Chapter 325: The Bandits
Chapter 325: The Bandits
Songcheng is the seat of Liang County. It is a superior county that is larger in scale, more populous, and more prosperous in commerce than Chenliu County. It is also one of the best in the entire Central Plains region.
The General Administration Office arrived in Songcheng County in three batches. The Chief Secretary Zhou Mo was the first to arrive. He was responsible for arranging matters such as government offices, official residences, warehouses, etc.
Ten days later, Xiao Xia led a large number of officials to Songcheng County.
Under the coordination of the county and prefecture governments, more than 270 houses were raised, which basically solved the housing problem of officials.
According to the rank, the houses range from a large mansion of 20 acres to a small courtyard of one acre. Basically, the clerk with the lowest position also has a small courtyard of one acre. This is also the advantage of local government. There are many houses. If it were Chang'an, forget it, the clerks could only live in collective dormitories.
The General Administration's Office was still busy with the relocation, but Xiao Xia had already taken office at the Governor's Office.
Prior to this, Xiao Xia had met with the main officials of Liang County in Chenliu County and listened to their reports on the current situation in Liang County.
The government affairs of the county government were very trivial, and basically all kinds of government affairs were handled by the chief secretary. The duties of the governor were mainly to coordinate various relationships, including the relationship between the government and local aristocratic families, balance the interests of all parties, and assess officials at all levels. In addition, he had to deal with some major events, quell peasant rebellions, and suppress bandits, etc.
Although Xiao Xia also served as the governor of Liang County, his focus was still on the General Manager's Mansion. He did not intend to interfere in the various trivial government affairs of Liang County, and left them to the Chief Secretary Cui Changyi to handle. He would only inquire about major events.
In the county government, several important officials gathered in Xiao Xia's governor's office.
Xiao Xia asked, "How is the current security situation in Liang County?"
Sima Jiang Yan said, "Reporting to General Manager Xiao, the public security in Liang County has always been good, but recently a group of thieves suddenly appeared in the Wangjiabo area of Chuqiu County in the north of Liang County. They hid in the waters of a hundred miles and took advantage of the night to rob people's property and rape women. The people are very angry. The Chuqiu County Magistrate implores the county government to arrange troops to suppress the bandits as soon as possible."
Xiao Xia frowned and asked, "Why did it suddenly appear? Hasn't it appeared before?"
Cui Changyi shook his head and said, "It has never happened before. According to what we know, this group of thieves are not locals. They came from Jiyin County. Their leader is Shan Mao. They gathered more than a thousand people in Heze. They were defeated by the Jiyin County soldiers, and the remaining soldiers fled to Liang County."
Heze, surnamed Shan, Xiao Xia thought secretly that this person was most likely related to Shan Xiongxin.
Xiao Xia pondered for a moment and said, "I will arrange for the army to go and suppress the bandits as soon as possible."
Xiao Xia stayed in the county government office for half a day and then returned to the General Administration Mansion. The General Administration Mansion was a general administration mansion left over from the former Northern Zhou Dynasty. It covered an area of 30 acres and had been renovated. The official residences of the officials had been arranged. Among them, the general manager's official residence covered an area of 3 acres and was located in the north of the General Administration Mansion. It was divided into three courtyards: the outer courtyard, the middle courtyard and the inner courtyard.
Xiao Xia returned to his official room and sat down, and ordered his men, "Go and ask Zhou Changshi and Liu Zhucheng to come see me!"
Soon, Zhou Mo and Liu Wenjing hurried over.
Xiao Xia said to the two of them, "Bandits are rampant in Chuqiu County. I plan to lead the army to wipe them out personally. You guys continue to transport supplies south, and notify all military headquarters to come to Songcheng County for training."
Zhou Mo added: "We received a letter from the court this morning, asking us to transport last year's taxes and grain to Chang'an as soon as possible."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Don't pay attention to the court for now. First, take out 200,000 strings of cash for defense and military expenditures. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has written consent."
Zhou Mo nodded and said, "There is a reason. All our transportation tools are now moving south, and we don't have any extra ships and carts to transport money and food."
"Then we can delay it. Since the court has approved our relocation, they should have expected that we don't have the transportation capacity. We should reply to the court and explain the reason clearly. They can either send a ship themselves or wait until we finish the relocation."
"I understand the humble position!"
During the relocation period, everyone was very busy and there was basically nothing to do. Xiao Xia took advantage of this opportunity and personally led 6,000 recruited soldiers to Chuqiu County, 200 miles away, to suppress bandits.
Xiao Xia also wanted to use this actual combat against bandits to train the army. Only by going into the battlefield and killing can the soldiers be truly transformed.
The army consisted of 3,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry. The army marched northwards. At night, Xiao Xia ordered the army to rest in place. In the marching tent, Xiao Xia was studying the map at the table. Wangjiabo was located in the southwest of Chuqiu County. It was a low-lying water pond, slender and long, like a leg. The widest part was only three miles, but it was more than 40 miles long and full of reeds.
At this time, a soldier reported outside the tent, "General, a man named You Junda wants to see you!"
Xiao Xia was overjoyed, "Please invite him in!"
Soon, the burly You Junda was brought in by the soldiers. When You Junda saw Xiao Xia, he knelt on one knee and saluted, "I, You Junda, am here to serve you, General!"
Xiao Xia helped him up and invited him to sit in the big tent. Xiao Xia asked with a smile, "I thought Captain You would have to wait two years before he could go out to work!"
You Junda sighed and said, "After we parted in Luoyang, I went home to mourn for my father, but I offended Shan Xiongxin, and he wanted to kill me, so I had to let my brothers continue to mourn. I fled my hometown, and when I heard that the general was in Liang County, I rushed here."
"How did you offend Shan Xiongxin?"
"Shan Xiongxin established the Shandong Heroes League in Dongping County and widely sent out invitations to heroes from all over the country to join his league. I also received his invitation and I replied that I was in mourning for my father and could not leave. He sent someone to say that as long as you join his Heroes League, you don't need to leave your hometown, you only need to obey the call of the leader at the critical moment, but I still refused.
This angered Shan Xiongxin, who sent three assassins to my hometown to kill me. I killed them instead, and then fled with my wife and children overnight. I temporarily placed my wife and children in a friend's home in Jiyin County, and I came to Liang County by myself. "
"Have Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin joined the alliance?"
You Junda shook his head, "As far as I know, not yet!"
Xiao Xia asked again: "I am going to wipe out the bandits led by Shan Mao. Do you know this Shan Mao?"
"I heard from a friend that Shan Xiongxin brought back 500 fierce men from Hebei and recruited local militiamen in his hometown to prepare for a rebellion. They were surrounded and suppressed by the soldiers of Jiyin County. As a result, the news leaked out in advance. Shan Xiongxin was not there at the time, so his nephew Shan Mao fled to Liang County with 500 fierce bandits."
Xiao Xia finally understood the reason. He also vaguely guessed that the National Protection Association wanted to cooperate with Han King Yang Liang in raising an army and sent people to various places to organize rebellions. The Shandong Heroes League organized by Shan Xiongxin was a branch of the National Protection Association. Shan Xiongxin recruited local militia in his hometown to rebel, and ultimately it was to cooperate with Yang Liang in raising an army.
This is the butterfly effect. When King Yang Liang of Han was preparing to raise an army in Taiyuan Prefecture, it triggered unrest in Shandong and Hebei.
Xiao Xia immediately appointed You Junda as General of the Central Army and had him temporarily follow Sun Lei. They were very familiar with each other.
The next day, the army continued its journey and headed towards Wangjiapo, southwest of Chuqiu County.
The next afternoon, the team arrived at Wangjiapo. At first glance, it saw a long and narrow swamp covered with reeds.
Xiao Xia immediately sent people to find nearby villagers to inquire about the situation. When several elders heard that it was a bandit suppression operation, they were immediately very excited and said quickly: "General Manager, there is no land in this water marsh. The bandits cannot hide in the water marsh, so they can only hide on the edge."
"Do you know where the bandits are hiding?" Xiao Xia asked again.
Several old men nodded, "More than ten miles to the north is the widest part of Wangjiabo. There is a peninsula over there called Etou Island. Someone escaped and said that there are many houses built over there. I guess the bandits' lair is there!"
Xiao Xia found someone to lead the way. He led an army of 6,000 and continued to march northwards towards the bandits' lair, Etou Island!
At dusk in the afternoon, the team arrived at the outskirts of Etou Island, one mile away from the entrance of Etou Island, and a scout came back to report.
"Reporting to the chief steward, there are indeed hundreds of wooden houses built on the island, and a small number of people are active on the island, but no major bandit forces have been found.
Xiao Xia was stunned. "Are the bandits not on the island?"
But the arrow has been drawn and cannot be unshot. Xiao Xia immediately ordered the army to attack Etou Island and eliminate the enemy's lair first!
(End of this chapter)