Seeing that Lady Hong was going to suppress the bandits herself, Li Yan hurriedly stopped her:

"No, madam, these bandits are very powerful. We'd better wait for the commander-in-chief to come back and discuss it before making a decision. I can't let you take risks!"

"Okay, I will obey my husband in everything!"

Although the red lady is a heroine, she never disobeys her husband's words after marriage, and Li Yan also loves her very much.

Seeing her husband's objection, the red lady sighed and did not insist, but she still said:

"Husband, I know very well what Liu Guoneng was like before. In fact, he is no different from other bandits. Why is his fighting power so strong this time?

In addition, I also heard that they all wore armor. In the past, most of their subordinates used farm tools as weapons. This time, they all used regular equipment, including swords, spears, bows and arrows, and even formed a crossbow and arrow team with hundreds of people.

Have you ever thought about where their equipment comes from and who trains them? I am puzzled!

If the rumors are true, with the current combat effectiveness of the army, it is absolutely impossible to defeat them without an army of more than 10,000 people..."

Li Yan nodded, looking at the red lady with admiration in his eyes. Not only did this female prodigy possess unique skills, but she also saw things so sharply. In the Ming Dynasty, the only person who could be better than her was Qin Liangyu.

"Two days ago, Jin Yiwei was asked to investigate the incident in Gongxian and Yanshi. The rumors among the people are not false. Liu Guoneng and the others really wanted to harm the people. This is rare among the rogue bandits.

My husband intends to continue to let them go, but he is worried that they will be unable to control them once they grow in strength, and will cause harm to the Ming Dynasty in the future. At that time, he will have to gather a large army to exterminate the people and waste money.

Although the Crown Prince trusts you and my wife, once the situation worsens, some people will definitely think that we are self-reliant in raising bandits. My husband has decided to try his best to wipe out Liu Guoneng's troops. We cannot ruin the Crown Prince's plan because of our selfishness..."

The red lady made a cup of tea for Li Yan, placed her hands in front of Li Yan, and said thoughtfully:

"Husband, you can ask the Jin Yiwei to see if the Jin Yiwei knows about the rogue bandits. Didn't the Crown Prince say at the beginning that he could ask the Jin Yiwei if he was in trouble? I think they should know more about the rogue bandits..."

At the reminder of the Red Lady, Li Yan suddenly remembered the Crown Prince's instructions before leaving, and he immediately sent someone to invite Jin Yiwei to live in Qianhu, Kaifeng.

At half a stick of incense, Gao Guang, a member of the Qianhu Office of the Qianhu Office in Kaifeng, walked into the VIP room of the Chief Envoy Houya. When he saw Li Yan, he cupped his hands and said with a smile:

"Master Li has so many things to do every day, why don't you find a humble position?"

Li Yan also cupped his hands and smiled:

"I don't dare to bother Jin Yiwei if I have nothing to do. Please sit down!"

"Thank you, sir!"

Gao Guang thanked him and then sat down. Madam Hong personally came forward to make Gao Guang a cup of tea. This tea was the famous Henan tea Yangxin Maojian.

When Gao Guang saw the red lady personally making tea for him, he hurriedly handed over her hand and thanked her:

"Thank you madam!" the red lady smiled slightly and said:

"You're welcome, sir!"

Under normal circumstances, when officials meet with their colleagues, women will definitely avoid it, let alone show up to make tea for them.

But the red lady is an exception. She holds the title of Madam Gaoming and is also a high-ranking military official in the Chief Envoy Yamen.

She also has the title of Jinyiwei Baihu. Although she is an honorary Jinyiweibaihu for the time being, no one can say anything in public!

Although Gao Guang's official position is not at the same level as Li Yan's, he is the same as Li Yan and is a member of the crown prince. He guessed why Li Yan saw him. Before Liya could speak, he held his hands and said:

"Your Majesty, seeing this humble position, it must be because of Liu Guoneng's rebellion, right?"

Li Yan smiled and nodded:

"Yes, the crown prince handed over Henan to Li Yan. Li Yan cannot betray His Highness. Liu Guoneng's matter has indeed put me in a bit of trouble. I wonder if your Excellency understands them?"

Gao Guang nodded:

"Understood, Liu Guoneng's department was originally a ragtag group of more than a thousand people, but it has undergone great changes since Zhang San and Li Si joined. Not only did they recruit young and strong men, but they also did no harm to the common people.

It was the love of the people that allowed them to expand rapidly. According to Jinyiwei's intelligence, the number of people on the mountain at this time was far more than 3,000, at least more than 5,000.

Just like the regular army, they not only train every day but also have regular establishments. Training and fighting are conducted in units of small flags, general flags, commanders, and thousand commanders, but they do not involve military positions above generals."

Gao Guang's words surprised both Li Yan and Hong Niangzi. No wonder Liu Guoneng's unit's combat effectiveness had greatly increased. It was training every day and had a formal establishment.

Nowadays, there are only a few soldiers and horses in various towns in the Ming Dynasty who really insist on training every day. It should be difficult to find another group except the national protection army under the command of the crown prince.

Li Yan was shocked and fell into deep thought for a moment. After a while, he raised his head and said:

"Zhang San and Li Si are definitely pseudonyms. Their true identities are definitely not simple. They are probably either low-level generals who fled Liaodong or generals who fled the Ming Army. Do you know?"

Gao Guang shook his head at Li Yan's question:

"Sir, to be honest, there is nowhere to check. Only by catching them for interrogation will we know. The fact that they can obtain swords, guns and armor shows that their background is extremely powerful. You need to be careful when dealing with them."

After Gao Guang said that, seeing that Li Yan and Lady Hong were deep in thought, he immediately stood up and left:

"Sir, if you have nothing else to do, I will resign from my post!"

…

Three days later, the Luoyang prefecture had not yet received a reply from the Chief Envoy Li Yan, but received news that the land inventory team had stationed in Gongxian and Yanshi.

Li Zhaonian stamped his feet angrily, but he could do nothing about it, let alone go to Li Yan.

It turned out that after Gao Guang left, Li Yan discussed with Hong Niangzi and his wife and finally decided to divide the land in these two counties that had no resistance.

Although they can't farm for the time being, they have land after all. The people in the two counties strongly support the work team that distributes the land to them. Thousands of people follow the work team to watch the excitement.

Once someone objected to the land distribution, they would swarm in and beat the person violently. With the full support of the people, the land distribution went very smoothly...

The land reform carried out by Zhu Cihong was not to kill all the gentry and landlords with a stick and give away all their land.

Instead, they used force to force them to hand over the annexed land. The gentry landowners with a size of less than 200 acres were only slightly affected, and only large households were investigated.

If you want to nationalize all the land owned by the gentry and landlords, unless you have to do it all over again, there will definitely be chaos in the world. Even if Zhu Cihong has the national defense army, it will not be possible.

On the fifth day of the land inventory in the two counties, Mrs. Li Yanhong and Henan general Chen Yongfu personally led an army of 10,000 to Niuxin Mountain.

Because Liu Guoneng's troops were too powerful in combat, Li Yan was planning to recruit them into the army. If Liu Guoneng did not accept the recruitment, he would have to destroy them. He could not let Liu Guoneng continue to grow bigger.

The combat effectiveness of these 10,000 troops far exceeds that of Xu Dingguo's soldiers and generals, and there is also a 1,000-man musketry team, all of which are equipped with flintlock rifles.

This was specially built by Zhu Cihong for the local army. Currently, the production capacity is limited, and he can only equip his trusted followers with more than a thousand people.

Troops such as Yang Guozhu in Xuanfu, Yanxiongying in Datong, Tigers in Shanxi, Tigers in Zhangjiakou, and Wang Wannian in Shandong were all equipped with musketeers with a thousand flints and fixed ammunition.

However, there are exceptions. The Qin army like Sun Chuanting of Shaanxi Province is currently equipped with a larger number of flintlock rifles, currently reaching about 4,000, of which 1,000 are Huangming rifles brought by Li Shouting. Like the Ming Dynasty, they started to recruit from the prince to supervise the country in the prosperous times.
Chapter completed!