The civil war of the Wu army became bigger and more intense, the civil changes in the territory of the mite Qing became more and more troublesome, and the fat army that seized the south of the Yangtze River also ushered in a golden period of development and expansion of territory. Refugees from the Yellow Flood Area and hungry people from the north poured into Jiangnan like a tide, bringing sufficient soldiers and endless labor resources to the Fat Army, and accelerating the recovery of the land damaged by the war around Jiangnan.

This is driven by the general trend, but also the people's aspirations, among the major forces in the world, only the Fat Army's territory has the lowest taxes, the most abundant food, and the most stable public security and political situation, and the people hope to live and work in peace and contentment under the governance of the Fat Army, at least live a life that will not starve to death; Although the officials, gentry and landlords did not expect the Fat Army to give them leftovers, they were eager to obtain the protection of law and order from the Fat Army, and the good atmosphere of law and order created by the Fat Army, otherwise, the more money and food they had, the more dangerous it would be.

In fact, the fat army has nothing particularly outstanding in governance, basically copying the civil affairs model left by the former Ming and Mites Qing, and the so-called benevolent government praised by the gentry and the common people has only three points, one is to improve the armor protection system and organize a large number of villagers to maintain law and order, focusing on cracking down on robbery and theft that disrupts people's livelihood; The second is to vigorously protect the most important land ownership of this era, recognize the land contracts issued by the Qing government before, recognize the wasteland reclaimed by the people themselves, and severely crack down on illegal encroachment on other people's land; The third is to vigorously develop industry, commerce and mining, abolish the ban on mining in the Qing Dynasty, and allow the landlords and gentry in the controlled areas to hire northern refugees to open mines at low prices in exchange for money, which not only buys off the landlords and gentry, but also allows the northern refugees who have fled to the areas controlled by the Fat People's Army to have a bite to eat, so as not to cause a popular uprising because of the lack of food for the refugees.

Of course, the Fat Scout Army also has a few points that are quite criticized in terms of governance, for example, because the boss of the Fat Scout Army's Miracle Doctor Criminal Department has some special hobbies in some aspects, the crime rate of flower cases in the Fat Scout Army's territory is a bit high, and the crime of buying and selling women will occasionally be turned a blind eye and let go; There is also the boss of the Fat Army, who once suffered because of his appearance, which led to a significant decline in the average level of appearance of the newly elected officials of the Fat Army. But fortunately, these are trivial things in times of war, and they don't matter - it doesn't matter if an official looks ugly, as long as he can do things for the people, he is a good official, for example, a certain bag of black; It is always better to buy and sell women occasionally than to rob women directly by other warlords.

This is a worse world, and the imperfect governance is a hundred times stronger than no governance, compared to the Wu army's territory on each mu of land to levy six yuan tax, relative to the poor livelihood of the people in the area controlled by the mite Qing and the soaring price of grain dozens of times, and relative to the Geng army's control of the land to levy one or two lines of silver per mu of land plus forage money, two dollars of silver per month of salt tax, and more than 20 kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the lowest tax and the best security of the fat army control area is undoubtedly a paradise in troubled times. In addition, there are quite a few good politicians in the land controlled by the Fat Army, such as Mu Tianyan, Wu Xingzuo, Xie Dong and Li Zhifang, and Huang Ji actually has a set of political and popular affairs, so it is really difficult for the Fat Army not to get the support and yearning of the people.

Thanks to the so-called benevolent government and the blessing of the situation, along with the prestige and reputation of the fat man, in the land controlled by the fat army, the gentry and the common people only knew that there was a thousand years of King Yue, and they did not know that there was a long live Emperor Zhou. And within the fat army, which has expanded to more than 250,000, although the main backbone is still the old man of the Wu army, the new soldiers and grassroots generals already only know to follow the Yue Wang Chitose, and most of the old people of the Wu army who have been severely diluted have forgotten to follow the hardships and sins of Wu Lao Han's side, and only remember to follow the beautiful women who eat and drink spicy and sleep beside the fat man. As for Lu Fatzi's descendants and the nearby Guangxi team, there have been calls to support Lu Fatzi as emperor.

In view of the favorable situation and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for expansion, although the Fat Army Li Tianzhi's army was still fighting with Geng Jingzhong's army in Zhejiang, there were still strong calls for opening up the second and third battlefields within the Fat Army.

Gao Dejie, who is good at cavalry combat, also simply proposed to immediately launch the Northern Expedition, taking advantage of the fact that the Qing court had not yet caught its breath to take Shandong and Zhili, open the trade route with the Mongolian tribes, obtain war horses through trade or war means, and form more cavalry of the Fat Army, laying a strong cavalry foundation for the next step of the Fat Army's national war.

Of course, Lu Fatzi didn't want to give the Mite Qing court a chance to breathe, and he wanted to launch the Northern Expedition immediately than Gao Dejie, taking advantage of the fact that the Mite Qing court had not yet taken a breath, and took the south of the Great Wall in one fell swoop, even before sending troops to the southern front, Lu Fatzi had considered temporarily reconciling with Geng Jingzhong, concentrating on killing the mite Qing court with a broken candle in the wind first, and cutting off the last line of vitality of the Chinese nation's mortal enemy Mites Qing Eight Banners, so when Gao Dejie once again proposed to launch a full-scale Northern Expedition in person, Lu Fatzi couldn't help but start to be tempted again.

"Lord Wang, don't miss the opportunity, you won't come again." Gao Dejie chattered and emphasized: "Now the Mangou Imperial Court basically does not have a decent army in Shandong, Zhili and Shanxi, and the only Baoyi army that can fight a little war is blocked by General Cai Lu to the west of Huaiqing Mansion by the sudden anyway, if our army takes the opportunity to launch the Northern Expedition, it can not only quickly take Zhili Shandong, but also minimize the losses of our army." ”

"Lord Wang, the last general also thinks it's time for the Northern Expedition." Han Daren echoed: "Although Zhili and Shandong are relatively poor, there is not much oil and water to fish, but they have a large population and many qualified soldiers. ”

After all, Han Daren also volunteered to serve as the vanguard of the Northern Expedition, and even offered to take the initiative for the first time that he was willing to serve as his deputy to Gao Dejie, the rival of the eight characters, and obeyed Gao Dejie's dispatch to join hands to launch a fatal blow to the Qing Dynasty. Fat Lu sat next to the map of the whole country with his fat hands on his fat cheeks and pondered, and he didn't say anything for a long time, until Gao Dejie and Han Daren's saliva was dry, and Lu Fatzi suddenly said, "The time for the Northern Expedition is not yet ripe." ”

"Not mature yet?" Han Da Ren was busy asking, "Lord Wang, why is the time for the Northern Expedition not ripe?" The elite main force of Mangou has been wiped out by us, and the only one left is a clothed army that can fight, and there are only more than 30,000 people, we only need to kill this Mangou army, and there will be no army in the Mangou court to stop our footsteps. ”

"Lord Wang, the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition didn't go straight to Yanjing back then." Gao Dejie also said suspiciously: "It is because Mangou still controls the entire north of the Yellow River plus Shaanxi and Gansu, and there is also the elite army of Wang Baobao in Shanxi, so we adopted a step-by-step Northern Expedition strategy, first cut off the Yuan Dynasty Yu and then attack Yanjing, and now we have basically wiped out the main forces of Mangou, why can't we directly smash Yanjing?" ”

"The time is not yet ripe for the Northern Expedition, and the problem is not with the enemy, but with ourselves." Lu Fatzi groaned and said: "Our control area is still too small, the northernmost only to the Huai'an Yellow River, and there are still more than 2,000 miles away from Yanjing. Using the army to protect the grain routes, requisitioning and dispatching people on the spot to ensure logistics, or dispatching people from the rear of the south of the Yangtze River to escort grain and grass to ensure logistics will greatly increase our logistical and financial burdens. ”

"It's ......."

Han Daren wanted to open his mouth to give his opinion, but Lu Fatzi interrupted with a wave of his hand, and said with a smile: "I know what Brother Daren wants to say, do you want to suggest that I adopt our previous tactics of rushing thousands of miles to attack Nanjing City, send an elite team of thousands of miles to attack Yanjing City, and take Yanjing with war, and then consider the logistics problem?" ”

Seeing Han Daren nodded, Lu Fatzi shook his head and said calmly: "This tactic works in Nanjing, but it doesn't work in Yanjing, not to mention that the distance is twice as farther, Zhili and Shandong are not richer than Jiangnan, in Jiangnan we can supply some grain and grass on the spot just by issuing military coins, but not Zhili and Shandong, there is not a grain-producing area, the famine is already serious, we will only completely lose the people's support if we go to fight to feed the war, and even if we can ignore the people's will, the grain and grass collected on the spot is not enough to sustain our army for more than 2,000 miles, Conquer many fortified cities. ”

"One more point." Lu Fatzi knocked on the location of Zhejiang on the map again, and said with a smile: "Li Tianzhi is still fighting for territory with Geng Jingzhong in Zhejiang, and launching the Northern Expedition before driving Geng Jingzhong back to Fujian will further increase our financial and logistical burden, in case the southern front suddenly changes, we will have no reserves to reverse the situation." ”

"Then let me go to Zhejiang." Han Daren volunteered again: "General Li Tianzhi's team is the weakest in combat effectiveness among our four major army corps, and they all beat Geng Jingzhong'er to the ground, and retreated one after another, so let the last general lead the Western Front Army to reinforce the southern front, and keep Geng Jingzhong'er back to his hometown within three months." ”

"I only need two months!" Not to be outdone, Gao Dejie raised two fingers.

"Kill chickens with a cattle slaughtering knife?" Lu Fatzi smiled and put on a high hat for Gao Dejie and Han Daren, and said with a smile: "This time in the southern expedition to Zhejiang, the reason why I did not dispatch the two of you and General Wang Xu is for two reasons, one is to let the Suzhou Legion get experience, and the other is that I am afraid that the two of you will be too ruthless, and you will destroy Geng Jingzhong and Xiaoer directly in Zhejiang, then it will be cheap Zheng Jing." ”

Gao Dejie and Han Daren laughed together, and they both said that Lu Fatzi was reasonable, if he let the two of them or Wang Xu go to the southern front, then Geng Jingzhong's main force would not even have a chance to escape back to Fujian, and he would have to be killed by himself on the way.

"So be it." Lu Fatzi made up his mind, pointed to the map and said: "Let's do this first, Brother Dajie, you send troops from Yangzhou to the north to capture the last two state capitals in northern Jiangsu, Xuzhou and Haizhou (Lianyungang), and the four state capitals of Yanzhou, Yizhou, Jining and Caozhou in southern Shandong. I will send a few people from Gongcao Yamen to you, and after taking these places, I will immediately organize the local people to start dredging the canal and dredge the canal and grain routes for our comprehensive northern expedition. ”

Gao Dejie immediately agreed, patted his chest and promised to complete the task, Lu Fatzi nodded with satisfaction, and with a stroke of his fat fingers, he pointed to the northern part of Anhui and pointed to Han Daren and said: "Brother Daren, you temporarily hand over the defense of the Western Front to Li Mao, send 40,000 troops to fight Luzhou, Fengyang, Sizhou and Guide, and join forces with Brother Dajie in Guide or Caozhou, push our defense line to the hinterland of the Central Plains, and take the last grain-producing area of Mangou in the Central Plains." But remember, you can't fight Anqing and Lu'an, if the full dogs in these two places take the initiative to attack, they will run away. ”

"Understood." Han Daren snapped his fingers, and said with a smile: "You don't need the prince to guide the general, you can understand, if you take Anqing and Lu'an, you will come to the door if you want food." ”

Gao Dejie rolled his eyes, and began to despise Han Daren, who ignored the poverty of his allies, but did not say anything against it. Fat Lu smiled, didn't answer this conversation, and pointed to Guide and Caozhou and said: "Brother Ren, Brother Dajie, the reason why I want you to meet in Guide and Caozhou is because there is another task entrusted to you." This area is the junction of the four provinces of Anhui, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu, and the strategic location is very important, our army is going north on two roads, and the Mangou court is afraid that our army will go on an all-out northern expedition, and it is likely to use the last strength to block ...... in this area. ”

"Does the prince want us to have a decisive battle with the last army of Mangou in this area?" Gao Dejie came to his senses.

"Not bad." Lu Fatzi nodded, and said in a deep voice: "Cai Lu should not be able to stop Tong Guogang's coat army, if nothing else, at most, within a month, Tong Guogang's coat army will be able to break Cai Lu and arrive in Caozhou and Guide area, no matter whether you have a division in this area or not, they should stay and garrison or take the initiative to attack to stop you from going north." ”

Speaking of this, Fat Lu smiled and said lightly: "Although this Manchu dog army has not been formed for a few years, and the military discipline is notoriously corrupt, but it has been tempered by many major battles, and has combat effectiveness and experience, if they are put back in Yanjing, it will be difficult for us to fight the all-out Northern Expedition in the future, you must work together and unite." ”

"Please rest assured, the full dog coated army can't run away!" Gao Dejie and Han Daren clasped their fists together and said loudly.

"Then please." Fat Lu stood up and greeted with a smile: "The specific details of the Northern Expedition, as well as the list of expedition personnel and weapons and equipment, will be discussed together at the court meeting tomorrow morning." Let's go, let's drink and go. ”

Gao Dejie and Han Daren agreed together, one left and one right accompanied Lu Fatzi out of the signing room, to the banquet hall to go to the banquet, on the way, Lu Fatzi had to talk to Gao Han and the two about their family life, and also took the time to ask Gao Dejie a personal matter, "Brother Dajie, my little cousin Qin Mo came to you to practice, how did he perform?" His son, Qin Shou, heard that he had been studying and practicing martial arts with your second son, did he listen to you? If you don't obey, give me a hard beating, don't give me face. ”

"Brother Qin Mo is very good, I put him into the artillery team to study, he learned very quickly, and he was very accurate in artillery." Gao Dejie replied casually: "As for Qin Shou's eldest nephew, he is a little naughty and stubborn, he takes my young sons and daughters to mess around all day long, and I hang him up and smoke a few times, but he is much more honest." ”

"That's good, that's good." Fat Lu nodded happily, smiling very sincerely. Gao Dejie secretly wondered, "Qin Shou is just the prince's cousin, how could the prince say that I should teach him a lesson and not give him face?" However, Gao Dejie didn't take such trivial things to heart, and soon forgot about them.

…………………… Because of the enemy on all sides, the Fat Army has actually been in a state of combat readiness, except that the soldiers can return to fight at any time after a day of vacation, and the grain, grass and military supplies have also been stored in the major towns early, so it took only five days to finalize the details of the two Northern Expeditions. On the eighteenth day of the lunar month, the main forces of the two fat armies set off from Yangzhou and Taiping Mansion to the north, one route was led by Gao Dejie with 45,000 troops, along the canal north, the blade pointed straight to Xuzhou, and the first route was led by Han Daren, crossing the Yangtze River to Hezhou, which was already under the control of the fat army, and all the way to Luzhou City, an important town in Anhui.

At the same time, on the battlefield of Zhejiang, poor Geng Jingzhong Geng Wang Ye was about to be tortured by the fat army led by Li Tianzhi to the point of madness, as long as he fought with the fat army outside Yanzhou City, Li Tianzhi immediately played a frontal hard encounter, with the Qing army and Geng Wangye's frontal hard attrition, forcing Geng Jun and the Qing army to shed blood together, little by little to consume Geng Wangye's precious main force, Geng Wangye who had to stay to beat Zheng Jing but did not dare to consume, the two battles ended in vain, and Geng Wangye was forced to collect troops and return to the city to garrison.

Hiding in Yanzhou City and not going out to fight with the fat army to consume grain and grass for the army, although Geng Wangye, who was not long after the end of the autumn harvest, is not short of food for the time being, but the fat army with rich wealth has the benefit of water transportation on the Qiantang River, and is not afraid of consuming economic money and food with Geng Wangye, and at the same time, the fat army does not attack the city, but uses superior cavalry to constantly attack Geng Wangye's army out of the city, and when it encounters Geng Wangye's scout team, it will all be wiped out, and when it encounters the team, it will call his companions to come over to fight, desperately consuming Geng Wangye's troops, so that Geng Wangye's team does not dare to go out of Yanzhou City at all.

In this way, it took almost a month with the Fat Army in Yanzhou, and with the emergency documents in the rear of Fujian flying like snowflakes, and the other two southern expedition teams of the Fat Army Guo Ying's auxiliary army and Yang Yingyuan's army gradually went south, respectively into Jinhua Mansion and Taizhou, Geng Wangye finally couldn't hold his breath, and was forced to leave a lone army to defend the Yanzhou Palace, and personally led the main force to retreat to Lanxi. Li Tianzhi immediately divided his troops, and the cavalry went out to chase and kill the main force of Geng Wangye, who had few cavalry, and delayed Geng Wangye's retreat, and the main infantry force immediately launched a fierce attack on the city of Yanzhou, and Sha Youxiang and Wang Zongbao, who stayed behind the palace, were also very competitive, and only defended Yanzhou for one day before opening the city gate, and led more than 4,000 Geng troops in the city to surrender to the fat army.

finally escaped to Lanxi, Geng Wangye's 100,000 troops on the northern front were already in the early 70,000s, but before Geng Wangye could take a breath, the main force of the fat army's army was pasted up like an appendage, taking advantage of the opportunity that Lanxi Town could not accommodate so many Geng troops, and started a decisive battle with Geng Wangye again. The thunderous Geng Wangye fought back, and won an unprecedented victory on the fat army, beating Li Tianzhi back to Sanhe Pass, but Geng Wangye vomited blood that most of the heads he cut off on the battlefield were Yanzhou Geng army who had just surrendered to the fat army, and in less than two days, Li Tianzhi posted it again, and as soon as he made a move, he invested in the elite of the fat army, and beheaded Geng Wangye's favorite general Lian Dengyun, encouraged morale and then invested in the surrender of the army, and continued to fight with the morale of Geng Wangye's team again.

After such repeated tug-of-war, Geng Wangye, who was almost tortured and crazy, was forced to divide his troops, led by Bai Xianzhong, and the troops retreated from Quzhou to return to Fujian from Xianxia Pass to rescue the precarious Fujian battlefield, and Geng Wangye personally led the retreat to Jinhua City, saying that he wanted to keep a piece of Zhejiang land. As a result, as soon as Geng Wangye divided his troops, the Fat Army also immediately divided his troops, leaving 20,000 people stationed in Lanxi Town to monitor Geng Wangye's main force, while Li Tianzhi personally led the main force of more than 40,000 Fat Army to chase and kill Bai Xianzhong, and sent superior cavalry to intersperse detours to cut off Bai Xianzhong's retreat.

The road of more than 150 miles from Lanxi to Quzhou City gave the Fat Army full space to play, only a day later, the cavalry of the Fat Army led by Zhu Sanshui was interspersed in front of Bai Xianzhong, blocking the retreat of Bai Xianzhong's 18,000 troops on the west bank of the Qujiang River, and the main force of the infantry of the Fat Army led by Li Tianzhi followed to kill, and the front and rear envelopes and pumped Bai Xianzhong, and also invested the three good rockets used sparingly by the Fat Army on the southern front, which made the Geng Army cry wolf and flee in all directions. More than 6,000 prisoners, countless died and disappeared in the water, Bai Xianzhong was lucky to break through the siege, led less than 4,000 defeated soldiers to flee back to Quzhou City to defend behind closed doors, Li Tianzhi did not chase and kill, calmly turned around and returned to Lanxi, recuperated and prepared to attack Jinhua. At the same time, the fat army Guo Yingfu also broke through Yiwu, killed to the north of Jinhua City, and returned to the division with Li Tianzhi in Jinhua Mountain.

Geng Wangye just received the news of Bai Xianzhong's fiasco, and the bad news came from the eastern front of Zhejiang, the fat army Yang Yingyuan's department had broken through Ninghai and approached the capital city of Taizhou, and Zhu Feixiong, the sailor of the Geng army stationed on Niutoushan Island, couldn't bear the ships of Li Guodong's division of the fat army's sailors, and couldn't bear the money and official bribery of Tian Fengji, so he laid down his arms and surrendered to the Fat Army, becoming the glorious leader of the Fat Army's sailors to the south.

Hearing these two news, Geng Wangye was completely desperate, and he knew that if he would be entangled with Li Tianzhi, a Laipi dog, not to mention that it would be difficult for Zhejiang to keep it, and even the capital to return to Fujian's nest to drive away Zheng Jing would have to be exhausted. Forced into desperation, Geng Wangye had to send an envoy to contact the Fat Army again, proposing that as long as the Fat Army agreed to a truce, stop chasing and fighting, Geng Wangye was willing to give up Quzhou, Taizhou and Jinhua, and only keep the two territories of Wenzhou and Chuzhou.

Li Tianzhi, the old lackey of Lu Fatzi, replied to Geng's envoy in this way, and said with a smile: "The annoying envoy returns to Geng Wangye, and the truce is okay, but our Lu Wangye asks for two conditions for the armistice, one is all the land in Zhejiang, and the other is that Geng Wangye pays tribute to our Great Zhou ministers and accepts the orders of our Lu Wangye, and the two conditions are indispensable." ”

"General Li, it's impossible for our prince to agree to such conditions." The envoy of Geng Jun said with a sad face: "The little envoy is brave and gives a warning to General Li in his private capacity, your army is chasing and killing our army all the way, the soldiers and horses are very tired, and the transportation of grain and grass is becoming more and more difficult. ”

"Thank you for your kind reminder, you are telling the truth." Li Tianzhi smiled and said: "But it doesn't matter, I never care about the undefeated prestige, it doesn't matter how many defeats I have." Also, as for the fatigue of our army's soldiers, it doesn't matter, if you stop, we will stop, my brothers have time to rest, if you run slowly, we will chase slowly, if you run fast, we will chase fast, anyway, we will have time to rest, but what about your army, when we return to Fujian, will we have time to rest? ”

Li Tianzhi was a scoundrel to this point, and the envoy of Geng Jun really couldn't cry, so he could only stubbornly say: "General, what about the grain and grass?" The envoy reminded the general again that as long as the amount of water in Jinhua and Yongkang Creek is passed, there will be no way to support your army's waterway grain transportation. Does your army really want to fight with our army and let Zheng Jing'er choose to be cheap? ”

"There is no waterway, we can take the land route, anyway, Zhejiang has been plagued by you like this, the homeless people have gone to the sea, as long as they are willing to pay for food, they are afraid that they will not be able to hire a man to transport grain?" Li Tianzhi smiled and said: "It's your army, if the prince of Yanping takes the Yanping Mansion that was attacked by them on both sides, and robs your largest grain producing area, and your army recovers the military rations needed to recover Fujian, I'm afraid that you will have to buy it from our army, right?" ”

Geng Jun's envoy was completely speechless, tears really oozed from the corners of his eyes, Li Tianzhi saw that he was pitiful, so he also put away his hippie smile, smiled and said: "Your envoy doesn't have to be anxious, for the sake of your sincerity, I will give you a way to make a difference." ”

As he spoke, Li Tianzhi picked up two letters from the table and said: "These two letters are letters written by Shang Zhixin Shang Wang Ye of Guangdong, one is for me, and the other is for us Lu Wang Ye, I dare not open the letter to Lu Wang Ye privately, but Shang Wang Ye has passed my letter, and your envoy can copy a copy and take it back to Geng Wang Ye, Geng Wang Ye will naturally not blame you for sending our army in vain." ”

"What did Prince Shang say to the general in the letter?" The envoy of Geng Jun asked tremblingly.

"What do you say?" Li Tianzhi smiled and asked: "Shang Wangye's Gaozhou, Lianzhou, Leizhou, Luoding and Zhaoqing are in the hands of our Great Zhou army, Chaozhou, Jiaying Prefecture and more than half of Huizhou were robbed by Zheng Jing, and in fact, only Guangzhou, Shaozhou, Nanxiong and half of Huizhou are actually controlled, how can Shang Wangye be satisfied with such a small piece of territory?" Shang Wang Ye is also the brother-in-law of our Yue Wangye, and the brother-in-law of our Yue Wang's son, when he hears the news of our southern expedition against your army, don't you want his relatives to help him and help him find some from other places to make up for the losses? ”

"Bang."

The envoy of Geng Jun sat on the ground, his face was as pale as a dead man, and his teeth couldn't help but fight. Li Tianzhi glanced at him with pity and said: "Don't worry, don't worry, Prince Shang didn't say that he must cut meat from you, as long as Prince Geng agrees to our conditions, Prince Shang will not only not attack your army, but will definitely send troops to help your army, attack Prince Yanping in the north and south, and recover his lost territory in Guangdong by the way." ”

(To be continued)