In May of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, outside the city of Kaifeng.

Li Zicheng took the generals of the army to inspect the camp, looking at the endless camps in front of him, he smiled and said: "The ranks of our rebel army are getting bigger and bigger!" ”

The generals beside him were all excited, and followed King Chuang to walk around Henan and Shaanxi, singing and walking, and gathered 500,000 horses along the way.

Hundreds of thousands of horses and horses consume a huge amount of grain and grass every month, Li Zicheng once learned the practice of Fengyang Mansion and divided the fields and land in Nanyang Mansion, but as soon as the slogan of not paying grain was shouted, not a grain of rice could be harvested, so he could only return to his old business.

The invasion army can only obtain food, grass and property by constantly attacking the city, and can also replenish the army, but the more soldiers, the greater the consumption, in order to support the huge invasion army, Li Zicheng had to continue to attack the city, and the cycle continued.

In the old camp station, the war horses neighed, the killing shouted, and the soldiers practiced in an orderly manner.

Li Zicheng heard that most of the officers and soldiers had been reinforced, and that there were many strong generals in the army, so he paid closer attention to the drills of the old battalion and the horse army.

As for most of the infantry troops, Li Zicheng's requirements are not high, as long as they can fight in formation and can stab forward with a spear, after all, the Yang family's marksmanship trained daily in the Ming army is just a few moves to come and go.

Tens of thousands of people practiced spear formations, which was quite spectacular, and there were also swords, shields, and archers, very similar to that.

Li Zicheng saw that there were more and more coughing patients in the army, and he couldn't help frowning: "Why haven't these people been dealt with yet?" ”

The plague is the most taboo in marching and fighting, this plague is too severe, and there are extinctions in many places where the army has broken in, Li Zicheng has to pay attention to it, he ordered to kill all the soldiers infected with the plague, or expel them, and drive them out of the barracks to fend for themselves.

Tian Jianxiu, the general of the Chuang army, replied: "King Chuang, most of these people are from other parts of the rebel army, and we can't deal with it......"

Li Zicheng frowned, did not speak, and began to think in his heart about how to completely control the rebel army that defected.

Although he defected, he was only regarded as the king, and the subordinates of each battalion actually went their own way.

However, there are tens of thousands of horse soldiers and nearly 200,000 foot soldiers in the camp, and most of the other righteous troops are thousands of horse soldiers and 10,000 foot soldiers, which can only compete with the people and horses who broke into the camp.

After a long time, Li Zicheng said: "Convene the leaders of each battalion and discuss the big tent of the Chinese army." ”

......

Several large tables were set up in the tent of the camp, and the leaders of the rebels from all walks of life sat at the table, drinking and punching each other, waiting for Li Zicheng's arrival.

The wine and food in the banquet are very rich, and there are a lot of chicken, duck and fish, which makes people have an appetite when they look at it.

One of the leaders worried: "I heard that King Chuang lives a simple life, shares weal and woe with his soldiers, and eats coarse grains and wild vegetables. ”

Yuan Shizhong put down the wine glass with a snap, frowned, and said: "What is this called, why did we Lao Tzu rebel?" Not for the sake of good food and drink? It's our current life, if we live a hard life again, then what's the point? ”

"Yes, although I admire King Chuang as a person, I dare not agree when it comes to eating and drinking!"

“.......”

Everyone talked about it, some people were afraid of Li Zicheng, and some people looked down on Li Zicheng from the bottom of their hearts.

The reason for this was that Li Zicheng saw that the leaders of the battalions drank and had fun every day, like old rich people, and he was very disliked, and often privately scolded them for being drunk.

Yuan Shizhong defected to Li Zicheng's leaders, and after nearly half a year of getting along, he also felt that Li Zicheng had a lot of problems, acted differently, and looked diligent and thrifty and loved the people.

They even privately told their subordinates that Li Zicheng was a complete turtle, and he didn't know how to play if he was rich, no wonder his wife ran away with his brother and went to the imperial court!

In the middle of the banquet, a small leader slowly tasted the wine glass, and the cold afterglow looked at the surrounding leaders from time to time.

His name is Wang Zhen, in his early twenties, a native of Henan, with tiger eyes and sword eyebrows, a fierce and vicious appearance, and he doesn't look like a good stubble at a glance.

Wang Zhen fell into the grass in Yexian County two years ago, nicknamed the Earthquake Tiger, and rose to prominence in the rebel army with his excellent skills, pulling up a team of 8,000 people.

After the army broke through Luoyang, Wang Zhen took 8,000 men and horses to Li Zicheng, and was barely included in the last seat to listen to the bigwigs chatting, what he wanted to join the most was the old camp of the army, but the old camp was strictly audited, and it was very difficult to get in.

"The king has arrived!"

With a loud shout, everyone in the tent suddenly put down the dishes and chopsticks and became restrained, and even Yuan Shizhong, who had the loudest voice and was like a river, suddenly shut up, put down the chicken leg in his hand, and felt less fragrant.

Li Zicheng and a group of generals strode into the big tent, and habitually hugged their fists to the leaders of the rebel army around them: "Hello brothers! ”

"King Chuang!" Everyone hurriedly returned the salute, looking like a warm brother.

This time, eating and drinking was just a trivial matter, and everyone hurriedly ordered someone to remove the banquet and sit down together.

The generals of the army who gathered together sat at the top, and the conversation was full of Qindi accents, and when talking about military affairs, it was mainly between the generals, although the leaders of all walks of life were dissatisfied, they did not dare to attack.

Li Zicheng didn't care either, these big road goods, they were afraid that the encirclement and suppression of the officers and soldiers would be broken one by one, so they defected to themselves, and they didn't forcibly annex them.

Among the rebels in various places, although they held the banner of anti-Ming, they privately swallowed each other with big fish eating small fish, which one of you here has never done such a thing?

Li Zicheng looked around at the generals and said: "I summoned everyone today, mainly to say hello to everyone, the plague is raging outside, and our army must be guarded against, I hope that the leaders of each battalion can take the initiative to eliminate the infected people in their respective battalions." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, one of them asked aloud: "Dare to ask King Chuang, how to clear it?" ”

Li Zicheng squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "Naturally, it is expelled, or buried." ”

The leader asked, "Does King Chuang mean that we should kill our own brothers?" ”

He continued: "What kind of righteousness is it that I waited for the rebellion and made the oath I made that day that I would be blessed and share the hardships, but now I have abandoned it because of my brother's illness! ”

"Who the fuck are you? Dare to talk to King Chuang like this! ”

The person who spoke sat at the head of the general of the breaking army, he was nearly forty years old, dressed in heavy iron armor, very burly, with a rough face, a short beard and an angry beard, and spoke like a muffled thunderous voice, and his eyes were extremely powerful in Gu Panzhong, it was Li Zicheng's confidant Liu Zongmin.

The leader was not afraid at all, and said: "A certain is Shanxi Wu Yousheng!" ”

Liu Zongmin laughed and said: "It turned out to be a thief who occupies the mountain as the king, and you deserve to talk to King Chuang like this, just by virtue of the thousands of skinny monkey-like refugees under your command?" ”

Wu Yousheng laughed and said, "Haha, I'm a thief who occupies the mountain, isn't it you?" Fifty steps to laugh and a hundred steps, self-deception! ”

Liu Zongmin was angry and shouted: "Your mother is hairy, you kid is tired of living, see if Lao Tzu doesn't live to split you!" ”

Seeing that Liu Zongmin was about to make a move, Wang Zhen glanced at Li Zicheng in the first seat, and when he saw that he was silent, he knew that he intended to stand up, so he quickly got up and went straight to Wu Yousheng, who was about to draw his sword to resist.

Wu Yousheng saw that someone was attacking next to him, and hurriedly swung his knife to counterattack, but Wang Zhen easily dodged.

Wang Zhen looked fierce, knocked him back with a heavy elbow, and then quickly punched him in the chest.

A dull blow sounded, Wu Yousheng's eyes widened suddenly, the bloodshot in his eyes spread, his face swelled like pig's liver, and he fell straight down.

The two old battalion soldiers stepped forward to investigate, their faces were slightly shocked, and they reported to Li Zicheng: "King Chuang, he is dead, his sternum is all broken, and his heart is broken by a punch. ”

Liu Zongmin exclaimed: "Good guy! One punch solved this fight, not bad! ”

Wang Zhen just nodded slightly, still with a cold face, he is a notoriously cold face, since the partnership, the people around him have never seen him smile, and some people also call him a cold-faced tiger.

Li Zicheng stared at him for a moment, and then said, "What's your name, why did you kill him?" ”

Wang Zhen said: "I am the Heaven-Shaking Tiger, Wang Zhen!" The plague is very harmful, he disobeys the arrangement of King Chuang to isolate the sick, and since he wants to die, I have fulfilled him! ”

Li Zicheng nodded, and said lukewarmly: "You killed the rebel brother privately, I should have put you to death according to the covenant, thinking that you take the overall situation into account, this matter is over, there is no place for you here, go out!" ”

Everyone whispered, and some people secretly ridiculed, this Tiantian Tiger wanted to lick Li Zicheng Gan as an eagle dog, but he didn't expect to be turned away, it was really embarrassing!

Liu Zongmin just wanted to persuade him, but when he saw Li Zicheng's serious face, he had no choice but to swallow his words.

Wang Zhen's face did not change, his face was still cold, and he withdrew from the tent without saying a word.

(End of chapter)