"Shuchun Jiang Qin/Go down to Cai Zhou Tai and pay homage to the lord!" Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai took back their armor at the same time and bowed down.
"Get up quickly... with the help of Youping and Gong Yi, we can defeat the four counties in Jiangdong!" Bai Tu praised without any money.
Gan Ning looked on and curled his lips.
Although we are all water thieves, there are still differences - if Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin don't treat water thieves well, they will either go home and be honest people, or they will take a gamble and join a prince. If there is no special opportunity, they don't know how long it will take.
Only then can he become a captain... And if Gan Ning doesn't work hard to become a water thief, he can only go back to his hometown, accept the recommendation from his family, and become a county magistrate with a rank of 600 stone or something. After a few years, he may be able to become a prefect, but
Not happy at all.
It is this difference that makes Bai Tu's appreciation have completely different value in their eyes.
However, Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai did not immediately kneel down unconditionally and asked Bai Tu about their old subordinates.
Gan Ning also mentioned before that not everyone may be able to join the army, but they will definitely be properly arranged - this is Bai Tu's promise, and Gan Ning doesn't know how to arrange it.
Anyway, if these people are simply released to free range, they will not commit crimes, but most of them will idle around and disturb their masters in the village after spending all their severance pay.
"Don't worry, you two. From now on, our state animal husbandry office in Yangzhou will have a work department, which will require a large number of workers, and all the benefits will be favorable. A few hundred people...are just a drop in the bucket." Bai Tu said.
"Ministry of Industry? My lord, you want them to work as craftsmen?" Jiang Qin was still a little worried that these guys were clumsy and would end up doing hard labor.
"Don't worry, you can learn it if you don't know it. Just like papermaking and printing, others can't do it before... There are jobs even if you can't learn it. The Ministry of Industry will be a very important department in the future... Well, it's a very important yamen, allocating labor
The kind where workers are in short supply," Bai Tu said.
"Thank you for taking care of me, lord!" Jiang Qin said immediately.
At this point, the first fight with Yuan Shu was finally over.
Baitu also discusses rewards for merit, with Chen Gong and Lu Bu ranking first, Gan Ning second, Ding Feng, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin... all also have their own rewards.
At the same time, in addition to the prisoners brought back by Gan Ning and others, the 20,000 troops brought by Zhang Xun from Jiangdong, and the more than 10,000 Baitu prisoners, there are still some who have been recovered one after another...
As for Ji Zao soldiers who cannot be retrieved and are not killed on the spot, they will dissipate after a period of time. Instead, Ji Zao soldiers who died in battle need to be dealt with.
After discussing with Chen Gong, Bai Tu and Chen Gong decided to appoint these prisoners, which were more than the entire army under their control, otherwise they could choose to split them into laborers.
When commanding the captured army, the officers will not be able to act immediately, and they are more likely to be incited due to the influence of their place of origin. For example, if Bai Tu immediately uses them to attack Huainan, they will be easily instigated by the other party's generals to defect.
But now Bai Tu is eager to take advantage of Yuan Shu's painful beating to conquer the four Jiangdong counties as soon as possible, so he doesn't want to waste these troops.
All officers below Dubo in the army were demoted and appointed, and the corps commanders who could not be demoted, as well as the generals above Dubo who could not be trusted, were dismissed. Killing prisoners was an absolute no-no in Bai Tu's eyes, so he took them all away.
Cheng Jina, directly overdraw the manpower, destroy the military symbols, and then... get Qu'a's household registration, and become an ordinary person from now on.
Of course, Bai Tu read the list of junior generals above Dubbo several times to make sure that none of them looked familiar...
Later, there were these hundreds of water thieves brought by Gan Ning who could join the army... No, soldiers, Bai Tu also directly mixed them into the army, not afraid of the lower-level soldiers who accounted for less than one-third of the grassroots.
matter.
Bai Tu was also in the army, and declared to Huainan that he should not miss Huainan. Soon, Jiujiang and Lujiang, which should be part of Yangzhou, will also return to the rule of Zhoumu!
At the same time, focusing on the present, Bai Tu also appointed Gan Ning, the general of Lang, as the governor of Danyang, and led an army of 5,000 to station in Danyang County to ensure complete control. After that, he could recruit 5,000 new soldiers in spring and summer to train the navy in Wuhu.
Chen Gong was ordered to be the prefect of Wu County, and he led an army of 5,000 troops to surrender, including 2,000 troops from Qu'a's old army, and attacked Yan Baihu from the south to seize the entire territory of Wu County.
As for Yuzhang and Kuaiji, Bai Tu was not worried. As long as Danyang could be recaptured and Yuzhang could be connected to Bai Tu's seat of government again, Hua Xin had no reason to antagonize him, the official official of the imperial court and a "great Confucian" Zhou Mu.
In the same way, as long as Yan Baihu of Wu County is eliminated, the famous Wang Lang should directly come to surrender - this is the benefit brought by Bai Tu's reputation. Such famous Confucian scholars who have no intention of separatism pose no threat to Bai Tu.
As for the county magistrates and other officials at all levels under Hua Xin who had sidelined him, Bai Tu had no better way for the time being. He could only rely on himself to be more powerful than Hua Xin and frighten them first.
In fact, this is also a constraint brought by the "aristocratic families". These local officials in Yuzhang are not spies sent by Yuan Shu, but an extension of the power of the local aristocratic families.
They supported Yuan Shu, so there was a situation where Hua Xin's decrees could not leave the government office.
For the time being, Bai Tu has no better solution, but in the future... Bai Tu will have many solutions, and papermaking and printing are just appetizers!
Originally, Bai Tu had hesitated about whether to do the opposite - let Gan Ning go to Kuaiji, and then directly train the navy, or navy, in Kuaiji.
In this way, after success, whether you go north to Liaodong or south to search for Yizhou, there will be huge strategic benefits.
After only a slight hesitation, Bai Tu still put the naval plan on hold - building a long-distance voyage would require a lot of manpower and material investment, and even after unifying Jiangdong, it was not something that could be achieved.
More importantly, Bai Tu remembered something...
Calculating the time, Yuan Shu should be proclaimed emperor next year, and after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, a major event happened - a severe drought occurred in Huainan that winter!
Moreover, a severe drought that only happened once in a century, coupled with the man-made disasters caused by Yuan Shu's rebellion, directly caused the population of Huainan to drop sharply. In the words of history books, "people cannibalize each other."
How severe is this drought?
Not only were the people destitute, but even the army could not hold on in Huainan - the armies of Cao Cao, Lu Bu and Sun Ce who originally besieged the puppet emperor Yuan Shu had to withdraw from Huainan.
The drought had the effect of "strengthening the walls and clearing the wilderness", so that Cao Cao, who held the heart of the Central Plains, could not sustain the consumption of food and grass!
So in the end, Yuan Shu was not defeated and killed, but he died on the road with hardship and hatred after escaping from Shouchun...
Bai Tu was in the hard drive and could not find any specific information about the severe drought, but a simple guess is that this drought completely devastated Huainan, which is still prosperous now. It was not until Deng Ai built Huainan as the granary of the Wei State that he could start over.
The revitalized natural and man-made disasters cannot but affect Jiangdong.
Moreover, Bai Tu's goal cannot be "to be alone". He must take the opportunity to conquer Jiujiang and Lujiang. Even...if the people in Guangling and Runan are also suffering from drought, Bai Tu will also have to help Liu Bei and Cao Cao share the burden.
It can be said that in history, whether it was Cao Cao, Lu Bu, or Sun Ce, it was precisely because they had no food that they left Huainan to be picked up for free. They did not dare to touch this "burden" and could only take over the nine out of ten houses next year.
Empty Huainan.
Therefore, whether it is frying steel and pouring steel, whether it is a heavy crossbow on a sea ship, or whether it is a magic weapon or armor, it is not as important as food at this time!
With the current agricultural technology in the Jiangdong area, rice and wheat are generally rotated, with two crops a year. Most of the spring plowing has already been carried out. If a severe drought starts next winter, there will not be much time left for Bai Tu...
The only option is to capture the four counties of Jiangdong as soon as possible, and then go crazy to collect grain!