The crowd gathered firewood and the flame was high.

A pot of water, already bubbling hot. Add a few more sticks of firewood and you might be able to boil.

Gu Jiang returned to the state, and Zhu Pingjin no longer pretended to be deaf and played dumb riddles. He threw the first stick of firewood into the red hearth.

That firewood was one of the major issues he didn't figure out.

"Frontline military report: After the thieves captured Guide Mansion, they joined forces with Yuan Shizhong, Xiao Yuan's camp, in April. In the middle of last month, the thieves took down Qi (QI) county again.

As a result, the barriers around Kaifeng have been removed, and they are already in danger! With the signs of thieves fleeing, it must be intended to attack Kaifeng three times.

Kaifeng, the Zhou feudal country, the provincial wall is located. Kaifeng is lost, Zhongzhou is not guaranteed, the north and south of the Ming Dynasty are cut off, and the Beijing division is also in danger. Therefore, Kaifeng is in an emergency, and the imperial court will definitely send troops to relieve the siege.

The Qin army Xiangcheng was newly defeated and was recuperating, and it was difficult to send troops in the short term; Zuo Liangyu has 200,000 heavy troops, so he is naturally the main force of reinforcements......"

Zhu Pingjin poured out some of his major judgments on the battle situation in the Central Plains. At this point, he was silent for a while before continuing:

"This world is expected that Zuo Liangyu is just driven by Ding Qirui, and he has no desire to fight. If he feigns defeat and retreats to Xiangyang, the court may have a punishment. At that time, the Protector Army could use gold medals and arrows as symbols, and annex them with money and food merits...... Mr. Gu came from Jinling and is familiar with the internal situation of the country, I don't know what to think? ”

It turned out that the prince of the world led out Xiangyang with Gu Jiang's strategy, not to talk about the world's affairs, but only to kill the generals and join the army!

At the moment of discovering the truth, the sun outside the hall was like fire, but the air inside the hall was so cold that it seemed to freeze.

"Never!" It was Gu Jiang who spoke out in time and broke the ice.

When Gu Jiang understood the reason for his opposition, almost all the generals, even Zhu Pingjin himself, temporarily abandoned the idea of annexing Zuo Liangyu.

Gu Jiang said, because Zuo Liangyu is willing to befriend Donglin, Jiangnan Shilin understands the situation of the left army.

In the early years, when Zuo Liangyu was in charge of the suppression of thieves in Henan, the number of soldiers was only 3,000. Later, he was promoted to the general of the thief, and the number of soldiers was only 25,000. However, Zuo Liangyu was very good at recruiting rebels, and his reputation was so great that many thieves came to join him, so Zuo Liangyu's army became more and more, so that there were currently 200,000 people.

Distinguishing between past experience and current positions, the generals of the Left Army can be roughly divided into three categories of people.

The first category is Zuo Liangyu's pro-soldier generals, with a total of five battalions, known as the "first five battalions". Among them, the main force is six or seven thousand ironclad cavalry, and the main figures are Lu Guangzu, Li Guoying and others. Zuo Liangyu is a native of Liaodong and was born in Shandong, so almost all of his cronies will be from Liaodong Shandong. Except for Zuo Liangyu and his only remaining son, Zuo Mengeng, these people can't be pulled away at all.

The second category is the remnants of the original Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan's superintendents, as well as some of the collateral generals of the Chu army under the command of Zuo Liangyu. They were the weakest in the left army, and in addition to a small number of soldiers and horses in their headquarters, they were often mixed with a large number of small bandits and rogues. Its representative figures are Fang Guoan, the former Sichuan General Army, Zhang Yingyuan, the General Soldier, and Lu Ding, the deputy general of the Supervision and Discipline Department. These people, like other Chu army generals, are relatively easy to command and win as long as they have the reputation of righteousness.

The third category is the thieves who are appeased. Zuo Liangyu has been chasing and suppressing thieves for many years, and most of the Qin thieves have joined the left army. For example, there are five people, such as 100,000 Ma Jinzhong, Wang Yuncheng, the Iron Cavalry King, Jin Shenghuan (Note 1), Hui Dengxiang, and Li Cheng, who are known as the colonels of the "Outer Five Battalions".

Except for a few people such as Wang Yuncheng, these generals were born as thieves, and they had no sense of the court and loyalty. In addition, the left army had many soldiers and few soldiers, so these people took the opportunity to loot wantonly. The military discipline of the left army is worse than that of other armies; And the bad military discipline of the outer five battalions is crowned by the left army. The Protector Army hangs the people on behalf of the heavens, how can they co-opt this gang of thieves and grass cowards who wear the hats of the official army!

Moreover, the army that can fight in the world is now only three ears: the Qin army, the left army and the Guanning army, even if the ministers of the court want to punish Zuo Liangyu, the emperor may not agree!

"Since it is difficult for the left army to be absorbed in a hurry, if it is forced by Chuang Xian, it will abandon Xiangyang. In the opinion of the gentleman, where will the left army move? Zhu Pingjin asked the second major question that he didn't understand.

"The student was about to talk about Wuchang, and the prince came to ask."

Seemingly dissatisfied with Zhu Pingjian's interruption, Gu Jiang said loudly: "Wuchang, the king of Chu is sealed, and the three divisions of Yihu and Guang are located. The left army retreated south along the Han River, and it must pass through Hanyang and Wuchang! However, "Speaking of this, Gu Jiang showed a ghostly smile on his face, making that ugly face even uglier, "The soldiers and horses of Huguang Province will definitely abandon Wuchang!" Stick to ......"

Song Zhenzong, who had a loud voice, couldn't bear it, and roared angrily: "Abandon Wuchang and guard Chengtian." Who doesn't know where the ancestral tomb of the emperor Lao'er is! Sir, it's better to spit out less sour text, or I'll go out later! ”

The ministers laughed again, but instead of laughing, Gu Jiang became more serious:

"Everyone in the world knows that Song Yihe, the governor of Huguang, wants to defend Chengtian to the death, does Zuo Liangyu not know? If he retreats to Chengtian, how is it different from our national army trapped in Xiangyang?

Therefore, the students concluded that Zuo Liangyu would build a ship in Xiangyang. Once the thieves come to attack, they will go east along the Han River, first rob Hankou, the most prosperous place in Chu, and then cross the river to Wuchang. When he arrives in Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu can enter the city, grab it again, and then ask the king of Chu for some silver, and with the danger of the river, the whole army will fight a decisive battle with the chasing army......"

talked about the key place, but was skipped by Gu Jiang. Zhu Pingjin had to interrupt Gu Jiang again: "The left army is corrupt, and everyone in Huguang knows it. Since Wuchang was a vassal of the King of Chu, how could he allow the left army to enter the city? ”

"It's hard to say!" Gu Jiang retorted strongly: "Under the thieves, does the King of Chu want money or death? If you want to die, you can only let the left army enter the city! ”

Hahaha! Zhu Pingjin laughed: "Zhu Huakui, that old man, will not let the left army enter the city, Mr. Gu might as well wait and see!" ”

"Since the left army cannot enter Wuchang to supply, it can only continue to go east along the river and occupy Jiujiang. Jiujiang Prefecture occupies the advantage of the mouth of Poyang Lake, and leads the whole province of Jiangxi, and there are countless fertile fields on the lakeside, which is the place to supply military food. That's why students think ......"

At this point, Zhu Pingjin interrupted him for the third time:

"When the left army leaves Wuchang, it can enter Huangzhou and Jiujiang in the west, and Yueyang and Dongting in the east. Why does Mr. Gu think that Zuo Liangyu must go west to Jiujiang? ”

"Shunjiang is swift and fast, and it is one to avoid thieves. As for the third and fourth, it's actually very simple......"

Gu Jiang said, and the ghostly smile became even brighter.

"Jiujiang and Hukou are one east and one west, just as Poyang Lake is about to rush. Occupy Jiujiang, travel along Poyang Lake and Ganjiang River, Jiangxi Province can go.

The kings of Jiangxi, the Huai King (Note 1) and the Yiwang Domain of Raozhou (now Poyang County), and the Yiwang Domain of Jianchang (now Nancheng County) were all remote places. Since King Ning removed the country of Nanchang, who can be the water and land of Jiangxi?

If the imperial court investigates Zuo Liangyu's crime of losing the war and losing his land in the future, Zuo Liangyu will simply not go to Jiangxi, but go down the river and continue to move east. Thousands of miles away is Nanjing......

Hehe, even if the emperor has the heart to ask for the crime, the holy decree must be recovered quickly when he leaves Beijing......

Yueyang is the opposite. King Ji occupied Changsha, King Rong occupied Changde, King Gui occupied Hengzhou (now Hengyang), King Min occupied Wugang, and the four key points were vassal kings......

Especially that King Gui, who is the emperor's own uncle, no matter how bold Zuo Liangyu is, he doesn't dare to pull out his beard......"

Gu Jiang was still proud of himself, but the ministers saw that the prince raised his eyebrows, and his palm slapped heavily on the imperial case, snap!

"This son understands!" Zhu Pingjin solemnly announced to everyone.

What did the prince understand?

The ministers looked at each other and couldn't touch their heads. At this time, I heard the prince ask: Who knows what this son understands?

What is in your immortal head, what can we mortal minds understand?

The ministers were stupid and began to buzz and talk to each other.

At this time, I saw Zhu Pingjin pointing a little at the end of the group of ministers:

"Wang Xingwu, Mr. Shu said that you are excellent in both military and political affairs, Luo Jianjun praised you for being very smart, Chen Youfu said that you are brave and brave in battle, and even Wang Chaoyang sighed at your exemplary official army. You've listened to it for so long today, and you don't know if you can understand what this son thinks? ”

Wang Xingwu, the new deputy chief of general staff who was born in a wealthy family and participated in the Battle of Jiangkou, the bloody battle of Changping Mountain, the pacification of the Baoning Mutiny, and the battle of suppressing thieves in northern Sichuan, was directly named by the prince in the Jinde Palace.

This rising political star, facing the gaze of the ministers, strode forward and completed his first high-profile appearance in the court in a difficult way for the monarch and the ministers to play the right match.

……

Wang Xingwu said respectfully, hearing Mr. Gu's analysis of the movements of the Left Army, the prince said that he "understood", so the "understanding" of the prince was naturally related to the left army.

Then why did the prince pay special attention to the left army?

It is because the Left Army is the largest friendly army in Huguang! The movement of the Left Army has a direct bearing on the deployment of the National Protector Army in Huguang, on whether the National Protector Army can gain a foothold outside the province, and even on whether the great cause of "protecting the country and the people and bringing peace to the world" can be fully spread out in the vast areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River!

Subsequently, Wang Xingwu further explained that the army on the battlefield can be roughly divided into three categories: enemy, me, and friend.

Seasonal climate, wind, rain, thunder and lightning, mountains and rivers are dangerous, cities and roads are all factors that must be considered in the decision-making of generals. However, it is more important for generals to distinguish between the enemy, us, and friends. This is a fundamental question that the Son of the World often teaches to be clarified, namely, "Who is our friend and who is our enemy."

The situation of the enemy, ourselves, and friends is dynamic and changes all the time.

Taking the northern Sichuan battlefield as an example, the local tyrant is the enemy, but after Liu Weiming recruited An, he became me; The town of northern Sichuan is a friend, but after Wang Chaoyang's mutiny, it became an enemy.

Enemies, friends, and friends are not fixed forever, but can be transformed into each other under certain conditions. This is the case in the northern Sichuan battlefield, and the same will be true in the future Huguang battlefield, and this is the so-called "dialectics" method of analyzing all problems.

What conclusions will be drawn from the dialectical analysis of Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Jun?

Zuo Liangyu is a friendly army, but as Mr. Gu said, its composition is complicated and uneven.

At present, Zuo Liangyu uses the righteousness of the imperial court, the food and salary of the government and his personal prestige to bring together the miscellaneous generals under him. If one of these important conditions is lost, the left army may fall apart and become a large group of guerrillas.

Some generals may join the Protector Army, some may continue to obey the imperial court, and some may become outcasts again.

Therefore, Wang Xingwu believed that since the Left Army was so important, Zuo Liangyu and the generals of the Left Army should be included in the united front object, and a liaison officer should be sent to the Left Army to win over him to be inclined to the Protector Army, or even directly join the Protector Army when necessary. The liaison officer also has the function of collecting military intelligence, and has a detailed understanding of the dynamics of the various departments of the left battalion, so as to provide a basis for the decision-making of the prince.

In addition to Zuo Liangyu's department, there are many friendly troops on the battlefields of Huguang and Nanzhi, which are also worthy of going to the united front.

For example, Huang Degong, Mou Wenshou, deputy general Liu Liangzuo, chief soldier of Chengtian, Wen Ruzhen, chief soldier of Sichuan Army, Kong Xigui, chief soldier of Yueyang, Hunan, Yin Xianmin, deputy general of Changsha, Cui Wenrong, general of Wuchang, and others are all noteworthy figures. Wang Xingwu hoped that the prince would send someone to contact them and understand their ideological dynamics. Once some of them can be won over to join the National Protector Army, it will be of great help to the National Protector Army's foothold and development in Huguang.

But......

It was this "but" that allowed Zhu Pingjin and the ministers present to see Wang Xingwu's superb ability to analyze problems.

Note 1: Zhu Changqing (1616-1649), the king of Huai, was known as the Dongwu Emperor in history. In the spring of 1648, it became a scarce resource, and was established as a prison state by Zheng Chenggong on Nanao Island, and was abolished the following year.

YIWANG ZHU CIQI (TAI) (1636-1646), BECAUSE OF HIS ACTIVE ADVOCACY OF THE ANTI-JAPANESE WAR, WAS ALSO SUPPORTED BY THE LOCAL GENTRY AS A PRISONER, BUT IT WAS VERY SHORT-LIVED. It can be seen from this that Zhu Ciqi's mind is still immature, and the political quality and political vision of the people around him dare not compliment. Later, Zhu Ciqi died in Guangzhou at the age of ten.