As soon as the next day, a group of people came outside Pingliang City, which made the guards' guards panic for a while. After communication between the upper and lower levels, the defenders realized that this neatly dressed and bright army, not like the Ming army, was a guerrilla team of King Jinzhong of Yulin, and was sent to meet up under the order of the commander in the city.

In order not to disturb the people in the city, Wang Jinzhong stationed his team near the city, and then hurried into the city with Wang Shenglin and He Renlong, who were already guerrillas, to meet Zhao Xing.

Zhao Xing had something to do in his heart, and he couldn't sleep well and got up early. He just finished washing up and the three of them came in to pay their respects.

Looking at the three people wearing iron armor, who were still in the night dew on the iron armor, Zhao Xing was very happy. After hugging them one by one, he invited the three people into the hall and ordered his subordinates to arrange a meal and entertainment.

"It's not bad, is it coming soon?"

Wang Jinzhong immediately stood up and replied: "The last general received the order from the master and immediately handed over the defense to General Zhao He, and came with General He and General Wang's cavalry, and listened to the master's dispatch. I wonder what happened?"

Zhao Xing told the matter again and finally said, "It's just that the team from Sun Chuanting has not arrived yet, so people are so anxious."

In fact, Sun Chuanting’s three-sided governor’s office is in Guyuan and is closer to him, but most of Sun Chuanting is an infantryman, of course, he cannot be compared with Wang Jinzhong in terms of speed.

"Where is Li Zicheng now? The last three of them will attack immediately."

Zhao Xing frowned: "I came from Shanxi and sent people all the way to find the traces of bandits. However, it seemed that Li Zicheng felt that I would inevitably take revenge, so he disappeared out of thin air inexplicably. He has not yet discovered the target."

Yes, when Zhao Xing rushed to Shaanxi, he sent people to search for Li Zicheng's whereabouts. Unfortunately, although the Jinyiwei tried his best, he did not search for Li Zicheng's whereabouts. That guy seemed to have disappeared out of thin air and turned into air.

"But we must be patient. After my search, we will definitely find him." Zhao Xing gritted his teeth and made up his mind.

The army was stationed and logistics supply was needed, but Zhao Xing could not find a new prefect of Pingliang, and only one Tongzhi carried out Zhao Xing's orders.

It's been two days since it was dark, and Zhao Xing frowned and asked the Tongzhi: "Why is Lord Xu Jie always missing? Did he deliberately hide from me?"

The Tongzhi replied respectfully: "My elder took his escort out of the city just at dawn yesterday morning and went to various counties for on-site inspections. Especially the Shiraishichuan, which was destroyed by bandits, saw how many people died, how many people were driven away, how much unowned land was vacant, how to make follow-up arrangements."

Zhao Xing said oh, "Xu Jie, are you still very diligent? But he, the prefect, does not sit in the government office, will this delay the operation of the government? You will leave your post without any effort."

As a result, the Tongzhi smiled and said, "When the prefect left, he gave instructions to deal with small matters, and the prefect is asked to deal with the big matters. The prefect wants to use your time in charge of the prefecture to quickly go out to find out the situation in Pingliang. If you leave, he may really be unable to get rid of it."

Zhao Xingwen laughed at the time: "Good boy, I dare to arrest me as a short-term worker. I have the courage, courage and determination. It seems that the person recommended by Hong Chengchou is good." Then he glanced at the Tongzhi: "Okay, then I will take charge of Pingliang for a few days and give Xu Jie the housekeeper."

The Tongzhi said: "Then my subordinates ask for instructions, how should you arrange the food and food resources for the troops stationed outside the city? Also, tomorrow, it is time to allocate food and grass and military salaries to Pingliangwei this month, so this cannot be delayed."

Zhao Xing was stunned for a while and jumped up suddenly: "Xu Jie, you trick me."

On the second night, Sun Chuanting finally arrived in Pingliang. As soon as he met, Zhao Xing first asked how many soldiers he could send?

As a result, Sun Chuanting's beard flew: "The border army, except for the special few you rectified, it is now so bad. You also asked me how many soldiers I could send. Now I am about to enter the summer harvest. The Mongolian Dazi threshing grass is about to begin again. The special and upright officers' horses must defend the border town thousands of miles away, and there is no one who can be a rebellion."

The current situation, as Sun Chuanting said, in the last Battle of Gyeonggi, Mongolia had completely broken up with the Ming Dynasty and became accomplices of the Jurchens. Although they failed in the end, they went deep into the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty and truly saw how weak the Ming Dynasty was, which immediately strengthened their determination to stand on Huang Taiji's side.

Huang Taiji failed, his entire strength was severely weakened, and he needed to breathe. So he ordered the Mongolian Yanbian tribes to launch an uninterrupted attack and harass the Ming border, with the purpose of restraining the Ming Dynasty's strength and attention, quickly regaining his strength and gaining time. For a time, the nine-sided land flew to the three-sided Governor's Office every day, and the battle reports of the Ji Liao Governor's Office were like snowflakes. The memorials they sent to Beijing were also filled with the cabinet of the Ministry of War and the emperor's desk, which was really a three-shock a day.

Sun Chuanting's complaint surprised Zhao Xing at that time: "No, I defeated the Shanxi Yanshu Censor, raised enough money and grain, and then distributed military pay to the border troops one by one. I paid and rectified the border troops. The border troops should have full combat power, but why did you say the situation like this?"

Sun Chuanting said, "It's not that I'm incompetent, but that you have no beginning or end in your work."

Hong Chengchou was a rude to Zhao Xing, but although Sun Chuanting was also dedicated to Zhao Xing, his qualifications were much older than Zhao Xing. In his eyes, Zhao Xing was his junior, which had nothing to do with Zhao Xing's trust in him, so he had no scruples when speaking.

Such complaints made Zhao Xing feel wronged and asked at the time: "Where did this come from?"

Sun Chuanting directly criticized him: "Young people do things in a rough way and like to do things that are superficially exaggerated. Last time you used 30,000 taels of silver to make up for the border army's owed salary for seven or eight years. But what are you doing? You are relying on the original officials and generals. In fact, you have rectified one by one, and you think your merits have been fulfilled, but the fact is that you did have indeed had merits at that time, but you hurried back to Beijing to serve the king. The old officials and generals immediately returned to normal. Especially Yang He, the dog guy, was even more stubborn. When I took over, I realized that things were getting bigger here."

"What a big deal?"

"In a word, it was still the chaos left by that guy Yang He. After I took office, I took the money collected by Shanxi's salt management and sent them money for full term. As a result, there were soldiers when I was given money and grain, but when I didn't send money and grain, there were no soldiers when I did."

Zhao Xing understood at that time. In the second year of Chongzhen, Yang Jingchen, the current Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion and the Prince's Tutor, once wrote a letter to Emperor Chongzhen, saying that there were 3 million soldiers across the Ming Dynasty. When paying wages, generals from all over the country temporarily used 10 old money to hire local refugees to make up their numbers. After the money and grain was distributed, the country had no source of troops.

At that time, he was a member of the Donglin Party, but the first one proposed a suggestion that the Donglin Party members hated him: "There are soldiers to receive wages and no soldiers to train defense. He asked the Beijing camp to instruct the admiral and inspect the yamen, and the Jiubian should instruct the governor to investigate and investigate the qigong, etc. Please restore the military affairs of the eunuchs of the Tianqinian and the Jinyiwei Supervisor. If this is implemented, the soldiers will have millions, which can ensure the worry-free Ming Dynasty."

This is the most painful way to tell the current problems, but his method has been fully opposed by his accomplices.

You are kidding. We worked hard and finally forced this little emperor to remove the eunuchs and military supervisors and the Jinyiwei on duty under the pretext of one of the crimes of the eunuch party. You are so good, you are going to be with us, traitors, absolute traitors, and must be defeated.

The reason why he was still sitting in the second shop was that Huang Taiji saved him, but this alien in the Donglin Party, such as "in the few months since he entered the cabinet to assist in the administration, he repeatedly expressed his feelings, and actively put forward suggestions on reforms in response to national policies and current problems, such as remarking on the merits of Sichuan and eliminating the party, releasing the shackles of the party, and releasing the shackles of the whole country, all of which hit the current problems.' Those who have become thorns in the eyes of the Donglin Party members and thorns in the flesh. When he left the capital, the person who was appointed as the examiner of Chongzhen in this autumn examination was attacked by the Donglin Party members. The charges listed were simply bizarre, and Chongzhen had to give up his decision. It seems that in the near future, he will be forced to retire.

The Donglin Party members are either black or white, and those who are not themselves are enemies. They fight outside and inside, and those who are even more experts. It’s a pity that the prefect of Pingliang still uses his classmate as their backer, but they don’t know that he has already fallen into ruin. This is one of the reasons why Zhao Xing dared to ignore his backer and cut him off his head directly.

"What you mean now is that you can't put any effort into my actions this time," Zhao Xing said.

Sun Chuanting heard Zhao Xing’s dissatisfaction with him, and of course he was shocked. He could pretend to be big and show his qualifications in front of this young man. But he also understood that without this little guy supporting him from behind and clearing obstacles for himself in front, and without saying anything else, he would never achieve what he wanted to serve the court and display his ambitions in his heart.

So he quickly said, "That's not the case. I call those border generals who have a sense of responsibility and have firmly implemented your orders to stay to guard against the Mongols, and are organizing 20,000 border troops to mobilize to the west to prevent Li Zicheng from fleeing west." Then he said with a sad expression: "But this is not a long-term solution." Then he looked at Zhao Xing with hope: "If my teams are truly formed in combat power, reforming military organization has become a must. What Mr. Yang said is right. If you really pay the troops according to the army, the 3 million troops across the country will be reduced to 1 million. It will not only greatly improve the combat power, but also save a lot of military expenditure for the country and alleviate financial pressure. In the entire northwest, as long as 200,000 real troops are left, I will wipe out all the bandits in the northwest within 5 years, and a peace in the northwest, so that the rear of the capital will be safe and worry-free."

When Zhao Xing heard this, he finally sighed: "You are asking me a problem."

Sun Chuanting said painfully: "I also know that this matter should be within my responsibility, but to achieve this goal, we must replace the generals who have punished the crime. There are no one thousand or eight hundred, and at the same time, we must promote an equal number of generals. This is a big move. Without the recognition of the Ministry of War and the Emperor, I would not dare to do this. People are afraid of words."

Zhao Xing glanced at Sun Chuanting. In history, this was a true loyal minister. He had the most terrifying problem of loyal ministers, that is, he did not hesitate to execute the emperor's words regardless of whether it is good or bad or serious.

Historically, he took over the five provincial governors and was preparing to train a 30,000 elite troops in Xi'an, and then attack Li Zicheng. In fact, under the circumstances at that time, once his army was trained, he would attack Li Zicheng and defeat him.

However, Chongzhen ordered him to attack three times. As a result, Sun Chuanting knew that this was not advisable, but he still executed it and was eventually defeated. It was a pity.

Now he has ideas and sees the disadvantages, but he does not dare to act alone. He has his own concerns. What he cares about is not the difficulties he faces, but the fickle Emperor Chongzhen. He needs Zhao Xing and Chongzhen to endorse him.

Zhao Xing smiled bitterly: "The real blood exchange of the army is a big project. I can't hurry for a while. I'd better take care of the present. Finding Li Zicheng and destroying him is my mission."

Hu Xuejin, a thousand households of Jinyiwei from Shaanxi, arrived at the starry night, but was still four days later than expected.

Zhao Xing looked at him kneeling on one knee and asked: "Why is it too late?"

Hu Xuejin lowered his head and then looked up and explained: "After receiving the inquiries from the adults, his subordinates did not dare to neglect them. He immediately used all his men to investigate Li Zicheng's whereabouts. If there was no definite news, his subordinates would not dare to report randomly."

Zhao Xing nodded: "So there is news now?"

“Have it.”

“Where is it?”

"Li Zicheng has now stopped and has posed a banner from others to cover up the world, but it was finally confirmed by my subordinates. Li Zicheng has now arrived near Luojia Mountain in Qingyang."

Zhao Xing was in his heart at that time and had to admire Li Zicheng as the best among the bandits, because he ran too fast. In this short time, he actually ran from Shiraishichuan to Qingyang 500 miles away.

You should know that an army can walk 30 miles a day, which is already the limit of physical strength. And a group of refugees can walk 30 miles a day, but I don’t know how many people are exhausted along the way.

Such a situation only shows that Li Zicheng is cruel enough to his own people.

"You did a good job. Even my brother sent by me personally investigated for five or six days, but there was no result. But you have done it. Let me give you some help and get up and talk."

After Hu Xuejin thanked him, he stood up: "Actually, he has no other special skills. He just rushed to Shiraishichuan, followed by chasing the corpses of the bandits that kept appearing, and finally chased to Qingyang. After losing 10 brothers and confirming, he dared to come back to report."

As expected, Zhao Xing really had nothing to say. Then he turned around and said to Wang Jinzhong, who had just come in: "How much do you know about Qingyang?"

Wang Jinzhong immediately directed his men and hung a simple map on the wall of the lobby, and then pointed to the location of Qingyang on the map: "Luojia Mountain, on the south side of Qingyang, bordering Xi'an Prefecture, leaning against Ziwu Ridge in the east, Yangquan Mountain in the north, Liupan Mountain in the west, east, west, and north, with dense forests and low and slow in the central and southern parts, so it is known as the "basin". At the same time, the rivers are crisscrossed and the land is fertile. It has always been known as the northwest granary."

Looking at the terrain, Zhao Xing narrowed his eyes and said, "This is a good place to retreat and retreat into the mountains and forests to hide and resist, and to go out to the plain to obtain food and food. It seems that Li Zicheng is planning to hide and rest here. Once the energy is restored, he can cross Ziwu Ridge to Yan'an and cross the Yellow River to the east, meet with Wang Ziyong, and go to Xi'an in the south, threaten Xi'an."

"Yes, it seems that this Li Zicheng is indeed not simple." Then he asked: "Sir, what should we do?"

"What else can I do? Hong Chengchou blocked the Yellow River. I now order Hong Chengchou to order the governor of Xi'an to block the south, and then our army will be in the fortress and destroy Li Zicheng."

"So what if he is going to escape to his hometown Yan'an?"
Chapter completed!