After the dreary and endless siege battle was after the sun set, the gong that sounded in everyone's ears like the sound of heaven finally sounded, and today's inconclusive battle finally came to an end.

In the sound of the gongs, all the poles, dragging the tired body, slowly, listlessly dragging the knives and guns, none of the corpses and comrades who looked back at the battlefield walked back to their barracks.

Thrown on the battlefield were swords and guns all over the ground, tattered banners, and robes that were still screaming and wailing when they were dead or not.

In the big tent of King Da Chuang, the military discussion is still dull and unbearable, and they still blame each other, complain and abuse each other, dance knives and guns with each other, and still break up unhappily.

Although he returned to his camp, the time was close to midnight, and Li Zicheng also felt extremely tired, but he still took a few close generals and worked tirelessly to visit the camp one by one, and expressed his greetings to those who came back from injury, and rewarded those who had meritorious service on the battlefield and those who had made great contributions.

Li Zicheng and his generals and soldiers share weal and woe, which is something that no one in the entire righteous army can do, and because of this, Li Zicheng's army has truly become a strong army that cannot be dragged and defeated, for no other reason, that is, cohesion.

At the end of the tour, he returned to his tent and sat in front of the charcoal brazier in the tent to hold his own closed-door meeting.

"Jie Xuan, how do you think this battle should be fought?" Li Zicheng had just sat down, and he was the first to ask Liu Zongmin.

Liu Zongmin was also discouraged at this time, and sighed: "Hongji, these days I have been supervising the battle in front, and I have seen it really, the Lu Shi thief doesn't know how to train the soldiers, they all know that they will die, but they are still so desperate to fight to the death with us, not to mention, I don't know how the thief operates, the longbow and giant arrows seem to be endless, and the artillery, not only is the range longer than the official army, but more importantly, the loading speed is faster, and the ammunition is not exhausted, every time we attack, Not to mention the rain-like projectiles on the other side of the Yellow River, so that our sheepskin raft cannot be crossed, even the head of Jixian County behind us, as well as the warehouse fortress, can also spare time to blow us back, so down, we are actually really in a state of two-sided attack. Looking at all of your colleagues who feel the same way, Liu Zongmin stretched out his hand and leaned towards the brazier, roasted it silently for a while, rubbed it again, and then shook his head and sighed: "The battle between these two sides, according to my opinion, if we continue to fight like this, we will really fight hard." ”

Li Zicheng bent down and put his hand towards the brazier, but he couldn't feel the heat of the charcoal fire, the dark red charcoal fire, reflected on his angular face, not only did not make him look energetic, but made people feel obscure.

Yes, what Liu Zongmin said, it makes sense that now is the real nerve, the reason is that Li Zicheng's capital is all brothers from Shaanxi, and they are all brothers who follow him with all their hearts and minds after dozens of battles with poles and official soldiers, and those people are the foundation for maintaining him. Now, the five thousand brothers originally brought out, that is the bones of this team, as long as these muscles and bones are there, no matter where they go, with a shout, they can pull up a team of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, but. In such and such reasons, most of the damage has been done now, if it continues to be lost like this, within three or five days, it will be completely consumed, and at that time, what do you rely on to survive in this troubled world?

"That's what Jie Xuan said." Li Guo moved his body, leaned over to the brazier, took over the conversation, and said in a low voice: "If you follow the way my uncle (Gao Yingxiang) plays, although those miscellaneous battalion leaders consume quickly, our own body consumption is not light, in fact, this account is still not cost-effective." Looking at Li Zicheng, who was silent, he said casually: "The old eighth team, we are one of them, now when it comes to strength, it is only three or four, and there are uncle's personal soldiers in front, these days, I only stand behind as a supervising team, and I have killed other people's subordinates, and I have no loss at all." ”

Regarding Li Guo's method of reckoning, Li Zicheng couldn't help but nod silently.

The reason why he is valued by his uncle King Dachuang is not that he has tens of thousands of horses in his hands, and a group of brothers who dare to fight? In fact, there is actually a balance between power and strength, one side is too strong, the other side is too weak, it is not a good thing, at least for now, it is not a good thing for yourself.

Now, he has consumed elite soldiers and strong generals, and now in comparison, his uncle's strength is stronger, then, his importance in his hands has weakened, if he continues to develop like this, in the near future, he will become his uncle's opponent, so on the side, to preserve the strength of the miscellaneous battalion head, in fact, is of great benefit to himself, at least, the uncle has to rely on himself to restrain them. And to save their old brothers in Shaanxi, it is even more important, as long as there are those bones, they can coerce the people to become a strong army at any time, and once the bones are gone, nothing can be done.

With Li Zicheng's silence, the big tent suddenly fell into a dead silence, and everyone was worried about the future.

The fire in the brazier in the middle of the big tent flickered brightly and darkly cast the figures of several people on the tent, flickering, flickering left and right, and a cold wind outside blew in, lifting the cotton tent and pouring it in, so that everyone in the big tent involuntarily wrapped the cloak on their bodies.

As the cold wind entered, there were faint screams and wails.

Li Zicheng couldn't help frowning, turned his head and asked Liu Zongmin, the chief whistle, "Jie Xuan, how many escapees have you dealt with this time?" ”

Liu Zongmin didn't raise his head, and said casually: "There are probably more than two hundred, they were all caught and cut on the wooden poles in the camp." ”

Most of these poles are coerced, and there are very few sincere ones, so it is not surprising that there is an escape every night, so everyone sends out capable people to patrol and arrest on the periphery of the camp, and once they are caught, they immediately cut live on the pole in the middle of the camp to set an example, which is also an unwritten rule, and Li Zicheng's troops are not exempt from vulgarity, but these days, most of the escapes are those who are coerced in Shanxi, after all, the war is unfavorable, and the morale of the army is hit. It can't be avoided.

Li Zicheng nodded, but then asked worriedly: "Do we have many brothers in Shaanxi who have escaped?" ”

Tian Jianxiu, who had been sitting farther away, took over and said, "Yes, but not much." Then look at Gao Yigong, whose expression is a little unnatural (Gao Yigong is a native of Mizhi, Shaanxi, Li Zicheng is his wife and brother. For Li Zicheng's arm. "It's just that there are some in the camp of a meritorious person." "It's not that Tian Jianxiu is bad for Gao Yigong, Tian Jianxiu is upright, and he is not a bad person, he is just talking about things.

The Shaanxi brothers under Gao Yigong are all from horse bandits, and when they fight with the wind, their combat effectiveness is definitely the strongest in the whole army, but because of their background, once they are frustrated, they will be the fastest to disperse. And when he handed over the sharpest double-edged knife to Gao Yigong, it was also the reason why Li Zicheng had infinite faith in Gao Yigong, a tiger, but Gao Yi's functional power was limited, except for his loyalty and bravery, there was almost nothing, so it was difficult to suppress the gang of bandits under him.

Looking at Li Zicheng, whose face was unswerving, Hao Shaoqi hurriedly came out to play a round: "This is good, more than 200 have been chopped, and now our war horses have fine material again." ”

As soon as he said this, everyone's mood suddenly improved, yes, the war horse, it is the legs of these mobile-oriented men, with these essences added to the grass, the physical strength of the war horse will be further improved, and in the future, in case the war is unfavorable, everyone can also go faster.

Being interrupted by Hao Shaoqi, Li Zicheng no longer pursued Gao Yigong's unfavorable mistakes in governing the army, thought about it, raised his head and said: "The battle, we still have to fight, we must go to Shaanxi, this is the general policy, we can't change it, and we can't change it, now, we must take advantage of Lu Shi's entanglement with the officials and troops in Weinan, his base area is empty, and the Shanxi officials and troops rushed over to the rare time when King Qinwang of Gyeonggi did not come back, and found a place to stand, otherwise, once a large number of officials and troops come back, we will die without a place to be buried." ”

What Li Zicheng said, everyone knows, in fact, it is not alarmist, everyone is afraid of Lu Shi's combat power, but they are even more afraid of the official army, no matter how strong Lu Shi's combat power is, but after all, it is a pole, and no matter how incompetent the official army is, after all, it is still an official army, this is the essential difference.

"But." Li Zicheng turned his words, straightened his back, glanced at his henchmen majestically, and then lowered his voice and said: "However, we can't fight to the death, preserving combat power is fundamental, once the war is unfavorable, we have to leave." ”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"The war horses must be taken care of, the essence is not spared, and the grain must be quietly tightened reserves, and, Li Guo."

"Uncle." Li Guo responded with a bow.

"You will go to the old camp in a while, tell your aunt, let those who have children, and those who are about to give birth, lose them quickly, don't drag the whole army back."

"I see."

"Yufeng (Tian Jianxiuzi) Don't rest, hurry up and take a strong one, and then go around to recruit people, the more the merrier, the more the better, while everyone is busy fighting at this time, let's hurry up."

"Yes."

"Jie Xuan, you still have to work hard, and then strengthen the vigilance of the next battalion."

"Okay."

"Hmm-" Li Zicheng pondered for a moment, and then said again: "Tomorrow, bring those backwards to the battlefield, let the old brothers rest, and leave some way back for everything." ”

Seeing that everyone nodded in agreement, Li Zicheng stood up and said with a dull face: "It's okay, let's take various actions." ”

Seeing that it was not early, the brothers each received their tasks, and hurried back to their own camps to carry out, and when everyone dispersed, Li Zicheng shook his head gently, and couldn't help but think, why is this battle so difficult? Win? Do you still want to hope?