Everyone gathered in the city. Although they fought fiercely all night without rest, and everyone's face showed fatigue, they could only keep up their spirits.
Because there are too many things to deal with right now.
Yuan Xi arranged for Taishi Ci Tianyu to gather all the remaining soldiers who had surrendered in the city. After counting, it was found that there were nearly 2,000 people. How to deal with these people became a big problem.
He found Guo Jia, and everyone discussed it and decided to eliminate the wounded soldiers and Jiangdong soldiers first. Others who were unwilling to stay would requisition the merchant ships at the dock and send them across the river.
In the end, only six to seven hundred people remained. This number, with Yuan Xi's existing strength of nearly a thousand troops, could be dispersed and organized into the army without causing trouble.
Yuan Xi is now taking the route of elite soldiers. He can't afford to just pile up the number of people. Moreover, the quality of the soldiers is uneven, which will actually affect the combat effectiveness.
His current goal is to develop the territorial economy first, and when food and grass are abundant, he will fully implement a military system suitable for elite soldiers.
The reason why the Three Kingdoms used the farmland system is not that no one thought of a system similar to the government army system, but that in an era when people's livelihood was in decline and the economy collapsed, the cost of the government army system was too great.
According to the New Book of Tang, when Tang Dynasty soldiers went to war, they had to pay for a lot of equipment themselves.
An ordinary infantryman needs a hard bow, an arrow pot called Hulu, thirty arrows, a Tang Hengdao, a whetstone, a felt hat and clothing to keep out the cold, and a suitcase.
That's not all. Each soldier prepared nine buckets of barley rice and two buckets of uncooked rice, which were handed over and distributed centrally.
These expenses are not too much, and each soldier must wear Mingguang armor, and the cavalry must also have hand armor and leg armor. These armors need to be purchased with their own money.
In addition, the soldiers also need to purchase collective equipment.
In the early Tang Dynasty, the basic unit of the army was "fire" with ten people. Its armaments included six pack horses or strong donkeys instead. In addition, they also needed to purchase tents, shovels, chisels, axes, pliers, camp beds, and marching cots. Pots, reins, horse bowls and other collective tools.
It is said that the battle is all about logistics. The soldiers of the Tang Army are so well-equipped that they can naturally have a crushing combat advantage over the enemy.
However, this method was very expensive and could only be supported when the Tang Dynasty was economically prosperous. In the later period, the Tang Dynasty was forced to switch from the government army system to the recruitment system, which caused many problems.
Now that the world is short of food, Yuan Xi's route of elite soldiers can save a lot of food for low-level soldiers and make it easier to train soldiers to cooperate.
At first, the soldiers could not afford complete weapons and equipment, so Yuan Xi wanted to occupy Youzhou's salt and iron resources as soon as possible, vigorously develop maritime trade routes, and use the profits earned to purchase weapons to survive the initial period.
He did not hesitate to personally lead troops to attack Guangling because Xuzhou's position in this trade route was too important. If it fell into Sun Ce's hands, most of his route would be ruined.
Now he occupies the area from Guangling to the mouth of the Yangtze River. If he makes good friends with Liu Yao of Yangzhou, he can continue to expand the route south, and maybe reach Yizhou.
With Yizhou as a springboard, we can trade with the Nanyang Islands and exchange various cash crops and specialties with great potential.
But this may be more than ten years, or even decades later.
Yuan Xi arranged for Tai Shici to distribute weapons to the returning soldiers, and then called Tian Yu over and said, "Have you captured any important figures in Sun Ce's army?"
Tian Yu heard this and replied: "General Ziyi captured the local general at the city gate. I interrogated him a few times before. He called himself Qiao Rui."
"If this name is true, he should indeed be a general under Yuan Shu's command."
"As for the situation of the others, Qiao Rui was quite tight-lipped and didn't ask anything."
Yuan Xi nodded and said: "I will detain him for a few days and then I will interrogate him personally when I am done."
"Who else?"
Tian Yu heard this and said: "According to the soldiers who surrendered to me, one of the people left behind to guard Guangling City is General Qiao Rui, and the other is Sun Ce's trusted military advisor. It is said that his name is Zhou Yu."
"When I entered the city, there was someone's wife in charge of the city lord's palace, but her whereabouts were unknown."
When Yuan Xi heard this, he quickly stood up and said, "Zhou Yu?"
"Where is he now?"
His attention was all on Zhou Yu, but he didn't care about his wife.
Tian Yu said: "We searched the city but found nothing. He must have taken the opportunity to escape when the north gate opened last night."
Yuan Xi snorted, quite disappointed. If he could catch Zhou Yu, even if he couldn't use it for himself, Sun Ce would lose a lot of help in Jiangdong in the future.
He was so close but missed. Yuan Xi's joy of victory was diluted a bit. He sighed: "It's such a pity."
Seeing this, Tian Yu said: "But there is an unexpected surprise. There are some people detained in a mansion. I checked their identities, but they are quite important to the young master."
When Yuan Xi heard this, he became interested: "Who is it?"
Tian Yu said: "Kong Wenju's family, as well as Liu Bei's wife and daughter!"
After hearing this, Yuan Xi was surprised and said: "Shouldn't they all be trapped in Xiapi? How come they are in Guangling?"
Tian Yu said: "Sun Ce ordered people to escort them from Tancheng to Guangling."
Yuan Xi stood up suddenly, "These people are indeed of great use to us. Let's go and see them together!"
Tian Yu led the way, and the two of them rode horses towards the place of detention. When they approached the place, they saw Sun Li and some people standing at the door of a large house, shouting something at the same time.
Yuan Xi rode over and said, "What's going on?"
Sun Li saw that it was Yuan Xi and said, "Brother, this is the City Lord's Mansion. I brought people here last night and found that the house was on fire and some people were taking advantage of the fire to rob it."
"My brothers and I killed all the thieves and then put out the fire, but many things inside were damaged."
Yuan Xi heard this and said, "Sun Ce's residence?"
"Are there any of his family members inside?"
After hearing this, Sun Li shook his head and said, "Almost everyone ran away. When I came, I saw a woman running out with a child in her arms, so I arrested her."
"Other than that, there are only some bandits left in the house, and I and my men have all been hacked to death."
After Yuan Xi heard this, everyone in the Xindao Mansion ran away. There must be no one left. She must be a servant?
Seeing that the house where Kong Rong and others were imprisoned was half a street away, he thought for a while, dismounted and said, "Take me to see that woman. I have something to ask her."
After hearing this, Sun Li went in first, followed by Yuan Xi and Tian Yu. Along the way, he saw charred walls everywhere in the house, and almost all the windows were burned down. Fortunately, the house did not collapse.
In a room that was still intact, Yuan Xi saw the woman Sun Li mentioned.
When Yuan Xi saw this woman, he found that she was only in her early thirties. Although her face was black and gray, she could be seen to be extremely beautiful. In her arms was a three or four year old baby who was crying loudly. .
He said: "Madam, is she from this house?"
When the woman heard the words, she raised her head and quickly lowered her head, her expression suddenly changed.
This woman is Mrs. Wu who didn't have time to escape.
Last night, she asked Zhou Yu to leave first, while she went back to the house to find some clothes as a servant and change into them. When she came out, a group of vicious people rushed in with open fire. As soon as they entered, they went to each house to rob property and set fires at the same time. Come.
When Mrs. Wu saw it, she secretly complained that these were ruffians taking advantage of the chaos. They stole things and then set fire to the house. No one would be able to find out by then.
She knew that if she was discovered by the other party, she would definitely not be able to get a favor, so she had to turn around and run away to the back door, but it was already too late and she was blocked by Sun Li who came over.
She also tried to fool around, but Sun Li didn't listen and directly took her into custody.
Mrs. Wu felt aggrieved. If it hadn't been for the robber, she would have hoped to escape, but she didn't expect accidents to happen frequently!
She held her daughter in her arms and waited anxiously for most of the night, but the enemy general arrived. She lowered her head and listened to the voice, and realized that the general was quite young, and everyone responded respectfully, indicating that this man was probably the leader. , and he is probably a nobleman!
Mrs. Wu felt a little panicked. She could deceive the soldiers by pretending to be a servant, but she couldn't deceive people who were familiar with the speech of the nobles.
When she heard the other party's question, she raised her head hesitantly, but at a glance, she immediately recognized him. Wasn't this the young master she met at the gate of Tancheng when she was expelled?
At that time, men began to grow beards very early. It was extremely rare for a young man like this to be without a beard, so Mrs. Wu recognized Yuan Xi at a glance.
She quickly lowered her head to hide the shock on her face. It turned out that this man was an ally of Liu Yuzhou, no wonder he came to attack Guangling!
Mrs. Wu felt a little regretful. She said that she was not responsible for the loss of Guangling. What Zhou Yu said before leaving made Mrs. Wu vaguely guess that there was something wrong with the Zhen family caravan that entered the city during the day!
What's abominable is that they were so brave that they dared to bring gifts to visit, but they didn't check for a while and were deceived!
Thinking of this, Mrs. Wu felt regretful.
Seeing that Mrs. Wu was silent, Yuan Xi just thought she was afraid. Hearing this, he said: "Madam, please don't worry. Even if you are a member of Sun Bofu's family, I will not harm you. If possible, I will send you away." go back."
Mrs. Wu said to herself, "Who would believe someone who uses such a sneaky plan to steal the city? They are just trying to trick me!"
She thought that the other party had given her a horse as a gift, and she felt complicated. She really didn't expect that this man was so scheming, and even she and Gong Jin fell into his hands.
She suddenly had a flash of inspiration and whispered: "I am from a good family and was snatched away by the Sun family. I really don't know about the city lord's affairs."
When Sun Li heard this, his anger was palpable and he shouted: "Sun Ce, this bitch is so shameless, I'm afraid my wife will be bullied by him!"
"Madam, don't be sad. If the young master catches Sun Ce in the future, he will definitely smash his butt!"
Mrs. Wu's face stiffened, and Yuan Xi kicked Sun Li: "Don't speak so vulgarly."
He said to Mrs. Wu: "Look at the attire on Mrs. Wu's head. Is she a noble woman?"
Mrs. Wu was startled, and then cursed secretly, how could she forget this? She was wearing quite expensive jewelry on her head, and this kind of decoration method was only used by noble women!
Now she can no longer pretend to be a servant girl or a good family girl!
Mrs. Wu felt distressed in her heart. Why was the other person so difficult to deal with? He could see the flaw in the hair ornaments at a glance. Are you staring at the woman's head all day long?
You have to make up a noble identity. It can't be a local noble, otherwise it will be easy to find out. It can't be a northern noble. I don't know the situation there.
Farther south, a family I am familiar with
Madam Wu suddenly had an idea and said, "I am originally from the Cai family in Jingzhou."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi wondered: "Jingzhou Cai family? Why is Madam here?"
(End of chapter)
