Sun Tu glanced at Song Jiang who shut up again, and vaguely guessed some of his thoughts, but he did not point it out. He just continued: "Of course, even if the court can provide us with sufficient food, grass and weapons and supplies, it will not be easy for our army to make achievements in Jiangnan. Not to mention that the terrain and landforms of Jiangnan are very different from those of our Shandong. There are many waterways and hills, which are not conducive to the assault of elite soldiers. We don't know much about Fang La's anti-army situation, so it is urgent to collect relevant information as soon as possible."

"What the capital surveillance said is that one knows oneself and his enemy will never be defeated in a hundred battles. If one really wants to send troops to quell the chaos, one must first grasp the specific situation there." Qi Desheng agreed with deep understanding.

"The chief minister, actually the officials know some of the inside information." Huang Wenbing suddenly spoke.

"Oh? Master Huang, do you know much about Jiangnan?" Sun Tu asked happily, and at the same time he felt a little strange. Huang Wenbing was from Jiangzhou and then became an official in Qingzhou. Why did he pay attention to the situation of Jiangnan rioters?

Huang Wenbing also saw his questions and explained a few words first: "In fact, most of the people who know about Xiaguan came from the imperial court's official residence, while others were said by the brothers who came to Qingzhou to join me last year. He had been doing business in Zhejiang two years ago, but the Fang La chaos broke out and his property was robbed. He finally escaped alone, but his savings were also wasted."

"So that's it, then let's talk about it." Sun Tu felt a little ashamed. He never paid much attention to the official documents in the court, and now it seems that it is not worth it. After all, the contents in these official documents are still very useful.

Huang Wenbing then said in detail: "Fang La was originally from Qingxi, Muzhou. His family was poor and had some industries. He was very generous and righteous on weekdays. He was famous in the local area and was praised by people in the world." Speaking of this, not only him, but many people present subconsciously looked at Song Jiang, because this background was similar to Song Jiang, and the trajectories of the two of them later took were somewhat similar.

But soon, he withdrew his gaze and continued, "It is precisely because of this that he had many brothers in Muzhou. In addition, there is a sect called Manichaeism in the local area, which is deeply believed by the people there. Over the years, there have been tens of thousands of sects. Fang La is a member of this sect. Because he is generous by nature and has made friends, he soon occupied a high position in the sect, and thousands of people are willing to follow his orders.

"At first of all, these are not problems, but two years ago, Zhu Xie's subordinates went to Muzhou for extorting Hua Shigang, and fell in love with the Fang family's property. They used the excuse that they had beautiful stones hidden in their homes and locked up their fathers and brothers, and finally forced them to die tragically in prison, and the Fang family was destroyed.

"At that time, Fang La escaped because he was rescued by others. Then, after knowing that his father and brother were killed, he was determined to take revenge. Just so happened that the people in Qingxi were exploited by those corrupt officials and suffered a lot. In addition, there was the Manichaeism in the middle and fanned the flames, which finally made the local people rise up and kill officials and rebel.

"In fact, with the power of the people in Qingxi, there could not cause much noise. However, the officials there were not effective. Not only did they fail to exterminate the thief in time, but they continued to act recklessly, but they also forced the people of other county towns around them to a dead end. Finally, Fang La and Manichaeism seized the opportunity to grow rapidly. When the troops exceeded 10,000, it was out of control. In just a few months, the rebel forces expanded to 50,000, and successively captured Shouchang, Tonglu, Sui'an and other counties. In September last year, they successively defeated Xiuzhou and Hangzhou. Now half of the Jiangnan area has fallen into the hands of the rebels. Even if the imperial court sent troops to clear the troops several times since last year, it has not been possible. Instead, it has helped to increase the momentum of the rebels and further expand its strength. It is said that he has 100,000 troops under his command..."

After saying this, even Sun Tu didn't feel the color change slightly and took a breath. The strength of Fang La was obviously beyond his expectations.

As a time traveler with limited knowledge of the history of the Song Dynasty, he knew that Fang La's name was still based on the book "Water Margin". However, in that book, Fang La was considered the last boss, but his strength was obviously far inferior to Liangshan. Even though the Liangshan heroes suffered losses and suffered heavy casualties in the battle against Fang La, he was eventually defeated by the Liangshan army.

But Sun Tu thought that if he could quell the Liangshan Rebellion in one or two months, it would not be too difficult for him to fight Fang La in the south as long as he tried his best. But now it seems that he was too blindly optimistic before. The real Jiangnan Fang La was much stronger than the Song Jiang and his gang who were fighting and making trouble.

The Fang La army was much stronger than the Liangshan army, which was the support of the local people. Although Huang Wenbing did not say it too much, Sun Tu could still draw a conclusion from it. The Fang La army could grow rapidly to a hundred thousand in just one or two years, which must have won the hearts of the local people. But what about Shandong? The people are all interested in themselves and the government, so the Liangshan heroes isolated on the mountain will be quickly pacified.

In this way, we can draw another conclusion: fighting Sun Tu in Liangshan in Shandong is a home battle, while going to Jiangnan to quell the rebellion is a thorough battle in the imperial court. Not only can we not get support from the local people, but we must also be wary of their sneak attacks and disturbances behind their backs.

After all, all of this is thanks to Zhu Xie, who made a fertile land in Jiangnan, and the people were living in trouble. But he, the initiator, was still in Suzhou for free at this time, and the court had no intention of blaming him at all, but he left a big problem in front of him.

In fact, not only Sun Tu, but also the other generals present also became extremely serious after listening to Huang Wenbing's story. They were also a little frightened - the 100,000 rebels are really a scary number, and that is the data from a year ago. Maybe after a year of development, and the people in Jiangnan suffered from the disaster of Hua Shigang, their troops would double, reaching astronomical figures such as 200,000 to 300,000.

Compared with that, the thousands of people in Liangshanpo, the so-called strongest bandit in Shandong, were not enough to see. Sun Tu even said he would be cheating, Water Margin harmed people. If he had known that the Jiangnan rebels were so powerful, he would not have been able to do this job so simply.

It seemed that he thought Sun Tu was not having a headache enough, so Song Jiang also spoke: "Main Superintendent, as far as I know, Fang La's command not only has a large number of people, but also has many generals who are accustomed to fighting. The brothers of his clan, Fang Fei and Fang Qifo are all extremely brave. There is also a man named Pang Wanchun, who is even a rare hero in Jiangnan, both civil and military... So we must not underestimate the enemy, we must be well prepared to advance."

Which eye did you see that I was underestimating the enemy? Sun Tu smiled bitterly in his heart, and his face was still Zheng's key point, and then asked again: "Brother Gongming, how could you know the generals around Fang La's side of everything?"

"Because Fang La sent someone to Liangshan last year to recruit our brothers to conspire for major events, but Song refused." Song Jiang did not hide it and directly told the truth: "In order to convince our brothers, the visitor deliberately reported the names of all the generals under Fang La, and several of them were famous in the Green Forest Road in Jiangnan."

Sun Tu nodded. He guessed that Song Jiang had this decision. On the one hand, he did not want to let go of Liangshan's foundation, but more importantly, he felt that Fang La's uprising was more thorough than his, and both sides were not the same. After all, in Song Jiang's concept, the mistake was only the treacherous and slandered in the court, and the emperor was just blinded by them, so he insisted on anti-corruption officials rather than the emperor. But Fang La was different. He really wanted to rebel and was even about to be emperor, which was naturally something that Song Jiang could not accept.

The army of more than 100,000 and 200,000, dozens of generals who can fight, and have won the hearts of the local people and seized many cities as a supporter. These situations were put in front of everyone. Even though the generals were all experienced in battle, they didn't feel a little panicked at this time. Just because they didn't want to weaken their own power, everyone did not express their concerns directly, but their faces turned pale.

"This matter cannot be pushed away. The only thing we can do is to be cautious and not be careless after sending troops to Jiangnan, nor do we have to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly." Sun Tu swept across everyone with a serious expression.

"I will obey the order!" Everyone responded solemnly.

After seeing everyone's nervous look, Sun Tu smiled again: "Actually, you don't have to be so panicked. Although Fang La's army under him has many soldiers, the real elite may not be able to compare with our Shandong army of war. Moreover, he has now occupied half of the Jiangnan area, and dozens of cities are in his hands, and he always has to disperse the troops and horses to guard. Therefore, what we have to face in the future is impossible to be hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, but passes and cities guarded by anti-army everywhere. As long as we are united and use our troops to be effective, it is not too difficult to eliminate the Jiangnan rebellion."

This was at the point. After everyone thought about it carefully, they breathed a sigh of relief and responded again: "I am obeying the teachings of the governor. This time, our army will win!"

"Okay, let's all part. When you go to each battalion to explain the decision of our officer later, you should also pay attention to one degree and never weaken my own prestige!" Sun Tu said and waved his hand.

So, everyone just dispersed, but they were still worried. Of course, in everyone's opinion, there was still some days before the real southern expedition. After all, everyone has experienced the efficiency of the court's affairs. In less than two or three months, they could not get a reward. In addition, the mobilization of food, grass and supplies, they would have to wait until next year to send troops.

But sometimes the plan often cannot keep up with the changes. No one expected that something big happened in Jiangnan at this time, which made the court completely angry. Then he immediately issued an urgent order to ask Sun Tu to send troops as soon as possible, and all logistics matters were handled quickly...
Chapter completed!