Lu Shi's actions were beyond Hong Chengchou's expectations, and when he got the news that Zhang Yuan brought back, he couldn't express his current mood by being dumbfounded.

Ignoring the image of the official, he rushed out of the table, grabbed Zhang Yuan, who was closely behind He Renlong, stared at his glasses tightly, and asked with a trembling voice: "Is this news accurate?" How did you get it? If you deceive the Governor with false information, beware of the ruthlessness of military law. The series of questions already seemed incoherent, but it also saw how agitated Hong Chengchou was.

At this time, Zhou Ji, who had always been calm, also rushed up, stood behind Hong Chengchou, and stared nervously at Zhang Yuan's mouth, hoping that the news was true.

Yes, Zhou Ji's urgency really came from the heart, the reason is that he was promoted by Hong Chengchou to be used by the army, but it was just a temporary difficulty, and the responsibility for losing the land was still on his body, and if he wanted to get rid of the big crime, he was counting on this campaign to exterminate Li Zicheng's military exploits, and at the same time, he also fantasized in his heart that if God opened his eyes and allowed himself to encircle and suppress Lu Shi, then he would let himself return to Yan'an and be the veritable prefect, which was ten million times better than this not embarrassing and embarrassing situation.

However, he did not have much confidence in exterminating Li Zicheng, because, according to Zhang Yuan's intelligence, Li Zicheng now has more than 100,000 rogues, and he has built some forts, raised a lot of food, and has been repairing in this Shangluo Mountain for three or two months, and it is said that he is also trained according to the method of Lu Shi's thief.

And turn your head to look at your own side, although it is called the official army, but this is not the border army that was originally controlled by Yang He, but a miscellaneous team that was put together, in terms of equipment, grain and grass, it is easy to say, but in terms of combat effectiveness, it is already unbearable.

30,000 against 100,000, the chance of winning is not big, and there is one of the most fatal here, which is why the army is not in Shanxi but stationed in Henan, because, Zhang Xianzhong, who has recently returned to the imperial court, is unstable inside, and there is a possibility of rebellion again at any time, after all, these pickled things have done this many times, and every time there is a crisis, they return to obedience, and once they recover their strength with the money and grain squeezed out by the imperial court, they immediately rebel again. This is also the reason why Yang He was imprisoned and Hong Chengchou tried his best to suppress him. Therefore, the 30,000 officers and soldiers cobbled together still have the task of monitoring them.

Now, this is the situation, 30,000 against 100,000, and they are still being constrained and involved by other generals, how can they win? Since even Li Zicheng can't deal with it, let alone exterminate Lu Shi's thief, in this way, all his wishes will be unfulfilled, and the consequence is that once the time is implicated, the mean and unkind little emperor above loses patience, then what awaits Hong Chengchou and himself will be a marble prison.

Now that Zhang Yuan has brought the good news that Lu Shi's thieves actually sent troops to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng, why didn't Zhou Ji see a glimmer of light in the darkness?

He never doubted the accuracy of Zhang Yuan's intelligence, because, under Zhang Yuan's name, there was a huge business network, which had already covered Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gyeonggi Mongolia, and even outside the Guan, and in recent years, after he was appointed to an official position by the imperial court, it was even more inflated, and the merchants who colluded with various places and trafficked back and forth naturally became Zhang Yuan's eyes and ears, spying on military intelligence, and infiltrating each other to the point of pervasiveness.

Not to mention the so-called base area of Lu Shi, which is almost laissez-faire to commerce, even at this time, Li Zicheng's every move hidden in Shangluo Mountain is completely controlled by the businessmen led by Zhang Yuan, who traded with Li Zicheng. Especially in the past half month, Li Zicheng has been unable to get food anymore, and has to take out a lot of silver money to buy from merchants, which has increased Zhang Yuan's chances of obtaining information.

As for the crime of financing the enemy? Everyone is turning a blind eye, and there is an excuse to obtain information, even Hong Chengchou no longer investigates deeply.

But now that the opportunity has come, how can you not make Zhou Ji nervous?

"Master Zhang, hurry up and tell the details, let's study the countermeasures." Zhou Ji anxiously urged.

Zhang Yuan is in pain now, and he can't breathe in pain.

Originally, Hong Chengchou was tall and mighty, but the literati was the body of a military general, although Zhang Yuan was bumpy with the army, he had not yet thrown off the fat meat, and his neck was as thick as his face, so on the side, this Hong Chengchou grabbed his neck collar, and Zhang Yuan of Rikoler only opened his mouth to inhale, where else could he say anything? And the more Zhang Yuan couldn't speak, the tighter Hong Chengchou pulled, the more painful this Zhang Yuan became.

Just when Zhang Yuan was about to faint, He Renlong saw the danger and hurriedly asked for the life of this God of Wealth: "Old man, let go, if you don't let go, Lord Zhang will die." ”

At this time, Hong Chengchou saw Zhang Yuan's miserable situation with a blood-red face and his tongue about to spit out, and quickly let go, but he didn't wait for Zhang Yuan to take a breath, and asked tightly: "Tell me quickly, what's going on, say it quickly." ”

Zhou Ji was still sharp-eyed, seeing Zhang Yuan like this, he quickly found a teapot on the table, poured half a cup of water and handed it to him, Zhang Yuan didn't care about etiquette, grabbed it and raised his head to dry, and coughed a few times before he gasped.

gasping for breath, he hurriedly saluted Hong Chengchou and said: "Old man, this news is true, it is indeed that Lu Shi thief sent troops to Shangluo to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng's rogues." ”

It is no secret that Lu Shi went out to encircle and suppress, or to expel Li Zicheng, coupled with Lu Shi's laissez-faire to the merchants, Zhang Yuan's subordinate businessmen ran around the base area, sold into the base area, trafficked out the products of the base area, and at the same time made a lot of money, he also summarized the information of the Lu Shi base area to Zhang Yuan, although the value of these information is limited, and the core is indeed impossible to get, but this also makes Zhang Yuan make a great contribution in front of Hong Chengchou.

This time, Lu Shi set out on an expedition, with more than 30,000 livestock and horses, more than 10,000 mighty and majestic cavalry, and 10,000 capable masters. At the same time, Lü Shi's expedition this time changed the old method of continuously transporting logistics and baggage from the rear, and handed over all the non-ordnance and other key materials such as grain, grass, firewood, and so on to the merchants to operate, and Lü Shi only bought them along the way with RMB.

When this method was first proposed, it frightened almost everyone, including Wu Tao.

The army goes out, the grain and grass go first, the grain road must be tightly protected in their own hands, and then they can let themselves stand in the position of advancing and retreating freely, in history, the enemy cut off the grain road and caused a crushing defeat abounds, now, how can this fatal key be entrusted to others?

Lu Shi saw that everyone was opposed, but he didn't explain, but just smiled and told everyone that practice is the only criterion for testing the truth, so he took the men and horses to the expedition. He was gone, but he was worried that everyone would be ruined, so Wu Tao, who was in charge of the military, could only secretly collect grain and grass materials, notify some masters in advance to prepare, and once things were not good, immediately organize the transportation team and send it to the front line.

The army spent countless amounts on the expedition, not to mention others, a single grain and grass is a huge consumption, the so-called one stone of grain on the front line, ten stones for the rear, and the consumption of the master's livestock along the way is definitely the majority, not to mention the mobilization of the master and the dispatch of elite troops to escort it.

The recruitment of masters according to the base is not the kind of free recruitment as in various dynasties, especially to the current Ming Dynasty, not only free recruitment, but also to do a lot of tricks in the meantime, and the people have to pay for food out of their own pockets, once it is damaged, the family is ruined. Therefore, the people who can't smoke Ding either simply flee, or slack off between escorts, once the king of the mountain loots, simply push the cart up the mountain to join the gang, therefore, the consumption of grain and grass in the imperial court is a bottomless pit, and most of the defeat of the war is not in the front, but simply in the rear.

However, Lu Shi's government adopted all the methods of paying for it, not only responsible for the food of the escort personnel along the way, but also according to the weight of the escort burden to give relevant generous remuneration, so that although there is no harm to the people, but the cost along the way has greatly increased, take the Weinan War as an example, the mobilization of the master alone reached 40,000, and the materials required are innumerable, thanks to God's care, so that the war ended quickly, but even so, it almost exhausted the accumulation of seven counties.

This is also the reason why Lu Shi and other brothers have been passive defense and basically do not take the initiative to attack, recuperation and stability of the base are the most urgent things for Lu Shi to do.

However, Wu Tao, who was in a hurry, did not get the news that Lu Shi was urging grain and grass, but Zhao Xing brought a good letter that everything was going well.

Merchants are the most shrewd, they know best how to use the least consumption, transport the most materials, and save is they know best where the supply is abundant, where the road is the closest, often the army has not yet arrived in a place, and there have been gathered many merchants with materials, as long as Lu Shi sends a quartermaster, according to the pre-announced price to buy, especially in the base area for the army, it is much safer and more secure. Therefore, after Lu Shi offered a high price that was five floors higher than that of the market, the merchant's team was like a hundred rivers entering the sea, transporting military supplies from all over the country into the barracks. Often, the army has not yet arrived in a place, and there are already many merchants with supplies gathered there, as long as Lu Shi sends a quartermaster, he can buy them at a pre-announced price.

In this way, Lu Shi hardly worries about grain and grass, and at the same time, compared with 90 percent of the rear supplies consumed, the cost is simply negligible, which also brings an unexpected joy, that is, it enriches the people along the way, accelerates market circulation, stimulates economic development, and makes the people who are still struggling to survive in the spring famine in the base areas that have just been included in the base area have a livelihood, which greatly reduces the pressure on the government to arrange for the people's livelihood to survive the spring famine.

These many benefits simply made Wu Tao dumbfounded, and Chen Ce simply thought about instigating Lu Shi to start such a war again.

Of course, these businessmen Li had countless Zhang Yuan's subordinates, and when they provided Lu Shi with what he needed, they also saw all of Lu Shi's actions, and after Lu Shi got the information that Hong Chengchou came south and blocked Li Zicheng's way out, he even deliberately publicized his thoughts, so Zhang Yuan got Lu Shi's purpose and whereabouts in detail for the first time.

After some explanation, Zhang Yuan looked at Hong Chengchou expectantly, and asked cautiously: "Old man, this is the situation, I don't know how to arrange it next?" ”