In April, the fortifications of Admiralty Mountain and Pingdingshan had been preliminarily completed, and if a large number of troops were not planned to be stationed on Admiralty Mountain, the fortifications would not need to be repaired for the time being.

At this time, Shangluo Mountain, along the official road of Danshui, the Mandate of Heaven Army has established camps at both ends of the north and south, the north is close to the defense line of Xi'an, in addition to Shangzhou City, there is also the Dinglong Village in the north of the city, and at the south end of the official road, the Jinzhong Village has been perfected, and there is a famous pass in the middle - Wuguan.

If the imperial court was not fighting hard with the Mandate of Heaven Army, such a line of defense should be able to protect the Han River in the south and keep the Ming army and the Liukou out of the territory of the Mandate of Heaven Army.

With this line of defense, the pressure on the defense of Xing'an in the rear was significantly reduced, and Li Zicheng asked Song Wen to move the army eastward, and deployed two thousand households of Lu Dazhi and Zheng Guodong on the front line of Dinglongzhai and Shangzhou; In addition, a part of the soldiers will be deployed in the area of Jinzhongzhai and Pingdingshan, plus the surrender of Wuguan, a total of 1,000 households.

Li Zicheng and his personal soldiers were completely liberated and ready to advance eastward at any time.

Li Jishang was in Jianchang Mansion in southern Sichuan, and Li Zicheng had nothing to do, so he searched for information about the Ming army and Liukou near Jinzhongzhai, also to investigate the terrain.

Entering June, the summer grain entered the harvest period, but the taxes paid by the people of Shangluoshan were not much left except for the local garrison, fortunately a large amount of coarse grain was transported from the direction of Lanzhou and Xining, most of which were stored in Xing'an County, and a small half was transported to Shangzhou, except for a part of the seeds sent to the local people, most of them were stored in the official offices of Shangzhou and Shangnan County.

At the end of June, Li Ji's troops finally arrived in Xing'an County, and Li Zicheng received the information and immediately sent a summons to Li Ji to go south along the Han River and join him near Huguangyun County.

Li Zicheng bid farewell to Wang Wanyu and placed Wang Wanyu in her maiden home in Wangjialou, while he led all his personal soldiers south, passed through the eastern foothills of Wudang Mountain, and joined Li Jibu in Yunxian on the north bank of the Han River.

Yunxian was originally the location of the Huguang Xingdu Division, but in recent years, the northern part of Huguang has existed in name only, and the strategic and economic center has been moved to Xiangyang, and Yunxian County has gradually declined, and it is no longer a heavy military gathering place.

Li Ji first arrived in Yunxian, has occupied the undefended county seat, heard that the governor of the capital arrived, he took a group of officers, has already welcomed out of the city, Li Zicheng rode on a yellow-maned horse, with Li Ji into the city, immediately in the city in the barracks of more than 1,000 officers summoned.

Although Liu Zongmin was an official of a thousand households, he was also the commander of the second regiment of the fourth battalion, and he already knew that the target of this trip was Henan, so he said: "Governor, since you are going to Henan, if you go east from Shangnan County, won't you directly cut into Funiu Mountain?" ”

Li Ji also has such questions, more than 10,000 soldiers in the fourth battalion, plus the personal soldiers of the metropolitan governor, about 12,000 soldiers, but compared with the army of the imperial court, these numbers are still very weak, Yang Sichang often tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and a steady stream of soldiers.

Since the Mandate of Heaven Army is at a disadvantage and it is a lone army, if it enters the mountains of western Henan from Shangnan County, relying on Bear's Ears Mountain and Funiu Mountain, it is a good choice.

Li Zicheng picked up the tea cup by himself, took a sip, and didn't look at everyone, "What, are you afraid?" ”

Liu Zongmin's face was stunned, as if he was enraged, he stood up suddenly, and said loudly: "Go back to the Metropolitan Governor, your subordinates are not afraid, if it weren't for the Metropolitan Governor to take in his subordinates, the tombs of his subordinates would probably grow wild grass, and the life of his subordinates would have been handed over to the Metropolitan Governor a long time ago......"

Liu Zongmin's statement gave the officers of the fourth battalion a general army, and they also got up one after another, all of them blushing and thick-necked, not only competing to express their loyalty to Li Zicheng, but also patting their chests, putting life and death out of the way, as long as the governor of the capital pointed to, they would definitely not be ambiguous.

Since his subordinates have expressed their attitude, how can Li Ji be left behind? He was the last to get up and arched his hand: "When his subordinates came from Xining, they followed the Metropolitan Governor, as long as the Metropolitan Governor gave an order, it would be a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, and the subordinates would never frown!" ”

"I know your loyalty," Li Zicheng waved his hand, asked everyone to sit down, and said with a smile: "But, do you know why I used a lone army to go deep into Henan?" ”

"Isn't the Metropolitan Governor expanding to Henan?" Li Jidao: "The area of Bears Ears Mountain happens to be adjacent to Shangluo Mountain, if it occupies the surrounding area of Bears Ears Mountain, it can be connected with Shangnan County." ”

"Expansion?" Li Zicheng suddenly smiled, and said with a straight face: "Henan is suffering from a major drought, coupled with bandits and soldiers, the people are already poor and weak, if the Mandate of Heaven Army expands its territory to Henan, millions of hungry people, how can I feed them?" If there was a way to feed these hungry people, the Mandate of Heaven army would have already left Longshan and taken the whole of Shaanxi. ”

Li Ji was still puzzled, "Since the governor has no intention of expanding into Henan, why should he go deep into Henan alone?" ”

"I went to Henan this time, first, to appease some of the displaced people, although I can't save the whole of Henan, but how much can be saved, the more stable Henan, the less difficult it will be to govern in the future," Li Zicheng said: "Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu Province, all have areas that are being sinicized, if the people in Henan who have no life in these areas, you can speed up the speed of local sinicization." ”

Everyone said: "The Metropolitan Governor is not only a bodhisattva, but also a strategist!" ”

Li Zicheng waved his hand and said: "There is a more important reason, the Heavenly Mandate Army has come to the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the imperial court will not watch the Heavenly Mandate Army come to its nose and wander around, if the imperial court puts the army in Henan, the pressure on the Heavenly Mandate Army on the eastern front will be greatly reduced." ”

"The subordinates understand," Liu Zongmin suddenly realized, "We are not going to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army in the area of Bear's Ears Mountain and Funiu Mountain, but to go deep into the hinterland of the Central Plains, lure the imperial court to send troops to encircle and suppress, and lead the troubled waters to the east. ”

This Liu Zongmin, who speaks so ugly, seems to be a traitor # lewd and cunning! Li Zicheng glared at Liu Zongmin, just understand, some words can't be said so high-soundingly!

Li Ji said: "Once we go to the hinterland of the Central Plains, the imperial court has fewer troops, and it is impossible to encircle and suppress us, if there are more troops, the consumption of money and food will increase, and maybe we will have to recruit troops and increase endowments, so that it will accelerate the demise of the imperial court. ”

Li Zicheng arched his hand and made a modest appearance, "This time I went to Henan, if we only rely on the mountains of western Henan, we may be invincible, but the deterrent effect on the imperial court is not great, we must burn the war to the hinterland of the Central Plains, and even make a threat to the Beijing Division, the imperial court will take care of one and lose the other, tear down the east wall to make up the west wall, and be forced to solve the threat of Henan first. ”

"......" everyone nodded.

Li Zicheng continued: "I didn't choose to cut directly into Henan from Shangnan County, there are two reasons, one is that I go east along the official road, and after entering Henan, it is the Bauhinia Pass, maybe we can take the Bauhinia Pass, but we will also have casualties." ”

Li Ji seemed to understand, "The Metropolitan Governor is saying that we not only want to disturb Henan, but also protect ourselves as much as possible?" ”

"That's natural, I know that the vast majority of you are not afraid of life and death, but follow the Mandate of Heaven, I don't want any of you to have an accident, we all have to live well, only by living, can we continue to benefit the people," Li Zicheng said: "This time into Henan, we only have more than 10,000 soldiers, if we always have to attack Jiancheng, the brothers will continue to suffer casualties, and the soldiers of the imperial court are endless, in the long run, how can we stir Henan?" It is our goal not only to threaten Henan and Jingshi, but also to protect ourselves. ”

Liu Zongmin said: "Governor, since there are a large number of displaced people in Henan, we can also recruit soldiers nearby, as long as there is enough food, there are soldiers!" ”

"It is true that soldiers can be conscripted," Li Zicheng glanced at the officers and said, "But these temporarily conscripted soldiers have not undergone strict training, can their combat effectiveness be guaranteed?" Will they use rifles? ”

Li Ji arched his hand and said: "What the Metropolitan Governor said is that these temporarily conscripted soldiers are probably not as good as auxiliary soldiers, let alone combat effectiveness!" ”

"It's good that you understand, this time it's Henan, it's difficult to establish a supply base in a short period of time, and reducing casualties is our first goal," Li Zicheng nodded slowly, and said: "In addition, along the Han River to the east, I also want to see what the granary of Huguang has been tossed by the Liukou and the imperial court over the years, and it is better to make a decision as early as possible for the next stage of development of the Ming Governor's Mansion of the Mandate of Heaven!" ”

Compared with Henan, Huguang is the largest granary of the Ming Dynasty in addition to both banks of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, once the Mandate of Heaven army develops eastward, the preferred target must be Huguang, but the Liukou Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and the like, often go in and out of the deep mountains in the north of Huguang, and go to the Hanshui basin from time to time to plunder, the imperial court is tired, Huguang still concentrates most of the bandit army, Zhu Youzhen's most trusted Yang Sichang, at this time in the vicinity of Xiangyang to supervise.

Bandits, soldiers, and the increasing taxes of the imperial court, I don't know what is happening to Huguang now.

Li Ji said cautiously: "Metropolitan Governor, are we going to enter Huguang next?" ”

Li Zicheng shook his head, "In terms of strategic position, Henan is far better than Huguang, so we won't stay in Huguang for the time being," paused, and said: "We are not expanding our territory now, but learning from Zhang Xianzhong, acting as a liukou, and containing the imperial army's army in Henan." ”

Naturally, he would not go to Xiangyang to make peace for Yang Sichang and Zhang Xianzhong, let alone easily touch the heavy soldiers of the imperial court.

Li Zicheng rested in Yunxian for a day, then went south with dry food, passed Junxian, turned northeast from the west of Maguo Mountain, and entered Henan Province.