After two months of calm in Henan, the storm resurged, and the emperor was aroused by the victory in Zhengzhou - the thieves were nothing more than that, and they were beaten to the death by the naturalized Bo Dynasty, and they immediately showed their original form, which shows that Hou Sui and Sun Chuanting did not care, and issued an edict to exterminate the remnants of the thieves. Hou Sui had no troops available, so he impeached Li Yu for not wanting to suppress the remnants of the thieves but entering Huguang without authorization, which was suspected of raising thieves and self-respect, and at the same time reiterated the policy of abandoning Henan and sticking to the Yellow River and Jianghuai. The emperor was furious, you took 500,000 taels of internal money to command Zuo Liangyu, and you are embarrassed to impeach the naturalized uncle who didn't take the money, it's too shameless, let's go to prison instead.

Hou Sui was imprisoned again to frighten Sun Chuanting, he was also released from the prison, he was very afraid of bad luck again, thinking that the strength of the thieves was greatly damaged, and he should take advantage of the opportunity, so he led the army out of Tongguan - he didn't know that Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai had joined the fifth battalion of Gezuo, and their strength was unabated compared to before.

Sun Chuanting's troops entered Henan, lured the enemy deep in Jiaxian, set up an ambush to defeat the Chuang army, and pursued more than 30 miles, but the grain and grass were not enough, and the soldiers were hungry, so they went around looking for food, and even the green persimmons in the persimmon orchard were taken to satisfy hunger. Li Zicheng led the main force of the righteous army to arrive, and found that the fighters immediately counterattacked, the Ming army was defeated, and tens of thousands of prisoners were captured, and Sun Chuanting fled all the way back to Tongguan.

Henan has become the world of the righteous army again, but the righteous army is also a hungry army, the north to take Kaifeng Tuba or south to Huguang Tucun is the most urgent problem, Li Zicheng never forgets Kaifeng, and Luo Rucai resolutely advocates going south, and the fifth battalion of Gezuo and Xiao Yuan led by Ma Shouying stand on Luo Rucai's side.

The five battalions of the left are composed of five battalions of the old Hui Ma Shouying, Ge Li Yan He Yilong, Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, the reincarnated king Liu Xiyao, and the troubled Wang Lin Chengcheng, in Henan, Huguang, and Nanzhili border areas and the official army for several years, has been unwilling to accept Zhao'an, Zhang Xianzhong after the establishment of the prestige, in one fell swoop to conquer the capital of Luzhou. The imperial court will replace Gao Guangdou as the governor of Fengyang with Ma Shiying, the old horse does not know how to fight but is good at pulling relations, and can coax all the officials and soldiers to really fight, the righteous army shows its original form, and even eats the defeat and flees back to the mountains, and the internal contradictions intensify - Zhang Xianzhong is an outsider, but he is arrogant and domineering, and he will be the boss if he stands firm, of course the others are not convinced, and the internal struggle has been going on for several months, and the external situation is getting worse and worse, Ma Shouying and others simply don't want to have turf, go to Henan to vote for Li Zicheng, of course, the main thing is to find Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying have always had a close relationship, they are both small rich and safe but extremely righteous people, after the two armies met, the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution quickly merged with Cao Ying, and by the way, the small Yuan battalion was also pulled onto the boat, and the three forces formed a group to resist the camp - Li Zicheng was very aggrieved, although the strength of the camp was much stronger than the other party, but Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying were far superior to him in terms of qualifications and prestige, and the two bigwigs did not bow their heads in front of them, unless they .......

On November, the righteous army suddenly marched eastward, the officers and soldiers could not stop the rolling flow of people, almost a touch of collapse, Xu Dingguo was defeated and fled to Defu, Chen Yongfu retreated to Kaifeng City, the righteous army won the first battle, and quickly turned around and pounced on Runing - there was less Fang Guoan's Zhejiang soldiers in Runing City, only Baoding soldiers and other miscellaneous officers and soldiers more than 10,000 people, Hu Dawei knew that he was unable to defend the city, so he simply led the army out of the city to fight, and fled after repelling the thieves' forwards, Yang Wenyue's heart was also alive, and he immediately followed. The prison army Kong Zhenhui scolded Yang Wenyue and Hu Dawei for being greedy for life and afraid of death, and he and his servant Wang Shicong defended Runing to the death, and held on to the city for one day and was captured, and both of them were killed unyieldingly.

Yang Wenyue and Hu Dawei ran to Xinyang, and before the buttocks sat on the hot thieves, the two continued to flee south, and they didn't dare to escape anymore when they arrived at Wusheng Pass - losing Wusheng Pass is equivalent to blocking the Datong army in Huguang, I'm afraid that no matter how good Li Yu's temper is, he won't be able to spare them. There are still 3,000 people left in the Baoding soldiers and the supervising cavalry, plus 800 people of the Tuntian militia guarding the pass, the troops are quite sufficient, and the chasing thieves have been carried for a long time, and in the evening Zhou Yuji's reinforcements arrived, and the thieves quickly disappeared while it was dark.

The Henan officials and troops were defeated and retreated, but the main force of the thieves set out from Nanyang, and 400,000 people rushed to Xiangyang. The thief made a false move, but in fact, he was still plotting against Xiangyang - Zuo Liangyu was stupid, and while collecting ships and preparing to flee for his life, he reported to the imperial court.

Jingshi, the imperial court is in chaos, just as the thieves went south to Xiangyang, the Qing army also made a move - Duoduo first went out to drive Ningyuan, the Xuanfu general Li Fuming was defeated and died, and Wu Sangui, the commander of the military affairs, did not dare to fight again, and was trapped in Ningyuan City waiting for rescue. When the emperor was worried about Ningyuan, another bad news came, the Qing State was ordered to lead more than 100,000 people from the wall of Ziling into the pass, defeated the general Bai Guangen, Bai Tengjiao, Jizhou lost.

The Ming Imperial Council was as usual, every time there was a major event, it would be silent, looking at the puppet-like ministers, the emperor sighed in his heart, pointed to a thin old man and asked: "Zhang Aiqing, can the military department have a plan?" ”

"At the meeting of the Ministry of War, the governor of Liaodong, Ning, and Jin military affairs Fan Zhiwan and the governor Guan Ji Tongjin military affairs Zhao Guangchen proposed to send reinforcements to King Qin, and the matter of Huguang Ping's thieves can make Ping's thief general Zuo Liangyu stick to Xiangyang, Huguang Governor Song Yihe, and Inspector Li Zhensheng guard Zhongxiang Xian's mausoleum, and strictly punish Prime Minister Huguang and Henan to suppress thieves Li Yu to quickly suppress thieves." Zhang Guowei, the secretary of the Ministry of War, replied with sweat on his head, but he complained in his heart, this seat should have been sat by Feng Yuanbiao, the right attendant of the Ministry of War, but Feng Yuanbiao was cunning and refused to do it, but pushed him into the fire kang.

A bunch of nonsense, the emperor was very dissatisfied, and said coldly: "That's all, the meeting of the military department is good!" ”

"The military department really has no troops to adjust, and no generals are available!" Zhang Guowei fell to the ground with a weak leg, and cried and said, "The old minister knows a little about the construction of water conservancy, but he doesn't know anything about military affairs. ”

The emperor waved his hand, Zhang Guowei had a good official reputation, and he could do practical things, but he was really not in charge of military affairs, and he used the wrong person, Shen Xun suddenly shouted in the middle of the military department: "Your Majesty, today's incident is all caused by Chen Xinjia's private money......

"You might as well be Chen Xinjia, step aside!" The emperor glared at Shen Xun fiercely and shouted, Chen Xinjia had been beheaded and abandoned the city in September, accused of suppressing thieves and repeatedly trapping relatives, but the real reason The emperor knew it in his heart, but it was a pity that among the previous military department books, in addition to Yang Sichang, only this Chen Xinjia had the courage to do things.

The emperor's eyes swept to the ministers, Zhou Yanru and the others immediately lowered their heads, and the second assistant Wu Xian hesitated for a while, and said: "Your Majesty, as far as the ministers know, there are only more than 30,000 thieves in the towns of Xuanda who have gone south with naturalized Bo to suppress thieves, and the main force of its iron cavalry has been withdrawn to the station, and Liu Zhilun, the governor of Xuanda, has lived outside the border for a long time and is quite famous. ”

"Good idea, edict Liu Zhilun Qinwang!" The emperor's eyes lit up and he said.

Wu Xian shook his head and said: "Xuanda has been tired and poor for a long time, and it must be exhaustive to go south to suppress thieves, and I am afraid it will be difficult to make the trip without allocating food and salary. ”

The emperor thought for a while and said: "Proposed edict, add Liu Zhilun's military department to the title of Shangshu, give a python robe, two hundred silver medals, immediately lead the Xuan army Qin Wang, the required food and salary by the government along the way to provide preferential supply, another decree to the naturalized uncle, so that he can return to the Shiqin King as soon as possible, on the day of success, add the naturalization marquis." ”

This is the end, the real benefits are not given at all and you still expect people to work hard, the emperor is too self-righteous, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty have long been worthless - Wu Xian opened his mouth but did not dare to say it, and bowed his hand to retreat.

The edict was sent to Yanghe in an expedited manner of 600 li, and Liu Zhilun rushed to naturalization on the same day he received the order - the imperial court did not understand the system of Datong, not only he Liu Zhilun, but even Li Yu could not easily mobilize the army, not to mention that the soldiers were disbanded and returned home when they returned from Henan, and there were not many soldiers in the camp at all.

Liu Zhilun found Chen Qiyu, the consul general of the presidential palace, handed over the edict and said eagerly: "Yuxuan, the Qing army has plundered and Gyeonggi has been ruined, we can't be indifferent, the emperor has issued an edict, the presidential palace should quickly mobilize reserve troops into the camp." ”

"Yuan Cheng, you really shouldn't accept the order, did you and I do this kind of thing?" Chen Qiyu shook his head and finished reading the edict, threw it on the table casually, and said very dissatisfiedly, "I don't agree with King Qin, and Li Nianfeng won't agree, don't be delusional, Datong people are poor and poor, and they can't save Daming, Zhou Nangui's affairs You know, how can we still have the strength to send troops to King Qin!" ”

Liu Zhilun was silent, money, it's all because of money, Prime Minister Zhou stunned resigned and went to Hanyang - it was too difficult to organize a grain salary to suppress thieves, and it coincided with the expiration of two debts of 600,000 taels, Zhou Yi suggested that the silver banknote bureau issue an additional 1 million taels of silver banknotes, this kind of thing has been done many times before, as long as the army wins, the credit of silver banknotes will increase, and the population using silver banknotes will be more, and there has been no inflation. However, Li Jianji, the governor of the Du Branch Bureau, resolutely disagreed this time, and Zhou Yi's long-suppressed anger broke out, thinking that Li Jianji's group of Shanxi people were crowding him out and resolutely demanding to resign. Zhou was stunned and got out, and Yun Rong took over as prime minister, and he couldn't do it if he didn't do it, and everyone else didn't want to take on this drudgery, so Yun Rong also became sad all day long.

Liu Zhilun let out a long sigh, looked up at Chen Qiyu and asked in a low voice, "Can you issue some more bonds?" ”

"You go to Datong, if the House agrees, I have no opinion, but I remind you, Yuan Cheng, we are us, Daming is Daming, and the six million citizens of Fengzhou, Shanxi and Xuanfu are our food and clothing." Chen Qiyu flicked his sleeves and left.

Liu Zhilun covered his head and thought for a long time, and rushed to Datong without even eating, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Xiaodaiwang, listened to his explanation, and was silent for a long time before saying: "Lord Liu, the court has money and soldiers, and we should find our own way, we are so poor, why should we care about the affairs of the court?" ”

"But, Your Highness, that's the foundation of Emperor Taizu!" Liu Zhilun didn't believe that this was what the descendants of the Zhu family said.

"I don't like Ming Guo at all, the court will lock me up in the courtyard when it comes back, forget it, there will be a hearing in the council tomorrow, you can say it yourself, I'm leaving, Datong University has a gentleman to teach tonight." King Xiao said impatiently.

King Xiaodai used to be like a ruffian in the palace and a fool when he went out, but now he is actually an official like a decent person, and he is willing to spend time to study at Datong University, it seems that the world has really changed! Liu Zhilun went to the governor's mansion in frustration, and Wei Jingying, the governor of Datong, read the edict and scolded him, thinking that this was a chaotic life, and persuaded Liu Zhilun not to be serious.

"Zhongyu, I didn't come to you to discuss how to be the king of Qin, you have worked in the Criminal Department, and you have studied the laws of the past dynasties, I want to hand over the trial and criminal department to you," Liu Zhilun put away the edict and said with a faint smile, "The Central Plains dynasties have all used supervision officials to act as local powers, such as the assassination history of the Han and Tang dynasties, the governor of the Song Dynasty, the governor of our dynasty, and the patrol press, so the official system has become more and more complicated, the rule of officials has become more and more corrupt, and the people's livelihood has become more and more difficult. The governor is an official sent by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so he should supervise officials and review prison lawsuits as his own duty, so why meddle in local affairs, the trial and punishment department was established by me, with the intention of seeking a new way to rectify lawlessness and stabilize the place, and Zhongyu must take care of it carefully. ”

Wei Jingyu nodded thoughtfully, looked at Liu Zhilun and said, "Yuan Cheng, don't do anything stupid!" ”

"In the third year of Chongzhen, I led the volunteers to resist the Dongyu, and I should die in Zunhua, Li Hanmin saved me, and I lived for more than ten years, enough!" Liu Zhilun replied with a smile and waved his hand.

At the hearing of the House of Parliament the next day, Liu Zhilun talked eloquently, asking the councillor to agree to send troops, everyone reacted very coldly, and even the clans of King Jin and King Shen also objected, Sun Qifeng simply said bluntly, if the Ming Dynasty does not change the system, no one can save it - this is expected, sending troops can not even be included in the agenda, Liu Zhilun did not say much, wrote a resignation letter to the presidential palace, and then rushed to Beijing.

When the emperor learned that Liu Zhilun had arrived, he immediately announced that he had entered the palace for an audience, and praised Liu Zhilun for his loyalty to the country in front of the ministers, but when he heard that he did not bring a soldier or a soldier to the king, he immediately put on a straight face and did not speak.

"Your Majesty, the minister did not bring the soldiers and horses of King Qin, but he came up with a way to eliminate the war and the peace of the country and the people," Liu Zhilun dressed up and shouted to the emperor, "Please Your Majesty immediately send envoys to negotiate peace with the Qing State, end the war between the two countries as soon as possible, and then stop the levy of heavy taxes such as Liao and salary to alleviate the suffering of the people, and summon the world's famous people to discuss the country's affairs, rebuild the law and abolish the bad government, and from then on, the Son of Heaven and the people will rule the world together, and the Ming Dynasty may have a glimmer of life." ”

"The minister impeached Liu Zhilun for his fallacies and alarmist words, I will be righteous tomorrow and eternal for ten thousand years, how can I use the crooked ways of the northern captives." Jiang Dejing, a university scholar, immediately came out and played.

"The minister impeached Liu Zhilun for arguing about money and foreign countries, and the Han and thieves are incompatible, how can my Celestial Empire make an alliance with the enemy Kou in the east." Chen Yan, a university scholar, also shouted.

……

The ministers opened their mouths to express their opinions, and the ministers finally found an opportunity to speak without risk, and immediately lined up to reprimand Liu Zhilun in turn.

Liu Zhilun laughed and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers must also be clear, if the Ming Dynasty implements a new policy, it must kill people, the cabinet ministers should be killed, the ministers of various ministries and courts should be killed, and the governors of various places should be killed, and all the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty will be killed, and the Ming Dynasty will have a prosperous day." ”

The ministers were excited, waved their fists and asked the emperor to put Liu Zhilun in prison to discuss the crime, Liu Zhilun was not afraid, knelt down and kowtowed to the emperor three times, and then got up and said, "Don't bother Your Majesty, the ministers should go", and walked outside the hall as if no one was around.

"Send someone after him, and I will know how he will die." The emperor slapped the imperial case and roared.

Liu Zhilun left the Beijing division and galloped south - the Qing army was not interested in attacking the Beijing division, most of them had been captured to the south, and the battle flag of the Qing army could be seen from afar. Liu Zhilun took out the seal letter and handed it to Liu Si, the family member, and ordered him to return to Datong, Liu Si was whipped twice before crying and leaving.

"Five brothers, Liu wants to die to martyr the country, you all go home, you don't have to die together." Liu Zhilun took out a horse gun and said to the guards beside him while loading it.

"If you don't go back, we are all veterans, and it's too embarrassing to leave the adults back, and the people in the village will laugh."

"My lord, the rules of the old Fengzhou people are not to give up, life and death must be together, we are not afraid of death."

……

The veterans replied with a smile, and at the same time touched the horses.

"Alright, raise our tricolor black eagle banner and kill it together." Liu Zhilun also smiled.

The six men unfurled their battle flags and galloped on horseback, and after firing the firearms, they brandished their swords and killed the Qing army, and soon fell in a rain of arrows. The Jinyi guard in the distance turned his head and ran back to Beijing to report the news, and the emperor sneered when he heard the news, and told the ministers - Liu Zhilun vainly said that the government should be guilty, but he did not investigate his death in battle.

Liu Si rushed back to Datong with the letter, and the two governments, one court and one law department were furious - Liu Zhilun and the people of Fengzhou have shared weal and woe for more than ten years, and he is recognized as a saint of Liu, and the Qing army dared to kill such a respectable old man, which was undoubtedly a demonstration to the Datong Federation. The presidential palace immediately ordered the cavalry front association to prepare for sending troops, and the parliament also listed how to sanction the Qing state as the top issue.

Suppilon shouted that he had misunderstood, and the general Abatai was the father-in-law of President Lee, how could he intentionally kill his son-in-law's master? They also learned the truth later, and now they can't regret it, so they specially collected the corpses of Master Liu and his entourage, and were willing to apologize and compassionate their families, and in order to show their sincerity, they also prepared 100,000 taels of silver to purchase military supplies, and the goods and prices were determined by Datong, and the coffin and silver had been transported to Huailai. Busai also said that Master Liu had taught him to read and gave him the word "Dongning", and he was also very sad when the old man died suddenly.

Datong punched the air, Yun Rong Zhengse condemned the hasty end of Curb Pilon and Busai, and immediately sent someone to pick up the coffin - Liu Zhilun's funeral was very grand, Datong and Naturalization held public sacrifices at the same time, the House of Parliament posthumously awarded him the first-class Bakshi Honor, and the presidential palace agreed to give him the treatment of a fallen soldier - buried in the Manhan Mountain Cemetery, and his name was engraved on the stone tablet.

100,000 taels of silver don't be in vain, the governor of the Ordnance Department Liu Jiping eyed the money, and offered to sell cotton clothes, shoes and socks to the Qing army, and by the way to solve the winter clothes of his army, the time is tight, the task is heavy, the people of Datong were mobilized to earn wages, and most of the winter clothes were sent to the south, and Abatai only got more than 8,000 sets, but repeatedly praised the low price, good workmanship, and timely delivery, and simply handed over the military business to Datong.

The Qing army now has money, and the Ordnance Department has no money to do or is not sure to do things before to find the wronged culprits, field grain, field cooking utensils, field hemostatic bags...... One by one, the silver stolen by the Qing army flowed to Datong.