Hong Chengchou took the report, and had mixed feelings in his heart, should his official be removed because of the thieves?

According to the report, the thieves who appeared in Shanxi this time were very different from the past, they had uniform military uniforms, black clothes and black armor under the banner of the security army.

The security army is also the security army. After being defeated by the security army last time, Hong Chengchou retreated to Yan'an Mansion, not only did he not have the strength to attack again, but also had to prevent the security army from suddenly coming to seize Yan'an.

In the past few months, Hong Chengchou has raised funds from all sides, preparing to expand his forces to counterattack, and the terrible thing is that the speed of expansion of the security army is even faster than him, first of all, the entire security army has changed to a uniform black military uniform, and there is no resemblance to the official army in terms of the style and color of the clothing. Hong Chengchou understood that this was Zhang Chu's decision to officially break with the court.

Next, the security army, which has always restricted the entry of displaced people, began to recruit young people, which made Hong Chengchou have only one judgment, the security army is expanding.

In response to Hong Chengchou, the defense of Yan'an Mansion was strengthened, and nothing could be said that he could no longer lose the battle.

At this moment, news came from Shanxi that a large number of security forces had attacked and disturbed the Fenyang area, and it had penetrated far into Shanxi, and even the garrison in Taiyuan felt threatened.

Hong Chengchou is the governor of the three sides, and Shanxi is also under his jurisdiction, and once Shanxi is lost, his responsibility cannot be shirked.

Hong Chengchou figured it out, the security army expanded, and as soon as there were more people, they had to eat, Shaanxi had been robbed by thieves several times, and there was nothing to rob, Zhang Chu, the thief, wanted to develop to the east of Shanxi and expand the team to rob grain. This is an opportunity that can be used, the previous security army was to build a castle to defend every place, and the officers and soldiers suffered Zhang Chu's losses several times when attacking, this time the security army took the initiative to attack, just for Cao Wenzhao's Guanning Iron Cavalry to provide an opportunity, without the protection of the infantry is unable to resist the Guanning Iron Cavalry such a cavalry.

Hong Chengchou immediately made a decision, and immediately sent Cao Wenzhao to lead all his men and horses to Shanxi to suppress bandits, and at the same time strictly ordered soldiers and horses from all over the country to cooperate.

Governor Hong's orders were conveyed one by one, and the officers and soldiers who had been silent for a long time began to act again, Hong Chengchou was still not very relieved, and simply went to Taiyuan to supervise the battle in person, he did not seek to be able to eliminate the security army at one time, but only wanted to find an opportunity to defeat a part of the security army, which could also improve the morale of the officers and soldiers.

The squires and officials in Taiyuan City heard that Hong Chengchou had arrived in Taiyuan, and they all went to Hong Chengchou's residence to post and visit, with only one purpose of asking the Governor to send troops to exterminate this gang of thieves as soon as possible. If it weren't for the fact that the security forces were not interested in occupying the city, it would be difficult to keep the city in the state capitals. Hong Chengchou originally came to exterminate the security army, so he naturally accepted it, and of course he received valuable gifts.

Taking this opportunity, Hong Chengchou also called on wealthy people from all over the country to actively contribute to the eradication of thieves. Due to the financial support, the recruits are some outlaws who are for money, and the ranks of the township warriors in terms of combat effectiveness even exceed the officers and soldiers of the guards. For a while, everyone was full of confidence in the extermination of the thieves, and clamored to immediately send troops to exterminate the security army.

Hong Chengchou was naturally much calmer than those squires, and he decided to take a steady approach, gathering most of the officers and troops in Shanxi near Taiyuan, and then clinging to Cao Wenzhao's cavalry, responding to each other, just in case.

Hong Chengchou's strategy really worked, the security army saw a large group of officers and soldiers coming, almost fled in despair, never confronted the officers and troops head-on, the security army's range of activities in the Fenyang area became smaller and smaller, and finally completely retreated to the mountains. The officers and soldiers were jubilant, their morale was greatly boosted, and all kinds of documents for reporting success were delivered to Hong Chengchou's hands. Although there were no actual results, they were all reported as pieces of reconquest. Wherever the officials and soldiers went, not only were the people robbed, but they also killed entire families and cut off their heads as a meritorious report for the elimination of the thieves, and even some small and medium-sized landlords were extorted from time to time, and the harm of the officials and soldiers was far greater than that of the thieves.

Hong Chengchou is well aware of the behavior of the officials and soldiers who kill good people and take meritorious deeds. But he never broke it, on the one hand, he also needed these merits, and in addition, the current salaries of the officers and soldiers were difficult to motivate the soldiers, so he could only let the officers and soldiers loot to improve morale.

Of course, Hong Chengchou will not let go of the opportunity of this "big victory", and constantly report to Emperor Chongzhen, a letter written with flowers, Emperor Chongzhen's dragon heart is happy, and he deeply feels that he has the wisdom of a useful person, and he still retains it after Hong Chengchou's defeat, and Hong Chengchou really lives up to his grace. Now that the Houjin has receded, if the thieves are exterminated again, the Ming Dynasty will be able to prosper, and the ministers will take the opportunity to tout to the emperor, and all the victories have been achieved under the wise leadership of the emperor.

Zhang Chu in Zhongyang was busier than the emperor, whenever a group of recruits returned, Zhang Chu had to personally understand the situation of the combat march, this operation was not only a military adventure for Zhang Chu, but also an important attempt to reform the original army.

The composition of the team formed this time has changed significantly from the old army, and only a small proportion of the soldiers in the team use cold weapons such as spears and swords, and most of them are musketeers who use muskets. Whether they can withstand the impact of the cavalry of the official army is still unknown, and the effect of the car battalion composed of vehicles such as partial vans against the cavalry is indeed very good, but they are too expensive, and Zhang Chu's current financial resources cannot be equipped too much, so there is only one chariot battalion in the security army so far. In order to ensure the safety of this operation, Zhang Chu transferred the chariot battalion to the south with the new 1st and 2nd divisions, and the recruits of these two divisions went around in the Fenyang area. The summary meeting from the bottom to the top was held for several days, both officers and soldiers were thinking about their performance in actual combat, and the summary was sent to Zhang Chu, Zhang Chu and the staff officers made some adjustments to the composition of the team after studying, and the follow-up materials purchased by Wang Jijie were also transported to Zhongyang.

Zhang Chu stared at the map in the war room, thinking back to the entire plan in his mind, not letting go of any of the possible loopholes. The staff officers were all waiting for Zhang Chu to give the final order, and the war room was quiet.

Finally, Zhang Chu turned around and said to the staff officer waiting at the door: "Order the troops to set off and advance to Yuncheng as planned." ”

The war machine of the security forces was put into operation, and the operation that cost two million pieces of silver, and the life and death of tens of thousands of people began. (To be continued.) )