Hearing Hong Chengchou's words, Li Zhi was silent. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Speaking of which, this time the Guanning army entered the customs to attack Tianjin, Hong Chengchou was going to lose his head as the commander - the Shandong gentry who raised money to throw Li lost his head, and the Donglin Party boss who dispatched the Guanning army in the imperial court lost his head, and it stands to reason that Hong Chengchou, who was in command at the front, could not escape no matter what.

However, Li Zhinian and Hong Chengchou only acted on orders, said a word for him in the recital, and finally let the Son of Heaven release him.

It can be said that it was Li Zhi who saved Hong Chengchou's life at a critical moment.

Today's Ming Dynasty has reached its old age, and there is twilight everywhere, and the officialdom is corrupt and the people are rotten. But in Tianjin and Shandong, which were ruled by Li Zhi, they were full of vigor. Li Zhi's various policies have brought unprecedented vitality to the entire society of the two places.

As long as you are a discerning person, you must be able to see that the most promising places in the Ming Dynasty at this time are undoubtedly Tianjin and Shandong under Li Zhi's rule. Hong Chengchou came to defect to Li Zhi at this time, and Li Zhi is completely understandable.

However, Li Zhi could not fully trust Hong Chengchou.

Standing up and helping Hong Chengchou up, Li Zhi said with a smile: "Although Hong Gong is in trouble today, the fame of Jinshi is still there, and the people at home still have hope, so there is no chance to make a comeback and recover his official body?" Li Zhi is willing to write another letter to speak for Hong Gong, and suggests that the Son of Heaven use Hong Gong again"

Li Zhi will advise the Son of Heaven to use Hong Chengchou again? Hong Chengchou knew that Li Zhi was testing himself, and said: "Today's imperial court has gone out of control, and the important positions are full of Donglin Party, and these party members feel that the rise of Jin Guogong is irrepressible, and they are acting more and more exhausted. The cause of suppressing thieves in the south is a mess, and the land of Liaoxi is abandoned for 400 miles in the north. ”

"Those who have a little vision know that there is no place for people outside the party in the court."

"Even if the Son of Heaven uses Hong Chengchou again, the outcome will not change, and Hong Chengchou's life will be killed after all."

Li Zhi saw that Hong Chengchou was determined to work under his command, thought about it, and said, "In that case, you can come to me to be a staff officer." ”

For Hong Chengchou, who was born in the imperial examination, Li Zhi has always been a little distrustful. Li Zhi needs time to see if this famous general can become a part of his own system. The position of staff officer sounds decent, but in reality it can only make suggestions and has no other powers.

Moreover, the authority of the position of staff officer is very erratic, and he does not have access to too many secrets, which is suitable for Li Zhi to observe Hong Chengchou.

Hong Chengchou has fought for more than ten years and is very familiar with the various forms of war. If Hong Chengchou can indeed contribute to the post, Li Zhi will not be able to promote Hong Chengchou a few years later.

Hearing that Li Zhi was willing to accept him, Hong Chengchou was overjoyed.

"Hong Chengchou is willing to make suggestions for Grandpa Guo!"

Li Zhi smiled and said, "But in Tianjin, we talk about public morality, not Confucianism. Hong Gong was born in Confucianism, and he must re-receive public moral education. In the future, Hong Gong would go to the middle school in Tianjin Acropolis every two days to take a class of "Gongde". Hong Gong should listen carefully to the class and complete the homework. Hong Gong's homework, I will check it myself. ”

Hong Chengchou was stunned and a little embarrassed, but he still said: "Hong Chengchou has an order." Now the court is full of great Confucianism, but the country and society are a mess of erosion, which shows that Confucianism may not be able to save the country. Hong Chengchou must conscientiously study Grandpa Guo's "Public Morality" class, and strive to comprehend Grandpa Guo's good intentions as soon as possible. ”

Seeing that Hong Chengchou was interested, Li Zhi laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

It's also good to have an experienced player to give advice to you.

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Outside Kaifeng, Li Zicheng surrounded the ancient capital for the third time.

Kaifeng is the capital of Song Jing and Yuan, and the city is high and the walls are thick. This time, Li Zicheng changed the strategy of the past storm, and prepared to use the power of gunpowder to blast through the towering city wall.

Tens of thousands of hungry people rushed to the foot of the city wall in the face of the rain of arrows on the city wall, began to fill the moat, and then crossed the moat to dig a hole under the city wall to place gunpowder bags. The bodies of the hungry people were almost defenseless in front of the Kaifeng defenders who were exposed on the city walls.

Rolling wood and stones kept falling, and every second, countless lives died tragically under Kaifeng City.

However, the hungry people in front of them have just died, and more hungry people are coming in the back. Henan has been famine for many years, but the gentry who are rich in food savings have no good deeds for disaster relief. The hungry people are Li Zicheng's endless source of manpower. Everywhere Li Zicheng went, as long as he shouted, "Follow the king to grab grain", the people would be like a long-arid grassland, a fire in the plain.

Wu Sangui stood on a hill ten miles away, observing the tragic siege scene under Kaifeng City, his face turned pale.

Where is this war, this is simply taking human lives to send them to death. I don't know how many people will have to die, so Li Zicheng can dig a hole under the city wall that is enough to place the gunpowder pack.

Wang Pu, the chief soldier of Datong, looked at Wu Sangui who looked nervous, and said with a smile: "Uncle Chang now knows the horror of the thief, right?" In this land of Henan, where there has been a famine for many years, the thieves are simply undefeated. ”

"The thieves have 10,000 horsemen, 30,000 old thieves, 100,000 foot soldiers, I don't know how many hungry soldiers there are, I guess the thief himself doesn't know how many hungry soldiers he has. These hungry soldiers are not soldiers at all, they are the famine-stricken people of Henan. The thieves gave them a spear, and they became the thieves. ”

"Shandong has the relief of the Jinguo Public, and there is no chaos after a year of drought. But no one in Henan cares at all, and the people can only starve to death if they don't obey the thieves. 10 million hungry people, how many can 100,000 officers and soldiers kill? ”

"If we fight to the death against the thieves in Henan, these hungry soldiers can bite us to death with a single bite. Not to mention the 100,000 foot soldiers of the thieves, most of them are my Ming soldiers, horses, and thieves, and they are quite powerful. The officials were corrupt, and my Ming battalion soldiers could not get their salaries in the barracks, and many of them were thieves. ”

"Now that the dynasty is corrupt, it is not one person, two people can change it. Even if you die fighting for the court, who will remember you? ”

"So it's better to take the head offered by the thief and be safe with the thief."

Listening to Wang Pu's words, Wu Sangui was a little speechless.

In the first battle of Luanzhou, the Guanning army was defeated. The Son of Heaven was furious and cut the salary of the Guanning army, and the salary of the Guanning army, which was originally four or five million a year, was reduced to two million taels, less than half of the original. Wu Sangui's original 20,000 horses had to disperse half, leaving only 10,000.

The territory of 400 miles in western Liaoning has been occupied by the Tatars, and the Guanning army is unable to recover, and the imperial court transferred only more than 30,000 Guanning troops to Henan to suppress the thieves.

But Wu Sangui couldn't have imagined that the war in Henan had been eroded to such an extent.

The officers and soldiers on the front line did not suppress the thieves at all, but followed Li Zicheng's thief army and watched the thieves conquer the city. And every month, Li Zicheng sent people to send some heads to the officers and soldiers for the officers and soldiers to repay their merits.

Most of those heads are Ming sons who are unwilling to follow Li Zicheng to rebel.

Although Li Zicheng is calling for wind and rain in Henan, there are always innocent people who are unwilling to be thieves. In the environment where most of the hungry people follow Li Zicheng, these people are extremely eye-catching, and of course the thieves will not let them go. No matter where these people flee to hide, they will be found out by their compatriots who are bent on being thieves.

From thieves or to death, there are only two options in Henan, where thieves are rampant.

Those people who chose to die were secretly sent to the official army camp at the first level, and became the military exploits of 100,000 thieves.