In May, news finally came that the Qing soldiers had left the border wall with a large amount of looted supplies and people and livestock. The soldiers and horses of the imperial court finally fought with the Qing soldiers in Huairou, but the towns were watching each other and prevaricating, fighting separately, and as expected, it ended in a big defeat.

However, Zhou Yanru, who invited himself to be a supervisor, continued to report to Chongzhen and won the position of Taishi. However, it was exposed within a few days, so he was assigned to the side.

In any case, martial law was finally lifted in the capital, and the government and the people returned to normal life. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen finally remembered the matter of suppressing bandits. Defeating the Qing army and recovering Liaodong, he doesn't want to think about it for the time being, according to past experience, he has robbed so many things, and it will have to be stopped for two or three years. Now the most important thing is to destroy the thieves first.

Chongzhen received the Tang newspaper and knew that Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai were merged, and thought that the opportunity was rare. So he immediately ordered Sun Chuanting to supervise the military affairs of Henan and Sichuan, and immediately sent troops to Huguang to eliminate the thieves.

At the same time, he thought about it again, most of Henan has been recovered by Li Yan, but the officials have basically been killed and cleared, and they are in a state of no one to manage. So he immediately ordered the officials to select officials, and the Jinshi could raise people, and hurried over to manage Henan.

In the past, Henan was full of thieves and bandits, and there was no food, and people actually cannibalized, so the officials were reluctant to go and it was difficult to take up their posts. Now that the thieves have been repulsed, and there are fierce generals like Li Yan in charge, there is naturally nothing to be afraid of. And if you go to such a dilapidated place to work, you can get an outstanding evaluation in just one or two years, and you will be promoted much faster.

Since these official positions are in high demand, the officials of the ministry, the auxiliary ministers of the cabinet, and the eunuchs who can speak can naturally not let go of this opportunity to make money. Therefore, this election is destined not to be completed soon.

Chongzhen was still a little hesitant about Li Yan's exploits, so he put it aside first and did not reward him.

The news quickly reached Li Yan, and he immediately instructed Sun Sifu: "Inform the ferries along the river to pay attention, there are officials sent by the imperial court to the south, and report immediately." You are all prepared not to let them go to various places. ”

Sun Sifu understood what Li Yan meant, nodded and replied, "My subordinates know." ”

At this time, Liang Zhenfang came in and reported: "Marshal, Mr. Zhang, Sun Duchen's staff has arrived. ”

"Please come in, Mr. Zhang." Li Yan commanded.

Sun Chuanting really has a way, in more than a month, he actually got together a batch of war horses, there are one hundred and fifty horses. However, he did not cut off Zuo Xian's financial route, this time Zuo Xian still sent his family and brought one hundred and fifty war horses to trade.

The horses were handed over outside the city, and Bai Shixiong was in charge of inspecting them. As for the payment of silver money and potatoes, Li Yan handed it over to ****. He also sent a few random soldiers to supervise him, and there was nothing he needed to worry about at all.

Mr. Zhang came in and arched his hand: "The villain has seen Li Dashuai." ”

Li Yan also stood up and said politely: "Mr. Zhang is polite, please take a seat." ”

Mr. Zhang did not sit down, but took out a letter from his sleeve and said, "This is a letter from the governor to Li Dashuai, please read it." ”

Sun Sifu forwarded the letter to Li Yan. After Li Yan asked Mr. Zhang to sit down, he immediately opened it to see. Soon, he put the letter down, but the smile on his face was gone.

"Mr. Zhang," Li Yan asked, "Does Governor Sun really want to accept the Tukou Li Jiyu?" ”

Mr. Zhang nodded and said, "Since Li Jiyu begged to surrender to the governor, and he was indeed heartbroken under the coercion of Li Dashuai, then the surrender must be true." This time, the governor's surrender is very different from Xiong Wencan's main care, and Li Dashuai does not have to worry. ”

In order to monitor the screening and selection of the more than 10,000 thieves brought by Tian Yong, Li Yan postponed the encirclement and suppression of Li Jiyu. Now that it's okay, he was just about to go to encircle and suppress, but Li Jiyu took Sun Chuanting's path and was about to surrender to Sun Chuanting.

Li Yan was silent for a moment before finally nodding and saying, "Okay." Since Sun Du is protecting, then I will no longer suppress it. However, Li Jiyu had to leave Henan within a month and rush to Shaanxi. ”

"This," Mr. Zhang was surprised, and said, "The governor made it very clear in the letter, let Li Dashuai settle Li Jiyu's subordinates and relatives on the spot." ”

Li Yan shook his head and refused: "This won't work." If Li Jiyu doesn't leave within a month, I can only continue to attack. ”

"Li Dashuai, this is the governor's order!" Mr. Zhang stood up and reminded dissatisfied.

In the past, Sun Chuanting was only the governor of the three sides, but now he has just been in charge of Henan and Sichuan, and he can also manage Li Yan, so this Mr. Zhang said that it was an order.

Li Yancai didn't care if it was an order or not, he said coldly: "Sir, just go back and pass the word to Sun Du." Li Jiyu was between Song Shao, and he did not beg to Li, but to Sun Du, who was far away in Xi'an, and Li had no obligation to settle him! ”

Mr. Zhang stared at Li Yan in surprise, he didn't expect Li Yan to be so perverse, and he didn't even give face to Governor Sun Chuanting. He arched his hand with a pale face and said, "Okay, take care of Li Dashuai!" The villain will convey Li Dashuai's words to the governor. Farewell! ”

"Don't send it!" Li Yan also said coldly.

As soon as Mr. Zhang left, he immediately ordered Sun Sifu: "Go and send a letter to Zhao Datong, asking them to find a guide again immediately and figure out the passages in and out of Songshao!" If there is another mistake, never take it lightly! ”

The reason why he did not punish was because he knew that this time the fault was not on the front line of the generals. The mountains are so big, there are many passages in and out, and they don't have many troops in all directions, so they can only focus on those big passages. And this time, he postponed the attack for a month, and also gave Li Jiyu time to react, so he found Sun Chuanting.

Early the next morning, Mr. Zhang took dozens of Taiping cars and 500 escorts to escort the potatoes exchanged from Li Yan back to Shaanxi along the spacious and smooth official road. Zuo Xian's family didn't go back, they took the silver money and went directly to Zhuxian Town to buy tea bricks, silk and other items.

In fact, the three hundred war horses that came this time were all obtained by Zuo Xun and others, but they were asked by Sun Chuanting to take half of them away and exchange them for food with Li Yan. And Sun Chuanting has already made it clear that he will take half of the war horses in exchange for grain in future transactions. So they have to find a way to reduce the cost of the transaction, otherwise they are not willing to do this kind of loss-making business.

Although they were dissatisfied, after all, they wanted to receive a salary from Sun Chuanting, and they couldn't react too violently. What's more, suddenly a group of Luo Rucai's subordinates came from Xunyang to surrender, with tens of thousands of horses, which also made them dare not act rashly.

Those who surrendered to the past were Yang Chengzu and Wang Long and others. Originally, it was more convenient for them to go to Henan and surrender to Li Yan. But they all knew that Li Yan had cooperated with Li Zicheng, so they went around in a big circle and went to Sun Chuanting in Shaanxi. They knew that Sun Chuanting would definitely attack Li Zicheng, and they wanted to use the strength of the official army to avenge Luo Rucai.

...