"What? Where was the attack?"
Shen Tang suddenly stood up and looked at Ning Yan.
The rest of the subordinates also turned their heads.
Ning Yan steadied her breath and said, "Nanyu County."
Shen Tang's face darkened and she straightened her lips. Two years of recuperation made her look less aggressive and more gentle than before. But at this moment, the cold murderous intent in her eyes was even stronger than before: "Those bastards of Shiwu?"
When Longwu County was attacked, the first suspect was Shiwu. However, Shen Tang changed his mind - according to the information sent back by Yu Zi and others in Shiwu, Shiwu was now divided into five parts, and nearly 80% of the medium and small tribes were fighting against the large tribes.
The two sides fought fiercely for water, food, minerals, military power and even who was the legitimate ruler of the Ten Crows. The once invincible Ten Crows Royal Court became a mere shell after Su Shiyilu led the tribe to break away from the royal court, and the two forces completely turned against each other.
The Ten Crow Slaves took advantage of the situation and rose to power. Although they were large in scale, they had a fatal weakness - they were all ordinary people.
They simply don't have the capital to fight against the tribal forces with extraordinary powers, but as the man behind the scenes, how could Shen Tang not take the opportunity to add fuel to the fire? They are indeed weak ordinary people, but they are not without powerful trump cards!
They can use "faith" as a weapon.
Spread the legends of ancestors everywhere.
Bring hope to tribal residents caught in the war.
Assimilate all enemies into your own people.
The current Shiwu, unless a brave and fierce son of destiny is sent down from heaven to defeat the entire Shiwu with absolute iron-blooded means, otherwise it will not be able to unite at all. In this case, how can we raise our military strength to launch a surprise attack on Nanyu County
Ning Yan's answer also verified Shen Tang's guess.
"No, it's not Shiwu."
Shen Tang frowned: "That must be that evil neighbor."
Due to the weather, Nanyu County collected grain two or three days in advance, and the new grain was piled up in the local grain warehouse. It would be sent to the government office only after it was counted. It was not too early or too late for a good neighbor to call at this time. What was he looking for? You can tell with your toes.
The thing that Qishan was most worried about finally happened.
Shen Tang is good at farming and puts a lot of emphasis on restoring people's livelihood. He allocates budget without any regrets and strives to make the people under his rule warm and well-fed, so that the common people benefit. However, the military force cannot keep up, and the results may be plundered at any time.
Everyone understands this.
We have worked hard to keep pace with the past two years.
While restoring the livelihood and economy of Longwu County, he used all means to attract refugees to settle down, recruited young and strong men from them, trained them strictly, and tried to make up for the shortcomings. It took two years of effort to expand the army to 25,000.
You have to know how rare this scale is for a small border county with a small population. How many households are there in Longwu County at most? How can the local fiscal revenue support 25,000 elite troops? It's all Shen Tang's various income subsidies.
Despite such efforts, there are still shortcomings.
There is a severe shortage of mid to high level brave warriors.
Chu Jie couldn't stand it anymore, so he gave Shen Tang two more experienced veterans. Counting the ones that were tricked away before, there were four people in total, plus Shen Tang's original team of brave warriors, it was barely acceptable. The number of people was acceptable, but the average quality was not good!
The most important thing is that the battlefield is blind, and warriors are in a sense "consumables", and a defeat may kill half of them. Shen Tang had no choice but to focus on the "new generation" potential stocks such as Tu Rong, Lu Ji and Zhao Wei.
Give these young people more opportunities to make meritorious deeds in exchange for more martial luck and speed up their training progress.
Lu Jue, Bai Su and others also felt a sense of urgency, and often practiced hard in seclusion without affecting their military affairs.
Shen Tang also helped secretly.
but-
Two years is still a bit short.
The first year was a good harvest, but the neighbors were still watching.
The next year there was a good harvest, and the neighbors had become greedy.
Shen Tang asked: "Who are the troops stationed in Nanyu County?"
Ning Yan replied: "It's Captain Bai."
Shen Tang suppressed his murderous intent and asked, "How many troops does the enemy have?"
"Five thousand."
This time the enemy attacked without any warning.
Five thousand cavalrymen suddenly entered the country at night, using the method of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west. They first burned and killed several villages and towns, creating chaos and confusing Bai Su and others. They came and went like the wind, their actions were not hindered, and they did not need to worry about anything, but Bai Su was afraid of the consequences and his actions were hindered. In addition, everything happened too suddenly, resulting in a very passive situation...
Shen Tang also gave orders.
If there is a war, the people should be put first.
The garrison on Bai Su's side was very small and could not confront the enemy head-on. They could only send troops to resist the enemy, send requests for help to the government, and organize the common people to hide in the bunkers prepared in advance to minimize casualties.
The fundamental problem is still insufficient manpower.
Fortunately, the enemy's target was the granary.
There was no excessive fighting.
Shen Tang knew that all eggs should not be put in one basket, so he divided the granary into three locations of different sizes.
Even if you encounter the enemy, you won't be wiped out all at once.
Shen Tang laughed angrily: "Five thousand? Not bad. If they weren't coming for the granary, wouldn't these five thousand people be able to slaughter everyone in Nanyu County? If you're short of food, you can just talk about it openly and send troops to rob it... Do you think I won't get angry?"
She hadn't killed anyone in two years.
You have to force her loving mother to draw blood, right
Chu Yao and the others also looked cold.
They reached a consensus almost instantly.
This loss must be paid back tenfold.
If big things are reduced to small things, the label of Shen Tang, the governor of Longwu County, will not be "a kind man", but "a big villain", "a mobile granary", "a coward". In the future, anyone who is short of food can send 5,000 people to buy it for free.
This kind of opening must never be opened.
"Is it from Sibao County?"
Chu Yao went over the distribution of the surrounding neighbors in his mind.
There are only two suspects in the direction of Nanyu County, and Sibao County is the most suspicious. The previous governor of Sibao County was Yan Cheng, who was killed by Shen Tang and Qi Shan. After that, Zheng Qiao sent a new one, but he was replaced by Qiu Cheng, who came from a noble family, within two months.
Ning Yan said: "Yes, it is under the command of Prime Minister Qiu."
Shen Tang barely managed to figure out who this person was.
“Qiu Wenyan?” She sneered, “This old bastard!”
Everyone tacitly ignored the lord's swearing.
Shen Tang gritted his teeth and said, "Gather the troops and fight back!"
Sibao County…
She is very familiar with this place.
Chu Yao and the others did not agree immediately, but frowned and reminded Shen Tang of one thing. This Qiu Cheng was from the second branch of the Qiu family. He responded to Huang Lie's call and raised the banner of justice to attack Zheng Qiao. In other words, he was one of the allies of the Dragon Slaying Bureau.
If we attack this person, we might get into trouble.
"What trouble? Are you going to raise an army to attack me?"
Shen Tang simply raised his hand and overturned the table.
"I don't care if he's an ally of the Dragon Slaughter Bureau or a piece of trash of the Insect Slaughter Bureau. When he was short of food, he didn't go to rob Zheng Qiao, but came to rob his ancestors' granary. He also set fire and killed people in Nanyu County... If Wu Zhaode, Gu Ziyi and others dare to come as lobbyists, I will kill them too!"