I practiced magic in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 137: Following Yuan Shu, Going Hungry for Nine Meals in Three Days

Lu Bu was originally terrified, but now he was overjoyed: "Thank you for the compliment, my lord. I don't deserve it!"

When he followed Dong Zhuo, although he had the status of "adopted son", Lu Bu did not have a good time within the Xiliang Army.

First of all, because of Wang Jing's interception, he lost the military power of the Bingzhou soldiers, and Dong Zhuo would not let him command the elite soldiers of Xiliang, let alone pay to help him recruit soldiers to form a new army.

Therefore, although Lu Bu only had the identities of Wenhou and Zhonglang Jiang, he was actually just a "scattered man", equivalent to a reserve officer in the army of later generations.

The treatment of a general in the reserve force may not even be as good as that of a dog in active service.

As a result, Lu Bu had only more than a hundred people under his command, and the only thing he could do was to serve as the security captain for Dong Zhuo. Due to lack of money, he often had to go out to do "part-time jobs" on weekdays, helping big merchants in Luoyang city to eliminate bandits and mediate conflicts. He was busy like a grandson.

It's not like now, with tens of thousands of troops under his command, although because of the defeat to Li Jue during the Western Expedition, only more than 4,000 people are left, but it is still much more promising than following Dong Zhuo.

Moreover, Wang Jing did not discriminate against a general like him who came from a humble background, but treated him with great courtesy, which greatly satisfied Lu Bu's vanity.

Today, the Northern Army is full of talented people. Wang Jing has Xun You, Jia Xu, Li Ru in literature and Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Gao Shun and Yan Xing in military. Each of them is powerful and talented, and has the potential to be a great general. They have formed different factions such as Bingzhou, Sili and Xiliang.

Although Lu Bu was born in Bingzhou and should have been in the same camp with Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, he had a bad reputation in the Bingzhou army because he killed Ding Yuan. So he became a lone wolf and seemed to be unable to support himself. Therefore, he could only rely on Wang Jing in order to gain Wang Jing's trust and get more resources.

After the war, Wang Jing arranged people to clean up the battlefield, and he immediately led his troops into Liang County.

In the hall of the county government, everyone sat around drinking and had won a great victory. The most important thing at the moment was to hold a celebration banquet and reward the troops.

At the banquet, all the generals who participated in the war were in high spirits. Even Hua Xiong and Wang Fang, who had been injured and captured before, had mostly recovered by now and sat together to drink.

In order to show off himself, Lu Bu took the initiative to offer a suggestion to Wang Jing: "My lord, our army has won a great victory in this battle. The enemy's main general Sun Jian has died in the battle. Yuan Shu no longer has any capable generals. We should take advantage of this opportunity when the morale is high and capture Wancheng with an unstoppable momentum."

Nanyang, where Wancheng is located, is a large county. It was one of the six largest metropolises in the country during the Western Han Dynasty of the Yanhan Emperor. It is also known as the "Southern Capital" and "Emperor's Hometown" because it is the hometown and place where Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu made his fortune. By occupying this place, one can advance to Jingzhou in the south and capture Yuzhou in the east.

The entire county is surrounded by mountains on three sides, forming a basin, and has a humid monsoon climate. Therefore, Nanyang has four distinct seasons, plenty of sunshine, abundant rainfall, and a large amount of fertile farmland. The population is as high as over 2.6 million, almost equivalent to the entire Youzhou population. In just one county, it accounts for one twentieth of the total population of the Han Empire!

In the early days of the struggle for supremacy among heroes at the end of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Shu was able to possess the capital to contend for hegemony over the world just because he occupied this Feng Shui treasure land. For a time, he formed a situation where he shared the world with Yuan Shao of Hebei.

As the seat of Nanyang, Wancheng naturally became a battleground for military strategists.

Conquering cities and territories involves an overall strategy, so Wang Jing naturally wants to seek the advice of his advisers, so he looked at Xun You and said, "Gongda, what do you think?"

Xun You thought for a moment and replied firmly, "My lord, I think this is inappropriate."

"Why?"

"First, although our army has won, we are running low on food and grass. Second, the road to Nanyang is mountainous. Yuan Shu only needs to dispatch a general and select thousands of elite soldiers to garrison Wuguan Pass to prevent our army from advancing. Third, although Yuan Shu has been defeated, he still has the support of a large number of clan bandits, so he has a strong military force and is still capable of fighting. Fourth, outside Hulao Pass, there are still Yuan Shao and others eyeing us covetously. It is not wise to divide our forces to attack Nanyang at this time."

Upon hearing this, Wang Jing pondered in silence, but was weighing the pros and cons in his heart.

Nanyang is undoubtedly a good place, but now is not a good time to attack.

You should know that Wuguan is a famous pass in the world, along with Hanguguan, Xiaoguan and Dashanguan, and is known as one of the "Four Passes of Qin". It was established as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, and was originally named "Shaoxi Pass". It was changed to "Wuguan" during the Warring States Period.

The city was built on a relatively flat plateau in the valley, with the steep Shaoxi Mountain to the north and a dangerous place to the south. The city has a circumference of three miles, and the walls are built of earth in a roughly square shape. There are crossbow arrays and Yin-Yang arrays on them, which are based on Feng Shui, the dragon energy of the imperial dynasty, and the power of the earth veins. Even the top masters find it difficult to break through.

There is a gate on the east and west sides of Wuguan, both of which are covered with bricks and stones. The terrain on the west side of the pass is relatively flat, but when you go out of the east side of the pass, you have to go along the winding mountainside, with high cliffs and deep valleys, making it narrow and difficult to pass. It can be said to be a place of contention for military strategists and has been extremely dangerous since ancient times.

Therefore, occupying this place is definitely a very dangerous thing. Wang Jing couldn't make up his mind for a while, so he used the power of the Destiny Emperor Star to make a deduction.

After absorbing Sun Jian's luck, Wang Jing's Destiny Emperor Star grew, and now he has a certain level of ability to predict good and bad luck.

After understanding it, Wang Jing also figured out the key to this magical power. In fact, it is not that mysterious. The so-called divination is nothing more than a probability deduction.

Through various known information, the probability of an event occurring is classified and counted, and then it is seen whether it is likely to evolve in a good direction or slide in a bad direction.

"The Emperor's star is shining, the destiny is clear, the three-foot light from the spiritual platform illuminates the road ahead of me!"

Wang Jing silently recited the incantation in his mind and activated the power of his thoughts. Soon the Emperor Star hanging high in his sea of ​​consciousness responded. A three-foot-long divine light suddenly burst into brilliant color.

Boom~
White is normal.

Red is auspicious.

Black is ominous.

After the brilliant colors disappeared, only the intertwined red and black colors remained, of which the red color, which symbolizes "good luck", accounted for only two points. This meant that occupying this place could indeed gain luck and strengthen the foundation of the Northern Army.

However, the black luck, which symbolizes "evil", is as strong as eight points, indicating that the risk of this trip is extremely high and there may be unexpected disasters.

Wang Jing immediately made up his mind. Although Nanyang was a good place, it was a high-risk and low-return business for the Northern Army at the moment.

Wang Jing suddenly remembered that in the history of the Three Kingdoms, the place Nanyang was really a very strange place. Whoever took it would almost die.

Sun Jian and Yuan Shu both died soon after they occupied Nanyang, while Cao Cao luckily survived the attack on Wancheng, but his eldest son Cao Ang and general Dian Wei died.

Only Liu Biao was probably protected by the fire dragon energy of the Yanhan Dynasty and was a little tougher, so he was not killed. However, he was trapped in Jingzhou from then on and basically did nothing.

So, this place is really weird.

If it was given for free, Wang Jing might consider it.

But there is absolutely no need to send troops to attack at this time.

As a qualified monarch, one must remain rational when fighting for hegemony over the world. One must not just take advantage of the benefits without thinking about whether one can eat them.

As the commander of the Northern Army, Wang Jing knew that he had to make choices, so he made a decision immediately and looked at Xu Rong: "General Xu, you have made great contributions in defending the territory in this battle. From now on, you will be promoted to General of the Southern Army and General of Guerrillas. You will lead 5,000 troops to garrison Liang County."

"Thank you, Lord!"

As soon as this appointment came out, everyone knew that Wang Jing had no intention of taking over Wancheng.

Seeing that Lü Bu was somewhat unwilling, Wang Jing smiled and comforted him: "Fengxian, please be patient. If you want to make achievements, you can go to Hulao Pass with me. There are hundreds of thousands of allied forces of princes there. You will not lack any military merits."

Lü Bu then smiled, clasped his fists and said cheerfully: "As long as the lord gives the order, even if it means mountains of swords and seas of fire, I will not refuse to die!"

It is not a bad thing that soldiers are brave and warlike. Wang Jing even wishes that all his generals were like Lu Bu, eager to make achievements and establish their own careers.

Seeing that his suggestion was adopted by Wang Jing, Xun You secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then reminded: "My lord, now that food and grass are insufficient, the 30,000 surrendered soldiers outside Liang County must be dealt with as soon as possible."

Wang Jing was also troubled by this happy worry at this time, and complained: "Alas, if I had known that Yuan Shu was so weak, I would not have burned his food supplies."

Everyone burst into laughter: "If Yuan Gonglu knew that the Lord had framed him like this, he would be so angry that he would vomit three liters of blood."

In the Han Dynasty today, the two most powerful princes are none other than Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, two brothers who are also from the Yuan family of Runan.

Among them, Yuan Shu was far superior to Yuan Shao in terms of military and financial resources.

It’s a pity that having money does not necessarily mean that you are powerful. Yuan Shu is such a typical example, so none of the civil and military officials under Wang Jing took Yuan Shu seriously.

But although Yuan Shu was incompetent, the soldiers under his command were still very good. Wang Jing was a little envious when he saw them: "Gongda, how do you think I should deal with these surrendered soldiers?" Wang Jing actually had a way to solve the problem of food. It was nothing more than making the noble families and the wealthy families suffer more. At worst, he could conduct a tax inspection in the name of the court.

Wang Jing didn't believe that the aristocratic families and powerful families would obediently pay the taxes required by the court. When the time came, he would find a few examples like the Zhou family of Fenyin to serve as a warning to others, and the food problem would be temporarily solved.

As long as they can hold out through this period and wait until the military farming in Hedong and Hongnong areas has shown results, the Northern Army should no longer be troubled by food issues.

Therefore, Wang Jing was still very eager to recruit elite soldiers under Sun Jian and did not care much about the problem of food.

Xun You naturally saw Wang Jing's inclination, but still advised: "My lord, food is only a small problem. The most troublesome thing is that most of Yuan Shu's soldiers are from the clans of Jiangnan, and it is difficult for our army to control them."

The so-called clan bandits are actually an armed group formed based on clan and village relations.

The Jiangnan area has a dense river network, and convenient water transportation has promoted the development of local commerce. As business prospers, the number of business travelers traveling from south to north has naturally increased dramatically.

As the saying goes, "live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water." The busy shipping and increased trade naturally gave rise to numerous gangs that came to share the benefits.

The clan thieves came for this reason.

These people often form their own forces based on villages, and most of their members are fellow villagers and relatives. Therefore, they are not only brave and aggressive and unwilling to submit to the king, but are also very united. Even the local government finds it difficult to control them and can only turn a blind eye.

At present, Wang Jing's control cannot reach the Jiangnan area. He has neither prestige nor reputation, so it is naturally impossible for him to make these people truly surrender.

Even leaving them behind is like leaving a time bomb behind, which may backfire at any time.

Therefore, Xun You directly suggested: "My lord, you can actually release all these people. In this way, you can not only gain a good reputation, but also shock the entire Jiangnan region through Yuan Shu's defeat, and publicize your great military power. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone."

"Okay, let's do it this way."

With Wang Jing nod, Xun You immediately went down to arrange matters.

To the east of Liang County, in a simple camp, 30,000 surrendered soldiers were anxiously waiting for the verdict of their fate.

"I wonder how Marquis Qi will deal with us?"

"Alas, I should not have listened to Yuan Gonglu's instigation. What about conquering Luoyang and enjoying wealth and glory? Now we are being beaten down and kneeling by Marquis Qi. What if we are taken as traitors and beheaded?"

"It would take a lot of knives to behead us. There are tens of thousands of us. We will probably be buried alive."

"Don't scare me!"

"Who scared you? Back then, Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wu'an, killed 400,000 Zhao soldiers who surrendered in the Battle of Changping. Marquis Qi was born in the Wang family of Taiyuan. It is said that his ancestor was Wang Jian, who was as famous as Bai Qi. The two were both one of the four famous generals in the Warring States Period. Their styles should be similar, right?"

"Marquis Qi is actually the descendant of the famous general Wang Jian? No wonder the soldiers under his command are like soldiers from heaven. If we go against them, what difference is there between it and hitting a rock with an egg? Yuan Gonglu really deserves death! If it weren't for him, how would we dare to be the enemy of Marquis Qi today?"

Tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers were all very nervous, fearing that Wang Jing would really order them to be buried alive.

As for resistance?

Now that they have lost their organization and structure, and even their weapons have been confiscated, what can they use to resist?
What's more, they have lost their courage. In today's battle, Wang Jing only led a few thousand soldiers and dared to stop Yuan Shu's 40,000 troops. He also killed Sun Jian in front of the battle and defeated the siege of first-class generals such as Cheng Pu, Han Dang and Huang Gai. These coalition soldiers have long been frightened by the killing, and the seeds of fear have been planted in their hearts. They dare not have the heart to resist at all.

Soon, the sound of hurried horse hooves was heard outside the camp.

"It's Lu Bu!"

"Lu Bu is coming!"

The surrendered soldiers were frightened and thought that they were about to die, and they became very excited.

"Why are you making so much noise? Just shut up!"

Lu Bu entered the camp with two thousand Bingzhou Wolf Riders, like a killing god descending to the earth. All the surrendered soldiers were frightened by him and were speechless and dared not move. They could only kneel on the ground and tremble.

Among the 30,000 surrendered soldiers, only one young general dared to stand up. Judging from his age, he was about twenty years old and had not long been an adult.

This young general had a burly build, with several scars on his face, but his eyes were extremely firm. Even facing a peerless warrior like Lu Bu, he dared to look him directly in the eyes.

Lü Bu rode on his horse, holding a Fang Tian Hua Ji, and said with a fierce smile: "Why, do you want to die?"

The young general showed no fear and said: "If the general wants to kill us, then kill us. But I still want to ask, how does Marquis Qi want to deal with us?"

It was rare to meet someone who was not afraid of death. Lu Bu put away his Fang Tian Hua Ji and admired the young general in front of him: "Haha, you are so brave. What's your name?"

"Villain Zhou Tai."

"Zhou Tai? Not bad, you have a good foundation and are very courageous. Your future is limitless."

Lu Bu took a look at Zhou Tai and admired his pride and heroic courage. However, he did not forget his business and quickly began to read out Wang Jing's order.

"You have taken up arms to resist the imperial army, and you deserve to be killed. However, God is merciful, and the lord has decided to show mercy and let you live, considering that you are only first-time offenders."

"Long live Marquis Qi"

"We don't have to die anymore?"

"Great!"

"Thank you, Lord Qi, for not killing me!"

In an instant, tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers knelt on the ground with excited expressions, and kowtowed to express their gratitude.

Lu Bu was very proud, and then he said: "Everyone can come to me to get three days' rations, and then go back to live a good life. Remember, if you do it again, I will kill you without mercy!"

"Please rest assured, sir. We will never dare to do it again."

Having seen how powerful Wang Jing was, these surrendered soldiers no longer dared to go against the Shenwu Army. They all bowed their heads and admitted defeat, fearing that they would anger the killing god Lu Bu and have him chop off their heads.

Not killing the prisoners was not just for the sake of reputation, but more because Xun You hoped that through this action, he could use the mouths of these surrendered soldiers to spread Wang Jing's invincible reputation to the entire Jiangnan region, laying the foundation for the future conquest of Jingzhou and Yangzhou.

This is the magical effect of reputation. Whether it is reputation for power or reputation for virtue, it often has miraculous effects when conquering prefectures and counties.

The surrendered soldiers happily ran to collect food, but Zhou Tai secretly found his fellow villager Jiang Qin. The two were of similar age and both from Jiujiang, so they got along very well.

"Gong Yi, I plan to stay."

Jiang Qin was obviously very surprised by his friend Zhou Tai's abrupt words: "Youping, are you crazy?"

"I'm not crazy. The world is in chaos today, and all wise men are eager to choose a lord to serve. Marquis Qi is a young man with unparalleled military power. Who among the princes in the world can defeat him? Moreover, Marquis Qi is kind and righteous to the people, and all his soldiers are willing to fight to the death for him. If I follow such a wise lord, I will surely achieve great achievements, bring honor to my family, and let my descendants hold their heads high."

Obviously, Zhou Tai did not make such a decision on impulse, but after careful consideration. Therefore, his tone was firm, and he even tried to persuade his good friend Jiang Qin to stay with him: "Gong Yi, do you want to go back and continue to work for an incompetent like Yuan Shu? Or do you want to go back to Jiujiang and continue to be a clan thief who is in danger of losing his job every day?"

Jiang Qin fell into deep silence after hearing this. He was not born to be a bandit who plundered the river and made a living by robbing houses.

Even if he doesn't consider himself, he has to consider his son, right?
Is it possible that the son will follow in his father's footsteps and his descendants will continue to be thieves?
(End of this chapter)