Shi Kefa led more than 60,000 foot soldiers from Jianning Mansion all the way to attack the north bank of Xixi, and the remnants of King Huai entrenched here had to retreat to the Jiangle area. Shi Kefa planned to take advantage of the victory to pursue and completely wipe out the remnants of King Huai. But the sky was not beautiful, and at this time it was raining continuously, and the roads were muddy and unable to march, so Shi Kefa had to gather his foot soldiers to rest in Shunchang, and wait for the rain to stop before attacking.

Looking at the dripping rain outside the window, Shi Kefa's mood was as gloomy as the weather, the damp and cold of early winter made him sore, and his legs were so sore that it was almost difficult to walk. The pain in his body is secondary, which worries him, and what he can't sleep and eat is the situation in the world. Now he is just chasing a rebel army of King Huai, so it is so difficult, if he deals with the Central Plains Liukou Zhang Li Liu in the future, what can he do?

Although he was unwilling to admit it, there were still bursts of despair in his heart. Is there still salvation in this Ming Dynasty? At this time, Ning Taibing said that Liu entered the cold and leaky main hall with a nervous look.

"Ministry, there is a large force of people approaching Shunchang in the direction of Nanping and Shaxian, and the enemy and I are unknown, so I don't know what to do?"

In the current situation, except for the Three Guards in the Shaowu area, as well as the remnants of the Huai King at the junction of Shaowu Yanping Mansion, either side is its own enemy, and as for whether the people and horses who rushed over from the south are friends or enemies, everyone is cautious.

Therefore, Liu Tong couldn't help but complain: "At the beginning, it was better to attack the remnants of King Huai with the Three Guards, and now it will not be a lonely battle, and if you are not careful, you will be in danger of being attacked by the enemy." ”

Seeing that Liu Tong's emotions were already tense to the extreme, Shi Kefa couldn't care about the disrespect in his tone, but said with kind words: "How is cooperating with Li Xin's subordinates different from seeking skin with a tiger?" If they really cooperate with them, although we will not be in danger of being attacked on our backs, we will be making wedding clothes with others, so how can you and I be worthy of the grace of the court? The letter of the Son of Heaven? ”

Liu Tong was also on the verge of collapse, and when he heard Shi Kefa mention the grace of the imperial court, he said angrily: "What kind of grace does the imperial court and the ministry have? How much trust does the Son of Heaven have in the ministry? Is it a decree to be harshly condemned and dismissed? And then do your best for his Zhu family? ”

"Shut up, don't talk nonsense!"

Shi Kefa snapped Liu Tong's complaints, but his tone immediately softened again.

"Shi Mou is indeed unfavorable to suppress thieves, and the court rewards and punishments are clear, so he should be harshly punished. The Son of Heaven was extraordinarily gracious, which made Shi Mou guilty and meritorious. and do not speak such lies again. ”

Liu Tong's words are poking into Shi Kefa's heart, the Huangmei thief has plagued the western part of Nanzhili for two or three years, and he has been unjust for a long time, so he has been offended. Originally, the hope of supervising a province was lost, not to mention, and later Li Xin's shaft was severely humiliated in Nanjing, so he left Beijing in embarrassment.

Shi Kefa knew that in the past few days, due to the heavy rain that had hindered the march, gossip had begun to appear in the army, saying that he had mishandled his official business out of personal anger, so he did not cooperate with the Three Guards. But in fact, not only did he not have the slightest idea of this, but he even endured humiliation for the sake of the imperial court, otherwise he would not have been able to support all the way to the present.

Therefore, after rejecting Li Xin's invitation, Shi Kefa learned that dysentery was prevalent in King Huai's army, and knew that the opportunity to send troops to completely eliminate King Huai had come. Therefore, the whole army immediately went south alone, and sure enough, defeated the main force of the Huaiwang rebels in Shunchang in a battle, and took the city in one fell swoop.

"Alas! The ministry is not strange, and the lower officials are also unscrupulous. But now look at the rain, the opportunity to clear the remnants of King Huai in one fell swoop is gone, and he is facing the situation of being surrounded by three sides. ”

Liu Tong sighed and turned to the embarrassing situation they were facing.

Shi Kefa was silent for a while before he said: "The troops from the direction of Shaxian and Nanping are likely to be the troops of Zheng Zhilong, the general soldier of Fujian. This person has repeatedly made meritorious contributions in the southeast sea area, and his combat power is good, which may enable him to contain the Three Guards to infiltrate Fujian by driving the tiger and devouring the wolf. ”

Liu Tong disagreed, "Cooperate with Li Xin to eat and seek skin with the tiger, then Zheng Zhilong is half a catty and eight taels than Li Xin, Li Xin Zhao'an used to be a horse thief, Zheng Zhilong Zhao'an used to be a sea thief, none of them have loyalty to the court and the Son of Heaven, what they do is just the wealth of a family and a surname." I'm afraid that after Zheng Zhilong defeated Li Xin with the help of us, he would dominate Fujian again. ”

After a long time, Shi Kefa sneered: "Doesn't Zheng Zhilong dominate Fujian now?" ”

"Since the ministry knows that Zheng Zhilong will have a disobedient heart, why should he seek skin with him?"

Liu Tong had a very bad impression of Zheng Zhilong, and this person was deeply involved in the Japanese before and after Zhao'an, and he always felt that this person would one day put his disobedience into practice.

In comparison, Liu Tong recognized Li Xin more, although Li Xin was also arrogant and domineering, but after all, he was a person who dared to risk his life and fight with the Tartars regardless of life and death. But Shi Kefa suddenly asked: "Tell me, compared with Li Xin and Zheng Zhilong, which one is stronger in this step?" ”

Liu Tong replied without thinking: "Needless to say, Zheng Zhilong is good at naval battles, if you talk about starting battles, he is naturally Li Xin first!" ”

"After all, naval warfare cannot open up territory, and its role is far inferior to land warfare, so in order to limit Li Xin's crazy expansion and balance the strength between them, we can't stand on Li Xin's side. In this way, after the imperial court pacifies the north in the future, it will be able to spend less time and die less when the south of the Yangtze River is cleared. ”

Liu Tong didn't expect Shi Kefa to think so long-term, but he blurted out again: "The imperial court will pacify the north in the future?" How can we still see this day in our lifetime? ”

In the face of such frustration, even Shi Kefa, who has always been strong, couldn't help but let out a long sigh: "Whether you can see it or not, you and I, as human ministers, must always do our duty!" ”

"Shi Kefa, this old miscellaneous hair, will not go south soon, and will not go south late, but he will come at this time!"

Zheng Sen scolded angrily for a while, he had successfully forced King Huai to pretend to announce his surrender and attack Li Xin with him. In this way, you can solve this dead festival of cooperating with anti-thieves, and you can also explain to the world. As for after defeating Li Xin, no one dares to guarantee whether King Huai will rebel again, if King Huai rebels, it is a big deal to raise troops to kill him.

In short, Zheng Sen made a good wishful thinking. first expelled the Three Guards from Fujian, and then took the opportunity to suppress the remnants of the Huai King entrenched in the mountains. In this way, the situation in Fujian was completely stable, and the Zhengjia Navy Division could also concentrate on the frequent provocations of the Three Guards Navy Division.

"The eldest prince, I have arrested a few spies, they claim to be envoys sent by Shi Kefa, what should I do?"

A general was sent in to ask for instructions. Zheng Sen was more surprised, Shi Kefa's envoy? What was his purpose in sending men? Zheng Sen didn't want to give the order to behead these spies who claimed to be envoys, but when the words came to his lips, he changed his mind and decided to gradually start with these people.

"Wait, bring them to me! I want to see what kind of medicine is in this Shi Butang's stomach! ”

In Shunchang City, Shi Kefa was quickly rewarded by the scouts and brought back Zheng Sen's handwritten letter.

At this time, Shi Kefa knew that the army from Nanping and Shaxian was personally led by Zheng Sen, the eldest son of Zheng Zhilong, and this came to his heart. Zheng Zhilong let Zheng Sen lead the army, obviously because he was in charge, so that he sent people to negotiate with him, there would be a lot less chaos in the middle, and he could understand the true intentions of the Zheng Group more clearly and directly.

Shi Kefa couldn't wait to open the handwritten letter from Zheng Sen brought back by the scout. After only a few glances, he smiled at Ning Taibing beside him and said to Liu Tong: "Zheng Sen agreed, and he is willing to join forces with our army to fight the rebels of King Huai, and then jointly restrict Li Xin's Three Guards." ”

Liu Tong was also a little surprised by Zheng Sen's willingness to cooperate, and praised at the time: "The ministry is clear and far-sighted." ”

These two sentences were obviously complimentary, and Shi Kefa waved his hand, "Hurry up and make arrangements, as soon as the rain stops, we will immediately set off to the west, strive for the success of the first battle, and completely pacify the remnants of King Huai." ”

Shi Kefa and Zheng Sen exchanged letters several times, and Zheng Sen's attitude was very cooperative, which greatly increased Shi Kefa's expectations and confidence in the clear situation. Three days later, the continuous rain finally stopped, and Shi Ke ordered Liu Tong to lead a group to sit in Shunchang, and he himself led most of the men and horses to pull out, all the way to the mountain of Lotte Steps.

According to the agreement, Zheng Sen crossed the general's village in the direction of Shaxian County and headed for the south of Tianjie Mountain. As a result, the two armies formed horns and formed a joint encirclement of the rebels of King Huai.

Although the heavy rain had just stopped, the road was still muddy, but under the repeated encouragement of Shi Kefa, and the guarantee that the battle would be successful and the army would return home after victory, the soldiers accelerated their march into the Po tribe, and encountered the remnants of the Huaiwang rebels several times, and easily defeated them.

And in the end, Shi Kefa finally got his wish to block the Huai King in the small county town of Jiangle, and the banner of the Huai King fluttering in the city was listless and tattered, as if to foreshadow the fall of the near future.

At this time, Shi Kefa suddenly received a letter of surrender from King Huai. Faced with the sudden request for surrender, Shi Kefa did not refuse, but sent someone to contact him.

Originally, Shi Kefa still had full confidence in King Huai's surrender, after all, under the exhaustion of mountains and rivers, if they did not surrender, what awaited them would be a tragic decisive battle. However, three days passed quickly, and Shi Kefa found that King Huai's so-called invitation to surrender was not necessarily sincere, but more of a delay in time.

Although Shi Kefa did not know the purpose of King Huai's delay at this last moment, he decided not to be relentless and planned to end this war of thieves as soon as possible. And Zheng Sen's lack of effort also made Shi Kefa very dissatisfied, several encounters were fought, and because of the delay for so many days, they were still grinding south of Tianjie Mountain.