It is said that the imperial court sent Yang Sichang to suppress the bandits, listen to the evaluation of this Yang Sichang is a great figure, Wanli 16 Yang Sichang was born in the Ming Dynasty Huguang Changde Mansion Wuling County, he is the only son of three generations of single biography, his father is Yang He, the official to the right of the military department, the governor of the three sides. Wuling Yang was originally from Langxi, Anhui Province, and was assigned to Wuling to fill the army due to mistakes in the Hongwu period, and his descendants gradually advocated literature and chased fame. Under the influence of family style, Yang Sichang devoted himself to studying since he was a child, immersed himself in the imperial examination, and was promoted in the 34th year of Wanli, and in the 38th year of Wanli, he started his political career. After Yang Sichang entered the official career, he successively served as a professor of Hangzhou Fuxue, a doctor of Nanjing Guozijian, the director of the Fujian Department of the Ministry of Households, and a member of the Jiangxi Division of the Ministry of Households. But in the Holy Judgment, a certain number shall be given. At this time, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, gradually had the power of arbitrariness, and the contradiction between the Lin Party in the east of the DPRK became increasingly acute, Yang Sichang in order to avoid the whirlpool of political struggle, then called the illness to hang the crown, secluded in his hometown, to the five years of the Apocalypse, his father Yang He was also dismissed by Wei Zhongxian, returned to his hometown and lived in seclusion with Yang Sichang, living a life under the forest. At that time, the Later Jin invaded the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong was in an emergency, and the military supply was tight, Yang Sichang paid attention to side affairs, and compiled his experience in participating in financial management in the household department into 20 volumes of "Diguan Collection". In August of the first year of Taichang, the Ming Dynasty had not yet shown chaos, and Yang Sichang, who was then the head of the household, recounted in a note that the Huaibei, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang regions were due to the bad year, the price of rice was expensive, and the people's hearts were moved, and he reminded the emperor worriedly: "Today, the people still know how to beg for thieves, and they can still urge the department." I'm afraid that the people will be thieves themselves, who will urge my emperor to do so?" In later generations, a historian Ji Liuqi once sighed: "The people themselves are thieves, and they have been unfortunate in the past ten years!"

When Yang Sichang was appointed secretary of the military department, the Ming Dynasty had already fallen into the quagmire of internal and external troubles, and the Qing army had repeatedly entered the fortress, threatening the safety of the Ming Dynasty's Beijing division; Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Bingzhong (Xianzhong), Li Zicheng (Zao'er) and other hundreds of thousands of rebel troops were fighting in the Central Plains, which was even more of a problem for the Ming Dynasty. In July of the ninth year of Chongzhen before Yang Sichang's appointment, Shaanxi Governor Sun Chuanting broke the rebel army in Heishuiyu and captured Gao Yingxiang, and the situation improved.

Yang Sichang cared about the current situation when he was guarding the system, so he had a detailed plan for the future of the Ming Dynasty after serving as the secretary of the military department, plus he was familiar with the story of the code, worked in the pen, and was full of eloquence, every time the emperor summoned him, he could think like a spring, and talk eloquently, which was very different from the sluggish and wooden state of the previous military department, so Emperor Chongzhen summoned him every time he was far more than the specified time, and he was almost obedient to him, and even exclaimed: "With Qing hate late!" Yang Sichang's plan for the future of the Ming Dynasty can be summarized into three points: 1. If you go outside, you must first settle inside; second, you must have enough food and then you will have enough soldiers; third, only by protecting the people can you sweep the army. The response is mainly focused on the first two points. For the first point, he believes that the general trend of the world is like the human body, the Jingshi is the mind, the Xuan and Jizhu towns are the shoulders and arms, and the Central Plains south of the Yellow River and north of the Great River is the heart. Now the situation is that the beacon fire has appeared outside the shoulders and arms, and it is very urgent, and the troubles of the rogue are in the heart, and the middle is very deep. Of course, the external troubles cannot be alleviated, and the internal worries cannot be ignored, because it is poisonous in the heart, and if we allow "the heart of the abdomen to flow poison, the internal organs will fester, and the essence and blood will dry up in the day," what is the use of having only shoulders and arms? Therefore, he advocated first holding peace talks with the Qing Dynasty, stabilizing the situation in the vicinity of Beijing, and devoting himself to exterminating the peasant army in one go. As for the second point, he suggested that more than 120,000 troops be increased, including nearly 80,000 infantry, more than 40,000 horsemen, and more than 3 million taels of silver. So Emperor Chongzhen, under his suggestion, successively sent additional salaries and salaries to the people.

The three programs proposed by Yang Sichang are all aimed at realizing his plan of encirclement and suppression of "four squares and six corners and ten sides of the net." These four squares and six corners and ten sides of the net are in short a cage of birds; the three programs mentioned in the preface are the strategy of encircling birds in response to bandits. The implementation of this plan relied on the cooperation of the father of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, and Wang Jiazhen, the prime minister of the five provinces, Hong Chengchou had made great achievements in the process of encircling and suppressing the peasant army, but Wang Jiazhen was considered by Yang Sichang to be a mediocre talent, unworthy of this post, so Yang Sichang was introduced by Yao Minggong, a close friend of the Ministry of Rites, and recommended Xiong Wencan, the governor of Liangguang, to Emperor Chongzhen to replace the prime minister of the five provinces.

Why is it called the method of caged birds? The bandit is like a gourd in the water and a jumping finch in the forest. In response to the catalysis of the disaster, the farmers of the originally barren land also rose up. The victims themselves have nothing, have no concern, and even act quickly. Among them, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Bingzhong, Li Zicheng and other three bandits are particularly clever, according to the enemy, this is the only way. It is precisely because of the many bandits that it must be sorted out with an outline. The emperor believed that the real purpose of this method of warfare was to recruit surrender, not to kill. After all, these rebels are also the people of the Ming Dynasty, so there is no need to be too brutal, only need to punish the first offender, Gao Yingxiang and others. For example, today's turmoil is caused by Gao Yingxiang, which is really hateful.

This "four-square, six-corner, ten-sided net" strategy of suppressing bandits. Yang Sichang regarded Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Fengyang, where the peasant army was mainly active, as the "four positives," and the governors of these four places mainly suppressed the peasant army, supplemented by prevention; and regarded Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Yingtian, Jiangxi, and Sichuan around the "four positives" as the "six corners," and the governors of these six places mainly focused on the peasant army for defense and supplemented it with suppression. If the peasant army is in Shaanxi, then the governors of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Henan, Yansui, and Shanxi will be surrounded on six sides; and so on, if the peasant army appears in any area of the "four positives," six governors will spread the net to besiege it, and the governors of the five provinces and the premiers of the five provinces will be responsible for killing them. This was a well-designed containment strategy designed by Yang Sichang to grasp the characteristics of the peasant army's mobile operations. In view of the fact that the peasant army was mainly active in summer and autumn, and that it was inconvenient for the cold ground to move in winter and spring, he chose three months this winter and next spring (December, first month, and February) as the period of encirclement and suppression, and placed the main battlefield in Henan and Shaanxi provinces, encircled them separately, and broke them individually. For this reason, the governor of Shaanxi was strictly ordered to block it in Shangnan and Luonan, Yunyang to block it in Yunyang and Xiangyang, Huguang to block it in De'an and Huangzhou, Anqing to block it in Yingshan and Lu'an, Fengyang to block it in Yingzhou and Haozhou, Yingtian to block it in Qianshan and Taihu, Jiangxi to block it in Huangmei and Guangji, Shandong to block it in Xuzhou and Suzhou, Shanxi to cut it across to Shaanzhou and Lingbao, and Baoding to fly across Yanjin. Then Xiong Wencan, the prime minister of the five provinces, led the border soldiers, Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the supervising army, led the forbidden army, and the governor of Henan led Zuo Liangyu and Chen Yongfu's troops, working together to suppress the Central Plains, putting on an endless posture. If Chuang Jiang, Guotianxing and other troops crossed the Tong Guandong, the governor Hong Chengchou led Zuo Guangxian, Cao Bianjiao, Zu Dabi and other troops to track the eastward out, in order to annihilate in the Central Plains. For such an arrangement, Yang Sichang appeared full of confidence and assured the emperor: "The next three months of hard work will not end for ten years." Although Yang Sichang failed to fulfill the promise of "exterminating thieves in March", it did have a great effect in the following year.

(Note: A year later, Zhang Xianzhong was cornered and accepted Zhao'an, Li Zicheng was pursued and suppressed to only 18 cavalry, and the other peasant armies also surrendered one after another, and the stormy Ming Dynasty once had the appearance of returning to the light.) ）

When Bingzhong heard that Yang Sichang was about to implement the cage bird tactic, he was shocked, and hurriedly called his own soldiers to escort him, spread out the map, and carefully studied it. After looking at it for a long time, he couldn't help nodding his head frequently and said: He is worthy of being a son of a soldier's family, and he is indeed powerful! Hurriedly ordered the big bird battalion to attack Fengchi and continue to explore the true purpose and tactics of this Yang Sichang, so as to plan and then act.

Not long after, news came from the Daqi Camp that Yang Sichang had compared Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Fengyang, where the peasant army was mainly active, as the "four positives," and that the governors of these four places would mainly suppress the peasant army on their own, supplemented by prevention; and that Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Yingtian, Jiangxi, and Sichuan around the "four positives" would be regarded as the "six corners." The governors of these six places could focus on the peasant army for defense, supplemented by suppression. If the peasant army is in Shaanxi, then the governors of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Henan, Yansui, and Shanxi will be surrounded on six sides; and so on, if the peasant army appears in any area of the "four positives," there will be six governors to besiege it, and the governors of the five provinces and the premiers of the five provinces will be responsible for killing them. This was an encirclement strategy carefully designed by Yang Sichang by grasping the characteristics of the peasant army's mobile operations.

When Zhang Bingzhong got this exact news, he put aside the military advisors, advisers and others, and carefully sketched out the military tent there alone. I didn't come out of the tent for a few days, and I was so anxious that I stomped my feet outside the tent, just afraid that the young general would make a mistake. As soon as the pro-soldiers who came in and out of the army came in and out, he asked, "Major General, have you ever had a meal?" As long as you hear the pro-soldiers and guards say that they can eat, they can make up their minds. Late at night on the third day, when Xi Fengchi, who had been standing outside the tent, was about to leave, he suddenly heard laughter inside the tent.

Raid Fengchi hurriedly ran in, Bingzhong looked back and saw that it was raid Fengchi, and hurriedly shouted: Fengchi! You came just in time, I just wanted to find you. Don't talk about it first, hurry up and find a little wine in the room to drink. Then arrange for the whole camp to patrol around, and I will go around my big tent a few more times, and I will be thirsty to tell you!

Xi Fengchi hurriedly went to the room, brought a jar of wine and a few dishes to accompany the wine, and personally brought it to share with Zhang Bingzhong. After Bingzhong took a few sips of wine, he put down the tableware, wiped his mouth, and said softly to Fengchi: You and I both came out of the eighteenth village of Lijiapo; Therefore, you and I are the only ones who know about today's events. At the moment, you can just remember everything I tell you and act according to the plan, and you don't have to put it on paper.