There are always amazing coincidences in history, in another time and space, Zhang Xianzhong died in a stray arrow in the battle with the Qing army, and this time and space died from a stray bullet of the Ming army.

Seeing that Zhang Xianzhong was shot and fell off the horse, Wang Zhaolin and his entourage hurriedly rolled off the horse to save him, but when they saw Zhang Xianzhong spraying blood wildly, he couldn't even say a complete sentence, a big hole was sunken in his chest, and all his ribs were smashed by the shell, which was extremely miserable and hopeless.

"Prime Minister, what should we do now?" Seeing this, the captain of the Royal Forest Army, who was in charge of the guards, asked.

"Take Your Majesty with you and retreat as planned!" Wang Zhaolin knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to Zhang Xianzhong, and ordered in a low voice.

Although Zhang Xianzhong can't be saved, he can't let his corpse be in the mountains and wilderness, he must be taken out for burial, and he must not be trampled by the Ming army!

......

Chen Yue didn't know that Zhang Xianzhong was dead, and he was unhappy that he didn't find Zhang Xianzhong.

Commanded the army to successfully break through the defense line of all the thief army, killed the low hill where the middle army of the thief army was located, cut the banner of the thief army on behalf of the emperor, and killed the stubborn puppet emperor Zhang Xianzhong. However, before Chen Yue was happy for a while, the surrendered thief army identified it, saying that it was not Zhang Xianzhong's body.

Li Dai Tao stiffened, Zhang Xianzhong was so cunning that he asked his subordinates to pretend to be here by himself, but he took the opportunity to escape! Even Chen Yue couldn't help but admire Zhang Xianzhong's cunning.

"Shout to the thief army, just say that Zhang Xianzhong has been killed, let them surrender quickly, those who surrender will not die, and those who resist will be killed!" Looking at the fake Zhang Xianzhong's corpse lying underground, Chen Yue commanded lightly.

"Grandpa, this is not Zhang Xianzhong," Chen Yan, who was on the guard, said subconsciously, and then understood, "Yes, the subordinates will order it." ”

Yes, at this time, it doesn't matter whether Zhang Xianzhong dies or not. The fall of the Chinese army, the banner representing the emperor was cut down, and the "emperor" was also beheaded, this kind of scene has been seen by many people, for the soldiers of the Western Army, defeat is inevitable, and no one has made senseless resistance at this time.

Sure enough, with the shouts of the Ming soldiers, seeing that the dwarf hill where the emperor was located had been captured by the Ming army, the morale of the entire Western Army battalion suddenly collapsed completely, and it could no longer form a large-scale resistance.

The emperor is dead, what's the point of resisting? Moreover, most of the soldiers of the Western Army were tired, sleepy, hungry, and had the strength to resist at all.

Of course, there are also many henchmen of Zhang Xianzhong in the thief army, such as many righteous sons adopted by Zhang Xianzhong, who immediately went crazy when they saw their father-in-law killed. However, the general trend was that when countless Western soldiers surrendered one after another, a little resistance was easily extinguished.

By noon, the entire camp of the Western Army had been completely captured by the Ming army, most of the soldiers of the Western Army had surrendered, and only a small part of the army fled south under the leadership of the generals loyal to Zhang Xianzhong.

Chen Yue ordered Yu Feng, Ma Chuang, Xiao Bing and others to lead their armies to chase and kill the fleeing enemy, leaving half of the army to collect prisoners and tidy up the battlefield.

The battle situation here in Jiujiang was transmitted to Hukou at noon, and the Western Army camp was broken by the Ming army, Zhang Xianzhong was killed on the spot, after getting the news, the defenders of Hukou were ecstatic, and began to launch a counterattack against the thief army outside the city under the leadership of Jin Xin and Li Yier.

Zhang Nengqi, the defender of the Western Army at Hukou, had already received Zhang Xianzhong's retreat order, and had been deploying the retreat.

However, the whereabouts of Zhang Xianzhong are not clear, even the defeated soldiers who retreated. However, Zhang Nengqi knew that his own side was still in the ascendancy, otherwise his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong would not have given an order for him to withdraw to Guangxin Mansion on his own. The army was short of food, and the western army on the Hukou side was even worse, and Zhang Nengqi knew that the defeat was irreversible.

In the face of the attack of the Ming army at Hukou, Zhang Nengqi did not resist, and directly withdrew to Raozhou Mansion with thousands of his henchmen, and threw more than 100,000 ordinary soldiers to the Ming army.

Zhang Nengqi calculated very clearly, in the case of the whole army's food, the army could not be kept at all, even if the Ming army did not attack in a few days, it would be defeated by itself, in this case it is only right to keep some elite henchmen.

Sure enough, relying on the containment and delay of more than 100,000 ordinary soldiers, Zhang Nengqi successfully led his troops to escape from the lake. And the Lord will flee, and the remaining soldiers, though outnumbered, will not be able to resist. Under the coercion of the Ming army, most of the soldiers of the Western Army abandoned their weapons and surrendered, and only a small number fled into the mountains, forests, lakes and rivers.

......

"With a blow, hundreds of thousands of thieves were defeated, the thief chief was given the head, and the thieves who ravaged the Ming Dynasty for more than ten years were destroyed.

Lu Zhenfei solemnly bowed to Chen Yue and congratulated. Zhang Xianzhong has been raging in the Ming Dynasty for many years, how many ministers and generals have no way to take him, and now he has the strength to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, and now his army was defeated by the Ming army in one fell swoop, as an official of the Ming Dynasty, Lu Zhenfei was happy from the bottom of his heart.

"Seeing that Brother Bai has a good reputation, it's just a big victory, Zhang Xianzhong is not dead, his subordinates still have good strength, it's too early to congratulate." Chen Yue shook his head and smiled.

"Not to mention anything else, the rout of the thief army in Jiujiang is already irreversible, even if Zhang Xianzhong can escape, under the lack of food and salary, and the morale is completely gone, how big a wave can he set off?

Jiangxi is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and Jiujiang is firmly controlled by us, even if a small number of thieves can escape, they are also panicked like lost dogs, and sooner or later they will be exterminated.

The whole army of Huguang Ming was annihilated, the governor He Tengjiao was killed, Huguang, Jiangxi was eroded, and Daming was in turmoil. And Guogong, you have only been out of the mountain for two or three months, and you have defeated the main force of the Western Thieves in one fell swoop, and it is not an exaggeration to say that you have turned the tide. Lu Zhenfei said with a smile.

Chen Yue shook his head with a smile, and his mood was extremely happy, "From the perspective of this father, the biggest hero of this battle is none other than Liu Neng, if he hadn't burned the grain and grass of the thief army, it would have been impossible to defeat the thief army so easily." ”

A few days ago, when the news came that Zhang Dingguo had broken through the armies of Zheng Sen and Hao Shaoqi and was blocking his way down the river, the situation was so critical. In order to avoid being attacked from both sides, Chen Yue had to make plans for a decisive battle with Zhang Xianzhong. It is conceivable that if it weren't for the thief army starving for a few days, even if they could defeat the thief army, how much would they have to pay?

"Commander Liu has indeed made a great contribution to this battle, and after reporting to the imperial court, at least one earl's reward can't run." Shan Minglei on the side also said enviously.

This is already the second day of the war, the battlefield has been sorted out, the prisoners have been taken into custody, Li Yijin, Xin Ma Chuang, Xiao Bing, and the generals will be sent to chase and suppress the fleeing enemy. The artillery fire, which had been resounding for more than a month, stopped, and Jiujiang finally became rare and quiet.

Chen Yue gathered his subordinates and began to deliberate. Despite the great victory, there are still many post-war issues that need to be dealt with one by one.

The first issue is the handling of captives. In this battle, because they were starved for several days and were unable to fight or flee, a large number of Western soldiers chose to surrender. According to statistics after the war, nearly 300,000 prisoners were captured, and only tens of thousands of Western troops fled under the leadership of Zhang Nengqi, Ma Yuanli, Wang Hualong, Wang Fuchen and other fierce generals of the Western Army. And Nanchang also has 30,000 or 40,000 troops under Feng Shuangli's department, which controls more than ten cities in Nankang Mansion and Nanchang Mansion.

Of the nearly 300,000 prisoners, most of them were young and strong, and there were nearly 100,000 family members of the army. The handling of this group of people is now a priority.

"There are so many people, you can't kill them, and the amount of food consumed every day is a huge amount, and you must consult the imperial court as soon as possible to get instructions on how to deal with these captives." Lu Zhenfei sighed.

The food of the Western Army was burned by a fire, and the problem of feeding these prisoners naturally needed to be solved by the Imperial Palace. There is a large amount of food in Jiujiang City, but there are still 100,000 officers and soldiers to be fed, and if the 300,000 prisoners are fed, the food will be greatly insufficient.

"Counting on the imperial court, I'm afraid the imperial court is busy setting up a reserve now, and still has the energy to take care of us?" Gu Junen said disdainfully.

Chongzhen was ill, and the news that the court ministers were discussing the establishment of the vassal king as the heir of the emperor also spread to Jiujiang, and the court ministers ignored such a big war, but discussed all day long which vassal king could be supported by him, and Gu Junen was very disdainful of such behavior.

"The prince is the foundation of the country, and the behavior of the princes of the court is not to blame." Lu Zhenfei sighed and reluctantly argued.

"The instructions of the imperial court are far from quenching the thirst, how to deal with the prisoners, we should come up with our own methods first." Chen Yue said that he did not comment on the matter of Lichu.

"These Western captives were more desperate peasants, and many of them were held hostage by Western thieves and had to follow the thieves. The subordinates thought that the thieves in the thief army were unforgivable, and they should show mercy to these ordinary soldiers, forgive their sins, or order them to return to their hometowns, or settle them in Jiangxi. After the rebellion of the Western Army, the gentry and common people in Jiangxi had many dead, and a large amount of land would definitely be vacated, which could be used to settle these surrendered troops. ”

Gu Junen, who was born in the Shun army, had some sympathy for the peasant army's instinct, and took the lead in suggesting to Chen Yue.

"With 300,000 captives, it is very difficult to identify them, and the slightest carelessness can lead to riots. Since the prince said that those who surrendered would not die, they should no longer be held accountable for their crimes, even if they were the real bandits. Now the situation is uncertain, and everything is still based on stability. ”

Lu Zhenfei has served as a governor, a cabinet scholar, and a supervisor, and his experience in governance is far richer than that of everyone here, and his consideration is more comprehensive.

"Seeing what Brother Bai said," Chen Yue nodded approvingly, "Everything should be stable now." But you can't just keep these 300,000 people for nothing. In this way, we can select the young and strong ones to be added to our army, subject to strict military law, and the rest are temporarily supported, and their names and places of origin are slowly counted, and when the whole of Jiangxi is recovered and the war is over, it will be decided whether these prisoners will stay or not. ”

There is naturally no shortage of elites who dare to fight in the Western Army, many of them are elite soldiers who followed Zhang Xianzhong's southern expedition, and Chen Yue will naturally not let go of these people. Now although Chen Yue has as many as 100,000 troops in his hands, there are not too many elite henchmen, and now that there are frequent wars and turmoil in the court, the more troops in his hands are naturally the better.

"Recruit prisoners to replenish our army, will these prisoners be loyal to the imperial court?" This time it was Lu Zhenfei who couldn't help but say.

"These captives also had to join the army because they couldn't survive, many of them were originally thieves, naturally who gave money and food to serve whom, how many of them followed Zhang Xianzhong from northern Shaanxi?" Gu Junen said with a smile, "Many of these captives are used to being soldiers and eating food, and they don't know how to farm at all. ”

"Alas, it's better to be careful, don't expand too much at once and affect the combat power of our army." Lu Zhenfei reluctantly agreed.

"There is one more thing that needs to be decided. Most of the cities in Jiangxi were once breached by the Western army, and there were no more local government offices, so how to manage the people after recovering the various cities was a problem. Gu Junen asked Chen Yue for instructions again.

"It is said that the appointment of officials should be decided by the imperial court, but the imperial court is now in an eventful season, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to appoint so many officials at once. In the humble opinion of his subordinates, it is better to temporarily implement military management, and you will appoint generals to manage various cities, and wait for the court to send new officials. Shan Minglei and Gu Junen glanced at each other and suggested to Chen Yue.

The recovery of the land of a province naturally contains huge interests, and Jiangxi has been ravaged by the western thieves, and the local government is empty, not to mention the gentry everywhere. The wealth seized from the Western Thieves, the large amount of land left behind by the killed gentry and the common people, and the huge opportunities in the process of reconstruction in Jiangxi after the Western Thieves raged. With a little application, these can bring a steady stream of wealth in the future.

Since the forces of Qi Guogong have spent so much effort to defeat the Western Army and recover Jiangxi, it is natural that they will not let these benefits fall into the hands of others.

As we all know, the current situation of the Ming Dynasty is that the court and the common people are poor to death, but the gentry class is very rich, because the gentry class controls a large amount of land that does not need to pay taxes, and almost all the private business. And now in Jiangxi, after the wreak havoc of the Western army, the power of the gentry class has been weakened to the limit, and it is the time to take advantage of the weakness to grab benefits.

And the implementation of military management can justifiably firmly control all parts of the country in the hands of the Duke of Qi, and now Chen Yue is the strategy of the five provinces, the highest official in Jiangxi, the Duke of Qi just controls Jiangxi in his hands, as long as it is properly managed, it will be able to make Jiangxi a solid territory under Chen Yue, which is far greater than the benefits that Dongfan Island can get!

As an official of the Qi Guogong family, Lu Zhenfei thought it was natural for Chen Yue to do this.

The matter of the prisoners and the territory was decided in this way, and the next thing was the capture of the battle reported by He Lu, and the various seizures came out of He Lu's mouth, even Chen Yue was extremely shocked.