After dawn, Zhang Ling took a hundred soldiers to bid farewell to Li Zicheng and went to Longdong Pass, preparing to persuade the soldiers guarding the pass to surrender to the Heavenly Mandate Army.

Song Wen was a little worried, and after seeing Zhang Ling leaving, he immediately asked to see Li Zicheng, "Metropolitan Governor, Zhang Ling has newly surrendered, let him go back today, in case he doesn't come back......"

Li Zicheng put his hands behind his back and said, "General Song, don't worry, I treat him with sincerity, and he will not fail me!" After a pause, he added, "Even if he doesn't come back, what is the loss to us?" The three levels only add more than 100 soldiers, can these more than 100 soldiers still stop the pace of the Heavenly Mandate Army? ”

Song Wen nodded and said yes, the troops of Sanguan and Chongqing Mansion are basically prisoners of war, Zhang Ling only brought back a hundred people, in front of the 10,000 Heavenly Mandate Army, what role can these more than 100 people play? If Zhang Ling is captured for the second time, I am afraid that he will not have the good life he has now.

Li Zicheng turned around, looked at the direction of Zhang Ling's departure, and said: "Zhang Ling surrendered yesterday, not for his life, mainly for those prisoners of war, in order to keep them alive, the prisoners of war are still in our hands, if Zhang Ling goes and doesn't return, aren't you afraid that I will kill all these prisoners of war in a fit of anger?" ”

Song Wen then said: "Then what should we do now?" Waiting for Zhang Ling's message? And these prisoners of war ......"

"Since you trust Zhang Ling, then give him a little time," Li Zicheng said: "How many prisoners of war were collected last night?" ”

Song Wen replied: "Back to the Metropolitan Governor, my subordinates have checked the count, a total of 6,800 prisoners of war!" ”

"So much?" Li Zicheng's heart moved, this place is close to the Yangtze River, and there are many tributaries, and there are not a few prisoners of war who are familiar with water, and a group of sailors can be recruited from among them.

Last time in Xuzhou, Zhou Kun not only replenished 1,500 soldiers, it was too little, the navy not only had to garrison the Yangtze River waterway to intercept the Ming army that might go upstream, but also gradually expand to the south of the Yangtze River, at least 5,000 soldiers, maybe 5,000 was not enough.

"Let's go, while it's okay, let's go see the prisoners of war!"

"Look at the POWs?" Song Wen was stunned for a moment, and then understood that these prisoners of war were too cruel to kill, and they were not very relieved to let go, and the Metropolitan Governor must have expanded his army from among them, so he nodded hurriedly and said: "Look at the prisoners of war, you can't let them eat food for nothing." ”

When it first started in Xining, it was still called the Xining Army at that time, and the most scarce thing was food, but after coming to Sichuan, with the rich Chengdu Plain, the Heavenly Mandate Army no longer lacked refined grain, but in the eyes of Song Wen, food was still very precious and must not be wasted.

Li Zicheng said as he walked: "According to the practice of the Heavenly Mandate Army, they are not willing to surrender, they are real prisoners of war, and they need to complete a year of hard labor, but they are in a hurry to obey the power, and the number of the navy is too small, so they can only choose people who are familiar with the water nature from among them and join the navy directly." ”

"This ......" Song Wen knew that Li Zicheng was going to expand the navy, and also knew that the next task of the navy was very important, so he hesitated for a moment and said: "Then they can only serve as auxiliaries for the time being!" ”

"That's natural, even if they have combat effectiveness, they can only be used as auxiliaries for the time being, only food, no salary," Li Zicheng said lightly: "They are originally soldiers, and it will not be too difficult to train, the key is whether they can abide by the military discipline of the Mandate of Heaven, even if they surrender, in the process of training in the future, there will definitely be some to be eliminated." ”

The Mandate of Heaven Army has made a lot of gains in Chengdu, plus the taxes of various prefectures and counties, the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion has initially turned over, even if Li Zicheng is ready to escort 800,000 taels of silver to Xining and Lanzhou, Chengdu still has close to 1.5 million taels left, and in his hands, there is not a shortage of money for the time being!

But there will be a lot of places that need money, and the large-scale expansion of the navy army, in addition to military salaries, ships are the bulk of the investment.

Zhou Kun brought some ships from Qinghai, the number was far from enough, Cao Jian could build ships, but it would take time, and for the time being, he could only buy them from merchants along the river.

Cao Jian's ships are more advanced in design and equipment, but they do not save money, as long as the conditions are right, Li Zicheng is ready to equip the ships with artillery and rifles to create a real and independent naval army.

The cost of the navy is much larger than that of the same number of armies, and in order to hold the crossroads along the river in Sichuan and the future development of China, the navy must expand the army on a large scale.

There is also the defense of the whole Sichuan, the Mandate of Heaven Army appeared in Sichuan this time, and it can no longer hide from the imperial court, and the battle with the imperial court will definitely increase in scale, and when necessary, the army will also expand the army, and the military salary will also increase.

There are also officials of all sizes in Sichuan......

When he got the gold and silver in the Shu Wangfu that day, Li Zicheng was ecstatic, but when it was time to spend money, he still couldn't do it rashly, and he had to be careful with his calculations.

Song Wen accompanied Li Zicheng to the camp of the Ming army and asked the guards to escort all the prisoners out.

Maybe it's nervousness, anxiety, maybe it's helplessness, maybe it's because they didn't eat enough last night, and after only one night, they become unkempt and even their eyes are very dull.

He glanced at the prisoners of war, and saw that they were standing crookedly, so he said: "You are all soldiers, even if you become prisoners of war, you should have the military posture of a soldier, don't smear the face of the soldier!" ”

Discredit? The prisoners of war looked at each other, they had become fish and meat in the hands of the Mandate of Heaven, and their lives were not even guaranteed, so what kind of military posture were they talking about? They stared at each other, looking like they were ignoring it.

He Xiaomi was furious, and slapped his hand on the waist knife twice, "Dadu Governor's words, didn't you hear them, or are you going to die?" ”

Li Zicheng stopped He Xiaomi, but his face also changed, no wonder Mao Taizu attaches great importance to the ideological work of soldiers, an army without thought and soul does not have combat effectiveness, just to eat for a living, no matter how strict the military discipline is, it will not be able to create a strong army.

It is indeed difficult for the Ming army to change their habits and thoughts, but these bad habits cannot be brought to the Mandate of Heaven army.

Li Zicheng couldn't wait to pull out two soldiers and kill the monkey in public!

But after all, they are Han strongmen, if they can't join the Mandate of Heaven Army, it is better to go home and farm, it seems that they will be political teachers again today.

"I know, you don't know your tomorrow, whether the Mandate of Heaven will release you, or give you a 'click' of a knife!"

A click? The hearts of the prisoners of war tightened, and most of them showed a look of horror on their faces, could it be that the Mandate of Heaven would really kill people? No wonder I can't even drink water since I was captured last night......

Now there is no Geneva Convention, there is no humanity to talk about the treatment of prisoners of war, who will let them not fight for themselves? How to deal with them depends on the laws of the Heavenly Mandate Army and Li Zicheng's attitude.

Li Zicheng didn't expect that starvation would have this effect, he coughed and suppressed the whispers of the prisoners of war, "A person who even gives up hope himself, can he still expect others to pity you?" Will the steamed buns that are still in the garbage heap still taste sweet? Will the sugarcane that has been bitten by others still have a taste? ”

Leave it to death, and then be reborn! They are accustomed to the life at the bottom of society, accustomed to all kinds of inequality, and if they are scolded, they may wake up!

……

The prisoners of war were stunned for a moment, they thought that the Grand Governor of the Mandate of Heaven would pronounce their sentence of life and death, but they didn't expect it to be a scolding ......

"If you have completely lost your effect on the Heavenly Mandate Army, on this world, and even on your parents, wives and children, then you don't have to stay in this world, you will no longer have any pain, rest assured, I will leave you with a whole corpse!"

"Ah......" Although they had already considered this result, the prisoners of war were still surprised to hear that they were about to be killed, the children at home, and the elderly parents......

A prisoner of war knelt on the ground with a "poof", "The Governor, there are still fathers and mothers to support in the villain's family, and the villain's cousin is not in good health, and he also needs the villain to go home to take care of ......"

"Yes, Grand Duke, we have surrendered, and we will never go against the Mandate of Heaven again......"

More and more prisoners of war knelt on the ground, because there were ropes on their bodies, and several of them actually fell to the ground, and they couldn't get up for a while, so they had to lie on the ground, straighten their heads with difficulty, and look at Li Zicheng with a blank look.

There was a commotion on the scene, but the prisoners of war were all bound, and Li Zicheng was not worried that they would escape, but said with a cold face: "Asking for others is unreliable, you have to ask yourself for everything." ”

"On your own?"

Li Zicheng continued: "Someone just said that there are fathers, mothers, wives and children at home, and you need to go back to support them, but this point does not completely impress the Governor of Pontus, you have to prove to the Governor of Pontus that you are useful to the Mandate of Heaven Army, otherwise, why does the Mandate of Heaven Army support you with food?" ”

"Useful for the Celestial Mandate?" The prisoners of war didn't understand what Li Zicheng meant for a while, "Metropolitan Governor, what can we do for the Heavenly Mandate Army?" ”

Li Zicheng glanced at the prisoners of war, asked them to stop talking one by one, and then asked them to get up, and the prisoners of war who were lying on the ground and could not move, and also let the soldiers help them up, "Tell me yourself, what can you do for the Heavenly Mandate Army?" Ao, I forgot to tell you that General Zhang Ling has already surrendered to the Mandate of Heaven Army, and early this morning, he went on a mission for the Mandate of Heaven Army......"

"General Zhang?"

The POWs somewhat understood, I see...... Even General Zhang has surrendered, what else do they have to hesitate? Besides, they are prisoners of war, what other way is there but to surrender?

"The Grand Governor, the villain is willing to surrender!"

"The villain is willing to surrender!"

"The villain is also willing to surrender, please ask the governor to accept the villain......"

……

Li Zicheng looked at these prisoners of war who were full of expectations, and secretly laughed in his heart, these prisoners of war really have no integrity, they will surrender if they say a few words, relatively speaking, it is more difficult for civilian officials to deal with, if you want civilian officials to surrender, you must find out the reason for their surrender......

Perhaps these prisoners of war cannot be blamed, they eat food and errands, and they are no different from the monks who "hit the bell", they have no ideals of their own, no national concept, just to eat their stomachs, instinctively seek good fortune and avoid evil.

"If you want to serve the Heavenly Mandate Army, it depends on whether you have the ability," Li Zicheng said with a straight face: "Among you, who is familiar with water?" Stand on the right! ”

"Ah...... It's ......" The prisoners of war scurried, and after a long while, the guards of the Mandate of Heaven soldiers pushed and shouted before they quieted down.