In the leap November of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Laiheng and Luo Yanqing spent more than ten days of peace and tranquility together. After eastern Henan returned to the rule of the Chuang Army, Niu Jinxing transferred a Luoyang Juren named Xu Shangde
, responsible for repairing the cities in Guide and Bozhou.
Xu Shangde is nominally the minister of the Central Government of the Six Governments newly established by Li Zicheng. However, because the Chuang Army Commander's Mansion is in Kaifeng, most of the civil affairs are still under the direct jurisdiction of the generals at all levels of the Chuang Army and have not yet entered the level of detail in the Huguang area.
level of civil administration.
Therefore, central civil servants like Xu Shangde did not have great powers and responsibilities, and they did not have much work in Kaifeng. Since Niu Jinxing regarded Li Laiheng as a member of Li Guo's "one party", he thought of sending central civil servants to Henan
Dong’s method of “stepping in”.
Li Laiheng just laughed at this situation. He saw that Xu Shangde came from Kaifeng to Shangqiu, including a servant, and there were only a dozen people in total, and several of them were guards. He knew that Niu Jinxing was just a whim.
, has never had the idea of taking over the political power in eastern Henan, let alone the ability and manpower.
Regarding Xu Shangde's arrangements, theoretically Xu Shangde, as the minister of the Industrial Government at the center of the invasion army, and Li Laiheng, a Jianghuai economic envoy and former camp general, had no right to arrange Xu Shangde's work situation.
But now that East Henan is actually completely under Li Laiheng's military control, no matter what Xu Shangde wants to do, of course he must first let Li Laiheng take a look and nod. After this, a minister of the six central governments was completely under the influence of Li Laiheng.
In the eyes of Chen Yongfu, Fang Yizhi, and Chen Zilong, Li Laiheng's manipulation became a small footnote to Li Laiheng's unparalleled status in the army.
"Jin Youzhang, what have Shao Sikong done recently? Besides him, has Military Advisor Niu sent anyone else to Bozhou?"
Jin Youzhang was a tribute student from Jiangling. He was a down-and-out scholar who defected to Chu Chuang's army when it swept across Huguang. When Li Laiheng led his army north to pursue Xiao Yuan's camp, considering the need to manage Huaibei in the future, he recruited some scribes from Xiangyang and Jingzhou to accompany the army.
action.
After Chu Chuang captured Xuzhou, Jin Youzhang was appointed by Li Laiheng as the pastor of Bozhou to assist the garrison in organizing the civil affairs of Bozhou. Not long after Xu Shangde arrived at Guide Mansion, he also made a request to go to Bozhou to explore the canal. The Ministry of Industry was also called Sikong.
Xu Shangde's behavior was within the scope of his authority when it came to controlling water and soil matters.
Li Laiheng was of course wary of Xu Shangde's request, and he also wondered whether the minister of the workers' government would cause any trouble, so he secretly ordered Bozhou Mu Jin Youzhang to closely observe all Xu Shangde's actions.
However, the situation reported by Jin Youzhang surprised Li Laiheng:
"Reply to the envoy. After Shao Sikong arrived in Bozhou, he did not stay in the villa arranged by Xianguan, but stayed in the guest room of the state pastoral office. After resting for a night, he took an entourage to the edge of the canal.
After checking the current shipping situation on the Mashang River, the lower official considered that the area in eastern Henan was not very peaceful. He originally discussed with General Li the plan to send two sentries to guard Shao Sikong, but he refused. In the end, he agreed after the number was reduced by more than half.
"
"So, is Xu Shangde really devoting himself to his official duties? He doesn't want to be escorted by soldiers. He must not be hiding any ulterior motives!"
Seeing Li Laiheng's unwillingness to believe Xu Shangde, Jin Youzhang had no choice but to smile bitterly and said, "Just in case, I asked the local people in Luoyang to find out the details about Xu Sikong."
"Tell me, what kind of person is Xu Shangde? By the way, since he is from Luoyang, is he the same year as Military Master Niu?"
"Xu Sikong is not the same age as Mr. Niu, but he is also an old acquaintance. He used to open a bookstore in Luoyang and served as a county magistrate. Later, because he did not have enough income to support his family as a county magistrate, he had to be bullied by his subordinates.
Then he returned to Luoyang. Shao Sikong was not well-known in Luoyang, and the villagers had not heard of his reputation, nor did they know his bad reputation, but according to shopkeeper Li...according to Li Sicheng, when Shao Sikong was serving as the Minister of the Workers' Government in Kaifeng,
I often say after drinking that when a new dynasty is established, regardless of wealth and hard work, you must first perform meritorious deeds for the new leader, and only then can you serve as the founder of the country."
The Li Sicheng mentioned by Jin Youzhang was Li Yuan who rescued Fang Yizhi, Chen Zilong and Xu Du during the Xuzhou Incident. Li Yuan was originally an important figure placed by Kendeji in Xuzhou. Now that the Xuzhou Incident is over, Li Yuan
Naturally, the return to the establishment of Kendeji was accompanied by the accelerated formalization of the Chuang Army. Li Laiheng also privately renamed Kendeji the Colonial Husbandry Division, with Xiao Weisong still serving as the Colonial Husbandry Envoy and Li Yuan as the Sicheng.
After listening to Jin Youzhang's introduction, Li Laiheng was finally relieved and relieved of Xu Shangde.
He clapped his hands and said with a smile: "It seems that the group of fellow villagers recruited by Commander Niu are not useless people. Since they are willing to contribute to the great cause of the army, Jin Youzhang, after you return to Bozhou, do a good job
Please help Xu Shangde."
Jin Youzhang nodded in agreement. When he saw that Luo Yanqing had entered the room with a soup of broth, he took the initiative to excuse himself and left. Li Laiheng nodded gently, waved his hand, and asked the soldiers to take Jin Youzhang out. He stood up and helped Luo Yanqing.
Putting the broth on the table, he said reproachfully:
"Yan Qing, you are pregnant. Even if you don't want a helper to do this kind of thing, just ask me to do it. If something goes wrong, it doesn't matter what happens to the child. I'm just worried about your health.
It has a bad impact.”
Li Laiheng and Luo Yanqing have been married for more than a month. Luo Yanqing began to have very strong pregnancy reactions two days ago. Li Laiheng was so frightened that he hurriedly asked a doctor to check his pulse. Although he had lived in two generations, he had never experienced such a thing before.
You are still just a teenager, how could you imagine that you would become a father so soon?
However, for the generals of the Chuang Army who were looking forward to the Northern Expedition and the founding of the country, the fact that Li Laiheng and Luo Yanqing, as the products of the most important political symbolic activities of the Chuang Army in recent times, had children at this time was undoubtedly good news full of good omens.
Luo Yanqing has been suffering from severe morning sickness recently, and has also reduced her diet a lot, and her figure is slightly thinner than before. She was a little angry at Li Laiheng's words that he didn't care about the child, but only cared about his own body.
happiness.
Li Laiheng carefully took the broth and put it on the table, then helped Luo Yanqing sit down, and said close to her ear: "Miss Luo, you need to get better soon, otherwise what should I do alone?"
Miss Luo is the boudoir talk between the couple. Although there are only Li Laiheng and Luo Yanqing in the house now, after all, it is a public place during the day, not a private boudoir. Li Laiheng's words still make Luo Yanqing feel aroused.
A numbing sensation comes.
She didn't want Li Laiheng to say any more inappropriate nonsense, so she said with a straight face: "Bah... you, you... what are you talking about... Now Uncle Chang Gong is preparing to cross the river to capture Huaiqing Mansion, you also
Why don't you continue to rest in Shangqiu?"
The preparations for the Chuang Army's Northern Expedition have been mostly completed. As the head coach of the Pioneer Army, Liu Fangliang has now left Kaifeng and arrived at the south bank of the Yellow River to begin preparations for crossing the river.
Because many sections of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have been frozen, it is very difficult for a large army to cross the river. The main forces of the Ming and Qing armies are concentrated on both wings of the capital and the Yanbei area, leaving southern Hebei and southern Shanxi empty. Therefore, Liu Fangliang's march work,
Everything is going smooth.
"Guo Junzhen sent two new troops, Gao Lingyun and He Hongqi, to reinforce us. I will wait for them all to arrive and replenish the troops. After all preparations are in place, we can start the Northern Expedition."
Li Laiheng left Guo Junzhen in charge of Chu Chuang's military situation in Huguang. He and Li Polu, the general recruiter of Huguang Chuang's army, trained many new army troops. As for Gao Lingyun and He Hongqi, both of them were before
The young generals who rose to prominence in the Battle of Huguang had just arrived in Xuzhou a few days ago.
Ma Bao and Chen Yongfu's son Chen De, who were originally stationed in Xuzhou, divided their forces to capture Suzhou and Pizhou during this period, expanding the area under the jurisdiction of the Jianghuai Economic Envoy. It was only because Gao Qian kidnapped Shi Kefa and fled to Huai'an that he joined forces with the Huaiyang Governor Lu.
Zhenfei re-stationed troops in the Luoma Lake area to resist, so the Chuang army did not further seize Huai'an.
After all, Li Laiheng's primary purpose now is to go north to deal with the threat of possible intervention by Sun Chuanting's remaining soldiers and the Qing army.
"Chen Yongfu is so good at capturing troops. How long did it take for his old troops to be broken up and reorganized? He took advantage of the Ming army in southern Shandong and Huaibei to flee, and recruited a lot of miscellaneous soldiers, which made people worry. Gao Lingyun and
After He Hongqi arrives, I plan to let them stay in eastern Henan, while I myself will lead the northern expedition with Hao Yaoqi, Li Shiwei, Ma Bao, Chen Yongfu and other troops."
Li Laiheng originally led 20,000 troops to the east of Henan. In a series of battles against Xiaoyuan Camp, Henan Town and the Qing army crossing the river, although there were many casualties, after the main force of the Ming army in the Huaixu area was incorporated, the total number of troops increased
Instead of decreasing, the number has increased to about 30,000.
After Gao Lingyun and He Hongqi arrived in Xuzhou with Chu Chuang's new army, Li Laiheng's troops increased again. He decided to keep Gao Lingyun, and He Hongqi led 7,000 men to guard eastern Henan to guard against possible counterattacks by the Ming army in Jiangbei.
In order to move forward, he led the 30,000 main troops in the Northern Expedition along the Jining, Yanzhou, Dongping, Dongchang, and Jinan lines.
After arriving in Jinan, based on the progress of the Northern Expedition of the main force of the Chuang Army, consider whether to divide the troops first and attack Denglai, or go directly north from Hejian Prefecture and then go to Baoding to join the main army of the Chuang Army on the middle road.
"Yan Qing, the next few days will be one battle after another. You... I know you also want to run wild and participate in this great march, but your body is not easy to move at the moment, so just
Can you please be patient for a while?"
Li Laiheng stroked the side of Luo Yanqing's face with one hand, looked at his newlywed wife's pretty and charming facial features, and said in a low voice: "After the world is at peace, you and I will build a tall building in the capital and enjoy a hundred years of leisure... okay?"
Luo Yanqing remembered that Li Laiheng had said similar words in the past. Although she did regret that she was pregnant at this time and therefore could not participate in the battle to break out the army and found the country. But after hearing such warm words from Li Laiheng, she still felt
Moved by him, she squeezed Li Laiheng's hand and said: