On the 16th day of the first lunar month, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, issued an order to "control the towns and governors" to the Ming army that was encircling and suppressing the peasant rebels. In other words, Hong Chengchou issued his formal order to the leading governors and military attaches.
In fact, by this time, Hong Chengchou's original plan to mobilize a large army to Henan for encirclement and suppression had come to nothing. Of course, this could be attributed to the Gansu mutiny and Li Zicheng's troops delaying Hong Chengchou's army in Shaanxi, but it also showed that the Ming army's reaction was
Quite sluggish.
Although the Ming army had an advantage in total numbers and combat effectiveness, each Ming army fought independently, did not cooperate with each other, and could not even report news. This often gave the peasant rebels an opportunity to take advantage of them.
, and even occupies an advantageous position locally.
For example, this time the Henan bandits were suppressed. Only the Ming army in Henan was fighting alone, and no one from the neighboring provinces came to support it. In the end, it was even the case that only the Runing army fought alone, and was eventually mobilized by the peasant rebel army.
A breach caused Fengyang, the central capital, to fall.
But now, it has been revealed that the Ming army's defense in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was very weak, and the "Jiangnan Wealth Zone" of the Ming Dynasty has also lost its former tranquility.
Now that the first plan has gone bankrupt, Hong Chengchou will redeploy his troops. He plans to mobilize troops from Shaanxi, Yunyang, Sichuan, Huguang, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other places for joint operations to compress the peasant rebel army in today's Hubei area, and then join forces
Attack.
So Hong Chengchou began to mobilize his troops. Of course, the troops of the nearest famous general, Chief Military Officer Li Lu, were the first to receive the order. But what surprised Hong Chengchou was that Li Lu only brought 500 of his own soldiers.
Arriving at the bandit suppression camp.
Hong Chengchou was furious on the spot and immediately wanted to use military law against Li Lu and beat him with dozens of military sticks. But Li Lu suddenly showed the temper of a man in the capital. He yelled: He recounted the hardships of the Ye County camp and other Ming troops.
Afraid of the enemy, he refused to advance. In his curses, he cursed Hong Chengchou, Xuanmo and all the civil and military officials in the camp.
And Li Lu's scolding is not unreasonable. Although he has been promoted to the rank of chief soldier. However, due to the short time, the rated number of soldiers for this general soldier town has not been approved by the Ministry of War. Therefore, Li Lu, the chief soldier officer
He still brought the three thousand soldiers and horses from the original guerrilla camp.
However, relying on these 3,000 men, Li Lu also preserved his garrison area in two counties including Ye County, and indirectly supported Nanyang Fucheng from falling. He even supported Ruzhou City with Wu Shigong's Runing Battalion and solved the problem.
The crisis in Ruzhou City must have been a great success no matter how you say it.
However, Li Lu forgot that civilian officials would not reason with military attachés, and his map cannon was fired too loudly, so that no official in the camp interceded for him. Therefore, Hong Chengchou had to uphold the original verdict for the sake of face.
Li Lu looked doomed.
Seeing the execution sergeant coming to hold him back, Li Lu became anxious. In desperation, he broke out a shocking news: the peasant rebel army was heading towards Fengyang!
This is not because Li Lu concealed anything when he met Hong Chengchou. The main reason is that the dynamics of Zhang Xianzhong's troops were only speculations by the officers of the Runing Army in Ye County. The accurate information had not yet come from when Li Lu rushed to suppress the bandit army.
It came from Wu Shigong. However, in order to avoid the physical pain, Li Lu could only throw out this uncertain news first.
But this news was like a blow to the head, which deceived officials such as Hong Chengchou and Xuanmo. After all these efforts to suppress the bandits, the emperor's ancestral tombs were wiped out. This matter was too grand.
Bar!
Hong Chengchou had no intention of punishing Li Lu. He sent out reconnaissance cavalry in the direction of Fengyang and asked Li Lu about the detailed movements of the peasant rebel army.
But what could Li Lu say? It was the Runing Army who was fighting, and it was the Runing Army who was going back and forth to rescue. He had been busy hugging his wives in Ye County. So the Runing Army informed Li
Li Lu's intelligence, the speculations and analyzes of Runing Army officers, hearsay and Li Lu's own imagination were all mixed together. Li Lu threw them all to Hong Chengchou.
Hong Chengchou, who was in an agitated mood, did not notice the exaggeration in Li Lu's words. While he prayed to God to open his eyes and miraculously save Fengyang, he began to rack his brains to get some results. Although he could not shirk much responsibility, at least
There must also be some actions to atone for one’s sins.
Xuanmo on the side always gloated a little. This time the peasant rebel army entered Henan for the second time. Xuanmo also suffered a lot. Fortunately, all the influential cities in Henan were saved.
And now it is the turn of the surrounding provinces, let those governors also taste "the torture I have suffered!" Fortunately, Xuanmo's city is quite deep, and he has been immersed in Confucianism for many years, so he immediately woke up.
I kept saying silently in my heart: "Be careful of being alone! Be careful of being alone!"
On the second day, Li Lu, who had been anxious all night after his outburst, saw a 180-degree change in the way he was treated. And this change was exactly what Xuan Mo promoted.
When he was in Xuzhou, Zhou Junwu, who felt that he was bored in Runing's army, proposed to leave, and Wu Shigong just happened to send him to Zhu Dadian's army.
This week Junwu was not afraid of hard work. He traveled day and night to Hong Chengchou and Xuanmo's army. He immediately told his mentor Xuanmo everything he saw and heard in the Runing army.
Although he was mentally prepared, Xuan Mo was still shocked when he learned the true strength of the Runing Army. After calming down, Xuan Mo also guessed that this time it was the Runing Army alone that dealt with all the peasant rebels.
What surprised Xuanmo even more was that Zhou Junwu told Xuanmo: The Runing Army was not a tripartite coalition of Runing, Guide and Ye County. This army was completely under the command of Wu Shigong.
What is this concept? This shows that Wu Shigong should be treated with caution. If he offends Wu Shigong, he can act as a warlord and ignore his nominal civilian boss; if he makes good friends, Wu Shigong will also be his boss's right-hand man.
Then Xuan Mo's choice will be easy. Try to win over Wu Shigong and make him a confidant. As for the grievances Zhou Junwu suffered, let it be the price of his growth. Therefore, Li Lu immediately became Wu Shigong's favorite
Xuan Mo's dog gained Xuan Mo's attention. So when he met Hong Chengchou again, Xuan Mo said a lot of good things about Li Lu.
No matter how high Hong Chengchou's position is, Henan Governor Xuan Mo will always have to give him face. Besides, Hong Chengchou is now worried about the news in Fengyang and has no intention of punishing Li Lu, the local commander-in-chief. So after Xuan Mo pleads for mercy
, he conveniently sold Xuan Mo a favor.
So until Li Lu returned to Ye County, he felt a little dizzy about the unpredictable treatment he received. Even when he saw that Xuan Mo specially approved it for him to take back to Ye County
Li Lu seemed to be in a dream regarding food, wages and ordnance. (To be continued...)