Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 221: 215. Leaving Jingzhou
"Buzzing..."

From time to time, soldiers waved handkerchiefs, cloth strips and other objects to drive away mosquitoes circling around them.

It had been five days since they set out from Jiangling. Since Jingzhou had been pacified, it only took one day to get from Jiangling to Changsha. Feng Xi personally inspected the city of Changsha, which had experienced brutal war, and at the same time announced a reduction of half of Changsha's taxes this year, which made the people of Changsha delighted.

Of course, he also met Wudang Feng Xi, the current governor of Changsha who had been opposing the Eastern Wu a few years ago. After a conversation with him, he confirmed that he was a man of loyal character, which made Feng Xi feel a lot more at ease.

With Wu Dang's assistance, Feng Xi's 3,000 soldiers and horses, in addition to the baggage they brought when they set out, also supplemented their troops with some supplies to cope with the tropical climate, such as insect repellents and straw sandals.

Changsha was once the place where the great doctor Zhang Zhongjing lived, and many of his disciples also stayed in Changsha. His superb medical skills made Feng Xi sigh inwardly that he had forgotten to pay attention to this aspect.

Although Jingzhou currently has some basic prevention and control measures against plague and diseases, Feng Xi had completely forgotten about the systematic medical care. He kept this in mind and planned to deal with it after returning to Jiangling.

After leaving Changsha, they passed through Guiyang County again. However, Feng Xi and Li Yan's son Li Feng were not familiar with each other, so the two of them just exchanged some courtesies. Li Feng also replenished some supplies for Feng Xi's 3,000 men, and then they did not stay for long and continued on their way.

Going south along the water from Guiyang, the first place you arrive at is Nanhai County, which is the eastern half of the future Guangdong Province.

However, the Han army actually controlled only half of the Nanhai County, which is the area around the future Guangzhou City. The Han army was unable to control the other half near Yangzhou, so Nanhai was actually the first line of defense bordering Eastern Wu.

However, Li Hui naturally would not stay in a frontier place like Nanhai County, but instead set up his own provincial office in Cangwu County.

The actual control area of ​​the Han army in Jiaozhou was actually the three counties of Yulin, Hepu, and Cangwu, as well as half of Nanhai County. As Cangwu was the central area among them, with convenient transportation and being relatively close to Guiyang and Lingling counties, it was naturally chosen by Li Hui as the location of the Jiaozhou Governor's Office.

Feng Xi's troops planned to go upstream along the Yu River in Nanhai County all the way to the county seat of Cangwu County.

However, Feng Xi also underestimated the South at this time. In addition to the hot weather, the air was filled with water vapor, making people feel like they were breathing underwater. Even though most of the soldiers were from Jingzhou, they were obviously not used to this climate, scratching their heads and getting restless, like a person drowning in the water.

Of course, in addition to the subjective discomfort, there are also many objective problems.

The first to welcome Feng Xi and his men were, of course, the local snakes, insects, rats and ants. Fortunately, the soldiers had prepared anthelmintics before entering Jiaozhou, so they were at least not that uncomfortable. However, the huge cockroaches and rats still gave many people a great shock.

While on a boat, a cockroach about half the size of a palm flew onto a boat in broad daylight, with an attitude of "Old Deng, I'm hungry, go cook me a pot of rice", causing many soldiers who had never seen such a scene to scream in pain.

This is also human nature. Many people are not afraid of bleeding or even dying in battle, but they will still be scared and scream when they see spiders or cockroaches.

In the end, it was Feng Xi who asked the officers of various departments to calm down the soldiers who were "culturally shocked". After seeing these things many times, they got used to them, and there was no good way to avoid them.

Fortunately, the journey did not take too long. It only took seven or eight days from Jiangling to the city of Cangwu County.

Feng Xi was the commander-in-chief who nominally controlled the troops of three states. Li Hui naturally did not dare to neglect him. He brought Yu Jin and a group of Jiaozhou officials to the gate of Cangwu City to welcome Feng Xi.

"Master Li, it has been a year since we last met in Sichuan."

Feng Xi and Li Hui had met several times in Sichuan. Now they see each other every day, so they must get in touch with each other to get to know each other better. "The Grand Commander is even more majestic. I am ashamed that I can't even handle the people's livelihood in Jiaozhou, and I have to trouble the Grand Commander to come in person."

Li Hui naturally returned the favor and boasted to Feng Xi about business. The two of them walked from the city to the meeting hall while chatting.

However, when Feng Xi and Li Hui were riding on horses on the streets of Cangwu, they could see that the local situation was probably not optimistic.

Many people with dark skin, brown hair, and untidy clothes looked at their group with strange eyes. It was obvious that they were not good people.

"I wonder how many troops the Grand Commander will bring with him this time? Will they be enough to suppress Jiaozhou?"

Li Hui and others entered the conference room without being surrounded by people outside and couldn't wait to ask Feng Xi.

"Only three thousand."

Feng Xi smiled slightly, which made the officials of Jiaozhou very anxious. They were immediately in an uproar and started whispering to each other.

"Grand Commander, please forgive me for being rude. We now have 30,000 permanent troops stationed in Jiaozhou, but they are unable to quell the rebellions of the Cham tribes in various places. The Grand Commander is only bringing 3,000 people now, which is probably a drop in the bucket and will not help the situation in Jiaozhou."

A young general behind Li Hui could not hold back any longer, and he stepped forward to speak, but his words contained some accusations.

"Stop talking too much. The Grand Commander has his own considerations. How can you question him here? Why don't you leave now!"

When Li Hui saw the young general coming out, he quickly scolded him, trying to make light of his rude behavior.

"It doesn't matter. Who is this young general?"

Feng Xi saw that the young general had some similarities with Li Hui, and felt that he must have some relationship with Li Hui. Don't you see that Yu Jin, who was nominally the chief military officer of Jiaozhou, was watching his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose, but the young general behind Yu Jin jumped out.

"This is my son Li Yi, young and ignorant, talking nonsense here. He is just a small lieutenant under General Yu, but he is here to give orders. I will punish him when I return."

When Li Hui saw Feng Xi asking questions, he was worried that Feng Xi was narrow-minded. He felt that he had lost face because of Li Yi's words, so he hurriedly made excuses.

"So it's your son. He's quite a handsome man. General Li is also worried about Jiaozhou. How could I blame him?"

Feng Xi chuckled, neither hot nor cold, which made Li Hui feel that Feng Xi was probably much more mature than he looked.

Feng Xi understood after a moment's thought. Although Li Yi was nominally Yu Jin's subordinate, it was estimated that Zhuge Liang must have given Li Hui some instructions before letting him set out. This Li Yi was the second-in-command who sidelined Yu Jin.

But from Yu Jin's behavior, we can tell that he certainly understood his situation, so he didn't say anything and was happy to live a life of high official position and generous salary where he was only responsible for training and maintaining military discipline.

(End of this chapter)