Zhang Mingwei's plan was to station his army in the Chengdu Plain and wait for a wave of food harvest before launching an attack on Li Zicheng's troops.
Another advantage of doing this is that you can wait for the progress of suppressing thieves in various places to see whether they go smoothly or not. If things don't go well, he can also send reinforcements here.
………………
As for Li Zicheng, although generally speaking, the imperial army did not launch a major offensive against him, the dividing line between the two sides was that he controlled most of Kuizhou Prefecture, the southern part of Shunqing Prefecture, and the Tongchuan Prefecture. In the east, the entire Chongqing Prefecture and Bozhou Xuanwei Division, and even parts of Luzhou. However, he felt increasingly uneasy.
The people who went out to explore the road along the Yangtze River from Kuizhou Prefecture came back to report. On the other side of the Chuan Road, Huang Degong led the army to defend it to the death. It was basically impossible to get out.
Li Zicheng had naturally experienced Huang Degong's ability. The road out of Sichuan was not easy to take, so there was no way to take advantage of his strength. This also means that the road out of Shu in the east is cut off.
As for the Shu Road to Qin, only the Lychee Road is still under his control. However, news has now come back that there are Hanzhong general soldiers leading large armies guarding the other side of Lizhi Road, Zhenba and Xixiang, which means there is no hope.
But these are not the biggest headaches for Li Zicheng, because from the current point of view, at least if something happens, he can retreat to the Yunnan-Guizhou region. What troubles him most is the frequent desertions in the army.
After his efforts some time ago, things have indeed improved a lot, and large-scale defections no longer occur. However, small-scale desertions have always existed in various armies and cannot be eliminated at all. A little adds up, and the number over the past few months is still a lot.
Although he was also working hard to catch those deserters, as long as any deserters were caught, they would be killed as a warning to others. But even so, there is still no way to ban it.
Facing Sun Chuanting's offensive in the north, there is also Duke Xingguo in the west. To be honest, Li Zicheng has lost a lot of hair during this time. If this continues, he might become bald.
But even so? He never thought of surrendering to the court! In fact? He has never had such an idea since he embarked on this path.
Zhang Xianzhong also faked surrender in Gucheng, but Li Zicheng would rather flee into Shangluo Mountain with his Eighteen Cavalry, and never surrendered to the imperial army, not even in a fake surrender.
This doesn't mean that he really has much backbone? It's that he is used to being a leader, and he is not used to flattering those court officials! Of course, he is also worried that he, the leader of the thief, is really going to surrender? Maybe others are fine, but he will be settled by the queen!
On this day, when Li Zicheng heard that He Jin's army, which was facing Tian Jianxiu, reported that another group of soldiers had surrendered, he was furious.
"This damn Tian Mixiu? Don't be caught by me, otherwise I will cut him into pieces!"
"Look at his thick eyebrows and big eyes? He turned out to be such a person. I was really blind at the time!"
"Check it for me? All the family members who defected will be taken to the front line and killed!"
"..."
After losing his temper for a while, Li Zicheng looked at the group of people below and became angry again: "Why don't you talk anymore? Are you watching my joke?"
"Are you also imitating Nata Jianxiu? Are you going to sell me later?"
"I've known for a long time, you also want to surrender to the army, right?"
"..."
He was getting angry, and all the civil and military officials below lowered their heads. No one dared to look at him.
But suddenly, Song Xiance raised his head, with a hint of surprise on his face.
Seeing this situation, Li Zicheng felt a chill in his heart: Okay, I didn't expect the military advisor to be gloating about his misfortune. Is he going to abandon him too?
Thinking like this, he was about to get angry when he heard Song Xiance tell him in surprise: "General, I have a plan that can break the current situation!"
As long as you are human, you can always find a way. Song Xiance was indeed the most outstanding strategist among Li Zicheng's troops, and he actually came up with countermeasures.
When Li Zicheng heard that this was what happened, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. He quickly stared at Song Xiance and urged him: "Oh, the military counselor has a clever plan. Tell me quickly. Tell me quickly!"
When others heard this, they were also curious, so they turned to look at Song Xiance, wanting to hear what idea he had that could break the current situation?
Song Xiance answered Li Zicheng confidently: "My plan is to follow the plan!"
"..." Li Zicheng was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then he used the trick? It sounds great!
When he came back to his senses, he couldn't even sit still. He stood up quickly, turned around, strode to Song Xiance, and said eagerly: "My good military advisor, tell me where the plan comes from! "
"Speak up if you have any ideas!" Niu Jinxing looked at this and felt unhappy, so he said sourly, "Don't think it's a clever idea, but it turns out to be a bad idea!"
What he didn't expect was that when Li Zicheng heard this, he glared at him, obviously not hiding what he said.
This is actually very easy to understand. Li Zicheng is really worried about the current situation. Now that he heard there was a plan, of course he hoped it was a good one! When Niu Jinxing said this, it was like a crow's mouth, who would like it!
Song Xiance ignored Niu Jinxing at all, but looked at Li Zicheng and said: "Aren't the imperial officers and soldiers always tempting our military brothers to surrender? Why not secretly select trustworthy brothers, pretend to surrender, and then cooperate inside and outside, and we will be able to defeat the imperial court Officers and soldiers!”
Upon hearing this, Li Zicheng was stunned for a while, but he came back to his senses immediately. He was overjoyed and slapped Song Xiance on the shoulder so hard that Song Xiance grinned a little, but he didn't feel it at all. He was just there. He boasted: "Ah, yes, why didn't I think of that! In this way, not only will it severely dampen the arrogance of the imperial officers and soldiers, but it will also prevent the imperial officers and soldiers from coming unscrupulously to persuade my people to surrender in the future! Okay, okay, okay!”
Niu Jinxing felt sour when he heard this. This was really a good idea. Why didn't he think of it beforehand?
Seeing Song Xiance smiling there, he always felt that Song Xiance was very proud, so he rolled his eyes and said: "General, the officers and soldiers of the imperial court may not be fools, right? They surrender to you, and they trust you so much?"
Li Zicheng did not answer, but Song Xiance turned to look at him and answered his question first: "Brother Niu, if it were from the beginning, I believe that the imperial government and the army would definitely prevent such a false surrender. But, it's all over. Has this kind of situation ever happened in such a long time? Everything will become lax after a long time!"
After a pause, he said confidently: "There are also examples of Li Laiheng and Tian Jianxiu. I believe they will think that all of us want to surrender. If my prediction is correct, then Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others It may not be that good over there, but Tian Jianxiu’s side is definitely very happy for someone to surrender!”
"Yes, the military advisor is right!" After hearing this, Li Zicheng immediately commented on this strategy and said, "This is a brilliant plan! I'm sure that Tian Jianxiu will not be on guard and would like to recruit as many surrenders as possible! "
After saying this, his face immediately darkened again, and he said in a hateful voice: "This Tian Jianxiu, I must catch him, I will cut him to death with a thousand knives!"
After Li Laiheng surrendered to the imperial army, he still knew the brotherhood and did not want to fight. He would rather fight with the powerful Jianlu; but Tian Jianxiu, as soon as he surrendered, came to poach Li Zicheng. With him taking the lead, the impact was really huge.
If Tian Jianxiu could be caught and killed as a warning to others, the effect would be much better than catching a thousand deserters and killing him as a warning to others.
Therefore, after Li Zicheng finished his hateful words, he immediately said to Song Xiance: "It's up to you to arrange this matter. The sooner the better. It's best to capture that traitor Tian Jianxiu alive. I will cut him to pieces with a thousand knives." Make his head into a urinal!"
As the people in the lobby listened, Li Zicheng repeatedly said that he wanted to cut Tian Jianxiu into pieces with a thousand knives. From this, it can be seen that Li Zicheng really hated Tian Jianxiu to the bone.
To this, Song Xiance immediately responded: "General, don't worry. Even if Tian Jianxiu is defeated, even if he escapes, Duke Xingguo will definitely not be able to spare him! Haha, this is Duke Xingguo's first defeat. He will definitely be defeated." Angry with embarrassment!”
Naturally, they didn't know that Zhang Mingwei had actually been defeated once, when he sent a vanguard to pursue Zhang Xianzhong and was defeated by him. And that time, it was actually similar to the strategy proposed by Song Xiance, which was to let Sun Kewang fake surrender and then attack from both inside and outside.
This time, Li Zicheng also came up with a similar strategy, which can be regarded as "the heroes think alike"! However, can this trick always be effective?
At this time, no one knew about the bandits in Sichuan anyway.
After some discussion, Li Zicheng came up with countermeasures to deal with the public opinion war between the imperial government and the army.
However, since Tian Jianxiu had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and his seemingly reliable generals would rebel, Li Zicheng became a little worried and sternly warned everyone present not to leak any information.
Even after the meeting, Li Zicheng was still thinking about this. He didn't know why he was worried about his subordinates, but he immediately thought of Jin Yiwei.
"How about building a similar one to monitor them?" Li Zicheng thought, and he couldn't hold back the idea immediately.
If he had such a group of subordinates watching over him, he would definitely be able to detect signs of betrayal. He Yijin and the others wanted to betray before, wasn't it because they were spying on them secretly?
So, if some people are really specially arranged to do this, they definitely can't be called Jin Yiwei, they must change their names!
How about the Black Guard? It seems too easy to think of Jin Yiwei, how about a blood drop? It's murderous enough!
