On the seventh day of the third month of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640 AD), Zhu Youzhen issued an edict to dismiss the ministers of each town. He admonished: "The members of the town, they have been under inspection for a long time. Soldiers and horses, money, food, equipment and other items have changed slightly, but the battle defense and defense assistance, the power of affairs has not been exhausted. Then the governor, the sub-guard and other ministers were withdrawn to Beijing for another use, and all the border affairs of money and grain, soldiers and horses, border defense, suppression of the imperial and other matters, the governor, the government, the town, and the province were single-mindedly shouldered. ”

At this time, Cai Zhishan had already broken through Gucheng. Liu Guoneng was trapped and killed in Gucheng by Gao Junshan and Li Zicheng for three months, when the grain and grass were exhausted, Liu Guoneng's subordinates secretly communicated with Cai Zhishan, opened the city gate against Liu Guoneng, and the people of Gucheng also responded, Cai Zhishan took this opportunity to lead his troops to attack Gucheng and kill the traitor Liu Guoneng of the righteous army.

In this way, the strength of Gao Junshan has reached 230,000.

After Li Zicheng cooperated with Gao Junshan to trap Liu Guoneng, he waved his troops eastward into Henan to capture Xinye and Dengzhou, and then conquered Nanyang, and the number of men and horses grew to 50,000.

Li Zicheng's development and growth has virtually become a windshield to the north of Gao Jun Mountain, which has greatly relieved the pressure of Gao Jun Mountain from Henan's official army. Under this excellent situation, he once again put the military deployment for the seizure of Sichuan and Shu on the agenda.

At the military meeting, there was a high degree of unity of opinion, and it was unanimously agreed that Sichuan should be marched, but there was a one-sided opinion on the selection of people to enter Sichuan-opposing Gao Junshan as the commander of Sichuan.

Gao Junshan's five advisers unanimously proposed that Cai Zhishan should be the commander of Irichuan, and Gao Junshan would sit in Xiangyang. He defies public opinion and insists on his own opinions.

Gao Junshan said: "I see that you have seen too much of the Three Kingdoms, and you compare me to Liu Bei, Bolan (Cai Zhishan) is not Guan Yunchang, and I am not Liu Bei." Bolan's best thing is to defend the city, plus there are four generals of Red Army Friend, Li Busi, Ma Jinzhong, and Hui Dengxiang, Li Zicheng in the north, He Renlong in the south, Cao Wenzhao in the west, and Zhou Shichen in the east. Bolan sits in Xiangyang, and my Xiangyang is as solid as gold. ”

Cai Zhishan asked, "King Qin, how many people are you going to bring into Sichuan?" ”

"Fifty thousand."

The Red Army friends asked for battle: "The last general is willing to fight with the King of Qin in Sichuan." ”

Gao Junshan waved his hand: "Xiangyang is the foundation of our army's development, you stay to defend Xiangyang, I only take Bai Wenxuan, Ma Yuanli, Zhang Hualong, Wang Shangli, Ai Nengqi, Wang Ziqi, Dou Mingwang, Liu Chenggong, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Ma Jin, Ma Wen, Li Hu and other generals." ”

Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Ma Jin, Ma Wen, and Li Hu have grown up, and they each led 3,000 soldiers and horses, and they were the same general posts as Ai Nengqi and Dou Mingming.

Gao Junshan planned to bring the nine field guns cast by Sun Hejing, and he had already appointed Marven as the chief outpost of the field artillery, and the purpose of bringing Liu Chenggong was self-evident, that is, to bring the rocket cavalry battalion to it.

The Rocket Cavalry Battalion is already a full-fledged combat unit, and although it has not participated in any more battles since the Tartars, its military quality has been greatly improved under Liu Chenggong's strict training.

Before Gao Junshan set out on the expedition, he went to the camp of the Navy Division, and the generals of the Navy Division, Zhou Wenjiang, Liu Jiuhua, Pan Duao, and Sun Dahai, were received by Gao Junshan in the big tent of the Chinese army.

"You sailors must vigorously develop!" Gao Junshan said, "The shipyard wants to build a big ship, and I have urged Director Li Yuanli to organize the technical force of my Chongwen Academy, and your task is to cooperate with the shipyard and build ships while training troops." ”

Zhou Wenjiang said: "King Qin, rest assured, we guarantee to produce a strong sailor!" ”

Gao Junshan pointed out: "We must have a long-term vision! In the future, the sailors will develop overseas, and you must train your troops according to the standards of the oceans, without a strong sailor, how can we dominate the four seas in the future? ”

Pan Duao promised: "Seize the day, we will never relax our military training!" ”

Gao Junshan suddenly asked Pan Duao: "Old Pan! Who gave you this name? ”

Pan Duao replied: "It was taken by my father." I have five older sisters, and because I am the youngest in the family and the only son, my father wants me to get ahead and take the lead; There is also a layer of meaning, that is, the meaning of the eldest son and eldest grandson in the family. ”

Gao Junshan nodded: "It turns out that there is a deep meaning." ”

Pan Duao knelt down and said: "Weichen also knows that his real name is too prominent, and he has already changed his name, but he doesn't know what name to change for a while." Please give the name of King Qin! ”

Gao Junshan also doesn't like the name Pan Duao, knowing that he has great talent, because of his name, he is still ranked outside the five ministers, and now he takes the initiative to ask to change his name, of course Gao Junshan is very happy: "I think you are called Pan Shiyu!" ”

Pan Duao, not Pan Shiyu knelt down again: "Thank you King Qin for giving me the name, Pan Shiyu will never forget!" ”

Gao Junshan asked: "I heard from the sea, you have a lot of insights into the current situation?" ”

Pan Shiyu got up and said: "King Qin, we now have 200,000 troops, and we can completely divide one side and achieve a great cause." Now the land of the Central Plains has become a scorched earth after ten years of war, and it is useless to fight for it; The Bashu Paradise has not yet been hit hard, but it can be based on it, so as to wait for the world to change and achieve great achievements; Dozens of state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River, the people are rich, it is an area without military disasters, only a small stream of troops, if you send people to connect, then the spread can be determined. For today's plan, take Jiangnan as the best policy, according to Bashu as the middle policy, and go north to disturb the Central Plains is the next policy. ”

When Gao Junshan heard this, this Pan Shiyu was definitely a fan of Zhuge Liang, and even when he spoke, he put on the posture of Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei Longzhong's countermeasures. Gao Junshan asked again: "According to Mr.'s opinion, should I go to get Jiangnan?" ”

Pan Shiyu didn't expect Gao Junshan to ask like this, he was speechless for a while, and he couldn't answer.

Gao Junshan replied for him: "If you go to Jiangnan now, you will dig your own way to die!" There are three reasons: First, because the development of the commodity economy in Jiangnan is relatively high, it provides many opportunities for the bankrupt peasants to "sell their tricks", so the escape path for the fugitive peasants in Jiangnan is relatively wide, and they will not take the initiative to join the rebels unless they are cornered; Second, when there was a great struggle between the two major classes of the north, the poor and the local tyrants, Jiangnan was relatively stable. Under such circumstances, if we rashly march into Jiangnan, we may not be able to get broad support from all strata of society; Third, the source of our army's troops is all hungry people and hungry soldiers in the northwest region who have no way to survive, and the basic strength on which we rely for survival and development is these tens of thousands of hungry people in the Central Plains, while the rich Jiangnan region does not have our survival, development, and mobile warfare. ”

Pan Shiyu objected: "If we don't go to Jiangnan, why can we dig our own dead end when we see it?" Now there is also a small army in Jiangnan, as long as it is connected with it, great things will be accomplished. ”

Gao Junshan scoffed: "Big things will come true? Just those Jiangnan thieves? ”

Although Pan Shiyu was not convinced, he did not argue any further.