Liu Yuchi was a strange man. He was a scholar, but he rebelled with Yuan Shizhong. However, he and the small Yuan camp he created were different from ordinary bandits. They not only never robbed the people and killed them indiscriminately, but instead took out money and food to help hungry people. When the Qing Dynasty invaded, they even took the initiative to attack the Qing army.

Later, the little Yuan camp defected to Li Zicheng, but the government also expressed his willingness to accept it. Because Yuan Shizhong himself was hesitant between the rebel army and the Ming court, Li Zicheng's suspicion was eventually aroused. Yuan Shizhong led the crowd to flee and was chased by Li Guo to defeat. Yuan Shizhong's brothers were killed, and Liu Yuchi led the remnants to hide in the deep mountains of western Shandong. Later, he met Gao Qi, who was preparing to raid Liu Zeqing, and surrendered to Zhou Xian.

In fact, at that time, there were only more than a thousand soldiers from the Xiao Yuan camp who were still following Liu Yuchi. Zhou Xian intended to use the reputation of Xiao Yuan camp to lead a battalion alone to expand his sphere of influence to eastern Henan, but he directly refused because he was not the one who led the troops. Later, he used his original relationship to assist Ding Keze in establishing a simple intelligence network in eastern Henan. When it was basically completed, he told Zhou Xian that he was not good at this, so he took the initiative to return to Jinan.

Li Kai and Liu Yuchi didn't know each other at first, but Ding Keze asked him to take care of Liu Yuchi. He took the initiative to see Liu Yuchi several times, arranged a residence for him, and sent everything he needed for life. During the conversation between the two, perhaps some special products of Li Kai attracted him, so he expressed his hope to serve under Li Kai.

Zhou Xian was also surprised when he first heard it. At that time, he was thinking of sending a civilian deputy to the generals above General Qian, and originally wanted to arrange Han Chang for Li Kai. But because he was worried that Han Chang was not experienced and had too soft personality to control Li Kai, he never made a decision.

Liu Yuchi took the initiative to raise this matter, which solved Zhou Xian’s concern. Liu Yuchi was well-behaved and worked hard, and complemented Li Kai, and might have achieved miraculous results. Therefore, he immediately agreed to the matter.

Li Kai was reluctant at first, but Liu Yuchi's several suggestions completely changed his mind. Not only did he fully accept him, he also took the initiative to ask him for advice every time he encountered something.

This time, Liu Yuchi took the initiative to persuade Li Kai to recruit a large number of soldiers from the prisoners. He did not want to, because Zhou Xian had only expanded his army by more than 20,000 people. He was worried that this move would go against Zhou Xian's will and arouse the latter's dissatisfaction. However, Liu Yuchi convinced him with Zhou Xian's ambitions and would not be limited to a corner of Shandong. He sent a letter to Zhou Xian in a tentative tone.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Xian not only agreed, but also promised that he could freely control all the food and supplies obtained from He Jin. It was up to him to decide how many soldiers he had to recruit.

This made Li Kai very happy because Liu Yuchi told him that as long as Zhou Xian agreed to this matter, it would mean that he had the plan to occupy Henan. And whoever had the most Henan soldiers in his hand would be the leader of the army. He initially set the number of soldiers recruited to two battalions, but Liu Yuchi said that he wanted four battalions, which was more than 12,000 people.

Now that Liu Yuchi mentioned this matter again, Li Kai said: "Mr. Liu, let's recruit two battalions first! After all, training them also takes time. How much food do you need? Report a number to me, and I will give you this."

Liu Yuchi shook his head, "General, you have to do this yourself."

Seeing Li Kai’s face showing doubts, Liu Yuchi continued, "General, I have heard about you and General Zhou. Among all the generals, you have followed him for the longest time and are the most trusted by him. But have you ever thought about why you are just a general? Although there is a precaution in this, General Zhou is temporarily unwilling to promote his trusted generals to avoid suspicion. But more importantly, you have not made enough convincing military achievements. In the eyes of others, you can be a general because General Zhou trusts General Zhou, not because you have this ability personally. In this case, even if General Zhou is willing to promote him, he cannot."

Li Kai frowned and remembered what Jinse said to him again. He was silent for a long time, and finally bowed and clasped his fists and said, "Please give me advice from Mr. Liu."

Liu Yuchi smiled and asked Li Kai-shek, "General, the reason why I am willing to serve your subordinates is to see that you are not what others say, just relying on the trust of Dushuo Zhou. You really have this ability, but you have no chance to display it for the time being. But sometimes opportunities are not waiting, but made. Only when you show your ability can you make Dushuo Zhou promote you, others have nothing to say."

Kai Lee asked, “But how?”

Liu Yuchi said: "The book of Taishi Gong once said, 'If this bird does not fly, it will soar into the sky; if it does not sing, it will soar into the sky, it will soar into the sky. If it does not sing, it will soar into the sky.' Now you should be like this bird, and you should accumulate enough strength for your future sing."

"First of all, you need enough troops. The Yongzi Battalion has always been led by you and is considered your direct line. But they are not enough. You need more soldiers. This is why I have always wanted to persuade you to take this opportunity to recruit more soldiers."

"Secondly, you want to gain the loyalty of your soldiers. The way to lead the army is nothing more than grace and power. You can do it according to your previous methods. But grace must be done more carefully. For example, this time, you must personally do it. You will be there to let all the prisoners know that this food is sent to them and that you can live. In this way, those who are willing to join the army will be grateful to you, and those who send back their hometowns will disperse your name of benevolence and righteousness in eastern Henan."

Speaking of this, Liu Yuchi looked at Li Kai. He found that he was listening carefully and continued, "This is to build momentum. Through various channels, he always has a posture of taking off at any time. Just imagine, if there were 20,000 soldiers who were loyal to you and you had a good reputation in Henan. When General Zhou marched to Henan in the future, who else could he use to control the army besides you? Once you are the commander of the army, are you afraid that you will not have the chance to make military achievements at that time?"

Li Kai was silent for a long time and asked, "Mr. Liu, are you sure that the commander will march into Henan?"

Liu Yuchi smiled and said, "Not now, but I will definitely do it in the future. In fact, this point has been pointed out in the answer given to you. There are two meanings for him to decide how many soldiers he recruits. One is that he fully trusts you, and the other is that he wants you to play a greater role in the future. If you show caution at this time, you will be ashamed of the trust of the Supervisor Zhou."
Chapter completed!