In the north of Xinzhou City, four newly filled tombs are side by side in the wilderness, the cold wind blows, and the spirit flags in front of the tombs are constantly flying up and down, as if telling something.

Li Zicheng, surrounded by Li Guo, Li Laiheng, Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Li Dingguo, Li Yan and others, stood in front of the tomb to pay respects.

Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui were also in the crowd, their faces were very ugly, sadness, grief, remorse, etc., all kinds of emotions were intertwined, making the two very uncomfortable.

On the tombstones of the four tombs, the official positions and names of Wang Tingchen, Tang Tong, Liu Zhaoji, and Zuo Guangxian are written respectively.

"Lord Hong, General Wu, let's go into the city, there are still many important things to discuss."

Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui saluted one after another, and the two followed Li Zicheng and others to get on their horses and enter the city, and the thieves of the back team followed in a mighty manner, and surrounded everyone from the north gate into Xinzhou City.

At this time, the Zhizhou Yamen had been changed into Li Zicheng's palace, and as the generals of the thieves' battalions rushed here, Li Zicheng laughed and officially introduced Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui to everyone.

"My Dashun army has Mr. Li, Mr. Song, Mr. Niu and Mr. Gu four military divisions, and today there is Lord Hong, five think tanks gathered, it can be seen that my Dashun will be prosperous!"

Immediately, Li Zicheng saluted Hong Chengchou in public and said loudly: "In the future, there will be major military and political affairs, but please Mr. Hong will not hesitate to give advice!" ”

Hong Chengchou was moved when he saw this, and secretly said that Li Zicheng has been able to run rampant in the world for so many years, and he is indeed outstanding, at least the means of treating talents are much stronger than Emperor Chongzhen

。

However, after all, Hong Chengchou is old and reads sage books, and he was the first assistant of the Ming Cabinet, at this time, let Hong Chengchou be a thief, even if it is already a fact, it is inevitable that he will feel uncomfortable in his heart, at this time he just smiled faintly, returned the salute, and said: "It is my Hong Chengchou's blessing to be favored by the king!" ”

Li Zicheng smiled and didn't care, and then pulled Wu Sangui up and said: "Now there are more than 36,000 prisoners of the Ming army in the city, and Gu intends to reorganize these prisoners, organize them into a separate battalion, and hand them over to General Wu to command, with General Wu as the new battalion general, and the generals of all departments in the battalion are filled by General Wu's generals, and Gu will never interfere, how about it?" ”

Unlike Hong Chengchou, the reason why Wu Sangui was able to run rampant in Liaodong was because of the Wu family and the ancestral family as backers, but now Liaodong has been occupied by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Zu Dashou surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Wu family is said to be dead and surrendered, and his father Wu Zheng also surrendered with Zu Dashou, and now Wu Sangui is a lonely person, so he has no worries about taking refuge in Li Zicheng, as long as he has a lot of troops and authority in his hands.

I saw Wu Sangui clenching his fists and saying: "The last general has received the order, and from now on I am willing to fight the world with the king!" ”

"Haha!"

Li Zicheng encouraged Wu Sangui with satisfaction, then returned to his seat and said: "The battle of Xinzhou is over, and now the situation in the world has changed greatly, and my Dashun soldiers will also be rectified accordingly. Let Mr. Li talk about the specific rectification matters. ”

Li Yan got up and said: "Great King, generals: not long ago, Liu Yan, the governor of Shandong in the Ming Dynasty, led more than 100,000 troops to battle, and fought a decisive battle with more than 300,000 Qing troops in Changping Prefecture and Yanqing

Zhou and other places, the Tartars were broken, more than 100,000 were beheaded, Huang Taiji, Haoge, Zilharang, Abatai, Azig and other Manchu slave chieftains were all killed, and the remnants of the Qing soldiers fled out of the customs in embarrassment, and they were no longer able to go down in a short time, so next, the Ming court will definitely mobilize a large army to conquer my Dashun. ”

At this time, Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui were dumbfounded, the truth was completely different from what Li Zicheng told them, Li Zicheng deceived himself!

Li Zicheng also noticed that Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui looked at him with anger in their eyes, but they didn't care, and still listened carefully to Li Yan's words.

"Therefore, my Dashun generals must gather their troops, rectify the main forces of each battalion, improve their combat strength and equipment as soon as possible, and actively respond to the conquest of the Ming court."

"Now in the Ming army, the only one who can fight with my Dashun generals is Liu Yanbu, whose troops are so strong, you have all seen it, so this reorganization, I hope that all the generals will cooperate with each other."

Then Li Yan began to announce a detailed reorganization strategy:

In addition to the old battalion, middle battalion, front battalion, rear battalion, left battalion, right battalion, and firearms battalion, the left battalion of the new army and the right battalion of the new army were newly established, the left battalion of the new army was led by Wu Sangui, and the right battalion of the new army was led by Chen Yongfu.

At the same time, the specific strength of each battalion has also been adjusted, the old battalion is no longer just a concentration of thieves' families, but also mobilized a lot of elites, the old battalion flag is bright yellow, will exist as Li Zicheng's personal guard battalion, led by Li Zicheng personally, the right general Tian Jianxiu led the soldiers and horses in the camp, there are 10,000 horsemen, 25,000 armor soldiers, and more than 400,000 family members of the remaining thieves.

The flag of the middle camp is cyan, and it is made by General Quan

Liu Zongmin commanded the command, and under his command there were the general He Jin, the former Guoyi general Ren Jirong, and the consequence Yi general Wu Ruyi, and the battalion commander 20,000 cavalry, 50,000 armor soldiers, and 120,000 dead soldiers.

The flag of the left battalion is white, led by the general Liu Fangliang, and there are Zuo Guoyi general Ma Shiyao, right mighty general Liu Rukui, and left mighty general Li Jin, commanding 30,000 horsemen, 50,000 armor soldiers, and 80,000 dead soldiers.

The flag of the right battalion is red, led by the general Yuan Zongdi, and there are Liu Tichun, the general of the right Guoyi, and the deputy mighty general Dang Shousu, who commands 30,000 horsemen, 40,000 armor soldiers, and 100,000 dead soldiers.

The flag of the front battalion is black, led by the general Li Laiheng, under the command of the left Guoyi general Gu Kecheng, Xie Junyou, the right Guoyi general Tian Hu, the battalion has 40,000 horsemen, 40,000 armor soldiers, and 130,000 dead soldiers.

The flag of the rear camp is blue, led by the general Li Guo, under the command of the left Guoyi general Zhang Neng, the right Guoyi general Ma Chongxi, Gao Yigong, there are 50,000 horsemen, 60,000 armor soldiers, and 120,000 dead soldiers in the battalion.

The firearms battalion is red, under the command of the general Li Dingguo, only the right Guoyi general Ai Nengqi, the battalion has 10,000 firearms, 15,000 cavalry, 300 artillery guns, and 20,000 armor soldiers.

The flags of the left battalion and the right battalion of the new army are green, the left battalion is led by the general Wu Sangui, and there are Zuo Guoyi general Xia Guoxiang, right Guoyi general Wang Pingfan, and the battalion deputy Ma Bao transferred from the old battalion, at this time Ma Bao was appointed as the right Guoyi general, 36,000 Ming army prisoners in the battalion, after reorganization, divided into 16,000 horsemen, 20,000 armor soldiers, and 50,000 dead soldiers.

The right battalion was commanded by Chen Yongfu, and under his command was Zuo Guoyi's general Chen De (Chen Yongfu

The son), commanding 10,000 horsemen, 30,000 armor soldiers, and 50,000 dead soldiers.

The rest of Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, Gu Junen and others have been named the front, rear, left and right four major military divisions, this time Hong Chengchou was designated by Li Zicheng as the middle army division, and the remaining four people are collectively called the five major military divisions.

In this rectification, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the strength of Liu Zongmin's middle battalion has been greatly weakened, not only has a lot of troops been transferred, but a few generals have also been transferred, and Liu Zongmin's face is also a little unbearable, but he didn't say anything.

"After this rectification, there are more than 1.2 million soldiers in each battalion of my Dashun soldiers, and more than 400,000 family members of the old battalion.

After Li Yan finished speaking, everyone present cheered, Li Zicheng's face was also full of excitement and excitement, and immediately ordered all battalions of soldiers and horses to immediately assemble in the Xinzhou area, and at the same time mobilize money, food, and armor from all over the country.

At this time, Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, in addition, we must let the officials in Dashun pacify the people and resume production as soon as possible, so as to send money and food supplies to the millions of soldiers in Dashun." ”

"Well, what Mr. Niu said is very true!"

Song Xiance was not to be outdone, and said: "Your Majesty, you should also order all localities to recruit auxiliary troops to garrison the city on their own, so as to prevent the Ming army in Jiangnan, Sichuan, and Shandong from sending troops to disturb when the main forces of each battalion are moving. ”

"That's right, Mr. Song's words are very much in line with me!"

Here Li Zicheng and everyone discussed hotly, but over there Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui were very unhappy in their hearts, they surrendered to the thieves, and they were originally been

I was helpless, thinking that Liu Yan was defeated by the Qing army, it was better to surrender to Li Zicheng, who was also a Han Chinese, and then continue to fight against the Qing army, who would have thought that Li Zicheng would deceive himself?

After talking for a while, Li Zicheng looked at Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui, who had wrong faces, a chill flashed in his eyes, and then he saw that the matter was almost discussed, so he said: "Okay, you guys go back first, all the soldiers of each battalion are stationed outside the city except for the old battalion, and you should also go to transfer troops and set up camp." ”

"Yes!"

Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui glanced at each other, both of them sighed, and then left the prefect's yamen together.

Li Yan also left in a hurry, the old camp was going to be rectified, his wife Red Lady was the female general of the old camp, there must be a lot of things, and Li Yan was also in a hurry to help.

Li Zicheng looked at the backs of everyone leaving, and then sent someone to call Niu Jinxing back.

At this time, there were only Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing in the house, and Li Zicheng said: "Looking at Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui in their hearts, it is obviously because they were deceived into surrendering, can Mr. Niu have a plan to let the two of them sincerely join him?" ”

Niu Jinxing said with a smile: "It turns out that Your Majesty is worried about this matter, in fact, it is not difficult for Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui to take refuge sincerely, as long as they cut off their retreat." ”

Immediately, Niu Jinxing picked up the pen and paper next to him, wrote a notice, and then said: "The student will write the news of Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui's defection to the Dashun army into a notice, and Your Majesty can send people everywhere to distribute it, and it is best to send some to all parts of Beizhili, so that the Ming court will know about it, so that Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui's minds will be cut off anyway, and the two of them will naturally fight for Dashun with peace of mind." ”

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Zicheng laughed out loud and said, "Good! Just do that, and leave the matter to Mr. Niu. ”

"Students dare to disobey."

Two days later, Hong Chengchou was reading a book in his temporary residence, when he suddenly saw Wu Sangui angrily breaking in, he was startled, quickly closed the doors and windows, and asked, "Uncle, is this so?" ”

Wu Sangui said angrily: "My lord, I don't know, that Niu Jinxing wrote a notice, put the matter of you and me taking refuge in the thieves on the paper, and then sent people to Beizhili to post it widely!" ”

Hong Chengchou looked bitter after hearing this, and said: "This is Li Zicheng cutting off our retreat!" ”

Wu Sangui slammed his fist on the table angrily and said, "In this way, we can only go one way to the dark!" ”

Hong Chengchou raised his head and wanted to say something, but finally shook his head, swallowed back the original words, and said: "For today's plan, the eldest uncle must seriously train the soldiers and horses, and it is best to build some shield cars, iron shields and other things, and fight Liu Yanbu on the battlefield in the future, which can resist firearms." ”

Wu Sangui said: "I went to Li Yan yesterday and learned a lot of news about the battle in Yanqing Prefecture from him. Now even the Qing army knows that a large number of firearms are equipped with firearms and use firearms against Liu Yanbu. However, Li Zicheng still solidified the firearms in one battalion, and the rest of the battalions were still full hand-to-hand combat, which is not good! ”

Hong Chengchou thought for a while and said: "This is also something that cannot be helped, although the army of thieves has begun to stabilize its territory, but its family background is too thin, and it is not capable of building firearms and armaments on a large scale, so it can only rely on the superiority of numbers to fight." The eldest uncle can only figure out his own way and adapt measures to local conditions

found a way to balance Liu Yanbu's firearms. ”

Wu Sangui sighed and said miserably: "It's really a creation and a trick, who would have thought that we would come to this point?" ”