In the city of Xingquan Mansion, Song Zhiwen sat in the study, for a red-robed official of the fourth grade, he was not very old, only in his forties, this age can be regarded as the prime of life in the officialdom.

His age is not very old, and in his early years, he was born in the second class when he took the imperial examination, and he was selected to enter the Hanlin Academy to become a Shu Jishi, although he failed to pass the examination and stayed in the Hanlin Academy three years later, but he also stayed in the Hanlin Academy for three years.

Although the starting point of his career is not as good as those lucky people who are born in the first class and can directly enter the Hanlin Academy, it is also much higher than most officials.

At least Su Jiakang, a person who was born in the top three and failed to enter Hanlinyu, and who couldn't even be a six-branch speech official, is incomparable with Song Zhiwen.

In the eyes of many people, Song Zhiwen is a young and promising official who is very promising to go further, and he has no hope of entering the cabinet if he is not a formal Hanlin, but the possibility of serving as a provincial envoy or even governor in the future, and even returning to Beijing to serve as a squire of the six ministries is very great.

And such an official with a bright future in the eyes of outsiders is frowning at this time.

Opposite him was a middle-aged scholar, and at this time it was none other than his confidant Wu Nuanzhi.

"So, the Pseudo-Tang Thief Army has become the climate?" When Song Zhiwen spoke, his fingers were still tapping lightly on the table.

At this time, Wu Nuanzhi, who has never been humble or arrogant in front of Su Jiakang, bent down slightly, and his posture was very low: "Lord Hui, it's true, the students and the puppet Tang thief army have also dealt with it several times, before the beginning of this year, this puppet Tang thief army was just hiding in the deep mountains to survive, but since this summer, the puppet Tang thief army has increased rapidly, constantly plundering the countryside, holding the people hostage, and even looting Longhua Town and Zhengtai County successively, so that its strength has increased greatly, before the students came back, I also heard that the puppet Tang thief army is recruiting troops and horses, At present, there are no less than 1,000 of its soldiers! ”

"Thousands? Didn't you say that the puppet Tang thief army was only five hundred? How did it double in half a month? You guys are watching Li Cheng recruit troops on the side of Zhengtai? Song Zhiwen showed a trace of dissatisfaction when he said this.

Wu Nuanzhi said: "My lord is clear, now the puppet Tang thief army is cunning and the best at ambushing, and the strength of Zhengtai is less than five hundred, and it is still not enough to stick to Zhengtai, it is really difficult to divide the troops!" ”

Wu Nuanzhi's words were not too clear, but Song Zhiwen listened to them clearly, Wu Nuanzhi meant that Zhengtai County now has fewer troops, and there are more people going here, Zhengtai County is in danger, and if you go less, you must not be swallowed by the puppet Tang thief army.

Besides, half a month ago, Su Jiakang led more than 1,000 troops to pursue the puppet Tang thief army, but they were all defeated by the puppet Tang thief army.

Even if they all go up to pursue the pseudo-Tang thief army, it will be a situation of more defeats and fewer victories!

Song Zhiwen understood, but he was still a little dissatisfied, the pseudo-Tang thief army was just a group of mountain bandits, even if it was holding hundreds of homeless people hostage, it was just bandits and homeless people, such a group of people could defeat the army led by Su Jiakang!

So what does Su Jiakang eat?

In the past year, he has exterminated three or four gangs of bandits who dared to run out of the mountains to plunder the countryside, and there were three or four hundred of them.

In his eyes, this pseudo-Tang thief army also belongs to this kind of mountain bandits, and the special thing is that their bandit leader has a funny brain, and he actually sets himself up as the emperor.

To deal with such mountain bandits, you can destroy them by sending a few hundred people at will, but Su Jiakang was defeated again and again, causing things to deteriorate to the point that Zhengtai County was looted, and the thief army expanded to a thousand people.

If he wasn't worried about the defeat of the official army and the fall of Zhengtai and affecting his career, he Song Zhiwen would be the first to fold the bullet to impeach Su Jiakang, and take off Su Jiakang's official hat in minutes.

It's a pity that Zhengtai County is also under the jurisdiction of his Xingquan Mansion, and there is a gang of rebels in his jurisdiction, and this rebel has killed more than 1,000 officers and soldiers in a small fight, and even robbed the county seat.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have helped Su Jiakang suppress these things.

However, after it is suppressed, this pseudo-Tang thief army still has to be exterminated, and the pseudo-Tang thief army cannot be allowed to sit on the throne.

Thinking of this, Song Zhiwen said: "You rush back to Zhengtai today and tell Su Jiakang that this official will send 3,000 soldiers to Zhengtai tomorrow, so that he can do a good job of welcoming affairs." ”

After waving his hand to let Wu Nuanzhi out, Song Zhiwen thought for a while, then picked up his pen and wrote a letter, and then called an entourage who had been harvested outside: "You send this letter to the provincial capital, and you must hand it over to Lord Lin yourself!" ”

The attendant immediately said, "The little one obeys!" ”

After the entourage went out, Song Zhiwen stood up, then walked to the window, looked up at the sky, the sky was cloudless, it was the perfect weather to go out to suppress the bandits!

The next day, the city of Xingquanfu was very lively, and many people saw a large number of Ming troops starting to go out of the city, and then went straight to Zhengtai County in the west.

And Song Zhiwen stood on the city wall, looking at the army that was gradually moving away, and smiled, this time the army went forward, and the puppet Tang thief army must not be wiped out, and after capturing the puppet emperor Li Xuan, he will not only be able to eliminate the negative impact of the fall of Zhengtai and the defeat of the official army, but also make a big contribution to himself.

As for whether the army would be defeated at all, he was not worried at all, although half of the three thousand men he sent were young and strong, but among the remaining 1,500 people, nearly a thousand were recruits, on the contrary, there were only five or six hundred guards.

In these years, the Ming army was no longer able to fight those guards, but the recruits recruited by local officials at all levels, and this situation was even more so in the inland remote areas where banditry was serious and the coastal areas where the Japanese raids were serious.

Xingquan Mansion is close to the junction of the three provinces, and it is also a poor and remote land with many mountains, there are countless mountain bandits of all kinds, there are many mountain bandits, and those guards can't fight, so Song Zhiwen has no way to learn from others to recruit young and strong soldiers.

The effect of this training is not bad, it has already eliminated many mountain bandits in a row, and its combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of those guards.

The only pity is that these recruits have to spend money to raise, pay salaries, give food, and give them weapons and equipment, and although the officials of the Ming Dynasty are all fat and oily, when they are local officials for a few years, they can't help but study hard for ten years.

But the officials are rich, it doesn't mean that the government is also rich, the government of the Ming Dynasty has always been poor, and with the financial resources of Xingquan Mansion, it is also the limit to raise a team of thousands of recruits.

Now, Song Zhiwen has sent this recruiting army out, and he believes that the extermination of the puppet Tang thief army is just around the corner!

And he didn't know that Li Xuan and the others had already rushed to the Lanjiang ferry with people, and if they wanted to annihilate the puppet Tang thief army, they had to cross the Lanjiang River first!