No matter what Song Jiang and Wu Yong think, at least the current Liangshan is definitely not suitable for accepting the imperial court's recruitment.
For no other reason than there were too few leaders willing to accept the imperial court's invitation.
It is estimated that even senior generals like Qin Ming who came from the local Forbidden Army are not very willing to accept recruitment.
His entire family was directly killed by the prefect Murong of Qingzhou. It is not an exaggeration to describe him as a blood feud. How could he willingly continue to be a member of the army?
There is also Lin Chong. Although both his ex-wife and ex-father-in-law are alive and well because of Chai Daguan, it is obvious that there is no possibility of reconciliation between him and Gao Qiu, and he will not agree to the so-called recruitment at all.
As for the other leaders, they are either strong men who are against the government, or they are people who have been bullied by the government. They are extremely wary of the government and the court. How can they have the heart to accept the court's recruitment?
In Liangshan at this time, recruitment is definitely not the mainstream!
That is to say, a large number of generals from the local imperial army came to the mountain later. In order to appease or win their support, Zhao An gradually became the mainstream in Liangshan.
At the moment, Song Jiang also understands this, but he and Wu Yong have been pondering it carefully and testing it, and they don't dare to say it out loud at all.
Here in Liangshan, life was calm, and while Houying was developing more and more prosperously, things were turning into a pot of porridge over there in Qingzhou.
Just like the original work, Hu Yanzhuo, who fled to Qingzhou, and Murong Zhizhou of Qingzhou, in order to avoid responsibility for the defeat, took drastic actions against several major copycats in Qingzhou.
Although Hu Yanzhuo suffered a big loss at the hands of Liangshan, he still had some abilities. At least he could suppress Qingzhou's copycats.
Even Erlong Mountain, which was occupied by Lu Zhishen, Yang Zhi, Wu Song and others, could not withstand Hu Yanzhuo's repeated offensives.
Then, a major alliance of several copycat villages in Qingzhou appeared, which was similar to the original work.
Hu Yanzhuo, who had slightly recovered from his previous defeat to Liangshan, did not give in at all, and even had the confidence to win the Qingzhou Copycat Alliance in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, Murong Zhizhou was weak and timid, and was frightened by the momentum of the Qingzhou Copycat Alliance, so he hurriedly transferred Hu Yanzhuo, who had been victorious in battles, back to the city to defend himself.
Unexpectedly, it resulted in disaster for myself...
On this day, Chai Daguan was handling matters in the back camp, allocating resources to quickly transform the gains from the previous victory over Hu Yanzhuo's eight thousand officers and soldiers into Liangshan's own heritage and strength.
It's just a pity that I haven't found a good opportunity yet to ask Ruyunlong Gongsun Sheng for advice on magical knowledge such as spells and formations.
At this moment, Song Jiang's personal attendant Guo Sheng, the ancestor Guo Jing, came to express his invitation to the two chiefs.
It can also be seen from this that Song Jiang's authority in Liangshan was handled by his closest confidants, and Chao Gai was just a polished commander.
"What's up?"
As official Chai stood up, he greeted Pei Xuan, a tough-faced man working not far away, and went straight out of the courtyard where the Logistics Department was located.
"Several major copycats in Qingzhou jointly sent people here, hoping that Liangshan would send troops to capture Qingzhou!"
The ancestor of Guo Daxia did not dare to neglect, and hurriedly whispered: "King Chao Tian and brother Gongming can't make up their minds at the moment. Please invite the senior officials to come over and discuss!"
Chai Daguan knew it well, wasn't it the day when a group of bandits from Qingzhou went up the mountain?
"What's there to hesitate about?"
When they arrived at the Juyi Hall, they heard Song Jiang explain the reason. The official said with a smile: "If you want to go, just go. If you don't want to go, just refuse!"
"The high-ranking officials are quite free and easy, but it's just that several big cottages in Qingzhou have jointly asked for help from the cottages. It would be inappropriate not to agree!"
Wu raised his goose feather fan and said very clearly: "This is also an opportunity for Liangshan to expand. If these cottages and leaders can be invited up the mountain, Liangshan's strength will be more than doubled immediately!"
"Then just send troops!"
Official Chai said disapprovingly: "It's just Qingzhou, so Hu Yanzhuo is somewhat capable, but he doesn't have many troops at hand at this time, so it's quite easy to win!"
Wu Yong smiled bitterly and said: "I don't take Qingzhou seriously, but once I really capture Qingzhou, it will be no different from a rebellion. There will definitely be no shortage of encirclement and suppression troops from the imperial court. This is why I hesitate."
place!"
"That's easy to handle!"
Chai Daguan said leisurely: "Think clearly about the purpose of this trip. Is it just to break Qingzhou, or do you have other ideas?"
"Such as taking down Hu Yanzhuo, or killing Murong Zhizhou's entire family?"
“Different purposes require different methods!”
The Juyi Hall was silent for a while, whether it was Chao Gai, Song Jiang, or Wu Yong, they were all lost in thought.
Chao Gai didn't have too complicated thoughts, but he thought it would be good to break Qingzhou and destroy Murong Zhizhou's family, which would also completely calm Qin Ming's heart.
After all, Qin Ming's family, young and old, were all killed by Murong Zhizhou. It can be said that the hatred is irreconcilable.
But Song Jiang and Wu Yong didn't think so...
If they had not discussed it with Chai Daguan before, they might not have such complicated thoughts, but now the situation is different.
The meaning of Chai Daguan's people is very obvious, either to directly kill the officials and rebel, or to leave room for relaxation for the future.
Song Jiang naturally chose the latter, as his obsession with becoming an official was not light.
But some words were not very appropriate for him to say, so he pondered for a moment and then gave Wu Yong a wink.
"It would be better if we could avoid attracting special attention from the imperial court and sending out large armies to continuously encircle and suppress us!"
Wu Yong showed Zhuge Kongming's style and said leisurely: "After all, the imperial court is powerful and can afford to suffer consecutive defeats. But if we in Liangshan are defeated once, we will be disbanded!"
This was meant for Chao Gai.
Sure enough, Chao Gai's expression changed when he heard this...
Chai Daguan was too lazy to pay attention to this and said directly: "In this way, we can break the city, but we can't loot it wantonly. We can only take the grain, grass and weapons in the government warehouse!"
"Murong Zhizhou can die, but he cannot harm his family. In this way, the officials below can report that Murong Zhizhou committed suicide in anger because the bandits broke into the city!"
"The wealthy households and powerful officials in the city will definitely suppress the impact of this incident for their own and family interests. Liangshan will not be so conspicuous by then. After all, Qingzhou City is still under the control of the government!"
Song Jiang, Wu Yong, and Chao Gai were stunned for a moment: Can it still be done like this?
The senior officials curled their lips and said disapprovingly: "Don't be surprised, the officialdom is so magical, everything is based on interests. Liangshan only needs to directly target Murong Zhizhou alone, and the other officials will take the initiative to cover up for us in order to eliminate disasters and reduce crimes!
"
Speaking of which, he was very disdainful of Liangshan's behavior in the original work.
While thinking about accepting the imperial court's recruitment of mixed officials, the methods used against certain officials can be described as bloody and cruel.
Murong Zhizhou of Qingzhou is the best example!
Should this guy be killed?
Definitely deserves to be killed!
But Liangshan liked to kill people all over the house at every turn. He only targeted landlords and tycoons like Zhujiazhuang and Hujiazhuang. He also used the same method against Murong Zhizhou, which would touch the bottom line of the entire bureaucracy.
You know, the person standing behind Murong Zhizhou is Concubine Murong!
Once Concubine Murong hates her, even old foxes like Cai Jing will have a headache, but Song Jiang and others in the original novel don't know it yet.
This is also the disadvantage of Liangshan's lack of mid-level and high-level civil servants. If you are not familiar with the set of rules in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, you will easily violate the bottom line of officialdom.
If only Murong Zhizhou is targeted, there are too many means that can be used.
Liangshan's strength is no joke. It was easy to capture Qingzhou and easily arrange for Murong Zhizhou to be a fugitive official who abandoned the city and fled.
If the person is still alive, Concubine Murong will definitely find a way to rescue him.
But if she commits suicide because of "guilt and self-blame", even if she knows that there is something fishy about such a thing, Concubine Murong would rather have such an outcome than pursue it too closely. Otherwise, she and the entire Murong family will be embarrassed.
Without Murong Zhizhou as the backbone, life for his family, wife and children would definitely not be easy, and it might even be worse than killing them.
This kind of operation is a common method in officialdom...
Obviously, Song Jiang and Wu Yong listened, but Chao Gai didn't care.
Anyway, the commander-in-chief when sending out troops must be Song Jiang, and he has no objection to this.
After deliberation, the troops and horses from the front camp of Liangshan and the baggage men and horses from the rear camp were dispatched one after another, and set off on ships to attack Qingzhou.
This time, Chai Daguan still did not follow him.
Song Jiang and Wu Yong were invited, but he refused directly.
"This kind of war is really meaningless!"
The official said bluntly: "If a certain family follows us, we will have to take care of some things that are beyond our eyes!"
At this point, he looked at Song Jiang and Wu Yong with all his joking eyes, and said leisurely: "A certain family has a lot of trouble in their eyes, and they won't get used to the bad temper of some good guys. You two should think about it!"
Song Jiang and Wu Yong were so embarrassed that they did not continue to invite them.
They were really worried that Mr. Chai would join the army and have a fierce conflict with some brothers who were too reckless.
In the Liangshan rear camp, due to the increasingly strict logistics system, there were many conflicts with some leaders of the former army.
As far as they knew, there were quite a few private fights.
As a result, several Liangshan heroes, who were always known for their arrogance, suffered heavy losses at the hands of ordinary soldiers in the rear camp.
These logistics soldiers are basically from Chaijiazhuang, Cangzhou, and they look like well-trained elites at first glance. Although fighting alone is no match for the heroes of Liangshan, once they join forces, even top masters like Lin Chong will have a headache.
All the leaders of the rear camp have basically become loyal supporters of Chai Daguan. If you calculate carefully, there are more than a dozen leaders, which can be regarded as a strong force.
Not to mention that Chai Daguan himself has outstanding abilities and insights. Even Song Jiang and Wu Yong need to consult him in many places. How can they dare to offend him if it is too late to win them over?
What they worry about is that the relationship between Chai Daguan and Chao Gai is too good, which will be very detrimental to certain future actions...