Suburbs of Xintai, noon.
Although it is early summer now, the midday sun already has a bit of a hot summer feel.
In the woods behind a hill, there was a faint sound of low horses honking. It was the Jin Yiwei who were resting after running fast for a day and night.
Although this forest is not big, it is enough to accommodate more than a hundred of them, temporarily blocking them from the heat.
At the end of the woods is a small stream. The gurgling stream is winding forward tirelessly with a hint of coolness.
At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting on a stone beside the stream, talking with Li Wu, Yang Qi, and Zhao Li.
Not far away, four or five tiger warriors were watching the surroundings vigilantly.
"Da da da!"
Suddenly, a rapid sound of horse hooves came from a distance.
Zhu Yuanzhang followed the sound and saw that the scout who went to explore the road had returned, so he motioned Yang Qi to go check, while he continued to talk with Li Wu and others.
After a while, Yang Qi came over with some worry and reported: "Your Majesty, the scouts in front have just sent news that Zhao Erhu is encircling and suppressing the rebels in Xintai. Do you want him to come and understand the situation?"
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he frowned and said, "It's not that Guo Sheng has fled to the Suqian area, why is Zhao Erhu here to encircle and suppress the rebels again?"
After he finished speaking, seeing that Yang Qi didn't answer, he continued: "Take a team of royal guards over to take a look. If the battle is over, let Zhao Erhu come directly to report to us."
"If he can't leave for a while, you can report it after you understand the situation clearly."
Yang Qi bowed in agreement and left in a hurry.
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while, and then said to Li Wu on the side: "Has Li Ruolian gone south?"
Li Wu shook his head and said: "Probably not yet. Zhang Dabiao mentioned this when he sent a letter from Huai'an yesterday, saying that Uncle Wei Wu was worried that Dong Qi and Ren Qi could not cope with the situation in Henan, and wanted to wait for General He Zhen under Ping Xigong to arrive. Then go south."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "Okay, you send a message to Li Ruolian and tell him that although the affairs in Jiangnan are important, the affairs in Henan must also be properly handled."
"In addition, you can send a message to Zhang Dabiao, asking him to not only monitor Zhu Yousong, but also pay attention to the movements of other vassal kings."
"Now that Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other places have been recovered, there is turmoil over Li Thief. We estimate that some bold vassal kings will return to their fiefdoms, and we cannot let them mess up our plans."
Li Wu nodded and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry. Zhang Dabiao has started to rebuild the contact points in Huai'an, Nanjing and other places. I believe that it will be back to normal in more than a month."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that it would take a month, he frowned and said, "Tell Zhang Dabiao that the speed of rebuilding the contact point must be accelerated. Don't delay the news because you are afraid of spending money."
"You must know that the world is in panic today. If the news is timely, some wars can be avoided..."
As he spoke, he suddenly recalled a letter from Prince Zhu Cixiang two days ago explaining that due to the recent war and the resettlement of victims in various places, there were only two million taels of silver left in the treasury, so only 600,000 taels were allocated to Wu Mengming to rebuild the Jinyiwei contact point.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang wrote back and asked for full payment, I am afraid that the money will not reach Jin Yiwei's hands for a while.
Thinking of this, his tone couldn't help but become weaker.
Li Wu didn't notice anything unusual about Zhu Yuanzhang, so he responded with some hesitation and said: "Your Majesty, I have heard the news that Dorgon seems unwilling to trade Jinzhou and other places for Tong Tulai."
Zhu Yuanzhang sneered and said: "Let's ignore this matter for now and wait until Wu Sangui's memorial comes up."
It turns out that Wu Sangui reported last time that Sony was willing to exchange Ningyuan and other places for Tong Tulai. Since Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know Tong Tulai's identity, he asked Jin Yiwei to investigate, but there was no news.
Later, Ji'erharang attacked Shaanxi. Knowing that the Jurchens were at their most powerful at the moment, Zhu Yuanzhang proposed that the Jurchens return all the land south of Jinzhou and send back 300,000 Northern slaves. Otherwise, Tong Tulai would be beheaded. Show nine sides.
In fact, he did not expect the Jurchens to agree to this, but just wanted to test the Jurchens' attitude.
Of course, he is not afraid that this condition will scare off the Jurchens, because most of these things require exorbitant prices and pay back on the spot.
If the Jurchens really valued Tong Tulai, they would definitely send someone to negotiate.
If no one came, it meant that this was just a delaying strategy by the Jurchens, then he would take Tong Tulai to Datong and behead him.
Firstly, it can dampen Jierhalang's momentum, and secondly, it can let the people in Shaanxi and other places see the Ming Dynasty's force, and take the opportunity to win people's hearts. m.
"His Majesty!"
While Zhu Yuanzhang was talking with Li Wu, Zhao Erhu's voice came from not far away.
Zhu Yuanzhang followed the sound and saw Zhao Erhu running towards this side in a hurry.
When Zhao Erhu came forward, Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked when he saw that the armor on his body was covered with swords and there were blood stains on some damaged areas.
You must know that Zhao Erhu is very skilled in martial arts. Even he looks like this now, which shows that the battle is very fierce.
After Zhu Yuanzhang signaled Zhao Erhu to sit down, he asked in a deep voice: "Didn't you go south to pursue Guo Sheng? Why did you fight so fiercely here today?"
Zhao Erhu heard this and said with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty, you don't know, Guo Sheng's dog... is too cunning. If Master Zhang hadn't been careful, our entire army would have been almost annihilated..."
It turned out that after Guo Sheng broke through Lu Zhenfei's blockade with the help of mysterious soldiers and horses, Lu Zhenfei felt angry and wanted to pursue him immediately, but was stopped by Zhang Huangyan.
Because Zhang Huangyan felt that Guo Sheng and the mysterious troops were slightly more powerful than them and should not run away.
Coupled with their new defeat and damaged morale, it is not advisable to pursue them. They should strengthen their defense and let the soldiers rest and recuperate.
After the south gathered troops, they attacked from both front and back.
Although Lu Zhenfei was unwilling, he had no choice but to agree since Zhang Huang said he had the Holy Purpose at his disposal.
Unexpectedly, Guo Sheng returned to the army to attack again that night.
Fortunately, Zhang Huangyan was well prepared and defeated Guo Sheng and fled.
Seeing that the fighting spirit of the soldiers had recovered a lot after this battle, Zhang Huangyan immediately selected three thousand cavalry and chased them for more than fifty miles, killing almost all Guo Sheng's infantry.
Then he returned to the division, and together with Lu Zhenfei and Zhao Erhu, he surrounded and suppressed the scattered remaining soldiers.
Unexpectedly, the mysterious troops and horses appeared again at this time, and this time they were all cavalry.
Although the opponent only had about 2,000 men, their combat strength was more than double that of the previous 3,000 men.
Fortunately, Zhang Huangyan had been on guard, and their numbers were far superior to the opponent's, so he was able to barely repel them, but he also lost more than a thousand soldiers.
Because the mysterious troops and horses were so elusive, Zhang Huangyan was worried that he would fall into the opponent's trap if he pursued them rashly.
At the same time, they thought that Guo Sheng only had three or four thousand cavalry under his command, and that the well-established areas in the south of the Yangtze River and the crisscrossed waterways were not conducive to cavalry galloping. Even if Guo Sheng fled to the south of the Yangtze River, it would be difficult to accomplish anything, so they concentrated on encircling and suppressing Guo Sheng's infantry.
Unexpectedly, these infantry were also very cunning. They knew they were no match for the cavalry, so they burrowed into the ravine as soon as they saw them.
After they retreated, they came out to attack again and robbed Nan Liang from time to time.
In addition, after they defeated Guo Sheng in Weifang, many rebels fled into the mountains. Now they have come forward and caused trouble everywhere, making them very passive.
After Zhang Huangyan discussed with Lu Zhenfei, they believed that the rebels were no longer in power. They would only be exhausted by dividing their forces to encircle and suppress them. Moreover, they also had to be wary of the mysterious troops, which was not the best idea.
Therefore, they concentrated their forces to defend some fortresses and ferries, and transported southern grain to the capital by water.
At the same time, in order to prevent the rebels from getting bigger, they formed three elite divisions to encircle and suppress the stronger rebels in different areas.
In order to encircle and suppress the rebels, Zhao Erhu worked almost non-stop in the past two days, fighting seven or eight battles in a row, so he was a little embarrassed.
Zhu Yuanzhang originally thought that Guo Sheng was going south, but after listening to Zhao Erhu's story, he couldn't help but frown.
Some people died, but not completely...
