This time, it was targeted at those who came from military households in the bandit army, that is, the former imperial officers and soldiers, as well as the leaders at all levels among the bandits.
"Now the imperial court has issued the "Regulations on the Pensions and Preferential Treatment of Ming Soldiers". As long as they are soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, they are guaranteed military pay, and their disability is guaranteed. Protecting the family and the country is what soldiers should do. Stop being a thief!"
"Look at Xiao Yuanying. Now that you are returning home after suppressing the bandits, you are returning to your hometown in fine clothes, and your family is protected. If you continue to be a thief, you will be stabbed in the back by the villagers!"
"If you accept the recruitment now, you will be honoring your ancestors! Only those with evil hearts will continue to be thieves, causing the world to be devastated!"
"..."
They even started to call Li Dingguo by name and asked him to accept the recruitment and stop letting the people suffer from military disasters!
The people of Ming Dynasty have suffered enough for so many years! The imperial court has also recognized its previous shortcomings and is now working hard to improve it. Making the world peaceful and the people live and work in peace and contentment is what every conscientious person will do!
…………
Under these circumstances, and with the undercover agents within the bandits taking the opportunity to "fan the flames," it can be said that the interior of the bandits camp is already quite unstable.
Li Dingguo has nothing to say about leading troops in wars. The fact that he has become one of Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons over the years is enough to prove it.
However, in the face of such a fierce public opinion offensive from the imperial government and the army, he was a halfway monk after all, had no formal training, and had never read a book, so how could he withstand it!
Of course, this is also related to his character.
In the original history, when he led the army to attack Xinhui, 200,000 troops faced the 8,000 Manchu Qing troops in the city. Logically speaking, there was no problem in taking Xinhui.
However, the Manchu and Qing troops threatened the people in the city. Such a thing was rare in history. As a result, Li Dingguo resorted to rat-averse tactics and worried about the people in the city, which ultimately ended in failure.
To be honest, his compassionate character is really not suitable for troubled times.
That is to say, in the early days, based on his resentment towards the court, he had no scruples in leading troops to fight when the so-called government forced the people to rebel.
Now, at this time, the imperial court's measures towards the people had obviously improved, and Li Dingguo's belief in him to continue leading troops in the war began to waver again.
In this case, it will naturally feel a little difficult to persist.
But after all, he was one of Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons, and he had to surrender before Zhang Mingwei's public opinion offensive. Instead, he immediately reported to Wuchang and reported the situation here to Zhang Xianzhong.
Zhang Xianzhong became anxious as soon as he heard this. Not only because if Huangzhou Mansion fell, Wuchang Mansion would lose its eastern barrier, but more importantly, Li Dingguo was a famous general under him. If something went wrong, a chain reaction would occur. The consequences could be disastrous.
Therefore, when he could not leave, he sent Xu Yixian, his most valued military advisor, to Huangzhou Mansion to stabilize the morale of the army.
Xu Yixian had already thought of countermeasures before he rushed to Li Dingguo's army, so he immediately launched a counterattack as soon as he arrived.
I saw him asking Li Dingguo seriously: "Let me ask you, why did the imperial court change? Is it because we were forced to rebel and the imperial court was unable to encircle and suppress us, so we had to make changes?"
Regarding Li Dingguo, Xu Yixian knew that it was unrealistic to directly deny what the court had done. Therefore, he talked about this matter from another angle.
After hearing this, Li Dingguo nodded and responded: "Yes!"
"Okay, then let me ask you again!" Xu Yixian then asked, "How many rebels have been recruited and what happened to them?"
Without waiting for Li Dingguo to answer, Xu Yixian asked and answered his own question, and first said: "How many of the rebel soldiers who were captured by the imperial court, and those who believed the imperial court's lies and were recruited into peace, were killed, do you remember? Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting at that time How many of us have been killed, you won’t forget it, right?”
Hong Chengchou was the most comfortable in killing prisoners and trapping surrendering bandits. Even at the beginning, when his immediate boss Yang He, the governor of the three sides, asked to treat these bandits kindly, he didn't listen at all.
Of course, Hong Chengchou also had a reason. Since the court had no spare capacity to accommodate them, rather than waiting for them to rebel after they returned, it was better to kill them to avoid future troubles.
But no matter what, for Li Dingguo and the others, they absolutely did not want to be killed.
Therefore, after hearing Xu Yixian's words, Li Dingguo relaxed a little and nodded.
Xu Yixian saw that Li Dingguo's ideological burden seemed to have been relieved a lot by what he said, so he got excited and continued: "Also, what if he is recruited by the court? Look at Liu Guoneng, Bai Guangen, and now Yuan Shizhong, don't they just give him casually?" They have an official name, and then they are driven to fight with us. For the court, this is to use thieves to control thieves. It is best to die together, and the court will have the most peace of mind."
Li Dingguo was silent after hearing this.
"If one day in the future, we are really defeated by the imperial court, believe it or not, the imperial court will cross the river and demolish the bridges to settle accounts with those who surrendered to the imperial court! The situation of rabbits dying and dogs being cooked has happened in all dynasties." Xu Yixian continued, " By that time, the world will be peaceful, the emperor will continue to enjoy himself, corrupt officials will be rampant, and the people will still be miserable. Instead of doing this, why not help your adoptive father conquer the world? You can't not trust your adoptive father, right?"
When asked this question, Li Dingguo immediately raised his head, nodded his head and said, "Of course!"
Seeing him like this, Xu Yixian felt relieved, and finally said: "You are the most powerful general under the king, and the king dug up the Zhu family's imperial mausoleum and surrendered to the court. That was really asking for death! The Gucheng recruiter before At that time, the king realized this, not to mention that the military power was in his hands, but it was actually just a temporary measure, and there was no way he could really be recruited."
"After the military advisor said this, the general suddenly realized that he would not be fooled by Duke Xing Guo again!" After hearing this, Li Dingguo said to Xu Yixian.
"Haha, that's good, that's good!" Xu Yixian was very happy after hearing this. He shook his feather fan and told Li Dingguo, "Then pass on what I mean, so that the brothers below can also recognize the hypocrisy of the imperial court. His face!"
After hearing this, Li Dingguo immediately agreed and followed Xu Yixian's instructions.
However, when Xu Yixian left, he did not appear so cheerful. Instead, he looked in the direction of the other side. There were some things that he actually didn't agree with what Xu Yixian said.
The "Regulations on Pension and Preferential Treatment of Military Personnel of the Ming Dynasty" were written into the "Law of the Ming Dynasty".
The salt policy reform, which benefits people all over the world, is also being implemented.
And Duke Xingguo from across the street donated his cement formula, which was most practical especially for the south. This cement is used in water conservancy projects everywhere.
There is also a new branch of the imperial army, the health corps, which is a life-saving measure for soldiers fighting in the war.
…
All these things will be restored even if the rebel army is gone!
This means that the court is really getting better!
Thinking of this, Li Dingguo thought of Xu Yixian's last warning, and sighed, thinking about that word in his heart: Will the rabbit die and the dog cook?
After Liu Guoneng was recruited, he was defeated and captured by the rebels. However, he did not want to be brothers anymore and would rather die than surrender!
Bai Guangen and Yuan Shizhong are still fighting for the imperial court. Will they be settled by the imperial court afterwards?
By the way, I heard that Li Zicheng had also been recruited by someone named Li Laiheng, who was quite famous. However, I didn’t hear any more news about Li Laiheng. Could it be because he also participated in the burning of the imperial mausoleum? Was he secretly executed by the court?
Thinking of this, Li Dingguo sighed again, and finally followed Xu Yixian's instructions seriously.
Not to mention, Xu Yixian's remarks are somewhat useful. The number of soldiers in Li Dingguo's army who fled every day was finally significantly reduced.
Regarding this situation, Zhang Mingwei was not angry, but only stepped up his public opinion offensive.
The army under Li Dingguo in front of him is actually just a road blocker piled up with sand, and it will disperse sooner or later. And if Li Dingguo's army is recruited, Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits will basically be gone.
At the moment, it seems that they are just bandits in Huangzhou Prefecture, but in fact, it can affect the entire Zhang Xianzhong department, the fifth battalion of Gezuo, and even the bandits all over the world.
Therefore, Zhang Mingwei is not in a hurry to attack, but continues to launch a public opinion offensive.
………………
On the other side, the reason why Zhang Xianzhong was unable to leave Wuchang was because of the issue of the Fifth Battalion of Ge Zuo.
Previously, when he became king, he established the Sixth Ministry and the Fifth Army Governor's Office in accordance with the official positions of the imperial court. This caused problems in his cooperation with the Gezuo Fifth Battalion.
Since he is a king and will be an emperor in the future, that means that from now on, the five camps of Gezuo will all submit to Zhang Xianzhong. But for now, the Gezuo Fifth Battalion and Zhang Xianzhong's headquarters are actually in a cooperative relationship, and there is no superior-subordinate relationship.
Although Zhang Xianzhong gave generous rewards to the leaders of the fifth camp of Gezuo, however, the leaders of the fifth camp of Gezuo, especially the five leaders, were Ma Shouying, Ge Liyan He Yilong, King Zuo Jin He Jin, King Liu Xiyao, and Chaos Shi. Wang Lin raised them to be unconvinced.
It's just that Zhang Xianzhong was more powerful before, and the imperial army was advancing, so they didn't want civil strife.
Now it was discovered that the offensive of the imperial army was not as fierce as expected, and the five men in the fifth battalion of Ge Zuo had an idea.
Zhang Xianzhong wanted to stabilize them, but in the end, the fifth battalion of Gezuo suddenly left camp and went west to find Li Zicheng in Sichuan.
This was like giving Zhang Xianzhong a stab in the back. He was so angry that he was furious, but there was nothing he could do because he had to deal with the encirclement and suppression by the imperial army.
But at this time, a big event happened in the north. Although Zhang Xianzhong was far away, it was the last straw that broke his heart. That is, Li Laiheng's troops have returned from Liaodong!
