Half a month later, near Qinghua Town, Li Zicheng led more than 20,000 troops to wander around, walking among the countryside, tiptoeing in the barren places, and heading straight to the direction of Weihui Mansion, looking like he might enter Shanxi at any time.

The whereabouts can be described as erratic, difficult to judge, and unpredictable.

At this moment, the army led by Li Zicheng no longer had the neat appearance of the original queue, scattered and scattered, faintly embarrassed. The sparse and messy formations of groups of three or five are more like the remnants of the defeated army and the desperate ones who have been surrounded and suppressed by the officials and troops.

Not only that, but there were not only the neighing of war horses, but also the sound of "creaking" ox carts, which were full of looted goods, and some ragged people sitting on them, as if fleeing.

"Boss, we can't go on like this, if we continue like this, we have to be dragged to death, and we all have to explain here."

Gu Junen rode his horse and walked a few steps quickly, came to Li Zicheng, and after speaking anxiously, he waited for the other party's response while walking.

However, Li Zicheng was unmoved, his expression did not change at all, and he still rode slowly on his own and continued to walk forward.

Li Mu also walked up at this time, and said as he walked: "Yes, boss, what Gu Junshi said is right, we can't go on like this." If this continues, not only will it be hopeless to avenge the lord of the Wang League, but even our whereabouts will be exposed, and we will be chased and killed by the officials and soldiers all the time. ”

Seeing that Li Zicheng's expression remained unchanged, Li Mu further said: "Boss, although the Lord of the Wang Alliance has left a lot of troops for you, most of them are dragged to the family, and all of them are added together, there are forty or fifty thousand, which not only slows down our marching speed, but even the tactics you let Gao Yigong Protestant teach cannot be brought into play at all." After all, those tactics were a great test of the marching speed and reflexes of the great army. ”

Li Zicheng's brows furrowed, and he glanced back at the two of them: "What do you want me to do?" And, how do you know that I didn't think about it? ”

Gu Junen and Li Mu were dumbfounded, they were stunned when asked, they were one horse position behind Li Zicheng, and they just wanted to say something more, but at this time, Tian Jianxiu came between the two, pulled the reins, strangled the war horse, and said in a low voice: "Two, don't talk about it, before you, the boss has already talked to those people, hoping that they can reduce the number of people and arrange the families of the army......"

"Captain Li, what is the result?" The two couldn't help but ask in unison, interrupting Tian Jianxiu's speech.

"You two, do you need to ask? Haven't you all seen it already? Tian Jianxiu shook helplessly and rode his horse slowly.

"How so?" Gu Junen and Li Mu glanced at each other, and hurriedly followed, with an anxious look, after the former asked, he further added: "Moreover, isn't there any one among those leaders who understands?" If this continues, everyone will be dragged with their families, and no one will want to live, and they will have to be strangled to death by the officials and soldiers. ”

"Master Gu, not only do I understand what you mean, but the boss and I have also thought about this issue, and there are many people who understand among those leaders." Tian Jianxiu showed a helpless look, shook his head, and said instead: "However, those leaders are very divided, and many people advocate that those soldiers with their families should be diverted, and the army should go straight to Zhangde Mansion and meet with Leader Gao. However, some other leaders disagreed. After all, almost all of the soldiers who were diverted out were those people. If so many people are reduced at once, their position will definitely be weakened accordingly. ”

Gu Junen and Li Mu didn't say anything more, they knew very well in their hearts that it was almost impossible to kick out so many family members of the army.

After all, if this is done, it will not only be as simple as committing public anger, but will also put Li Jiajun in a disadvantageous position, and in the future development, it will greatly weaken the support of public opinion.

There is also a key point, except for Li Jiajun, all other rebel armies have more or less family members of the army, which has become a norm and a tacit consensus.

Not only that, like the leaders of those rebel armies, the leaders and the like, not only their families are on their side, they are also in the army, but they also have groups of wives and concubines, such as Zhang Xianzhong and others. No matter how bad the situation is, there is no shortage of women in the barracks.

Gu Junen and Li Mu glanced at each other, only let out a long helpless sigh, and continued to hurry.

At the same time, the two of them had doubts and curiosity, which was also the reason why they joined the Li family's army, how did Li Zicheng do it, although the Li family's army of nearly 10,000 people was divided into two units, but none of the soldiers carried their families.

What's even more bizarre is that unlike other rebel armies, there are countless oxen and carriages loaded with gold, silver and jewelry, Li Jiajun can be described as a light cart and a simple one, one person, one horse and one carrying a box, and nothing else, which can be described as an outlier and strange among the rebel army.

Of course, this is also the reason why the two of them judged why Li Jiajun had such a strong combat effectiveness. After all, without those ties, there is no need to bet on gold, silver, jewelry, grain and silver, and the speed and combat effectiveness of the march will of course go up.

In comparison, to use an analogy, those rebel armies with gold, silver and jewelry, groups of wives and concubines, and family members of the army are like a bloated fat man, even if he has a war horse under his crotch and is well-equipped, he can't run, and his combat effectiveness is not obvious.

Li Jiajun is different, one person, one horse and one back box, can advance and retreat quickly, whether it is a sneak attack, or retreat, or ambush, can exert unparalleled combat effectiveness.

As soon as they thought of this, the two of them were even more curious, how did their boss do it to bring out such a Li Jiajun, no one to bring his family, no one to bring gold, silver and jewelry?

The two of them could never have imagined that Li Jiajun was not so simple, it was not an ordinary rebel army, not only in Shaanxi, but also in Shanxi and Henan, and those Li Jiajun's family members were of course all arranged in the base area.

As for the gold, silver, jewelry, and food that were seized, needless to say, except for the accident of being exchanged for silver tickets, of course, they were sent to the nearest base area.

Obviously, as a newcomer to Gu Junen and the others, Li Zicheng would certainly not tell them these extremely secret things.

A few more days have passed, and the mixed force led by Li Zicheng has shrunk by a large margin, from 40,000 to 50,000 to less than 20,000.

That night, surrounded by a fire like stars, Li Zicheng summoned Mantianxing, Eight King Kongs, Xing Hongwolf and others to sit around a fire, everyone's expressions were not very good-looking, and their eyes were gloomy.

In the dim light, Li Zicheng looked around at everyone, and knew very well in his heart that the main reason why the army suffered heavy losses was that there were too many family members of the army. However, Li Zicheng did not mention the issue of diverting the families of the soldiers, not only because those people had already died and scattered, but also because he knew that it was useless to mention them.

No, before Li Zicheng could speak, he had already blocked this matter.

"General Li Chuang, I don't think it's better to mention the arrangement of the families of the soldiers elsewhere. After all, everyone came out to rebel so that they and their families could have a stutter and not starve to death. If they are dismissed now, it will be no less than driving some of their brothers away. ”

Man Tianxing was the first to stand up, and after he finished speaking coldly, several large and small leaders echoed him, and even Xing Hongwolf, Ba King Kong and others, who were biased towards Li Zicheng, did not say anything.

As if he had expected it a long time ago, Li Zicheng smiled faintly, and then said loudly: "Leaders, you have misunderstood, Li called everyone here, not to discuss the arrangement of the military family to belong elsewhere, but about the morale of the army. ”

Obviously, as soon as this remark came out, it hit the vast majority of people with a mistake, but I didn't expect Li Zicheng to say so abruptly, and he was stunned for a while, no one spoke, and the surroundings were quiet.

During the pause in the words, Li Zicheng took in everyone's reactions, muttered slightly, ignored them, and continued his narration, his tone was not slow, he talked eloquently, revealing great confidence.

"Leaders, in the past few days, since we left Shanyang Mountain, we have been discovered by Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu, and in more than half a month, we have either died, or been separated, or captured by the officers and soldiers, and we have lost more than 20,000 people. Moreover, among them, the families of the brothers are the most. At this time, after many pursuits and killings by officials and soldiers, the morale of the army has reached its lowest level. If we can't boost morale and revive the prestige of the army, if the official army sneaks up again and encounters them, although we still have the advantage in numbers, we are still not the opponent of Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu and others. ”

As soon as the words fell, the atmosphere around him suddenly became heavy, except for Li Zicheng and his henchmen, their expressions were not very good.

However, at this moment, an untimely voice sounded.

"Brother Li, what is this? Isn't it just the loss of some people? Moreover, the vast majority of them are not combatants, and as you mentioned, many of them are family members of the scattered soldiers. For these people, no matter how ruthless the officers and soldiers are, shoddy, and pretending to lead the army, it is impossible to kill them all. Besides, without these people, our marching speed has increased a lot. ”

The person who spoke was none other than the Eight King Kongs, compared to the gloomy clouds of others, and he was not optimistic about the prospects, he had to be more open, with a hint of joy and joy in his tone, with a little bit of madness.

"Brother Li, the most important thing is that during this period of time, although we have lost more than half of our troops, Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu are not having a good time, and after many major battles, the officers and troops we have eliminated must be about three or four thousand. For Henan, which already has few troops, the strength in the hands of Xuanmo, the governor of Henan, has been greatly reduced. As long as the family members of our army do not increase, it will not be so easy for Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu to encircle and intercept them. Also, I finally got some anger for the lord of the Wang Alliance and took revenge, and all this effort was not in vain. ”

Although many people were encouraged by Ba Kong's words and had some confidence, Li Zicheng showed a wry smile and shook his head again and again, and Xing Hongwolf directly interrupted his speech.

"Eight King Kongs, you take it for granted, not to mention that our army is demoralized and has no fighting spirit at all. Even if the official army lost four or five thousand people, the officers and troops entrenched in Huaiqing Mansion, Weihui Mansion and Zhangde Mansion still had seven or eight thousand people. Don't say 7,000 people, just take out half of them, 3 to 4,000 people, Zuo Liangyu and Deng Xi join forces, even if it is in our heyday, can 20,000 people beat the official army? ”

"Of course, it is undeniable that killing so many officers and soldiers at once, Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu losing so many troops, can indeed make them feel painful, and to a certain extent, it is indeed avenging the alliance leader. However, the surviving brothers still have to live, can't they just fight it out, right? ”

The words behind the Eight King Kong were suddenly choked back, speechless, and his eyes widened, and he wanted to refute it. However, he heard Xing Hongwolf's subtext, another meaning.

To put it nicely, the rebels from all walks of life are called rebels, but in fact, they are a group of rabble, without any combat power at all, and they are all bluffed by the strength of the people. Otherwise, wouldn't tens of thousands of people be swept around by thousands of officers and soldiers? Don't avenge the alliance leader, haven't killed Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu, but he and others died first, what kind of revenge is that?

It's just an irrational and reckless move, and it also implicates other people to suffer together!

However, Li Zicheng on the side wanted to say not this, he wanted to persuade the leaders not only to dismiss the families of the army, but also not to bring those gold and gold jewelry.

The reason why their whereabouts were exposed again and again, they were pursued and encircled by the officers and soldiers, and they could not evacuate, although the family members of the soldiers were a major factor, but the captured gold, silver and jewelry were also a big burden, which completely slowed down the speed of the march.

However, Li Zicheng couldn't say anything. After all, no matter which rebel army it is, gold, silver and jewelry are definitely more important than his own father and mother! Let them give up their carts of gold, silver and jewels, no less than killing them, and as soon as they open their mouths, they will commit the wrath of the people.

However, Li Zicheng never gave up, trying to get these leaders in front of him to throw away the captured gold, silver and jewelry, so as to increase the speed of the march.

To Li Zicheng's relief, fortunately, there were not many family members of the remaining army, and it did not have much impact on the marching speed of the army. Otherwise, he would not have mentioned the morale of the army at this time.

"Bang bang bang...."

Li Zicheng suddenly clapped his hands, and when he saw that he had successfully attracted everyone's attention, he said heartily: "Leaders, as I just said, the reason why I summoned everyone here is to discuss and solve the problem of low morale of the army. ”

"After all, if the morale of the army is so low and not resolved, it will definitely not work, which will only make our situation even worse, and we will be even more unable to cope with the encirclement and interception of the officers and soldiers. And, if morale is not improved, there will be more and more deserters. Once that time comes, the officials and troops have not yet chased after us, but we ourselves have dispersed first, won't it make the other rebels laugh and become a laughing stock? ”

As soon as Li Zicheng finished speaking, Xing Hongwolf was the first to express his support.

"General Li Chuang, what you said is right, the army urgently needs to improve its morale now, and it can't go on like this."

The others echoed one after another, expressing the same meaning, but Man Tianxing asked further: "General Li Chuang, since you have raised this question, do you already have a good suggestion?" ”

When the question was asked, most people showed a sudden look, but their eyes lit up, and they looked at Li Zicheng hopefully.

The people present have been suffering from the same thing in the past few days, due to many major defeats and defeats to the officers and soldiers, the morale of the rebel army has fallen to the bottom, and there are more and more deserters under each of them. If this continues, some of them will have to become Commander of the Light Pole!

Now when I hear the starry sky ask this, why don't you feel moved in my heart? Why don't you wait expectantly for Li Zicheng to give an affirmative answer, and there can be a solution?