The idea of establishing another regime in Jiangnan was temporarily shelved due to cabinet resistance, and Fang Yuan's next target was the warlord Zuo Liangyu entrenched in Jiangxi.

This Zuo Liangyu dared to take advantage of the expedition to Fujian to loot Nanjing, and robbed him of his wealth.

The Left Army was an army of half-bandits and half-officers and soldiers, with the name of the imperial court, and it was still engaged in looting. The difference between Zuo Jun and Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong is that Li and Zhang are attracting the low-level people, and they are robbing the vassal kings of the Ming royal family, corrupt officials and corrupt officials; The left army is to win over the kings of the Ming Dynasty, corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and it is the ordinary people who plunder.

In comparison, Emperor Chongzhen of course agreed with Zuo Liangyu, but was hostile to Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. And Fang Yuan obviously agrees with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, while Zuo Liangyu is a typical tumor that has caused disaster to the world, and the sooner it is cleared, the people of Jiangxi will get out of the sea of suffering sooner.

Of course, the Left Army entrenched in Jiangxi, nominally under the command of Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Mengeng, was actually a loose alliance of rogues.

If the Left Army Alliance is a group company, Zuo Liangyu and his son are the major shareholders of the company and the chairman of the board of directors, while Jin Shenghuan, Wu Xueli, and Ma Jinzhong are small shareholders with capital and shares, and they all have a small force under their command.

To annihilate Zuo Liangyu, a rogue alliance with an army of 300,000 or 400,000, it must be a vicious battle.

Fang Yuan went to the Taihu base and summoned all the senior generals of the Xuanjia Army to discuss how to break Zuo Liangyu, recover Jiangxi, and stabilize the rear.

Jing Jie had already made military preparations before, and he also made a perfect copy of Jiangxi's topography, "Jiangxi, with a total of thirteen prefectures, is governed by Nanchang Mansion. There are also Jiujiang Mansion, Nankang Mansion, Raozhou Mansion, Ruizhou Mansion, Guangxin Mansion, Jianchang Mansion, Fuzhou Mansion, Ji'an Mansion, Linjiang Mansion, Yuanzhou Mansion, Ganzhou Mansion, and Nan'an Mansion. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the richest is the plain area in the north, centered on Poyang Lake. Among them, Nanchang Mansion, Jiujiang Mansion, Nankang Mansion and Raozhou Mansion are the four most important prefectures in Jiangxi. ”

"Jiangxi's most prosperous commerce, the most abundant commercial tax, first of all, the porcelain capital of Raozhou Jingdezhen, the world's famous, Ming foreign trade porcelain, seventy percent produced in Jingdezhen; In addition to Jingdezhen, the most developed business is Linjiang Mansion, which is dominated by wood. Further south, the provinces are the mountainous backwoods. ”

Fang Yuan looked at the topographic map of Jiangxi and asked, "How many ways are there to march into Jiangxi from the Eastern Front?" ”

Jing Jie pointed to the topographic map and explained to him, "There are two ways to attack Jiangxi from the eastern front. One is from Quzhou Mansion in Zhejiang, through Guangxin Mansion and Raozhou Mansion in Jiangxi Province, and into the Poyang Lake area; The other is to take the Yangtze River waterway, capture the military town of Jiujiang, and then go from north to south to break through the Jiujiang defense line. Of course, now Anqing Mansion and Luzhou Mansion in Jiangbei are still under the control of the Left Army, and if you want to capture the important town of Jiujiang, you must first recapture Anqing Mansion and Luzhou Mansion, otherwise you will be attacked by the enemy. ”

The topography of Jiangxi is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the river on one side, so Zuo Liangyu's eastward route has always been along both sides of the Yangtze River, both by land and water. Now if you want to push Zuo Liangyu back, you must still go upriver along the Yangtze River and advance by land and water.

Chigutai knocked on the table and said, "Those rogues in the left army are a rabble, and they will be beaten hard until they are subdued!" ”

Zhao Quanzhong came out to ask for his life and said, "The Great Plain of Poyang Lake is enough for the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry to gallop across the country, and the cavalry battalion to go to Jiangxi to exterminate the bandits of the Left Army!" ”

Gan Hui also came out and said, "Jiangxi is mountainous, and the mountain special battalion can also go into battle to annihilate the enemy." ”

Fang Yuan was noncommittal about the two of them, closed his eyes slightly, and was silent in thought.

The situation in Jiangxi is very different from that of Zhejiang and Fujian. Zhejiangzhi and Fujian were all completely accepted by Fang Yuan without a large-scale baptism of war, looted by officials and bandits. Because the ruling base of the state capitals and townships was relatively perfect, it was relatively easy to govern after the war.

And Jiangxi has been ravaged by Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Zuo Liangyu in turn, and it is a remnant of flowers and willows, and the state government and the grassroots organizational structure have long collapsed. In addition to Zuo Liangyu's rogue bandit army, the local self-protection militia organized by the local government, and the bandits who are running around to commit crimes.

As soon as the Xuanjia Army stepped in, it had to face not only hundreds of thousands of left troops, but also these self-protection militias, bandits, and it could almost be said that they were caught in the vast sea of rogue and bandit wars. Just like before the crossing, in the War of Liberation, the most ferocious bandits were Jiangxi, Xiangxi, and Sichuan. To liberate the south, the biggest enemy of the PLA was not so much the defeat of the remnants of the Kuomintang as the local militia and bandits. It is necessary to appease and conquer one by one, and without three years of work, I am afraid it will be difficult to completely conquer Jiangxi.

Therefore, the difficulty of annihilating the Left Army Alliance is not mentioned for the time being, to govern Jiangxi is definitely a headache for Fang Yuan, and it also costs a lot of money. is like a prostitute who is pressed by thousands of people and ridden by 10,000 people, who has long left behind her etiquette, righteousness and shame, and wants her to believe in love again, the difficulty can be imagined.

After a long time, Fang Yuan opened his eyes and said, "It may not be difficult to defeat the left army, but it is difficult to conquer Jiangxi!" The conquest of Jiangxi by force is a loss-making business, and without five or ten years of operation, it is simply impossible to turn losses into profits. ”

Jing Jie knew Fang Yuan's intentions, he had to account for his income and expenditure before every war. In his opinion, the current conquest of Jiangxi will trap a large number of Xuanjia troops in the big quagmire of Jiangxi, which is obviously not cost-effective, and he does not want to take over such a hot potato and mess in Jiangxi for the time being.

Jing Jie asked directly, "Boss, what do you think?" ”

Fang Yuan pointed to the map of Jiangxi and said word by word, "My method, attack the north and leak the east!" ”

Chigutai was a straight man, and asked in amazement, "Attack in the north, don't you still want to attack?!" ”

Fang Yuan smiled and said, "The so-called northern attack is not a real attack, but a cold war with the left army!" ”

The generals looked at each other, and at the same time a question arose in their hearts, "What is the Cold War?" ”

Fang Yuan patiently explained, "The left army is strong in many people, strong soldiers and strong horses; And the advantage of our army is invincible in the naval division and the economy is rich. The so-called Cold War was a military competition, and it was not really a war with the Left Army, but it was a war with our army's economic and naval superiority, which cruined the Yangtze River without interruption and displayed its military might, forcing the Left Army to be forced to confront us. After such a long time, whether it is Jiangxi's economy or the morale of the left army, it will inevitably collapse and collapse without a fight! ”

Fang Yuan used the example of the West, led by the United States, relying on its economic superiority, to forcibly provoke the Cold War, military competition, and bleed the Soviet Union step by step, and finally caused the Soviet Union, the most powerful war machine in the world, to completely collapse.

The Soviet Union has barely held out for several decades, but with Jiangxi's fragile agriculture and economic foundation, how can it afford to raise 300,000 or 400,000 bandits? As long as Zuo Liangyu does not let the sergeant return to his hometown to farm, but engages in a military confrontation with Fang Yuan, he will definitely not last a year!

Jing Jie nodded again and again when he heard this, Fang Yuan's method was indeed a good strategy to solve the three or four hundred thousand left troops at the lowest cost, and asked, "What is Dongqi?" ”

Fang Yuan smiled and said, "That's what I proposed to Your Majesty before, to open the floodgates to Jiangxi and release water, and the displaced people and people of Jiangxi who fled to Zhezhi will all accept and settle in Guantian as tenants." As long as the source of troops of the left army is hollowed out, and there is still a basis for plunder, the left army will become a source of no water and accelerate its collapse! The gate that opened the gate to release water this time was Quzhou Mansion, which borders Raozhou Mansion in Jiangxi, which was the passage to attack Jiangxi. Zhejiang Governor Zhang Bingzhen, the chief soldier Malin has something to do now, heh! ”

Fang Yuan's method was to force the Left Army to respond to the battle through the Cold War, consume the vitality of the Left Army, and slowly bleed the Left Army; On the one hand, the water was released by opening the sluice gates, hollowing out the blood pool of the left army. Bloodletting on both sides, a two-pronged approach, dragged the left army to death.

Jing Jie asked hesitantly, "If the left army attacks Quzhou Mansion from Raozhou Mansion, how should it respond?" ”

Fang Yuan smiled and said, "Third brother, you still don't know enough about Zuo Jun. This kind of bandit army is unprofitable and cannot afford to be early. asked them to rob Nanzhili, their eyes were green, and they wished that their father and mother had two legs. If they were to go on a long expedition to attack the Quzhou Mansion, a chicken's foot pole without oil and water, they would find all kinds of excuses to disobey their orders. ”

"Of course, large-scale warfare will not happen, small-scale harassment is certain, and Malin must be ordered to send the Xuanjia Army to garrison the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi to prepare for war. There are also Commander Gan and Commander Zhao, although we will not send troops on a large scale, the small-scale harassment of Jiangxi's Yangtze River defense line is also considered a war achievement, no matter how small the mosquito legs are, they are also meat! ”

When the generals heard this, they laughed in unison, and it was best to disintegrate the left army without a decisive battle!