Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 593 Those who accomplish great things don't concern themselves with trifles.

Mr. Hu has been feeling very unwell these past few days; he is truly in great pain.

Because he was no longer free, he used to be a bandit, living a carefree life, bullying men and women, doing whatever he wanted in this little world.

But now, what kind of life is he living? He can't choose a concubine if he wants to, and he can't go out and bully people. Not only can he not bully people, but he also has to pretend to comfort those poor people every day with gifts.

Do those poor wretches deserve to eat such good rice and noodles? They couldn't even afford that when he was in the mountains.

So these past few days, Master Hu has been getting angrier and angrier, but he doesn't dare to show it. After all, he was the one who said he wanted to seize the world, so he can't blame anyone else.

Moreover, ever since Master Hu proclaimed himself the Grand General, he has become increasingly mysterious towards Brother Zhang. He is always acting mysteriously, and no one knows what he is doing. Sometimes, what he says is completely incomprehensible. This kind of mysterious and treacherous scholar is truly terrifying. At least Master Hu is now very wary of him.

As for Xia Lin, he didn't actually do much. He just processed a lot of intelligence every day. All the information from Guilin and Liuzhou had to be screened by him, deciding which could be sent out and which had to be kept in his hands.

Two days ago, rumors started circulating in Guizhou that a bandit group was growing increasingly powerful, having annexed several villages and counties, and was now forming an army. They had even proclaimed themselves generals.

Guizhou will definitely send an inquiry letter regarding this matter, but all of these inquiries have been intercepted and none have been transmitted.

The blockage of information creates an information gap, and the silence of adults is enough to answer most questions. Therefore, Gui Fu Wei Changsheng has now concluded that there is a big problem here.

But at the same time, an even bigger problem arose in Annam Prefecture to the south. The Malou chieftains there had somehow heard that Wei Changsheng was going to revoke their autonomy and take back their land and fishing rights. Now the Malou were filled with righteous indignation, and nearly twenty Malou tribes had united to cause trouble in Annam Prefecture, and had even blocked the roads in and out of Jiaozhi Prefecture.

With things flourishing everywhere, Wei Changsheng had no time to pay attention to Master Hu and could only focus on dealing with those troublemakers.

“There are four more counties in this area that you can bring under your control. These are Yao County and Li County. And around these two counties are Zhong County, Changning County, Dewu County, and Zhongwu County. If you take these four counties, Brother Hu will be virtually secure in the eastern part of Lingnan Province.”

"Four counties...that's so many? Then we have six counties?"

Hu Ye stared at Xia Lin with wide eyes, "Brother Zhang, don't be greedy. I think things are already pretty good. We have over 80,000 people in two counties under our control, and we can still do business with Jiangnan Road."

“Brother Hu, the number of soldiers to support is a constant of one out of twenty. That is to say, it takes twenty civilians to support one soldier in the long run. Right now, you can still support an army, but that’s only because of the financial resources left over from Li and Yao counties. Supporting an army is not the same as being a bandit. If this continues, even mountains of gold and silver will eventually be depleted.” Xia Lin frowned and said, “I’ve calculated it. At this rate, you can only last for a year at most. After a year, you won’t be able to pay the soldiers’ salaries or provide them with food. If the army mutinies, we will both be dead.”

These words sent a chill down Hu Ye's spine. He was trembling with fear, realizing that as a bandit who had started out as a cowherd, he was completely clueless when faced with such a large-scale strategy, a complete greenhorn.

So he quickly asked Xia Lin, "Brother Zhang, what do you suggest? Are we really going to attack the county town?"

"The best strategy is to subdue the enemy without fighting; the worst is to attack a city." Xia Lin pointed to Zhongwu County, the farthest of the four counties on the map from Yao County, and said, "Zhongwu County is the farthest from us and has the largest population. Let's go and persuade the magistrate of Zhongwu County first. If he is willing to surrender, everything will be easy. With him in charge, we don't need to worry about anything else. The other counties won't take any risks."

"Is it really that easy?"

"Brother Hu, why don't you give it a try?" Xia Lin put his hands on his hips, somewhat exasperated. If it weren't for the need to use this guy to clear his name as a soldier in Jiangnan Province, he would never have wasted a single word on such an idiot.

It's utterly hopeless to think that a perfectly good emperor like him has been driven to the brink of despair by such a country bandit.

Actually, if Xia Lin were to analyze the situation and current geopolitical issues as usual, Master Hu would definitely fall asleep as if he were in advanced mathematics class. So he simply stopped analyzing and just told him to give it a try.

So, without really understanding what was going on, Master Hu was tricked by Xia Lin into taking more than a hundred people to Zhongwu County.

Leaving Yao County, Master Hu felt extremely relieved. He felt that as long as he got rid of Brother Zhang, everything would be fine. Xia Lin also breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that he finally didn't have to face this idiot anymore.

During the few days that Master Hu was away, Xia Lin began recruiting soldiers. Although this was something he had agreed upon with Master Hu beforehand, it was easier to carry out the operation without him present. Taking advantage of the extreme deficiencies and loopholes in the local management system, he recruited a large number of soldiers who had retreated from Fuliang.

Veterans are soldiers too, and apart from being of advanced age, they are all quite capable. Although most of them were assigned jobs in Fuliang, they all preferred being soldiers. Except for a few who were unwilling to leave due to family reasons, most of them rushed over day and night as soon as they received the news.

The mass enlistment, though nominally local militia, meant they were fed and clothed by Master Hu, but it was uncertain who they would ultimately listen to. However, Xia Lin did not personally intervene in this matter; instead, he entrusted it to several retired generals, as it was best to keep quiet at this stage.

The army was rapidly expanded. The normal size of the local militia was only 3,000, but with the more than 10,000 people in the previous army, plus more than 7,000 veterans recruited here, and nearly 2,000 experienced logistics personnel transferred here, a force of 20,000 people was formed.

While Xia Lin was frantically assembling military equipment, Master Hu also began negotiations with Zhongwu County. He knew how to negotiate, but in the past he always used bandit methods, the legendary "I, Master Hu, keep my word. You give it to me or not, or I'll kill your whole family. I mean what I say." But now that wouldn't work. He had to use a near-diplomatic approach to negotiate, which he wasn't very good at, but fortunately, someone among the people who went with Master Hu this time was.

After several rounds of friendly negotiations, the county magistrate resigned and fled, disappearing from the county town with his family. After Hu Ye had been drinking heavily for two days, Zhongwu County had already "fallen" into his hands.

"Huh? That's easy?"

Master Hu sat in the county magistrate's seat, looking at what he had never dared to dream of before. Even in his stronghold of Yao County, the position of county magistrate was not one he dared to sit in, because his long experience as a bandit had taught him that the moment he sat in that position, he would transform from a bandit into a traitor.

Today, he not only took the seat, but also received an appointment letter bearing a large seal. He couldn't understand the words on the seal, but when he came out, his brother Zhang told him that the appointment letter had been bought for 100,000 taels of silver, and that he would be the magistrate of Zhongwu County from now on.

"oops……"

Master Hu stroked the table, his hand trembling involuntarily. From this angle, the view was expansive, with bright light outside. People passed by the hall from time to time, and those who passed by would instinctively turn around and bow deeply to him.

This feeling is truly heavenly, a state of blissful ecstasy...

He sat in that chair for a long time, then picked up the large seal on the table and greedily sniffed it. The bronze seal emitted a metallic, metallic smell... no, it wasn't metallic, it was the sweetness of power.

"Oh my... this is wonderful." Master Hu took a deep breath, holding the official seal, and fell asleep in the chair. He was not awakened until the people next to him woke him up, and then he realized that he still had important things to do.

Zhongwu County was taken, just as his brother Zhang had said, with ease.

Then a question suddenly occurred to him: watching these heroes vie for supremacy every day, is this what it's all about? Taking land piece by piece, gathering people one by one, until finally they can control a vast empire.

This isn't difficult...

It seems that the Hu family is about to produce an extraordinary figure.

While Master Hu was sitting there contemplating the future, more than 20,000 "refugees" were entering Yao County one after another through the official road between Jiangnan Road and Lingnan Road.

Everyone felt something was wrong. After all, whenever there was a problem, it was always refugees flocking to Jiangnan Province. When had they ever heard of people flowing out of Jiangnan Province?

But this time was obviously different. This time, the refugees were all young and strong men under the age of thirty-five. They did not appear tired or hungry. Even in the midst of "famine relief," they stood up straight. At the appointed time, a whistle would suddenly sound from the group of refugees, and then they would all come to the roadside in unison to cook.

What's even stranger is that usually before they start cooking, caravans carrying grain, vegetables, and even meat "happen" to pass by. The caravan manager, seeing their pitiful state, "kindly" gives them some food, just enough for one meal for these 20,000 refugees...

How did this happen? It's so hard to guess.

These people arrived in Yao County one after another. Yao County was not big enough to accommodate them all, so Xia Lin first settled them in the area of ​​Hu Ye's mountain stronghold. However, after these "refugees" arrived, they immediately began to cultivate the land, build structures, and prepare for the future. Then they found a herd of wild horses in the mountains.

The number wasn't large, just over 20,000 horses. While the land was still being cultivated, they unearthed ancient weapons and armor from the Qin Dynasty under the trees.

It's truly amazing. It's been almost a thousand years, yet the weapons are still gleaming like new, without a trace of rust. This place must indeed be protected by a mountain god.

Xia Lin saw this and realized that it wouldn't work. With so many people, letting them roam around would be a destabilizing factor, so he wrote a letter to Master Hu.

The letter stated, "There are over 20,000 refugees along the way, temporarily residing around the elder brother's mountain stronghold. They are currently difficult to deal with, and we hope they can be recruited into the local militia."

The letter was sent out by express courier, and the reason for the 800-li express delivery was that they had found a herd of wild horses in the mountains...

Although Brother Hu is quite cunning, he has no experience in this kind of thing. Originally, he only had one strategist by his side, a scholar, but all of the scholar's scheming skills were learned from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He hadn't really mastered them, only understanding that the Empty City Stratagem was about opening the door and scaring others away.

So after analyzing for a long time, he could only think that something might have gone wrong in Jiangnan, but they had neither the means nor the ability to investigate. The only solution was to attribute it to something going wrong in Jiangnan.

After all, this is a chaotic world, full of war and turmoil. Jiangnan Road is quite large, and it's not a paradise everywhere. It's normal to have some refugees.

So the scholar and strategist discussed it with Master Hu for a long time, and finally came to only one conclusion.

God help me too.

It should be noted that by this point, Lingnan Road already had more than 40,000 people, and these people had nothing to do with Jiangnan Road. They were purely the private army raised by the warlord Hu, who was so fortunate to have me.

Xu Shiji frowned upon hearing this. He clicked his tongue and turned to Xia Lin, asking, "Daosheng, is this reasonable?"

"There are so many unreasonable things in the world." Xia Lin didn't feel that she had done anything wrong at all: "I don't have time to endure hardship with him."

"Anyone with a brain would see something wrong with this, right?"

"Hey!" Xia Lin slapped the window frame: "Coincidentally, he's the brainless one. But it doesn't really matter, it doesn't matter if he's brainless or not, he's just a bandit. All I want is a legitimate reason. It's best if he doesn't realize it, so we can have a few more days of peace. But once he does realize it, guess what will happen to him?"

Xu Shiji crossed his arms and chuckled, "You really are a rare hero, but sometimes you're a bit too hasty in your actions."

“I’ve been very careful, but there hasn’t been enough time to plan ahead. But it doesn’t matter, Brother Xu, I’ll take a gamble with you. We’ll bet on whether this bandit leader can react in time.”

"I think it's possible." Xu Shiji spread his hands. "If you can't even figure this out, wouldn't you be too stupid?"

Xia Lin smiled and shook his head: "I bet he can't, and he might even think it's a divine intervention."

"Can't you?"

"Yes, absolutely." Xia Lin looked at the sky. Just then, a bolt of lightning struck, followed by a rumble of thunder. "What do you expect someone who's only just taken two counties and is already choosing concubines to start doing? What kind of ideas do you think they'll come up with?"

A rumble of thunder passed by, and Xu Shiji didn't hear what Xia Lin said in the last few words, but he didn't ask, because he probably understood as well, after all, Xia Lin was one of the smartest people in the world.

"It seems you're really not satisfied until you win back those fifty taels of silver."

"I'm poor, Brother Xu." Xia Lin smiled broadly. "By the way, where's my second brother? I haven't seen him for several days."

"He went to a Miao village, saying he hadn't been there before and wanted to take a look."

Xia Lin's expression immediately changed: "He's going to the Miao village at this time? He's crazy! The Miao village is really a den of thieves right now! Quick, quick, take some men, we need to find that troublemaking bear..."

(End of this chapter)