At this time, Wang Guangen thought that he was quite important. Indeed, with more than 20,000 people, the five-battalion peasant army that can make up more than 5,000 people is not a very small force, but the Runing army is interested in the territory of Junzhou. It is best for them to take refuge with Wang Guangen, otherwise, the Runing army will not hesitate to exterminate them and forcibly occupy this territory.

Besides, in fact, Ru Ningjun has always had very strict requirements for his own objects. If it is an ally, it is fine, but as long as it surrenders and takes refuge, the Runing Army will definitely break up and reorganize the team, and the generals will also rotate regularly, and have absolute control. In Wu Shigong's eyes, he would never tolerate the semi-independence of his troops.

Therefore, in response to Wang Guangen's question, Lin Yufei's answer was quite hard and arrogant: "Lord Liu must have read the letter brought by Lord Liu. If what is written in the letter is not true, Lord Wang can also send someone to inquire, and there is no need to say more. There is no need to hide it, my family admires Lord Wang, what path can I take? Lord Wang still needs to come up with his own ideas. ”

"Lord Wang must have heard a lot of rumors about my family, but Lord Wang thought about it carefully: Are there any rumors that my family has treated his subordinates badly? Is there anyone who has broken away from our Runing Army to stand on its own? How so? In fact, just look at Lord Liu. Judging from the Mingli, joining our Runing Army is not as easy as you used to be, and you may not have as much money as you took from you, but what is your money? It's all passing money, and in a blink of an eye, I don't know where to spend it, where is there stability in the Runing Army? ”

"And you are all happy for a while, and you don't know what tomorrow will be like in life or death, but in our Runing Army, we are rich and noble for several generations. And now Lord Liu is still leading the troops, although the fierce battle on the battlefield is inevitable, but have he and his former brothers been dead soldiers? Have you ever been cold-eyed? None of them! My family pays attention to treating everyone equally. ”

"I am also straightforward and fast-talking. Don't want to hide anything. Don't think too much about our previous affairs, just treat them as business, and our Ru Ningjun won't ask Lord Wang to do more. As for the future, Lord Wang can choose which path to go anyway. But the ugly words are ahead, if you want to surrender, you should follow the rules of our Runing Army, and don't be half-hearted. If you choose another way, then the road to the sky! ”

After hearing these words, Wang Guangen's face changed uncertainly. After thinking about it for a while, he said, "I implore Mr. Lin to linger in the contempt for a few more days, and let me think about it again, and think about it again!" ”

Although Wang Guangen and the others were quite hesitant about whether to join the Runing Army, they wanted to delay some time to see the situation clearly. But the honesty of Xiong Wencan was sent out as soon as possible.

And after Zuo Liangyu heard about Wang Guangen's loss of sincerity, coupled with Xiong Wencan, there was news that the support of Zhang Renxue, the general soldier of Henan, was coming. The slightest vigilance of his zuihou was gone. Therefore, Zuo Liangyu instructed the whole army to speed up towards the combined army of Zhang and Luo, striving to quickly defeat this peasant army that had rebelled, and once again made the first contribution in the battle against the people and bandits.

But Zuo Liangyu didn't know at all that Zhang Renxue, the chief soldier of Henan, was deeply afraid that his troops would be insufficient, so he didn't dare to raise troops to help alone, he just stayed in Nanyang. He issued an order to the Nanyang Battalion, the Runing Battalion, and the Guide Guard, and personally sent a sincere private letter to Wu Shigong, hoping that these three troops would mobilize some troops and horses to join their own troops, and then go together to support Zuo Liangyu's troops.

Although nominally. Zhang Renxue, the chief soldier of Henan, could indeed mobilize all the soldiers in Henan during the war, but in reality, even Qiu Lei, the chief soldier of Shandong at that time, could not transfer Liu Zeqing, the chief soldier of Caozhou, so let alone the unruly warlord military attache like Wu Shigong.

However, this time Wu Shigong also gave Zhang Renxue face, he transferred an association of the Nanyang Army, Jiang Cheng's independent association, and five hundred personal soldiers brought by Zhao Degong, and jointly sent troops in the name of Nanyang Battalion, Runing Battalion and Guide Dewei, nominally with Zhao Degong as the main general, and Zhou Xun as the deputy, in fact, Zhou Xun led the army.

These more than 15,000 horses will join forces with Zhang Ren's school department to jointly march west to quell the rebellion. In fact, the key is to occupy Junju and leave a large army in Junju. However, it was not until mid-July that the two armies were ready to meet smoothly. But when they had just set off a few days ago, they were surprised to hear the latest battle report, and at this time, they suddenly found that they no longer needed to support Zuo Liangyu.

After entering July, Zuo Liangyu successfully recovered Fang County and made a meritorious contribution first. After that, according to the usual practice of the Left Army, the morale of the Zuo Liangyu Department was even higher. Then he defeated the rearguard of the Zhang and Luo coalition forces in the pursuit, beheaded more than 100 people, and won a small victory. This made Zuo Liangyu's department arrogant to the extreme, but they didn't know that this was exactly the plan of the Zhang and Luo coalition forces to invite the king into the urn.

After going deep into the deep mountains and dense forests of Fang County, because of the unfamiliar terrain and the inability to follow up with heavy grain and grass, Zuo Liangyu's troops began to be demoralized.

At the end of July, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai set up an ambush in Luo Monkey Mountain in the west of Fang County, and they first deliberately feigned defeat twice, lured Zuo Liangyu into an ambush circle, and then suddenly launched an attack. Zuo Liangyu's army was in chaos, and the deputy chief soldier Luo Dai was captured and killed, and the Ming army was annihilated by more than 10,000 people. And Zuo Liangyu desperately broke through, and there were less than a thousand remnants left around him, and even the general officer's seal letter was lost in a panic. Zuo Liangyu perfectly interpreted what it means to be arrogant and defeated.

And the fiasco of Luo Monkey Mountain once again caused the imperial court to shake. also made Emperor Chongzhen completely disappointed in Xiong Wencan. He first dismissed Xiong Wencan as prime minister, and soon arrested him in Jingshi for questioning, and finally sentenced him to death and beheaded Yu Xishi.

Zuo Liangyu was demoted to three levels and made meritorious contributions with the army. At this time, Zuo Liangyu was already full-fledged, and the court didn't dare to stimulate him too much, so he let him go so gently. So at some times in the late Ming Dynasty, the rules of the noble and the military sometimes reversed. The most unlucky was Zhang Renxue, the chief soldier of Henan, but he was removed from his post because he "couldn't help" and lost his official position inexplicably. It's really a bit wronged!

However, after getting rid of Xiong Wencan, Emperor Chongzhen immediately faced a thorny problem - who should take over as the commander-in-chief of the front line of encirclement and suppression? Among the world-famous best commanders, Lu Xiangsheng is dead, and Hong Chengchou has just been appointed as the governor of Jiliao, and he is responsible for defending the Qing army and cannot be transferred. Sun Chuanting, the former governor of Shaanxi, went to the Imperial Prison to pick up soap, and Yu Zilian was too young to gain a firm foothold when he first arrived in Nanjing.

After thinking about it, Emperor Chongzhen still felt that Yang Sichang, who had rare talents, was the most reliable. Since it is the strategy of "ten-sided netting" proposed by Yang Sichang, let him implement it concretely, which will not cause the strategy to be distorted due to the poor implementation of the local governor! But this decision surprised Yang Sichang himself.

After Zhang and Luo rebelled and Zuo Liangyu failed, Yang Sichang pleaded guilty one after another, and took the initiative to stop his official duties in the cabinet and the military department. The post of secretary of the military department has been replaced by Fu Zonglong, the former governor of Sichuan, whom he recommended. On August 22, Emperor Chongzhen also issued a decree on his petition for guilt, asking him to return to the cabinet. But three days later, on the 25th, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly made up his mind and criticized him in another of his petitions: "The auxiliary ministers have repeatedly neglected to ask for guilt, but they are more sincere. Now that the rebellion is rampant, the prime minister is dismissed, and he knows people only as an auxiliary minister, and he can deal with this matter well, but he can gallop in the past, quickly swing the demonic atmosphere, and save the people from fire and water. On the day of triumph, you will be rewarded. "Yang Sichang is not allowed to have any room for negotiation and prevarication.

Emperor Chongzhen did not go through the cabinet and ministry meetings, and did not consult with him, so he appointed cabinet assistants to the front line to supervise the divisions, which made the courtiers and Yang Sichang himself feel a little surprised. But Yang Sichang has been full of gratitude for the emperor's kindness for several years, and the emperor needs him to go out to supervise the army to save the country from danger, and he can only do his best to serve the emperor.

The assistant ministers to the front line to supervise the division is an unprecedented event, the relevant yamen hurriedly handled the edict, seal, etiquette, military quartermaster and other matters, and agreed that Yang Sichang with the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War, the East Pavilion University Scholar as the supervisor, the general people are called "the Inspector of the Cabinet" or "Supervisor of the Minister" (pivot refers to the cardinal, that is, the secretary of the military department).

Before leaving, Emperor Chongzhen summoned Yang Sichang again on the fourth day of the ninth month and gave him special instructions: "Zhang Xianzhong once shocked the ancestral tomb, and it must not be forgiven, and the rest of the suppression is mutually useful." "In fact, it is not necessarily Zhang Xianzhong's department who dug up the ancestral tomb of Fengyang, and Emperor Chongzhen himself agreed to appease him, so it is just to determine a principle, focus on attacking Zhang Xianzhong, and treat other departments of the peasant army differently. He also wrote a poem to Yang Sichang as a parting encouragement:

Yanmei is now temporarily used as a dry city, and the general is majestic and fine willow camp.

Sweep away the atmosphere of Kou from now on, and return the period of education and people's livelihood.

In this poem, Emperor Chongzhen uses several allusions. Salt and plum are the two main condiments in ancient times, and Gaozong of the Shang Dynasty appointed Fu Shuo as the prime minister, saying that he was as important as the salt and plum in cooking, and later generations referred to the prime minister with salt and plum. Stems are shields, shields and castles were the main defenses in ancient times, and were compared to generals defending the country.

The Xiliu Camp was the camp of Zhou Yafu, a famous general of the Han Dynasty, who played an important role in quelling the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu. In the life of Emperor Chongzhen, he rarely gave poems to other courtiers, and this time not only did he write the inscription, but also compared Yang Sichang to a virtuous and good general, and the high hopes placed on him were overflowing. Yang Sichang was not only grateful to Dade, but also deeply proud to be so favored by the emperor. After he left Beijing, he flaunted the poems given by the imperial pen, erected the banner of "General Yanmei", and the personal standard of the department was also called the "General's Battalion", which was really majestic on all sides.

The Ming Dynasty's anti-bandit warfare officially entered the Yang Sichang era. (To be continued......)