In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Fengyang fell, and the government and the opposition were shaken.

Chongzhen sent more than one million taels of gold to Beijing, province and money as military salaries.

But the million taels of silver have not yet left Beijing, and a lot has already been deducted.

When it was sent to Shaanxi, Huguang, and Henan, there was not much left.

Originally, it was agreed that the total number of troops in counterinsurgency was 72,000, but in reality there were only 42,000 soldiers in the provinces.

The attackers who attacked Shaanxi with Hong Chengchou had only 16,000 people in the Ming army.

By the beginning of October of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the situation in the Quartet was rapidly deteriorating.

There are more than 200,000 Liukou entrenched in Shangluo, Pingli, and Hanzhong.

Among them, there are about 120,000 people in Shangluo and Pingli, and there are 80,000 people in Hanzhong Prefecture.

There are only more than 2,000 soldiers in the battalion in Hanzhong Prefecture, and they can only hold the main road and support them left and right.

The total number of rogues in Xi'an Mansion exceeded 330,000, and when Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong besieged Jingyang and Sanyuan, many of the rogues who had plundered in the south of Xi'an Mansion went north to join them, so that the army swelled again.

In Yan'an Prefecture, Yu Chongxiao, the chief soldier of Yansui Town, was killed in battle, and the soldiers of Yansui Town retired to protect the town.

Most of the casualties of the Yan'an soldiers were unable to fight again, so they could only retreat to the cities, and the situation in Yan'an Mansion completely collapsed.

The three divisions of Guotianxing, Mantianxing, and Chaotianxing plundered the north of Yan'an Fu, with 70,000 troops.

Li Zicheng and Scorpion Block plundered the south of Yan'an Funan, and many fleeing Yansui soldiers joined Li Zicheng and Scorpion Block's army and became the backbone of their army.

And Li Zicheng's subordinates did not lose the elite, although all the horse army was lost in Chunhua, and a lot of elite cavalry was lost.

But most of the elite cavalry that was left behind were composed of newly promoted horse troops, and those elite cavalry from the border army were basically taken by his side.

Yan'an Mansion had no troops to defend, so Li Zicheng and Scorpion Block became more unscrupulous, and the military strength swelled to 30,000 again, and the momentum was revived.

In Fengxiang Mansion, there are about 20,000 people who still have Liukou.

In Gongchang Mansion, a tiger Li is too high to meet the four heavenly kings Li Yangchun, and the two troops are stationed in the north of Lingzun Mountain and the south of Mapao Spring.

The King of Heaven also gathered troops from the south of the mountain to the north of the mountain, and the total number of troops of the three divisions exceeded 30,000.

In other words, in the whole of Shaanxi, the number of rogues has swelled to 600,000.

At this time, even if the Ming army in Shaanxi counted the auxiliary soldiers in each army, it was difficult to make up 30,000 soldiers, and the difference in military strength between the two sides was huge.

In addition to Shaanxi, there are still many rogues in Huguang, Henan and other places, and this part of the rogue is developing rapidly again because Hong Chengchou led his troops into Shaanxi to suppress it.

There are dozens of shares reported by the provinces, and each share varies in size, ranging from 10,000 people to 1,000 people.

The impact of the popular uprising may have caused millions of people to become thieves.

In September, Lu Xiangsheng was appointed prime minister of Jiangbei, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang, and concurrently led the governor of Huguang.

Hong Chengchou supervised the Guanzhong, and Lu Xiangsheng supervised the Guanzhong, each with one side.

At this time, the officers and men of Huguang, Henan, and other provinces were also responsible for defending important areas, and their troops were overstretched.

However, Zu Kuan and Zu Dale led the Guanning army to Henan in October.

Lu Xiangsheng was a general at the Henan Conference, recruiting troops and preparing for defense.

On the order, the battalions of Liaodong, Changping and Beidi Military Towns were all commanded by Lu Xiangsheng to quell the rebellion in the five provinces.

Zuo Liangyu was therefore also assigned to Lu Xiangsheng's command.

Chen Wang was not assigned to Lu Xiangsheng's command as he had expected.

Although he led the Liaozhen cavalry, he accepted Zhang Waijia's old department.

However, when he was promoted to guerrilla, he was divided into Datong Town, subordinate to Cao Wenzhao, and controlled by Cao Wenzhao.

was not assigned to Lu Xiangsheng's command, and Chen Wang was also relieved.

To be honest, Chen Wang understands history, and he naturally admires Lu Xiangsheng very much.

It's just that if he is really under Lu Xiangsheng's command, I am afraid that he will be tired every day in the future, and he will not be able to develop at all.

In the end, most of them could only die in Jiazhuang in Julu with Lu Xiangsheng, which could not change the overall situation at all.

Lu Xiangsheng's defeat was not because his own combat strength was not good, but because he was outnumbered, because he was in the hinterland of the country, but he was isolated.

And just fifty miles away, Gao Qiqian had a heavy army in Jize and did not move like a mountain, Lu Xiangsheng sent people to ask for help, but Gao Qiqian ignored it, so that the army was finally defeated.

Ironically, when Lu Xiangsheng died in the battle of Julu, the news of his death did not reach Jingshi in time.

Chongzhen is still reprimanding Lu Xiangsheng, saying that his detectives are unknown, there is no way to dispatch, he sits back and watches the fall of various towns, there is no relief, and he dares to fight to the Japanese, which is obviously selling his name and bullying the public.

But he didn't know that in addition to the armies outside, only Lu Xiangsheng was fighting alone, and the rest of the armies were the culprits who sat back and watched the fall of the provinces.

Looking at the military order in his hand, Hong Chengchou had already set a time limit for him, and he must exterminate Li Guo and the others within October.

Hong Chengchou's letter was full of tapping, but the words were restrained.

Along with the military order, there was also a letter from Cao Wenzhao, and Cao Wenzhao's tone in the letter was much better than that of Hong Chengchou.

Let him fight steadily, don't be too anxious, and the army should be fully prepared first.

He also told him how the new army should be able to quickly adapt to the battle formation when it was fighting, and he wrote about some experience.

Finally, I vaguely mentioned that don't lose too many soldiers.

Chen Wang saw Cao Wenzhao's last sentence in the letter, which also gave him another layer of understanding of Cao Wenzhao.

Cao Wenzhao also realized this.

Whether it is Hong Chengchou, or the rest of the governors, or the imperial court.

For those generals who suffered defeats and heavy losses, they did not hesitate to punish them directly.

And for those generals and colonels who suffered defeat but their strength was not damaged, it was only a few harsh punishments that did not hurt, and at most one was demoted.

And even if he is demoted, he will continue to command the soldiers and horses of the battalion, and his actual authority has not been lost.

Chen Wang's heart is not that he has no righteousness for his family and country, but the premise of all this is to save his life first.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was not that there were no good generals, nor that there were no loyal ministers, nor did it not have a strong army.

To do something rashly will only put yourself in danger.

He is not a guard, he has no stable environment to develop, and he is not qualified to recruit craftsmen, so he can make his own ordnance.

He knew all the ways to make money, but there was no place for him to do these things.

Now he can only rely on the force in his hands to snatch it from the hands of the rogues, or from somewhere else......

Chen Wang put down the letter in his hand and raised his head.

In the tent, Chen Gong, Hu Zhili, Tang Shiping, and Zhao Huailiang sat on the seats on both sides, holding their breath and waiting for his military order.

There was silence outside the tent, but in this camp, more than 4,500 soldiers gathered.

More than 4,500 people were silent as if they were alone, the mules and horses were silent, and Zhang Wai didn't even have half a word of the wind.

In October, Shaanxi has gradually entered the autumn time, and the weather is gradually becoming cooler, without the boredom of summer.

Chen Wang's gaze slowly swept over the four of them, and then slowly stood up from the seat with his body propped up.

In fact, there was no shortage of grain and grass in the army, and after entering Qinzhou, he had already sent people to various places in Gongchang Mansion to buy a large amount of military food.

At this time, it was the autumn harvest season, and taxes were about to be collected, and grain merchants tried their best to keep the price of the grain they purchased.

Chen Wang directly sent people to the township and took the silver to buy a large amount of cheap grain and grass at a slightly higher price than the grain merchant's purchase.

As for transportation, it was simpler, and the villagers either carried or pushed bags of grain to the barracks for a small freight.

Acting in this way naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the grain merchants of Gongchang Mansion.

But their dissatisfaction, Chen Wang naturally had already taken it into account, and he successively submitted many reports of Gongchang Mansion's refusal to give grain.

Hong Chengchou will naturally help him suppress these small things, as long as the political influence is minimized, the other influences don't matter.

No matter how arrogant those grain merchants are, do they dare to send people to intercept and kill his army halfway?

Now the sharpest knife in Gongchang Mansion is not in the hands of grain merchants, but in his hands.

The issue of military rations has been resolved.

Next, the problem that needs to be solved is Hong Chengchou's order.

Now is far from the time to turn the other cheek, and most importantly, it is indeed as Hong Chengchou said.

An army that has not experienced a battle formation is only a weak brigade after all.

Li Guo, Li Yangchun, and the Climbing King are three, and only the subordinates under Li Yangchun are slightly more elite.

Although there are 30,000 people, they are not a big threat, and they are just used to test the combat strength of the army under their command.

(End of chapter)