Huang Liji, who came in a hurry, also came for the failure of Hou Liangzhu, the general soldier of Sichuan, to attack Chishuiwei, and the possibility that the Hao'an rebel army would attack Sichuan again and destroy the current stable situation in Sichuan.

He received a report from Zhu Xieyuan, the governor of the five provinces and governor of Guizhou, a newly appointed military and political officer in the southwest, who hated Hou Liangzhu for taking matters into his own hands and sabotaging his plans to quell the rebellion.

But he knows very well that now is not the time to hold someone or an army accountable, although Luxury Chongming was beaten by the Ming army gathered in Sichuan by the imperial court before, and even his hometown Yongning was abandoned, but after all, the luxury family has been a toast in Yongning for hundreds of years, and the existence time can even be traced back to the Song and Yuan dynasties.

In the eyes of the dynasties of the Central Plains, the southwest region has been a place where poor mountains and bad waters have come out of the people since ancient times. Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, surrounded by layers of mountains and rivers, have always been a very closed society.

There are not many Central Plains dynasties that can last for more than 300 years, but there are more than one or two Tusi families that have been handed down for nearly a thousand years.

For these toasters, a momentary failure is nothing. When the Central Plains Dynasty was strong, they retreated to the high mountains and deep forests in the southwest, and if the Central Plains Dynasty was weak, they would come out of the mountains and forests again.

Although the Ming army defeated Yu Chongming, they occupied his old nest Yongning. But if Luxury Chongming is allowed to fight back to Yongning, under the call of the prestige of the luxury family's old days, how quickly the natives of Yongning fell to the Ming army at the beginning, and how fast they will respond to Luxury Chongming's rebellion against the imperial court now.

The Ming garrisons, who had already been scattered throughout Yongning, and the Han Chinese who had migrated to reclaim the wasteland, were bound to suffer heavy losses again by surprise, just like the inhabitants of the cities during the siege of Guiyang and Chongqing.

Therefore, when Zhu Xieyuan received the news of Hou Liangzhu's defeat, he accelerated the plan he had conceived to quell the chaos in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and on the other hand, he wrote to the imperial court to intercede for Hou Liangzhu, the chief military officer, and the defeated Sichuan officers and troops.

He hoped that the imperial court would not be distracted by the temporary defeat, and hurriedly issued an edict to rebuke Hou Liangzhu, thus aggravating the contradictions between the generals of the Ming army in Sichuan and the governor's office in the southwest, thus causing the Sichuan army to disrupt the morale of the army.

In addition, he also proposed a remedy to the imperial court, he believed that the Shuixi region was a notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack because of its deep and dangerous terrain, barbaric smoke and rain, day and night, and difficult to get out of the depths.

And although the two toasts of Luxury Chongming and An Bangyan are related by marriage, they are still two families after all. Especially Yu Chongming, who has lost his old nest, although he still has a large army under his command, he completely needs to rely on Shuixi to supply money and food.

Before, the Ming army was strong, and the two families might not have any other ideas in order to resist the Ming army together. But now that the Sichuan army Hou Liangzhu has failed to attack, Yu Chongming has the hope of returning to Yongning, so he will naturally not be willing to look up to others.

In the same way, An Bangyan is not a good man and a woman, although Shuixi is one of the few places in Guizhou suitable for planting rice, but the Tusi family with backward technical means cannot grow high-yield rice fields.

What's more, in addition to food, other living materials in Shuixi are even more scarce. Originally, it was enough to support one army of tens of thousands of people, and now it is not a long-term strategy to support two troops of tens of thousands of people.

Now that Hou Liangzhu's attack on Chishuiwei has failed, it is better to simply lure the main force of thieves to attack Yongning, and then send the chief officer Lin Zhaoding to enter from Sancha. The deputy general Wang Guozhen entered from Lu Guang, and Liu Yangkun entered from Zunyi, taking advantage of the division of troops between the two thieves, to attack their Shuixi lair together. If the two thieves can't take care of the tail, they will be able to complete their work in one battle.

After Huang Liji received Zhu Xieyuan's report, although he did not feel uneasy because of Zhu Xieyuan's persuasion and analysis of the southwest war situation.

However, he believed that Hou Liangzhu's reckless attack this time was entirely because the emperor set up the Southwest Governor's Mansion and abandoned the chaos caused by the past civilian officials serving as supervisors.

And Qin Liangyu, a female Tusi general who commanded the armies of the two provinces, lacked the majesty that a general should have, and she did not have the background of the Ming army, so she could not convince the generals of Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, and it was also one of the root causes of the defeat.

He hoped to use this incident to persuade the emperor that the Southwest Governor's Mansion was already a fait accompli, and the imperial court could not go back on its word. However, it is advisable to maintain the tradition of civilian officials serving as military supervisors, and civilian officials should take over the Southwest Governor's Office, and replace the previous respected general as the Left Governor of the Southwest Governor's Office.

When Huang Liji entered the door, he put forward his thoughts to Chongzhen with a solemn face. Zhu Youzhen subconsciously hugged his hands in front of his chest, leaned back, and changed himself to a more comfortable sitting position.

He looked at Huang Liji and thought for a while before he smiled and said, "Mr. Huang's proposal is very valuable, I will consider it carefully."

However, Governor Zhu has a good saying, now is not the time to hold accountable, but to solve the problems caused by the failure of the Sichuan army's attack on Chishuiwei.

Whether to arrange civil officials to enter the Southwest Governor's Mansion, or to select another person to serve as the Zuo Governor of the Southwest Governor's Mansion, that is a matter for the future.

Regarding the failure of the Chishuiwei offensive, the General Staff has also received a report. As to whether or not to plan the battle plan according to Governor Zhu's ideas, I think it is better to wait for the General Staff to come out with the assessment report of this defeat. ”

Huang Liji thought for a while before replying: "This matter involves the management and use of local officials by the cabinet, and the minister asked to hear about it.

Chen hoped that the General Staff would take Zhu Xieyuan's opinion into account when punishing Liu Kexun, the chief soldier of Sichuan, and other generals below him.

In addition, although Liu Kexun still has the name of deputy envoy of the supervising army, he is still a civilian official, so the General Staff has no right to punish him. ”

Zhu Youzhen frowned, he had already made a decision with the cabinet to abolish the supervision of the army and the military garrison under the jurisdiction of the Southwest Governor's Office. However, until the Southwest Governorate is formally established, these civil officials will temporarily maintain their old positions during the transitional period.

Therefore, this time Hou Liangzhu attacked Chishuiwei, without Liu Kexun's acquiescence, he would not be able to deploy troops to attack according to normal procedures. After all, the management of grain, grass and ordnance is in his hands.

The reason why Huang Liji raised this issue with Chongzhen in advance was also because he did not want to set a precedent for the General Staff to punish civilian officials, which could be regarded as maintaining the dignity of the civilian clique. After all, in their eyes, the General Staff is more similar to the former Governor's Office of the Five Armies than the Ministry of War.

Once this precedent is opened, it marks that the military generals group will once again become a pole of political power in the imperial court. This is obviously not what the civil officials want to see, nor is it what Huang Liji wants to see.

Zhu Youzhen quickly smoothed his brows and said to Huang Liji: "Okay, for Liu Kexun's problem, the cabinet will handle it by itself." Whatever punishment is imposed, wait until the attack of the rebels is thwarted..."

After more than half a day of intense discussions in the General Staff Headquarters of Wu Yingdian, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, Sun Chengzong hurried to the conference room in the Wenhua Hall with the report on the assessment of the situation in the southwest made by Mao Yuanyi and the General Staff Officer.

Chongzhen, Huang Liji, Sun Chengzong, and Mao Yuanyi held a brief meeting in the conference room.

Mao Yuanyi reported to the emperor and Shoufu about their assessment of what changes would occur in the counterinsurgency situation in Sichuan and Guizhou after the failure of the Ming army's attack on Chishuiwei.

Although the conclusions reached by the General Staff are similar to Zhu Xieyuan's views, the General Staff does not know how detailed they are compared with his recitals.

After all, Zhu Xieyuan's speculation about the situation in Guizhou and Sichuan to quell the chaos was entirely based on his personal understanding of Sichuan and the extravagant Ming rebels.

The conclusions reached by the General Staff Headquarters are based on the comprehensive investigation and intelligence of the customs and customs of Sichuan and Guizhou by the Social Investigation Institute over the past six months.

Perhaps the personnel sent by these social surveys did not know as much about the character of the rebel leaders such as Zhu Xie Yuanshen. However, in terms of the psychological information, geographical and natural environment of the people in the two places, the size of the rebel army, and the ability to sustain combat, it is definitely much more extensive than the information collected by Zhu Xieyuan.

Therefore, when Mao Yuanyi finished reporting, Huang Liji's last worry in his heart was also put down.

When Mao Yuanyi stopped, he turned to Chongzhen and asked, "Your Majesty, since the General Staff has come to a clear conclusion, does the minister mean to fight according to Zhu Xieyuan's plan?"

Let Hou Liangzhu make meritorious service for his crimes, guard Yongning to guard against the rebel attack, and then let the Qin Governor sit in the rear for support? ”

Zhu Youzhen did not respond to Huang Liji immediately, he made a gesture to Mao Yuanyi to sit down, and then asked Sun Chengzong: "What suggestions does the General Staff have for the people involved in this matter?" ”

Sun Chengzong didn't look at Huang Liji, who was sitting opposite him, and looked at Chongzhen quietly and said: "After discussing with the staff officers of the General Staff, the minister believes that Hou Liangzhu and the personnel who went into battle must be punished.

If we gently let go of this matter today and let Hou Liangzhu and others make meritorious contributions, then tomorrow the other armies will not obey the orders of the General Staff, and what should we do?

The purpose of military discipline is to let people abide by it, and it is selective to not leave military discipline to people, and some people can override military discipline.

Once the officers and men of the army lose their reverence for military discipline, the orders of the General Staff and the local governors will become a dead letter, which is not conducive to the regularization, institutionalization, and nationalization of the army, which His Majesty demands. ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Sun Chengzong, and then asked Huang Liji: "Does Mr. Huang have anything to say about Mr. Sun's statement?" ”

Huang Liji pursed his lips and replied: "As long as the cabinet ensures that the overall stability of Guizhou and Sichuan is not affected, as for how to punish the relevant personnel, the minister is willing to listen to the professional advice of the General Staff. ”