Chapter 134 Mountain Closure
The whitebait and white shrimp from Chaohu Lake tasted very good. I was quite satisfied with this meal of lake seafood.

Especially the white shrimp. There is a saying among the people that "dead shrimps turn red", but Chaohu white shrimps are not like that. They do not turn red even when cooked, and their whole body remains white. They are somewhat similar to the lake shrimps that Li Yuanhui ate in his previous life by the Xingkai Lake not far from his hometown.

Lu Qin drank a lot of wine and talked a lot. Looking at his condition, Li Yuanhui felt that this man could be won over.

Before coming to Chaohu Navy, Li Yuanhui specifically checked Lu Qin's past resume and hometown.

This General Lu was from Jingzhou. More than 20 years ago, Yang Su was in Yong'an to supervise the construction of warships and recruit navy soldiers. Lu Qin, a native of Nanjun, volunteered. Because he grew up by the river, was familiar with the hydrology and climate, and had courage, Yang Su valued him and promoted him to be a lieutenant.

Later, he indeed made great military achievements and was awarded the title of Hengjiang Langjiang, commanding the Chaohu navy.

However, after the conquest of Southern Wei, all the major navies were basically idle. Whether it was the Yizhou Navy, or the Jingzhou, Yangzhou, or Xuzhou Navy, none of them played a as important role as the Qingzhou Navy.

The main task of the navy in various places is to eliminate pirates on the water and protect the safety of the waterways.

As for Chaohu Lake, due to the lack of value in water transport, the navy's military expenditure has been reduced year by year in the past twenty years. Although the ships are still there, the number of troops has been decreasing year by year.

So Li Yuanhui was almost certain that Lü Qin could be won over, but he couldn't be too hasty.

He hasn't been promoted in almost twenty years. How loyal can he be to Dayan?
When Li Yuanhui returned to Hefei the next day, he had just sat down in the study room at the back of the meeting hall and had not even had a sip of water when Captain Yin Gong came over to report on his assignment.

"General, this is the information I have collected and sorted out over the past few days about the great thief Guo Fenghuang and Tianzhu Mountain."

Li Yuanhui tapped the table lightly, then extended his hand to signal Yin Gong to sit down.

Yin Gong understood and placed the organized intelligence booklet on the table, then took a step back and sat on a stool nearby.

Li Yuanhui held the teacup in one hand and blew the hot tea, while turning the pages of a book with the other hand.

Li Qinglian, Xie Xun and Chief Secretary Cao Ce heard that Li Yuanhui had returned, and they also came to the study one after another. When Li Yuanhui saw them coming, he gestured for them to sit down.

On the other side, he asked the servants to serve them tea.

After carefully reading the previous content, he asked, "Captain Yin, how long have you been in Huainan?"

"I have been in the Huainan Army for more than five years."

Yin Gong was about thirty years old and was from Chen County. His family was considered a prominent family during the Former Wei Dynasty and had produced many high-ranking officials such as prefects and generals.

His father Yin Jia was once the prefect of Huainan, the predecessor of Chen Wang Murong Anguo.

After Yin Jia died in office, Yin Gongcai joined the Huainan Army under the care of his father's former subordinates.

Because he refused to accept Murong Anguo's solicitation, he was kicked out of Shouchun and transferred to Hefei. This allowed Yin Gong to successfully escape the involvement of Murong Anguo after he started the rebellion.

After a major purge in the Huainan Army, Yin Gong was definitely considered a veteran.

Li Yuanhui continued to ask: "Captain Yin, do you know how long this great thief 'Guo Fenghuang' has been occupying Tianzhu Mountain?"

Yin Gong thought for a moment and said, "My father became the governor of Huainan in the fourth year of Tiansheng. Guo Fenghuang should have been in Tianzhu Mountain before that. It is said that he was already there during the time of the previous emperor."

Li Yuanhui laughed when he heard this and said, "So, Guo Fenghe has been in Tianzhu Mountain for at least ten years? Interesting. It is said that Guo Fenghe and his followers are all poor people from Huainan. They occupied Tianzhu Mountain to make a living. Guo Fenghe, Xia Yuanhong, Ma Wuben, Chen Chongren..."

Xie Xun, who was standing by, immediately understood what Li Yuanhui meant. "I see. These people either changed their names later or they are not the so-called poor families in Huainan as they say. They should all be from good families."

Li Yuanhui nodded and smiled, "Gathering soldiers and grain, and registering the people, is this the vision of a rebel? There are capable people in Tianzhu Mountain. Quite a few." Yin Gong's intelligence was quite detailed, including archival battle reports of battles between the government army and Tianzhu Mountain over the years, as well as Guo Fenghe's real name, the origin of this "Guo Fenghuang", the leaders of his troops, and their ages and personalities.

There is also information about some bandits who have close contacts with the old camp in Tianzhu Mountain, and powerful families who secretly collude with them.

The intelligence was not comprehensive, but it was enough to satisfy Li Yuanhui.

It is enough to make some targeted deployments based on these situations.

"General, I also think that this group of people don't seem to be bandits. They are cultivating the land, but no bandits would do such things."

Even if the bandits reached the scale of Wagangzhai, traversing three states and having more than 100,000 soldiers, and although they called themselves righteous army and dared to attack the saint, Li Yuanhui would still call them bandits.

Because what they are doing now is what bandits do, plundering for a living. This has nothing to do with their size. Plundering means that they are just plunderers, not producers.

But the people in Tianzhu Mountain were different. Their main source of livelihood was farming, supplemented by looting. They had a fixed base and knew how to raise silkworms and weave cloth to exchange for salt and iron.

This is simply the state of a small regime. Even the governing ability of most warlords in troubled times cannot compare to these bandits in Tianzhu Mountain.

Also, according to previous battle records, these people's armies were quite methodical when fighting and knew how to fight in formations, which was also something the bandits could not master.

Last year, when Murong Ying was trapped in Guangwu, all the great bandits in the world attacked the counties and cities and plundered the baggage and provisions of the Yan army.

Tianzhu Mountain did not take any action, nor did it take the opportunity to plunder, but only took in some refugees. And expanded its sphere of influence to the border of Lu'an and Shu County. It quietly expanded its strength and sphere of influence, but did not attack major cities to attract the attention of the court. This in itself is a kind of wisdom.

"General, do you want to persuade Guo Fenghe to surrender?" Li Qinglian, who had read the letter, noticed the admiration in Li Yuanhui's tone for these "big thieves" in Tianzhu Mountain.

Li Yuanhui nodded, "I do have this idea, but it may not be easy to persuade these people to surrender. We must first prepare to send troops to wipe them out before we can talk to them about surrendering. Do you have a plan to defeat the bandits?"

Li Qinglian said, "General, I think the bandits in Tianzhu Mountain are defending the mountain, but their base is in the fields outside the mountain. Although there are savings in the mountain, judging by the number of bandits, the mountain can only store a year's worth of food at most, and salt and ironware need to be transported outside the mountain. If you want to attack the mountain, first you must build strong walls and clear the fields, destroy their fields, and make them lack food. Second, you must build beacon towers and forts with Lu'an, Shuxian, and Hefei as the core, and seal the mountain so that the inside and outside cannot be connected. If you sit back and eat the mountain, the bandits will collapse after a long time."

Li Yuanhui asked: "How long will it take to defeat the bandits using this method?"

Li Qinglian said: "At least one or two years, at most three to five years."

"It's been too long. I don't have the time and energy to waste with these people." Li Yuanhui shook his head, and then asked: "Is there a plan to win quickly?"

What Li Qinglian said about closing the mountain was actually very feasible and not too costly. The only thing that Li Yuanhui found hard to accept was that it would take too long.

It's just a matter of wasting time with the other party.

However, if we waste too much time fighting with the bandits in Tianzhu Mountain, it will inevitably affect the overall implementation of the Jianghuai strategy.

After all, without the siege of tens of thousands of troops and the assistance of powerful families and wealthy people nearby, closing the mountain is just empty talk.

However, Li Qinglian quickly came up with a method for quick battle.

“Yes, but the mountain is still closed.”

Li Yuanhui was stunned when he heard this. Is the mountain still closed?
"You mean to force the Tianzhu Mountain bandits to surrender by closing the mountain?"

"Of course."

(End of this chapter)