Chai Guozhu was edicted that he would lead his troops to the south, and the news reached the imperial court on August 20.

It was also on this day that Shen Cheng received a report from the Yangzhou government again, which reported that the thief army of Zhenjiang Province did not continue to fight north since the invasion of Nanjing, but stuck to Zhenjiang and Nanjing, and at the same time blocked the Grand Canal, and the Yangzhou government said that if this naval division could not be annihilated, it would be difficult to recover Zhenjiang and Nanjing.

After learning the news, Shen convened a cabinet meeting, and the main content of the meeting was to discuss the choice of the commander of the southward expedition to fight the thieves.

The military generals don't have to think about it, this time it is impossible for the military generals to be the commanders, they must still choose the trustworthy generals to lead the troops south, Shen's consistent requirements are strong ability, qualifications, high loyalty, and can deter the soldiers and horses of Jingying and Jizhen Liaodong.

The ministers recommended one after another, and Shen always expressed dissatisfaction, and then some people even recommended Xiao Daheng and Liu Huangsheng, but Shen always did not agree.

Xiao Daheng wants to stay by his side to help him deal with military affairs, and Liu Huangshang wants to counsel the military aircraft for him, and these two people can't leave him.

Therefore, it is necessary to choose a capable person who is both civil and military to serve as the commander-in-chief of this rebellion.

When everyone was having a headache about the candidate, Zhao Shiqing suddenly proposed a name.

"How about reactivating Li Hualong?"

Shen always looked at Zhao Shiqing.

"Is it Li Hualong, the former governor of Liaodong?"

Zhao Shiqing nodded.

"Li Hualong has served as a local governor, led troops for many years, and has a strong ability to use soldiers, this is a well-known thing, he is a native of Henan, Wanli left his post for 23 years due to illness and recuperated at home, and now it has been three years, and he is a good candidate."

Xiao Daheng also thinks that Li Hualong is a good candidate.

"Li Hualong can suppress the Liaodong warriors in Liaodong, and his ability to control them is extremely strong, since he wants to call the Liaodong Army this time, it is obvious that Li Hualong is the best candidate."

Shen always searched for it.

"Then send him an edict and ask him what he means, if he is willing to come, let him come to Jingshi, and I will meet him."

Xiao Daheng immediately went to arrange it.

Chai Guozhu's Jizhen soldiers and Li Rusong's Liaodong soldiers are the best choices, as for Shanxi and Datong, which are a little wester, because they have just suffered a military disaster, the places are still unstable, and it is impossible to transfer troops and horses.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was blocked, and the grain could not reach the north, which made all parts of the north that had just experienced the Northern Expedition and the Northern Captivity War very short of food.

Although a large amount of grain can be obtained by collecting the Jin merchants, most of this grain is used to resettle the local disaster victims, so that they can survive this sad year, and there is too little to use on the army.

After a rough calculation, if you want to gather 100,000 horses to go south to crusade against the rebellion, it is still a question whether the food in Shen Yiyi's hands can last for half a year, and the sooner Xiao Ruxun's remnants are removed, the more the crisis can be resolved.

As for whether Xiao Ruxun is really alive, Shen has always instructed Luo Sigong to take Jinyiwei to solve this matter, let him give an accurate answer for half a month, otherwise, he will want Luo Sigong to look good.

Luo Sigong has been completely tied to Shen Zhengyi, and all actions are based on Shen's consistent will.

Shen has always used Luo Sigong's Jinyiwei to carry out white methods comparable to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, in order to ensure his power and safety, he let Jinyiwei's tentacles extend to almost every minister's home, and no wind and grass can escape his attention.

He is now beginning to understand a little bit why Zhu Yuanzhang set up the brocade guard in the first place, and he also knows how Zhu Yuanzhang knows what the minister eats and wears when he eats.

The spy is really easy to use, and it is also great, it is really great to use it to consolidate himself and deter the minister to enhance his power and prestige!

However, on the other hand, too much power is used to monitor the Jingshi to maintain law and order, and the number of people who can be used by Jinyiwei to put outside has been greatly reduced.

Shen has always been nervously preparing for the war in the south, while Xiao Ruxun's side is basically smooth sailing.

When Shen always learned the news of the resurgence of "border troubles" in Liaodong and the news that Li Rusong led a large army out to quell the rebellion, that is, on August 27, Xiao Ruxun conquered Guilin, occupied Guilin Mansion, and then set a strategy of eastward and northward.

Since then, the areas where the southern gentry are relatively weak have been basically taken by Xiao Ruxun, and he began to lead the main force into the areas where the southern gentry is strong, Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Nanzhi.

As for Guizhou, Xiao Ruxun does not plan to forge ahead.

In the case of the four major Tusi dividing Guizhou, the power of the Ming government in Guizhou was actually very limited, Xiao Ruxun arranged a group of people to be stationed in Huaiyuan, vigilant against the movement in the direction of Guizhou, and at the same time, at the suggestion of Cen Dalu, sent people from Heishui to bring money into the jurisdiction of the major Tusi in Guizhou to contact these Tusi, so that they could keep it as easy as possible.

After all, the Ming Court is still tame in Guizhou, and there are still some people and horses, but these horses are not in Xiao Ruxun's eyes.

In order not to waste time, Xiao Ruxun directly ignored Guizhou, and directly went north to Huguang, aiming at Changsha.

Chen Lan and Li Wenyuan led their troops from Guangdong to Fujian, and the first thing they faced was the commercially developed Zhangzhou Prefecture, where there were a large number of maritime merchants, who basically relied on the gentry and had their own private armed forces, and their official strength was weak, but these maritime merchants were not easy to deal with.

Xiao Ruxun's instructions to Chen Lan and Li Wenyuan were to dare to resist the destruction of the whole house, take the money, and distribute the land and houses to the local landless peasants.

At present, Xiao Ruxun doesn't want to make the problem too complicated, and he doesn't want to shout the slogan of fighting local tyrants and dividing the land at once, but in fact, such an action may play an unexpected role in some places.

Xiao Ruxun thinks so, and the truth is the same, but Xiao Ruxun has never really figured out the sense of belonging of farmers to the land in this era, and does not quite understand what the land means to farmers in this era.

He has experienced hunger and cruel competition for survival, but for the difficult life of the ancient peasants, he only stayed at the level of what he had read in books, and knew the mountains of corpses and blood and tears behind the words "Yizi cannibalism".

He had seen hungry people in Burma, but there was a lot of wasteland in Burma, there was no shortage of land, and later the grain production was rising, and after the introduction of potatoes and corn, no one was hungry, so he could not really understand the psychological activities of the common people in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he still does not really understand the plot of the land that ordinary people have inherited for thousands of years.

Strictly speaking, the Ming Dynasty was not destroyed by the Manchu Dynasty, but by Li Zicheng, and the Ming Dynasty collapsed in the cheers of "King Chuang came and didn't pay for food......

Sometimes, the beginning of a day's earth-shattering events begins inadvertently.

And Xiao Ruxun at this moment didn't know.