Zhu Youzhen's next words surprised everyone, in the minds of all the important ministers, the situation in Henan has been eroded to this point, and Xiong Wencan died at the hands of thieves, Yang Sichang, who is the decision-maker of the Four Righteous and Six Corners to suppress thieves, will inevitably be blamed, and according to the mean and unkind nature of today's saints, the dismissal of officials and resignation is a light punishment.

Zhu Youzhen was indeed Yang Sichang's official, and gave the most severe reprimand in the holy decree, but in the end, he changed his tone and made him regroup and make meritorious service. Many people disagreed with this, and the emperor trusted a person and repeatedly gave him the opportunity, even if he lost his teacher and land, he repeatedly forgave him. If you don't have someone to trust, even the slightest mistake may be wrong. It can be seen from Zhu Youzhen's 12 years in charge of the world, and the beheading of more than ten officials above the governor level.

The emperor's favoritism will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the ministers of the court, even if he is the emperor, the ministers do not dare to openly protest, but once the seeds of resentment are planted, maybe one day they will be out of control.

In the eyes of all the ministers, there are two of the emperor's most trusted courtiers, one of whom is literate and one martial, and the civil official is naturally Yang Sichang, and this military general is Li Xin, who has just been named the Marquis of Zhenju. In order to prevent this person from being too big, Fan Fucui tried his best, and even did not hesitate to tear his face with the emperor to take away his military power. Fortunately, changes always come suddenly, and the thieves have suddenly become so strong that even the Grand Canal has been cut off.

So Fan Fucui easily returned the seized military power to Li Xin, as for whether it will be a blessing or a curse after that, only God knows. Even though the messenger who delivered the message to the Three Guards had been gone for seven or eight days, several cabinet ministers still looked sorry when they mentioned the matter.

"It's a pity, if Xiong Wencan can stop the thieves for a few more days, the Grand Canal can't be broken, so why not cheapen Li Xin's shaft!"

Cabinet University Scholar Household Department Shangshu Li asked, shaking his gray head, repeating this sentence.

"The matter has come to this, why should Li Xiang worry? Shanxi is separated from Nanzhili by big rivers, mountains and rivers, and it is unknown which day it will be able to arrive! ”

There are only two people in the cabinet hall at the moment, one is Li Shiwen, and the other is Xue Guoguan. Xue Guoguan's mood on this day was like a steep cliff, and suddenly rose again, the ups and downs were nothing more than this, he smiled while asking Li Shi what seemed to be a casual conversation.

However, Li Shiwen heard a hint of unusual flavor from Xue Guoguan's chat, but he pretended not to know: "Xue Xiang's words, the old man doesn't understand very well. The Three Guards returned from Beijing to the west, and the messenger on duty wanted to catch up at Bauhinia Pass, and how much time could it take to go from Bauhinia Pass to the Grand Canal and then to Nanzhili? Half a month is enough! ”

Xue Guoguan sneered: "What Li Xiang said is good, but there is a premise, the envoy will definitely catch up with the Three Guards!" ”

Li Shiwen's heart moved, and he subconsciously asked: "Is it ......" and then suddenly laughed in realization, until the beard of laughter trembled, and a few tears even squeezed out of the dry old eyes of laughter.

……

Li Xin's brows tightened, Xuzhou City was close in front of him, but it was already unrecognizable. The eyes were full of ruins and broken walls, but there was no trace of popularity, and the air was faintly echoing with the smell of burnt and foul smell. The city of Xuzhou was completely destroyed, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to restore the old view for decades after that.

It turned out that a few days ago, Li Xin captured a thief and spy alive in the south of Dangshan County, and learned from his mouth that the thieves had attacked Fengyang with several large armies, and the reason why he made a three-way attack on Dangshan was to scare the Three Guards and confine them to Dangshan, a small place, in a short period of time. But after all, people are not as good as heaven, Li Xin made a decision and decided to send troops to Xuzhou, waiting for an opportunity to prevent the thieves from besieging Fengyang Mansion.

Although in the eyes of many people, 3,000 men dared to rashly take the initiative to attack, which was almost no different from that of a madman, the three guards carried out the military orders to the letter. This also includes Li Shuangcai, who is an officer of the Baojing Anmin Team.

As for the displaced people in Dangshan County, during the period when the Sanwei Army was stationed, according to the old practice of the Sanwei Chaoyang Fort, a committee was elected and a manager was hired, and the "manager" hired by Li Xin in the official name of the government was the temporary governor of the daily life of the Dangshan displaced people until the imperial court re-sent the Dangshan County Order. The night before the army was dispatched, Li Xin wrote a long letter to Zhang Fangyan, who was sitting in Jining Prefecture, detailing his strategy for dealing with the displaced people in Nanzhili, and hoping that he, as the governor of Zhejiang, must raise relief food for the displaced people.

"General, Stream, Outcast......"

Soon, the scouts found a large number of displaced people less than five miles east of Xuzhou, and the total number was no longer less than 50,000. This makes everyone feel like a great enemy, as we all know, the difference between the outcast and the outcast is just one word, but the conversion between the two is in the same thought. The disposal of the displaced people is the top priority of this southward movement, and the 50,000 displaced people, and the entire population of a small county, must not be ignored.

As a result, when Li Xin personally led a large group of people to feel the valley where 50,000 people had gathered, he found that except for a small number of these people who had fled from Shandong and Henan, the vast majority of these people were local victims of the disaster in Xuzhou Prefecture.

The victims stared at the officials and soldiers of the imperial court who came one after another, and there was even a hint of fear in their eyes. Li Xin secretly smacked his tongue, it seems that these are all thieves who have slipped through the net to slaughter the city.

Of course, this is a great news, in the period of agricultural civilization, for the country, there is nothing more precious than the population, these tens of thousands of people are the indispensable treasure of the future reconstruction of Xuzhou.

However, the local officials had long been slaughtered by the thieves. So Li Xin once again repeated the old trick, just like in Dangshan, concentrated these people and controlled them in pieces, and at the same time elected the surviving clan elders to form a committee, and hired the former government officials who were proficient in official affairs as managers, forming a simple autonomous framework until the new Xuzhou prefect was sent by the imperial court. It's just that the problem in Xuzhou is far more than that of Dangshan, and after the thieves left, there was almost no grain left, and these tens of thousands of people are now facing the danger of starvation and death.

Li Xin was about to share a part of the military rations loaded with the big ship to meet the immediate urgency, but after all, the wolves had more meat and less meat, and he couldn't take out all the military rations. Therefore, he continued to write to Zhang Fangyan, asking him to solve the relief food for 50,000 victims within seven days.

In this way, after a delay in Xuzhou for several days, Li Xin ordered to set off for the south again. As a result, the Three Guards no longer took a boat, but prepared to rush to Xiao County by land. After entering the boundary of Fengyang Prefecture, it will pass through Suzhou and arrive at Fengyang.

Li Xin judged that the number of thieves and the weight of grain and grass carried by them were limited, and the vast majority of them probably relied on looting and could only eat on the spot.

The result is always unexpected, and although the thieves are almost always burned and looted before they arrive, when they are gone, there is always a regrouping of fish outside the original walls. For example, in Xiao County, Li Xin once again collected more than 10,000 victims, so he imitated Xuzhou's method, organized the victims to exercise self-government, and waited for the imperial court to send officials to transport relief food. Since there were 10,000 more people in the disaster, Li Xin wrote to Zhang Fangyan again, detailing the situation in Xiao County and asking him to add 10,000 to the original 50,000.

In the end, Li Xin's original intention of quickly maneuvering to attack the thieves was still disrupted by the change of events, because a large number of fleeing homeless people were collected at every place he went along the way, and in order to properly accommodate these people who could carry boats and capsize boats, the itinerary was also delayed again and again, so that he did not even touch the tail of the thieves for 20 days in the south. At the same time, no less than a dozen messengers have been sent to Jining Prefecture to deliver letters. Li Xin was anxious, but he was helpless, and he ignored the homeless people along the way, and if he turned his face, they might become thieves.

When marching to Guzhen north of Fengyang, he finally encountered a lot of small bands of thieves one after another, Niu Jinsong and the cavalry easily annihilated all of them, but they never encountered a large group of thieves, so that they never even fought a decent battle. For this reason, Niu Jinsong also beat a drum in his heart and discussed with Li Xin, feeling that the shape in front of him was a little unusual. And Li Xin also has his anxiety, the difference is that he has been pressed in the bottom of his heart, that is, the Three Guards Army has been delayed for nearly a month, why it has not arrived for a long time, he already has some premonitions.

In Jining Prefecture, since the beginning of November, Zhang Fangyan, who is sitting here, has been receiving long letters from Li Xin from the front. Initially, Li Xin told him that more than 50,000 people had been gathered in Dangshan, and that he hoped that Zhang Fangyan would send officials to take over and prepare food for disaster relief, which he greatly appreciated. Li Xin is really different from ordinary people, usually military generals have never been sympathetic to the people, and they can already give a thumbs up to them if they don't plunder the people with the thieves without a war, and this Li Xin even manages the affairs of the pro-people officials.

Zhezhi is Zhang Fangyan's jurisdiction, and Li Xin is naturally happy to do this. Immediately afterward, he couldn't be a little happy, as the letters flew to Jining Prefecture like snowflakes, and the number of thieves Ding Kou counted by Li Xin soared from more than 5,000 people in five nights to nearly 200,000 people. It must be known that up to now, he is still a governor of Bagan without any real power, and he can still coordinate some grain for 50,000 people in Yanzhou, but where can he raise food for 200,000 people?

It is obviously a good thing to gather the population, but the governor of Zhejiang does not think about the tea and rice, and his mouth is full of bubbles. There was no other way, so he had to bite the bullet and continue to go to He Tengjiao, the soldier of Jixi, and Yan Binglie, the governor of Jining, and ask these two to think of ideas with him.

There was no suspense, Yan Binglie naturally refused......