After the People's Army completes its scheduled plan to occupy the four provinces of Guangxi, Huguang, Jiangxi and Fujian, the war should end. The People's Army seizes the time to digest the newly occupied four provinces.

However, the People's Army had not yet completely ceased to fight with the Ming court. In order to force the Ming court to negotiate peace, local wars broke out. The People's Army left the ruling area as a unit to launch an attack on the Ming army, consuming the Ming army's troops. After every battle or two, it would retreat to the People's Army's ruling area for rest and rest without the idea of ​​occupying more territory.

The Ming army outside the People's Army's ruling region were all scared by the People's Army. When they saw the People's Army coming, they hurriedly retreated, which greatly reduced the number of times the People's Army fought with the Ming army.

The People's Army did not stop fighting, and Wei Linhan, the minister in charge of the Ming Dynasty, was anxious. He was just a civil minister and would not lead troops to fight. However, Wei Linhan knew a little bit about the current situation in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty could no longer defeat the People's Army. As long as the People's Army wanted, it would be no problem to completely occupy the south of the Yangtze River. The Ming Dynasty could only rely on the Yangtze River natural barrier to block the People's Army.

Wei Linhan sent people to Jiangxi almost every day to negotiate with the top leaders of the People's Army. He was rejected every time and was not even allowed to enter the People's Army-ruled area. However, Wei Linhan did not give up and continued to work hard.

As time comes in mid-March, Wei Linhan's efforts seem to impress the People's Army. The People's Army said that they could talk to the Ming court. The negotiation location was located in Jiande County, Chizhou Prefecture, Nanzhili, a small place bordering the People's Army ruling area.

After receiving the notice from the People's Army, Wei Linhan immediately set off for Jiande County, and felt a little relieved. As long as the People's Army is willing to negotiate, if the People's Army is unwilling to negotiate, he, the minister in charge of negotiation, would have no effect and might be dismissed directly because of unfavorable work.

But when we think of the subsequent negotiations, Wei Linhan began to worry. The People's Army is so strong now that if the People's Army wants to cease the war, the Ming court may have to pay a huge price, but he is afraid that the conditions offered by the People's Army will not be accepted by the court.

Many times, Wei Linhan also felt very helpless and took on such a thankless job, but this was a task given to him by the emperor, and he had to do it even if he didn't do it.

Wei Linhan set out for Jiande County. On the other side, the Ming court was already stunned by the People's Army.

It’s not enough to be anxious. The People’s Army has occupied nearly five provinces in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi and Huguang. The Ming Dynasty originally had fifteen provinces, but now there are only ten provinces left. Moreover, no one can resist the People’s Army. As long as the People’s Army wants, it will soon be able to occupy the south of the Yangtze River.

At the court meeting every day, when Zhu Yijun looked at his ministers, he wanted to curse. A group of mediocre ministers and a small thief actually made him bigger. No one in the Ming Dynasty could resist the People's Army.

Why did such a thief appear? Why was no one able to stop this thief?

Zhu Yijun understood that the problem lies with his ministers. If the officials of the Ming Dynasty were well governing the various places and the people were farming honestly, how could there be rebels? It was because some officials were corrupt and abused the law to make the people unable to survive, so they would choose to rebel and give the People's Army a chance to grow bigger.

Everything is the fault of these mediocre officials!

But after understanding this, Zhu Yijun had no choice but to do anything. The Ming Dynasty still needed these mediocre ministers to govern the world. Without officials, Zhu Yijun could not govern the world alone. So Zhu Yijun endured the anger in his heart and discussed with the ministers every day how to deal with it. If the People's Army could be wiped out, Zhu Yijun would turn around and attack these ministers.

Every day when he went to court, Zhu Yijun would ask two questions to the ministers: Who can lead the army to defeat the thieves? Who of you has a plan to suppress the thieves?

After a month, no one of the ministers stood up to say that they could lead their troops to defeat the People's Army. They were basically civil officials and would not lead troops to fight. And they now have few suitable people to recommend.

The entire Ming Dynasty surpassed Li Chengliang, Mei Yousong, and Song Yingchang in leading troops to fight almost no officials and generals, but the ministers proposed many strategies to suppress the bandits.

"I believe that a large army can be mobilized to guard the north bank of the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River is a natural danger and thieves cannot pass."

Some ministers believed that the Ming Dynasty could defend itself by the Yangtze River, but the next moment, they were severely criticized by other ministers and defending itself by the Yangtze River. Then, Zhejiang and Nanzhili gave up directly, how could this be?

As the emperor, Zhu Yijun would not give up on Nanzhili, and he could not give up every inch of land in the Ming Dynasty. This minister who came up with a "bad idea" was directly driven out of the hall.

However, Zhu Yijun and the ministers also knew that once the People's Army occupied the south of the Yangtze River, the Ming Dynasty could only defend the Yangtze River. But now is not the time to say this, and the time is wrong.

The ministers made other attentions, basically, to expand the army and then expand the army, and it is best to recruit millions of young and strong men to form an army and swallow the People's Army.

But there are many problems in expanding the army. In the past few years, in order to form a million troops, the Ming Dynasty's treasury became increasingly empty. Even if the new recruits were not paid, the Ming Dynasty did not have much money to expand the army, and the recruits would even go hungry.

Preparing weapons for new recruits is also a big problem. Even if you do not equip firearms, you must at least equip large swords and spears. It will take a lot of time to build large swords and spears. It is impossible for the new army to equip a wooden stick and go to the battlefield.

The most important thing is the combat effectiveness of the new army. No matter how many new soldiers are, they may be destroyed when they encounter the People's Army. Li Chengliang's 500,000 army was defeated by less than 200,000 people's army in one battle. Li Chengliang's 500,000 army's strength is not as strong as millions of new troops.

Zhu Yijun and a group of ministers couldn't find a way to resist the People's Army even if they wanted to break their heads.

Until today, when Wei Linhan was about to hold a ceasefire negotiation with the senior leaders of the People's Army, a minister named Liu Xiyang made a plan in the court.

"Emperor, every time the thief breaks a place, they will slaughter gentry and merchants. I believe that the gentry and merchants from all over the country can be ordered to recruit young and strong men to form a guard team. In order to save the lives of the family, they will not be stingy to pay the money to form a guard team. Once the thief attacks, they can order the officials below to command the guard team formed by the gentry and merchants. The court can obtain millions of troops without spending one or two silver."

Hearing this plan, Zhu Yijun and other ministers in the hall looked at Liu Xiyang. It sounded like this plan seemed very good. Although the guard team formed by the gentry and merchants was very poor, the court did not have to spend money, and the number of guard teams would be very large. If there were millions of people, they might be able to block the thieves.

However, there are many risks. Military power has always been in the hands of the court. If the gentry and merchants have military power below, there may be chaos. Millions of guards are all powerful weapons for the Ming Dynasty. If they go against the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will fall into a dangerous place and must have a complete solution.
Chapter completed!