In this midsummer season in June, even the morning is still hot, especially when the sun rises from the east, the hot sun shines on people and seems to dry up all the moisture on people.

But even in such weather, there was still a team running around Jiangzhou City at a constant speed and neat pace. Their uniform slogans made many Jiangzhou people outside the city look at them: "Be loyal to the country and protect our Jiangzhou!"

This team is naturally the Jiangzhou Township soldiers who have been ignored by everyone in the city before. However, since they conducted a series of exercises under the command of the new Sun Tuanzhen in May, they have gradually gained the attention of many people. Especially in the past month, they have even yelled slogans every morning and ran around the city in an order, which is even more special.

You should know that nowadays, not to mention the rural soldiers in the Song Dynasty, even the wing army and even the imperial guards are not trained every day like this team. Perhaps only the last elite Western soldiers of the Song Dynasty who could fight against the Xixia people at any time would maintain this tradition.

What makes people even more intriguing is that the practice of this rural soldier on weekdays is completely different from what everyone imagines. Some people have seen these rural soldiers lined up in rows in the military camp and squat and jumping, looking like frogs, which is really ugly and ridiculous. Some people have even seen these rural soldiers lying on the ground, relying on their hands and feet to exert force on the ground, supporting their bodies to rise and fall, which is really indecent.

When these statements spread everywhere in the city, in the eyes of many people, the village soldiers became an extremely strange army. Everyone even secretly said that the new Sun Tuanlian was a madman who did not understand military affairs, and he could only obtain this position by relying on the backstage of the court. However, it is hard to say whether this statement was spontaneously thought of by the people or rumors deliberately spread by some people.

Only those in the village soldiers knew how tremendous changes the seemingly strange exercises arranged by Sun Tu had caused the entire army. In just over a month, the original chaotic village soldiers had undergone a complete transformation. The soldiers were much stronger in both physical and mental health than before. They would be out of breath when they first ran for a period of time. At this time, they still had enough energy after running three sections of the city walls. Only the sweat all over their heads showed that they were performing violent morning exercises.

When he turned back from the east wall to the north, Yang Zhi in front of him suddenly shouted: "Sprint with all his might. Today, the first one hundred people who returned to the military camp will have meat to eat!"

With this sentence, the soldiers who had been leaving their remaining strength immediately shouted loudly, and suddenly exerted their strength and rushed towards the barracks ahead with all their might. As the roar was roaring, more than 300 people ran away like wild horses, and everyone was unwilling to fall behind.

After more than a month of training, everyone has become accustomed to the reward and punishment system advocated by Sun Tu. Every day, he will prepare one or two fat pigs to add food to the soldiers, but only those who are the best in today's training are eligible to enjoy meat. At the beginning, there were the top 50 people, but later, there were one hundred people.

With this reward, the soldiers' training these days were extremely hard. Even though they were trained the day before, they would still rush to the military camp in time to join the training ranks the next day. What was surprising was that as the practice took them over time, they obviously felt their progress, and now they no longer felt as painful as before.

After all these people ran to the barracks, after a short rest, a group of soldiers brought them food such as water and dried cakes. After dinner, the soldiers would do several sets of leapfrogs and push-ups specially specified by Sun Tu, and then Yang Zhi and Lu Da took them to practice the battle formation tricks of guns, rods, swords and swords.

Although there were only five or six moves coming and going, all the soldiers practiced extremely seriously. Each move of sting would use all their strength until noon. Only after the crowd would disband on the spot and rest in the camp, and wait until the sun sets westward before conducting a new round of exercises.

Today's exercises look no different from usual. The only difference is that Sun Tu did not watch as usual at this time and gave guidance from time to time. In fact, today's Sun Tuanlian did not appear in this military camp at all. At this time, he was actually in the state yamen.

The second hall of the State Council, the main hall of the prefectural official hall, was already there at this time. After seeing the gloomy face of the prefect Cai Dezhang, these people also looked particularly solemn. These people gathered together, but no one spoke for a long time. Only when someone picked up a teacup and took a sip, would they make some noise.

After being silent for half an hour, Prefect Cai spoke: "I guess you should have known what kind of situation we will face in Jiangzhou this time?"

Everyone looked at each other a few times and nodded silently. Only Sun Tu, who had been in the military camp recently, had never cared about other things, was still confused: "Prince, what happened?"

Several colleagues looked at him with surprise, and only Yuan Wang explained: "Just three days ago, three official ships from Tokyo were attacked by bandits on the Xunyang River at night. Not only were the property on the ship robbed by these thieves, but even the people on the ship were killed. Among them, Jiang Qian, an official from Jiangzhou who had just retired from the position of Minister of Works. In the end, only two boatmen jumped into the river to save their lives and brought the news back to Jiangzhou City."

Sun Tu finally understood why everyone present was so nervous. Even when he heard this change, he was shocked and could not calm down for a long time. The Minister of Works was already a high-ranking official in the court, and even if he had retired, his status was still here. Those water bandits actually dared to attack him, and their nature was no different from killing officials and rebelling.

What's even more troublesome is that this group of water bandits has been in trouble on the Xunyang River for more than a year. As local officials, they have always been letting it go and have no idea to wipe it out, which has led to today's disaster. If the court really wants to pursue it, all the officials here will not be able to escape, including the fact that they have only been to Jiangzhou for a few months to train.

"I didn't want to use wars before, so I was tolerant of those water bandits. But I didn't expect that they would not only not want to fight back but became more aggressive. I will not tolerate them anymore. This time, I must completely suppress the water bandits before the court ordered the reprimand. Do you have any ideas?" Cai Jiu waited for a while before he expressed his intention.

Everyone lowered their heads slightly and thought to themselves that Taishou Cai said something nice, but in fact he was just expelling his own family. As early as last year, after the water bandits appeared in Xunyang River, Jiangzhou City had actually sent troops to wipe out several times, but in the end, they returned in a desperate situation, especially in March this year, which suffered heavy losses, not only for the loss of more than a hundred officers and soldiers, but also took the lives of several military officers.

It was precisely because the government's unfavorable suppression of bandits that the bandits became increasingly arrogant and completely blocked the entire Xunyang River. This time, it even attacked the official ship and killed the senior officials.

But with the number of soldiers and horses in Jiangzhou City now, can they really be wiped out? Everyone who knows the inside story feels unsure, so they dare not take the prefect's words.

Sun Tu fell into deep thought after being shocked. In fact, he was always thinking about a question, why this group of water bandits called "frightened dragons" were so rampant that the government sent troops several times and returned in a desperate situation. He could not believe it if there was nothing intriguing about it.

Although the martial arts of the Song Dynasty were weak, it was not necessarily difficult to control the place with the combat power of the official army compared to the former Tang Dynasty or the Liao Kingdom in the north. However, the official army in Jiangzhou was defeated one after another by the water bandits. This is too abnormal. They are not good at it and have an absolute advantage in Liangshan heroes.

Thinking of this, Sun Tu couldn't help but look at Lin Henian, the chief minister not far away in front of him. He was commanded by him to fight several times of bandit suppression. Could it be that the problem lies with him?

His guess was suddenly interrupted by Cai Jiu's name: "Sun Tu."

Sun Tu quickly cheered up and stood up and fisted: "I am obedient to the order."

"I heard that you have worked very hard in the past two months to train the rural soldiers. Have you ever thought about taking this opportunity to eliminate harm and make meritorious contributions to my Jiangzhou?" Cai Jiu's eyes showed a hint of expectation.

Sun Tu immediately responded: "Xiaoguan has long heard of the evil dragons and the water bandits doing evil on the Xunyang River for a long time. I am willing to lead the village troops to attack and defeat this bandit!"

Cai Jiugang smiled with satisfaction because of this answer. Lin Henian, who was already a little nervous, immediately stood up and said, "Prince, the officials thought this was too dangerous. In this year, our official army had suffered a great loss under the hands of this water bandit several times. In March this year, we sent thousands of troops but failed to get a bargain at their hands. It was even more impossible to win by relying on just three hundred township soldiers, but it only increased casualties..."

"Well, according to Lin Dujian?" Before Cai Jiu could react, Yuan Wang had already asked the question first.

Lin Henian responded tacitly: "Actually, in the past few months, the officials have learned their lessons and thought of some ways to defeat the thieves. As long as the troops are sufficient, they will be able to defeat the thieves in one fell swoop. Sun Tuanlian, the rural soldiers under your command should indeed be trained through practical combat after this period of training. Are you willing to obey the orders of this official and send troops to suppress the thieves together?"

While he had just expressed his intention, Yuan Wang looked at Cai Jiu who had changed color as if he was singing a double act: "The prefect, the lower officials thought Lin Dujian was very saying. It was impossible to defeat the thief with just a group of more than 300 people. But if the Xiang army and the township soldiers were allowed to join forces, they would be able to win in one battle!"

Seeing the two of them singing and singing, Sun Tu knew that even Cai Jiu would not insist on sending his own troops to suppress the bandits this time.
Chapter completed!