Li Zicheng explained the matter of the steam engine to Wang Zheng clearly, and a large stone fell in his heart, even if Wang Zheng could not be successfully developed in his lifetime, future generations could also find his footprints to continue to move forward, Li Zicheng did not believe it, he started much earlier, is it a failure, let that Watt take the first step to make a truly practical steam engine?

Back at the Dadu Governor's Mansion, he went to the study, prepared to read the information from all over the place, and then went back to eat and sleep, taking advantage of the time when the court ignored the Heavenly Mandate Army, to make a few more villains at home, so that the ladies would not be too boring.

There are a lot of information, and after Li Zicheng browsed it, he classified it according to his previous habits, but there was one piece of information that attracted his attention.

The message was sent by Song Wen from Hanzhong, and it was actually a military newspaper:

Fu Zonglong, the new governor of Sichuan, Shao Jiechun, the superintendent, and Luo Shangwen, the chief soldier, set out from Huguang with 20,000 soldiers, invaded Hanzhong along the Han River to the west, and wanted to go south to Sichuan by Hanzhong, but were defeated by the joint forces of the seventh and second battalions, and the sergeants suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, and they had returned to Huguang!

Li Zicheng took this information and did not file it for a long time.

The strength of the second and seventh battalions was comparable to the number of Fu Zonglong's soldiers, and defeating them was also a reasonable thing, and it was not much of a feat.

Fu Zonglong, Shao Jiechun, and Luo Shangwen are Sichuan civil and military officials appointed by the imperial court, not only did they suffer defeats, but they couldn't even go to Sichuan, which was not only a resounding slap to them personally, but also to the imperial court!

The slap is enjoyable, but what next?

Fu Zonglong ate the closed door of the Heavenly Mandate Army in Hanzhong, and he will definitely not give up, at least he will go back to find his master, the imperial court!

Once the imperial court knows the strength and current situation of the Heavenly Mandate Army, it will definitely not take it lightly, and the big war between the Heavenly Mandate Army and the imperial court may have to be staged in advance.

Li Zicheng is not afraid of war, from the day he decided to go south to Bashu, he has been waiting for this war, and when he returned to Lanzhou from Sichuan, he has been actively expanding his armaments.

But he still hoped that the war would come later, and the Firearms Bureau had already opened up at full capacity, but the production speed of rifles, as well as the production speed of pig iron, was far from the minimum requirement in his heart.

He was confident that the combat effectiveness of the Mandate of Heaven Army was stronger than that of the Ming Army, but in the face of a big war, the number of soldiers was also very important, and when he went south to Xichuan, the two battalions of the Mandate of Heaven Army were not enough at all, so he had to temporarily arm a group of surrendered troops, plus the naval army, the number of surrendered troops reached 25,000, which was two and a half times the number of the Mandate of Heaven Army!

Without these troops, even if Sichuan could be captured, it would not be able to fully occupy it and expand to the periphery of the Chengdu Basin.

After Fu Zonglong left Hanzhong, when will the army of the imperial court come again, Li Zicheng can't make decisions for Zhu Youzhen, but he must be ready to meet the large-scale attack of the Ming army at any time!

When it was about to get dark, Li Zicheng finally left the study, and he immediately asked He Xiaomi to send out three military orders:

1. Zhou Bin, who was stationed in Xining, accelerated the training of recruits, and at the same time trained 5,000 auxiliary soldiers for the city of Xining, and let the auxiliary soldiers defend the city when necessary;

2. Shen Dao immediately requisitioned and transferred 10,000 reserve soldiers, divided into two regiments, which were respectively included in the sixth battalion of Ma Youshui and the third battalion of Qin Danian.

Third, the Firearms Bureau should speed up the production of firearms at all costs, and create conditions for recruits to obtain rifles and mountain guns and conduct training as soon as possible.

Coming home from the study, only half a mile away, Li Zicheng walked half a pillar of incense for a long time, he kept thinking about what else was missing, and finally found out one: the water army!

Zhou Kun's navy was stationed in hundreds of miles of water from Chongqing to Wushan, and it had to guard against Huguang in the east and Yungui in the south, with only more than 5,000 troops, which was too little.

Li Zicheng once again asked his own soldiers to fly pigeons to pass the book, so that the navy was expanding five thousand households and forming the second regiment, and Zhou Kun was the guerrilla general of the navy and the head of the first regiment!

Everything was arranged, and Li Zicheng smiled and returned to the backyard.

Yang Sichang received the news of Fu Zonglong's defeat, it was already March, and the imperial court was defeated by the Heavenly Mandate Army in Sichuan, which made him secretly surprised.

Including Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, all the rogues avoided the real and made the false, and when the officers and soldiers came, they ran away, and then went to the places where the officers and soldiers were weakly guarded to loot, so they were called "rogues".

The Mandate of Heaven Army is obviously different from these rogues, after plundering the fattest Shu Wangfu in Sichuan, they did not flee, but regarded Sichuan as their home......

Could it be that the Mandate of Heaven army wants to divide Sichuan?

The Sichuan Basin is surrounded by mountains, and it has always been a husband and a man, so it is easy to establish a separation, the Han Dynasty Gaozu started from Sichuan, and the ancestor Liu Bei also divided Sichuan in the Three Kingdoms era......

Although Fu Zonglong is the governor of Sichuan, he can't even enter the gate of Sichuan!

Yang Sichang knew that with the remnants of Fu Zonglong's troops, it was no longer realistic to take back Sichuan, but in his hands, he could no longer send a single soldier.

The heavy troops are all suppressing bandits in Huguang and Henan, and seeing that the great success is about to be completed, if the army is transferred to Sichuan at this moment, not only will the hard work of more than a year be in vain, but the emperor will not be able to spare him! For the imperial court, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, the most important Huguang now, are the protagonists of the "ten-sided net".

Seeing that something big is about to happen, who knows that the Mandate of Heaven is ......

Yang Sichang didn't dare to tell the emperor about Sichuan, and his only way was to first exterminate Huguang Zhang Xianzhong and others, and then concentrate his forces to take Sichuan in one fell swoop.

He was originally opposed to appeasing the Liukou, but at this moment, he hoped that Xiong Wencan could appease Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, the main rogues in Huguang, as soon as possible, and it was best to have good news today!

Under heavy pressure, Yang Sichang finally thought of a countermeasure, and in the name of the Ministry of War, he sent three messages in a row:

The first was addressed to Fu Zonglong, in which Yang Sichang asked him to temporarily station in Huguang to await further instructions from the imperial court, while guarding Danshui to prevent the Liukou from leaving Huguang in Sichuan;

The second message was naturally for Xiong Wencan, in this message, Yang Sichang was unusual, and instructed Xiong Wencan to follow the emperor's instructions and use all means to appease Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai as soon as possible!

The third message, Yang Sichang did not send it, he personally found the commander of the Jinyi Guard, Luo Yangxing, and asked him to quickly send a large number of people to Sichuan to investigate the ins and outs of the Heavenly Mandate Army, as well as the next move of the Heavenly Mandate Army.

Xiong Wencan, who was far away in Xiangyang, didn't know Yang Sichang's thoughts, but Yang Sichang suddenly changed his attitude and supported the appeasement of Liukou, which was a good thing, at least he would not be caught between the emperor and Yang Sichang.

Xiong Wencan immediately increased a large number of rangers, posted slogans in the places where Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's soldiers frequented, and even directly shouted: As long as they are willing to accept the appeasement, any conditions can be discussed!

Luo Rucai got the information, he scoffed, the court is for officials, it is not as good as now, it is not fake, it is not false to drill the ravine, but there are dozens of beauties around him, now like this, the king of heaven is the first, and there are beautiful women to serve, and the gods will probably be envious, right?

However, Zhang Xianzhong had been drilling in the ravine for a long time, and there was a serious shortage of grain and grass, and he could not find the food of the army in the mountains, so he sent people to try to contact Xiong Wencan.

This contact made Zhang Xianzhong startled, and Xiong Wencan did not bargain at all of the three conditions he proposed, and agreed to all of them.

Zhang Xianzhong suspected fraud, so he didn't dare to go out of the mountains at all, and sent another group of envoys to continue to negotiate with Xiong Wencan, but the words of the envoy to bring back Xiong Wencan sounded even less true:

The imperial court believed in Zhang Xianzhong's loyalty, and the soldiers did not need to be disarmed or disbanded, and were temporarily stationed in Gucheng, ready to serve the imperial court at any time; Zhang Xianzhong was awarded the title of chief soldier and led the chief soldier to Lu; In order to show sincerity, the imperial court received 20,000 stone of grain and 10,000 taels of silver in the first batch.

Does the imperial court have other plans? Zhang Xianzhong couldn't make up his mind, so he delayed time and secretly summoned his adopted son Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi to discuss countermeasures.

Ai Nengqi advocated a temporary boycott of the army, first wait and see for a while, Sun Kewang hoped to contact Luo Rucai, and the two departments advanced and retreated together.

Li Dingguo was only eighteen years old at this time, but he followed Zhang Xianzhong's side since he was a child, destroyed the city many times, and has always been strategic. ”

Liu Wenxiu crossed his feet on the rocks, straightened his body, and said: "Although there is some truth in Dingguo's words, it is not accurate, maybe this is the bait of the imperial court." ”

Li Dingguo pulled out a piece of grass casually and pulled it into two hard, "Brother Wenxiu, if the grain and silver are bait, Xiong Wencan should let us go to Xiangyang, Gucheng is leaning on Jingshan Mountain in the south, and Wudang is in the west, once the officers and soldiers arrive, we can go into the deep mountains and old forests with money and grain at any time, no matter how stupid Xiong Wencan is, he will not fund our food in vain, right?" ”

Zhang Xianzhong was overjoyed, and Li Dingguo reminded him that the location of "Gucheng" is a sincere manifestation of Xiong Wencan!

He slapped his palm on the bluestone, "Dingguo is right, the soldiers don't need to disarm, continue to be in our hands, we just need to release the rangers on all sides of the valley city, if the officers and soldiers come, less will not be used, and more will definitely not be able to avoid the eyes and ears of the rangers!" ”

"Godfather, think twice!" Ai Nengqi is a little older, and his temperament is more stable, and he has always believed in the people of the court.

"Don't think twice, it's decided, accept the appeasement!" Zhang Xianzhong doesn't fully believe Xiong Wencan, but he has one heart disease: the food is gone!

The army has almost reached the point of exhaustion, and now it is difficult to get enough food in the mountains, and there are troops of the imperial court on all sides, and he can't go down the mountain!

Since Xiong Wencan sent hats and money and food, he can only gamble!

Zhang Xianzhong said he would do it, but he acted very carefully, and after two communications with the envoy, he finally reached a final agreement with Xiong Wencan.

Officers and soldiers do not need to be stationed in Gucheng County, because Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers are now officers and soldiers, and the small Gucheng County cannot accommodate too many soldiers.

The officers and soldiers only need to transport the money and food to be appeased, and Zhang Xianzhong guarantees to obey the orders of Xiong Wencan and the imperial court!

If Xiong Wencan is not at ease with Zhang Xianzhong, he can let Ruan Zhitian, the magistrate of Gucheng County, supervise on his behalf, and Zhang Xianzhong will garrison Gucheng, everything is under Ruan Zhitian's nose.