Completely eradicated the unforgivable Pingnan Palace, the fat army's southern expedition army that had been fighting for more than a year in a row was almost to the limit, the generals and soldiers were exhausted, the ammunition supply was very difficult, the army was innumerable because of the water and soil adaptation and contracted the disease, the newly taken Fujian and half of Guangdong local people revolt frequently, the bandits were as many as cattle hair, it was difficult to suppress them, the mountain bandits and pirates surrendered and rebelled, rebelled and surrendered, harassed the villages, attacked the merchants, and even once gathered a crowd to attack the fat army's grain transportation team, It is a great threat to the security and stability of the rear of the Fat Army. 【】

What's even funnier is that the Fat People's Army also made trouble in the new occupation of the Third Prince Zhu, a Zhangzhou man named Cai Yin called himself the Third Prince Zhu, recruited a group of hooligans and scoundrels known as the leaders of the 82nd Gang, colluded with an underworld leader named Xu Yan in Quanzhou City, and took advantage of the opportunity of Zheng Jing's return to Taiwan and the main force of the Fat Army's southern expedition to Guangdong, intending to take Quanzhou and establish the country. The result is natural, the latest third prince Zhu just came to Quanzhou City with his lackeys, and Yang Yingyuan, the general of the Fat Man Army who stayed in Quanzhou to recuperate, only sent 300 infantry, and killed them to the ground.

Although a group of hooligans and scoundrels took advantage of the fire to rob, it was just that the grasshoppers shook the trees and did not measure their own strength, but this also reminded the Fat Army of the South Road that the Fat Army had not yet gained a firm foothold in Fujian, and it still needed time to consolidate its rule and stabilize the place, otherwise, not only would it be difficult for Fujian to become the rear of the Fat Army's attack on Liangguang, but Zheng Jing, who still had strength, could also make a comeback at any time. Therefore, after thinking about it again and again, Li Tianzhi finally decided to write to Lu Fatzi, reported the actual situation in Fujian and Guangdong, and requested that the military operations against the remaining state capitals in Guangdong be temporarily stopped, so that the officers and men of the Fat Army could rest and recuperate for a period of time, and free up their hands to clear the remnants of the local rebellion and consolidate the Fujian and Guangdong regions.

Li Tianzhi's recital was sent to the capital together with the Jiejietang newspaper that broke through Guangzhou, and Lu Fatzi quickly approved Li Tianzhi's request to suspend large-scale military operations, but also required Li Tianzhi to send another team north to Shaozhou, cooperate with Wu Yonghua, the general of the Fat Army, to jointly besiege Shaozhou, completely eradicate the remnants of the Shang army entrenched in the city of Shaozhou, Jin Guangzu and Shang Zhiying, and then completely stop the large-scale war, so as not to cut the grass and not eradicate the roots, and the spring breeze blows again. In addition, Lu Fatzi added Tian Fengji as the governor of Guangdong, and Li Tianzhi as the governor of Liangguang, and authorized Li Tianzhi to use his official position to appease the small local warlords who could be won over in Liangguang.

Then, Lu Fatzi naturally went to Shang Wanjian's room to report the bad news and comfort his wife, and at the same time, Lu Fatzi, who felt that he owed Shang Wanzhen a lot, made a promise in front of his wife, that is, he would definitely save Shang Wanjing's son Lu Bangjing at all costs, and promised that he would definitely make Lu Bangjing's son position untouchable, so as to compensate for the harm he had done to Shang Wanjing's mother and son. Fortunately, Shang Wanyan is a good wife who understands reason, and knows that her mother's family is self-inflicted and deserves it, so in addition to crying, she didn't complain about Lu Fatzi a word.

The fat army on the southern front has reached the limit, but the fat army on other battlefields still has a lot of spare strength, especially in Zhili and Liaodong, the 60,000 troops of Wang Xu's army in Zhili have not moved, and the Gao Dejie army in Liaodong has broken through Shengjing, basically annihilating a large number of Qing troops in Liaodong, in order to deal with several remnants of the Qing army in the primeval forest of the Great Xing'an Mountains, and then stationed 70,000 troops on the sparsely populated Liaodong battlefield are all elite soldiers, not only a waste of troops, but also a waste of money and food. Therefore, Lu Fatzi made a large-scale army adjustment, transferred 30,000 troops from Gao Dejie's army, and transferred 20,000 troops from Wang Xu's army, and handed them over to the general Gao Hongchen, so that Gao Hongchen led this elite team with extremely strong combat effectiveness, through Fengyang and Luzhou, Anhui, to rush to the Huguang battlefield, attack the Huguang Huangzhou and Hanyang Erfu controlled by the Xia Xiang's army, directly deter the Xia Guoxiang's base camp Wuchang and Yuezhou, and force the Xia Guoxiang to withdraw from the Jiangxi battlefield and prepare for the next war in the southwest. At the same time, by the way, I will also monitor Han Daren, who is attacking and fighting in the western part of Huxi.

Lu Fatzi finally dispatched the long-standing Zhili Army and the Liaodong Army, which had strong combat effectiveness, and the news spread to Huguang, and Xia Guoxiang, who had always taken Jiujiang and Nanchang as the two fortified cities, was even more helpless, in order not to exhaust his strength and even had no strength to fight back, Xia Guoxiang had to obediently withdraw his troops, quickly retreat to Wuchang, and change the focus of attack to comprehensive defense. At the same time, Xia Guoxiang also knew very well that this strategic change was likely to be the last strategic change of the Honghua Imperial Court.

The same judgment was also made by Guo Zhuangtu, the brother-in-law of Xia Guoxiang, seeing that the allies who could be used were eliminated one by one by the Fat Army, and seeing that the Fat Army gradually adjusted its strategic defense and counterattack, the Wu clan said that they would not fight with the Honghua Imperial Court, and joined forces with the Honghua Imperial Court to resist the attack of the Fat Army, Guo Zhuangtu gradually panicked. After careful consideration, our Guo Xiangye came up with an idea that I don't know if it was a genius or an idiot, and invited the Fifth Harmony Lama, who had an excellent friendship with Wu Laohan, to mediate the war, and expressed his willingness to draw the river with Lu Fatzi as a boundary and divide the world equally.

In addition, Guo Xiangye sent Feng Su, the official of Dali's parents and the head of the Honghua Imperial Court, to let Feng Su go to Yanjing to meet Lu Fatzi, and persuaded Lu Fatzi to accept Guo Zhuangtu's request for peace, and also said that as long as Lu Fatzi accepted the condition of drawing the river as the boundary, the Honghua Imperial Court could return Lu Fatzi's eldest son Lu Bangjing, and could also accept Lu Fatzi as the emperor, and the Dayue Empire became a brotherly country.

As a modern person who has been brainwashed by the concept of great unification since childhood, of course it is impossible for Lu Fatzi to agree to Guo Zhuangtu's conditions - although Guo Zhuangtu is really full of sincerity this time, not only rejected Guo Zhuangtu's proposal, Lu Fatzi also asked Feng Su to stay, and also gave Feng Su a foreign official position equivalent to the criminal servant of the Criminal Department, and even said that as long as Feng Su is willing to accept it, then after the Fat Army dominates the world, Feng Su can choose the position of governor of each province by himself.

Fat Lu is so loving, Feng Su is of course flattered, and said in a loud voice that he has no merit in size, and he dare not accept such a generous gift from Fat Lu, but Fat Lu said with a smile: "Feng Futai is too modest, if you hadn't picked up my roll from the wastebasket back then, and let me be a showman, I would have had what happened later, can I have today?" ”

"How did the prince know?" Feng Su was taken aback, and quickly changed his words and said: "The prince misunderstood, at that time, it was not a humble position that picked out your scroll from the first volume, it was Lord Chen Yaochen, the Dali Minister. ”

"Old man ancestor (the people's honorific title for the prefect), you don't need to be modest." Lu Fatzi laughed and said: "The late family is not confused, Chen Yao, the Dali government at that time, was the presiding boy test, but he was not the person of the old prince Wu, but the old man and ancestor you are the most trusted official of the prince at the level of Yunnan Prefecture, the prince wants to pick more civilian talents, can he bypass you and directly hand over this mission to Chen Yao, the Dali government appointed by the Mangou Imperial Court?" ”

Feng Su smiled awkwardly, not daring to continue to quibble, and Lu Fatzi asked curiously: "Old man, there is a very strange thing about the late family, you gave the late family such a big favor back then, why did you not mention it in front of the night family later?" When others asked, you also desperately pushed it to Lord Chen Yaochen? ”

Feng Su's expression was even more embarrassed, and he replied after a while: "Don't blame the prince, in fact, when the prince was promoted to Qujing Zhixian by the second prince, the lower official planned to mention this matter in front of the prince, and dared to overstep and wanted the prince to call the lower official a seated teacher, but the lower official heard what the prince did after you entered Beijing, so he said that he didn't dare to mention it again." ”

"I'm too strong, I'm worried that my wood show will be destroyed by the forest wind, and I'm afraid that I'll be implicated, right?" Fat Lu asked with a smile, Feng Su nodded honestly, Fat Lu couldn't help but smile even more happily, and couldn't help sighing: "But I can't blame you, recalling what I did in those years, I am also scared into a cold sweat every time, if it weren't for the prince's kindness and every effort to preserve, if it weren't for the contradiction between Aobai and the Mangou Emperor that is difficult to reconcile, how could I live to this day?" At that time, if you told the truth to your husband and ancestor, and the late family was finished, you would have to be implicated. ”

After sighing, Fat Lu patted Feng Su's shoulder again, and said softly: "Teacher, don't worry, the student is still quite angry, he didn't embarrass you, and now he can protect you in turn, stay, don't go back to bury Guo Zhuangtu." Feng Su nodded heavily with tears in his eyes.

Lu Fatzi left Feng Su, the envoy of the Honghua Imperial Court, and let him serve in the Yue Wang's Mansion, in this chaotic era where the city is chaotic and changes the banner of the king, it is really a trivial matter that can no longer be ordinary, even Guo Zhuangtu, who sent Feng Su, did not feel too surprised, but for other civil and military officials in the Honghua Imperial Court, it is undoubtedly an obvious signal, this signal is that the Fat Army may also accept the officials of the Honghua Small Imperial Court, and can also be entrusted with important tasks. Seeing such hope, for the sake of glory and wealth and his own net worth, the civil and military officials of the Honghua Imperial Court will inevitably have the idea of emulating Feng Su, and they are no longer too afraid that Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang will be defeated like a mountain, and the fat army will fight back to Yungui.

The civil and military officials of the small court of Honghua who have such thoughts have a long-term vision, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, no matter how unpopular Guo Zhuangtu is, how can Xia Guoxiang have such and such a surname defect, but the legacy left by Wu Lao Han is still enough for them to squander for a while, because the fat army that has brought countless internal problems due to the rapid expansion is still a little too difficult, and it is still a little too difficult to completely eliminate Guo Zhuangtu and large and small warlords to dominate the world in a short period of time, coupled with the restrictions on road traffic and scientific and technological productivity, There was also the desperate resistance of the Honghua court and the Wu clan, and the momentum of the crazy expansion of the Fat Army, which was finally curbed in the second half of the third year of Honghua.

By the end of the third year of Honghua, the southwest territory of the Fat Army was still limited to Huguang, Jiangxi and Guangdong, and failed to make a new major breakthrough. Han Daren was met with stubborn resistance from the Wu Yingjing brothers under the city of Jingzhou, and the lack of water master Lu Fatzi and the explicit order did not allow Han Daren to dig up the 10,000 embankments and the people of Jingxiang, so Han Daren had no choice but to adopt the consumption tactics of capturing Yiling, cutting off the grain road in Jingzhou and besieging the city with heavy troops, and fighting against the Wu Yingjing brothers who had no food and no help. Although Li Tianzhi conquered Shaozhou, his main focus was on the work of exterminating the remnants of the enemy in Fujian and Guangdong, and he failed to take another step to the west.

But it doesn't matter, the expansion momentum of the fat army is blocked, the biggest problem is not in the enemy, but in the internal problems of the army, grain, grass and weapons in the first half of the year a large number of investment in the Fujian battlefield and the Liaodong battlefield, the follow-up is weak, the main force is too northward, it is difficult to transfer to the south for a while, and the new conscription lacks experience and the combat effectiveness is weak, which gives Guo Zhuangtu, Xia Guoxiang and the Wu clan a chance to breathe. As the comprehensive strength of the Fat Army gradually tilted towards the southwest battlefield, the new recruits and new troops gradually matured through actual combat, the newly occupied state capital gradually stabilized, and the operation of local government affairs gradually became regular, it was only a matter of time before a major breakthrough was made in the southwest battlefield.

Winter to spring, unconsciously, the time has entered the spring of 1679 A.D., but also the spring of the fourth year of Honghua, at the beginning of the third month of the lunar calendar, the Jingzhou battlefield finally came good news, was surrounded by Han Daren for more than half a year Jingzhou city because of the exhaustion of grain and grass, the city sergeant launched a mutiny to open the city gate to surrender to the fat army, Jingzhou city finally broke itself, Wu Yingjing with his own army to break through, was hit by a stray bullet in the face of the vital point, fell off the horse and died. Han Daren stationed in Jingzhou, rescued Wu Guogui's brother Wu Guozheng, who was imprisoned by the Wu clan, and then led the army to cross the river from Hudukou and continue to attack Wu Yingchang's army in Lizhou.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Zhifu, the lonely and virtuous senior brother of Lu Fatzi, accepted the appeasement of Wu Shiqun, the son of Wu Guogui, and led the army to change banners and announced its merger into the Fat Army. When the news reached Wuchang, Xia Guoxiang was shocked, in order to avoid being cut off from Guo Zhuangtu by the fat army, he once planned to abandon Wuchang and Yuezhou and withdraw to Changsha, and concentrate all his efforts to recapture Changde, but he was reluctant to abandon the relatively rich and prosperous land of fish and rice in Huguang, and he was slow to make up his mind, Han Darenjun took the opportunity to calmly go south and take over the important town of Changde, forcing Guo Zhuangtu's army to take the long Baoqing and Hengzhou roads to provide weapons for Xia Guoxiang, and also forced Wei Pu to return to Hengzhou from Chenzhou, It greatly shared the military pressure borne by Li Tianzhi's army on the battlefield of Fujian and Guangdong.

Of course, although taking Changde has cut off the most convenient and fast way for Guo Zhuangtu to contact Xia Guoxiang, it is not so easy to take down the three major towns in the hands of Xia Guoxiang, Wuchang, Yuezhou and Changsha, not to mention that Xia Guoxiang has already stocked up a large number of new firearms in these important towns in advance, and the grain and grass hoarded in these three important towns are also enough for Xia Guoxiang's army for three years - historically, these grains and grasses have been sold by our second prince Wu Yingqi.

But it still doesn't matter, the fat army has sandwiched Xia Guoxiang, and the weapons, ammunition, grain and grass and military supplies for attacking northern Hunan are also in place, Lu Fatzi gave an order, Han Daren sent troops to attack Changsha by land, Li Maozhu and Li Jiyang went upriver from Anqing and Poyang Lake, and rushed to the battlefield of Wuchang to meet Gao Hongchen crossing the river, and the three armies jointly attacked Wuchang City, Yao Yi also sent troops from Fengyang and rushed to Hanyang to fortify along the river to prevent Xia Guoxiang from desperately going north to attack the relatively empty Huguang defense of the fat army. At the same time, as a reserve, it can be put into the Wuchang battlefield at any time, and Xia Guoxiang was attacked by the enemy in the north and south, and suddenly fell into a bitter battle.

At the same time, Li Tianzhi, who had gradually gained a foothold on the battlefield in Guangdong, was not to be outdone, and also wrote to Lu Fatzi, requesting that troops be sent west from Guangzhou to capture the hinterland of Liangguang and threaten Guo Zhuangtu. However, after Li Tianzhi's recital was sent to Yanjing, Lu Fatzi unexpectedly rejected Li Tianzhi's request and ordered Li Tianzhi to continue to hold his troops and postpone his westward advance, without any will, not to launch a large-scale attack to the west. In this way, not to mention that Li Tianzhi, who is full of enthusiasm, will be inexplicable, even Lu Fatzi's lackeys Yao Qisheng and Zhu Fangdan and others in Yanjing City are also inexplicable, and they asked Lu Fatzi the reason together, why Li Tianzhi was not allowed to send troops immediately, contain the Honghua army from the flank, and share the pressure of the main battlefield in Huguang.

"There are many reasons, but there are three main ones." Lu Fatzi replied: "Judging from the obstruction of the expansion momentum of our army in the second half of last year, our army wants to win two major battlefields at the same time, it is still quite difficult, and in the second half of last year, our army's offensive was blocked, a very important reason is that the consumption of firearms is excessive, basically all the firearms in the stock have been consumed, and then we can only fight while producing with all our might, and the supply is not available, and even the situation that Han Daren's team has used up even three good explosives and high-precision shells, which is why it is difficult to open the situation under Jingzhou City. ”

"This time, our main opponent on the Huguang battlefield, Xia Guoxiang, also has new firearms in his hands, and the firearms we need to consume are bound to be more, and the number of firearms we need to supply is bound to be greater. If we don't learn a lesson and put our main logistical forces into the Huguang battlefield, we will be like Han Daren again, relying on primitive sabers and spears to attack Changsha, Wuchang, and Yuezhou. ”

"That's just as well." Yao Qisheng nodded in understanding, and echoed: "I remember that the prince also said that fighting with Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang against thieves is not fighting soldiers and war horses, but fighting the supply of firearms, Xia Guoxiang has hoarded a large number of firearms in Changsha, Yuezhou and Wuchang, and the only way for us to win is to make every effort to ensure the supply of firearms to the vast army of Hu." ”

"But Li Tianzhi went west to the west, and his main opponent didn't have many firearms?" Zhu Fangdan asked suspiciously: "Among the enemies of our army in Liangguang, except for Dong Chongmin, who has some firearms, the other opponents Zu Zeqing, Ma Chengyin and Li Fengchun must not have many firearms in their hands, and the firearms we have supplied to General Li Tianzhi in the past six months or so should be enough, right?" Besides, Zu Zeqing and Ma Chengyin can all fight to be appeased? ”

"That's the second big reason, political reasons." Lu Fatzi replied: "Zu Zeqing and Ma Chengyin, Zu Zeqing is the cousin of Emperor Taizu Gao, and Ma Chengyin's father Ma Xiong has always been loyal to Emperor Taizu, what honor do we use to appease them?" Or use the edict of the emperor? ”

"Of course, it's with the edict of the emperor." Zhu Fangdan was surprised and said, "Can't you use other reputations to appease?" ”

"Use the edict of the former emperor to appease, and there will be endless troubles in the future." Lu Fatzi replied coldly: "Wang Xu and Gao Dejie have asked for the transfer of troops to Shaanxi several times, and they have been rejected by me for various reasons to attack Hanzhong and Sichuan from the southeast, and this is also the reason - Sichuan is controlled by the Wu clan, and it will be difficult to deal with the aftermath in the future if they are appeased now." ”

"Difficult to deal with? But we can't always stop fighting Liangguang and Sichuan? Zhu Fangdan asked suspiciously: "Could it be that the prince still wants to borrow a knife to kill people and borrow Guo Zhuangtu's hand to kill them?" ”

"Of course not, if I wanted to borrow Guo Zhuangtu's knife, I wouldn't storm Huguang now." Fat Lu smiled, waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, I have my own solutions to these problems, it's almost now, it's already May, and the time is almost up." ”

"It's almost time?" Yao Qisheng and Zhu Fangdan looked at each other, and felt more and more that Lu Fatzi was difficult to figure out.

"Master Yao, Divine Doctor Zhu, do you still remember?" Lu Fatzi suddenly asked again: "On the first day of the first lunar month last year, you led a hundred civil and military officials to tell me in the Wuying Palace, and how did I answer you?" I have too many official duties and often forget little things, and on the first day of the seventh month, remember to remind me to answer your requests. ”

Yao Qisheng and Zhu Fangdan were completely dumbfounded, and they couldn't understand what kind of medicine was sold in Lu Fatzi's gourd, they had already sworn in the Temple of Heaven never to do anything like that, why did they bring up the old thing again? Could it be that Fat Lu repented again, was not ready to leave the throne to his son, and planned to forcibly claim the emperor regardless of the world's scolding?

"Give Uncle Wang and Gao Dejie two orders." Lu Fatzi instructed again: "Let them hurry up and explain the messenger in their hands, and rush back to Yanjing before the first day of the seventh month." There are also six Cao palm prints, Wang Shirong and the main Wu army generals, who must gather in the Wuying Hall on the first day of the seventh month. ”

(To be continued)