(Thank you moonchenli and the scarecrow for voting for your precious monthly ticket, and thank you for the reward from the old man surnamed Peng Chen, thank you.) ）

Knowing the news that the army led by Li Zicheng suffered a crushing defeat and the whole army was wiped out, Luo Rucai suddenly had a special sadness, although these words were passed by the people along the way, but he believed that if the army led by Li Zicheng won the victory, the court would have been in a mess.

With more than 20,000 people, marching towards Songpanwei, the troubles encountered along the way far exceeded his expectations, originally thought, relying on the abundant gold and silver treasures and food, can last for a long time, while marching to find a way, I didn't think that after entering Songpanwei, facing the desert, walking for a day, I can't even get out of the desert.

Everywhere is desolate, and even makes people wonder if this place is suitable for human survival.

Luo Rucai's prestige among the rebels is very good, and everyone is willing to follow Luo Rucai to do things, which is no longer in doubt, but everyone rebels, and they also have their own little Jiujiu, to put it bluntly, they also want to be able to live a good life, if they continue to develop according to the current trend, there is no future at all, and the final fate is to be completely wiped out by the imperial court.

The news of the defeat of Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, cannot be hidden, and I don't know what the reason is, all parts of the Ming Dynasty are conveying this news, especially in Sichuan, ordinary people are aware of the Tao, the army led by Li Zicheng has 90,000 people, and they are all good in combat, and they have not been able to defeat the Jiangning battalion, more than 20,000 people, what can happen, this is needless to say.

Although Luo Rucai tried his best to stabilize the army, his decadent mood was still like a plague. It spread among the great armies and could not be stopped.

Luo Rucai had to slow down the pace of the march and set up camp in a place where the water and grass were slightly abundant.

Sergeants had already begun to flee, and they took advantage of the night to leave the army.

Luo Rucai and many officers were bitter, the terrain of Songpan was complicated, and there was no way out for individuals to escape. In the vast desert, can you get out of the wilderness, but unfortunately this kind of preaching does not have much effect, Luo Ru has to be ruthless, if there are still sergeants fleeing, after being caught, they will be engaged in military law.

Even more desperate news came.

The 10,000 sergeants stationed in Bazhou learned the news that Li Zicheng had been captured in a fiasco. chose to surrender to the imperial court, this time it was a real surrender, they surrendered to Bao Ningwei, completely laid down their weapons, and waited for the disposal of the imperial court.

This news was a devastating blow to the 20,000-strong army.

After entering Songpanwei, quite a few sergeants. It has been discovered that there is no way to survive here, and the desert is boundless. I can't see any people, and it is impossible to compare with Kuizhou and other places, and some people also said that the environment is even more difficult than here when entering Duogandusi. There are many people who have been bleeding for no reason, unable to breathe, and dying miserably.

The idea of surrendering to the imperial court began to spread among the low-ranking sergeants. These ordinary sergeants, the problem is not very big, at least they will not be killed, the big deal is that after a few years of hard labor, they will return to their hometown to live an honest life, besides, the situation in Shaanxi has changed a lot, at least they can barely eat enough.

Luo Rucai and the officer's hearts were still struggling.

Before the rebellion, Luo Rucai was so poor that he couldn't get a wife, and he didn't have the next meal, but after the rebellion, this situation has changed a lot.

The idea of overthrowing the imperial court, or being the emperor, is unrealistic, Luo Rucai has no lofty ideals, such a comfortable day, one day at a time, but the current situation is that this kind of comfortable day is about to be lost.

Luo Rucai is reluctant, the 20,000 people in his hands are the capital, no matter where he is, if he has the army in his hands, he has the right to speak, he can enjoy privileges, and he can live a comfortable life.

The problem now is that such an idea may not be supported, and if he can't think of a good way, his sergeants mutinied, or rebelled, and he may not know how Lu Dao died.

Luo Rucai's personal soldiers, guarding a large number of gold and silver treasures, these were looted in Sichuan, when Li Zicheng led the 90,000 army to the expedition, he did not take away the treasures, but only took away a lot of food, and now these treasures belong to Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai thought about relying on these treasures to win people's hearts, but if he distributed them to the 20,000 army, these treasures could not be regarded as a lot, and besides, they were all divided, what should he do, in case he couldn't attack the city next, what else could he rely on.

This has to say that Luo Rucai was originally born as a farmer and has a sense of small farmers, which is also very normal.

This hesitation lasted for three to five days.

Luo Rucai didn't notice that these three to five days were fatal.

Some of the officers under him were also shaken.

Some officers began to contact the sergeants and discuss secretly, in this case, if Luo Rucai and some officers could be captured and wanted to surrender to the imperial court, maybe they would be rewarded and they would be able to live a stable life.

The rebellious sergeants, most of whom were peasants in the past, or some sergeants from the guards, they didn't have so much ambition, what they thought of was being able to eat enough, the advantage was the enjoyment of being an official, and they were satisfied if they could live, but when this bottom line could not be kept, and even faced a threat to their lives, their minds could easily change.

What the rebels lacked most was the military spirit.

An army without a purpose, although it may be victorious in a short period of time, can collapse quickly, and the common pursuit will unite everyone, and it can burst out with great strength, because everyone has a clear purpose and strives for this ideal, but once the goal cannot be achieved, everyone's thinking will change.

Throughout the ages, the army has been like this, even the Jiangning battalion is no exception.

The exception is the commander-in-chief of the army, if the commander-in-chief has a clear goal and appeal, pays attention to the ideological work of the sergeants, so that everyone can enjoy the fruits of victory, and can give everyone encouragement and cohesion when the trough is low, such an army will inevitably become stronger and stronger, otherwise, it will be a rabble.

At this point, how could Luo Rucai do any ideological work, and he couldn't come up with a favorable or powerful statement.

Luo Rucai's prestige among the army is still good.

He soon learned about the actions of a small number of officers who intended to rebel.

The infighting of the rebel army broke out, and when Luo Rucai's personal soldiers went to arrest these people, they encountered resistance, and soon, this kind of fighting and fighting spread, and those who supported and opposed each fought for each other, and the two sides were inseparable for a while, and it was only when Luo Rucai personally came forward that this fight was suppressed.

After the fighting, there were less than 15,000 people left.

A cannibalistic slaughter, the loss of more than 5,000 people, this is something Luo Rucai did not expect.

On the night when the infighting was quelled, Luo Rucai stayed awake all night.

Although this infighting was suppressed, the sergeant's mind was completely confused, and the next infighting might appear soon, that is, his Luo Rucai's life was in danger all the time.

In the rebellion for more than ten years, Luo Rucai encountered such a situation for the first time, even in the first year of Chongzhen, the situation was better than now, more than 100 rebel troops, large and small, made the court powerless, but now the situation is different, looking at the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the remaining rebels are these people led by themselves. This also means that he has become the only target of the imperial court.

At this time, Luo Ru was about to think of his own way out.

There are three roads in front of you, the first road is to lead the army to surrender to the court, but this road, you can't see hope, the court will not spare yourself, it can be seen from so many leaders killed in front of you, the court will not show mercy to the leader, especially the important leader.

The second way, continue to move forward with the army, after entering the Duogandusi, see what way out, Duogandusi is a relatively special place, although everyone is called so, in fact, the Duogandusi was abandoned as early as the Wanli period, because of the rise of the Mongolian tribes, this huge place, has become the territory of the Mongolian tribes, in fact, the Duogandusi, is not a place controlled by the Ming Dynasty, after entering the Duogandusi, you can avoid the pursuit of the Ming Dynasty army, but you may have to face the brave Mongolian tribes, Besides, it is still unknown whether the sergeant will be able to adapt to the nomadic life.

The third way, that is, to flee with money, take some of the soldiers, and live a rich secluded life, the possibility is too small, not to mention whether it can be done, even the imperial court will not give up the pursuit of itself, the Jiangning camp is so powerful, so much information is known, the great Ming may not have a place to live.

Thinking of this, Luo Ru had a feeling of the end of the road.

For two days in a row, Luo Rucai was drunk, didn't ask anything, didn't say anything, what the army should do in the future, everyone was waiting.

At this time, Luo Rucai was a little sober, but after sobering up, Luo Rucai's personality suddenly changed, and he showed no mercy to the sergeants who were preparing for infighting, and began to purge impure people in the team.

By the beginning of September, the 20,000-strong army led by Luo Rucai had not yet left Songpanwei, but the remaining sergeants were less than 10,000, and morale was generally low. (To be continued......)