Although the night is deep and the sky is cold, a city sixty miles northwest of Jiexiu is in the midst of a carnival.
The city was not big, so it was named Xiaoyi County because it was the hometown of Zheng Xing, a filial son who cut off his stock to serve his mother. It was under the jurisdiction of Fenzhou Prefecture and was forty miles away from Fenzhou. At this time, it had been destroyed by the bandit army, and the whole city was reveling in carnival.
To say that it was broken by thieves is to be self-serving. In fact, when Jiexiu surrendered last night, Xiaoyi County's surrender letter had already been sent to Li Zicheng.
So, he got up early in the morning, washed up a little, and then ordered the camp to break out. In the afternoon, he arrived at Xiaoyi and went directly to the city. He accepted the filial piety from the filial sons. After some appointments, dismissals, rewards and punishments, he moved into the county government office in the evening. Guang invited the soldiers to have a party.
, and the thieves under his command also began to party all night long in the city. Although Li Yan repeatedly ordered not to disturb the people, who knew?
The originally majestic county government office was now in a mess. A bonfire was lit in the lobby. Dozens of soldiers were drinking and eating there, shouting and shouting. Some people were even lying on the tables in the main hall and falling asleep...
The county magistrate's house behind the Yamen was even more lively at this time. There were sounds of drinking glasses and drinking orders everywhere. There was also the sound of strings and bamboo harps, but mostly there were waves of rough and lustful laughter among the music girls.
Screams and bursts of laughter.
Even the back palace is like this, with more wine and more women, but the voices are lower, and there seems to be something wrong with the atmosphere.
In the main hall of the back palace, a long and large table was set up, with fine wine and delicacies on it. A tall and strong man in his forties was leaning on the imperial chair in the middle. His face was dark, resolute and indifferent, but what was more eye-catching was that
His left eye was covered with a piece of black cloth. This person was Li Zicheng, the big thief who took the company's employees on an outing during the annual vacation.
There were dozens of people under him, who were passing cups and cups, and almost everyone had a woman in their arms, squeezing her here and there from time to time.
The atmosphere was originally very harmonious, and Li Zicheng and his subordinates also enjoyed the treatment of providing food, drinks and health care every time they arrived in the city.
At first he was very surprised. He didn't know why Chongzhen was so kind to him. Could it be that he was trying to lure the enemy deeper? But slowly he discovered that this matter had nothing to do with Chongzhen. In the words of Li Yan and Niu Jinxing, it is the human heart.
What you want is what the people want!
Li Zicheng knew how much he weighed by looking at him. It was okay to be the king of a mountain in one place, but he couldn't survive in a country. He had self-awareness. Mud can't support the wall, and dog meat can't make it to the banquet.
So although he was having a great time eating, drinking and having fun, he had already made a decision in his heart. It was a big deal to capture Taiyuan and withdraw his troops immediately. Further north, there were dangerous passes with strong troops and he was looking for death.
But... he glanced at his subordinates enjoying themselves at the table, and he couldn't help but frown. The journey was so smooth that all of his subordinates felt dizzy, thinking that he could reach the capital without any effort.
Chongzhen pulled down the dragon chair and climbed up to have some fun.
It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous. From now on to the capital, it's a thousand miles away, surrounded by several important passes and guarded by elite soldiers. It's ridiculous to just visit a few small counties and feel carefree. You must know that he had no intention of entering the capital from the beginning, because he knew it was a dream.
, but he must say this to the outside world, to boost morale and to establish Dashun's national prestige.
Although the memorandum was written with great fighting spirit, vowing to go to the capital to overthrow Chongzhen, and for the serfs to stand up and take charge, in fact only he and a few thieves were aware of it.
is their core strategic goal.
After slowly drinking a glass of wine, Li Zicheng glanced at everyone at the table, and his eyes fell on a young man at the end of the table on the left. The young man was not tall, but extremely strong. At this time, he was looking at the person at the head of the table with murderous intent in his eyes.
The young man is Li Laiheng, the son of Li Guo, the king of Xiaochuang.
Seeing the murderous intent in his eyes, Li Zicheng couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and looked at the head of the table, that is, the strong man in his forties with a rough face in front of his right hand. At this time, he was holding a woman in his arms and chewing hard. The woman had a look on her face.
Reluctant but helpless, this man turned out to be another leader of the bandit army, Liu Zongmin, who was also Li Zicheng's brother.
This man was unruly, lustful and greedy. He refused to obey anyone in the army, even Li Zicheng sometimes, and was very domineering.
He was so domineering that he just used the strength of wine to raise a knife and wanted to kill Li Laiheng. Just because Li Laiheng said that he accused his subordinates of taking credit, he killed more than 300 of his subordinates and became a Jingguan.
This matter goes back to this afternoon, when the army just arrived outside Xiaoyi City, a few thieves who had a lucky escape from Zhang Yuan Village finally found the organization, and knelt in front of Li Laiheng, crying so miserably!
Of the more than 300 people who were killed, only a dozen escaped, and the other party made no secret of being Liu Zongmin's subordinates. Li Laiheng was shocked and became furious.
"Maybe he is definitely Liu Gou's person?"
"They said they were General Liu's men, but they look alike but not alike." The few thieves who escaped were also a little unsure. In fact, like Li Laiheng, they felt that no matter how arrogant and domineering Liu Zongmin was, he would not commit such an undisguised massacre.
Even though he and Li Guo were not on good terms with each other, they were still on the same road and were both thieves.
Li Laiheng sent a thousand cavalry to Zhang Yuan Village to investigate, and then went to his father Li Guo to report the matter.
Li Guo (there are many pseudonyms, one of which is Li Jin, but there is research evidence that Li Jin is not Li Guo, but the son of Li Zicheng's third brother who is more than 20 years younger than him, and the novel adopts the same person). This man is good at fighting and calm and strategic.
After only a moment of silence after hearing the news, he felt that there was something else going on. However, he and Liu Zongmin had always been at odds with each other. This incident could be used as a weapon to stab him twice. At the worst, it would make him sick and disgusted.
When the army entered Xiaoyi at nightfall, Zhang Yuan Village came quickly to report that all three hundred of Li Laiheng's men were killed. Their heads were marked beside the official road, and their bodies were pounded into the ground for the capital. As for the people of Zhang Yuan Village, almost
After escaping, the angry bandits burned the village to the ground, and even Fanjiabao was reduced to ashes in the raging fire.
The attack turned out to be so vicious. When Li Laiheng heard the news, he was furious and rushed directly to the celebration banquet in the lobby of the rear mansion. In front of many thieves, he shouted and cursed Liu Zongmin.
Everyone was shocked that Liu Zongmin was such a figure. He and Li Zicheng became brothers and accompanied him through thick and thin for more than ten years to conquer the great fortunes. In terms of power and prestige, no one could compare with him except Li Zicheng. Under the intruders,
When the thieves saw him for the first time, they all nodded and bowed. Even Li Guo and Gao Yigong, who had always been at odds with him, still had to do something superficial.
But even so, he was still very dissatisfied. Why were they all born bandits? Blind Li could be the emperor but he could only be a minister. Even when he became the emperor, he only made himself a marquis and not even a king. It was so stingy.
At this time, Li Laiheng cursed loudly in front of everyone, which made him lose all face. He was immediately furious and drew his knife and was about to kill Li Laiheng, but he was stopped by Blind Li, and the military advisor Niu Jinxing held him tightly from the side.
He kept persuading.
During this process, Li Guo sat still and looked at Liu Zongmin scolding Li Laiheng with a half-smile on his face. Gao Yigong next to him also sneered.
Jiang is very old, Niu Jinxing finally persuaded Liu Zongmin to return to his seat, and then listened to Li Laiheng's explanation of the cause and effect, and then pointed out: someone framed the blame, and the method was crude.
Every time the bandit army captured a city, they ostensibly ordered the soldiers not to disturb the people at will, but privately, the bandit leaders sent their henchmen to search for those big households. Usually, they were assigned in advance, or first-come, first-served. Occasionally, there were frictions because of this, but in the end
They all ended up being evenly divided, and almost no one actually started fighting, let alone the fight that resulted in lives.
But this time, only one person was killed, or more than 300 people. The beheading was even more horrifying. It was definitely not done by one of our own people, it was obviously framed!
Who could it be?
It's impossible for the officers and soldiers. The officers and soldiers have already been frightened by the news. How can they still have the courage to come and compete with them for food?
Local counterparts? It’s unlikely. How dare the kid touch the balls of the Lord of Hell?
There is only one, and it was done by the Fan family!
There are two reasons. The Fan family has a huge business and a private army. It is obvious that they are not willing to give up their family assets to thieves, so they take cruel measures and then move north with their families. After all, their base camp is in Zhangjiakou, which is the heavily defended Xuanfu.
The second is that according to the traces in the snow, the Fan family also fled north.
Niu Jinxing made some speculations, and everyone agreed. In fact, anyone with any brains believed that Liu Zongmin did not do this. Li Guo naturally understood in his heart that the reason for this was just a daily stabbing.
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