The situation in Henan has deteriorated significantly, Xiong Wencan, the governor of the five provinces, and Wu Fu, the governor of Henan, are restless, Xiong Wencan even went to Huai'an to ask for help from Zheng Xunrui, the governor of Caoyun, but he did not get a positive answer, after returning to Wuchang Mansion, Xiong Wencan carefully thought about Zheng Xunrui's reminder, and finally made up his mind, anyway, as the governor of the five provinces, he must lead the army to fight against the Liukou, otherwise it will be really difficult to explain in the future.

It's a pity that Xiong Wencan's idea is too simple, when he discussed with Gao Qiqian, the prison army, he didn't get support, Gao Qiqian thought that the current power of the Liukou is booming, and at this time to exterminate the Liukou, the ending is not much different from Lu Xiangsheng, and the court can no longer afford another failure, Gao Qiqian urged Xiong Wencan to report the situation of the Henan Liukou to the court.

What Gao Qiqian said is also reasonable, an army of more than 20,000 people, facing more than 100,000 rogues, there is no possibility of victory, and if it is not good to be surrounded by rogues, more serious defeats will appear.

Li Zicheng led a large army towards Xiangyang Mansion City, and when the news reached Wuchang Mansion, Xiong Wencan's face was pale, his body trembled, and the situation he was most worried about finally appeared.

Li Zicheng has 80,000 Liukou under his command, and a head-to-head duel is definitely not possible, but let the Liukou attack Xiangyang Fucheng, and the day Xiangyang Fucheng is taken, he Xiong Wencan may not be able to keep his head, Huguang Governor Fang Kongzhi is also anxious, and has asked to see Xiong Wencan many times, and put forward a request that the Liukou must be prevented from attacking Xiangyang Fucheng, relying on more than 20,000 soldiers under Xiong Wencan's command, as well as more than 10,000 soldiers from Huguang's guards, unable to resist Li Zicheng's attack.

In desperation, Xiong Wencan hurried to Kaifeng Mansion in Henan Province to see if he could use the armies of Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi to attack Luoyang Mansion City, whether it was able to take Luoyang Mansion City or not, at least it would be difficult for Li Zicheng to attack Xiangyang with peace of mind.

Xiong Wencan was disappointed again, Henan Governor Wu Fu was powerless, the current army of Henan Guard, it would be very good to be able to defend Kaifeng Mansion, if the troops were exhausted. Liukou took this opportunity to attack Kaifeng Mansion, which would cause even greater trouble, and as for Shanxi, the situation was even worse. Zhang Xianzhong was active in Pingyang Prefecture, Zezhou, Lu'an Prefecture and Liaozhou in Shanxi, which made Shanxi Governor Wei Chengrun exhausted, and Shanxi suffered from famine for many years, the land was barren, and the people had almost no way to live. There are a large number of people who have joined the Liukou team, and they see that the strength of the Liukou in Shanxi is getting bigger and bigger.

Xiong Wencan can only set his sights on Shaanxi, but unfortunately far water can not quench the thirst of the near, Henan Mansion is occupied by the Liukou, the Shaanxi army can not smoothly enter the Henan Mansion from Tongguan, and Zhang Xianzhong is active in the area of Pingyang Mansion in Shanxi, the governor of Shaanxi must be particularly vigilant to prevent Zhang Xianzhong from entering Yan'an Mansion from Pingyang Mansion, you must know that Yan'an Mansion is the birthplace of Liukou, if it is out of control here. I'm afraid the whole north will be in chaos.

Looking at it, Xiong Wencan couldn't think of any other way.

He originally wanted to go to Datong to ask for help, but with the lessons of the past, there was no result in going to Huai'an, and if he went to Datong, the situation would probably be even worse.

Xiong Wencan felt the pain, it was the pain of powerlessness, he seemed to see the bad luck approaching step by step, but he was powerless to fight, and wrote a secret letter to Yang Sichang. It's been sent out for a long time, and there has been no reply, it seems that the court is not calm, and a lot of news is still being hidden.

It is unrealistic to resign at this time. Even if he resigns as the governor of the five provinces, he will also be punished by the imperial court, and his reputation will definitely be bad in the future, and he will even be regarded as a deserter and scum, which is a shame that the literati cannot bear.

Now, there is only one way. That is, to lead the 20,000 soldiers under his command to attack the city of Luoyang, whether it is success or failure, at least do your best, at that time, even if you encounter the punishment of the imperial court, at least your heart is more stable.

After making a decision, Xiong Wencan no longer wasted time and quickly returned to Wuchang Mansion.

This time Xiong Wencan's attitude was very resolute, he must lead 20,000 troops into Henan to fight, if the supervisor Gao Qiqian did not agree, Xiong Wencan was ready to write a letter directly to the emperor and resign as the governor of the five provinces.

Although Gao Qiqian was very annoyed, he didn't dare to carry Xiong Wencan to lead the troops to fight, after all, the emperor and the court believed in the matter of Lu Xiangsheng, the former governor of the five provinces, but if Xiong Wencan, the next governor of the five provinces, also had a problem, not to mention the emperor, even the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty had to be suspicious, and naturally someone would investigate how the former governor of the five provinces, Lu Xiangsheng, died, and what Gao Qiqian, as a supervisor of the army, was doing.

At the end of April, more than 20,000 troops set out from Wuchang Mansion in Huguang, detoured through Luzhou Mansion and Fengyang Mansion in Nanzhili, and entered Kaifeng Mansion from Shenqiu.

When Xiong Wencan left Wuchang Mansion, Huguang Governor Fang Kongzhi was not happy, and the 80,000 Liukou led by Li Zicheng were coming towards Xiangyang Mansion.

Xiong Wencan can't manage so much, facing the rogue led by Li Zicheng head-on, he doesn't have the slightest confidence, if he attacks Luoyang City, there may still be a glimmer of hope, and when the time comes, he can ask Wu Fu, the governor of Henan, to send a large army to support the battle.

Xiong Wencan resolutely led the army to leave Wuchang Mansion, but when he left, he discussed with Fang Kongzhi for most of the day, and no one knew what the two discussed.

After the boat departed from Huai'an, it sailed day and night, and all the sailors were selected, the most outstanding sailors who had sailed on the Grand Canal for many years, and these sailors took turns to change shifts, and the most experienced sailors were responsible for the night sailing.

Zheng Xunrui rarely goes to the deck, usually only after dark to go to the deck to breathe, Zheng Jiajun's action this time is to be kept as secret as possible, as the commander of the army, of course he has to take the lead in execution.

Cao boat can not be compared to the warship, the Ming warship is almost all on the sea, the vast sea can accommodate a large enough warship, but the Grand Canal is different, the water surface can not be so wide, so the Cao boat is much narrower than the warship, the cabin is smaller, and the Cao boat is not a special warship, there are not so many cabins, so this time the Zheng Jiajun soldiers took the Cao boat to Luoyang, Henan, it must be uncomfortable.

Difficulties are nothing to the officers and soldiers of the Zheng family, they are used to harsh training, and they can overcome almost any difficulty, not to mention that this time Lord Zheng also followed them and also took the boat.

The speed of the ship at night is naturally slower, which cannot be avoided, but there are many things to do on the boat at night, the first thing is to assemble the Hongyi cannon, these Hongyi cannons, after arriving at the destination, are to be immediately put into battle, and at the same time, the soldiers of the Shenji battalion must wipe the Mauser gun every day to avoid rusting the barrel and trigger of the Mauser gun due to the invasion of dew.

Zheng Xunrui's affairs are even more, the time for the boat to dock is not much, and every time he gets information, it is when the boat docks, the scouts on the ground are specially sent to the boat.

A steady stream of information was sent to the boat, Zheng Xunrui wanted to make a comprehensive analysis, and the lion fought the rabbit with all his strength, for such a critical battle, of course, he attached great importance to it, and there would be no negligence.

Li Zicheng led the army to Xiangyang Fucheng, the news is clear, the scouts led by Wang Xiaoer, detected that there were 80,000 soldiers led by Li Zicheng, which means that the number of rogues left in Luoyang City is more than 20,000 at most, and the rogues occupy Nanyang, Runing and Ruzhou and other places, and must send a certain number of sergeants to wait, and it is impossible to be completely stationed in Luoyang, which is good news for the Zheng family's army.

Of course, among all the information, there are also things that make Zheng Xunrui feel puzzled, that is, Li Zicheng's marching speed is very slow, in fact, the distance between Luoyang and Xiangyang Mansion is not too far, and the official road is nine hundred miles, and the normal marching speed can be reached in about ten days, but after Li Zicheng set off from Luoyang, he actually took a detour to Nanyang Fucheng, which is puzzling.

Among all the information received, the most surprising to Zheng Xunrui was the initiative of Xiong Wencan, the governor of the five provinces.

Xiong Wencan, who was stationed in Wuchang Mansion, and Gao Qiqian, the supervising army, led an army of 20,000 to leave Wuchang Mansion and entered the Luzhou Mansion in Nanzhili, what does this mean, could it be that Li Zicheng led the army to attack Xiangyang Mansion City, which made Xiong Wencan and Gao Qiqian feel scared and needed to dodge.

However, Zheng Xunrui quickly denied his own speculation, Xiong Wencan is not stupid to such a point, at this time, leading the army to dodge, that is tantamount to looking for death, even if he can avoid the attack of the rogue, he can't escape the punishment of the imperial court, after carefully looking at the map, Zheng Xunrui quickly made a judgment, it seems that Xiong Wencan is preparing to detour to Nanzhili, from Guide Mansion into Henan, that is to say, Xiong Wencan has been forced to have no choice, ready to attack, as for the direction of the attack, it should be Luoyang Mansion City.

After analyzing this information, Zheng Xunrui's mood was a little bad, and he also vaguely understood why Li Zicheng's army marched so slowly, you must know that Li Zicheng has been fighting for many years and has unusually rich combat experience, and it is definitely important to attack the city, but if you can defeat the imperial army, the effect that can be produced is more important than taking Xiangyang Fucheng, after all, exterminating the imperial army can make Li Zicheng feel safer.

Xiong Wencan's desperate move will not trigger Li Zicheng to suddenly return to Luoyang Mansion City.

This has become a problem that Zheng Xunrui must analyze and face, if all the 110,000 rogues are concentrated near Luoyang, then the 15,000 soldiers of the Zheng family army are difficult to deal with even if they have three heads and six arms, and the absolute superiority in the strength of the army, in the process of fighting, can have a crucial impact, not to mention that the soldiers of the Zheng family army carry not a lot of ammunition, and they cannot deal with the huge rogues. (To be continued.) )