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The Mandate of Heaven army all crossed the Kanggou River, along the official road, went south to Xuzhou, set up a large camp outside the city of Xuzhou, and made a siege posture, the defenders in the city were very nervous, and immediately strengthened the vigilance at the four gates.

Li Xin followed Li Zicheng's side, looked at the vicissitudes of Xuzhou City from afar, and said, "Governor, this is a famous city in the Three Kingdoms era!" ”

Li Zicheng knew that in the Three Kingdoms era, Xuzhou was called Xuchang, which was the core city of the Cao Wei regime, but as soon as the Ming Dynasty ruled the world, Xuzhou's status was greatly reduced. ”

Li Xin's gaze turned to the west, "Metropolitan Governor, the three cities of Jiaxian, Baofeng, and Lushan, who are we going to take first?" The subordinates should arrange for people to enter the city to prepare. ”

"After Xuchang, we are about to leave the official road," Li Zicheng muttered: "Li Ji's first regiment will attack Jiaxian, and Liu Zongmin's second regiment will attack Baofeng. ”

"Metropolitan Governor, my subordinates have a suggestion," Li Xin hurriedly said: "After the second regiment takes Baofeng County, Lushan County must be prepared, and then attack the city, although it can be taken, but it will increase the difficulty, we have recruited a thousand new soldiers, it is better to let them attack Lushan, surprise, and attack the three cities at the same time." ”

"The training time for recruits is still short, they have not formed an army at all, and they are almost like ordinary people," Li Zicheng said: "Let them go to attack the city, wouldn't they send them to death?" ”

"War is the best way to drill and train," Li Xin disagreed, "In a short period of time, it is impossible for recruits to complete normal drills, and if they use war to replace training, ......

"Combat training?" Li Zicheng's heart moved, these three county towns are not fortified cities, nor are they strategic locations, with the assistance of the Han Qing Bureau and the Lile Division, the difficulty of attacking the city should not be too great, you can give it a try, "Li Gongzi, this recruit of a thousand households, I will hand it over to you, and then transfer a thousand gunners from the first regiment, under your unified command, to attack the nearest Jiaxian, how about it?" ”

"Subordinates take orders!" Li Xin was overjoyed, since joining the Heavenly Mandate Army, he finally had the opportunity to command the army, and he secretly warned himself in his heart that he would not only take Jiaxian, but also seize the front of Li Ji and Liu Zongmin, so as to show his ability.

The Mandate of Heaven army was divided into four routes, Li Xinbu attacked Jiaxian, Li Ji and Liu Zongmin each led two thousand soldiers to attack Baofeng and Lushan counties respectively, and Li Zicheng took the remaining soldiers to escort grain and grass and slowly marched westward as a response to the three-way army.

The three counties of Jiaxian, Baofeng and Lushan, from northeast to southwest, are almost arranged in the word "one", which just blocks the passage between Jishan and Funiu Mountain.

The three counties all belong to Ruzhou, Ruzhou is almost sandwiched between two mountain ranges of the Ru River valley, the east is Songshan, Kei Mountain, the west is the endless Bears Ears Mountain, Funiu Mountain and Waifang Mountain, only the north-south direction of the transportation is convenient, if you occupy the three counties, you can completely isolate Ruzhou and Nanyang Province from the south.

Li Zicheng did not want to divide and rule Ruzhou and Nanyang Mansion, at least Nanyang Mansion City was still in the hands of the Heavenly Mandate Army, occupying three counties, and Ruzhou and Nanyang could be connected, which was conducive to Xie Junbao, Ma Shile, and Li Zhiqiang to expand their territory in Nanyang Mansion.

After all, Xie Junbao and Ma Shile came from the imperial court, and they did not have long contact with the Heavenly Mandate Army, although there were people from the Han Qing Bureau secretly supervising them, but the hearts of the people were separated from each other, and Li Zicheng did not fully believe them.

When passing through Nanyang, in order to get the money and food of the Tang Palace, the Heavenly Mandate Army had to attack Nanyang Mansion, but the Heavenly Mandate Army had no influence in Nanyang Mansion before, and Nanyang was an enclave, Li Zicheng did not plan to occupy it for a long time, in order to maintain the stability of the Nanyang area and let the local people live normally, he appointed civil and military officials in the name of the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion.

This is a matter of a dead horse being a live horse doctor, no matter whether Xie Junbao and Ma Shile are truly loyal to the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, as long as Nanyang is stable and the people can engage in farming normally, the minimum goal has been achieved.

Xie Junbao, Ma Shile, Li Zhiqiang, these officials, if they can't contact the Heavenly Mandate Army in time and can't continue to accept the laws and concepts of the Heavenly Mandate Governor's Mansion, they may turn against the water again and belong to the imperial court, which is not a great thing, and there will always be a time for Nanyang to recover again.

For the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, Nanyang is an enclave, Li Zicheng is wandering in Henan, and he doesn't know when he will be able to return to Nanyang, but he has now decided to take Ruzhou, Nanyang is extremely important, and it is completely possible for the Mandate of Heaven Army to "blossom" in Henan and lay down a territory.

Li Zicheng's army behind the governor's palace, all the way to the west, originally planned to go to Baofeng County in the middle with the siege army, but from the march map, it was seen that in the east of Baofeng County, there was a small mountain range, called Pingdingshan, which was almost the only barrier to the southern exit of Ruzhou and Rushui, he immediately changed the route, set up a large camp at the northern foot of Pingdingshan, and sent his own soldiers to find out the information of the three-way army.

The first to send back the message turned out to be Li Xinbu, who attacked Jiaxian, Li Xinbu only had a thousand gunners, plus a thousand recruits, and the combat effectiveness should be the weakest, but Li Xin was in charge of the Lile Division, and sent many soldiers to the city in advance to promote the Mandate of Heaven Army, and rebelled against the defenders in the city, plus Jiaxian was in the westernmost part of the three counties, and the marching distance was the shortest, so he took the lead.

What made Li Zicheng almost unbelievable was that Li Xinbu took Jiaxian County, and did not use experienced gunners, but completely relied on recruits, although the battle was not fierce, but the recruits were able to take on the big responsibility, so that Li Zicheng had a more optimistic view of the situation in Henan as a whole.

Then Liu Zongmin and Li Ji took Lushan and Baofeng respectively, and the first step of the military operation ended in a complete victory, Li Zicheng moved north, stationed the army in Baofeng County, and finally had a place to hoard a large amount of grain and grass.

Although Li Xin stayed in Jiaxian, he sent a herald to Baofeng, and now the people of Jiaxian welcomed the Mandate of Heaven Army very much and asked Li Zicheng if he wanted to recruit troops in Jiaxian.

After discussing with Li Ji, Li Zicheng agreed that the three counties of Jiaxian, Baofeng, and Lushan all need soldiers to be stationed, and if the soldiers of the fourth battalion are allowed to stay, although they are more loyal and more reassuring, in this way, the soldiers of the fourth battalion are very scattered, and at most they can take Ruzhou, and there is no possibility of continuing to advance.

The fourth battalion is the main force of the Henan Heavenly Mandate Army, and once it is confined to Ruzhou, it will be difficult for the Heavenly Mandate Army to develop in Henan.

Henan's Mandate of Heaven Army is not short of food now, because it has obtained a large amount of money and grain in Nanyang, although it has gone around, there is still a lot of surplus grain, and in addition to the military rations allocated to Ma Shile, Nanyang City has secretly hoarded 500,000 stone grain.

Li Ji also advocated conscription, completely liberating the fourth battalion, and at a critical moment, it could be used as the main force in the battle.

After careful consideration, Li Zicheng finally decided to recruit soldiers, which was not only to expand the combat effectiveness and influence of the Mandate of Heaven Army, but also to relieve some of the starving people.

He immediately sent orders to Li Xin, Li Ji, and Liu Zongmin, respectively, to recruit troops in the local area, Li Xin and Liu Zongmin recruited two thousand households, Li Ji recruited three thousand households, and the new soldiers only had food and salary, no salary, in order to let the soldiers have no worries, the Mandate of Heaven Army accepted the families of these soldiers at the same time as the conscription, and the Mandate of Heaven Army was responsible for providing for them, and if the soldiers were killed or injured and could not support their families, the Mandate of Heaven Army would replace the soldiers to support their families until the children reached adulthood.

In the process of large-scale conscription, the three counties gave priority to the reduction of troops, they were originally soldiers, military discipline and military discipline may not be ideal, but after all, there is a certain basis for training, which is definitely stronger than ordinary people, and the training time can be shortened.

The newly added soldiers were to be transferred from among the veterans of the fourth battalion from 1,000 households and 100 households to serve as officers of 1,000 households and 100 households, of which the officers of 1,000 households must be transferred from the fourth battalion, and the officers of 100 households could be considered at their discretion.

Among the 7,000 households, each of the three counties left one thousand households of soldiers to guard the city, and the remaining 4,000 households, plus the 1,000 households in Li Xin's hands, a total of 5,000 households, formed an independent regiment, Li Xin served as the head of the regiment, received the title of 1,000 households, and the independent regiment was directly under the governor.

Li Zicheng also appointed various civil affairs officials such as county magistrates in the three counties to ensure the stability of the three counties, and the selection of officials was eclectic, with the original officials retaining their posts, the junior officials being promoted, and some gentry, who had no experience in being an official at all, and were exceptionally promoted.

Although there was a severe drought in Ruzhou, there was still a lot of arable land near the river, and Li Zicheng asked the newly appointed officials to immediately distribute the land to the people who had the ability to cultivate the land.

On the land of the three counties, the people initially settled down, but secretly there was still a storm, the main contradiction was that the food was not enough, and the strong men who were fortunate enough to join the Mandate of Heaven Army even solved the food and clothing of their families, but there were too many hungry people, and the Mandate of Heaven Army did not distribute enough food.

Li Zicheng took his own soldiers, shuttled between the three counties, under the military pressure, the three counties were safe and sound for the time being, but the fundamental problem of lack of food could not be solved for a while, there were still too many hungry people, these people who had lost their land and had almost no grain in store have become a hidden danger on the surface of the three counties.

Even if arable land is allocated, crops will not grow for a while and a half, and the three counties have suffered from varying degrees of drought, and a large amount of land cannot be cultivated at all.

At this moment, Li Zicheng truly understood why Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai were keen to act as rogues, and the rogues only cared about looting, regardless of production, and did not care about the lives of the people.

The Mandate of Heaven Army is not a rogue, but a man who adheres to God's will to come to the world to save the suffering people, as long as they establish themselves in one place, no matter how long the time is, no matter how difficult it is, they cannot ignore the life or death of the people.

But looking at the large number of hungry people in various places who were waiting to be fed, Li Zicheng really had a headache, and the 200,000 stone of grain in his hand was not enough to distribute no matter what.