The army immediately entered the city, Zhu Hao set out to appease the people, the city is still stable, it seems that He Yilong is not lying, his peasant army is quite honest, and the people do not hate the peasant army very much, but they are a little curious about the new army, seeing that these soldiers are wearing new military uniforms, everyone is polite, and they take care of some vulnerable people, not only different from the peasant army, but also other officers and soldiers.

Therefore, in just a few days, the new army won a good reputation among the common people of Suizhou. The prestige of the New Army was also established in the eastern part of the country.

According to what He Yilong said, Zhu Hao sent people to Hongshan to pick up some of the money, and received a total of more than 300,000 taels of silver together with the city, but there was not much food.

He had already thought about He Yilong's arrangement, and secretly escorted him back to Xuzhou for resettlement, and said to the outside world that He Yilong committed suicide in fear of crime during his captivity, and his body was stolen.

After the end of the Battle of Suizhou, there was no large peasant army east of Xiangyang. Yang Sichang was overjoyed after receiving the report, and successively urged Zhu Hao to rush to Xiangyang immediately to solve Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai was very cunning, after receiving the news of the annihilation of the Chaotianxing army, he immediately withdrew from Zhangcheng and went west to Zhang Xianzhong, but he didn't expect Zhang Xianzhong to rely on the strength of the army and the strength of the horse to take him seriously, Luo Rucai led the army north in a fit of anger and defected to Li Zicheng.

In this way, only Zhang Xianzhong in western Hubei was a lone army in the entire northern part of Huguang, and it was not until he was defeated by Zhu Hao that Zhang Xianzhong regretted letting Luo Rucai go.

After five days of driving, the main force of the new army finally arrived in Zhangcheng, and Zhu Hao came to Xiangyang with a battalion to see Yang Sichang.

Yang Sichang introduced Zhu Hao to the generals, praised his military exploits, generals such as Li Guoting, Zhang Yingyuan, Wang Zhifeng, etc. did not show anything special, some people were jealous, some people looked at Zhu Hao arrogantly, only Zuo Liangyu squinted and looked at him a few times, Zhu Hao also secretly observed this fierce general who supported the army and respected himself at the end of the Ming Dynasty, this person is about forty years old, burly, and looks like a standard general.

"Ming Feng, I didn't expect you to kill He Yilong so cleanly and hit Luo Rucai hard, it seems that Bendu didn't see the wrong person!" Yang Sichang was in a good mood and said happily.

"The commander praises falsely, the victory of this battle is all due to the commander's good scheduling, the soldiers are just using their lives, and the generals will not dare to be greedy." Zhu Hao said modestly, Yang Sichang is now the commander-in-chief of the Central Plains Bandits, and Zhu Hao is nominally controlled by him, so he is a big sycophant, anyway, it doesn't cost money to pat the sycophants.

"Haha, Ming Feng doesn't need to put a high hat on my old man, this time's task of suppressing bandits depends on you generals, let's talk about it, how to deal with Zhang and Li?"

"The last general has just arrived, and I don't know the situation of these two people yet, please explain."

"Li Zicheng is now entrenched in western Henan, with about 30,000 or 40,000 men under his command, while Zhang Xianzhong is wandering by the Sichuan Lake, with 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers, including about 30,000 veterans of his lineage, commanded by several of his righteous sons." Wang Zhifeng patiently explained that among the generals, he was the only one who was more tactful and had always refused to offend people.

"Well, so Li Zicheng has not yet become a climate, and our biggest opponent at present should be Zhang Xianzhong?" Zhu Hao groaned.

"Yes, Zhang Xianzhong's thieves are extremely good at fighting, and they have defeated our army in a row, and their people are scheming, so they are not easy to deal with." Yang Sichang was also worried.

"I don't know how many imperial soldiers and horses there are around Xiangyang?" Zhu Hao asked.

"Now there are three large forces, 20,000 troops under General Zuo are stationed in Yuan'an, General Li has more than 10,000 troops stationed in Yunyang, Deputy General Zhang has more than 10,000 troops stationed in Zhushan, and Wang garrisons Xiangyang with 15,000 soldiers. Together with more than 10,000 people in your department, there are more than 65,000 people. ”

"With such a force to deal with Zhang and Li two thieves is a little stretched, according to the end of the general, Li Zicheng in the north should be mainly on defense, Li Zhi's strength is still weak, it is difficult to make a big move in the short term, you can first concentrate on fighting Zhang Xianzhong, this person is aiming at Xiangyang, if you don't exterminate it as soon as possible, there will be chaos." Zhu Haocun wanted to let Li Zicheng go, so he had some reservations.

"I don't agree with Zhu Zongbing's words, Li Zicheng inherited Gao Yingxiang's career, which is deep-rooted, and although his strength is weak at the moment, his influence cannot be ignored, so I will suggest a two-pronged approach." Li Guoting retorted.

"That being the case, listen to the commander's instructions, and the new army will listen to the commander's orders." Zhu Hao did not argue and threw the question to Yang Sichang.

Yang Sichang was also unwilling to let go of Li Zicheng, who was close at hand, and said with some embarrassment: "The two generals are reasonable, but the will of the imperial court is to exterminate these two people as soon as possible, so let's do it, the General Army Department of Li and Deputy General Zhang will go north to conquer Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong is stronger, and General Zhu and General Zuo will work together to suppress him, how about it?" ”

"I am willing to listen to the commander!" The crowd agreed.

Zhu Hao was overjoyed, and was worried about how to pull Zuo Liangyu into the water, so Yang Sichang arranged it. Zuo Liangyu in history hooked up with Zhang Xianzhong, so as to support the army and respect himself, and this time it just gave Zhu Hao's careful thinking a cover.

"Commander, our new army is basically infantry, with a lot of baggage and poor mobility, and the thieves are running all year round and have strong mobility, so the last general suggests that our troops advance head-on, and the left general army headquarters will intercept them, how about it?"

"Well, what Ming Feng said makes sense, the mobility of the firearms battalion is indeed not as good as that of other battalions, so according to your policy, hit Fang County first!" Yang Sichang said.

Zuo Liangyu did not raise any objections, Zhu Hao's arrangement was exactly what he wanted, he didn't have to face the powerful Zhang Xianzhong head-on, the defeat in the first battle of Luo Monkey Mountain still has lingering palpitations, and Zuo Liangyu's descendants of the soldiers and horses in that battle were almost lost, and their vitality was greatly damaged, if it weren't for Yang Sichang's guarantor, I am afraid that he would have been beheaded by Chongzhen.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong was entrenched in Fangxian, Xingshan, and Baokang, and of course he knew that Xiangyang was an important town in the Central Plains, and there were heavy troops guarding the periphery, which was difficult to overcome.

Zhu Hao naturally knew Zhang Xianzhong's purpose, so he put on a swaggering posture and fought head-on with the peasant army, just to paralyze him, with Zhang Xianzhong's gambler's character, seeing this lonely army of 10,000 people, he must come to meet the enemy with superior forces, and then he can be defeated, Zhu Hao's main purpose is to Zhang Xianzhong's number one general Li Dingguo, as for Zhang Xianzhong's ability to break through, and whether Zuo Liangyu will intercept it, he doesn't care.

The two of them had their own ghosts, and after agreeing on some details of the troops, they each returned to their stations.

After returning to the barracks, the scouts sent also brought back news from all over the country one after another: the Baokang peasant army guard was Liu Wenxiu, the fourth son of Zhang Xianzhong, with 15,000 soldiers. The defender of Fang County was Li Dingguo, with only 10,000 people, and Zhang Xianzhong and Sun Kewang led the main force to prepare to invade Sichuan in the areas of Xingshan and Badong.

Zhu Hao was a little puzzled when he heard this arrangement, at this time Zhang Xianzhong's heart to enter Sichuan had already been revealed, and the forward Sun Kewang had twice sent troops to tentatively attack Dachang and Kaixian, an important town in western Sichuan, but they were all repelled by Zhang Ling and others, the defender of Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Xianzhong's old subordinates who rose again in Gucheng died, and now they completely rely on their four talented righteous sons to fight, among which Li Dingguo is the most powerful, commanding tens of thousands of troops at the age of 20, defeating the Ming army many times, even Zuo Liangyu was defeated by his hands, and has rich experience in actual combat.

It is said that with Li Dingguo's talent, it should be placed on the crucial battle of Jinchuan, not on Fangxian, which is very vulnerable to siege, and Zhang Xianzhong's arrangement is really puzzling.

Looking at the troop allocation of the peasant army, Zhu Hao suddenly realized that Zhang Xianzhong's four righteous sons had cracks! There is indeed this incident in history, Li Dingguo finally broke with Sun Kewang completely during the period of Emperor Yongli of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and met each other with swords.

Although Sun Kewang also has some talents, but the military aspect is much worse than Li Dingguo, but the conspiracy is much more clever than it, Zhang Xianzhong's four sons, Sun Kewang is the most able to figure out his father's mind, and he also once saved Zhang Xianzhong's life, so he is the most loved, although Zhang Xianzhong also admires Li Dingguo's talent, but first, Li Dingguo is not good at socializing, and his relationship with his father-in-law is not as deep as Sun Kewang's, and secondly, his outstanding military talent also makes Zhang Xianzhong have to have scruples and jealousy.

In this way, it is not difficult to understand, Zhu Hao's expectations are generally not bad. However, the difference is that there are no major problems within Zhang Xianzhong at present, and Zhang Xianzhong is still very relieved about Li Dingguo, so this arrangement is just Sun Kewang's eagerness to fight for merit, not purely with the intention of framing Li Dingguo.

In Zhang Xianzhong's view, the Ming army's combat effectiveness is limited, and his own strength is not weaker than the other party, and Li Dingguo is a person who can fight well, and the strength of 10,000 people is enough to hold the northern gate.

It seems that Zhu Hao is a bit of a villain's belly, but Zhang Xianzhong's arrangement saves him a lot of trouble, at least he doesn't have to bother to find Li Dingguo.

At present, the key lies in how to seize Li Dingguo and force him to submit, and this question is rather scratching.

Zhang Huangyan and Wang Boda were found, and several people discussed for a while, and finally formed a battle plan: bypass Baokang, the main force to attack Fang County, if it is difficult to capture in a short time, then withdraw the army back to attack Baokang, there is no Ming army in the north of Fang County, with Li Dingguo's character and judgment, he will inevitably return to the division for reinforcements, and then set up an ambush to take Li Dingguo in one fell swoop.

The plan was decided, Zhu Haoliu Wang Boda led a regiment of troops to feint to attack Baokang to attract Liu Wenxiu's attention, and he personally led three regiments and cavalry battalions to attack Fang County.