When he got the news that the protagonist of the raid on Tongguan had become Luo Rucai, Zhu Ping'an was already on his way back with his army overnight. The planned plan to lure Li Zicheng did not succeed, which made him feel slightly disappointed. Zhu Ping'an is also quite curious, the plan is very thorough, every detail has been carefully and rigorously scrutinized, what is even more rare is that as a traverser, Zhu Ping'an will also use the results of Li Zicheng's research in later generations, it is said that the emptiness of Tongguan should be enough to attract Li Zicheng to the west, but why did he not support the army, but instead sent Luo Ru to come?

Based on Zhu Ping'an's understanding of Li Zicheng, his military talent was limited, and the results in the early stage were actually more due to the difficulties and shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty itself. Without the deterioration of weather conditions during the Xiaoice River period and the partisan strife and corruption of the Ming officials themselves, Li Zicheng could not have repeatedly gathered hundreds of thousands of troops to contend with the Ming army; Without the Manchu Qing Dynasty attracting and consuming the elite of the Ming army's border towns outside the pass, Li Zicheng would not have been able to conquer the Beijing division lightly.

The most important point is that, according to Zhu Ping'an's understanding, Li Zicheng does not have a civil and military official with outstanding strategic vision.

Li Zicheng's heyday has now come, since Henan raised troops again, the strength soon swelled to 500,000 troops, although the water is quite large, but there are always 100,000 soldiers who can fight, and this alone is far more than today's Ming army in Guannei.

Among the ministers under his command, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Gu Junen are the mainstays. Among them, Niu Venus is just a first-place person, with a mouse's eyes, some clever and true, but good at power; Song Xiance is proficient in mathematics and has not made many achievements in military affairs; Gu Junen still has some talent, and actively asked Li Zicheng to build yì first take Shanxi, pacify the three sides, and then drive directly to Beijing, but after that, he was unknown.

In terms of military generals, Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi, and Li Guo are the leaders, but these people are brave and martial, but their strategies are all worthless roles, and it is difficult to even be competent alone. Just looking at the series of battles after Li Zicheng had to withdraw from the Beijing division after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it can be seen that none of Liu Zongmin and others can be called a general.

From this point of view, Li Zicheng is far inferior to Zhang Xianzhong in the discovery, training, and appointment of military generals.

But there is an exception among them, from the news of the spies, Zhu Ping'an found a familiar name - Li Yan. Only then did Zhu Ping'an realize that during this period, Li Yan had obviously invested under Li Zicheng.

Li Yan, whose name is Linquan, is a native of Qixian County, Henan, and the son of Li Jingbai, the former secretary of the Ming Dynasty Military Department and the governor of Shandong. He is both humanistic and martial, heroic and righteous, and is deeply loved by the people. It was precisely because of his participation that Li Zicheng put forward the slogan of "Juntian is exempt from endowment", which attracted many displaced people to vote. This alone is enough to find that Li Yanqi has a very unique political vision, and he knows very well how to strengthen his own power. It can be said that without him, there would be no such momentum as the army today.

Zhu Ping'an suddenly realized that it would not be surprising if Li Yan discovered the flaw in his plan to lure the enemy deeper. It's just a pity that such talents still ran under Li Zicheng's command, which inevitably made Zhu Ping'an a little regretful.

Next, there is a strategy to deal with Luo Rucai. For Luo Rucai, Zhu Ping'an seemed very hesitant. During the rapid march, Zhu Ping'an had been thinking about this problem for a long time, and the generals under him also knew Zhu Ping'an's habits, and knew that the commander was considering a specific strategy, so no one dared to disturb him.

Luo Rucai is a typical example of the poor who suddenly get rich, and he is also a leader of the rogues with a very bright speculative color. He was resourceful and won the trust of Gao Yingxiang, the former king of the former Chuang, and entrusted him with military affairs. But after Gao Yingxiang's death, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong grew bigger one after another, but they couldn't tolerate him more and more. Among the three, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong all belong to the fierce type, and only Luo Rucai is the type that is good at thinking, so the three of them complemented each other well at the beginning.

But with the growing strength of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, after gathering some strategists around them, they became suspicious of Luo Rucai. More importantly, due to Luo Rucai's wit, among the several encirclements and suppressions of the imperial court, he was the one who received the least losses, and the 20,000 old soldiers under his command were able to fight habitually, which was also the reason why Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were most fearful.

To put it bluntly, the army of the rogues is actually an integration of the various military groups of the rogues, and because Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are the most powerful, all the rogue groups are all around them. And Luo Rucai is the lubricant among these forces, and it is precisely because of his existence that the various groups of Liukou can gather together to exert their combat effectiveness.

In the real history, only Zhang Xianzhong finally completed the unification and integration of the army under his command, and the Great Western Army also played a pivotal role in the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty. The powerful Li Zicheng did not reorganize the troops under his command even after entering the Beijing Division, and still maintained the loose military group alliance in the past. At this time, after Luo Rucai was killed by Li Zicheng, there was also a crisis of distrust in Li Zicheng within the army, causing Li Zicheng to be defeated by a stone, and he was unable to organize a decent counterattack campaign.

Therefore, what kind of strategy to adopt to treat Luo Rucai made Zhu Ping'an have a headache.

Looking at the current situation, the north of the Ming Dynasty has accumulated a lot of difficulties, although Zhu Ping'an has changed some of the details, but due to the huge inertia, history is still moving inexorably according to the original trajectory. Only when the quantitative change of change accumulates into a qualitative change, I am afraid that history will embark on a completely different path, at present, Zhu Ping'an is not sure when this node will appear, so he can only follow his own plan, with his own efforts to slowly deviate from the original course of history.

……

And Luo Rucai, who went straight to Tongguan, like Zhu Ping'an, was also worried about the problems he was facing.

Li Zicheng got the news that Wang Qiaonian was out of Tongguan, and Luo Rucai, who was stationed in Queshan, also got it. The first reaction was that this was a trap, but Luo Rucai did not slack off, and immediately sent someone to inquire deeply, and finally got a whole set of fake news spread by the military intelligence department, but this set of fake news was enough to confuse the truth with falsehood.

The imperial court found that Shanyou Shangjia colluded with the Manchu Qing to send military supplies outside the Guan, and Shanyou Shangjia jumped over the wall in a hurry, and launched a rebellion in Jiexiu, which has now attracted reinforcements from the Shandong army in Tongguan. I heard that the Mongolian tribes outside the mouth were also ready to move under the orders of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and planned to enter the customs and plunder Shanxi. Therefore, as a last resort, the imperial court ordered Wang Qiaonian to lead some Tongguan soldiers and horses to Jiexiu to quickly quell the rebellion in case the situation became bigger.

After getting this news, Luo Rucai was relieved, but he also knew that Tongguan was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was difficult to open it if it was a husband, although Tongguan was empty at present, it was difficult to get down in one fell swoop.

On August 15, after Luo Rucai further confirmed the location of Wang Qiaonian and the Shandong army, he made up his mind to send troops to Tongguan, in order to maintain the concealment and speed of the march, Luo Rucai did not dispatch the whole army, but dispatched a group of 10,000 people who depended on him to take the official road to Tongguan, so as to attract the attention of the official army, and he and his henchman Ji Jue personally rode 10,000 light horses to Tongguan.

Along the way, Luo Rucai frowned, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were in the south and north, respectively, and now they are all soldiers and food, and the huge Beijing division in the world has no foothold of its own, if you want to go to Jiangnan, it is thousands of miles away, how easy it is to say, I am afraid that even if you can go, you will have to face Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's interception on the way. What's more, there are still hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers in Jiangnan, and if you don't do it well, you will have to lose all the money you have accumulated over the years.

Today's Luo Rucai is like a mouse caught in a bellows, angry at both ends.

The strategist Ji Jue saw what was on his mind and deliberately explained it. Now that the shape is stronger than people, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are both giants who can't afford to offend, but Luo Rucai is not without a chance to be in it.

Luo Rucai's eyes lit up when he heard this, "Please teach me, sir!" ”

Ji Jue shook the feather fan in his hand, and even though he was on the horse, he still maintained his graceful demeanor. "According to the students, raiding Tongguan now is a great opportunity!"

"Wang Qiao's exit from Tongguan has already been confirmed. It is also a fact that Tongguan is empty, if the marshal can take this opportunity to win Tongguan in one fell swoop, then he can enjoy the business of the king alone. ”

"How so?"

"The land in the pass, since ancient times is the capital of the emperor, fertile fields for thousands of miles, the people are strong, with the ability of the handsome, as long as after the seizure of Tongguan, immediately close the gate, you can block the official army and the army from Tongguan, as long as you hold Tongguan, in order to resist the army, and then send the general to guard the town into Shaanxi to arrive, in order to resist the official army. Then carefully manage the Qin land for three years, and recuperate with the people, we can recruit an army of 100,000, plus our current troops, with the land of Guanzhong, Tuntian, to recruit wise men, not to mention the world, even to become a prince is more than enough! ”

As soon as he said this, Luo Rucai's eyes lit up, and he held Ji Jue's hand tightly, and he felt that he was virtuous and virtuous, and he complemented each other.

"So how do you conquer Tongguan now? Although Tongguan is empty, there are still officers and soldiers to defend it, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. ”

Ji Jue smiled slightly, looking like he was holding a Zhizhu, "Didn't the marshal forget the official and military robes that the students specially ordered to prepare before they set off?" ”

As he spoke, he found out a map, sat on the horse and spread it out, regardless of whether Luo Rucai saw it clearly or not, he said endlessly, "Tongguan is adjacent to Fenglingdu in the north, according to the report of Tanma, Wang Qiaonian was out of the division, and the officers and soldiers had built two pontoon bridges for their use, and now they have sent heavy troops to guard the local area, waiting for Wang Qiaonian to return to the division. We might as well disguise ourselves as officers and soldiers, launch a surprise attack, take Fenglingdu in one fell swoop, and then quickly capture Hulutan. In this way, you can go directly to the back of Tongguan, and then the front and back attack, although there will inevitably be some casualties, but as long as Tongguan is taken, General Yang Chengzu, who is left behind, can lead our tens of thousands of troops to immediately march to Tongguan, and when the time comes, the place in the pass will be in the palm of the hand! ”R1152