Duan Wencao was really unable to suppress the thieves. He was the chief executive of Lu County. Suppressing the rebellion and suppressing the thieves was the responsibility of Ying Yang of the Weifu. He had neither the army nor the power to command military power. What would he use to suppress the thieves?

The Weifu Yingyang, north and south of the Great Henan Province, including the town and garrison troops in Hebei, Henan and Qilu areas, were mostly recruited by the emperor and the center to become Eastern Expedition troops, and were already rushing to Zhuo County to assemble. Before, the emperor and the center did not expect that there would be rebellion in the country. Of course, because of the deliberate concealment of the local government, the emperor and the center still did not know that the domestic rebellion was intensifying and endangering the stability of the country. Qi County was the first place to break out and form a regional crisis. The reason why the rebellion was not suppressed at the first time was that the main force of the Qi County Yingyang was no longer there and there was no soldiers to suppress the thieves. Zhang Xutuo, the county magistrate of Qi County, had to "take action first and report" without the authorization of the Dongdu, and arbitrarily recruited Zongtuan Township Tuan and the strong men in the county to form an army to suppress the rebels.

Now Duan Wencao can only follow Zhang Xutuo's path of "dead first and report". Duan Wencao's brother Duan Wenzhen is the Minister of War and is deeply trusted by the emperor. With Zhang Xutuo's "precedent" of this, it is not too difficult to grant Duan Wencao the military power, but in this way, the rebellions of Qilu have repeatedly endangered the stability of Qilu and even the north and south of the rivers will be exposed.

Before the Eastern Expedition began in the Qilu region, a large number of rebels suddenly raised flags to rebel. What is the reason? Is there any political purpose behind this? As the core force of the Qilu aristocratic group, Duan Wenzhen and Duan Wencao brothers are ministers trusted by the emperor and reformists in the court. The emperor would naturally believe their memorials. So from common sense, there is a large-scale rebellion in the country, and some areas are especially enough to affect the turmoil in the key areas of the Eastern Expedition. The major plan for the Eastern Expedition must be suspended or postponed. This is obviously what the emperor, the central and reform forces do not want to see, but this is what the conservative forces in the court hope.

Duan Wencao must weigh the matter clearly. If he explains the truth to the emperor through his brother Duan Wenzhen to obtain the power of commanding the army, the result may affect the process of the Eastern Expedition, which will inevitably harm the interests of the reformists in the court and give way to the conservative forces in vain. In other words, this may be the ultimate goal of those "political black players" chaoticizing the situation in Qi and Lu. On the contrary, if he continues to conceal the truth from the emperor, and without affecting the progress of the Eastern Expedition, he imitates Zhang Xutuo, "destroy first and then report", and first recruits local forces such as Zongtuan Township Tuan to form an army to encircle and suppress the rebels, he can avoid many major adverse factors.

However, in this way, the people of Qilu killed the people of Qilu, while the people of Guanlong reaped the benefits of the fisherman.

The more Duan Wencao thought about it, the more frustrated he became. He gritted his teeth and wished he could swallow Zhang Xutuo and Dong Chun alive.

At this time, Duan Lun appeared and woke Duan Wencao up with a word, "The soldiers come and the generals come and the water comes and the soil covers the earth."

The bystanders were clear, the authorities were confused, Duan Wencao was in a situation and didn't know how to break the situation, but Duan Lun could see clearly from the side. Zhang Xutuo intended to drive Wang Bo and Meng Rang into Lu County, causing trouble to the east. The countermeasure was actually very simple. Resolutely blocked Wang Bo and Meng Rang's way south and drove them back to Qi County, so that Zhang Xutuo's wishful thinking was completely lost.

As for the thieves in Xuzhou entering Shandong, Duan Lun believed that it might not be due to Dong Chun's original intention. There were thieves in Xuzhou, but Dong Chun failed to encircle and suppress the thieves in his own town garrison, but instead allowed the thieves to escape into the Qilu area. Xuzhou's army could not cross the border and chased them, so Dong Chun could only watch the thieves escape. This was not only a shame for him, but also a major dereliction of duty and could not explain it to Dong Du. In addition, Duan Lun had just come from Dong Du, and more or less knew about Dong Chun's current adverse situation, so Duan Lun inferred that someone in Dong Du would definitely take this opportunity to attack Dong Chun. Even if he could not drive him out of the army, he would still cause some trouble for the Longxi noble group.

In other words, Zhang Xutuo and Dong Chun did not have the possibility of "designing" Duan Wencao. Since this is the case, while confronting Zhang Xutuo in Qi County, he could work hand in hand with Dong Chun in Pengcheng, and both sides worked together to suppress the bandits.

Duan Wencao adopted Duan Lun's suggestion and immediately wrote to Dong Chun in Pengcheng. While expressing his gratitude to him, he suggested that both sides join forces to suppress the thieves, and at the same time he told the truth about the current dilemma of Lu County. He hoped that Pengcheng could provide strong support in the suppression of the thieves to alleviate the crisis of Lu County. The implication is that your army cannot cross the border, so why don't the thieves be suppressed? Just like being a human being, you must be flexible and flexible, not too rigid, and don't hold on to the law and military discipline. To achieve your goal, you must do everything you can.

Duan Wencao didn't know what Dong Chun responded to his "aggressive general", but in order to prevent problems before they happened, he secretly ordered the recruitment of local Zongtuan Townships in Xiaqiu, the capital of Zou County in the southern part of Zou County, to strengthen the defense of the city's key passes, and to do his best to block the Xuzhou thieves on the border.

Just as Duan Wencao was busy dealing with the entry of the Xuzhou thieves, Zhang Xutuo's messenger arrived.

Zhang Xutuo is at the foot of Mount Tai, on the north bank of Wenshui, and in Bocheng County. According to the principle, since the army of the Wei Dynasty could not cross the border without authorization, the county magistrate could not cross the border without authorization with the temporary local army. However, Zhang Xutuo was arrogant and bold, and did whatever he wanted, and there was nothing he dared not do. In this world, the timid people are afraid of the bold people, and the bold people are afraid of the lifeless people. Zhang Xutuo is a lifeless person. Even Duan Wencao met such a fierce husband, he had to retreat and did not want to conflict with him until he had no choice.

In the letter, Zhang Xutuo told Duan Wencao that after his scouts inquired for many days, Wang Bo had been found out, and Meng Rang led his troops to move in Bocheng and Fenggao, and traveled back and forth between the north and south sides of the Wenshui River from time to time. It is still unclear the next trend of the bandit army.

Zhang Xutuo made an analysis. In the short term, Wang Bo and Meng Rang's bandits may enter the Yingxian mountainous area in the northeast of Lu County and are active in Ying, Laiwu, Mou and other places. The terrain here is steep and easy to hide, but because winter has arrived, the bandit army lacks clothes and food, so they must go down the mountain to plunder. The targets of their plunder are either the counties and towns in the southeast of Qi County or the center of Lu County. Considering that returning to Qi County requires crossing mountains and ridges, Zhang Xutuo inferred that the bandit army must go south along the Wenshui River to attack. To this end, Zhang Xutuo suggested that Duan Wencao should implement an active encirclement and suppression strategy, and put the main force of Zhuyingyang of Lu County to Tingting Mountain as soon as possible, and return the mountain and Liangfu Mountain to cooperate with the Qi County army and set a "pocket" for the bandit army. Just wait for the bandit army to plunder south to plunder, and then they can be attacked from north to south and encircled and killed from all sides.

Duan Wencao couldn't help but curse again, "The man is crazy!"

Duan Wencao was the prefect of Zhongjun of the fourth rank. Before he served in the local area, he was the General Wu Ben of the fourth rank of Weifu. When Zhang Xutuo was in the army, he was the General Yingyang of the fifth rank of Zhongjun of the fifth rank. The two were two levels apart. The officialdom was very strict and it was strictly forbidden for subordinates to challenge the authority of their superiors. However, Zhang Xutuo was arrogant, so he openly challenged the authority of his superiors and tried his best to provoke his words.

If Zhang Xutuo is Duan Wencao's confidant subordinate or a friend of the same faction, it is understandable that he would make suggestions to Duan Wencao. However, Zhang Xutuo is not Duan Wencao's subordinate, nor is he a friend of the same faction, but an opponent in the officialdom. Since he is an opponent, why should Zhang Xutuo be afraid of provoking Duan Wencao?

Duan Wencao was so angry that he was angry and scolded him endlessly.

Zhang Xutuo's words touched Duan Wencao's "critical point". Duan Wencao was the prefect of a county, not a general of the Guards, so what power did he have to command the Zhuyingyang of Lu County? This is a superficial phenomenon. In fact, Duan Wencao was able to command the four Yingyang Mansions stationed in Lu County, thanks to the "help" of his brother Duan Wenzhen. When Duan Wencao arrived in Qilu, if he wanted to lead the nobles of Qilu to compete with Guanlong bureaucrats, it would take strength, and his strongest strength would come from the army. Therefore, Duan Wenzhen used his position to transfer all of Duan Wencao's trusted subordinates in the army to Lu County, and served as the chief and deputy chief of the four Yingyang Mansion stationed in Lu County.

During this Eastern Expedition, the main forces of Zhu Yingyang of Qilu were transferred away, leaving very few forces in the garrison. In order to ensure the need for the Eastern Expedition, the Left Guard Mansion, who was responsible for the important task of garrison of Qilu, also focused all his energy on assisting the Donglai Navy in war preparations. For this reason, some of the remaining Zhu Yingyang remained behind, resulting in the weaker garrison in Qilu. This is also the reason why Wang Bo, Meng Rang and other Qizhou heroes raised the flag to rebel in Changbai Mountain and persisted for several months.

In this extremely passive situation, Zhang Xutuo, the governor of Qi County, knew that he could not count on Yingyang, the Weifu Mansion, so he summoned Zongtuan Township and the Zhuang Men to form local troops to encircle and suppress the rebels. However, the situation in Lu County was different. Duan Wencao was there in Lu County, and Duan Wencao had his brother Duan Wenzhen as his backer, so the left-handed Guard Mansion did not dare to recruit Yingyang Wei from Lu County to avoid conflict with Duan Wencao.

There are still six regiments of the four Yingyang Prefectures in Lu County, and these six regiments are nominally controlled by the Right Guard Mansion, but in fact they all obey Duan Wencao's orders.

The gap between regular army, local army and rebel army is obvious. Zhang Xutuo failed to encircle and annihilate the rebel army of Wang Bo and Meng Rang with nearly 10,000 troops. It was not that Zhang Xutuo could not fight, but that the gap in strength between the two armies was not obvious. No one had received formal training, nor did he have heavy weapons such as long swords, long spears, strong bows and crossbows, and no one could do anything to anyone. At this time, Zhang Xutuo thought of the sixth regiment of the Eagle Yangwei in Lu County, so he had a sudden inspiration and drove the rebel army into Lu County, intending to use a knife to kill people.

Duan Wen kept scolding, but his heart was bright. Zhang Xutuo was "provoking" himself, trying to make himself lose his mind in anger, and in order to regain his face, he ordered the six groups of Yingyang Guards to suppress the rebels. In the end, he was scarred, but he took advantage of Zhang Xutuo for nothing. How could such a good thing be in the world? He just "provoked" Dong Chun and tried to use Dong Chun's power to surround and kill the Xuzhou thieves who fled. Unexpectedly, Zhang Xutuo came to plot against him in a blink of an eye. It was really funny to think about it.

After reading Zhang Xutuo's letter, Duan Lun asked, "How is my uncle going to deal with it?"

Duan Wencao sneered and said nothing.

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Chapter completed!