424 took control of Huai'an and sent troops to Yangzhou

Li Zixiao took advantage of the wedding to be happy, and it was rare to have a few days of comfortable life, and the affairs of Xuzhou under the leadership of Qian Guangyuan and Qiu Guangming were already on the right track, and Li Zixiao did not need to bother much.

During this time, Li Zixiao occasionally took quartz to the White Dragon Army camp outside Xuzhou City during the day to inspect the expansion of the troops.

With the expansion of the battalions of the White Dragon Army, after more than 6,000 recruits joined, it was necessary to run in for a period of time in order to improve the combat power.

During this time, Li Zixiao, through Zhang Fugui's intelligence bureau, has been paying attention to the encirclement and suppression of Li Zicheng's rebellious army by Lu Xiangsheng in Henan.

Zhang Fugui's intelligence bureau, from Ruzhou to Kaifeng and then to Xuzhou at this time, had already established a complete set of intelligence transmission systems.

It only takes half a day for the latest information they obtained from Henan to be delivered to Li Zixiao in Xuzhou in a timely manner, so that Li Zixiao can know the situation in Henan well even in Xuzhou.

"Haha, Liu Zeqing, this old boy, finally made a move, Lu Xiangsheng's order, he still didn't dare to disobey, but unfortunately it was a little worse in the end.

However, in this way, the thieves are estimated to have suffered heavy losses, and next, it depends on whether Song Xiance can take Shaanzhou, which is Li Zicheng's only way to survive at this time. ”

It was already relatively hot in Xuzhou in June, and at this time, Li Zixiao was sitting in the spacious living room of the Li Mansion, lying on a lounger, and Lin Wan'er next to him cut slices of watermelon and handed it to Li Zixiao.

And Li Zixiao looked at the fold that the quartz had just sent, and couldn't help but say with a smile.

It turned out that just two days ago, the 40,000 bandits who had once again wandered into the territory of Henan Province occupied Yongning again, crossed the Changgu River, captured Fuchang, and rested in Fuchang.

At the same time, the 10,000 bandits in the north, who had abandoned Xin'an and retreated to the rope pond, also showed signs of starting their journey.

Obviously, Li Zicheng was ready to lead the army to join Song Xiance's department.

When the time comes, it is estimated that Li Zicheng will turn around and clean up the 30,000 officers and troops of Lu Xiangsheng, who have been chasing them closely.

And when Li Zicheng captured Fuchang, the 30,000 officers and troops led by Lu Xiangsheng hurried overnight and arrived at Yongning on the other side of the river.

The 30,000 officers and soldiers have been rushing day and night to shorten the distance with Li Zicheng.

But unexpectedly, Song Xiance's department, which then left the rope pond, did not go south to join Li Zicheng, but attacked the west to occupy the carbon stone pass and entered * Shaanzhou.

At this time, Li Zicheng's purpose was already clear at a glance, he wanted to flow to Shanxi, as long as he took Shaanzhou, the door for them to enter Shanxi was opened.

Sure enough, Li Zicheng, who had rested in Fuchang for half a day, immediately led his troops north, he didn't dare to rest for too long, but Lu Xiangsheng followed too closely behind.

Although Li Zicheng always wanted to take advantage of Lu Xiangsheng's officers and soldiers, who were rushing day and night, and were very tired, to kill him back to the horse gun, but he was stopped by Niu Jinxing.

The shadow of the tree, the name of the man.

For Lu Xiangsheng's name, they are all thunderous, Niu Jinxing does not believe that Lu Xiangsheng will make such a low-level mistake, afraid that it will be a trap.

It is better to continue to follow their original plan and continue to go north, as long as Song Xiance can conquer Shaanzhou in time, they can smoothly flow to Shanxi.

At that time, if Lu Xiangsheng wanted to besiege them, it would be impossible to take a few steps.

As a result, what Li Zicheng and they didn't expect was that Liu Zeqing, who had been a turtle with a shrunken head in Yiyang for several months, actually cut off their way to the north early in the north.

At this moment, Li Zicheng fell into a huge crisis, and Fuchang was originally surrounded by water on three sides, but it became a natural barrier to block Lu Xiangsheng's pursuit behind.

But now, because the road to the north was blocked by Liu Zeqing, the other three sides were surrounded by Changgushui and Luoshui, and it suddenly became a dead place.

Therefore, Li Zicheng could only order, at all costs, to go north to break through Liu Zeqing's troops and open up the road to the north before Lu Xiangsheng in the south crossed the Changgu River and caught up with them.

A tragic battle was fought in a place called Dabanxia in the north of Fuchang.

Liu Zeqing led 6,000 Shandong officers and soldiers to block the Liukou army led by Li Zicheng in Dabanxia.

As long as Liu Zeqing can hold on, Lu Xiangsheng from the south will arrive with his troops, and under the attack from both sides, Li Zicheng will be finished.

Li Zicheng was also deeply aware of his crisis at this time, and directly dispatched the most elite bandits to launch a strong attack as soon as they came up.

Under Li Zicheng's death order, 40,000 rogues attacked like crazy demons, and the corpses covered this canyon.

In the end, Liu Zeqing really couldn't stand it, and in the face of the bandits below who were half of the crazy demons and had red eyes, he still chose to retreat.

When Lu Xiangsheng arrived, he only saw corpses all over the ground, Li Zicheng had continued to flee north, and Lu Xiangsheng, who missed the opportunity, had to order to continue to chase.

At that time, Lu Xiangsheng could even see the fleeing army of thieves in front of him from a distance, and the two sides retreated and chased, and started a chase battle.

In the end, Li Zicheng led the rogues to rush into the Kunshan Mountains and get rid of Lu Xiangsheng's pursuit, and at this time, Song Xiance also failed to attack Shaanzhou and retreated south.

So far, Lu Xiangsheng has not completed the plan to encircle and annihilate Li Zicheng, and Li Zicheng's bloody battle in Dabanxia is also a lot of losses, especially the loss of elite forces.

made him directly give up the idea of turning back and fighting a decisive battle with the officers and troops led by Lu Xiangsheng.

Li Zixiao had a smile on his face after reading the information sent back by Zhang Fugui, and he was very happy to see this result.

"You guys fight slowly, just let me free up my energy, solve Huai'an and Yangzhou first, and the whole Jiangbei should be in my hands."

Li Zixiao put down the fold, took the watermelon cut by Lin Wan'er, and ate it in a big gulp.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao also received good news one after another, Yao Xinyu, the prefect of Huai'an, dismissed two county orders one after another within a week, and all of them were put in prison on various charges.

These two county orders are the two county orders that previously vigorously criticized Li Zixiao and implemented the 'land reform' policy in Xuzhou.

Subsequently, Yao Xinyu issued the same 'land reform' policy as Xuzhou in Huai'an Mansion, which was warmly welcomed by the local people.

Then, Yao Xinyu asked Li Zixiao to send troops to Huai'an on the grounds of maintaining local law and order, and Li Zixiao immediately agreed.

In mid-June, Li Zixiao ordered Zhou Dazhu to lead the 'vanguard battalion' of the White Dragon Army into Huai'an, along with 8,000 Xuzhou city defense troops.

Yao Xinyu did this, which means that he completely surrendered to Li Zixiao.

Although Li Zixiao dislikes this greedy and incompetent Huai'an prefect very much, he has to admit that Yao Xinyu's defection directly saved him a lot of trouble.

Simply, Li Zixiao also turned a blind eye to this problem, and let him continue to sit in the position of the prefect of Huai'an.

In fact, the reason why Yao Xinyu took refuge in Li Zixiao so simply was because a week ago, someone put a letter full of all kinds of murders, greed for ink and other crimes he had committed over the years at his bedside in the middle of the night.

When he got up the next morning, Yao Xinyu saw the fold on the head of the bed, and he only felt trembling and almost fainted.

Many of the crimes recorded on it, he thought that he had done it seamlessly, and no one would know about it, but now he wrote it truthfully.

Although Yao Xinyu is timid and fearful, greedy for money and lustful, it does not mean that he is stupid.

After thinking about it carefully, he figured out a lot of things, so he had his next, rare vigorous and resolute action.

"Sure enough, sometimes the villain uses it, and it's also very convenient."

After Li Zixiao learned about Yao Xinyu's actions, he smiled slightly and said.

got Yao Xinyu's refuge, and with the White Dragon Army stationed in Huai'an, the entire Huai'an basically fell under Li Zixiao's control.

The big landlords in the local area, after seeing the majestic military array deliberately put forward by the White Dragon Army and the huge ceremony of entering the city, all gave up the idea of confrontation.

The big landlords who rebelled in Xuzhou before, who raided their homes one by one, and those who were imprisoned, all died out.

With such a lesson from the past, the big landlords in Huai'an are very aware of the current affairs and cooperate with the government's 'land reform' policy.

After all, for them, although the 'land reform' promoted by Li Zixiao has somewhat damaged their interests, it is only a loss of interests.

If this is for the sake of a little profit, and finally ends up in a family raid, it will be a big loss.

Li Zixiao's actions in Huai'an actually seem to be legal, after all, the 'land reform' policy was issued by the government, and he sent troops into Huai'an at the request of the prefect Yao Xinyu.

Although the imperial court quickly learned about the changes in Huai'an, after all, secretly, someone would always report the situation in Huai'an to the imperial court.

But the imperial court couldn't accuse Li Zixiao of anything, but soon the imperial court dismissed Yao Xinyu's order, and it came down.

In fact, Li Zixiao had already guessed this, and even the imperial court had to send someone to arrest Yao Xinyu into Beijing.

When Yao Xinyu found Li Zixiao in a panic, as soon as he saw Li Zixiao, he knelt down and kowtowed directly, begging Li Zixiao to save his life.

"Governor Yao, rest assured, if you don't have a new prefect sent by the imperial court, you will always be the prefect of Huai'an, and I won't treat him badly if you do things for me."

This time, you did a good job, and the general originally planned to reward you, but you know how much people's fat and ointment you have looted in Huai'an over the years, and you yourself know that the reward will not be given to you.

From now on, you can rest assured that you will be a rich man in Huai'an, and you can arrange a few children to work under me, and remember that I am diligent and smart. ”

Li Zixiao looked at the Huai'an prefect in front of him who was crying with a handful of snot and tears, and there was a slight disgust in his eyes, but he still didn't plan to treat him badly because he had contributed to himself.

This is one of Li Zixiao's criteria, as long as the people who follow him are rewarded and punished, so as to retain people's hearts.

Even if a person like Yao Xinyu who has committed many crimes before, as long as he can use it, he can keep his life and keep his wealth, but don't ask for the power in his hands.

"General Xie, General Xie." Yao Xinyu kowtowed.

After Yao Xinyu left, Li Zixiao picked up the pen, wrote a secret letter, handed it to Quartz, and said, "Stone, send someone to give this secret letter to Ergouzi." ”

There is only one sentence on the secret letter: The new prefect of Huai'an is not allowed to enter Huai'an!

As a result, a week later, news came out that the new Huai'an prefect was intercepted and killed by mountain bandits on the way to take office.

And in this way, if the new prefect is not appointed, Yao Xinyu, the old prefect, will have to continue to work, even if the court convicts him.

And Yao Xinyu is actually just a puppet at this time, and all the affairs of Huai'an Mansion are all handed over to Qian Guangyuan to handle.

Li Zixiao wants to drag it out like this, as long as it drags on for a few months, presumably not only Chongzhen, but even the imperial court will not have the heart to take care of Huai'an again.

With Li Zixiao's entry into Huai'an, the situation was basically under control, and the 'land reform' began to be carried out, and there was no chaos like Xuzhou before.

As long as Li Zixiao is given a few months, he can completely digest Huai'an, and everything will be like water.

……………………………………

"General, Brother Fugui just sent someone to deliver the news, a month ago, the mastermind behind the group of people who tried to steal our secret method of refining refined salt from Yunlong Mountain was found."

On this day, Li Zixiao was in the study, correcting several plans sent by Qian Guangyuan, and Quartz came to report.

After Li Zixiao heard this, he put down the pen in his hand, his eyes became cold, and he asked in a cold voice, "Who is the mastermind?" ”

"Yangzhou Wanjia!"

"Hmph, Wan Jia is looking for death by himself." Li Zixiao's tone was murderous.

A month ago, an unknown group of men and horses attacked Yunlong Mountain, trying to cover several salt workers and escaping from Yunlong Mountain.

However, in the end, they still failed, and the man of unknown origin was directly defeated by the white dragon soldiers stationed in Yunlong Mountain, and the two salt workers who tried to escape down the mountain were also caught.

When Li Zixiao learned the news, he was still in Ruzhou and had not returned, but he was very angry, he didn't have to think about it to know that this matter must have been planned by someone behind it.

In the past six months, Li Zixiao has almost monopolized the supply of refined salt in the entire Jiangbei since he controlled the large-scale manufacturing of refined salt.

Li Zixiao became a supplier, responsible for providing refined salt, while the rest of the salt merchants were responsible for selling in various places, and he received at least half of the profits.

As a result, the salt merchants lost a lot of profits.

But these salt merchants are helpless, if they don't cooperate with Li Zixiao, Li Zixiao can use that kind of fine, high-quality and inexpensive refined salt to directly squeeze them out of the market.

Even if these salt merchants are dissatisfied, they can only endure it, but some people can't bear it, and the first one who can't bear it and intends to find Li Zixiao who is unhappy is the Wanjia in Yangzhou.

Since Li Zixiao's last trip to Yangzhou, he has formed a grudge with the Wan family, and the Wan family planned an operation against Yunlong Mountain, but unfortunately failed.

Since Li Zixiao used refined salt to obtain the private salt market in Jiangbei, the profits from selling salt in Jiangbei alone can have more than 100,000 taels of silver per month.

The sale of refined salt has almost become the most profitable industry under Li Zixiao, how can Li Zixiao allow others to destroy it!

"The order was given to Liu Chong, asking him to lead the 'trapped camp', plus half a musket battalion, and 5,000 city defense troops, to immediately set off from Xuzhou and rush to Yangzhou.

It has been almost a month since the general returned, and it is time to send troops to quell the troubles in Yangzhou.

And Yangzhou Wanjia, colluding with the Japanese Bandits, the crime is extremely heinous, and before the extermination of the Japanese Bandits, they will first take the Ten Thousand Families to open the knife, so that everyone knows the fate of colluding with the Japanese Invaders. ”

"Yes, General!" Quartz answered, and stepped back.

"I seem to be getting darker."

After the quartz retreated, Li Zixiao said self-deprecatingly.

At this time, the Tongzhou and Haimen areas of Yangzhou had indeed been harassed by Japanese invaders before, but they were far from being so serious, and there was no need for Li Zixiao to dispatch such an army.

As for Wan Jia, this time it was completely his own death.

Half a day later, a force of nearly 10,000 people set out from Xuzhou to the south.