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Chapter 2736 Revisiting the Red Cliffs!

After Wang Yue's army entered Jianye, the local families began to show their loyalty to Wang Yue, not only providing material support but also sending their sons and nephews to serve in the army.

Of course, they came with their troops this time, also with the intention of capturing the soldiers who were left behind.

Wang Yue knew their loyalty was useless, so he just pretended to be friendly and placed them all under Guan Ping's command after recruiting them.

However, in order to destroy Cao Wei more quickly and further weaken Jiangdong, Wang Yue began to conscript soldiers after gathering the 30,000 surrendered soldiers.

Wang Yue, in the name of the governor of Yangzhou, promised that as long as one person from each family joined the army, they would be rewarded with land in Jingzhou. Moreover, he promised to ensure they would not go hungry throughout the entire migration.

Of course, most of these lands belonged to Nanyang and Xiangyang, but they were directly allocated to them without them having to rent land from others.

On the first day Wang Yue posted his recruitment notice, only a few people came to test the waters. But once they actually received the land deeds for Jiangxia, even more people immediately came to join him.

At this time, powerful families always had hidden members who worked for them, and they used the rent to strengthen their family's status.

Of course, those who sought refuge with aristocratic families also had certain advantages. At least they gained the protection of these families and would not be bullied by other families. However, they were not immune to being bullied by the families themselves.

So, when there were no external temptations, these people could tolerate it. But now Wang Yue is giving them land directly, and they are going to live under Guan Yu and Liu Bei. How can people attracted by Liu Bei's reputation resist this temptation?

As a result, not only ordinary people, but also the families of powerful clans soon began to have runaway slaves. At first, there were only a few, but later hundreds or even thousands of them sought refuge together.

Wang Yue, of course, kept his word and arranged for a boat to take them to Jiangxia, where they would return after their families were settled.

After the first group of people returned and explained the land situation to them, it immediately inspired even more people to join the army.

Normally, military service requires household registration, but Wang Yue is doing the opposite. He doesn't require household registration at all and will even arrange it for the families, catching the powerful families of Jiangdong completely off guard.

Furthermore, Zhang Bao had already crossed the Yangtze River by this time, and his 3-strong army was stationed outside Jinling City, leaving those powerful families with no way to stop him.

Therefore, Wang Yue quickly conscripted 20,000 able-bodied men from Jiangdong. Combined with the 30,000 soldiers who had surrendered earlier, Jiangdong now had 50,000 soldiers.

After the situation was pacified, Zhang Bao prepared to head north to cooperate with Liu Feng in the war. When he left, he took with him 40,000 troops from Jiangdong, leaving behind 30,000 troops from Jiangxia.

After crossing the river and joining forces with Liu Feng, Zhang Bao and Liu Feng each led 30,000 mixed soldiers towards Xuzhou.

Guan Xing led 10,000 troops and stationed them in Hefei, guarding the rear of the two groups of troops.

Wang Yue continued recruiting soldiers, as if he wanted to drain all the able-bodied men in Jiangdong, sending all the new recruits to Hefei as reinforcements for the northward march.

When Guan Ping set out from Yecheng, he had only a little over 10,000 men. After joining forces with Wei Chi along the way, his army grew to over 30,000, which was already a terrifying threat to Zhang Liao and Yu Jin. Now, Zhang Bao and Liu Feng have brought another 60,000 men, bringing the total to 100,000. Although at most 20,000 to 30,000 of them are elite soldiers, it is still a formidable force.

At this time, it was rare to use more than 100,000 troops in a war. The reason why Guan Ping, Liu Feng, and Zhang Bao did this was because they listened to Wang Yue's advice.

That means having soldiers stationed in different locations will make them more likely to obey the general's orders.

The entire Yu Province has now been taken over by Liu Bei and his two brothers, but if so many cities are defended by veteran soldiers, there will be practically no one left by the end.

Now that Wang Yue has sent so many people, he has left some soldiers stationed in various counties of Yuzhou to maintain local stability and deter those powerful families from the past.

After all, the Cao Wei regime was very powerful before. Although many families in the Yuan family's territory in Runan did not support Cao Wei, many other powerful families had already submitted to it.

But now that the able-bodied men of Jiangdong have been sent to serve as soldiers, these families believe that Liu Bei has already destroyed Jiangdong. Therefore, those families who have surrendered to the Cao family can only behave themselves at this time.

Fa Zheng, who was in Wancheng, Nanyang, saw the situation in Yuzhou from Liu Bei. He smiled and said to Liu Bei, "The move by the Earl of Fangcheng has played a decisive role in the stability of Yuzhou. Your Majesty's acquisition of such a great talent is truly a great event for our Han Dynasty."

Fa Zheng was not joking, because when they first took Yuzhou, although Cao Zhen's army was driven away, the private soldiers of those powerful families always acted as bandits and caused trouble. Relying on their connections and good information, they robbed ordinary people and deliberately created chaos, keeping the Han army busy.

However, Wang Yue's move directly solved these problems, making all the families in Yuzhou behave themselves.

Liu Bei, of course, saw all of this, and he smiled at Guan Yu, who was sitting next to him with a beard, and said, "Second brother, how about we transfer Changwen to my side to serve? His strategies are comparable to those of Kongming and Xiaozhi. It would be too much of a stretch to just conquer a remote Yangzhou."

Guan Yu was delighted and immediately said with a smile, "Brother, my son-in-law is both your nephew-in-law and your subject. If you want him to come over, it's just a matter of time. We're all family, why be so formal?"

After hearing this, Liu Bei smiled and said, "But with Changwen here, who will be in charge of Yangzhou? Sun Quan and Zhang Zhao are not ordinary people. To suppress them, we need to be proficient in naval and land warfare, as well as conquering the Yue tribes. That will be very difficult."

Upon hearing this, Guan Yu hesitated for a moment before smiling and saying, "Brother, why don't I go?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei quickly replied, "Second brother, the three of us brothers have finally reunited; how can we be separated like this?"

Seeing that the two brothers were struggling again, Fa Zheng smiled and said, "Your Majesty, the war is currently at a stalemate. I think it would be better if we went to Jiangxia to inspect the governance of the Earl of Fangcheng and have him meet with Your Majesty."

"A fast boat from Xiakou to Jianye can take you from morning till night. Even if something happens in Jiangdong, Changwen can still get back in time."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei smiled and said, "In that case, let the three of us brothers visit Chibi together again."

Upon hearing this, Guan Yu smiled, remembering his own humiliation back then.

(End of this chapter)