Then Wu Shigong and Xuan Mo had a cordial conversation in a friendly and harmonious atmosphere. They agreed that each should be responsible for suppressing bandits from the north and south of Henan, and that they would exchange information and make concerted efforts to pacify the entire territory of Henan as soon as possible.

After that, the two will also cooperate with each other to try their best to prevent the peasant rebels from re-entering Henan. For this reason, Xuan Mo also agreed to Wu Shigong and gave Wu Shigong the quota of twenty low-level officials in Runing, Nanyang, Guide and Ruzhou, and let Wu Shigong designate it himself, as long as he went to the governor's yamen for approval, and the officials kept a file.

It should be said that Xuan Mo supports Wu Shigong in all aspects. Although he also had his own purpose, such support made Wu Shigong and Xuan Mo immediately form an alliance.

When the two were talking happily, Hong Chengchou also came to the back hall unexpectedly. As soon as he saw Xuan Mo and Wu Shigong, he said with a smile: "I wanted to ask Xuan Fu for someone, but I never thought that Xuan Fu would take the lead, and this governor would not take advantage of others." But if you want to have a chat with the two of you, I don't know if you're welcome? ”

Hong Chengchou saw that Xuan Mo and Wu Shigong had left the banquet one after another, and he couldn't help but leave the table to look for it. But as soon as he saw Wu Shigong and Xuan Mo talking and laughing, he knew that he was a step too late.

So Hong Chengchou simply joined the conversation, and after some bargaining, the three reached the following agreement:

Wu Shigong will supply 5,000 stone of grain to Hong Chengchou's army free of charge, and allow Hong Chengchou to pay 10,000 stone on credit. If Hong Chengchou has a request, the Runing army will send troops to escort grain and grass to ensure the smooth flow of the grain route for the officers and soldiers who suppressed bandits in Huguang;

The Runing Army and Xuan Mo's Henan Officers and Army will take joint action to exterminate the bandits left in Henan as soon as possible. Later, on the basis of ensuring that the peasant rebels would be prevented from re-entering Henan, five months later, Wu Shigong personally led no less than 6,000 Runing troops to join Hong Chengchou's army of bandits;

Hong Chengchou strongly supported Wu Shigong's idea of setting up a granary along the route from Xinyang to Wuchang, and issued a letter to the government along the way asking him to cooperate with the Runing Army to implement it;

Hong Chengchou squeezed out 5,000 taels of military salaries per month to pay the Runing Army from the military expenses for the suppression of bandits.

This agreement also has its own place. For Wu Shigong. The biggest gain is to open up the road to the Yangtze River through Xinyang. And Hong Chengchou has no worries, at least saving a large number of troops responsible for transporting grain. And five months later, the Runing Army was added. As for Xuan Mo, he can wipe out the bandits in Henan with peace of mind in a short period of time. Moreover, Hong Chengchou's military spending on the Runing Army can also reduce some local expenses in Henan.

However, in this discussion, although Wu Shigong still respectfully put himself in the lowest position, judging from the process and results of the discussion, he was already in a state of equal sitting with Hong Chengchou and Xuan Mo.

After that, Wu Shigong did not go to Xinyang, he had to make adjustments as soon as possible to meet this great change. The rest of the Ming armies also rushed to Xinyang. However, the rest of the Ming army basically didn't have any major incidents. Only Zuo Liangyu's troops rubbed against the Runing army a few times, and after losing a few hundred people, the disgraced Zuo Liangyu rushed to Xinyang.

As soon as he arrived in Xinyang, Zuo Liangyu immediately complained to Hong Chengchou, but he was in a very good mood and Hong Chengchou ignored him at all. Therefore, the matter is not settled.

April of the eighth year of Chongzhen. Hong Chengchou held a military meeting in Xinyang. In the military council. Hong Chengchou proposed: "There should be a long-term strategy for controlling thieves. I went to Yu and the thief went to Qin, I went to Qin and the thief went to Chu Yu...... Now we should be divided into faith. ”

Hong Chengchou's key to this jihua is still to press and defend in the area all over the court. You must know that at this time, Hong Chengchou was the governor of the three sides and the governor of the five provinces, and half of the Ming Dynasty depended on him to protect him, with great power and great responsibility.

According to Hong Chengchou's deployment. Zuo Liangyu, Tang Jiuzhou, You Shiwei, Xu Laichao, Deng Xi, Chen Yongfu, Zhang Yingchang and others each led several thousand men and horses to garrison the pass fortress between Shaanxi, Henan, and Huguang to prevent the peasant rebels from flowing into Shanxi, Huguang, and Henan.

He ordered Wu Fu, the governor of Shanxi, to strictly guard the crossing of the Yellow River to prevent the peasant army from entering Shanxi in an attempt to block the peasant army entering Shaanxi. Hong Chengchou personally led Cao Wenzhao, He Renlong, Ai Wannian, Zhang Yingchang and other main forces back to Shaanxi. He was responsible for directing and exterminating the peasant rebel army in Shaanxi.

There is absolutely no problem with this jihua on the surface. But the situation changed again, and after a few months the peasant rebels were very different in strength.

Before, Zhang Xianzhong's department came to avoid the real and attack the false, led the army from the south of Anhui to the west, through Huoshan and Yingshan into Huguang, and the old Huihui, Guotianxing and other departments to rendezvous, and drove westward, through Zaoyang, Xiangyang, following the old road of Yunyang, entering Shangzhou, occupying the empty Shaanxi region and Shangzhou again with Gao Yingxiang to join Fengxiang.

In view of the fact that the Shaanxi official army left Tongguan and entered the Central Plains, all the peasant rebel troops also returned to Qin. Completely caught up with the officers and soldiers. At this time, the situation in Shaanxi was "extremely dilapidated, and the famine was abnormal", and the peasants had no hope of survival. Therefore, after the peasant rebel army entered Qin, the hungry people enthusiastically joined, and the total number of people participating in the rebellion soon reached more than 2 million.

Obediently rumbling holes! Two million people! It is a real number, not an imaginary number, which is close to half of the population of Shaanxi. Therefore, it can be said that except for the people in the city, almost all the population of Shaanxi rebelled.

Not only that, but through years of conquest, the peasant rebel army has trained some strong troops. More importantly, after their successive victories, they had the courage to take the initiative to fight with the officers and troops, instead of passively resisting as before.

So Hong Chengchou's Jihua had a problem. Obviously, the total strength of the officers and troops was already small, and they were already powerless in the face of the huge peasant rebel army, and now that the various units were divided into guards, there would be even fewer troops to pursue and suppress.

At this time, the number of peasant rebels increased greatly compared with the past, often several times to dozens of times that of the official army, and in the face of the peasant rebel army, which accounted for the absolute majority, the officers and troops were not sure of victory, and could not fulfill Hong Chengchou's task of encircling and suppressing the peasant rebel army in Shaanxi.

On the other hand, the generals stationed in various places did not have many troops under them, and they could not play the role of intercepting the peasant rebels at all. As soon as the peasant rebels find an opportunity, they will immediately look for the weak ones that are wandering around.

But what did Hong Chengchou think in his heart? Although he did not know that the peasant rebel army in Shaanxi had expanded to such a scale, Hong Chengchou still knew that it was impossible to exterminate the peasant rebel army by fighting only according to this method.

But Hong Chengchou can't help it. Emperor Chongzhen's edict to exterminate the thieves in six months is especially in his ears, and it didn't take long for Fengyang to fall, so Hong Chengchou should give Emperor Chongzhen an explanation.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou used this military jihua to achieve his political goal: it didn't matter if he couldn't eliminate the peasant rebels in Shaanxi, he just could expel them, and the rest would be done by the generals in charge of blocking the palace. It's best if you can intercept it, and it doesn't matter if you can't intercept it, Hong Chengchou can easily find a scapegoat.

In fact, we have already learned from the agreement between Hong Chengchou and Wu Shigong that Hong Chengchou has no illusions at all about suppressing the peasant rebels in six months. His jihua was: first stabilize the peripheral areas of the peasant rebel army's area of activity, and then gradually reduce the peasant rebel army's area of activity, and Zuihou completely wiped out the peasant rebel army with one blow.

However, in order to make all this happen, the first thing is to fool Emperor Chongzhen. If Hong Chengchou himself does not have an official position, even if it is a beautiful and perfect Jihua, it will be a castle in the air.

"My lord! The man we sent to Kaifeng sent back a letter: the woman said that our people had promised her, and that she would have nothing to do with us from now on. Li Zhu said cautiously while peeking at Xue Zhinong's face.

"Fart! Who the hell promised her? Xue Zhinong was really angry.

"Yes...... It's a little uncle! Li Zhu replied hesitantly.

Thinking of Shopkeeper Li, Xue Zhinong couldn't get angry anymore, he sighed and suppressed his feelings, and then said: "Tell that woman that she was born as a person of our Shanchuan Division, and died as a ghost of our Shanchuan Division, and wants to leave?" Let's go in the next life! Our Yamakawa Division has never quit going to the people! ”

These days, Xue Zhinong's mood has been bad. The first is that the Shanchuan Division is no longer the unique intelligence agency of the Runing Army, and the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Military Command Department established by Xue Cunyi has divided a large part of the power of the Shanchuan Division.

And his deputy, Zheng Ling, also faintly became the person in charge of the intelligence collection of the inner study, basically out of the system of the Shan Chuan Division. This made Xue Zhinong, who had won Wu Shigong's trust before, feel a great crisis.

And now that he heard that Tang Mei was going to break away from the Shanchuan Division, this made Xue Zhinong even more angry. Finally, there was an ace female spy who took the shot, but she wanted to leave, but there was none. However, now Xue Zhinong is also a little anxious, and he is anxious to do something to let Wu Shigong take a look.

After thinking for a while, Xue Zhinong said to his newly promoted deputy, Li Zhu: "How are you contacting those people in the village?" ”

"Just picked up! But the Reclamation Merchant is doing something similar. My lord! Shall we do this? ”

"What the hell is he doing? It's all for my uncle, and whoever gets it first is the credit of whom. Command! Do it as soon as possible! ”

Xue Zhinong's idea was to recruit those rebellious bandits in Ruzhou, Nanyang, Kaifeng and other places through the relationship between the previous arms sales, and let them all surrender to the Runing Army as much as possible, so that the Runing Army could control these new areas as soon as possible.

But because Chang Meng's reclamation firm is also doing the same thing, the two sides have some overlap. But now Xue Zhinong can't manage so much, as long as he has merit, he will offend the reclamation firm! (To be continued......)