The five protectorates in the southeast don't have a strong vassal state like the Zhenxi Army."
Then, Prince Yong'an Chen Su changed the subject, "I intend to have Sun Hao, the Grand Commander of the Zhenxi Protectorate, take over as the commander-in-chief of the army to suppress the rebellion. What do you think, Mr. Xiao?"
"Your Highness's move is quite appropriate. With the Zhenxi Army leading the charge, there shouldn't be any problem in wiping out the bandits in Zibo and Yizhou."
"By the way, is there any new news from Geng Jing?"
Xiao Jing shook his head and said, "Your Highness, Geng Jing and the officers from the Imperial Guards in the Zhenxi Army's Left Guard have long been sidelined by Sun Hao's men.
Expecting Geng Jing to pull the Zhenxi Army's Left Guard over to the imperial court is probably unrealistic."
"No matter what, with Geng Jing and his men here, we've put a nail in the coffin of the Zhenxi Army.
Tell Geng Jing that I have plenty of patience and will always wait for him to bring me some surprises."
Gong Rong, the Grand Commander of the Qingyuan Protectorate, and Yao Wenzhu, the Grand Commander of the Shouchang Protectorate, led the Left Guard of the Qingyuan Army and the Left Guard of the Shouchang Army to meet up with the Zhenxi Army, Huaide Army and Shaochang Army, and brought two women to Sun Hao.
They are Gong Rong's concubine's daughter Gong Xixi and Yao Wenzhu's niece Yao Xuehan. Gong Rong and Yao Wenzhu hope that Sun Hao can marry these two women as his co-wives.
Gong Xixi's charm value is 96 points, and Yao Xuehan's charm value is 97 points, both of which can provide Sun Hao with an additional sign-in opportunity in the "Annual Sign-in System".
In addition, marrying into the Gong family of Menshan City, which controlled the Qingyuan Army, and the Yao family of Ganquan City, which controlled the Shouchang Army, would also be beneficial to the Zhenxi Army, so Sun Hao readily agreed to these two marriages.
This time when Sun Hao led his army into the pass to wipe out the bandits, he not only snatched thirty concubines whose charm values met the requirements of the annual signing system task in Songzhu Pavilion in Ganyang City, but also someone sent him six beauties with super high charm values. It can be said that he had a great harvest.
When Sun Hao was happily enjoying getting two beauties for free, he suddenly learned that he had become the commander-in-chief of the army to suppress the rebellion.
"Mr. Fang, Mr. Du, what do you think Prince Yong'an means by letting me take over as the commander-in-chief of the army to suppress the rebellion?" Sun Hao asked Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui.
Fang Xuanling then said, "My lord, there is no need to worry. Prince Yong'an's move should be to quell the bandits in Zibo and Yizhou as soon as possible.
Now that the war with Northern Jin has begun, if the north is unstable, Prince Yong'an will not be able to concentrate on dealing with the Northern Jin army."
Du Ruhui then said, "My lord, you can use the title of commander-in-chief to move more bandits to Xizhou.
If our plan goes smoothly, we should be able to incorporate Puwan into our Zhenxi Protectorate. This will require a large number of Liang people to improve the population structure of Puwan's cities."
Sun Hao sighed and said, "Next, we should help the court to eliminate the bandits in Zibo and Yizhou as soon as possible. This will be considered as our Zhenxi Army fulfilling its loyalty to the court. In addition, we can return to Xizhou in time to provide assistance.
Send someone to notify the Zhenrong, Nankang, Qingyuan, and Shouchang armies to march out early tomorrow morning and attack Suiping County!"
Now, more than two million bandits have gathered in Suiping County and Xinxi County in Zibo Prefecture.
Among them, the brothers Liu Hu and Liu Bao had over a million bandits under their command, more than 1.2 million bandits from Meizhou, and more than 40,000 bandits who escaped from Wanqiu County, Zibo.
There were originally only 700,000 bandits in Meizhou, but because their leader Yuan Tianhu ordered the encirclement of more than 500,000 people from nine counties in the eastern part of Meizhou, the number of bandits in Meizhou reached more than 1.2 million.
Those people who were dragged into this situation, whether they wanted to or not, were absorbed into the Meizhou bandits.
The biggest reason why the bandits in the north of Liang State were able to sweep across many northern states in a short period of time was that the bandits would coerce the people and force them to become bandits as well.
Upon learning that Prince Yong'an had led the imperial guards Jingwu Town and Chaowu Town back to the capital, the brothers Liu Hu and Liu Bao, as well as Yuan Tianhu, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Prince Yong'an's attitude towards the bandits has always frightened the bandit leaders. Otherwise, the bandits in Wanqiu County, led by their leader Tang Ba, would not have fought a bloody battle with the imperial army for nearly two months and would not have surrendered even if they died.
"Brother Yuan, now that Prince Yong'an is gone, do you have any thoughts?" Liu Hu asked Yuan Tianhu in a deep voice.
The two brothers Liu Hu and Liu Bao were originally hunters in the mountains. They both had excellent martial arts skills. The reason they were able to become the largest bandit group in Zibo was because of their bravery.
Yuan Tianhu glanced at the scholar Xie Deyi beside him, and Xie Deyi nodded to Yuan Tianhu.
Yuan Tianhu then sighed and said, "Brother Liu Hu, Brother Liu Bao, we started an uprising just to have something to eat to survive.
Now the Zhenxi Army has relocated all the rebels who joined them to Xizhou and even distributed land and houses. This has already made many of my brothers no longer want to fight."
Liu Hu sighed and said, "Many of my brothers are in the same situation."
At this time, Liu Bao said somewhat unwillingly: "Now the combined forces of the Suiping and Xinxi counties have more than 700,000 combat-ready soldiers.
Prince Yong'an has taken the imperial guards from the two towns with him. I think we have a good chance of winning even if we fight."
Xie Deyi couldn't help but interject, "It's probably not a question of victory or defeat right now. The main issue is that the morale of our rebel army has been shaken, especially after Prince Yong'an left. The vast majority of our rebel brothers want to go to Xizhou to start a new life."
Tang Ba, who had been silent the whole time, said bitterly, "My brothers who have been fighting bloody battles with the government troops for nearly two months, upon learning that Prince Yong'an has left, are actually thinking of surrendering to the Zhenxi Army.
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