"Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong are newly defeated, and they will inevitably come to the king to seek refuge!" Song Xiance said in a low voice: "Isn't this a great opportunity? ”

Yuan Zongdi was not a fool, he immediately understood what Song Xiance meant, and his face changed greatly: "Mr. Song, are you going to merge with them?" ”

"General Hanju is really wise!" Song Xiance nodded: "That's right!" ”

"No!" Li Guo shook his head: "At the beginning, Cao Shuai had a great favor to us, but now he is poor to vote, how can we harm him, even if it is Zhang Xianzhong, he is also a righteous army with us, and it is against the morality of the rivers and lakes to do so!" ”

"General Buzhi, you don't understand!" Song Xiance said with a smile: "Righteousness has great righteousness and small righteousness, benevolence has great benevolence and small benevolence, King Chuang is a person who wants to open a dynasty and set the Dingding, how can he stick to small benevolence and small righteousness?" ”

"Then killing Cao Shuai and Zhang Xianzhong is great benevolence and righteousness?"

"Of course, for more than a year, King Chuang has been legislating in Yunyang Mountain, establishing prestige, training troops in Tuntian, and the people are safe, and it is not easy to create a situation. www.biquge.info Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong are here, how come there are more than 10,000 people under their command, and there is no heavy grain and straw, who will give them food? Give them a drink? It will certainly harm the people. When that time comes, you say, who will be blamed on the people? Break into the king or not? If King Chuang wants to deal with the prisoners, what will these two people think? ”

When Li Guo heard this, his face changed slightly, Li Zicheng created this situation in Yunyang, and it took a lot of effort to cut off hundreds of his own brothers' heads. And Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao's style He also knows that they are all wine women who can't leave for a day, how can they be as self-effeminating as Li Zicheng, as the saying goes, if these two people want to implement the law, I am afraid that it will be a hundred times more difficult. After a long time, there will inevitably be suspicions, and it took a lot of effort for my uncle to create this situation, and it was not easy to have a little effect, how could it be destroyed by the two. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but be in a dilemma.

"That's what Mr. Song said!" Yuan Zongdi nodded: "We all know the virtues of Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong, if the two of them can stop it, I will cut off my head and use it as a urinal!" Speaking of this, his gaze turned to Li Zicheng, obviously waiting for Li Zicheng's ruling.

"Mr. Song, do you want me to kill Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao, is there any other reason?" Li Zicheng asked.

"There are two more reasons!" Song Xiance said with a smile: "First, you can annex its subordinates and get more than 10,000 elite soldiers to increase the momentum of the king; Second, you can use the head of the two to recruit security for adults! ”

"Zhao'an?" Yuan Zongdi and Li Guo couldn't help but be stunned, the first one could both be thought of, but the second one was completely unexpected by them. However, Li Zicheng's face was as usual, and he asked, "Why did Mr. Song say that?" I'm afraid that Lu Xiangsheng may not agree! ”

"Lu Xiangsheng won't, but Xiong Wencan may not!" Song Xiance said with a smile: "This person started with Zhao'an, and when he was in Fujian, he used Zhao'an Zheng Zhilong to recruit An, and he was promoted to the rank of thief by attacking thieves. Originally, he and Lu Xiangsheng were on the same page, but now that Lu Xiangsheng has been promoted to an official through meritorious service, how can he have no ideas in his heart? If King Chuang can send the heads of Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong, Xiong Wencan will definitely be overjoyed and willing to speak for you! ”

"What's the good of Zhao'an?"

"King Chuang, after Lu Xiangsheng breaks Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong, he will inevitably join forces with Xiong Wencan to attack me, and your hard work will only be in vain. At present, after the Ming Dynasty levies Liaoyu, new taxes are levied to train troops to fight against us, which is already the last strength, but the beast is the most dangerous when it is dying. As long as we survive two or three years, the situation will change greatly, and our Zhao'an is just a false and wrongful snake. As long as you pass this hurdle, you will soar into the sky, and no one can control it! ”

"When I broke through the central capital, I set fire to the imperial tomb, will the imperial court allow it?" Li Zicheng asked.

"Huh!" Song Xiance smiled: "King Chuang, this is why I killed Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong. When you broke through the Imperial Tomb in Zhongdu, to put it bluntly, you slapped the face of the imperial court, and the actual damage was secondary. As long as you have more money with Xiong Wencan, and then talk about the matter on the heads of Cao Cao and Zhang Xianzhong, saying that they were just held hostage at the beginning, and these two people are the main culprits, and they will make meritorious contributions. If the imperial court can perfunctory this face, it will naturally not delve into it! ”

"This isn't good!" Yuan Zongdi frowned and asked: "At the beginning, it was the first to be proposed by King Chuang, but now how can I say it, wouldn't the brothers in the rivers and lakes want to laugh at King Chuang when they know about it?" ”

"General Yuan's words are wrong! Since ancient times, those who can achieve great things are not informal, and they can bend and stretch. What a hero Uncle Liu was at the beginning, didn't he also stay under the Han thief Cao Cao? As long as the king can establish a great cause in the future, who dares to laugh at the king? ”

"That's what Mr. Song said!" Yuan Zongdi scratched his hair and said with a smile: "I'm a rough person, I don't have so many twists and turns in your minds, anyway, as long as it's beneficial to the great cause of the king, I can do what I want!" Speaking of this, his gaze turned to Li Zicheng, obviously waiting for Li Zicheng's decision.

Li Zicheng stood up and paced back and forth in the room, obviously he was seriously considering Song Xiance's suggestion, Li Guo, Yuan Zongdi, and Song Xiance held their breath, not daring to come out for fear of disturbing his consideration. After about half a ring, Li Zicheng asked: "Mr. Song, you just said that this is the last strength of the imperial court, why do you say that?" “

Song Xiance said with a smile: "King Chuang's good question, this sentence is not nonsense. Let's start with the new tax levied by Daming this time! According to the announcement of the imperial court, each mu is six pounds of rice and eight coins of silver per stone, and a total of 3.3 million taels of silver are levied! The Liao salary that began to be levied from the forty-sixth year of Wanli was nine cents of silver per mu, and in the fourth year of Chongzhen, three cents of silver per mu was added, and more than 5,220,000 taels of silver were collected, plus customs duties, salt taxes and miscellaneous items, a total of 7,488,298 taels of silver were levied. And what was the total tax of the imperial court in the forty-five years of Wanli before the new levy of Liaoyu? Three million eight hundred and ninety thousand taels! When Chongzhen was four years old, the imperial court alone levied more than double the regular tax, and now the new tax has been added, adding up to twice the positive tax. That is to say, in the forty-fifth year of Wanli year, if a common man has to pay a tax of one tael of silver a year, then now this common man has to pay at least three taels of silver a year! Moreover, when the people had no money to spare, they had to borrow money from the rich and pay taxes, and the interest on the tacks was even more. I don't know how many small people have suffered from these new taxes, breaking the king, do you think such a thing can last long? ”

"Shine!" When Yuan Zongdi heard this, he slapped his thigh and smiled: "Mr. Song said well, the poor man can't live anymore, and now he has to pay three times the tax, and there are big households in the middle, how can he still live?" Mr. Song is really a person with a university question, and those adults and men in the court are really blind, so they don't use you! ”

General Yuan laughed, Song is just a deviant person, fortunately the king of Chuang, so he has to live in the troubled times, how dare he still claim to be knowledgeable. After the great event of King Chuang is completed, he should follow the example of Liuhou, retire to the mountains and forests, and recuperate for the rest of his life! ”

"What did Mr. Song say, if King Chuang becomes a big deal, you think you are Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen as the prime minister of the dynasty, how can you still retire to the mountains and forests!" Yuan Zongdi said with a smile.

"If it is as Mr. said, it is indeed the last strength of the imperial court!" A smile appeared on Li Zicheng's face: "Then we don't need to touch this mold, but if we want to recruit An, we need a shrewd and reliable person to go, I don't know if there is a candidate for Mr." ”

Song Xiance stood up and said solemnly: "I have a little fellow villager in Xiong Wencan, if King Chuang agrees, he is willing to go!" ”

"Okay, then I'll bother Mr. Song!"

Naturalization City.

Liu Cheng sat at a long desk, his eyes slightly closed, listening to Zhao Wende reading aloud one official document after another, when he felt tired, he liked this, and it was time to rest.

"Lu Xiangsheng broke Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao in Xi County, and captured a lot, and the two thieves crossed the Huai River south to join the thieves. The thief killed the two thieves and sent their heads to Xiong Wencan to ask for caressing-"

"Wait!" Liu Cheng suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "When did this happen?" ”

"Twelve days ago!" Zhao Wende looked at the date of the official document and replied: "But Lu Xiangsheng's luck is really good, he won a battle in Xi County, and the group of thieves merged with him, and he also begged Xiong Wencan to soothe him, so that the strongest few thieves were solved, and the rest was just a small matter." I remember that not long ago, everyone in the court said that they could be killed, and now it is estimated that they will be rewarded, and the opportunities in life are really unclear! ”

"Huh!" Liu Cheng sneered twice, but didn't say anything, just frowned and thought about it, as if he had encountered something embarrassing, Zhao Wende had been following him for a long time, and he knew that this was something he was embarrassed about, so he didn't dare to disturb it. After a long while, Liu Cheng suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "No, no!" ”

"My lord, what's wrong?"

"Let me ask you, it is obviously Lu Xiangsheng who broke Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao, and his official position is higher than Xiong Wencan, why didn't Li Zicheng ask Lu Xiangsheng for comfort, but asked Xiong Wencan for comfort?"

"This-" Zhao Wende thought for a moment and said with a smile: "It must be that Lu Xiangsheng has killed a lot, and Xiong Wencan started by appeasing, and the thief thinks that it is more likely that Xiong Wencan will succeed in appeasing him, right?" ”

"Huh!" Liu Cheng laughed: "If I believe it to others, but I don't believe Li Zicheng, Mr. Zhao, you also started from Shaanxi, do you think people like Li Zicheng will honestly ask the court for plausion?" ”

Zhao Wende was dumbfounded, he spent a lot of effort on the Shaanxi thieves when he was a staff member under Yang He. As far as he knew, there were no less than 100 thieves in Shaanxi who left their nicknames in the government alone, and most of these thieves were people who had no foresight; I know that I don't even have a third of what I want to do for the long term. Those who have no long-term plans will basically not survive for more than a year, and they will either be exterminated by the official legion or annexed by other thieves. And even among the surviving thieves, Li Zicheng's style is unique. Almost all of the rogues were born poor, forced by life and rose up, after they suddenly gained a large number of wealthy women, and under the great pressure of being besieged and pursued by the official army, most of them would use alcoholic women to anesthetize their nerves and live a luxurious and erosive life, while Li Zicheng was frugal, strict with the public, and commanded one. Obviously, Li Zicheng may have been forced to do so at the time of the uprising, but when his strength gradually grew and he gradually got rid of the pressure of survival, his ambition was far higher than that of his peers who were immersed in the looting of goods. If those thieves would ask for Zhao'an in order to keep the looted goods or the official positions given by the imperial court, then the only possibility that Li Zicheng, who had higher ambitions, also asked for Zhao'an was that it was just a trick by him to deceive the imperial court.

"Why does the Lord think the thief is begging for help?"

"I don't know, and I'm not interested in knowing!" Liu Cheng flicked his fingers twice and sneered: "I just know that time is running out, we have to hurry up here!" ”

"When?" Zhao Wende was stunned when he heard this, and subconsciously asked, "What time?" ”

"The time left to us by the imperial court! These things I did in Chaoyi, Monan, and Datong, the imperial court turned a blind eye because there were rogues inside and Donglu outside, and if Li Zicheng really succeeded in appeasing them, the matter of the thieves in the Guannei would basically be over, and the court would turn around and deal with us! ”

"Against us? Isn't there still a Dongyu? ”

When Liu Cheng heard this, a mocking smile appeared on his face: "Jiansheng, in the eyes of the imperial court, how can we deal with Dongyu if we are not rectified well?" ”

A layer of cold sweat oozed from Zhao Wende's face, as Liu Cheng's henchman, he naturally knew how many things Liu Cheng had done that violated the laws of the imperial court. These things can't be hidden, and the reason why no one cares about them is that the court has always had more tricky things. If the problem of thieves is solved, it will be very convenient to rectify Liu Cheng, the new warlord, by conquering the eastern captives and restoring the righteous name of Liaodong. At this time, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind - maybe it would be a very good choice to accept Huang Taiji's suggestion and divide the Ming Dynasty with his alliance. He made up his mind, drove that dangerous thought out of his mind, and said with a smile: "After all, this is all our blind guessing here, the thieves burned the imperial tomb of Zhongdu, in my opinion, the imperial court may not be able to recruit him!" ”

"Yes, no one can say for sure!" Liu Cheng made a gesture, and the slave girl on the side poured him and Zhao Wende a cup of horses **** but we can't count on this, time is very urgent, we have to hurry up, we will see before this winter! ”

"Before this winter? So fast? Zhao Wende was mainly responsible for clerical work, and he couldn't help but be surprised that he didn't know much about Liu Cheng's strategy. (To be continued.) )