Chapter 384 Muddy Waters
After Zhang Dan led his army into Rencheng, he began to prepare the supplies and allocate the garrison locations for each battalion with the assistance of the military staff.
They have an army of five thousand, plus heavy troops, let alone seven or eight thousand people. Naturally, they cannot gather in one city in Ren County.
Of course, this coordination is mainly done by Shi Xunyou, the director of the Right Military Academy.
After the First World War of the Northern Expedition, Xun You was promoted by Guan Yu and was awarded the third level of military merit. Guan Yu also told Zhang Chongyan that Xun You was a true gentleman. If our Taishan Army could live up to him, he would definitely live up to them.
Zhang Chong smiled at that time and didn't say much. After a quick talk with Xun You, he was released as the chief history officer of the You Military Academy.
The rank of Chang Shi was naturally not very high, but it was the second most important position in the army, which shows Zhang Chong's trust in Xun You.
Xun You lived up to his expectations. After the Youxiao Wei Division was stationed in Rencheng, he began to assist in logistics. He also recruited recruits from Zhang Chong's shogunate, and together they established a grain platform to suppress bandits in Dalu Ze.
Xun You's ability is naturally very strong, and in addition, he had previously assisted the Henan Han Army in grain logistics in Aocang, so he was naturally very handy.
Food and fodder were delivered to all departments on time. This alone made the army look at Xun You with admiration.
Don't think that this matter is simple. Such an incident occurred in the late Northern Song Dynasty, which caused chaos due to insufficient allocation of money and food.
At that time, the remnants of the Western Army were in a stalemate with the Jin soldiers from Minzhou to Jiezhou. The Western Army here should have been supplied with money and food from the Shuchuan Base Camp, but supplies have not been delivered for a long time.
At that time, the person who succeeded Zhang Jun and took charge of Sichuan and Shaanxi food was a civil servant named Lu Fayuan. This person has a very high level of public service and could have succeeded Zhang Jun very well. However, as soon as he arrived, he was confused by the myriad of things he would accept in this position.
He has to deal with everything from country squires, bandits, armies, officials, Jin Kingdom, and Puppet Qi. Just like this, the eyebrows and beards were snatched off, and the money and food of the Western Army in Minzhou were delayed.
Facing the hungry subordinates below, Guan Shigu, then the general, first asked for food in Hangzhou, but before he could follow up, it was already too late.
There was going to be a mutiny below, so Guan Shigu had no choice but to send troops to seize food from the puppet Qi. But how could the hungry army win the battle? As expected, the battle was a huge defeat.
Guan Shigu could only surrender to the puppet Qi alone. The defense line from Minzhou to Jiezhou was almost broken.
This is the destructive power of an incompetent assistant to the army.
The officials of the You Military Academy had a very good long history. Even though Xun You had to deal with a lot of affairs every day, they were still in good order.
Xun You's outstanding performance naturally won Zhang Dan's trust. Zhang Dan was a person who liked to recommend talents and recommended several talents to Zhang Chong.
Therefore, in Rencheng, the senior officials of the Taishan Army Right Military Academy are very harmonious.
But this harmony was broken by an uninvited guest on this day.
……
Just say that on this day, Zhang Dan was still inspecting the officials under his tent.
This is his habit. He will walk around the army every day to see the real situation in the army. Compared with other people's oral communication or written reports, Zhang Dan trusts his own eyes more.
The morale of the Right Military School Lieutenants is very high. On the one hand, they fought a huge victory in Jize, and on the other hand, they are jealous of the three captains who were in the Northern Expedition.
When Zhang Dan arrived at the first camp, he saw Pan Zhang, the general of the camp, personally standing at the camp gate, waiting for Zhang Dan.
After Pan Zhang, there were several rows of officials wearing armor, all looking at Zhang Dan expectantly.
Zhang Dan was also happy to see Pan Zhang, an old subordinate.
This former river bandit has already accumulated enough merit to become the commander of the first battalion. How long does this process take? That’s about half a year. The credit behind this was not Zhang Dan, but Pan Zhang who killed him with one knife and one shot.
Pan Zhang's example also inspired the officials of the Right Military Academy. They firmly believed that our Taishan Army judged heroes based on their military merits and promoted them differently.
There are probably more than a hundred people in Pan Zhang's camp who came from the river bandits back then, and the rest were expanded over the years. There were soldiers from the original Han army and heroes from Yanyu, but most of them were field guards who came from the Heji area.
These soldiers, who came from good families, had certain training, and selected the best from the best, had fully grown up in the battle of Jize.
At this time, under the leadership of the battalion general Pan Zhang, the army flags were hunting and the fighting spirit was high.
Zhang Dan led Pan Zhang and others on a patrol, and he recognized the morale of Pan Zhang's camp very much, and the smile on his face never stopped.
Pan Zhang in the back saw that the old officer was happy and hurriedly saw the opportunity and asked:
"Captain, when are we going to destroy those mainland thieves? Our battalion must be the vanguard."
Zhang Danyi glanced at Pan Zhang, knowing his little thoughts, and smiled and cursed:
"With a big river thief like you here, why are you afraid that this battle will be fought without you?"
Pan Zhang giggled along with him, but murmured in his heart:
"It's not necessarily true. Brother Luo is also a big river bandit, and he is older than me, Old Pan. With him here, I really may not be able to win the battle."
The elder brother Luo that Pan Zhang was thinking of was naturally his sworn brother Luo Gang, who was now Zhang Dan's general.
But seeing that the old officer was hiding him, Pan Zhang couldn't continue the conversation, so he could only follow Zhang Dan to continue patrolling.
Of course Zhang Dan knew what Pan Zhang was thinking, and he was eager to fight.
But unlike what Pan Zhang and other generals thought, the battle against mainland water thieves this time was not about fighting bravely, but about outsmarting them.
You want to know how many water pirates there can be in this mainland? With the five thousand elite men under his command, even if there were twice as many thieves, they wouldn't be enough to kill them.
But Zhang Dan learned from Qu Shuai that the reason why the mainland water thieves have not been wiped out is due to the two issues of land conditions and human relations.
To suppress the mainland water pirates, we must enter the marsh, but the marsh is vast. How can you, a foreign soldier, be more familiar with geography than this man who sits on the bandits? Not to mention, there are mainland water bandits' spies around here, so he is already passive in action.
Therefore, this is the reason why Zhang Dan has been holding back his troops since he stayed in Ren County.
He still remembers the advice Qu Shuai gave him.
More means less, slower means faster.
Why does more mean saving? This is what Zhang Dan asked Zhang Chong, and our Qu Shuai answered like this:
"Have you ever thought about why you need to send five thousand elite soldiers? They can fight several Han soldiers from several counties. Just using them to fight a small water bandit is not killing a chicken with a sledgehammer. Not to mention that once these large soldiers are sent out, it will cost a lot of money. So, do you think this soldier is used a lot?”
When Zhang Chong told him what he was thinking, Zhang Dan could only nod.
Zhang Chong said with a smile:
"So this is the first thing I said, more means less. It is easier to defeat thieves when you have more soldiers, but it is difficult to defeat thieves when you have few soldiers. The most important thing to avoid in suppressing bandits is that it lasts for a long time. Over time, the thieves' confidence will be built up. In addition, there will be more soldiers later. With the supply of various Han army forces, the thieves will become stronger and stronger. By then, they will have consumed more food than they have now, not to mention damaging the military power of our Taishan Army."
When Zhang Chong explained it this way, Zhang Dan understood and thought to himself that Qu was still handsome and tall.
Then Zhang Chong explained the second sentence, what is slow is fast.
"The first priority of this troop dispatch is intelligence, and the second is military combat. Don't just go over and suppress the bandits. It looks like a quick battle but is like a headless fly. Only by doing enough intelligence work can we know which ones need to be suppressed and which ones can be suppressed. Fight for it. Only in this way can we win over the surrendering faction and attack the die-hards. We should not distinguish between the young and the red, and we will only kill more and more bandits."
It is precisely because of these eight sentences given to Zhang Dan by Zhang Chong that Zhang Dan has such determination.
Zhang Dan here has just finished patrolling Zhang Dan's camp and is about to go to Xie Bi's place to continue patrolling the camp. Then he saw the guards coming, saying that a water bandit envoy was coming from outside the city and wanted to see Zhang Dan.
Zhang Dan looked strange. When did a water bandit send an envoy?
So Zhang Dan returned to the military mansion and met the water bandit envoy here.
This water bandit looked like a respectable man, dressed as a scholar, wearing a virtuous crown on his head, and claimed to be Du Chong, a barbarian. After Du Chong came in, he was very respectful and spoke highly of Zhang Dan. Especially when he saw that Zhang Dan had already achieved such great achievements at such a young age, he was even more enthusiastic.
Zhang Dan did not interrupt this person's nonsense, but after seeing him finish speaking, he asked:
"Why did you enter the city?"
Du Chong was very humble and lowered his head and said:
"Come to give a gift to the general."
As he said this, he took out a gift list from his sleeve pocket and was about to hand it to Zhang Dan.
Little did he know that the man's action of reaching into his pocket almost killed him, because many generals in the army had already quietly pulled out their knives, fearing that this man was a dead soldier who came to assassinate him.
The guard came forward to take the gift list. After repeated inspections, it was OK, and then the guard handed it to Zhang Dan.
Zhang Dan looked at the records above and saw ten handles of white jade and five corals. In short, they were all rare treasures. It seems that the mainland's river bandits are really robbing a lot of things.
Putting the gift list aside, Zhang Dan smiled and asked:
"Are you here just to give gifts? What else do you want?"
Nadu Chong smiled dryly and said:
"I came here at my Kui's request to be friends with the General. The leader of my family has great admiration for the General and has always wanted to be friends with a hero like the General. This gift is for the General."
Zhang Dan sneered after hearing this:
"You, a thief who killed looted goods, also want to be friends with me? What if I don't want to?"
Who would have thought that after Zhang Dan said this, Du Chong, who had always been respectful, slowly straightened up, no longer as humble as before.
The man looked disdainful and took out a piece of bamboo from his pocket. He pursed his lips and motioned to the guard just now to show this thing to your general.
When the guard saw this man acting respectfully and arrogantly, he was furious and wanted to beat him to death immediately. But the guard held it back, looked at Du Chong with a cold face, and then took the bamboo piece into his hand and looked at it.
But just by looking at it, the guard jumped up, punched Du Chong in the eye, and cursed:
"What a thief, how dare you insult my captain."
The guard's actions also startled several colleagues nearby, and they all came up to hold them up. But after they saw the contents of the bamboo piece, they couldn't help but feed it like their colleagues did. Old boxing.
Du Chong was originally a scribe, but he was beaten so violently by these soldiers that he almost lost his breath.
Zhang Dan looked down leisurely, saw that it was almost done, and then said lightly:
"Okay, let me take a look at the bamboo piece."
Only then did he stop being violent towards Du Chong. Later, Zhang Dan took the piece of bamboo and saw that it read:
"If you are the leader, then enter the river and fight. If you don't want to fight? Go back to Milkman as soon as possible."
Zhang Dan snorted his mouth, dismissed the bamboo slices on the case, and to Du Chongdao, who had been stunned:
"You go back and tell the leader of your family that I, Zhang Dan, have accepted this request. Soon I will lead my troops to join the bandits and compete with your family leader to see who has the upper hand."
Seeing that Du Chong was still in a daze, Zhang Dan said again:
"It stands to reason that the two armies are fighting without killing each other. But it doesn't say that you can't be beaten. The way you looked just now, it's a blessing for you to just get beaten up. If it were my other robe, Ding Daqi , you are already dead. Oh, by the way, just from this person’s name, you can tell whether he is capable or not.”
Then Zhang Dan no longer had the patience to talk to this disgusting creature, and waved his hand to drive him out.
As for the boxes of treasures sent by this person, Zhang Dan kept them.
When Du Chong and several companions were driven out of the city in a daze. Du Chong changed his previous miserable situation, looked at the apricot-yellow flag floating in the city, and sneered.
The companion on the side was puzzled and asked:
"Supervisor, why are you laughing?"
Postal supervisor? Isn't this the great job of the Han Dynasty? Why are you here?
Yes, this Du Chong was actually a Han official sent by the Hejian Kingdom to Julu Ze to contact the water bandits. Under the guidance of gold and silver, this person is also a guest in Zene.
This time he learned that the leader of the black horse bandits wanted to send someone out of the river to touch the Taishan Army, so he volunteered. He also wanted to take this opportunity to see the reality of the Taishan Army.
Just by looking at it, it turned out to be this?
Du Chong had a very low opinion of Zhang Dan, who was just an ordinary arrogant child. Greed, violence, and failure to control anger are all taboos for generals, and if this person has them all, it can be seen that he is a defeated general.
However, this man was able to win the hearts of the soldiers. Those soldiers knew that the Lord was humiliating his subjects, so they came forward to beat him without Zhang Dan's orders. But that’s it, after all, who doesn’t have one or two confidants?
Touching the bruises on his face, Du Chong's eyes were dark, he took a deep look in Zhang Dan's direction, and then led the people back.
Over there, Du Chong had just been expelled, and those present, such as Wei Zhou, Xie Bi, Pan Zhang, Wang Zhang, Luo Gang, etc., were already filled with indignation and volunteered to suppress the bandits.
In particular, Pan Zhang was the one with the most violent temper. His face turned pale with anger. He said to Zhang Dan:
"Colonel Lieutenant, when have we ever experienced such arrogance? Captain Lieutenant, please allow me to take charge of our headquarters. I will twist off the head of the black horse thief and hand it over to the Captain in just three days."
Pan Zhang asked for a fight, and Xie Bi who was standing next to him replied lightly:
"Why are you so anxious? Are you bringing thousands of people into the swamp to kill thieves or do you want to be killed? This mainland swamp is not as simple as you think, so why not retreat?"
Faced with Xie Bi's reprimand, Pan Zhang's face changed from white to red.
He opened his mouth and saw Luo Gang winking at him, and then he held back and said:
"Xie Sima is right, it's my old Pan Menglang."
Although Pan Zhang was arrogant, he still knew what kind of person Xie Bi was.
It can be said that Xie Bi is not only the veteran who was saved by Commander Qu personally, but also the most intelligent general in the army. He really has no confidence to attack Xie Bi.
But Pan Zhang was not a good person either. He remembered that the school captain was held hostage by the sacrificial sun, and it was this man who first said that he would lead his troops back and give up Zhang Dan.
Thinking of this, Pan Zhang groaned inwardly, wondering how long this person could remain arrogant.
Xie Bi ignored the wild boar-like Pan Zhang and said to Zhang Dan:
"The captain, this one named Du Chong, presumably comes from the nearby Han army. It seems that the counties in Hebei also want to take a dip in this muddy water."
Zhang Dan laughed loudly after hearing this and said boldly:
"I'm afraid that the water is not muddy. The muddy it is, the better I can catch fish."
After saying that, Zhang Dan said to Xun You:
"Is everything ready there?"
Behind Xun You was a flying soldier carrying a flag. After hearing this, he whispered to Xun You.
Then Xun You stepped forward calmly:
"Everything is under control."
After hearing this, Zhang Danteng stood up and said decisively:
"Then close the net for me."
(End of chapter)