From the defeat and retreat in Shanhaiguan, all the way to Beijing, and the remnants of Li Zicheng who traveled all the way south from Shaanxi to Henan, the journey can be described as extremely difficult, from the largest number of more than a million people, to now there are only less than 50,000 people, for a king who once attacked the capital, what a miserable and cool.

Li Zicheng forgot how many days he had walked in the mountains, he only knew that since he started the army, he had never encountered such a tragic and embarrassing thing, and he was chased by people from behind, like a lost dog, he was fed up.

Low morale of the troops is an inevitable fact, and the only way to reverse this situation is to win a battle, otherwise the team will soon be crushed.

As a leader, Li Zicheng knew all this better, he knew the importance of a victory for him, and now that most of the north had completely fallen under the control of the Manchus, there was no soil suitable for his survival.

It is not easy to make a comeback in the south, although the various factions in the south are in a mess, but it is still very easy to deal with the defeat of such a remnant army as themselves.

Not to mention the others, his own army is now short of food and clothing, although the people who stay are basically sure to be elite soldiers in a hundred battles, but they are not opponents in how they have not eaten in a hundred battles.

Now Li Zicheng is a little envious of Zhang Xianzhong's guy, not blindly attacking Beijing, but choosing to enter Shu, now the life is free and happy, the entire Shu land under his control has become a country of its own, if he can be like him, in the Shaanxi generation to stay at ease, I am afraid that today will be a different scene.

Being good at summarizing and thinking is an important factor for Li Zicheng to stand out among the many rebel armies, otherwise how could he become the leader of the largest rebel army with a reckless man who only knows how to run and kill.

He summed up the experience of failure, judging by the words in its current form. If you want to make a comeback, you must take the old road, the countryside surrounds the city, this is the method that Li Zicheng used when he started his family, and it is also used by many leaders of the rebel army.

Only in the countryside did he have the soil and seeds to take root and sprout, and in the cities he could not arouse the hatred of the common people against the gentry and landlords. Moreover, he has always proposed that he will not pay grain for three years and that he will not pay grain for three years, and that he will have the support of a large part of the peasants.

This is where his advantage lies, if you put this guy in a few hundred years, it is estimated that he will be an excellent Marxist fighter, because the set he proposed is quite close to fighting local tyrants and dividing the land hundreds of years later, but too many of his subordinates are consumed by the desire for profit, and they began to enjoy it before the world is reunified, and the personnel of the army are also uneven, so it has led to this consequence.

A group of peasants who have no culture, only a stream of impulsive ideas, can have only two consequences when they come together. One is to succeed, the other is to be recruited, obviously Li Zicheng, succeeded but failed, does not know how to deal with the current environment to make choices, just blindly use force to solve the problem, it is difficult to sit firmly in the world.

Although he fights local tyrants and divides the land, there are probably not many people who really remember him well. This guy is so brutal that he kills the gentry class at every turn. Where would anyone think that such a person is Mingjun, you must know that Mingjun also needs to be supported by reading, and most of the scholars are from the gentry class.

Li Zicheng found that this method of not paying taxes could not be used for a long time, otherwise he would be dragged down, and if all of them did not pay food for three years, it would be a very terrible thing, and it was very difficult for a regime without tax revenue to develop for a long time. If you want to develop, you must follow your own old path and confiscate the money of the gentry.

These are not what Li Zicheng wants to continue to do, if he does not change his previous practice, I am afraid it is impossible to make a comeback, and the best result is the king of a mountain. For people like Li Zicheng, who have big ideals and big ambitions, they will not nest in the mountains.

So for a few days in the mountains, Li Zicheng has actually been thinking about problems, thinking about how to make a comeback, and thinking about how to deal with changes.

Li Zicheng's goal was south of the Yangtze River, and although the forces were rampant, there was also an advantage, and the advantage was that there was no need to deal with the frontal attack of the Manchus alone.

If something happens, there is still the top in front, Li Zicheng has this idea, so he decided to retreat south.

It's just that the soil in the south is far less big than in the north, and the disaster in the south is not as big as in the north, and the people will be stupid to follow suit, and some of the things that Zhang Xianzhong did in the south are even more terrifying.

Therefore, it is very difficult for Li Zicheng to develop here, and for Li Zicheng's coming to the south, the various forces have expressed different positions, some say that they want to exterminate him to avenge the emperor, and some say that they should abandon their previous suspicions and fight the enemy together.

Now the Manchu Qing Dynasty is a big problem, if you fight with Li Zicheng at this time, it will consume your own strength, and the Manchu Qing will chase it all the way to the south, I am afraid it is also the meaning, let Li Zicheng and these people in the south fight first, consume their strength, and finally reap the benefits of the fisherman.

So for Li Zicheng's sudden appearance, the forces of all parties in the south have already watched in a tacit way, and everyone can speak, this guy has not attacked the city and seized the land at least for now, but has taken a consistent route, and the countryside surrounds the city.

He wanted to use this method to develop and strengthen himself, but also to solve the problem of soldiers, and through the battle with the Manchus, he found some merits of the other side, which could currently solve the problem of lack of food at hand.

The army went to farm when there was no war, and put on armor to take up arms to fight when there was war, this method could effectively solve the food problem, and it was also necessary for him to reform the army, and the number of artillery used by Houjin has always been one of the key points to defeat him.

Originally, he didn't pay attention to this point, but now he has received the news that all sides measure the strength of their strength by the number of artillery, which can be seen that the problem lies in the fact that the number of artillery pieces in his army is not very large, at most about fifteen.

The best artillery is still made by Australians, so if you want to buy it, you have to buy it from the Australians, he has the money, and he fled all the way south, and the money he collected is all the way, these things are the foundation of his life, and with the money, he can buy more artillery and recruit more soldiers.

When Li Zicheng first felt that he was going to reform the army, his face once again showed that confidence in victory, as long as he showed this kind of smile, his subordinates knew that King Chuang must have thought of some other good way, as long as every time he saw him show this kind of smile, it must be a good thing. (To be continued.) )