When Li Zicheng entered the city, Tan Wangxi, the magistrate of the county, and Zhang Yongqi, the representative of the gentry, led the civil and military officials in the city, and dozens of gentry greeted him at the gate of the city.

"Get up, it's not easy for you to deal with Wang Qiaonian in the city!" Looking at the back in front of him, Li Zicheng said in his heart, in the future, the ritual of kneeling must be abolished, without the ritual of bowing, everyone will be truly equal!

"My subordinates have thanked the Grand Governor!" Tan Wangxi didn't have time to pat the dust on his knees, and hurriedly said, "Governor Dadu, Xiangcheng is back in the hands of the Heavenly Mandate Army again. ”

"The city is lost, you can fight it back," Li Zicheng said with a faint smile: "As long as you are here and the people in the city are not harmed, I will rest assured." ”

"The Metropolitan Governor loves the people like a son, and he is a model for his subordinates to learn, and his subordinates will not be able to learn all their lives!"

"Haha," Li Zicheng laughed, "Let's take a look at the city!" ”

"Subordinates, this will lead the way to the Metropolitan Governor!"

"There is no need to lead the way, the Governor of Pontus is the same as you, he has a pair of eyes, and the Governor of Pontus will see it himself," Li Zicheng took the lead in crossing the south city gate, "Lord Tan, the city is troubled by Wang Qiaonian, and the people's hearts are undecided, you can take the officials to appease the people!" ”

"Subordinates obey!"

Tan Wangxi took a group of officials to return to the official office first to discuss the matter of pacifying the people, while Li Zicheng inspected along the main road in the city.

Although Wang Qiaonian occupied Xiangcheng, but there were not many Ming troops in the city, when Liu Zongmin attacked the city, the battle itself was not fierce, and the damage to the people in the city was not great.

After walking around the city for most of the time, Li Zicheng was already thinking about his next move.

Xiangcheng is not only the key point of the official road from Kaifeng to Nanyang and Huguang, but also the official road that leads to Luoyang in the northwest and Yuncheng in the southeast, and the location of the transportation hub is very obvious, but Xiangcheng itself is just a county seat, and the geographical potential is far from being brought into play.

If it was a peaceful era, Li Zicheng must have thought about how to give full play to the location advantage of Xiangcheng, however, in Henan now, war is the main theme, and the Ming army may fight at any time, like the crime committed by Zuo Liangyu in Linying County, which may happen at any time.

Li Zicheng will not consider developing Henan's economy for the time being, and the current major issue is how to control the whole of Henan, at least the southern part of the Yellow River in his own hands.

After Niu Jinxing entered the city, he immediately asked to see Li Zicheng, "The governor of Dadu, the soldiers of Shaanxi and the soldiers of Huguang have all left Henan, and our next move is ......."

"According to Mr. Niu, what should I do next?" To minimize the impact on the officials and people in the city, Li Zicheng did not live in the official office, but in the military camp, and just asked He Xiaomi to serve white water.

Niu Jinxing picked up the tea cup, but did not bring it to his mouth, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said: "The Heavenly Mandate Army has occupied most of Henan, and the entire Henan must be taken, and Kaifeng is the core of the Central Plains." ”

Kaifeng naturally wants to fight, however, all battalions of the Heavenly Mandate Army have experienced battles, and they must rest for a period of time, and the casualties, damaged weapons and armor, etc., must be replenished, "Mr. Niu, tell me what you think!" ”

"Has the Metropolitan Governor noticed one thing," Niu Jinxing said: "In addition to Zuo Liangyu, the Ming army reinforced Kaifeng's reinforcements from all walks of life, but only twenty or thirty thousand, which is very different from the original scale of 100,000. ”

"Mr. Niu is saying......" Li Zicheng understood that the strength of the imperial court was indeed declining step by step, the supply of troops was exhausted, and the grain and grass were insufficient, although there were still many advantages, but in the military, there was no overwhelming advantage, at least the Mandate of Heaven Army could fight with the Ming army in the Central Plains.

Taking advantage of the current situation, we should indeed take the initiative to attack Kaifeng, which can not only encircle the point and send reinforcements, consume the strength of the Ming army, but also take Kaifeng when necessary.

"The Governor ......"

Li Zicheng nodded, and asked Niu Jinxing to draw up a specific battle plan after he went back.

In the afternoon of the next day, Li Zicheng was inspecting Xicheng, and a personal soldier trotted over, "Report to the Metropolitan Governor, General Liu's first battalion has arrived!" ”

"Yunshui?" Li Zicheng was overjoyed, the Mandate of Heaven Army was advancing steadily in Henan, the territory was expanding, and the number of soldiers was getting bigger and bigger, but Li Zicheng always felt that the speed of soldier mobilization was too slow, that is, the Henan Mandate Army lacked cavalry, so the first cavalry battalion of Liu Yunshui's department was transferred to Henan.

"Governor of the capital, General Liu's request to see him is not far from the big tent......"

"Quick!" Li Zicheng waved his hand and said, "Xiaomi, go back to the camp." ”

Li Zicheng had just returned to the barracks where he was stationed, Liu Yunshui arrived, he looked at Li Zicheng in a daze, for half a minute, his eyes suddenly turned red, and he would not bow down unconsciously, "The Governor of the Metropolitan ......"

"Yunshui has been tired all the way, hurry up and talk back!" In Li Zicheng's mind, a little bit of Liu Yunshui emerged, the former big black man, who has been competing with himself for endurance and physical strength.

In terms of the degree of bravery in battle and the strategy on the battlefield, Liu Yunshui has to beat Li Guo, especially the spirit of never admitting defeat in him, which is the best quality of a military commander.

When they first met, the two were rivals and often competed with each other, from long-distance running to actual combat drills to memorizing military discipline competitions......

Liu Yunshui's shadow has long been deeply imprinted in Li Zicheng's mind!

"The Metropolitan Governor finally remembered his subordinates......" After Liu Yunshui got up, his voice was a little choked.

"Yunshui should know the importance of Guguan to the Heavenly Mandate Army and Gansu Province, so I let you and Youshui stay in Guguan," Li Zicheng patted Li Yunshui's shoulder, the young man who was not willing to lag behind at the beginning had grown into an excellent military general of the Heavenly Mandate Army, "Tanned again, shouldn't the riding skills be left behind?" ”

"Don't worry, the Metropolitan Governor will not dare to relax the training of riding skills the next day, no matter the severe cold and heat, or the thunderstorm and snow," Speaking of military matters, Liu Yunshui grinned, "The Metropolitan Governor, the first battalion has trained more than 5,000 soldiers, a full 5,000 households!" ”

"I knew that you couldn't be idle, so I transferred you to Henan," Li Zicheng sat down in the main seat first, and then asked Liu Yunshui to sit down, "How about it, there is nothing wrong with Guguan, right?" ”

"Don't worry, Guguan is just like its name, it is impregnable," Li Yunshui said: "The subordinates of General Ma of the sixth battalion are all equipped with rifles, mountain cannons, and howitzers at the head of the city, and General Ma is good at defending the city...... It's just that without cavalry, General Ma is afraid that it will be difficult to get out of the solid pass and harass the Ming army! ”

"Hahaha......" The two looked at each other and laughed!

Li Zicheng set up a banquet that night, Liu Yunshui was not drunk and did not return, Li Ji, Luo Tai, etc., the amount of alcohol was not as good as Liu Yunshui, and in the end, Liu Zongmin gave up his body before Liu Yunshui was put away.

Liu Yunshui, who was drunk, couldn't open his eyes when lying on the square table, and said to himself that he was not drunk, and he had to fight with Liu Zongmin for a drink, and even thought about robbing the cavalry of the Ming army and collecting the war horses......

Li Zicheng asked Liu Yunshui's personal soldiers to help him back and settle him in a big tent to rest, while letting his personal soldiers cook him kudzu root soup to relieve his hangover.

After sobering up, Liu Yunshui inquired and knew that the governor of the capital had captured and killed two trilateral governors in a row, not only was he dumbfounded: Zhu Youzhen should be crying in the Qianqing Palace at this time, right?

At this time in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youzhen was indeed crying, and he was still crying.

On February 17, Xiangcheng was broken, and Wang Qiaonian, the governor of the three sides, was killed; On February 18, Songshan was broken, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was killed in battle, the governor Qiu Minyang, the chief military officer Cao Bianjiao, and Wang Tingchen were killed, and 20,000 soldiers in the city were killed......

For two days in a row, the imperial court lost two supervisors, and also lost the division and lost the land, which is the Ming Dynasty since the founding of the country, there has never been a fiasco, the court was a voice of mourning, Zhu Youzhen was very sad, and asked the ministers to come up with a solution, and ended the court meeting early.

Back in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youzhen drove away all the eunuchs and palace maids, came to the Dongnuan Pavilion alone, lay on the imperial case and cried beautifully for most of the hour, and waited until his mood calmed down a little, barely supported his body, and hastily approved the recital on the imperial case.

That night, Zhu Youzhen habitually went to the Miaoqin Palace, obviously to visit Zhang Yan, inform the court situation, and actually ask Zhang Yan for advice.

Zhang Yan has always been wise, although she is in the harem, she can always give Zhu Youzhen all kinds of suggestions, either explicitly or secretly, in order to avoid the suspicion of "the harem is not allowed to interfere in politics", she said it more obscurely, often in Zhu Youzhen's arms, in the form of soft slang to say some ideas, and in this way to influence Zhu Youzhen.

But this time, in the face of Zhu Youzhen's eager eyes, Zhang Yan really couldn't do anything, so she could only use her own gentleness to lick # and wipe the wound in Zhu Youzhen's heart.

Zhu Youzhen slept beautifully in Zhang Yan's arms, feeling a little better, and went to court early in the morning the next day, but when he saw the civil and military officials, his mood fell to the bottom again.

Can these officials with imperial court money deal with the two-way war?

Guanwai and the Central Plains, the Ming armies on both routes were defeated, what happened to the imperial court?

Zhu Youzhen sat on the dragon chair, glanced at the ministers, didn't say a word, followed the eunuch Wang Chengen, stood behind Zhu Youzhen, holding Buddha dust in his arms, looking at his nose and nose, everything that was about to happen in the court seemed to have nothing to do with him.

Today's court is very quiet, and even the officials don't dare to speak out and impeach anyone, and if they are not careful, they may get into trouble.

Zhu Youzhen had a trace of disgust in his heart, every time he encountered a major event, the court was silent, these people would only receive money and play with power, but they would not share my worries.

His gaze swept to the left capital of the imperial history of the king, and as soon as his heart moved, his eyes jumped on the various officials, and he said with a gloomy face: "Zhong Aiqing, the current situation in the imperial court is difficult, what countermeasures do you have?" ”

The ministers seem to know Zhu Youzhen's thoughts, since they are looking for officials to ask for advice, then they will answer, lest they lick in the court, and the officials will only impeach their colleagues on weekdays, so what can they do about military matters? Besides, the two Ming armies were defeated, and the emperor was annoyed, who would dare to touch the mold?

Seeing that the speech officials drooped their heads one by one, as if they had consumed too much energy on the woman last night, Zhu Youzhen had a trace of happiness in his heart, and this time he finally rectified these speech officials.

Although the speech officials did not have a loss in terms of money, as a speech official, they have always spoken with their mouths, and closing their mouths is their greatest shame!

Joy is always short-lived, no one in the court spoke, but the war between Guanwai and Henan could not be ignored, Zhu Youzhen's face was slightly relaxed, and he looked at Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, and said: "What is Chen Aiqing's good plan?" ”