground on the north shore.
There are some tents stationed in the camp.
The sailors withdrew to the north shore, got off the boat and went back to their tents to hide from the rain.
As for the ships, they were guarded by the soldiers who were on duty at the temporary water village today.
In a tent, several generals were discussing the battle.
"Captain Qian, we have been using it for half a month and we are running out of food and grass."
"Yes. There has been no result for many days, and the people below don't really want to fight."
There was a lot of chatter in the tent.
Qian Guangzhi, who was sitting in the first place, looked at the crowd and said slowly: "Our mission is to hold Jiang Ning back so that they have no room to rescue the Eastern Front."
"Although there is no victory, there is no loss, right?"
The deputy general sighed and said: "The advance on the eastern front is too slow. It has been half a month and we still haven't captured Changzhou!"
"That's right. Your Majesty went around to Yixing but saw no results. Fang Yuanliang's main attack on Wuxi was unsuccessful for a long time."
"When will this amount of time come to an end?"
Everyone agreed.
By this time, everyone was feeling conflicted.
If it were the same campaign as in previous years, that would be fine. After all, there is a lot of support and supplies behind the scenes.
In today's world, it's hard to find supplies.
"The clipper ship has been dispatched to collect food supplies. The supplies should arrive soon."
"Isn't it occupied by Yangzhou? Let people search through it, and maybe they can find some food and grass."
"Everyone, the world is difficult, brothers, please persevere."
Qian Guangzhi frowned and said, he also knew that the generals were resisting now.
But His Majesty gave him a task, and as a general, he must carry it out to the end.
So he could only try his best to appease his soldiers.
The lieutenant general said again: "General, I have been reporting on horseback in the past few days. There are many refugees sneaking around on the north bank. We caught two tongues and said they are rogue bandits from Jinzhou."
"Jiangning was not captured, and the rogue bandits came to cause trouble again. If we are attacked by rogue bandits, our northern stronghold will not be able to stand."
Qian Guangzhi frowned and looked at the deputy general and said: "It's just a group of bandits. If they dare to come, we just have more coolies!"
"I'm just afraid that King Runzhou will attack from the north and the south!" the deputy general said worriedly.
Qian Guangzhi thought for a while and said, "Let's do this. Tomorrow you take five hundred brothers to search and deal with the rogue bandits first."
"As for Jiangning, let's let it go first. Let's rest for two days while it rains and be prepared."
When everyone heard that there was no need to hit Jiang Ning anymore, they all looked happy.
The deputy general immediately cupped his fists and accepted the order.
To fight against Jiangning, you are facing the Guards. To fight against the bandits is to abuse them.
The lieutenant general kept emphasizing the rogue bandits, but in fact he did not want to go to Jiangning to fight life and death.
Now I can go back and fight the bandits, so I can be lazy for a few days.
And maybe you can steal some supplies from the rogue bandits.
This is simply a gift of credit and materials delivered to your doorstep!
In Qingliu, Quanjiao and other places not far from the camp, there is indeed an additional bandit.
Most of these people operated small boats and robbed prefectures and refugees along the water network.
The survivors in various counties in Huainan Province were troubled by them endlessly.
Many prefectures and counties had just made some progress, but were shattered by this, and the people once again left their homes.
The number of rogue bandits is increasing like a snowball.
"Brother, which way should we go now?"
The three thieves got together and were discussing which direction to plunder.
The number of rogue bandits has increased from a few hundred to more than 5,000. With so many mouths to feed, it is impossible to get enough to eat even if they stop in one place.
Without unified management and planning, endless amounts of food were wasted. Even if we occasionally found some food, we couldn't keep it for more than a few days.
This group of bandits were like locusts, eating all the unripe grains.
"Second uncle, what do you think?"
"There are only two roads now. How about going south to Suzhou? It's a land of plenty and there should be a lot of food there."
"How about heading north to Henan Daozhou Prefecture. There is a large population there and there may be more grain."
A middle-aged man was called uncle by two thieves.
These two thieves were Liao Laoda and Liao Laosan. They originally planned to go to Chuzhou to join their second uncle Chu Dahai.
Finally, when we arrived in Chuzhou, we met.
It turned out that it was impossible to survive the disaster in Chuzhou, so Chu Dahai, a former water thief, gathered a group of thieves and plundered all the way to the west.
When the two groups met, they tricked and coerced them into gathering five thousand bandits.
"Brother, second uncle, I heard that there is a war over there in Jiangning. Should we go there?" Liao Laosan hesitated.
If you want to go to Suzhou, you have to pass through Runzhou, which is the state where Jiangning is located.
"Let's go and have a look. It's not far. If it doesn't work, let's go north again." Second uncle Chu Dahai said.
Boss Liao thought for a while and said, "It's a good idea to take a look, maybe we can do something good from it..."
Before I could say the word "benefits", there was suddenly a noise outside.
"Boss! It's not good! It's not good!"
A thief hurried in.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Liao Laosan asked the thief.
"Huchi~huchi~"
The little thief panted for a long time before saying: "Boss! The army is coming!"
"Officers... officers and soldiers?"
The three thieves were all confused.
Where are the officers and soldiers coming from, from Jiangning?
Didn't you say there was a war?
Can you still free up your hands to cause trouble for them?
However, in fact, it was the officers and soldiers who were at war. They no longer wanted to fight Jiangning, and they only picked weak persimmons and came to pinch them.
"Let's go! Follow me to meet the enemy!"
Boss Liao was busy greeting the thieves.
"Boss! It's too late! The brothers were killed and scattered!" the little thief said with a look of fear.
This is when a killing cry came from not far away: "Kill the thieves!"
"Catch the bandit leader and get a promotion!"
It doesn't hurt much, but it's extremely insulting. It takes catching the leader to get promoted to an official...
It shows how looked down upon they are.
Boss Liao looked ahead. He saw chaotic men running everywhere, followed by guards with hand-held weapons.
"Damn! It's the Guards again!" Boss Liao complained bitterly.
They have been away from Jinzhou for almost a month.
I haven't seen a single sign of an officer or soldier this month.
Occasionally, there are survivors gathered in a few counties, and their combat effectiveness is not high, so there is no pressure if they rob them.
Now we can see the guards again.
This reminded the Liao brothers of the tragedy that night in Jiangzhou.
Speaking of which, they are quite unlucky. They were rubbed against by the Jiangzhou Renaissance Army just last month.
I thought I could live a comfortable life for a few days after escaping Jiangzhou, but only a month later, I met another group of guards.
Moreover, it rained heavily all day yesterday, and today the bandits were attacked by the Guards before they even started their activities.
There was no way to organize any decent counterattack, and they were simply massacred one-sidedly.
"Forget it! Get out!" The second uncle pulled Mr. Liao Da Dao.
He was also a water thief, and he didn't even want to resist when he encountered the army.
"Oh! Damn it! Escape quickly! Let's go to Henan Road!"
Boss Liao sighed heavily, looked at the guards who were about to rush over, stamped his feet, turned around and ran away.