Huguang Xiangyang Valley City, the official army regained the city again.

However, at this time, the city had already turned into a ruin, Zhang Xianzhong had already evacuated Gucheng, and went north to Junzhou to join Cao Cao.

A large mansion in the city that was temporarily cleared out was used as a temporary trip for Prime Minister Xiong Wencan. At this time, Xiong Wencan was looking down at a letter.

In front of him stood an officer, reporting the matter. "Guerrilla General Liu Jun Asks for Military Salaries and His Ordnance and Armor"

Xiong Wencan is sixty-four years old this year, his beard is gray, he responds to the report of his subordinates in a majestic nasal voice, but his eyes never leave the letter in his hand.

This letter was a letter sent by his brother-in-law, Yao Minggong, a member of the Cabinet University, from Beijing. The content of the letter was extremely important, and it was exactly what he had been waiting for all this time. I believe he has read it several times, but he is still reluctant to put it down, which will make him look at it again.

Half a year ago, Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits were poor and asked the court to surrender, at that time, Lin Mingqiu, the governor of Huguang, Kong Fangjiong, and Zuo Liangyu, the chief soldier, all agreed to surrender, but in the end, Xiong Wencan overrode the public opinion and accepted the bandits' request to surrender. Others thought that the reason why he agreed to accept the bandits' request to surrender was because he had successfully recruited Zheng Zhilong when he was on the coast, and then used Zheng Zhilong to exterminate the sea thieves Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang.

In fact, they didn't know that it was not his decision to agree to Zhang Xianzhong's request to surrender at that time. That's the meaning from the emperor and the Yang Gebu. At that time, the emperor and Yang Sichang were in a hurry to dispatch troops and horses to the north, so they strongly advocated recruiting bandits, and he was just the one who came forward.

But who would have thought that just a few months later, the bandits would turn back. Even Xiong Wencan felt that in fact, many bandits were indeed sincere in asking for surrender, but many officials such as Lin Mingqiu and Zuo Liangyu had been planning to take the opportunity to catch all these surrendered bandits. Zhang Xianzhong also knew about their plan, so he couldn't wait to turn back. If it weren't for this, even if Zhang Xianzhong wanted to rebel, he wouldn't have rebelled so quickly.

But in any case, Zhang Xianzhong was the opposite in the end, and the court also needed someone to be responsible for this. Neither the emperor nor Yang Sichang will come forward to take responsibility, and in the end, he will naturally be responsible for this black cauldron.

Previously, his brother-in-law Yao Minggong had informed him that the emperor had awarded Yang Sichang Shangfang the sword, urging Yang to go out of Beijing to supervise Huguang. Yang Sichang was holding Shang Fang's sword, and it was for him that he came. Those days. He was so desperate that he even thought about killing himself at one point.

He once begged his wife and brother for help, but even Yao Minggong, who was a cabinet scholar, couldn't help him at all. If he doesn't come out to take responsibility for this matter, will he let the emperor be responsible?

Fortunately, the endless road and the great victory of Qi Huang finally allowed him to win a glimmer of life.

Before that, he wrote a book of 10,000 words to play the Son of Heaven, and at the same time sent his family to bring 100,000 taels of silver to Beijing for activities. I hope to take the opportunity of the victory to tide over the difficulties.

The 100,000 taels of silver had been spent, and finally the family brought back the letter.

There were no too many cold and polite words in the letter, and his wife and brother told him that because of Qi Huang's victory, the emperor was in a slightly better mood now. He received reliable information that the emperor had issued a secret decree to Yang Sichang, and for the time being, he would not be questioned for the time being, and he would be allowed to take the crime seriously. Atonement for sins.

Yao Minggong told him in the letter that if he wanted to survive this catastrophe, the only way to win a few more battles was to win a few more battles. In the end, he was able to capture Zhang Xianzhong, and it had to be fast, the emperor didn't have much patience and couldn't wait too long.

Yao Minggong also revealed one thing, the emperor now seems to appreciate that Liu Jun very much, and the emperor seems to be ready to reactivate some Qi Huang officials who were dismissed twice by the eunuch party and Wen Tiren, such as Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng, Li Shuchu and others, so that he has the opportunity to make friends with them more.

The letter then talked about the emperor's plan to transfer Fu Zonglong, the governor of Sichuan, to the court to take charge of the affairs of the military department, and said that he was already working for him, and as long as he could play one or two more good news, he might be able to help him transfer back to Liangguang and continue to be the governor of Liangguang.

Xiong Wencan couldn't help but shake his head, he didn't believe that he could go back to be his governor of Liangguang, and he would be very satisfied if he could survive this difficult time safely, and then ask for a Zhishi to return to his hometown. As for exterminating Zhang Xianzhong, he found it difficult. The thieves were cunning, and their strength was not comparable to that of the officers and soldiers, but they were wandering around and could not catch anyone at all.

But now the emperor is only staring at Zhang Xianzhong, saying that Zhang Xianzhong committed the ancestral tomb of Fengyang before, and has repeatedly surrendered and rebelled, which is very bad, so he may be appeased, but the thief will not be forgiven. Looking at the emperor's meaning, if he can't take down Zhang Xianzhong, no matter how many thieves and bandits are exterminated, it will be useless.

Moreover, the emperor did not have much time left for him, Yang Sichang was still in Xiangyang City, and he might show Shang Fang's sword at any time.

"Where are Zuo Liangyu and Chen Hongfan's headquarters now?" Xiong Wencan asked.

"General Soldier Zuo and General Soldier Chen have just recovered Junzhou, and the second army is still in Junzhou."

Xiong Wencan snorted coldly, "Recovering Junzhou? "For Zuo Liangyu, Xiong Wencan has 10,000 dissatisfactions. When he was first transferred to the prime minister, he heard that Zuo Liangyu was also a strong general in the Guanning army, so he specially transferred Zuo Liangyu and his 6,000 soldiers and horses to his command as pacesetters.

As a result, as soon as Zuo Liangyu entered the standard camp, he had constant conflicts with the 2,000 birds he brought from Guangdong all day long, and finally he transferred the 2,000 Guangdong birds back to Guangdong in order to appease Zuo Liangyu.

After that, until now, Zuo Liangyu, the chief soldier, has not paid attention to himself, the prime minister, and has not been deployed at all, Xiong Wencan is simply fed up with this guy. But in addition to having the title of prime minister, he has no strong soldiers under him, and many times he can only stare at him, and he can't control this domineering general at all.

Just as he ordered Zuo Liangyu and Chen Hongfan to enter and suppress Zhang Xianzhong, but these two people ignored his orders at all.

Now Zhang Thief has already gone to Fang County in Yunyang Prefecture, but Zuo Liangyu and Chen Hongfan are still in Junzhou, north of Xiangyang.

In the final analysis, there is still a shortage of major generals under his command, otherwise how dare these domineering generals disobey his orders so much.

"You just said how many soldiers does Liu Jun have now?" Xiong Wencan asked.

"Liu Jun has been recruiting troops since the first battle of Hutou Fort, and now he has a war battalion and a baggage battalion, and the two battalions add up to no less than 7,000 people, and they have many firearms. Also armed with a lot of artillery. ”

Xiong Wencan was taken aback, "Isn't Liu Jun only six hundred subordinates?" ”

"It turned out that there were only 600 subordinates, but during this time they have been recruiting troops and horses, and Liu Jun has won the support of the local squires in Qihuang, and he has raised a lot of food and salary, in addition, as far as we know, Liu Jun also has his own firearms workshop, which is not small, and can produce a large number of firearms, and even some small cannons under 100 catties."

Xiong Wencan's heart was completely shocked by the number of 7,000 people. It multiplied tenfold all at once.

If Liu Jun can be transferred over and made him his prime minister's standard battalion, then he will have a large force under him, and Zuo Liangyu will not dare to ignore his orders at that time.

"You immediately go to Macheng, transfer the people of the second battalion of Liu Jun's department to Xiangyang immediately, well, now I have only one standard battalion under my command, then the original standard battalion will be changed to the middle battalion under the standard, and Liu Jun's two battalions will be organized into the left battalion and the right battalion under the standard. Liu Jun was the guerrilla officer of the left battalion. He was also awarded the rank of Prime Minister. Transfer his department and report to Xiangyang immediately. ”

As a prime minister, Xiong Wencan can have an elite pacesetter, the number of which can be thousands or tens of thousands. It turned out that Xiong Wencan hoped to use Zuo Liangyu as his pacesetter. As a result, who knew that Zuo Liangyu was so domineering, and now he only has 3,000 pacesetters under his command, and they are all just miscellaneous soldiers who are useless.

Liu Jun was transferred to come, in addition to being the commander of the first battalion. Xiong Wencan also generously asked Liu Jun to be the subordinate lieutenant officer, which is equivalent to the superior of the generals of the upper battalions and the chief officer of the third battalion. This can be regarded as Xiong Wencan's appreciation and trust of Liu Jun.

"Then Liu Jun's request for pay and weapons?" The officer was surprised by the prime minister's appreciation and reuse of Liu Jun, and his heart was envious.

Xiong Wencan thought for a while, "I don't have any ordnance guns and so on, but since Liu Jun has his own firearms workshop and channels to buy them from Guangdong, then I will directly pull out the money to him and let him buy them himself." When you go, I will give you 50,000 taels of silver, and you can bring it to Liu Jun, and tell him that this is the money, food, and ordnance money I gave him, and when he leads the troops to Xiangyang, I will give him another 50,000 taels. ”

For his own future, Xiong Wencan can be regarded as having made a bloody investment. Half of the 100,000 taels of silver were squeezed out of the money of the imperial court, and half was his own. Although, the so-called his own is just the bribes he received from Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits before.

But in any case, in order to get out of today's predicament as soon as possible, he did make a bloody investment.

Liu Jun, I hope you and your nine-headed bird are not in vain.

Xiong Wencan is a tall and thin man, dark face, towering nose bridge, a very majestic white beard, although he is over sixty years old, but his body is still tough, a pair of eyes are still very godly, these years his official fortune has been prosperous, especially in the coastal governor of Fujian, the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Guangdong, and the maritime trade group is close, especially with the Zheng group is closer, he recruited Zheng Zhilong, exterminated Liu Xiang and other pirates, won beautiful political achievements at the same time, but also earned a huge family business.

In fact, he was reluctant to come to the Central Plains to be the prime minister of the six provinces of the Central Plains to suppress bandits, and how could the Central Plains suppress bandits have a chic life on the coast.

"Master, Liu Jun also put forward a request, I hope the master will approve it."

"What more could you ask for?"

"Liu Jun wants to promote his subordinate Qianzong Zhang Shan to the position of Macheng garrison."

Xiong Wencan originally promoted Liu Jun to be a garrison, and for this reason, he also set up a new post of Macheng garrison, but Liu Jun was not a garrison for a few days, and the emperor named Liu Jun a guerrilla general. As a result, the Macheng garrison has completely become a status quo with neither officers nor soldiers. Originally, Xiong Wencan planned to directly withdraw this garrison, but he didn't expect Liu Jun to target it again.

After thinking about it, Xiong Wencan waved his hand, "I will allow him, and this Zhang Shan will serve as the garrison of Macheng." However, you tell Liu Jun that I can let Zhang Shan be the garrison, but he has to recruit this soldier himself, and Liu Jun's two battalions of 7,000 men and horses have to be pulled to Xiangyang for me. ”

"My subordinates understand."

"Go, go early and come back early." (To be continued......)