A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 640: The Invasion of Government Troops

After easily capturing two cities, Lu Cheng temporarily stopped the siege and began to train his troops and recruit new soldiers.

During the journey to Liaodong, Lu Cheng gathered more than 3,000 people in total, selected 1,600 of them, and trained them while marching, and they were able to get some form of training.

Among them, 500 people were divided into three groups by Lu Cheng according to the military system at that time. Each group consisted of 50 people and had a military officer. Each group consisted of people and had a garrison commander.

There was another hundred men, a cavalry unit led by Xu Hu.

Except for Zhou Cang, the other two military officers were temporarily selected from the army. They were good at fighting and could read.

There is no way. Lu Cheng is now short of soldiers and generals, and there are too few people he can use.

While carrying out military training, Lu Cheng also began to take over all affairs including public security, economy, agriculture and sericulture in the two cities, and took inventory of all kinds of food, supplies, weapons, armor, etc. in the two cities.

The total population of the two counties is only about 10. Even if conscription is carried out at a ratio of 1:3000, at most soldiers can be mobilized.

Fortunately, winter was approaching and the people did not need to be busy with farming. Transferring young and strong men to train soldiers would not affect the arable land.

The troops from the two cities, plus the original Yellow Turban Army, totaled 4,500 troops and were stationed in two places respectively.

Lu Cheng assigned 1,000 of the original 1,600 Yellow Turban soldiers to Zhou Cang, asking him to be responsible for taking back Tuhe.

Lu Cheng took the rest of his troops to garrison in Bintu County for military training.

The two cities are 30 miles apart, and a fast horse can arrive there in less than half an hour, making it convenient to take care of them.

In the evening, in the Bintu County government office.

"General, this is the information of all the big households in this county. Please take a look."

Lu Cheng took the information, looked through it briefly, and then gave the order: "Xu Hu, you, Li Ping, and Wang Ming, each take 200 soldiers to surround the Zhang, Zhou, and Xu families. Don't let anyone escape."

"I accept my order from my humble position!"

If one wants to completely control a county, it is not enough to just send soldiers to occupy the four city gates. The entire county government and the wealthy families in the city must be cleaned up, the old order must be disrupted, and new rules can be established.

These powerful families have been operating in the local area for decades or even hundreds of years. Their control and influence over the local area is far greater than that of external officials. If they are not eliminated, they will inevitably be constrained in the future.

Lu Cheng asked people to investigate only to find out which powerful and wealthy families were greedy and oppressed the people, and then he took direct action.

Not long after, a burst of shouting and killing was heard outside, which immediately alarmed the people in the city. Guards immediately patrolled everywhere and asked the people to stay at home and not go out.

Early the next morning, Lu Cheng had a public trial set up in a square in the city and conducted a public trial of those wealthy and unkind families. He also found some common people to accuse them of their crimes. He quickly convicted those wealthy families and beheaded them on the spot.

After doing all this, Lu Cheng went on stage to give a speech: "My fellow countrymen and local people, we are here to plead for the people. We will never tolerate and resolutely deal with those powerful families who are rich and unkind, oppress the people, and run rampant in the village.

In addition, as long as the people who have been oppressed can provide evidence, we will also make certain compensation..."

As soon as these words came out, they immediately aroused the response of the people, and Lu Cheng also won over a wave of people's hearts.

After destroying several families, Lu Cheng also harvested a large amount of food and gold and silver supplies.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng took out some of the grain and sold it at a low price in the city. He also issued a grain purchase ticket to every household, allowing them to buy some grain at a low price with the ticket.

These measures naturally won the support of the general public.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng promulgated several policies that benefited the people. He built houses in and outside the two cities to accommodate the Yellow Turban Army that followed him.

During this process, the people who participate in the labor can also get wages.

The promulgation of one measure after another not only stabilized people's hearts and won the support of the people, but also quickly boosted the economy of the two cities.

With these, it will be much easier for Lu Cheng to recruit soldiers.

After arranging all the affairs in Bintu City, Lu Cheng went to Tuhe City to take a look and also cleaned up the wealthy families in the city.

Of course, this kind of cleaning cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach, and the force should not be too great at the beginning, otherwise it will easily cause rebellion.

At present, Lu Cheng is short of troops and has limited strength. If he carries out drastic reforms from the beginning, it would be counterproductive.

Moreover, the entire Liaodong needs to be conquered later. If it is handled too roughly now, when conquering other cities in the future, the wealthy families in those cities will inevitably unite to resist and make it more difficult to recover Liaodong.

Therefore, those powerful families who usually behave well or take the initiative to approach us must be properly dealt with.

When we have complete control over the entire Liaodong in the future and have a strong army under our command, we can clean it up again.

Sometimes you need to cut the Gordian knot quickly, and sometimes you need to use a blunt knife to cut the flesh. The way of dealing with things should be adapted to the time and place and cannot be generalized.

After cleaning up some big families, Lu Cheng hosted banquets for representatives of some local prominent families in two counties successively to appease people's hearts and ask them to recommend some talents.

By doing this, using both kindness and force, Lu Cheng soon gained control of every aspect of the two cities.

At the same time, the news that Tuhe County and Bintu County were captured by the Yellow Turban Army spread quickly. The prime minister of Liaodong's vassal state immediately summoned his civil and military officials to discuss and prepare to send troops to retake the two counties.

However, the vassal state of Liaodong only had six counties: Changli, Fuli, Bintu, Tuhe, Fangxian, and Xiandu. It had a limited population, few soldiers and generals, and no one could be sent for the time being.

Finally, after some discussion, the prime minister of the vassal state of Liaodong decided to send envoys to Liaoxi County and Liaodong County at the same time to ask for help, to gather the troops of the three parties and seize the two cities of Tuhe and Bintu.

By the time the three parties had gathered their troops and set out to attack Bintu, more than half a month had passed.

At this time, Lu Cheng had completely taken control of the two cities, and his troops had also completed initial reorganization and training.

On this day, outside Tuhe County, five thousand soldiers came in a mighty procession and set up camp outside the north gate of Tuhe River.

Then, a general wearing a red robe and holding a long sword came to the outside of the city gate and spoke loudly: "Listen, bandits in the city, the Yellow Turban Army has been defeated, Zhang Jue, Zhang Liang, and Zhang Bao have all been killed. We advise you to open the city and surrender quickly. Otherwise, when the city is captured, you will be killed without a burial place."

On the city wall, Zhou Cang angrily slapped the wall and said, "General, this man is too arrogant. Let me kill him."

Lu Cheng nodded: "Let's make a quick decision. Let Xu Hu lead the cavalry out of the city with you."

"Yes, General!"

Soon, drums sounded above the city gate, and Zhou Cang led the cavalry out of the city, pointing his spear directly at the enemy general: "Enemy general, please leave your name. Zhou Cang will not kill nameless ghosts."

"What a big tone! I am Han Xu from Xiangping. You thief will die!"

Although Zhou Cang spoke arrogantly, he was not careless at all when he attacked. He used all his strength at the first move. As the two sides rode their horses together, he stabbed the enemy general to death in just one round. Cheers suddenly rang out on the city wall.

After killing the enemy general, Zhou Cang suddenly became heroic. He pointed his spear at the government troops in front of him and shouted loudly: "Who dares to come and die?"

"I'll come to meet you!" After saying that, another government army general came out with his spear and went straight for Zhou Cang.

However, the two sides fought for less than three rounds before the enemy general was stabbed to death by Zhou Cang again...