After getting up the next day, Li Zicheng followed Zhao Erde and found the place where he was preparing to establish a county, which was originally about sixty miles southwest of Helan Mansion, still far away from Moon Lake, and was named Tongge County.

Zhao Erde stayed in Tongge County and began to set up his own camp, but sent two Mongols who were familiar with the terrain as guides, and Li Zicheng, accompanied by Ren Tongzhou, continued south.

About a hundred miles south of Helan Mansion, Li Zicheng saw two peaks protruding from the Helan Mountains, stretching for several miles, and both above and below the mountains were extremely vigorous pastures.

Li Zicheng couldn't help but be overjoyed, this place is extremely vigorous, and it is next to the southbound avenue, and it is more suitable to establish a county.

And Tongge County is too close to Helan Mansion, only about fifty or sixty miles, if it is a town, it is more appropriate, but this is Zhao Erde's own choice, Li Zicheng has agreed, and it is impossible to return for the time being.

After asking the Mongolian guide, I learned that these two mountains are called Aoyutu Mountain and Azzhigar Mountain respectively.

It's not a Chinese name!

Li Zicheng contemplated it, and changed its names to Tuyou Mountain and Geri Mountain respectively, and the order of the words changed, which also destroyed the original meaning, even if the words of the other race could be handed down, he could not find his original pronunciation.

This county seat, which is located between two mountains, takes the first word of the two mountains, and is called "Tuge County".

The Mongolian guide told Li Zicheng that from here, eastward over Helan Mountain, was the town of Ningxia in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zicheng remembered the dismissal in the north of Ningxia Post Station, and the anger he suffered that day...... He really wanted to lead part of the cavalry to raid Ningxia Town and slaughter Yang Long, so as to eliminate the hatred of the day.

Think about it or endure it, compared with the great cause, what are some personal grievances? Besides, I don't know if Yang Long is still in Ningxia Town!

The army continued to move south, from Tuge County along the Yellow River to the south, about two hundred miles, the Yellow River changed direction here, the upstream has been a north-south direction, when the Northern Expedition was made, Li Zicheng did not pay attention, at this time he looked back and browsed carefully, and found that this place is simply the south of the Yangtze River.

Huoshizhai Mountain, Camel Mountain, and Xiletu Mountain have not been able to stop the spread of the Yellow River, with mountains and rivers, numerous lakes, clear water, and vigorous pasture grass spreading from the lakeside to all sides, extending to the foot of the mountain in the south and the desert depths in the north.

After asking the guide, I learned that this is the famous "Tonghu Grassland", which is the most abundant water and grass in the whole Helan Province, where many herdsmen used to graze, but after the Heavenly Mandate Army came to the outer wall, the herdsmen were afraid and were forced to move north.

Li Zicheng smiled secretly, it turns out that the nomads are also afraid of the Han people!

Boundaries are never fixed, but are constantly redistributed according to the strength of the parties......

He set up Hange County and Wendu County in the east and west of the place respectively, and renamed Huoshizhai Mountain and Xiletu Mountain as Huoshi Mountain and Tule Mountain respectively.

After Wendu County, it is the outer wall, which is already Luyang County, the capital of Huizhou.

Li Zicheng weighed it, if Luyang County on the outer wall is the starting point, to Helan County, it is not too far, and it is not impossible to build a road from Luyang County to the northeast in the future to connect Helan Mansion, but I don't know if the cement road built on the sand is as reliable as elsewhere.

Li Zicheng said goodbye to Ren Tongzhou and Gao Yigong here, and the cavalry galloped all the way, and before arriving in Huizhou, he had caught up with the fifth and seventh battalions in front and returned to Lanzhou together.

Zhou Bin and Song Wen rested in Lanzhou for a few days, and each received his own order.

With the Hexi Governor's Mansion guarding in the north, Li Jibu, the fourth battalion stationed in Suzhou, Ganzhou, Liangzhou, and Lanzhou, is no longer a frontier, and the pressure has been greatly reduced.

Zhou Binbu returned to Xining, now Xining is almost an empty city, with only a small number of auxiliaries, and the Song Wen Department took over from Qin Danian's department to garrison Jingyuan County, and Qin Danian's department returned to Lanzhou to rest and reorganize, and Li Guo's second battalion was stationed in Lanzhou together.

Before the seventh battalion went to Jingyuan County to change the guard, Li Zicheng specially summoned Song Wen, as well as the young officer Zhao Guangrui he deliberately cultivated.

A large number of war horses brought back from Helan Mountain, except for more than 1,000 horses for Li Guo, the remaining more than 2,000 horses, all handed over to Liu Yunshui in Guguan, so that the cavalry of the first and second battalions reached 3,000 households.

Everything was stopped, it was already mid-April, and Li Zicheng once again focused his attention on the court and thieves.

According to the information of the Han Qing Bureau, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong burned the imperial mausoleum in Fengyang, fully showing the nature of the rogue, they did not stay too long, but quickly went south, successively conquered Luzhou, Anqing, Hezhou, Chuzhou, and fought until the Yizheng by the Yangtze River, all the way invincible, and then turned west, and went south to Xiangyang's old Hui Hui Ma Shouying Department, in Huguang Ma Cheng Division.

And Liu Guoneng and others who shot the sky in the north played cats on both sides of the Yellow River with Hong Chengchou who went out of Tongguan in the east, they always went in and out of the neighborhood, but they were unwilling to fight with the main force of Hong Chengchou's department, Hong Chengchou was limited by Chongzhen to "destroy the thief within six months", and there was no way but to scatter his subordinate army and encircle and suppress the thieves everywhere.

Li Zicheng let out a long sigh, the beacon fire in the north has entered Huguang, and the five central provinces of the Ming Dynasty are about to be made into a miasma by thieves again.

This kind of thing originally had nothing to do with him, but what he thought of was the ending, the war between the court and the thieves, no matter who wins or loses, in the end he has to clean up the mess, the more chaotic the battle, the more difficult it will be to clean up in the future.

The speed of destruction is far greater than the speed of construction, if the entire Ming Dynasty is disabled, how can he clean up the mess with the corner of Xining and Lanzhou?

The imperial court was originally in an advantageous position, both in terms of the quality and quantity of the army, and in terms of logistical supplies, it was far superior to the thieves, however, now it was the thieves who led the way.

How much of this is man-made?

Just like this time, the thieves burned the ancestral tomb of the Zhu family in Fengyang, Chongzhen was angry, and actually forced Hong Chengchou to "destroy the thief within six months", sitting in the Forbidden City and talking without backache, if the thief is destroyed within six months, why is the thief getting worse today?

Hong Chengchou knew that it was impossible, but he was forced to break the thieves in Tongguan, although he achieved certain results, but he divided the army under him, and implemented the control of the enemy everywhere, once there was a loophole, he would "control the enemy" everywhere.

Once the thieves perceive that Hong Chengchou divides his troops to fortify everywhere, they will concentrate their superior forces and complete their efforts in one battle, will Hong Chengchou not suffer heavy losses?

Is it Chongzhen's stupidity, or Hong Chengchou's stupidity?

Although Li Zicheng won the Saiwai and set up the Hexi Governor's Mansion on the Gobi, he felt helpless against the war between the imperial court and the thieves.

Two red-eyed buffaloes fighting, what can an emaciated goat do?

The only thing Li Zicheng can do now is to develop Xining and Lanzhou and strengthen himself.

Sure enough, as Li Zicheng expected, Hong Chengchou went to the army to besiege the thieves, not only did not achieve the expected effect, but suffered heavy losses, in June, the deputy generals Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen died in the battle of Xiangle in Ningzhou, and the officers and soldiers were defeated.

Hong Chengchou really had no troops to adjust, so he had to recruit Cao Wenzhao into Shaanxi.

At this time, the deadline for Chongzhen to "exterminate the thieves within six months" was almost about to expire, but the thieves were almost not few, a number of people died, and more thieves joined, and the numerical advantage of the Han population was completely on the side of the thieves.

At the same time, news came out from Huguang that Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Xunyang, expelled Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong's troops from Huguang, and Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong turned north to Hanzhong, and the imperial court toasted to celebrate.

Hey?

What did Li Zicheng capture from these messages, and think about it carefully, what is there to celebrate about the "expulsion"? The thieves are rogues, they have robbed a place, even if they do not evict it, they will change another place and continue the next robbery, and there is no food and grass in the familiar place!

Did the thieves leave on their own, or were they expelled by Lu Xiangsheng?

At this moment, he was suspicious of Lu Xiangsheng, a famous general, could it be that his exploits in recruiting and suppressing thieves were all given by thieves for nothing?

However, Li Zicheng understood the secret of thieves and officers and soldiers: After fighting with officers and soldiers for a long time, thieves have mastered more and more combat skills, and not only can they come and go freely in the gaps guarded by officers and soldiers, but the combat level of the leaders themselves is also improving.

The generals of the Ming army knew that they could not completely exterminate the thieves, and they did not take the will of the imperial court seriously, and most of them were just for show, and they no longer aimed at killing or even eliminating the thieves as they did at the beginning, but turned to expel.

As long as the thief is not in his own defense area, he will complete the task assigned by the imperial court.

If the thieves come to their zone again, it will be another battle, not the same group of thieves as before.

As a result, the thieves wandered around different regions, and the officers and soldiers always thought that they had been rewarded for their expulsion after the thieves left.

Li Zicheng even doubted that the thieves had reached a consensus with the officers and soldiers, I would leave after one robbery, and I would never embarrass you, even if you reported your merits, don't really encircle and suppress them, everyone will have a glimmer of life to meet in the future, who knows whose world is in the future?

Maybe this is not true, this is just his worst speculation, but now between the thieves and the officers and soldiers, it does seem to be a delicate balance, just like the agreement reached between Hong Chengchou and the Heavenly Mandate Army in Guguan, everyone will not invade each other, do not embarrass each other, everyone eats when there is food, everyone carries things, helps each other, covers each other......

If you don't look at the costumes, you may not be able to tell who is a thief and who is an officer and soldier.

From this point of view, it seems that he has suffered a loss by occupying Xining and Lanzhou and carrying out large-scale construction, and if he has a base area, he will also have a fetters; if he fights with officers and men on a large scale in the future, if the war is unfavorable and Xining and Lanzhou are lost, then the losses will be great.

However, with the base area, there is also a fixed supply of soldiers and food, so that we can provide a steady stream of rifles and various artillery pieces for the Mandate of Heaven Army, just like the Xining Firearms Bureau.

The direction of development is always a double-edged sword, it depends on how you operate.