Li Xin narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and felt that his time to join the Heavenly Mandate Army was too short, whether in front of Li Zicheng or in front of Li Ji, he could only be regarded as a newcomer, so he said: "The subordinates are just making suggestions, and in the end, they need to be decided by the majority of the governors!" ”

Li Zicheng laughed, "Why did Li Gongzi say that there is a lot of money and food in Luoyang City?" Could it be that the people of the Lile Division have infiltrated Luoyang City? ”

"That's not true," Li Xin hurriedly shook his head, "The subordinates are just guessing, with the prosperity of Luoyang, it is definitely not comparable to Ruzhou," Thinking of this, he suddenly felt that something was wrong, and his face couldn't help but turn red, "The meaning of the metropolitan governor, the Heavenly Mandate Army will never raid the gentry and merchants, ......"

"The gentry and merchants can help maintain the prosperity of the city, as long as they don't do anything harmful to the Mandate of Heaven Army, the Mandate of Heaven Army will naturally not easily raid their mansions, and will not even infringe on their interests, of course, except for cultivated land, wherever the Mandate of Heaven Army goes, the cultivated land must be redistributed, this is what Li Gongzi said'Juntian Light Endowment'," Li Zicheng said: "No matter whether there is money and food in Luoyang City that we need, we will take it down!" ”

Li Ji nodded frequently, he has always said little, but in his heart he is like a mirror, since the metropolitan governor has taken the entire Ruzhou, the next step is not to go south and connect with Nanyang, or to go north, take Luoyang, and even the entire Henan Mansion.

Henan Mansion is located in the northwest of the Hebu Political Envoy Division, connected with Shangluo Mountain, this is the easiest area to connect the territory of the Mandate of Heaven Army, and it is a mountainous area, easy to defend and difficult to attack, if the Mandate of Heaven Army occupies the entire Henan Mansion, there is a large mountain range in western Henan to rely on, Song Wen's seventh battalion is near the left, it is entirely possible to start a tug-of-war with the Ming army here.

Unfortunately, the people here are probably going to suffer, and it would be nice if they could be relocated......

Li Xin was extremely excited, and hurriedly arched his hands, "Metropolitan Governor, if you want to attack Luoyang City, your subordinates ask to be the vanguard, and the soldiers of the Independent Regiment are all new recruits, and they need to improve their combat effectiveness through battle......"

"Luoyang is going to be taken, but not now," Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Luoyang is not only a strong city, but also Longmen Pass, Dagu Pass, and Xuanyuan Pass in the south, and relying on Yishui and Luoshui, if you really want to attack the city, I'm afraid it's not easy, and there are many people in the periphery of Luoyang, once we take over this area, how will we feed these people?" ”

Li Xin also had a headache, there were too many hungry people in Henan, but the Heavenly Mandate Army lacked food for disaster relief, and the people in the three counties in the south of Ruzhou had already made the governor of the capital exhausted......

Li Ji said: "What does the metropolitan governor mean, let's take down the outer obstacles first, and then work together to surround Luoyang City?" ”

Li Zicheng nodded, "When the people of Ruzhou are settled, we will immediately go north and sweep away the outer prefectures and counties of Luoyang." ”

Li Xin thought for a moment, but was a little worried, "Grand Duke, if we delay too much time in the periphery, once the imperial court sends reinforcements to Luoyang......

"What should come is always coming, if we take Luoyang first, as soon as the reinforcements of the Ming army arrive, will we stick to Luoyang?" Li Zicheng said: "If we use heavy troops to hold Luoyang, then the states and counties on the periphery of Luoyang, as well as the entire Ruzhou, will not be harmed by the Ming army?" We have finally settled the people, can we give up easily? ”

"The subordinates understood," Li Xinzhong was overjoyed, the Metropolitan Governor was going to have a big war with the Ming army, no matter whether Luoyang could take it or not, the big war was inevitable, once Luoyang was in an emergency, Kaifeng would definitely not sit idly by, "The Metropolitan Governor, please give a military order!" ”

"Li Gongzi, tomorrow we will recruit two soldiers from 100 households, train them for two days, and let them garrison Ruzhou City," Li Zicheng estimated that Li Ji and Li Xin were puzzled, and said: "Our army is near Ruzhou, and there is no need to station too many soldiers in the city, unlike the three counties of Jiaxian, Baofeng, and Lushan in the south, which are too far away from the army!" ”

"My subordinates understand!"

"When Ruzhou is basically stabilized, Li Gongzi's independent regiment will go east of Luoyang, and Yanshi and Gongxian will be taken, but don't enter the territory of Kaifeng Mansion!"

"Dadu Governor, if you enter the boundary of Kaifeng, you can rely on Songshan, and you can even restore the Tiger Prison Pass ......"

"The Tiger Prison Pass has been abandoned for a long time, and it has long become a smooth road, and if you want to restore the pass, you not only need a lot of money and food, but also need time, and we don't have these two conditions," Li Zicheng said: "Li Gongzi can know that the Ming army knows that it is difficult to directly exterminate the Liukou, so it is generally just expelled." ”

"The Metropolitan Governor is saying that the Ming army is just expelling the Liukou from their own defense area......" Li Xin sighed, and said: "My subordinates understand, as long as we don't cross the boundary of Kaifeng for the time being, Kaifeng Mansion will not send reinforcements?" ”

"Maybe they will eventually send reinforcements, but the later the reinforcements come, the better it will be for us," Li Zicheng turned to Li Ji and said: "Li Ji personally led his headquarters and marched west along Luoshui, as long as he took Lushi County, he would be able to connect with Shangnan County, and it would be much more convenient to transport coarse grain in the future!" ”

"Subordinates obey!"

"General Li has to be careful, I heard that Henan Liukou 'Yidou Valley', the main force is in the area of Luoshui and Bear's Ears Mountain, maybe we will meet them head-on!"

Li Ji frowned, quickly stretched out, and said, "Metropolitan Governor, I heard that there are 100,000 people in Yidou Valley, can you use it for me at that time?" ”

"Liukou likes to bluff, even if there are 100,000 people in Yidougu, they are mainly family members, and the soldiers who really fight will not exceed 10,000!" Li Zicheng nodded slightly, and said: "They are also born in poverty, they are really going to meet, let's talk about it depending on the situation!" ”

Li Ji nodded, since Yidougu's subordinates only have more than 10,000 soldiers, but are still untrained people, he has no interest, if there is money and food, the Mandate of Heaven Army will expand its army on a large scale in Henan, and the strength of Yidougu will be able to contain the Ming army.

Li Xin had been thinking about it, and then suddenly said: "Dadu Governor, my subordinates suggest that since Nanyang Mansion has belonged to the Mandate of Heaven Army, can the army stationed in Nanyang expand northward along the official road, at least to Nanzhao County, in case Jiaxian and others are attacked by the Ming army, they can also respond from the south......

Li Zicheng nodded, "Li Gongzi is right, I will send a message to Xie Junbao and Ma Shile in Nanyang, and let them march north!" "But in my heart, I thought that by the way, I could also see if the Nanyang Army was absolutely loyal to the Heavenly Mandate Army!

Xie Junbao, Ma Shile, and Li Zhiqiang are respectively in charge of the civil affairs, military affairs and religion of Nanyang Mansion, but the Heavenly Mandate Army has been wandering around the northeast of Henan, and there is not much contact on weekdays.

Early the next morning, in addition to arranging for the soldiers to patrol the city, Li Xin gathered the surrendered troops, screened them again, and recruited some soldiers, and formed two hundred city defense troops, he personally drilled and trained, and after a busy day, the soldiers only had some appearance, so he handed over the training to two hundred household officials, and he also had to train the independent regiment, the independent regiment was formed not long ago, although it experienced two siege battles, but the time for the soldiers' training was seriously insufficient, as long as there was leisure, Li Xin would gather the soldiers for training.

At this time, Li Zicheng was also extremely busy, first beheading the captured Chongwang Zhu Youjiao, the prince Zhu Cihui, and Zhu Youjiao's younger brother, Zhu Youcai, the king of Heyang County, in public, and the money and grain in the palace were also confiscated.

He selected a group of officials from the original officials and the gentry in the city, first concentrated in the state office, and personally explained to them the laws and teachings of the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Office, so that these officials could understand that there was a fundamental difference between the Mandate of Heaven Army and the army of the imperial court.

In order to appease the gentry, Li Zicheng particularly emphasized: the gentry also belong to the people, but the family property is more than that of the ordinary people, if all the land occupied by the years is handed over, the Mandate of Heaven Army is not to blame in the past, whether it is in the state government or not, the Mandate of Heaven Army will not deliberately make things difficult, unless he himself does not open his eyes and secretly communicates with the court.

In the northern part of Ruzhou, the drought situation is worse than in the southern counties, but the Ru River and its large tributaries have not been cut off, and the banks can be cultivated.

At present, the most important thing that is pressing everything is stability, the morale of the army must be stable, and the people on the earth must be stable, and they would rather not pay taxes than let the people starve to death.

Of course, in order to resettle all the people of Ruzhou, it is necessary to take out the grain, fortunately, the state government has stored tens of thousands of stone of grain, which was originally intended to be handed over to the political secretary, but the Mandate of Heaven army from east to west, from Kaifeng Mansion to kill, the state government should pay taxes, for the time being.

There are also sects such as the Chongwang Mansion, they are almost the ATMs of the Heavenly Mandate Army!

Li Zicheng expressed his support for the new governor, and he had to take out part of the military rations and store them in the treasury of the prefecture to distribute relief grain to the people.

Just when Li Zicheng was so busy that he forgot the time, Liu Zongmin sent a message, he didn't need to open it, he could guess the content of the message, the elite of five thousand households, if he couldn't take Yiyang County, Liu Zongmin, the head of the second regiment, would no longer have to be the commander.

Liu Zongmin really did not disappoint Li Zicheng, although the time to break through Yiyang was two days later than the time when Li Xin broke through Ruzhou, but Liu Zongmin's troops took the wave water channel, which was through the mountains, and the time spent on the road was far more than that of Li Xin's department, and the actual time for attacking the city was not much more.

Li Zicheng read the message and immediately sent a message to Liu Zongmin: After settling the people of Yiyang County, he immediately marched to the north, and the target was between Luoshui and the Yellow River, a prefecture and county northwest of Luoyang!

Li Zicheng was only delayed in Ruzhou for three days, and the army left Ruzhou and headed north, and Li Xin's independent regiment left the boundary of Ruzhou and turned northeast, aiming at the prefecture and county east of Luoyang; Li Jibu followed the official road, crossed the Yishui, cut into the Luoshui, and then traced the Luoshui to the west.