The withdrawal of Li Zicheng's army relieved the entire Ming court, but the news that followed made them nervous again: Li Zicheng took more than 100,000 thieves and soldiers to Huguang. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoNow the Central Plains region is already a piece of erosion, if you lose Huguang again, the consequences are really unimaginable, and even, not to mention the loss of Huguang, as long as the army enters Huguang and harms it, there will be a big problem in Huguang's grain production this year. And Huguang is the most important grain producing area in my Ming Dynasty. As the saying goes: "The lake is ripe, and the world is full." On the other hand, if Huguang has a bad harvest, there will be not enough food in the world.

Over the years, the drought in the north has become more and more serious, and the northern provinces have long been unable to provide for themselves, and now with the war, the situation is naturally even worse. However, the traditional grain producing areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have increased the demand for silk day by day because of the development of maritime trade, which has led to the continuous decline of grain planting area, and a large number of original grain fields have become mulberry fields. When the Ming Dynasty was first established, there was a saying that "Suhu is ripe, the world is full", but now, because of the continuous decline in the grain planting area, the grain in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is no longer even self-sufficient, and needs to be imported from Huguang. In today's situation, if something goes wrong with Huguang, the Ming Dynasty will really end immediately.

Now stationed in Huguang is the chief soldier Zuo Liangyu. Theoretically, Zuo Liangyu also has tens of thousands of troops in his hands, and if it was placed two years ago, tens of thousands of court officials and soldiers would face hundreds of thousands of rogues, it would not be a trick to beat them. However, this time is different from the past, and now the combat effectiveness of the officers and troops has dropped significantly, and in many cases it is even inferior to the rogue. Besides, it is also a routine for the official army to eat empty salaries, and no one knows how much water there is in Zuo Liangyu's declared troops, except for himself. The combat effectiveness of Zuo Liangyu's army can be seen in the battle with Zhang Xianzhong some time ago. Now, in the case of a comparable number of people, Zuo Liangyu's army has no advantage over Zhang Xianzhong, so how can it be optimistic about Li Zicheng, who has more people.

However, the imperial court is in a hurry, because they can't use manpower and material resources to deal with Li Zicheng now, so they can only order Zuo Liangyu to guard against it strictly, and there must be no mistakes or anything.

In the face of Li Zicheng's soldiers, Zuo Liangyu did not dare to fight with him at all, and he did not even dare to lead the team to defend Xiangyang, the gateway to Huguang. Because after Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang, he stayed in Xiangyang for a period of time, during which due to the need for military training, he used a variety of means, digging tunnels, directly pickpocketing, and shelling, and carried out inhumane damage to the city walls of Xiangyang City. The city wall of Xiangyang has been opened in several places. After Zhang Xianzhong left, because of lack of money, the city wall of Xiangyang City had not been repaired. To this day, there are still several large gaps in the city wall that are several feet wide. Although it's not impossible to stuff something temporarily, the defense or something is a big difference. Therefore, Zuo Liangyu felt that it was really difficult to defend Xiangyang, so he simply stayed in Wuchang with the main force, hoping that Li Zicheng would grab a handful near Xiangyang and leave. It's just that the area of Xiangyang was robbed by Zhang Xianzhong some time ago, and it has been continuously grabbed by Zuo Liangyu since then, and now I am afraid that there is nothing to grab, will Li Zicheng be satisfied because of this?

However, Zuo Liangyu was not too worried about Li Zicheng coming to attack Wuchang, because Wuchang was on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and Li Zicheng did not have a naval army. As for Hanyang and Hankou in Jiangbei, Zuo Liangyu felt that there was no need to worry too much, because the existence of the Yangtze River and the Hanjiang River made it impossible for these two cities in Jiangbei to be besieged, and the transportation of troops and materials would not be cut off, so it would not be too easy to attack these two cities.

Since he didn't plan to defend Xiangyang, Zuo Liangyu felt that instead of leaving Xiangyang to Li Zicheng to rob like this, it was better to grab it himself. So a few days later, when Li Zicheng's army arrived in Xiangyang, they saw this scene:

The gates of Xiangyang City were wide open, and the city was littered with ashes and rubble, and the corpses of old people could sometimes be seen in the smoke-filled burned houses. When Zuo Liangyu's army retreated, they plundered the city, and they not only looted all the property in the city, but even robbed a lot of the people in the city. Because these people can also be sold to the Zheng family for weapons, although the price of weapons has risen a lot for a while, and the value of these people has naturally decreased, but they are still valuable. In a sense, the trading relationship between the Zheng family and Zuo Liangyu protected some citizens of Xiangyang, because according to Zuo Liangyu's habits, when retreating, in order to avoid the enemy, Zuo Liangyu would generally replace the local people and collect them, keep them and use them; And those ordinary people, in order to prevent them from being slaughtered by the evil rogues or being coerced by them, also become disloyal and unfilial bandits, General Zuo generally killed all the local people before the arrival of the rogues in the spirit of great compassion if I don't go to hell and who go to hell. Of course, now, considering that people can exchange money, Zuo Liangyu no longer likes to kill people very much, and now his approach is somewhat similar to Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, that is, to coerce the strong people among the common people away. It's just that after being coerced away, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong turned the coerced people into cannon fodder; And Zuo Liangyu turned them into money. Of course, because the Zheng family doesn't want old people (unless they are old craftsmen), Zuo Liangyu naturally won't coerce those old people, and naturally he is helping others get rid of things.

"Dog things, they were really clean when they left!" Liu Zongmin, who looked through the entire Xiangyang City carefully, and finally couldn't find anything, scolded, "This dog thing, even the city under his own rule ...... And it's more like a rogue than Lao Tzu! ”

However, scolding and scolding, things still have to be done, Liu Zongmin organized people to control the whole city, and at the same time sent people to the countryside near Xiangyang to check and check.

……

"This Zuo Liangyu is really ...... Who are the thieves between us and him? He seems to be better at doing these jobs than we do. Two days later, when Li Zicheng arrived in Xiangyang and learned about the local situation, he couldn't help but sigh.

"King Chuang, of course Zuo Liangyu is a thief. Not only Zuo Liangyu is a thief, but all of this Ming Dynasty are thieves! They are not only thieves, but also beasts. A man dressed as a scholar suddenly spoke, "King Chuang, Mencius said: 'There is fat meat, there are fat horses in the stables, the people are hungry, and there are hunger on the way, which is called leading beasts to eat people!'" This Ming Dynasty is a group of man-eating beasts. Now King Chuang is following Tang Wu's example, obeying the heavens and people, and driving out such flood beasts for the world! ”

"Mr. Juming said it well!" Li Yan on the side also exclaimed loudly, "King Chuang, the folk song says: 'A thief is like a comb, and an official is like a grate.'" This Ming Dynasty government is not a good thing in the first place. Like the people today, who doesn't suffer from the Ming Dynasty's*? This is the opportunity to break into the king! ”

Brother Li Yan said. Liu Zongmin said with a smile.

"King Chuang, General Liu." Li Yan arched his hand towards the two of them and said, "When do you say that the rain is the most expensive?" ”

"Naturally, it's spring." Liu Zongmin waved his hand and said, "Spring rain is as expensive as oil." ”

Li Zicheng shook his head and said, "No, it should be a time of great drought." At that time, even a drop of rain was precious. ”

"King Chuang." Li Yan said, "For example, people are suffering today, Zhang Xianzhong and others who can only rob and kill people are coming, they are suffering; Zuo Liangyu is like this, the officials and soldiers who can't do anything but rob and kill people are here, and they are even more bitter; There are also external recommendations, such as how many people are not bitter today? The people of the world are looking forward to someone who will save them from such suffering, and they are going blind in their eyes. It's like when people are looking forward to rain during a great drought. In the year when the wind and rain are good, there is a rain on the head of the spring, and some people want to say that the rain is too much, or too little; And in a great drought, as long as there is rain, no matter how much, what people are not extremely grateful? Now everyone is harming the people, and they are eating the people with tigers; If at this time, there is a capable person who comes out, not only does not harm the people, but also helps those people to eliminate the tigers and jackals that harm them. How can the people of the world not be convinced and submit to him? In this way, why worry about big things? In the past, the court of the Ming Dynasty always said anything about 'suppressing bandits and reassuring the people', but now, King Chuang can call on the world to make three chapters of the law with the people of the world, so that the people of the world know that King Chuang's team is a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, and it is here to 'suppress officials and calm the people', not to rob and kill. In this way, the people of the world are looking forward to what the king's army wants, and they are willing to serve our army. This is what Mencius said, 'Attack the side of relatives with what the world is like', and naturally you can be invincible! ”

"Brother Li Yan has a point." Li Zicheng nodded, then he raised his head and said loudly: "All the brothers have listened!" Tell the army, my army is not a thief, but a good man who walks for heaven, and we want to eliminate those jackals, tigers and leopards for the people of the world. And if you brothers follow me, I will give you a good result, do you brothers still want to be called thieves for the rest of your life? Now, the opportunity for prosperity is at hand. As long as our army does not kill innocents indiscriminately and does not wantonly plunder from now on, you brothers will not worry about not having a good result for yourself. Are you brothers willing to do what I Li Zicheng wants? ”

"King Chuang, what you say is what, who dares not to listen, my Lao Liu is the first to cut him!" Liu Zongmin shouted first.

"Who the fuck doesn't listen to King Chuang, and doesn't want our brother to have a good result, that is, the enemy of all our brothers, Lao Tzu will give him a red knife to go in and a white knife to come out!" Hao Shaoqi also shouted.