In April, when Li Zicheng was in Zhuxian Town, Sun Chuanting relied on plundering all the way and finally arrived in Shaanxi.

Upon learning that Sun Chuanting had been reinstated, He Renlong was very nervous.

There have long been rumors in the DPRK that he He Renlong killed Fu Zonglong and Wang Qiaonian successively, and Sun Chuanting was ordered by Chongzhen to kill He Renlong.

Frightened, He Renlong stayed in the barracks all the time and didn't go anywhere.

But the first day of Sun Chuanting's arrival, it was quiet.

The next day, it was business as usual.

Day 3...... Day 4...... Day 5......

What's all right? He Renlong was puzzled.

He is not an ordinary person, he has been promoted from the commander of Fish River Fort all the way to the general soldier, and he is the one who crawled out of the pile of dead.

But thinking that Sun Chuanting was his old boss, and he single-handedly created Qin Bing, he was giving people money.

He Renlong was puzzled.

On 27 April, Sun Chuanting sent a message to congratulate Renlong and ordered him to report to the governor's yamen.

"Sun Dutang suddenly said that he wanted to see me, is there anything wrong with this?"

He Renlong was undecided, so he had to invite Gao Jie.

Gao Jie, the former general of Li Zicheng, had a secret relationship with Li Zicheng's wife, and the two betrayed Li Zicheng and took refuge in the imperial court.

Because of Gao Jie, Li Zicheng suffered heavy losses in the early days.

Since then, Gao Jie has been following He Renlong and is half of his confidant.

After hearing this, Gao Jie persuaded, "Sun Dutang is different from Fu Zonglong and Wang Qiaonian, he is a true hero. The war in the Central Plains is urgent, and he will definitely summon the chief master to discuss the strategy of pacifying the thieves."

"Makes sense. But I ......" He Renlong hesitated.

"Master, the capital hall has summoned you, if you don't go, it will arouse the suspicion of others. Zheng Jiadong and Niu Chenghu will not be idle, and may even take the opportunity to attack you."

"Makes sense! Gao Jie, you take someone with me to see Sun Dutang."

"Yes."

At noon, the sun was thick.

He Renlong took Gao Jie and dozens of family members to the governor's yamen.

The yamen was open, and the soldiers of the standard battalion held weapons and lined up solemnly.

He Renlong dismounted and hesitated for a moment before entering the governor's yamen.

Sun Chuanting sat in the center, his hair was black and white, and his face was the same as before.

"The last general, He Renlong, has seen Sun Dutang." He Renlong was just about to kneel.

Sun Chuanting scolded, "He Renlong! Thou hast fled several times, and thou hast caused the unfortunate death of two trilateral governors?"

"Dutang ......" He Renlong didn't have time to argue, but he was pressed to the ground by Gao Jie.

They quickly tied He Renlong with their hands and feet.

"You!" He Renlong looked at Gao Jie and was horrified.

Gao Jie sneered, "General He, you brought this on yourself!"

It turned out that Sun Chuanting had not moved these days, it was all He Renlong's illusion. Sun Chuanting contacted Gao Jie privately and relied on him to trick He Renlong out of the barracks.

"In accordance with His Majesty's holy decree, the Hongdu Hall will behead the head of the human dragon to set an example."

Sun Chuanting threw the arrow in his hand to the ground.

The soldiers of the standard battalion picked up the arrow and escorted He Renlong out.

The soldiers brought by He Renlong have long been besieged and killed.

"You can't kill me, kill me, and the Qin soldiers will avenge me!" He Renlong shouted.

It's still been dragged on.

Sun Chuanting didn't care, and ordered: "Sun Shouxin, go and detain all the family members in He Renlong's army for me, I will see who dares to rebel."

"Yes." The family general Sun Shouxin stepped down.

Under the control of Sun Chuanting's drastic methods, He Renlong's men and horses were appeased, and the mutiny was quickly quelled.

Then, one thing made Sun Chuanting's newly ignited fighting spirit instantly extinguished.

Since he had been away for too long, the Qin soldiers he had trained had been tossed by several trilateral governors.

Looking at the yamen's accounts again, he was even more disheartened.

Out of helplessness, Sun Chuanting had to write a letter

Shu Shangsheng played the imperial court, and begged for 20,000 elite soldiers, one million taels of silver, and then went out of Tongguan after half a year of training.

At the beginning of May, Sun Chuanting received a reply from Chongzhen:

"I summoned Xianqing on the platform, and Qing said that 5,000 elite soldiers can destroy the thieves, why did I increase the number to 20,000 elite soldiers today! Where is Qin Bing? Shall they all be destroyed! As soon as the money arrives, the Qing must roll up his armor and go out of the Tong Pass to jointly annihilate the thieves, and there must be no mistake!"

After reading the emperor's handwritten letter, Sun Chuanting was stunned: "The wording is too harsh! But the Qin soldiers have all been bloody, and I have no soldiers to fight."

Without waiting for him to slow down, Chongzhen made a big move.

In mid-May, Chongzhen crowned Su Jing, who was born as a Jinshi, as the supervisor of the army, supervised the soldiers of the four towns of Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu and Guyuan, and gave Shang Fang a sword, urging the market to regulate the immediate exit of Tongguan and start a war with the peasant army.

In desperation, Sun Chuanting had to swear to the east in early June.

At this time, the Central Plains was in the rainy season, and the continuous heavy rain caused the Yellow River to swell.

Li Zicheng's offensive to besiege Kaifeng also weakened.

Huang Shu, the official of Kaifeng, took the opportunity to use the gold and silver of the King of Zhou to form a gang in the city, and organized the clan, gentry, merchants and other wealthy people to form a "White Flag Society".

The White Flag will pay for its own money to defend the city of Kaifeng for the people.

In this way, the previous practice has been changed.

In the past, the practice was to give money if you contributed, whether rich or poor.

Now it's the people who are good with the white flag who give money, and the others don't have a share.

In addition, Kaifeng has been besieged for too long, and prices have skyrocketed.

The common people, who finally made some money, spent all their savings in front of them for a bucket of rice.

Worse is yet to come.

By mid-June, the White Flag Society tasted the sweetness and began to arbitrarily distribute the task of collecting grain, and the people who could not hand over the grain were brutally tortured with awls and large needles.

Small landlords were not spared, and they were all brutally exploited.

The people who had no food could only take the risk of going out of the city to dig wild vegetables, which could not only pay for money and grain, but also survive on wild vegetables.

When Li Zicheng saw it on the dirt mountain, he immediately ordered: "Anyone who goes out of the city to dig wild vegetables is not allowed to kill them, and they are allowed to come and go freely."

"When they entered the city, they gave the grain to the squire, and it was even more difficult to take Kaifeng." Li Guo reminded euphemistically.

Li Zicheng said: "I raised an army for the people, how can I brutally persecute them. The more vicious the squire, the easier it is to capture Kaifeng."

The peasant army therefore did not ask.

The hearts of the people in Kaifeng City have changed greatly, and they are inclined to the peasant army in their minds, and it seems that it is only a matter of time before they fall into the city.

To say that Huang Shu deserves to be notorious in history, he saw the continuous rainy season and had an idea in his heart.

He approached Gao Mingheng and discussed, "The Yellow River swells during the rainy season, and Kaifeng is a big city that relies on dikes to resist the Yellow River. If we dig the dikes and the river overturns, the peasant army will be in a forbidden situation and will be flooded by the Seventh Army."

"This is a good solution, who will do it?" Gao Mingheng said helplessly, "We don't have soldiers digging dikes in our hands."

"Yang Yufan, the commander-in-chief of Shandong on the north bank of the Yellow River, can do it."

"Very good, I immediately wrote a letter to Yang Yufan, asking him to open the embankment of Zhujiazhai."

Gao Mingheng picked up the pen, suddenly thought of something, and reminded: "We must prepare more ships to carry the king of Zhou out of Kaifeng."

"I'll take care of it." Huang Shu nodded yes.