Xue Wu hesitated for a moment and said, "Your Excellency, the captain of the Xiang army whom I killed was the youngest son of Fan Zigang, the governor of Yuzhou, and the nephew of Fan Ziyong, the right prime minister.
I'm worried that joining the Zhenxi Army will cause some trouble for the Grand Commander."
Sun Hao said nonchalantly, "Brother Xue Wu must also know that the Zhenxi Army only obeys the orders of this commander-in-chief.
The imperial court's decree, in Zhenxi Protectorate and Xizhou, is just a piece of waste paper without the consent of this governor.
Don't say that you just killed the nephew of Right Prime Minister Fan Ziyong. Because of the crime of killing an innocent person and taking credit for it, even if you killed Right Prime Minister Fan Ziyong's own son, this commander-in-chief will recruit you into the Zhenxi Army.
Brother Xue Wu, you don't have to worry about anything. Right Prime Minister Fan Ziyong has no control over the Zhenxi Army."
Xue Wu no longer hesitated when he heard this. "Since the Grand Commander said so, I, Xue Wu, am willing to join the Zhenxi Army and serve the Grand Commander."
The 250,000 bandits led by Xue Wu, except Xue Wu who stayed with Sun Hao, the rest of the bandits were escorted by 5,000 troops of the Zhenxi Army and set off for Xizhou.
Including these 5,000 wing troops, 20,000 of the 40,000 wing troops led by Sun Hao had already left in order to bring the millions of bandits from Pizhou and Yuzhou back to Xizhou.
The original 200,000 Zhenxi Army troops were reduced to 180,000.
In the Ganyang Army's tent, Cao Tingjin, the Grand Commandant of the Ganyang Protectorate, said to Fan Cheng, the Grand Commandant of the Huaide Protectorate, with a worried look on his face: "With these 250,000 bandits, I'm afraid the number of bandits sent to Xizhou has exceeded one million.
Although this approach eliminated the bandits in Pizhou and Yuzhou, it was equivalent to allowing Sun Hao to increase his population by one million in vain.
It is said that Xizhou's population has already exceeded 40 million, perhaps even more than the combined population of our five northwestern states."
Fan Cheng, the Grand Commander of Huaide Protectorate, sighed and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Those bandits are willing to surrender to the Zhenxi Army. We can't force them to surrender to the Ganyang Army and Huaide Army!
Moreover, even if the bandits surrendered to your Ganyang Army and my Huaide Army, we would not have enough food to feed tens of thousands of bandits, let alone a place to house them."
Cao Tingjin frowned and said, "But we can't just sit back and watch the Zhenxi Protectorate grow stronger and stronger. After all, the Zhenxi Protectorate is already a vassal state.
The stronger the Zhenxi Protectorate becomes, the more difficult it will be for the imperial court to eliminate the feudal lords in the future."
Fan Cheng then said, "Fortunately, we are about to enter Meizhou, and the two town imperial guards led by the prince should be arriving in Meizhou soon.
Let Your Majesty take care of the affairs of the Zhenxi Protectorate!"
The prince that Fan Cheng was referring to was Chen Su, the Prince of Yong'an.
Cao Tingjin nodded and said, "We can only rely on Prince Yong'an to restrain Sun Hao. Otherwise, even if the Ganyang Army and the Huaide Army are tied together, they will not be a match for the Zhenxi Army.
I really don’t know how Sun Hao trained so many elite armored soldiers.
The 160,000 armored soldiers of the Zhenxi Army's Left and Right Guards and the Imperial Guards should be enough to defeat the imperial army, which is several times larger."
"Commander Cao is absolutely right. The elite level of the Zhenxi Army's armored soldiers is simply outrageous.
Take the 160,000 armored soldiers of the left and right guards of the Zhenxi Army and the personal guards, for example. Among them, the war horses of more than 100,000 cavalrymen were basically all Anlum horses.
I just can't figure out where Sun Hao got so many Anlumas. Even Anlumas's birthplace, Anlumas, only seems to have around 10,000 Anlumas."
Cao Tingjin said: "There are too many mysteries surrounding Sun Hao. The Jinyiwei have been investigating Sun Hao, but unfortunately there seems to be no progress.
By the way, I heard that Li Zhe, the commander of the Zhenrong Army's Left Guard, brought a stunning beauty with him this time, and is planning to marry Sun Hao?"
Fan Cheng nodded and said, "It is true. That stunning beauty is Li Zhe's half-sister, and the biological daughter of Li Rui, the Grand Commander of the Zhenrong Protectorate. Her name is Li Jingqi, and she is known as the most beautiful woman in Yuzhou."
Cao Tingjin smiled bitterly and said, "Sun Hao is a lecher to begin with. Now the Li family of Binwu City has brought out the most beautiful woman in Yuzhou. It seems that they want to form an alliance with the Zhenxi Army.
If the Zhenxi Army and the Zhenrong Army were to unite, it would be even more difficult for the imperial court to eliminate these two major vassal states."
Inside the temporary camp of the Zhenrong Army's Left Guard, Li Zhe, the commander-in-chief of the Zhenrong Army's Left Guard, asked his sister Li Jingqi, "Did you meet Sun Hao, the Grand Commander of the Zhenxi Army, today?"
Li Jingqi frowned and said, "Brother, do you really have to make me marry that Sun Hao?
I watched him from a distance today and I don’t like that kind of him.”
Li Zhe immediately persuaded her, "Jingqi, it's not my brother and father who are forcing you to do this. It's really because our Li family in Binwu City is facing the crisis of being exterminated.
With the addition of the Zhenxi Army, the campaign to clear out the bandits in the northern states should be put down soon.
The millions of bandits in Pizhou and Yuzhou were frightened by the reputation of the Zhenxi Army and surrendered to it without even fighting a battle.
You have to know that it was Prince Yong'an who organized the crackdown on the bandits this time. Once the bandits in the northern states were wiped out, given Prince Yong'an's temperament, he would definitely take action against some of the protectorates in the northern states.
The Zhenrong Protectorate, which is controlled by the Li family of our Binwu City, is likely to become the target of Prince Yong'an.
During the previous Xiongnu invasion, if the barbarians in the southwest hadn't rebelled, our Li family in Binwu City might have been wiped out by Prince Yong'an."
Li Jingqi's brows furrowed even more upon hearing this. "Brother, after I marry Sun Hao, will Prince Yong'an no longer dare to target our Li family in Binwu City?"
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