In the current situation, the emperor said that the emperor would go on a personal expedition, but he didn't even see a shadow. Maybe he was afraid and didn't dare to come. He wanted Chen Qiyu to beat the thieves to death first, and then pick the peaches!
As we have seen on the surface, the so-called Royal Forest Army is distributed everywhere, such as in large cities such as Luoyang and Xiangyang. There were not many troops in the first place, but they were so dispersed, which made many bandits feel that there was not much pressure.
They are actually used to this situation.
The imperial court is most afraid of them running around, so it must pursue and intercept them, and the troops will be dispersed. There must be troops in all directions.
But in this way, even if the original strength of both sides is about the same, the bandits can decide where to attack together. This is equivalent to saying that there are 40,000 official troops and they are divided into four directions, that is, 10,000 troops in one direction. But the forty thousand thieves can crowd in one direction, which is equivalent to four against one.
Although there are many factors to consider in the actual situation, a simple comparison of military strength is the most intuitive. It is also for this reason that they no longer feel so stressed from the beginning. They even felt that Chen Qiyu, the dog officer, was feeling a lot of pressure right now!
Nowadays, more and more bandits are gathering in this area of Hubei. As the saying goes, a snake cannot survive without a head. Naturally, the meeting of Green Forest Alliance Leaders was put on the agenda again by these bandits.
This happened before, when the bandits first started making trouble. At that time, Wang Jiayin was their leader, because Wang Jiayin was one of the earliest rebels in Fugu, and he also gained a reputation by not being suppressed immediately.
But those who come out to fool around will have to pay it back sooner or later. Wang Jiayin was killed, and the bandits from all over the country were surrounded and suppressed and fled for their lives, so there was no such thing as an alliance leader.
But now, after all, the emperor is personally driving and conquering. With so many thieves on the road, there must be a leader!
All of a sudden, all the families were arguing about who would be more suitable to be the leader of the alliance once they unite!
"My Eight Great Kings are the first to rebel this time, so it is only fitting that my Eight Great Kings should be the leader of the alliance!"
"You can't say that. The leader of the alliance is going to lead us to win the war. Only our leader is suitable to be the leader! If nothing else, does Cao Cao or Emperor Wu of Wei know? Our leader is called Cao Cao. This is enough to explain!"
"Haha, then the head of my family is already a king, and the sweeper king is also a king. He should also be the leader of the alliance!"
"What about King Chuang? My family is also a king!"
"Our leader has been called the star of the sky. He is one of the stars in the sky who descends to earth. He should be the leader of the alliance!"
"..."
The war of words first started among the younger brothers from all walks of life, and then slowly began to spread. The younger bosses also began to argue, tit-for-tat, getting louder and louder, and some even had bad tempers. In the end, they couldn't speak well. Then he started to use his fists and some even used knives.
There is naturally a reason why there is such a fierce competition for the position of alliance leader.
The last leader of the alliance was to escape for his life, act together, and give unified orders. In addition, Wang Jiayin was special, so there were almost no people to grab.
However, this time the leader of the alliance led a superior force. At least they, the bandits, believed that they were fighting with the imperial army with superior force. Moreover, this time, with the emperor's personal conquest, whoever can defeat the encirclement and suppression by the army will have a reputation that cannot be matched by anyone.
In addition, if this battle is fought successfully, not only may the emperor be killed, but he may even conquer the world as a result. In case, that is to say, in case of an emergency, if you can really win the world, then the alliance leader must be the most qualified to win the world!
When the level of civilization in later generations is already quite high, there is still news about a couple who pretended to have won a lottery and how to spend the money. As a result, they got into a fight and ended up getting divorced. It can be seen from this matter that it is understandable that the bandits would compete for the position of leader of the alliance at this time for the sake of possible great benefits.
If we don't fight at this time, what if we really defeat the army's encirclement and suppression this time, and then everything goes smoothly and we win the world?
So, no one gave in, and everyone had to grab it.
This matter became more and more fierce and fierce, and finally a white knife came in and a red knife came out, causing a loss of life, and it was almost called the trigger of internal strife. Only then did the big bosses from all walks of life say something, the people below should stop arguing, let them take care of it. A meeting is held to decide on the leader.
Then, another very critical question emerged. This is the venue for this discussion, where to choose it!
Although they all call each other brothers, it's not like they have never gotten together to discuss matters. But now it is related to the huge interests that may dominate the world in the future, so I will definitely worry that if I go to someone else's territory, someone may have evil intentions and take the opportunity to do evil.
Therefore, these bandit leaders all want to set the meeting place within their own territory. A new round of quarrels began again.
Anyway, each family can find their own reasons, and no one can convince the other party.
Just when they were quarreling, Emperor Chongzhen's urgent order of eight hundred miles finally arrived at Xiangyang Mansion.
The bandits suddenly became powerful. More importantly, Zuo Liangyu suddenly rebelled and even robbed two county towns with lightning speed. For Chen Qiyu, who had already been punished once, it was still quite stressful. .
Even though he had talked with the emperor and felt that the emperor was different from before, the pressure in his heart still remained. Although I know that the wise emperor is now, will he suddenly change back? After all, the emperor is still the same emperor, and there has been no change!
What can give him some comfort is that at least Jin Yiwei Baihu has been by his side, and he should know that he is indeed trying his best. The Qiliu thieves were just afraid of him, Chen Qiyu, and wanted to get rid of him through intrigues. Therefore, when the news reached the emperor, if someone wanted to impeach him, he believed that the emperor should first consider whether the person who impeached him was influenced by the bandit.
However, no matter what, Chen Qiyu felt that he had to make some achievements, at least defeat the thieves all the way. With the record in hand, the emperor can handle the matter.
Therefore, during this period, Chen Qiyu was also intensively deploying. Because with Liu Guoneng as an internal agent, he probably knew what the bandits were currently busy with, so he was preparing to dispatch the Yongwei camp to see if he could take advantage of this opportunity to fight a surprise battle.
While he was making arrangements, he heard a report saying that it was eight hundred miles away and the emperor's order had arrived.
Upon hearing the news, Chen Qiyu felt a little frightened immediately. He thought, could it be that the emperor knew that the bandits were powerful here and was dissatisfied with his inaction, so he urged him to send troops?
With this in mind, he quickly made arrangements to receive the order.
After receiving the order, he understood the emperor's meaning and was truly shocked for a long time.
Chen Qiyu never expected that the emperor would correctly deduce the current situation based on the situation here, and told him to show weakness to the enemy, stabilize the thieves, not put pressure on the thieves, and let them make trouble first. In addition, the Tumote tribe in Hetao has been completely wiped out. When the emperor leads the elite south, they will be wiped out in one fell swoop.
The decree also specifically stated that Liu Yue, a member of the Jinyiwei family, should remain anonymous and follow Liu Guoneng. Don't let Liu Guoneng send people out to contact him again, lest Liu Guoneng be exposed too many times. As for how to deliver the news, the emperor will handle it himself.
Sometimes, Chen Qiyu always felt that he had the emperor's spies around him. Otherwise, how could the emperor know so clearly. However, when he calculated it based on time, it didn't seem to make sense. Then there is only one possibility left. The emperor's calculation ability is very strong, and he can often predict what may happen in the future from just a few clues.
This ability is so incredible that it is even more powerful than Zhuge Liang in ancient times!
Chen Qiyu had to accept this!
At the same time, he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Because judging from this decree, the emperor had already calculated that Zuo Liangyu might rebel. All this was not due to Chen Qiyu's lack of dedication, but because the enemy was too treacherous and the incident happened suddenly. He was not to blame.
But now that the emperor is starting to lay out the overall situation on the periphery, it is like a dragnet that is slowly shrinking, but the fish in the net don't know that such a big net has begun to encircle them. This battle must be carried out according to the emperor's intention. When the emperor suddenly appears with his elite, those bandits will have no time to escape!
With such idle time, Chen Qiyu began to adjust his deployment again. The main military force began to slowly move south to block the possibility of the bandits jumping south. As for the east, he personally took charge of Xiangyang. There is no need to worry about the west side. The road into Sichuan was originally dangerous, but now elites from Sichuan are blocking the road. It is impossible for the bandits to enter Sichuan again.
Liu Yue, a member of Jinyiwei Baihu, naturally saw this decree and knew what his new mission was. For him, although this matter is dangerous, it also means that there may be a great achievement waiting for him. There is no need to send news out, which reduces the possibility of exposure, so preparations can be made quickly.
As for the changes here, the bandits were basically unaware and were still arguing about the alliance leader.
In the end, the bandits decided to bring a thousand men and horses each to the Black Tiger Temple at the foot of Wudang Mountain to form an alliance.
After this decision was made, all the thieves immediately took their elites and set off to the Black Tiger Temple in a mighty manner. With the Black Tiger Temple as the center, they set up their own camps, and then the leaders of each clan led their fifty guards. , entered the Black Tiger Temple and officially began to discuss the alliance.
Along the way, no matter who they were, they were all good-tempered. When they met people, they would greet them cordially and talk about the years of fighting side by side in the past. People who don't know it would think that these thieves are all in harmony when they see them. Then they will think that for the sake of the position of alliance leader, their saliva will almost dry up.
However, when the leaders of the various families formally met in the Black Tiger Temple, those with obvious strength to compete for the alliance leader began to get angry again.
"Do you know why the imperial army is getting weaker and weaker? It's because I set fire to the imperial mausoleum a few days ago and touched the dragon veins of the Zhu family, so our rebel army is strong! Speaking of which, it's all a loss. My fire!" Zhang Xianzhong sighed loudly just after he sat down.
Upon hearing this, Luo Rucai immediately became dissatisfied and said: "If this is really the case, why did you surrender to the imperial court in Gucheng? This was after burning the imperial mausoleum!"
"Yes, this time we rebelled again, it was our five battalions who responded in Junzhou and joined forces secretly to defeat the imperial army." Prime Minister Hui Deng also immediately refuted. In fact, Zhang Xianzhong's fire really made him famous, and he was the first person in this uprising. If we don't jointly suppress him, he is the most likely to be the leader of the alliance.
At this point, Prime Minister Whidden looked at the man with bright armor present, and couldn't help but laughed and said: "Look, this person can testify. If our troops hadn't suddenly increased in strength, he would not have abandoned his armor." Run away, right?”
The person he was talking about was Zuo Liangyu, who had become a bandit and also aspired to be the leader of the alliance. At this time, he didn't make a fuss. There were still some people in the city. Since the topic had involved him, he said, "Actually, couldn't you see that I deliberately set things off in that battle?"
He said shamelessly casually, and then he immediately said: "You don't know anything about the official affairs of the imperial court. I am the only one who knows the best. If you are willing to accept me as the leader of the alliance, I can guarantee that I will lead you to attack the official army." Weaknesses, alienating the relationship between the imperial court, even if we have to win the Great Tomorrow in the end, it is not that difficult. Afterwards, I also promise that I will never treat you badly..."
Before he could finish his words, Li Zicheng stood up and pointed at Zuo Liangyu and shouted: "Shut up, tell me, how many of our brothers have you killed? And as an official and soldier of the imperial court, you are doing the risk of killing good people." Gong, how can someone like you become such a big deal when it comes to plundering people? I don’t know why the brothers would accept you. If you ask me, I’d just kill you to avenge my brothers!”
He put forward the slogan of "equal land and free grain" and began to pay attention to winning people's hearts. One of the propagandas was the brutality of the imperial officers and soldiers, and the example he used was Zuo Liangyu's army.
The officers and soldiers who were originally relatively famous and looked like thieves were also under Zu Kuan's command. However, that guy Zu Kuan has been "clicked" by the emperor, and he is accused of harming the people. Therefore, Li Zicheng focused on promoting Zuo Liangyu these days.
But after he arrived, he didn't expect that Zuo Liangyu would become one of them. For him, this was very unpleasant.
Liu Guoneng was standing behind Zuo Liangyu. When he heard this, he immediately pointed at Li Zicheng and cursed: "What qualifications do you have to seize the position of leader of this alliance? You were killed by the imperial army and only eighteen riders were left, and you fled in." In Shangluo Mountain. If you become the leader of the alliance, you might bring trouble to all our rebel armies. You are the only one who doesn’t have this ability!"
"..." Li Zicheng was stunned for a moment and became speechless for a moment. This is indeed his shortcoming, there is no way to refute it!
After hearing this, Zhang Xianzhong also said: "If I hadn't raised the flag of righteousness first and attracted the attention of the imperial officers and soldiers, you would probably still be hiding in Shangluo Mountain and not dare to come out, right? The position of alliance leader still needs a capable and responsible person. That’s all!”
Seeing that Liu Guoneng had successfully changed the subject, Zuo Liangyu couldn't help but look at him happily, but said nothing.
When Li Guo heard this, he immediately argued loudly: "Which of you has the vision of my uncle? If you want to win the world, you must first win the hearts and minds of the people. My uncle proposed equalizing the land and freeing grain, and won the support of countless people. In just a few months, He has an army of more than 50,000 people."
"What's the use of speaking beautifully? Who doesn't know how to shout slogans? We can, but right now, there's not so much food. Whatever we do, we have to look after our brothers first..." Luo Ru just said this. , suddenly there was an "ahhh" in my heart, and I suddenly thought of a question.
