Xiao Tianjian only received Lu Xiangsheng's handwritten letter to him in Dengzhou in early October, and when he opened Lu Xiangsheng's letter and read it, he sat alone in the big tent for a long time without speaking, and after a long time, he carefully put away Lu Xiangsheng's letter, and then ordered all the troops under his command to suspend the attack on the surrounding areas.

On the day Xiao Tianjian received Lu Xiangsheng's letter, he handed over the matter of Dengzhou's town guard to Liu Yaoben, and ordered him to sit in Nanyang, only need to stabilize the area they actually control, and no longer use troops against Xiangyang without authorization, while he himself led Situ Liang's cavalry battalion to immediately rush back to Luoyang City without stopping.

When Xiao Tianjian returned to Luoyang City, Luo Rucai, Li Xuanzhu, Liu Bao, Luo Li, and Niu Jinxing, Li Jinde, Li Xin and others, who had received his orders in advance, had also rushed back to Luoyang City, waiting for Xiao Tianjian's return.

These people didn't quite understand why Xiao Tianjian chose this time to order the suspension of military operations, because in their opinion, now that they had just harvested in autumn, both the morale of the soldiers and the preparation of grain and straw were in a very good state, and the strength of the officers and troops in the Central Plains was greatly damaged, and it was a good time for them to expand their territory.

Moreover, they have now unanimously reached an opinion, that is, both sides in the southeast and southeast have begun to exert their strength, concentrate the forces of the two groups, attack Xiangyang in the south, and look for opportunities to break into the territory of Huguang, and gradually take Huguang as a big granary in the future, so that they can no longer worry about the problem of food supply in the future, and Huguang is relatively much denser than Henan, and while obtaining a stable food supply area, it can also obtain more troops.

On the other hand, facing east, with a large army to invade the two Huai area, and gradually control the two Huai area, in this way, in addition to obtaining a large number of financial resources, but also control the salt industry of the two Huai, for the financial resources of the Xingtian Army, it can make the Xingtian Army obtain inexhaustible financial resources, and more importantly, it can completely cut off the contact between the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, and cut off the support of the northern Jingshi area of the Ming Dynasty to obtain money and grain in the south, so that the Ming Dynasty will soon collapse, and it will be just around the corner to replace it with the Xingtian Army.

If these two aspects of the use of troops are successful, regardless of whether the Ming army in the north collapses or not, the Xingtian army can grasp the strategic initiative, and can attack Hebei and Shandong to the north, take Shanxi, and then conquer the city of Beijing, or to the south, it can also attack Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, from both directions, and can also destroy the Ming Dynasty.

So at the moment, in this situation, Xingtianjun can be said to have a great possibility of success, but he didn't expect Xiao Tianjian to suddenly stop, which made this group of civil and military officers a little puzzled, but for Niu Jinxing, Li Xin, Li Jinde, these strategists, they more or less guessed a little eyebrows.

After Xiao Tianjian returned to Luoyang City, he didn't even have time to go back to the inner palace to meet Fan Yutong, so he immediately summoned these civil ministers and military generals under his command at the Yamen of the prefect of Luoyang City.

Xiao Tianjian, with a look of wind and dust on his face, with a cold look on his face, sat on the big chair behind the handsome case and glanced at the group of civil and military officers under his command, and after a slight pause, he waved his hand so that everyone did not have to be polite, and said: "Do you know that Jiannu broke through the customs and went south to enter the Kou again some time ago?" ”

Luo Li's big mouth immediately responded: "Of course I know!" During this time, I have been in the area of Weihui Mansion, and I have found that a large number of refugees from the north have begun to pour into our territory from the south! Pity these ordinary people in the north, when they fled here one by one, they were almost too hungry to become humans, and it is said that many people were starved to death on the way to the south! ”

And Li Xin also nodded and said: "Luo Dutong is right, recently, a large number of people around the capital and even some wealthy families have begun to go south and poured into our control area, and basically can't receive relief from the government of the place they pass through along the way, and many people starve to death on the way!"

According to these refugees who fled south, the Jiannu army was very strong, and the soldiers entered the Jingshi, Shandong, and northern Jinxi after breaking the pass, and burned and plundered everywhere, and the opportunities around the Jingshi were ruined by them into white land, and the Jiannu killed the old, weak and young, and took the young and strong men and women as their slaves and escorted them back to the outside of the pass, as their clothed slaves, and snatched away everything that could be snatched, and burned down if they could not be taken away, and dozens of states and counties in the north were broken.

And the refugees rumored that this time, a group of high-ranking officials led by Cabinet Minister Yang Sichang secretly seemed to want to compromise with Jiannu, and seemed to be interested in making peace with Jiannu! After Lu Xiangsheng was ordered to enter the guard, he led his troops to fight many fierce battles with the Jiannu army around the Beijing Division, and recovered some states and counties, but because of Lu Xiangsheng's main battle, he was at odds with Yang Sichang and Director Gao Qiqian, Gao Qiqian controlled a large number of officers and troops, stayed outside the capital, and always refused to send troops to fight with Jiannu. Dashuai came back to summon us this time, is it because of this? ”

Xiao Tianjian nodded, but did not answer Li Xin's question directly, but Luo Li continued to scold: "Speaking of which, the current emperor of the Ming Dynasty is really a wreck, he has so many officers and troops in the north, but he can't hold the city, let the Eastern Tartars come in as they want to come in and harm our people in the Ming Dynasty, those who are officials are even more waste, Jiannu is not afraid to fight when he comes, he only thinks about cutting land and paying compensation to Jiannu, what use do you want them!" However, only this surnamed Lu is still a good official, and he is willing to lead troops to fight Jiannu to the death for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, which is much stronger than many Ming generals! My surname Luo has no chance, if there is a chance, I have to invite him to drink! ”

Luo Rucai was in a much better mood during this time, although his old department was annexed by Xiao Tianjian, but after being under Xiao Tianjian's command, Xiao Tianjian did not treat him too lightly, nor did he treat him as a mud bodhisattva, but gave him the right to give him the opportunity to lead the generals of the Heavenly Army to go on the expedition, and did not restrict his freedom too much, so during this time he was very energetic in the eastern part of Henan, originally he thought that if Xiao Tianjian personally presided over the southward army, this time he should be the main soldier in the east and Lianghuai, If he can lead his troops to enter the two Huai, it will definitely be a great achievement, and in the future, Xiao Tianjian will sit in the world, and he will be the first to make the contribution, and his glory and wealth are indispensable.

Therefore, Luo Rucai was gearing up during this time, and even changed his bad habits in the past, a large group of wives and children stayed in Luoyang, and he did not drink and have fun in the army, but personally went down every day to supervise the training of the soldiers, and tried his best to think about the next course of action.

But suddenly, Xiao Tianjian ordered him to immediately put down what he was doing and rush back to Luoyang to discuss the matter, which made him quite incomprehensible, and even a little unhappy, thinking that Xiao Tianjian had let the donkey kick when he was fighting in the south during this time, why did he give up such a good opportunity and order a temporary stop?

So he said to Xiao Tianjian: "Handsome! What are you doing with me? Now that they have entered the army, they have just dragged a large number of officers and soldiers from going south to deal with us, with our means, how can the officers and troops on the other side of Nanzhili be our opponents? It is a good time for us to take the opportunity to attack Lianghuai, why do we suddenly order a halt at this time? ”

Xiao Tianjian glanced at Luo Rucai, Luo Rucai is actually a very smart person, and he is also very strategic, this time he and Li Xuanzhu led the division to attack eastern Henan, and the performance was also quite good, and after they controlled a large area of eastern Henan, Luo Rucai even put forward the idea of sending troops to two Huai before Niu Jinxing and Li Jinde, Luo Rucai was quite far-sighted in this regard, so Xiao Tianjian was also relieved to let go of him and let him lead the troops.

However, after listening to Luo Rucai's words, Xiao Tianjian was quite displeased, shook his head and said: "Vice Marshal Luo, don't be impatient, wait a minute, this marshal will explain why!"

Mr. Niu, are we still having enough grain at the moment? ”

Niu Jinxing immediately replied: "Back to the marshal, at present, we have just finished the autumn harvest in western Henan, harvested a large number of sweet potatoes, wheat, beans and corn, and the states and counties seized in central Henan some time ago, although they did not catch up with the spring sowing, but in the summer they still rushed to sow a large number of buckwheat and soybeans, although the output is not large, but it has also alleviated the famine problem in central Henan, as for the eastern part of Henan, Vice Marshal Luo obtained a lot of grain when he laid down the Guide Mansion, in addition to taking out a part of the relief to the hungry, there are also considerable reserves, Although the food problem is not sufficient at the moment, it is enough to maintain the army! ”

Xiao Tianjian nodded and asked Niu Jinxing to step back, and then asked Jiang Qin behind him, "Jiang Qin!" What happened to Zhang Xianzhong in Gucheng and the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution? ”

Jiang Qin immediately replied: "Recently, the humble post has sent people to Gucheng County many times to contact the Eight Kings and persuade them to take advantage of the situation to recover and cooperate with us to move south, but the Eight Kings do not seem to have any intention of taking refuge in the Great Shuai, they just want to stand on their own in the Gucheng area, and they have no idea of cooperating or taking refuge in the Great Shuai, and they have not responded to our proposal at all!"

However, Zhang Xianzhong did not really join the court as an eagle dog, it is said that the government transferred him many times to lead the troops to deal with the marshal, but he categorically refused, and he reverted to his humble position, saying that he is currently short of food and food, and he is temporarily unable to recover and has no intention of being an enemy of the court again, let alone being an enemy of us, it seems that the eight kings still want to look at the limelight again!

As for the side of the fifth battalion of the revolutionary left, the recent situation is not very good, the imperial court ordered Zhu Dadian and Shi Kefa and others to attack them, and mobilized a lot of officers and troops in Nanjing and Jiangbei to deal with them, at the moment their activities are restricted, and the officers and soldiers have lost more than they won, and now they are headed by Lao Huihui, and send people to contact the lowly position, and want to ask the marshal to send troops into Jiangbei quickly to help them, and they also expressed their willingness to accept the marshal's dispatch! ”

After hearing this, Li Xuanzhu immediately said: "Marshal Qiyu, the Fifth Battalion of the Left Wing has also contacted the last general many times, and wants to ask the last general to move eastward, meet with them, and jointly deal with the officers and troops in Jiangbei, and they have made it clear that they are willing to obey our dispatch, and now Runing Mansion can be conquered by humble duty at any time, if the marshal orders the eastward march at this time, the last general and the deputy marshal can draw their troops to the east, and this is a good time for us to enter the Jiangbei Lianghuai!" ”

Even Li Jinde nodded again and again, obviously agreeing with Luo Rucai and Li Xuanzhu's opinions, but he just didn't say it.

In Xiao Tianjian's place, because he has always disliked too many rules, and he is often willing to listen to the opinions of his subordinates when deliberating, so he speaks very freely, and everyone expressed their opinions after Xiao Tianjian spoke, and they all felt that now the Tartars are in the Kou, which is the best time to contain a lot of energy in the imperial court and make the imperial court have no time to look south.

Xiao Tianjian didn't say anything, just listened to them express their opinions, but his face became more and more gloomy, until everyone saw that Xiao Tianjian was in a very bad mood today, so they closed their mouths, and the lobby was quiet, and finally everyone even breathed a lot softer, making the lobby begin to become silent, and the atmosphere in the entire lobby became very depressed and dull, even the guards outside the lobby door felt that the atmosphere in the lobby seemed to be a little wrong today, So they all worked harder to straighten their waists.

Xiao Tianjian suppressed his anger, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, slowly opened his eyes, his gaze swept over the faces of everyone below like electricity, and his sharp eyes seemed to be staring into their hearts, which made everyone's hearts suddenly tighten, and they involuntarily lowered their heads to avoid Xiao Tianjian's gaze.