Although Zhang Mingwei stayed up all night and was busy with things at Luo Rucai's camp, it was not finished until dawn.
At this time, he had confirmed that Luo Rucai was indeed killed by Li Zicheng. This can be known from the confession of the man in front of me.
"Cao Cao betrayed the rebels, colluded with the army, and was killed by me. Don't ask about other things. I won't tell you anything else! Kill him or chop him into pieces. It's up to you. If I, Li Laiheng, cry out in pain, I will do it." not human!"
Zhang Mingwei was not angry when he heard such harsh words. Instead, he played with the golden helmet in his hand, and then stared at the young man in front of him with great interest.
He did not expect that the guard leader beside Li Zicheng would be the famous Li Laiheng in later generations. If the original historical development were to follow, Li Laiheng would have been resisting the Qing Dynasty. After accepting the Nanming's call for peace, he was named the Duke of Linguo by Emperor Yongli and persisted until the third year of Kangxi, that is, 1664, twenty years after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Only when the Qing soldiers broke through the stronghold, his whole family died!
It can be said that Li Laiheng went through the most desperate period of resisting the Qing Dynasty, but he never surrendered and finally died to prove his ambition. In the history of Nanming, he is a rare figure worthy of recognition.
Now, Li Laiheng was alive in front of him, and he was finally captured in order to attract the pursuers and cover Li Zicheng.
Zhang Mingwei was thinking about this, and suddenly asked: "You said you are rebels, where does righteousness come from?"
Li Laiheng was ready to die and was being generous when he heard Duke Xingguo ask such a question. He was slightly startled. He had not planned to speak again, but he immediately answered with his head held high: "Of course it is loyalty. It’s righteous, what else can it be?”
"What is loyalty and what is righteousness?" After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei immediately asked, "Is it loyalty to kill brothers who share life and death? Luo Rucai and you Li Zicheng were the first to rebel. They have lived and died together so many times over the years, and according to me As far as we know, Luo Rucai also saved Li Zicheng. How can such a brother be killed on the spur of the moment?"
Seeing that Li Laiheng seemed to want to refute, Zhang Mingwei immediately made it clear: "Don't say that Luo Rucai colluded with the army and wanted to surrender. I can tell you clearly that Luo Rucai has never had this idea and has never had any dealings with me. This At one point, I think you are deceiving yourself!”
When Li Laiheng heard this, he was immediately speechless.
He was not really a fool. Of course he knew the real reason why Luo Rucai was killed. It's just that he didn't want to think about it, so he was willing to believe the superficial reason given by Li Zicheng, which was to communicate with the army.
But at this time, this fig leaf was lifted by Zhang Mingwei, and Li Laiheng felt a little ashamed.
Zhang Mingwei looked at him, not intending to let him go, so he continued to shout and asked: "Also, what are your righteous intentions? You are holding the people hostage, and every time you pass by, people will be devastated and people will not be able to live. Do you know that on the roadside? How many of your bones are your fault? How can you be so righteous and confident?"
"The emperor is dissolute and immoral, and his traitorous ministers are in power." Li Laiheng was dissatisfied, so he subconsciously recited a jingle.
However, before he finished speaking, Zhang Mingwei interrupted him without hesitation and said: "The current emperor is working hard to govern. He gets up before dawn every day to deal with government affairs until late at night. Tell me how he is so debauched and immoral. ?Also, the emperor has now disposed of Wang Dehua, the former eunuch in charge of the ceremonial department, Wang Zhixin, the former eunuch in charge of the imperial horse eunuch, Luo Yangxing, the former commander of the Jinyiwei, and Zhou Kui, the former Jiading Bo."
He announced a series of official names, which made Li Laiheng dumbfounded. Later, he couldn't tell which official it was, but he only had the impression that the emperor had dealt with many high-ranking officials.
"These people either accept bribes, are corrupt and pervert the law, or bully the people, no matter how high a position they hold or how close they are to the emperor!" Zhang Mingwei looked at Li Laiheng, who was obviously not as adamant as before and asked, "The emperor showed no mercy, enforced the law impartially, and gave the world an explanation. What do you think of the current emperor?"
Princess Kunxing next to her was very excited when she heard this. She even praised her father so much that she felt a little embarrassed. Because she knew that most of what the husband just said were things that happened after he came and at his suggestion.
"But but before?" Li Laiheng was a little confused, and he was unwilling to admit defeat, so he forced the distinction and wanted to use what he had experienced before to prove that what he said was right.
However, Zhang Mingwei did not give him a chance and continued to interrupt him: "I know you want to say how miserable your life was in the past. It was all the fault of the court. Yes, I do not deny this. Therefore, I I will be open to you and give you a chance to recruit people. Now the emperor is working hard to revive the Ming Dynasty and has introduced various national policies. The purpose is to let the people of the world live and work in peace and contentment again and bring the Ming Dynasty back to peace and prosperity. I can prove it with my chest. , The Emperor is working hard!”
"" Li Laiheng's mouth opened wide when he heard this, and he wanted to say something. However, for a moment, he couldn't find what he wanted to say.
"There have been years of war and the people are suffering. Let me ask you, has the emperor reduced or reduced taxes?"
"The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty had no pay, were deducted, and sold their sons and daughters. Let me ask you, has the court issued regulations on pensions, exemptions, and exemptions for the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty?"
""
Faced with Zhang Mingwei's series of rhetorical questions, it took Li Laiheng a while to come to his senses, and immediately turned around and said, "I don't know!"
Although he answered like this, his momentum was obviously lacking, and it was obvious that he was speaking against his will.
Zhang Mingwei didn't take his stubbornness seriously, but continued to shout: "And you, what are you doing? You have been harming the people, do you have such righteousness? Think about it for yourself, if you continue to rebel, what's the point? Meaning? In history books and in the impressions of future generations, will you be the ones being reviled, or something else? What are you living for?"
After saying so much, Zhang Mingwei did not expect that someone like Li Laiheng, a die-hard member of Li Zicheng's army, would immediately change his mind, so he had someone take him away.
When Zhu Ailao heard this, she decided in her heart that she would send the matter of her husband's interrogation of the bandits today to her father. By the way, and then see if she should send it to the Ming Pao, she would ask the people in the world who is right. wrong? Ask everyone in the world, what is the purpose of living?
After Li Laiheng was escorted away, Zhang Mingwei asked about the situation of Li Zicheng's camp. Seeing no movement, he decided to go to Luo Rucai's camp in person.
The detailed statistics here are still continuing. The general situation he can understand so far is that Luo Rucai's men still have more than 10,000 cavalry and about 20,000 elite infantry. The rest were mostly ordinary soldiers.
There were even many women in Luo Rucai's army, numbering more than 20,000. This has something to do with Luo Rucai's lust.
Zhang Mingwei specially wore a python suit and came to the Luo Rucai camp. He smiled and tried to be as kind as possible while inspecting the situation in the camp.
If you want to say anything, you can't actually say it. But his being able to come here has actually given these original thieves who are waiting for arrangements a strong signal: the Duke of the country did not regret it later and came to see them.
Finally, Zhang Mingwei arrived at the back camp of Luo Rucai's camp.
Most of the people here are old and weak, the kind who act as cannon fodder. Because of the military food tribe, many people were already dying of hunger. But I had a rare bite of food last night, and I feel a little more energetic today.
However, anyone can still see their weakness at a glance.
Relatively speaking, these people are the most worried about their future.
Because of those strong companions, there is a high probability that they will continue to serve as soldiers and feed themselves under Duke Xingguo. And they are obviously not suitable to be soldiers, that is, they are useless people. So how should the Xingguo Guild deal with them?
Seriously, they were really worried.
No, it was also for this reason. When they saw Duke Xingguo coming, they all knelt down and kowtowed.
Zhang Mingwei made a tour and even dismounted from his horse to express condolences to a few veterans who were injured in yesterday's chaos.
Hearing the Duke talking to the injured soldier like a neighbor, those around him showed gratitude. So, Zhang Mingwei took the opportunity to say to them: "Let me tell you the news. The King of Zhou has left Kaifeng for the capital. From now on, he will be outside the vassal state. And the fields in Kaifeng will be taken over by the imperial court. I will report it to the emperor. , if you have no other place to go, we will place you here in Kaifeng and allocate some fields for you to plant, so that you will have no worries in the future."
This is also the benefit of the vassal king's external seal. Otherwise, the placement of hundreds of thousands of bandits would really be a headache. But the Zhou king's land was set aside, and it was just right for military garrison, that is, to organize and train into an army for farming.
This was said by Duke Xingguo himself in front of everyone, which immediately made everyone overjoyed. With a clear place to settle down, excited, everyone was grateful to Duke Xingguo and spread the good news as soon as possible.
Zhang Mingwei then went to the women's camp. There were more than 20,000 civilian women, led by Luo Rucai's women. Needless to say, all of them were as beautiful as flowers, and many of them were family members of officials and gentry. They knelt together to welcome the arrival of Duke Xing.
At this time, they were all very frightened. I wonder how the Xingguo Guild will arrange for them? Choose some for the Duke to sleep with, or distribute them to his generals? What about the average looking one?
In ancient times, women had a low status, and their experiences during wars were even more miserable. They had already experienced a lot of pain after being plundered by the bandits, and they were actually a little numb.
Although they are now among the officials and soldiers of the imperial court, how much improvement will their situation have?
In this regard, they are actually very worried, but they are also helpless!
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