At this time, the city of Hengzhou was very lively, immersed in a sea of joy, the people of Hengzhou welcomed the victorious master, and the old squires killed pigs and sheep, and rewarded the three armies.

In the Guiwang Mansion Carrier Palace, a sumptuous celebration banquet was held, Zhu Cihong sat on the main seat, King Gui sat on the upper left, Guiwang Shizi and the second son Zhu Youlang sat on the lower right, followed by Sun Yingyuan, Huang Degong, Mao Yuanyi and others.

Zhu Cihong said with a smile: "In this battle, I will no longer have a powerful rogue!" ”

King Gui was puzzled: "Why did Your Highness say that? ”

Zhu Cihong smiled and said: "The palace got the news, Shaanxi was victorious, the thief leader mixed with Tianxing, Guo Tianxing and others surrendered to the imperial court successively, Li Zicheng was in the south near Tongguan by Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting teamed up to set up a pocket array and put it in, after a day of bloody battles, Li Thief's army was annihilated, his wife and children were all captured, and only Liu Zongmin and other seventeen remnants hid in Shangluo Mountain!" ”

"Hahaha!" Everyone in the carrying hall burst into laughter, and they were all happy.

Sun Yingyuan stood up and raised his glass and said, "Congratulations for Daming, congratulations for His Highness!" ”

"Congratulations for Daming, congratulations for Your Highness!" The generals got up one after another to toast, and even King Gui's father and son stood up excitedly.

Zhu Cihong smiled and said: "This great achievement, the palace will ask for credit for the generals, and His Royal Highness King Gui will continue to fund military salaries, and the palace will also truthfully report to the emperor!" ”

After hearing this, the old King Gui was in a very comfortable mood, and his interest was quite high, and he swept away the depression for many years, let out a burst of laughter, and said: "The world can have the current good situation, thanks to Your Majesty Shengming, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has unparalleled strategy, and all the soldiers use their lives, and the lonely king only does some meager work, and he does not dare to take credit." ”

Zhu Cihong said: "The state affairs are difficult, the treasury is tight, King Gui generously donated, and set an example for all the vassal kings of my Ming Dynasty, and he deserves to be rewarded, so there is no need to be modest!" ”

In a burst of conversation and laughter, the atmosphere gradually became warmer, and there was no longer the formality at the beginning.

When the banquet began, Zhu Cihong continued: "Li Zhang's two thieves are just representatives of the Liukou, they have been eliminated, it doesn't mean that there is no second Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong jumping out, so everyone should not take it lightly, the public security in various places must still be taken seriously, especially to restrain the sect people from stirring up the people anymore!" ”

Zhu Cihong's previous words were said to the generals, but the last sentence was said by looking at King Gui.

King Gui also knows, thieves can dare to dig the imperial tomb, if there is another wave in his fiefdom, maybe he will be dug up after a hundred years.......

After the banquet ended, Zhu Cihong began to write a good report, which was sent to Beijing as soon as possible, and there was also a note from the good news sent to Beijing.

Zhu Cihong mentioned in the recital that the imperial court should continue to search for Li Zicheng on a large scale to prevent his resurgence, and that there was also the disaster situation in Henan and Shaanxi, and that the imperial court should send commissioners to govern the two places as soon as possible to prevent the resurgence of the people.

Zhu Cihong also suggested that Huang Degong should lead his troops to garrison Huguang and clear the local remnants; Sun Yingyuan was awarded the rank of Ronglu doctor from the first rank of Wusan, and was released to Yangzhou Mansion.

Huguang is one of the sites where Zhu Cihong is engaged in large-scale construction, not only the location is extremely important, but also the large number of people and the land is wide, and it is impossible for him to give up.

Zhu Cihong asked Sun Yingyuan to go to Yangzhou in order to enter Nanjing to take the richest prefectures in Nanzhili, Yangzhou Mansion and Yingtian Mansion and other five or six prefectures in Nanzhili, which are the richest mansions in the Ming Dynasty and the base camp of Nanjing's nobles.

Zhu Cihong wants to move the salt tax and the guards of several prefectures, which will inevitably cause a strong backlash from the nobles, and now that Jiangnan is in Dading, Zhu Cihong can't send troops to garrison everywhere as he did in wartime, at least on the surface, if the imperial court lets Sun Yingyuan lead the troops to stay in Yangzhou Mansion, the situation will be much better.

Zhu Cihong planned to return to Fengyang to repair himself, and then he was ready to enter Nanjing and attack Nanjing Xungui.

After two days of repairs in Hengzhou Mansion, Zhu Cihong led the army to take a boat up the Xiangjiang River, out of Dongting Lake into the Yangtze River, and returned to Fengyang along the east of the river.

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Jingshi, in the Forbidden City.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the good news sent by Shaanxi and Huguang one after another, and was very excited.

After the two thieves of Li and Zhang were destroyed, the civil uprisings in various parts of the Ming Dynasty basically subsided, and they were either destroyed or surrendered, and everything stopped.

Chongzhen sighed in his heart: Chongzhen's eleventh year is really a good year, the decade-long chaotic civil uprising has basically subsided, the imperial court is basically stable, and the Ming Dynasty has finally ushered in the dawn!

Chongzhen said in high spirits: "I have been busy for ten years, and finally got a chance to breathe, and it will take another ten years, and when I pacify Liaodong, the Ming Dynasty will surely have peace in the world and a prosperous society!" ”

Chongzhen was happy, and flipped through the two good news again, reading them over and over again, especially when Zhang Xianzhong was captured and was on his way to Fengyang, the crown prince Zhu Cihong asked in the song whether to kill him in Fengyang, or to be taken to Beijing to sacrifice prisoners and then killed.

After thinking for a while, Chongzhen quickly replied: If you are afraid of accidents, you will be executed directly in Fengyang, and you don't have to bother to be escorted to Jingshi!

Chongzhen didn't care at all about Zhu Cihong's suggestion to let the imperial court guard against Li Zicheng, he secretly thought in his heart, a thief who fled to the mountains with only seventeen subordinates, what qualifications did he have to take special precautions from the imperial court? Defeat is defeat, can he still make a comeback with a few kitchen knives?

From ancient times to the present, how many heroes have committed suicide after failure, and even characters such as Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, have killed themselves in Wujiang, what is Li Zicheng? Maybe I've already found a tree in Shangluo Mountain to hang myself........

In Chongzhen's impression, Li Zicheng is just a small general under Gao Yingxiang, after Gao Yingxiang's death, he continued to use the name of King Chuang to pull the tiger skin to pull the banner to make trouble everywhere, jumping off the beam clown!

Chongzhen's excitement was beyond words, he looked at Wang Chengen and said, "Xuan Yang Sichang!" ”

Wang Chengen bowed his head and retired, and went to Wenyuan Pavilion to pass the decree.

Since Chongzhen's ninth year Yang Sichang took over as the secretary of the Ministry of War, he has been deeply appreciated by Chongzhen, especially at the beginning of Chongzhen's tenth year, when the rogue was making a lot of trouble, Chongzhen was in the Zhongji Hall with the theme of "suppressing the army and withdrawing, and the enemy country is alive" as the theme of the minister (equivalent to the application of the national civil service examination in later generations).

Yang Sichang introduced the topic with celestial phenomena in his strategy, put forward the proposition that the outside must first be secured, and strongly advocated a compromise with Jiannu and concentrated all efforts to quell the bandits in the Central Plains.

On that day, Yang Sichang spoke of lotus flowers in the hall, listing many stories of heavenly warnings and interracial relations in history, such as the solar eclipse of Mars in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the peace between Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty and the Southern Xiongnu, the lunar eclipse of Taizong in the Song Dynasty, and the defeat of the Song army in the war against Liao, etc., to allude to his claim on the peace of Jiannu.

Although most of the courtiers at that time opposed this proposal and scolded Yang Sichang for betraying the country, it was Yuan Chonghuan who was second, and he should be pulled out with a thousand knives to exterminate the whole clan! But Chongzhen appreciates Yang Sichang very much, thinking that he is impartial, unpartyly, and courageous.

So in June of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang was promoted to the secretary of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University, and he joined the aircraft service, and was still in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of War, which can be described as the extreme grace!