There are irresistible rumors in the streets and alleys of Jiaozhou Daluo City, which is full of sanctuary and depressed.

"Is this the official army fighting back?"

"This is the banner of thieves from Canton..."

"How is this possible? The thieves' lineup will be even more powerful than the official army?"

"The soldiers who were fighting were defeated if they couldn't rush their positions."

"An Dabang, who had attacked the army outside the city, had his head cut off and his pole hung up..."

"None of the hundreds of families who followed him to the battle came back."

"Is the number of days in the Tang Dynasty changing? It's so difficult to deal with any thief who come all the way..."

"What should I do when I wait? Should I continue to be a thief?"

Zeng Gun, the new governor of Jinghai Army and the queen of Annan, also listened to the enemy situation sent back by the horses in front of him without expression in the gatehouse. The bad news, the bad news, in addition to the bad news, even the few harassing troops he sent out to test the enemy's power were beaten back by someone who had lost his troops and lost their generals.

Moreover, those thieves prepared a lot of crossbows and arrows were like rain, and the formation of the troop was well-organized and clearly distinguished; the places covered were covered were killed and injured, and there were almost no trace of the survivors. All the survivors said that they were afraid that the famous Jianghuai crossbowmen, Xuanrun crossbowmen, Zhejiang West crossbowmen, or Lingnan White crossbowmen, Xichuan crossbowmen. If they did not have the advantage of water transportation on the river, they would probably not even leave behind the people who returned to report their messages.

However, the advantage of water transport on the river surface may not last long, because as the river boats loaded with baggage arrived, they actually formed a temporary naval army with local land groups. Although the army was hasty and did not have the ability to take the initiative to attack, it was more than enough to intercept and alert the river surface.

Standing on the top of the city, you can even see them collecting river boats, building several floating bridges across the Zhuluan River to mobilize people and collect goods, and also blocked ship transport and support from the upstream direction in disguise. This made Zeng Gun, who had always focused on integrating the forces in Jiaozhou City after seizing power, couldn't help but sit in the city at a loss;

I originally thought that after defeating the United Army coalition forces under the city, there was no longer any confrontation with Annan in a short period of time. It was just convenient for him to sort out the internal and integrate the army one by one. He slowly recovered and pacified the entire Annan territory, reported victory to the court and obtained recognition titles, just like the strategy of pacifying the south that Gao Linggong had done back then.

But I never thought that the process of seizing power was easy, but it took more time and effort to gather and subdue these powerful forces inside and outside Jiaozhou City and turn them into powers that can be used and operated. Among them, there must be decisive measures to deal with dissidents, and to make good use of means of threat and deterrence by force, and to compromise in exchange of interests; not to mention that his allies are not completely in one mind, but need to weigh and appease, and even satisfy their respective interests.

But I never thought that the remnants of the rich clans who were eliminated by him in a way that they were killed and warned the monkeys were not willing to give up. They would seek troops from the thieves entrenched in Guangzhou at the end of their own way; I never thought that they would actually borrow foreign aid; as he had originally expected, most of the thieves had gone north and had little left to spare;

Therefore, after recovering the entire Annan territory, he continued to make a long-term plan to follow the "Tianweiyao" to restore the land of Huguan, Guizhou, and even take the entire territory of the Guangzhou Governor's Office to obtain more troops and financial resources. Therefore, this unexpected factor of sudden intervention made the situation of almost stagnant deterioration suddenly.

Although he was known as the famous minister and the nephew of Zeng Yuanyu, the governor of Pinglu, he was actually a member of the famous "Pingbird's Prime Minister" clan. In his early years, he followed Gao Pian from the expedition to Annan and became a primary school in front of the tent, and was responsible for sending messages to the court. He also had a connection with the local area of ​​Jiaozhou.

It was only because he was willing to fight hard on the battlefield and suffered dozens of injuries that he gradually became able to make a comeback. After pacifying Annan, he was recommended by Gao Pian to be the general of the Left Wei Guard, under the command of Zhang Zimian, the commander of the Yingzhou Assassin and the deputy envoy of the East Recruitment, and obtained a place with the right-forward general;

In the end, he was able to participate in the decisive battle of defeating Wang Xianzhi in the east of Shenzhou and chasing Huangmei. Although he had not won the first merit of killing the king and thieves, he also attacked and captured a thief chief Liu Yanquan, and forced the remnants to surrender more than 3,000. Therefore, he was the General of the Martial Guard and the Envoy of the Left-Correspondent of the Zhongwu Army.

However, the good times did not last long. Zhang Zimian, who was in his prime, was soon accused of party struggles in the court because of his great achievements and was convicted of the crime on the grounds of embezzlement of the rebels. Although Prime Minister Zheng Qing protected it in court, he still asked to leave his hometown in Xinzhou (Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province) since then;

As a capable general under his command, Zeng Gun was not spared and was soon chased and resigned; but later he was asked to be the disciple of Zeng Yuanyu, the distant uncle, and was able to retain the title of General of the Martial Guard. However, since then he had no chance to lead the troops and could only serve as a storefront in the den. This time, Annan, who had gone far away from the thief territory, and tried to recover was also his biggest adventure in his life and his desperate speculation.

As his uncle, Zeng Yuanyu only gave him a stack of blanks and a thousand pieces of silk as a gift, and promised that after the matter was completed, he would operate in the court and follow up on the governor of Jiaozhou and Annan to attack the attack. In contrast, another prime minister Cui An gave more help privately, not only gave him privately, but also accused him of continuing to raise funds in Shu with his own Yuze.

But he couldn't help but want more, such as leaving the Jinghai Army Jieduan to become a more legitimate Jinghai Jieduan, and even serving as the Annan Guardian.

Although the Jinghai Jiedushi is just a newly established small military town, it is still a Jiedushi who specializes in life and death. Compared with the inland Jingnan, Jiangxi and other places, the observations and strategies of authority are somewhat discounted, but they are unavoidable. Theoretically, as long as the local financial resources allow, they can recruit more and more troops and serve as self-official subordinates.

In addition, the routine authority to pacify the four barbarians under the name of Annan Protector, it can be said that it is more like a vassal state than most of the vassal states in the country. Or it may use this to capture the west and east of the river.

However, the destruction of An Youquan's troops completely lost his hopes; you should know that this army that he had finally pieced together was used to sweep away the surrounding areas of Jiaozhou and deter the barbarians. He happened to be in charge of Jiaozhou's city to clean up the subsequent situation and integrate resources, but he did not want to be destroyed in the hands of those thieves in one go.

Although there are tens of thousands of people in the city now, most of them are local soldiers who have been annexed and have not yet completely accepted; the remaining are nearly 3,000 garrison soldiers and regiments collected from various places, and there are also variegated armed forces forced by large and wealthy merchants in the city; in fact, there are less than 1,000 core personnel that are truly under his direct control, and only a small number of them are Shu soldiers he brought along the way, and most of them are old troops who were donated on the spot;

Originally, there were three thousand remaining soldiers in the city under the name of the Jinghai Jiedushi, and two thousand garrison soldiers gathered in the local area. However, after his trusted general An Youquan failed to go out, he basically lost all his losses. Therefore, under the light control of the heavy control, he would rather send out those earth groups with signs of instability to test the thief's power in disguise. However, he could never let the core force used to suppress the situation be damaged or lost in the slightest amount.

Although he could also forcibly recruit young men from the city in the name of defending the territory, he could still drive them to help defend the city under the supervision of swords and guns, but he really thought too much about hoping that they would go out of the city and drown with the thieves.

Now, especially after the offense and defense are changing, he is not sure and confident enough. The dissident voices and opponents in the city who have been suppressed will not rebound and take the opportunity to cause trouble. After all, compared to those thieves who mobilized the troops to prepare for relatively sufficient preparations, what he can really make is only the hundreds of relatives;

For most families who sit in the city to observe the situation before and after, once they lose enough strength as a basis, the status of the imperial court he upholds is just like that. However, the upper classes of the Protectorate who were eliminated by him in a quick knife have various mixed roots in the local area.

Although those people are not able to confront him head-on, they are secretly using various means of lip service, shirking and procrastinating secret bad things; the taste of cutting flesh with a blunt knife is something that makes people feel unspeakable; unless he can make up his mind to have another major settlement to cut off dissidents. Otherwise, he will not doubt that as long as he has the chance, he will betray the thieves without hesitation.

"Do you really want to borrow soldiers from Xiyuan Man?"

A voice sounded like a loud bell, but it was Li Zan, the former manager of Gui, who is now the deputy governor of Annan and the commander of Tiandu.

"This is the best choice for drinking poison to quench thirst..."

Xiyuan is a general term for the later places in Guangxi, the Tang Dynasty. Since the imperial court set up Jimozhou, counties and caves in Lingnan, it has been hereditary official positions as local chiefs and is called local officials.

Among them, Ningming, Longzhou, Chongzuo, Fusui and other places in the Zuojiang area are Huangdong, Tian and others in Youjiang, and Jingxi and other places are Nongdong (the rebellion of the Guangnan Road of the Song Dynasty, which once made Di Qing's fame come from here). In addition, most of the Jin family, Wei family, Zhou family and other places are each occupied by one; these Tu family and many other large and small tribes are collectively called Xiyuan Man.

The Xiyuan Manchus are not a good person, because they are mixed with the relationship between Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty. They have been attacking each other all year round and attacking each other from time to time. They are also the biggest unstable factor in the sphere of influence of the Annan Protectorate for a long time. When the Nanzhao Manchus was able to attack Annan and fall into Jiaozhou, these Xiyuan Manchu tribes took advantage of the situation and made chaos.

Although the current Xiyuan Manchus had been liquidated once by Gao Pian, who was recovered by Jiaozhou more than ten years ago, and several of them were sluggish and were able to calm down until now; but they still could not resist the entire Jiaozhou and even Songping City, and were slaughtered by the Nanzhao soldiers, and the sufferings and revenge were deeply hurt.

Once the news of Xiyuan Man's support leaked, his Jiedu, who used the imperial court's name to pluck the tiger's skin as a banner, would easily become a commander of thousands of people and make the foundation that had not been established for a long time again. Even the local soldiers under his command would largely betray them.

But even if he drinks a dove to quench his thirst, he has to swallow this glass of bitter wine. If he doesn't use this force, he will basically have no future in his internal and external troubles. Whether it is buried in this southern wasteland where the heat, humid and miasma is the reputation of success in the court, it depends on this final struggle.

I can only believe that the thieves in Guangzhou have tried their best to send such a war-going army. If they are destroyed here, not only will the place have no strength to resist; perhaps the east of the ridge and west of the ridge can achieve twice the result with half the effort in the future. Therefore, even if you pay some unscrupulous price to drive away tigers and swallow wolves, it is helpless.

After sending away Li Zan, who was a little dissatisfied and dispersed, he encouraged and firmly put on a letter of letter, the silver seal of the Protector who had not yet been warmed up. Then he ordered to the gathered left and right sides:

"Send more people to keep an eye on the wealthy families in the city... Beware of their abnormal movements."

"We can encourage the city to report it and pay for it by confiscating two or three out of ten households."

"It also makes people widely publicize in the street market, and wherever the thieves pass, they are all cruel and rude."

"The wealthy families also confiscated their families and lost their families, and the common people were not spared. Both men and women were captured and enslaved in the army, and the villages and towns were all scorched earth."
Chapter completed!