On the 16th day of the first lunar month, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, issued an order to the Ming army that surrounded and suppressed the peasant rebels. In other words, Hong Chengchou issued his official order to the governors and military attaches leading the army.

In fact, by this time, Hong Chengchou's original plan to mobilize a large army to Henan to encircle and suppress Jihua had already pounced, of course, this can be attributed to the Gansu mutiny and Li Zicheng's troops in Shaanxi to delay Hong Chengchou's army, but this also shows that the Ming army's reaction was quite slow.

Although the Ming army had an advantage in terms of total numbers and combat effectiveness, each Ming army fought on its own, did not cooperate with each other, and could not even report information. As a result, the peasant rebels often took advantage of the situation, and even had a local advantage.

For example, this time Henan cracked down on bandits. Only the Ming army in Henan was fighting alone, and no one from the Ming army in the province came to support. And when it came to Zuihou, there was even only the Runing Army fighting alone, and finally it was transferred by the peasant rebel army, which made Fengyang, the central capital, fall.

And now, it is even more exposed that the Ming army in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is very weak, and as the "Jiangnan Wealth Area" of the Ming Dynasty, it has also lost its former tranquility.

Now that the first plan has gone bankrupt, Hong Chengchou is about to redeploy his troops, and he is ready to transfer troops from Shaanxi, Yunyang, Sichuan, Huguang, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and other places to conduct joint operations to compress the peasant rebel army in the area of present-day Hubei, and then join forces to attack.

So Hong Chengchou began to dispatch troops, and the soldiers and horses of Li Lu, the nearest famous general in the vicinity, were of course the first to receive the order. But what surprised Hong Chengchou was that Li Lu only rushed to the bandit camp with only 500 of his own soldiers.

Hong Chengchou was furious on the spot, and immediately wanted to use military law against Li Lu and beat him with dozens of military sticks. But Li Lu suddenly showed the temper of the gentlemen in the capital. He scolded loudly: He counted the hardships of the Yexian battalion and the other Ming troops were afraid of the enemy. In the scolding, Hong Chengchou, Xuan Mo and all the civil and military officials in the camp were scolded.

And Li Lu's scolding is not unreasonable, although he has been promoted to the chief soldier. However, up to now, because the time is too short, the rated soldiers of this general army town have not yet been approved by the military department, so Li Lu, the chief military officer, still brings the 3,000 soldiers and horses of the original guerrilla battalion.

However, relying on these 3,000 people, Li Lu also kept the garrison area of his two county towns such as Yexian, and also indirectly supported Nanyang Fucheng without falling, and even supported Ruzhou City with Wu Shigong's Runing Battalion, relieving the crisis of Ruzhou City. In any case, it is a great achievement.

However, Li Lu forgot that civilian officials would not reason with military attachés, and his map cannon was so large that no official in the battalion interceded for him. Therefore, Hong Chengchou has to uphold the original verdict for the sake of face. Li Lu looked like he was about to escape.

Seeing that the sergeant who was executing came to stop him, Li Lu was also anxious. In a hurry, he threw out a shocking news: the peasant rebel army is heading towards Fengyang!

It's not that Li Lu didn't hide it when he saw Hong Chengchou, the main thing is that the dynamics of Zhang Xianzhong's department are just speculations by the officers of the Runing Army in Ye County, and the accurate news is when Li Lu rushed to suppress the bandit army. It hasn't been passed on from Wu Shigong yet. However, in order not to suffer from the flesh and skin, Li Lu could only throw out this uncertain news first.

But this news was like a blow to the head, and Hong Chengchou, Xuan Mo and other officials were blinded. It's a painstaking effort to suppress the bandits. but the emperor's ancestral tomb was wiped out. It's a little too big for that!

Hong Chengchou didn't have the heart to punish Li Lu, he sent scouts in the direction of Fengyang on the one hand, and asked Li Lu about the details of the peasant rebel army.

But what can Li Lu say? It was the Runing Army who fought this battle, and it was the Runing Army who came back and forth to rescue, and he was busy hugging his wives in Ye County. Therefore, the information reported to Li Lu by the Runing Army, the speculation and analysis of the officers of the Runing Army, the hearsay news and Li Lu's own imagination were all mixed together. All were thrown to Hong Chengchou by Li Lu.

Hong Chengchou, who was in a turbulent mood, did not notice the exaggeration in Li Lu's words. He prayed that God would open his eyes and let Fengyang miraculously be saved; At the same time, he began to rack his brains to get some results, although he couldn't shirk much responsibility, but at least he had to make some moves to atone for his sins.

And Xuan Mo on the side was always a little gloating. This time, the peasant rebel army entered Henan for the second time. Xuan Mo also suffered a lot, but fortunately, the influential cities in Henan were preserved.

And now it's the turn of the surrounding provinces, let those governors also taste the torment of the old man!" ”。 Fortunately, Xuanmo's city is quite deep, and he has been immersed in Confucianism for many years, so he immediately sobered up, and kept silently reciting in his heart: "Be cautious!" Be cautious! ”

On the second day, Li Lu, who had been anxious all night after the madness, received a 180-degree change in his treatment. And this transformation is exactly what Xuan Mo is promoting.

When he was in Xuzhou, Zhou Junwu, who felt bored in the Runing army, proposed to leave, and Wu Shigong also happened to send him to Zhu Dadian's army.

This week, Junwu was not afraid of hard work, and hurried day and night to the army of Hong Chengchou and Xuan Mo, and he immediately told his mentor Xuan Mo everything he saw and heard in the Runing army.

Although he was already mentally prepared, Xuan Mo was still surprised when he learned the true strength of the Runing Army, and Xuan Mo, who calmed down, also guessed that this time it was the Runing Army that dealt with all the peasant rebels alone.

What surprised Xuan Mo even more was that Zhou Junwu told Xuan Mo that the Runing Army was not a tripartite alliance of Runing, Guide and Yexian, and that this army was completely under the command of Wu Shigong alone.

What is this concept? This shows that Wu Shigong should be treated with caution, if he offends Wu Shigong, he can completely ignore the nominal civilian boss as a warlord; If you hand over haode, then Wu Shigong will also be the right-hand man of the boss.

Then Xuan Mo's choice will be easy. Try to win over Wu Shigong as much as possible and make him a confidant, as for the grievances suffered by Zhou Junwu, then use it as the price for his growth. Therefore, Li Lu immediately became a favored dog of Wu Shigong and received Xuan Mo's attention. So when he met Hong Chengchou again, Xuan Mo said a lot of good things about Li Lu.

And no matter how high Hong Chengchou's position is, Henan Governor Xuan Mo's face will always be given. Besides, Hong Chengchou is now worried about the news of Fengyang, and he has no intention of punishing Li Lu, the local chief soldier. So after Xuan Mo pleaded, he sold Xuan Mo a favor.

So until Li Lu returned to Ye County, he felt a little dizzy about the unpredictable treatment he received. Even when he saw the food and ordnance that Xuan Mote had approved for him to bring back to Ye County, Li Lu seemed to be in a dream. (To be continued......)