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On the fifth day of the fifth month of the second year of Qianfu, the Dragon Boat Festival.

Yesterday, after the Zhenguo Army cleared the remnants of the grass thieves on the west bank of Bianshui, the various units returned to Songzhou one after another. This is a brilliant victory, the battle has been counted, the secretary Guo Chengan held a handscroll and excitedly stood on the Songzhou Thorn History Mansion, to the Zhenguo Army officers in the hall and the civil and military officials of Songzhou, as well as a group of officials and gentlemen with heads and faces to report the results of the battle.

"As of yesterday, the national army of our town entered Songzhou, and the grass thieves have clashed several times, and finally under the wise command of Li Dashuai, under the heroic struggle of the soldiers of the Zhenguo army, and with the generous help of the Songzhou government and local righteous people, we have achieved a brilliant victory. According to statistics, our army killed a total of 27,000 grass thieves, including Li Chongba and Chu Yanwei, the main leaders of the grass thieves, captured more than 43,000 people, including Liu Hanhong and Cai Wenqiu, the main leaders of the grass thieves, and rescued more than 50,000 displaced people who were held hostage by the thieves. And has recovered Yucheng, Dangshan two counties, in addition to Chuqiu, single father two counties have also just been recovered, the grass thieves in Songzhou, has been killed or captured or fled, no one else. ”

Rao is Zhang Rui and others have been in officialdom for a long time, but when they heard such a record, they couldn't help but inhale cold air. Nearly 30,000 enemies were killed and more than 40,000 were captured, which is an amazing record. But in the past two days, many of you have secretly sent people to investigate, and those who have come back are pale, and according to them, there is blood-stained land everywhere under Yucheng and within fifty miles to the east of Yucheng. The corpses of the thieves who were killed were all cut off, except for the heads of the leaders of the thieves, which were kept with lime. Brought back to Songzhou. The rest of the more than 20,000 heads. The soldiers of the Zhenguo Army built a huge Jingguan twenty miles east of Yucheng. The Jingguan was built with the heads of more than 27,000 grass thieves, lime, loess, etc. As high as 18 zhang, it is extremely intimidating.

The performance of the Zhenguo Army in Songzhou made them believe that Li Jing was not the kind of person who killed good people and risked their merits. What's more, more than 40,000 captives, more than 50,000 displaced people, and nearly 100,000 people have been taken outside Songzhou City. These nearly 100,000 people are really not bad, besides. In the past few days, the officers and men of the Xuanfeng Army have gone home on vacation, and they have also personally told the story of the battle between the Zhenguo Army and the Grass Army these days, especially the fact that Li Jing personally led 5,000 soldiers and horses to take the initiative to attack tens of thousands of grass thieves to reinforce Yucheng, and finally repelled tens of thousands of grass thieves with 5,000 soldiers and horses, which spread more widely.

"Where did Wang Xianzhi and the others flee?" Li Jing took the initiative to ask about the news of the head of the thief.

It was Li Wei who got up and answered, "When the thief army was defeated, they scattered and broke through, Wang Xianzhi and other thieves were very cunning, they all had war horses, and they completely ignored their brothers. Flee directly. We chased after each other, but there were too many thieves. It affected the speed, and Wang Xianzhi and others arranged some boats in Bianshui, and escaped directly by boat. ”

Speaking of which, Levi felt a little pity. If it weren't for Li Jing's previous order not to chase Bianshui, maybe they would have been able to capture Wang Xianzhi and the others.

He quietly observed Li Jing's face, but saw that he was not very angry at the news of Wang Xianzhi's escape, and still had that smiling look.

"Wang Xianzhi is just like this, he completely defeated his 100,000 army in a battle, and now he is just a lost dog who has fled in the wilderness, so he is not to be afraid." Li Jing smiled and comforted Li Wei, and then laughed a few times: "Secretary Guo, tell everyone, in addition to killing Li Chongba, Chu Yanwei, Cai Wenqiu, and Liu Hanhong this time, how many generals have we killed?" ”

The introduction of the establishment of imperial court officers and soldiers into the ranks of the grass army was an initiative proposed by Huang Chao to Wang Xianzhi at the beginning. Even Wang Xianzhi's original Tianzhu average general and the commander of all the heroes in the sea were all out of Huang Chao's plan.

At the beginning, the grass thief had no banner, let alone such a neat organization, everything was according to the cottage method, what is the master, the ticket commander and so on. It was Huang Chao, a literate salt seller, who gave this team the title of the Grass Army, and gave a complete set of officers and soldiers from Wang Xianzhi to the minions below. Wang Xianzhi is a general, and the ten commanders below were originally only soldiers and horses, and later became the commanders of the capital.

After defeating the Li family in Yizhou, the soldiers of the grass army had more military ranks in addition to their military positions. For example, Shang Junchang, in addition to being the Sima of the grass army march, also has the title of auxiliary army general. And as Shang Rang, in addition to the military envoys of the Duzhi soldiers, there is also the rank of the champion general, which is aligned with the military system of the official army everywhere.

After the Battle of Yizhou, the grass army swelled rapidly, not only recruiting a large number of troops and horses, but also many large and small bandits, horse thieves, water thieves, etc. In order to win people's hearts, Wang Xianzhi appointed a large number of official positions to these people, and these official positions appointed by Wang Xianzhi were correspondingly higher than those of the official army. In the grass army, a gang commander with ten people can get the lieutenant of the escort from the ninth grade, and a team leader with fifty people can get the captain from the eighth grade, and a hundred people will be able to get the captain of the seventh grade to fruit. The commander of a 500-strong battalion is the captain of Zhengliupin Shangzhaowu. A thousand-person soldier is General Zhengwupin Dingyuan. Further up, the grass army still has 2,000 soldiers and horses, 3,000 soldiers, and even 4,000 or 5,000 soldiers. Two thousand people in a box, that is, from the fourth grade of the general Xuanwei, with 3,000 people, that is, the fourth grade of the loyal general, with 4,000 people, is the third grade champion general, with 5,000 people, from the second grade of the town army general. For example, several deputy positions in the grass army are auxiliary generals who are directly enshrined in the second grade.

There are so many official positions in the grass army, so that the official seal cannot be engraved, the general-level officers use the gold seal, the general-level military bronze seal, and then the iron seal is the lower one, and those large number of team members even directly use the wood seal.

So much so that now that the Zhenguo army has captured the prisoners, sometimes they can directly search for their official seals to know their rank.

Guo Chengan laughed a few times, "This time, I killed a total of two Zhenguo generals, captured an auxiliary general, and one Zhenguo general." In addition, there were more than 500 generals at all levels, such as General Yunlu, General Zhongwu, General Zhuangwu, General Xuanwei, General Mingwei, General Dingyuan, General Ningyuan, General Rangers, and Guerrilla Generals, who were killed and captured alive, and there were thousands of captains of various kinds. The seized gold, silver, and copper seals alone are a lot of money. There are nearly 10,000 pieces of iron seals. There are nearly 20,000 pieces of wood prints. ”

Everyone in the hall couldn't help but laugh when they heard that the grass thief had given such an indiscriminate official position. I couldn't help but shake my head after laughing. How could such a grass thief be successful. It's no wonder that the army was defeated in the first war, and even the emperor didn't dare to mess around. Qin Xiaogong once said that if you cherish the official and be stingy, the king will be in great trouble. Abuse of officials and lords is a great disaster for the country. The emperor was reluctant to give his subordinates an official title, and it was difficult for such an emperor to get the support of his courtiers. But if the emperor desperately arbitrarily seals the official title, this is the beginning of a disaster for a country's court.

Just look at Datang to know the way. At the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, many kings and dukes were rewarded, and the rewards were very indiscriminate. After Taizong Li Shimin came to power, he began to reduce the number of lords, which also attracted Li Yi and others to rebel. Since then, they have been more cautious in rewarding them, and there are very few princes, and even the prime minister only has three grades. But when it came to Xuanzong, he began to seal indiscriminately, and even sealed many county kings. not only gave An Lushan such a king, but even let Wang Zhonghei hang the seal of the four towns and festivals. An Lushan hung the seal of the commander of the three towns, and commanded 100,000 elite soldiers. opened the official position of the feudal town jiedu envoy to destroy the Tang Dynasty, and also once served as the prime minister for the jiedu envoys.

In the current late Tang Dynasty, the official positions of the imperial court are even more indiscriminate, and various official positions are added at every turn, and the envoys of the festival degree are not added to the same level of affairs, that is, to add the left and right servants, Zhongshu Ling, Shangshu Ling, and the top honorable titles such as the Three Princes and Three Divisions.

In addition to the more than 20,000 people who died, the remaining 40,000 or so are a troublesome matter. So many people, according to the rules, are to be put to death. But Li Jing didn't want to execute these people, "When the war is chaotic, most of the people who die are heroes!" ”

Li Jing couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, at this time in the Tang Dynasty, the politics of the gate valve became more and more prosperous, although there was still a channel for ordinary children to enter the imperial examination, but until now, this road is basically monopolized by the gate valve wealthy family. Those heroes in the mountains and countryside either became minions of the feudal towns, or became robbers and salt sellers.

In fact, if these people can be given a chance to get ahead, it is unlikely that they will all come to be robbers and salt mongers rebels.

These things in front of him made Li Jing more firm in his heart. The only way to win over all the talents in the world is to bring them to their own doors, or in other words, to give all the talents in the world a chance to reach their own doors and come out. In that way, the elites are all on the same side as him, and naturally no one can compete with him in this world.

"If you have the opportunity to get a background, who wants to be a thief, it is said that Wang Xianzhi also thought about seeking Zhao'an, and that Huang Chao has participated in many imperial examinations. The rebel Wang Jingwu is just thinking about a festival. Zhang Rui was indeed very careful, and whispered to Li Jing with emotion on the side.

Although Li Jing and Zhang Rui's words were not loud, they were heard by everyone in the hall, causing a sigh. Back in the time of Qiu Fu's rebellion, there was only a group of ordinary people. By the time Pang Xun rebelled, many soldiers had already joined. At present, although the grass thieves are not too powerful, and the scale has not exceeded that of Pang Xun's rebellion, there have been a large number of low-level officers in feudal towns, low-level officials of the government, and even unambitious scholars, and even many landlords who have gone bankrupt due to disasters. With these people among the grass thieves, they have even broken away from the petty fights of ordinary thieves.

"Send all the official seals of the grass thieves, as well as the leaders of the thieves who were killed, to Chang'an." Although he won a big victory, Li Jing didn't have much excitement in his heart. Instead, I felt a tightness in my chest.

"What to do with these captives?" Guo Chengan asked.

Li Jing was silent, reaching out and rubbing his temples. There are more than 40,000 captives, and there are not many real grass thieves among these people, most of them are some hungry people who have nothing to eat. Let him take these people, Li Jing can't do it. After thinking for a long time, Li Jing said slowly: "Those who wear the bronze seal above, after interrogation and registration, send them to Chang'an together." Those below the bronze seal when they expired, they were escorted to the courtyard to be stationed on the border and hoarded fields, which was not only exile from the army, but also an opportunity to change their sins. And sent to Liaodong, with the supervision of the national army in our town, there is no need to worry about chaos again. ”

In this way, although there are still as many as two or three thousand people who will be escorted to Chang'an, at least the other more than 40,000 young people are left. Brought to Liaodong, Liaodong can also be developed.

Hearing this arrangement, Zhang Rui was a little shocked. Such a major matter must at least be decided by Song Wei, the envoy of the court, and the emperor and the government hall must be consulted. Li Jing actually made a decision like this? But thinking about it, I have some appreciation for Li Jing's arbitrariness. After all, if it were left to the court to decide, it was likely that these people would either be killed or reduced to slavery. Now that Li Jing has made such a decision, it can be regarded as a good thing.

"How will the more than 50,000 displaced people be arranged?"

Speaking of these homeless people, Li Jing is also a little embarrassed, after all, although there are young and strong among these homeless people, there are more old and weak women and children. Dengzhou and Liaodong are now in a state of full population for the time being, unless Li Jing lays more ground in Liaodong, otherwise it really can't be arranged. What's more, even if people are needed, there are many people outside Dengzhou who want to enter Dengzhou now, and most of them are young and strong.

"What is Zhang Yuanjun's plan?" Li Jing threw this troublesome problem to Songzhou, after all, many of these displaced people were local people in Songzhou.

Zhang Rui thought for a while, "After this attack by thieves, Songzhou also suffered huge losses, and for the time being, we can only resettle the people of Songzhou among the displaced people, and the rest of the displaced people are powerless." ”

Li Jing nodded, this is also the truth. "In this way, the displaced people from Songzhou will be resettled by Zhang Yuanjun, and I will bring the rest with me when I return to Dengzhou, just take them back to their hometowns and hand them over to the local government for resettlement."

After deciding a few important things, everyone was much happier.

Although Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang, Bi Shiduo, Chai Cun, Liu Yanzhang, Cao Shixiong and other thieves have not yet been caught, but this time the grass thieves are almost gone, more than 20,000 were annihilated, more than 40,000 were captured, and only about 3,000 people escaped from Bianshui. Such a small number of people are really not worth mentioning.

However, Li Jing still told the officials in Songzhou that after the Dragon Boat Festival, the Zhenguo Army will pull out the camp and continue to pursue the grass thieves eastward, and these thieves must be completely exterminated. Hearing that Li Jing was going to lead the army to leave so soon, Song Zhou was full of complicated feelings. The Zhenguo army stayed in Songzhou, although Qiu Hao did not commit any crimes, but the supply of the army depended on Songzhou, which was also a big burden. But although Wang Xianzhi was defeated and fled, in Caozhou, not far from the northeast, there was another thief led by Huang Chao, the deputy commander of the grass thief. They were also worried in their hearts, what if Li Jing left and Huang Chao was killed again?

At this moment, none of the officials in Songzhou, big or small, remembered Mu Renyu, the commander of the town, and he Xuanwu Army! (To be continued......)