Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 385 Situation
It was already September, and at Zhao Zhen's request, all villages in Liangshan and Shouzhang counties stepped up their patrol drills.

Dong Ping led more than a thousand defeated soldiers back to Dongping Prefecture. As Wu Yong had expected, Dong Ping was reprimanded by the court and demoted to the position of militia commander on the grounds of unfavorable performance in battle.

A new general was transferred to serve as the military commander. His name was Yao Gang. He wielded an iron spear and could keep hundreds of people away from him. Like Wang Tianba, he also had a nickname called "Sai Cunxiao".

Not only that, Jeju Prefecture also had a new prefect. His surname was Miao, and his courtesy name was Shanggao. He was originally a retainer of Master Cai's family. Because he was good at flattering, Master Cai liked him very much. Miao Shanggao was a prefect elsewhere. Because of the birthday plan, Master Cai saw that Song Jiang had not been eliminated so far, and was afraid that the surrounding prefectures and counties would not be willing to work hard, so he transferred him to Jeju to be a prefect, waiting for the opportunity to allocate soldiers and food to help eliminate Song Jiang.

Miao Shanggao was also a corrupt person. He had been the prefect of Xuzhou for less than a year, but he was already the target of widespread complaints. The people secretly gave him a nickname, calling him "Miao Heitian".

When Miao Heitian took office, he also brought with him a military commander named Zhang Yong, who also wielded a spear and was very skilled on horseback.

During this period, Zhao Zhen still took people back to the main world every ten days to confer titles. Now, except for Shi Xiu and Duan Jingzhu, all the heroes in Man County have been conferred titles. Now Zhao Zhen has planned to gradually bring in heroic managers and craftsmen, and confer titles one by one. The importance of these people to Zhao Zhen is not much less than that of these heroes. After all, they are not only managers, but also producers. Just take the bone carving peony produced by the bone craftsman every year. There are thirty or twenty finished products of various sizes every month. They are sold in the main world, and the annual income is tens of thousands of strings.

Since it was September, Zhao Zhen had already spent 31 points of luck to summon. After three ordinary summons, he unexpectedly summoned a person with a name.

world log
In September, 1 point of luck was consumed. Painter Wang Yi heard about it and came to surrender with his family.

Consuming 10 points of Luck, the leader of the Mangdang Mountain Stronghold, [Devil of Chaos] Fan Rui, seeing the frequent mobilization of government troops, suddenly got inspired and felt that something big was going to happen, so he brought [Flying Monkey King] Li Gun and [Eight-Armed Nezha] Xiang Chong and the entire stronghold to come.

It consumed 20 points of luck. When [Kaishan Arhat] Bian Xiang heard about it, he and his family came to join him.

On this day, Zhao Zhen was discussing military affairs with Wu Yong and Zhu Wu in the hall. Zhu Wu said, "Sir, now the troops from all places have been deployed and have sufficient armor and equipment. I heard that only a hundred of the 1000 soldiers in Shouzhang County have returned, and the village militia have also paid a lot of attention to training. The morale of the army is high and they are ready for battle."

Zhao Zhen heard this and said, "Brother, you have worked hard running around these days." Then he turned to Wu Yong and asked, "Xuejiu, how are Song Jiang and his gang doing now?"

Wu Yong said, "Sir, after Song Jiang's troops captured Laiwu and Linzi, they turned around and captured Xintai, Xinwen, Mengyin and Pingyi counties in Yizhou. They sent troops from Yizhou to attack Sishui County in Yanzhou, but failed. So they turned north and attacked Shouguang. Except for Boxing and Qiancheng, all of Qingzhou has been occupied by Song Jiang."

Zhao Zhen asked: "Are there any powerful people in Boxing and Qiancheng counties who can protect the county towns?"

Wu Yong said: "Since the fall of Qingzhou, Yun Tianbiao led most of the imperial guards to flee to Qiancheng. He relied on the many rivers and branches here, and the help of Wei Huchen, the general commander of the army, and Xie De and Lou Xiong, two militiamen, and Song Jiang also stationed troops in the county towns. That's why he failed to capture the two counties."

Zhao Zhen said: "According to this calculation, Song Jiang has occupied ten counties."

Wu Yong nodded: "Yes, I heard that every time Song Jiang conquered a place, he would open the granaries and distribute the grain to the people in the city. The rest would be loaded onto carts and returned to Qingzhou. Now he has recruited no less than 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers."

Zhu Wu sighed, "I never thought the government army was so incompetent." Zhao Zhen said, "Fortunately, they have divided their troops into four parts to defend the four directions. The troops are scattered and the offensive is no longer as fierce as before. In my opinion, if the court mobilizes a large army again, I am afraid it will be able to recover the lost territory."

Wu Yong said: "I still haven't found out where the troops will be recruited from."

As the three were discussing, Ding An pushed the door open and handed the pigeon letter to Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen opened the letter and passed it to Wu Yong and Zhu Wu to read. The pigeon letter was sent by Ruan Xiaowu from Shijie Village. It said that there were many more vagrants around Shijie Village recently, and asked about the garrison in Shijie Lake. Ruan Xiaowu caught two people on the way and threatened them. He found out that these people were spies sent by the new military commander, officials in the city, and wealthy families to gather information.

Zhu Wu cursed after seeing this: "Hey, this Miao Heitian is also a restless person. He doesn't want to train his troops and deal with Song Jiang, but dares to provoke us."

Wu Yong also said, "Sir, it seems that some people in Jizhou City still miss the fish caught in Shijie Lake. Otherwise, how would Miao Heitian know that Shijie Lake is now occupied by us. If we don't chop off the claws that extend to us, the new Miao Heitian will know how powerful we are and think that we are toothless beasts."

Zhao Zhen asked, "They still don't learn their lesson from the killing of Huang An, the Tuanlianshi, last time."

Wu Yong said, "There is a village beside Shijie Lake, called Wangtai Village. Because the old master asked us to be law-abiding, we have never occupied this village. We might as well take this opportunity to occupy it."

Zhao Zhen hesitated for a moment and said, "I didn't provoke him, but he provoked me. Just as the scholar said, I took advantage of the situation and went to Wangtai Township to see how he would respond."

After some discussion, the three decided to transfer Ruan Xiaoer's [Giant Boat Camp] to Shijie Lake, and together with Ruan Xiaowu's [Sea Loach Camp], they would be responsible for the water battle and support. On land, they would invite the three cavalry camps of the Southern Camp and the 1,000 infantry led by Lu Zhishen and Guanghui of Baozhu Temple to go together.

Zhao Zhen was going to go there in person, but he never expected that three heroes from Mangdang Mountain led more than 2,000 troops and disguised themselves as government troops to surrender. When they passed Heihu Temple Town, Yang Xiong sent a message to inform them.

After receiving the pigeon letter, Zhao Zhen said, "I can't refuse to receive these three heroes. So, I'm afraid I can't go to Shijie Lake."

Wu Yong said, "I don't think Zhang Yong can be that capable. The Ruan brothers, the two coaches Lin and Wang, the commander Qin, the chief Lu, and others are all heroes who can fight a hundred at a time. You don't need to go there in person. With these brothers, it will be easy to defeat the Jeju army."

Zhu Wu again volunteered to be the military advisor. Immediately, Zhao Zhen wrote an order to dispatch soldiers to Shijie Lake to fight against the troops from Jeju.

Zhao Zhen waited patiently for Fan Rui and his men to arrive at Baishi Manor. Zhu Fu, the manor owner, ordered the farmhands to slaughter cattle and sheep, prepare a banquet, and prepare to entertain Fan Rui, the three heroes, and many of his followers that night.

After lunch, Zhao Zhen was looking around for preparations for the banquet. Hu Sanniang, who was out riding with her female riders for training, led two men to find Zhao Zhen.

(End of this chapter)