At the beginning of the new year, Vientiane was renewed, after three years of rectification, the Ming court finally got rid of internal friction, no longer fighting for power and profit, no longer the same party, now all officials are only Chongzheng Emperor Zhu Cijiong is the head of the horse, the Ming Dynasty is prosperous, and it is the right time.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, just after the Lantern Festival, Zhu Cijiong held a court meeting to discuss how to clean up the peasant rebel army and Houjin, and the participants were:

Xu Guangqi, a scholar of the Jianji Palace, a scholar of the Ministry of Rites, and the new chief assistant of the cabinet;

Wenyuan Pavilion University Scholar, Hubu Shangshu to Taoist Sect;

Yang Sichang, a scholar of Wuyingdian University and a scholar of the Ministry of Officials;

Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry;

Qiao Yunsheng, the secretary of the Criminal Department;

Qin Liangyu, the commander of Beijing and the loyal marquis;

The governor of the five armies, the left governor of the palace, and the commander of the Jinyi guard made Luo Yangxing;

the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi and the commander of the East Factory Cao Huachun;

In addition, since Sun Chengzong, the head of the military department, and Yuan Chonghuan, the left attendant of the military department, were both far away in Liaodong, Zhu Cijiong specially asked Sun Yuanhua, the right attendant of the military department, to attend the meeting on behalf of the military department.

When everyone arrived, Zhu Cijiong coughed and said: "The bandits in the northwest have lasted for three years, and the Jiannu in Liaodong has been bullying me for more than ten years. Now that the problem of the imperial court has been solved, it is time to clean up these anti-thieves, and everyone will discuss what to do. ”

Everyone humbled each other with their eyes, and finally the new first assistant Xu Guangqi couldn't resist everyone's urging eyes, the first one walked out, and arched his hand: "Qi to play the emperor, Weichen thinks that now the Liaodong soldiers are full of food, Zhenguo Gongsun Chengzong has been in battle for a long time, and his subordinates Yuan Keli, Yuan Chonghuan, Man Gui, Zu Dashou, Zhao Shujiao, He Kegang, Mao Wenlong, Cao Wenzhao, etc. are all rare generals, counterattacking Jiannu, just at the right time, as for the bandits in the northwest, a gang of rabble, as long as they clean up Houjin, it is easy to go back and clean them up." ”

When everyone heard this, they nodded in agreement, but only Yang Sichang, the new secretary of the ministry, bowed his head and was silent.

Seeing this, Zhu Cijiong encouraged: "Yang Aiqing, do you have any different suggestions?" Just say what you have, don't worry, no one will hate you, and now the party is no longer prosperous. ”

Everyone smiled when they heard this, and the tense atmosphere was relaxed, and Yang Sichang mustered up the courage to step forward and arch his hand: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that Jiannu has become a trend, and it can't be down for ten or eight years. If you abandon the northwest and attack Jiannu now, and wait for the anti-thief to become a trend, the Ming Dynasty will be attacked on both sides, so Weichen suggested that the anti-thief should be suppressed first, and then attack Jiannu. ”

What Yang Sichang said seems to make sense, Zhu Cijiong is embarrassed, who is he listening to?

At this moment, Wang Chengen suddenly appeared at the door of the main hall, he knelt on the ground and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the Jinyi Wei secret agent sent an urgent document for eight hundred miles from Liaodong. ”

When Luo Yangxing heard this, his face was flushed and embarrassed, what is going on with the people here, the secret report will be reported secretly, can't you wait for me to go back and submit it? I actually sent it to the palace, didn't you see that military affairs are being discussed now!

Zhu Cijiong didn't care, anyway, this discussion could not be discussed in one or two clicks, he said lightly: "Since it is an urgent document, please submit it." ”

Wang Chengen took out an envelope with fire paint from his arms, walked into the hall with his waist bent, and presented his hands in front of Luo Yangxing.

Luo Yangxing took the envelope and looked at it, and was taken aback, it actually said: "Hurry, hurry, please submit it to Lord Xiao Luo to read it quickly." ”

Five urgent words in a row are already the most urgent information, no wonder they can't wait for a moment, they are all sent to the palace, Lord Xiao Luo's title proves that it is the elite left by his father before, what makes them anxious like this?

He hurriedly checked the seal, and then he couldn't wait to tear open the envelope, take out the letter inside, and look at it, the secret report reads:

Tell the commander that Jiannu Shengjing suddenly installed eight Hongyi cannons, and the villain pretended to be Jiannu, sneaked up to the city wall to check, and found that this cannon was actually homemade by Jiannu, and the cannon body was engraved with the words: Tianyou assists the general, and there is the year and month of casting, and the names of the supervising officials and the casters and blacksmiths. In addition, the dates engraved on these eight cannons are the first month of the fifth year of Jiannu Tiancong.

The fifth year of Jiannu Tiancong is the fourth year of Daming Chongzheng, and it is this month's thing that Jiannu will actually build Hongyi cannons, and there are eight of them! After reading it, Luo Yangxing's face changed, and he carefully presented the secret report to Zhu Cijiong to see what the emperor said.

Zhu Cijiong took the secret report and looked at it, I damn it, Hongyi cannon! Now it's troublesome, Houjin will also build artillery, and the difficulty of siege has skyrocketed, and it seems that Liaodong doesn't have to count on it for the time being.

He returned the secret report to Luo Yangxing, and motioned for him to circulate it, and when everyone had finished reading it, Zhu Cijiong said helplessly: "It seems that Liaodong cannot be attacked for the time being, and I will make plans when my new artillery is developed." Now we can only deal with the anti-thieves in the northwest first, how to suppress this anti-thief, let's discuss. ”

Take human flesh to carry cannons, just kidding, Nurhachi didn't believe in this evil, and he hung up. The officials of the Ming Dynasty naturally would not be so stupid, everyone thought that what Zhu Cijiong said was reasonable, Jiannu should let it go, and pacify the northwest first.

Everyone offered suggestions one after another, some advocated appeasement, some advocated encirclement and suppression, some advocated returning to their hometowns, and some advocated killing and slaughtering, among which Yang Sichang's suggestion was the most pertinent.

His suggestion can be summed up in eight words: "Four positives and six couples, ten sides of the net." ”

The four provinces in which the peasant rebel army is now active are: Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Sichuan, and the governors of these four provinces take the initiative to encircle and suppress the rebel army in their territory and eliminate their vital forces.

Liueven refers to the six surrounding provinces, namely: North Zhili, Shandong, South Zhili, Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guizhou, and the governors of these six provinces cooperated to suppress and strictly guard against the rebellion to prevent the rebels from fleeing everywhere.

In the end, there was a governor, who led the imperial army to pursue the main force of the rebel army, so that they had nowhere to escape.

He also used this trick in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and it did work wonders at the beginning, and Zhang Xianzhong, who was chasing, had no choice but to surrender to the Ming Dynasty; Li Zicheng, who was suppressed, was defeated, and only eighteen horsemen were left to flee to the mountains and forests. But later, Zhang Xianzhong reversed his word, surrendered to the verdict, and played a game of hide and seek against his tactics and the main force of the Ming army, and Yang Sichang was exhausted.

In the end, Li Zicheng broke through Luoyang and executed Zhu Changxun, the emperor's uncle; Zhang Xianzhong broke through Xiangyang and killed Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang, and Yang Sichang committed suicide in fright.

Zhu Cijiong naturally would not make the mistake of Emperor Chongzhen again, he synthesized everyone's suggestions, combined with the lessons of the failure of the Chongzhen Dynasty, and put forward a new strategy, that is: wait for the rabbit and gradually encroach.

The general meaning is to encircle and suppress if you want to appease you, but you don't have to chase and suppress, the rebel army always has to eat, and now there are basically cities where there is food in the disaster area, as long as you send heavy troops to guard the important state capitals, once the rebel army attacks the city, the nearby imperial army immediately surrounds it, and those who are willing to surrender will surrender their weapons, and those who are unwilling to surrender will fight until they surrender.

In fact, these are not the point, the most critical point is the treatment after surrender, the defeat of the Chongzhen Dynasty was defeated at this point, including Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other rebels have actually surrendered, as soon as they surrendered to Emperor Chongzhen, they were sent back to their hometowns, but they turned back soon after they went back, and some even didn't even get home, and they reversed on the way!

If you do this again, you will be working in vain.

Zhu Cijiong came up with a brilliant idea for this, what is this idea?

Of course, you can't kill them, they are all your own people.

How to deal with it, and see the next decomposition.