"Young Master!" Yang Qing's expression was a little flustered, and he stepped forward and whispered to Yang Sichang: "Liu Cheng is here, saying that he wants to see you immediately, and I will arrange him in the side courtyard!" ”

"What?" Yang Sichang was taken aback, he looked at Yang Qing to confirm that the other party was not fainting, only to see that Yang Qing's brows were tightly locked, and his expression was anxious, but his eyes were clear, and he was obviously very conscious. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Take me to him!" Yang Sichang suppressed the doubts in his heart and commanded in a low voice.

Liu Cheng sat in the room, and in order to avoid leaking the news, there was not even a cup of tea on the table. He didn't think it was wrong, he sat on the chair and closed his eyes to recuperate, but he was thinking about how to persuade Yang Sichang in his heart.

There was a rush of footsteps outside the door, Liu Cheng stood up, and before he could reach the door, the door was pushed open suddenly, Yang Sichang rushed into the door, and shouted in a deep voice: "Liu Cheng, what are you doing?" Did you know that trespassing is a grave sin? ”

Liu Cheng didn't answer Yang Sichang's question, but smiled at Yang Qing behind the other party: "Uncle Qing, please go and guard the hospital door, don't let others in, I have confidential matters to discuss with Lord Yang!" ”

Yang Qing answered, carefully closed the door, and went to the courtyard gate to guard. There were only Liu Cheng and Yang Sichang left in the room, and the atmosphere suddenly became awkward. Liu Cheng smiled and dragged a chair to Yang Sichang's side, and made a gesture to sit down, Yang Sichang snorted coldly, sat down and said, "General Liu, there are no outsiders here, just say what you have to say!" ”

"My lord, I heard that there is a rumor in the court that wants to transfer me to the Central Plains to fight thieves, I don't know if it's true or not?"

Yang Sichang frowned, scolded Liu Cheng not to care about the government, and swallowed back the words that he spent his mind on guarding the sidelines, he knew in his heart that Liu Cheng was different from those military generals who were regarded as servants and lackeys by civilian officials, and his relationship with himself was not so much a subordinate as a superior, but closer to an offensive and defensive alliance, if he didn't want to destroy this alliance, he couldn't treat him with the attitude towards other generals.

"Yes, Hong Hengjiu wrote to the court a few days ago, saying that the thieves rode more and traveled in all directions, and the officers and soldiers couldn't catch up with them, saying that you have tens of thousands of elite horsemen under your command, and I hope to send you to his command to exterminate the thieves within half a year."

"Exterminate the thieves in half a year, he is so angry!" Liu Cheng sneered, thinking in his heart that if you don't say half a year, you Hong Chengchou won't be able to exterminate the thieves if you give it another half a year.

"Hong Hengjiu also has no way!" Yang Sichang subconsciously reached out to touch the teacup, but found that it was empty, and an embarrassed look appeared on his face: "You don't know how many notes have been made to impeach him in the past few months, there are seventeen or eighteen copies sent to the saint every day from the military plane, and it is estimated that he is already anxious now." ”

"Then he can rush to the hospital and drag me into the water?" Liu Cheng sneered: "Your Excellency, you also know that it took me a long time to take care of Xuanda Town and Hetao, and I will use troops against the left-wing Mongolia after the autumn, if I am transferred to him, what will I do with this mess?" ”

"General Liu, this is just a rumor at the moment, and the imperial court has not issued an order to you, you can't help but worry too much, right?"

"Really?" Liu Cheng sneered: "I think this is not just a rumor, right?" Hong Chengchou's letter is only afraid that it will just hit the itch of the gentry in the provinces, and it will be too late when the order comes down! ”

Yang Sichang didn't speak, he knew in his heart that what Liu Cheng said was right. The scholars of the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the friendship of the villagers, and many of the gentlemen who had already become officials, or even those who had never been out of office, could also influence the provincial officials in the court through the township party and the same year, and then affect the evidence, which is based on the saying that the Ming Dynasty had great power for the gentry. After the autumn, Huainan, Sichuan and other places that had never encountered thieves before were also poisoned by the fire, and even Wuchang, Nanjing, Jiujiang, Anqing, Yangzhou and other cities along the river were threatened by the fire. For the gentry in these regions, no matter how miserable the loss of Liaodong and Dongyu is, it is just a casual conversation after dinner, and the current thieves are holding a knife to the tip of their noses. Although these local officials have a gritted hatred for Hong Chengchou, they will definitely support Liu Chengchou's performance of Liu Cheng's iron cavalry to go south to suppress thieves, and with the support of such a powerful latent force, it is very likely that Hong Chengchou's performance will pass.

"General Liu, what Lord Hong said also has his truth, the thief is a problem in the heart, and the Dongyu is far away from the pass-"

"Lord Yang, Liu Cheng doesn't dare to agree with this!" Liu Cheng unceremoniously interrupted Yang Sichang's words: "The generals under your command are either Chahar, Tumut Hussars, or Xuanda, Yansui, and Ningxia Xiaoguo. For them, the East is close at hand. If they want to leave the eastern captives and left-wing Mongolia in front of them and go to the Guannai to crusade against the thieves, who will protect their wives, children, and ancestral graves? My lord, the soldiers of the Nine Sides are not only fighting against the Eastern Captives for their own hometown, but for the entire Ming Dynasty; If the Ming Dynasty abandons them, then I am afraid that they will turn the spearhead and become the eagle dog of the East Captive. ”

"You-!" Yang Sichang's face turned pale with anger, and he couldn't speak for a while, and it took a while before he held back a sentence: "Liu Cheng, you are so bold, are you coercing this official?" ”

"I'm just telling the truth!" Liu Cheng sneered: "Lord Yang, when the Denglai Rebellion was at the beginning, Kong Youde and Geng Jingzhong didn't have a deep enmity with the Eastern Captives, but why did they finally take refuge in the captive chieftains and become accomplices?" Lord Yang, most of my subordinates are Qianghu, and all the departments on the grassland are the weak and the strong, and they only obey their strength. They are willing to let me drive not because I am generous and righteous, but because I am strong enough that they can follow me so that they can be free from foreign enemies, and they can invade and plunder from outside. They came with me on our crusade to destroy the old enemy and plunder the pastures and livestock of the left flank; Second, you can protect your own safety. If they enter the pass, there is no pasture and livestock to plunder, they will plunder the children of the people, and if the eastern captives take the opportunity to march westward, I am afraid that even I will not be able to control them at that time. ”

Listening to Liu Cheng's faintly threatening words, Yang Sichang gradually calmed down, he knew in his heart that what Liu Cheng said was the truth, since ancient times, the military discipline of this kind of barbarian cavalry has not been good, a typical example is the Shatuo soldiers at the end of the Tang Dynasty, whose combat effectiveness was off the charts and defeated Huangchao, but they robbed more than Huangchao's army. If they were allowed to enter the customs, it would be easier to ask God to send them to God. He hesitated: "What you said makes sense, but now the Son of Heaven is urging the matter of suppressing thieves, and you are not willing to send Mongolian soldiers into the customs to quell the thieves, so there must be a countermeasure!" ”

Liu Cheng saw that Yang Sichang was relieved, and a stone fell to the ground in his heart, what he was most afraid of was that Yang Sichang insisted on throwing the little capital he had worked so hard to accumulate into the customs to fight the thieves. Most of his troops are Mongols, let them enter the Central Plains is not like a tiger into the flock, as the saying goes, thieves are like combs, soldiers are like grates, and these Mongolian soldiers under him are razors. If he leads the army into the customs, I am afraid that Cao Cao, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong will be wiped out by then, and the Central Plains will also be turned into a blank field, and dozens of more Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Cao Cao will come, but they will make wedding dresses for the Emperor Taiji Dolgon outside the pass. He took advantage of Yang Sichang's failure to come back to his senses, and hurriedly smiled: "Actually, this is an opportunity!" ”

"Opportunity? What chances? ”

"Those civil officials think that Liaodong is far away from their hometown, and they always oppose your excerpt of increasing the salary and training of the new army? Now that the thieves are raging, Cao Cao's knives are all against the tip of their noses, they won't object, right? ”

"This-" Yang Sichang was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and felt that what Liu Cheng said was also reasonable: "It's just that this new tax is only used to levy thieves, and you are unwilling to send troops into the customs." ”

"You can't be the master alone with or without a tax increase, but when the money is collected, won't it be up to you?" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "In this way, I will train two more battalions of infantry on the Datong side, and I will say that it is used to deal with the thieves in the pass, my lord, you can quickly give the money of the other battalions first, I can wait!" ”

"Huh!" Yang Sichang said with a smile: "Okay, I'll go to the palace tomorrow and start the Holy Lord, and see if it works." But you can't do it if you don't come out with a single soldier, Hong Hengjiu's Tang newspaper is sent several times a day, all of them are asking for soldiers and salaries, the situation is critical, I have to give him a little explanation, right? ”

Liu Cheng heard that Yang Sichang meant to use the imperial court's salary and his own division of troops to Hong Chengchou as an exchange condition, but his next eastward expedition to the left wing of Mongolia, Huang Taiji would inevitably send troops to help, and it was very likely that a battle would break out between the main forces of the two sides. It is taboo for soldiers to disperse their forces before such a decisive battle, but if they do not divide their troops, Yang Sichang will definitely not be able to pass this pass. Thinking of this, Liu Cheng couldn't help but feel a little dilemma.

"Lord Yang, in fact, why do you care so much about Hong Hengjiu's call for help?" Liu Cheng pondered the words for a moment and said in a low voice: "I think that when Elder Lingzun was in Shaanxi, Hong Hengjiu didn't seem to be so supportive of the strategy of appeasement. ”

Hearing Liu Cheng mention his father's old affairs in Shaanxi, Yang Sichang's face suddenly turned pale, and after a while, he heard his deep voice: "Those are all things in the past, now Hong Hengjiu is the court supervisor and crusades against thieves, and I, as the first assistant of the dynasty, must be the first assistant of the dynasty, and I must take state affairs first!" ”

"That's right, what you're saying, sir, is that state affairs must be the priority!" Liu Cheng was choked by Yang Sichang's sentence "putting national affairs first" and couldn't speak for a while, and couldn't help but secretly regret that he didn't think about it before speaking, but was a villain in vain. He thought for a while: "My lord, Datong and Guihua City are going to go east next, and Huang Taiji will definitely send troops to rescue the Mongolian left wing, this is a decisive battle related to the survival of the country, and not a single soldier can be drawn." I have another army, I don't know if it will make it! ”

"Another unit?" Yang Sichang looked at Liu Cheng in surprise, and the questions in his eyes were about to overflow - you are not the general soldier of Datong, where is there another army?

Liu Cheng sighed, if he hadn't been forced into a corner by Yang Sichang, he wouldn't have been willing to expose his secret chess, but the most important thing at the moment was the Eastern Crusade, as long as he could take down the left wing of Mongolia and hit Houjin hard, the entire Southern Mongolia would be owned by himself, and Houjin would also be driven back to the west side of the Changbai Mountains, and the whole situation would be completely different. After weighing the pros and cons, there is only one way to sacrifice the hidden trick planted in advance.

"My lord, do you remember Xu Hecheng? It's the same person I asked last time to help me get a member of the Ministry of War. ”

"Xu Hecheng?" Yang Sichang thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Remember, he was the one who saved King Tang in Nanyang, right?" General Liu, this person is indeed a talent, when he returns to Beijing, I want to meet him, if it is suitable, let him out first to be a soldier, and then come to the military aircraft department in two years, I am very short of manpower here! ”

"Thank you for your appreciation!" Liu Cheng smiled bitterly, secretly thinking that Yang Sichang was also embarrassed in the court, and it was estimated that there were few trustworthy talents on hand, otherwise he would not be in such a hurry to poach people from his side.

Yang Sichang suddenly reacted: "You said that the centaur is him?" It's too little, I read that the Tang newspaper said that there are only about 200 people under him, what are these people enough for? ”

"Not two hundred, but two thousand, all soldiers!" Liu Cheng said in a low voice.

"Two thousand soldiers?" Yang Sichang was taken aback, he has always been known as a "knowing soldier" among the civil officials of this dynasty, and he has worked as a squire and a scholar in the military department, and he knows very well that most of the field forces of the Ming army at that time were deployed in the important towns of the nine borders, especially Liaodong; The second is the southwest defense toast; In fact, there are very few troops that can be used for field warfare in the interior provinces of the Central Plains and southeast China that have been peaceful all year round, for example, most of the troops under Hong Chengchou are drawn from the border guards of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, plus a small number of former thieves who have been recruited and a small number of new troops recruited from Hebei and Henan, the total number of troops does not exceed 50,000, of which the number of soldiers is no more than 30,000 at best. For example, in the southern provinces of Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, where there was no popular uprising, and the southern provinces in a state of peace maintained a usable field force, the only available field troops were often only the standard battalions directly under the highest local military and political commanders, and the combatable troops were often only one or two thousand. This is also the reason why once Li Zicheng broke out of the Dabie Mountains and entered Huainan, the southeastern half of the country was full of flames -- the field troops in the provinces were pitifully small, and the poor garrisons in the prefectures and counties only had the ability to defend the city and were unable to go out of the city to fight in the field. Hong Chengchou's main force is dealing with Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao, if he transfers troops to Huainan, he is afraid that he will press the gourd to float the scoop, and his previous efforts will be wasted. Thieves can travel between states and counties at will, attacking and looting at will. Even the prefectures and counties south of the Yangtze River are in a state of unease -- thousands of miles into the Yangtze River, who knows where the thieves will get a boat to cross the river and kill them? South of the Yangtze River, it has not been seen for hundreds of years. If Liu Cheng didn't lie, it would be equivalent to having an extra field force in one or two provinces at once, and if the combat effectiveness was comparable to the infantry teams under Liu Cheng's current command, it would be quite impressive, at least he could be a firefighter and maneuver along the river to ensure that the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River were not lost. (To be continued.) )