The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Shangyuan Festival that the people attach great importance to, and after this day, it is considered a big year, and the hard work of the year really begins. However, in the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, it was murderous, at least in Qin and Jin provinces.

Li Zicheng made great efforts to prepare for the attack on Shanxi's soldiers, and the appointed magistrates were chasing stolen goods and asking for soldiers' salaries all day long. From the fact that he set up a grain station in Longmen, it can be seen that his strategic intention was to advance his troops to Taiyuan Mansion before the Yellow River thawed.

Shanxi took advantage of the cold winter and low temperature, built a lot of one-person high icicles and ice walls on the river, and built fortifications along the river, and mostly used ice solidification to defend, and the coal consumed by boiling water every day did not know to rise, and the white mist shrouded the Hejin area day by day. This is obviously just to deal with the current intrusion force attack, and when the spring is warm and the ice melts, these fortifications will be useless.

The few people in Hejin City have been relocated to Pingyang Mansion for resettlement. The craftsmen in the city were fine, and as long as the government was willing to arrange a place to live or shop for them, they would be satisfied. The embarrassment is that the peasants, once they leave their land, they are equivalent to losing the foundation of their existence. However, since the development of the population of the Ming Dynasty, all the land that can grow grain has long been occupied. Even the most domineering government could not force yeoman farmers to become tenant farmers or even serfs.

Zhu Cihong had no choice but to forcibly expropriate some land, issue a document, and convert it into three times the land in Shandong, and at the same time exempt him from grain for three years, and only pay taxes at the rate of 10 taxes in the fourth year. Even so, these peasants seemed to have been whitewashed, weeping with relief money, and followed the people from the Yamen of Shanxi's political department all the way to Shandong. Cai Maode only thought that the crown prince had his own arrangements, and he generously came forward in the name of the chief secretary. He didn't know that now the entire Shandong realm didn't know that the crown prince was playing with their ideas.

"I'll let Xu Dian temporarily put these people in for now." Zhu Cihong explained a little irresponsibly, and said, "Okay, now Hejin City is also vacated." Tomorrow I will meet Li Zicheng for the real chapter, and everyone will talk about how they are prepared. ”

Wu Fu saw that there were civil and military people here, and it should be a discussion before the war. Seeing Zhu Cihong looking at him, Wu Fu hurriedly said, "The three hundred and forty-two people in the attendant room have all been evacuated. "The expansion of the attendant room is still because of the two thousand students, and in just ten days, hundreds of people have been successfully "domesticated", and then more people have stood in the camp of the East Palace. Many people took the initiative to write letters to their families, expressing their desire to stay with the crown prince and serve.

Zhu Cihong has orthodoxy and righteousness, and he has a big killer weapon of psychological brainwashing, and what even robbers can do is not the slightest challenge for him. These people are all useful talents who can read and break words, and they are used to deal with correspondence and popularize cultural education in the army. However, before they saw their peaches and plums blossom and bear fruit, they went to Pingyang first.

"What about the sapper battalion? How's the progress? Zhu Cihong asked.

"There was not enough gunpowder, and in some places where it didn't matter, only hay was put in." Chen De has too much work these days, and he has lost a lot of weight. The armor his father had given him was tightest and still a little shaky.

Zhu Cihong smiled at the young man, acknowledging the effectiveness of his work. The ice shoots that appeared overnight were Chen De's handwriting, which made the thieves on the opposite side dare not come, which was really a great achievement.

In contrast, Xiao Mo had nothing to report. The headquarters of the East Palace Guard Battalion has been conducting winter training, increasing the daily running distance and weight, so that the soldiers are very much looking forward to fighting to end these boring trainings.

Xiao Donglou did not attend the meeting. No one asked him, but because he was on a top-secret mission. has already set off with two elite bureaus, and no one even inside Zuo Qian's headquarters knows where these two bureaus have gone.

Zhu Cihong asked a few more words and said, "Mr. Wu, you and Sun Du dispersed after the meeting and withdrew to Pingyang with the team. Chen De. ”

"The end will be." Chen De hurriedly got up and said.

"After you are completely done, you will take the engineer battalion and the labor camp to withdraw to Pingyang and wait for orders." Zhu Cihong said.

"Yes!" Chen De received the order cleanly.

Zhu Cihong's gaze fell on Xiao Tugeng.

Xiao Tugeng was very nervous. He had not fought since this expedition. All the tasks assigned were to defend the city, but when the thieves arrived at the city, the army was about to retreat. But fortunately, his people finally came back and came under the jurisdiction of the Central Military Department again. As a captain who participated in this important meeting. The excitement in Xiao Tugeng's heart is really indescribable.

"Xiao Tugeng."

"Humble duty!" Xiao Tugeng immediately stood up, gave a military salute, and finally calmed down.

"The responsibility of igniting the fire falls on you, and it's up to you whether we can get out of it all. Still have questions? Zhu Cihong asked.

"No problem!" Xiao Tugeng said firmly: "Our bureau has done ignition experiments under various conditions, and even if it rains heavily tomorrow, it will ensure that the ignition will be successful!" ”

"What about the ratio of gunpowder? Gunpowder can be more complicated here. Zhu Cihong asked again.

In the era of black powder, recipes were synonymous with power. The haode formula can be made into gunpowder, but the haode formula can only be made into firecrackers, and the power of the two is really far away. Donggong originally used gunpowder made by the Gunpowder Bureau, but this time it was temporarily collected from Pingyang, and the formula was not as good as the Gunpowder Bureau's hundreds of years of improvement and accumulation. The second is the color of the gunpowder, and some of the medicine even has more sand than the active ingredient, apparently in order to complete the mission.

"The screening has been completed." Xiao Tugeng said: "The important links are all gunpowder brought out by our Jingshi, there is absolutely no problem!" "Fortunately, a few soldiers were recruited from the skilled workers of the gunpowder factory, otherwise it would be really difficult to do this job.

Zhu Cihong nodded at this time and motioned for him to sit down.

"Okay, since everyone is fine, let's go back and prepare, and give Li Zicheng a New Year's gift tomorrow!" Zhu Cihong stood up, and then everyone stood up. I only heard Zhu Cihong say again: "Mr. Wu, Sun Du, the two of you should leave as soon as possible and don't delay." ”

Wu Fu and Sun Chuanting knew that this was Zhu Cihong's care, and hurriedly bowed and saluted, indicating their obedience.

……

On the fifteenth day of the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, two armies lined up on both sides of the Yellow River. Under the banner of Huangming, the Donggong guard battalion wearing a big red fat jacket has only a thousand people, divided into three formations, and each formation is about 30 steps away from the front and back, which is convenient for reinforcements and will not affect the retreat of the front army.

On the other side of the Yellow River, there are also flags fluttering, waving the newly made Shunzi flag, as well as Li Zicheng's handsome flag, and occasionally mixed with Liu, Li, Zhang and other generals.

Zhu Cihong looked at the clairvoyant mirror for a while, and said, "Sure enough, there are tens of thousands of people, and there are thousands of people." I can't see the end of this one. ”

Xiao Mo was a horse's head behind Zhu Cihong, and responded: "Your Highness, I'll go later." ”

Zhu Cihong didn't seem to hear it, and only said: "Here, there are more than ten rides." ”

Sure enough, a dozen black dots appeared on the snow-white river, and the horses ran over the solid ice and rushed eastward.

"Bow and arrow! Pre-~ Ready! Xiao Mo dragged out the preparatory tone, and soon more commands came to mind. There were no professional archers in the infantry battalion, and everyone except the rattan players had to wear a double prong—a bow and an arrow—to strike at a distance first after the enemy was in range.

The oncoming horsemen quickly noticed the movements of the guard battalion, and hurriedly stopped in the middle of the river, waving the apricot yellow flag in their hands.

The East Palace guard battalion soon flew out a team of horsemen, all of whom were good at riding from the Qin soldiers. They are also the cavalry seeds selected by Zhu Cihong, so naturally they can't show their cowardice.

The horsemen on both sides shouted two words five or six paces apart, and then turned back to the array. Soon, Li Zicheng's handsome man moved slowly, slowly moving forward under the wrapping of Zhongquan's personal guards.

"Let's go in too." Zhu Cihong waved his hand.

Xiao Mo was more nervous than Zhu Cihong, and his voice trembled when he passed the order. He knew that Zhu Cihong would definitely not follow his advice, but he was even more afraid of seeing the crown prince have three longs and two shorts. The dead are gone, but the living will be worse than dead.

Li Zicheng looked at the royal golden dragon flag that was slowly advancing, and he still couldn't help but praise in his heart: There is still a person in the Zhu family who is not afraid of death, but he is much stronger than those vassal kings.

The phalanx of the two managers quickly reached the surface of the river, and the ice rattled when they stepped on it. (To be continued......)