"Director Yang, what is the new news about the imperial court to replace Wang Tingxuan and Lu Zhi?"

Dengzhou General Military Mansion, Chen Xin, who had just come back, asked Yang Yunnong, who was chubby in front of him, and there was still a Liu Pojun standing in the room, who followed Chen Xin back from Jinzhou.

Yang Yunnong said respectfully: "Lord Chen, Wang Tingtry himself sent someone to Beijing for activities, our people did not communicate with him, and now they are doing their own thing, according to the news in the palace, the emperor is determined to transfer him away, but where to go has not yet been decided." Because of our military exploits in Dengzhou, Wang Tingli has reached the young master of the prince, and he used to be a squire in the military department, and he has the name of knowing the soldiers, so it is impossible to transfer to Nanzhili and idle, if he wants to be transferred to other places, there will only be the governor, the governor or the secretary. ”

Chen Xin groaned, "The secretary of the military department is Liang Tingdong, he has military merits, the emperor can't change it, Wang Ting's trial to change to the military department, but also to deal with me Dengzhou, the emperor is still not at ease." That is to say, the biggest possibility is Xuanda, the Governor of Jiliao, and the Governor of Jiliao. ”

Yang Yunnong said in a low voice: "It is also possible that the governor of the five provinces like Chen Qiyu is responsible for exterminating the Liukou." ”

Chen Xin nodded and said, "It's possible, if this position is for Wang Ting to try to sit, it will be enough for Wang Ting to try a headache." ”

At this time, the Liukou has been in all directions, the war has spread to Huguang, Sichuan, Henan and other places, Henan is a big powder keg, providing sufficient manpower to the Liukou, although the conditions in Huguang are slightly better than Henan, but the oppression is also strict, the arrival of the Liukou has destroyed the foundation of production and life, creating more desperate homeless, and the overall strength of the Liukou is constantly increasing.

In the middle of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces of the army and horses, set the strategy of encirclement and suppression on all sides, at this time the prestige of the imperial court was still there, the execution of the Ming army was quite effective, after several attacks, the largest peasant army entered the carriage gorge, including Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, Zhang Miaoshou and others.

The Ming army and the local people blocked the exit, and the rogue lacked food and clothing, and the armor was broken, and the Ming army only needed to besiege to eliminate the main force of the rogues. Like the previous year's crossing of the Yellow River, Zhang Xianzhong and others repeated their old tricks, bribing officers at all levels of the Ming army and expressing their willingness to surrender. Chen Qiyu has been fighting with the Liukou in Shaanxi for many years, rarely defeated, and has been promoted from the governor of Yansui to the governor of the five provinces, his mind is actually very jīng, and he has seen the trick of fake surrender countless times, but this time he did not withstand the words of his generals and agreed to accept the surrender of the Liukou.

After his performance reached the imperial court, Liang Tingdong resolutely opposed it, and advocated the destruction of the fierce enemy, although there were many homeless, but there were not many backbones in the rogue, as long as this main force was eliminated, it would be the biggest blow to the strength of the rogue.

But Chongzhen's fickle xìng grid once again swayed the situation, and there were officials in the court who proposed yì to incorporate the Liukou, the key of which was Dengzhou Town, Dengzhou Regiment Training plus the total rank of Zhu Dai Chūn entered the vicinity of Wuchang with thousands of troops, saying that there were Liukou who wanted to attack Wuchang, so they stopped and did not leave, Chen Qiyu's transfer was ignored, and Chen Qiyu had been involved several times, but in the end it became a saliva lawsuit, Chongzhen personally approved the appeasement, and the place of placement was in Shaanxi and Xiangyang.

There was only an import and no exit in the carriage gorge (Note 1), Chen Qiyu blocked the exit, and finally 780,000 or 80,000 Liukou came out alive 34,000 people.

Liukou escaped again, these backbones quickly transferred, to attack Pingliang, Qingyang and other places in Gansu, all the way to a large number of displaced people, the momentum quickly recovered, Chongzhen himself approved the peace, at first embarrassed to deal with Chen Qiyu, and later a speech official bit Chen Qiyu and did not let go, and finally had to be sentenced to prison.

At the end of last year, Hong Chengchou took Chen Qiyu's place, and the military affairs of the five provinces were added to the rank of secretary of the military department, but he had not yet taken office, and before he could deploy, there was a mutiny in Xining, and Hong Chengchou had to hurry to suppress it.

Last year, Liukou tossed around in Henan for a year, and there was no harvest of autumn grain in many places. Under the natural disaster, Henan is full of hungry people, although there are many people to Shandong, but the news transmission at this time is inconvenient, most of the farmers have never heard of Dengzhou Town, and when the Liukou arrives, these desperate people will automatically become part of the Liukou.

Hong Chengchou chased after him from Shaanxi at this time, and the border troops from all over the country gathered, including the soldiers and horses from Shandong. Originally, there was still a Dengzhou town that could be transferred, but Chen Xin took root in Linxian and Wuchang, and the emperor did not dare to transfer Denglai soldiers to the hinterland of Henan. Fortunately, Jiannu is relatively peaceful, and the departments of Baoding, Zhending, Tianjin, and Tongzhou in the north can be transferred, plus the Shandong standard battalion and Wude soldiers have gathered a total of more than 12,000, and Xu Congzhi, the governor of Shandong, has been given the rank of squire of the military department, and he will lead the co-oppression.

The imperial court did not transfer Dengzhou soldiers, Chen Xin also asked for war in the first month, and finally the emperor replied with a will, saying that Dengzhou Town had fought bloody battles repeatedly, and the special purpose was to recuperate, and then dispatch after regaining vitality.

When the official army had not yet gathered, the Liukou gave them a blow to the head, the time was two months later than in history, in March, when Chen Xin was planning the chūn season offensive, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's department suddenly appeared in Fengyang, the central capital, Fengyang is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, there is an ancestral tomb here, because of the fear of repairing the city to break the feng shui, so there is no city here, and there is no strong garrison, just like no defense.

Zhang Xianzhong not only burned down the Longxing Temple of Zhu Chongba's monk, but also dug up Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral tomb, which was a major event that shook the world, the emperor was furious, this happened in the north of Nanzhili, not under the jurisdiction of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, and the official set his sights on Liang Tingdong, the secretary of the military department, at that time, the impeachment of Liang Tingdong, the soldier, piled up people, but fortunately, Chen Xin just launched the chūn season offensive, recaptured Xiuyan and Phoenix, and saved Liang Tingdong's official position in time again.

The emperor urged urgently, Hong Chengchou hurriedly entered Henan on the three sides of Shaanxi, but he did not find Zhang Xianzhong, the culprit, and the liukou from other places in Henan entered Shaanxi again, snowballing, and Hong Chengchou was forced to return to Shaanxi and pursue behind the liukou's buttocks.

Chen Xin thought about the current Central Plains shape shì, and shook his head in his heart, if he himself was Hong Chengchou, he was afraid that it would also be the first two big, and the number of officials and soldiers would never be able to compare with the endless flow of displaced people, and the flow of Liukou Tongguò destroyed a large area, and the people there might flee at first, but they had lost the foundation of survival, and when the Liukou passed by here again, the survivors could only join it. When man's demands are only for survival, a docile man can be turned into a beast.

Yang Yunnong answered: "At this time, it seems that Hong Chengchou is in charge of five provinces alone, I am afraid that he can't take care of it, if he wants to place Wang Ting, he can divide two or three provinces out of the five provinces, plus a Nanzhili who has just been recruited, he is also a governor, if he loses the battle, he can directly blame and go to office." Wang Tingqian is also quite anxious now, his own people are walking around the Beijing Division, and the news transferred by the Intelligence Bureau says that Wang Tingqian would rather resign than go to the troubled waters of the Central Plains. ”

Chen Xin said with a smile: "That official wants him to stay in Denglai, this person can be regarded as taking good care of my Dengzhou Town, and it is still okay to keep his family safe." ”

After Chen Xin finished speaking, he looked at Yang Yunnong and said: "It's still the same as before, the Foreign Affairs Department can secretly help let Wang Tingtry to stay, but not leave traces." The most important thing is still the interests of my Dengzhou Town, in case the emperor is determined to transfer the royal court test, you will inquire about the new governor candidate, if there is one of them who hates Dengzhou, let Zhang Dahui think in Beijing, dig out that person's dirty things and find the imperial history to impeach, don't let the people who hate us take office. ”

Yang Yunnong said in a low voice: "There is also a mention of his subordinates, when he gets the handle of his person, he can go to the door to inform that person first, if he is willing to compromise and let him take office to oppose my Dengzhou, it will be difficult for the imperial court to detect." ”

Chen Xin lowered his head and thought about it and said with a smile: "This method is better, Director Yang has thought about it." This is how the Foreign Affairs Department should do things, and it is the style of the military to live and die, and compromise and exchange are the style that the Foreign Affairs Department should have. ”

Yang Yunnong hurriedly said a few words of modesty, Chen Xin told a few more words, let Yang Yunnong leave, and after Yang Yunnong went out, Chen Xin said to Liu Pojun next to him: "You just listened to the broken army, now the imperial court is more wary of my Dengzhou, even if the official wants to fight the Liukou, but the official is also quite worried that the Liukou will destroy the area too wide, which will damage the people's livelihood and commodity circulation of the entire Ming Dynasty, and affect the output of Dengzhou goods." The Military Orders Department must not relax its strategy against the Rogues. ”

Liu Pojun is still the director of the Military Orders Department, the Military Orders Department is in charge of the combat movement of Dengzhou Town, and belongs to the department that ranks first.

Liu Pojun experienced the depressed Battle of Dengzhou, carried a black cauldron, and was later given the opportunity by Chen Xin to use it again, and participated in all the battles in southern Liaoning, especially Chen Xin let him command the Lushun defensive battle, so that his self-confidence and sense of authority were established.

At this time, after listening to Chen Xin's words, Liu Pojun immediately said: "The army of the rogues is strong in its uncertain exchanges, and it is difficult to judge in advance its actions, while the trend of the rogues is strong in the vagrants everywhere, and they are constantly killed. If it is to be exterminated, the Military Command Department believes that the first thing should be to control its movement, and it should garrison troops at several key points, stationed mobile light infantry, supplemented by cavalry and dragoons, to intercept its flow, and then slowly compress its area of activity. It's not that he is chasing the rogue like he is now, and the rogue will only get stronger and stronger in the non-stop flow and battle. ”

Chen Xin nodded and said, "That's reasonable, talk about what you think is important." ”

Liu Pojun pointed to the map behind Chen Xin, "My subordinates think that the first important place is Nanyang, Henan, which is an important place connecting Shaanxi, Henan, and Huguang, with a fertile land and a large population, and there are many water systems running through the north and south, and the Han River enters the Han River to the south, and the Han River can go straight to Huguang; To the west, there is an official road leading to Tongguan, which is the most convenient road to Shaanxi, and to the east is the land of the plains of Henan, which can be called the key of the three provinces. ”

Chen Xin turned his head and glanced at Nanyang, that place was known as the revolving door of the Central Plains in later generations, and it was indeed the most important place in the battle against the Liukou as Liu Pojun said.

However, he shook his head and said: "Nanyang has been very dilapidated since last year, and the local area cannot store grain, so how can it deploy heavy troops." ”

Chen Xin stood up and walked to the map and pointed to Nanyang: "Although this place is important, it is a place of four wars, and there is no danger to defend. It was the time when the army was stationed in Nanyang. ”

Liu Pojun said respectfully: "The second thing my subordinates want to say is Xiangyang, and then Xi'an, Shaanxi......"

After Liu Pojun finished speaking, Chen Xin looked at the marks on the map, many places have become wasteland, he shook his head slightly and said: "The destruction of the Liukou is too strong, with our current strength, it is easy to defeat and it is difficult to destroy, if we follow them to beat the ass, it may not be able to drag on in the end. At the moment, there are still Jiannu to fight, and this official can't invest so much strength. ”

Liu Pojun said in a low voice: "The imperial court will no longer transfer troops from Dengzhou, and can only rely on Linxian and Huguang to expand. ”

Chen Xin patted twice on the map, and did not continue to talk about the strategy of convection of the Liukou, the shape faced by Dengzhou is becoming more and more complicated, among the forces in the world, there are Houjin, Liaozhen, all kinds of Liukou, the imperial court border army that needs to be dealt with militarily, and there are various local armed forces and bandits in the locality, and there are even more opponents in politics. Among these forces, there are often various interests involved, sometimes enemies and sometimes friends, and sometimes it is difficult for Chen Xin to determine which interests are greater.

The Houjin shape is worrying, but the main force of the army is still there, and for Chen Xin, Huang Taiji's political ability is also an important hidden danger, he is worried that the Houjin may grow again at any time, so the battle against the Houjin is still the primary task of Dengzhou, until the Houjin is beaten down; And the destruction of the Liukou is no less than the entrance of Houjin, the area of their scourge is even broader, has changed from the head of the fire to the fire of the plain, Chen Xin is most worried that they will completely destroy Huguang, Huguang as the area with the most grain production in the Ming Dynasty, once it loses production, it will really cause prices to soar across the country, which may not be a good thing for Dengzhou, so he insisted on putting a main battalion in Wuchang.

Chen Xin was distracted for a moment before turning his head and saying, "Why hasn't Lord Liu come yet?" ”

"When Lord Fang Cai was talking to Deputy Director Yang, the guards talked back and forth, saying that they went to Aoshanwei, where the first Tunpu court was held, and Lord Liu went to watch, and he just left not long ago."

Chen Xin smiled after hearing this: "Court? It's done so quickly, and there's nothing left and right, and the official is going to listen to it. You first go to Pingdu with Li Donghua to inspect the expansion of the new battalion, and the official will arrive later. ”……

Note 1: The specific address of the carriage gorge has not been determined, and Gu Cheng believes that it is near the Hanzhong plank road.