Chapter 60: A False Alarm

  Matters being urgent, Li Jingneng was stern and expeditious. He immediately handed over to Xun You and Zhao Wu the task of recruiting three thousand men and cooperating with Zhou Fei in developing the Baishui River, then set off at once, rushing to Fuping without stopping his horse.

  Bai Lang and Nu Luo had known that Li Zheng was coming, so they led a team of majestic wolf riders to wait outside Fuping City. When they saw Li Zheng arrive, they hurriedly came forward to pay their respects from afar, without saying much, and led Li Zheng straight to the military camp.

  Arriving at the military camp, Li Zhong first gained an understanding of the development situation of the troops stationed in Fuping during this period.

  Facing the complex environment, Li Zhong urgently needs to expand his power and strengthen his foundation in order to protect himself and even contend for the world. Therefore, he has always adopted a strategy of continuous recruitment - whenever there are surplus resources in hand, he will recruit a certain number of soldiers from time to time.

  At first, Nurhaci was left in Fuping, and Li Jing also mentioned this matter slightly when he left. However, at that time, he didn't take it to heart, after all, Fuping was not under his direct rule. Moreover, Li Jing had limited resources, and providing for Nurhaci's thousand soldiers was already not easy, without more resources being allocated to him to recruit soldiers in Fuping.

  Perhaps due to the threat of the rebels, the wealthy and powerful families in Fuping City were relatively supportive of this army under the command of Hu Qian, which was known for its strict discipline. Since the garrison was stationed in Fuping, the army had received a considerable amount of grain, goods, and money. Apart from their own use, the surplus was used by Nuluo to recruit soldiers.

  So now the entire Fuping, except for the original two thousand elite infantry and one hundred wolf riders under Bai Lang's command, has more than a thousand new soldiers.

  Unexpectedly, when Li Zhong gathered new soldiers for training on the grasslands, he did not include Fuping in his plans.

  But it's not too late now. So Li Zhong immediately made a decision, and let people send more than 1,000 new soldiers to Baishuizhen the next day, and hand them over to Wang Lao Hu and others for unified training.

  The two naturally agreed not to mention it again.

  "I received your message this morning, but it was too brief." Li Zheng smiled and said, "I need to hear more about the specific situation."

  Li Zheng made arrangements for the new recruits and then turned to the current matter at hand.

  The White Wolf didn't dare to be slow, and immediately saluted and replied, "Reporting to Your Majesty, four days ago, our scouts arranged outside the rebel army's garrison discovered an unusual situation."

  Li Ding cupped his hands behind his ears and listened intently.

  "The rebels had stationed a force of about 25,000 men in Zuoye Valley at the border of Anding and Beidi prefectures. When scouts discovered something was amiss, they found that the enemy had vanished into thin air!"

  "Oh?!"

  Li Zheng was taken aback for a moment.

  According to the scout's report, five days ago, the rebel army had not made any moves, but four days ago, they vanished without a trace. They must have retreated overnight that day!

  Li Zheng nodded slowly.

  "I didn't dare to slack off with Nuo, and hastily sent out scouts to track down the enemy's trail, but only found some ambiguous marks. The rebel army seemed to have made preparations, perhaps they had split into two routes, which left me and Nuo indecisive."

  Li Zheng narrowed his eyes and his mind began to spin rapidly.

  After a while, he said: "The scouts must continue to track, but the tracking range cannot exceed Anding and Beidi two counties. At the same time, inform Zhou Lin to closely monitor all information related to the situation in Liangzhou...". He hesitated for a moment, then said: "Before we get specific news, we can't act rashly, just make all the preparations for battle."

  Before coming, Xun You's analysis was still very reasonable in Li Zhong's opinion.

  It's better to remain unchanged in response to the myriad changes, hold back for now, wait for news, and then make plans.

  Bai Lang and Nu Luo exchanged a glance, then simultaneously bowed their heads with fists clenched.

  During Li Jing's lurking and waiting, the situation of the Lianzhou battlefield has indeed undergone great changes.

  Zhang Wen, from the first year of Zhongping onwards, whenever there were Qiang people rebelling, on and off for several years, he was in charge of the overall plan to pacify the rebellion. He was even appointed as Taifu in Chang'an because of this, becoming the first of the three dukes not to attend court! However, by the end of the fourth year of Zhongping, Zhang Wen not only failed to quell the rebellion, but the situation in Liangzhou became increasingly severe, and the imperial court spent a huge amount of money and grain!

  This time the war was even more of a stalemate with the rebels, and not many victories were won, which made it difficult for the emperor and the officials in the court to accept.

  Thus, before the arrival of the new year, Zhang Wen was dismissed from his position as Taifu and recalled to Luoyang.

  To resist and even defeat the rebel army of Han Sui, after dismissing Zhang Wen from his position, the imperial court immediately appointed a new commander-in-chief to suppress the rebellion. At that time, someone suggested appointing Fu Shu, the former governor of Hanyang, as the commander-in-chief for this campaign.

  There are three reasons. Firstly, Fu Xi is a native of Liangzhou and is familiar with the geography and human feelings of Liangzhou. Secondly, Fu Xi has a good reputation and talent, and can take on important tasks. Thirdly, the Qiang and Hu people of Liangzhou are deeply grateful to Fu Xi, and using this as a breakthrough point may make it possible to defeat the enemy without fighting and persuade the rebel army to surrender.

  However, this proposal was ultimately not adopted by the emperor.

  There is a better candidate - General Huangfu Song!

  Huangfu Song was originally a famous general, Huangfu Gui's nephew, and can be said to have a deep family learning. He had also served as a local official, later defeated the Yellow Turbans, and achieved real military merit. Moreover, Huangfu Song was also from Liangzhou, and similarly understood the geography and human feelings of Liangzhou.

  The last important reason is that Huangfu Song's murderous nature was not small. At the beginning, he killed tens of thousands of Yellow Turbans!

  The rebels have been poisoning the Great Han border for many years, making the imperial court extremely headache. The emperor's first thought is to let these rebels die, rather than surrender!

  Therefore, Emperor Ling appointed Huangfu Song as the General of the Left, and appointed Dong Zhuo, the Marquis of Zhongshan, as the General of the Front, with Huangfu Song in charge, to lead the General of the Front Dong Zhuo to quell the rebellion!

  Li Zhong waited in Fuping for two months without any reason, the army was always on high alert and tense every moment, but the expected war did not come.

  Not even news from the imperial court was available at all.

  Li Zhong couldn't help but smile wryly. It seemed that all his efforts had been in vain. It appeared that even someone as clever and strategic as Xun Yu could make mistakes in judgment due to insufficient information.

  It is not necessarily so to say that Xun Yu made a mistake.

  No matter what, as long as it doesn't harm itself, the plan is not considered a mistake, at most it's just in vain. Presumably Xun Yu also suggested that Li Jing should hold back because he didn't have enough information and found it difficult to distinguish between inside and outside details.

  Since there was no imperial edict from the court, Li Zhong was happy to be idle and carefree. He had never wanted to engage in a fierce battle with the rebels when his own strength was not yet sufficient, and for him, no news was good news.

  Two months had passed and it was now mid-March of the fifth year of Zhongping.

  The spring sowing of the entire Lingzhou, all the way to Fuping, has almost been completed. Although Fuping is not currently under Li Jing's direct rule and he did not send a management team to take over the government affairs of Fuping, after all, there are garrison troops stationed there. And Fuping is adjacent to Lingzhou, sooner or later it will be in Li Jing's pocket, so for everything - agriculture, Li Jing is also very concerned.

  Of course, this spring sowing is just ordinary grain, not wheat. Wheat was planted early last winter and will be harvested in about two months.

  But anyway, being able to farm in a peaceful environment and live a carefree life is also a rare happiness for ordinary people in Lingzhou and Fuping counties.

  In these two months, Li Zhong's own strength has made rapid progress.

  In fact, for Li Zhong, there are enough trump cards. As long as the foundation is laid well, the momentum of development will naturally be unstoppable.

  For example, War Horse.

  Every half month, Li Zhēng would return to the grasslands once, merging all the wild beasts accumulated in the tamed beast grounds into war steeds. Up till now, there were already over eighty green armor war steeds; adding on some newly born little ones, they slightly exceeded a hundred heads.

  The scale of the mountain wolf cavalry was directly doubled, reaching 300 heads, and at least 200 heads could be called out to fight at any time!

  For example, the soldiers under Li Jing's command, who have experienced real war and are considered elite, number over 7,000! Among them, the heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and armored infantry total more than 4,000.

  This force is no longer small.

  70,000 soldiers, plus war horses and cavalry, with people eating and horses feeding, made Li Zhong feel like going bankrupt at any time. Even from the beginning to now, for a very long time, Li Zhong had not given the army a single penny of military pay. No way, being able to supply food was already a blessing, as for military pay, it was impossible in the short term.

  While Li Jing was heavily concerned about the development of Baishui River, now Xun Yu has taken over Li Jing's position and is overseeing the overall situation. Zhou Fei is still the actual operator, but from now on, he will have to report to and consult with Xun Yu.

  Li Zuo will gradually delegate power to Xun Yu, not only because Xun Yu's ability to handle matters is beyond Li Zuo's imagination, but also as a lure.

  For so long, Xun Yu never took the initiative to speak up and didn't show a hint of willingness to help Li Zheng. This made Li Zheng feel somewhat disheartened while also racking his brains, getting into a stalemate with Xun Yu!

  I don't believe you, Xun Yu, even if you were a piece of gold or iron, I would still corrode you away!

  With Xun Yu overseeing the overall situation, the development of the entire Baisui River became very smooth.

  Three thousand ranch workers were recruited at the beginning of spring; the planting of White Water Creek's alfalfa was completed with the labor of these three thousand workers in the past few days; various garrisons and barracks have also been fully constructed; road construction has also proceeded in an orderly manner.

  Now the only thing to do is to wait for the grass to take root on the prairie and grow to a certain scale, then divide the various species in the Shen State Grassland and migrate them to Baishui River for breeding and feeding.

  It doesn't take too long a time, with the reproductive and growth capabilities of duckweed, half a month is enough.