In the dark night, the bonfire burned brightly, and the undried wood emitted thick green smoke when it burned, making the surroundings smoky, and Li Zicheng's face was hidden in the smoke, giving people a mysterious and unpredictable feeling.

Li Zicheng chose to turn to Hubei is not without reason, in this battle Li Zicheng was deeply troubled by the shortage of grain and grass on his side, if Li Zicheng had enough grain and grass, he could completely surround Luoyang and then slowly find a way to attack Luoyang, or it can be said that Luoyang was besieged, and he could calmly attack other cities, but it was because of the lack of food that he had to use extreme methods to attack the city with crowd tactics, so the final result was that seventy or eighty thousand hungry soldiers all became corpses on the ground in less than a few days.

Of course, this is caused by Li Zicheng's ruthlessness, but it is not a manifestation of helplessness.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Li Zicheng decided to march to Hubei, and since ancient times, there has been a saying in China that "Huguang is ripe and the world is full", which means that as long as the grain in Hunan and Hubei is mature, then the people of the world do not have to worry about food.

According to statistics, in the ten years of Yongle, Hubei alone exported 3 million stone of grain to the outside world, which shows the sufficiency of grain in Hubei.

Now, realizing where his shortcomings lie, Li Zicheng has set his sights on Hubei, a major grain-producing province, and he has this self-confidence, as long as he leads his troops to capture Hubei, then his army will definitely grow like a snowball again.

Now seeing the stunned eyes and tone of his subordinates, Li Zicheng nodded with satisfaction, "Yes, it's Hubei, as long as we get to Hubei, we will have endless food, and compared to Henan, Hubei is much richer, as long as we can capture Hubei, even if we have a foothold, as long as we have a territory, we will continue to drink the capital of the imperial court, so I decided to send troops to Hubei overnight tonight."

At dawn the next day, the defenders on the city wall of Luoyang were surprised to find that the rogues who had surrounded them had disappeared without a trace overnight, except for the corpses left behind and the yellow and white things they discharged.

"Sure enough, as I expected, Li Ziguo ran away!"

Pang Gang stood on the city wall, looked at the chaotic garrison of the original army outside the city, sighed softly, turned his head and asked the black body behind him: "Black Qianhu, have you sent out all the night?" ”

Hei Tie behind Pang Gang said respectfully: "My lord, early this morning, I sent out all the people who didn't collect the night, and I think I will soon be able to find out the traces of the thieves." ”

Pang Gang nodded: "Well, just order them to hang them far away at night, and don't clash with the thieves." ”

"Yes!" Black Iron saluted Pang Gang and left.

"Wow"

After the black iron was opened, a rush of footsteps came, and soon Liu Yuliang's voice sounded: "Huge man, this official heard that the thieves have withdrawn overnight, why don't you chase them?" ”

"Chase!" Pang Gang turned his head a little funny, just in time to see Liu Yuliang hurriedly go up to the city wall with Li Xianfeng, Lu Weiqi and others, Pang Gang said: "Lord Liu, now we don't even know which direction the thief is running, how can I chase it?" Besides, although the thieves retreated, the tail of the hand left behind is very troublesome, and we have to deal with it as soon as possible, otherwise it will cause a big disaster! ”

Liu Yuliang said impatiently: "What else can be more important than chasing the thieves, besides, even if you run away, what other big disaster can there be?" ”

"Why not!" Pang Gang pointed to the outside of the city and said: "My lord, please look, after several days of fierce fighting, there are tens of thousands of corpses all over the outside of the city at this time, and the weather is hot at this time, if you can't dispose of these corpses within two days, and wait for these corpses to decompose, think about what the consequences will be!" ”

"Plague!"

As soon as Pang Gang said this, everyone's faces changed, the medical level in ancient times was underdeveloped, the plague was a terminal illness for them, and it was a large-scale terminal disease, if the plague spread in Luoyang, none of them dared to guarantee that they would be spared.

After being shocked, Liu Yuliang gritted his teeth and gurgled: "What a vicious rebellion, the official sees that he deliberately let these corpses run across the wilderness and do not converge, just to make trouble for us, no wonder he dares to retreat so swaggering and is not afraid of our pursuit, and he still has a back hand." ”

"What do you think?" Pang Gang said with a wry smile: "If the rebellion is so easy to deal with, Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou will not spend years of effort to compress them to a corner of Shaanxi in order to deal with him, but unfortunately, I really don't know what the emperor thinks, he is about to wipe out all the thieves, but he let him go." ”

Speaking of this, Liu Yuliang's old face couldn't help but turn red, and he transferred Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting back to the capital, although it was not his idea, but he also voted in favor at that time. At that time, Lu Xiangsheng died in battle, the capital was empty, and the people were panicked, so Chongzhen transferred Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting to Yanjing to defend Jinggi, but when they came, the Qing soldiers were unusual, just passing by on both sides of the capital, and there was no intention of attacking Yanjing at all, Chongzhen was relieved after receiving the report, and at the same time regretted it, because of his own suspicions, Lu Xiangsheng, who was loyal to him, died in battle, and 100,000 elites suffered heavy losses, and the rest of them also went back to their own stations as birds and beasts, and finally had to transfer Hong Chengchou's army. So much so that years of hard work and millions of taels of silver were all lost.

Of course, Chongzhen, who is the above mistakes, will never admit it, which is very similar to some people in later generations, that is, he will not admit his mistake when he is killed, naturally, the court will never admit such a humiliating thing, and now when he hears Pang Gang revisiting the old things, Rao is Liu Yuliang, a person who has long exercised his face, also feels a trace of shame, of course, the time is only a moment.

Chongzhen, who almost wanted to exterminate the Liukou, heard that Li Zicheng had fled to Henan, so he ordered Liu Yuliang to be the governor of Henan Province, if Liu Yuliang could annihilate Li Zicheng or capture him alive, the credit would be great, so Liu Yuliang would run so anxiously to urge Pang Gang to send troops to pursue the Liukou.

But now he looked out along Pang Gang's fingers, and suddenly became dumb, Pang Gang was right, if the tens of thousands of corpses outside the city were not disposed of, it would definitely cause a large-scale plague.

In desperation, Liu Yuliang only obediently closed his mouth, and after Pang Gang finished speaking, he said to Li Xianfeng beside Liu Yuliang: "Governor Li, this matter will be bothering you, please mobilize two thousand young people and a large amount of lime, we can't do too well, just dig more than a dozen big pits and bury them all." ”

Li Xianfeng nodded, "Okay, the old man will do this." The governor was also a man of his word, and after saying hello to Pang Gang, he went down to the city.

Watching Li Xianfeng get off the city wall, Pang Gang turned his head, stared at Liu Yuliang with bright eyes, and said with a smile: "Lord Liu, the last general has done what he promised, I don't know how your silver is prepared?" ”

When Liu Yuliang heard this, he immediately cried and laughed, "My General Pang, you think that these 200,000 taels of silver are cabbage, so you have to give this official a little time to raise it." ”

"Okay then." Pang Gang was also not worried, "The last general will set off in three days, and the last general hopes to see this silver before leaving." ”

Although Liu Yuliang was dissatisfied with Pang Gang's attitude towards him, he also endured it for the sake of the benefits that could be made from this errand, but Pang Gang's next sentence made his heart hang.

As if careless and as if intentionally or unintentionally, Pang Gang pondered for a while before saying: "Lord Liu, if the last general sets off after three days, the Luoyang city defense will become empty again, what if the thieves go and return?" ”

"That's unlikely, isn't it?" Liu Yuliang's face changed suddenly, although he said that it was impossible, but his eyes looked at Lu Weiqi, the former secretary of the military department, beside him.

Lu Weiqi also stroked his beard and groaned for a while before hesitating: "This may be very small, but it is not impossible, if the thieves attack again"

Speaking of which, everyone understands that they have annihilated so many thieves in the past few days, but that is the role of the Qingzhou Army.

These Liu Yuliang and Lu Weiqi are sitting on wax, the Qingzhou Army is not under their jurisdiction, they can't let Pang Gang stay in Luoyang all the time, and the emperor won't let it.

Seeing Liu Yuliang and the others embarrassed, Pang Gang smiled and said: "In this way, the last general has an idea, after the last general leaves, he can leave a battalion of soldiers and horses to be stationed in Luoyang to assist the fathers and villagers in Luoyang to defend the city, what do you two think?" ”

"Hmm"

As soon as Pang Gang said this, Lu Weiqi's originally cloudy eyes suddenly shot out a fine light and stared at Pang Gang's face, and his face became solemn.

Pang Gang's heart also jumped, and he pretended to be casual and said: "Of course, if the two of you don't think you need it, then forget it, anyway, the last general will leave in three days, and the last general will also eat salty radishes and lightly hearted, so the last general has not said it." ”

Although Pang Gang said so, he secretly sneered in his heart: You should invite your brother to come and use hundreds of thousands of taels of silver and some grain and grass to get it away. Pang Gang looked at Lu Weiqi and Liu Yuliang tightly, as long as the word "no" popped out of their mouths, there would be more than ten ways for him to plunge Luoyang City back into chaos, even if it was to make a cameo in person.

Liu Yuliang, the governor, was not very wary of Pang Gang, in his heart, Pang Gang was just a very powerful, but greedy local general.

(To be continued)