Zheng Xunrui has always been concerned about the movements of Huguang and Henan Liukou, so he ordered the Zheng Jiajun Investigation Department to do its best to investigate, and must get as much accurate information as possible in the shortest possible time.

Zheng Xunrui's decision made everyone very strange, because Zheng Xunrui had made it clear that he would not get involved in the matter of exterminating the Liukou, and he would seize the opportunity to gradually strengthen his own strength and gradually control Nanzhili and Shandong when the imperial court devoted most of its energy to the eradication of the Liukou and neglected the situation of Nanzhili.

Since Zheng Xunrui has such an idea, then the focus of attention should be on the situation in Nanzhili and Shandong and other places, and its main opponents at present are the Donglin Party and the forces arranged by the emperor in all aspects of Nanzhili, so the focus of the investigation office must be placed in Nanzhili and all parts of Shandong, why bother to care about the affairs of the Liukou, anyway, the imperial court has a newspaper.

This question, including Xu Wanghua, has been raised, after all, the power of the Investigation Bureau is limited, and once it pays special attention to one place, it will inevitably ignore other places.

Zheng Xunrui did not explain, but still made the decision to focus on investigating the movements of the Liukou, and also asked Zheng Jinhong to send some of the most capable scouts to Huguang and Henan to carry out more investigations.

However, Zheng Xunrui also made it clear that he could care about the movements of Liukou, Xu Wanghua, Zheng Jinhong, Li Yan and others have their own priorities, and they still have to focus on things in Nanzhili, Huaibei and Shandong.

Once Zheng Xunrui has made a decision, the others will not object and go their own way.

Since the twentieth day of the lunar month, Zheng Xunrui basically did not ask about Hongmen and Hongmen Qianzhuang, and most of the time he locked himself in his room, facing a pile of information involving Liukou, Henan, Huguang and other places. The map on the table was already densely marked.

On the thirtieth day of the lunar month, Zheng Xunrui's mansion was very lively, the eldest sister Zheng Lingli, the eldest brother-in-law Sun Jinru, the second sister Zheng Yuhua, the second brother-in-law Zhao Danyu, and the third sister Zheng Xiaoling. The third brother-in-law Liang Xingli, younger brother Zheng Kaihua, younger sister-in-law Zhou Bingyan, etc., all came, because Zheng Xunrui was outside for a long time, it was impossible for everyone to spend the New Year together, but now Zheng Xunrui has returned to his hometown to be an official, and everyone naturally comes to Zheng Xunrui to come to the New Year.

Zheng Jinhong and Yuhuan, Li Yan and Tang, Red Lady, Xu Wanghua, Hong Xinyu and others also went to Zheng Xunrui's mansion to eat together. Zheng Jinhong and Yuhuan follow Zheng Xunrui and them to join the New Year every year, Li Yan, Tang and the Red Lady were specially invited by Wen Manshan, as for Xu Wanghua and Hong Xinyu, of course, Zheng Xunrui invited them.

There are several large tables for the reunion dinner, separated for men and women, with men in the lobby and women in the wings. The difference is that Wen Manshan, Dongmei, Xu Fojia, Yang Aizhen, Bian Yujing, Red Lady and others. After tempering, they have seen the market, and they are very free and easy, and they even came out with wine glasses to toast everyone.

The lobby was even more lively, Xu Wanghua, who had always been cautious, was toasted several times. also began to shake his head and compose poems and lyrics, and Zheng Jinhong was like a host, beckoning everyone to eat, reminding his subordinates to pour wine, and so on.

More than ten years have passed, and Zheng Xunrui, who has worked hard. The first time to experience such a scene, the past more than ten Spring Festival, only this time the Spring Festival is the most lively, the New Year's flavor is also the strongest, the people who eat and drink together, either his family members, or his absolute confidants, which makes him very emotional, in a good mood, but also drank a lot of wine.

The reunion dinner was eaten until dark, but Nanjing has become a city that never sleeps, every household is lit up, everyone has to keep vigil, this night will not sleep, a group of children have already run outside the mansion to set off firecrackers, others are chatting together.

Zheng Xunrui did not go to the study this time, but told Hong Xinyu to go to the study and took out the map he had marked.

Xu Wanghua, Zheng Kaihua, Zheng Jinhong, Sun Jinru, Zhao Danyu, Liang Xingli, Hong Xinyu and Li Yan and others all gathered around, looking at the map carefully, Zheng Kaihua and Sun Jinru and others were not particularly familiar with the map, Zheng Jinhong explained to the two in a low voice, and the two also listened very carefully and nodded from time to time.

When everyone was looking at the map and whispering, Zheng Xunrui coughed and was about to speak, and the surroundings were quiet.

"During this time, I have been analyzing the situation in Liukou and Huguang, Henan and other places, you may not understand, today I can explain to you well, why I will analyze the movements of Liukou, and what is the purpose."

"A big curtain has been opened, and a good show is about to be staged, and this big drama involves the world of the Ming Dynasty."

"You will find it strange, it is said that the biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty comes from the Houjin Tartars, and now that the Houjin Tartars have rested, then it should be peaceful in the world, as for the Liukou, they don't have too strong combat effectiveness and can't make big waves."

"There is such an analysis, it is a big mistake, I have always believed that the fortress is the easiest to attack from the inside, that is to say, the external danger is not the main thing, the internal problem is fatal."

"Why did the Liukou appear, why it has not been completely exterminated by the imperial court so far, the reasons for this, you are all clear, in a word, the people can't live, there is no way out if they don't rebel, on the other hand, the existence of the Liukou shows that the people around the Ming Dynasty are still struggling on the death line."

"From this point of view, I think the general environment we are in is good, we have always been for the stability of the people, for the stability of the world, for the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how the emperor and the court squeeze out and calculate us, how to suppress us, we will be able to win in the end."

When Zheng Xunrui said this, there was silence all around, and everyone's eyes flashed with strange brilliance.

"Alright, I'll tell you about the rogue situation."

"Li Zicheng left Huguang and marched into Henan, aiming directly at the city of Xiangyang, Zhang Xianzhong left Sichuan and entered Huguang, the target was directly at the city of Xiangyang, and the governor of the five provinces, Lord Sun Chuanting, led a large army to aid the city of Nanyang, and asked the governor of Huguang, Fang Kongzhi, to strengthen the defense of the city of Xiangyang, and not to let the Liukou fall."

"Fang Kongzhi asked Huguang General Zuo Liangyu to send a large army to aid Xiangyang Fucheng, Zuo Liangyu sent 20,000 troops into Xiangyang, plus the 2,000 soldiers of Xiangyang's original garrison Yamen, as well as Xiangyang Naval Division, it seems that such a force defense is very good, but I conclude that Xiangyang Fucheng will be lost in a short period of time."

"The Investigation Department got a lot of information from Xiangyang, after the 20,000 soldiers under the command of Zuo Liangyu entered the city of Xiangyang, they acted indiscriminately, bullied men and women, and forced to buy and sell, which aroused the hatred of the people, how could such an army have combat effectiveness, once the danger came, it ran faster than a rabbit, after last year, the Golden Tartars invaded the customs, and the performance of the army of the Beizhili Guard, you all know, I can judge that the quality of the sergeants under the command of Zuo Liangyu is not as good as the army of the Beizhili Guard."

"The terrain of Xiangyang Mansion is special, surrounded by water on three sides, backed by mountains on one side, easy to defend and difficult to attack, if the troops are deployed properly, according to the combat effectiveness of the Liukou, it is impossible to capture, but unfortunately Zhang Xianzhong's luck is good."

"There is an intelligence here, which has been verified three times, that is, the situation of the Xiangyang Naval Division, the Xiangyang Naval Division has more than 300 warships, and the number of sergeants should be 5,000, but the actual situation, the sergeants of the Naval Division are less than 2,000 people, I don't know why the commander of this naval division is so bold, and he eats empty wages to the point of madness, and he only sees silver in his eyes."

"Compared with the two, the strength of guarding Xiangyang Mansion is very clear, the sailor has lost its combat effectiveness, which is equivalent to discarding the strongest defensive advantage of Xiangyang Mansion City, the soldiers in the city are doing nonsense, they have no combat effectiveness at all, and they will not desperately defend Xiangyang Mansion City, Xiangyang Mansion City can rely on the two thousand soldiers who garrison the yamen, these two full sergeants, in the face of nearly 100,000 rogues, even if they have the courage of ten thousand people, it will not help."

"From this level of analysis, the fall of Xiangyang Mansion is expected."

"It is impossible for the emperor and the imperial court to know this, and the imperial court did not even discuss the matter of exterminating the rogues in the early dynasty, so it is strange that there is no major problem if it is so negligent."

"Once the city of Xiangyang is taken by Zhang Xianzhong, the situation in Huguang, Henan, Sichuan and Shanxi will undergo major changes, and the army under Sun Chuanting will not be able to resist Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong's rogue along the way.

Zheng Xunrui's hand pointed to the map.

"The red line and the blue line on this represent the rogues of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong respectively, as well as the cities they may attack next and the range they may occupy."

All eyes were on the map at the same time.

Xu Wanghua's face changed quickly, red and white.

"What my lord means is that after Zhang Xianzhong captures Xiangyang Fucheng, he will attack Yunyang next, occupy Xiangyang and Yunyang, and connect Sichuan, so that the scope of his activities will be expanded, and Li Zicheng will attack Nanyang, Luoyang and other places, and finally attack Kaifeng Fucheng in Henan."

Zheng Xunrui smiled and nodded.

"I said that a big drama has come to the curtain, once the city of Xiangyang is lost, the military department will definitely be able to think of this possibility, when the military department is in a hurry, the emperor is even more restless, and the military department is afraid that the army will be dispatched to completely exterminate the liukou."

"My lord's meaning, in Huguang and Henan and other places, there will be large-scale battles."

"Yes, the imperial court will do its best to exterminate the Liukou, but this large-scale battle, what will be the outcome, it's hard to say, Sun Chuanting's ability to fight is good, and he can also govern the place well, but he may not have so much room for free play, the court is already very taboo against me, how can Sun Chuanting lead the army to fight alone."

Speaking of this, Zheng Xunrui raised his voice.

"Once the big war begins, we will take full action and begin to completely control the operations in Nanzhili and Shandong." (To be continued......)