Li Yan didn't go immediately, he waited for his subordinates to report back that Sun Chuanting had gone to the governor's yamen before he took people out of the city.

They also met on an earthen embankment outside the west of the city. As soon as Tian Jianxiu saw Li Yan, he smiled and said, "Congratulations to Brother Li, you have won the great seal of the thief general, and you can be regarded as an important minister of the court." ”

Li Yan smiled and arched his hand: "Hahaha, Brother Tian, this thief is pleasing you." ”

"It doesn't matter who you crusade against, as long as Brother Li is happy." Tian Jianxiu said indifferently: "Anyway, we have already cooperated, Brother Li will not betray the alliance, right?"

Li Yan said casually: "All along, it was you who broke the contract. But as I said last time, the last time was the last time I tolerated your broken covenant. ”

"Okay" Tian Jianxiu said briskly: "Zicheng, and other old brothers have agreed, as long as Brother Li and you don't sabotage the cooperation, we will not take the initiative to break the covenant." The two of us will never deceive each other. ”

The reason why he answered so briskly was because when he went all the way north, he saw Li Yan's strength. The county towns that they demolished when they left were all built one after another, and they were all covered with heavy and sturdy city bricks. The barren fields outside the city have now been reclaimed by the people and planted with crops.

And the soldiers defending the city were in good spirits, not only guarding the city, but also going outside the city to suppress bandits. When he came, he saw that the defenders of Fangcheng County had just returned from suppressing the bandits. Although there were only 200 soldiers, they returned with more than 1,000 people. I don't know where these people are hiding, but anyway, men, women, and children have been brought back. From this point of view, the people they took away were not too many, and Li Yan still had a way to increase the population and soldiers under his rule.

Li Yan nodded and asked, "Brother Tian came this time, what do you have to learn?"

Tian Jianxiu immediately got to the point. said: "We know that Sun Chuanting is about to go south. When did he set off and how many troops did he take that route, if Brother Li knew, please tell me the truth. ”

Li Yan shook his head: "I don't know any of this." I'm sorry. ”

Tian Jianxiu said in disbelief: "Brother Li, since we are cooperating, we must be honest with each other." Since Brother Li has already hung up the seal of the thief general, Sun Chuanting has no reason not to discuss with Brother Li. ”

"Because we are cooperative, I will not send troops against you this time." Li Yan said lightly.

Tian Jianxiu was a little surprised, he didn't expect Li Yan to send troops. They had thought about it before, and they were also thinking about how not to clash with Li Yan's troops, so as not to destroy their atmosphere of cooperation. Sun Chuanting's troops, even if they add Luo Rucai's old troops who surrendered in the past, he would not care, after all, they have military strength and psychological advantages. But against Li Yan's troops, most of them would be frightened.

"Since Brother Li is so sincere, we will accept this love." Tian Jianxiu immediately clenched his fists and said.

Li Yan raised his hand and said, "Brother Tian, don't worry, I have conditions." ”

"Brother Li, please speak."

"No matter what the circumstances, your people are not allowed to enter the Henan territory. Otherwise, our cooperation will be ineffective. Li Yan said lightly as he watched a group of recruits enter through the gap in a neat line.

Tian Jianxiu also saw this team, they were not wearing armor, they were all blue coarse cloth shorts, clean and neat. The key is that there are more than 2,000 people in this team, but they are walking the same way, and the team slowly passes through the gap horizontally and vertically, and walks towards Kaifeng City.

However, they also began to train the troops, and made Shi Jincai the general of Zhongying Guoyi, who was responsible for training newly recruited soldiers with Li Yan's set. However, no matter how he looked at it, he felt that Li Yan's subordinates were better trained than theirs.

He looked at it for a while before he said, "Brother Li's team is really elite." However, if Sun Chuanting escapes back to Henan, we can't pursue him."

Li Yan nodded in confirmation.

"This is too unauthentic," Tian Jianxiu was a little emotional, and said: "In other words, Sun Chuanting can come to beat us, but as soon as he retreats to Henan, we can't beat him."

Li Yan said flatly: "As long as you don't enter the Henan territory, I don't care." Everything else, you'll figure it out for yourselves. ”

Tian Jianxiu had no choice but to grit his teeth and agree: "Okay, I hope Brother Li will keep his word, and we will never enter Henan first." ”

He also had no choice. Li Yan was in Nanyang and Xinyang, plus Chen Yongfu's troops, there were more than 30,000 people in total. According to the experience of fighting with Li Yan's troops, if Li Yan also went into battle, they would have to use at least 60,000 or 70,000 men to defend against Li Yan's troops.

They are now also divided into four places, occupying Xiangyang, Jingzhou, Suizhou, Xiaogan, Hanchuan and other large prefectures and counties in the north of the Yangtze River. It is also necessary to guard against Zhang Xianzhong in Jiangnan, as well as Gao Doushu in Xunyang, and the troops cannot be gathered too much.

And there is also the impact of killing Luo Rucai and He Jin. As long as they suffer a slight setback, the rest of Luo Rucai's troops may defect. Therefore, in this battle, they must win a complete victory in order to boost their morale and unite people's hearts.

Li Yan nodded: "Okay, Brother Tian, is there anything else?"

Tian Jianxiu asked: "Does Brother Li still have illusions about the Zhu family's court, won't he be a county horse, so he really wants to be loyal to the Zhu family, why are you still unwilling to raise the anti-flag?"

Without waiting for Li Yan to answer, he continued: "The Zhu family has exhausted its strength, and it is time to change the dynasty. Look at how many years it has been dry this day, but they are still raising taxes, and even God is angry. In the north, there is the Qing State eyeing the tiger, looking at the officials and troops of the imperial court, only to hide. Such a court should also die. ”

Li Yan said with a smile: "I am no different from the rebellion now, why bother with that name, let's cooperate with each other, take what we need, and don't need to mention other things." ”

"Okay, then let's leave it at that." Tian Jianxiu hugged his fists and said goodbye.

When Li Yan returned to the barracks in the city, he received a report from his subordinates that Sun Chuanting's face was worse when he came out of the governor's yamen than when he went out of the Yibin Mansion.

He knew that Sun Chuanting did not get the desired result from Gao Mingheng. This is natural, from the grain depot to the silver depot to the arsenal, after four defense battles, it has long been empty, and Gao Mingheng can't help even if he wants to.

Now he is supporting these officials, and he pays them three times as much as the imperial court. And all the money given is rice, silver taels, and silk cloth, and there is no treasure money that can only be used as waste paper. In this way, it is more than four times more than what the imperial court gave.

And these officials don't have to do anything to get this money, it's really easy. After all, most of the officials, their interests are still elsewhere, not those that give them headaches. Now that they have a lot of time to do what they love, it's natural to keep the status quo going.

As for those who like to seize power, Li Yan uses the officials below to completely empty them, and he can't catch them if he wants to. And the transfer and promotion of the officials, the officials above don't care much about it. Therefore, Li Yan's control of Kaifeng did not cause much backlash.

Even the clans were a little dissatisfied, and they were also pressed by King Zhou. Now Kaifeng, it is basically him Li Yan who has the final say.

...