Before a war that is destined to last long, it is always important to reassure the generals who are involved in the battle, so that they are willing to trust the commander's orders and forbids by believing that the commander will not risk their lives and the lives of the soldiers.

In the Battle of Songjin, a considerable problem of Hong Chengchou was that he did not do a good job in pacifying and unifying his thinking in this regard.

So much so that the eight general soldiers were suspicious of each other, everyone felt that the supervisor might be disadvantaged, and everyone could become cannon fodder who was abandoned at the moment of life and death, and then there was Wang Puzhi and his ilk "abandon the friendly army and flee first".

Although Wang Pu and his ilk deserved to die, they were indeed beheaded by Chongzhen in the end. But Hong Chengchou's problem must not be ignored just because Wang Pu is guilty.

People have brains, not NPCs in games. What is the use of a person who reads the books of the sages and sages when he is in a critical moment, and only talks to people about loyalty to the monarch and patriotism and the defense of the homeland? You must take a multi-pronged approach to show that you respect the lives of your soldiers.

Of course, it's easy to say big things, but it's hard to put it into practice.

At the reception banquet, Shen Shuren promised Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong that he would design and disperse Li Zicheng's troops, and then wait for an opportunity to advance, and would never act rashly when Li Zicheng's troops were concentrated.

Being able to do this will certainly make Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong more confident in him, and he will obey his words in the future, but unfortunately Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong wanted to break their heads, and they didn't expect how Shen Futai would fulfill it.

Shen Shuren himself should be the only person in the audience who knows the overall trend.

……

After the reception banquet, when he returned home that night, Shen Shuren immediately summoned Wan Yuanji, who had only recently taken refuge in him.

That is, the Nanjing Military Department's staff Fang Langzhong, who originally served as Yang Sichang's supervisor of the army.

After Yang Sichang died of illness a few days ago, Wan Yuan Ji also wore filial piety for the first seven days, which was regarded as a teacher's ceremony, and then took refuge in Shen Shuren on state affairs.

Everyone is working for the imperial court, and Shen Shuren inherited Yang Sichang's legacy of suppressing thieves and pro-army in Huguang and other places, and of course inherited some of his staff.

When Shen Shuren hired people, he also picked and chosen, and those who were floating and unreliable in confidentiality were all eliminated, or at least transferred to unimportant positions.

Wan Yuan Ji can be left by him for reuse, it is already because this person has a bit of ability to do confidential work, and it can ensure that the sieve-like intelligence leakage around Yang Sichang has nothing to do with Wan Yuan Ji.

Wan Yuan Ji has been tested by facts, and he is definitely not a traitor of Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong, so Shen Shuren will use him.

After using it for a few days, Shen Shuren also found that Wan Yuan Ji still had some achievements in the intelligence work of the enemy army.

Especially although Yang Sichang is not capable of burying his eyes in the traitors around Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the ability to fight in the nest of the Ming civil officials has always been not bad.

Therefore, before Yang Sichang's death, there were definitely moles around Zuo Liangyu and Sun Chuanting, which was used to guard against his own people. These eyeliner systems are now naturally returned to Shen Shuren with the refuge of Wan Yuanji.

The Sinking Tree People have recently had to share the pressure of the enemy army, and these internal lines can just be used for waste. A few days ago, he had already explained how to do it.

At this moment, in the dead of night, Wan Yuan Ji came to Futai's study and reported carefully. Shen Shuren opened his mouth and asked:

"How's it going about last time? Next door to Nanyang Mansion, has Zuo Liangyu been in contact with Li Zicheng recently? I don't believe that with his person, he will be so honest that he will do nothing at this juncture, and just guard Nanyang Mansion in a muffled voice. ”

When Wan Yuan Ji heard this, the awe in his heart also increased, and he replied convincingly: "My lord is really like a god, after the last time my lord ordered, Xia Guan had already asked the elder to keep an eye on Zuo Liangyu's side."

After staring at it for a few days, I found out that Zuo Liangyu actually took the initiative to send someone to Li Zicheng to send a letter, which was the day before yesterday, and Xia Guan was just about to report it. However, there is no way to find out what Zuo Liangyu's letter is about, and Yang Gelao's eyeliner left by Zuo Liangyu's side is not enough confidant. ”

Shen Shuren has actually been waiting for this day for a while, and he has actually asked for 10,000 yuan after finishing work every day recently, so he can't talk about good luck.

All luck can only be caught by those who come prepared, and if you are unlucky, just wait a little longer. The premise is that you know human nature well enough to know your opponent and know that something will happen sooner or later.

Hearing this, Shen Shuren also waved his hand calmly and steadily: "The content is not important, just make sure that Zuo Liangyu contacts Li Zicheng." You don't have to think about anything in the letter, you can guess it casually, and it must have something to do with the overtures.

Since our army went north to Ruyang and Shangcai to assemble, Li Zicheng also sent more and more troops to Yuncheng to assemble, and Yexian next to it will more or less share some. The soldiers and horses of Yuncheng are blocking the officials and troops of Xinyang Mansion from going north, and the soldiers and horses of Yexian can block the officials and troops of Nanyang Mansion from going north.

Zuo Liangyu saw that Ye County also showed signs of increasing troops, would he be worried about whether Li Zicheng would continue to take him under the knife? At this juncture, how can you not be busy making a deal with Li Zi and expressing the meaning of mutual non-aggression? ”

When Wan Yuan Ji first knew that Zuo Liangyu had indeed sent a letter to Li Zicheng during the day, he pondered for a long time, and at this moment he almost figured it out, and he realized that Zuo Liangyu was very likely to do so.

However, when he heard that Shen Shuren didn't have to think about it, he could say it at the first time, he still admired Shen Shuren's keenness, and the other party was Shangguan, of course, he had to express his five-body throw:

"Your Excellency! I figured it out in an instant. ”

Shen Shuren waved his hand: "It's nothing, it's not difficult to figure it out, the key is to deal with it." In this case, can you estimate that if Li Zicheng replies to Zuo Liangyu, will he be able to return to Nanyang County about one day? ”

Wan Yuan Ji is engaged in intelligence, and he knows the speed of information transmission very well, but after thinking about it for a while, he said: "Our people spread the news from Nanyang to Ruyang, and at most it is one day faster than sending it to Kaifeng." So after three or four days at most, someone will definitely return to Nanyang in Kaifeng to reply to the letter. ”

Shen Shuren nodded, the journey of one day is poor, and the round trip is two days. Therefore, he had to respond immediately and send someone to Nanyang to do something, which was two days faster than Li Zicheng's reply, and he really couldn't delay.

Shen Shuren pondered for a while, and then called his henchman Shen Fu and asked him to find Gu Yanwu, the clerical staff.

Wan Yuan Ji looked confused beside him, and couldn't figure out what to do with Gu Yanwu.

Although the henchmen around Shen Shuren, in addition to the ones brought out by his own Shen family, there is only Gu Yanwu, an old friend, left, but Gu Yanwu is a traditional literati at all, what can he do at this time?

After a while, Gu Yanwu arrived with a big grin.

He is by Shen Shuren's side, doing pen work every day, and occasionally responsible for occupying the commanding heights of propaganda, the two sides have cooperated for more than two years, and the relationship has always been relatively loose, and Shen Shuren has always maintained a bit of friendly courtesy.

Wan Yuan Ji saw Gu Yanwu's chic, and he was also a little envious in his heart.

And Shen Shuren also unceremoniously ordered: "Brother Gu, help me write a letter to Zuo Liangyu, to the effect that he hopes that for the sake of Daming, when our army attacks Yuncheng, he will respond from the side, and at the same time attack Yexian, forcing Li Zi to form troops, so as to reduce the pressure on our army."

Although he was affected by Yang Ge Lao's decision-making, after all, there were still 60,000 veterans, all of whom were working for the imperial court, and should not be considered for the past. ”

As soon as Gu Yanwu came, he was stunned when he heard this. He has never been an official, he is idle by nature, and he is straightforward, so he directly ignored Wan Yuanji's presence, and questioned it back:

"Brother Xian is not joking, is he? Zuo Liangyu is on the same page as you, how can you persuade a letter to come back? Even outsiders like me have heard that you were because of Li ...... last year That Miss Li's matter made Zuo Liangyu very faceless, and this kind of villain will definitely hold a grudge for a long time. ”

Shen Shuren put his face on the board: "If you want to write, you will write." Even if it doesn't work, you are going on my behalf, and Zuo Liangyu still dares to kill you? Then he would really have to bear the name of a thief who betrayed the court, and he knew what was important.

As for not following it after writing it, and refusing to even respond to it, that is his business, at least Qu Liangyu, and His Majesty will have an explanation at that time. ”

Gu Yanwu thought about it, and mistakenly thought that Shen Shuren was still fighting in the nest, this move was not really to let Zuo Liangyu send troops, but just to disgust Zuo Liangyu at the level of political struggle in the officialdom.

In the future, it will further crack down on Zuo Liangyu's living space in the imperial court and reduce the number of civil officials in the court who support Zuo Liangyu.

Since that's just the case, Gu Yanwu felt that it was nothing for him to help write a letter, or even be a messenger once. With a pen, one or two thousand taels a month from the Shenshu people, this bit of work still has to be done.

And as long as Zuo Liangyu is still a Ming general, he will never dare to do anything to the envoy, and this trip is absolutely not dangerous.

Gu Yanwu pondered the wording, then took the order and immediately began to write. Before leaving, Shen Shuren took care of it, and asked him to take it to him after it was written, and then send it away tomorrow.

Watching Gu Yanwu leave, Wan Yuan Ji was in a complicated mood, and asked tentatively in a low voice: "Your Excellency doesn't really just want to squeeze Zuo Liangyu, right?" If it is to divide Li Zicheng's military situation, relying on Mr. Tinglin's writing, I am afraid it will be difficult to succeed, this is not something that can be moved by words.

The so-called Yan Wang is benevolent and righteous and Xu died, and Zigong was wise and reckless. The Qi people attacked Lu and went to the door for ten miles as the boundary, and the Lu people relied on Zigong, but in exchange for the Qi people's sentence 'Ziyan is not not arguing, but the land of the one I want is also, not the so-called also'. What is the use of intellectual argument at the moment.

If you have to do this kind of thing, it's better to let the lower officials ...... Although Xia Guan has not been able to prove himself so far, it is just that he did not have a chance before, and as long as he is given this opportunity today, he will stand out like a cone in his bag. ”

Shen Shuren Zhizhu smiled on the ground: "You can't do this, what I want is not to let Zuo Liangyu really send troops, but to ask the messenger I sent, when he arrives at Zuo Liangyu, delay for a few more days, and happen to be bumped into by the person sent by Li Zicheng to reply to the letter, which is enough."

What I want is that Li Zicheng knows the existence of my messenger and knows that I am also communicating with Zuo Liangyu. Even if Zuo Liangyu wants to deny it and defend himself in the future, it doesn't matter.

And if you appear, Zuo Liangyu will be alert, and he will realize that 'my messenger and Li Zicheng's messenger arrived at about the same time, it is not a coincidence, but because I also have eyes and ears by his side'. Only if you don't show up and send an unreliable pure Confucian, Zuo Liangyu will not have this kind of vigilance, let alone pass on this worry to Li Zicheng to defend himself. ”

Wan Yuan Ji was stunned, and he still didn't fully understand the twists and turns, and after a while, he realized the subtlety, but he still felt that it was still not very reliable.

Shen Shuren's idea is of course very human nature, but it is also based on a foundation, that is, Li Zicheng must be an extremely suspicious person.

But is Li Zicheng really so suspicious? Zuo Liangyu's side, he can't see anything greasy, but he will be more suspicious?

But these are not what Wan Yuan Ji should be worried about, he at least knows that Shen Shuren doesn't use him as a messenger this time, it's not that he doesn't pay attention to him, but just hopes that a person who is more innocent on the surface will lower the other party's vigilance and association.

I want to make further contributions, and I will have a chance in the future.

That night, Gu Yanwu stayed up all night to write the letter to Zuo Liangyu and directly brought it to Shen Shuren for a look.

After Shen Shuren read it, he had to praise the writing that was really good, and it looked like Shen Shuren was really trying his best to win over Zuo Liangyu.

In Gu Yanwu's letter, Bian Zhengbo quoted a lot of details about Shen Shu's deeds, emphasizing that he "is different from other Ming civil officials who look down on military generals, so Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong, these bold people, worked very hard for Shen Futai, and they all felt that the death of a soldier as a confidant was simply more heartfelt and sincere than when he worked for Yang Sichang, Hong Chengchou, and Sun Chuanting."

Therefore, although General Zuo had a small misunderstanding with my family Futai, it is not an insoluble grudge, and time will naturally wash away those little things that rob women. As long as General Zuo cooperates sincerely, he will definitely be able to rise rapidly with Shen Futai, and Zuo Zixiong is an example.

In addition, my family Futai also knows that General Zuo, you have avoided war many times before, and you are not disloyal to the imperial court, but you just want to preserve your strength, and this preservation of strength cannot be determined as 'supporting the army and raising your own respect', it is more about the affection of the military ministers for the robes, and you can't just let your subordinates die.

Coincidentally, my family Futai is also the same as General Zuo in this regard, and he never sells his teammates to sacrifice his robes. He has always cherished the troops under his command, which is definitely much better than Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, who sold their teammates.

As long as General Zuo changes his court and follows my family to Futai, he will definitely have long-term wealth, and he can't look at the momentary benefits in front of him. Li Zicheng, a person like the heir of the heavens, is now relying on his lack of a son to attract so many careerists, temporarily with different intentions, and strive for a goal.

But in the future, it will really be a little more climate, and the thieves will no longer have to fight together to survive, and when the time comes, there will definitely be internal suspicion and self-killing. So even if Li Zicheng promises you higher benefits now, he will get it back with profits in the end......"

Shen Shuren originally just asked Gu Yanwu to do useless work, but he didn't expect that the useless work would be so realistic, and it took his brains. This thing was sent to Zuo Liangyu, maybe Zuo Liangyu would feel that Shen Shuren was really trying to win him over - although Zuo Liangyu was destined to be a hero who would not succeed in winning him over.

"Very good, Ming'er will send this letter early in the morning, and I will select guards to escort Brother Gu to Nanyang."

Shen Shuren immediately made a decision, and sent Gu Yanwu away the next day.