Jiangxi's petty fights can be said to be small scenes compared to the scenes in Shaanxi and Gansu.

On May 26, the eighth year of Chongzhen, Wu Renda, a member of the cabinet, and Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, led the officers and soldiers to pursue the peasant army all the way to Fufeng County, Gansu.

At the end of May of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen, who was far away in Beijing, finally received a report from Jiangxi that the general army of Anqing was defeated in Linjiang Mansion, and the 20,000 army was almost wiped out.

And then he received the news that Liu Zongxiang, the governor of Jiangxi, had died of illness and that the whole family of Zhu Zaiyan, the king of Shangrao, had died, Chongzhen was very angry, and immediately dismissed Zhang Yinghe, the prefect of Guangxin, from his official position and ordered the house to be raided. He also ordered the governor of Zhejiang to strictly investigate the viciousness of the Zhejiang soldiers in Jiangxi, and to kill the chief general who led the troops.

Chongzhen originally thought that Liu Liangzuo, a cadre, would go to wipe out the bandits in Jiangxi, but he didn't expect that the bandits would not be solved, and there would be more and more rebels.

The territory of the Mo thieves is getting bigger and bigger, and Guangxin has come out of the demon road to confuse people's hearts and preach, not to mention the Southern Jiangxi region, Guangdong bandits, Jiangxi bandits are endless, Pan Zenghong, the governor of Southern Jiangxi, suppressed the bandits for several months, and the place is more and more chaotic, and the government decree sometimes can't even get out of the county seat.

This greatly annoyed Chongzhen, and he decided to completely replace the officials in the Jiangnan region, and appoint another capable cattle man to suppress the bandits.

Chongzhen thought about it and thought of an excellent candidate, he was the right Yushi, the official of Yunyang Fuzhi Lu Xiangsheng.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the thieves entered Hubei, and Lu Xiangsheng took over the post of Yunyang Fuzhi of Jiang Yunyi, after Lu Xiangsheng took office, he immediately formulated a battle plan for the division of the attack with Chen Qiyu, who was then the governor of the five provinces, and won successive battles in Wulinguan, Qijiagou, Shiquanba, Kangningping, Lion Mountain, Taiping River, Zhumutou, Jingkou and other places, killing more than 5,600 enemies, and leveling the thieves in Hannan in one fell swoop.

The situation in Jiangxi was erosive, and after Chongzhen felt powerless, he suddenly remembered that there was such a fierce general in the imperial court.

He immediately remembered Lu Xiangsheng, summoned the cabinet members to issue an order, promoted Lu Xiangsheng to the right deputy capital of Yushi, succeeded Liu Zongxiang as the governor of Jiangxi, and made him prime minister of the military affairs of Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Guangdong.

At this point, the war zone of the Ming Dynasty was divided into two, and the northern rogues were suppressed by Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, and Lu Xiangsheng was responsible for the crusade against the bandits in the south.

At the end of June of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng received the will of the imperial court, immediately packed up his things and immediately went south to Nanchang.

Lu Xiangsheng set off from Yunyang, and walked all the way to the southeast, only to see hungry people everywhere along the way, and the homeless people walked weakly on the official road, and some people fell down as they walked.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the scorching sun above his head, and couldn't help but sigh: "The weather is getting hotter and hotter day by day, how long has it not rained?" ”

A lieutenant general stepped forward and replied: "I'm afraid it hasn't rained for three months, let's be okay, at least we have saliva to drink, and the river hasn't dried up, I heard that Henan has been dry for almost a year, and it has hardly rained, so the situation is more than a hundred times worse than this!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng sighed after hearing this, and said: "God doesn't bless me Daming Jiangshan, if it goes on like this, how can the people live, if it doesn't rain, the fields are dry, where can they grow food, there is no food, and I am afraid that the more and more the rogues in northern Shaanxi and Henan will be suppressed." ”

Everyone was silent.

Everyone knows what's wrong with the world right now, and since a few years ago, the weather has gradually started to go wrong.

In the past, when it should have rained, now there is not a drop of rain, the soil is dry, and it rains less than a year in a year.

If it doesn't rain again this year, I'm afraid that many places will lose their harvest.

They have followed Lu Xiangsheng to suppress bandits for many years, how can they not know what is going on, but if the rogues are not suppressed, then they will poison a larger and wider area, and it will bring more serious disasters to other places.

Now the imperial court has to suppress the Kou on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has to guard against the Tartars outside the gate.

With soldiers at both ends, no matter how big the Ming Dynasty is, it can't withstand such consumption, not to mention that the Ming Dynasty doesn't have much money at all.

The group continued to advance to the southeast and reached Wuchang, where Tang Hui, the governor of Huguang, heard that the prime ministers of the five provinces were coming, and immediately led the civil and military officials of Wuchang out of the city to greet them.

While waiting for Lu Xiangsheng to arrive, Tang Hui's heart was actually mixed.

The good thing is that he hasn't taken off the hat of the governor of Huguang yet, but the worry is that he doesn't know when the hat on his head will be taken off by His Majesty.

As early as the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Tang Hui was impeached by Shiying, the king of Sichuan Dao, because he was greedy and relied on the portal.

At that time, Tang Hui was cut to the people by the imperial court.

Later, Chongzhen came to power, Tang Hui was recommended, and he was able to come out again, and Yu Chongzhen took the chair of the former Huguang Governor Wei Guangxu in the fifth year and sat on the stool of the Huguang Governor.

Today, Tang Hui has been sitting on this chair for three years, and in these three years, he has not accepted the lessons of the Apocalypse, but has relapsed into his old illness, and since his arrival, he has been extremely greedy, making the officials in Huguang extremely corrupt.

There have been many twists and turns in the impeachment of him in the past two years, and if Chongzhen hadn't seen his contribution in helping to exterminate the Liukou, he would have wanted to remove him a long time ago.

Originally, Chongzhen wanted Lu Xiangsheng to take over as the governor of Huguang and then serve as the prime minister of the five provinces, but it was a pity that the appearance of Mo Qian, a little butterfly, disrupted the historical process of the Ming Dynasty.

Mo Qian fought in Jiangxi and won successes, killed two governors within a year, and defeated the general army of Anqing.

His territory as a thief has also expanded from the territory of only one prefecture and four counties in Yuanzhou to the territory of three prefectures and fourteen counties, as if it has become a separatist force in Jiangxi, and if this kid develops for two years, I am afraid that the whole of Jiangxi will fall into his hands, and then Huguang and Zhejiang will have to be threatened, and Nanjing will also be in danger.

Taizu's mausoleum is in Nanjing, the ancestral tomb of Fengyang's hometown has been dug up by Zhang Xianzhong and other thieves, if there is another mistake in Nanjing's Taizu mausoleum, he Chongzhen is really dead and has no face to see the ancestors.

In order to put an end to this trouble, Chongzhen made up his mind that he must send a capable person to Jiangxi to suppress the bandits and completely eliminate the bandits.

Lu Xiangsheng was ordered to set off for Jiangxi overnight for the sake of the Zhongxing Ming Dynasty.

When he arrived in Wuchang, Lu Xiangsheng saw a large number of officials who greeted him outside the city, and he couldn't help but be a little puzzled, and only after some negotiation did he know that it was Tang Hui, the governor of Huguang, who came to pick him up.

As soon as Tang Hui saw Lu Xiangsheng, he said respectfully: "Premier Lu has worked hard all the way, and he has set up a banquet for the prime minister in the best restaurant in the city to wash the dust for the prime minister, and arranged a first-class house, so that the prime minister can stay and rest, and ask the prime minister to appreciate his face." ”

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Tang Hui and the dozens of local officials in Huguang behind him with a smile, and his heart was full of contempt for their group of people.

Tang Hui's reputation for corruption spread throughout the province of Huguang, and even in Yunyang, he heard the name of Governor Tang.

He Tang Hui sold his official mantle in Huguang, and heard that the price of a magistrate had been sold by him to a high price of 10,000 taels of silver.

Thinking of this, Lu Xiangsheng's anger in his heart didn't come to one place.

He said in his heart: "You bastards, that is, you have harmed the Ming Dynasty like this, one by one you will only make money, without the slightest consideration for the country's society, and not for the sake of the people of Limin. ”

Lu Xiangsheng wanted to scold Tang Hui on the spot, but he held back.

He sat on the back of the horse with a horsewhip in his hand, and said coldly: "This official is in accordance with the will of the imperial court, specially going to Jiangnan to suppress bandits, Your Majesty appointed me as the prime minister of the five provinces, in charge of the military affairs of the five provinces, Governor Tang, I am going to Jiangxi immediately now, ready to conquer the cult of Jiangxi Guangxin, but Jiangxi has no troops available at the moment.

This official rested in Wuchang for three days, and within three days, you will give me to gather 10,000 troops and their heavy grain and grass, and this official will take them into Jiangxi to suppress thieves. ”

Tang Hui's face immediately darkened when he heard this.

10,000 troops, but also to prepare heavy grain and grass.

How much does that cost! And Huguang's treasury is only a few dollars, how can it be possible to have the money to pay for the food and salary of the 10,000 army.

Tang Hui is rich, but it was all his own hard work and greed, how could he take it out and give it to him Lu Xiangsheng.

Tang Hui quickly said aggrievedly: "Your Excellency, it's not that you don't want to be lowly and unwilling, but at the moment Huguang really has no money and no one, the imperial court has not equipped our province with ordnance for a long time, and the Wuchang Mansion Treasury has also been transferred because of the bandits suppressed some time ago, and all the ordnance and armor in the mansion have been deployed, and there is really no money to buy these things anymore." ”

Lu Xiangsheng couldn't help sneering when he heard this: "Not necessarily, right? I heard that Governor Tang bought hundreds of boatloads of rice from Nanzhili and Zhejiang some time ago, and sold them at a price five times higher than that of the official warehouse, and I heard that the profit of those hundreds of boatloads of rice was at least 100,000 taels of silver! ”

When Tang Hui heard this, he was so frightened that he hurriedly waved his hand and said: "No, the Prime Minister has to be aware of it, as an official of the imperial court and the governor of Huguang, how can he do such a thing as selling rice privately to compete with the people!" ”

"Hmph, you'd better not, this official is the prime minister of the five provinces, although he is in charge of the military affairs of the five provinces, but His Majesty also has a special order for me, and also gave me the sword of Shang Fang, and if there are any illegal matters in the five provinces, this official has the right to intervene.

This official will not withdraw so much from you, and within three days, you will not see 10,000 troops and grain and grass, and you, the governor of Huguang, will be the end, so you can do it yourself! ”

Lu Xiangsheng led his generals and cronies into the city, and they did not go to the inn prepared for them by Tang Hui, but found an inn to live in.

That night, Tang Hui summoned the officials of his governor's yamen to discuss countermeasures.

Tang Hui asked everyone in the hall, "Lu Xiangsheng forced me to hand over 10,000 troops and grain and grass baggage, and go to Jiangxi with him, do you say I agree or not?" ”

Lewen