In the blink of an eye, it came November, the weather became extremely cold, and during the Xiaoice River period, the winter temperature was very low for the north, basically dripping into ice, and the offensive of the three-way soldiers and horses of the Punishment Heaven Army gradually stopped because of the weather.

After two months of using troops, the three roads of the Xingtian Army were quite fruitful, basically Qinshui County, Yuanqu County, and the southern part of Zezhou were firmly controlled in the hands of the Xingtian Army, and even the soldiers and horses of Luo Li on the North Road also went out to the territory of Yicheng and Fushan counties, only to stop continuing the offensive, and in late October, they turned to gather troops to clear out the hostile forces in the area that had been controlled. The situation in the area under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Army began to stabilize.

Fu Deming's land reform work is also progressing very quickly, almost all of his experienced subordinates have been stationed in the newly acquired territory, presiding over the division of land, those slaughtered large families of good land at a very fast speed, was distributed to the hands of the people, not only that, but also settled a large number of displaced people from outside into the area controlled by the Xingtian Army, after obtaining the land, the people naturally immediately followed the Xingtian Army, and the Xingtian Army also had an appointment when dividing the land, and their land could be exempted from their land in the first year, In the second year, one will be collected, in the third year, two will be collected, and after the fourth year, three will be fixed.

Under the precedent of the Xingtianjun's guarantee and the trial in the Yangcheng area, the common people naturally would not suspect that the Xingtianjun was deceiving them, so as soon as they got the land allocated to them by the Xingtianjun, they immediately got busy in their own fields, and at the same time, a large number of people who had retired from the Xingtianjun because of injuries or illness or too old were also placed in various places, responsible for organizing the people of all townships and villages to establish township soldiers in the newly occupied territories in various places, and taking advantage of the current agricultural slack to start training them. According to Fu Deming's rough statistics, this expansion operation, the territory under the jurisdiction of the Xingtian Army has expanded by nearly two times, and the number of people under its jurisdiction has reached nearly 2.67 million, and the number of township soldiers organized in various places has reached nearly 30,000 or so. It grew rapidly.

As for He Renlong leading his troops to attack, Xiao Tianjian also got the news in advance, so he gathered his troops and prepared to deal with it.

However, according to the careful investigation, it was found that after He Renlong led his troops into Shanxi, he had been grinding and grinding, and after receiving the order, they set off from Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, and walked on the road for a month before entering the territory of Shanxi, and only arrived in Jiezhou at the end of October, and the action was like a snail, and he couldn't climb many miles in a day, which made it clear that he was delaying time, which made Xiao Tianjian quite funny.

Xiao Tianjian didn't feel nervous about this old opponent, and He Renlong's troops were limited, but there were only more than 5,000 people, even if the defenders of Jiezhou were added, there were only about seven or eight thousand people, and with the current strength of the Xingtian Army, they would no longer be worried about this.

Therefore, he immediately sent an order to Yan Chongxi, ordering him to gather up the main force of the first battalion and march westward along the Shushui River flowing through Yuanqu County, Chen stationed in the area of Zhengjiapo, firmly guarding the only passage from Wenxi County to Yuanqu County, and transferred two recruits from the recruit camp who had just finished training to Yan Chongxi's battalion, so that Yan Chongxi's battalion had a strength of 1,500 people, and at the same time, several newly cast three-pounder and six-pounder field guns were also transferred to the direction of Yuanqu County to enhance the strength of Yan Chongxi's first battalion.

At the same time, he clearly ordered Yan Chongxi to take the initiative to attack this old friend, Yan Chongxi did not have to take the initiative to attack, just hold the mountain pass, if He Renlong, this guy did not know how to lead the army to attack, he would beat them fiercely, if he still did not repent, and was determined to lead the army to attack the Xingtian army, let him near Yuanqu County, and gather troops when the time came, and eat him in one fell swoop.

And He Renlong until the beginning of November, only to Wenxi County, sent his two thousand soldiers and horses, launched three tentative attacks on Yuanqu County, the result is that each time just into the mountain, in the west of Zhengjiapo encountered Yan Chongxi's head-on attack, seeing that the attack was unfavorable, He Renlong even if he took the initiative to give up the attack on Yuanqu County, led the troops to withdraw to Wenxi County, and then shrank in Wenxi County no longer acted rashly, but in Wenxi County is asking for food and wages, making a lot of trouble, for such an arrogant soldier like him, The local government of Xie Zhou and Wenxi County also had no way, and Wu Fu sent people to urge He Renlong several times, but He Renlong dragged it down on the grounds of insufficient food and low morale.

After Xiao Tianjian learned the news, he looked at the map, touched his chin and asked Fu Deming, who had returned to Lotus Village: "This time, our old friend He Renlong led the troops over, why did he move so slowly?" Just tried it in the direction of Yuanqu County and then retracted and didn't move? This crazy man can be regarded as a famous general in Shaanxi, this kind of approach really doesn't look like his style! ”

After thinking about it for a while, Fu Deming said to Xiao Tianjian: "As far as I can see, although this He Ren Longding is known as He Maniac, he is not a reckless person, he must have known the strength of our army, and he is not sure that he can exterminate us, for fear that the lone army will recruit the fate of the first two officers and soldiers, so he should want to use the procrastination trick to drag and try not to fight to the end with us!" If you want to drag it out, wait for Hong Chengchou to dispatch more soldiers and horses, and then send troops to attack! ”

Xiao Tianjian nodded slightly and said, "Then if he drags it out like this, what result can he procrastinate?" Could it be that Hong Chengchou will mobilize more soldiers and horses to come over? ”

Fu Deming can't answer Xiao Tianjian's question for the time being, but one thing is certain, sooner or later, Hong Chengchou will have to mobilize more troops to deal with their Xingtian Army, but in the specifics, when Hong Chengchou will send troops again and how many troops he will send, he can't say! After all, now his main focus is on civil affairs, and Feng Gouzi is now in charge of intelligence matters, so he doesn't have much say in matters related to this aspect now.

Xiao Tianjian smiled and said: "Feng Gouzi doesn't know what he's busy with in the past two days, this guy should have some news, if he comes, then this matter will be easy to figure out!" He Renlong's performance is obviously a little abnormal, and we don't know what kind of trick there is! ”

While the two of them were discussing why He Renlong was so shy and shrunk, Tietoutong said that Feng Gouzi came over and asked to see Xiao Tianjian.

Xiao Tianjian said with a smile: "Saying that Cao Cao Cao has arrived, it's really time for this guy to come!" Hehe! Let him in! ”

In the blink of an eye, Feng Gouzi hurriedly walked into Xiao Tianjian's house, and said to Xiao Tianjian: "General, there is news from Shaanxi, Li Zicheng, Man Tianxing, Lao Zhang Fei, Zhenggong Wang and other Lu Yijun, half a month ago, once again from the Shangnan area, rushed into Henan, and the king of Chuang, Gao Yingxiang, converged, first attacked Nanyang but did not succeed, and then the whereabouts are unknown. At present, the large number of rebels in Shaanxi have basically been driven out of Shaanxi by Hong Chengchou, I'm afraid it's not good for us!

In addition, news also came from Taiyuan, saying that Shanxi was also dispatching troops to raise soldiers' salaries, grains and straw, as if there was going to be a big move, and the Fushanwei side had increased its troops day by day in the past few days, and the officers and troops on the Pingyang Mansion side also moved, including the direction south of Zezhou, and the Shanxi general Hu Dawei also led 4,000 officers and troops to Lu'an Mansion.

It seems that the government is going to take a real action against us this time! ”

Xiao Tianjian and Fu Deming were shocked when they heard this, originally according to Xiao Tianjian's thoughts, Li Zicheng and other rebels should be able to hold Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi, in that case, they could contain a large number of officers and troops under Hong Chengchou, but they didn't expect this guy to suddenly come a thousand miles away, leap forward, turn around and run back to Henan.

In this way, all the rebel armies are basically gathered in Henan again, and Henan should now be under the jurisdiction of Lu Xiangsheng, so that means Hong Chengchou can take a breath now and free up his hands to deal with him, after all, Hong Chengchou is supervising the northwest, and the two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi, and the righteous army in Shaanxi has run away, so among the two provinces that Hong Chengchou is in charge of, there is only such a relatively strong rebel army as his Xingtian Army.

And the news brought by Feng Gouzi is also very important, combined with He Renlong's performance this time, it can basically be concluded that the government wants to take advantage of this opportunity to completely solve his Xingtian Army, so that the matter has become serious.

If it was only He Renlong's official army, there would be absolutely no problem for him to deal with the Xingtian Army, even if he added the defenders from several surrounding states and counties, and came together, with the number of soldiers in the three battalions of the Xingtian Army, it was estimated that the chances of winning would be very good.

But if Hong Chengchou sends more heavy troops, plus the local border army in Shanxi, then the Xingtian Army is really nothing, so the Xingtian Army is afraid that it will soon encounter the most serious crisis when they become an army, if they can't stop the official army in this battle, then all his efforts and hard work in the past two years will be in vain, if he escapes by luck, then everything will have to start all over again.

Faced with such a situation, Xiao Tianjian also had to pay attention to it, put away his relaxed expression, turned around and walked to the front of the map, looked at the map carefully, and immediately turned around and said: "Feng Gouzi's news came back in a timely manner!" Looks like we're in a bit of trouble this time! The government's patience has run out, and it must be planning to wipe us out in this area this time! ”

Fu Deming also nodded worriedly: "The general is right, it seems that this time the government is going to move seriously!" We need to be prepared as early as possible! ”

Xiao Tianjian turned to Feng Gouzi and asked, "Did the news from Taiyuan say anything?" In your opinion, how many officers and troops might the government mobilize to attack us this time? ”

Feng Gouzi frowned and replied: "The others didn't say much, Taiyuan just said that we should make plans early, this time the government has indeed made up its mind, to completely exterminate us, and at the worst of all, to expel us from here!" Rush to other places and become a thief! According to the humble guess, if the officers and troops of several sides start at the same time, then at least more than 30,000 soldiers and horses will be transferred this time, and most of them are elite soldiers who have often fought with various rebels in the Shanxi area over the years! ”