On the tenth day of February, Li Zhi returned to Xiangyang with his troops. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Yuan Jixian, the governor of Xunyang, Zhang Yingyuan, the chief soldier of Baoding, and the chief soldier of the Jizhen Central Association, Meng Ruhu, led their fathers and villagers to welcome Li Zhi's army thirty miles outside Xiangyang City. Li Zhi killed Zhang Xianzhong, and now he is a hot figure in front of the Son of Heaven, although these generals hate Li Zhi in their hearts, they have to greet them respectfully on the surface.

The villagers beat gongs and drums, carrying the pigs and sheep wine to reward the army, and were more enthusiastic than when Li Zhi came from Tianjin a few months ago.

Li Zhi also wanted to see Yang Sichang's embarrassed appearance, but heard Yuan Jixian say: "Lord Taibao still doesn't know, right?" The Inspector had died of illness three days earlier. ”

Li Zhi was stunned, he didn't expect Yang Sichang to die. This playful courtier, who was angry with Li Zhi? Li Zhi was happy and said, "I didn't expect the superintendent to die in office." ”

Li Zhi meant that he didn't expect Yang Sichang to be lucky enough to die in office, and he was dismissed from his post, but he was lucky. Yuan Jixian didn't know if he heard Li Zhi's sarcasm, and said gracefully: "Yes, the supervisor is bent on quelling the thief, and it is a pity that he finally waited until the thief was exterminated, but he fell ill and died!" ”

Li Zhi flicked his sleeves and didn't bother to discuss this issue again. He was about to walk forward, but he saw a eunuch wearing a python robe and a jade belt around his waist in front of him, with four eunuchs, holding a holy decree and waiting there. Seeing Li Zhi coming over, the eunuch shouted:

"The crown prince Taibao, the governor of Zuodu, and Li Zhi, the chief military officer of Tianjin, received the order!"

Li Zhi knew that this was a reward for himself, and led the civil and military officials behind him to kneel on the ground and accept the holy decree.

I heard the eunuch shouting: "Fengtian carries the emperor's edict, the crown prince and the Taibao... Li Zhi, Erbu captured and sacrificed the thief, and his merits are very great... Jin Er is the crown prince and the prince. Baier is a martial arts strategy, controlling the soldiers and horses in Henan, and pacifying the thieves. If you make meritorious deeds again, you will be rewarded for your achievements before and after. ”

Hearing the holy decree read by the eunuch, the generals of Xiangyang were all nervous.

Li Zhi was promoted again, this time from the prince to the "prince". The so-called crown prince and prince were originally teachers who taught the prince to march and fight, and later became the "Three Princes" honor, which was the highest position of military attaché.

At this time, Li Zhi has a higher status in front of other generals, and the other commanders have to perform official salutes when they see Li Zhi, and they can't sit on an equal footing with Li Zhi. Even if Li Zhi met the governor and the governor, he could protest with them by virtue of his official position, and he would not fall behind.

What's even more shocking is the last sentence, the so-called "before and after the credit is recounted, there must be a heavy reward", which means that once Li Zhi defeats Li Zicheng, Li Zhi will be given the title of earl?

Once you have the title of earl, it is superb, and the status is above the governor. The prince of the Ming Dynasty can be in charge of the five prefectures and the six armies, and he can lead the general seal as the commander and governor, and he is a very popular minister. And with Li Zhi's strong military horses, it seems that the destruction of the thieves is a matter of being caught. This earl title is nine out of ten.

This Li Zhi is only twenty-five or six years old, and he is so young, what is the future of the future?

The generals and commanders of Xiangyang are all the generals of Zhang Xianzhong's defeated army, and it is estimated that they will be impeached by the officials in turn in the next few months, and demote or even dismissal is indispensable at that time. Seeing Li Zhi's ascension at this time, he couldn't help but have mixed feelings. Everyone said that if they didn't make things difficult for Li Zhi at that time, but followed Li Zhi to pursue Zhang Xianzhong, what would it be like now?

However, although his heart is bitter, Li Zhi is now powerful, and everyone has a heart of stommer. When Li Zhi got up and took the order, a bunch of civil servants and military generals surrounded Li Zhi and complimented him with nonsense:

"Taifu has worked hard and made great achievements, and this reward is a matter of course."

"Taifu is in a high position at such a young age, and he will definitely be able to rise to another level in the future!"

"Taifu takes down the thief, and he will be crowned!"

Li Zhi smiled and bowed to the north, and said with a smile: "It's all up to the Son of Heaven!" ”

When everyone saw Li Zhi mention the Son of Heaven, they stood up straight one by one and arched their hands to the north, singing: "The Son of Heaven is Shengming!" ”

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The Son of Heaven wanted Li Zhichi to come to the aid of Henan and exterminate Li Zicheng.

In the second half of the thirteenth year of Li Zicheng Chongzhen, he escaped from Yufu Mountain in Brazil, and entered Henan with 50 cavalry, and developed tens of thousands of thieves in just a few months.

On the 22nd day of the first month, Li Zicheng led 30,000 thieves to capture Luoyang. Luoyang is not only a big city, but also has the uncle of Zhu Youzhen, the son of heaven, in the city. Li Zicheng has been chased and intercepted by the Ming Court over the years, and his hatred for the Ming Court is unforgettable. After catching King Fu, he actually killed King Fu and chopped his meat, and cooked it with venison to eat it called "Fu Lu Banquet".

After learning that his uncle died at the hands of thieves, the Son of Heaven was very angry and urgently ordered soldiers and horses from all over the country to help suppress the thieves in Henan. Since Zhang Xianzhong has been captured and killed by Li Zhi, Sichuan has settled down, and the Son of Heaven has drawn out more than half of the Sichuan and Chu thief army and sent all of them to Henan. Cao Bianjiao and others all rushed to Henan behind Li Zhi.

At this time in Henan, Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng after capturing Luoyang, hoping to take this big city with a drum like the capture of Luoyang.

But Kaifeng's defense is much stronger than Luoyang. Kaifeng is the capital of Song and Beijing, the city is thick and the soil is strong, and the city defense facilities are very perfect. The noble bureaucrats in the city headed by the king of Kaifeng Zhou were very united, and according to the battle of the city, Li Zicheng's 30,000 soldiers and horses besieged for a month, but they still could not take the city.

Li Zhi's soldiers and horses only rested in Xiangyang for one day, and then went all the way to Kaifeng.

There was a great drought in Henan, and along the way, most of the villages Li Zhi saw were dilapidated. I don't know if I was robbed or fled because of a great drought, and I didn't see people anywhere.

Li Zhi traveled thousands of miles along the way, but did not see an effective water conservancy facility. There are really a lot of natural disasters in the late Ming Dynasty, either locust plague here or drought there. Moreover, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, politics was chaotic, and officials were busy forming parties for personal gain, and no one organized agriculture. The slightest natural disaster can turn into a catastrophe.

Li Zhi walked for fifteen days and walked to the vicinity of Xuchang, which was only two hundred miles away from Kaifeng.

The closer you get to Kaifeng, the more depressed the surrounding countryside becomes, and you can't even see a single populace for more than a dozen miles. The thieves looted near Kaifeng, and the people of Kaifeng either fled or became thieves, where are there still people guarding the countryside?

Li Zhi was marching on a horse that day, but suddenly saw a commotion from the soldiers in front of him. Dozens of soldiers, as if they had seen a ghost, stopped moving forward, and one by one gave way to the side of the road in a panic.

Li Zhi frowned, told the whole army to stop, jumped off his horse and walked towards the riot to see what was going on.

Walking in front of the soldiers, Li Zhi saw an unkempt woman crawling on the ground, holding an infant baby in her hand.

The woman didn't know how many days she had been hungry, and she was so skinny that she seemed to have no strength to crawl. The baby in his hand was also visibly malnourished, pale, silent in the bumps, and did not even have the strength to cry. The woman apparently had little strength left, but crawled desperately towards the middle of the army. When the soldiers saw the woman's plight, they did not stop her.

Seeing Li Zhi in an official robe come out, the woman who was crawling on the ground suddenly gained some strength, raised her head and shouted, "General, save my son." (To be continued.) )