In June of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Chen Xinjia, the left attendant of the military department, came to Wuchang Mansion in Huguang.

Chen Xinjia came to supervise the war on behalf of the emperor and the imperial court, and the number of troops under the command of Sun Chuanting, the governor of the five provinces, has reached nearly 100,000, plus the guards of the five provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan, the total strength he can command is called 300,000 people.

The Liukou Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong firmly controlled Nanyang and Runing in Henan, as well as Xiangyang and Yunyang in Huguang, and the Liukou under Zhang Xianzhong once again infiltrated into Sichuan.

Xiangwang Zhu Yiming was killed by the Liukou, once caused a huge sensation in the imperial court, forced by the arrogance of the Liukou, the emperor finally issued an order, agreed that the prince of the fief in various places, if he encountered the attack of the Liukou, he could evacuate the fief and arrive at a safe place to report to the court, and there was no need to stick to the fief, and it was precisely because of the emperor's holy decree that Zhu Yujian, the Tang King of the Tang Dynasty whose fief was in Nanyang, was able to evacuate to Kaifeng Mansion before the Liukou occupied the city.

There was a lot of controversy in the imperial court about the extermination of the Liukou, some people believed that Sun Chuanting was not effective in suppressing the bandits, and should be severely punished, and his post as governor of the five provinces should be revoked, and others should be adjusted to complete the combat mission of exterminating the Liukou.

Sun Chuanting and Wang Yongji, the superintendent of the army, also reported to the imperial court about the difficulties they had and the reasons why they did not start a large-scale battle, and their reasons were sufficient, otherwise they would not have dared to delay for such a long time.

Chen Xinjia came to supervise the war on behalf of the imperial court. On the one hand, it is necessary to bring the opinions of the emperor and the imperial court, and it is necessary to carry out large-scale encirclement and suppression operations, and on the other hand, it is to see if Sun Chuanting really has so many difficulties.

Wuchang Mansion, wing.

Chen Xinjia sat in the center, Sun Chuanting, the governor of the five provinces, and Wang Yongji, the superintendent of the army. Fang Kongzhi, the governor of Huguang, Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier of Huguang, and Liu Liangzuo, the chief soldier of Songjiang, were all present.

Sun Chuanting gave a detailed report on the situation of the fighting in the past six months, and it should be said that after half a year, the army still has a certain amount of merit, and through some small-scale operations, the Liukou basically stopped in some areas of Henan and Huguang, and it was difficult to spread out. The governors and governors of the five provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Sichuan, and Huguang also launched encirclement and suppression of the Liukou on different scales in accordance with the requirements of unification, and because of the efforts of the armies of all stripes, the situation in Huguang and the north was basically stable, and even in the case of a large-scale famine in the north, the situation was not completely chaotic.

The biggest difficulty in the army is the shortage of food and grass.

The famine in the north clearly affected the supply of food and grass for the army. It should be said that not only did the imperial army suffer great difficulties in the attack on grain and grass, but the situation of the Liukou was also not optimistic.

The soldiers and horses did not move the grain and grass first. In the process of large-scale conquest, it is very likely that there will be a collapse due to the lack of grain and grass, and no one can bear such an outcome, so it has been nearly half a year. Sun Chuanting tried his best to raise grain and grass, but the number of troops under his command was too large, and the north generally suffered from famine, and the grain and grass raised could not fundamentally solve the problem.

The famine in the north has seriously affected the battle to eradicate the rogue. In the past, when the army was fighting, the local government should have guaranteed the supply of grain and grass for the army, but this year there was no way to guarantee it, and a large number of displaced people appeared in various places, and most of the government's energy was devoted to blocking or quelling the tide of displaced people, and occasionally had to provide relief.

Therefore, every expedition of the army basically carries its own grain and grass, which not only delays the speed of the battle, but also limits the time and scale of the battle.

Under such circumstances, it is indeed not possible to carry out a large-scale conquest, but fortunately, the autumn harvest season is about to come, as long as there is no abnormal situation during the autumn harvest, the army can start a large-scale extermination of the rogue after collecting enough grain and grass.

After Sun Chuanting's report, Wang Yongji also made some additions, and the general opinions were similar to Sun Chuanting's, but Wang Yongji put forward another request, that is, the imperial court needed to come up with silver, after all, it was a large-scale extermination of the Liukou, and it was impossible to meet the needs by relying entirely on local supplies.

Chen Xinjia listened very seriously, and after Sun Chuanting, Wang Yongji and others finished speaking, he spoke.

"Lord Sun, Wang Jianjun, everyone, the imperial court has taken these issues into account, Lord Sun's recital has been said in detail, the official came on behalf of the imperial court, and he has seen the scene of famine along the way, but the emperor has an edict that the rogue must be exterminated as soon as possible, and the military department has a specific and detailed opinion, which has been approved by the emperor."

Everyone's attention was concentrated, Chen Xinjia came to supervise the battle on behalf of the imperial court, and everyone understood that the emperor and the imperial court had made up their minds to completely exterminate the Liukou, but the Liukou had been ravaging for more than ten years, and had not been able to completely eradicate it.

"Lord Yang of the cabinet has formulated a special battle plan, that is, to do his best to exterminate the rogue in the north, for this reason the emperor specially issued an order, requiring the border troops in Datong, Shanxi, Yulin, Shaanxi, Ningxia and other places to also participate in the battle to exterminate the rogues."

The room fell silent instantly, and no one thought that the border army would actually participate in the battle to exterminate the rogues, which must be a large-scale battle.

"The emperor has agreed to allocate silver taels for this battle to exterminate the Liukou, and the specific battle plan is called an ambush on all sides by Lord Yang."

"This battle to exterminate the Liukou is called the Battle of the Four Positives and Six Corners."

"Lord Yang's battle plan, that is, four main aspects, six aspects as auxiliary."

"The four Zheng only took Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan as the places to fight to exterminate the Liukou, and the governors and commanders of the four places went all out to encircle and suppress the Liukou, and the battle was mainly to encircle and suppress the Liukou, supplemented by the defense of the Liukou."

"The six corners are supplemented by the six regions of Shaanxi, Shandong, Yansui, Datong, Fengyang and Jiangxi, and the governors of these six places mainly encircle and block the Liukou from entering their own defense areas, and assist in participating in the battle to exterminate the Liukou."

"The overall operation is under the command of Lord Sun Chuanting, the governor of the five provinces, and the military department is responsible for coordination, and in terms of the use of troops, the mobile forces under the command of Lord Sun are the mainstay, supplemented by the armies of the guard posts in various places.

"Such a combat deployment is called an ambush on all sides, or a four-front and six-corner."

"This officer believes that such a combat deployment will definitely be able to completely exterminate the rogues."

After Chen Xinjia finished speaking, Sun Chuanting's eyes lit up, and then he regained his calm.

Such a strict arrangement was tantamount to sealing off all the roads of the Liukou and concentrating the fighting in the four provinces of Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan, with the assistance of Shaanxi, Shandong, Yansui, Datong, Fengyang, and Jiangxi, on the one hand, to prevent the Liukou from escaping to these places, and on the other hand, to assist Henan and other places in the fight to exterminate the Liukou.

As the commander-in-chief, Sun Chuanting shoulders a very heavy responsibility, but there is also a guarantee of troops, and Chen Xinjia said that the imperial court will allocate a lot of money and food to meet the needs of this expedition.

However, in such a large-scale operation, obedience to command is the key, that is to say, the general troops in various localities must act in accordance with orders, and negligence in any aspect may cause disadvantage in the operation, and the situation that has been painstakingly laid down in front of us will be buried because of the negligence of one aspect, especially Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan, as the main battlefield for the extermination of the Liukou, must act in unison, and what we think of when fighting is to completely exterminate the Liukou, rather than driving the Liukou out of the local area.

Sun Chuanting had nearly 100,000 troops under his command, and as the main force to exterminate the Liukou, he needed the support of the general troops from all over the country, at least at the critical time of the battle, and the general soldiers from all over the country could not resist the order when they asked for reinforcements or fought with the Liukou.

I'm afraid this requires the emperor to give Shang Fang a sword.

It's a pity that in Chen Xinjia's words, there was no mention of Shang Fang's sword at all.

On the surface, the governors of the five provinces can mobilize the forces of the five provinces to exterminate the Liukou, but it is impossible in the actual battle, and all localities must take into account their own interests, and the governors must think of protecting the main cities, such as Taiyuan in Shanxi, Kaifeng in Henan, Wuchang in Huguang and Chengdu in Sichuan, etc., they will inevitably deploy heavy troops to defend these cities, and the general army is thinking about preserving their own strength and not losing too much.

These are all practical problems, and Sun Chuanting has already experienced them when he recruited the army.

The battle plan proposed by Yang Sichang is very good, if all parties can really concentrate their forces, then they will definitely be able to completely exterminate the rogues, and the terrible thing is that the governor and the general army have Xiao Jiujiu in their hearts and play with their own calculations, so the battle plan will not be realized.

Although Chen Xinjia said that the border armies in Datong, Yansui, and Ningxia participated in the battle to exterminate the Liukou, he did not have a clear command of how, which means that the so-called mobilization of the border troops to participate in the battle is just a statement.

The Later Jin Tartars and the Mongol tribes were eyeing each other, and in fact, it was impossible for the border army to fully participate in the battle to exterminate the Liukou.

I don't know why, Sun Chuanting suddenly had some worries, the imperial court spent so much effort to exterminate the Liukou, but was unwilling to give the commander who commanded the battle, Shang Fang's sword, what does this mean, the almost perfect battle plan, when it was first deployed, it revealed the flaws in the interests of all parties.

Could it be that all this means that the battle plan of the four corners and six corners cannot be fully realized? (To be continued......)