The biggest surprise at the beginning of Chongzhen's thirteenth year was that Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan put aside their prejudices and worked together to lead Zuo Liangyu and other generals, and finally seized the opportunity to find Zhang Xianzhong, who was the most powerful part of the peasant rebel army at that time, in early February.

Zhang Xianzhong's first department has been hiding in Tibet with the main force since he rebelled out of the imperial court last year, and after fleeing in recent years, he finally caught the main traces of Zhang Xianzhong's gang of thieves in the agate mountain of Taiping County, on the border between Sichuan and Shaanxi.

The Ming Dynasty army led by Zuo Liangyu immediately surrounded the Agate Mountain, and after several days of fighting, Zhang Xianzhong's group of peasant rebels who had been plundering for a year were defeated in one fell swoop.

At this time, the peasant rebels such as Luo Rucai in the west and Guo Tianxing in the south were suppressed at night, benefiting from the benefits of the Ming Dynasty's slightly more abundant finances.

At least, in the current view, although the Ming Dynasty is still stormy, but from the overall level, it is not the appearance of the building that will collapse.

Since last year, after Li Tianyang's Hongtang showed his hand in Henan and showed strong strength, the Ming Dynasty government has paid much attention to Hongtang, an elite army entrenched in men.

Li Tianyang's ally in the court, Nan Juyi, was not like the original history, because it was unfavorable to replace Zhang Fengxiang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, to supervise the manufacture of firearms, and he was cut back to his hometown.

With Hongmen, an ally who has specialized skills in casting technology, any other official serving as the secretary of the Ministry of Works may have an accident, but he Nan Juyi basically has no major problems, especially in the technology of casting artillery.

Li Tianyang's attitude towards his allies has always been generous, Nan Juyi once used the power in his hands to collect a lot of contemporary advanced technology such as the collection of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty for Hongmen, and under the reciprocation, when Nan Juyi replaced Zhang Fengxiang as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry and began to supervise the manufacture of artillery, Li Tianyang also sent a team of more than ten craftsmen from his subordinate Zuofang to help Nan Juyi.

With Hongmen's technical reserves, even if they don't come up with the most advanced cannon casting technology, just the technology that they have been eliminated, its maturity and advancement are not comparable to today's Ming Dynasty Ministry of Industry.

And with the Hongmen craftsman Zuofang more than ten people and other craftsmen in place, casting artillery for Nanjuyi, not only did not as in the original history, because the subordinate casting artillery was unfavorable, and repeated accidents such as cannon blowing up implicated themselves, but because of the success of casting artillery under his command, he was greatly encouraged by Emperor Chongzhen.

With the addition of more than ten craftsmen from Hongmen Zuofang, the casting technology of the Ming Dynasty has suddenly improved a lot of grades, at least like before when Zhang Fengxiang supervised the manufacture of artillery, there were always many defective products, or after the casting of artillery, there were repeated explosions, almost nothing.

Therefore, the number of artillery on the Guancheng pool on the eastern border of Liaodong in the north has also changed, and every time the Qing people enter the border and plunder the border, they will always lose a lot of money under the artillery fire of the Ming Dynasty, which makes Huang Taiji and his generals and banner owners extremely resentful!

Up to now, Nan Juyi has gained a foothold in the position of the Ministry of Industry and Shangshu, and has become one of the six heads of the Ming Dynasty.

With Nan Juyi being cited as Hongmen's helping ally in the court, Hongmen can also know various movements in the court in time, understand the various measures of the imperial court, and prepare in advance.

For example, recently, when Xiong Wencan, the secretary of the Ministry of War, cooperated with Li Tianyang, he took the firearms purchased from the army that coaxed her and handed them over to the Ministry of Industry for imitation, but the answer was that with the current technical strength of the Ministry of Industry in the Ming Dynasty, there was no way to imitate such sharp weapons.

After Xiong Wencan heard the feedback, he immediately wrote a letter to Xiao Yifu, the governor of Fujian, asking him to ask Hongmen about the origin of this firearm.

At the same time, Xiong Wencan also wrote a letter to Li Tianyang, asking for his opinions, wanting Li Tianyang to take the headquarters of the Hongtang army to the north to help the Liaodong border army resist the strong enemy from the north.

Hongtang's 2,000 partial divisions, under the leadership of Wu Chao, have now become the absolute main force of Xiong Wencan's suppression of peasant uprisings in Henan, Shaanxi and other places.

In just a few months, Wu Chao's department has become Xiong Wencan's heart, and his department's various benefits, salaries, grains and grass are even far superior to Xiong Wencan's headquarters Deng Xi, which makes Deng Xi's department not without jealousy, but helpless.

Don't look at Wu Chao's Hongtang partial division, there are only more than 2,000 people, but even if this army faces tens of thousands of peasant rebels, it is as invincible as if it was devastating when the war started.

After the absolute main force Li Zicheng was defeated and went south, the peasant army in Henan and other boundaries was also three or two kittens, and there were very few who dared to provoke the power of the Ming Dynasty's official government.

In this way, Hongtang Wu Chao's first department, plus Peng Zhihai's first department, who accepted Xiong Wencan's Zhao'an anyway and was entrusted with the role of deputy general, galloped freely in Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places, suppressing the peasant rebels that emerged everywhere, running around like firefighters.

However, because of Wu Chao's efforts, the number of peasant rebels in Henan, Shaanxi and other places became smaller and smaller, and they either moved to other places, or went tirelessly to defect to Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang.

But the subsequent historical changes, I am afraid that the entire history of the Ming Dynasty will become a mess, if this is the development, I am afraid that there will be no more King Li Zicheng to the north to attack the Beijing Division, forcing the reorganization of the emperor had to hang himself on the Meishan scene.

And judging from the age of Emperor Chongzhen now, he is already younger than Li Tianyang at any time, and now Chongzhen is less than forty years old, as long as the Ming Dynasty has such a backbone, I am afraid that at least Wu Sangui, the chief soldier in Shanhaiguan, will not easily surrender and lead the Qing soldiers into the customs.

Of course, there is no absoluteness in the world, the Ming Dynasty itself is also difficult to return, and natural and man-made disasters are rampant, maybe the rolling torrent of history will be like the big river, occasionally diversion, but in the end it will still return to the trunk, no one dares to guarantee that something incredible will happen in the future.

Wu Chao's outstanding performance under Xiong Wencan made Xiong Wencan attach more importance to the military strength of Li Tianyang's Hongmen headquarters, so after asking Li Tianyang's opinions and other colleagues, he also suggested to the imperial court as the secretary of his military department that he should mobilize the army of Hongtang's headquarters to go north to help the Qing army, which was becoming more and more difficult to contain.

(End of chapter)