Things really developed as Sun Tu expected. Cai Jiu was not engaged in military affairs. Yuan Wang and Lin Henian were veterans in this field. After a few words, he lost his power to resist. And other officials did not dare to offend Yuan Tu to speak for Sun Tu. After all, they were allowed to take the initiative completely in their hands and decided that Lin Henian should be the main one. Sun Tu led the village soldiers to follow his orders.

This result was naturally not what Cai Jiu wanted to see, which made his face look even more ugly than before. He even complained in his heart that Sun Tu did not dare to stand up, otherwise there would be room for maneuver. But Sun Tu also had his own concerns. Now he knew very little about the bandit named "Feilong", and he did not dare to take such a heavy responsibility on his shoulders with all his strength. He could only take a step back and then talk about it.

However, his concession was rewarded in the end. At least when he asked Lin Henian for more advice from the water bandits, the boss nodded happily and agreed: "Since that's the case, follow me to the Xiangjun barracks and talk slowly."

The army in this wing is much better than the rural soldiers, just like the differences between militia and regular soldiers in later generations. Their military camps were not located in a corner outside the city like rural soldiers, but were opened up a large area near the city wall in the south city, and they were able to train their lives. Two arrow towers were erected inside the gate, so that ordinary people would not dare to approach easily.

When Sun Tu followed Lin Henian and others into the military camp, he found that the barracks inside were newly built, and hundreds of fangmen were wearing uniform clothes to practice martial arts. It looked much more neat than those chaotic local soldiers. Of course, all this was only reflected on the surface, and it was hard to say what the combat power of the fangmen was.

After following Lin Henian into his command post, what caught his eye was the best red sandalwood furniture. The four treasures of the study were placed on the table instead of weapons, but there were more than some military camps. The only thing that could reflect the identity of the owner here was a sheath knife hanging on one wall. I don’t know if it was Lin Dujian’s own weapon.

After a personal soldier brought them iced sour plum soup to quench their thirst and drink it, only Sun Tu and Lin Henian were left in the room. The latter then took out a slightly old sheepskin scroll from the cabinet next to it. After opening it, he realized that this was a topographic map of Zhang's painting skills and even a simple Jiangzhou area.

When he looked at this hand-painted map, like graffiti in later generations, Sun Tu frowned unconsciously. However, as Lin Dujian pointed at a black line representing Xunyang River, he no longer thought about anything else:

"In fact, this water bandit has never given any banner, just because its leader has a nickname called the Wind River Dragon. They acted fiercely and left almost no living stolen after looting the river. We called it the evil dragon. Since they suddenly appeared at the turn of spring and summer last year, they have been robbing the rivers in our Jiangzhou, especially the fifty-mile territory upstream from the Xunyang River to the lower reaches, which is even more a place where they appear. Many merchants and boatmen have been attacked, and many casualties have been killed or injured."

Sun Tu watched the other party gesture on Xunyang River with his fingers, but almost all the waters in the jurisdiction of Jiangzhou City were included, which made him even more shocked: "These thieves are really unscrupulous. As far as the officials know, don't ordinary bandits adhere to the principle of rabbits not eating grass beside their nests, and will not attack local merchants?"

"This is exactly what makes them fierce. The bandits have no worries about this. As long as they are hit by them, they will rob them all, whether they are big boats or small boats or local areas. Because of this, most of the waterways in Jiangzhou City have been cut off in one year, and merchants can only transport goods by land, but their expenses have increased by no less than 50%.

"I heard that the government had repeatedly launched the campaign, but they all ended in failure..." After hesitating for a moment, Sun Tu still explained the most important point.

Lin Henian's face looked a little bad, but she sighed and said, "At the beginning, I didn't take this group of water bandits too seriously, so I only sent a small number of troops to suppress the bandits. As a result, they either couldn't find the enemy or were attacked on the river, causing a lot of damage. However, after that, the water bandits restrained a little. Until the beginning of this year, they suddenly rekindled and became more and more worried. I decided to lead the army to suppress the bandits.

"Originally, I led more than 1,000 troops and divided into more than 20 large and small warships, which would definitely be able to destroy them in one fell swoop. But they indented into the gap that was unfavorable to the terrain, making it difficult for our official army to attack for a long time." While speaking, Lin Henian pointed his fingers in a sag in the upper reaches of Jiangzhou, Xunyang, and his expression was full of resentment: "In fact, it would be fine if this was the case. With the power of the official army, as long as they trap them, they could take some more time to capture the entire net. But, prefect Cai suddenly issued a strict order to let us break the thief as soon as possible. Affected by this, I could only order the three armies to attack day and night, and to completely annihilate the water bandits at all costs. But in the end, this gave the thieves a chance."

"But what opportunity is it?" Sun Tu also felt nervous when he heard it and immediately asked.

"There are many outstanding water robbers among the water bandits. They took advantage of the opportunity that our army was attracted by the accomplices in the bay to take it out from the water and then launched a raid from behind me. Moreover, these thieves were prepared for a long time. They set fire to several large ships behind me, causing our morale to be in chaos. Then they were defeated by the bandits in a hurry!" Lin Henian stared at the topographic map in front of him with his eyes, as if he had seen the scene of the defeat from this simple map again.

Sun Tu was also worried, and then he realized why the official army, who was obviously much stronger than the most powerful, had suffered such a great defeat, which led to the control of the entire Xunyang River. With the morale and fighting spirit of the Xiang army, after suffering from this defeat, it is probably impossible for him to dare to fight again in a short time. At the same time, this also made him understand why Cai Jiu was speechless by their words today. It turned out that his previous decision-making mistakes led to the bitter fruits of today.

Perhaps it is precisely because of his great guilt and his special identity that the court did not pursue the matter at all, and the situation in Jiangzhou was delayed until today but still could not be resolved.

After taking a few heavy breaths and pouring a large bowl of sour plum soup into my mouth, Lin Henian breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Sun Tu and said, "Sun Tuanlian, it is because of this defeat that I want to commit crimes and make meritorious contributions. This time, I hope you can cooperate with me to completely wipe out this bandits and give me peace in Jiangzhou City."

Feeling the sincerity and enthusiasm in his eyes, Sun Tu immediately nodded heavily: "Of course, the lower officials should obey the orders of Lin Dujian to assist you in quelling this group of water bandits. However, the lower officials still have a question. After the previous battle, will the wing army still have a way to defeat the enemy?"

"Of course, you don't know what arrangements I made to cleanse my previous shame. In fact, the movements of the bandits are always in my control. I already know that they are hiding on a small sand island in the river. As long as they find the right opportunity and launch a surprise attack, they will definitely be able to catch them all in one place!" Lin Henian's face brought a hint of excitement and pointed to a place in the map and said.

Sun Tu was stunned and then understood: "Dujian put eyeliners among the thieves?"

Lin Henian nodded with a smile: "Now Sun Tuanlian should believe that cooperation with me will surely calm the thief and chaos?"

Sun Tu nodded in agreement, and then discussed and analyzed the information he received based on the information he received. He did not say goodbye until the sun sets westward and left the military camp.

When Sun Tu returned home, it was completely dark. Lu Da and Yang Zhi, who were helping train the village soldiers in the camp, had already returned home. When they learned about the day from Sun Tu, Yang Zhi suddenly became excited: "I have been practicing for many days and finally got a place to use my skills."

"It's just a pity. This time, the thieves should be mainly the wing army. At most, we beat the drums on the side. It may be difficult to get any great contributions." Sun Tu said helplessly.

This time, Lu Da, who is more warlike by nature, seemed a little hesitant: "The Sa family is not good at fighting water. I'm afraid I won't help you too much this time." As a Northwest military man, he is indeed not good at water. When he arrives on the river, he can only protect himself.

Hearing this, Sun Tu suddenly felt a sudden change. If we talk about water skills, aren't there a few masters in Jiangzhou City? And according to time, they have not yet returned to Liangshan. If they can recruit them into the army, the chances of winning this battle will be much greater.

While wondering if he should go to inquire about the traces of those people tomorrow, someone knocked on the gate of the courtyard. Sun Tu immediately went to open the door to see the guests, but found that the man standing in front of the door was an extremely strange man, with a fair face and a medium figure, and a neat beard under his chin. Although he was full of heroic spirit, he was still quite kind and polite.

"Who are you?" Sun Tu looked up and down at the man in ordinary short clothes in front of him, guessing the other party's identity.

And this person was simply surrendered: "Is Zunjia a relative and friend of Sun Tuanlian? Xiao Ke's surname is Zhang Shun, and he is a fishmonger in Jiangzhou City. I'm here to tell you something today."

Zhang Shun? Langli Baitiao? Just as he was stunned, Sun Tu thought of the other party's identity and was surprised. He was just thinking about whether he could bring these masters to the army, but his wishes came true. This master who was known as Langli Baitiao, and his master who was ranked among the top martial arts in Liangshan came to his door.
Chapter completed!