In the end, Zhang Zhun also said slowly: "I can also promise that as long as he doesn't take the initiative to provoke me, I won't mess with him." For the sake of his face, I can accept the appeasement. The imperial court can just give me an official position that is not lower than the second grade. ”

"Alas! Fund. Song Degang smiled wordlessly.

He said in his heart, "Is your son really willing to be appeased?" How many times have you been soothed, and how many times have you gotten up to make trouble? Even if Zhu Dadian suggests to appease you, the imperial court will have to seriously consider it! There is an example of Chezhou Gorge in the past, and the current imperial court is already very sensitive to the word appeasement.

However, this face-saving project must be done. No matter how hypocritical it is, it must be done. Otherwise, Zhu Dadian is colluding with the anti-thief. Such a crime is too serious. Since Zhang Zhun is willing to accept the appeasement, then Zhu Dadian can go to the imperial court, and the imperial court will decide whether to accept Zhang Zhun's surrender or not. If the court agrees, it will naturally be fine. If the court doesn't agree, say another thing later.

Soon, Song Degang took Zhang Zhun's request and returned to Zhu Dadian. Zhu Dadian was in his tent, and he thought about it for a day and a night before he replied. Two days later, Song Degang came to Zhang Zhun again to complete the last link of the negotiations. Of course, these conditions are all verbal and will never be recorded. As for the binding force, it depends on the respective military strength of the two sides.

Zhu Dadian agreed to all of Zhang Zhun's requests.

Zhang Zhun immediately ordered the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army to withdraw.

When the cavalry of the Tiger Army retreated, the five hundred men and horses of Zhu Dadian's cavalry battalion took the initiative to attack and tried to pursue Zhang Zhun, but as a result, they were inexplicably surrounded by the cavalry of the Tiger Army, and all the officers and soldiers were captured, and then they were put back, and all the horses were taken away.

Subsequently, the Ming army pursued in the rear, and the tiger army retreated in front, as if the tiger army could not bear it. One after the other, step by step. Occasionally, the two sides kept shooting at the sky, as if the battle was very fierce. On March 22, the Ming army finally reached the city of Qingzhou. Subsequently, the two sides crackled and fired their guns into the sky. In the end, all the tiger troops in Qingzhou City withdrew and retreated to Changle County, and the Ming army stayed in the empty Qingzhou City. Subsequently, the two sides formally disengaged.

"Old Song, you are stationed in Qingzhou Mansion, I am relieved."

When leaving Qingzhou City, Zhang Zhun specially greeted Song Degang.

"Alas! It's a chore! ”

Song Degang sighed helplessly.

Zhu Dadian finally decided that Song Degang would be stationed in Qingzhou Mansion. For such an arrangement, Song Degang really couldn't laugh or cry. He is sandwiched between Zhang Zhun and Zhu Dadian, and if he wants to live a chic life in the future, it will be difficult! At this time, Song Degang regretted that he was desperately competing for the position of chief soldier of Denglai. As a result, he was forced into the cracks.

Fortunately, as long as he doesn't take the initiative to provoke Zhang Zhun, Zhang Zhun shouldn't take the initiative to beat him. If there are no major accidents, the two sides should be fine. If the imperial court was really too urgent, he would simply surrender to Zhang Zhun. Between the imperial court and Zhang Zhun, Song Degang still felt that following Zhang Zhun had a future, although it was a rebellion.

At the end of March, Zhu Dadian sent King Heng back to King Heng's mansion. After a month of sojourn in the palace of King De, King Heng was obviously devastated, and his spirit has been languishing ever since, and he soon fell ill. Zhu Dadian's encirclement and suppression of Zhang Zhun ended in this way. As for the inside story, there is also the aftermath of waiting, of course, it will not dissipate easily. But that's all for later.

The current attention of the imperial court is still on the rebellious army in Shaanxi. Because they did not succeed in taking Fengyang Mansion, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others led their troops to attack Qizhou, Huangzhou and other places. At the same time, there were troops who shot the sky and others, and they continued to respond back and forth in the area of Guide Mansion in Henan, which was also impressive. The nearby Ming troops were all beaten to a mess and wailed again and again.

Although he did not take Fengyang Mansion and did not achieve the goal of destroying the dragon vein, the strategy of "dividing troops and determining the direction" proposed by Li Zicheng still achieved considerable results. His own prestige has been greatly enhanced. This strategy laid a solid foundation for Li Zicheng to basically unify the rebel army in the future.

Relatively speaking, on the side of the imperial court, it is a bit troublesome. Except for Yang Yipeng, the results of the others are relatively ugly. Because the rebel army was active in the areas of Qizhou and Huangzhou, mobile battles, and came and went without a trace, Zhang Guowei, the governor of Yingtian, led troops to encircle and suppress it, obviously because he had more than enough heart and insufficient strength. The greatest ability of this governor is to build water conservancy for the benefit of the people, rather than marching and fighting. There was no way, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to keep urging Hong Chengchou to get out.

At the end of February, Hong Chengchou, who had been cowering in Shaanxi, finally led his army out of the customs. In March, in Henan, he fought five consecutive battles with the rebels. In the first battle, more than 100 rebels were killed. In the second battle, more than 3,400 rebels were killed. In the third battle, 1,900 rebels were killed. In the fourth battle, 3,300 rebels were killed. In the fifth battle, 4,000 rebels were killed. For a time, the entire rebel army was shaken.

"Hong Laojiu is here! Come on! ”

"Hong Laojiu is here! Come on! ”

"Hong Laojiu is here! Come on! ”

For a while, the entire rebel army was exclaiming, and they all avoided Hong Chengchou's edge. The rebel army, which had been fighting in Henan, left Henan one after another, turned westward, and reassembled in the Fancheng (present-day Xiangfan City, Hubei Province) area to discuss how to deal with the menacing Hong Laojiu. Hong Chengchou then led his army to Ruzhou and continued to attack in the direction of the Han River.

It is precisely because of Hong Chengchou's effective means that if he does not make a sound, he will be a blockbuster, and the eyes of the imperial court will be attracted to the vicinity of Henan, and they will not pay much attention to the war in Shandong. Although Zhang Zhun was fortunate to be characterized as a traitor by the edict, and was fortunate to be tied with Li Zicheng, Huang Taiji and others, the current ranking is still very low, and he cannot attract the attention of others at all.

After evacuating Qingzhou City, Zhang Zhun was stationed in Changle County for a few days.

The current Changle County is completely different from before. What's not the same? Originally a town, now a military fortress. In order to prevent the Ming army from entering the territory of Laizhou Prefecture from Changle County, Zhang Zhun established a huge military fortress here to deal with attacks from the direction of Qingzhou City at any time. The entire Changle County, all the }}}} city walls, as well as the buildings, were reinforced with cement. However, the Tiger Ben Army was not stationed here. Garrisoned in Changle County, it is a militia group.

Due to the crazy massacre of the Ming army, the local people in Changle County hated the Ming army very much, and they were determined to follow Zhang Zhun to fight against the imperial court. They organized their own militia group, which numbered more than 1,000 people, and almost all the young and middle-aged people in the city participated. Zhang Zhun naturally wanted to actively support such an act, and he provided a large amount of weapons and equipment to the militia group.

Weapons such as the Tiger Ben Gun could not be used by the militia groups, but the various artillery pieces captured from the Ming army, as well as the Lu Mi guns captured from Zheng Zhilong's pirate group, and even the large spray guns captured from the Nanjing defenders, were generously given to the militia groups in Changle County. The performance of these weapons is better than that of ordinary arquebuses.

Now Zhang Zhun has a large number of seized weapons in his hands. There are thousands of them of all kinds of firearms. Cold weapons such as waist knives, spears, shields, bows and arrows are also available, and several large warehouses are densely stacked. Most of these weapons came from the Ming army defeated by Zhang Zhun, some from pirates, and some from Tartars from Tianheng Island.

Due to the control of various parts of Laizhou Mansion and the integration of a large number of resources, Zhang Zhun's hands are basically all tigers. The performance of these captured weapons is too far from the Tiger Ben Gun to be of any use at all. For a while, Zhang Zhun had no way to deal with these weapons. Originally, it was going to be returned to the furnace, but after thinking about it, I still forgot it. The cost of returning to the furnace is high, so it is better to make iron directly, so continue to put it away.

Due to the establishment and scale of the recruit training camps, the original local units, including the guerrillas and the armed engineering units, were also abolished. All the fighters were added to the battalions of the regular army. All the weapons they used were also freed up. The militia in Changle County needed these weapons, and Zhang Zhun was naturally generous and gave whatever he wanted.

With a large number of weapons, the militia in Changle County is very motivated. They sent their families to Laizhou Prefecture for resettlement, and they were here, preparing to fight to the death with the Ming army. Changle County is less than a hundred miles away from Qingzhou City, and it can be reached in a blink of an eye. If the Ming army came out of Qingzhou City and attacked Laizhou Capital, it must first pass through Changle County. At this time, the militia in Changle County can play a big role.

But with the development of the situation, in the end, the Ming army retreated, Song Degang took the Ming army into Qingzhou Mansion, and the Changle Fortress was temporarily useless. As a result, Zhang Zhun left a small number of militia regiments here to garrison as the outpost of Laizhou Mansion, and the rest of the personnel retreated to Weixian County in Laizhou Prefecture to help with production. These people are excellent laborers!

After leaving Changle County, Zhang Zhun returned to Laizhou Mansion.

On Monday, Hang reported to Zhang Zhun on all relevant work.

By the end of March, the land reform work in Laizhou Prefecture had been completed. All other affairs have also been put on the right track. After investing a large amount of money in the construction of water conservancy facilities, all the millions of acres of land in Laizhou Prefecture have been prepared for spring ploughing. Compared with the previous field area, this year's rice sowing area will be 700,000 mu more than before.

Because the people have their own fields, their enthusiasm for labor is very high, and they don't need everyone's supervision at all, so they take care of their fields. Due to the intensive cultivation of the people, it is estimated that the average yield of rice per mu this year should be more than 300 catties.