(Pray for the Tianjin explosion.) ）

On the tenth day of the first month, the capital city of Huangzhou, the government office.

Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, Renlong, Zuo Liangyu and others finally met in Fucheng.

The Liukou had already evacuated, and it was not until the Liukou evacuated that Lu Xiangsheng knew his intentions, but he couldn't open the city gate and lead the troops to pursue, after all, there were too many Liukou, and if he was surrounded by the Liukou, the consequences would be unimaginable. The only small victory was He Renlong, in the process of fighting with the blocking rogues, he killed about 2,000 rogues, and his own losses did not exceed 1,000 people, but such a victory was very small compared to the army of more than 10,000 casualties.

Everyone knows that they have fallen for the trick of the rogue, but no one will take the initiative to bring it up, in their opinion, this kind of thing is incredible, it has always been a rogue who has been taking care of the escape, when did he learn to use the strategy, he actually took the initiative to set up an ambush circle and attack the imperial army, and what everyone can't understand is that the one who is in the plan is actually Hong Chengchou, this is the most respected minister in the court, both civil and military, and the trust and respect he has received are even close to the former Yuan Chonghuan.

The 60,000 army led by Hong Chengchou suffered so many battles before this defeat, and the loss did not exceed 5,000 people, but this time the battle suddenly lost more than 10,000 people, and only more than 40,000 people remained.

Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and no one cares about it in the past, after all, it is a real fight with the rogue. There is no victorious general in the world, there is always a time when the horse stumbles, but this time the situation is different, the moment when Hong Chengchou is in charge of the extermination of the Liukou is the moment when the Liukou suffers a heavy blow. It stands to reason that Hong Chengchou should seize the opportunity to exterminate the rogues in one go, at least to deal a heavy blow to the rogues, so that the arrogance of the rogues can be fundamentally curbed, and finally completely wiped out by the imperial army. Unfortunately, the reality is the opposite.

The fold has already been presented to the Ministry of War, and such a heavy loss must be presented to the Ministry of War and the emperor, but everyone can't wait for the edict of the Ministry of War here. The next step has to be taken, and it's a matter of attitude.

Morale is low, and no one has a complete plan in their hearts about how to fight next.

The discussion had been going on for more than half an hour, and Hong Chengchou sighed and spoke again.

"This official has betrayed the emperor's trust and has assumed the responsibility in the twists and turns, and this official recommended Lord Lu to be the governor of the five provinces. In order to lead the matter of exterminating the Liukou, presumably the imperial court will soon have an edict coming, and this time the army has suffered a lot of losses. In the name of the governors of the five provinces, the official wrote letters to the governors of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Sichuan, asking them to pay attention to the movements of the Liukou. Be on guard. ”

Hong Chengchou's words, at the beginning of the discussion. It was brought up, and the matters mentioned above were folded. Lu Xiangsheng and others also knew, but this was Lu Xiangsheng's personal twist, and it was useless for everyone to oppose it, but Lu Xiangsheng did not agree with the battle plan proposed by Hong Chengchou, after all, the Liukou was active in Huguang, if it relied on Huguang's own strength, it would not be able to contain it at all, and the consequence would be that the county and county cities of the prefecture would be broken, and the strength of the Liukou would grow stronger and stronger.

Lu Xiangsheng's opinion is that the plan to pursue and exterminate the rogues should not be suspended just because of a single failure, but in the way of exterminating the rogues, the five provinces can be united.

In fact, Lu Xiangsheng's opinion implied that Zheng Jiajun should be dispatched.

It's a pity that Hong Chengchou did not say anything about it, and has always avoided mentioning Zheng Jiajun's matter.

After a tragic defeat, after the Huangzhou Mansion City Meeting, Hong Chengchou's attitude still did not change much, which made Lu Xiangsheng a little unbearable, and after Hong Chengchou finished speaking, he followed up and spoke.

"The lower officials think that the lord is the governor of the five provinces, on behalf of the imperial court responsible for the extermination of the Liukou, can mobilize the troops of the five provinces, unite to exterminate the Liukou, Shanxi, Huguang, Sichuan and Henan's army, from the strength of the strength, are difficult to compete with the Liukou alone, only the Zheng army in Shaanxi, can hit the Liukou fiercely, and after the battle at the beginning of the year, the Liukou is afraid of the Zheng family's army, more than a year has passed, and they dare not set foot in Shaanxi at all, in this case, the Lord asked the governor of Shaanxi, Zheng Daren, to lead the Zheng family army to attack, which is also reasonable. ”

Lu Xiangsheng finally directly proposed Zheng Xunrui and Zheng Jiajun.

Hong Chengchou couldn't avoid this question, and after sighing, he slowly spoke.

"This official has made a serious mistake this time, and the army has suffered heavy losses, and we must wait for the imperial court's edict to see how the imperial court handles this matter, and this official has just said that he will recommend Lord Lu to the imperial court as the governor of the five provinces, responsible for the extermination of the Liukou, and the imperial court's edict will be issued soon, and then it will be time to ask Lord Lu to make a comprehensive deployment."

Hong Chengchou said this, of course Lu Xiangsheng will not be satisfied.

"Xiaguan thinks that no matter when the imperial court's edict is issued, the lord is still the governor of the five provinces, if the extermination of the Liukou is suspended at this time, the Xiaguan estimates that after the Liukou are ravaged in Xiangyang Mansion, it is very likely to enter Henan, or even enter the Shanxi area, after their strength grows again, they will definitely adopt the strategy of dividing the troops, and at that time, the difficulty of exterminating will increase, and the speed of the development and growth of the Liukou is not something that ordinary people can imagine."

Hong Chengchou looked at Lu Xiangsheng and didn't speak, He Renlong, Zuo Liangyu and the others would not speak, although they were the chief soldiers, but in front of the civil officials, they were self-aware.

"Xia Guan knows that the army has suffered a heavy blow this time, which has some impact on morale, but the losses of the Liukou are also heavy, when the Liukou attacked the capital of Huangzhou, the loss of more than 5,000 people, and the next battle, the loss can be determined to be more than 10,000 people, in this case, the army continues to follow the Liukou to encircle and suppress, at least so that the Liukou has no chance to ......"

Before Lu Xiangsheng finished speaking, Hong Chengchou waved his hand, obviously unwilling to listen.

"Lord Lu's mood, this official can understand, but just suffered a failure, without rest, rash attack in a short period of time, I am afraid that it will cause greater losses, this official has decided to accept the reprimand of the imperial court, so I don't want to rush out and cause greater losses, I will wait until the imperial court's edict comes down before discussing."

Lu Xiangsheng was speechless, he really didn't understand, why Hong Chengchou was reluctant to mention the Zheng family, at such a moment, if the Zheng family army could be dispatched quickly, it would be a great blow to the Liukou, of course, there are some things in the court, he also knows, but he will not ignore the major matter of exterminating the Liukou, and blindly watch the Liukou grow stronger.

After Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong and the others exited the room, Hong Chengchou looked at Lu Xiangsheng, shook his head and sighed.

"Lord Lu, this official knows your thoughts, this official admits that in the battle to exterminate the Liukou, Lord Zheng Xunrui is stronger than the official, and after entering Datong for several years, the official does not know much about the Liukou, and always thinks that it is the same as before, in fact, many years have passed, and the Liukou are also undergoing great changes, they have become stronger, and they can not be killed at will."

"This official and Cao Zongbing set off from Datong and entered Shanxi, at that time, it was very smooth to kill the Liukou, in fact, the Liukou was not stable at that time, and could not raise enough grain and grass in Shanxi, and the morale of the army was the lowest time, so they were able to get a lot of victories and kill countless Liukou, but the first battle of Dengzhou, Cao Zongbing fell, and the mentality of the Liukou changed at that time, and the Liukou and the official were circling in Xiangyang, which was the expression of self-confidence."

"It's not that this official doesn't want to exterminate the rogue, but the current situation is indeed difficult, as for the matter of dispatching the Zheng family's army, this is not something that this official can say clearly, one day, Lord Lu will understand the meaning."

"The rogues retreated to the Xiangyang area, and the official was also worried that they would plunder everywhere and strengthen their own strength in the process, but under the current situation, the official could only ask all localities to make preparations to prevent the rogues from attacking the county and county seats."

Lu Xiangsheng had a helpless look on his face, he knew very well that the losses in the Xiangyang area could be certain, and it was impossible for the Liukou to capture Xiangyang City for the time being, after all, the walls of Xiangyang City were extremely strong, and there were Hongyi cannons on the city walls, which were enough to resist the attack of the Liukou, but the rest of the states and counties were not easy to say, once they were sacked by the Liukou, the people who couldn't survive either went directly to the Liukou, or they became homeless people and died miserably on the wandering road.

"Your lord's worries, the lower officials know, but the situation is urgent, if you connive at the looting of the Liukou in Huguang and Henan and even Shanxi, the situation will be even more difficult to control, the opportunity cannot be missed, the Liukou's actions are extremely fast, the army is delayed in the Huangzhou capital for a day, the Liukou may use this time to take many cities, once their forces reach a certain level, separate activities are certain, by that time, there is almost no chance of extermination."

Lu Xiangsheng said this, and Hong Chengchou's face changed slightly.

"Lord Lu said cautiously, this official has no intention of conniving at the Liukou, any battle, after the sergeant suffers heavy losses, he needs to rest for a period of time, this time will not be very long, within this time period, the Liukou may not be able to grow rapidly, Chongzhen's first year so far, eight years have passed, the Liukou has been active in the north, the official participated in the eradication of the Liukou is also very much, never connived at the Liukou, even if the imperial court was mainly to appease, the official also insisted on completely killing."

Lu Xiangsheng's face was slightly red.

"My lord misunderstood, Xia Guan didn't mean this, but Xia Guan still insisted that the army needs to be dispatched immediately to exterminate the Liukou." (To be continued)

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