Of course, in addition to dispatching troops to cross the sea and go south to help suppress the rogue bandits, Zhang Ruoqi, Fang Yizao and Chu Xianzhang had many other things to discuss with Yang Zhen.

Among them was the major incident of pacifying the captives that Zhang Ruoqi mentioned to Yang Zhen on the way to Lushunkou.

Just like what happened in history, Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, or Zhang Ruoqi and others, when the situation in the pass was almost ruined and collapsed, they were still planning to complete their victory against the Qing captives in one battle.

Zhang Ruoqi, the imperial envoy, represented Chen Xinjia and Emperor Chongzhen this time. He asked Yang Zhen about the feasibility of Jinhai Town and Liaodong Town armies joining hands from east to west to annihilate the Qing rebels in one fell swoop this year. However, Yang Zhen rejected it on the spot. .

Of course, Yang Zhen also explained seriously to Zhang Ruoqi why this would never be feasible in the short term.

It wasn't that Yang Zhen didn't want to lead his army northward to kill the Qing captives in one fell swoop and take back the homeland of Liaoshen, but he was still wary of the complete defeat of the Ming army in the Songjin decisive battle that actually happened in history.

If he was given another two years, even one year, Yang Zhen would be more confident.

Therefore, Yang Zhen was almost like Hong Chengchou back then, pouring out his frustrations to Zhang Ruoqi in front of Fang Yizao and Chu Xianzhang, and throwing out a lot of difficulties.

One is that the immigration and reclamation work in Jinhai Town is ongoing. Although a lot of immigrants have come, the food supply is tight. In any case, we have to wait for one or two crops of the newly opened wasteland before we can recruit a large number of troops.

The other is that although Jinhai Town has plans to continue recruiting and expanding its army, it is short of pay and money, and the inventory of guns and ammunition is not enough, so it will take some time to raise and build...

Of course, the most important thing is that Yang Zhen reiterated Yang Sichang's proposition, that is, he believed that in order to fight against foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the internal situation. Before going north to fight the decisive battle with the Qing Dynasty, the situation in Guan Nei, Zhongzhou, Huguang and other places must at least be stabilized.

These reasons mentioned by Yang Zhen are all objective reasons, and even a blind person can understand them.

However, Zhang Ruoqi was very unhappy in the face of Yang Zhen's evasion and gave Yang Zhen several reasons why he could not delay it any longer.

Among them, the one that Yang Zhen could not refute the most was Yang Zhen's successful performance in capturing Zhenjiang Fort, which showed that the strength of the Qing's main army had declined and was not as powerful as the legend said.

In particular, Zhang Ruoqi recounted the details of the Qing Dynasty pseudo-clan prince Beile Beizi Gushan who had been captured and beheaded by Yang Zhen in the wars over the past two years, which made Yang Zhen speechless and speechless. right.

What Zhang Ruoqi meant was like saying, if Qinglu is so powerful, why can you win so many battles?

Of course, in addition to this, Zhang Ruoqi also told Yang Zhen the real reason why Emperor Chongzhen, cabinet ministers, and Minister of War Chen Xinjia wanted Liaodong Town and Jinhai Town to join forces to quell the prisoners as soon as possible.

That is, the imperial court's financial resources are about to be unable to sustain it. The three major sources of salary, Liao's salary, suppression's salary, and Lian's salary, have almost dried up.

There are endless thieves in the world, and their roots lie in these three major wages.

Up to now, not only the government and the public have seen this, but Emperor Chongzhen has also seen this.

The main culprit for the deterioration of the situation in the pass was attributed by the imperial court to the three major rates, and finally to the Liao rates collected for decades.

There is certainly nothing wrong with this view.

But what if you see it?

As long as Liaodong is not pacified, Liao's wages will not stop.

In this regard, everyone has also seen that Liaodong really involves too much military, financial and material resources of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as Liaodong is pacified, not only can Liao pay be stopped, but Liao soldiers can also be mobilized in large numbers. With Liao soldiers quelling the thieves, and Jinhai Town soldiers and horses quelling the bandits, then there will be no need to levy the suppression and training wages, or at most they will be levied.

A paycheck.

In this way, the world will gradually return to peace.

This is the real thought of the current cabinet ministers, especially Emperor Chongzhen who was stimulated by the death of Yang Sichang.

This time, the true thoughts of the imperial ministers and Emperor Chongzhen regarding Liaodong were conveyed to Yang Zhen through Chen Xinjia and Zhang Ruoqi.

In general, Yang Zhen himself certainly agrees with this idea, but if this idea wants to become a reality, there is a prerequisite, and that is to mobilize the troops from all sides and destroy the Qingluo in one go.

If this one cannot be realized, then all the subsequent ideas will be in vain, and history has proven this.

So no matter what Zhang Ruoqi said, no matter how Chu Xianzhang helped, Yang Zhen just refused to let go.

In the end, Zhang Ruoqi seemed to be getting impatient, so Yang Zhen had no choice but to take a step back and asked him to consult the opinions of Jiliao Governor Hong Chengchou and Uncle Jinyi Dashou first.

Seeing that Zhang Ruoqi could not convince Yang Zhen for the time being, he had to secretly think of another way.

However, his main purpose of coming to Jinhai Town this time was to ask Yang Zhen to mobilize his troops south to help suppress the rogue bandits in Zhongzhou. At least he achieved this purpose.

Therefore, he did not dare to fall out with Yang Zhenzhen.

At noon on April 19, the 14th year of Chongzhen, one of the soldiers and horses ordered by Yang Zhen to be mobilized, the heavy cavalry under Zu Keyong from Jinhai East Road, Yu Lewu's unit, took the land route and first arrived at Lushunkou to stand by.

Zhang Ruoqi saw that the soldiers and horses in Jinhai Town were beginning to gather, and his mood improved greatly. He also saw that although there were few of them, they had strong soldiers and horses, and high morale. He no longer always bothered with Yang Zhen about the decisive battle with the Qing captives.

After all, what Yang Zhen said makes sense. Without stabilizing the situation in the pass, there is indeed no way to gather the army to Liaodong.

There is a reason why Yu Lewu's troops quickly went south after receiving the order and their morale was high.

The vast majority of them come from the Denglai area south of the strait, and many of them are fellow clan members of Qixia, Lewu Dengzhou and other places.

Therefore, not only did they not have any objections to being included in the advance force for the Denglai reinforcements and suppression, and to crossing the sea to go south to Denglai, but they were very happy from top to bottom.

For many of them, crossing the sea and heading south to Denglai felt like returning home in fine clothes, so their morale did not drop but increased after the order was issued.

And Yang Zhen deliberately selected Yu Lewu to lead his troops to join the Denglai support and suppression advance army. Of course, he also took a fancy to his Dengzhou martial arts exam and Qixia's powerful background.

Don't look at the fact that there are only a few thousand people under Yu Lewu now. In fact, as long as Yang Zhen gives an order, Yu Lewu can easily recruit thousands more people from Qixia and other places, without even needing Yang Zhenwei.

They raised military rations.

Of course, Yang Zhen would definitely not ask Yu Lewu and others to raise their own food and grass like Emperor Chongzhen did.

At the same time, Yang Zhen also took advantage of Yu Lewu's opportunity to lead his troops to Lushunkou to wait for orders. He personally received him in the lobby of Jinhai General Town Hall and appointed him as Dengzhou General-in-Chief on the spot, allowing him to return from Dengzhou.

Recruiting troops can expand the number of cavalry under his command to 3,000.

For this, Yu Lewu was naturally grateful and accepted the order happily.

In the battle at Chengzi Mountain in East Goryeo in late September last year, Yu Lewu led his troops to charge into the battle and killed the Qing Dynasty clan's third-rank auxiliary general Wu Dahai among the rebels.

Since Yang Zhen's troops were surrounded in Zhenjiang Fort shortly after this incident occurred, Yu Lewu's contribution has been delayed to this day and he has not received the reward he deserves.

This time, since Emperor Chongzhen once again delegated the power of rewarding meritorious generals in Jinhai Town to Yang Zhen's hands, Yang Zhen would certainly not be polite.

It happened that all the previous camp generals in Denglai Town were wiped out along with Governor Xu Renlong and Commander-in-Chief Chen Hongfan, and almost all died at the hands of Li Zicheng's men.

Those who are lucky enough to survive will have to report under Yang Zhen again in the future and accept Yang Zhen's selection and appointment.

Therefore, the entire Denglai Town is almost a blank for Yang Zhen.

As long as the positions related to Denglai defense are not too out of the ordinary, Yang Zhen can appoint them however he wants.

Fang Yizao, the governor of Denglai, is now the only governor, and he cannot oppose Yang Zhen's selection.

On the evening of the next day after Yang Zhen promoted Yu Lewu, the three giants of the Zhongyi Gui Ming Army, Shen Qicheng, An Yingchang, and Liu Lin, led their respective troops to reach Lin Qingye, Yu Liangtai's fleet, and Yuan Jin.

The fleet returning from Anzhou sailed southward along the coast to Lushunkou.

At noon on the morning of April 21, the 14th year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen personally accompanied Fang Yizao and the imperial envoys Zhang Ruoqi and Chu Xianzhang to review Shen Qicheng, An Yingchang, Liu Lin and others at Xingang in Lushunkou.

The people and horses they brought.

Unlike Yu Lewu's troops, who were cheering and shouting with high morale, although the troops brought by Shen Qicheng and others were quite large, they were much less energetic.

Of course, the night before, when Yang Zhen led the officials and generals in Lushunkou to cleanse themselves of Shen Qicheng, An Yingchang, Liu Lin, Yuan Jin, Lin Qingye, and Yu Liangtai, they also learned about it from the mouths of Lin Qingye and others.

some situations.

These men who were loyal to the Ming Army had just recently completed the task of reorganization and training in accordance with Yang Zhen's previous requirements.

Originally, the generals of each battalion, including the officers and soldiers under each command, were looking forward to taking a good rest after the changes and training were over, and then living in a wasteland settlement in the area designated by Jinhai East Road.

As a result, Yang Zhen gave an order to throw them into a completely unfamiliar battlefield.

Although they also heard that this time they were following the orders of His Majesty the Ming Emperor to encircle and suppress the bandits who were causing trouble. However, the bandits were not as scary as the Qing bandits, and they were not a serious problem.

However, among the officers and soldiers under each battalion and command, there are still many people who are quite afraid and resistant to this.

They even want to settle down on the land provided by Jinhai East Road, and when the farming season is about to come, they can reclaim wasteland to plant rice and live their own lives.

If it weren't for Shen Qicheng, An Yingchang and others threatened not to go to war, not to divide the land, and to be imprisoned on the spot, it would have been questionable whether they could have brought out so many people.

For such a problem, Yang Zhen had no good solution for the moment. After the review, he could only repeatedly ask Yuhou Liulin, the military commander of the loyal Ming army, to severely punish him.

That morning, after the slightly disappointing review, Shen Qicheng, An Yingchang, and Liu Lin said goodbye to Yang Zhen and led their respective troops to board the ship and leave the port.

Fang Yizao, Zhang Ruoqi and their followers naturally followed the huge fleet from Jinhai Town transporting the advance force of the Denglai reinforcements and suppression forces across the sea and headed south to Dengzhou.

Yang Zhen, as the chief military officer who is also in charge of the military affairs of Denglai Town, should logically follow him to Dengzhou to meet the civilian and military generals of Denglai Town.

However, when Yang Zhen thought about the fact that Chen Hongfan, the former commander-in-chief of Denglai Town, and his subordinate generals were almost completely wiped out, even if he went there, almost no one would see him. Only the low-level guards left behind in Weihai Guard, Chengshan Guard and other places could be seen. Officer, after thinking about it, he didn't follow.
Chapter completed!