"What the gentleman said is very true, but how can we go deep into the roots?"

"As the saying goes, the army has no savings and dies, and now the general leads 10,000 people to travel in all directions, and there is no plan for the end of the year. And the soldiers are not fully armored, no firearms, no medicine, no ladders, rushing cars, and cannons to attack the city, so that the weak soldiers go eastward and enter the land of Huainan, and it is now June. ”

Although Song Xiance's words are quaint, but it is not difficult to understand, although the generals by the fire are basically illiterate, they can also understand seven or eight points, Li Zicheng has studied private school at home for several years before the uprising, knows a lot of words, he is also a studious character, after Song Xiance was thrown under his command, he often asked him for advice on "The Art of War", "Three Kingdoms", "Zuo Chuan" and "Ji Xiao Xinshu", like the general more simple articles can also be understood. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Song Xiance pointed out two weaknesses of the peasant army: 1. There was no stable source of supply, and the direction of the march was not so much to defeat the enemy, but to constantly search for territory to be plundered, which not only made the organization of the army extremely unstable, but also greatly limited the choice of commanders (the army's range of mobility was limited by the supply capacity). 2. The equipment is very poor, except for a few elites, most of the peasant army is a rabble, only extremely crude weapons, and even less armor. Therefore, unless there is a numerical superiority of several times, it is rare to win in battles with the official army. Obviously, Song Xiance pointed out these two points not simply to blame, but to propose solutions.

Li Zicheng took a deep look and said: "What Mr. said, Zicheng has also thought about it, but there is no countermeasure, Mr. Dare to teach me!" ”

"Don't dare!" Song Xiance bowed and returned the salute and said, "Based on what I have seen below, the next step should be to break into pieces, go west, enter Yunyang, and take root in the roots." Wait until autumn and then head east to Huainan! Speaking of this, he took out a roll of parchment from his bosom, spread it out in front of everyone, and explained while pointing: "There are Qinling Mountains in the north, Daba Mountain in the south, Xiong'er Mountain in the east, Wudang Mountain and Jing Mountain, spanning Shaanxi, Henan, and Hubei provinces, the mountains converge, and the Han River is circulating, the valley is deep and the mountains are sparsely populated. In the early years of this dynasty, the rout soldiers fled into it, and the people in order to avoid war, they also hid in the mountains and forests, built villages to defend themselves, and refused to live on flat land. In order to avoid its disaster, the imperial court at that time closed the mountains and forests, and those who dared to enter were severely punished. From the Yongle period onwards, the ban was gradually abolished, and due to the corruption of the officials, the powerful and powerful annexation, and the heavy forced labor, many displaced people from the surrounding areas fled to this place, either farming for themselves, or logging and mining, in order to survive. In the following decades, the local people were not exploited by the government, but lived a happy life. It's just that the good times didn't last long, and during the Chenghua period, the imperial court used a large army to conquest, and punished the homeless people Monk Shi, Liu Qianjin, Li Huzi and others, and appeased the homeless people, and the killing was extremely heavy. Later, the state capital was set up here, as well as the Huguang Xingdu Division. According to the system of this dynasty, there are no important places for non-border defense, which shows that the imperial court system of the current dynasty attaches great importance to it. Despite this, the government can only restrain those who gather people in the mountains and forests to reclaim, log wood, and open mines. Its valleys are fertile and conducive to farming, and there are many forests, including iron, copper, and lead mines, all of which can be used by the military. If a general leads his troops into his land, he shall collect his able-bodied men as soldiers, and the old and weak shall open up the land for the army's food, and cut down wood for charcoal, and make iron for armor and firearms. Ploughing in spring and summer, martial arts in autumn and winter, the strong officers and troops will go into the mountains to defend themselves, and the weak officers and troops will go out of the mountains to invade, but a few years of 100,000 people can have, once the world changes, the general can divide the troops and plunder the land, chase the Central Plains, and why worry about the great cause? ”

Everyone followed Song Xiance's fingers, looking at the map and listening to Song Xiance's explanation. The Yunyang region mentioned by Song Xiance was located in the area of Shiyan City, Hubei Province, today, and at that time the narrow strip of land that stretched for thousands of miles from southern Shaanxi to Jing, Xiang, Tang, and Deng was almost outside the control of the government. The geographical location of this area is extremely important: it will attack the Jianghan Plain along the Han River, enter Nanyang to the northeast, cross the Dabie Mountains to the east to enter Huainan and the Central Plains, and enter the Sichuan River to the west. There is a large amount of land, mines, and forests in the valley that can be developed, and there are many homeless cottages outside the control of the government that can be captured, and in the current situation, the imperial court has no time to take care of this blank area, and it is not difficult to conquer this land with the veterans of Li Zicheng's battle. If Li Zicheng controlled this area, he would not only be able to solve the two weaknesses of food and weapons mentioned by Song Xiance earlier, but also easily attack the Jianghan Plain, Nanyang Basin, Huainan, Central Plains and other places from this base area. It can be said that the entire Central China region is within his attack range, which is equivalent to upgrading from a thief to a separatist force.

At this time, no one made a sound, and the pine firewood in the fire spit out vigorous flames, reflecting Li Zicheng's swarthy face into bronze, and his eyes were frighteningly bright. Everyone looked at his face and waited for him to speak. Li Zicheng straightened his back and looked around at the people around the fire, his gaze sweeping over everyone's faces. He forcibly suppressed the excitement in his heart, and said in a calm tone: "My nickname is Huang Lai'er, and my big name is Li Hongji. At this he paused slightly, and his eyes were fixed on the fire, as if his past was being reflected in the firelight. After about half a sound, Li Zicheng continued: "Everyone knows that the post guard is bitter, even if he is a knife outside, as long as the military situation arrives, he has to get on the horse and hurry, and if he misses the hour, he will lose his head, and when he gets off the horse, it is as if his legs are not yours, his knees can't bend, and he is an official the size of a sesame mung bean can bully you." But who called us a miserable person? Those who sleep in the open air, just want to have something to eat, but in the second year of Chongzhen, the Son of Heaven issued an edict to cut down the post station, and he couldn't even eat this bitter meal. The old man still wanted to force me into debt, so he shackled me with a wooden shackle and put me in front of the yamen, and he didn't even give me a sip of water to drink, and he wanted to die of thirst! ”

Hearing Li Zicheng say this, everyone around the fire sighed, and tears appeared in the corners of the eyes of several young people. Li Zicheng's experience can be said to be a microcosm of the peasants in northern Shaanxi who were forced to rebel at that time, and if these honest peasants had not been forced to the point where there was really no way out, they would not have rebelled at the risk of raiding their homes and exterminating their clans.

"Fortunately, a few good brothers rescued me, so I just didn't do anything, and I didn't stop killing the old man and rebelling. In order to avoid implicating his family, he changed his name, and gave himself a nickname, King Chuang. To be honest, I didn't really know where to go out, so I had to close my eyes and forge a way. At the beginning, there were more than 100,000 brothers in northern Shaanxi, and I don't know how many people died under the knives of Liu Cheng and Hong Chengchou, hey, if I had met Mr. Song earlier, many brothers would not have had to die! ”

"I can't afford to give advice!" When Song Xiance heard this, he hurriedly bowed and saluted, but was supported by Li Zicheng: "Mr. Song, you don't have to be modest, I only know that if I want the people of the world to live a good life over the years, I have to drive Emperor Zhu and those dog officials under him from power, but what to do is a mess in my mind, we can only see where and where to hit. ”

"Not bad!" Yuan Zongdi on the side said with a smile: "Mr. Song, King Chuang is Liu Xuande, you are Zhuge Liang, if King Chuang enters Beijing City in the future and sits on the Jinluan Palace and is called a lonely widow, let the historian write down all the words tonight, so that future generations can see Mr. Song's ability to live Zhuge !" ”

After discussion, everyone decided to divide the whole army into five teams, and go west to the mountains south of Yunyang, so as to collect food and stop along the way. When they got there, they divided their ways and settled down, and then went east out of Huainan during the wheat harvest season.

Time flies quickly, in a blink of an eye to the end of September of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the autumn wind is tighter day by day, the farmers of the Hetao in the north of Jin are busy in the fields, harvesting, threshing, drying grain, warehousing, the hard work of the whole year finally has a little harvest, and people's bitter faces finally have a little smile. At the same time, the news about the transfer of troops and the conscription of the people also came in fiction and reality, and it is said that the imperial court took Lu Boqi as the squire of the military department, the imperial history of the right capital, the governor Xuan, the great, and the military affairs of Shanxi and the management of food and salary; Liu became the general army of Datong, commanding the soldiers and horses of all roads, Fa Xuan, most of the soldiers and horses of all departments and the soldiers of all departments, and the troops of all departments rushed to ride, known as 100,000 troops out of the fortress. The people did not know whether this news was true or not, but the carts and caravans transporting grain and straw were endless, the ships transporting grain and military materials on the river were endless, and the number of soldiers in the barracks was increasing.

Just when people were worried about the impending war, Liu Cheng walked through the valley surrounded by guards, and the west wind swept up the dead branches and leaves, hit the horses' heads, and burrowed into the eyes of people, so that people hardly had a chance to open their eyes. Some people covered their mouths and noses with cloths, and some bent down on their horse's mane, walking among the fallen leaves that drowned the horse's hooves.

As they advanced, they saw that the peaks on both sides were getting higher and higher, and the valley in the middle had become so narrow that only two or three horses could walk in parallel, and the roads had become gravel, so that in order not to hurt the horses' hooves, people had to stop, jump off their horses, and wrap their hooves in cowhides. Ah Gui rode a strongest jujube red horse in front of him, while the pack horse in the back was connected by ropes, while Liu Cheng himself rode a three-year-old horse in the middle.

The cold wind blew along the valley road between the two mountains, making a piercing screech, and the gravel on the ground was not growing, and they walked step by step through the rocks, and it took them two days and two nights to complete this journey. When they walked out of the valley, the sky was extremely clear, and the clear blue sky stretched far into the four directions, like a huge tent enveloping all directions. The sun shines on their sweaty faces, and in front of their eyes, the North China Plain is like a huge carpet spread out, looking east, the green hills are dotted, like green worms, winding rivers, passing through the vast plains, dotted villages fall on it, like a model toy, giving people an unreal feeling.

"My lord, after going down the mountain, I will walk for two days and I will arrive at Jingshi!" Gui said in a low voice.

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded, he looked back at the cavalry behind him, and said in a low voice: "Pass the order, everyone get off the horse to eat and feed the horses, set off in two quarters of an hour, and don't show your tracks along the way!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Ah Gui answered, whispered the order down, the knights dismounted, began to eat, and put the horse material bag on the horse's mouth, Liu Cheng got off the horse, only felt that his legs were stiff, he was completely unconscious, as if it was not his own, a stumbling almost fell to the ground, fortunately, Ah Gui reached out to support: "My lord, be careful!" ”

With the help of his subordinates, Liu Cheng finally sat down, rubbed his blood vigorously, and only regained consciousness after a while. He ate a few mouthfuls of naan and drank a few mouthfuls of Ma *** before he felt better, seeing that the time was approaching, Liu Cheng put down his skin, got up, and said, "Get on the horse, go!" ”

Liu Cheng was accompanied by selected veterans, and his movements were fast, and after a while, everyone got on the horse, and Ah Gui came over with a horse and said in a low voice: "My lord, why don't I use two horses to build a rope net, so that you can lie in the middle, and it will be better!" ”

"No need!" Liu Cheng shook his head: "My trip to Beijing this time is secret, I don't want outsiders to know, if it's like you said, there are many eyes and ears here, I'm afraid that someone will find out on the road!" "It turned out that since this summer after the thieves broke through Nanyang, they entered Shaanxi and Sichuan by separate routes, and after the autumn, Li Zicheng led troops into Huainan, and broke through several prefectures and counties in a row, and the momentum was greatly boosted, and the small bands of thieves who were originally dormant in Henan, Shanxi, and Hebei also raised troops accordingly, and for a time the vast land of the canal in the east, Shaanxi in the west, Pingyang in the north, Zhanghe, and the Yangtze River in the south was full of smoke, and even the south of the river that was calm in the past was everywhere alarm, and there was no peace. Hong Chengchou, who was tasked with suppressing thieves, was already in a hurry, so he had to write to the court to ask for guilt, and at the same time asked for more troops and salaries, especially Liu Cheng, the general soldier of Datong, who was famous for mastering the Mongolian iron cavalry, to be transferred to his command. Liu Cheng, who had a lot of ears in Beijing, couldn't help but be shocked when he learned of this, and immediately put down the matter at hand, disguised himself, and took a shortcut to Beijing.

After the group rested, the speed of the march was much faster, and the next day it was just darkened and arrived outside Beijing, Liu Cheng asked the guards to find a deserted temple outside the city to live, and he brought Ah Gui and a few cronies of the guards, pretending to be a leather merchant, and took the documents of the Hongyang into the city, he did not dare to go straight to Yang Sichang's residence, but first went to the Hongyang of the Beijing division to stay. (To be continued.) )