Is what Li Bing Beidao did wrong? It should be right. Since he was incapable of leading troops, he had the self-knowledge to bring the demoralized Ming army back to Kaifeng to preserve the strength to defend Henan in case there was no Ming army to defend Henan.

The hinterland is empty. This approach is also a reasonable move at this time.

But in this way, it completely broke the original military plan set by Wu Shigong and Xuan Mo, and abandoned the defense of the Henan border, so that the peasant army could enter Henan unimpeded. What's even worse is that including Wu Shigong's Runing

Army, Yu Zilian's Ruzhou Army and all other Ming armies in Henan were unaware of this change of plan.

But it was useless to say anything now. Having made the decision, the eight thousand Ming army immediately rushed back to Kaifeng with Xuan Mo's body. Only Zhou Junwu, who was unwilling to do so, asked Li Bing Beidao to send a group of personal soldiers to protect him.

, first go to Ruzhou to report the news, and then look for Wu Shigong, so that his Runing army can respond in time.

Emperor Chongzhen is having trouble these days with continuous rain. First, the suppression of bandits in Shaanxi was very unsatisfactory. Not only was the city lost in succession, Xi'an was attacked twice, but two generals, Cao Wenzhao and Ai Wannian, were killed one after another. Then there was unexpected news

He received the news that Xuan Mo, the governor of Henan, was accidentally injured and killed in battle.

"Wen Aiqing! The Shaanxi bandits are so raging, what good plan can Aiqing have?" Because Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, was seriously ill, the current Emperor Chongzhen paid more attention to his first assistant, Wen Tiren.

"Your Majesty!" Wen Tiren bowed and said, "I have read the battle reports of the past six months and found out that Governor Chahong's actions were not inappropriate, but why are there so many small setbacks? The faults under his jurisdiction are so huge that it is difficult to take care of them, so he only cares about one thing and not the other."

"Oh?" Emperor Chongzhen has also convened several ministers to discuss the rampage of the Shaanxi Peasant Army these days, but the solution proposed by the ministers is nothing more than adding more troops and higher pay. Doesn't this make the stretched Emperor Chongzhen even more worried? But

Today, I heard Wen Tiren's new statement. I couldn't help but be very interested, so I quickly asked: "Ai Qing, please tell me!"

Wen Tiren concealed his pride and continued: "The veteran believes that although Governor Hong was appointed as the governor of three sides and five provinces in order to unify the powers, his responsibilities and powers are indeed too great. Another important minister should be appointed as the governor of the five provinces, so that

Governor Hong is concentrating on the three sides, so that one in the east and one in the west, each command and subordinates will attack separately, so that the traitor army can be wiped out with twice the result with half the effort."

In fact, Wen Tiren's statement is also very reasonable. The reason why the imperial court wanted to add the official position of governor of the five provinces at that time was to unify command and improve the efficiency of suppressing bandits.

However, the appointment of Hong Chengchou went from one extreme to the other. You must know that Hong Chengchou's original position as governor of the three sides has not yet resigned, and these two governors were in charge of the most important areas in the Ming Dynasty except Liaodong.

Two war zones. So it is indeed as Wen Tiren said: the area under its jurisdiction is a bit too big, and some are focusing on one and not the other.

But Wen Tiren's proposal was certainly selfish. He was still afraid that Hong Chengchou would have too much power and his prestige would be too high after wiping out the peasant army. Then joining the cabinet would threaten his position as chief minister. So he took this opportunity to weaken Hong Chengchou's power.

However, Wen Tiren's suggestion was very much in line with Emperor Chongzhen's wishes. For him, any method that does not require money is a good method. Moreover, what Wen Tiren said was indeed reasonable. So his interest suddenly rose, and he smiled.

He asked: "Who do you think I should send?"

"Old minister, there were two people who reported to the emperor. Unfortunately, Governor Xuan is unlucky, and now only Lu Fuzhi is left." Wen Tiren said pretending to be helpless.

Only then did Emperor Chongzhen realize that Xuan Mo's death in battle was not necessarily a bad thing. At least there should have been a headache between Xuan Mo and Lu Xiangsheng, but now there is no such problem. So he immediately nodded and said: "Zhunzou

!" Then he felt a little sorry for Xuan Mo. He also ordered: "My dear! Let the Ministry of Rites provide preferential treatment to Governor Xuan!"

"According to the order!"

In August of the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, Emperor Chongzhen granted Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng the Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang provinces' military affairs grant to Shang Fang Sword, who was specifically responsible for the defense of the Central Plains, while Hong Chengchou was specifically responsible for the military defense of the northwest region.

The east and west sides were responsible for their own affairs. They no longer carried out large-scale encirclement and suppression campaigns, but attacked the peasant armies in their respective areas. After Lu Xiangsheng took office as the military prime minister, he adjusted the military deployment, with Henan as the center, relatively concentrated the Ming army, and concentrated the Ming army with the ancestors.

The Guan Ning Cavalry led by Kuan was the backbone, and other ministries cooperated to defend Luoyang.

At this point, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army officially entered the stage of history.

July 28, the eighth year of Chongzhen.

"After a lot of effort, the gangsters were finally surrounded. Sir, when will they be completely eliminated?" Li Sanhe said excitedly.

"Don't be impatient! How many days have we been surrounded now? The gangsters are quite capable of causing trouble. Let's flatten their strength first!" Wu Shigong also said with a smile.

Without the troops of Xuan Mo and Yu Zilian, Wu Shigong contacted Xue Yongli and acted together. After that, it took nearly twenty days to finally surround the main force of more than 60,000 bandits in the Qixian area. But now

The weather was midsummer, so it would take a long time for the bandits to freeze and starve, so Wu Shigong blocked the bandits' escape route, hoping to slowly wear down the bandits' morale and energy and reduce his own losses.

Especially among the besieged bandits, there are also some old camp troops left behind by the peasant army last time. Their combat effectiveness is very strong. In addition, there are also some local bandits from Henan. If you attack rashly, Runing will

The army's losses must have been huge, so General Wu Shigong's idea was still to promote pacification through suppression.

"Report to your lord! Counselor Zhou at Governor Xuan's place outside the camp wants to see you!" the soldiers who came in from outside the big tent suddenly reported.

…

"What!" the officers in the tent exclaimed in unison.

"Can this kind of thing be a joke?" Wu Shigong smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Counsellor Zhou is resting in the back tent."

Hearing the news of Xuan Mo's sudden death, all the officers felt as unbelievable as when Wu Shigong first learned about the situation. However, those officers were just worried that without Xuan Mo's army defending on the Henan border, it would give Runing's army

Pingjing brought great changes, but they did not know that Wu Shigong would lose more politically.

To be honest, until now, Wu Shigong has only formed an alliance with Xuan Mo, a senior official. I originally thought that with Xuan Mo's support, Wu Shigong would get a protective umbrella and some help when developing the power of the Runing Army, but now

Just a few months after the alliance was formed, Xuan Mo passed away inexplicably.

Wu Shigong couldn't help but laugh at himself. Was it because he was destined to be like this? He would not receive any help from the officialdom. Even the high-ranking officials who formed an alliance with him would also have bad luck?

But no matter what, let’s adapt first.

"Sir! What should we do?" Liang Hui was the calmest.

Wu Shigong was also in a state of confusion at this time. He turned back to plug the gap left by the main force of the Ming army in Henan when he left. Then the efforts of the local bandits who had been surrounded these days would be in vain; but the original peace plan remained unchanged.

, then Shaanxi’s peasant army will enter Henan unimpeded. You know, most of the main force of Runing’s army is now dispatched. Don’t want the empty situation in your hometown to happen again?

The only solution that has the best of both worlds is to attack the besieged bandits. But in this way, the losses of the Runing Army will definitely not be small, and it will also bring great difficulties to the Runing Army in the future when they deal with the peasant army and the Tatars.

negative impact.

So Wu Shigong couldn't sit still. He stood up and paced back and forth in the big tent, trying to think of a thorough method. After thinking about it again and again, Wu Shigong found that he could only trust his old rival Yu Zilian. As long as his Ruzhou

If the army protects its back, the peasant army that re-enters Henan will definitely not dare to go deep into it wantonly.

However, believing in Yu Zilian always made Wu Shigong feel a little uncomfortable, so after repeated weighing, Wu Shigong decided to put his personal feelings aside for now. He stopped and ordered: "When Counselor Zhou wakes up, let him work hard again.

Ruzhou told Yu Zhizhou that he must persist for a month no matter what, and wait until I wipe out all the bandits here."

Wu Shigong decided to follow the original plan and annihilate the surrounded bandits. However, Wu Shigong could only gamble on his character as to whether Yu Zilian was able to use his rabble to delay the peasant army.

Seeing that Wu Shigong had made up his mind, the officers immediately said: "Promise!" and followed the order.

Maybe Wu Shigong's character has indeed come true. Within a few days, the besieged bandits sent envoys to surrender to Wu Shigong. The main person who promoted this surrender was Yuan Shizhong, one of the leaders of the bandits.

Yuan Shizhong's Xiao Yuanying was the main force among the besieged bandits. He took advantage of the severe drought in Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other places that year, when locusts covered the sun and there was a severe famine in winter, he gathered tens of thousands of people and led the hungry people to rebel.

However, Yuan Shizhong has always wanted to follow the old path of rebellion-recruitment-and becoming an official, but he has never been able to find a way. The original Runing Army's brutal siege of Bao Zitou also frightened Yuan Shizhong, making him unable to make up his mind to go to the army.

The Runing army surrendered.

But this time Yuan Shizhong was really desperate. With the idea of ​​giving it a try, he packed up a few tougher leaders, integrated other rebel troops, and then sent an envoy to surrender to the Runing army with generous gifts.

Of course Wu Shigong was overjoyed when he learned that the bandits were coming to surrender. However, he did not dare to neglect it. After all, Wu Shigong had encountered too many false surrenders before. So Wu Shigong happily accepted the surrender while carefully disarming the bandits.

Fortunately, Yuan Shizhong really surrendered this time, so the reorganization of the rebel bandits went very smoothly. But no matter what, collecting weapons and other chores for more than 60,000 rebel bandits also takes a lot of time. So Runing is in a hurry.

The army cannot escape.
Chapter completed!