Because Wu Shigong remembered that there was an outstanding figure in the Shaanxi peasant rebel army-Chuang King Li Zicheng.

Since he could defeat Li Zicheng, Hong Chengchou must be a very capable military commander. So Wu Shigong remembered Hong Chengchou's name firmly.

However, Wu Shigong is also a little puzzled. In the current Di newspaper, why is the name of King Chuang called Gao Yingxiang? And Li Zicheng has become a general? Anyway, this question is difficult to understand, so I will put it aside for the time being.

Another speculation is that Hong Chengchou's meritorious service has aroused the suspicion and precautions of Emperor Chongzhen and the ministers of the court. Therefore, they did not authorize Hong Chengchou to lead troops into Shanxi to suppress the main force of the peasant rebel army.

Of course, Zheng Ling also provided a lot of evidence, and these evidences also came from clues revealed in the Di newspaper. Wu Shigong did feel a sudden enlightenment after reading it. Indeed, as Zheng Ling speculated, Hong Chengchou

This tiger is now tied up in Shaanxi by the Ming Dynasty court and cannot escape!

Wu Shigong didn't know that this actually wronged Emperor Chongzhen, and it was the new chief minister Wen Tiren who made these arrangements. Wen Tiren is now in a period of prosperity. He and Emperor Chongzhen are also in the honeymoon period.

We already know that Wen Tiren is a person who is dedicated to "state affairs". He is not greedy for money and lust, and does not form cliques for selfish interests. He is a model in morality. Therefore, it is difficult for any political opponent to catch Wen Tiren's pigtails.

Of course, the first priority of Wen Tiren's "state affairs" was to consolidate his position as chief minister; the second priority was to cater to Emperor Chongzhen; and the third priority was the real national affairs.

Moreover, Wen Tiren is still a man with a strong desire for power. Although the threat of Hong Chengchou is still relatively far away, Wen Tiren still needs to prepare for a rainy day. What if Hong Chengchou sends troops to Shanxi and wipes out all the peasant rebel armies? Then he will definitely be promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War. Or even

May be super pulled into the cabinet.

With military merit in hand, Hong Chengchou is likely to threaten Wen Tiren's position as chief assistant. It is better to let Hong Chengchou stay in Shaanxi and let other officials share some of the credit.

However, Wu Shigong will definitely not know the secrets of these high-level officials, and his official position is too small. There is no place for Wu Shigong to intervene in the temple. Now that I understand Zheng Ling's speculation, it will not be of any great use. It is just to let Wu Shigong

Just satisfy your curiosity.

However, Zheng Ling's other bold speculation is crucial to Runing's army.

According to Di Bao, the current situation of farmers rebelling against the army in Shanxi is not very good.

On the seventh day of December in the fifth year of Chongzhen, Lintao general Cao Wenzhao was ordered to join his generals Ma Ke, Cao Bianjiao and others to lead 3,500 horse and infantry soldiers who had been "selected one by one and experienced many battles" to set off from Qingyang, Gansu.

, crossed the river via Tongguan, and headed to "Puzhou, Shanxi, Hejin and other places where thieves gather. Then transfer to Pingyang and Lu'an, where thieves invaded."

The Ming court placed great hopes on Cao Wenzhao, the chief executioner of the bandits, to join the Jin campaign to suppress the bandits. Emperor Chongzhen personally approved the promotion of Cao Wenzhao to a higher level, authorizing him to "control the generals of Qin and Jin." And Ma Ke,

Cao Bianjiao and others were also promoted respectively to encourage them. The Ming Dynasty court hoped to expand the results of Shaanxi's victory to Shanxi, and a battle to encircle and annihilate the Shanxi uprising army was about to begin.

In order to deal with the Ming army that gathered in Shanxi, the peasant rebel army adopted a strategy of avoiding the real situation and taking advantage of the weak. In the first month of the sixth year of Chongzhen, they crossed the Taihang Mountains eastward and entered the Jifu area. They appeared in Shunde (today's Xingtai area of ​​Hebei Province), Zhending (today's Xingtai area of ​​Hebei Province)

Zhengding) and the two prefectures. This made the Ming government deeply uneasy.

In order to prevent the peasant rebel army from entering the Jinan Plain and protect the safety of the capital, the Ming Dynasty hastily deployed 2,000 Tongzhou soldiers and 2,000 Changping soldiers, together with 8,000 soldiers from Baoding's general Liang Fu, and coordinated with the famous soldiers to prepare roads for Lu Xiangsheng and Shanxi

The officers and soldiers suppressed them.

In the battle with the Ming army, the peasant rebel army gave full play to the superiority of mobile operations. They continued to move in the border areas of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces, avoiding the heavy troops of the official army and attacking at the right moment. This put the official army in a passive position

The status of being beaten. (The Henan area mentioned here is the area north of the Yellow River in Henan Province. Wu Shigong’s Runing Army believes that Henan, where the peasant rebel army entered, is the area south of the Yellow River in Henan Province. Therefore, these two concepts are different

of).

This guerrilla war also intensified the conflicts within the Ming Dynasty court. The Ministry of War accused Henan of not blocking the danger of Taihang and forcing the thieves to enter without guilt. However, the gentry of Henan (these gentry were all standing behind them) were from Henan.

Local officials) requested the imperial court that Hong Chengchou, the trilateral governor, should also be in charge of military affairs in Shanxi and Henan.

Although the Ministry of War agreed to this plan, it believed that it could unify power, prevent provinces from bucking each other, and facilitate the comprehensive deployment of encirclement and suppression of peasant rebel armies. Moreover, the Ministry of War also recommended that Hong Chengchou move to Tongguan at the junction of the three provinces to supervise the second governor of Shanxi and Henan and Cao Wenzhao.

Deng Qi and Zhang Yingchang were the three commanders in chief.

However, under the persuasion of his chief minister Wen Tiren, Emperor Chongzhen was still unwilling to let his subordinates have greater power and did not agree to this plan.

Emperor Chongzhen blamed the uprising army's active presence in the three provinces on the ineffectiveness of the official army, so he sent eunuchs Chen Dakui, Yan Siyin, Xie Wenju, and Sun Maolin to serve as the inner army, serving as supervisors of the four towns of Cao Wenzhao, Zhang Yingchang, Zuo Liangyu, and Deng Qi respectively.

military.

Emperor Chongzhen has been emperor for six or seven years, and has suffered too much in front of civil servants, so now he can only slap himself in the face and appoint eunuchs to be sent to the army to act as his eyes and ears, in order to prevent civil and military officials.

Official deception.

However, what the eunuchs were good at was just to deceive the emperor's trust with clever words and tricks, so as to gain power and pay bribes. In the military, they were completely amateurs. The so-called "supervision of merits and demerits" was just to provide them with an opportunity to make a fortune.

And the local civil and military officials, in order to let them say something good in front of the emperor, were given some oil and water from the proceeds of corruption, so they colluded and acted as insiders.

The peasant rebel army fought against the Ming army in the Jinan area with mutual success and defeat. Since the rebel peasants were still unable to match the official army at that time, and there was no danger in the Great Plains of North China, after the imperial court gradually strengthened the defense forces in this area, the uprising

The army then moved into the Taihang Mountains.

King Minglu was entrusted in Weihui Mansion (the government was in Jixian County, Henan Province). Seeing that the peasant army was becoming more and more powerful in northern Henan and the fiefdom was in danger, Shangshu asked for help. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen specially appointed Ni Chong and Wang Pu as the commander-in-chief.

The soldiers, eunuchs Yang Jinchao and Lu Jiude were the supervisors, and 6,000 troops from the unified Beijing camp went to northern Henan to conquer the rebels. Relying on their superior strength, the official army gradually compressed the main force of the rebel army in the area north of the Yellow River in Henan Province. The Ming government thought that there were more troops in the north.

With heavy troops and a large river in the south, the rebel army can be wiped out here.

At this time, in May of the sixth year of Chongzhen, an important leader of the rebel army, Zijin Liang (Wang Ziyong), died of illness in Jiyuan, Henan. After Wang Jiayin's death, Wang Ziyong was promoted by various rebel armies in Shanxi.

The leader of the alliance. Later, due to Ming Ting's alienation tactics, there was a gap between Zijin Liang and other leaders. However, despite this, Wang Ziyong was still an influential leader at the time.

At this time, the officers and soldiers transferred by the Ming Dynasty gathered in the border area of ​​Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces. Since the main battlefield had moved to northern Henan at that time, the officers and soldiers of Henan Province were called the main army, with a total of 8,300

Yu Ming; Shanxi, Hebei and Beijing camp guest soldiers numbered 19,600. Including the Shaanxi soldiers commanded by Cao Wenzhao and others, the total number of officers and soldiers participating in the encirclement and suppression should be more than 30,000. However, there was room for the activities of the peasant rebel army.

It is getting smaller and smaller, and food supplies are extremely difficult, and it is facing the danger of being surrounded and annihilated by the army.

Therefore, there was optimism in the Di newspaper issued by the Ming court. Surprisingly, at this time, the entire Ming court still did not pay attention to the peasant rebel army that spread across several provinces. The Ming court's military expenditures were still

Most of it was invested in Liaodong. Of course, Kong Youde's Denglai rebellion also occupied a large amount of the Ming court's military expenditures.

But the Runing Army is different, because their leader Wu Shigong has already predicted "the world will be in chaos." Therefore, all actions of the Runing Army are prepared for the worst outcome.

Zheng Ling's speculation was based on this point. In his speculation, he said: If the Shaanxi bandits want to get rid of this unfavorable situation, they must cross the Yellow River and enter the hinterland of Henan in the Central Plains.

However, it is very difficult to cross the river under heavy defense, and it is impossible to collect so many ferries. Therefore, to cross the river, you must wait until the Yellow River freezes. Therefore, the time when the Shaanxi bandits are most likely to enter the hinterland of Henan is also the most dangerous.

The time is this winter. For this reason, the Runing Army must make all preparations to fight the enemy as soon as possible.

Of course, if the Shaanxi bandits cannot cross the Yellow River this winter, then the Shaanxi bandits will suffer heavy losses. In the next few years, it will no longer be possible for the Shaanxi bandits to enter the hinterland of Henan and threaten the Runing army.

After reading Zheng Ling's conjecture, Wu Shigong discussed with key staff such as Deng Qifan and Xue Yongli and found that this conjecture was very likely. Wu Shigong was also able to grasp the dynamics of the peasant rebel army for the first time. And this

It is even more crucial for the preparation of the Runing Army.

Therefore, he would rather work in vain than have any luck. Wu Shigong immediately began to step up preparations for the Runing Army. And all Yang Goudan's workshops also started shift production, seizing every bit of time to increase the strength of the Runing Army.

Wu Shigong immediately promoted Zheng Ling to deputy director of the Shanchuan Department. Moreover, the intelligence collection and analysis department that Zheng Ling was responsible for was directly managed by Runing Jun's inner study.

In modern intelligence collection, the collection of enemy countries' newspapers, television and other news media is also a major source of intelligence. Now with Zheng Ling's department, the Runing Army's intelligence work has finally begun to open up. However,

, this is also inseparable from Zheng Ling’s own hard work. This opportunity always comes to those who are prepared!
Chapter completed!