The officers who dispersed didn't expect that they had just returned to their own troops, but they were immediately called back to the big tent, and after entering the big tent, they only saw Wu Shigong sitting behind the big case and looking at a letter, his face was pale and he didn't say a word.

The officers all exchanged glances with each other, knowing that something must be wrong. Truly! What Wu Shigong is looking at now is the secret report of Tang Mei delivered by the horse.

And what Tang Mei knew at that time was what she heard when she danced and what she learned about it when she knocked on Zuo Liangyu's side later, and Zuo Liangyu couldn't tell Tang Mei the details of the Xingyang Conference. Therefore, the rest of the contents of the secret report are not much different from what the prisoners know.

However, there is a very important piece of information in it, that is, the peasant rebels who entered Shanxi by the northern route have a high probability of crossing the Yellow River and entering Henan. And Zuo Liangyu, who was in charge of the defense of the Yellow River on this line, only cared about the defense of Kaifeng City, ignoring the other rivers of the Yellow River, and wanted to completely put the peasant rebels on this road into Guide Mansion.

And all the jihua that Wu Shigong considered before did not consider the peasant rebel army along the way. And when the peasant rebel army appeared on this road, the battle of the Runing army suddenly became chaotic.

Although it is still a possibility for the peasant rebels to cross the Yellow River and enter Guide Mansion so far, Wu Shigong certainly cannot turn a blind eye to this possibility, nor can he expect Zuo Liangyu's conscience to find out and send troops to block the peasant rebels.

According to the inference, the total number of peasant rebels on this road should also exceed 100,000. And when they entered Guide Province, the first problem that the Runing Army faced was the defense of Guide City.

If the city of Defu is lost, then of course everything will be over. But even if the city of Guide is not lost, then the entire area of Guide will be brutalized by the peasant rebels.

Unlike Runingfu, which was directly controlled by the army and grassroots civilian officials of the Runing Army, the control of Guide was indirectly controlled by the local gentry of Guide Province in cooperation with the Runing Army.

The reason why those gentry were willing to cooperate with the Runing Army was, of course, because they could learn from this cooperation. I got a lot of benefits from the Runing Army. And the most crucial point is that the Runing Army can ensure the safety and industry of these gentry.

Of course, the peasant rebel army this time was really powerful, and it was helpless for the Guide Mansion to be broken. However, if the Runing army refused to make a gesture of rescue, then these gentry who returned to Germany would immediately be separated from the Runing army.

In other words, the Runing Army must give an explanation to those gentry. Otherwise, the Runing Army will pay double the price to repair this rift in the future, and even completely lose control of most of the territory of Guide. This kind of result is simply to make the Runing army cut off his own arm.

But there's more to it than that. If the peasant rebel army on that road is not entangled under the city of Guide Fu, and directly bypasses the city and drives to the Iron Triangle area, and then cooperates with the peasant rebel army attacking from the east road, then the Iron Triangle will immediately be in a situation where the enemy is on its back.

We already know. The defense of the fortress complex was not built in isolation from one fortress to another, but required a mobile force to support the enemy forces that entered the fortress complex.

But now the only troops that can move are the more than 1,700 Guide regiments led by Qian Qi, and they have to face the peasant rebels who are attacking from behind. So the only sensible option was to withdraw this mobile force into the fort as well, to preserve its own strength and strengthen the fort's defenses. But in this way, the Iron Triangle will completely lose its role in defending against enemy forces.

But that's it. The 200,000-strong peasant rebel army with a combined army did not need to attack the three fortresses of the Iron Triangle at all, they only needed to rush into Runing Mansion with "hulala". Then the root of the Runing army will be devastated.

So. At present, the Runing Army no longer has to consider the issue of exterminating the peasant rebel army, they should choose to withdraw the main force of the Runing Army to Runing Province, and attack from the inner line according to the dynamics of the peasant rebel army, so as to maintain the tranquility in the area controlled by the Runing Army.

But in this way, we will soon face another problem. That is, how to retreat safely from under the noses of these 300,000 peasant rebels in front of them. There's only one way to do that. It was to fight a decisive battle immediately, and strive to defeat the 300,000 peasant rebels in the shortest possible time, and then march back to Runing to meet the peasant rebels on the other two routes.

But what Wu Shigong hates the most is the decisive battle. In this situation, the peasant rebel army on the opposite side will certainly not obediently line up in the field. Facing the firearms and cavalry of the Runing Army. They will definitely rely on the large battalion and build a large number of fortifications to fight to the death against the Runing army.

However, even if there is a huge difference in the strength of the two sides, even if the Runing army is attacking a strong battalion, Wu Shigong firmly believes that his Runing army will definitely win a big victory. But in this way, the Runing Army will definitely not be able to avoid major casualties.

And this also involves another weakness of the Runing Army.

At present, every soldier in the Runing Army has received basic military training before joining the army. And Wu Shigong also counted that in order to train a qualified soldier, they need to train for nearly a year in the village guard, road protection team, and in the Runing army, while the training time of artillery and cavalry will be even longer. Therefore, every soldier is quite precious to Wu Shigong.

But that's not the main thing, it's more about finance.

Before this expedition, Wu Shigong and Deng Qifan made a calculation with the accounts in the inner study. First of all, this time the Runing Army is a general mobilization of the whole army, and Wu Shigong estimates that the time of this operation will be about three months. Therefore, the cost of this double military salary will have to pay nearly 100,000 taels of silver.

And the other big one is the pension for the wounded and wounded. Although there is a special fund for the bereaved families in the Officers' Foundation, the Runing Army itself must prepare a batch of land and silver as a pension for the disabled soldiers, and this limit is that the casualties of the Runing Army cannot exceed 2,000.

But even so, the Runing Army will really have to live a hard life in the next two or three years. The reserves of the Runing Army and the savings of the Four Seas Money Bank will also be fully used, and some may have to be collected from the local government and some borrowed from the gentry and clans. In the next few years, there will definitely be no need to think about the expansion of the army, and it will be difficult to replenish even the equipment and horses lost in this operation.

Of course, there is also a way to solve this problem, that is, to let the soldiers free their hands and feet to loot, and replace the high military pay with the looting proceeds.

But in this way, the strict discipline that the Runing Army has cultivated for a long time will be gone; The good reputation that has been formed in the local area will also be lost. Even the centripetal force of the Runing Army will become a big problem.

In addition to having common interests, the whole army of Runing also has a noble sense of mission and collective honor. If there is a looting like the bandits, the Tartars, and other Ming troops, there will only be interests to maintain the Runing army in the future.

But if it is only compared to interests, the Runing army can't compare with the imperial court and the Tartars, even the peasant rebel army also has a great attraction, at least they can loot unscrupulously, and it will definitely be much more comfortable. Then Zuihou Wu Shigong trained the strong army of the Runing Army, but it became a wedding dress for others.

What is even more obvious is that the combat effectiveness of the Runing army, which is accustomed to looting, will also be greatly reduced. In any case, a unit that is single-minded in fighting is always much stronger than a unit that is focused on plundering.

Wu Shigong would never pin his future on the noble qualities of his colleagues and subordinates, especially since he had suffered such a big loss in his previous life. Although Wu Shigong's thoughts are a little dark, it is better than insurance. Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, Wu Shigong will definitely not let the Runing Army take this step.

In previous battles, the Runing Army had a good control over casualties. In total, there were more than 200 casualties. Because they all won and controlled the battlefield, so far, there are only about 60 dead and disabled soldiers in the Runing army.

Originally, Wu Shigong estimated that as long as he was patient and slowly grinded, he would be able to exterminate the peasant rebels on the opposite side as long as he suffered 500 casualties at most. But now it has suddenly turned into a strong attack, and the number of casualties is about to get completely out of control. And then they have to fight against the other two peasant rebels. (To be continued......)