A few days later, in the city of Beijing, it was a cold night.

Emperor Chongzhen sat in the Wenhua Palace, still reviewing the chapters. Dozens of red oil wax in the hall spit tongues of fire, illuminating the four corners brightly, and at the same time, Chongzhen's face was a little flushed.

It's no wonder that he just contracted a little cold, although it was not heavy, but the weather was bitterly cold these days, and there were people named Huazi who froze to death every day in Beijing, and even he, the emperor, suffered for half a month before recovering.

Today is the eleventh day of the lunar month, and it will be the fifth year of Chongzhen in ten days. Since he succeeded to the throne for nearly six years, the situation has deteriorated day by day, and the world is in turmoil day by day, making him, who aspires to become the "master of Zhongxing", more and more worried, and he has more and more time to stay up all night, because the paperwork and newspapers from all over the country are flying like snowflakes and falling on his desk.

Today is still very early, just after dinner, the emperor approved a while of the chapter, suddenly a eunuch came to report, saying that the cabinet minister on duty in the room, the secretary of the military department Zhang Fengyi came, there is something important to play. The Emperor immediately summoned him.

I saw that Zhang Fengyi was in a hurry, and his face was very heavy, and the emperor knew that something big had happened at a glance. So after he saw the salute, he asked urgently: "What is the matter with Zhang Aiqing?" ”

Zhang Fengyi took out a Tang newspaper from his sleeve and presented it: "Your Majesty, I just received a six-hundred-mile urgent document from Hong Chengchou from Shaanxi, and Xi'an was lost. ”

The emperor was taken aback, hurriedly unfolded the Tang newspaper, read it, banged, slapped the dragon book case, and stood up.

Zhang Fengyi was a little panicked and took two steps back. The emperor threw Tang Bao to the ground, walked out from behind the dragon case with his hands behind his back, stood in front of him, and said coldly: "I can't imagine that even Hong Chengchou has been defeated, and if Xi'an is lost, it will be difficult to protect the whole of Shaanxi." Zhang Fengyi said cautiously: "Back to the emperor, although Hong Hengjiu lost Xi'an, it is not a big mistake. He wrote clearly in the Tang newspaper that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's tens of thousands of troops besieged Xi'an for more than ten days, but found nothing, and suffered heavy casualties, and he defended Xi'an with 5,000 men and horses, which has created a miracle. At that time, the people and horses of Shaanxi all went to Shanxi and Henan to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang and other departments, and no one would have thought that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai would dare to enter Shaanxi. Hong Chengtao hurriedly transferred Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu, and Sun Chuanting's three departments returned to help, which broke the thieves in the city. It's just that at this time, the official army only cared about chasing and killing the thieves, but they were copied by the Qin army of Huayin, which was also careless in Jingzhou. ”

The emperor snorted coldly: "I don't care why he lost Xi'an, in short, if Xi'an is lost, the consequences are unpredictable, if you can't take it back as soon as possible, Shaanxi will no longer be owned by my court." ”

Zhang Fengyi nodded: "What Your Majesty said is very true, Hong Hengjiu said that the Qin army that attacked and occupied Xi'an was less than 10,000 horses, as long as I reinforced the army for four sets, the Qin army would definitely be captured." ”

The emperor paced a few more steps before he stopped, and said in an unquestionable tone: "Urgently order Hong Chengchou to recapture Xi'an within a month." Otherwise, the edict will be merciless. ”

Zhang Fengyi hurriedly said: "The minister is planning the purpose, this is the purpose." ”

The emperor calmed his face a little, walked to the charcoal fire and roasted his hands, and asked, "Is there any news from Henan?" ”

Zhang Fengyi said: "Back to the emperor, the thieves of Shaanxi entered Henan under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang, and then divided the troops into four raids, the current situation, they are divided into three major units, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai entered Shaanxi, defeated by Hong Hengjiu, and are purging the remnants of the enemy, the other two, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng led the troops into Hubei, occupied several of my counties, and then attacked the falling sun and failed, and was attacked by the official army, at this time it has returned to Henan, it is reported that there are heavy casualties, and the other route breaks through the sky Liu Guoneng, led by Li Wanqing, and enters Zhili to the north, It is also the first victory and then defeat, a few days ago, the governor of Baoding has a Tang report, saying that it is a killing of countless thieves, and the thieves have been driven out of Zhili. All in all, it's good news. ”

The emperor nodded lightly: "Among these people, the most difficult to exterminate is Gao Yingxiang, this person is strong and strong, and he has a reputation among the thieves, and he can often unite hundreds of thousands of horses, as long as he can be captured alive, the rest of the people are not worried." and shall be able to see the wind fall. ”

Zhang Fengyi hurriedly said: "My lord is wise. Insight into the stakes at a glance. ”

The emperor thought for a while and said: "Proposed decree, Lu Xiang, the governor of Shanxi, will be promoted to the right deputy capital of Yushi, and the governor of Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Huguang, Sichuan, and military affairs. ordered him to focus on chasing down Gao Chuang and other thieves. ”

Zhang Fengyi said: "Command." Then he whispered: "Hong Chengchou's side, what should I do?" If you lose Xi'an, if you don't punish it, I'm afraid that those officials will come to make noise again. ”

The emperor said: "Hong Chengchou first broke the thief and had merit, and then carelessly lost the land, and the merit may be offset, but in order to reward and punish him with a clear reward, he was removed from the post of governor of the three sides and only served as the governor of Shaanxi." ”

Zhang Fengyi breathed a sigh of relief: "My lord is wise, the reward and punishment are appropriate, and the minister will do it." ”

After he had gone, the Emperor picked up the newspaper from the ground again, read it again, and clenched the piece of paper tightly in his hand, so that his knuckles turned a little white.

Lu Xiangsheng sat in his own mansion in Taiyuan City, looking at this holy decree repeatedly, he did not have the joy of being promoted in his heart, but felt a huge pressure.

The officials who had come to congratulate him had already been sent away by him, and he hated this kind of bureaucracy the most, and he felt sick when he looked at their flattering faces.

The emperor's reliance on himself is a double-edged sword, he can kill the enemy and kill himself, as long as he is unfavorable to suppress the bandits, he will immediately be deprived of his official position and thrown into prison. Hong Chengchou lost Xi'an, so he lost the position of governor of the three sides, but he was not demoted, that is because Hong Chengchou has a very thick foundation in the court, and many people are saying good things for him, and at a critical moment, keep his official position. And Chongzhen also likes Hong Chengchou very much.

And he is different, although the emperor also thinks that he is a loyal minister and can be of great use, but once he fails, there will not be many people in the court who will speak for him.

Lu Xiangsheng's character is upright, jealous and hateful, and there are many villains in the court, so Lu Xiangsheng has no alliance in the court, and he can become a feudal official, all by relying on his own ability, fighting one battle after another.

At present, the emperor handed over to himself the heavy task of suppressing thieves in Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Huguang, and Sichuan provinces, and this burden was too difficult to pick, who did not know that the rebel army at this time was blooming everywhere, adding up to five or six hundred thousand people, and the officials in some places immediately abandoned the city and left when they heard that the peasant army was coming, and they did not even dare to resist.

It's no wonder that they, the men and horses in those prefectures and counties are no more than thousands, and they have not been trained for a long time, let alone gone through any battle formations, relying on them to block the peasant army ten times their own is tantamount to a fool's dream.

Lu Xiangsheng has his own Tianxiong army, but there are not many of them, a total of more than 20,000 people, and they are all arranged in important places in Shanxi. In case the peasant army comes back, but the meaning of this holy decree is to let him lead the army to suppress the thieves, there is no peasant army in Shanxi at present, and if you want to suppress the thieves, you must go far out of Shanxi and go to Henan......

He doesn't have the same luck as Hong Chengchou, once Shanxi is in turmoil, he will definitely be impeached, and when the time comes, even the emperor will not be able to protect himself.

Although Lu Xiangsheng is loyal, he is by no means stupid. Never foolish.

When he suppressed the thieves, he must first take care of Shanxi and not be attacked by the peasant army. Thinking of doing this, there are only two things, one is to defend Shanxi by himself and send good generals to other provinces to suppress thieves, and the other is to send people to guard Shanxi and personally lead elite soldiers to other provinces to suppress thieves.

He thought about these two strategies for a long time and did not make a decision, because although he had some soldiers, he lacked famous generals.

It is certainly a headache to have generals and no soldiers, but if there are soldiers and no generals, it is not only a headache. Because thousands of troops are easy to obtain, one will be hard to find.

Lu Xiangsheng walked around the house a few times, and suddenly ordered his subordinates: "Go and invite Mr. Zhang to come, I have something to ask him." ”

After a while, I heard the sound of footsteps outside the door, and three people walked in with the curtains, flanked by two officers and soldiers, and a person in between, who was actually wearing a prison uniform and a cloth bag on his head, covering his face.

The three walked in, Lu Xiangsheng nodded to the two officers and soldiers, and one of them reached out and took off the cloth bag on the head of the middle man.

That person's face was revealed, and it turned out to be the number one mouth of Great Qin, Zhang Yi, who hadn't shown his face for a long time.