The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

If you look at it from a satellite map, you will find that Xinye is located in the center of the Nanxiang Basin. At the same time, it is located at the intersection of several rivers such as Tuanhe River, Zhaohe River, and Baihe River.

It can be said that it is located in a strategic location and its strategic location is quite important.

If the cities in the entire Nanxiang Basin were ranked in military importance, Xinye would definitely be among the top five.

According to Xunfengwei's intelligence, the Ming army seems to have abandoned Xinye - so far, Xinye has only more than a thousand rural soldiers and no Ming army troops.

However, considering that Dengzhou is only sixty or seventy miles away from Xinye and can be reached directly through the Tuanhe River, Liu Sheng still led the army there in person.

After the expansion of the Guards in May, the number has reached more than 10,000.

As for the four brigades that came to Tang County to join forces, only part of their troops actually came.

He Lianyue and Mao Chengguo both came with their brigade (more than five thousand people), while Wen You and Zhang Ao brought their brigade plus a regiment - because each brigade needed to divide its troops to guard other cities.

Even counting Huang Gan's regiment (more than 3,000 people), the Huabu rebels led by Liu Sheng this time only numbered more than 40,000 people.

In addition, more than 10,000 civilians were recruited to serve as civilian husbands.

If we are really desperate, these more than 10,000 civilian warriors can also go into battle, and their combat effectiveness should be no worse than the regular troops of the Li-Luo coalition.

However, the coalition forces of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai currently have more troops in Nanyang.

According to Xunfengwei's information, the total number of troops the two have in Nanyang is likely to be as high as 100,000!

As for how many elites there really are that can be beaten, Xunfengwei is currently unable to find out.

Among them, most of the more than 30,000 people Li Zicheng brought to Nanyang to join forces were elites.

As for how many elites there are in Luo Rucai's department, he probably doesn't know it himself - it's still the reason mentioned before. The composition of the army is too mixed, the organization is too chaotic, and a large number of personnel are added or decreased every day, so it is difficult to calculate specific numbers.

Liu Sheng was not afraid of Luo Rucai's department at all.

But he did not dare to underestimate the more than 30,000 elite soldiers Li Zicheng brought to Nanyang.

More than 50,000 people from the Kuei tribe first walked a large section of the waterway along the Tang River, and then walked dozens of miles overland, arriving outside Xinye City in the morning of the next day.

Liu Sheng first asked She Shu to persuade him to surrender.

Xu Zhiquan, the magistrate of Xinye County, faced tens of thousands of rebels. He was not afraid and even cursed the rebels on the city wall.

As a result, after the rebels fired a round of artillery and before they were about to send troops to climb the city, a leader of the township soldiers killed Xu Zhiquan, opened the city gate, and surrendered.

Although this person defected before the battle, he allowed the Wei tribe to take Xinye County without any blood. Therefore, after the rebels took control of the county, Liu Sheng summoned the leader of the rural soldiers.

"Liu Qie (ju) pays homage to the commander-in-chief!"

Liu Sheng did not tell Liu Qie about the etiquette of the Wei tribe, but said directly: "Get up."

"Thank you, Marshal."

When Liu Sheng saw Liu Qie, who was seven feet tall and in his twenties, and looked like he was from a wealthy family, he asked, "Why do you want to offer the city and submit to my tribe?"

Liu Qie didn't expect that the marshal of his family would ask such a pointed question as soon as they met, and he became even more nervous.

Fortunately, he had thought up his plans before coming to see Liu Sheng.

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, although I am a new savage, I have long heard of the reputation of the Yibu Rebel Army. I know that the Rebel Army does not kill innocent people indiscriminately and does not commit any crimes against civilians.

After the rebels passed through Nanyang last year, some people in Xinye went to Runing to seek refuge.

Now Li Chuang and Cao Cao came eastward, burning villages and destroying strongholds wherever they went, leaving not a blade of grass growing. The Ming government only knew how to exploit the people, but was unable to exterminate Li Chuang, Cao Cao and other bandits.

Today, after seeing the power of the Yibu rebel army, I know that only the commander-in-chief can save Xinye and protect the safety of the people in Xinye.

Xu Zhiquan is a cruel official. After he took office, he only wanted to pay taxes. Now he wants to win over the people in the city and claim his loyalty to the emperor. I have no choice but to kill him and surrender the city to the commander-in-chief. "

Hearing that Liu Qie's words were quite coherent and insightful, Liu Sheng gave him a high look.

Then he said: "Later on, the city's rural soldiers and warriors will be selected by the Guards to form a battalion of civilian warriors. You will be the commander of the civilian warrior battalion. Understand the rules of our army carefully and work conscientiously, and you will have the opportunity to make meritorious service and be promoted in the future. "

"I will obey your orders!"

After Liu Qie left, Liu Sheng asked Yan Ermei, who was accompanying the army, "What do you think of this person, Mr. Yan?"

Yan Ermei said: "This man is brave and knowledgeable. After a period of trial, he may be reused. However, the reason why he offered the city to submit is because our Wei tribe has a better reputation than Li Chuang and Luo Rucai.

In the future, as our army's power continues to grow, there may be more and more officials and military generals offering their services to the city, and some places may even be able to spread the word. "

Liu Sheng laughed after hearing this, "Heroes think alike."

After meeting Liu Qie, Liu Sheng was about to chat with Yan Ermei about the next military action when Li Weiqi, deputy of the Xunfeng Guards, walked into the tent after the briefing.

"Commander, the spies have received the latest information from Dengzhou."

After speaking, Li Weiqi presented a thin bamboo tube sealed with wax.

Liu Sheng carefully opened the bamboo tube and took out the secret letter.

These secret letters were all written in a code composed of Arabic numerals. Each number corresponded to a certain word on a certain page, line, and line of a book.

This "password dictionary" is not fixed, but will be updated from time to time.

Moreover, spies in different regions may use different "password dictionaries".

So there is no fear of leakage.

Of course, the current encryption system is relatively simple, so Liu Sheng can easily translate the contents of the secret message himself without the need for a special person.

After reading the secret letter, Liu Sheng shook his head and laughed, "The tens of thousands of Li and Luo coalition forces besieged Dengzhou for two days, but they still haven't conquered it."

After hearing this, Yan Ermei felt something in her heart and said, "Commander, why don't you take this opportunity to meet with Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai for a while?

Before Dengzhou was conquered, the two of them became more wary. Regardless of whether they could reach an agreement or not, it would be beneficial to the Wei tribe. "

Liu Sheng nodded, "We should meet with them for a while before Dengzhou leaves, but I guess they may not be willing to come. Maybe I need to use a large army to force them."

After speaking, Liu Sheng arranged for people to contact Luo Rucai and Li Zicheng respectively.

Then he ordered all the rebel troops to step up their repairs and break camp early tomorrow morning to move toward Dengzhou.

After arranging these things, Liu Sheng took Yan Ermei and a large group of cavalry guards to explore the surrounding situation of Xinye County.

Today is the last day of May, the sky is cloudless, and the sun is already feeling a bit hot.

Walking around Xinye County, Liu Sheng found that although there were good fields here, there were also some abandoned ones, and the ditches were in average condition and not very smooth.

Yan Ermei said: "Since May, there have only been a few light rains in Runing, but they have been in Xinyang and Guangzhou. There has not been a single rain in Nanyang and Kaifeng. I am afraid there will be another severe drought in Henan this year."

Liu Sheng glanced at the river not far away, where the water level had dropped significantly, and was silent for a moment.

Even if he comes from later generations, there is nothing he can do about natural disasters.

If it is a peaceful season, manpower and material resources can also be integrated to fight against disasters.

But in times of war, most people can only seek happiness on their own.

Speaking of which, there was a lot of rain this spring, and Liu Sheng originally thought that Henan would not be hit by another major disaster this year. Now it seems that he still underestimated the cruelty and horror of the Little Ice Age.

At this time, Yan Ermei got off his horse, came to the beach by the river, and used his sword to stir up the soil.

Liu Sheng walked over and took a look, and saw that it was full of locust eggs visible to the naked eye, some of which had even hatched into larvae!

Yan Ermei trampled all the locust eggs and larvae away with her kick, but sighed helplessly: "A severe drought will inevitably be accompanied by a locust plague, and then there will be a plague, and the people will suffer again."

Liu Sheng looked at the flowing Baihe River and said: "We can't prevent natural disasters like drought, but we can stop wars!"

When he said these words, Liu Sheng had already secretly made up his mind to capture Nanyang Mansion this time.

Even a Nanyang Mansion that is about to suffer from drought, locust plague, and plague is better in his hands than in the hands of Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, and Daming!

···

Dengzhou.

Under the city wall, there are mountains of corpses, and the dead are lying on their pillows.

Due to the hot weather, many corpses were infested with flies and the stench was overwhelming.

The battle of Dengzhou two days ago was not fierce, but it was very tragic.

Because both Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai used the young and strong refugees they had captured in recent days to attack the city.

One is to reduce food consumption, the other is to train troops, and the third is to avoid the loss of elites.

Quite a few of these refugees were forced to become refugees because of the arrival of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai. Now, in order to survive, they have to attack the city for them, which is also sad.

Their siege equipment only consisted of simple bamboo ladders, wooden ladders, and not even a few cloud ladders. Their weapons were mainly farm tools, and the equipment rate of serious weapons was less than 10%!

Dengzhou had more than 1,000 Ming army soldiers, more than 3,000 rural soldiers, and 2,000 to 3,000 civilian warriors. There was no shortage of troops, so they still had enough strength to defend for two days.

Compared with the hellish scene under the city wall, inside the large tent of Luo Rucai's military camp in the west of the city, it was a different scene.

"Come here, General. Let's have another drink."

"General, eat grapes."

"Which drink is better than milk? General, please drink milk."

"···"

Although the weather is hot, it does not prevent Luo Rucai from hugging each other and enjoying the beauty, food and wine.

In fact, there were more than a dozen beauties surrounding Luo Rucai in the big tent at this time, and a group of female musicians were playing and singing nearby.

"Don't worry," Luo Rucai, who is in his forties, smiled kindly, "General I want to eat grapes, drink milk, and don't let go of fine wine. But I only have one mouth, so I have to come one by one."

"What a bad general."

The few enchanting beauties around him were all made to tremble and smile coquettishly by Luo Rucai.

The atmosphere was turning pink when suddenly there was a shout from outside the big tent.

"General, Liu Sheng of the Yibu Department has sent an envoy!"

Liu Sheng sent an envoy?

Luo Ru was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then he gently pushed aside the beauties around him and sat up.

Second update.

It took too much time to find out various information about the Army and the Peasant Army today. Sorry for the late update.

Good night~

Thanks to [The Demon in My Heart] for the 100 starting coin reward!