After the autumn harvest meeting, Ma Cheng sent Liu Min a letter.
He has been back for several days, so he can save the time of finding a stronghold.
Cui Shan's team was directly stationed at Dangtu Water Village, and he and Xu Gaoshan temporarily joined the team.
With these two mountains guarding Dangtu, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River would be completely strangled, and any news from Jiangning could be sent back to Song Yang as quickly as possible.
Moreover, with the navy soldiers led by Jiang Shan stationed there, it becomes more difficult for Jiangning to directly control Xuanzhou.
He had just talked to Song Yang about Jiang Ning's affairs. Song Yang curled his lips when he heard it, and he deeply hated the two princes who caused the trouble.
Song Yang took Liu Min's letter and read it without any compliments.
The first sentence of greeting is to introduce the current situation in Xuanzhou.
Xuanzhou now has five counties, a population of 130,000, and 7600 soldiers and able-bodied men.
The people have begun to resume normal production and life, and at Liu Min's insistence, a temporary special period policy has been implemented.
In terms of officials, Liu Min has taken charge of his own autonomy. Each county within his jurisdiction has arranged chief officials and assistant officials. He also gave Song Yang a copy of the official situation.
This can be regarded as handing over the complete personnel information.
In terms of grain storage, self-sufficiency is not a problem.
Qiu Liang is much richer and is expected to earn seven to eight hundred thousand dan.
In addition, there are many reserves of other materials, such as cloth, tools, and large amounts of money.
This time, those who came back with Ma Cheng's ship included 5,000 guan of iron money and 200 pieces of cloth.
"Liu Min is indeed pragmatic and a good person."
After reading the letter, Song Yangfei nodded in agreement.
Liu Min's letter did not praise anyone in the whole letter, but directly and clearly stated the basic situation of Xuanzhou.
It can be said to be completely opposite to the letter Chen Lin sent before.
But Song Yang likes people like Liu Min, who are the main force in rebuilding the wasteland.
Song Yang picked up his pen and wrote a reply letter to Liu Min.
He didn't say much and asked him to do a good job in the autumn harvest and run Xuanzhou with peace of mind.
At the same time, we must prevent defeated troops in Jiangning from harassing the people.
If you need military support, you can call for help immediately.
This letter is full of trust in Liu Min and gives him sufficient autonomy.
Liu Min is a smart person and will definitely not fall to either Jiang or Ning.
As long as Xuanzhou is stabilized and the situation improves next year, Song Yang will be able to take action to deal with the two princes in Jiangning who are causing trouble.
After the letter was written, Ma Cheng immediately arranged for someone to deliver it.
At this point, Xuanzhou was under Song Yang's management.
Jiangzhou's sphere of influence also extends from Xuanzhou to Fengzhou.
Jiangzhou began to be busy with the autumn harvest, and its strength became more and more stable.
A war is beginning in Hongzhou, south of the sphere of influence.
After several days of marching, King Hongzhou finally arrived at Tonggu with his troops.
The bandits in Tonggu City have not had a good rest in recent days. The hundreds of people in Shen Dan have been harassing them day and night, making Liu He's side miserable.
Several times we sent troops to encircle and suppress these troublemakers, but now some of their subordinates are even planning to retreat.
"Hasn't the news from the general been sent back yet?" Liu He frowned.
"We have already sent out two messengers. I think it will only be two or three days before we have any news."
Liu He did not dare to decide on his own whether to give up the bronze drum. He had to ask the Liu brothers and sisters for their opinions.
Now the thieves of the bronze drum are divided into two factions.
One party wanted to go deeper into Hongzhou and rob some people.
The crops in Hongzhou's fields are all standing. It's soon to be the harvest season. If you do a lot of work, you will have enough food for a year.
The other party wanted to return to Tanzhou.
I haven't been eating well these past few days, I haven't slept well, and I'm afraid I'll be attacked by someone, so I don't want to stay any longer.
Liu He finally suppressed the opinions of both sides, and now he is waiting for the Liu brothers and sisters to make up their minds.
"General! General!" the guard suddenly called.
The thieves of all levels are called generals. Maybe they can't tell which general is which level...
"What's wrong?"
"General, Hongzhou reinforcements are here! They say they are from Yuzhang!"
Liu He had already sent out several groups of spies, pretending to be refugees and operating nearby. They originally wanted to find Shen Dan's whereabouts.
As a result, King Hongzhou's troops and horses were discovered in advance.
"How many people are there?" Liu He asked nervously.
"Nearly 10,000 people, complete with swords and guns, looks pretty good."
When the guard said this, Liu He's side exploded again. Some said they were escaping, some were saying they were desperate, and some even said they were surrendering to the officers and soldiers.
"Brothers! Although we are rebels, should the rebels be afraid of the official army?"
"We are fighting for the people! How can we be afraid of the officers and soldiers?"
"So what if they have 10,000 people? Five thousand of us are not that few! And they are still elites who have experienced several wars!"
"Are their 10,000 people all guards? Impossible! Regardless of how many they have, they must all be temporarily organized civilians, or simply a mob!"
"We don't need to be afraid of people like this at all. As long as we hold on to the bronze drum and wait for news about General Liu, even if we want to leave, they won't be able to stop us."
Liu He is quite responsible, otherwise he would not have been appointed as the leader by the Liu brothers and sisters.
After listening to Liu He's words, the thieves thought it made sense.
It's impossible for ten thousand people to surround you, so you can't just leave if you want.
"General, what do you think we should do now?" Everyone looked at Liu He.
Liu He thought for a while and said: "Since we have met, we must have a fight to try their methods!"
If you don't fight and you don't know the opponent's details, there's no question of retreat.
So Liu He wanted to fight against Hongzhou soldiers.
"Everyone, let's discuss together how to fight this first battle!"
While Liu He was gathering for discussion, there was also discussion in Hongzhou Wangyingpan under Tianzhu Peak.
However, what was being discussed was the question of whether to retreat or not.
King Hongzhou came here solely for Shen Dan.
Now that Shen Dan is right in front of you, why bother fighting with the thieves?
As for the bronze drum, if you lose it, just throw it away. If you don’t lose the Yuzhang, it’ll be fine.
The King of Hongzhou didn't have any great ambitions. He just lived his life guarding one-third of an acre.
The Bronze Drum is too far away from Yuzhang, and we can't manage it even if we stay here.
"Uncle! We can't evacuate! Once the bronze drum is lost, our Hongzhou will be wide open!" Shen Dan persuaded with a stern expression.
"If we don't retreat? How can we fight if we don't retreat? They are hiding in the city, do they want to attack the city? Even though it is a ruin, ten thousand of us may not be enough to defeat them!"
Hongzhou Wang Songying said with a bitter face.
"Uncle, although there are five thousand thieves in Tonggu, they will not dare to come out rashly and fight us."
"There isn't much food in the city and it won't last long. As long as we stop their autumn harvest and the food is gone, they will definitely leave!"
"How to stop it? Siege the city? I'm afraid it won't work. There are too few manpower."
"Uncle, the autumn grain is almost mature now. Let's start first and collect all the grain around Tonggu. We will see if they don't starve to death by then!"
"This... is a way. Let's wait and see first. Ah Dan, you go arrange for people to grab food, and I will take charge of it for you."
King Hongzhou was finally persuaded by Shen Dan and decided to try this method.
So that night Shen Dan took two thousand men and began to harvest grain and grass.
Early the next morning, a large piece had been harvested.
"General! Oh no! Hongzhou soldiers are collecting grain outside the city!"
"Ah? Humph! This is short-circuiting our escape!"
"Brothers, who dares to go out and fight them!"
When Liu He heard that the officers and soldiers were snatching food, he became furious.
We originally planned to fight them, but instead of attacking, the officers and soldiers came to drain the fire.
"I'm going to try their methods!" A burly man came out.
This man also followed Miao Ji. He was originally a figure in the world, but later became the little boss of Miao Ji.
Now he is the superintendent of all the troops under Liu He.
Liu He had a total of five people and five leaders, each with a thousand men.
This Shao Han is one of them.
"Brother Shao, go ahead. If you can defeat me, I will offer you a jar of wine!" Liu He said, clasping his fists.
Shao Han didn't say much, hugged his fists and stood up to leave with a cold face.
Soon, Shao Han organized a thousand subordinates.
They walked all the way out of the city in a mighty way.
"Sir! There's someone in the city!"
As soon as Shao Han's men left the city, the lookout on Shen Dan's side saw the situation.
"It would be weird if they didn't come out!" Shen Dan frowned.
One of his purposes in grabbing food was to force the people in the city to come out.
Shen Dan concluded that the thieves in the city would definitely not move out en masse. As long as they did not move out en masse, the Hongzhou soldiers could gradually defeat these thieves by attacking more and less.
On the other side, King Hongzhou has prepared five thousand people, waiting for the thieves in the city to come out and eliminate them.
Shen Dan called on his men to temporarily stop harvesting, and prepared early weapons to cooperate with the King of Hongzhou to annihilate some of the bandits.
"Brother Han, they seem to be prepared!" Shao Han's subordinate discovered the Hongzhou soldiers waiting in front.
Shao Han looked at Shen Dan harvesting in the field and at the Hongzhou soldiers who were ready.
Finally, I looked back at Liu He on the city.
Liu He stood high and saw far, and of course he could see the Hongzhou soldiers' strategy, but he had no intention of letting Shao Han withdraw.
This battle must be fought.
If you win, you can stop the Hongzhou soldiers from stealing food. If you lose, you can see the strength of the Hongzhou soldiers and decide whether to retreat.
Shao Han turned around, with a fierce look in his eyes, and sneered:
"Haha, it turns out he wants to lure us out!"
"Hmph! Then let me see their methods!"
After saying that, he led a thousand men forward to compete with the Hongzhou soldiers.
"It's started! Let's go! Get ready to support!"
Shen Dan, who was harvesting grain in the fields, took his young men and carried weapons to support King Hongzhou.
As for the King of Hongzhou, they soon faced off against Shao Han's men.
"kill!"
Shao Han took the lead with his sword and slashed it down, knocking over a Hongzhou soldier.
Shao Han's men were all Yuezhou desperadoes, and almost all of them carried human lives.
He kills people without mercy.
Even if he was slashed twice by Hongzhou soldiers, as long as he didn't die, he would still be able to explode and jump up to hurt people.
In terms of momentum alone, these strong men from Hongzhou are no match for them.
Seeing the strong men retreating steadily, King Hongzhou looked at his men in a panic.
Standing next to him is Hongzhou Wei Qianhu Li Yujiang.
After the natural disaster, Hongzhou defended more than 170 people, but the plague some time ago killed more than 60 people.
In the end, there were only 103 surviving soldiers.
This time almost everyone followed him out, but they were all guarding King Hongzhou.
King Hongzhou did not dare to let these guards stay away from him.
Li Yujiang wanted the Hongzhou soldiers to come forward and kill the enemy, but looking at the posture of the Hongzhou king, he would definitely not agree.
We can only find other ways to stimulate our combat power.
So Li Yujiang hurriedly shouted forward:
"Don't retreat! Anyone who retreats will be killed!"
"If you kill a thief, you will be rewarded with ten catties of grain!"