Li Zicheng's generals came back one after another to attend the military meeting in the central army tent.
Li Guo, who was leading the cavalry, finally entered the Chinese army's tent. He found that the Chinese military tent was very dull, everyone had their heads lowered, and no one spoke.
Thinking about it, a war like this is really embarrassing and helpless.
How should we fight the next war? This problem needs to be solved urgently!
When Li Zicheng saw Li Guo arriving, he turned gloomy and asked, "Why, are you all mute?"
"General, why don't you let me lead my men and kill them?" Liu Zongmin saw that the others didn't answer, so he stood up and shouted, "I can guarantee that all my brothers are reliable, and none of them will betray me. !”
This time, in fact, not only the cannon fodder soldiers rebelled on the battlefield, but even some of the elite infantry troops surrendered.
Relatively speaking, the ordinary soldiers here do not have enough to eat and are treated the worst. Going into battle also consumes the firearms of the army. They are not stupid. If they have the opportunity to rebel, of course they will rebel. This is considered to be understandable to them. range.
However, some of the elite infantry who had rebelled in the past were all old brothers who had been with them for many years. Many of them were from the frontier army. They also rebelled. This made everyone present realize that the problem was a bit big. .
The same is true. Liu Zongmin stood up and shouted, specifically emphasizing that there would be no betrayal among his men.
After hearing his words, Gao Yigong, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Fangliang, Hao Yaoqi, Tian Jianxiu and other generals naturally expressed their opinions one after another, saying that their men had no problem and could take the lead.
After what they said, the morale in the Chinese military tent finally improved.
Li Zicheng was a little relieved to see him.
When Song Xiance saw it, he spoke to Li Zicheng and said, "General, this battle is extremely strange. Compared with the previous battles, this battle probably requires the best."
The elite thieves are the old thieves that Li Zicheng has accumulated over the years. Loyalty is still much more reliable than that of ordinary soldiers, so it is unlikely that rebellion will occur before the battle.
However, these elite thieves were Li Zicheng's family. If they were to fight against the elite army in front of them, what would happen next?
Although in their eyes, in the current Central Plains area, this one imperial officer and army is actually the most elite. However, don't forget that Qin still has an old rival, Sun Chuanting. The more silent he is in Qin, it means that when he comes out, his attack will be more fierce.
If anything, the Yongwei battalion of the imperial court can be considered elite at this time, but Huang Degong seems to be fighting Zhang Xianzhong in the Fengyang area now, so he can ignore it for the time being. But even so, with Sun Chuanting's team to fight, we must not let the elite lose too much here!
Niu Jinxing at the side obviously saw what Li Zicheng was thinking, so he showed an angry look and said to Li Zicheng: "General, in this battle we made an appointment with Cao Cao to attack the imperial army camp, but he made an excuse to delay. , is obviously trying to deal with us, and just wants to reap the benefits. Such ruthless people may join forces with the imperial army to attack us in the future, so why not get rid of them and swallow their troops!"
Li Zicheng's eyes lit up after hearing this.
There are also many old thieves on Luo Rucai's side. If they can be annexed, they will be strong enough. If you compete with the elite imperial officers and soldiers in front of you, you won't feel so distressed.
However, those who come out to hang out in the world must respect their dignity. Although Li Zicheng was already in a period of transition at this time, he left the wild world and began to strive for world hegemony.
However, Luo Rucai had saved him when he was almost killed by Zhang Xianzhong. For a while, he couldn't make up his mind to swallow Luo Rucai's men.
Thinking like this, he said hesitantly: "I still know Lao Luo, and he will definitely not join forces with the imperial court to deal with me."
As Li Zicheng's counselor, Song Xiance's goal was, of course, to help Li Zicheng conquer the world and seize the Nine-Five-Year Plan. As for the morality of the world, personal grievances, etc., they cannot be considered by him.
At this moment, the most beneficial thing for Li Zicheng was to annex Luo Rucai's men. On this point, he had been reminding Li Zicheng with others before, and there was some progress. Now seeing that Li Zicheng still had not made up his mind, he decided to push forward.
So he said seriously to Li Zicheng: "General, before the war, someone saw that Duke Xingguo had sent people to Luo Rucai to talk about things. Later, Luo Rucai had promised to send troops to attack the officials together. The military, but ended up procrastinating and making fun of us.”
Having said this, he solemnly emphasized: "The general is the destined emperor destined by God, but Luo Rucai thinks he is some kind of general and wants to be on an equal footing with the general. This is intolerable. The throne of this world is absolutely irresistible. There is no reason for two people to sit together!"
"Secondly, it was Luo Rucai who first colluded with the officers and soldiers, broke the agreement, sat back and watched our army lose the battle, and plotted against the general. It is obvious that Sima Zhao's intentions were revealed. If he did not strike first to gain advantage, the general would definitely Big loss.”
After saying this, he turned his head and winked at the generals, then knelt down on one knee, cupped his fists with both hands, and said to Li Zicheng in a very sincere tone: "General, for the sake of our loyalty, please Come on, strike first to ensure our safety!"
"General! Strike first to gain the upper hand!" Liu Zongmin was the first to kneel down on one knee and shouted.
Others also knelt down one after another, begging Li Zicheng to strike first to gain advantage, and to strike later and suffer disaster.
Looking at his men kneeling all over the floor, Li Zicheng looked very embarrassed. The pain on his face was as if he was giving birth to a child.
As soon as Song Xiance saw it, he knew it was going to happen.
So, he earnestly shouted again: "General, give the order?"
"General, general..."
Hearing the voices urging him in the Chinese army's tent, Li Zicheng suddenly showed a righteous look on his face, waved his hand and said: "Forget it, it was Luo Ru who was unjust first, so be it!"
As soon as they heard that Li Zicheng agreed, the people in the Zhongjun tent were as happy as if they were celebrating the New Year.
Song Xiance immediately stood up and quickly offered his advice: "General, without further delay, why not call Cao Cao over immediately to discuss matters, use the unstable morale of the army as an excuse to discuss the follow-up war, and then kill him!"
"Yes, I have long disliked him!" Liu Zongmin immediately shouted, "As soon as I enter the camp gate, I can chop him down!"
Others also followed suit and expressed their opinions. Killing Luo Rucai was like slaughtering a chicken and a dog.
However, Li Zicheng immediately shook his head and said: "No, if you invite him to come over for discussion at this time, he will definitely be wary and won't tell you whether he is coming or not. Even if he comes, he will be very defensive and will not be able to attack easily. of."
Having said this, he looked seriously at his subordinates present and said, "Remember, it is Luo Ru who is unjust. His subordinates are all good men. He cannot cause more killings, but it will give the imperial court an advantage."
The implication is that he must be Luo Rucai's men, rather than mercenary his men.
Song Xiance and others naturally knew about this. However, under this premise, there is no good way for a while.
Li Zicheng, on the other hand, saw that they were a little troubled, so he confidently said: "Bring the food and grass, I will go to his camp in person, and say that I will send him food and grass, and ask him to attack the imperial army camp together. That's it." , he will definitely have no doubt that he will meet with me. When the time comes, he will suddenly attack and just kill Luo Rucai. People cannot be resurrected after death, so his subordinates can only obey my orders!"
Upon hearing this, Song Xiance weighed it and found that it did make sense. However, he still hesitated to ask Li Zicheng to take the risk.
Others heard this and had the same idea. Therefore, Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others expressed their opinions that they would kill Luo Rucai under the pretext of sending food and grass!
In this regard, Li Zicheng rejected all of them, and he said: "You can't do this, I have to do this!"
After he finished speaking, he made his decision without giving his men a chance to speak again.
Moreover, he urged Song Xiance: "Without further delay, send someone over to inform you first, and I will bring the food and grass there later!"
This anxious person doesn't even have the slightest intention of reminiscing about old feelings.
But this is the best, Song Xiance and others thought, and they quickly went to prepare.
………………
"The Li camp has sent grain and grass to the Luo camp!" At the imperial army camp, Wu Sangui hurriedly entered the Chinese military tent and reported to Zhang Mingwei with a little excitement.
When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he was immediately overjoyed and quickly took his generals to the watchtower to see the situation.
Sure enough, they saw a cavalry troop escorting a grain truck to Luo Rucai's camp from Li Zicheng's camp. As you can see, there are quite a few. The most important thing is that among the team escorting the grain and grass, there is also the banner of Li Zicheng. This means that Li Zicheng is going to Luo Rucai's camp in person.
Zhang Mingwei used a telescope to carefully observe the team transporting grain and grass, and suddenly asked: "If you were Li Zicheng, what would you do in the past few days, especially what happened today?"
After hearing this, all the generals opened their mouths to answer.
"I must be very angry. I need Luo Ru to give me an explanation!"
"It's so unjust. It's possible to kill him!"
"That's right, he's a general and he doesn't send troops. How can he have such friendly troops?"
"..."
After listening to what they said, Zhang Mingwei smiled, pointed to the team in the distance and said, "Look, it seems that Li Zicheng not only didn't blame Luo Rucai, but actually sent him so much food and grass. Haha, that's interesting!" "
"Interesting?" Bai Guangen couldn't help but be a little surprised after hearing this. He couldn't understand, so he asked. In his opinion, this is obviously very boring!
When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he put down his telescope, turned to look at him, and said in a confident tone: "If I guessed correctly, Li Zicheng is a weasel paying New Year's greetings to a chicken. He has no good intentions!"
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster! In the eyes of the generals around him, Li Zicheng should be angry. Instead, he went to Luo Rucai in person without telling Luo Rucai, and even gave away so much of the precious food and grass. It was definitely a fraud.
Others may not know it, but Zhang Mingwei has the original history to refer to, and he can look at this matter from a later perspective.
If you want to say that Li Zicheng has extraordinary tolerance and does not care about Luo Rucai's thoughts, then historically he would not have killed Yuan Shizhong and annexed Xiaoyuan Camp, killed He Yilong and annexed Gezuo Fifth Camp, and killed Luo Rucai and annexed His men are gone.
Therefore, by reasoning back and forth, Li Zicheng's intention of going to Luo Rucai's side was already obvious.
Not to mention, Zhang Mingwei seemed to still remember that Luo Rucai was killed by Li Zicheng in his tent.
Although history has changed, this may not necessarily be the case. However, from the fact that Luo Rucai was killed in his own tent, it can be inferred that he may have been wary of Li Zicheng, but was not thorough enough. And now, it should be in line with this situation!
However, others did not know as much information as Zhang Mingwei, so they still had a lot of doubts about the conclusion he had drawn.
Yuan Shizhong was the only one who most agreed with Zhang Mingwei's statement, but he was not so sure about whether he would be ready to commit suicide soon.
Zhang Mingwei didn't care what they thought, so he issued a military order: "All armies are going to prepare. If there is really an internal strife among the bandits, we will immediately raid Luo Rucai's camp!"
"General, I obey!" After hearing this, the generals around them immediately clasped their fists and accepted the order.
Later, Zhang Mingwei himself was still on the watchtower. In addition, he also asked people to go to other watchtowers to use telescopes to observe the movements of Luo Rucai Camp in the distance from different angles. Any abnormalities found are indicated by flags of different colors.
Inside the camp gate leading to the east, six generals, Wu Sangui, Tang Tong, Bai Guangen, Ma Ke, Li Fuming, Yuan Shizhong and Zhou Yuji, led 15,000 cavalry and were silently preparing.
It can be said that this assault force is already the strongest mobile force that Zhang Mingwei can mobilize. Although there are still cavalry troops, they are responsible for supporting them and guarding against unexpected situations in Li Zicheng's camp.
"Do you think the bandit leader can really fight among himself?" While waiting, Marco turned to the Tang Passage on his left.
After hearing this, Tang Tong checked his flintlock pistol, aimed it toward Luo Rucai's camp, and then said: "How do I know? It's best to start fighting among ourselves. At least let us fight for a while. We are all covered with hair." Got it!"
"Haha, you want to accumulate military merit as soon as possible and be promoted back to the rank of commander, right?" Marco said with a smile after hearing this.
When Tang Tong heard this, he turned to look at him and said, "Don't tell me, you don't want to?"
Marco listened, glanced at a few other people, and smiled.
Yes, everyone thinks so. To say that those who are most eager to achieve military success in the army today are definitely the five of them.
In the Battle of Songjin, there is really no way to do it. Food and grass are cut off. Even if you don't escape, it is impossible to win!
To be honest, the five of them have always felt a little bit loser. At least they felt that it was a pity that they did not use all their strength.
Naturally, he would not be willing to accept being kicked down from the position of commander-in-chief.
Now that they are following Duke Xingguo, the battle is inexplicably easy, and their contribution has never been too great. Therefore, they held back and had to give him a good fight to win back their position as the commander-in-chief.
At this time, after hearing their conversation, Yuan Shizhong smiled and said: "Don't worry, believe me, the Duke will be able to achieve military success in a short time!"
"That's for sure. When the time comes, Li Zicheng's dog head will be mine, no one can rob it from me!" Bai Guangen said immediately after hearing this.
When others heard this, they naturally would not agree.
Among these people, only Zhou Yuji did not speak. He was already a loyal uncle. If he went further, the military achievements in front of him would definitely not be enough. Therefore, at this time, he was worried whether the Duke's guess would be accurate, lest the enthusiasm of the generals behind him for war be poured cold water on!
………………
At Luo Rucai's camp, at this time, he didn't believe it, so he confirmed again: "Li Zicheng really had to personally escort a large amount of food and grass over?"
"Yes, it's coming soon!"
Hearing the answer from his men, Luo Ru couldn't help but become suspicious, and asked again: "How many people have you brought here?"
"Just one thousand to ride!" After his men answered, seeing Luo Rucai's face, they quickly added: "It seems they are all escorting grain and grass."
When Luo Rucai heard this, he still didn't believe it, so he immediately gave the order and asked his men to get ready quietly, and then he went out.
When he arrived at the camp gate, Li Zicheng had already arrived. When he saw him appearing, Li Zicheng immediately shouted to him: "Hey, Cao Cao, what happened in that formation just now? Why did it take so long?"
Luo Rucai listened for a moment and realized that he was right. He was indeed here to investigate. So, he was about to say what he had already prepared.
Unexpectedly, Li Zicheng had already dismounted from his horse and walked towards him. At the same time, he said: "Is the army running out of food and grass, and the bastards under him are no longer obedient?"
Luo Ru was stunned for a moment after hearing this. Is this what Li Zicheng thinks?
He quickly came to his senses and quickly replied: "Yes, the general is really good at predicting things. I am really hungry and drinking the northwest wind!"
The problem of food and grass is indeed a big problem. Although Luo Rucai said it was a bit exaggerated, he was indeed very nervous. Therefore, answering smoothly is also a matter of peace of mind.
"I've known it for a long time!" Li Zicheng came to him and said with a smile, "I'm pretty lucky. I just got a new batch of grain and grass. I'll share some with you..."
At this point, he paused and said seriously: "I've given you the food and grass. If you still dare to delay the military situation, then I won't be able to explain to my brothers. I, Li Zicheng, am not the only one to fight against this imperial army." Human things!”
After finishing speaking, he waved his hand again and said to Luo Rucai's men: "Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and move the food back. If you don't want it, that's fine. I'll take it back!"
After hearing this, Luo Rucai's men couldn't help but turn their heads to look at Luo Rucai. For a moment, this was different from what they expected, and they didn't know what to do.
Luo Rucai immediately smiled and said: "The general sent it here personally, why don't you thank him quickly?"
When he turned to order his men, he winked. His trusted subordinates knew at a glance that Li Zicheng's thousand cavalry were not allowed to enter the camp.
So, they quickly ordered the soldiers inside the camp gate to carry the food. Luo Rucai, on the other hand, watched closely to see if Li Zicheng wanted these thousand men to ride into the camp.
In the end, his worries were in vain.
I saw Li Zicheng's men handing over the food very readily and had no intention of entering the camp at all.
Seeing this scene, Luo Rucai couldn't help but suspect that he was being suspicious. After all, he had saved Li Zicheng, so his treatment was naturally different from others!
At this time, sending so much food is a timely help!
Luo Rucai suddenly felt very grateful. At the same time, he also felt a little embarrassed for the misunderstandings he had had with Li Zicheng these days.
Li Zicheng obviously saw it, with a smile on his face, and said loudly to Luo Rucai: "Lao Luo, my Song dwarf has come up with a clever plan to deal with this army. Let's go to your central military tent and tell you about it. This time, you must cooperate with me to defeat this imperial army!"
After hearing this, Luo Ru suddenly realized that in the end, he still had something to ask for!
As a result, his suspicions were basically gone, and he quickly led Li Zicheng to the Chinese military tent. However, he was still cautious and looked at Li Zicheng's men.
However, they saw that Li Zicheng's thousand cavalry still had no intention of entering the camp and were just handing over the remaining grain. Those who followed Li Zicheng into the camp were only about fifty of his personal guards.
Seeing this, Luo Rucai's suspicion disappeared, and he winked at his men and withdrew the preparations in the camp to avoid being seen by Li Zicheng and causing some unpleasantness. At the same time, his attitude became more enthusiastic, leading Li Zicheng to his military tent.
Soon, they arrived at the entrance of Luo Rucai's Chinese army tent.
Li Zicheng turned around and ordered his guards to stay outside as he wanted to discuss matters with Luo Rucai.
After speaking in front of Luo Rucai, he entered the Chinese military tent and walked towards the hanging map. Suddenly, he remembered something again, and said to Luo Rucai: "By the way, recruit all your generals here, so as to save you the trouble of talking back and forth!"
When Luo Rucai heard this, he thought it made sense, so he immediately turned around and ordered the guard leader who was following him: "Go and call them all!"
Li Zicheng arrived in front of the map, pointed at it and said to Luo Rucai: "Lao Luo, come and see, Song Chaozhi's strategy is like this..."
As he spoke, he winked at the leader of the personal guards beside him.
Luo Rucai didn't doubt his presence, so he went over to see the situation.
Outside the Chinese military tent, suddenly, people outside heard screams inside. Immediately, Li Zicheng's personal guards also immediately moved and started to attack the sentries on duty outside the Chinese military tent.
………………
Inside the camp, especially the affairs at the Chinese military tent, Zhang Mingwei and others outside, no matter how far they had telescopes, could not miss them.
