Winter goes to spring, everything recovers, flowers bloom, unconsciously, time has quietly stepped into the spring of the second year of Honghua in the Great Zhou Dynasty, with a large amount of grain from the south of the Yangtze River into Beijing, the food prices in the Gyeonggi area, which has been plagued by famine, have gradually fallen back to the normal level, and with the gradual stabilization of public security, Yanjing Jiucheng has gradually recovered its prosperity and liveliness, a large number of Han people have moved into the capital, and the wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River with business vision rushed to Yanjing, taking advantage of the opportunity of Yanjing repeatedly being warn, and land prices have plummeted. Purchasing a piece of land in Yanjing City, opening a variety of businesses, all industries have gradually prospered, showing a thriving and gratifying scene. 【】

In order to settle these old and weak women and children, Lu Fatzi ordered to divide the inner city of Yanjing into two, with the straight street from Fuchengmen to Chaoyangmen as the boundary, the northern half was all vacated to house the wives and wives of the main generals and magnates of the Fat Army, and the southern half was sold to the people except for the confiscated mansion of the Qing princes, and all the proceeds from the sale were used to buy grain and porridge from Jiangnan to help the people of Zhili survive the famine. The purchase of seeds and agricultural tools was distributed free of charge to the poor people for farming, artificially accelerating the economic recovery of Gyeonggi.

The north and south cities are not separated by walls, and the people can come and go at will, but the land in the north city is not allowed to be bought and sold for the time being, and it is ready to be arranged for the old Pingxi princes who will return to Shun in the future - in the war to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Mites, the old Pingxi princes and vassals contributed the most and sacrificed the most, although Lu Fatzi did not imagine raising these people with iron crops like the flag keepers of the Qing court, but he had to do something to repay them.

The first batch of people to benefit from the old Pingxi Wangfu domain, in addition to the old man of Pingxi Wangfu in the team of the fat army, and then the old man of Pingxi Wangfu in the team of the old general Ma Baoma, after the old man of Pingxi Wangfu in the team of General Ma entered Beijing, everyone immediately got a mansion in the inner city of Yanjing, and a piece of enclosure confiscated from the Eight Banners of Mites, and General Ma simply lived directly in the palace of Prince Kang next to the imperial city. When the old men of Pingxi Wangfu in General Ma's team thanked Lu Fatzi together, Lu Fatzi said with a smile: "Originally, I wanted to give you more, but now the world has not been calmed down, and the military expenditure is too large, so I will talk about it later." ”

Hearing Lu Fatzi's words, in order to show their loyalty, the generals of the Ma Bao Army, who had just returned to Shun, of course rushed to salute and ask for battle, and asked to lead a team to serve as a vanguard, make contributions to Lu Fatzi, and expand the territory. At the same time, in order to start the war to recover Liaodong, Lu Fatzi appointed Du Hui as the commander of the Liaodong Naval Division, assigned to Gao Dejie's command, and sent to Shanhaiguan to form the Qinhuangdao Naval Division of the Fat Army, Du Hui happily obeyed.

In fact, there is no need for General Ma Lao to waste time writing a letter to appease, as the number one general of the non-Wu clan and Wu relatives in the old Pingxi Palace, General Ma Lao took the team and territory to join the fat army and in exchange for countless glory and wealth The news spread, not the generals of the Pingxi Wangfu who were not relatives of the Wu clan were already moved in their hearts, eager to try, and sent envoys or meticulous works to try to get in touch with Lu Fatzi, wanting to see what kind of price Lu Fatzi was ready to buy their team and territory. After all, these people have no prestige and no strength strong enough to protect themselves, even if their ambitions are big, they can't turn over the big storms, it is better to find a good master and sell themselves for a share of glory and wealth, and future generations will thank themselves in the future.

The representative figures of this kind of people are, of course, Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen, who are entrenched in Shaanxi and Gansu, their army strength is indeed not weak, but due to environmental restrictions, it is impossible to achieve self-sufficiency in grain, grass and military salaries on the territory, and they are surrounded by several strong enemies, and they have no capital to engage in reading at all, so after Han Daren, the general of the Fat Army, captured the entire territory of Shanxi and bordered them on the territory, Wang Fuchen and Wang Pingfan inevitably sent envoys to get in touch with the Fat Army to test the Fat Army's attitude towards them. In his letter to Lu Fatzi, in addition to testing whether Fat Lu intended to appease him, he also asked Fat Lu a very sensitive question - who does Fat Lu plan to rule the world for? Is it for the descendants of Wu Laohan, or for Lu Fatzi himself?

Of course, Lu Fatzi would not answer Wang Pingfan's question, not only did he not answer, but he also wrote back and scolded Wang Pingfan for a bloody dog, and pointed out that Wang Pingfan has not laid Tongguan so far, and it is not a problem of strength and the dangerous terrain of Tongguan at all, but a problem of Wang Pingfan's mentality! I want to leave Tongguan Tong Huinian, the remnants of the Qing army, as an excuse to avoid being involved in the civil war of the Wu army, and even more so to hide in the civil war of the Wu army! With such sinister intentions, what qualifications do you have to question whether you have usurper ambitions? If you want to join the Fat Army, you can first use Tong Huinian's head as a vote, otherwise, Wang Pingfan will be sorry for the deceased Wu Laohan, and Lu Fatzi will also be sorry for Wang Pingfan, who played Kou and raised thieves!

In front of Wang Pingfan, who was very loyal to Wu Laohan, Fat Lu had a righteous and awe-inspiring face. For Wang Fuchen, who is shrewd and capable and has a bad relationship with himself, Lu Fatzi has an extremely kind face, because Wang Fuchen sent his righteous son Wang Jizhen as an envoy to send a book to tempt, and Lu Fatzi immediately crowned Wang Jizhen as a three-rank official and returned Wang Fuchen's original mansion in Beijing. Then he wrote back to Wang Fuchen, saying that he didn't care about what happened in Qujing before, and he and Wang Fuchen didn't get along very well in Qujing back then, mainly because Li Shuzu's two or five boys were a hindrance, and now Li Shuzu's dog and Han Jian's dog bones have stinked, can he still remember those trivial conflicts in the past because of this young man? What's more, Wang Fuchen's favorite general Wang Jing is still his sworn brother, although Wang Jing has been killed in the civil war of the Wu army, but when it comes to relationships, he has to call Wang Fuchen Brother Wang.

Of course, Fatty Lu's voice of Brother Wang is not in vain, when the brother of Fatty Lu has another small matter to ask Wang Fuchen, that is, Fatty Lu extremely hates Daniel Zhang and Zhao Liangdong, the two hardcore Han Annihilation, especially hates Zhao Liangdong, who took advantage of the fire to rob and attack the Fat Army's army on the battlefield of Bajiang, but now there is no way to personally take their lives, so Fatty Lu wants to ask Wang Fuchen, the eldest brother, to help him vent his anger and cut off the heads of Daniel Zhang and Zhao Liangdong, two dog men who annihilated the whole family, to avenge his brothers who died in Bajiang that year!

As for other words of bribery, Fatty Lu deliberately did not write a word, because Fatty Lu knew Wang Fuchen's surname very well, a typical old Qiu Ba, who would repay and like to talk about righteousness, and asked Wang Fuchen to do his best to kill Daniel Zhang and Zhao Liangdong, and let him sell an adult favor to himself, and other words should be easier to say. Otherwise, if he buys the envelope so directly, Wang Fuchen, who has a grudge against himself, is unlikely to believe in his sincerity, even if he leads the army to change banners, he does not dare to rest assured that he will trust him.

Lu Fatzi's reply was sent back to Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen respectively, after reading Lu Fatzi's letter, Wang Pingfan's face was of course flushed, only a little thought, immediately personally led the army to attack, to the Qing Dynasty's most remnant army in the Central Plains Tong Huinian Department attacked, and at the same time went to write to Xie Chang, the general of the Fat Army stationed in Luoyang, and invited Xie Chang to send troops to attack Tongguan, and strive to wipe out Tong Huinian's team. He also took the initiative to say that after taking Tongguan, he would give Tongguan to the Fat Army, and then discuss the issue of Wang Ping's army joining the Fat Army.

Unlike Wang Pingfan, after reading Lu Fatzi's reply, Wang Fuchen breathed a long sigh of relief, and the question that he had hesitated for a long time finally had an answer. At that moment, Wang Fuchen immediately ordered the envoy sent by Guo Zhuangtu to be taken down, and together with Guo Zhuangtu's letter inviting him to send troops to attack Lu Fatzi, he sent it to Yanjing to present it to Lu Fatzi, and then immediately sent troops from Pingliang to launch a full-scale attack on Daniel Zhang and Zhao Liangdong who were entrenched in Lanzhou City.

The reason why Lu Fatzi's appeasement strategy can be successful is not so much that Lu Fatzi's means are clever, but rather that it is the trend of the times, Shaanxi and Gansu soldiers and horses are indeed strong, but because of climate and environmental changes, the economic foundation of Shaanxi and Gansu is very weak, there is no external supply, the local area can not afford to raise a large number of soldiers and horses, there is no money and food, and the strong soldiers of Shaanxi and Gansu cannot just work hard for Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen, and work hard with the fat army on an empty stomach. At the same time, there is no monopoly in Shaanxi and Gansu, Wang Fuchen and Wang Pingfan are equal in strength, contain each other, and the remnants of the Qing army are watching and delaying on the side, although Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen have a gentleman's agreement of mutual non-aggression, but it is impossible to guarantee that this agreement will take effect forever, once the two families start a war, the person who sits on the profits can only be the fat army. Therefore, for Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen, the most correct and sensible way is to hold the fat thighs of Lu Fatzi first, so that they can be invincible.

In fact, even if Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen don't take the initiative to hug Lu Fatzi's fat thighs, it doesn't matter much to Lu Fatzi, the comprehensive strength is here, even if they can't clean up Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen for a while, as long as there are no major problems within the Fat Army, the future victor will inevitably be the Fat Army, and the hidden danger of using force to solve the Shaanxi and Gansu problems is much smaller than using appeasement methods.

At the beginning of April, the latest Ma Bao team to join the Fat Army was reorganized, more than 60,000 people were eliminated from the weak and strong, leaving only 40,000 troops, and the eliminated soldiers were naturally given farm tools, seeds and a living allowance, and sent them home to farm and reclaim a large amount of Jiangxi land that had been abandoned because of the destruction of the war; The 40,000 troops that were reorganized left only 10,000 to help defend Jiujiang and Nanchang, and the remaining 30,000 were led by Wu Yonghua, the former general of the Fat Army's hussars, who went south to attack Jianchang, Ningdu and Ganzhou, and eradicated several remnants of the Qing army entrenched here, the Jiujiang and Nanchang defense line was defended by Li Xiongfei, with a strength of 35,000 people, and the Anqing defense area was in charge of Li Maozhu, the general of the Fat Army's hussars, with a strength of about 40,000, and more than 12,000 Li Jiyang's water division were stationed in Poyang Lake.

At the same time, Han Daren's army, which had successfully captured the entire territory of Shanxi, also began to adjust its defenses, leaving 20,000 people in the north, which was assigned to the command of the former general of the Iron Cavalry of the Fat Army. Some of the more than 50,000 main forces of Han Daren's army stayed in Taiyuan and Fenzhou, and the other part was led south by Han Daren to Pingyang, and they were in the center and could be put into the Henan battlefield or the Shaanxi-Gansu battlefield at any time. At the same time, Han Daren became the governor of Shanxi, which also satisfied Han Daren's desire to get ahead and be independent.

While nervously adjusting the strategic deployment of the northern battlefield, Lu Fatzi never forgot the southernmost Fujian-Guangdong battlefield, and the 150,000 troops newly recruited in Shandong Zhili, in addition to investing in the Jiujiang battlefield and strengthening Anhui's defense, about 30,000 of them were sent by Lu Fatzi to the south and handed over to Li Tianzhi, preparing to launch a war to annex Fujian and Shandong. During this period, through the scouts and meticulous reconnaissance, and through the intelligence of all parties, Lu Fatzi also quickly confirmed an important situation, that is, Shang Zhixin and Geng Jingzhong, the two two two or five boys, probably did not know that they were going to join forces with Guo Zhuangtu to rebel against their secrets had leaked, so in order to avoid arousing their own vigilance, Shang Zhixin's envoy was still bargaining with Wang Shaobo in Nanjing for the ownership of Chaozhou, and Geng Jingzhong did not transfer the main force north to stimulate himself.

Patiently and repeatedly confirmed these situations, a series of complex logical relationships naturally appeared in Lu Fatzi's evil mind, and even more evil plans naturally took shape............ One: Guo Zhuangtu, Geng Jingzhong and Shang Zhixin joined forces to rebel and rebel - dare to calculate themselves behind their backs, of course Lu Fatzi thinks it is a rebellion and rebellion - in short, these three two or five boys rebel and rebel, in addition to self-preservation, the ultimate goal is not the same, Guo Zhuangtu is to annex the whole world, Geng Jingzhong is to annex Jiangnan, Shang Zhixin is because he has done something sorry for the lack of virtue of his ancestors and compatriots, only trying to use Geng Jingzhong and Guo Zhuangtu to protect himself, and he does not have too much enterprising ambition - Shang Zhixin's strength, Even small warlords like Zu Zeqing and Liu Jinzhong can cut meat on him, and don't think about any aggressive ambitions.

Two: Because of the difference in the ultimate goal and the serious conflict of interests, the most ideal entry point for me to destroy the bullshit alliance of these three two or five boys is Shang Zhixin, Shang Zhixin's deed of sale to Kang Mazi to betray his ancestors and compatriots is also the best weapon.

Three: Geng Jingzhong and Monk Zhixin don't know that their rebellious plan has been exposed, and this can be exploited! If you can make these two Erwuzai think that they have been betrayed by the other party, or let them think that they have been betrayed by Guo Zhuangtu, causing them to know their rebellious plan, the Erwuzai alliance will inevitably break down, and they may turn against each other.

Four: If you create a false impression and let Geng Jingzhong and Monk Zhixin know that they are being Guo Zhuangtu, it is too difficult, and these two Erwuzai do not have the courage and strength to find Guo Zhuangtu desperately, and Guo Zhuangtu betrays them without the slightest interest, and the two Erwuzai will not believe it.

Five: It is slightly less difficult to create the illusion that Geng Jingzhong betrayed Shang Zhixin, even if it succeeds, the two Erwuzai will start a war, Shang Zhixin is likely to completely fall to Guo Zhuangtu, and his eldest wife in Guangzhou, Shang Wanxian, will be in danger, and even if Geng Jingzhong falls to himself, he is bound by morality, and there is no way to eat Geng Jingzhong, and the enemies of Liangguang and Yungui will also firmly unite together and create trouble for themselves to unify the world.

Six: Create the illusion that Shang Zhixin betrayed Geng Jingzhong, the least difficulty, Shang Zhixin's personality everyone believes, for his own interests, even his father can be imprisoned, even his sister can be killed, the wonderful character is put here, saying that he betrayed Geng Jingzhong, Geng Jingzhong is definitely the first to believe! And after the success of the plan, the two Erwuzai turned their faces into enemies, Shang Zhixin cut off Geng Jingzhong and Guo Zhuangtu's land connection, Guo Zhuangtu's new firearms could not be directly supplied to Fujian, which would reduce the difficulty of annexing Fujian, and at the same time, Shang Zhixin was caught by Geng Jingzhong and Guo Zhuangtu, and he could only bow to himself, and he also had an excuse to enter Fujian, eat Geng Jingzhong, and then annex the isolated Shang Zhixin by other means or force.

After sorting out these complex logical relationships and weighing various pros and cons, Lu Fatzi immediately asked Huang Yanbo to draft a decree, and canonized Shang Zhixin as Prince Fude with the reputation of the Great Zhou Holy Decree and the Yue Wang's Order, and gave him a gold medal to avoid death, except for rebellion, to avoid death three times! Then let the messenger bring the original deed of sale to Kang Mazi with the decree and the letter of the gold medal monk, rush to Guangzhou via Jiangxi, read the decree to Shang Zhixin, and then burn the deed of sale in front of Shang Zhixin, and try to stabilize this Erwuzai first.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Fatzi issued three orders in succession, the first one was to Wu Yonghua, who was attacking southern Jiangnan, and asked him to attack Ganzhou as soon as possible and lay a nail there. The second was to Huang Ming, who led the army south to reinforce Li Tianzhi's army, and asked him to lead 30,000 recruits from Jiangnan to escort a batch of grain, grass and weapons southward to prepare to launch the Fujian War. In this regard, if Geng Jingzhong sent an envoy to inquire about the reason, he replied that it was to prevent Zheng Jing from attacking and disturbing the coast.

Lu Fatzi's third order was to Li Tianzhi, asking the messenger to hand over the letter of covenant and the declaration of war to Geng Jingzhong presented by Ma Bao to Li Tianzhi, and let Li Tianzhi find an excuse to invite Geng Jingzhong to the north of the Fenshui Pass two months later, if Geng Jingzhong dared to go out of the Fenshui Pass, then he would show the evidence of Geng Jingzhong's rebellion, detain Geng Jingzhong and send him to Yanjing, and then use Shang Zhixin to expose Geng Jingzhong's rebellion, wave his army to attack Fujian, and seize the entire territory of Fujian.

If Geng Jingzhong was afraid that it was the Hongmen Banquet and did not dare to go out of the Dividing Water Pass, Geng Jingzhong would definitely send an envoy to reply, then Li Tianzhi would show the evidence of Geng Jingzhong's rebellion in front of Geng Jingzhong's envoy, bite to death that it was Shang Zhixin who betrayed Geng Jingzhong, and then let Geng Jingzhong's envoy bring the declaration of war back to Fujian, and then Li Tianzhi directly sent troops to attack the Fenshui Pass and recover the entire Fujian by force! At the same time, Lu Fatzi also gave Li Tianzhi a letter of surrender against Geng Jingzhong in advance, that is, if Geng Jingzhong handed over the military power and Fujian, the whole family would not die, and Geng Jingzhong would be crowned Shunyi Gong and given Yanjing.

This vicious plan was all arranged by Lu Fatzi, and Lu Fatzi's henchmen and lackeys did not interfere, until Lu Fatzi finished arranging, Yao Qisheng pondered for a long time before interjecting and reminded: "Lord Wang, the lower officials think that your plan is very secret, and you bite to death that Shang Zhixin betrayed Geng Jingzhong, but before we do it, what if Shang Zhixin's army does not act abnormally?" If Shang Zhixin hadn't prepared for war at all, wouldn't it prove Shang Zhixin's innocence? ”

"No, it won't." Lu Fatzi waved his hand and said with a sneer: "Geng Jingzhong's main force went south to fight Zheng Jing, and General Liu Jinzhong controlled an enclave in Chaozhou for us. Moreover, after receiving the news that our army was increasing troops in Zhejiang and attacking southern Jiangnan, the two two and five boys were weak in their hearts, so couldn't they be prepared for defense? Especially Geng Jingzhong, he will definitely ask Shang Zhixin for help with a handful of tears and snot, even if Shang Zhixin sends some people to Jiaying Prefecture to make a show, as soon as my declaration of war is announced, it will also become ironclad evidence that Shang Zhixin and we will join forces to attack Geng Jingzhong! ”

"What the prince said is extremely true, the lower officials really forgot to calculate this." Yao Qisheng nodded, and then suggested: "Lord, for the sake of safety, the lower officials suggest that the messenger we sent to read the decree to Shang Zhixin can be mentioned casually in front of Shang Zhixin, just say that his wax pill secret book was deliberately leaked to that person by the Mangou Emperor Kang Mazi in order to instigate someone and the Mangou team to join forces to attack us, and then that person took this wax pill secret book to the prince to ask for merit, in exchange for the prince not to withdraw his domain and take away his seal, the prince was worried that this secret book would be used by that person, so he specially sent it to Guangzhou, Destroy it in front of Lord Shang. ”

"Planted on Geng Jingzhong? What if Shang's letter sends an envoy to ask? Lu Fatzi was puzzled: "Geng Jingzhong definitely doesn't know the existence of this wax pill secret book, when the time comes, the two families will confront each other, won't this king's clever plan be exposed?" ”

"Prince Geng's gambling curse swears, will Lord Shang believe it?" Yao Qisheng smiled and asked, "Wouldn't Prince Shang think so, it was because Prince Geng betrayed him that Prince Geng refused to admit it?" ”

"But in this way, when I frame Shang Zhixin to betray Geng Jingzhong, Shang Zhixin will understand that I am a ghost from it, and it is possible to fall to Guo Zhuangtu?" Fat Lu put forward a new possibility, "When the time comes, Guo Zhuangtu will mediate in the middle and reconcile the contradictions, and these three two or five boys will hook up together." ”

"Xia Guan thinks that the prince doesn't have to worry so much." Yao Qisheng replied: "In the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy and trickery is only an auxiliary role, our purpose is to divide the three Erwuzai, so that the three Erwuzai do not trust each other, and do not go all out to rescue each other, our series of [***] plans are used, and the fragile alliance of the three Erwuzai is almost falling apart, and it is impossible to trust each other anymore, which is enough for us." ”

"What's more, even if we don't add to it like this, we framed Shang Zhixin to betray Geng Jingzhong, but Shang Zhixin has never done this at all, so we can still ask Guo Zhuangtu to mediate and reconcile the contradictions. And we will provoke Shang Zhixin's hatred of Geng Jingzhong, even if Shang Zhixin finds out that he has been deceived, he will hesitate to consider whether to continue to join forces with Geng Jingzhong, or just get off the donkey and join forces with us directly. ”

Fat Lu pondered, and soon smiled again and said: "Then let's draw a snake and add a lot, with my brother-in-law's suspicious and irritable temper, this kind of painting snake may bring us unexpected surprises." ”

(To be continued)