"I see!"
Now Li Ting somewhat understood what Guo Ning's overall plan was.
He didn't respond, but frowned and fell into deep thought.
"So what is this? Liulang, Li Er, what kind of riddle are you trying to solve?"
"Yes, the more I listen, the more confused I become."
Some people were confused and some asked questions.
Li Ting's younger brother Li Yun shouted with a cold face: "Shut up! My brother is thinking about it!"
The three or four people who spoke immediately fell silent, and the other three or four people turned to look at Guo Ning's expression.
Guo Ning just pretended not to see Li Yun's violent attitude.
Brothers Li Ting and Li Yun are less than twenty years old, but they can lead nearly a hundred people to stay calm and willing to follow and serve during the great defeat in the past two years. It is not easy. Li Ting's character is even more unruly.
But Guo Ning doesn't care about this.
None of the people in this room are evildoers, otherwise they wouldn't have close contact with Guo Ning. But how can a leader of defeated soldiers who can lead his men to struggle for survival in troubled times be compared with others? Some of them are unruly, some are deep; some look crude, but are actually murderous without blinking an eye, and some... such as the Wang Gu sitting by the door, it is clear that he will waver at any time.
Guo Ning has Guo Ning's thoughts, and everyone present also has their own thoughts. Whether they can win over their hearts and whether they can be conquered is a matter for the future. We can take our time; the worst thing is that we can get together and disperse and go our separate ways.
There is no need to think so much at the moment, Guo Ning just wants to gather them for his own use and get out of the current predicament.
He believed that with Li Ting's knowledge and agility, he would know that this was the best way.
The room was quiet for a while, except for Monk Luo, who was holding a big bowl, added mutton twice, and kept eating. Lu Han was scraping the bottom of the pot with a spoon and glared at the fat monk several times.
After another long while, Li Ting nodded solemnly: "Good idea, good idea! Guo Liu, you are smarter than I thought!"
Guo Ning smiled: "Thank you for your praise, you Li Erlang is also very smart."
Everyone else said: "What is the idea? Who are the rebels you are talking about? You two should talk quickly, don't make us wait any longer!"
"Speaking of the rebels of the Jin Dynasty... Hehe, there are quite a few who have risen and fallen in recent years." Li Ting said slowly: "The only ones I remember are Zhang He of Jizhou and Li Zhi of Damingfu. Zhu, Xianzhou Yin Xiaoer, Mizhou Xu Tong, etc. But the most famous and powerful one is of course our neighbor, the one currently stationed in Dingxing County, Zhuozhou..."
Several people shouted together: "Yidu Yang An'er!"
In recent years, the governance of the imperial court has deteriorated. On the one hand, the oral taxes, material money, and various miscellaneous taxes that the people bear are increased layer by layer, and they try their best to exploit them, and only use money to fool the people; on the other hand, in order to protect the lives of the Jurchen military households in the fields, the imperial court also wantonly expropriates land, Hundreds of thousands of hectares of land that people have cultivated for generations were forcibly taken away. In this case, thieves and bandits are common in various places.
The Yang An'er Li Ting mentioned is a famous contemporary bandit.
It is said that this gentleman was originally engaged in vending saddle materials. People in the city called him Yang An'er, so he named himself Yang An'er. During the Taihe period, the Song people were good at launching border provocations, so Yang An'er gathered the people and raised troops across Shandong to plunder the state army in response. Both the east and west routes of Shandong were disturbed by it. They mobilized troops and generals many times, but suffered a lot of losses. There was nothing they could do against him.
Later, the Song and Jin Dynasties negotiated peace, and the imperial court mobilized a large army to enter Shandong, which forced Yang An'er to surrender. Because of his elite troops, the imperial court actually gave Yang An'er the false title of defense envoy, and he still commanded his troops of more than a thousand people, nicknamed "Tiewa Dare to Fight Army".
The year before last, the imperial court was preparing for a battle with the Mongolian army outside the boundary trench, and urgently mobilized troops from various military divisions in the south to go north for reinforcements. Yang An'er's Tiewa Ganzhan Army was also among them.
When he arrived at the Jiming Mountain area north of Dexing Prefecture, he refused to patrol. For this reason, he had conflicts with senior officials and generals such as Wanyan Chengyu and Duji Sizhong in official documents, and he fought many lawsuits.
Guo Ning, Li Ting and others knew Yang An'er's name from this. Although this man was a bandit who had been recruited not long ago, after all, he held the title of Defense Envoy and Deputy Commander, and in the eyes of Guo Ning and Li Ting, he was a high-status figure.
Soon after, the imperial army was defeated, and Yang An'er's troops left the battlefield faster than anyone else. The more than a thousand people from Tiewa's fighting army threw their legs away and walked away like the wind, until they settled in Dingxing County, Zhuozhou.
Dingxing County is in the southernmost part of Zhuozhou. Twenty miles further south is Ansu Prefecture, where Guo Ning settled, and twenty miles southeast is Rongcheng County in Anzhou. The Wuguandian where Li Ting is entrenched is in Rongcheng County. So Li Ting calls Yang An'er his neighbor.
Because of her official status, Yang Aner has a lot of airs. Therefore, although the garrison is very close, there is little contact with Guo Ning, Li Ting and others.
At this time, Li Ting mentioned Yang An'er, and everyone nodded: "What next?"
"Now that the situation is in ruins, we all can see that the imperial court is weak and the world may be in chaos. How can we not see that Yang An'er has been a rebel for many years?" Guo Ning said: "I dare to say that at this moment , this person is already planning to return to Shandong, he has other plans!"
"This guy is going back to Shandong. What does it have to do with us?"
Guo Ning paused and raised his voice: "Once this person returns to Shandong, he will be like a dragon swimming in the sea, and the plains will make waves. From this, the armies, states, prefectures, and roads in the east and west of Shandong will definitely be in dire straits. In the face of the Mongols moving southward, If there is a threat, it will be difficult for the court to respond with all its strength,"
The person who asked the question subconsciously asked again: "What happens next?"
Everyone else present sighed.
Monk Luo stood up and got off the bed, grabbed the man's shoulders and asked him to sit in the corner of the room: "Sit here, don't interrupt. Look back and think about it slowly, you will understand!"
Turning back, he put his hands on his hips and took two steps in front of the desk: "As long as Yang An'er makes a fuss, we can live in peace for a while. What Liu Lang said is that our way of survival lies in the two ways of surrendering to the imperial court and betraying the imperial court. Between. Even..."
Guo Ning glanced at him and shook his head slightly.
Monk Luo immediately stopped talking, raised his head, laughed loudly, and touched his head: "Shandong is very good, you can go!"
Everyone present had escaped from the mountain of corpses and sea of blood. Many of their comrades-in-arms and family members were not killed in the war. Although they had no long-term strategy, they were completely disappointed and tired of the Jin Dynasty.
The loose and chaotic situation in the Hebei states over the past year has satisfied their desire to avoid the imperial court.
Nowadays, the atmosphere on the front line in northern Xinjiang is becoming increasingly tense, the imperial court is deploying troops intensively, and the threat from the Mongols is real. It became inevitable for the defeated soldiers to leave Hebei.
However, if the new place of residence is still covered by the authority of the imperial court, everyone will never escape the consequences of being involved in meaningless wars, and may very well be used as a scapegoat. This is unacceptable to anyone.
Just now, Guo Ning spent a lot of time describing the situation of all parties outside Hebei. The key to his judgment of the situation lies in whether the power of the imperial court is strong in a certain area; and whether there are strong enemies outside the imperial court that cannot be resisted.
Only an environment where the imperial court's rule is loose and there is no concern for large-scale killings by foreign enemies can meet the wishes of the leaders present and even the countless defeated soldiers in the mountains and fields, and is the next destination they are willing to go to.
If a giant bandit like Yang Aner really returns to Shandong to cause trouble. For a long time, Shandong will fall into a state of emptiness, just like the situation near Anzhou in the past two years.
Very good, it is indeed the place that best meets the requirements.
It is indeed a good place to settle down in troubled times!
Several leaders of the defeated troops smiled happily and said, "Then go to Shandong! Go to Shandong!"
Li Ting tilted his lips and sneered twice.
When I saw Guo Liulang this time, I felt that his whole person seemed to have been reborn, and he was very different from the simple warrior he used to be. He keeps talking about living in peace and finding a way to survive... In fact, others can't see what he is thinking. Can't I, Li Ting, see it?
This guy said that he wanted temporary stability and led everyone away from the court system. But if the situation really changes drastically, he will be the rebel who takes advantage of the situation!
That's right, Guo Liulang just wanted to seize the opportunity to rebel! In his eyes, Yang An'er was just a tool to clean up the power of the imperial court, a chess piece serving as the king's vanguard!
Thinking of this, Li Ting's face became increasingly ugly. A feeling of regret suddenly arose in his heart: I am also dissatisfied with the imperial court! It’s not like I haven’t thought about rebellion or anything like that! Alas, such a prestigious event was taken over by Guo Liulang!
At this time Guo Ning asked: "Does Erlang have any other advice?"
Li Ting was stunned for a moment, opened his mouth, and quickly cheered up: "...I might go to Shandong. However, I still have a question."
"Speaking."
"How can you be sure that Yang An'er is about to return to Shandong? You are not the roundworm in his belly!"
Yang An'er's movements actually came from Guo Ning's big dream a few days ago. In his dream, Guo Ning briefly scanned the relevant history books and learned that Yang An'er returned to Shandong from northern Xinjiang and made a huge fuss. Unfortunately, after the Song and Jin Dynasties, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty conquered the world, and there was no emperor named Yang. This shows that Yang An'er's ending was probably not good.
Knowing this, it is not difficult to calculate the situation in this life and look for signs that Yang An'er is preparing to return to Shandong.
Guo Ning was silent for a while and said: "Zhongdu issued an order last year to rein in the defeated troops and rectify the front lines. From Anzhou and Ansu to the southern line of Zhuozhou, there has been no movement. Anzhou and Ansu Prefecture was delayed because Tu Dan, the governor, and Xiao Haohu had their own agendas. As for the stability in southern Zhuozhou, it was because Yang An'er was still figuring out his next move and didn't want to cause more trouble. But..."
Guo Ning stretched out his hand and tapped on the map: "Once Yang An'er makes up his mind, he will use troops everywhere under the banner of the imperial court to raise food and supplies, strengthen military equipment, and unite people and horses. Li Erlang, you are over there in Wuguandian , have you heard anything?"
Li Ting frowned. In the past few days, he really didn't pay special attention to the direction of Zhuozhou, but if you talk about the rumors...
While Li Ting was thinking, Dingxing County, Zhuozhou.
Armored soldiers were streaming out of the city gate, and there were also cavalry galloping out.
On the high slope outside the city, a middle-aged man in gray robe with sharp eyes said solemnly to the generals beside him: "I have been waiting for them for two months! It's hard to make a decision after two months. I'm going to die. I'm sorry. Who's coming? This time we won't delay any longer, we must wipe it out as soon as possible!"
