The Xuanjia Army was preparing for war in the hot imperial court, and Fang Yuan discussed with Jing Jie again, once the Northern Expedition, how to deal with Li Zicheng's offensive on the Western Front.

The two closed the door and discussed for three days, and decided to arrange two lines of defense on the Western Front to deal with Li Zicheng's possible offensive.

One is Li Yan and his wife in Wuchang Mansion, Wuchang is the gateway from Huguang to Jiangxi and Zhili in the south, and it is the front line against Li Zicheng's invasion.

Since Li Zicheng lost Wuchang, his whole army retreated to Hanyang, Xiangyang, and Jingzhou. And Li Yan and his wife slowly advanced, and did not go west to Hanyang, Xiangyang, and Jingzhou, to fight with the main force of the army. Instead, relying on the advantage of the water division, the southward direction gradually swallowed up the territory south of the Yangtze River in the neighboring Yuezhou Prefecture, and even the governance of Baling was also included in the bag, and Linxiang, Pingjiang and other prefectures and counties also led the people to surrender, and the power has extended to Changsha Prefecture further south.

After the merger of Huangzhou Mansion and Yuezhou Mansion, as well as the support of Fang Yuan's military rations and silver, the number of sergeants under Li Yan's command has reached 50,000. It may be a little insufficient to take the initiative to attack the army, but with the assistance of the Xuanjia Army's naval division, it is still more than enough to hold the Yangtze River defense line.

According to the assessment of Fang Yuan and Jing Jie, Li Zicheng was a troop that was dispatched in and out of Sichuan, and he tried his best to break through the defense line of the Yangtze River arranged by Li Yan and his wife, Yuezhou-Wuchang-Huangzhou, which was by no means possible in three or five months.

The second line of defense was to send 35,000 soldiers from Ganhui in Jiangxi Province to the north to garrison Fengyang and hold the Jianghuai defense line. In Jiangxi, it is only necessary to leave 5,000 Xuanjia troops to maintain the basic law and order of Nanchang and Jiujiang. As for the work of suppressing bandits, quelling chaos, and reassuring the people in southern Gansu, they were given carte blanche to Chen Zilong and Xu Cheng.

The main force of Ganhui went north, mainly against Li Guo's department in Henan. Li Guo of Henan has at least 100,000 troops, and an elite cavalry of 20,000, which can directly attack Fengyang and even Huai'an Mansion by land. This army is the henchman of the Jianghuai defense line, and it is also the road that Fang Yuan is most worried about, and Gan Hui, the first fierce general of the non-Xuanjia army's infantry battle, is not enough to deal with Li Guo's impact.

Ordering Gan Hui to stay in the rear, instead of going on a northern expedition together, is also the princess's idea, that is, to be cold to the first fierce general Gan Hui, and instead cultivate more fierce generals who can fight well, and relying on Gan Hui for military power is indeed the way to take trouble.

Of course, when the ancient generals complete the defense goal, they will not simply defend, usually attack and defend. If Li Zicheng led his troops to Henan to join Li Guo and attack Fengyang by land, Li Yan would be able to cross the river and take Li Zicheng's old nest in Huguang; If Gan Hui thinks it is necessary to take the initiative to attack Henan to deter Henan's Li Guosuo, he can also attack and defend.

Fang Yuan did not learn from Chongzhen, commanding indiscriminately in the rear, giving the second general any restrictions and constraints, but entrusted Li Yan and Gan Hui with the right to adapt to the situation, all for the purpose of holding the defense line on the Western Front.

The Northern Expedition is ready for everything, and now it only owes an east wind, which is the name of the division.

Fang Yuan's strategy of dividing and disintegrating the northern forces, although this Northern Expedition was under the banner of the Qing monarch's side. But in this decisive battle with Sun Chuanting, Fang Yuan didn't want to use the name of the Qing monarch to justify the intervention of the imperial court in the capital in this decisive battle.

He consulted with the cabinet members for a day and a night, and decided to play with Sun Chuanting, a common trick of salute before soldiers.

Fang Yuan ordered Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, to collect a letter of accusation of 10,000 people in Huai'an Mansion, the content of which was not to sue Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shandong, but to sue Gao Jie, the chief soldier who looted in Huai'an Mansion and caused ten rooms and nine emptiness in Huai'an Mansion. One of the letters of accusation was handed over to the imperial court in Beijing, one to Fengyang, and one to Sun Chuanting in Shandong, asking the three parties to come forward to severely punish Gao Jie, a murderous butcher.

This is a multiple-choice question that Fang Yuan threw to Sun Chuanting, if Sun Chuanting handed over the fierce general Gao Jie, it would be a self-cutting arm. If Sun Chuanting chooses to protect Gao Jie, the butcher, for the sake of victory on the battlefield, Fang Yuan can justifiably send troops to attack Sun Chuanting in the name of arresting Gao Jie.

Instead, it also gave the capital court a difficult problem, whether to choose to arrest Gao Jie and maintain the law and discipline and face of the Ming court, or simply tear his face, don't talk about any law and discipline, face, directly admit the law of the jungle, and start a war with Fang Yuan. If the capital court could tolerate this kind of butcher continuing to go unpunished, Fang Yuan would immediately be able to occupy the moral high ground and justifiably play the name of the Qing monarch's side. Even if in the future history books, this military disaster was all caused by the Beijing court's protection of the butcher Gao Jie, it can't be relied on on him.

A month later, Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shandong, received this letter of accusation with 10,000 people's blood.

Sun Chuanting looked at the blood book with a solemn expression, and immediately called Gao Jie, the chief soldier of the party, to come to the governor's palace to discuss matters.

When Gao Jie arrived at the Governor's Palace, Sun Chuanting directly asked Gao Jie to pass the blood book of 10,000 people.

Gao Jie hurriedly read the contents of the blood book, still looking unruly, slapped the blood book, and said coldly, "Inspector Sun, this is because Fang Yuan was jealous of me and Inspector Sun, and came up with a crime of wanting to add it, Inspector Sun should immediately tear up the blood book, and then kill the person who sent the letter, and return me to a clean house!" ”

Sun Chuanting raised his head and stared straight at Gao Jie, who was still stiff-mouthed, and said in a deep voice, "General Gao, you didn't see the payment of this blood book clearly, but it was not only handed over to the Shandong Governor's Mansion, but also handed over a copy to the Beijing Imperial Court!" How to deal with you, that is to be issued by the imperial court, I am the governor of Shandong who has done the master?! ”

Gao Jie was put on such a scene by Fang Yuan, he was so angry that he gritted his teeth, and said angrily, "Inspector Sun, this is clearly Fang Yuan's plan to discord, what else does the imperial court want?" Do you really want me to go back to Beijing to pay for the lives of those untouchables?! ”

"Smack!"

Sun Chuanting saw that he was still talking wildly, treating the people as mustard, and slapped the army case heavily, and angrily reprimanded, "General Gao, this matter is related to the imperial court system and law and discipline, if you break the law and discipline in order to protect you, you will inevitably lose people's hearts." General Gao, you have also seen the combat power of the Xuanjia Army, if the imperial court cannot uphold this justice for the people of Huai'an Mansion, it will lose the only reputation and morality that can suppress Fang Yuan. You don't have to fight this battle, you lose fifty percent first! ”

Gao Jie suddenly realized that this incident of 10,000 blood books was not as light as he thought, and then he really had a little panic, and the previous unruly disappeared, and asked in surprise, "Inspector Sun, Lao Tzu was born and died for the imperial court, and the bloody battlefield, the imperial court can't unload the mill and kill the donkey!" Even if Lao Tzu is punished, Fang Yuan will come up with other ways to find an excuse to send troops! ”

Sun Chuanting sighed and said, "Mr. Gao, I know everything you said, but you were really caught by someone this time. At that time, He Renlong was a corrupt military discipline, and the imperial court ordered the military to kill him. Your evil deeds this time are even worse than He Renlong back then, this case is to the court, the cabinet, who will stand up and say a good word to you, saying that you slaughtered the people well, and raped the people and girls right? ”

Gao Jie said angrily, "Inspector Sun! It was your order to go to Huai'an Mansion to loot, I just followed the military order! ”

Sun Chuanting said coldly, "General Gao! I'll let you go and loot the silver, the military rations, and let you go to the massacre?! You're going to rape a folk girl?! Did you disobey the military order and dare to bite me back?! ”

Gao Jie was in cold sweat on his forehead, and said in a trembling voice, "Inspector Sun, the general will not be subject to the order of the monarch outside, how can there be a saying that the general will be killed before the battle?!" ”

Sun Chuanting was silent for a while, folded the book of 10,000 people's blood, and said to Gao Jie, "General Gao, let's be restless, wait for the edict of the imperial court to come, and then decide on the next move!" ”

Gao Jie was stunned on the spot, Sun Chuanting's words were not painful, and he didn't have the slightest tone to protect him; The movements of the imperial court are unknown, and according to Sun Chuanting, it is not impossible for the imperial court to use his head to quell public anger; As for Fang Yuan, he was bent on killing him.

Gao Jie suddenly discovered that the world is so big that there is no place for him, and he really responded to the old saying, if you do too much injustice, you will kill yourself!

He couldn't help but collapse in his chair, unable to speak.