The fall of Guang'an and Yuechi Soil Tyrants, and the withdrawal of Yuan Tao, the king of the Heavenly Struggle, from Quxian County have indisputably become a symbol of the phased victory of the Northern Sichuan Bandit War.

When Zhu Pingjin got the news, he held a small meeting in Longfengzhou on the same day to discuss the focus of the next step.

At the meeting, Song Zhenzong and Shu Guoping agreed that the offensive of the Protector Army must not stop at Quxian and Sanhui Town. However, Yuan Tao, the strongest king of the heavens, was not severely damaged, and the Protector Army continued to rashly attack along the Ba River to the depths of Bashan, and there was a possibility of defeat.

Therefore, they suggested that while continuing to advance along the Ba River with a small force, the focus of the Protector Army's offensive should be shifted to Dazhou, occupying the city that connects eastern Sichuan, northern Sichuan, and Xing'an Prefecture, and ensuring the safety of the people in several counties around Dazhou. In this way, if the official army can successfully recover Bazhou in the current offensive, then Bazhou and Dazhou will be one east and one west, sandwiching the local tyrants in Bashan.

Sun Hong and Cheng Xiangfeng, on the other hand, are more concerned about the rear. They believe that the rear of the Protectorate is now left with large ruined towns and nearly 100,000 homeless people. In addition to the common people, there were also local thugs who had escaped punishment in these areas, and the spring sowing period was approaching, so they suggested that while continuing the military offensive, the focus of the next step should be shifted to a series of internal affairs, such as the resettlement of refugees, the removal of bandits, the disposal of prisoners, the digestion of officials and soldiers, and the establishment of Wangzhuang and the protection of the village.

Wu Tai, deputy director of the General Logistics Department, who has always done more things and talked less, also spoke at the meeting. In his opinion, from a logistical point of view, the capture of Dazhou is the best option. Because Dazhou has the advantages of river transportation, there are also hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land, and it has the best agricultural production conditions in Kuizhou.

After controlling Dazhou and building Wangzhuang, you can rely on the local grain instead of transporting grain and troops from Chengdu. Taking control of Dazhou can also cut the local rioters in northern Sichuan in half, making the scope of activity of the local rioters more limited and the source of food and soldiers more difficult.

……

In the context of war, it is necessary to determine the current priorities and assess the enemy's combat effectiveness.

The level of combat effectiveness shown by the local rioters in actual combat is actually lower than that of the official army.

Liao Daheng also said to Zhu Pingjin during casual chatting that the official army is actually not a thyr. Since the seventh year of Chongzhen, the record of the Sichuan official army against the local tyrants has always been more victories and fewer defeats, and the whole army has only been destroyed a few times, and the scale impact is not great. But the local tyrant is victorious in repeated suppression, and he can't kill endlessly; However, the defeat of the officers and troops was due to the lack of salaries for the soldiers, and the defeat was also due to the repeated entry into Sichuan, interrupting the normal advance and suppression plans of the officers and troops.

His friend Master Qian gave Zhu Pingjin an analogy, the local tyrant and the dedication to the Sichuan government are equivalent to the sacrifice and the capture to the imperial court.

Every time the court defeated the thieves, the Eastern Tartars would come and take advantage of the fire to rob. When the court repelled the Tartars, the sacrifice was resurrected. In this way, the Ming Dynasty was dragged to the point of exhaustion of soldiers and food, and the people's livelihood withered, and in the end, both the sacrifice and the Tartars could not win.

Now the son of the world uses the method of protecting the village to consolidate the place and bind the people. The local tyrants will have less and less places to grab, and the supply of soldiers and food will gradually dry up, and they will eventually have to withdraw from Sichuan.

"It is better to drive them away, and it is better to starve to death than to strangle", this is Liao Tycoon's consistent proposition. Liao Daheng and Qian Weihan's propositions may not be correct, but they still remind Zhu Pingjin that the local rioters will not be easily captured, and they will definitely find a new direction for plundering if they fail to go south this time.

The direction of Guangyuan and Shunqing was the starting point of the Sichuan army's attack, and it was unlikely that the local tyrants would flow westward. If the official army successfully captures Bazhou this time, the direction of Dazhou, Xinning, Kaixian, Liangshan, and Dianjiang in eastern Sichuan will become very dangerous. Because the Yellow Harrier Jing Keqin has occupied Dazhou, it means that the road to the above areas is completely open.

According to the plan of the General Staff, Wei Chen occupied the six counties of Fengjie, Yunyang, Wanxian, Dachang, Daning, and Wushan in Kuizhou, but the strength of his four squadrons could only hold the county seat without losing it, and he was powerless to stop the local rioters from continuing to flow. Most of Zhu Pingjin's aides saw this, so they unanimously suggested that Zhu Pingjin capture Dazhou. The occupation and consolidation of Dazhou was taken as the time point when the work shifted from military offensive to internal construction.

Zhu himself was inclined to occupy Dazhou, but he thought more deeply than the thinkers.

To the north of Dazhou is Xing'an Prefecture (now Ankang) in Shaanxi. Xing'an Prefecture was a land of mediocrity in ancient times, and there was a saying of "Qinwei Chutou" since ancient times, and there was also an idiom of "mediocrity disturbing themselves". Xing'an Prefecture and Hanzhong Prefecture are one west and one east, forming the east and west wings of southern Shaanxi.

During the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, an outstanding statesman, was very aware of the relationship between southern Shaanxi and Shu. Soon after Liu Zhang occupied Chengdu, Liu Bei immediately raised a large army to fight Cao Wei for Hanzhong, and beheaded Xiahou Yuan, the chief general of Cao's army, in the battle of Dingjun Mountain, defeated Zhang Huan, the general of Cao's army, and seized this important land in Hanzhong, and then seized Xing'an Prefecture, so as to obtain the passage to the north into the Guanzhong Plain and Jingxiang in the east, and the momentum of the Three Kingdoms was completed.

If Li Zicheng builds his capital in Xi'an according to the course of history, Hanzhong Prefecture and Xing'an Prefecture, two important towns located at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains, must fight to the death. At that time, it was far better to fight in southern Shaanxi than in Sichuan, so that the damage to Shu could be minimized.

Zhu Pingjin wants to compete with Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and the pigtail soldiers for the world, and the two prefecture capitals in southern Shaanxi are also an important land. Southern Shaanxi also threatened the western flank of southern Henan and northern Hubei. The occupation of southern Shaanxi is of great and far-reaching significance to the future entry and exit of the Central Plains. And by taking Dazhou, an important base for the north and southern Shaanxi was obtained.

There is an additional practical benefit to taking Dazhou: even if Mo Chongwen returns to Dazhou, he will lose his foothold. In this way, this general of the Chu army can be forced to choose a side politically. Perhaps he could become the outer military force of the Protectorate Army, like his sworn brother Jia Denglian.

But Sun Hong and Cheng Xiangfeng's suggestions are also very reasonable.

Daba Mountain, a thousand miles of green mountains across the north of Sichuan, has been a sharp sword hanging over the head of the hinterland of Sichuan for thousands of years.

Why? Zhu Pingjian, who served as a liaison officer of the village-based team in his previous life, can explain it in one word: poor!

Zi said: If you are poor, you will think about change. Zhu Pingjin said: If you are poor, you will tear up!

The lack of mountains and land, the lack of information, the inconvenience of transportation, and the low level of education are all important causes of poverty. However, the rigid household registration system has tied the surplus population of Bashan to limited land and cannot move freely to the economically developed areas, making the contradiction of more food and less food for the local people rise to an unbearable level, which is the institutional factor for Bashan to become the center of the chaos in Sichuan.

A simple military action can only temporarily suppress the contradictions, and it is not enough to conquer Bashan, let alone stabilize Bashan.

For the long-term stability of Bashan, it is necessary to come up with a comprehensive solution.

……

After brainstorming at the Longfengzhou meeting, Zhu Pingjin finally made a decision on the overall promotion of politics, military affairs, and people's livelihood and economy. However, he still highlighted the current focus, that is, the military operation has not ended, and it is necessary to take advantage of the favorable military posture that has been formed at present to reap more fruits of victory, and first take the fat of Dazhou.

Politically, it continued to collude with Liao Daheng and the Shunqing government, first arranging competent people to act as officials of northern Sichuan, and ensuring that the reform policies of the royal government, such as tax collection, land reclamation, and rent reduction, were fully implemented in the occupied areas; Second, through measures such as co-opting and reorganization, we will strive to bring some officers and soldiers with combat effectiveness, such as Zeng Ying, Li Zhanchun, and Yu Dajiang, and the remnants of Ding Xianjue's and Zhao Ronggui's units, into the system of the National Defense Army.

Militarily, Zhu Pingjin did not directly make arrangements for attacking Dazhou, but instead adopted the method of "treating the stomach with a headache" and made a major decision on the personnel adjustment of the organization. That is, the Chongqing Military Region was newly established in Chongqing Prefecture at the brigade level as a permanent organ for military command in northern and eastern Sichuan. The six general villages of Miantong, Shunqing, Baoning, Yuxi, Chongqing, and Kuizhou are temporarily included in their defense areas, which are roughly the areas north of the Yangtze River east of the Longquan Mountains and the north and south areas of the Yangtze River east of the Huaying Mountains.

Song Zhenzong, commander of the military region, He Zengshan, Chen Youfu, deputy commanders; Li Chongwen, the supervising army, Luo Jingyun, Li Sixian, and Tao Xiansheng, the deputy supervising troops, and the above people jointly formed the Military and Political Committee of the Chongqing Military Region.

The duty of the Chongqing Military Region is to unify the command of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th regiments of the National Defense Army in northern and eastern Sichuan and the six brigades of Miantong, Shunqing, Baoning, Yuxi, Chongqing, and Kuizhou, so as to exterminate the local tyrants who have been wreaking havoc in eastern and northern Sichuan for many years.

The immediate urgent task of the Chongqing Military Region is to command the army to advance along the Zhou River to the north, join up with Ding Xianjue's troops and Feng Ruhu's troops, who have already occupied the left bank of the Zhou River, and capture Dazhou. The specific deployment will have to wait for Song Zhenzong to be in Guang'an and Chen Youfu to free up his hands in Qu County.

In terms of civil affairs, Zhu Pingjin has not made too many arrangements for the time being.

One is because civil affairs is within the scope of my wife's responsibility. According to her insatiable character, she will definitely try to swallow the territory she has in her hands, and she doesn't have to worry about the corresponding measures.

The second is because Li Chongwen has arrived in Hezhou. Lee Chong-man is the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Administrative Secretary and has a great say in civil affairs. According to his temperament, he will definitely arrange civil affairs properly.

However, Zhu Pingjin, as the son of Shu, still made an important decision from a political and military point of view, that is, to gradually relocate the population of parts of Bashan to Pingba. In these places, he wants to form patches and belts of no-man's land.

……

On the evening of the 28th of the lunar month, Zhu Pingjin issued the relevant decree in accordance with the spirit of the Longfengzhou meeting. The will was written by Cheng Xiangfeng and written in gorgeous and exaggerated four or six prose scripts. It is to the effect that:

At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, through the efforts of officials at all levels in Sichuan, and through the heroic sacrifices of the officers and soldiers of the official army and the Patriotic Army, the Ming Dynasty has achieved a great victory in the struggle against the local tyrants in northern Sichuan. However, the situation in the war zone is still complicated and severe, and a large number of remnants of bandits wander in the countryside, waiting for an opportunity to resurge; A large number of innocent people have been displaced and have no food and clothing, so the local government and Wangzhuang should work together to do a good job in exterminating the remnants of bandits and relocating the people, so as to build Guang'an and Hezhou into an impregnable steel fortress for the local tyrants and a royal paradise for the people to live and work in peace and contentment. In the spirit of benevolence and righteousness, the Shu Wangfu can not blame those local tyrants who are willing to lay down their arms, confess their sins and repent, change their past wrongs, and abandon evil and follow good, and make proper arrangements for them, and care for them in life and spirit, so that they can integrate into the ordinary people, support themselves, and live a happy life as a normal person.

Zhu Pingjin's will seems to be full of official words, but it is actually very substantial. While announcing victory to the people of Sichuan,

The first is to praise the Sichuan governor Liao Daheng, the Chongqing prefect Wang Xingjian and the Shunqing prefect Du, and endorse their official reputation;

second, he put forward requirements and gave hope to the lower-level officials and the people under his rule, highlighting Zhu Pingjin's own "benevolence" in disguise;

The third is to shout at Liu Weiming, who is willing to recruit peace, and all the other bandits, lay down their weapons, surrender their guns, and not kill them.

Of course, there is also a series of secret wills that can be corresponded to the public wills that can be published in the Revival newspaper. In addition to the adjustment of the organization, there are also orders for meritorious service, promotion, and commendation.

The backbone squadron of the Quxian Huzhuang Brigade, which was killed and surrendered without a single member, was awarded the title of "Glorious Quxian Squadron". All the officers and men who died in the squadron were awarded the gold medal for protecting the country and the people. The squadron number will continue to be retained, and elite soldiers will be dispatched to rebuild it.

Zheng Anmin, Li Chongwen, Hong Qihui, He Youyi, Shu Guoping, Sun Hong, Cheng Xiangfeng, Gao Antai, Song Zhenzong, Song Zhensi, He Zengshan, Luo Jingyun, Cao Sanbao and other 13 civil and military eunuchs were promoted to the deputy brigade level on the same day;

Chen Youfu, Dong Bu Gyatso, Gao Rongxuan, He Qiukou, Feng Ruhu and others were promoted to the regimental level;

Tian Qian, Wu Tai, Tan Sigui, Wang Daniu, Cai Shaoyun, Li Sixian, Tao Xiansheng, He Gui, He Huan, Hong Qixin and others were promoted to the deputy regimental level.

In addition to the above-mentioned units and personnel, the military headquarters of the superintendent will also promote and reward meritorious personnel below the battalion level according to the recommendations of various units.

Zhu Pingjin issued the decree and continued to travel north. Before leaving, he sent Cheng Xiangfeng and Sun Hong as his negotiators to meet with Liu Weiming, the rebel king. See if he is a real or a fake one. Zhu Pingjin emphasized to Cheng Xiangfeng and Sun Hong that if Liu Weiming, the rebel king, was unwilling to put down his sword and gun and disbanded the army, then it must be a set of tricks played by Zhang Xianzhong in Gucheng.