Liu Zongmin and his cavalry took advantage of the darkness and the camp was about to close. They roared and rushed in at the last moment. The soldiers guarding the gate of the camp were also frightened by such a formation. Fortunately, they were our own
The army, if the official army attacks and the gate is not closed in time, the whole army may be annihilated.
Thousands of cavalry returned to camp, such a large-scale military mobilization and momentum was inevitable. When Li Zicheng was about to take a rest, there was a rumbling vibration on the ground that immediately made him panic, and he jumped up immediately.
Pick up the knife and go out to check.
After leaving the camp, I didn't see any commotion, but the shaking sound continued. I randomly called a soldier on night watch and asked how the big commotion outside was caused.
The soldier bowed his body and replied that the noise was caused by Governor Zuo rushing back after harassing the city of Beijing. However, the shaking sound was probably caused by most of the cavalry stepping on the ground. Maybe they brought some cavalry out.
(Liu Zongmin became General Quan in the 16th year. In the 17th year, he was granted the title of Marquis of Ru in Xi'an, joined forces in Beijing, and was given the title of Governor-General of the Left.)
After knowing the reason, Li Zicheng casually put on some clothes, sat in the big tent with a knife, and menacingly called Liu Zongmin over. It happened that Niu Jinxing came out of the camp to relieve the emergency. Seeing such a scene, he called the soldier who had sent the message.
After pulling him over, he immediately understood why King Chuang was so angry.
This Liu Zongmin, relying on his own fighting skills and his life-saving favor to King Chuang, was so unruly and reckless, even disrespectful to himself. As a counselor around King Chuang, he was treated like this by a military general.
, I felt a little bit unhappy in my heart. I happened to encounter a God-given opportunity, so I naturally had to do something.
He rolled his eyes a few times, dismissed the soldiers, hurried back to the camp, put on his clothes, and sent someone on horseback to find out what was going on in the capital, so that he could grasp the situation.
At this moment, Liu Zongmin was covered in blood and was screaming with joy. He had just greeted his brothers and was about to return to the camp to take off his armor and rest. A soldier suddenly came to report that King Chuang wanted to see him and asked him to hurry up.
Head to the camp.
When Liu Zongmin heard that King Chuang summoned him late at night, Liu Zongmin felt like a mirror in his heart. He knew that he had led his troops out of the camp to harass the capital without reporting it in advance. King Chuang was unhappy, so he immediately put on his armor and carried a knife.
But after thinking about being summoned late at night, it felt inappropriate to carry a knife, so he threw down the knife and rushed to the Chinese army camp.
As soon as he entered the door, Liu Zongmin grinned: "Your Majesty, why do you want to see me so late?" After that, he looked for a chair to sit on, but found that there was no chair after walking around.
He secretly screamed that something was wrong, but as expected, Li Zicheng didn't even look at him. He just sipped his saliva, lowered his eyebrows, and said sternly: "Stop looking for it, I have removed all the chairs."
Hearing that there was no blame in King Chuang's tone, Liu Zongmin's heart dropped. He thought it was just a casual lecture, so he became bold, found a cushion to sit on, and said: "Your Majesty, I
I knew that I shouldn't have gone out without a report today. Wasn't it because I was humiliated by the emperor today? Then I felt upset and went out to teach them a lesson. What do you think?"
As he spoke, Liu Zongmin stood up and was about to go forward to continue his story, but was stunned by Li Zicheng's angry shout.
"presumptuous!"
"Brother, I..." Liu Zongmin has been following him since the eleventh year of Chongzhen. In the thirteenth year, even though Li Zicheng only had eighteen riders left, he still helped him break out of the encirclement. In the following years, he took the lead and always regarded himself as his elder brother.
.
Today, I just took the soldiers out for a walk without reporting it, so I was called over late at night to scold him. For a moment, I felt a little sad in my heart.
"I'm still not your big brother!"
Hearing this, Liu Zongmin looked up sadly and glanced at his eldest brother sitting in the handsome chair. He felt angry for a while and said angrily: "Yes, since I recognized you as my eldest brother, you will be my eldest brother forever."
"Okay, then you have to listen to me. If you don't listen to me, you can leave at any time." Li Zicheng softened his tone slightly, looked at the somewhat unconvinced Liu Zongmin, and said seriously.
"Jixuan (Liu Zongmin's name), we have finally made a career and emerged from the sea of knife and fire. We are no longer the traitors who only led a few thousand people to live life! This is good news to the people! If you don't listen to us like this
Taking command, leaving the camp without authorization, and sending out troops at will, how will I deal with your big brother? Without you, will this Dashun still be Dashun?"
When Liu Zongmin heard the last sentence, he immediately felt sad and excited. It turned out that his eldest brother still remembered my contribution and still felt that I was the hero of this great success.
"Now that the emperor has agreed to our peace terms, we can naturally go to the northwest and live freely. He did not even ask us to withdraw from Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi."
After saying that, Li Zicheng stood up and walked out, came to Liu Zongmin's side, and said in his ear: "Why did you provoke the emperor? To show your power? Your power is already known to the whole world, why do you do this?"
"I just felt that the emperor below the city looked down on me today, so I led some people to teach them a lesson. Just as I expected, the officers and soldiers were so vulnerable. How could the defenders of Beijing be also the elite of the Ming army? My five
Thousands of cavalrymen were rained down by arrows, but they had no power to fight back!"
Speaking of this, Liu Zongmin's eyes became intense and he became excited.
"Why can't we capture the city of Beijing in one fell swoop? In terms of their strength, they can definitely defeat it in one day at most! If Sun Chuanting were here, I wouldn't dare to say such big words, but even a famous general like him would not die in the end.
In our hands? There are already some people in Beijing who have greeted me privately. As long as I wait to attack the city, they will immediately open the city gates to welcome my army into the city!"
Hearing Liu Zongmin's short-sighted words, Li Zicheng just smiled and returned to the handsome chair without saying a word.
His attitude puzzled Liu Zongmin. The city of Beijing was right in front of him. If he raised an army to attack the city, it would be within easy reach. As soon as he entered the city, the emperor would be in their hands. After becoming emperor, he still cares about the tiny land in the northwest?
"Yes, Sun Chuanting is dead and Hong Chengchou surrendered, but let me ask you, who is occupying the northeast? Whose troops are in the northwest? What other army is there in the east? Finally, what about the south?" Li Zicheng leaned over and asked seriously.
, the questions immediately made Liu Zongmin a little unable to react.
"Northeast? It should be..."
"Jiannu! Zuo Liangyu and Zhang Xianzhong in the northwest, Wu Sangui in the east, King Qin's 100,000 troops in Shandong, and Yingtian Mansion in the south still has 500,000 troops! With so many forces, do you think you can defeat them all alone?
Beat it down within the time limit?”
Facing the questioning of his elder brother Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, who was originally restless, felt uncomfortable at the moment. Thinking about it this way, his thoughts were indeed a bit naive. Many forces were basically explaining their every move at this moment. He was not a stupid person.
The stakes are also clearly distinguished.
"If we attack Shuntian, the capital, will the 30,000 Guan Ning cavalry led by Wu Sangui surrender to me or surrender to Jiannu? Or will they march south and head straight towards my army? Have you ever forgotten the power of Guan Ning's cavalry?"
"Never forget."
The words of his eldest brother Li Zicheng caused Liu Zongmin, who was originally immersed in joy, to fall into the painful memory of being dominated by Guan Ning's cavalry. In the past, they led a hundred thousand troops under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang at that time.
Attacking the Central Plains, in the end they were chased and killed by thousands of Guan Ning's cavalry.
If they hadn't surrounded Cao Wenzhao, they would have ended up in a big joke.
It has never happened before that a thousand troops chased and killed a hundred thousand troops.
"Little brother understands what big brother means." After thinking about the general trend of the world and recalling the disastrous defeat a few years ago, Liu Zongmin no longer argued about attacking Shuntian Mansion.
"We retreated to the northwest, but we will never settle in one corner. We gave up Henan to them and withdrew from Beizhili. We stationed on the border of the two wests (Shaanxi and Shanxi, there was no Gansu province in the Ming Dynasty). At the same time, we secretly supported Zhang Xianzhong of Huguang and let him
If he continues to rebel, Zuo Liangyu will be there to oppose him, and he will not be able to live a comfortable life."
Li Zicheng sat cross-legged, holding his forehead as he thought about and planned his future arrangements.
"Let's leave the slaves in the Northeast alone for the time being. I don't like those alien races. If they can attack Shuntian, I, as a Han Chinese, will have to help them."
"Brother, I understand. I was the one who was abrupt today." Liu Zongmin listened to his eldest brother Li Zicheng's overall situation and was completely convinced. In the end, he was not smart enough and almost messed up his eldest brother's plan!
"But what you did is not wrong. I'm not happy about beating them. I'm not happy about the money."
…
After waking up in a daze, Zhu Ling felt a warmth on his face and a bit of softness and comfort. Zhu Ling woke up suddenly, sat up suddenly, and scanned the people in front of him in panic.
Empress Zhou thought that His Majesty was tired yesterday and that was why he had such a nightmare, so she repeatedly urged Wang Banban to tell the imperial cook to prepare some hot porridge, and the other concubines also consciously came up to him and looked at him with pity on their faces.
Zhu Ling struggled to get up, feeling soreness all over his body, so he stood up with the help of Queen Zhou. Only then did he realize that the clothes on his body had been changed into underwear at some point.
Perhaps aware of His Majesty's doubts, Queen Zhou took out the quilt for Zhu Ling a little to avoid the sweltering heat, and then said: "Your Majesty, I saw that you were awake late yesterday. The imperial doctor said that you were too tired and had some contamination.
"Feng Han, I asked your Majesty to have a good rest, so I took the decision without permission and asked those officials to return to the house first, and took you back to your palace with your Majesty."
"What time is it now?"
Zhu Ling did not pay attention to his health. This time was related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty. His mind was full of questions about whether Li Zicheng would withdraw his troops and whether the person who sent the message to Wu Sangui had arrived? How was Meng Zhaoxiang's Beijing camp being reorganized? These questions made him uneasy.
, where are you in the mood to sleep?
Everything was of great importance, and everything was a disease left over more than ten years, which could not be cured within a few days. Although he knew very well that Li Zicheng, a thief and bandit, could not obey the court's words and evacuate immediately to the suburbs of Beijing.
Walk.
However, Li Zicheng's army did not leave for a day, and the safety of the capital was still in danger. He had no choice but to risk his way out of the encirclement and go straight to Tianjin.
"Your Majesty, a report has been sent from Xizhimen."
Outside the palace, Wang Guoxing took the military report from his consort Gong Yonggu, stood at the door and whispered softly. He had been waiting at the door for a long time before he heard His Majesty's voice, and then he hurriedly reported.
"read!"
Zhu Ling endured his physical discomfort and asked him to report. He only remembered that there was a military situation in Xizhimen yesterday, but he slept all night and was delayed for anything else.
"Your Majesty, Gong Yonggu, reports: Your Majesty, Gong Yonggu, has seen thieves wash out the Xizhi Gate with blood. Many of my soldiers have been killed, and there have been countless casualties. I cannot bear the shame. Your Majesty has promised to guard the Xizhi Gate. I have already placed my salary at the Xizhi Gate." City gate, if the city gate is not guarded, you must serve the country!"
After reading it, even Wang Guoxing, who was always known for his harshness, had a slightly moved expression.
In the palace, everyone was silent, no one spoke, and Zhu Ling, who was lying on the bed, was also stunned. He never expected that Xizhimen would be so bloodbathed overnight, and what made him happy was that Gong Yonggu was really As the history books say, they put salary at the city gate and guarded the city gate with a certain death intention.
"Here, the consort Gong Yonggu is appointed as Ding Xinhou, and he is given a jade belt of the third grade, and his wife is given the imperial title of Sanping Madam."
"Also, prepare a car for me, no." Zhu Ling stopped and said thoughtfully: "Prepare the horses and go to the capital camp. I want to see Meng Zhaoxiang's results."
[Author's digression]: The big chapter is coming!
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