Wu Shigong returned to his home in Runing on the evening of June 21, the seventh year of Chongzhen. Seeing Wu Shigong's return, the ladies in the inner house were very happy. Because Wu Shigong finally didn't bring a woman back this time, especially when he went to the world-famous Qinhuai River.

As soon as Wu Shigong arrived home, in addition to immediately informing Deng Qifan and Xue Yongli that they would discuss the matter early tomorrow morning, he took a stack of Di Bao and the intelligence analysis of the Shanchuan Division back to the inner house to read it carefully.

So when Wu Shigong entered the study the next day, Deng Qifan, Xue Yongli, and others who were familiar with Wu Shigong could see that Wu Shigong was worried. And Wu Shigong's worry was not because the situation outside was not smooth, but because Chen Qiyu's encirclement and suppression of the peasant rebels were too smooth.

In these four months, Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, organized 23 battles, all of which were won, and the peasant rebels could not stand on the plains, so they could only rely on the mountainous areas and move to the areas of Hanzhong, Xing'an, Yunyang, and Fangxian.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army entered Pokuizhou, Sichuan (now Fengjie, Chongqing) and besieged Taiping. Wu Shigong's godmother, Qin Liangyu, rushed to the arrival of troops, and happened to fight back and forth with Huichuan's son Ma Xianglin, and defeated Zhang Xianzhong in Kuizhou. Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and retreated to Huguang.

However, when the peasant rebels entered the mountainous areas, the officers and soldiers cowered in the face of difficult problems, and no one was willing to do the dirty work of going into the mountains to chase and suppress them, and they all thought that they could expel the peasant rebels to neighboring provinces.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was very dissatisfied with this kind of kicking of the ball, and on April 20, he personally issued an order urging the war and gave a verbal warning to the towns.

So Chen Qiyu personally planned the strategic deployment of regional defense and full-field pressing: he ordered the governor of Shaanxi to contain the northern front, Yunyang to control Lu Xiangsheng to contain the western front, Henan governor Xuan Mo to contain the eastern front, and Huguang governor Tang Hui to contain the southern line.

And Chen Qiyu himself. He personally undertook the task of pressing the whole field, and led his army into the mountains to pursue and suppress the peasant rebels. In any case, Chen Qiyu's spirit of bravely shouldering heavy burdens at this time is still very valuable.

Chen Qiyu and Lu Xiangsheng decided to focus on the civilian army in the mountains near Yunyang first, and the two supervised the officers and troops to cross the mountains and rivers, climb the cliffs and trees, and follow and kill the civilian army, and won many successes.

So in front of the results, Chen Qiyu was proud, and he reported to Chongzhen that he personally led the army into the mountains to search and suppress. The thieves in Chuzhong were basically swept away.

But what Chen Qiyu said was the truth, but there was another fact, a large number of peasant rebels moved from the mountains of Huguang to the mountains of the Hannan region of Shaanxi.

In fact, there is also Chen Qiyu's careful thinking here, he is going to give his biggest competitor Hong Chengchou some trouble, disgusting him. But how could Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, not fight back?

So Emperor Chongzhen got "another fact" from Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi. He thought that Chen Qiyu was not doing his job cleanly, and instructed Chen Qiyu to "sweep as soon as possible". So Chen Qiyu continued to lead the army north.

But anyway. There is no doubt that the Ming army won great victories one after another, and there is no doubt that the peasant rebel army was in a desperate situation. Even Zheng Ling's intelligence analysis mainly analyzed and predicted how the officials of the two factions, led by Chen Qiyu and Hong Chengchou, would compete for power and profit after the victory of the encirclement and suppression, and how the Runing Army would take advantage of the situation to obtain some benefits.

But Wu Shigong knew that the situation was not optimistic at all. A military group that will conquer the city of Beijing and overthrow the rule of the Ming Dynasty in the future will not be so simple.

Wu Shigong knows. If there is anything to change the original history, it is nothing more than the Ruzhou victory of his own Runing Army. However, Wu Shigong also knew that although the victory in Ruzhou looked brilliant in terms of results, it did not hurt the peasant rebels at all. Not even their fur hurt much. So that's uncountable.

Besides, on the face of it, the peasant rebels were indeed in a desperate situation. Just look at Henan. With the exception of Runing and Guide, which were strongly suppressed by the Runing army, the rule of the Ming Dynasty had shrunk into the city, and the area outside the city was completely anarchic.

To tell the truth, as long as a leader of a prestigious peasant rebel army went to Henan to ascend to the heights, Wu Shigong believed that he would immediately be able to pull up an army of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

And Henan is like this, and so is Shaanxi and Shaanxi, which were disabled. This time, the Huguang and Sichuan regions, where the peasant rebels are raging, will also become like this. Therefore, if Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant rebel army, is not completely exterminated, then the giant python of the peasant rebel army will not hurt the seven inches at all, they can recover at any time, and they can still make waves on the land of the Central Plains.

But Wu Shigong can't express the worries in his heart, being a crow's mouth always annoys others, in the final analysis, that is Wu Shigong's own guess. Besides, Wu Shigong himself was lucky in his heart, thinking that if he could really succeed in encirclement and suppression this time, it would be to eliminate a big trouble for himself.

As a result, the deliberations proceeded normally. The first is the reporting of various departments. And the Runing Army is also good news here.

The summer harvest of Tuntian Zhuangzi of the Runing Army has already reaped a bumper harvest. Because the three decrees were issued a little late, only one season can be harvested on the wasteland this year. However, it is also a bumper harvest depending on the situation. Judging from the food, the Runing Army was finally able to breathe. For the first time in so many years, the Runing Army was able to achieve its own self-sufficiency in food without getting food from the outside.

The business of Sihai Commercial Bank and Sihai Qianzhuang, due to the good reputation of Haode in the past, and with the efforts of Yuan Xingshan, the principal shopkeeper, with the reputation of the outside businessmen, a batch of goods on credit from the outside businessmen, so that the working capital is not as tight as originally expected.

Moreover, since Runing Province has become a safe island in the surrounding area, only the workshops here can produce smoothly. As a result, Runing and Guide gradually became a trading hub in the surrounding area. That also made the work of attracting investment quite smooth. The tax revenue collected by the Runing Army is also growing steadily.

The army is also normal, except that because of the collection of displaced people, four or five thousand more guards have been added. If there is any trouble, the only thing is the continuous influx of displaced people. However, under Deng Qifan's strong control, the influx of displaced people can still withstand it temporarily.

However, Deng Qifan pointed out that with the bumper harvest of the Runing army, the problem of the influx of displaced people must be paid special attention. Because if it is forcibly refused, it will affect the image of "benevolence and righteousness" erected by the Runing Army in the past. But if those who come do not refuse, the Runing Army may face financial collapse again. (To be continued......)