On the third day of the first month of March, Pei Shaokuan sold Shi Dayong an important piece of information - Gao Qiqian already knew that the Jinzhou Army of Lu Dao had bought grain from Lin Jiantai, and he also knew that Shi Dayong had borrowed troops from the Sichuan Army.

For Shi Dayong, he wanted to get rid of him quickly, but he did not take the lead and mobilized Jin Guochen's Jiliao soldiers and horses to kill the Jinzhou army, but wrote Shi Dayong's various crimes into a song, and ordered Bai Shangyi, who went to Beijing to escort the rebel prisoners, to present this to the Son of Heaven.

He wanted to get rid of Shi Dayong with the help of the Son of Heaven, but he still underestimated Shi Dayong's courage, and he was not willing to give his political enemies a harsh border army and kill the hat of a meritorious general, but he gave Bai Shangyi and the lives of more than 300 officers and soldiers of the Beijing battalion.

Pei Shaokuan's price for selling this information was not small, a full five thousand taels of silver.

In the end, whether Zhao Xueqi reported to Gao Qiqian or not, Shi Dayong no longer has to know the Dao, everyone is dead, and he still asks what is the meaning of this. He has to make a choice now, wait for the Son of Heaven to receive the black letter from Gao Qiqian and escort him to Beijing to punish the crime, or take a risk, intercept and kill Bai Shangyi, and then go away and do his own thing. He had no other choice, because strictly speaking, the crimes listed in Gao Qiqian's recital were all really done by Shi Dayong, and any one of them could make him lose his official position and punish him.

Therefore, he is waiting to be dismissed, it is better to make a desperate bet, put down the rebellion alone, and prove himself to the Son of Heaven with practical actions.

In the end, Shi Dayong chose to take a risk, and he led the wolf cavalry and the pro-army camp to ambush and kill Bai Shangyi.

I didn't want this ambush but had an unexpected gain, and the 60,000 taels of gold and silver that Lin Jiantai knocked out from Shi Dayong turned out to be in Bai Shangyi's team. Poor Lord Lin felt that the army was outside, and it was not safe to carry so much gold and silver with him, and it was too ostentatious to send someone to escort him back to Beijing, and he was overjoyed to learn that Bai Shangyi was going back to Beijing on an errand, and he was overjoyed, and he actually hid the gold and silver in the team returning to Beijing.

But I don't know what kind of face Lin Jiantai will look like after he was ambushed by unknown soldiers and horses in the team returning to Beijing in Zhilu Road, and all his silver was snatched away.

On the fourth day of the first month of March, the Jinzhou army pulled out the camp at night, and without the knowledge of most of the sergeants, the whole army turned to Shahe, and then made a detour to Shandong to take Pingdu County, which was 40 miles away from Laizhou.

In Pingdu City, there were only a rabble of more than a thousand rebels, and they didn't know anything about the officers and soldiers who suddenly came from the direction of Shandong behind them.

In order not to reveal their whereabouts, the Jinzhou army killed a prefect, a garrison and more than 600 Lu soldiers sent by Shandong for inspection on the way in.

Time, Shi Dayong is desperately rushing for time, he wants to break the peace before Gao Qi sneaks to the court to report the defection of the Jinzhou army and the imperial court orders to encircle and suppress

In the past few days when the Jinzhou army has been advancing for 100 miles, the thief situation in Henan has become serious.

Several years of famine have made the life of the people of the Central Plains unbearable, people are confused, and the victims are everywhere, so when some thieves in Shanxi break through the Yellow River and enter Henan, the people of Henan have become the source of thieves. There was even a team of more than 100 thieves passing by, and it became a spectacle of 10,000 people in one day, and the thief army passed through the county, and the Henan officials and soldiers who were pitifully small in the city did not dare to come out. After Chen Qiyu became the governor of the five provinces, Xuan Mo, the governor of Henan, was instructed to focus on the four prefectures of northern Henan north of the Yellow River, and did not make careful preparations for the defense of the area south of the Yellow River, resulting in a serious shortage of troops in southern Henan. Therefore, when the thief army broke through the Yellow River, Yuan Daquan, a Chinese officer in charge of the defense of the Yellow River in Henan, did not expect it at all. Even if he expected it, there was no way, because he had no soldiers available, and he had to die in battle to serve the country.

Within a few days, the thief army connected to the three counties of Mianchi, Yiyang, and Lushi in Henan, and although Henan Governor Xuan Mo barely responded to the battle, he was only chasing after him. Xuan Mo knew that Henan's strength could not resist the thief army with many people. Like Yiyang County, when the thief army arrived, there was no competent official in the city, and the city wall was crumbling, so the thief army entered the city without much effort. Another example is the county seat of the Lu family, which is also because Jin Rushan, the official of the palm seal, fled in advance and did not organize resistance, so that the thief army could easily succeed. Therefore, Xuan Mo had no choice but to report to the imperial court quickly and ask for reinforcements.

Fortunately, Zuo Liangyu, the deputy general who came to the aid from Changping, quickly crossed the river to pursue and filled the void south of the Yellow River, and the situation was slightly contained. Subsequently, Tang Jiuzhou, Li Bei and other generals also crossed the river one after another under the strict orders of Emperor Chongzhen and participated in the flanking attack.

In fact, after the thief army crossed the river, the only general who really took the initiative to cross the river and quickly pursued was Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu was originally transferred from Liaodong to defend Henan, and the territory south of the Yellow River in Henan was his jurisdiction, and he had to quickly encircle and suppress the thief army, otherwise his official hat would not be able to be kept.

Zuo Liangyu, who participated in the Battle of the Great and Small Linghe and the Battle of Jinzhou, was very hard-working, and his Changping soldiers were also very brave and capable of fighting. The thief army that entered Henan was forced to divide into several large groups under his blow. Some stayed in Henan to carry out activities, while others rushed out of Henan and advanced to neighboring provinces. The thief army that remained in Henan first attacked and killed in the south, and entered Nanyang, Ruzhou, and Runing Mansions to operate. But it was soon broken by officers and soldiers from all walks of life.

The Heavenly Star Department was defeated by Tang Jiuzhou, the chief soldier who was dragged up from bed by Xuan Mo, the governor of Henan, and led his troops to sneak attack overnight in the wind and snow. Guo Tianxing, who was completely defenseless against the night attack of the official army taking advantage of the wind and snow, was caught off guard by Tang Jiuzhou and suffered a big loss.

Guo Tianxing fled by night, and Tang Jiuzhou led his troops to chase for 60 miles, killing more than 400 people. The next day, he chased him to Hengshan Town, Suichuan County, Runing Prefecture, and killed 600 people.

Zuo Liangyu defeated a thief army at the security post in Ye County, captured the leader Yilong, Shangshan Tiger, Wings Flying, Xiao Li Guang, etc., and pursued the victory, waving troops into Nanyang Mansion and Runing Mansion.

After the Ming army from all walks of life in Henan was powerful, the thief army was beaten and fled, causing chain guilt. On the sixth day of the first month of March, even the Beijing camp, which had never been looked down upon, became ill, and Liu Lingyu's department, which had never been looked down upon, even won a big victory in Niuti Village in Miyang under the personal supervision of Liu's command, beheading thousands of people. The general soldier Zhang Yingchang fought several battles in Lingbao and Pingshan, defeated the remaining thief army in Henan, and its leader Zhang Youyi was captured. Through these major battles, the thief army that remained in Henan, except for a few who escaped, were basically wiped out by the official army.

At the same time, a large number of thieves took advantage of Henan to enter Huguang, Shaanxi, and even Sichuan. King Chuang, Gao Yingxiang and other troops entered the mountains from the Lu family. The Lushi Mountains, with lofty mountains and mountains, are far away from the emperor and have always been a place where illegal miners gather. Gao Yingxiang's tribes, guided by the miners, entered the inner countryside, and penetrated from the inner countryside, Dengzhou, and Xichuan to Huguang.

At the end of March, Gao Yingxiang and others led their troops to disguise themselves as pilgrims and enter Yunxi County, which belongs to Yunyang Mansion in Huguang, and then attacked Shangjin in the north of Yunxi. Soon, Fang County and Baokang County were also breached. For a time, tens of thousands of thieves gathered in the territory of Yunyang Mansion.

The Yunyang area has been a headache for the government since ancient times. This is a large mountainous area that was developed relatively late, and its topography is four peaks and peaks, with boundless mountains and dense forests, only countless huge paths and turbulent streams in the meantime, and there is no end in sight. Outsiders enter, if there is no local guide who is familiar with the terrain to guide the way, then there is no distinction between east, west, north and south. It's really a great place to play hide and seek for a thief army who want to hide from the officers and soldiers. Not only is the mountainous terrain conducive to the thief army, but the geographical location of Yunyang is also convenient for attacking from all sides.

The northeast of Yunyang can pass through the Xichuan River and the inner countryside of Henan; In its northwest, it can pass through Pingli, Xing'an, Xunyang and Shanyang in Shaanxi; In its southwest, it can pass through Dachang and other places in Sichuan; To the south, it can pass through the Jingmen, Yuan'an, and Yiling of Huguang; Its southeast, can also go straight to Xiangyang from the Han River.

In the fifth year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu appointed Deng Yu as the general of the expedition to the south, and used troops against Yunyang and nearby areas for a year, killing almost all the ethnic minorities and Han refugees in the area who did not submit to the rule of the new dynasty, and ordered the ban on the mountains, and did not allow the poor people of nearby prefectures and counties to enter the mountains to reclaim the land and resettle. But the ban policy has not stopped the influx of displaced people. By the time of Chenghua, the number of people had reached one million.

In the first year of Chenghua, Henan people Liu Tong and Shi Long led the displaced people to rebel in Fang County, and the imperial court sent troops to encircle and suppress it, and it took a considerable price to suppress it. Due to the officers and soldiers into the mountains to hunt and kill indiscriminately, it is said that men over the age of 11 were beheaded, coupled with the continuous drought, the number of displaced people increased greatly, until the sixth year of Chenghua, Liu Qianjin's subordinate Li Yuan, a native of Henan, rebelled again. The imperial court sent the imperial historian Xiang Zhong to the governors of Henan, Huguang, Jing and Xiang for military affairs, sent troops to encircle and suppress, and brutally slaughtered. Xiang Zhong also forcibly repatriated the displaced people in the mountains, and persecuted hundreds of thousands of people to death. Even this high pressure has not stopped the displaced people from moving into the mountains. By the twelfth year of Chenghua, the number of displaced people gathered in the Jingxiang area had increased to hundreds of thousands. In desperation, the imperial court had to change its strategy, and separated the mountainous area at the intersection of Huguang, Henan, and Shaanxi provinces, and set up Yunyang Mansion, which was under the jurisdiction of Huguang.

The thief army went deep into the Yunyang Mountains, which was really like a fish in water, like entering a no-man's land. The imperial court also knew that the Yunyang Mountains were a place of trouble. Therefore, when Xiong Mingyu, the secretary of the Ministry of War, learned that the thief army had gone to Neixiang and Yexian in Nanyang, he already had a premonition of the danger and possibility of the thief army entering the Yunyang Mountains of Huguang. He reported to Emperor Chongzhen and asked for early preparations. When Emperor Chongzhen read this report, the thief army had already entered Yunyang and other places, but it was hit hard by Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Xunyang, and the thief army could not go down to the lake, so he was forced to turn around and flee to Henan.

The young emperor was very satisfied with the battle situation in various places, but he was not satisfied with the situation in Denglai. Liu Yulie, Zhang Guochen, and Gao Qiqian had tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and every time they reported to the imperial court, they said that the matter would be done on the same day, but they waited and waited without waiting for the news that the rebels accepted the appeasement, but instead came the news that Shi Dayong, the general of Jinzhou, led the army to intercept and kill the eunuchs, snatched the military salary, and led the army to defect.

This news made Chongzhen feel unbelievable in shock, suffering from the fact that the factory minister Cao Huachun was in Gusu, and Jinyiwei had already withdrawn from the eyes and ears of the army, and Chongzhen did not know the truth about Shi Dayong's defection for a while.

In addition to being depressed, he summoned Wang Chengen and asked directly: "Do you know about Shi Dayong?" ”

Wang Chengen nodded and said: "The news came from Dongchang first, and the slave maid knows the way. ”

Chongzhen asked again: "Have the things I told you have been implemented?" ”

Wang Chengen hesitated and shook his head: "No." ”

"No?" Chongzhen was stunned for a moment, and then became furious: "You slave is so bold, I dare to delay the things I give you!" ”