Li Zicheng calmed down, glanced at Li Ji, and handed him the message he had just received, but he was silent.

Li Ji took the message with both hands, read it carefully, and felt a burst of ecstasy in his heart, the Tartars were plugged in, the court was shaken, how could he still have the energy to take care of the affairs of the Heavenly Mandate Army? However, seeing the frost on Li Zicheng's face, he immediately understood, "The Metropolitan Governor is worried about the people around Jingshi? ”

Li Zicheng nodded, "The Mandate of Heaven Army takes it as its mission to save the people of the world, so that all the people in the world can live a life, although the Jingshi does not belong to us for the time being, but the people near the Jingshi are all Han people, just like us......"

Li Ji stared at Li Zicheng's face anxiously, "Metropolitan Governor, what should we do now?" ”

"There's nothing we can do, we're too far away from the Beijing Division, and the whip can't reach it," Li Zicheng shook his head blankly, "Don't talk about us, even the tiger cavalry and the wolf cavalry can't reach the Beijing Division!" ”

Li Ji was infected by Li Zicheng, his mood suddenly became heavy, he paced two steps in the big tent, suddenly clenched his fists, and said: "Dadu Governor, it is better to take advantage of the opportunity of the decisive battle between the imperial court and the Tartars, and we will go east ......."

"Eastward?"

Li Zicheng didn't think that now Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting are both going to Beijing to learn the king of Qin, the entire Shaanxi garrison is empty, and the Heavenly Mandate Army will attack from Xi'an and Guguan, and at most in one or two months, they will be able to take the entire Shaanxi.

It can also go east from Xichuan, Hanzhong and the Yangtze River are also two paths, Xiong Wencan has lost his soldiers, and he has taken most of Huguang, so it should not be a big problem.

But in this way, the imperial court was bound to deal with the Mandate of Heaven army, and dispersed the forces to deal with the Tartars, and the more the Tartars stayed in the pass, the people would live in hell for one more day......

How many of the high-ranking officials of the Mandate of Heaven Army can understand such a reason?

"The Grand Duke?" Li Ji saw that Li Zicheng was silent in thought, and wondered in his heart, the Metropolitan Governor has always been decisive in killing, why did he hesitate today?

Li Zicheng shook his head slowly, but said: "I also want to go east, but the time is not ripe at present, although the Heavenly Mandate Army has expanded to Bashu, but what we can control is only the core area of Bashu, the southwest of the Chengdu Plain, and a large number of Tusi live in the mountains, these are our hidden dangers, if we can't clear the entire Sichuan, the rear is unstable, how to expand the territory?" ”

In terms of the overall situation, Li Ji is similar to Li Guo, he has always relied more on the Metropolitan Governor, and he directly executes it, but today is such a good opportunity, he really can't help it, so he said: "The Metropolitan Governor, since Sichuan has concentrated so many Heavenly Mandate troops, it is better to take this opportunity to level southern Sichuan in one fell swoop, so as to avoid future troubles......

Li Zicheng also has this idea, since he has given up the eastward advance, he can't wait in the training ground in vain for such a long time, the battlefield is the real training ground.

If Sichuan can completely become the familiar land of the Mandate of Heaven, Sichuan will also introduce modern industry and commerce in the future, and with Sichuan's population and financial resources, the speed of development will certainly be much faster than that of Xining and Lanzhou.

He took out the Sichuan Provincial March Map that he carried with him and said, "General Li is right, we can't waste time, take the opportunity to take the entire Sichuan Province, come, sit down, we will total!" ”

The two discussed for most of the hour, mobilized almost all the garrisons in Sichuan, and reconfigured the entire Sichuan garrison.

The 3,000 garrisons directly under the Chengdu Mansion are still under the control of Guo Shijun and are used to protect the relatively wealthy Chengdu Mansion.

Zhou Kun's naval army now has more than 10,000 soldiers, and the task of garrisoning will be correspondingly increased, mainly guarding the waterway of the Yangtze River, and also managing the Yeshan Pass and Liantian Pass south of the Yangtze River, at the junction with Huguang, as well as the southeast of Chongqing Prefecture that has been naturalized, that is, the Shiyan Xuanwei Division (now renamed Shizhu County) where Qin Liangyu originally served, and Youyang and Xiushan counties further south.

The rest of the Mandate of Heaven must participate in the operation.

The Song Wen Department of the 1st Regiment of the 7th Battalion will expand eastward along the Han River and guard the Hanzhong line; The second regiment of Zhao Guangrui continued to attack Songpanwei and established a county in Songpan Kaifu; Zhang Lingbu of the Third Regiment completely naturalized Kuizhou Mansion, and built a simple road from Taiping County to Kuizhou Mansion as much as possible, opened up the north-south passage of Kuizhou, and connected the Zhou Kun Department of the Navy with Hanzhong.

The Qin Gongming Division of the 1st Regiment of the 8th Battalion followed the original plan, with the goal of Banzhou Xuanwei Division; The second regiment of Qin Zuoming was to attack the southern part of Luzhou, as well as the Yongning Xuanfu Division further south.

The fourth battalion was also divided into two routes, Li Jiqin led the first regiment to attack the Jiangnan part of Xuzhou Prefecture, and the second regiment Liu Zongmin's division crossed Le'an Mountain and went to Zhenxiong Mansion and Wusa Province.

The second battalion of Li Guo's troops were all cavalry, and they went to Meizhou in the west of Chengdu Prefecture.

After Li Ji came out of the marching tent, Li Zicheng immediately asked He Xiaomi to give orders to various departments, but he was in deep thought.

There are very few Han Chinese in these areas on the periphery of Chengdu Prefecture, and even if they have infiltrated these areas, they have now been assimilated locally, and without Han Chinese, it is too difficult to naturalize the alien races in these areas.

In Xining and Longyou, the Han people originally had the advantage in numbers, but with the assistance of Catholicism and the parallel military and economic means, it took several years to complete the transformation of the people.

In these areas, where there are almost no Han Chinese, it is too difficult to rely on military force alone.

It is still the previous method: military first, with an iron fist to exterminate the various Tusi, unless they take the initiative to realize the necessity of annexation like Qin Liangyu; spreading Catholicism, destroying the original religion of the local area, and increasing the sense of belonging; Then there is the benefit, the people must pay taxes, but taxes, forced labor, etc., must be less than the original toast, and the land must be equalized, so that the people can really live a good life.

Once people like a new life, they will soon forget where they belonged.

Li Zicheng did not plan to return to Lanzhou for the time being, he wanted to see with his own eyes how these mountains around Chengdu were gradually incorporated into the Han land, he sent a long letter to Liang Wencheng in Lanzhou, introducing the current situation in Sichuan, and then prepared to pull out the camp and go to Chengdu.

He Xiaomi came to ask, "The Metropolitan Governor, the various departments stationed in Wushan have taken the lead in leaving the camp, what about the prisoners of war left?" ”

"Prisoners of war?" Li Zicheng then remembered that Xiong Wencan was defeated by Zhou Kun's navy in Zigui, and was intercepted by Zhang Lingbu, after escaping from Mao'er Pass, the soldiers were not left with two, and they had to flee into Jingshan, Zhou Kun and Zhang Ling's two departments, and captured more than 3,000 prisoners of war.

He Xiaomi saw that Li Zicheng was still hesitating, so he said: "Dadu Governor, according to the practice of the Heavenly Mandate Army, these prisoners of war must be engaged in one year of hard labor. ”

Servitude? Let them go to Chengdu and Chongqing to build roads, it is a good idea, the prisoners of war of the Mandate of Heaven have always helped to build roads, after the expiration of one year, there are three main ways out: to join the Mandate of Heaven Army, to disarm and return to the field, to participate in the bridge and road construction team.

These prisoners of war were brought by Xiong Wencan from Huguang, even if the one-year period expires, it is unrealistic to join the Mandate of Heaven Army and return to the field, and the greatest possibility is to continue to build roads, unless they have meritorious performance.

What will happen in the future, Li Zicheng doesn't know, but within a year, they must be obligated to participate in labor, no pay, only daily meals!

Now in Sichuan, there are two roads that are most needed: the most important road in military and commercial affairs is to connect Chengdu with Longyou, and in the future, whether it is military mobilization, grain and grass supply, or commercial transportation, it is very urgent; In addition, there is a purely commercial avenue, which is to connect Chengdu and Chongqing to promote the exchange of people and goods in the province.

But Li Zicheng thought of the ongoing sinicization of the whole Sichuan.

The reason why the Tusi system existed was mainly because they lived in the deep mountains where traffic was blocked, and the people did not know what was going on outside the mountains, so they were deceived by the aristocratic Tusi Gate, who had the right to speak, and if the roads were built deep into the mountains, destroying their self-sufficient agricultural foundation, the Tusi system would naturally collapse.

Since John Tang and Guo Shijun were building the most needed passages, why not let these prisoners of war go to the newly conquered land to build roads? If there is some possibility, let them take root in the local area, reproduce offspring, can't it speed up the local sinicization?

Military strikes, religious infiltration, affordability, plus easy access to transportation......

Even if you can't quickly conquer the local people psychologically, at least the road can speed up the deployment of troops!

Li Zicheng said that he would do it, he took out the map of the army and spread it out, "Xiaomi, you can also take a look, where is the most suitable place to build roads on the territory of these toasts!" ”

"Is the Governor going to build roads in the newly conquered lands?" He Xiaomi paused for a moment, and immediately understood that wherever the avenue was built, the soldiers and supplies of the Heavenly Mandate Army would arrive quickly, and the local natives would only wait to be slaughtered if they wanted to rebel......

Li Zicheng took a closer look, and sure enough, there was an official road marked on the map, running north-south, almost straight, since the ancestors had opened up the road, it must have avoided the mountain.

Building a road to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau south of the Yangtze River, Li Zicheng's biggest headache is Da Lou Mountain, this official road needs to cross Da Lou Mountain, but he saw on the march map that the official road is marked "Lou Mountain Pass" in the place where it crosses Da Lou Mountain!

Since it is Sekijo, this must be a mountain pass, the most suitable place to pass!

After Li Zicheng made a decision, he immediately went out of the big tent and lectured the prisoners of war under the protection of his own soldiers.

The content of the lecture was very simple, it was the previous habit of the Mandate of Heaven: the duration of labor was one year, and after one year, they would be freed or join the Mandate of Heaven; Or go home; Or continue to build roads and get paid!

They fell into the hands of the rogue, originally panicked, facing the threat of death at any time, Xiong Wencan has abandoned them, and it is already the Buddha's grace to get a piece of food......

Many prisoners of war, unwittingly thankful to the Buddha!

Li Zicheng's heart moved, along the way, they had nothing to do, why not let them convert to God? Anyway, they are prisoners of war and will need to be militarized in the future......