Chapter 192 [Kind, Passionate, and Stupid]
The troops under Lord Hu are just there to make up the numbers. Most of them are older naval or infantry soldiers from the Lingnan coast who have been transferred here to wait for retirement.
Lord Hu was afraid that training the soldiers would injure their old arms and legs, so he was reluctant to re-employ them. It was even difficult to find a place for these soldiers to retire on South Island.
Usually, the military strength under the command of a county governor is allocated according to the importance of the area he is in. Usually, the number of troops under the command of a county governor is between two and five thousand.
At present, Lord Hu has no more than a thousand soldiers under his command, and this thousand is just in name only. Excluding those who died of old age or sickness, it would be good if he could have five hundred people to use.
These veterans are stationed on the other side of the mountain behind Yeli Village, close to the sea.
Jiang Lili and Xin Che met once in the mountains, which was similar to a large and simple nursing home.
She thought this was the logistics department under Lord Hu, but today she found out that all the soldiers were here.
Jiang Lili comforted Lord Hu and said, "Let's observe the situation first. The prince said that these two people can't cause any trouble. I will also notify the He family to arrange countermeasures."
When Hu Chen heard Jiang Lili's words, his tense body relaxed slightly.
Jiang Lili felt very sad about Mr. Hu's situation. An old man was guarding a deserted island with a group of old men. There was no hope at all. How could he not give in to decadence?
"Old Hu, it's not easy for you either. But it's okay. Fifty or sixty is the age to make breakthroughs!"
"That's right." Lord Hu put down his bag again. "How about you treat me to a mutton hot pot as a comfort for all the hard work I put into renovating the fire pole?"
Jiang Lili rolled her eyes at him. The day before yesterday, Xin Che had brought back six wild sheep from the mountains with his hunting team, and Lord Hu had been thinking about them. "Why, you're not going to run away?"
"Who said I was planning to run away? I'm carrying this bag because I'm planning to go to the barracks in the mountains to comfort the soldiers."
Lord Hu vowed, "I will live and die with this island!"
Jiang Lili didn't believe it. "If you want to eat sheep, let your men catch them themselves. These six wild sheep must be kept in the village and tamed."
In fact, among the batch of wild sheep that Xin Che and his men drove back from the mountains, there were two ewes that she asked Xiaopang to feed from modern times.
In order to save money and conceal their tracks, they released it in the mountains for a while, attracting four other rams.
Jiang Lili saw that it was almost done, so she took her men and captured them all in one fell swoop.
Seeing how greedy Lord Hu was, Jiang Lili patiently persuaded him, "The future of meat for every household in Yeli Village depends on these six wild sheep. If you want them, you can ask Xin Che and my second brother to help you catch them. We'll give you a special price: one lamb will cover the labor cost of making two fire poles."
"Your desire to make money never stops for a moment!"
Lord Hu said this on the surface, but he was actually a little tempted in his heart.
At this time, Xin Che brought Xin Cheng and Zhao Pinghou here to discuss the matter of the two spies.
South Island is currently rife with crises, and the fate of the refugees and islanders is linked. In addition, Lord Hu trusts the character of the people of Marquis Zhaoping's Mansion, so he does not conceal too much and tells the three of them about the current military situation on the island.
As experienced generals, the Xin family's father and son had guessed most of the situation in Dan'er County. After hearing it, they just sighed.
Xin Che calmly analyzed, "If the enemy country is eyeing our South Island and wants to send troops to capture it, we may have a chance of victory. Our soldiers have been stationed in the mountains for a long time and can take advantage of the terrain, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack."
After Xin Che finished speaking, Jiang Lili looked up at Lord Hu. After listening to Xin Che's analysis, it seemed that Lord Hu was abandoning his soldiers and leaving them in the mountains to "retire". However, it was actually the wisest choice.
This allows the elderly soldiers to firmly grasp the terrain advantage and use the mountains behind as a natural defense barrier, which saves a lot of effort.
Jiang Lili's eyes were sharp. She wondered how a good official who loved his people like his own children could suddenly change his temper. "Old man, you don't look as cowardly as you appear."
Hu Chen smiled and said, "No, no, it was just an accident."
He knew that Jiang Lili and the others had a keen sense of smell, so he asked, "Where did these two spies come from? Do you have any idea?"
Xin Che took out the shells that the Zhang brothers had given him and said, "From the looks of the shells and conchs on Li Li's table, they don't look like products from Haizhou Island. They look like shells from the Sunan Islands."
In his early years, Marquis Zhaoping sought out premium shelled Amomum villosum for his wife, Madam Yang, to aid pregnancy and childbirth. Having previously traveled to Southeast Asia, he was familiar with the South China Sea: "There are about a dozen small island nations, large and small, on the Sunan Islands. Their lifestyles are relatively primitive and backward, and they don't like to interact with outsiders."
“Merchants from Lingnan and the North Coast don’t do much business with them either.”
He stroked his beard and recalled the situation more than ten years ago: "These tiny countries were ignored by the Great Sheng Dynasty. They were too lazy to send envoys to negotiate with them, and they left these small countries alone."
"So we have no way of knowing what these small countries have been like in recent years."
Xin Cheng pointed to the archipelago on the map and said, "But now that we've confirmed it's a small country in the Sunan Islands, we've narrowed the scope. It's better than searching aimlessly."
"Should we play hard to get or capture him and torture him?"
Xin Che pondered for a moment and said, "If we capture him now, I'm afraid it will alert the enemy and they will think they have been planning to capture Haizhou Island for a long time."
"Why not let them go back and send someone to follow them? Let them first find out how many people are on the other side and their combat strength."
Marquis Zhaoping frowned: "Who should I send?"
Now that the Xin family army is gone, there are very few people available, so I have to go there in person.
"As long as we can hold the south bank, everything will be up to you. However..." Lord Hu scratched his head, "I really don't have any men here. If I send any of my soldiers out, the sea breeze might cause them to get cold legs."
"Xiao Wu and the other yamen runners aren't professionals either."
Jiang Lili and Xin Che exchanged a glance, and it suddenly occurred to her that all those pirates who had been recruited had some devious ways, like making knockout drugs, stealing, and tracking...
Thinking of this, Jiang Lili said, "Don't worry, there are people who can be used among the people sent to me by the He family."
*
On the deserted coast, the Zhang brothers are plotting.
Zhang Zhao couldn't hide his joy on his face: "Hahaha, I didn't expect that the so-called heavy troops stationed on Haizhou Island were actually a group of old and weak retired veterans."
They had returned from the mountains and had figured out the location of the Dan'er County barracks. "I find it strange. The emperor of the Great Sheng Dynasty had no time to care about Haizhou Island. Even the Dan'er County he established was like a mere formality. How could he have arranged for a heavy military presence? It turns out it's just a bunch of old and weak soldiers."
"Thinking this way, it will be much easier for us, the Mi Kingdom, to attack the South Island."
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