"At the beginning of this month, Dengfeng thief Li Ji encountered a hunger riot, gathered tens of thousands of people in ten days, broke Dengfeng, and went to join Li Chuang's thieves. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

"In the land of western Henan, there are many thieves, and I have heard that there are many children singing folk songs."

Wang Dou asked, "What ballad?" ”

The merchants said, and two of them were particularly famous: "Eat his mother, wear his mother, open the gate to meet the king, and when the king comes, he will not pay food." "Seeking ascension in the morning, seeking harmony in the evening, it is difficult for the poor to survive recently. Open the door early to worship the king, and the discipline is happy for everyone big and small. ”

Wang Dou thought to himself: "Li Yan and the others have already surrendered, and Li has become himself. ”

These businessmen are all worried about the affairs of Henan, and businessmen are actually the most sensitive to the current situation. All kinds of sources are better informed than the government. Wang Dou listened to them quietly, he had detailed information from the Intelligence Department in Kaifeng and other places, but it was good to listen to these businessmen.

Everyone said that Li Zicheng had hundreds of thousands of people, Wang Dou thought it was impossible, Li Zicheng first entered Henan, and there were about more than 1,000 backbone henchmen, even if Yidougu, clay pots, Li Jiyu and others took refuge. Even those hungry people, there may be hundreds of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of people are just rumors from passers-by.

The siege of Luoyang may be true, in history, Li Zicheng broke through Luoyang, in fact, it was not a breakthrough, it was those officers and soldiers who defended the city who opened the door themselves. Luoyang City is as strong as Kaifeng, and there are more general soldiers, if the defenders are a little more careful, like Kaifeng City, Li Zicheng can only stare at Luoyang.

The fall of Luoyang may be the agitation of those two ballads, and the political offensive is sometimes more terrible than the military offend.

Wang Dou then asked about the grain storage of those merchants in Kaifeng Mansion, and each of them bought more than 5,000 stone grain and grass, spending a total of tens of thousands of taels of silver. The more calamity in Henan became, and the merchants had already spent a lot of effort to buy these grains and grasses, and Wang Dou couldn't ask them for more.

When these grains are given to Wang Dou, they will raise a little on the basis of their purchase price as their hardship expenses, take the strips approved by Wang Dou, and return to the east road to give silver.

Of course, they believe that Wang Dou will not give money, and the benefits in return are of course many. One of them is that after Wang Dou operates outside the Saiwai in the future, these businessmen who have helped Wang Dou can enclose land and occupy grasslands on a large scale outside, which arouses the interest of many businessmen on the East Road, and they are very willing to be the pawns of Wang Dou's army.

Later, Wang Dou asked them about their business operations in Kaifeng and other places, and they were all bitter, saying that it was difficult to do business, and the industries that could make money were monopolized and controlled, and it was very difficult to get involved.

In fact, Kaifeng has a large population, and there should be many business opportunities, such as the Henan Political Division, Kaifeng Prefecture and officials at all levels in the city, a large number of officials and their families are in the city, and there are a large number of retired eunuchs and squire residences.

In addition to these, Kaifeng City has its specialty, the vassal palace.

Among the feudal domains, the king of Zhou is the most will be born, its fief is Kaifeng Mansion, multiply to the present, the descendants of the Zhou royal family have more than 5,000 people, there are forty-eight who are crowned as the king of the county, there are many palaces in the city, in addition to the palace of Zhou, there are Qujing Palace, Huating Palace, Yuanwu Palace, Ruijin Mansion and so on.

Each prince and county king has a special civil and military official and soldier service. The entire Kaifeng Mansion can be said to be centered on the Zhou Palace, and the officials and soldiers who serve them, large and small, plus the common people and merchants who operate around them, constitute various groups of the Kaifeng population.

So it is not surprising that most of the commerce in the city is to serve the Zhou palace and various officials and nobles, and for hundreds of years, the commerce in the city has been monopolized by local officials and merchants, and it is very difficult for outsiders to get involved. These merchants on the East Road came here, of course, they didn't want to be those goods who walked the streets and alleys, or some small business.

Wang Dou also groaned, his own power has not developed to the Central Plains and other places, and there is no way to provide shelter for these merchants. Officials and businessmen, officials and businessmen, the most powerful in this era are officials and businessmen, they are deeply rooted in various places, they are not high-ranking officials or high-ranking military generals, and the businessmen under their protection cannot intervene in various places.

And at this time, there are many troubled times, bandits are everywhere, and the wanderers are full of wilderness, unless the army escorts, don't talk about long-distance transportation, and the current road conditions in Daming are not good, and the logistics can't keep up. The most important thing is, what can Donglu sell?

Grain, iron, weapons, may be the signboard of the East Road in the future, but these will not be sold by Wang Dou.

……

After those businessmen left, Wang Dou gathered the generals in the big tent of the Chinese army, and the people gathered in the tent were Chi Dacheng, Xie Yike, Wen Fangliang, Gao Shiyin, Li Guangheng, Wen Daxing, Sun Sanjie, Zhao Xuan, Wu Zhengchun, Shen Shiqi, Gao Xun and other thousands of generals. There are also some staff clerks who accompany the army. ,

Among them, Wen Fangliang, Gao Shiyin, Sun Sanjie controlled Wu Zhengchun, Shen Shiqi, and Gao Xun.

There are Zhong Xiancai, Yang Guodong, Zhong Tiaoyang, Lei Xianbin and other calm people on the East Road, and several first-class and second-class armies, including the second-class army, presumably no one dares to fight the idea of the East Road. Except for Wang Dou, no one can mobilize the Shunxiang army on the East Road, and anyone who dares to have any crooked psychology will be ruthlessly attacked by the Shunxiang army left behind.

Wang Dou looked at everyone one by one, this time with the army, all the generals are honored, you know, every time they go out, each general is a head. Especially Wu Zhengchun, Shen Shiqi, and Gao Xun, there was a lot of excitement in their expressions.

However, Wu Zhengchun is a silent person, Gao Xun is a restrained person in the city, and he doesn't show much expression on his face. Only Shen Shiqi had a look of contentment on his face, sat up straight, and glanced at Wu Zhengchun opposite from time to time.

In fact, after Wu Zhengchun and Chen Suniang got married in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Shen Shiqi was somewhat relieved, this guy finally has a wife, should he be damned? Although Shen Shiqi was proud of his love scene back then, he was always worried that his wife would break off the connection with this guy.

Unlike the fierce gods outside, Shen Shiqi was quite afraid of the inside, and he never dared to speak ill of his wife. In these years, Shen Shiqi and Wu Zhengchun have a fierce competitive relationship, and at first Shen Shiqi climbed on Wu Zhengchun's head. After Wu Zhengchun worked hard, he climbed on his head again.

Finally, the two are equal, and there is another thing that makes Shen Shiqi depressed, that is, after Wu Zhengchun and Chen Suniang got married, Chen Suniang gave birth to triplets, all of whom survived, and they were all sons. This is a strange thing on the East Road, and even Wang Dou has personally gone to see it.

Because Chen Suniang likes to eat meat every day, the spread that women who like to eat meat will give birth to sons is spreading on East Road.

Over the years, Shen Shiqi has only one son and one daughter, which makes him feel that he has been compared to Wu Zhengchun, and he is uncomfortable in his heart.

"Every time a thief breaks a city, he destroys the city, the general, according to the opinion of the last general, Li Chuang and the thieves have no great ambitions, and this rogue's behavior is not enough evidence."

The General Staff Department has sorted out the information from various parts of Henan, and Wen Fangliang, ambassador of the General Staff Department, has reported to Wang Dou.

Wang Dou smiled slightly: "I heard that the thief is not good at drinking, and he is rough and rough, and he shares the joys and hardships with his subordinates, this person is tenacious and has repeatedly pounced, but it should not be underestimated." ”

In Wang Dou's view, Li Zicheng was nervously afraid that he would grind into steel bars, and he was beaten several times to the point that only more than ten horsemen were left to flee for their lives, and soon regrouped and made a comeback. In the past ten years, I don't know how many times I have failed, but I have never been discouraged, like Xiaoqiang who can't be killed.

After years of war, he can be called an excellent tactician, but of course, his strategic vision is clearly lacking. Fourteen years after Chongzhen, his military success should actually be attributed to the corruption of the Ming court, when the Ming Dynasty had returned to the heavens and lacked skills, and Li Zicheng's opponents were mostly some third-rate troops of the Ming Dynasty, and the heads of the armies obviously released water, preserved their strength, and were unwilling to contribute to the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zicheng regarded himself as invincible in the world, and as a result, the truly elite Manchurian army immediately showed its original form, and hundreds of thousands of people were wiped out within a year.

The combat effectiveness of the Chuang army was far from being as strong as Li Zicheng imagined, and in terms of combat effectiveness, Wang Dou believed that the Qing army was better than the Liaodong army, better than the Qin army in Shaanxi, and better than the Chuang army. Li Zicheng overestimated his own strength. Entering Beijing too quickly is a fundamental strategic mistake and exposes the shortcomings of its short-sightedness, which may be the common disadvantage of most of the rogues.

The peasant rebel army at the end of the Ming Dynasty was not at the same level as Zhu Yuanzhang and other heroes in the early Ming Dynasty.

Of course, at present, Wang Dou attaches great importance to Li Zicheng and others, because he is responsible for the lives of thousands of soldiers under his command.

"Thieves, they have broken through Lushan, Jiaxian, Yiyang, Yanshi, and Yongning, and they are encircling Luoyang, and according to the students' opinion, it is imperative for thieves to attack Luoyang."

Looking at the huge map, Qin Yi pondered for a long time, stroked his beard and said slowly.

Wang Dou's eyes lit up, and after the General Staff Department finished saying all the enemy information, Wang Dou let everyone speak freely, everyone said a word, only Qin Yi's words said to Wang Dou's heart. Wang Dou relied on foresight, but Qin Yi relied on "hard kung fu", in this regard, Wang Dou was not as good as him.

"Why did Mr. Qin say that?"

Wen Fangliang said.

As the scribe and praise painting of the General Staff Division, Qin Yi was fortunate to accompany him, and there were few praise paintings in the General Staff Department who had this honor.

Qin Yi arched his hand to everyone: "The wealth of King Fu is well-known in the world, if Luoyang is taken, the thieves will have countless gold and silver goods to raise the army, and they will call for millions, and their momentum will no longer be able to extinguish." There are all kinds of things in this way, and the students think that the Luoyang thief will take it! ”

Wen Fangliang said: "Luoyang City is tall and thick, but it is not so easy to fight. ”

Qin Yi said calmly: "The people of western Henan are hungry day by day, but King Fu is still extravagant, drunk and gold-obsessed, and refuses to take out grain and rice to help the victims. Both the military and the civilian population are very resentful. The thieves themselves know how to make up songs and ballads to incite the people, and their subordinates are afraid of talented people. Under the different hearts of the people, if the wall is broken, no matter how thick the city is, it will be useless. ”

Everyone was silent, thinking deeply about Qin Yi's words, and Qin Yi is a native of Henan and knows a lot about Luoyang and other places, and what he said is very likely to come true.

After a long time, Wang Dou said: "According to Mr. Qin's words, if the thieves besiege Luoyang, what should my Shunxiang army do?" ”