Li Zhi wanted to help the woman on the ground, but looking at her weak appearance, she seemed unable to stand up at all. Li Zhi took the baby from the woman's hand and said to the bodyguard beside him: "Feed the child with rice soup."
Hearing Li Zhi's words, the woman on the ground's eyes lit up and she became more energetic. Li Zhi then went to help her, but as soon as he touched her hand, he felt that the woman's body was very hot, and she was obviously having a fever.
It would be difficult to revive a fever when you are so weak. When the woman saw that her son had been saved, her body went limp and fell to the ground. It seemed that all her strength was about to be used up, and she said weakly:
"The great general saved my son with great kindness"
Li Zhi asked: "Are you suffering from drought?"
The woman was already in a daze and was about to faint.
"King Chuang stole my food and killed my husband."
Before she could finish her words, the thin woman fainted.
Li Zhi sighed, secretly thinking that such a weak patient with high fever might not be able to survive. However, he still asked the medical team to come over and carry the woman over to save her.
Zheng Kaicheng looked at the unconscious woman, sighed, and said: "The thieves rely entirely on looting to provide their army. When there is food, they are fine. When there is no food, they loot the countryside. The cunning and traitorous people will join the thieves when they see them coming, so they are welcome."
Breakers and thieves. Honest people who don't want to be thieves will be robbed and even lose their lives."
"It was really pitiful to be hit by drought first and then by war."
Li Zhi nodded and said: "This time we will definitely beat Li Zicheng to the ground and prevent him from causing trouble to the Central Plains again!"
Li Laosi said: "My boss, now that Zhang Xianzhong has been destroyed, all the troops that surrounded and suppressed the Xian rebels in Sichuan and Chu have been sent to Henan. With such a large number of troops pressing down on the border, as long as the intruders are defeated once, there will be no hope for them to rise again."
Li Zhi nodded and said, "That's true!"
####
Li Zicheng is a lean middle-aged man, no more than thirty-four or five years old. He is not very tall, but he has a thick beard on his chin, which makes him look quite majestic. His nose is very high, and his eyes are long and slender.
His eyes were slanted upward, making his face look somewhat fierce.
At this time, in the Chinese army's tent, Li Zicheng put the felt hat he wore every day on his lap, and sat among the generals in his naked clothes, silent.
Niu Jinxing took a breath and said: "King Chuang, originally the eight king Zhang Xianzhong held back hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers in Sichuan, which was conducive to our development in Henan, and the situation was very good. Unexpectedly, one month after Li was implanted in Shu, Zhang Xianzhong
We were defeated, and now tens of thousands of officers and soldiers have flocked to Henan, and the situation is really not good."
Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo said loudly: "King Chuang, this Li Zhi killed Zhang Xianzhong in one battle. His momentum is strong. It would be better for us not to start a war with him."
But Li Zicheng's general Liu Zongmin said loudly: "Huangkou boy! How can you talk such nonsense? We finally gathered 30,000 rebels, how can we not fight? If we escape, these soldiers and horses will all be scattered. By then, there will only be a few thousand left.
What can the men and horses do? Are they running into Shangluo Mountain again, worrying about the army raiding the mountain every day?"
Rolling his eyes, Liu Zongmin shouted: "We can even capture Luoyang City, so why are we so afraid of Li Zhi's troops?"
Li Guo said loudly: "This Li Zhi has the strongest army in the world and has never been defeated. Can we defeat him?"
Liu Zongmin swung his broadsword horizontally and said, "If you don't kill, how can you know who is female and who is male?"
Li Guoleng snorted and cursed: "Reckless man!"
Liu Zongmin laughed loudly, stood up, patted Li Zicheng's shoulder, and said loudly: "I, Liu Zongmin, am indeed a reckless man. If I wasn't a reckless man, why would I have killed my wife and children, and only followed King Chuang to fight among the officers and soldiers?"
?”
The two were still arguing, but were interrupted by Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng waved his hand to signal Liu Zongmin and Li Guo to stop arguing. He looked at Niu Jinxing and asked: "Mr. Niu, do you think this time it is time to refund or fight?"
"
Niu Jinxing was recommended by Li Yan to join Li Zicheng's team. He had just joined the team and had no qualifications. However, he was a civil servant and was a rare scholar in the army, so he was highly regarded by Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng behaved like a polite and virtuous corporal.
When encountering major issues, always ask Niu Jinxing.
Niu Jinxing pondered for a while and said vaguely: "This matter is quite difficult to decide. If we fight, there is a risk of the entire army being annihilated. But if we escape, the hungry soldiers who have finally gathered together will naturally disperse, and then the situation will be over."
After stroking his beard, Niu Jinxing did not dare to draw a conclusion and just sighed and shook his head.
Seeing that Niu Jinxing had no idea, Li Zicheng turned to look at Li Yan and asked, "What do you think, Mr. Li?"
Li Yan looked at Li Zicheng, raised his hands and said: "King Chuang, if we flee without fighting now, I'm afraid all the hungry soldiers we have gathered will escape, and our momentum will be greatly reduced. I'm afraid we can only hide in the mountains. But if we go up and fight fiercely,
There is also the risk of the entire army being defeated and being chased by Li Zhi."
Li Zicheng nodded and said: "That's right!"
Li Yan said: "I heard that Li Zhi's army has more infantry and gunmen and not many cavalry. Why don't we leave more troops and horses in the old baggage camp and go up to fight Li Zhi. If we win, it will be good. If we lose, it will be good."
Our three thousand pond horses took the old battalion's army horses and turned around and fled, and Li Zhi couldn't catch up with us."
After hearing Li Yan's words, all the generals fell silent. At this moment, I'm afraid this is the only way.
Li Zicheng thought for a while, nodded and said: "According to Mr. Li's praise, we will leave most of the troops and horses in the old camp. If we are defeated, we will flee into the mountains and lie dormant for another year."
####
On February 29, Li Zhi's army arrived on the outskirts of Kaifeng City.
In front, Li Zicheng's 30,000 bandit soldiers abandoned the siege of Kaifeng City and pressed towards Li Zhi's troops, seemingly wanting to fight Li Zhi to the death.
Li Zhi stood on a hill on horseback and observed Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses with a telescope.
Most of Li Zicheng's thieves were new recruits who had been thieves for a short time. Most of them had no armor. The only weapon was a spear or a broadsword, which was very crude. There were thousands of people riding horses and wearing cotton armor, which seemed to be guarding the formation.
Old thieves. These old thieves line up behind the unarmored hungry soldiers and play the role of supervising the battle team.
On the whole, these thieves seemed to have little combat effectiveness. They were lined up sparsely and without any formation. Li Zhi secretly thought that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was really low these days, and the defense of Luoyang City was really empty. They were actually defeated by such a group of thieves who had just gathered together.
capture.
There are more than 30 squatting tiger cannons in the army, which were probably captured from Luoyang. However, these small cannons cannot shoot far, and they may not be able to withstand a salvo of artillery fire from the Huben Division. The only thing that can attract people's attention is that
There were many flags in the rebel army, and they were flapping in the spring wind, which seemed to represent the high morale of the rebel army.
As soon as they formed an army, they captured the big city of Luoyang and were able to infiltrate Prince Fu's palace and plunder it. It was really exciting.
Li Zhi rode back to the central army and shouted to the flag soldiers: "The whole army should return to formation and advance to meet the enemy!" (To be continued.)
