With the help of Xia Yunyi, this team of more than a dozen wheelbarrows began to wind towards the bottom of the hill. Li Zao'er, who fell at the back of the line, stopped before walking down the hill and looked back at the rear.

The sunlight is still very warm, which also makes Li Zao'er's vision quite good, but in front of the somewhat whitish castle wall that is illuminated, Xia Yunyi and his party can no longer be seen.

was able to get out of this desperate predicament, Li Zao'er's seemingly calm expression was also very happy.

This man who calls himself Li Zicheng is actually called Li Hongji. The reason why he didn't dare to report his real name was because he was Gao Yingxiang's subordinate who was defeated by the official army, and he still carried two lives from his hometown on his back.

Regarding Xia Yunyi's suggestion, Li Zicheng's heart was still a little tempted. After all, a year ago, he was a post man in the imperial court, and he could still eat the work food of the imperial court. Although life is a little tense, it is not comparable to those ordinary civilians.

Moreover, as the imperial court reformed the post station system and prepared to incorporate the post station system belonging to the local government into the name of the newly established post department, these unstaffed post guards would also become official post ministers, and it seemed that his future was also bright.

However, as the news spread, the identity of the post guard was coveted by the county government Liufang Gong. Although the reform of the local government by the imperial court has not yet reached the units at the county level in Shaanxi, the officials who have access to the government already know that the government has begun to examine the qualifications of the officials, and basically one-third of the officials will be cleared out of the yamen.

In this way, the officials who felt that they would be cleared out of the county government office started the idea of post guards, because it was said that the post station would not reduce the number of personnel after it was transferred to the post, and there was still a chance to be promoted.

In order to keep his position, Li Zicheng had to send a large sum of money to his boss, but he still did not keep his position, and the bribe money was not returned. Li Zicheng, who lost his job, had to return to his hometown, and the creditors who lent him money saw that he had lost his job and demanded that he pay him back.

Li Zicheng had no money to repay the creditor, so he was quickly arrested by the yamen and put in a flail outside the yamen, obviously his creditor wanted his life. The nephew, who had always had a good relationship with Li Zicheng, quickly found a few township parties to rescue Li Zicheng at night, and broke into the house of the creditor in the city to kill the creditor.

Li Zicheng, who fled back to the village in the middle of the night, originally wanted to call his mother-in-law to escape, but after finding that he was arrested by the government, his mother-in-law not only did not think about saving herself, but called the adulterer home to have a lewd pleasure, and the two also discussed getting married after he died.

The sad Li Zicheng lost the happy life he once thought he had almost in one day. Li Zicheng rushed into the house in a rage, hacked his mother-in-law to death, but let the adulterer escape.

He burned down his house and planned to go to Gansu to join the army with his nephew and several township parties, but on the way he met Gao Yingxiang, who was recruiting troops, Li Zicheng saw that Gao Yingxiang's recruitment conditions were not bad, so he simply voted for him.

Gao Yingxiang was still hanging the signboard of the Ming Dynasty official army at that time, so Li Zicheng always thought that he was serving the imperial court. He once counted on making military exploits to wash away the murder crimes he was carrying, so he was particularly able to endure hardships during training, but he was quickly looked down upon by Gao Yingxiang and promoted to a positive position.

Then Gao Yingxiang raised the flag and rebelled, and Li Zicheng, who was regarded by everyone as Gao Yingxiang's cronies, could only follow with his eyes closed in this situation.

However, unlike Gao Yingxiang's half-heartedness, Li Zicheng, who devoted himself to the cause of rebellion, was still very persistent in his current cause of rebellion, and he had always opposed any negotiations with the imperial court, believing that he should enter the Guanzhong area as soon as possible and destroy the most densely populated Guanzhong area, so that the people of Shaanxi would not be able to receive relief from the imperial court, and the people of all parts of Shaanxi would have to rise up to rebel, and after the dispersion of Shaanxi's official and military forces, it would be impossible to trap their exile army.

However, Gao Yingxiang and the other leaders of the rebel army obviously did not think about replacing Zhu Ming. Because even if the current Ming Dynasty is in decline, it has not reached the point of falling down with a push. They just wanted to raise troops and make trouble, and if the court was weak, they would make a piece of territory in Shaanxi. If the court is strong, then accept Zhao'an, anyway, there are gods and a leader as a reference, and they don't think the court will do anything to them.

So they met a Ming bureaucrat who had no bottom line, and finally sent themselves and the entire rebel army to the butcher. Li Zicheng was transferred to monitor the movements of the Yansui army in the north because of his opposition to Zhao'an, which allowed him to escape.

After receiving the news about the attack on Chengcheng brought by Gao Guiying and Gao Yigong, Li Zicheng originally wanted to take the troops back to save his benefactor, but halfway through, it was reported that Gao Yingxiang and other leaders of the righteous army were cut off and hung on the wall by the official army.

At this time, there is no need to mention saving people, and the remaining thirty or forty people have a bigger goal. Li Zicheng then discussed with everyone and decided to divide the rest of the baggage, and then divided into small groups of men and horses to flee separately.

Unlike others who took their baggage and ran to the mountains in the north and northwest, Li Zicheng took Gao Guiying's sister and brother and his own township party, but risked staying in a ravine not far from Chengcheng.

Li Zicheng persuaded them to stay with him on the grounds that there were Yan Sui troops blocking the roads in the north, and they might not be able to cross these blockade lines and return to their hometowns. Although the terrain in the northwest direction is complicated and difficult for officers and soldiers to pursue, it is also difficult for outsiders to find a way out.

What's more, because of the famine in the previous two years, these mountainous areas have been less affected than the plains, but they have been much slower to recover. Their group ventured into the mountainous areas where they lacked food and clothing, and it was estimated that few would survive, so it was better to stay in the nearby villages and wait for the limelight of the official pursuit to pass, and then they decided where to go.

The development of the situation was not far from Li Zicheng's expectations. After the official army occupied Chengcheng, it was true that many teams were sent out to search for the fleeing teams of the rebels, but they mainly pursued those groups of more than 100 people, and soon moved away from the area near Chengcheng.

Seeing the behavior of the official army, Li Zicheng and others were of course relieved, but they also knew that this meant that the official army had completely dispersed the rebel army, so they dared to disperse the troops to pursue everywhere. When the fleeing rebel brigade is basically wiped out, the officers and soldiers will inevitably further purge the remnants of the army near Chengcheng, and then their small team of men and horses may be turned out by the officers and soldiers.

Li Zicheng searched the nearby villages, trying to find a way to escape, and finally found a team of medicine merchants hiding from the war in a certain village, so he came up with this trick to get by.

Although with the help of the noble prince of the capital, they were lucky enough to get through the level, but after passing the level, Li Zicheng was a little dazed. Because he no longer knows what the future path should be.

When the officials and soldiers were arresting the rebels outside the city, Li Zicheng, who was hiding in the villages outside the city, saw with his own eyes that although those peasants did not want to see the officials and soldiers, they also hated them to the core, believing that they had not only taken away their own harvest, but also attracted the revenge of the officials and soldiers, so he often took the initiative to report to the officials and soldiers the movements of the large number of rebels.

Looking at the performance of these peasants, Li Zicheng faintly felt in his heart that it seemed that the time had not yet come to raise troops to resist the imperial court at this moment. Therefore, when the noble son invited him to go to Beijing to take the military academy, his heart couldn't help but be a little shaken.

Just when Li Zicheng was still standing there looking at the earthen fort behind him, seeing that he hadn't followed, his nephew Li Jin, who had turned back from the front, had already returned to him and urged: "Uncle, why are you still standing here in a daze, hurry up and get on the road." If those officers and soldiers become suspicious and catch up, aren't you asking for trouble? ”

"Alright, alright, let's go." Li Zicheng came back to his senses, and then glanced at his nephew and prevaricated.

As Li Zicheng and the others walked down the hill, the earthen fort behind them also disappeared behind the hill. After leaving this checkpoint, Li Zicheng and the others traveled day and night, trying to get away from the dangerous area behind them as soon as possible.

Seven or eight days later, when they stood on the hillside and looked out over the endless plains below, they knew they were safe for the time being. This is the boundary of Tongzhou, and it is also the easternmost part of the Guanzhong Great Plain.

This place is known as the "Sanqin thoroughfare", the east is bordered by the Yellow River, the south is bordered by the Wei River, the west is connected to the soil, and the north is close to the Kamaka Mountain, which is not only convenient for transportation, but also a densely populated prosperous place.

After descending to the plain, the pedestrians on the official road began to dense, and Li Zicheng and others also found that this place is simply two worlds with northern Shaanxi, which lacks food and clothing. From time to time, the restaurants that appear on the roadside will cook a pot of fragrant broth at the door, and from time to time, pedestrians will come in and call for a bowl of broth, and then let the store heat up the dumplings they carry, which is a small but satisfying meal.

Passing by these restaurants and smelling the fragrance of this broth, the hungry people couldn't help but swallow their saliva, Li Jin and the others couldn't help but look at Li Zicheng and said, "Uncle, I haven't eaten a hot meal for a long time, are we going to hurry when we are full?" ”

Li Zicheng was a little hesitant, although they disguised themselves as medicine dealers, they still carried a lot of gold and silver with them, but there was no place to buy food along the way, so most of them ate dry food with no taste, smelling this fragrance, he couldn't help swallowing his saliva, but he was still a little uneasy and stepped forward to ask the guy who solicited guests: "What kind of meat are you cooking?" It can't be some kind of unclean meat, right? ”

The guy in his 30s hurriedly replied with a smile: "Don't worry, the guest officer, we cook the best mutton, and the spices are also enough, if the guest officer is not satisfied with the food, the small shop will never dare to charge you money." There are live sheep tied behind my store, if the guest officer is not at ease, we can give you a freshly killed and ready-made, but it is only sold, the local water basin mutton, that is Yang has praised. ”

"Who is this Lord Yang? Why does he say it's delicious, but it's really delicious? Gao Yigong, who came over, raised the bar to the guy.

The guy smiled and said, "Lord Yang is the governor of Shaanxi, he is really a living bodhisattva." If it weren't for Lord Yang digging wells and canals for us in Tongzhou, how could Tongzhou have such a good harvest this year. Living bodhisattvas all say it's delicious, do you say it's not delicious? ”

Li Zicheng frowned and interrupted Gao Yigong and his buddy's raising, and said kindly: "We have 17 people here, you get a sheep, clean it up, Li Jin, you wait and pick one, you pick and choose other food, and there is no spacious and quiet place, we guys are all begging for life outside the gate, and our temper is a little short-tempered, it is more appropriate to sit together alone." ”

The man hurriedly replied: "Yes, of course there is, there is a pergola less than thirty steps behind the store, which is specially used for those merchants who like to be quiet, and the small ones will take you over." ”

Seeing that this guy walked to the front to lead the way, Li Zicheng turned his head and whispered to Gao Yigong: "Go and invite your sister over, just say, I want to discuss with her, how should we go next..."