Early the next morning, officials from the Transportation Department reported their findings to Wei Fufeng.

Wei Fufeng couldn't believe it. Fushun County had 100,000 shi of grain, 100,000 gu of salt, and 50,000 gu of copper coins, gold and silver.

What a great harvest. Wei Fufeng thought about it carefully and ordered to reward the soldiers: one reward for ordinary soldiers, three shots for fire, and thirty shots for soldiers and horses.

Following the instructions, those who are willing to receive the reward can take it directly, or they can pay it to their relatives through the Luzhou Transport Department.

After the order was issued, only half of the soldiers took away the copper coins. They could not spend the reward after they received it. It would be a burden, so it was better to let relatives in Luzhou receive it.

During the reward, Wei Fufeng ordered five hundred soldiers to escort the loot to the ship and send it down the Tuojiang River to Lu County.

...

After noon, Wei Fufeng, who was waiting patiently, received an urgent report from the scouts. Two thousand Dongchuan soldiers were not far from the county seat.

Wei Fufeng ordered the arranged "subordinate officials" to go outside the city gate to greet them. He thought that someone would notify the town army before they arrived, and he didn't want the town army to arrive directly outside the county town.

Wei Fufeng was on the tower, watching the subordinate officials respectfully talking to a general on horseback.

Immediately, the general waved his riding whip impatiently and rode his horse towards the suspension bridge, followed by the armored troops behind him.

Wei Fufeng's nervous mood relaxed slightly. He understood that the two thousand Zhenjun troops had set out from Gongjing County and their bodies must be exhausted. Seeing that they could rest at their destination, his vigilance became lax and he just wanted to go into the city to rest.

Inside the city gate of Fushun County is the Wengcheng. Now there are ambushes all around the Wengcheng. Archers and crossbowmen are aiming condescendingly, waiting for the big fish to enter the snare.

A cavalry general entered the Wengcheng from the city gate first. Wei Fufeng temporarily changed his strategy and ordered the leader of the town army to pass through the Wengcheng.

The first few hundred people of the town army are all sword and shield soldiers wearing bright light armor. Once they attack the leader, the following town army will stay outside the city.

The inner guard rushed to convey Wei Fufeng's military order, and the cavalry general and his troops walked on the streets of the city after leaving the barbican city.

Suddenly there was a sound of gongs, and countless civilians with spears rushed out of the shop doors on both sides of the street, like two herds of buffalo charging at the three hundred armored soldiers.

The three hundred armored soldiers were caught off guard. They reacted quickly and drew their swords and raised their shields to shout. However, they were quickly rushed forward by countless regiment training troops.

Each of the soldiers of the town army faced five or six strong men. They were stabbed with spears on the left and right, and ordered the town army to surrender.

"Where did you come from?" The knight who was leading the way was stabbed by more than a dozen spears, his face twisted in fright, and he asked in a trembling voice.

"We are from Xichuan. If you surrender, you can save your life." Zhou He, the leading soldier, replied loudly.

"Xichuan? You actually invaded the territory of Dongchuan." The cavalry commander said unexpectedly.

"Stop talking nonsense and give the order to surrender immediately, otherwise there is no need to say more." Zhou He threatened sternly, waved his hand, pointed at the cavalryman's dozen or so spears and immediately thrust forward.

"No, I am willing to surrender." The cavalry general responded in horror, fearing death.

Zhou He was a little surprised by the cavalry general's cowardice. He heard the cavalry general turn around and shout: "We have fallen into an ambush by the Xichuan Army. Please send my order to surrender."

The armored soldiers behind the cavalry commander looked at each other. Some soldiers put down their swords and shields silently, and then were forced to take off their armor, and were then escorted away.

As soon as the subsequent town troops entered the city, they had no way out. When they saw their general surrendering, they obediently became prisoners.

Seeing that the soldiers captured two thousand soldiers without drinking blood, Wei Fufeng was in a good mood. He could see clearly from the tower.

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Not all of the two thousand town troops were armored soldiers, only the 300 people following the cavalry commander were soldiers with bright light armor, swords and shields.

In addition to the sword and shield soldiers, there are a thousand archers and seven hundred spearmen. Except for the fire chief and above who are wearing armor, the soldiers are all girded with linen clothes.

Wei Fufeng was on the tower, listening to Zhou He report the results of the interrogation.

Two thousand town troops were ordered to come to Fushun County to strengthen the defense. Fushun County is located on the bank of Tuojiang River and is a very important external transit waterway terminal in Rongzhou.

Dongchuan Jiedushi already knew what happened in Luzhou.

The cavalry general listened to the messenger and said that there were 20,000 troops sent from Zizhou, which would reach the border of Changzhou in the near future. The cavalry general was only responsible for guarding Fushun County, so he led a thousand archers.

The origin of the cavalry commander is that he was a noble man from Chang'an. He was born in the Shence Army. His father had a good relationship with Gu Yanlang, the governor of Dongchuan.

At that time, Gu Yanlang was a Shence general in Chang'an. He received the support of some Chang'an nobles and was able to serve as the governor of Dongchuan.

After obtaining the military information, Wei Fufeng pondered whether it would be better to return to Luzhou to join the army or continue to be a surprise soldier. After a long time, he decided to continue to be a surprise soldier.

After making the decision, Wei Fufeng began to deal with the aftermath of the prisoners. Prisoners at the fire chief level and below who were willing to surrender were dispersed into the army.

Before being dispersed into the army, Wei Fufeng personally held a selection ceremony for the fire chiefs and selected the strongest military warriors among the prisoners for use.

Afterwards, they were treated equally and received additional military pay and rewards, and were promised land.

After spending a day dealing with the prisoners, Wei Fufeng distributed 200 light armors and sword shields, armed personal guards and internal guards to build Hu Ben Guards, and the personal guards with military crossbows became Fengli Camp.

There are also one hundred bright light armors and swords and shields, which are distributed to the soldiers, horsemen and tooth generals.

The captured 1,000 archer soldiers built the Feiyu Camp, and the rotation system of the military mansion was still implemented. Those who were the commanders of fire left their armor and weapons.

Early the next morning, Wei Fufeng sent out scouts and messengers to personally train his troops outside the city.

As a surprise soldier, Wei Fufeng planned to lead his army north to Zizhou.

Zizhou belongs to Xichuan and is an eternal salt pond as famous as Rongzhou.

The east side of Zizhou is adjacent to Puzhou and Changzhou in Dongchuan Jiedu.

To the east of Puzhou and Changzhou is Hezhou, and to the north of these two states is Suizhou.

To the north of Suizhou is Zizhou, the seat of Dongchuan Jiedushi, so the 20,000 Dongchuan army came from Suizhou, passed through Puzhou and entered Changzhou.

Zizhou is located in the west area between Puzhou and Changzhou.

Wei Fufeng planned to ambush in Zizhou and wait for the Dongchuan Army to leave Suizhou and enter Changzhou. He led his army to Zizhou to surprise the Dongchuan Army's rear army.

Three days after the military training, the messenger quickly returned and brought back greetings from Lao Feng, as well as responses from Shi, the governor's office chief, and Shi, the director of the transportation department.

The officials carried out Wei Fufeng's military order and sent 30,000 troops to Changzhou.

The mounted scouts also returned and found a suitable place for garrisoning troops in Zizhou, but there was no sign of the Dongchuan Army.

Wei Fufeng left one thousand troops to continue blockading Fushun County, and ordered eight thousand troops to march to Zizhou.

Before departure, Wei Fufeng communicated with the soldiers and horse envoys and asked them to spread vague false information, saying that they were going to the county town of Zizhou to rob, to cover up the tactics of a surprise attack on the Dongchuan Army, and to prevent deserters from greedy for money and informing the Dongchuan Army.

The army crossed the Tuojiang River and reached the east bank, then went upstream along the Tuojiang River and entered the Zizhou area.

After marching for two days, they arrived at a hilly mountainous area chosen by the scouts.

Wei Fufeng ordered the troops to be stationed, and the eight thousand troops busily began to collect river water for cleaning and felling trees to build camps.

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Bury the pot and make rice.

Wei Fufeng's Chinese army camp already has 3,000 soldiers, including more than 800 prisoners of war, most of whom are in Feiyu camp.

In order to obtain maximum combat effectiveness, Wei Fufeng could only take risks and boldly recruit prisoners.

It can be said that Wei Fufeng's central army has the strongest combat power, concentrating all bows, arrows and crossbows.

In contrast, the combat effectiveness of captured archers is not greatly affected by their resistance. With an order, they will naturally follow the crowd and shoot at the enemy.

Another reason why Wei Fufeng dared to use prisoners was that most of the soldiers in the vassal town had no sense of belonging to the Jiedushi envoys.

Fundamentally and psychologically, soldiers are still citizens and soldiers of the Tang Empire.

To the soldiers, Jiedushi was just a high-ranking official and proprietor who could pay the army.

Wei Fufeng was the military governor of southern Sichuan appointed by the imperial court. Therefore, in the hearts of ordinary people and soldiers, he was recognized as a legitimate high-ranking official of the imperial court, and he was qualified to become the new proprietor.

Ordinary soldiers switch to serve for another employer without the psychological pressure of treason and betrayal of the clan.

The army was stationed, and Wei Fufeng waited in the commander's tent for news from the scouts.

Wei Fufeng could not be said to be proficient in military affairs and could only talk about military affairs on paper. However, he understood the importance of information and used thirty scouts to investigate in a fan pattern.

In addition to the inquiring scouts, Wei Fufeng also deployed hundreds of lookout posts within a ten-mile radius, firstly to guard against the Xichuan army in Zizhou, and secondly, to guard against the 20,000 Dongchuan army coming to attack.

If 20,000 Dongchuan troops came to attack, Wei Fufeng would retreat without hesitation.

In the commander's tent, Wei Fufeng talked to two soldiers from the town army, and deliberately established a close relationship with the soldiers.

One of the two surrendered soldiers was named Wu Zhun, who was a sharpshooter and was originally an archer. The other was named Lu Qing. He was a tall man with excellent military skills and was originally a spear soldier.

Lu Qing spoke very little, while Wu Zhun was talkative. He specially introduced Lu Qing, saying that Lu Qing was among the top ten in the Gongjing Army for bravery, but he had a bad temper, liked to be more serious, and had once been a fire chief.

He lost his fire chief because he asked his superior for the deducted military pay.

Wei Fufeng also learned about the situation in Rongzhou and Zizhou.

Wu Zhun knew a lot and said that the situation in Zizhou was not good. The war against rebellion in Xichuan had caused a great loss of people in the twelve states of Xichuan. Zizhou originally relied on well salt and was as wealthy as Chengdu.

The war against rebellion turned Zizhou into a land of exploitation. Wang Jian transferred 3,000 of the 5,000 Xichuan Ziyang Army that originally guarded Zizhou, and 80% of Zizhou's salt profits were collected.

In addition, Zizhou's population has emigrated too much to avoid conscription and heavy taxes.

...

In the morning, Wei Fufeng stood on the bank of Tuojiang River, looking at the wide and flowing river surface.

The Tuojiang River originates from Jiuding Mountain in western Sichuan, flows through Chengdu, Jianzhou (Jianyang), Zizhou, and Fushun County in Rongzhou, and finally flows through Lu County and merges into the river, with a length of more than a thousand miles.

Behind Wei Fufeng, there were five Tiger Guards wearing bright light armor and holding swords and shields. One of them was Lu Qing, and the other four were Zhao Yidou, Han Quan, Guo Xing and Wang Lei.

After waiting for a moment, Wei Fufeng turned around and walked away, continuing to inspect the military forces everywhere.

With a military strength of eight thousand, Wei Fufeng directly controlled three thousand of the Chinese army. The other five thousand military forces were roughly divided into eight systems and were under the command of the military envoys.

Under the Soldier and Horse Envoy, a number of Ya will be deputy leaders. The Soldier and Horse Envoy can set up a central army. Each Ya will lead 200 troops according to the rules.

In addition, there are supervisors from the Dudu Mansion who serve as law enforcement officers, and Ya Ya from the Transportation Department as quartermasters.

(End of chapter)
Chapter completed!