Li Zicheng finished laughing, turned around and threw off his big stride, and went straight to Ganzhou, Gansu (now Ganzhou District, Zhangye City).

At that time, it was February 1629 (the second year of Chongzhen).

Along the way, day and night, on this day, to Ganzhou, I heard that Yang Zhaoji, the general of Ganzhou, was ordering the general kingdom to recruit troops, and he was happy in his heart and hurriedly looked for it.

But seeing that although there were many people gathered near the registration office, no one stepped forward to sign up, and couldn't help but wonder: "The eldest husband should eat food and become a soldier to protect his family and defend the country, but why are you hesitating?" ”

A strong man said: "Looking at the appearance of a strong man, it should be from other places, right?" ”

Li Zicheng nodded and said, "Exactly." ”

The strong man said: "No wonder you don't know, this recruitment is fake." ”

Li Zicheng was puzzled: "Fake? How so? ”

The strong man lowered his voice and said: "Seeing that you should also be a real person, I will go out and tell you, this general kingdom responsible for recruiting soldiers is the most greedy, and the so-called recruitment is just a disguise, in order to defraud the boss of the salary." ”

Li Zicheng let out an "oh" and said: "In a famine year, the money and food allocated by the boss are not enough, and it is not too much to improve the lives of the soldiers. ”

The strong man said disdainfully: "Improve the lives of soldiers? You're too kind, aren't you? Hmph, all in his own pocket. Not only that, but according to the soldiers, he often withheld military rations, and the soldiers did not have enough to eat.

Think about it, now that the thieves have risen up and eaten this grain, they will go to war. Hmph, I can't even eat enough, and I want people to work for them, so a fool is willing. ”

"He must be too paranoid, alas, there is no way, the world is difficult, and people are prone to paranoia." Thinking secretly, Li Zicheng said: "Probably not, even if this is true, it is better to not be able to eat than not to eat." After speaking, he led Li Guo and the others straight to the registration office.

The strong man thought about it, paused slightly, waved at his companions, and followed closely behind.

Seeing Li Zicheng's uncle and nephew coming, followed by a large number of people, the soldier at the registration office asked unexpectedly, "Sign up?" ”

Li Zicheng said loudly: "Well, let's register it quickly." ”

When the soldiers heard this, they were busy registering, and suddenly a person came over, pushed away the two soldiers, personally registered Li Zicheng's uncle and nephew, and came over to shake Li Zicheng's hand, and said: "Okay, my name is Wang Guo, the general of this army, I have decided, I will promote you to be the general." ”

What's going on here? It turned out that Yang Zhaoji believed that it was just enough to eat empty wages in peacetime, and with the current situation, there might be war one day, but he did not dare to do his best to eat empty salaries, and he must really recruit some soldiers and horses in case of emergency.

The general kingdom didn't understand his thoughts, and it was still his nephew who played the lantern - as usual, half a month passed, and naturally no soldiers were recruited. Yang Zhaoji was furious and called the kingdom to scold him fiercely.

The kingdom was full of grievances, returned to the recruitment site, shouted at the top of his throat, saw that no one was willing to pay attention, and was discouraged, seeing that someone had brought so many people over to sign up, how could he not be overjoyed?

Li Zicheng never dreamed of this, and couldn't help but think: "Could it be that what the strong man said is false?" No, that man looks like a man, how can he lie?

By the way, could it be that this kingdom is actually a lover of talents? But how can a person who loves talent be greedy? Also, he doesn't know us, so how can he know that we are talented? ”

Secretly and quickly turned his thoughts, Li Zicheng said: "Thank you for the general's promotion, Zicheng is willing to go to the soup for the general, and I will not hesitate." ”

The kingdom was speechless because of the excitement for a while, and was regretting it, when he heard Li Zicheng say this, he secretly thought to himself: "Our words have already been spoken, how can there be any reason to take it back?" Hmph, why can't we take it back, we can accept it if we want, but that would damage our prestige too much.

Looking at him like this, listening to him say this, it should be considered a good way, if you take care of it well, maybe you can become our helper? In this world, it is impossible to go anywhere without helpers. By the way, let's hold him. ”

After making up his mind, Wang Guo smiled and said: "General Ben knows that you must feel very strange, there is no way, who made General Ben love Caili?" You don't have to think about it, just do it. ”

After speaking, he turned around and ordered the soldiers to get the general uniform, and personally helped Li Zicheng put it on.

Li Zicheng didn't know what he meant, but when he was lucky to meet a confidant, he inevitably swore secretly in his heart that he would only look forward to him in the future.

A few months later, it's winter.

Because the Houjin army invaded Beijing, the imperial court urgently dispatched troops from all directions to King Qin. Li Zicheng's unit was led by the general Wang Guo, and marched to the Beijing Division. When we arrived in Jinxian (now Yuzhong, Gansu), it was getting late and we had to set up camp.

After setting up the camp, Li Zicheng was too lazy to move, no, to be precise, he wanted to reorganize his thinking, so he was alone in the tent while roasting the fire, while thinking: "Although the food and salary allocated by the imperial court are insufficient, it will not let the soldiers suffer from cold and starvation, and the kingdom must have done something from it."

What to do? Go to him, he is the benefactor who promoted us, we have no evidence, how can we say? If you don't go to him, I'm afraid you won't be able to get to Beijing, and the soldiers will starve to death and freeze to death. ”

was in trouble, and when he saw his nephew Li Guo flash in, he asked, "Is there something wrong?" ”

Li Guo said softly: "They have already found out, and the fact is as my uncle expected, the military salary has really been embezzled by the kingdom." ”

Li Zicheng let out an "oh" and said, "Is there any evidence?" ”

Li said: "They secretly subdued a personal soldier of the kingdom, according to this personal soldier, the military salary was hidden in the county office, he saw it with his own eyes." ”

Li Zicheng said angrily: "This kingdom, if you really can't say anything, when will it be, dare to be so greedy?" After speaking, he turned to Li Guo and asked, "What are they going to do?" ”

Li Guo said with a little excitement: "They decided to go to the kingdom to ask for money, just give it, if they don't give it, they will die anyway, just like other troops, kill the kingdom and become thieves." ”

Li Zicheng had heard a lot about soldiers killing their commanders for money, and knowing that what Li Guo said was true, he pondered: "How are they going to act?" ”

Li said: "They didn't have many ideas, they originally wanted to ask their uncle to take them to do it, but thinking of the relationship between their uncle and the kingdom, they didn't dare to come to their uncle, so they decided to rush into the county office to rob it, regardless of the three-seven-twenty-one." ”

Li Zicheng said angrily: "It's a shame that my uncle treats them as brothers on weekdays, and they treat me like this?" ”

Before Li Guo could answer, more than a dozen people suddenly came in outside the tent, Li Zicheng recognized that these dozen people were their leaders, knowing that Li Guo must have colluded with them to test his attitude, he pointed his finger on Li Guo's forehead, and said, "You-"

This was exactly the case, but Li Guo had already found out his attitude, and seeing that he had no reproach, he stuck out his tongue, and then turned around and ran to stand among the dozen or so people.

Li Zicheng glanced at them, saw that they didn't speak, knew that they were waiting to listen to their opinions, and they were not polite, and said: "We have to make preparations for this matter, if the kingdom gives military salaries, we can't learn from other troops, and we have to go to the capital, after all, the capital is being invaded by foreign enemies, and they are our real enemies."

If the kingdom insists on not giving it, we can't enter King Jingqin, so we simply kill him. However, in that case, we will really go against the government, and there will be no turning back.

Since there is no turning back, we must find a good way out for ourselves. I've thought about it, Wang Zuogui's peasant army is the closest here, so let's go and vote for him. ”

The dozen or so people said in unison: "Just according to what President Li said." ”

Li Zicheng said: "Okay, follow me." With that, he turned around and walked out of the camp tent and went straight to the county office.

Wang Guozheng and the county commander were looking at Bai Huahua's silver and laughing stupidly, and when they saw Li Zicheng bringing someone in, they said angrily: "What do you want to do?" ”

Li Zicheng sneered: "Come and get our military salary." ”

The kingdom shouted "bold", and then rushed out the door, "Where are the soldiers?" Why don't you take down this gang of thieves for me? ”

The pro-soldiers outside the door have long been subdued, where will anyone obey orders? Seeing that no one answered, Wang Guo drew his sword and shouted "Kill you ungrateful" in his mouth, stabbing straight at Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng flashed sideways, and before he could speak, these dozen people had already come up and cut him and the county order into meat sauce.

Li Zicheng saw it, shook his head and said: "It's really not what I want, alas, there is no way, the matter has come to this, just act according to the previous decision." ”