As early as when Li Zicheng attacked Yingzhou, the imperial army's army was stationed in Kaifeng and Xuchang, and watched hundreds of thousands of troops attack Fengyang Mansion.

Shanxi general soldier Wang Wannian, Xuanfu general soldier Hu Dawei after all fought side by side with Zhu Cihong, once suggested that the Ming army should take the initiative to attack to solve the Fengyang crisis.

However, Yang Sichang advocated sticking to it, he said: "The food has not arrived, the thief is sharp, and he cannot be attacked, so he must not move!" ”

The chief assistant and superintendent of the cabinet said so, and the general soldiers of all walks of life naturally did not want to fight, so as not to suffer defeat and be implicated.

The Chuang army captured all the prefectures and counties of Nanyang Prefecture all the way, as a supply place for the rear, and tried to attack Fengyang Mansion many times, but it was really difficult to gnaw.

The front line of Fengyang Mansion is the Anwu Army, the commander is Yang Yufan, who has been guarding Fengyang and Luzhou for many years, the Anwu Army became an army in Chongzhen ten years, a little later than the Tianwu Army, Chongzhen expanded to 50,000 in thirteen years, the whole army is equipped with firearms, and has many experience in fighting with the Liukou.

Zhu Cihong ordered all armies to take turns to sit on the front line of Fengyang Mansion, with a limit of half a year, take turns to train troops, and temper the army through actual combat, and the 50,000 Anwu troops simply withstood the repeated attacks of hundreds of thousands of Liukou.

Taihe County, Fengyang Prefecture, which borders Henan, is a plain and was originally a dense place of towns, but after repeated sweeps by the Liukou, many towns have become ruins.

The original small city was a pile of rubble in just a few months, and the city was sparsely populated, and many people moved to other prefectures and counties in Fengyang Province to escape the war.

Since the Anwu army set up camp here, they often took the initiative to attack and exterminate some small groups of bandits and bandits in the surrounding area, and shacks began to gather around the camp, where some victims lived.

If there is no protection from the army, the victims will either be coerced by thieves or looted by local bandits, and it is estimated that there will not be even vegetable leaves left.

The more war-torn areas there are, those who use the banner of doing the right thing for heaven and robbing the rich to help the poor will take the opportunity to burn, kill and loot, not only to engage in big households, but also to let go of the poor, robbing them of all their essence, and whoever has a beautiful girl will be even more miserable.

Fengyang Mansion, the Great Teaching Field of the Central Capital.

The 50,000 Tianxiong Army, who was responsible for the second echelon of actual combat, was stationed here, and the cannon shook the sky every day in the big teaching field, conducting drills, and waiting for the shift change in two months.

At this time, Zhu Cihong was inspecting the drills of the Tianxiong Army in the camp, accompanied by a group of military attaches and praise paintings from the Huangming Military Academy.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the Tianxiong Army was besieged by tens of thousands of Eight Banner Army, and there were less than 2,000 people left, and they were then arranged to fight in Liao in the Tianwu Army.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the Tianxiong army expanded to 50,000, and the recruited sergeants were the Tuntian soldiers from all over the south of the Yangtze River.

At this time, the horn of the big church in the camp was continuous, and the sound of killing shook the sky.

"Ready!"

"Wow!"

Above the Great Teaching Field, there were eight rows of large phalanxes, and as the order sounded, the two rows of muskets in front roared in unison, and the dense flintlock muskets flintlock flintlock flints flipped down, aiming at the target of the simulated army formation 100 meters in front.

Their formations were not neat, with each of the two rows of musketeers staggered in front and behind, and the second row could extend the muskets out of the gap in front of them, achieving the effect of two rows of volleys.

With such two volleys in a volley, the array of rounds fire, their fire strikes will be more ferocious and more shocking!

"Fire!"

With the shouting of the officers, the deafening sound of the platoon was heard one after another, and a large area of gunpowder smoke rose and filled.

This new type of tactic requires strong organization and constant training, otherwise it will only be a mess when the battle comes.

Lu Jiude from the logistics department reported: "Your Highness, the amount of ammunition required for the daily training of the Seventh Army is huge, and they go to the shooting range as if they don't want money. ”

Zhu Cihong said lightly: "The combat effectiveness of the army is trained by real guns and live ammunition, and your logistics department can't save it for them, if it is discovered by this palace, it will be done by military law!" ”

Lu Jiude was originally the eunuch of the Yongwei Battalion, since he followed Zhu Cihong, he has been coming and going in the wind and rain all these years, and he also knows the prince's temper, he didn't dare to slack off, and said yes again and again, and he didn't dare to complain about the expenses anymore.

Not only that, Zhu Cihong also increased the military budget to prevent the soldiers from having difficulties in training and living.

Qiu Zhizhong, the eunuch guarding Fengyang Town, reported: "Your Highness, now my Fengyang Mansion Military Factory has started to produce Heding rifles in accordance with your requirements, and it is expected to produce 20,000 Heding rifles per year. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded and said, "Well, leave a few Ordnance Bureaus to continue to produce Suifa Lumi Guns, and the rest are all produced Heding rifles, and the same is true for the Jiangnan Ordnance Bureau over there in Taiping Mansion." ”

Taiping Province is close to the Yangtze River, most of the military factories are also close to the Yangtze River, extensive use of hydraulic drilling machines, with the technology more and more skilled, the production capacity of firearms in Jiangnan is very amazing!

The Tianwu Army gave priority to the equipment and Ding rifles, and the flintlock and musket used before were handed over to other armies, and the bird guns used by other armies were gradually phased out and allocated to secondary schools in various places for military training courses for middle school students.

Just watching, suddenly a sentinel came to report that Yang Yufan came back from the front line to pay a visit.

Footsteps sounded, a general with a few guards into the teaching hall viewing platform, he wore a cloud-winged bronze helmet, wearing waist-length armor, with a handcuff and a sword hanging on the belt, and when he walked, the armor leaves clanged.

Knowing that the crown prince was coming, Yang Yufan came from the front line, after all, Fengyang was only two or three hundred miles away from the front line, and he was afraid that the rogue army would enter the interior of Fengyang Mansion and pose a threat to the crown prince's safety.

Yang Yufan looked respectful, bowed down and said, "The last general has seen His Royal Highness the Prince." ”

"General Yang doesn't have to be polite."

Zhu Cihong said with a smile and went to support him with his own hands, but Yang Yufan still insisted on giving a salute.

Zhu Cihong asked, "How is the situation on the front line?" ”

Yang Yufan replied: "Your Highness, in the past, the thieves were erratic, easy to defeat, and difficult to suppress, but now the thieves are training the new army in Nanyang Mansion, and they also have fields, which is quite divisive. ”

Zhu Cihong muttered: "Li Thief is about to become a climate......"

Yang Qili, who did not accept Long Xiang at night, also said: "In the lunar season, there are several bands of thieves who have entered the territory of Shaanxi again, coming and going, the officers and soldiers are difficult to prevent, there are many poor people in Shaanxi, the people's hearts are turbulent, because of the pressure of life, there are often things like selling children and wives, and there is a great basis for thieves. ”

Zhu Cihong thought quickly in his mind, should he send troops in advance and destroy Li Zicheng in one go?

According to the original plan, he planned to let Li Zicheng sweep the northern provinces, but this guy was forced to Fengyang's side by Yang Sichang.

Seeing that Li Zicheng was getting bigger and bigger, and all kinds of tragic conditions of the victims in the war, Zhu Cihong couldn't bear it and wanted to mobilize a large army to destroy it.

It's just that he is also analyzing in his heart, even if he leads hundreds of thousands of troops such as the Tianwu Army to the north, can he completely exterminate the Liukou in one go?

The basis of the thieves is the people, and if they are all fed and clothed, who will want to rebel against the thieves? Of course, the coerced ones don't count.

In the final analysis, if we want to completely eliminate the thieves, we must start politically and militarily assist in the attack, and the two complement each other to be effective, even if the military victory is overwhelming, it is only a matter of time before there is a resurgence, and Li Zicheng's ups and downs have strongly confirmed this.

"Report!"

"Report! Front-line military intelligence! ”

Outside the camp gate, a rider came and shouted along the way.

The people turned their heads to look, but they saw that the herald who was riding his horse to deliver the message suddenly fell off his horse and did not move.

"What's going on? Check it out! ”

Lu Xiangkun, the chief general of the Tianxiong Army, thought that there was a traitor in the camp who shot the herald, and hurriedly called the guards to check.

The two guards examined it carefully and found that the herald had not suffered any arrow wounds and was intact, except for multiple swollen spots on his neck.

After the guard's description, everyone was even more curious, could it be that this person was poisoned?

A physician who accompanied the car stepped forward to check it out, and suddenly retreated in fright, and said, "It's a pimple plague!" Protect Your Highness from here! ”