Everyone gathered in the city. Although they had fought fiercely for a whole night without any rest, everyone's face showed fatigue, but they could only force themselves to stay awake.
Because there are too many things to deal with right now.
Yuan Xi arranged for Taishi Ci and Tian Yu to gather all the remnant soldiers who had surrendered in the city. After counting, they found that there were still nearly two thousand people. How to deal with these people became a big problem.
He called Guo Jia, and after a discussion, they decided to eliminate the wounded and Jiangdong soldiers first. For those who did not want to stay, they would requisition merchant ships at the dock and send them across the river.
In the end, there were only six or seven hundred people left. With Yuan Xi's existing force of nearly a thousand, this number could be disbanded and incorporated into the army to avoid chaos.
Yuan Xi is now pursuing the route of elite troops. He cannot afford to simply pile up the number of troops, and the soldiers are of varying quality, which in turn affects their combat effectiveness.
His current goal is to develop the territory's economy first, and once food and grass are abundant, he will fully implement the military system suitable for elite soldiers.
The reason why the Three Kingdoms used the military farming system was not because no one had thought of a similar system called the fubing system, but because the cost of the fubing system was too high in an era when people's livelihood was in decline and the economy was collapsing.
According to the New Book of Tang, when Tang Dynasty soldiers went to war, they had to buy a lot of equipment with their own money.
Ordinary infantrymen needed a hard bow, a quiver called Hulu, thirty arrows, a Tang sword, a whetstone, a felt hat and felt coat to keep warm, and a suitcase.
That's not all. Each soldier had to prepare nine dou of barley rice and two dou of uncooked rice, which had to be submitted and distributed collectively.
These expenses are not too much. It is also required that every soldier must wear Ming Guang armor, and the cavalry must also have hand and leg armor. All these equipment must be purchased by themselves.
In addition, the government soldiers also need to purchase collective equipment.
In the early Tang Dynasty, the government soldiers were divided into a basic unit of "huo" consisting of ten people. Their armaments included six pack horses, or strong donkeys instead. In addition, they also needed to purchase tents, shovels, chisels, axes, pliers, camp beds, camp pots, reins, horse bowls and other collective tools.
It is said that wars are fought with logistics, and the Tang army's soldiers were so well-equipped that they naturally had an overwhelming combat advantage over the enemy.
However, this method is very expensive and can only be supported when the Tang Dynasty's economy is prosperous. In the later period, the Tang Dynasty was forced to switch from the military system to the recruitment system, which led to many problems.
The world is short of food now, and Yuan Xi's elite troops route can save a lot of food for the lower-level soldiers and make it easier to train the soldiers to cooperate.
At the beginning, the soldiers could not afford complete weapons and equipment, so Yuan Xi had to occupy Youzhou's salt and iron resources as soon as possible, vigorously develop maritime trade routes, use the profits earned to purchase military equipment, and survive the initial period.
The reason why he personally led his troops to attack Guangling was that Xuzhou's position on this trade route was too important. If it fell into Sun Ce's hands, most of his route would be ruined.
Now that he has occupied the area from Guangling to the mouth of the Yangtze River, if he can make friends with Liu Yao in Yangzhou, he can expand his route further south and perhaps even reach Yizhou.
With Izu as a springboard, we can trade with the South Pacific islands and exchange various economic crops and specialties with great potential.
But this may be a decade or even decades later.
Yuan Xi arranged for Taishi Ci to distribute weapons to the surrendered soldiers, and called Tian Yu over, asking, "Have you captured any important figures from Sun Ce's army?"
Tian Yu heard this and replied, "General Ziyi captured a local general at the city gate. I interrogated him before and he said his name was Qiao Rui."
"If this name is true, he should be a general under Yuan Shu."
"As for the other people's situations, Qiao Rui was quite tight-lipped and I didn't get anything out of him."
Yuan Xi nodded and said, "Keep him in custody for a few days. When I'm done with my work, I'll go and interrogate him in person."
"Who else?"
Tian Yu heard this and said, "According to the soldiers who surrendered, the two who stayed behind to guard Guangling City were General Qiao Rui and a military advisor whom Sun Ce trusted very much, who was said to be named Zhou Yu."
"When I entered the city, someone's wife was in charge of the City Lord's Mansion, but her whereabouts are unknown."
When Yuan Xi heard this, he quickly stood up and asked, "Zhou Yu?"
"Where is he now?"
His attention was all on Zhou Yu, and he didn't care about any lady.
Tian Yu said: "We searched the entire city but couldn't find him. He must have taken the opportunity to escape when the north gate was opened last night."
Yuan Xi let out an "oh", quite disappointed. If he could capture Zhou Yu, even if he couldn't use him for his own purposes, Sun Ce would lose a great helper in Jiangdong in the future.
Being so close yet missing it, Yuan Xi's joy of victory was somewhat diluted. He sighed, "What a pity."
Tian Yu said, "But there is an unexpected surprise. Some people are detained in a mansion. I checked their identities. They are quite important to you, young master."
When Yuan Xi heard this, he became interested: "Who is it?"
Tian Yu said: "Kong Wenju's family, as well as Liu Bei's wife and daughter!"
After hearing this, Yuan Xi was surprised and asked, "Shouldn't they have been trapped in Xia Pi? How could they be trapped in Guangling?"
Tian Yu said: "Sun Ce ordered his men to escort them from Tancheng to Guangling."
Yuan Xi stood up suddenly and said, "These people are indeed very useful to us. Let's go and take a look!"
Tian Yu led the way, and the two men rode their horses towards the place where they were held. When they were almost there, they saw Sun Li and some people standing at the door of a big house, shouting something.
Yuan Xi rode over and asked, "What's going on?"
Seeing that it was Yuan Xi, Sun Li said, "Brother, this is the City Lord's Mansion. I brought people here last night and found that the house was on fire and some people were taking advantage of the fire to rob."
"My brothers and I killed all the thieves and put out the fire, but a lot of things inside were damaged."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi asked, "Sun Ce's residence?"
"Are there any of his family members inside?"
Sun Li heard this and shook his head, saying, "Almost everyone ran away. When I came, I saw a woman running out with a child in her arms, and I caught her."
"Besides that, there were only a few bandits left in the mansion, and I led my men to hack them all to death."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi thought that since everyone in the mansion had fled, there must be no one left, so it could be a maid?
He saw that the house where Kong Rong and others were imprisoned was only half a street away. He thought for a moment, dismounted and said, "Take me to see the woman. I have something to ask her."
After hearing this, Sun Li entered the door first, and Yuan Xi and Tian Yu followed behind. Along the way, they saw that the mansion was full of charred walls and the window frames were almost all burned. Fortunately, the house did not collapse.
In a still intact house, Yuan Xi saw the woman that Sun Li had mentioned.
When Yuan Xi saw her, he found that the woman was in her early thirties. Although her face was covered in black and gray, she was extremely beautiful. In her arms was a three or four-year-old baby, who was crying loudly.
He said, "Madam, is she from this house?"
When the woman heard this, she raised her head, then quickly lowered it, her expression suddenly changing.
This woman was Mrs. Wu who did not have time to escape.
Last night she asked Zhou Yu to leave first, and she went back to her room to find a maid's clothes to change into. When she came out again, a group of ferocious people rushed in with guns blatantly. As soon as they came in, they robbed the property in each room and set fire to it at the same time.
When Mrs. Wu saw this, she secretly groaned. These were hooligans who took advantage of the chaos to rob people. They would steal things and then set fire to the house. No one would be able to find out then.
She knew that if she was discovered by the other party, she would be in trouble, so she had to turn around and escape to the back door, but it was too late. She was blocked by Sun Li who came rushing over.
She wanted to get away with it, but Sun Li refused to listen and just put her under custody.
Mrs. Wu felt aggrieved. If it weren't for this person who took advantage of the situation, she would have had a chance to escape, but she didn't expect that accidents would happen so often!
Holding her daughter in her arms, she waited anxiously for most of the night, but what she waited for was the enemy general. She lowered her head and listened to his voice, realizing that the general was quite young, and everyone was answering respectfully, which meant that this man was most likely the leader, and most likely a member of a noble family!
Mrs. Wu was a little panicked. She could disguise herself as a maid and fool the soldiers, but her speech and manner could not be changed, so she could not fool people who were familiar with the conversation of the nobles.
When she heard the other party's question, she raised her head hesitantly, but at a glance, she immediately recognized him. Wasn't this the young man she met at the city gate when she was driven out of Tancheng?
At that time, men started growing beards at a very early age, and it was extremely rare to see a young man without a beard, so Mrs. Wu recognized Yuan Xi at first sight.
She quickly lowered her head to hide the shock on her face. It turned out that this man was an ally of Liu Yuzhou. No wonder he came to attack Guangling!
Mrs. Wu felt a little regretful. To be honest, she was not free from responsibility for the loss of Guangling. What Zhou Yu said before leaving made Mrs. Wu vaguely guess that there was something wrong with the Zhen family caravan that entered the city during the day!
What's hateful is that they were so bold that they even brought gifts to visit me, and I didn't check for a moment and was fooled!
Thinking of this, Mrs. Wu felt extremely regretful.
Seeing that Madam Wu didn't say anything, Yuan Xi thought she was just afraid. Hearing this, he said, "Madam, please don't worry. Even if you are Sun Bofu's family, I won't hurt you. If possible, I will send you back."
Madam Wu thought to herself, who would believe someone who used such a sneaky scheme to steal into the city? He was just trying to trick me!
She felt complicated when she thought about the fact that the other party had given her a horse. She never expected that this man was so scheming that even she and Gongjin fell into his hands.
She suddenly had an idea and whispered, "I am from a good family. I was abducted by Sun. I don't know anything about the city lord."
Sun Li was so angry after hearing this that he shouted, "Sun Ce is such a shameless bastard. I'm afraid my wife has been bullied by him!"
"Don't be sad, Madam. When I catch Sun Ce in the future, I will definitely smack his ass!"
Mrs. Wu's face froze, and Yuan Xi kicked Sun Li: "Don't be so vulgar."
He said to Madam Wu, "Looking at the attire on your head, are you a woman from an aristocratic family?"
Madam Wu was stunned, and then cursed herself secretly, wondering how could she have forgotten this. She was wearing quite expensive jewelry on her head, and this kind of decoration method was only used by women from noble families!
Now she can no longer pretend to be a maid or a good girl!
Mrs. Wu felt bitter. Why was the man on the other side so difficult to deal with? He could see the flaw in the hair accessories at a glance. Did he stare at the woman's head all day?
I have to make up an aristocratic identity. I can't be a local aristocrat, otherwise it will be easy to find out the flaws. I can't be a northern aristocrat either, because I don't know the situation there.
A place far to the south, a family I am familiar with
Mrs. Wu suddenly had an idea and said, "I am originally from the Cai family in Jingzhou."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi asked in confusion: "Cai family of Jingzhou? Why did Madam come here?"