Yang Zhen was very clear about the conflicts between civil and military forces in the Ming Dynasty.

When civil servants lead troops to fight, they have to rely on generals, but they always want to show that they have the ability to wipe out powerful enemies with laughter and talk, and do not want to rely too much on generals.

Especially when the overall situation is favorable to them, they always want to put aside the generals and want to show their excellence in stabilizing the country through recruitment.

However, the more the overall situation is beneficial to them, the less their generals want to recruit enemies.

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Military generals hope to gain military glory and are naturally willing to recruit enemies if they can destroy them.

As a result, dissatisfaction between civil and military forces will inevitably arise, and the war will have many twists and turns.

Things that could have been decided in one battle are likely to be delayed for many more days.

Thinking of this, Yang Zhen first sighed, then said with a smile:

"Let's see, since Mr. Zhang Shilang wants to recruit the leader of the bandit, he must discuss the conditions. With the speed of official documents exchanged between the capital and the imperial court, it may take two or three months to go back and forth.

"Based on the current situation of the court, if water transportation is interrupted for another two or three months, it will actually be enough to make the princes of the court realize the problem in western Liaoning!"

After Yang Zhen said these words, he planned to forget about the chaos in Shandong.

Because for him, this bandit rebellion only further aggravated the financial difficulties in the late Ming Dynasty.

In fact, regardless of whether there was this bandit rebellion or not, by the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, the situation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in western Liaoning having nothing to do was already unsustainable.

Either wipe out the Qing captives in one fell swoop, or simply retreat to the pass. It must be one of the two, there is no middle way.

"Commander Commander! In fact, even if the imperial court has put down the rebel rebellion in Shandong and restored water transportation from north to south, there will be no rice left in the south of the Yangtze River to be transported to the capital!"

Just as Yang Zhen was brewing a new topic, Fang Guangchen suddenly interrupted again.

"Oh? What does Fang Wenyi mean by this?"

"A friend of mine in Suzhou sent me a letter in August, saying that the Susongchang area in Jiangzuo has been experiencing a severe drought for several months since April this year. In the middle of summer, locusts cover the sky, and the price of rice is silver per stone.

Forty taels, the folk delicacies are rotten grains, or they eat tree shavings and elm bark until they are all gone. The streets are full of beggars, and many people die sleeping on them. Suzhou Prefecture, which is said to be the richest in the world, is like this. You can imagine what it is like in other places.

"

Facing Yang Zhen's inquiry, even Fang Guangchen, who had never cared about the sufferings of the people, rarely showed a look of concern when he remembered the letter from his friend.

"Is this serious?!"

"Absolutely true!"

Yang Zhen did not expect that such droughts, locust plagues and other disasters would occur in the land of plenty in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, when he saw that Fang Guangchen's expression and words were so certain, he couldn't help but believe it even if he didn't want to.

Moreover, Yang Zhen further understood why in the original history, after the Li Qingshan Rebellion was extinguished, Emperor Chongzhen and the ministers of the court still hurriedly urged Hong Chengchou to lead the troops to fight the Qing army in a decisive battle.

Because by the Chongzhen period, the six prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River, including Suzhou Prefecture, were almost the only sources of finance and taxation that Emperor Chongzhen and his imperial court could rely on.

The so-called six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River are Su, Song, Chang, Hang, Jia and Hu, and the so-called one state is Taicang Prefecture.

This area is located in the delta region of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The land here is fertile, the climate is suitable, irrigation is convenient, and agriculture is developed. It has been a land of plenty and prosperity for thousands of years.

Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, this place has been the capital of the imperial court.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, especially during the Chongzhen period, the northern region suffered from successive famines and frequent wars. Not only was the court unable to collect much money and taxes, but it also had to continue to invest large sums of money and grain in order to provide disaster relief and suppress rebellions.

Therefore, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the six prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River, plus the two prefectures of Zhenjiang and Jiangning, made up the eight prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, which became the only financial support for the Chongzhen court.

If there is going to be a famine in Jiangnan, then the strength of the Ming Dynasty will really be exhausted.

In this way, it is no longer that important whether the Li Qingshan Rebellion can be put down in time and whether the north-south water transportation can be restored in time.

As the saying goes, if the skin is gone, the hair will not be attached. If the south of the Yangtze River is already short of food, what will happen even if the water transportation is opened?

"Famine has begun in the south of the Yangtze River. It seems that the imperial court's finances will not be able to support it for long!"

Yang Zhen first sighed casually, and then sighed deeply. Seeing everyone's dark colors and solemnity, he thought for a while and asked Fang Guangchen:

"What about other aspects? Apart from the drought in Suzhou Prefecture, is there any other news in the customs?"

"There is not much good news in the customs, but there is a lot of bad news. Does the governor want to hear good news or bad news?"

Facing Yang Zhen's inquiry, Fang Guangchen shook his head and responded with a wry smile.

"Oh, I'm not in a hurry to know the good news, so there's no need to tell me. Just tell me the bad news first!"

"What's the bad news? At the end of October, the intruders proclaimed themselves Generalissimo Fengtian, and ordered hundreds of thousands of thieves from all sides to eat at Nanyang. Nanyang City was captured and massacred. The officers and soldiers, the general, were as fierce as tigers. The deputy general, Liu Guangzuo, and Tang

Wang Ju will die——"

"ah?"

Although Yang Zhen had been mentally prepared and knew that the situation in the customs was in bad condition at the end of the 14th year of Chongzhen's reign, he was still shocked when he heard the news from Fang Guangchen with his own ears.

"Generalissimo Fengtian Advocates Righteousness? It seems that the intruder has great ambitions!"

After the brief shock, Yang Zhen immediately realized the difference in the intruders' capture of Nanyang this time.

In the past, Li Zicheng once captured Luoyang and killed the old King Fu, and Zhang Xianzhong once captured Xiangyang and killed the King of Xiang.

Including other bandits from all walks of life, they often captured the vassal fiefdoms and killed many vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty.

But this time the bandits gathered together to capture Nanyang, and it was Li Zicheng who, in the name of the Generalissimo Fengtian, ordered the bandits from all walks of life to work together.

Therefore, when the words came out of Fang Guangchen's mouth and fell into Yang Zhen's ears, Yang Zhen was shocked and also heard some different meanings.

"That's right, after getting the help of the Western bandit Zhang Xianzhong, Cao bandit Luo Rucai and other bandit leaders, the bandits' strength has greatly increased, and their ambitions have also grown with the tide. They have become more and more swollen, and they have begun to consider themselves the leader of all thieves in the world!"

Fang Guangchen has always admired Yang Zhen's keenness and insight, and it's the same this time.

The news he mentioned was not exclusive, but when others heard the news, most of them just lamented the death of the Tang Dynasty King, or lamented the rampant thieves in the Ming Dynasty Pass.

Few people realize that this is the turning point when thieves from all walks of life in the world have clear political goals and begin to integrate their forces and move toward unification.

In the past, bandits generally had no lofty political goals. They ran around and looted just to survive. Few of them proposed political slogans of advocating righteousness to heaven or replacing the Ming Dynasty.

But now, the intruder Li Zicheng has actually begun to proclaim himself the general marshal and order the thieves in the name of advocating justice.

Fang Guangchen saw that Yang Zhen did not ask about the death of the Tang King or the death of Meng Ruhu, but directly pointed out the key point of Li Zicheng's command of the group of thieves to unite and command the righteousness of Fengtian, which was ignored by many people. He was filled with admiration.

Of course, what he didn't know was that the so-called acumen and insight that Yang Zhen had always shown in various major events were just the most basic qualities of a time traveler.

Because Yang Zhen understood the historical trends of the late Ming Dynasty, although he did not know every step before Li Zicheng entered the capital, he still knew some of the landmark events in Li Zicheng's rise.

However, what slightly surprised him was that as early as April of the first year, Jinhai and Denglai towns had sent more than 10,000 troops, and Denglai governor Fang Yizao joined the Zhongzhou battlefield.

Moreover, before the soldiers and horses of Jinhai Town crossed the sea and went south, the soldiers and horses of western Liaoning had also dispatched Liu Zhaoji and Wu Sangui to lead their troops into the pass to help suppress the bandits.

In Yang Zhen's view, with the addition of these new forces, whether it is Yang Wenyue who is stationed in Kaifeng, or Ding Qirui who is ordered to go to Jingzhou to take over Yang Sichang's men, their performance must be better than that of the original time and space.

However, what I didn't expect was that not only did the situation on the Zhongzhou battlefield not get better, but on the contrary, the current situation seemed to be even worse than in the original time and space.

"Where's Ding Qirui?"

"Ding Qirui? Haha, according to rumors, Governor Ding was appointed in April and set off in May, but until now, he has not been able to reach Jingxiang's post. God knows where the others are!"

When Yang Zhen asked about Ding Qirui, Fang Guangchen immediately answered Yang Zhen's question with a tone full of disdain and ridicule.

Of course, the disdain and ridicule shown in Fang Guangchen's expression and words were aimed at Ding Qirui.

In response, Yang Zhen just frowned and fell silent.

It wasn't until a moment later that Yang Zhen seemed to digest the information revealed in Fang Guangchen's words. He took a deep breath and then continued to ask:

"What about Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding?"

"Yang Wenyue is still in Kaifeng City. With the cooperation of his father, he has won several small and medium-sized battles. The Western thief Zhang Xianzhong, the Cao thief Luo Rucai and other gangs of big and small thieves went west to defect to the intruder Li Zicheng.

In addition to suffering some hardships from Zuo Liangyu, it was because on the line from Kaifeng City to Guide Mansion, we bumped into Liu Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Suppression Campaign, Wu Sangui, and our people!"

"Well, that's good, that's good. Finally there is some good news."

After Yang Zhen heard what Fang Guangchen said, he let out a sigh of relief, and the frown on his face that had always been solemn finally relaxed.

"Any other bad news?"

"Yes, Fu Zonglong, the Governor of the Three Borders of Shaanxi Province who only took office in May, led the Shaanxi army out of Tongguan and went to Zhongzhou to suppress the bandits. He was defeated in Zhongfu, fell into the hands of the bandits, and died under the city walls of Xiangcheng."

"When did this happen?"

"What happened in September."

Yang Zhen knew about Fu Zonglong, and knew that he was another handsome and talented civil servant who was tricked to death by the Shaanxi army generals.

The Ming Dynasty has always had no shortage of handsome and talented civil servants, and this was still the case even at the end of the Ming Dynasty and during the Chongzhen period.

For example, Zhu Xieyuan, Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, and Fu Zonglong were all rare and handsome civil servants in the Chongzhen Dynasty.

It is a pity that, except for Zhu Xieyuan, none of the others were used in the right place by Emperor Chongzhen, and there was no way for them to make full use of their talents.

Or it may have been reused at first, but it was unable to gain the emperor's long-term trust and full support, and in the end it was unable to play its due role.

For example, Lu Xiangsheng died prematurely in battle.

For example, Hong Chengchou was originally supposed to be used on the battlefield he was most familiar with, exterminating bandits, but he was sent outside Shanhaiguan and became idle.

Another example is Sun Chuanting, who was deeply loved by the soldiers on all sides, especially the generals of the Shaanxi army. He was originally the best candidate to command the Shaanxi army, but he was imprisoned for several years because of some disputes of temper.
To be continued...