Xihua County, county government.

After Li Zicheng broke through Yuncheng County, he marched eastward and conquered Xihua County. So now they have two choices. One is to go north to take Kaifeng, and the other is to fight to Guide Mansion, defeat Li Yan first, and then attack Kaifeng.

"What are your opinions? Do you hit Li Yan first or open the seal first? Li Zicheng asked.

The people under him, as well as Luo Rucai, were silent and did not speak.

Li Zicheng saw that everyone didn't say anything, so he asked Luo Rucai: "Cao Cao, what is your opinion?" ”

"How about we go to Huguang?" Luo Rucai said unexpectedly: "Kaifeng is not easy to fight, and Li Yan is also not easy to fight." Open the seal, Li Yan will come to make trouble. If you fight Li Yan first, but after defeating Li Yan, do you still have the strength to continue to attack Kaifeng? Huguang is different, Zuo Liangyu's troops are scattered all over the place, we just need to fight all the way. Kaifeng is a big city, and Xiangyang and Chengtian are also rich places. ”

Li Zicheng shook his head and said, "That's not right. How many cities have we laid in Henan? As long as Guide Mansion and Kaifeng are also defeated, Henan will be our base. Zuo Liangyu is not our opponent anymore, Shaanxi's He Renlong and they are about to collapse every time, as long as we hold the Yellow River, this piece of Henan will be ours. We can let the people farm, and the brothers will settle down. ”

Luo Rucai said with a smile: "What are you doing when you settle down?" Waiting for the officers and troops to gather to encircle and suppress? And settling down can be happier than attacking everywhere? Grain can be grown if you want to? It depends on whether God agrees or not! How easy it is to grab it, as long as the county seat is laid, the food women in it are all ours, right? ”

Li Zicheng frowned and said, "This can't be done!" Our rebellion is to overthrow the imperial court, and we want to settle down in the future? ”

"Don't say it's useless!" Luo Rucai waved his hand and said: "We can't even solve Kaifeng and Li Yan, and we still want to overthrow the imperial court?" We can just add chaos to the court and overthrow the court, so I don't know when it will take. ”

"With an army of 500,000 under our command, even if we can't immediately take down Beijing City for the time being, there is no problem in splitting the earth and sealing the king." Li Zicheng said confidently: "If not, let's make peace with the imperial court first, and when we have a firm foothold here, we can fight with Chongzhen Xiao'er." Didn't you and Huang Hu do that? ”

"It was the Qing soldiers who happened to enter the customs that gave us a chance to get up again." Luo Rucai explained: "If we hadn't transferred the official army to King Qinwang in Beijing, we would have been killed a long time ago. ”

Li Zicheng laughed and said: "I heard that the north was also defeated by the Qing soldiers last year, and the 130,000 army was wiped out in the first battle." Now is a good opportunity, and the imperial court does not have many troops to rescue Kaifeng. As long as Li Yan is defeated, then Kaifeng will be in our pocket. ”

Luo Ru knew that Li Zicheng still wanted to open the lockdown, so he said: "It's okay to fight, but I don't want to fight with Li Yan." ”

"Don't worry about this," Li Zicheng nodded and said, "I've already thought about it, let's not fight hard with Li Yan." Didn't he control Guide and Qi County? Such a big place, let's find a few directions to attack it, how many places can he defend? As long as his forces are dispersed, let's give him a breakdown, it will be much simpler. ”

Luo Rucai frowned and said: "The forts in Guide Mansion are all very strong, if it drags on for a long time, Li Yan's pursuers will soon catch up, and it will be difficult to deal with." ”

"Last time you only had 50,000 people, but this time we have 500,000!" Li Zicheng said disdainfully: "How many soldiers can he Li Yan have?" We have sixty or seventy thousand on each road, and as long as he dares to go out of the city, then he will kill himself! ”

Luo Rucai nodded and said, "It's okay, then I'll be all the way." Anyway, I only have about 100,000 people, and half of them are ordinary people, and if I divide the army again, I won't even be able to defeat a county town. ”

"Cao Cao, you can't be too lazy!" Liu Zongmin, who still had a wound on his leg, spoke: "Your army of more than 100,000 people is only one way, so won't we have to divide into three roads?" ”

Luo Rucai glanced at Liu Zongmin's injured leg, and he was even more firm in his thoughts. said: "There are a lot of three directions, as long as you attack three directions at the same time, there are always one or two directions that Li Yan can't take care of." And it is also advantageous for us to have more people, 20,000 people can come and go freely in front of our army of 50,000 or 60,000, if we have fewer people, we may be surrounded by others. ”

"What did you say?!" Liu Zongmin immediately heard the nail in Luo Rucai's words, and roared angrily: "You Cao Cao took 50,000 soldiers and horses to fight Qi County, didn't you only escape 20,000?!" ”

"That's right, you still need more troops to be insured." Luo Rucai nodded with a smile.

Li Zicheng said loudly: "Okay, it's decided!" After we defeat Chenzhou (Huaiyang) and Taikang, we will divide our troops into three routes and attack Zhecheng, Suizhou, and Qixian respectively! ”

"I'm going to fight Zhecheng!" Luo Rucai immediately demanded. He had been to Suizhou and Qixian last time, and he felt that it was difficult to deal with, so it seemed that he would take advantage of Zhecheng.

Li Zicheng refused: "Let's fight Chenzhou and Taikang first!" ”

At night, in a small house.

Tian Yong and several of his henchmen discussed together.

"Li Zicheng has already decided, and after defeating Chenzhou and Taikang, he will first attack Zhecheng, Suizhou, and Qixian." Tian Yong said in a low voice: "This time I want to defeat Li Yan first, and then go to open the seal." ”

"That's not going to work," said one of the henchmen, "our brothers' families are all there, and if they do, will they be able to escape?" ”

"yes, we can't sit idly by any longer." Tian Yong's personal soldiers said: "We didn't know that Luo Rucai went to fight Qi County last time, but this time he went to fight our home." They have always slaughtered cities against fierce resistance, and they can't say anything to let them enter Shangqiu. ”

Tian Yong nodded and said, "Find an opportunity tomorrow to send a message to Li Yan's spies and let him get ready." ”

"There are 500,000 troops this time, can Li Yan still stop it?" One of the leaders said worriedly, "Why don't we find a way to take the family out." ”

Tian Yong scolded in a low voice: "What nonsense! The family has land and land, can you come out and be a thief with us?! ”

"Why don't we go back and help the family." Another leader suggested.

"We're just a thousand people, and the others are not the same as us, what's the use of going back?" Tian Yong said calmly: "Let's wait, it can be of great use at a critical time." ”

Everyone looked at each other and felt that what Tian Yong said made sense. So he nodded and said, "Okay, then listen to the second brother." ”

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