After Zhang Dan led his army into Rencheng, he began to prepare the equipment and allocate garrison locations for each battalion with the assistance of the military staff.
Their army of five thousand, plus the heavy troops, numbering at least seven to eight thousand people, naturally cannot be concentrated in one city in Ren County.
Of course, this coordination was 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 he was recognized for his third-class military exploits. 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 historian of the Wei Department of 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 right school captain stationed in Rencheng, he began to assist in logistics. He also recruited recruits from the Zhang Chong 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 Han army in Aocang in managing grain and fodder logistics, so he was naturally very handy.
Food and fodder were delivered to all departments on time. This fact alone made the army look at Xun You with admiration.
Don't think that this matter is very 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 on the line from Minzhou to Jiezhou. The Western Army here was supposed to receive money and food supplies from the Shuchuan Base Camp, but no supplies were sent to this area 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 man had a very high level of public service and could have succeeded Zhang Jun very well. However, who would have thought that as soon as this man took office, he would be replaced by Lu Fayuan.
I was confused by the myriad of things this position had to accept.
He had to deal with everything from country squires, bandits, troops, officials, the Jin Kingdom, and the Puppet Qi Dynasty. He had to take care of everything. Just like this, his eyebrows and beards were caught, and the money and food for the Western Army in Minzhou were delayed.
Facing the hungry subordinates below, Guan Shigu, then the chief 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.
…
Let's 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 Academy is very high. On the one hand, it is because of the huge victory in Jize, and on the other hand, it is also because the three officers of the Northern Expedition were jealous of them.
When Zhang Dan arrived at the first camp, he saw the camp general Pan Zhang 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 had already accumulated meritorious service to become the commander of the first battalion. How long did this process take? It was probably more than 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 officers and men of the Youjun Academy. They firmly believe that our Taishan Army judges heroes based on their military merits, and promotions are not based on distinction.
There are probably more than a hundred people in Pan Zhang's battalion who came from the Dahe water bandits in those days, and the rest are those who have expanded in recent years. There are soldiers from the original Han army, heroes from Yanyu, but more
Most of them were field guards recruited 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, who was behind, 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 Dan also glanced at Pan Zhang, knowing his little thoughts, and laughed 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 he was whispering 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 Luo brother 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 General Pan Zhang and other generals thought, the purpose of wiping out the mainland water thieves this time was not to fight bravely, but to outwit them.
You want to know how many water pirates there can be in the mainland? With the five thousand elites under his command, even if there are twice as many bandits, they won'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 swamp is vast. How can you, a foreign soldier, be more familiar with the geography than this bandit? Not to mention, there are mainland water pirates in the vicinity, and you have already known it during the operation.
It's passive.
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 saving, slower means faster.
Why does more mean less? 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 in several counties. Just 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.
of food and fodder. So, do you also think that these soldiers are used more?"
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 sentence I said, more means less. It is easier to defeat thieves with more soldiers, but it is difficult to defeat thieves with fewer soldiers. The most important thing to avoid in suppressing bandits is prolongation. 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 the more they fight. By then the food and fodder will be consumed even more than now, not to mention the damage to the prestige of our Taishan Army's Hundred Battles."
When Zhang Chong explained it this way, Zhang Dan understood and thought to himself that he 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 and suppress the bandits. It looks like a quick battle but is like a headless fly. Only by doing enough intelligence work can you know what needs to be suppressed and what can be suppressed."
Fight for it. Only in this way can we win over the capitulating factions and attack the die-hards. The most taboo thing about bandits is that they don’t distinguish between young and old, and only the most brutal ones are killed. If you suppress bandits in this way, you will only suppress 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.
Here Zhang Dan had just finished patrolling Zhang Dan's camp and was about to go to Xie Bi's place to continue patrolling the camp. He saw the guards coming and said that a water bandit envoy was coming from outside the city and wanted to see Zhang Dan.
Zhang Dan looked weird. 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 the man named Du Chong entered, he was very respectful and spoke highly of Zhang Dan. Especially when he saw that Zhang Dan had achieved such great achievements at such a young age, he clapped his hands loudly.
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, lowered his head and said:
"Come here to give a gift to the general."
As he spoke, 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 that there were ten white jade handles and five corals. In short, they were all rare and rare treasures. It seemed that the mainland swamp bandits really looted a lot of them.
Putting the gift list aside, Zhang Dan smiled and asked:
"You're just here to give me a gift? What else do you want?"
Na Du 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."
After Zhang Dan heard this, he sneered:
"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 and no longer had the humility before.
The man looked disdainful and took out a piece of bamboo from the other 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 courteous and arrogant, he was furious and wanted to beat him to death immediately. But the guard held back, looked at Du Chong with a cold face, and then took the bamboo piece in 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. However, 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, seeing that it was almost done, and then said calmly:
"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 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 eucalyptus, and to Du Chongdao, who had been slammed:
"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 confused, Zhang Dan said again:
"It stands to reason that when the two armies are fighting, there will be no killing. But it doesn't say that you can't be beaten. Just like the way you looked just now, it's a great blessing for you to just be beaten. If you change it to 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 of his companions were driven out of the city in a daze, Du Chong changed his previous miserable situation, looked at the apricot-yellow flags floating in the city, and sneered.
The companion next to him was puzzled and asked:
"Supervisor, why are you laughing?"
Supervising postal services? Isn’t this a major job in the Han Dynasty? Why is it here?
Yes, this Du Chong was actually a Han official sent by the Hejian Kingdom to Julu Ze to contact the water bandits. With the help of gold and silver, this man was also a guest in the Ze.
This time he learned that the leader of the black horse bandits wanted to send people out to have a chance at the Taishan Army, so he volunteered. He also wanted to take this opportunity to see the strength 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 and arrogant boy. Greed, violence, and failure to control anger were all taboos for generals, and this man had all of them, so he was a defeated general.
However, this man was able to win the hearts of soldiers. Those soldiers also knew that the master was humiliating his ministers, so they came forward to beat him without Zhang Dan's orders. But that was it, after all, who didn't have one or two confidants?
Touching the bruises on his face, Du Chong's eyes were dark, he took a deep look in the direction of Zhang Dan, and then led the people back.
As soon as Du Chong was driven away over there, people present such as Wei Zhou, Xie Bi, Pan Zhang, Wang Zhang, Luo Gang, etc. were already filled with righteous indignation and volunteered to go and 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, who was standing next to him:
"Colonel Lieutenant, when have we ever been so arrogant? Please allow me to take charge of our headquarters, Captain. I only need three days to twist off the head of the black horse thief and hand it over to the Captain."
Pan Zhang asked for a fight, and Xie Bi beside him replied dully:
"Why are you so anxious? Are you bringing thousands of people into the marsh to kill thieves or do you want to be killed? This mainland marsh is not as simple as you think. Why don't you retreat?"
Faced with Xie Bi's reprimand, Pan Zhang's face changed from white to red.
He opened his mouth, and when he saw Luo Gang opposite him winking at him, he held back and said:
"Thank you Sima, you are right, it is 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 a veteran who was saved by Commander Qu personally, but also one of the most intelligent generals in the army. He really has no confidence to attack Xie Bi.
But Pan Zhang is not a good person either. He remembers that the school captain was kidnapped by Sun Ji, 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 snorted and wondered how long this person could continue to be arrogant.
Xie Bi ignored the wild boar-like Pan Zhang and said to Zhang Dan:
"The captain, this man 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."
After Zhang Dan heard this, he laughed loudly and said boldly:
"I'm afraid the water is not muddy. The muddier it is, the better I can catch fish."
After speaking, 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: