On the sixth day of the first month of the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Xingyang, Henan.

Xingyang is the north of Henan, there is a chasm in the east to connect the Huai River and Surabaya, the north is adjacent to the Yellow River, the south is adjacent to the Suohe River and the Song Mountain, and the west passes the Tiger Prison Pass to connect Luoyang and Chang'an, the terrain is dangerous, the traffic is vertical and horizontal, it is the strategic place of the Ming Court.

Outside Xingyang City, two or three hundred thousand righteous troops gathered here, camping for hundreds of miles. As one of the leaders of the rebel army, Gao Junshan also occupies a place here.

Gao Junshan and Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai fought all the way from the Lu clan in western Henan, and the coalition army had a total of 70,000 people, sweeping all the way through Songxian, Ruzhou, Yanshi, Gongxian and other places, making it difficult for Xuanmo, the governor of Henan, to deal with it, and repeatedly appealed to the Ming court for rescue.

When they arrived in Xingyang, several other rebels had also arrived here, and for a while, flags were waving outside Xingyang City, and the banners were varied.

For the unity of military operations, on this day, the leaders of the thirteen families gathered in the Yamen compound of Xingyang Cheng County, preparing to elect the chief commander to lead the next action strategy of the rebel army.

There are a total of 72 battalions of these 13 families, and they are:

Lao Hui Hui Nine Battalions, Cao Cao Nine Battalions, Ge Li Eye Five Battalions, Zuo Jin Wang Four Battalions, Guotianxing Four Battalions, Reincarnated King Two Battalions, Shooting Heaven Collapse Two Battalions, Hengtian King Two Battalions, Nine Dragons Two Battalions, Shuntian King Two Battalions, Chuang Wang Fifteen Battalions, Eight Kings Thirteen Battalions, Qin King Three Battalions.

Each battalion ranged from several thousand, with a total of more than 270,000 men.

Each family sent five or six people to attend the meeting, and there were as many as 100 participants, which shows that all families attach great importance to this conference.

Hui Dengxiang (nicknamed Tianxing) was originally going to join forces with Gao Junshan, but Gao Junshan suggested that he become his own family, and Hui Dengxiang was of course willing to obey; Gaojun Mountain has the signboard of King Qin, which can be a family of its own; Li Zicheng, a general of Gao Yingxiang, is also qualified to participate in this conference.

The conference unanimously elected Gao Yingxiang as the general manager, so there is no suspense about this first agenda, and the next is the central agenda of the conference.

The leaders sat in a circle, Gao Junshan took the Red Army Friends, Ma Jinzhong, Tian Wenju, and Liu Hongru to sit on the right side of Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Gao Yigong and other Gao Yingxiang's subordinates sat on Gao Yingxiang's left side, and Gao Yingxiang, who was sitting on the main seat, spoke first: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to discuss the way out of the 72 battalions of the 13 families in the future. ”

At this time, a voice in the crowd shouted: "There is nothing to discuss, since we have elected King Chuang as the chief ruler, we will obey King Chuang's command." ”

Gao Junshan looked at the voice, and it turned out that he was talking to the sky.

Lao Hui stood up and said with a smile: "King Chuang, our thirteen families, elected you as the big boss, you directly took the idea, we all listen to you." ”

Seeing this situation, Gao Junshan also stood up and said: "Don't misunderstand, although King Chuang is always in charge, how to march and fight still has to listen to everyone's opinions, and cannot be arbitrary. ”

Gao Yingxiang also said: "That's exactly what it means." Since everyone is reluctant to start this, then please Cao Cao first talk about the situation of the official army. ”

Luo Rucai stood up and said, "King Chuang, you should tell the leaders of each family." ”

Zhang Xianzhong said dissatisfiedly: "Don't push around, if this continues, this meeting will not be opened?" ”

Li Zicheng got up and said: "Cao Shuai is resourceful, King Chuang asked you to say that you should not shirk again." ”

Luo Rucai's face turned a little red, and he coughed dryly before saying, "Since that's the case, I'll be reluctant to make it difficult." According to reports, Hong Chengchou mobilized 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers from various towns to come to Henan, 30,000 soldiers from the western border, 20,000 soldiers from the northern border, 2,000 cavalry from Ningtie, 5,000 Zhending pacesetters, 3,000 soldiers from Tianjin, and 3,000 soldiers from Baixiangzi Luoba Temple, with a salary of 786,000 taels and 200,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury to encircle and suppress us. ”

King Hengtian didn't care: "I'm afraid of him, we also have two or three hundred thousand people, in my opinion, we are waiting for him here Hong Chengchou to see what he can do to us?" ”

Nine dragons said: "Hengtian King, don't talk nonsense, or listen to the high opinion of the chief in charge." ”

Gao Junshan stood up again and said, "I'll add a few words. As far as I know about the movements of the official army, Hong Chengchou has outflanked me in the four directions of the southeast, the northwest, and the northwest. From the south came Tang Hui; From the west came the main force of Hong Chengchou's Shaanxi soldiers; To the north, there is Henan's Xuanmo blocking the road; Only the eastern side has the least troops. I suggest that we can break through from the east and break the encirclement and suppression of Hong Chengchou. ”

Lao Hui replied: "We are so afraid of his dick!" In my opinion, simply go north to Shanxi to see who dares to block Lao Tzu's way. ”

Zhang Xianzhong sneered at Lao Huihui: "Who do you think you are?" You also went north to Shanxi, I think you want to escape, and you are afraid of Hong Chengchou. ”

Lao Hui said angrily: "I'm afraid of your ball!" Zhang Xianzhong, do you dare to start a fight with Lao Tzu with real guns and knives! ”

Gao Yingxiang patted the case a few times and said: "This is a military meeting, not a place for you to compete and win!" ”

The leaders stepped forward to comfort and persuade, and finally lowered the anger of the two.

After the commotion subsided, Li Zicheng stood up and said: "What King Qin said is not unreasonable, our army has great hope for a breakthrough to the east, so we might as well come up with a strategy of dividing our troops and orienting our troops and attacking in four directions, so that the officers and soldiers will be exhausted." ”

Gao Yingxiang pondered for a long time and said: "The four-way attack can indeed disperse the enemy. ”

The leaders also wanted to know what the direction of this division of troops was, and Zhang Xianzhong was the first to speak: "Dare to ask Brother Li, how do you divide the law if you let us divide the troops?" ”

Li Zicheng said: "We divided into four groups, east, west, south and north. The four roads are freely matched, that is, the east road is the most important, just now the Junshan brothers said, the east road is the weakest direction of the Ming army, and it is our main direction of attack, so this road must be the most capable of fighting. ”

Zhang Xianzhong said with a smile: "This way should be counted as my old Zhang." ”

Gao Yingxiang nodded in agreement. He asked again: "The West Road is the main force of Hong Chengchou, this road is the strongest, who dares to go west?" ”

None of the leaders made a sound, but they all looked at me and I looked at you. In an instant, Gao Junshan took the initiative to ask: "Father, let's wait for the child to go west." ”

"I am willing to go with King Qin!" King Hengtian said loudly.

King Shun also stood up and was willing to go west with Gao Junshan.

"Good!" Gao Yingxiang began to order troops, "Ge Li Eye, Zuo Jin Wang listen to the order!" ”

Ge Liyan stood up: "He Yilong is at the disposal of King Chuang!" ”

King Zuo Jin also stood up: "He Jin is at the disposal of King Chuang!" ”

"I ordered your two families to go south to deal with Tang Hui." Gao Yingxiang gave them a task.

Gao Yingxiang also ordered Luo Rucai and Guotianxing to guard the Yellow River, blocking the Ming army of Kaifeng and Guide, and the old Huihui and the nine dragons responded to each other, and he and Zhang Xianzhong went east to attack, broke the city and Xiayi, and the children of the gold silk were obtained by each family and battalion.

In order to prevent the Western Route Army from being defeated by Hong Chengchou, Gao Yingxiang ordered the shooting to collapse the sky and change the king to be the backup of the king of Qin.

After Gao Yingxiang arranged all the deployments, he ordered the slaughter of cattle and horses to sacrifice to the heavenly oath and prepare to go on the expedition.

The task was set, and the people scattered back to the camp.

Gao Junshan returned to the camp and sent people to invite the four people who shot the Collapsed Heaven, the King of Reincarnation, the King of Hengtian, and the King of Shuntian to come and discuss the use of troops.

At this time, Zhang Cong, the chief housekeeper of Gao Junshan's old camp, asked for instructions and left Zhang Xianzhong's righteous son Li Dingguo for dinner.

"When did Li Dingguo come?" Gao Junshan asked.

Zhang Cong replied: "It's been an hour. ”

"If he wants to stay, he will stay."

Zhang Cong smiled: "Of course he is willing to stay." ”

Gao Junshan said: "Then let him stay, you go to the Eight Kings to tell him." ”

"Hey!" Zhang Cong replied and turned around to go to Zhang Xianzhong's military camp.

Gao Junshan stopped him: "You let Li Dingguo come to see me first." ”

"Obey!" Zhang Cong agreed, and turned back to the camp.

Gao Junshan returned to the big tent and immediately called a meeting of civil and military generals.

In the big tent, the civil and military generals sat in a circle, Gao Junshan informed everyone of the content of the Xingyang Conference, Tian Wenju made a supplement, at this time Li Dingguo came, Gao Junshan asked everyone to formulate a plan of action, and then went out of the big tent to see Li Dingguo.

"Uncle Gao!" Li Dingguo shouted when he saw Gao Junshan.

Gao Junshan smiled and said, "Come to play with Marven?" ”

"Yes?"

"Does your stepfather know you're coming?"

"Yes."

Gao Junshan nodded and said, "Do you want to go back after eating?" ”

"I'd like to play with Marvin a little more, and I've heard we'll be separating again soon." Zero explained.

"The separation is temporary." Gao Junshan knew that this Li Dingguo would be a character in the future, he hoped that Zhang Xianzhong would be able to take him under his account after he died, and he would now invest some feelings in Li Dingguo, so he touched Li Dingguo's head and said, "If you want to stay and eat, stay and eat, eat more, Uncle Gao, here is full of fragrant rice, I heard that you usually eat sorghum corn, after eating, you bring some rice back." ”

"Thank you, King Qin!"

"Boy, you're still polite to me!" Gao Junshan lovingly knocked on Li Dingguo's head.

Gao Junshan returned to the big tent, where the discussion was still going on, mainly because the generals had disagreements about the next course of action.

One side advocated eastward expansion, because the Ming army was the weakest in this direction, and could fight in coordination with Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, whose main representative was Tian Wenju; The other side advocated following the strategy of dividing troops and orienting and attacking on four fronts, going out of the West Gate to block Hong Chengchou and buying time for the other rebels to act.

Everyone's eyes were on Gao Junshan, hoping that he would make a final decision. Gao Junshan was not in a hurry to make a decision, and said: "Wait for Li Wanqing and Xu to change them to come and then discuss." ”

Li Wanqing is to shoot the sky, and the permission to change is the king of reincarnation, and the real name of the king of Hengtian is Yang Liyan, and the king of Shuntian is called Liu Xinzhi.

These four people received Gao Junshan's invitation, and immediately rushed to Gao Junshan's big tent, which happened to be just as Gao Junshan said that they would discuss it when they came, they arrived.

After they sat down, Gao Junshan exchanged a few words with them, and then asked for their opinions on their next move.

Gao Junshan said: "At today's Xingyang Conference, I don't know what the four of them think about Li Zicheng's proposal? ”

Li Wanqing said: "At the meeting, your father has already made it very clear that he wants us to follow you to fight Hong Chengchou." ”

The reincarnated king Xu Chang also said: "I listen to the king of Qin, and the king of Qin will do what he says." ”

Yang Liyan and Liu Xinzhi were left, they looked at me and I looked at you, and suddenly ran out, Bai Wenxuan and Sun Kewang stood at the door, blocking the way of the two.