Looking at the map, Zhu Cihong frowned, it seems that the thieves in the Huoshan area must be eliminated, otherwise only this Fifth Battalion of the Left Wing can contain half of the soldiers and horses in the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Zicheng in the north is now running to Gansu, after all, he has not been eliminated, and it is not a way to go on like this.

However, the area of this Huo Mountain is also too large, Huo Mountain is only a part of Dabie Mountain, Dabie Mountain is more than 700 miles long, more than 300 miles wide, hundreds of thousands of rogues seem to be a lot of people, once they enter Dabie Mountain, where to hide, officers and soldiers are not easy to find anyway.

Zhu Cihong muttered: "Have you let people break into the thieves and understand their situation? ”

Shi Kefa smiled and said: "Your Highness is wise, the minister did send people to infiltrate the thieves, and he also found out some news inside the thieves. ”

Zhu Cihong said with a happy face: "How?" ”

Shi Kefa replied: "At present, the bandit leaders in the Central Plains are Huanghu Zhang Xianzhong, Cao Cao Luo Rucai, Lao Hui Ma Shouying, Ge Li Yan He Yilong, Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, Reincarnated King Liu Xiyao, and King Lin Cheng in the Troubled Times. ”

Shi Kefa lowered his throat and continued: "Among these people, led by Lao Hui Hui Ma Shouying, several Liukou jointly respect him as the leader of the alliance and the chief of the plate, this person was born in the border army, and he has quite a means, and it is his idea to let the Liukou hide in Huoshan. ”

Zhu Cihong frowned and said, "This old Huihui is the one who forced Zuo Liangyu to commit suicide?" It was also the one who killed Wang Jinzhong, the chief soldier who came to persuade him to surrender, in the Xichuan military camp in Henan Province in the ninth year, and then moved to the camp? ”

Shi Kefa was surprised: "Why does Your Highness know so much about this thief? ”

Zhu Cihong said lukewarmly: "This thief dared to show off his power after Gao Yingxiang was killed, attacked Zuo Liangyu, opened up a new battlefield, and even dared to kill the general soldiers who went to surrender in person. ”

Zhu Cihong said again: "What about Zhang Xianzhong? Is he willing to succumb to the old and return to the old back? ”

Zhu Cihong is still more concerned about Zhang Xianzhong, this person is as famous as Li Zicheng, and he also established a Daxi regime in the late Ming Dynasty and served as the emperor for a few days.

There are many versions of Zhang Xianzhong's early experience, some say that he was a fast catcher, some say that he did business, Zhu Cihong is most interested in the story of Zhang Xianzhong selling dates, it is said that when Zhang Xianzhong was ten years old, he followed his father to sell dates in Sichuan, and the father and son tied the donkey to the stone tablet at the door of a rich man, wanting to wait for the sale of dates before leading the donkey.

When the father and son went to find the donkey after selling the dates, they saw that the rich man's family was beating his own donkey, on the grounds that Zhang Xianzhong's donkey's poop and urine had soiled the rich man's stele, although Zhang Xianzhong's father and son apologized, but the rich man's family did not agree, and Zhang Xianzhong and his son must kneel down and lick the feces and urine on the stele with their tongues.

Zhang Xianzhong and his son had to swallow their anger and kneel down to lick the donkey feces and urine on the stele one by one......

It is said that Zhang Xianzhong has hated the Sichuan people since then, Zhu Cihong does not know whether this is true or false, thinking that one day if Zhang Xianzhong is captured alive, he must ask him in person: Have you licked the from the bottom?

Shi Kefa naturally didn't know that the crown prince was thinking about whether people licked or not, and replied: "Zhang Xianzhong is indeed unwilling to be subordinate, he is not as good as Ma Shouying in terms of strategy, but if it is brave in battle, he is much stronger than Ma Shouying, so he likes to go out alone with Luo Rucai, who is famous for his treachery. ”

Zhang Guowei smiled and said: "Your Highness, I heard that several leaders of the fifth battalion of the thief Ge Zuo gradually began to disagree, and Zhang Xianzhong refused to obey Ma Shouying, this may be our opportunity, we can take the opportunity to recruit them!" ”

Zhu Cihong waved his hand and said, "Let's not discuss the matter of surrender for the time being, wait until the palace convinces them!" There is no deterrence of absolute force, even if they surrender, they will come to eat together, and when they are full, they will continue to rebel, and there are fewer thieves doing this kind of thing? ”

"This ......." Zhang Guowei didn't know how to open his mouth for a while, so he could only wait for the crown prince to hit a wall at the thief.

Zhu Cihong muttered: "What Zhang Qing said just now, why would the thieves gather tens of thousands of troops in a moment when they have an old battalion? Why are there more and more outcasts? What about the more you cut it? ”

This question goes straight to the root, so that Zhang Guowei and Shi Kefa don't know how to answer, in fact, the two know the reason, but some words are not good to say in front of the royal family......

Shi Kefa stubbornly said: "Every time the thieves break a city, they will rob all the city, and they will also coerce the people to act as starving soldiers, the people have no money and food, in this day of continuous natural disasters, if they don't go with them, they can only starve to death, if they follow the thieves to capture other cities, maybe they can also rob some money and food......

Zhu Cihong said coldly: "Will the coerced people follow the thieves so willingly? Give it to the person who snatched everything from him, and replace it with you, would you like it? ”

Seeing the crown prince staring at him, Zhang Guowei gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, the government of the exiled people has no power to govern, so they can only let them wander and join the team of thieves. ”

Zhu Cihong sighed lightly, in the final analysis, it is still the people who have encountered difficulties in survival, ordinary people, who rebel when they can't eat, and they have never seen those who want to be emperors when they are full.

Thirty acres of land, a cow, a wife and children, and a hot kang life can satisfy all their fantasies about the future.

If you want to completely eradicate the rogues, you can only reassure the people first, and if you want to calm the people's hearts, you must first let them have food, such as the shortage of food under today's disaster, the grain is produced from the land, and there is too much idle land along the way.......

Zhu Cihong asked Zhang Guowei and Zhu Dadian again if there was any problem in providing follow-up grain and grass for the Yongwei Battalion, and the two patted their chests and assured that there was no problem, as much as they wanted.

Despite the disasters in various places, the area south of the Yangtze River is still a rich land, and it is the largest grain-producing area in the Ming Dynasty, which is much better than that of Henan, Shaanxi and other regions, and there is no problem in providing grain and grass for a long time for the 20,000 army.

Subsequently, Zhu Cihong made a simple deployment, allowing the two to strictly guard against the Liukou along the Yangtze River, mainly to defend Luzhou, Anqing, Chizhou, Nanjing and other places.

After everyone dispersed, Zhang Guowei and Shi Kefa returned to Nanjing and Anqing respectively, and the two walked together and began to chat.

The smile on Zhang Guowei's face gradually disappeared, and he said, "Xianzhi, what do you think?" ”

Shi Kefa said: "It seems that His Royal Highness has taken a fancy to the land of Fengyang Mansion......."

Zhang Guowei smiled bitterly and said, "I just hope that our Highness just thinks about it, don't make unwise choices." ”

Shi Kefa frowned and said: "Brother Yuzhi, I'm not worried about the situation here in Fengyang, I'm worried about His Highness's attention to the land in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the land over there is much better than here......"

Zhang Guowei was taken aback and said, "Won't it?" If that's the case, it's a disaster! ”

The Donglin Party originally wanted to support the crown prince in Jiangnan, but if the crown prince wanted to attack the attention of the landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it would be an enemy of their Donglin Party.......

Shi Kefa sighed: "I hope I think too much, and let's see how His Highness deals with the situation on Fengyang's side......"