After Li Yan returned to the camp in the northeast outside the city, he ordered Huang Desheng: "Take your people to camp outside the south gate and leave you six artillery pieces."

"Obey" Huang Desheng hugged his fists and agreed.

Li Yan instructed: "We are ten miles away, if the thieves come back, they will inform you, and you will come back safely with the troops to join us." Also, you don't have to listen to other people's dispatches, you can't go into the city, you can't disperse your troops. ”

Huang Desheng hugged his fists and said: "I understand my humble duties"

After Huang Desheng went to prepare, Li Mu asked, "Fourth brother, what's the situation?"

Li Yan sneered: "King Zhou is too stingy, we don't need to give him too much effort." ”

"Hmph" Li Mu said dissatisfiedly: "Seeing that the thief is gone, I don't want to give more." Let's see who will help Li Chuang next time he comes."

Li Yan waited for Huang Desheng to complete the camp, so he took the troops and the 1,000 stone of grain and 50,000 taels of silver given by the king of Zhou, returned south overnight, and returned to Chenliu. He also began to resettle displaced people in the eastern part of Chenliu, and officially included the eastern part of Chenliu in the control area. As for the west, it is still necessary to let it go first, lest the thieves will bear the brunt of the siege of Kaifeng in the future.

Two days later, Li Zhong sent someone to report, and after a preliminary investigation, Luo Ru broke into their territory, causing a lot of losses. The winter wheat yield in Qixian County will be reduced by nearly 40%, while the output in Suizhou and Kaocheng will be reduced by nearly 30%. But there was good news, the people had turned over more than 680 horses and more than 200 mules. There may be more than a hundred more in the back. More than 230 people were captured and taken prisoner, and 27 soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded.

Li Yan was not satisfied, he didn't expect that the casualties of the military and civilians would be so large, or the weapons and armor of the people were relatively small. But now it is better, he has more than 3,000 pieces of captured armor in his hand, enough to distribute dozens of collars to every village on the front.

A day later, Zuo Liangyu finally arrived at Kaifeng with his cavalry, and then Yang Wenyue, who was on the north bank of the Yellow River, finally crossed the river. After uniting with Chen Yongfu, the three parties gathered more than 10,000 soldiers and horses and began to pursue westward first. In fact, they didn't really want to pursue Li Zicheng, they were just putting on a show. If you want to get the reward of the imperial court, you still have to do enough drama, otherwise those imperial historians will not agree.

On the same day, the good news from Henan arrived in the capital.

Beijing, Mandarin Palace.

"It's really God bless Daming" Chongzhen said excitedly: "The thieves didn't succeed, they didn't conquer Kaifeng, they didn't occupy the Central Plains, they still didn't occupy the Central Plains, even if they had tens of millions of family fortunes, they didn't pull out a dime, and they weren't all cheap If the thieves were other feudal kings who could also be as light on wealth and righteousness as the Zhou Domain, and donate officials and soldiers to guard the place, the thieves would not be afraid." ”

Chen Xinjia bowed down and said: "Kaifeng, please meritorious, please show your majesty." ”

"Shine on it" Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand and said magnificently.

Chen Xinjia said: "But there is a guerrilla of Li Yan among them, and King Zhou and Gao Mingheng both want to give him a reward for skipping the ranks, and the guerrillas will be directly promoted to deputy general." ”

"This is the authority of your military department, you make your own decisions," Chongzhen said casually. He completely forgot that just now, he had asked Chen Xinjia to do everything.

"According to common sense, you should have described your qualifications, expressed your merits, and then set a reward." Chen Xinjia bowed and said: "But the minister saw from the report that this Li Yan is indeed a general, and the army under his command is strictly organized, advancing and retreating in an orderly manner. Now that there is a shortage of soldiers in Liaoxi, it is the time to employ people, so the minister suggested that Li Yan could be promoted to deputy general, and the troops and horses of the department could be transferred outside the customs and returned to Wu Sangui's control. In order to enrich the military affairs outside the Guan, troops were dispatched as soon as possible to lift the siege of Songshan and Jinzhou. ”

As soon as Liaoxi was mentioned, Chongzhen became angry. After Hong Chengchou failed in the attack, he asked Wu Sangui, the strongest of the defeated soldiers, to take charge of Guanwai. And asked Wu Sangui to reorganize the army and immediately go to rescue the trapped Hong Chengchou and Jinzhou Zu Dashou.

Wu Sangui said that the troops were not enough, so he immediately transferred more than 5,000 elite soldiers from Miyun in Jizhen Town. Wu Sangui said that there were not enough horses and saddles, so he asked the yamen to donate and make up, and finally put together more than 1,000 saddle horses to send to the outside of the customs. But what was the result, only a few thousand soldiers were dispatched, and before they arrived at Songshan Castle, they were frightened back by the forward sentinel of the Qing army.

It made Hong Chengchou Bai in Songshan excited, and sent 6,000 soldiers to prepare to open the breakthrough path, but 3,000 surrendered and 3,000 were killed. The only good thing is that there are 6,000 fewer people in Songshan City to eat food, so that Songshan can hold on longer, otherwise it really won't be able to hold out at this time.

Chongzhen's good mood immediately disappeared, and he asked loudly: "Wu Sangui still doesn't have any plans there, when will he be ready to go to Jiesong and Jinzhiwei?"

Chen Xinjia shook his head and said, "The minister did not receive the report. He glanced at Chongzhen and suggested in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that peace talks should be held." ”

"Peace talks" Chongzhen said hesitantly: "Can you still talk about peace?"

Chen Xinjia explained: "Although the Qing army besieged Song and Jin, they did not have a good time. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses are outside, and the consumption of grain and grass is huge. There is not much arable land in Liaodong, and North Korea has a narrow ridge of soil, which cannot provide much grain and grass. Therefore, as long as the imperial court proposes peace talks now, we can let Zu Dashou and Hong Chengchou and tens of thousands of troops get out of the encirclement, and the Qing court can also start to recuperate and recuperate, and each has its own gains. ”

"They are recuperating, and then they are not coming to attack me again, this is the enemy," Chongzhen said sternly.

"Your Majesty" Chen Xinjia explained: "Give up Song and Jin, we still have Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan. But with these tens of thousands of elite border troops, they can quickly annihilate the thieves who are ravaging the Central Plains. Although Li Chuang, who attacked Kaifeng, was repulsed, there were still thieves in the Central Plains, as well as the five battalions of the Revolution, and the thieves were also defeated but not killed, and there were hundreds of thousands of thieves and thieves of all sizes in the Central Plains, with barren fields, starvation and millions of displaced people. If we can't quickly settle down the heart, internal and external troubles will burst out at the same time, and the catastrophe of the future country will not be far off. ”

Chongzhen sat down on the dragon chair and asked weakly, "It's really come to this point."

"What the minister said is true," Chen Xinjia replied, "Although Your Majesty is kind-hearted, he has reduced or exempted the tax arrears in some places and allocated relief money to the disaster-stricken areas. But as soon as the thieves passed, everything came to naught, they ate it all and robbed it all, and the people were all coerced and turned into outcasts. Therefore, the thieves are the big trouble of the national dynasty, and the border trouble is a small disease of mustard moss. ”

Chongzhen thought about it for a long time, and finally whispered: "You send someone to handle this matter first, and you must choose a reliable person." Also, you must be cautious and never let the outer court know the news, otherwise it will be another trend. ”

"The ministers obey the holy commandment." Chen Xinjia gave up his hand.

Emperor Chongzhen said again: "Since there are peace talks, then Li Yan's troops don't need to be transferred to Guanwai, let him stay in Henan, under the command of Ding Qirui and Wang Qiaonian, quickly exterminate the thieves and stabilize the Central Plains." ”

"Then, is the title still given to the deputy general?" asked Chen Xinjia.

Chongzhen confirmed: "It is the time to employ people, and they should be appointed exceptionally. ”

"I understand."

After Chen Xinjia retired, Chongzhen looked at King Zhou's invitation to his daughter with him. He thought about it for a long time before writing the word "Anping" on the paper. Stability and peace, this is what he wants to realize most at this time.

"Proposed decree, the third daughter of the king of Zhou will be the lord of Anping, and he will give Lu rice 800 stones."

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