Liu Guoneng surrendered, Li Wanqing surrendered, more than 100,000 steps under Li Zicheng were annihilated, more than 50,000 elite cavalry under Li Zicheng were annihilated, and the news from the northwest continued to spread back to the capital, one after another, tugging at people's heartstrings.

Chongzhen is still the same as in the past, he never sleeps whenever there is a war, and he is busy all night, but this time he has an extra companion.

Because Yang Sichang, a cabinet scholar, is also concerned about the war in the northwest like Chongzhen, and often comes to Chongzhen to communicate, and every time he talks about it, Chongzhen is most concerned about the issue.

Chongzhen has never met such a diligent courtier, he himself is diligent in political affairs, and he naturally appreciates such a courtier, every time Yang Sichang comes to ask for a meeting, no matter how busy he is, he will find time to meet him.

Yang Sichang has been in the household department for nearly ten years, and is very familiar with the work process of the household department, and Chongzhen spends most of his time in the rear organizing the mobilization of grain and grass, raising salaries, and deploying military supplies, which are his strengths.

Chongzhen seems to have met a bosom friend, once he has to invite Yang Sichang to come over to discuss the matter in the northwest, and sometimes even leave Yang Sichang in the imperial study and stay up all night to deal with the logistics and military supplies in the northwest.

Their efforts seemed to have had an effect, and the good news of the northwest came one after another, like a dose of stimulant, stimulating the pair of monarchs and ministers, they were worried together, nervous together, excited together, excited together, like a pair of lovers who depended on each other and comforted each other's hearts.

Well, that's a bit of an overreach.

They are not playing any man-to-man romance, but they have similar personalities, like-minded interests, and have more common topics.

Chongzhen has been tricked by traitors in the DPRK for so many years, and when he met such a minister who really serves the country and the people, and has the courage to do things, he was surprised inexplicably, and it is normal to be cited as a bosom friend, and he even often sighed: "Hate late with Qing, hate late with Qing!" ”

As for Li Zicheng's escape, under the deliberate dilution of Xiong Wencan and Yang Sichang, he didn't take it seriously at all, and his favor to Yang Sichang has also reached an unprecedented height, and in less than a month, more than half of the anti-thieves have been wiped out.

Hate late with Qing, hate late with Qing!

Since then, Chongzhen has obeyed Yang Sichang's words, whether it is the appointment and dismissal of courtiers, or major events in the court, as long as Yang Sichang proposes it, he will not hesitate to give permission, and for a while, Yang Sichang's status in the court directly surpassed Xu Guangqi, the first assistant of the cabinet, and became a real Zaifu.

Strictly speaking, Yang Sichang is not a glutton, nor is he a traitor, but he has the same problem as Chongzhen, he is stubborn and self-serving, and he insists on going his own way.

This kind of person, once in power, will have two completely different results.

If he is in the right direction, then it is very likely to create a prosperous era, such as Zhang Juzheng at the beginning of Wanli, that is also a person who can not allow others to raise objections, he is determined to reform, the direction is correct, so it created Wanli Zhongxing, and achieved the richest decade of the Ming Dynasty.

If he goes in the wrong direction, then it is very likely that the country will be brought to ruin and the people will be plunged into a crisis.

Yang Sichang is such a person, he himself wants to save the Ming Dynasty, but he desperately increases taxes internally, frantically expands the army, uses military force, and vainly tries to negotiate peace with the wolf-like Houjin and coexist in harmony externally, both of which are wrong!

Moreover, he ignored the opposition of others, insisted on going his own way, and killed all the loyal generals who opposed him, such as Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting, but instead joined forces with treacherous villains with ulterior motives such as Xue Guoguan, Hong Chengchou, and Gao Qiqian, and let these people do whatever they wanted above the court, so it caused the irreparable crisis of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

At this time, Yang Sichang was in full swing, and he had the potential to control the court in one fell swoop, but Zhang Bin was as unangry as ever, not envious, not jealous, and did not interfere in the government, let alone raise any objections.

Why?

Because he knows that this is just a return to the light, if they do this, Da Ming will soon be terminally ill, and he will have to save it when the time comes.

So, the question is, why can't Zhang Bin, a capable minister whose ability is stronger than Yang Sichang and whose merits are several times greater than Yang Sichang, not get such favor from Chongzhen?

The same is true in history, Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting's abilities are obviously stronger than Yang Sichang, why does Chongzhen not trust them, but trusts Yang Sichang, so that they don't have Yang Sichang to die in battle, and the other is locked up until the Ming Dynasty is about to perish?

This has a lot to do with Yang Sichang's attitude towards Chongzhen, Zhang Bin is a clear distinction between right and wrong, if Chongzhen is wrong, he will never agree, even if he does not raise objections, he must use facts to educate Chongzhen and let him understand that he is wrong.

However, Yang Sichang does not distinguish between right and wrong, as long as Chongzhen proposes it, no matter whether it is right or wrong, he will strongly approve of it!

He can't tolerate the slightest objection to others, but he blindly welcomes Chongzhen and does what he likes, which is the key to his favor.

This is also an important reason why he put Da Ming into a crisis, because he himself made a mistake in direction, and Chongzhen was more confused and wrong than him, but he blindly invited favors, and the two of them made things out, it was not wrong on top of wrong, and it was outrageously wrong!

For example, Yang Sichang was opposed to the attitude of appeasement at first, because his father Yang He's incident gave him a profound lesson, and there are many anti-thief leaders who are extremely shameless, and it is common for them to be sentenced to re-sentence.

Chongzhen was anxious for quick success and wanted to solve the problem of anti-thieves as soon as possible, so Xiong Wencan said that he wanted to appease Liu Guoneng and Li Wanqing, and Chongzhen agreed without hesitation, because this saves time and effort, and can solve the problem in an instant without spending a single soldier.

Yang Sichang saw Chongzhen nodding, and immediately came to a 180-degree turn, and then strongly agreed with the appeasement, never mentioning his father's lessons, which laid a huge hidden danger for the future.

The performance of Liu Guoneng and Li Wanqing proves that Chongzhen seems to be wise, why does it say that appeasement will cause huge hidden dangers?

Because, next, they encountered a strange thing.

In other words, Xiong Wencan can be regarded as a capable minister, he is really active in the matter of suppressing thieves, and he is also quite effective in the implementation of Yang Sichang's encirclement and suppression plan of "four positive and six corners, ten sides of the net", without the slightest delay and perfunctory.

After he annihilated the main force of Li Zicheng's elite cavalry, he left all the prisoners to be dealt with by Zheng Chongjian, the governor of Shaanxi, as for the army, he only left 10,000 Qin troops for Zheng Chongjian, and he directly led more than 200,000 troops to set off regardless of the New Year's Pass, took the Yugu Road to Yunyang, and went straight to Xiangyang.

The length of this valley road is roughly the same as that of the Meridian Valley, and it is about six hundred miles, but it is not as difficult as the Meridian Valley, nor is it as dangerous as the Meridian Valley, and it is much more convenient to walk than the Meridian Valley, in less than ten days, Xiong Wencan led the army out of the valley road to Yunyang, and Yunyang is less than four hundred miles away from Xiangyang, and in less than five days, he led the army to Xiangyang City.

In other words, Xiong Wencan led the army from Lantian to Xiangyang, and it took less than half a month in total, which is quite amazing.

At this time, Qi Yuangong and Qin Yiming had already led 10,000 Qi family troops and 30,000 Huguang soldiers to wait outside Xiangyang City, and the number of men and horses under Xiong Wencan had reached its peak, including:

10,000 Tianxiong Army;

10,000 Qi family troops;

30,000 white pole soldiers of the Sichuan army;

The Shanxi army was nearly 60,000;

30,000 Shaanxi troops;

30,000 Henan troops;

30,000 Huguang troops;

Coupled with the 60,000 troops surrendered by Liu Guoneng and Li Wanqing, the total reached 260,000!

Outside Xiangyang City, the momentum of the imperial court army has also reached its peak, 260,000 troops, the Ming Dynasty has not gathered so many troops at one time for many years, Yang Sichang's reckless military force still has a certain effect, to say that this force, except for Zhang Bin, others really can't organize it.

The Ming Dynasty has never organized so many troops to encircle and suppress the thieves, and the 260,000 army, even if all the thieves are gathered together, they will be beaten.

Now, just encircling and suppressing one Zhang Xianzhong, and the shrimp soldiers and crabs under him are not as large as the imperial army, will Zhang Xianzhong be scared?

Zhang Xianzhong was indeed taken aback, but it was not enough to be a fart, he originally thought that according to the Xiongcheng Xiangyang, it was enough to resist the 100,000 army of the imperial court, but after he took Xiangyang, the army expanded rapidly, and at this time his army was almost 200,000, he thought that there were 200,000 troops stationed in Xiangyang, the number of Xiongcheng in the world, and the imperial court was to gather two or three hundred thousand troops to come, and he couldn't help him!

His self-confidence has also swelled to the peak, and he even has the illusion that he has an army of 200,000 in hand, Xiangyang City in hand, and the world I have.

Therefore, when 10,000 Qi family troops and 30,000 Huguang soldiers appeared outside the city, he didn't care about it, just such a few people dared to attack the lord's Xiangyang City, 200,000 troops, one person sneezed and sprayed you down!

However, when he really saw the more than 200,000 imperial army troops, he was a little cowardly.

More than 200,000 troops, the barracks of the imperial army outside Xiangyang City can't see their heads on the city wall, this guy is too scary.

What to do?

Surrender?

He discussed with Luo Rucai for a while, and finally decided to surrender.

However, it is not a real fall, but a fake drop!

To put it simply, it is to play a scoundrel, delay time, consume with the imperial army, and consume the imperial army.

The reason why Xiong Wencan brought so many troops here was actually to scare Zhang Xianzhong into surrendering.

Xiangyang is one of the few male cities in the world, which he knows quite well, this male city is still notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack, because it is surrounded by water on three sides, one side of the mountain, the Han River is equal to its moat, and it is the kind that can not be filled in any way, you can only attack from the side of the mountain, and the side of the mountain also dug a moat dozens of zhang wide to connect the Han River, you don't put down the suspension bridge from the inside, open the city gate, almost impossible to break!

It is said that the Mengyuan army attacked Xiangyang City for 39 years!

Thirty-nine years, it makes people's scalp tingle just thinking about it, can he spend thirty-nine years here?

Not to mention thirty-nine years, he can't afford to spend thirty-nine days, because the cowhide that the cabinet lord bragged was to exterminate all the anti-thieves within three months, and the encirclement and suppression of Li Zicheng's department took him nearly a month, plus half a month of hurrying, half of the three months have passed, if he spends another thirty-nine days here, what will happen to the thieves in Dabie Mountain, and the remaining days are not enough for him to lead the army to rush over.

Therefore, it is impossible to attack the city, and he can't help it if he doesn't force it, he really doesn't want to attack such a majestic city.

Therefore, he clearly knew that the 10,000 Qin army was higher than the combined combat power of the 30,000 newly recruited Shaanxi soldiers, and he still brought 30,000 Shaanxi soldiers, and they knew that the 60,000 horses under Liu Guoneng and Li Wanqing had no combat effectiveness, so he still brought them over, and the reason why he brought these useless men and horses over was to pile up the number of the army to a frightening level.

Immediately afterwards, he repeated his old tricks and began to show the terrifying combat power of the imperial army outside Xiangyang City, this time he put the Qi family army, the Tianxiong army and the Sichuan army's white pole soldiers on the limited flat ground on the side of the mountain of Xiangyang City, and practiced hard.

That guy, the number of elites in the world shouting trumpets and drills is really scary, and besides, the Qi family army and the Tianxiong army have tiger squatting cannons, and the sound of drills and the roar of artillery are simply earth-shattering.

Zhang Xianzhong in the city "really" couldn't stand it, he had only been practicing for a day, and a white flag was erected on the tall gate tower of Xiangyang City, and then a basket was put down on the city wall, and a thief swam across the moat with a white flag on his back, and came to convey Zhang Xianzhong's request for peace.

Zhang Xianzhong's general meaning is, I surrender, don't come to me, send someone to negotiate, let's have a good talk.

Xiong Wencan's heart was simply happy, negotiation, okay, negotiation is a harbinger of accepting appeasement, and his "plan" finally worked.

He sent Ma Xianglin to Xiangyang City to negotiate with Zhang Xianzhong, but this time he couldn't carry the ladder over, because the moat was too wide, and it was almost impossible to carry the ladder to swim over.

Ma Xianglin suffered a crime this time, this winter, wearing cold armor, and swimming in the water for a while, making his whole body wet and transparent, and then he had to make a basket and be hung on the three-zhang high city wall, even if he was strong and strong, he was also shivering.

Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong was quite polite to him, not only personally greeted him on the city wall, but also built a fire for him on the city wall, as soon as he went on the city wall, Zhang Xianzhong greeted him and laughed: "Oh, this won't be the famous pony superhorse general." ”

Ma Xianglin's appearance is indeed easy to recognize, handsome and chic, tall and burly, but one eye was blinded, and there is such a general in the Ming army.

He didn't expect Zhang Xianzhong to be so enthusiastic, but he was really a little cold at this time and couldn't stand it, so he had to arch his hand and said politely: "Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, it's Ma, General Zhang is polite." ”

After saying that, he hurried to the fire, untied his armor and roasted it, this day was so cold that he couldn't even care about any etiquette.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at his back and couldn't help but smile, in fact, he has a boat, and there are many small boats, but he just doesn't send it, just to let the people who come to negotiate with the court swim over like his subordinates, and they are so cold that they want to die!

He put a lot of thought into this negotiation, no, Ma Xianglin just started to bake the fire, he took a bowl of ginger soup handed over by his subordinates, leaned up, and said attentively: "Oh, General Ma, it's frozen, hurry, drink some ginger soup, it's going to be troublesome if you are infected with the wind and cold." ”

Ma Xianglin was also not polite, and directly picked up the ginger soup and drank it all, and then said loudly: "Thank you General Zhang for your hospitality, our Lord Xiong asked me to ask General Zhang, I don't know what conditions the general has?" ”

This guy is so bold, and he is not afraid of poisoning himself.

Zhang Xianzhong was secretly surprised in his heart, but on the surface he was embarrassed and said: "This, General Ma, you also know, I accidentally dug up the emperor's ancestral grave the year before last, and I regret it to death at this time, and I don't dare to descend if I want to!" ”

Nima, can digging people's ancestral graves be called careless? If you didn't mean it, why did you dig people's ancestral graves!

This guy is also shameless, he said the matter of digging the ancestral grave so easily, but this matter is indeed a troublesome matter, the emperor's ancestral grave is dug, will the emperor not care?