It's only June, and the swallow thistle is also a dog summer day.

Zhou Pu and Chu Zheng led their troops to recover Yanjing on May 18, and only half a month after recovering Yanjing did Lin Jian advance westward from Jinhai. However, Lin Jian did not live directly in Yanjing City, but lived in a royal manor in the northeastern suburbs of Yanjing, which was originally known as Qiuye Jian and later used as a hunting ground for Huluquan.

"It is said that the Qiu Ye Prison rebellion case changed Yuan Yue's fate," Lin Jian stood on the mountain pavilion in the west corner of the manor, facing the cool wind blowing slowly, and asked Song Jia behind him, "What do you think?" ”

Song Jia knew that Lin Jian was going to start rehabilitating Su Men and Li Zhuo, but when it came to the root cause of Yuan Yue's collapse from Zhongxing in the past twenty or thirty years, Song Jia didn't think he could see through it, and only said: "There are some things to be left for future generations to comment." ”

Lin Jian nodded, some things are indeed left for future generations to comment.

At this time, Gao Zongting hurriedly walked up to the mountain pavilion and said: "Yuan Lishan committed suicide by drinking poison in Tai'an, and the rest was under the jurisdiction of the deputy general Yuan Guiting, and he sent someone to Ning Zechen to surrender on the third day; Ning Zechen sent a fast horse to Yanjing to ask for instructions......"

After the recovery of Yanjing and the defeat of the remnants of the southern fleeing army in Luanxian, although it entered the summer weather, the fighting in various places did not slow down, but set off a new high tide of recovering the lost territory.

Lin Jian sent Zhang Gou to lead his troops to take charge of the Taihang Mountain Independent Town Division and other Taihang Mountain Resistance Army soldiers and horses of nearly 50,000 people, and fled west from Luan County to Jinzhong, and fell into Taiyuan in early June, and the prefectures and counties near Taiyuan surrendered when they heard the news.

In early June, Chu Zheng led his troops to recover Changli, Yuguan and other northeastern Hebei regions. Han Caizhi led his troops to Dushan to recover Datong, and the northern Jin region south of Datong also surrendered without encountering any resistance.

At the same time, with the cooperation of the cavalry of the two brigades, after recovering Cangzhou, Hu Qiaoguan's department continued to move south, and Liuxilin's department, which captured Linqu, attacked the remnants of the captives in the Jiaodong area from the north and south.

Xuchang soldiers and horses were the first to collapse, and after the Changhuai army went north, Luo Jian, Huo Tong, and Liang Chengdong led their troops to surrender. Dong Yuan, Zhong Rong, Chen Juxian and other generals led the remnants of less than 30,000 people to retreat to the area west of Ruzhou, and stubbornly resisted at the eastern foot of Funiu Mountain.

In early June, Liu Zhenzhi was ordered to lead his troops south, join up with Deng Yu and Xiao Kuian'an, and attack Dong Yuan's army, which retreated to Ruyang, and was defeated in a battle, killing Zhong Rong, Chen Juxian and others, Dong Yuan, Yuan Guizheng, Yuan Jinqiu and others disappeared after the war.

After the battle of Luanxian, although the Huaidong army captured the corpse of the captive king Ye Zier, killed Tan Daocheng, Fuqu Mengye and other captive generals, and captured Zhang Xie and others, it still asked Ye Ji Duodi and a small number of cavalry to break out - after Ye Ji Duodi broke through to the south, he also knew that the general situation had been lost, and even waited until He Xiongqi led 5,000 cavalry to come and converge, and did not care about other soldiers and horses east of Linzi, that is, he led the remnants of Jinan, Daliang and other places to flee westward, entered Hezhong Mansion, and joined Ye Ji Luorong.

At this time, in addition to Chen Zhihu in Guanzhong, Ye Ji Luorong and Ye Ji Duodi in the river, nearly 50,000 newly attached Han troops under Yuan Lishan in the later stage of the Northern Expedition became the main soldiers and horses of Beiyan remaining in the hinterland of Hehuai, but at this time, Ning Zechen led 80,000 soldiers and horses to besiege Tai'an and other cities, unable to extend.

Unexpectedly, Yuan Lishan committed suicide in Tai'an City-Hearing Gao Zongting talk about this, Lin Jian looked up at the distant mountain and said: "Send a team of men and horses to protect Yuan Lishan's family in Yanjing City, and prevent the army and civilians from intruding on him; Ning Zechen is solely responsible for the surrender of the enemy army in Tai'an, and all war criminals can be demoted to one to two degrees after surrendering. It is also a good thing to be able to end the Central Plains battle as soon as possible......"

Before the Northern Expedition, the military department drew up a list of war criminals, and Yuan Lishan, who had contributed greatly to the southern invasion of Yanhu, naturally had to be included in the first-class war criminals. In addition to Yuan Lishan, there were more than 200 generals of Jizhen who were captured with Yuan Lishan at that time, and more than 200 people were included in the list of war criminals.

"By the way," Lin Jian remembered something again and asked Gao Zongting, "Have you been to see Zhang Xie?" ”

"I've seen it," Gao Zongting nodded and said, "If he can't be interrogated as soon as possible, I'm afraid his body won't be able to drag on for long......

"You can't let him die of illness, it's too cheap for him," Lin Jian frowned and said, "You, Zuo Xiang and Song Gong, you must hurry up and clarify the details of Li Bingbu's unjust death, and strive to make Zhang Xie tortured to death!" ”

"I met with Zuo Xiang just now, and Zuo Xiang talked about the matter of returning Yanjing, I don't know if the lord has considered it; Or will this matter be put aside for the time being and go back to Jiangning first? Gao Zongting asked.

After recovering Jinhai, Lin Jian made Zuo Chengmu serve as Yan Ji's Xuanfu envoy, and was fully responsible for cleaning up Yan Ji's current tattered situation. With the army marching westward, Lin Jian hid in Yanjiao Manor to escape the summer, and Zuo Chengmu moved the administration to Yanjing City, and also led the dispatch of Yanjing Mansion Yin.

There are hundreds of thousands of civilians in Yanjing City alone who need relief and appeasement, and the remnants of Yanhu in Yanjing City must also be cleared in time - Zuo Chengmu wants to arrest a thousand things, and Lin Jian can't imagine that he still has the leisure to care about it.

Lin Tie did not deliberately block the news of Emperor Yongxing's death, and the so-called Zen decree written by Emperor Yongxing himself was also made public in Jiangning in early June - as a ritual system, Lin Tie naturally had to resign several times, and finally "refused" in order to justifiably ascend the throne and claim the emperor.

Just return to Jiangning, or directly ascend the throne in Yanjing and claim the emperor, there are still some differences within Huaidong on this issue.

Zuo Chengmu, Hu Wenmu, and even Lin Xuwen, Lin Tingli and others, advocated returning the capital to Yanjing, naturally hoping that Lin Jian could directly ascend the throne and become emperor in Yanjing. At least in terms of the traditional pattern, Jiangning is biased towards the south, and the capital is set in Jiangning, which is not conducive to the rule of the north.

In fact, it was not difficult for the new empire to control the entire Northeast region, the core town of Liaoyang was only 200 miles away from the Bohai Coast, and the entire Liaohe River system, which penetrated into the hinterland of the Northeast, connected with Liaodong Bay; As long as a few more seaports are built in eastern Liaodong to export resources such as iron, coal, timber, etc., the control of the entire northeast region will be easier than imagined - the difficult part is the control of the areas west of Guanzhong, Heyuan, and even west.

For the control of the northwest region, the imperial capital is located in Jiangning or Yanjing, and the actual difference is not large.

Thinking of this, Lin Jian said: "Can we defeat Liaoyang in August, Liaoyang will be taken, there will be almost no problems here, and then we can withdraw and go back to Jiangning first!" ”

There are still 30,000 remnants of the enemy in Liaodong to be eliminated, and in fact it is no longer enough to cause trouble, and the remnants of the enemy in Liaodong may even abandon Liaodong and flee west from the northern foot of Yanshan Mountain, and join up with Ye Ji Luorong and Ye Ji Duodi, who fled west from Hezhong and Guanzhong......

The new empire will focus on two directions, one is the South Seas, the other is the northwest, Jiangning is the center of gravity in these two directions, Song Jia stood next to him and did not speak, but she also did not advocate returning the capital to Yanjing.

Gao Zongting said goodbye and left, Song Jia asked Lin Jian with a smile: "I heard that Concubine Hu Ren is as beautiful as a flower and has a reputation for national beauty, and the leopard master said that she can't be abrupt with a beauty, and she was specially sent to prison yesterday, are you interested in seeing it?" ”

"Zhou Pu is messing around to see me make a fool of myself, what are you doing with it?" Lin Jian pouted and said.

"Then what are you going to do with her, so that you don't exile her to the South Seas, right?" Song Jia asked.

"Go back to Jiangning and allow her to become a monk." Lin Jian said.

"It's okay, Mingyue still lacks a companion in the nunnery," Song Jia said, "But Princess Yuanyan, you must be reluctant to let her spend the rest of her life in the nunnery, right?" ”

Lin Lian can still remember Yuan Yan's innocent and beautiful smile ten years ago, thinking of this, Lin Lian sighed lightly and said: "I won the Yuan family, I don't know if she hates me in her heart." Let's talk about it in Jiangning......"

***************

A little earlier in Yuan Lishan's suicide by drinking poison, Cui Quanchen, Cui He, and his son, the generals of the Goryeo Navy Division, who learned the outcome of the Yanji War in advance, took advantage of Ye Ji Baishi to go to the banquet to assassinate him.

With the cooperation of the Second Town Division of the Haidong Xingying Army, Cui Quanchen, Cui He and his son surrounded and annihilated more than 15,000 people from the Fuqu Department led by Yeji Baishi to reinforce Goryeo, and took the opportunity to master the Goryeo military horses in Guiyang Mountain, and crusaded against the Prime Minister Zuo in the name of the Qing monarch's side and respected the monarch's power, and marched to Hanyang.

The only elite of Goryeo in the periphery of Hanyang were in the hands of Choi Quanchen, Choi Hyuk and his son, and Zhen Feng led the Haiyang army to break through the Asan defense line and go north.

In the middle of July, there were still 80,000 soldiers and horses in Yanhu's remnants in Hezhongfu, but Yandong Zhuhu's own soldiers and horses accounted for less than 30%, but under the threat of the Huaidong army, Yanxi Zhuhu and Xi entered the northwest Yizhuhu, and temporarily united around the Great Yan royal family headed by Yeji Luorong and Yeji Duodi.

The situation dragged on until mid-July, and Ye Ji Luorong could not see the slightest possibility of change, and in the face of more and more Huaidong troops gathering on the periphery, Ye Ji Luorong could only abandon Hezhong Mansion and flee west into Tongguan.

On July 16, Tao Chun led the Changhuai army to recover Hezhong Mansion and stationed in Luoyang.

At the beginning of July, after a short period of rest, the Jinghai Division quickly recovered its combat strength, crossed the sea from the Jinhai Sea to the north, and stormed Liaokou, an important place in the northwestern part of Liao, that is, the mouth of the Liao River.

Chen Yan led the Denghai Town Division to land at Liaokou, and then marched north along the Liao River, and on July 8, recovered Liaoyang City, the capital of Yuyan and Hubei, which had no troops to defend Yuyan.

The remnants of the enemy in Liaodong fled west one after another almost before July, and some fled northward, in the direction of Mount Ulun; The rest of the Jinghai Division recovered the Liaodong Peninsula; Liu Xilin also regained Dengzhou on July 124.

At this point, the Central Plains war situation has come to an end, and the Northern Expedition can be regarded as a great success - and in Hezhong Mansion, Lin Tie, headed by Ning Zechen, transferred Song Shixing and Yang Yihang to the west, and prepared to form the Western Expeditionary Army Headquarters, and incorporated the Huaiyang Army, Changhuai Army, and Taihang Mountain Independent Town Division into the Western Expeditionary Army, in addition to the artillery brigade directly under the military headquarters and a newly organized musket battalion, all of which were incorporated into the Western Expeditionary Army sequence.

The flintlock pistols made by the Ordnance Supervision are currently only trained by one battalion of the Forbidden Camp Army - Lin Jian was worried that after the Western Expedition, the new musket would be difficult to withstand the test of brutal land warfare, so this time he urgently transferred the musket corps of the Forbidden Camp Army to the Western Expeditionary Army.

In early August, under the escort of the First Jockey, Lin Jian left Yanjing and returned to Jiangning to claim the title of emperor......