Chapter 186 Chongzhen was completely misunderstood

When entering Nanyang, under Niu Jinxing's advice, Li Zicheng adopted a conservative policy and began to operate the place he had conquered.

"The current situation is indeed very disadvantageous for us. It seems that we need to arrest more family members of officials to control it, and it is time to kill more local wealthy people."

"Mr. Ju Ming, the contact with Zhang Guowei is not very good. What should we do next?"

After Zhang Guowei was appointed governor of Henan, he came and killed several county officials, which made the official circles of Luoyang and Kaifeng tremble.

In addition, Chongzhen was rich, and the money allocated to him was in place. He organized rural soldiers and county warriors to take precautions in various counties, and then gathered soldiers from various prefectural guards to block Li Zicheng south of Luoyang, unable to move.

Li Zicheng also sent people to contact Zhang Guowei, wanting to negotiate and show off so that they could open a way, but Zhang Guowei refused to accept hard and soft policies.

There was no need to talk about Yang Sichang. Since there had been no summons from the court, Yang Sichang had already thought that he had fallen out of favor, so he did not dare to make any mistakes and guarded Xiangyang with all his energy.

"Your Majesty, now there is Yang Sichang in Huguang in the south, Zhang Guowei in the north of Henan, and Zuo Liangyu in Shaanxi in the west.

The biggest difficulties for us at present are Yunyang, Xiangyang, and the other four prefectures, with Kaifeng as the main one and Luoyang as the auxiliary.

If we go eastward, we can only get as far as South Zhili.

No, there are too many people in southern Zhili, which involves the imperial court's meridians, and the south is rich, so there are few people willing to work with us.

If heading north, Zhang Guowei has just secured Kaifeng and Luoyang, and there is still a glimmer of hope.

By opening up Luoyang, you can go to Shanxi and Shaanxi. Zuo Liangyu can also spend some money to buy a road, and we still have a lot of cash from those corrupt officials."

Niu Jinxing looked at the map and thought about the direction to break the situation. At this moment, there was a knock on the door, and Li Zicheng's bodyguard brought up a man wearing ordinary linen clothes.

"Your Majesty, the shopkeeper asked me to send you a message, please launch an offensive to the north as soon as possible.

Zuo Liangyu and Yang Sichang can leave it alone and directly open the direction of Kaifeng Mansion. There will be a big thank you gift. You will know the details after reading the letter."

Li Zicheng took the letter and looked shocked after reading it.

After reading it in front of the messenger, he burned the letter. Then the messenger took out a few newspapers from his arms and handed them to Li Zicheng.

"Originally I was only asked to bring two newspapers, but when I passed by Daming Mansion, the third newspaper was being distributed, so I bought it.

Now that the letter has been sent, please make arrangements as soon as possible. It is expected that Yang Sichang, Zuo Liangyu, and Zhang Guowei will also receive the news from mid to late May."

"Okay, okay, brother, thank you for your hard work, I will ask someone to help you.

Third brother, take this brother to have a good rest, and then protect him and leave."

The messenger left with the guards under Li Zicheng's instructions. Li Zicheng opened the newspaper and read it. After reading one copy, he handed it to Niu Jinxing.

"Mr. Ju Ming, you should also read this newspaper."

"Um?"

Niu Jinxing took the newspaper.

The three newspapers represent the events of the past half month, with the themes being the pursuit of the title, conscription, and expedition.

"In just one month, so many things have happened in the capital. Lu Xiangsheng has been granted the title of posthumous title! Okay, okay!

Chongzhen son, you will actually be kind to the hero one day, but Governor Lu is gone, so what's the use of thinking about him at this time."

"Your Majesty, the information revealed in this newspaper is very unusual. Emperor Chongzhen seems to have figured it out. He wonders who is advising him now. This person is not simple, and he is deeply trusted by Chongzhen.

Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Wenlong and others were actually pardoned by him, and he even slandered Jiannu and captured the hearts of the people."

"Enlightenment? I feel like he is stupid because of his poverty. The methods used here, especially the conscription, are strange to me.

How do you use military coupons to pay for this Royal Army? The military coupons were issued by him himself. As the name suggests, they can only be used in the military.

How much rice can be bought with a monthly subsidy of two hundred military coupons? How many people can be recruited? Is Emperor Chongzhen so poor that he is better off with precious banknotes?"

When Niu Jinxing was told this by Li Zicheng, he felt that it was nonsense when he looked at the treatment of the Royal Army. They did not have a royal company here, and coupled with the recent siege, the way to receive news was instantly shortened.

"Also, the letter you just gave me said that the reason why the emperor is rich is because he recently demolished the palace and sold the beams.

He also ransacked the homes of many ministers and made the capital a mess, so he could scrape together money to train troops. It is conceivable that he has not been able to get a penny from the Ministry of Household Affairs."

"Humph, those officials in the capital may not be unjust if they catch ten and kill ten, but if they catch ten and let one go, they will definitely slip through the net.

Chongzhen killed so many people and gave the people a clear conscience. They are the ones who are causing the miasma."

When Niu Jinxing heard this, he snorted and said angrily. He was the one who was tricked by his colleagues, so he naturally knew the dirty things involved.

"But Chongzhen's methods are so ruthless, isn't he afraid that the people below will make him look bad?"

"So the letter said that someone came up with a plan to ask Chongzhen to move the Beijing camp. Now the Beijing camp is distributed in various prefectures in Zhili, but most of them are building roads in Yongping Prefecture to facilitate the army to support the exit.

But just the month before, he dispersed the capital camp, and now the Jian Nu invaded in large numbers, and now they have jointly invited us to attack the capital."

When Li Zicheng said this, he admired the layout a little. In order to prevent Chongzhen's plan from happening, these people's arrangements were really interlocking.

"As long as we attack upward and threaten the capital, they will give us the locations of all the granaries in Beizhili and several of their business houses.

Each shop has prepared 200,000 taels, and including the royal shops in each province, the total amount of money is no less than 10 million taels."

"Why are you so crazy? Because the emperor's new army went out and the capital camp was dispersed, we are asked to attack the capital?

But if each shop is worth 200,000 taels and the total value is 10 million taels..."

"Yes, they said that the Royal Army seems to be very elite. If they are allowed to join the battle in Jinzhou, it may affect the layout of Jiannu.

If Jiannu suffers a disastrous defeat in the Jinzhou War, their money making will be affected, so please let us attack Daming Mansion as soon as possible.

During the Royal Army's expedition to the capital, it created a siege in the capital, forcing the Royal Army into a dilemma. It would be best to be consumed by the Jiannu.

And they also said that because of the Royal Army's changes to the imperial examination, nobles from all over the country have received the information, especially the aristocratic families in Shanxi and Shaanxi.

Therefore, Yang Sichang, Zuo Liangyu and others will also have people to comfort us and reassure us that as long as we do not attack Shuntian Prefecture, the south will not support us."

"The Royal Army is so powerful? You can see that even before the fight starts?"

Niu Jinxing didn't believe it, but looking at the propaganda in the newspapers, if there were tens of thousands of such troops, joining the battlefield would really affect the local war.

Looking at the recruitment propaganda of the Royal Army, he was even more frightened by the imperial examination system in the military. Chongzhen's game was unexpectedly big.

"Your Majesty, I still feel that this matter is a bit strange, and even a bit big.

Although this military recruitment book gives you four taels of silver every year, we don’t know exactly what the two hundred military coupons can sell for every month.

We don’t know exactly who operates the Royal Company. Even the Royal Army, I feel, has not been sent to the front lines by the Emperor.

Also, Chongzhen was able to steadily announce the benefits of the army imperial examination, but the cabinet ministers did not object, which shows that there are details that we don't know."

"But if we don't go to the capital, we will still have no hope of being trapped here. There won't be much food. The people will soon start asking us for food."

Niu Jinxing was caught in a dilemma and attacked the capital. He could feel that it was a trap, but if they didn't jump out of this trap, they wouldn't be able to stay in Nanyang anymore.

There will still be a severe drought this year. If we continue to guard the country, we will only be able to plunder all the wealthy households, but this will be a waste of money.

"It's done, but we can't reach the capital. We just need to attack Kaifeng forcefully. At the same time, we will send people to pretend to attack Yunyang and Xiangyang, and intercept all the channels for sending messages to Yang Si and Zuo Liangyu.

Didn't the letter say that Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu will also receive their arrangements? Then we will give Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu an excuse not to interfere with us.

Waiting for Zhang Guowei in Kaifeng to retreat to the city, we will bypass Kaifeng, directly capture the name, and then turn back to besiege Kaifeng.

Zuo Liangyu sent him 50,000 taels, and Yang Sichang also gave him 50,000 taels."

The basis for Niu Jinxing's arrangement was through the information channels of Zuo Liangyu and Yang Sichang. He knew that Chongzhen gave a fatal order and must block them and prevent them from rushing out of Nanyang and Ruzhou.

In this case, as long as they cannot attack Huguang and Shaanxi, Zuo Liangyu and Yang Sichang will have completed their mission.

"But sir, since we have already said that someone will attack them, why should we pay them to feign attack?"

"My lord, it is better to rely on yourself than to rely on others."

Listening to Niu Jinxing's words, Li Zicheng woke up instantly.

"Then I'll trouble Mr. Ju Ming to arrange a strategy. I'll go tell the generals and prepare to rob all the wealthy households in the two prefectures and divide their fields."

"No, Your Majesty, Ruzhou and Nanyang cannot be lost yet, we still have to keep people here to guard them.

These wealthy households can only take action against the notorious ones and distribute their land to the common people.

I feel that our opportunity has come, and this time we go up, we are not aiming to directly attack Shuntian Mansion, so we must leave a good retreat."

"Please sir, please clarify my doubts."

Li Zicheng looked at Niu Jinxing and was very puzzled. If Ruzhou and Nanyang counties were seized now, their own backyards would be on fire when autumn passed.

"Your Highness, it's time for us to change our strategy. The Ming Dynasty is exhausted. At this time, Chongzhen has already emptied his fortune. He is betting that the war in Jinzhou will end as he imagined.

At this moment, the several governors and soldiers around us have no intention of fighting. They just want to trap us. This is the best opportunity.

In this case, we should guard our territory and leave a place for the coming disputes.

It also provides us with more knowledge in governing various places and building officialdom. Otherwise, if we conquer the world in the future, we will not be able to hold it and we will not know how to manage it."
Chapter completed!