The news of Li Zicheng's return quickly spread to every corner of Tongguan City. The common people were relatively calm after hearing this, but it was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the bandits. Some cheered, others were dubious, and some bandit leaders immediately came to court.
The Yamen rushed to find out the truth.
The yamen was already filled with water. The big and small thieves were waiting outside to find out information from each other. A few thieves were maintaining order at the yamen gate. They were shouting hoarsely. King Chuang has indeed returned and is discussing military affairs with Li Shuai. Everyone.
Dude, wait a minute...
In the yamen, Li Zicheng had eaten and drank enough. He was lying half-lying in the lobby with his eyes closed, and he leisurely told Li Guo about his escape process.
"If you survive a catastrophe, you will be blessed later. My father is born with auspicious stars and will be rich and powerful in the future." Li Guo handed over a cup of tea and smiled lightly. Li Zicheng smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I have been in the army for more than ten years. This is not the most dangerous thing.
This time, it was the most difficult one. It was the most dangerous time to think about the time when Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting were ambushing me and only eighteen riders escaped into Shangluo Mountain. However, the escape was not so difficult."
"Father was talking about the tenth year of Chongzhen." Li Guo sighed, and ten years passed in the blink of an eye: "Oh, by the way, that time was also in Tongguan!"
Li Zicheng nodded slightly: "It's in Tongguan Nanyuan." He looked at Li Guo and said, "My father has been on the run for the rest of the month, but he has also heard many rumors that are not true or false. Has the imperial capital been lost?"
Li Guo let out a long sigh: "My child was careless for a moment and fell into Li Yan's way." Then he detailed all the fights between him and Li Yan during the past month.
Li Zicheng frowned when he heard this and remained silent for a long time. He didn't expect that Li Yan would go through such a big wave during the month he was running for his life and swallowed four cities!
"Li Yan has a great talent!" After a while, Li Zicheng exhaled: "I knew his talent when we first met him, but we just couldn't let him show his full potential. He has too many constraints on our side, and he is nothing more than a strategist.
Staff, but I didn’t expect to get the advantage of that little eunuch. He knows people well and can use them without doubting them. In this regard, I am not as good as him!"
After hearing Li Zicheng's praise of Li Yan, Li Guo was dissatisfied and opened his mouth to scold Li Yan for being a seller and seeking glory, but Li Zicheng waved his hand to stop him: "Li Yan was singing along with that eunuch, taking advantage of my escape to spread rumors and disrupt the morale of our army."
The situation in the Yellow River has been messed up, but they also got the bargaining chip they wanted. If they negotiate for peace... we will suffer a big loss!"
"Then let's fight back again and get the chips back. Now that my father has returned safely, the military morale is boosted, and we can take the opportunity to regain those lost territories!" Li Guo looked angrily. Li Zicheng shook his head lightly, looked at Li Guo and asked: "
Do you want to make peace?"
Li Guo hesitated for a moment, then finally sat down with a long sigh. He understood what Li Zicheng meant. If he wanted to negotiate peace, he could no longer take the initiative to start a war. Otherwise, the court would regard the peace talks as insincere, and the two sides would immediately enter a life-and-death hostile situation.
.
Li Yan paused his actions on the central and northern fronts. In addition to being powerless, he was also trying to maintain a situation, a situation framework that could still be negotiated. Just like Wu Sangui's army on the southern front approached the city and did not take action immediately, it was also for this reason. Now is the time when negotiation is necessary.
, if they don’t take action, they will give you a chance. Of course, it is also a threat. If you don’t talk about it, I will attack the city!
"But my father also said just now that if we negotiate peace at this time, the court's conditions will be harsh. After all, we have the bargaining chips on hand..." Li Guo was a little annoyed, but Li Zicheng smiled: "It is inevitable that the court will lower the price, but it is absolutely not necessary.
It would be too harsh, and they only took away a few small towns, which is not a big bargaining chip, so you don’t have to feel inferior, it’s not that we don’t have enough chips, we have quite a lot of chips!”
Um... Li Guo frowned in confusion, and Li Zicheng pointed to his head: "My head is the biggest bargaining chip. The dozen or so cities on the west bank of the Yellow River are the bargaining chip. The more than 100,000 soldiers of the Dashun Army are the bargaining chip, not to mention the Jing Dynasty."
Xiang, these are all bargaining chips that the imperial court cannot resist!"
Li Guo suddenly realized it and slapped his head hard. During this period, he was so stressed that he saw the small gains and losses in front of him, but forgot about the overall situation!
What's the big picture?
The overall situation is that today's weak imperial court has to face countless internal and external troubles! Putting aside natural disasters, just talking about military disasters, whether it is Dashun, Daxi or Manchu Tatars, it is too much for him to fight against the imperial court alone.
, let alone three of them together.
Therefore, they also want to talk about peace. No matter how much chips they have in hand, no matter how much they want to lower the price, they can't avoid their desire to shake hands and make peace. Now that there is someone who wants to make peace, they will definitely not force him away.
Just lower the price.
Being able to be like one family is what the court wants right now!
It can be said that Li Zicheng was extremely sober, and the pulse of the imperial court was controlled by him.
Maintain the current situation and negotiate peace!
After walking around Guimen Pass, Li Zicheng cooperated with Li Yan very tacitly after returning to Tongguan, suspending all military operations and focusing on negotiations.
Of course, this is not cooperation on the initiative, but forced by the situation. At this time, there is no point in fighting or making trouble, unless he doesn't really want to make peace.
But Li Zicheng really wanted to die a good death and wanted one side to be king.
Then let Song Xiance have a heated argument with the court in the capital. As long as the court doesn't go too far, he can be a legitimate vassal king!
What he wanted to do now was to take a good rest and at the same time revive his morale, so after eating and drinking for a while, he walked out of the Yamen with Li Guo and went to the streets and into the city.
Although he was very thin after more than a month of running away, the soldiers recognized him at a glance. This was King Chuang, their soul.
King Chuang, the officers and soldiers have arrived outside the city, when are we going to fight? The morale was high and the warlike people started shouting. Li Zicheng smiled lightly. Do you know why they came to the city but did not besiege it?
They don't dare! The officers and soldiers are all made of paper. They look scary but are actually vulnerable...
The soldiers were all talking nonsense, one was more shouting than the other, and one was showing off better than the other. Li Zicheng also agreed with these thieves, but of course he knew very clearly in his heart that the officers and soldiers were not afraid, nor were they vulnerable.
He was waiting and watching, to be precise, he was waiting for military orders.
But he couldn't say this. He needed the thieves and thieves under his command to cheer themselves up. In fact, as he wished, the thieves in Tongguan were so excited because of his appearance that they could be heard all over the city.
The ghosts were crying like wolves, but the ordinary people were frightened. What was this going on?
Twenty miles east of Tongguan City there is a place called Daizi Camp, which is a large village. The name comes from the fact that it was once a garrison of the Ming army. The camp had a letter of Daizi. As for which general it was, it is impossible to investigate, but it is still here today.
Tens of thousands of Ming troops were stationed, not just a general. Wu Sangui, Ma Ke, Liu Wenbing, Wei Shichun and several other nobles were all here.
For the rest of the month, they have been advancing westward from Luoyang, Kaifeng, from Lingbao to Pandou Town, and now they have arrived at Daizi Camp, twenty miles outside Tongguan City!
Originally, Wu Sangui, Ma Ke and others had discussed their tactics and prepared to attack Tongguan, but just then Li Yan came with a military order telling them to stand still!
They are all veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time. They can guess Li Yan's intentions without even picking a finger. Both the central and northern fronts have achieved results. The southern front has a knife hanging over their heads. This is the best time for negotiation.
At this time, Wu Sangui did not know that Li Zicheng had fled back to Tongguan, nor did he know that the rebels in Tongguan City were as excited as chicken blood, but even if he knew, he didn't care, because he was also very excited now.
If the negotiation is successful, Tongguan will surrender to him. If the negotiation fails, he will immediately attack the city. This is a great achievement!