"This kid is just lucky, it's really not worth mentioning!"
Facing Ji Ling, who was the eldest member of his father's family and had almost watched him grow up, Yuan Yao quickly put on a humble and courteous attitude.
Ji Ling looked at Yuan Yao, who was gentle and conceited, and nodded secretly in his heart.
After all, he has the same blood as his lord. No matter how cynical he was when he was young, he will always be able to live up to his expectations when he reaches his prime.
"I wonder what the young master is going to do with these captured soldiers and people?"
"The young and strong will be incorporated into the army. The old, young, women and children will be placed on the spot!"
"As for the officials appointed by Chen Yu, there are many members of the Xuzhou noble family. Let's see if the Pi Chen family is willing to redeem them!"
Yuan Yao has long thought about how to deal with these people. Although it is troublesome to drive them from Huaibei to Huainan, Yuan Yao will never leave these people to Liu Bei in Xuzhou to take advantage of them.
Ji Ling nodded: "Young Master is thinking about things more and more thoughtfully!"
"Young master has recruited more than 2,000 young men this time, and there are nearly 5,000 men under his command!"
"In just over half a month, the young master has grown from nothing to a whole battalion of people. It's really unexpected!"
"If I show the military report of the young master to my lord, I'm afraid even my lord won't believe it!"
Yuan Yao shook his head: "Uncle misunderstood, I have no intention of recruiting more than two thousand young men!"
"Why?"
Ji Ling had an expression of disbelief, then what are you trying to do by traveling five hundred miles?
Yuan Yao had a look of pain on his face: "Uncle Ji doesn't know something. I am short of weapons and armor. The two thousand men under my command can't even make two hundred pairs of armor. There is an even greater shortage of bows, arrows, knives and swords!"
"I thought that Chen Yu, who was named the Governor of Yangzhou and was born in the Chen family of Xiapi, would have plenty of soldiers under his command. I didn't expect that only three hundred soldiers and armor were captured after this battle."
"What's the use of asking me to recruit five thousand people? Should I let them carry farm tools to fight?"
Ji Ling also understood. He had led his army to fight against Chen Yu and knew that this man was from a noble family, but he was pedantic and ignorant and did not understand military affairs.
At the beginning, more than 10,000 strong men were gathered together, thinking that Shouchun could be defended just by throwing stones from the city wall, but in the end, they couldn't even hold it for half a day.
"Young Master is short of weapons and armor. Why don't you tell me, Lord, to get some for you?"
"Alas!" Yuan Yao sighed: "I can rely on my father's protection and promote me to be a filial and honest captain. This is a starting point that ordinary people cannot reach."
"If I have to trouble my father with everything, people in the world may think that I can achieve anything only because of... Alas!"
Yuan Yao did not continue, but Ji Ling also understood Yuan Yao's difficulty.
Looking at the two thousand young men, Ji Ling suddenly had an idea in his mind.
"I do have a way to make the young master replenish his weapons and armor without bothering the lord, but I don't know if the young master is willing!"
"Uncle Ji, it's okay to say it!"
Yuan Yao seemed to have grasped hope and looked at Ji Ling eagerly.
"It happens that there are three thousand old and weak soldiers in our army. I have long wanted to eliminate them, but I have been suffering from the lack of suitable sources of troops to supplement them!"
"If the young master exchanges those two thousand young men for three thousand weaklings like me, wouldn't everyone get what he deserves?"
"If the young master is willing to change, then let's do it right now!"
Seeing that Yuan Yao was still thinking about it, Ji Ling hurriedly added.
The implication of this sentence is very obvious. The three thousand old and weak people I handed over to you were given to you with people and armor.
Relax! Uncle can't trick you!
The first battalion under Yuan Shu's command was composed of 5,000 men, and Ji Ling commanded a total of four battalions.
However, Yuan Shu's army-building strategy only focused on quantity but not quality. Most of his soldiers were captured by force and were mostly old and weak.
Faced with Yuan Shu sending people to recruit young men, the powerful landowners in Huainan could not afford to offend Yuan Shu, but they would not obediently hand over their adult labor.
Therefore, the men who were finally handed over to Yuan Shu to complete the task were mostly elderly people who were close to the upper limit of the service age, or sick and weak people who could not do much farm work.
Yuan Shu rarely went to the army to inspect, and only listened to the quantity reports from his subordinates. So bribes are offered at all levels, and even the bad ones are made good for you.
Even if there are generals who run the army rigorously, in such a general environment, if they do not recruit the old and the weak to join the establishment, they will run the risk of being framed for short-term pay.
Even if Yuan Shu's top general, Ji Ling, has 20,000 troops, he has more than 3,000 old and weak men!
But he didn't dare to take advantage of Yuan Yao too much. Trading three thousand old and weak men with armor for more than two thousand young men would be a sure profit for him!
As for the armor and weapons that these two thousand young men are missing after the replacement, you, Yuan Yao, want to save face and don’t want to ask me for them. What can’t I, Ji Ling, do with my old face?
Yuan Yao pretended to be confused, and Ji Ling was so anxious that he started to increase the price.
"Nephew, that's it. I still have 500 bows and crossbows that I can't use. How about I give you 10,000 more arrows?"
Yuan Yao's eyes lit up as soon as he heard this. Crossbows are the combat artifacts of this era and are extremely destructive weapons for the regular army to deal with bandits and bandits.
If you had these five hundred bows and crossbows, how could you go to Yuzhang and not defeat those powerful clans?
"Uncle Ji, if you have anything else you don't need, why don't you give it to me instead of leaving it at your place to get moldy?"
"Why don't I handle the four to five thousand old and young for you? If not, I can just buy it with money. I have enough money!"
Ji Ling: "..."
Less than half an hour later, Yuan Yao and Ji Ling had finalized the transaction details and made the exchange directly on the spot.
Yuan Yao used two thousand fighting young men plus all the money and goods seized from Chen Yu to obtain from Ji Ling enough armor and weapons to fully arm three thousand regular troops, five hundred bows and crossbows, etc., as well as the accompanying three thousand The old, the weak, the sick and the disabled.
"Uncle Ji, please forward these letters to my father!"
Yuan Yao asked someone to bring up a box filled with letters and dozens of talismans.
"This is?"
"The letters here are all evidence that the officials in Dongcheng, Huailing and other counties secretly colluded with Chen Yu!"
"These talismans were also carved privately by Chen Yu and were intended to be awarded to powerful sect commanders in Yangzhou to help him in his affairs."
Ji Ling was surprised when he looked at the contents in the box.
"This old thief Chen Yu is really evil!"
"Young Master has really done a great harm to your father!"
"When Uncle Ji returns to the army, he can send people to arrest all the officials with signatures here. The evidence is conclusive, and Uncle Ji can also add credit to my father!"
"How embarrassing!"
"Hahaha! Young Master is interested!"
After sending away the satisfied Ji Ling, Lu Su stepped forward.
"Did Young Master have planned this deal a long time ago?"
At this time, Yuan Yao dared to show his triumphant smile.
"I didn't expect to be able to exchange for so many armors and weapons. I originally thought that I would be fine if I could exchange for a thousand armors. Unexpectedly, my uncle was afraid that I wouldn't agree, so he just asked for three thousand!"
Lu Su smiled: "This General Ji, like me, is not very good at doing business with others!"
Zheng Bao also showed an expression of admiration: "It turns out that the young master had planned it for a long time. No wonder he asked me to put all the strong people in front of the queue in advance."
“Of course when selling something, you have to put the glamor at the top!”
"But it's not considered fake. These two thousand young men are much better than the three thousand old, weak, sick and disabled people he gave us in exchange!"
Yuan Yao looked back and saw that these old and weak people were really quite old and weak.
There are many who are weak and emaciated and will fall down when the wind blows; there are many old people who have few teeth left and half of their legs buried in the loess.
Yuan Yao originally intended to recruit these young men, but unfortunately most of them were from Xuzhou in Huaibei. When they heard that they would follow Yuan Yao across the Yangtze River to Yuzhang, they almost mutinied directly.
If the orange grows in Huainan, it will become orange, if it grows in Huaibei, it will become orange.
People from the north live north of the Huaihe River, so they are naturally unwilling to move their families to Yuzhang County, which has a very different climate.
In the end, only more than a hundred young men were willing to follow Yuan Yao south to Jiangbiao. The other Yuan Yao could only be driven to Guangling County by force to deal with it.
Although Guangling is located south of the Huaihe River, it nominally belongs to Xuzhou. Once the prisoners heard that they had not left Xuzhou, they did not have much resistance.
Therefore, those who should be recruited by Ji Ling were directly recruited, and their families were directly placed in the southwest of Guangling County controlled by Yuan Shu's forces.
"I wonder how the young master is going to deal with these three thousand old and weak people?"
Zheng Bao was speechless looking at the old, weak, sick and disabled in front of him. He did not expect that Yuan Shujun's main force could include such unworthy soldiers.
"Zijing, Boyu, what do you think?"
Boyu was the name Yuan Yao asked Liu Fu to pick for Zheng Bao. Zheng Bao was the eldest in the family, and Bao means jade.
Zheng Bao was very satisfied with this concise and clear character. Although Liu Fu also chose other more elegant characters, Zheng Bao still insisted on choosing Boyu as his character.
Lu Su looked at these pitiful people and said with unbearable expression: "Master, do you intend to let these people disarm and return to their fields?"
"Although these people have the name of soldiers, they are not soldiers in reality. They still need food and grass to support them, so why not let them go back to their hometowns!"
Zheng Bao also nodded: "What Mr. Zijing said is reasonable. It's hard to say whether these people can reach Yuzhang. It's better to let them go on the spot!"
Yuan Yao nodded: "Then let's do it according to your ideas!"
"But we can't dismiss these people here, otherwise I'm afraid I'll be taken back by Ji Ling tomorrow."
Lu Su and Zheng Bao also laughed when they heard this.
"Okay, you have worked hard these days, Boyu. You and the soldiers fighting this time have a good rest!"
"Zijing, please take the five hundred soldiers and collect all these old and weak armors and weapons."
"Remember to wash the armor with water after collecting it, and dry it before distributing it to prevent anyone from getting sick!"
Lu Su hurriedly raised his hands and said, "Don't worry, sir, Su will definitely make all the soldiers and armor look brand new!"
"Then there's Lao Zijing!"
"Slaughter all the cattle and sheep that the Ping'an County Magistrate dedicated to us, and let the brothers eat meat and drink wine tonight!"
"We will set off back tomorrow. We were sneaky when we came here, and we can be a teacher in a dignified manner tomorrow!"
…
The next day, Yuan Yaojun, wearing helmet and armor with a completely new look, dressed up and set off towards Lujiang County in the southwest.
However, due to the burden of three thousand old and weak people, the marching speed was much slower.
But sometimes slowness is not necessarily a bad thing. It is precisely because the speed of returning has slowed down that Yuan Yao unexpectedly gained a good general.
