But in any case, the Runing Army finally achieved the purpose of this dispatch, so Wu Shigong has been smiling in the inner house today. Originally, Wu Shigong had always had a good temper with his wife and children, but now he saw Wu Shigong so happy, so there was constant laughter in the inner house.

So at dinner time, the ladies' repertoire was staged in the inner house. In a word: sarcastic sarcasm of Wu Shigong is to build his own joy on Wu Shigong's embarrassment. Of course, Wu Shigong didn't think much of this kind of joke, he was already thick-skinned. But he won't expose his shortcomings and quarrel with a dozen or so twittering ladies.

It's just that after dinner, Wu Shigong grabbed the most sarcastic embroidered bamboo and dragged it into her room. Later, after Xiuzhu's hypocritical resistance, Wu Shigong's XX desire finally succeeded.

Anyway, it's an old husband and wife, and the two of them know each other quite well. didn't do it for a while, Xiuzhu said for a while: how naughty are the twin sons; After a while, he said: What is the matter with the ladies in the inner house. It's just a chatterbox, constantly interrupting Wu Shigong's interest.

Wu Shigong is angry! Why is this woman still so half-hearted at this time? Isn't this contempt for their own combat effectiveness? So after a fierce battle, the embroidered bamboo was finally subdued.

But after lying down to rest, Xiuzhu began to nag again: "Young master! You don't want to serve as a slave now, let that Xiu'er surround you every day. What's so good about her? I didn't take in the house and became your concubine, but I even raised the children for you. Don't feel at ease to be a lady, revolving around you all day long, at first glance, she is a fox, the same as her master. ”

Wu Shigong pretended to sleep with his eyes closed, and he thought to himself: "Wouldn't it be good for you to rest more with Xiuzhu?" Why are you noisy to be a maid? Besides, on weekdays, you have been worrying about the child. It's rare to appear in front of yourself, where you can find your aunt! However, Wu Shigong will not join the intrigue in the inner house, so at this time, he can only pretend to be deaf and dumb.

"Why don't you speak?" Xiuzhu angrily pushed Wu Shigong, "Young master, you are biased." The other sisters all had several children, and only once were slaves. You don't care about slaves anymore. ”

Wu Shigong was already annoyed by the magic sound of Xiuzhu, he couldn't pretend to sleep anymore, turned around and hugged Xiuzhu, and sighed: "But you have great ability!" Give birth to two at once. The young master will work hard again tonight and let you give birth to triplets. ”

……

It's really troublesome that there are so many women!

On the sixth day of September in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang left Beijing. Officials of all sizes in Beijing went out of the city to see them off in a grand manner. Yang Sichang did not dare to slack off at all, and traveled all the way, and arrived at Xiangyang, the base camp of encirclement and suppression, in just over 20 days. As soon as he got off the bus, he immediately convened a military meeting of the civil and military officials of his department, and set about rectifying military discipline at the same time. On the one hand, the city defense of Xiangyang was strengthened.

According to the instructions of Emperor Chongzhen, Yang Sichang focused his encirclement and suppression on dealing with Zhang Xianzhong. However, it is believed that in the past, the troops were divided and advanced. It was difficult to inflict heavy losses on the enemy, so it was decided to set up generals in the army and concentrate military power. So when he first arrived in Xiangyang, he suggested that Zuo Liangyu be appointed as the "general of the thief", "the president's ministries, obey his command, and conspire with the ministers." Career Shift Scheduling". even compared Zuo Liangyu to Li Yu, a famous general who pacified the town in the Tang Dynasty, saying that although he did not dare to regard himself as a good minister at that time, Zuo Liangyu was not far from Li Yu.

And at this time, Emperor Chongzhen in order to strengthen the command of Liliang. Preparations have been made to transfer Yu Zilian as the deputy superintendent of the Ming army in Henan and Huguang provinces, and Liu Yuanbin to be transferred to the supervising army, and to transfer these two officials and eunuchs with military talents to the past.

But after receiving Yang Sichang's recital, he immediately changed his mind and complied with Yang Sichang's request. It fully reflects the support and trust for Yang Sichang

In fact, Yang Sichang's promotion of a military general to be the commander-in-chief of the president's ministries was also an arrangement made in response to the shortcomings of the military system at that time. does not mention whether Zuo Liangyu is a suitable candidate, but this behavior can actually be called the right medicine.

Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it has always been a noble and a military lowly, and all the commanders who command the battle have appointed civil ministers. A governor who does not have the rank of squire is usually the official of the imperial history of the capital, and there are only four ranks, but the chief military officers who are often the first rank of the military rank under his command are called and drunk, like pawns.

The civilian marshals are respected and powerful, but they do not have their own troops. The generals who led the troops were subject to the supervision, although it was determined by the system, and they were not necessarily convinced. Therefore, when the battle was in battle, the commanders often failed to command.

And the imperial court doesn't really attach importance to these bare-bones commanders who have no real strength, and they are easily appointed and dismissed, and most of the people who are dismissed and killed are governors and governors of this kind. The separation of generals and commanders and the discrepancy between power and reality were really an important reason for the failure of scheduling and ineffective command in various battlefields in the late Ming Dynasty. Yang Sichang wants to lead the army with military generals, just to break this situation.

On the other hand, the military construction of the Ming Dynasty was based on a strategy of passive decentralization, in which the country's army was scattered in hundreds of headquarters, collectively known as "biao". Every general, from the governor (including the prime minister and the superintendent), to the governor, down to the general army, the deputy general and even the general who leads the team independently, has his own standard, more than 10,000 people, less than 1,000 people, and the generals can really command this team.

This kind of decentralized construction has made it difficult for those commanders who claim to command the army of more than 100,000 to be hampered in all directions and difficult to dispatch because of the lack of a strict hierarchical command system when organizing large-scale battles, let alone the flexible and mobile mobilization of troops on the battlefield.

However, Yang Sichang seems to be very eager to make some improvements to this kind of malaise in construction, but because it involves the entire military system, he can only temporarily use the method of appointing another general above each standard to enhance the cohesion of the whole army.

Yang Sichang's appointment of a general commander in the army actually contained some kind of attempt to reform the outdated military system in the late Ming Dynasty. But he knows it, he doesn't know why, he took a strong medicine when he was seriously ill, and he didn't know how easy it was to change the disadvantages of this hundred years? On the contrary, it has caused more instability in the morale of the military.

In fact, at this time, you have to choose Wu Shigong, who has the highest prestige. No matter what, the commanders of the officers and armies from all walks of life are still the most convincing and proficient at fighting Wu Shigong. Moreover, Wu Shigong has many generals and allies, so he can at least control the entire situation in Henan and Huguang. As for whether Wu Shigong has different intentions, Yang Sichang, as the prime minister, can actually monitor and control it nearby, which is better than letting it go.

However, Yang Sichang also did not listen to Wu Shigong, and Wu Shigong did not participate in the Xiangyang Military Conference, and did not give Yang Sichang any face, so that Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu, who had a grudge against Wu Shigong, could not mobilize the Runing Army at all, so in the subsequent battle, they could not borrow the slightest help from the Runing Army.

Emperor Chongzhen almost obeyed Yang Sichang's various requests, and immediately approved the appointment of Zuo Liangyu as the general of the Ping Thief, and sent the commissioner of the Great Seal of the Inner Government to the front. Zuo Liangyu was indeed quite excited, and he was ready to fight against Zhang Xianzhong to take revenge. Yang Sichang was not in a hurry to send troops, but actively reorganized the troops, deployed liliang, hoarded grain and wages, consolidated the rear, and prepared to accumulate strength and win in one fell swoop.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen's support for Yang Sichang did not decrease in the slightest. Even after Yang Sichang went to the front line in person, the courtiers also stopped all kinds of attacks on him out of respect for the minister's presence in the battle array. Only the military department has to constantly deal with this pivotal assistant outside, and some discord will inevitably occur.

However, Yang Sichang constantly has requirements for military salaries, and it is difficult for the military department to meet all of them, and some things are systematically precedent, and the military department is unwilling to change them at will, which breaks the rules. At the end of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang impeached the military department for not serving in his post and obstructing the plan of encirclement and suppression. Although Fu Zonglong, the secretary of the Ministry of War, was recommended by Yang Sichang, he was very unconvinced by his use of power to suppress people, so he replied to a copy, saying that Yang Sichang "wasted the country's military funds in vain, could not make meritorious contributions, and bullied the ministers of the court with his power."

However, Emperor Chongzhen was very annoyed that Fu Zonglong could not be in the same boat with the superintendent at the critical moment, and it happened that the military department made a mistake in the issue of employing people in Liaodong, so he was arrested and imprisoned on the charges of dereliction of duty and making fun of the feudal territory. The criminal department was ready to be convicted, but Emperor Chongzhen refused, and there was a great tendency to put him to death. Another important minister went to prison for offending Yang Sichang.

After the dismissal of Fu Zonglong, Emperor Chongzhen appointed Chen Xinjia, whom Yang Sichang had always strongly recommended, as the secretary of the military department. Chen Xinjia was born as a lifter, and there were only a few people in the history of the Ming Dynasty who were appointed as scholars, so the genuine Jinshi were very unconvinced. But Chen Xinjia is indeed a capable person, and his thinking is similar to Yang Sichang, so he gave great support to Yang Sichang in his military appointment.

With the emperor's wholehearted trust, the wholehearted cooperation of the military department, and the huge authority of the cabinet supervisor, Yang Sichang is ready to work hard. So at the end of this year, he posted a list in Chu, Henan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi provinces, engraved with Zhang Xianzhong's head, and wrote a reward: "Those who can capture Zhang Xianzhong will be rewarded with ten thousand gold, and the marquis of Juetong." ”

However, not long after the list was published, someone posted a leaflet on the gate of Yang Sichang's line, "Those who come to the cabinet will be rewarded with three coins of silver", which made Yang Sichang suspicious, thinking that he was surrounded by spies of the peasant army.

But in any case, Yang Sichang was fully prepared, and in the first month of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the mobilized Ming troops officially launched an encirclement and suppression of Zhang Xianzhong's troops.

At this time, Luo Rucai broke up with Zhang Xianzhong because he couldn't stand Zhang Xianzhong's domineering. Luo Rucai is very righteous in the rivers and lakes, even though he has been bullied and betrayed by Zhang Xianzhong many times, but at most he is a gang, and he will never make a fuss, nor will he say a bad word. One of the principles he has always taken is: "Friends are good together, good to disperse", "stay and meet". So Luo Rucai discussed with Zhang Xianzhong and lost a lot of smiles, and then separated in Zhushan.

Under such circumstances, Yang Sichang's battle to encircle and suppress the peasant army officially began. (To be continued......)