Zheng Zhilong received the news a little later than Li Yan, although he also knew that a few of his subordinates were almost wiped out, but after all, there were still a few who retreated after being burned. He was satisfied with this, and as time went on, the more ships he returned to port, the more men he could send. He was also able to recruit samurai from Japan to help, and his combat power on land was much greater than that of his men. As long as the coastal harassment continues, I believe Li Yan will feel the pressure.

So he quickly made a decision, and after some time, he sent envoys to negotiate with Daliang. He believed that as the news of the constant attacks on the coast reached Li Yan's desk, Li Yan would carefully consider his claim for control of Fujian and Guangdong. And he also made a compromise at this time, if the whole province of Guangdong could not be obtained, then he would retreat to the next best thing, and only demand that the commercial port of Guangzhou be placed under control. In addition to improving his position of power, the most important thing is to completely control the lucrative livelihood of maritime trade.

As for Li Zicheng's death, he also has no definite news, because Li Zicheng's follow-up people arrived, and the militia was defeated, so naturally no corpses were left. However, Li Zicheng's subordinates retaliated against the local area and attacked the nearby walled city, although the limited force did not succeed, but still destroyed all the grain fields outside the wall, and then escaped into the mountains. Judging from this action, even if it is not Li Zicheng who is killed, it should be a general under Li Zicheng.

Regardless of whether Li Zicheng died or not, he would not relax the defense of the Minjiang River. He controls most of Fujian, which is the basis for being able to negotiate with Liang. If Li Yan breaks through the Min River and occupies Fujian after solving Li Zicheng, then he will not say anything about tearing the soil and sealing the king, and he will only have to flee to Taiwan to make other plans at that time except to surrender.

However, due to Li Yan's swift and strict handling of the derelict officers, the other coastal garrison officers and men were all vigilant, set up watchtowers, and at the same time distributed some weapons to the coastal fishermen and the common people, and sent people to guide and train them in peacetime, so that the people had the ability to resist the incoming attack on the pirates. The troops, on the other hand, were on full alert, resting on the roads, applying from their superiors, and also recruiting a group of mules and horses in the local area, in order to achieve the goal of rushing to the scene of the incident quickly. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong's follow-up attacks have few successful examples.

Even the Japanese samurai were powerless under the fire of crossbows and muskets. These Japanese people who came for money wanted to reproduce the glory of dozens of Japanese robbers who could attack the county seat in the south of the Yangtze River a hundred years ago, but now they all ended up dead and dead. Because the heads of these widows were cut off and hung at the gate of the county to calm the people's fear of the widows.

Of course, these are all later words, and Zheng Zhilong is still deploying according to his plan at this time. However, his wishful thinking was about to fail, because Tian Mixiu had already made contact and was more inclined to surrender to the Great Liang.

Tian Jianxiu believed in Li Zicheng's death, because in the previous contact with Li Yan, Li Yan sent it and did not lie. And since Li Zicheng led a small army to break out of the encirclement, the morale of the team has indeed been greatly affected. Originally, the team was in a difficult period at this time, but the eldest brother who took the lead left first, and many old brothers in Shaanxi and Shanxi could not see the hope of the future, and many of them wanted to go back to their hometowns to live a peaceful life, so there was nothing to talk about.

As for the other leader, Liu Zongmin, he was in another place with some people, and Tian Jianxiu did not send anyone to contact him. If there are more people in contact with such a thing, it will cause extraneous complications. And with Liu Zongmin's temper, it is not easy to accept surrender to Li Yan, and Liu Zongmin can't accept Li Yan's rules.

At the same time, Zhang Han's sailors were also dispatched. Although only two warships were equipped with the shield of wheel pulp, Zhang Han still set off with the fleet. Originally, there was a meaning to strengthen the defense of the battleship before, but after listening to Luo Miaohyun's Western gunboats, he felt that this shield had no other use except for increasing the weight of the ship. As for the safety of the battleship, you can only be careful when fighting.

And this time they attacked, they were not looking for Zheng Zhilong's harassing ships aimlessly on the sea, but planned to attack Huanglong directly and attack directly to Fujian. Although they have few warships, they have the advantage of being fast and not relying solely on the direction of the wind, although they cannot annihilate Zheng Zhilong's fleet, they can cause Zheng Zhilong some trouble, so that Zheng Zhilong cannot unscrupulously send a fleet to attack the northern coast.

Although there are many things in the south, for Li Yan, the north cannot be ignored. This year, however, the situation was much better, as the grain embargo on the Qing was so effective that the Qing had to devote more Han troops to clearing the fields as a way to alleviate their food crisis.

If it was in the Ming Dynasty, the Qing State would definitely attack the Ming State and snatch food from the Han people in the Guannei, but since Li Yan controlled the Great Wall, the Qing State would have to pay an unbearable price if it wanted to invade the south. Therefore, the Qing State could only change its strategy at this time, allowing more Han people to engage in farming, and allowing the Manchus to recuperate, so that the population consumed in the war in the past few years could recover as soon as possible.

Although the Qing State stopped attacking the Great Wall, it will definitely increase its attacks on the caravans that enter the Mongolian steppe this year. So for Da Liang, this is also an opportunity to consume the strength of the Qing State. Although it is still summer, I am starting to prepare for a trip to the grassland in autumn.

Li Mu came to Kaifeng and reported to Li Yan excitedly: "This time I have prepared 20,000 cavalry, 7,000 logistics baggage carriages, if the cavalry of the Qing Kingdom dares to appear, it will definitely cause them greater casualties than last year." If this continues, in a few years, the youth of the Qing Kingdom will be reduced by half. When the time comes, it will be much easier to attack the Qing Kingdom. ”

Li Zhong immediately sensed that something was wrong and asked, "Are you planning to lead the team to the grassland by yourself?" ”

"yes." Li Mu admitted: "I also want to go out for activities, I have been in Beijing for two years, and if I don't do activities, my work will be wasted." ”

Li Yan was dissatisfied with the lesson: "I handed over the safety of the entire north to you, but you want to be a pioneer officer." If you really want to live the addiction of charging into battle all the time, then hand in your resignation, and I will let you go to a guerrilla and a general. ”

Li Mu didn't dare to speak immediately, he is now the title of the county king, and he has the position of superintendent of the army, how can he be a general guerrilla again?

He waited for a while, and saw that Li Yan was no longer pursuing it, so he reported: "There is one more thing, Wu Sangui and the others are not having a good time, and the Qing State has sent them a lot of grain levy quotas. And they also see that the Qing State is no longer strong, so they want to go on the spot anyway, and I haven't replied to them yet. ”

"The timing isn't good." Li Zhong had some concerns: "The south is undecided, and the north is still not suitable for a big war." ”

Li Yan also agreed with Li Zhong's point of view and said, "You can give them a little food so that they don't go hungry." As for things anyway, let them hold on for a while and wait for the right time. Their merits, remember them now, the Great Liang will not treat the meritorious people badly. ”

Li Mu nodded and said, "Okay, I know, I'll make it clear to them when I go back." Anyway, the Qing Kingdom doesn't want to fight us now, and their situation will not be untenable. ”