Li Zicheng glanced at his subordinates and generals and said, "What ideas do you all have? How to meet Li Zhi's conquest?"
The generals under his command looked at each other for a while and said nothing.
Li Zhi's troops and horses were so powerful, and their weapons were even more sophisticated than during the 14th year of Chongzhen's reign. There seemed to be no chance of winning against Li Zhi's 50,000 to 60,000 troops with an army of more than 300,000.
At this time, Li Zicheng missed Liu Zongmin who died at the hands of Li Zhi. Liu Zongmin was cunning and good at fighting. If he were here, he would definitely come up with feasible solutions.
Li Zicheng's adviser Li Yan sighed and said: "At this moment, the only way to avoid Li Zhi's attack and retreat into Shaanxi is to have a chance of survival."
Li Zicheng frowned and asked, "If we retreat to Shaanxi, what should we do if Li Zhi pursues us?"
Li Yan shook his head and said: "The only way is to surrender to Li Zhi and ask Li Zhi to let us live in peace."
Hearing Li Yan say such depressing words, the generals in the palace were a little angry and looked at Li Yan coldly. Even Li Zicheng felt that Li Yan was shaking the morale of the army and had the urge to kill him with a knife.
If it weren't for Li Yan's policy of "equalizing land and eliminating taxes", which made Li Zicheng popular among the people and swept Henan, if it weren't for his past achievements, Li Zicheng would have killed Li Yan.
Li Zicheng suppressed the anger in his heart and looked at his nephew Li Guo. This nephew had always been brave and resourceful, and he was Li Zicheng's reliable right-hand man.
"Li Guo, what can you do?"
When Li Guo saw King Chuang asking himself, he stood up and said: "My nephew thinks that it is difficult for Li Zhi to defeat the enemy now, so it is not a good idea to face the enemy head-on. At this time, we can only attract Li Zhi's attention with regular troops from the front, and attack with surprise troops from behind.
If Li Zhi's food team is cut off from food and grass, his army will collapse!"
After hearing Li Guo's words, the generals in the second palace became energetic for a moment.
Hao Yaoqi put down one leg that was coiled on the chair and said loudly: "Tiger, I haven't seen you for a few days, why are you so polite? You are not a good soldier! Please tell me clearly how to fight."
, only then can we cut off Li Zhi’s supply of food and grass.”
Li Guo looked at Hao Yaoqi and said: "We will use 200,000 infantry as the main force, abandon the eastern part of Henan, and retreat to Shaanzhou. If Li Zhi wants to occupy Henan, he can only chase us all the way to Shaanzhou to attack us."
, then Li Zhi has to walk step by step along the rugged road of Henan, which is a thousand miles from east to west."
"We will use a hundred thousand horse troops as a surprise force to ambush in Luoyang and attack Li Zhi's rear. Li Zhi's grain transport team has to walk a thousand miles from Shandong to Henan. Sooner or later we will succeed."
After everyone heard Li Guo's suggestion, they pondered for a while.
Hao Yaoqi stood up and shouted: "Li Guo! Henan had a great wheat harvest at the beginning of this year. Now every household has grain in stock. What if Li Zhi takes money to buy grain from the common people?"
Li Guo waved his sleeves and said: "We have equalized the land in Henan and exempted the people from being exploited by the gentry, so that the people can have enough to eat. This is the most popular among the people. The people all believe in King Chuang. Li Zhi has cultivated fields in various places over the years.
It is to turn it into public land, and finally let the people pay land rent to him. We can spread rumors in Henan that after Li Zhi takes over Henan, he will turn the land allocated to the people by King Chuang into public land and charge high land rent and land tax."
"In this case, how can the people sell grain to Li Zhi in order to prevent their own fields from being confiscated? After Li Zhi enters the mountains in western Henan, we will send agents to the places where Li Zhi's army passes by to incite the people to defend their own fields.
If we let the people hide in the mountains with their food in the fields, Li Zhi would not even be able to get a grain of food from wherever he goes."
"At that time, Li Zhi's grain transport team will have to travel thousands of miles to supply the army ahead. Without protection for a whole thousand miles, they will inevitably be defeated by our cavalry army."
After hearing Li Guo's words, Hao Yaoqi thought about it and felt that there seemed to be no problem, so he sat down.
The generals in the second hall were a little excited when they heard Li Guo's strategy, and they started talking among themselves.
Niu Jinxing, Li Zicheng's chief adviser, stood up, shook the feather fan in his hand, and said: "King Chuang, this plan is very poisonous, I think it is feasible."
Li Zicheng closed his only eye and thought for a long time.
Then he opened his eyes and said: "Okay, let's follow Li Guo's plan. We abandon Kaifeng and retreat to the mountains of Shaanxi Province. When Li Zhi enters the mountains of western Henan, we will send an army of 120,000 horses to attack the grain from the rear.
Team."
####
On the tenth day of October, Li Zhi was sitting in the Qinzhengyuan of the Duke's Mansion, opposite Li Huan who was reading "Plane Geometry".
Li Huan suddenly put down his textbook and asked Li Zhi: "Father, didn't you say that the biggest problem why our Ming Dynasty is riddled with holes is that the gentry is shameless."
Li Zhi put down an official document, looked at Li Huan, nodded and said, "That's exactly it."
Li Huan raised his head and asked: "Then why did father attack the intruders? Since the gentry are such scum, isn't it the best solution to let the intruders kill the gentry?"
Li Zhi thought for a while and said, "Li Huan, you asked a good question."
Li Zhi stood up and took out a bonsai pine tree from the coffee table next to him. He put the pine tree on the table and said, "Li Huan, look at the bonsai pine tree. Why does it grow so ruggedly?"
Li Huan replied: "It was the craftsmen who planted the bonsai that used stones and ropes to restrict the growth of the pine trees. Under the constraints, the pine trees could only grow according to the wishes of the craftsmen, and finally grew into this shape."
Li Zhi nodded and said: "The pine tree grew like this under the influence of external forces. If one day we suddenly feel that the tall pine tree growing like this is wrong, we hope that it will grow straight up and cut off the tall trunk of the pine tree with one knife."
If they are all cut off, what will happen to this pine tree?"
Li Huan was stunned and said: "Father, that pine tree will definitely die."
Li Zhi nodded and said: "You are right, then this pine tree cannot withstand such torture and will definitely die."
After a pause, Li Zhi continued: "The pine tree is like this, and so is the society of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is like a pine tree. Due to various external forces, it has grown into the deformed shape it is today."
"If we chop down the Ming Dynasty with one knife like a bandit, it would be like cutting off all the branches and leaves of this pine tree with one knife, then the big tree of the Ming Dynasty will wither and die."
"The gentry has always acted in accordance with the rules and unspoken rules of society. If we annihilate all the gentry physically with one knife, we will be saying that we have smashed all the rules of the entire society. The world will no longer respect the rules and respect them.
Law. From now on, people will feel that the rich can be robbed. Who will dare to get rich by relying on intelligence and wisdom in the future?"
"We want to change this tree and make it straight up, that's fine. But before cutting off the old culture and rules and killing the old gentry, we have to pruning the old branches with iron heart and forcefully restrict the old branches from continuing to grow.
While cultivating new straight branches, cultivating new culture and rules. Only when the new upward branches are strong enough to support the country's culture and rules can we cut down the old branches."
Li Zhi thought of Li Zicheng's vulnerability in history after establishing Dashun and sighed.
"If we cut off the previous culture and rules without cultivating new ones, we will destroy this country like thieves."
