The area controlled by the Shun army is only the north of Huguang, and the people's hearts and minds in the area are complicated, and everyone knows that the general trend has gone. >

In the south of Huguang, Zhang Xianzhong's Western Army is also a comprehensive offensive against the Ming army, such a situation can not help but make people hopeful, if the Ming army south of the Yangtze River can be wiped out, maybe it can be maintained with the Jiaozhou battalion to share the world.

The generals Li Guo and Gao Yigong controlled this part of Xiangyang and Huguang very effectively, although everyone knew that the main force of the Shun army was lost in the first battle of Henan, but there was no major chaos.

After Li Zicheng returned to Henan and gradually occupied Huguang and Henan provinces, although he set up military camps, governed the localities, and gradually integrated his forces, there were also many landlords who fled into the mountains and formed villages to protect themselves.

These large and small stockades built fortifications on the hills, recruited local displaced people, had their own fields, had their own armed forces, and were almost independent kingdoms.

Among them, Baiyun Village between Yicheng and Nanzhang is the largest one of these villages, Liu Hongqi, the owner of Baiyun Village, was the strong of Nanzhang County back then, and has the fame of martial arts, and is very influential in the local area.

Liu Hongqi is known as Liu Tianwang, and there are tens of thousands of young people to drive, such a scale of forces, but because of his respect for the Shun army, he took the initiative to send grain and pay, and the Shun army has always let him exist so much, ignoring it, Liu Hongqi such cottages are everywhere in Henan and Huguang.

The Shun army has been busy attacking the city and occupying the territory, accepting the Ming military regime, and investing very little energy in these remnants, perhaps not taking them into account at all, those cottages in Henan are being cleaned up step by step by Chen Liu's Central Plains Army, and the cottages in Huguang are still maintained like this.

When the Shun army was at its strongest, there were almost a million troops, and they were almost invincible against the Ming army.

Now even if they are defeated and retreated, Li Guo, Gao Yigong, and Zhang + have almost 50,000 backbone troops in their hands, and the miscellaneous soldiers and horses are combined, and they can almost make up 150,000 soldiers, and such an army is also unmatched by those local tyrants on the cottage, so their attitude has not changed much from before.

But privately, the situation is different. He Tengjiao, the new governor of Huguang in the Ming Dynasty, was in the name of recruiting righteous people. The official bodies of the prefectures, counties, and localities occupied by the Shun army were all made blank documents. And it was stamped with a large seal. Send people to the leaders of the cottages in Huguang.

These local tyrants were at most petty officials before they went up the mountain. I don't know much about the situation in Jiangbei. I saw the blank official documents of the Ming court. All eyes are spent. Say yes with all your mouths. are ready to report the news for the imperial court. Wait until the imperial army comes. Respond to the situation.

But the court is too wasteful. The soldiers and horses in Zhang +'s hands have already been transferred, and there are about 8,000 backbones left. But He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang, and Zuo Liangyudi, the Duke of Ningnan, could not move an inch. was beaten and retreated step by step. There is no counteroffensive at all.

Liu Hongqi, the owner of Baiyun Village, can toss such a big situation. The brain is also much more sober than those little tyrants who get dizzy when they see a letter of appointment.

The big war in Henan. And many things that follow show that the world is about to change. Although Li Meng, the king of Qi, only occupied a few provinces. But this is the only force in the world that can unify its own territory and strength. And the Ming Dynasty, the Great Shun, and the Great West fought with each other. Certainly not jointly possible.

But the land sale strategy frightened Liu Hongqi. It turns out that many cottages in Henan are linked to him. As a result, this time the land was sold. But he sold all these lands and lands. These local tyrants are angry, but they are against the Jiaozhou camp. As a result, the gate was directly opened by artillery. The GI advances to kill the big kill. Those who live are to be sent to hard labor.

Liu Hongqi also had a lot of private land in Nanzhang, and the landlords who fled into his village were even more big, and if the fields in Huguang were sold like in Henan, what would be the place to live in the future.

But the combat effectiveness of the Jiaozhou battalion is too terrifying, Liu Hongqi knows the villages in Henan very well, there are a few villages that can be beaten young and strong, and the terrain is also dangerous, whether it is the Shun army or the Ming army, if you want to take these places, there is no other way than a long-term siege, but the Jiaozhou battalion is so simple to open, it is really frightening.

Now the Shun army is a remnant, the Ming army is a dou who can't support the wall, and there is no future for anyone to take refuge, Liu Hongqi is really in a dilemma, and his own capital is not enough, but on the Shandong side, if he sells all his fields, he has no place to live, but if he wants to be an enemy, he is far from being an opponent.

This Liu Hong was nervous and didn't know what to do in the future, but the salt lord who often dealt with him brought unexpected news.

exceed

In the village on the mountain, because the terrain is complex and the road is rugged, this is a big thing to eat salt, as long as the following is slightly blocked, and the people on the mountain have no salt to eat, then they will slowly lose their combat effectiveness and automatically lose, so each cottage is accumulating salt goods.

But Huguang itself does not produce salt, although the Shun army does not have the energy to pay attention to these cottages, but will not let the salt goods enter the mountains at will, so the price of salt for cottages is much higher than that on flat land, and there are also some salt dealers who take risks for this benefit, Liu Hongqi is a visionary character.

He has always bought salt goods at a higher price than other cottages, in case of emergency, but the area where he is located is also the core area of the Shun army, so what kind of salt can be sent so easily, there is a private salt dealer in Henan surnamed Xiang, but he took the initiative to come to the door.

This salt lord claimed to be Xiang Wan, and he could have salt goods to provide, Liu Hongqi half-believed and did business with him a few times, but he didn't expect that this person really had a way, 6 The salt goods on the water were sent over like this, but it made Baiyunzhai cheap.

In June of the first year of Hua, just when Liu Hongqi didn't know where to go, Yan Xiao Xiang Wan took the initiative to contact him and gave a promise that surprised and delighted Liu Hongqi.

Surprised, he was in the mountains of Huguang, and the secret agents under the King of Qi were able to find him and pass the news, and the joy was that the King of Qi gave him a condition, if the market is too peaceful in the future, Huguang and Xiangyang have a place for him, of course, such conditions are not given out of thin air, but only require that at some point, his forces should obey the deployment of Shandong to do a few things.

If you want to protect your glory and wealth in the new dynasty, you must pay your own price, Liu Hongqi also understands this truth, in fact, the other party can take the initiative to come to the door, this is already a pie falling from the sky.

Since King Chuang returned to Xiangyang with thousands of defeated soldiers across the Han River, the atmosphere in Xiangyang City has become quite strange, and the field troops of the Shun army, which were originally stationed in various provinces in Huguang, have been transferred to the Xiangyang line, and the people have been recruited to build fortifications in Xiangyang and the outer line.

When King Chuang led his soldiers and horses to occupy Huguang, in order to distinguish himself from the Ming Dynasty's rampant levy, he deliberately exempted taxes and forced labor, so that the people could recover slowly.

This kind of lenient policy that is completely different from the Ming Dynasty, so that the local people are wholeheartedly supportive, but at this time the situation has completely changed, looking at the momentum of Shandong soldiers and horses, even if Xiangyang is the world's heroic city, the terrain is dangerous, I am afraid that the battle to defend the city will also be very hard.

In such a situation, it is necessary to accumulate materials as much as possible and reserve follow-up military resources, because the Shun army rarely collects taxes among the people, and has always relied on the accumulation of military supplies and those gentry and high-ranking officials and vassal kings as military supplies.

At such a life-and-death juncture, survival is the highest need, who cares about the people's will or not, the Shun army also began to loot the people's food stocks, as well as recruit young people everywhere to enlist in the army.

Poor Huguang people, settled down for less than a year, life is hard, in these areas, the Shun army's control is still quite strong, and because the Shun army itself is the poor background of the people, they are clear about all kinds of things among the people, and they are more careful.

Originally, in the cottages in various places, the tenants of the people who were coerced up the mountain by the landlord Haoqiang were working hard to make cattle and horses on the mountain, and they ran down the mountain at the first opportunity, but at the beginning of the first month of the first year of Hua, for the first time, there were people who took the initiative to go to the landlord Haoqiang, and this situation that made people laugh and cry actually appeared.

The scribes and officials of the Ming Dynasty who defected to Li Chuang advised one after another that this situation could still be maintained, and if they continued to do it in such a reckless manner, I am afraid that it would collapse.

But since Li Zicheng returned to Xiangyang, he has been very alienated from these literati, even Niu Jinxing, who used to be a civil official, just inspecting the fortifications everywhere every day, supervising the training of soldiers, and often leading light cavalry to survey the terrain nearby, he is preparing for the next big battle with Shandong soldiers and horses.

And Niu Jinxing has been aging a lot since he got the news that Niu is alive and dead, and he is not going out every day, he is such a lone seedling of the cow, so sad and sad, everyone also understands, but Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin and others ignore this, or they don't notice it at all, and only the system general Li Guo and the system general Gao Yigong sent people to express their condolences, which is considered polite and thoughtful.

But that's all, the Shun army is in chaos in Xiangyang and the surrounding prefectures, and no one cares about the joys and sorrows of the family, so no one notices that Niu Jinxing's mansion occasionally has guests to visit in May, and after May, the family members of Niu Jinxing's mansion move around much more frequently in and around Xiangyang City.

Thank you, everyone, on the first day of December, asking for a monthly pass