Chapter 22 Running in both directions
In the afternoon, dark clouds rowed against the current on the northern bank of the Si River.

The resistance encountered when sailing upstream on the north bank is relatively smaller. Heiyun doesn't know why this is the case, but it's just the experience passed down from generation to generation.

He rowed the boat with great effort, and his two sons also took the oars, one on the left and one on the right, so that both of them could save energy.

The transport ship supervised by Zhang Ding raised its sails to full capacity and gradually caught up with the boat from behind, but when it passed the boat, it dropped the rope and pulled the small boat upstream.

In Xia Pi City, Liu Dai looked through the official documents with the seal of General Xu Kun, who was in charge of suppressing the Lu.

Xu Kun is very powerful. During the period of Sun Jian, this nephew was one of the right-hand men of the family. Now his status and strength are second only to Sun Quan, and his status is even higher than Sun Ben, the governor of Yuzhang County.

Xuan Liang sat at the bottom and waited quietly. As long as the official documents were presented, he would represent the Jiangdong side.

For the sake of long-term development, the Sun and Cao families cannot do without each other at present.

What's more, even if they fall out, no one can do anything to anyone else, and they have to divide their forces to guard against each other.

Human and material resources are limited. Sun Quan is now eager to attack Huang Zu, and Cao Cao is eyeing Hebei. If he cannot bite off a piece of meat, problems will arise internally.

When both parties need it, the relationship will naturally be as close as that of a family.

Only those who are as conceited as Chen Deng and fail to understand the situation are courting death.

If Sun Ce had not died back then, Chen Deng would have had his place to show his talents.

Xuan Liang was not anxious at all, and his own commander also made an analysis of Liu Dai.

You can doubt Liu Dai's ability to fight a war, but you cannot question this man's loyalty to Cao Cao's cause.

After weighing for a moment, Liu Dai said, "It's not impossible to recruit strong men in the city, but you have to write a letter to me. Tell me in detail about the three encounters with the White Goose Bandits, so that I can have an excuse when I submit it to Xudu. After writing the letter, go and recruit people quickly. Do not stay in the city or sleep overnight."

Liu Dai said this and glanced at his chief clerk. The chief clerk understood and stood up and led Xuan Liang to a side room to write documents.

When the chief clerk came back, he saw Liu Dai chuckling, "This guy is also unlucky. What happened to the white goose thief?"

"I think they are short of equipment, otherwise why would they be afraid of the Jiangdong ships?"

The chief clerk spoke with a worried look on his face. The white goose thieves were coming down the river at such a fast speed that there was no time to conduct a detailed investigation and verify the intelligence.

All we know is that this group of bandits was very fierce. In the first battle, they killed the Xiayi Wei who blocked the waterway in the middle of the night. Then they surrounded Xiao County and demanded money and food. When they passed Pengcheng, they burned the warehouses and disturbed the officials and the people.

Now we are killing all the way to Xia Pi... Actually, there is no need to be too afraid. We are just afraid that the enemy will suddenly break into a county, obtain enough equipment, and take away more people.

Judging from the current situation in Pengcheng and Xia Pi, if the White Goose Bandits refuse to leave, the remaining settlements and manors in various places will be unable to stop them at all.

If it is not stopped, it may develop into another Tunshuai.

Now between Xu and Huai, one more garrison commander will lead to more accidents, which is not a good thing.

However, if we send troops to intercept and encircle the White Goose Bandits, it would be good if we succeed in one fell swoop, but we are afraid that their leaders will escape and invade Si Shui, disrupting the grain transport.

Liu Dai noticed the master's thoughts and raised his hand to stop him before he could continue speaking, saying: "This is a small thief, and there is really no need to worry about him. Cao Gong's army is stationed in Chenliu now, and this is the most important matter. If I move, Chang Xi in Donghai will inevitably cause chaos, which will be a big disaster."

"General, your opinion is excellent, but I am afraid that the White Goose Bandits will plunder the officials and civilians and harm the people of Huai and Si."

The chief clerk carefully observed Liu Dai's attitude and continued to advise: "If we pacify him, the dilemma will be solved."

"If they could be easily pacified, why would they flee their native land? Go and see the people under the command of this General Pinglu."

Liu Dai sneered as he spoke, and sent the chief clerk to check the progress of Xuan Liang's documents.

It was as if he was laughing at the chief clerk's wishful thinking. Unless they joined forces with Wang Zhong who was stationed in Pengcheng upstream to attack from both sides and cut off the White Goose Bandits' hope of breaking out, these people would not surrender easily.

If they surrender right after the rebellion... there won't be any problem if we just kill them all.

Subsequent traitors will not regard this group of traitors who lack resilience and perseverance as the same kind.

Only those who fight to the death and put up a stubborn resistance that is truly difficult to crush will be qualified to negotiate surrender and be incorporated into foreign troops.

If the leader of the White Goose Bandits was not so stupid, there are only two places where he can take shelter now. One is to go to Donghai or Langya to join Chang Xi and Zang Ba and become a small garrison commander under these big garrison commanders.

These garrison commanders are not trapped in the cage of the system of forced labor. Whether it is Tao Qian, Lu Bu or now, these garrison commanders are rooted there.

They can help the imperial court resist the offensive of Yuan Tan in Qingzhou...If the imperial court transfers troops there one day, they may also be counterattacked by these garrison commanders.

The second was to go to Huainan to seek refuge with Liu Fu. Liu Fu rode alone into Hefei and used both kindness and force, thus bringing Huainan to a great order.

The Xudu court really could not spare more resources and did not want to provoke Jiangdong.

By deliberate compromise, Liu Fu was able to enjoy the maximum authority to govern Huainan.

Currently, Huainan is under autonomous recuperation and its population is recovering.

If their leader was really foolish enough to set up a garrison in Huaibei, then after the fighting on the front line was over, he could easily defeat the enemy by simply transferring two armies.

Using troops in Huaibei will not provoke the people of Huainan and Jiangdong.

Therefore, Liu Dai was not in a hurry at all. He used to be the chief secretary of Sikong Mansion and was also a councilor of the government when he stayed in Xudu. His vision and experience were far superior to that of the chief clerk in front of him.

Just maintain Xuzhou and Jianghuai in general stability and do not distract the front line.

It's not that we won't settle the accounts. When the time comes, we will check and deal with them.

Therefore, stability is above all else.

As the sky gradually darkened, the Xiapi Water Gate opened, and the boats were connected front and back, with Xuan Liang standing at the bow. After transporting people out of the city, the small fleet turned back through the water gate and did not sail out of the moat, so nearly a hundred people, big and small, walked towards the two transport ships on the shore with simple luggage.

"General Qu, we have recruited 37 soldiers, 12 of whom are alone, and the rest are accompanied by their families."

Xuanliang did not smile at all as he said, "Seventeen of the families had houses in the city, and they were all given to the chief clerk surnamed Sun in the city. This chief clerk Sun has also contributed a lot, so I will withdraw five gold coins to give to him. In addition to providing rice, grain, and cloth to the seventeen families who donated their houses, they will also be given priority in the future distribution of houses."

"That's as I should. Take the gold and cloth as you please and arrange for them to board the ship."

Black Bear turned his head and looked at Chen Yang, "Cook the food immediately and make sure everyone has a good meal."

"Yes!"

The two men bowed and left, and Black Bear picked up the three bamboo slips brought by Xuan Liang, which contained the list of people to be recruited.

The information of the twelve single people is simple, with each person having a bamboo slip with their place of origin, name, age, military service record, and a simple moral evaluation.

Thirty or forty words can summarize a single veteran.

If you bring your family along, you will need two or three bamboo slips to record the number of family members, their names and ages, and any special events.

However, the bamboo slips were not polished very smoothly, and the ink would slightly spread when the official script was written on them, causing the strokes of the characters to be slightly bloated, which was not conducive to the black bear's recognition.

But they are all names and common words, so I can still understand them.

The average age of the veterans recruited this time is close to 30 years old. It is normal for them to have families. Leaving their families in Xia Pi is irresponsible to the soldiers and to their own safety and career.

The last time we recruited sailors, we looked for unmarried men who were about 16 or 17 years old. We would also accept older men as long as they did not have family burdens.

After reading the three volumes of bamboo slips, he did not find any person who caught his eye. The biggest reason this group of people returned to Xia Pi to live was that their hometown was here.

Chen Deng died last year, and his troops were disbanded. They either stayed in the Chen family's several estates to farm, or disbanded and returned to their hometowns, or went to Hefei to join Liu Fu, the governor of Yangzhou.

Therefore, the number of old soldiers living among the people is not large. If nothing unexpected happens, they will be forcibly conscripted into samurai households after a period of time.

In other words, under this sense of crisis, Xuan Liang and these veterans could be said to hit it off.

No matter what, in Jiangdong, soldiers lived with their families when stationed in the army; wherever the commander was transferred, the army would move with their families.

Unlike Cao Gong's subordinates, from the commander to the lowest-level soldiers, men and women are basically separated.

The wives and children were taken as hostages and managed together to participate in farming, while the husbands were fighting outside and doing hard labor to build roads and cities... They were worse than the Young and Dangerous, but their experience was better than that of the Japanese army.

As the sun was setting, pots and pans were set up on the decks of the two transport ships and rice porridge was cooked.

The third transport ship also returned safely before dark. When the boat stopped, a sailor threw a rope over, and Zhang Ding grabbed it and jumped back.

He looked at the woman who was in charge of cooking porridge on the deck, and also saw some children, and couldn't help frowning.

He quickly climbed onto the wooden platform of the sparrow room and said, "General Qu, they agreed to go together after a meeting. They hope that we will go in front and they will go behind. In addition, when I passed the canal, I saw Xuezhou leading his troops to collect the dead bodies and cut off their heads. It seems that he wanted to report his merits to the county. In addition, Xuezhou seemed to have ordered people to cut down the peach forest. When I looked from a distance, I felt that the peach forest was not as wide as yesterday."

Zhang Ding didn't care about Xuezhou cutting down the peach forest, but his own leader insisted on going to admire the peach blossoms. After returning, he conjured up fairy peaches and distributed them to everyone to eat.

This means that the peach forest must have some magical features, but it was cut down by Xue Zhou. Zhang Ding was instinctively unhappy and felt that Xue Zhou was seeking his own death.

"Let's ignore him for now. When will they arrive in Xia Pi?"

"It is said that it is before midnight tonight."

"After dinner, we will set off. Go find Xuan Liang and select 15 soldiers and bring their families to your ship. When you return, select three sergeants from among them and bring them to me tomorrow. I will give each of them peaches to eat."

Black Bear said, seeing Zhang Ding hesitated to speak: "Anything else you want to say?"

"It's the women."

"It is true that your daily life is a little inconvenient, but we will be colleagues and neighbors from now on, so we should take care of each other. At least there are so many cloths on the ship, I can finally sew new clothes for you, and there are women who take care of the three meals a day, which is a good thing."

"Yes, I will sternly warn the people below. It's just that there is a conflict between the old and the new. I implore the commander to enforce the law fairly and deal with it strictly."

Zhang Ding said with a look of reluctance: "The old men on the boat haven't seen women for a long time. They are going to kill them."

"I understand your concerns. It would be best to separate the old and new when we go back to arrange the shifts."

Black Bear observed the seven or eight people on the deck, then turned to Zhang Ding and said, "I am recruiting soldiers. Tomorrow, after you have won the hearts of the people with Ci Tao, you can distribute armor and weapons to them. This way, the old men will be impatient, and facing the swords in the hands of other men's husbands, I think they will sober up."

"Yes, I understand."

Zhang Ding felt relieved after hearing this and felt that he was glad to have tonight.

After the soldiers are rearmed tomorrow, the old sailors will naturally weigh the pros and cons.

After the discussion, Zhang Ding took his leave and went to find Xuan Liang.

Black Bear continued to write on the wooden board in front of him with a piece of charcoal. It was the calendar for this month. Today was the seventh day of the third month of the seventh year in Jian'an, Dingyou Day, and it was the twelfth day since he came to this world.

After twelve days of hard work, they had a fleet with two hundred men, women and children.

There are also two black warriors, five servants, and one dried horse.

Summarizing the current assets, Black Bear thought of the celebrities in Huainan. Since he had to take the Huai River, it seemed that Yuan Shu was defeated in Huainan in his memory. The body of such a famous person should be buried in the Huainan area, or somewhere near Shouchun.

It is not known whether Yuan Shu, who had become a pile of dry bones in the tomb, was intact, or whether his coffin was broken open and his head was chopped off by the imperial court.

(End of this chapter)