Li Chengdong fell to the ground, rolled twice on the ground, and his hair was scattered. He thought that he had been captured by the general, and struggled to peek up, but when he saw the general and the officer of the Ming Army dressed as the first, and the word "Sun" on the flag held by the standard-bearer behind him, he immediately thought about it, and kowtowed to the ground: "Guerrilla Sun, save me!" ”

The person who came was the guerrilla Sun Shoufa. Gao Jie surrendered to the official army, he was responsible for answering near this according to the agreement, and when he didn't see anyone coming, he led the army forward, not wanting to run into such a bare pole as Li Chengdong.

Zhao Dangshi also discovered Sun Shoufa. This surnamed Sun has been mixed under Cao Wenzhao, and his personal martial arts are extremely prominent, and he is good at using an iron whip, and no one is invincible. It's better to get out as soon as possible.

Sun Shoufa asked Li Chengdong for the reason, and sent left and right to chase Zhao Dangshi, but the road was narrow and the enemy situation was unknown, so he didn't want to fight, so he went around the neighborhood and was about to leave. Li Chengdong exclaimed in shock: "Guerrilla attacks are not allowed, our battalion's military funds and the money and food of the tribute court are all robbed by him, and troops should be sent to seize them as soon as possible." ”

He begged bitterly, Sun Shoufa was also quite moved, and was about to transfer troops, but people from He Renlong were anxious: "The deputy general and the thief are fighting fiercely, and the victory or defeat is unknown, so I specially invite the guerrillas to help." He was responsible for answering Gao Jie and Liu Liangzuo, and was fighting with Liu Zongmin, who was chasing after him.

At that moment, Sun Shoufa spread his hands: "You also heard that Vice General He was robbed, and the situation is urgent." It's not that I don't want to take the baggage, it's just that things are prioritized, and the priorities are clear, if your general has a bad pool, won't the gains outweigh the losses? After finishing speaking, he said no more, turned his horse's head, and ordered the whole army to act. Li Chengdong had no choice but to swallow a mouthful of resentment and follow behind.

When Zhao Dangshi came around again, there were only five or six sheephorn carts left in the same place—he had previously instructed that most of the materials should be transferred and hidden elsewhere, and Hou Dagui would be solely responsible. Now that the matter is complete, he and Yang Chengfu will return to the camp with the rest of the people and horses.

As soon as the sky was bright, Liu Zongmin also brought people back. Zhao Dangshi led people to push the sheep's horn cart and carry a large stack of human heads, and rushed to meet him. saw that Liu's mental state was very bad. After asking in detail, it turned out that he had caught up with Gao and Liu, and was fighting fiercely with them, the officers and soldiers suddenly arrived, and fought again, and after a short time, another officer and army came, and the two sides fought until the second half of the night, and he felt that there was no hope of catching the rebel, so he returned. This toss all night, people didn't intercept it, and the benefits didn't get half a point, and their brothers died a lot, how could they not be angry.

When asked Zhao Dangshi again, Zhao Dangshi had already worded, only saying that he also met with the officials and soldiers, and fought a melee, although he repelled his people, he was unable to fight again, only seized some supplies, beheaded some rebels, and gave them all under his tent. Liu Zongmin was in a bad mood, and he was thinking about how to report to Li Zicheng, so he instructed his subordinates to count the materials and send Zhao Dangshi down.

Another day, Li Zicheng returned, he had already been reported by Liu Zongmin to Gao, Liu and Mrs. Xing and other officials and soldiers, and before he could unload his armor and unsaddle, he ordered troops and horses to attack He Renlong and Sun Shoufa. He and Sun were already prepared, and they were invited to attack at Majiayao in Fuping and defeated them. Li Zicheng was depressed, so he led his troops west.

Zhao Dangshi took this opportunity to Li Zicheng to put forward the idea of temporary separation, and said: "When I heard that Zhangpanzi and the Eight Great Kings were active in southern Shaanxi and Sichuan, they had left more tribes, and they were in harmony with the righteous army in Sichuan, and there were many of them. ”

Tian Jianxiu was Li Zicheng's main staff officer, and whispered to him: "Gao Jie is newly rebellious, and Zhao Dangshi is in a hurry to leave, and something is strange." I once heard that he and General Liu chased the traitor that night, but now I see that General Liu has nothing to gain, and he will make a lot of money. ”

Li Zicheng was silent for a long time, and then said: "Although the world is cunning, but it is not heroic, if you can't ask about the whereabouts of military funds, won't it chill the hearts of the brothers?" Moreover, it is not a member of our battalion, and it is difficult to see each other when he returns there in the future. Gao and Liu have recently betrayed, and the morale of the army is fluctuating, so it is really not appropriate to fight in the same room for the sake of today. ”

Tian Jianxiu saw that he had no killing intent, thought about it and said, "The palm is benevolent." "Re-admonishment," since you don't do it, then you can be a favor, show favor to it, make it grateful, and no matter whether it succeeds or fails in the future, it is good for the palm of the plate. ”

Li Zicheng nodded and stopped talking.

Zhao Dangshi didn't know that Li and Gu were talking. After he applied to Li Zicheng, he was uneasy and stayed in the camp and did not dare to move. In the evening of the next day, Li Zicheng sent someone to invite, saying that a banquet had been set up to serve Zhao Dangshi.

Yang Chengfu had concerns, he was a thief, for fear that Li Zicheng and others would notice the clues, set up a Hongmen banquet, and strongly persuaded Zhao Dangshi to refuse on the grounds of discomfort. Zhao Dangshi thought about it again and again, and felt that he still agreed. He is alone, Li Zicheng doesn't need to go to such great lengths to pinch himself to death, if he pushes three or four times, it will seem that he has a ghost in his heart.

With a plan in mind, he strode to the banquet. He has encountered the general danger of today several times, and his psychological quality has long been very comparable. Stretching his face, it is almost the level of an actor. Among the people in the banquet, only Li Zicheng, Tian Jianxiu and Zhao Dangshi knew the inside story of Gao Jie's defection night, and Zhao Dangshi was calm. Li and Tian only didn't know, and how did the others know about the hearts of the three of them, so a feast broke up happily.

Zhao Dangshi didn't dare to drink more at the banquet, but pretended to be drunk, Tian Jianxiu found two companions to betray Zhao Dangshi and sent him back to Zhao Ying. Halfway through, seeing that there was no one around, Zhao Dangshi helped him down and said in a deep voice: "The general can wake up." ”

This remark was like an empowerment, which made Zhao Dangshi tremble. Now that he has been recognized, there is no need to pretend anymore, and he said: "Zhao is not strong enough to drink, this is really a helpless move." ”

Tian Jianxiu smiled: "I'm afraid that the reason for the general's helplessness is not here, but Gao Jie." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Zhao Dangshi was shocked, almost out of shape, and forced a calm rhetorical question. muttered in my heart, this time I am only afraid of more evil and less auspicious.

"The general doesn't need to panic." Tian Jianxiu's face sank like water, and half of his face looked very treacherous under the reflection of the moonlight, "Only you know what is going on." ”

A gust of wind blew, and Zhao Dangshi only felt cold under his clothes, but fortunately, it was dark, and no one saw his pale face.

"What is the importance of armor, equipment, grain, gold and silver? The general took it, and the palm knew that the general was clever in his counter-praise methods. Tian Jianxiu said slowly, "The man in charge of the plate is kind-hearted, and he doesn't want to be angry with the general in this matter, and he heard that the general wants to go west, so he sent me to make it convenient for the general." ”

"Your Excellency says it clearly."

"This trip to central Sichuan is difficult and dangerous, and the forces are intertwined. In charge of the plate and cherishing talents, he could neither recruit the general into the camp, nor did he want to watch the general die halfway. Therefore, more than 500 mules and horses were specially selected and given to the general to facilitate walking; One more was taken for the general to carry. Southern Shaanxi and central Sichuan have many old hands with the plate, if you are unfortunate enough to meet with the general, you can take the talisman with it, and the other generation may not be embarrassed. ”

Zhao Dangshi was stunned, he thought that Li Zicheng might embarrass himself or didn't know it, but he didn't think that he knew his actions clearly, and still didn't use the sword, but helped him, did he do this with ulterior motives or kindness to the extreme?

No one believes that Li Zicheng is a good person, and pie will not fall from the sky, but Zhao Dangshi prefers to believe that this is a trap.

Tian Jianxiu couldn't see Zhao Dangshi's concerns, and smiled and said: "Don't worry, the general is a righteous man and a gentleman, and he will never do those shady things, the horses and mules are ready, and the general can take them tomorrow morning, as for the rune ......" he said, reached out into his arms, and took out an object and stuffed it into Zhao Dangshi's hand, "This is handed over." ”

Zhao Dangshi looked down and saw a half-palm-sized rune, and he didn't know what was written on it. Listening to what Tian Jianxiu said, he swore an oath, and it seemed that he had no calculations. He looted his own supplies, lacked nothing, only mules and horses, and Li Zicheng was indeed a charcoal in the snow. And this sigil can be carried on the body in case of emergency. The other party's actions are quite sincere, is it really that he spends the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain?

"If this is the case, there will be no retribution in the world, please take the plate and accept this worship." Zhao Dangshi is not a person with a small amount of energy, he pondered for a moment, and then he had no worries, if he Li Zicheng is really murderous, he can do it at the banquet, and there is really no need to hide it. On the contrary, it is himself, since he has calmly gone to the banquet, he simply goes to the end on one road, if he looks forward and backward, he suffers from gains and losses, not only Li Zicheng and Tian Jianxiu, but also looks down on himself.

Tian Jianxiu waited for him to make enough moves, and at the moment when he was about to kneel on the ground, he helped him over in time, and said: "We are waiting for the righteous army to participate in the great righteousness, and it is also appropriate to subsidize the general, why bother to be polite?" The open-minded person in charge of the plate will not want to be worshiped by the general. ”

Zhao Dangshi nodded: "The palm plate is incomparably benevolent and righteous, and sooner or later it will become a big thing." Zhao went to Sichuan, not because he had other motives, but because he was really in charge of contacting various ministries and recruiting forces, he was absolutely selfless. Please be sure to relay these to him. ”

Tian Jianxiu stroked his palm and said: "The palm plate has said to me several times that the general is not a thing in the pool, and now I look at it, what he said is not bad." I hope that the general will sit big in the future and not follow the story of Xiying. ”

The story of Xiying? Zhao Dangshi carefully hooked in his mind, and only then did he remember that as early as the beginning of the year, when Zhang Xianzhong, the eight kings of Xiying, would attack Fengyang with King Chuang and others, he had a team of small eunuchs to form a music team. Li Zicheng was very envious, and then asked Zhang for it, but Zhang refused, and the two had a grudge for this little thing. Tian Jianxiu is now knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger, and he actually wants to use Zhang Xianzhong to remind himself not to forget the fundamentals, in other words, Li Zicheng hopes to maintain a close relationship with Zhao Dangshi.

That's too much to look up to, isn't it? Zhao Dangshi couldn't help but feel embarrassed, thinking about the miserable five hundred people under his command, and thinking about going to the mountains and mountains in the middle of the river, he didn't know what he could develop into, he Li Zicheng concluded that he would definitely be able to become bigger and stronger, and even compare with Zhang Xianzhong?

However, think about it in another direction, what if you have a small success? Break into the camp and plunder Shaanxi, Shaanxi all over the official camp Yuan Ma Temple, prison and guard house horses, people raise official horses and even post horses are all taken captive, just look at the command of King Chuang, the regular soldiers are almost one person, two horses or even three horses, Li Zicheng battalion soldiers are the same, on the other hand, Hong Chengchou said pitifully "three steps and seven horses" when he was in the court, the contrast is stark. With such a surplus of mules and horses, the allocation of five hundred horses is a drop in the bucket. As for the sigil, it can basically only be regarded as formalism, Li Zicheng has a long way to go, and those thieves in Sichuan have some friendship with him, and it is not necessary to say whether he buys it or not. Therefore, Li Zicheng only used his own very small price, Gao Jie's wedding clothes and Tian Jianxiu's tongue to make himself grateful to Dade, which is undoubtedly a step up from drawing a knife to each other without saying a word.

The interests are mutual, to put it mildly, Li Zicheng is now investing in Zhao Dangshi, which is to bet that he will bring more profits in the future.

Although the other party's original intention was to win people's hearts, after all, for Zhao Dangshi, it really gave him a chance. Zhao Dangshi is not a person who is ungrateful and unrighteous, and he is happy to do these just want to be purely Li Zicheng's kindness. With his current situation and strength, being able to climb such a big tree as Li Zicheng definitely has more advantages and fewer disadvantages.

Zhao Dangshi and Li Zicheng parted ways at Shimen, Li Zicheng continued to attack Zhenning in the north, and Zhao Dangshi went west.

Hou Dagui has received the news, he was ordered to take more than 100 people to push all the captured sheephorn carts into the mountains to hide, and now with the main battalion, the weight of the car is not less than half a cent.

Pushing these many sheep's horns full of baggage, walking in the rugged, winding, steep and steep southern Shaanxi or the middle of the river must be extremely inconvenient, Zhao Dangshi has a plan. He dispatched Yang Chengfu, Hou Dagui and other four out, recruited more than 1,000 guerrillas, and used the captured baggage to equip them with new equipment, and reorganized two divisions, with Hao Shaoqi and Xu Hui as the commanders, and the horse military posts in Yang Chengfu also increased from dozens to more than 100 people. In this way, the burden on the troops was greatly reduced, and only a small number of sheep's horns were left behind, carrying some money and food.

Speaking of Hao and Xu, one is outstanding in martial arts and the other is an instructor for a long time, and they were promoted to general, which is enough to convince the public. These two people are grateful for Zhao Dangshi's promotion. Needless to say, Hao Shaoqi has been working hard in the camp for many years, and he can only be a small flag bearer, but now he has risen to the general of 500 people, how can he not be grateful to Dade. And Xu Hui was finally recognized for her hard work, and she was extremely happy. What made him even more excited was that because he was familiar with firearms, Zhao Dangshi placed all the guns and chariots in the battalion under his division, and he was an independent firearms division with 500 people.

Zhao Ying's men and horses stayed in the Sanshui area of Pizhou for several days. Because they were sandwiched between Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, there were no officials and soldiers who came to provoke. Zhao Dangshi took advantage of this time to carefully discuss the matters of entering Sichuan with Hou Dagui, Xu Hui and other "high-level" generals, in order to make adequate preparations.

Everyone understands that the next step will be a new beginning.