At the turn of the winter and spring of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the situation of thieves and people across the northwest to southeast provinces was still treacherous. From a state to a township, wildfires are inexhaustible, and thieves are born in the spring breeze in almost all areas of this vast land. No one knows exactly when this turmoil will gradually subside, but as far as the Ming court is concerned, the beginning of eleven years is clearly encouraging.

At the end of last year, Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king of the giant Kou Xiying, who was as famous as King Li Zicheng, was attacked by Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier of the reinforcement and suppression, and was defeated in the Nanyang area. Xiying's vitality was greatly injured and retreated to the mountainous areas of Fang County and Zhuxi for temporary refuge. Zuo Liangyu's reputation for arrogance and laziness is outside, and the Ming court has repeatedly reproached him for his ineffectiveness in suppressing thieves, however, every time he is loyal to Zhang Xianzhong, he is full of energy and hard work. There is no other reason, just personal grudges. As early as the ninth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong, who was wandering in Henan, killed Zuo Liangyu's brother when he attacked Xuzhou, and thus became a grudge. At this point, the Ming Court can be regarded as "knowing people and being good at their duties".

In addition to Zhang Xianzhong, at the beginning of the year, another giant broke into the sky and surrendered to the Ming court. Since Gao Yingxiang was captured, he has been at the junction of Yunyang, Huguang and Henan provinces, and is responsible for maintaining smooth communication between the Liukou side of the Yunyang channel. However, it was still Zuo Liangyu, after defeating Zhang Xianzhong, he made persistent efforts with the power of the great victory, cooperated with Chen Hongfan, the general soldier of Changping, and broke Liu Guoneng in the Yunxi territory. Liu Guoneng was born in Xusheng, was plundered into a thief, and he couldn't help himself, he has always been famous for his wisdom and bravery, and his mother is filial piety. His mother Chang Xiao is loyal and filial, and the reason why he surrendered was because of defeat, but in fact, it was also to obey his mother's orders.

In Sichuan, in February, Chen Dian of Pengxi Zhixian County sent Zhao Ying away with the front foot, and the back foot was violated by the camp. But he cooperated with Tan Daxiao and broke it in Zhangjiashan. Li Zicheng was furious when he heard the news, gathered troops and poured into the nest, Tan Daxiao retreated, and Pengxi also fell. But at this time, Hong Chengchou had arrived in Sichuan, and he keenly realized that this was a rare and good opportunity. Before, because the camp was divided into different camps in northern Sichuan, like mercury pouring into the ground, the officers and soldiers were quite tired of running for their lives, and the main force of the camp was also erratic, and it was difficult to find a trace. Li Zicheng raised troops out of anger and gathered his troops in a corner, which was tantamount to throwing himself into a net. Hong Chengchou Buce, first besieged with troops, forced the camp into a dead end, and then lured the camp with Sichuan soldiers. Li Zicheng was sick and had not yet recovered, and the generals decided on major military matters, and the generals had different opinions, among which those who were eager to break through the siege were divided into a group of pursuing soldiers, and were ambushed by Cao Bianjiao and other officers and soldiers, killing and wounding thousands of people. The rest of the people saw that things were broken, fell apart, fought separately, and became a plate of scattered sand. Li Zicheng was helpless, and led thousands of soldiers and horses to break through the siege and run north, and was subsequently pursued and killed by Li Wenyin, Liu Kui and other officers and soldiers. The coalition forces that originally formed a rope have since been disbanded.

At present, the giant Kou is the most famous in Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and although there are many names in the other thieves, there is no general climate at all, and they can be destroyed with a snap of their fingers, and the focus of the Ming Court is also placed in the active areas such as Li and Zhang. Although Li Zicheng was defeated, he fled into Gansu, thwarted the attack of Gansu governor Tang Daoheng and the general soldier Chai Shihua, and ravaged the mountainous areas where Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan were active.

The officers and troops of Shaanxi and Sichuan gathered in Gansu and western Sichuan to continue to chase Li Zicheng, while the officers and troops of Henan and Huguang surrounded and suppressed Zhang Xianzhong and Liu Guoneng. However, Zhang Xianzhong and Liu Guoneng were defeated or surrendered one after another, and the officers and troops in Henan and Huguang turned their guns and began to attack the still active Liukou group headed by Cao Cao, Luo Rucai, and Lao Hui Ma Shouying. Luo and Ma are almost equal to Li and Zhang in terms of strength and status, and the officers and troops never dare to underestimate them, and they are currently flowing in the southeast of Henan and the northeast of Chu, so the center of gravity of the officials and troops of Yu and Chu is also inclined to the east.

The Shaanxi and Sichuan soldiers gathered in the west, and the Yu and Chu soldiers gathered in the east. As a result, the eastern Sichuan and western Chu lines are greatly empty, which is so lucky for Zhao Ying, who has recently left Sichuan!

In early March, Zhao Ying entered Taiping County, the northernmost part of Kuizhou. Although there is a road between Dongxiang County and Taiping County, it can be turned back and forth, and it is also difficult to walk. Zhao Dangshi really left, only to find that he had overestimated the feasibility of this road. However, there is no turning back from the bow, and since you have chosen this path, you can only go hard. The weather in the mountainous area changed abruptly, and it snowed again on the way, and the Zhao battalion was divided into more than ten roads to travel in the continuous mountains, and there were many soldiers who were killed and wounded and lost in each battalion and unit, and there were even many teams who got lost and strayed into the fortress of the local people, and the tragic cases of the people who formed associations to protect themselves were completely annihilated. And that's not even counting the fact that in the second half of the journey, a large group of officers and troops appeared on the east side, numbering nearly two thousand, attacking the marching troops harassing Zhao's camp day and night. Zhao Dangshi organized several counterattacks, but the officers and soldiers were always very clever to withdraw first and hide in the mountains, which shows that this official army must be very familiar with the geography of this mountainous area, and it is planned to attack Zhao's camp.

Under this unfavorable condition, Zhao Dangshi was unwilling to continue to entangle with this official army, so he could only urge to speed up the march. However, he couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and the more anxious Zhao Ying was, the more congested he became, and then scattered and lost. The second half of the mountain took almost twice as long as the first half of the road. And the loss of personnel and baggage has increased explosively. After arriving in Taiping County, Zhao Dangshi simply clicked on the number of people, in this nearly 300-mile mountain road, the number of people lost, killed, fleeing, and injured in various parts of the Zhao camp totaled more than 5,000 people, although the main force of the Zhao camp was very small among the more than 5,000 people, but the number still shocked Zhao Dangshi. You know, what he chose was the most appropriate way out of Sichuan. If he hadn't taken this road at the beginning, it is conceivable that Zhao Ying's losses would have been even heavier.

More than 1,000 Zhao battalion soldiers died under the command of the official army from the east. Zhao Dangshi later learned that the person who came was the soldier of Liu Gui, the general of Daning, and he and the garrison Pang Lai divided two troops and came to attack and disturb in turn. Liu Gui and Pang Lai are both hereditary guards of Qutangwei, and they are familiar with the geography and topography of the entire Kuizhou Mansion. The strong dragon does not suppress the head snake, Zhao Ying is strong, but when he encounters such an enemy, he is also dumb and eats Coptis chinensis, and he can't say anything about his suffering, and he is completely powerless. After Zhao Ying's entire army entered the slightly flat area on the outskirts of Taiping County, the Daning soldiers quietly retreated.

"There is no shortage of good fighters in the officers and soldiers!" Zhao Dangshi looked at the shadowy mountains behind him and sighed. Although the Ming Dynasty is decaying, it is still the strongest regime in the world in the final analysis. Among them, those who are talented and brave are not only the number of vehicles? However, a small general can use less than 2,000 troops to inflict losses of nearly 5,000 people on himself, so it can be seen that how can the Ming Dynasty be called unmanned? But such a majestic Ming Dynasty actually perished in the end.

Time also, life also.

Zhao Dangshi was never willing to find any reason for the failure of the Ming Dynasty. Because if you want to find, no matter what aspect comes out, you can point to the countless reasons that prompted it to fail in the end. But these are all hindsight analyses, and they are all afterthoughts. When a regime is rotten from top to bottom, it's easy to find any flaws in it. It is neither meaningful nor necessary to list them one by one, and for Zhao Dangshi, he likes to explain the fact of the fall of the Ming Dynasty with one ultimate reason - the fate is over. When the system of a political system is completely unable to adapt to the development and production of society and the contradictions between classes, it is doomed to perdition, and in popular terms, it has lost its mandate of heaven.

Zhao Ying did not stay too long in Taiping County. The dilapidated Taiping County was also powerless against Zhao Ying.

After resting for three days, Zhao Ying pulled his army north, crossed the Dazhu River, and stepped into the border of Shaanxi again.

Due to the deployment of the official army, there were no large forces of officers and troops stationed in Ziyang County, Xing'an and even Pingli County where the Zhao camp passed, except for Han Gon leading the horse army to expel a small number of officers and troops who wanted to test the north of the Han River.

From the middle of the month to mid-month, Zhao Ying, who had a smooth journey, crossed the Baitu Pass, entered Zhuxi, and occupied Zhushan in the east. These two counties are all in the mountains, the land is small and the people are few, and the county seats are dilapidated. Among them, Zhushan County even "seven years for the thieves to slaughter, to eight years of the county Huang Yingpeng only lived in a few rafters", in the past Zhao Dangshi was still in Yunyang, he had seen this similar to the countryside of the county, time passed, the two counties of Zhuxi and Zhushan, which were soldiers every year, not only did not show signs of improvement, but became more and more broken. In fact, the imperial court later sent several county officials over with the intention of governing and rejuvenating, but these people were greedy for life and afraid of death, and most of them said that they were sick and could not take office, and some even stayed in the middle of their appointments on the grounds that "thieves and soldiers blocked the road and it was difficult to pass". As a result, the two counties were left unmanaged and increasingly deserted. Although the two counties are broken and there is no grain and grass, they are all regarded as lakes and vast lands, so they are milestones in the transformation of Zhao Ying.

Zhao knew the soldiers in the world, and through private visits, he had learned that after a long period of marching and fighting, the morale of the generals of the Zhao camp was now in a very sluggish state, and there were even complaints from time to time. Understanding the heart of a soldier is a necessary quality of a commander, Zhao Dangshi found Wang Laixing to talk with Shuiqiu, summed up the grain, and finally gritted his teeth and decided to have a feast in Zhuxi. First, it is to celebrate the achievement of the strategic goal of the whole army to arrive in Huguang, and secondly, it is also to reward the officers and men of the whole army who have worked hard for a long time.

It is said to be a "feast", but in fact, there is not much alcohol and very little meat. But for the soldiers of Zhao Ying, who have been sleeping in the open for so long, drinking a sip of clear light wine, tasting the taste of meat, and eating a full meal with a big belly is the greatest satisfaction.

"For me Zhao Ying, I did this bowl!"

On the high platform, Hou Dagui and Xu Hui took turns to speak, and Zhao Dangshi was the last to speak, making a generous statement. It not only reviews the past glory, but also looks forward to the bright future. As the leader of Zhao Ying's army, Zhao Dangshi understood that he could not let anyone in the battalion lose confidence in Zhao Ying's tomorrow at any time. How? The most important thing is that he himself will always have confidence in Zhao Ying, even if this confidence sometimes comes from blind persistence, but Zhao Dangshi does not think it is a deception. On the contrary, it is an inspiration, like an ethereal religion, which gives support to the heart and motivates those who believe in it.

With this belief, Zhao Dangshi can continue to lead the whole army forward; With this belief, Zhao Ying's banner can stand.

"For me Zhao Ying, I did this bowl!"

The audience was silent, and the crows were silent. Countless faces looked at Zhao Dangshi in a daze.

"For me Zhao Ying, I did this bowl!"

Zhao Dangshi shouted for the third time, tears in his eyes. I don't know why, no matter the wind and rain, he never bowed his head, let alone shed tears. However, whenever he looks at this black and white face, he always has a burning feeling in his heart. With them, Zhao Dangshi never felt lonely; With them, Zhao Dangshi is fearless.

After the three calls, Zhao Dangshi raised his head with the bowl and drank the wine in the bowl. There is not much wine in the camp, and in order to meet the needs of everyone who can drink a few sips at today's feast, the wine is mixed with a lot of water without exception, and the taste is very poor. But Zhao Dangshi only felt that it was the most delicious mellow jade dew in the world at this time.

"For the sake of the general, I did this bowl!"

Under the high platform, in the crowd of dense turns, I don't know who shouted this sentence first. Then, almost in an instant, the audience burst into a roar that shook the ground and shook the mountains-

"For the sake of the general, I did this bowl!"

"For the sake of the general, I did this bowl!"

"For the sake of the general, I did this bowl!"

......

The deafening roar made Zhao Dangshi a little dizzy, and the roar under the high stage covered once and for all, wave after wave, every time, it was shocking and moving. Zhao Dangshi raised his hand and shouted, wanting everyone to calm down, however, when everyone saw him raise his hand and open his mouth, the cheers became even more enthusiastic.

"For the sake of the general, I did this bowl!"

This roar of all efforts contained the most simple wishes in the hearts of all the soldiers. This voice was so powerful and penetrating that it was not until three days after this banquet that Zhao Dangshi's ears still lingered.

The Zhao camp, which was stationed in the area of Zhuxi and Zhushan, was not in a hurry to leave the mountains and enter the Han River Plain. The situation in Huguang is very complicated, and the various forces are far more intertwined than Sichuan and Shaanxi, and in the absence of a clear situation of the enemy and us, Zhao Dangshi, who came from afar, did not dare to act rashly. After another day, the night that was scattered out did not receive a report from anyone, and several forces were found wandering around Fang County and Baokang County in the east. This couldn't help but make Zhao Ying nervous, because no one had an in-depth understanding of the situation in Huguang before. Fang, Baokang and Zhuxi counties are similar to Zhushan County, and they are all located in the mountains, which belong to the Yumai area of Daba Mountain. Recalling the tragic situation of being attacked by indigenous officials and soldiers in the mountains of Taiping County when he left Sichuan, he couldn't help but feel that the generals of Zhao Ying were not in danger.

Zhao Dangshi took precautions and immediately sent Qin Jinxiao to guard several passes on the east side of Zhushan, and at the same time ordered Guo Ruke to camp along the Zhuxi River, which flows north from the south of Zhushan, to block the water. Not long after the military order went down, Qin Jinxiao sent people back to the camp. Zhao Dangshi thought that something happened to him and he needed to be informed, but Qin Jinxiao brought a "spy" this time.

According to Qin Jinxiao's people, the troops and horses of the headquarters were stationed in the eastern passes, and for two days, several people were found peeping in the forest. Yesterday, these people actually had the courage to approach a pass, and Qin Jinxiao surrounded them and captured them together. I thought it was a scout of the official army, but the leader of the few people claimed to have something important to see the "big palm plate", Qin Jinxiao felt that these people did not look like the official army, and felt a little strange, so he handed it over to the camp to make a decision.

Those people were escorted up, and Zhao Dangshi looked at them and found that the first person was tall and extraordinary, very much like the head of the canal. However, a closer look reveals that compared to other people, this person is the youngest. Although the skin is darker and shows a bit of vicissitudes, just looking at the eyebrows, he is almost a teenager.

"Who is the leader?" In order to verify his guess, Zhao Dangshi opened his mouth and asked.

As expected, the young man took a step forward, bowed slightly, and said, "Back to the palm plate, the small one is, listen to the palm plate question." ”

Zhao Dangshi heard that his answer was extraordinary, and became interested, and then asked, "What is your origin?" ”

The young man nodded and said, "Little Zhang Kewang, my father is the Eight Great Kings. I was ordered by my father to negotiate, but I forgot to report it in advance, and there was a slight misunderstanding with your camp, please forgive me. ”

The "Eight Kings" are the "revolutionary veterans", the old man who started in the first year of Chongzhen, and Zhao Dangshi also had a relationship with him. However, Zhao Dangshi clearly remembered that as early as the ninth year of Chongzhen, he was defeated by Chen Biqian, the then governor of Henan, and Yin Xianmin, the garrison, and was captured in Wuyang Xindian. Therefore, these "Eight Kings" are by no means the "Eight Kings". In today's world, there are many people who are called the "Eight Kings", but now, there is only one person who dares to call himself the "Eight Kings" directly to the outside world and no one else is around.

This family is the "Eight Kings of Xiying" Zhang Xianzhong.

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