Seeing that Li Mou's arrogance had been suppressed, Zhu Yuanzhang ignored him.
Instead, he sat on the wooden chair by the window and watched the executioner on the execution ground.
At this moment, there is only the last trace of the sunset, indicating that the night is coming.
However, the execution ground was still surrounded by people, who cheered from time to time.
Li Mou looked at Zhu Yuanzhang sitting upright, and felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart.
In fact, he didn't know that this visit to the city was a means for Li Zicheng to eradicate dissidents.
Originally, with his temper, he was going to fight with Li Zicheng.
However, his cousin Li Yan dissuaded him and told him that now has reached the most critical moment and the rebels must not fight among themselves, otherwise years of hard work will be in vain.
Li Mou had always been the most convinced of this cousin. When he saw Li Yan trying to persuade him and promising to take them away from this place of right and wrong after the world was settled, he reluctantly agreed.
Originally, according to Li Zicheng, they only needed to distribute some notices to the people and then open the city gates when the army attacked the city.
But when he entered the city, he was chased by officers and soldiers several times.
Fortunately, those officers and soldiers had no intention of arresting, but only used the pretense of arrest to rob. Therefore, there was often a commotion before the person arrived, and he was able to escape pursuit.
However, after those few arrests, he suspected that there was a spy around him.
But the people who followed him into the city this time were all their disciples, so there should be no problem with their loyalty.
Just when he was confused, he received another letter from Li Yan and five banknotes worth 300,000 taels.
In the letter, Li Yan told him that because the rebels were in urgent need of firearms and medicine, he asked him to try to purchase and transport them out of the city to relieve the pressure on the rebels.
At the same time, Li Yan also emphasized in the letter that Li Wan and Zhang Kui among the disciples were very resourceful, and the procurement must be left to them.
In addition, the list of purchasing shops and relevant personnel information was attached at the end of the letter.
After Li Mou read the letter, he knew that Li Yan's letter should have been written while being monitored.
Because Li and Zhang mentioned in the letter were both ambitious and talented people, Li Yan had secretly told him not to reuse these two people.
But this time Li Yan was uncharacteristically praising the two of them in his letter.
This abnormal behavior is enough to illustrate Li Yan's helplessness when he wrote the letter. In addition, it may also be a reminder to him.
So, Li Mou put Li Wan and Zhang Kui in charge of the matter as stated in the letter, and sent them out of the city on the pretext of escorting supplies.
Since Li Wan left the city, no officers and soldiers came to arrest him, which made him more sure that the previous events were the fault of those two people.
Originally, he thought that the matter was over. As long as he opened the Zhangyi Gate in a few days when the rebels attacked the capital, he could go into seclusion with Li Yan.
Unexpectedly, Li Wan entered the city again and said that he had received an order to purchase another batch of firearms.
When he heard the news, he wanted to strangle Li Wan to death immediately.
Because the rebel army has captured Juyongguan at this moment and will soon besiege the capital. Asking him to buy firearms at this time is tantamount to asking him to die.
However, thinking that Li Yan and others were still in the rebel army, he had no choice but to follow the instructions and contact Vanderful at Ford House.
And it was precisely because of Vanderford that he became a prisoner.
"Li Qing, look at that young man and those few people. They are obviously filled with grief and anger. Send someone to check!"
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been watching the execution, suddenly gave instructions to Li Ruolian.
When Li Ruolian heard this, he immediately walked out.
"Are you the Dog Emperor Chongzhen?"
When Li Mou heard this, he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in surprise.
"Be bold!"
When Wang Chengen saw Li Mou being so presumptuous, he stepped forward to slap him.
"Step back, Cheng'en!"
Zhu Yuanzhang stopped Wang Chengen with words.
When Wang Chengen heard this, he respectfully stepped aside.
Li Mou thought he would be beaten physically, but Zhu Yuanzhang actually stopped him.
He was a little surprised and said: "Why don't you let him do it? Do you want to use these small favors to impress me?"
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly and said: "We have said before, whether you surrender or not, the effect will be the same."
"As for yelling at him, it's because although you are rude, you are forgivable. After all, we didn't let you eat. If you did something wrong, isn't it normal to be scolded?"
After that, he stood up slowly, looked at Li Mou, and said: "We called you here today, not to persuade you to surrender, but to save you and save those poor and innocent people."
"You save me and save the people of the world, hahaha..."
Li Mou seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. After a burst of laughter, he shouted again: "If you hadn't levied excessive taxes and occupied fertile land, leaving me with no way to survive, would I have rebelled?"
"Especially my cousin. He is knowledgeable and versatile in both civil and military affairs. But what happened? Not only did he find no way to help, but he was beheaded for helping the victims."
"You have done so many perverse things, and now you have the nerve to say you want to save me and the people of the world. Do you think I am a fool?"
"If you hadn't been besieged by King Chuang now, you would have beheaded me long ago. You even said you were saving me, bah!"
The more Li Mou talked, the more excited he became, and the more he talked, the angrier he became, and finally he spat at Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Be bold!"
Seeing this, Wang Chengen stepped forward again, the whisk in his hand accurately blocking the spit.
"You think we lost, let me tell you, you are wrong, and very wrong."
After Zhu Yuanzhang stopped Wang Chengen with his eyes, he said slowly: "We have mobilized nearly 500,000 elite troops from Ningyuan and Jiangnan to Beijing."
"There are 100,000 elite soldiers in the city, and 300,000 dan of food and pay. Do you think you can capture the capital, or can you repel our reinforcements?"
When Li Mou heard Zhu Yuanzhang's words, he couldn't help showing some panic in his eyes.
He was panicked not because he was frightened by Zhu Yuanzhang's words, but because he saw in Zhu Yuanzhang an aura that looked down upon the world.
This momentum made him feel like he was a small boat in the stormy waves, unable to compete with it.
"Actually, you should also know that you are just enjoying the glory on the surface now, and this glory is about to end."
"The reason why you keep attacking the city is because you can't solve the problem of military pay and hungry people. This shows that you don't know how to manage politics at all."
"After occupying a large amount of land, you continued to disperse your forces for defense, and also appointed many original officials. This resulted in a weak foundation for the land you occupied."
"And from your coming to Beijing, it can also be seen that your internal conflicts have reached an irreconcilable point."
"As long as we defeat you here, these problems will explode, and you will be defeated thousands of miles away."
"And when the time comes, all we have to do is send troops to encircle and suppress people, and at the same time issue decrees to calm the people..."
When Li Mou heard Zhu Yuanzhang's words, his face became paler and paler, his body became weaker and weaker, and finally he collapsed on the ground again.
Because he clearly remembered that Li Yan had said these words to him when he persuaded him to come to the capital.
He also told him that if the rebel army could not capture the capital, it would be completely defeated. This was why he endured his dissatisfaction and came to the capital.
But at this moment, Chongzhen, who he had always thought was fatuous and greedy, was able to point this out clearly, which completely made him lose his fighting spirit.