The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 247 Enemies are extremely jealous when they meet

Guan Xing followed Shen Yi to Damu City. When they arrived at the city, they were surprised to find that the huge Damu County had been turned into a large construction site. The Han soldiers and the surrendered soldiers were working together like brothers, with groups of several people working hard at the city.

Thanks to their hard work, a brand-new city wall has risen from the ground and is already over 15 feet high. It is estimated that it will be largely completed in another half month.

Looking at the city wall he had built with his own hands, Shen Yi said with a proud expression, "In order to integrate the surrendered soldiers into the army as soon as possible, I broke up the main army and the surrendered soldiers and mixed them together. At first, there were indeed some frictions between the two sides, but now it is much better."

Guan Xing stared at the construction site and said, "Your method is good, but it's missing one thing."

Shen Yi asked in surprise, "What is that?"

Guan Xing frowned and said, "Military uniforms. The uniforms of the Han army and the surrendered soldiers are not the same, so their hearts will not be united. Military uniforms may look inconspicuous, but they are always visible and can easily arouse the unease of sensitive soldiers."

"To give you an example, if I were a Han soldier and you were a surrendered soldier, every time we met, you would see my Han soldier uniform and then look at your own surrendered soldier uniform. How would you feel?"

After pondering for a long time, Shen Yi tentatively said, "We're dressed differently, so we're definitely not on the same side. All the kindness your Han army shows us surrendered soldiers is fake. They'll definitely push us forward to be scapegoats when it matters."

Guan Xing snapped his fingers and said, "That's right. So, if we want to completely integrate the surrendered Han soldiers and even the Yue barbarians into one whole, we must first unify their clothing. If everyone wears the same clothes, they will naturally assume that they are in the same camp."

This is similar to the difference between permanent and temporary employees in later generations. You have a formal position but I don't. Can you treat me like one of your own?

Guan Xing said, "However, this is not your problem, but my problem. The Wushang Textile Factory has woven a batch of cloth, which is perfect for making clothes."

In an era of low productivity, it was impossible for every soldier to have armor; most soldiers simply wore clothes without armor.

Even the wealthiest Wei army has an armor rate of less than 30%, let alone Guan Xing, who is so poor he's practically urinating blood.

Guan Xing's army was lucky to even have clothes to wear; what did they need armor for?

Fortunately, Guan Xing had built a textile factory in Wushang before heading to Jianye. At the same time, he rented out the surplus textile machines to the people of Wushang at market prices on an installment basis, thus accumulating a large amount of cloth, enough for the army to complete the change of clothes.

Shen Yi said excitedly, "That's great! With the new uniforms, the soldiers' morale will definitely be much higher."

Guan Xing nodded and said, "Let's go, let's go to the county government office first and have a meeting to discuss our next steps."

Following Shen Yi through the construction site and into the low inner city wall, they arrived smoothly at the county government hall. Guan Xing skillfully took the seat of honor, with the others standing on either side.

Currently, only a handful of generals, including Shen Yi, Ning Huan, Deng Hong, Wang Tao, Zhu Chao, and Zhou Shan, are standing below the hall, a stark contrast to the previous large gathering.

Deng Hong was something Guan Xing specifically obtained from Guan Yu.

There was nothing he could do. The generals he valued most, such as Meng Jun, Gan Meng, Xia Tong, and others, had all been taken away by Guan Yu. Xie Chong had to stay in Shanyin to handle government affairs, and Ji Jie was training the navy with Zhou Xun. He only had these few men left by his side.

Looking at the people in front of him, Guan Xing instinctively thought of the opponents he was about to face.

After Lü Meng's death, the three most likely candidates to succeed him as the new Grand Commander of Eastern Wu were Lu Xun, Zhu Ran, and Zhou Tai. Xu Sheng and Pan Zhang were the substitutes, but Zhu Ran was the adopted son of Zhu Ju, who had already defected to Guan Yu. No matter how ambitious Sun Quan was, he would never allow Zhu Ran to become the Grand Commander. It would be good enough if he didn't kill Zhu Ran.

Zhou Tai came from a poor background, and when he served as the commander of Ruxu, he faced unanimous opposition from the Jiangdong gentry. Sun Quan had to personally step in to help him out and promote Zhou Tai to Grand Commander. Other generals would certainly disagree with this.

Therefore, it can be inferred that Lu Xun is the most likely candidate to succeed Lü Meng as the new Grand Commander, and also the most likely candidate to lead troops to attack him.

Thinking of this, Guan Xing suddenly felt immense pressure. That was Lu Xun, the famous general of the Temple of Martial Arts, who completely destroyed Liu Bei's great cause in Yiling and even indirectly caused Liu Bei's death.

Guan Xing felt it was unreliable to rely on these rookies to deal with Lu Xun's elite group of generals from Eastern Wu.

But with the die already cast, Guan Xing coughed and said, "My father has transferred Meng Jun, Gan Meng, and Xia Tong's heavy armor battalion away. We'll have to fight the rest of the battles ourselves."

"But it doesn't matter. Xie Chong has selected more than 20,000 men from Zhang Cheng's surrendered troops. More than half of them are elite veterans who fought alongside Lü Meng against the Wei army. There are still 20,000 men in Damu. Adding the original troops, our forces exceed 50,000, which is enough to withstand the Wu army's attack. At worst, we can hold Damu and prevent the Wu army from entering the Jinqu Basin."

"But before that, we need to do two things. Ning Huan, pack your things and take your men to infiltrate Yuzhang. While scouting the terrain of Yuzhang, investigate the forces within its borders, including but not limited to inquiring about the clans in various villages and towns, the bandits in various mountain strongholds, the family members of local gentry, and their internal conflicts..."

"In short, I need to know how many people there are in this village, how many factions they are divided into, how much animosity exists between these factions, how many people are in each of the major aristocratic families, which families they are on good terms with and which they are enemies with, and who among the aristocratic families is on good terms with whom and who is enemies with whom. The more detailed the information, the better. While gathering information, I need to spread our plan to overthrow the local tyrants and distribute land to the people of Yuzhang, so that the people of Yuzhang know our ideals."

Ning Huan bowed and said, "Yes, Your subordinate will pack up and set off immediately."

Guan Xing continued, "Shen Yi, if nothing unexpected happens, the cloth from Wushang will arrive in the next day or two. You are both the garrison commander and the magistrate of Damu, so you are far more familiar with the situation in Damu than I am. I would like to ask you to gather the tailors in the army and the women in the nearby villages who are good at tailoring to speed up the production of military uniforms. Before the battle begins, the new military uniforms must be distributed to every soldier to strive for uniformity in clothing."

Shen Yi bowed and said, "Yes."

Guan Xing continued, "Deng Hong, after the army is assembled, select a group of elites from the army to form a heavy armor battalion for me. You can decide the number of people yourself."

Deng Hong was the founder of the Heavy Armored Battalion and the mentor of Battalion Commander Xia Tong. It would be easy for him to rebuild the Heavy Armored Battalion, which is why Guan Xing specifically asked him to come from Guan Yu.

Often, experience is far more important than ability; a wealth of experience can save you a lot of trouble.

Deng Hong immediately bowed and said, "No problem."

Guan Xing continued, "Zhu Chao, take the craftsmen and build a batch of catapults as soon as possible for the defense of the city. The newly built city wall of Shen Yi can accommodate the catapults."

"Zhou Shan, the steel mill has built twelve triple-bow crossbows. You take over the task, organize the training, and use the triple-bow crossbows to give the Wu army a little shock when they invade."

Zhu Chao and Zhou Shan bowed simultaneously and said, "Yes."

After the meeting, everyone immediately got to work. Guan Xing was not idle either. He went deep into the army to build relationships with the soldiers and put on an apron to cook for them himself. That evening, the soldiers in Jiancheng ate the meal cooked by Guan Xing himself.

Guan Xing didn't idle the rest of the time either. He constantly moved around the army, actively learning about the soldiers' strengths and interests, using words to resolve their troubles and worries, and constantly instilling in them the land distribution policy he was going to implement. He told the soldiers that as long as they defeated the Wu army, they could divide up the land of the gentry and work from sunrise to sunset.

Under Guan Xing's relentless onslaught of flatbreads, the surrendered soldiers' resistance to the Han army gradually disappeared.

Meanwhile, Sun Quan was also actively preparing to attack Guan Xing.

Jiangling City, the residence of Marquis Wu.

At Sun Quan's command, all the officials and generals in the city rushed to the mansion to discuss the campaign against Guan Xing's counterattack on Jiangdong.

In addition to his officials, Sun Quan also invited two special guests: Fei Yi, Liu Bei's envoy, and Jiang Ji, Cao Wei's envoy.

Upon receiving the news, Fei Yi took a carriage to the Wu Hou Mansion. As soon as he got out of the carriage in front of the mansion, he saw Jiang Ji, who had also just gotten out of the carriage, on the opposite side of the mansion gate.

Enemies meeting are bound to be furious, and as soon as Fei Yi saw Jiang Ji, his hand instinctively gripped the hilt of his sword.