Here Lu Yuan is working hard in seclusion, preparing to taste his feast after completing his magical skills.
On the other side, the memorial he sent more than half a month ago finally received a response.
At the end of February in the fifth year of Hongdao.
Sun Siwen, who was dressed in fatigues, arrived at the military camp under Luyang Mansion City with dozens of followers.
"Originally, I had no doubts that Brother Lu could put down the Seven Star Gate rebellion. But I originally thought that it would take several months and half a year anyway.
But in just two months, Brother Lu defeated the rebels, wiped out tens of thousands of enemies, and surrounded the rebels in Luyang City.
It seems that I still underestimated Brother Lu. "
After meeting Lu Yuan, this friend was filled with emotion and praise in person.
Lu Yuan was a little proud to be told that, and he was happy in his heart, but he still said very modestly: "This time it was just a fluke. Those Seven Star Sect thieves have a gangster style. Let them go to the martial arts world to catch and fight with others. .
But let these thieves fight with others, but they are still reckless. The team is loose and unaccustomed to military formations. Everyone likes to fight alone, just like the homeless thieves.
It's easy to break it. "
In fact, if the Seven Star Gate rebels were better organized and knew a little bit about military tactics, Lu Yuan would not be able to defeat them so easily.
After all, he knows best what his level of leadership is.
His positioning of himself is very clear.
Commanding troops to fight is just average, maybe even substandard. The only advantage is that the soldiers and horses trained by his subordinates are very strong, and their various qualities have basically reached the standards of combat soldiers.
But such an unqualified commander, leading a qualified army, was still able to defeat the Qixingmen rebels guarding the camp in half a month and chase them all the way to Luyang City.
Linwu County, which was supposed to be the home base of the Seven Star Sect, was also easily taken over by Lu Yuan.
Now, even Luyang Fucheng cannot be defended.
One can only imagine the level of this group of traitors.
"No matter how incompetent the thieves are, it is a fact that they saved Hengyang Prefecture from fire and water, recovered Luyang Prefecture, and annihilated 30,000 enemies."
Sun Siwen shook his head and smiled, then looked at Lu Yuan and said with emotion: "This time I was promoted to prefect, but it was because of Brother Lu. Otherwise, if I wanted to be promoted to this position from a young Sima, I might not be able to do it in ten years.
I am really lucky to be able to interact with Brother Lu in this life. "
If you think about it carefully, Sun Siwen was promoted several times mainly because of Lu Yuan's help.
He was promoted from Wugang County to county magistrate, then from county magistrate to Sima, and now Sima is promoted to prefect, all of which are inseparable from Lu Yuan's contribution.
This original Sun Xiucai could be said to be a good friend whom he met in his humble beginnings, and was brought along all the way.
"Brother Sun has said before that I can reach my current position only because of Brother Sun's guidance." Lu Yuan saw that Sun Siwen seemed to be a little self-deprecating, and quickly comforted him: "And I am very lucky to be friends with my brother."
What he said was sincere.
If Sun Siwen hadn't introduced him to serve as county captain, how could Lu Yuan have become an official with his temperament?
Without being an official, how could he now rely on his military exploits to rise to the rank of fourth-grade Fenwu General, commanding tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.
Without this position and these soldiers, it would not be that simple for Lu Yuan to get the money to buy the spirit-boosting pills and the way to buy medicinal materials.
Not to mention that he can now lead tens of thousands of troops to break through the Seven Star Gate and plunder the opponent's inherited treasures.
All of these are complementary to each other.
Don't even mention that.
Sun Siwen's initial teaching of calligraphy and his gift of jade tablets could not have helped Lu Yuan much.
In addition to a series of adventures, the ability of the jade pieces to temper his inner strength was also indispensable for him to improve his cultivation so quickly over the years.
Not to mention the unknown immortality contained in the jade pieces.
Based on the above alone, Sun Siwen is Lu Yuan's lifelong friend.
At this time, after you have developed, it is only reasonable to have a friend.
"What Brother Lu said is that I took myself lightly."
After being told by his friend, Sun Siwen immediately admitted his mistake, then straightened his face and got down to business: "Now that I have taken office as the prefect of Luyang, and there is a clear document from the county, my most important responsibility in taking office is to assist Brother Lu in pacifying the Seven Star Gate. Rebellious thieves, at the same time stabilize the place and eliminate the remaining thieves.
On the way here, I also learned about the situation here.
Among the ten counties in Luyang Prefecture, apart from Luyang County, which is still in the hands of the thieves, there is only one Pingyang County, where a county magistrate recommended by Brother Lu is in office.
The remaining eight counties have no local government offices and now rely entirely on the army to guard them.
I dare to ask Brother Lu, what arrangements do you have for these eight counties? "
Nowadays, with the gradual decline of Dai Viet, the majesty of the imperial court is diminishing, and its control over local areas is becoming weaker and weaker.
Especially in a place like Dongting County.
With the "Edict on Local Self-Recruited Militia to Fight the Thieves" issued by the imperial court, it was a clear hint, encouraging the military leaders in the peaceful areas to stand up, fight against the thieves, and become warlords.
The influence of such a trend has also led to the fact that in Dongting County, basically any military leader can conquer the territory from the rebels, so as long as these military leaders continue to respect the imperial court's orders and pay taxes to the imperial court in name. , then that territory will be at the disposal of that military leader.
This is also why after Lu Yuan defeated the Qixingmen rebels and entered Luyang Mansion, the local powerful people who raised their flags refused to hand over the county seat in their hands.
Because according to the promise of the court, they would be equivalent to seizing the county seat from the rebels, so this land would naturally be at their disposal.
It's just that this kind of calculation is too clever, it's like taking food from Lu Yuan's mouth.
I, Mr. Lu, have worked hard to defeat the rebels, but you guys, who were originally thieves or thieves, now come out and say you want to seize territory. Do you really think that this general is easy to bully?
Therefore, for these blind people, green sprouts have basically begun to appear on the graves at this time.
But those rats were cleaned up, but no one on Lu Yuan's side had the strength and confidence to deal with him.
Although Lu Yuan was nominally under the regular military establishment under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, he did not belong to those local militia groups.
But apart from this name, he is essentially a military leader.
The tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command would not listen to anyone except Lu Yuan's orders.
Luyang Mansion was captured by him, so according to the usual practice, he should naturally handle it, and outsiders should not interfere.
This is why Lu Yuan asked the county government to let Sun Siwen be the prefect, and the county government agreed so readily.
Because the county government has already acquiesced, Luyang Mansion belongs to his territory.
So at this time, even if Sun Siwen was the prefect, he still needed to ask Lu Yuan's opinion on the personnel arrangements in the government.
After all, his own position was essentially awarded to him by Lu Yuan. How could he go overboard and arrange officials on his own at this time?
"I don't know any scholars, and I have no idea about the civil service arrangements in each county. Brother Sun taught many disciples in Changning before, so there should be many suitable candidates, right?
If there is one, a list can be compiled, and then I will ask the county government for orders one by one.
As for other military positions, there are still many generals and colonels in our army who lead troops, so there is not much of a problem. "
Regarding this matter, Lu Yuan still chose to leave it to the prefect Sun Siwen.
Anyway, he trusts his friend very much and is not worried about his betrayal.
As for whether the person recommended by the other party is reliable?
Not to mention that when they were in Changning County, many of Sun Siwen's disciples were familiar with Lu Yuan, and they were considered half-townsmen and juniors, so they had some feelings for each other.
It is said that in troubled times, force is the most respected.
As long as he controls the soldiers and horses, what kind of trouble can some literati without soldiers or generals create?
He was afraid that he just wanted to rebel, but the disciples he had arranged directly led his troops to suppress it.
Therefore, instead of finding some unreliable people to serve as officials, it is better to leave the matter to Sun Siwen, a professional, and let him manage Luyang Mansion well.
After all, this is Lu Yuan's territory, and it may be the foundation in the future. If it can be better here, it is also a good thing for him.
"Brother Lu, you want me to select someone?"
Sun Siwen was a little surprised when he heard Lu Yuan's words. He had actually made preparations for his friends to arrange for his close friends to occupy the main official positions in various counties.
But unexpectedly, the other party only wanted a military official position.
While feeling relieved, Sun Siwen couldn't help but feel a little moved, so he solemnly said: "Brother Lu, don't worry, since you asked me to nominate officials, I will definitely live up to your trust.
I still have many disciples in Changning, and I have met many talented people in Shaoyang Mansion. These are all people of pure character and good at governing.
Later I wrote a letter inviting them to come.
With these people here, Luyang Mansion will be managed into a paradise within two years. "
Lu Yuan smiled when he heard this: "Then leave it to Brother Sun."
In this way, the official arrangements for Luyang Mansion were finalized.
Then, Sun Siwen talked about his future political philosophy, what policies to implement, and what plans to make, all of which required the nod of approval from Lu Yuan, the head of Luyang Mansion.
After all, this costs the human and financial resources of his men. Without the nod of the rightful owner, it simply cannot be done.
However, since Lu Yuan had given Sun Siwen full authority to handle government affairs, he would certainly not veto the other party's plans. Basically, he agreed to all policies.
Although it costs a lot of money for this.
According to Sun Siwen's plan, in the next three years, at least 800,000 taels of silver would have to be invested in order to restore people's livelihood and allow Luyang Mansion to recover from the trauma of the war.
During this period, this place needs to be exempted from taxes and cannot receive money or food.
But this time Lu Yuan conquered the Qixingmen rebellion and swept through the entire Luyang Prefecture. He confiscated an unknown amount of property and land from the rebels.
Although there has not been a detailed inventory, based on current rough estimates, the cash received is no less than one million taels. Other types of real estate, such as acres of land, houses, shops, etc., are even more valuable.
The above are just gains in the county.
If Luyang Fucheng is captured, the wealth of the city will be a gain of more than one million taels.
With such a strong family background, how could Lu Yuan care about spending a mere 800,000 taels of silver?
Even more than just restoring production in Luyang Mansion, he is still planning to send people to recruit more troops, hoping to expand his number to more than 30,000 troops.
After all, the territory is now bigger.
We must defend Shaoyang Prefecture and Luyang Prefecture. At the same time, we must maintain a certain amount of mobile troops and can go to other places at any time.
There are only 15,000 troops and horses now, which is indeed a bit less.
At least 30,000 soldiers must be prepared to meet today's needs.
After all, Lu Yuan's enemy was the Five Poison Sect with more than 100,000 troops. He had never forgotten this formidable enemy.
For various policy projects, Lu Yuan basically chose to nod, then give money and let Sun Siwen do it. He himself acted as a hands-off shopkeeper and did not interfere much.
But in addition to these, Sun Siwen mentioned another matter that required his assistance.
"Nowadays, the counties are in ruins, and there are no county soldiers or militia groups. When Brother Lu is here, there will be soldiers to guard and maintain it. But if Brother Lu leaves, the place will be empty.
Therefore, I want to refer to Shaoyang Prefecture and establish a prefecture-county militia system in Luyang Prefecture, re-establish prefecture-county militia in each county within the prefecture, and at the same time establish militia groups in towns and villages.
However, the local population is now depleted, especially the adult men, who have been plundered and kidnapped by the bandit army.
I want to establish a county militia and I need Brother Lu's help. "Sun Siwen talked about his request.
Luyang Mansion is a poor manor in a mountainous area, with a small population of only about 200,000.
When the Miao people rebelled, they killed many local Yue people. Later, the government suppressed the rebellion and killed many Miao people. As a result, the population dropped to 170,000 or 80,000.
This time, the Seven Star Gate rebellion brought together another 30,000 to 40,000 people and almost wiped out all the adult men in the area.
Nowadays, the place is full of women, children, old people and weak people. It is really difficult for Sun Siwen to recruit troops among these crooked melons and cracked jujubes.
Lu Yuan thought for a while, nodded and said: "This is easy to handle. We have captured many prisoners of war in our military camp. Most of them were kidnapped by the Qixing Sect rebels and have never been thieves.
There are approximately 14,000 people in this group. When the time comes, I will have people select qualified people to serve as county soldiers.
The rest can also be organized into militia groups and released.
There were also 3,000 volunteer soldiers, but these were not strong enough to fight, so they were simply reorganized into militia and county soldiers on the spot. "
When he was in Changning County before, Lu Yuan captured eight thousand prisoners. Then he wiped out the local snakes in Luyang Mansion who did not obey the generals, and captured more than a thousand prisoners. Later, when they attacked Luyang City, more than a thousand people died. But after conquering Linwu County, more than 3,000 prisoners were captured. In these days, another seven thousand people descended from Luyang Fucheng across the city.
Calculated in this way, he had more than 18,000 prisoners in his hands.
However, among these 18,000 people, more than 4,000 are from Linwu County.
Although these people surrendered, they were more serious thieves. Put them in place and there's a good chance they'll cause trouble again.
Therefore, Lu Yuan did not plan to release these prisoners in Linwu County, but planned to continue to organize them into the first camp and control them according to military law.
Anyway, we don’t know where we are going to fight in the future. Instead of using our own elite soldiers as cannon fodder, we might as well use these thieves and just waste them.
In this way, the matter of rebuilding the prefecture and county militia system can be considered a finalized decision.
After talking about this, Sun Siwen had nothing else to do.
After chatting with Lu Yuan for a while, they talked about their friendship, and then stood up to leave and go about their own business.
If he wants to re-establish order and rebuild the government system from the ruins, Sun Siwen has a lot to do.
It is conceivable that this friend will not be able to take any time off in the next period of time, or even in the next few years.
…
Sun Siwen came and left in a hurry. He only stayed in the military camp for one day before returning to Pingyang County in the rear.
Now that Luyang Fucheng has not been captured, he, the prefect, can only work in Pingyang County.
And Lu Yuan also found Zhou Qing after he left. After talking to this disciple about rebuilding the county army, I waved him to deal with it.
According to the imperial system, one prefecture and ten counties in Luyang Prefecture require a total of 1,000 prefecture soldiers and 1,000 county soldiers, for a total of 2,000 troops.
There are currently 17,000 volunteers and prisoners ready to be disbanded, and it is not difficult to select 2,000 qualified soldiers.
The people under my command have experience in these matters, so just leave it to them.
However, after two thousand elites were selected, the remaining ones were all mixed, and keeping them would be a waste of food, so Lu Yuan simply paid them a sum of money and dismissed them all.
Now, in order to restore production in Luyang Prefecture, Sun Siwen needs to hire people. When these people are returned to the place, they can just provide sufficient manpower.
After such streamlining, only the main force of 10,000 people and 4,000 prisoners from Linwu County's Xiandeng camp remained in the camp outside Lu Yuan City.
Although the number of people has decreased, the combat power has not decreased. On the contrary, it has increased a lot.
After all, it took a lot of energy to look after more than 20,000 prisoners and manage so many people.
Now, disbanding those bloated personnel and retaining only elites and a certain amount of cannon fodder is equivalent to reducing the burden on the army.
At the end of February of the fifth year of Hongdao, Luyang Mansion came to an end in such a chaotic atmosphere, and ushered in the warm spring of March.
However, in early March, Lu Yuan got bad news.
After two months of silence, the Miao people in Sanfu in the south of Dongting County finally made big moves.
After waiting and watching again and again, these Miao people finally did not dare to face Lu Yuan's troops and chose to go north from Luyang Mansion. Instead, they gathered 70,000 troops and invaded the already empty Shaoyang City.
The headquarters of Wudu Sect in Wuling County in the north also mobilized 50,000 soldiers and horses. It is said that they were personally commanded by the leader and cooperated with the Miao people from Sanfu in the south to attack Shaoyang Mansion.
Judging from this posture, these Miao people are preparing to capture Shaoyang Mansion and completely open up the world of Miao people in the four mansions. This is the shortest passage.
In addition to sending troops to Shaoyang Prefecture, the Miao people from the three prefectures also gathered 30,000 troops. They did not take the initiative to attack and stopped at the junction of Shanyang Mansion, Jiuyi Mansion and Luyang Mansion.
Judging from this idea, it is obvious that he is planning to station heavy troops on the border to contain Lu Yuan's troops here and buy time and opportunities for the main army on the other side.
The urgent report from Shaoyang Mansion flew to the county government like snowflakes.
But the county government could not send any troops. Apart from asking Hengyang Prefecture, which had already settled down, to send 5,000 county soldiers and militia groups to support, Shaoyang Prefecture was left to defend itself.
Of course, Lu Yuan had to be sent an order to end the war in Luyang Mansion as soon as possible and rush to support Shaoyang Mansion.
Fortunately, Shaoyang Mansion had been sorted out by Lu Yuan and established a complete prefectural and county militia system. Now, even in the face of a large-scale Miao invasion, it can still muster 20,000 to 30,000 troops to defend the city.
With the help of five thousand soldiers and horses from Hengyang Mansion, they can hold up for a while.
In the midst of such chaos.
On the seventh day of March, Lu Yuan, who had been in seclusion for half a month, finally opened up the sixth magical sutra, mastered the Chiyang Heart Technique, and broke through to the top of the first-class realm after taking five pills of purifying water.
After traveling for fifteen years and cultivating hard, he finally reached the pinnacle of the innate world.
