As soon as the guard Zhang Yan discovered that the city was on fire, he knew that the situation was not good. Unlike Zhang Wandao and other squires, he was still ignorant and did not know that his death was coming. He immediately brought two personal followers and said
He was going to the city wall to supervise the battle, so he immediately left Guandi Temple.
Most of the officials and people in the city knew that the leading figures in the county had gathered at the Guandi Temple. If he stayed in the Guandi Temple or the Yamen, wouldn't he be waiting for death? As soon as he left the school grounds outside the Guandi Temple, Zhang Shoubei gave two personal escorts
With a wink, these two servants had followed Zhang Yan for many years and protected him from death many times. With just one look, they understood and immediately rushed into a house.
The white knife went in and the red knife came out. Without saying a word, he killed all the civilians in the family who had not yet reacted, and changed into civilian clothes. After Zhang Shoubei changed the clothes, he threw all the swords and weapons into the house, only with
The two servants hid self-defense daggers in their clothes and prepared to take advantage of the chaos to find an opportunity to leave the city.
But the tightness of the rogues' attack on the city greatly exceeded Zhang Shoubei's expectations. He is also a veteran of fighting. He has fought against the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong's Xiying and Cao Cao Luo Rucai's Cao Ying. The thieves are far more powerful than the intruders.
The Cao thieves are more ferocious than the intruders. However, these two troops have more than enough to attack, and are relatively weak in organization. After the intruders break the city, they have no organization to quickly and tightly control the situation in the whole city.
Zhang Shoubei knew that the hope of escaping in a short time was slim, so he hoped that the intruders would plunder the city and evacuate as soon as possible. He could also save his life. Even if the court blamed him, he was not from the county.
The guard, no matter what, can't deal with him.
But soon, Zhang Shoubei discovered that something was very wrong in the city. The intruders took advantage of some heartless government officials and village warriors, and asked these people who recognized his face to search the city. The government servants and township warriors were all Shan
The locals of Yang County know the situation in the city better than Zhang Shoubei.
"It's him! He is Zhang Shoubei!"
The county seat of Shanyang County is just a small town, so there are not many places to hide. Zhang Shou was unable to hide, so he was soon discovered by the government officials, and the intruders, who were like wolves and tigers, chased after him.
Zhang Shoubei was disheartened, almost desperate. He tremblingly took the short knife hidden under his clothes in his hand. He looked at the two servants on the left and right, and finally he looked dejected, completely collapsed, and sat down against the corner.
.
"Sir, let's go! We rush out from the city gate, there is still a glimmer of hope!"
The two servants wanted to lift Zhang Shoubei up and force him out. But Zhang Shoubei waved his hands and rejected their suggestion. He put a short knife across his neck and cried sadly: "I should have died a long time ago.
One year ago, Donglu destroyed the border wall and entered Kou Tongzhou. I followed General Hu to Qinwang. As soon as I saw Donglu's cavalry in Julu, I was so frightened that I fled. I watched Marshal Lu die in battle alone.
Fleeed to Shanxi."
"I escaped when King Juluqin was king, and I escaped again when I was ambushed outside the city. Now that I am trapped in the city, I still want to escape... but where can I escape to?"
Zhang Shoubei put the dagger across his neck and slashed hard, but only scratched a little of the skin. His hands were shaking so much that he couldn't even use the strength to commit suicide.
"I...I don't want to die yet!"
The guard's eyes were filled with despair and sorrow. He thought of Lu Xiangsheng, who was thrown to death in Julu by him and many other deserters. Why did Lu Xiangsheng have the courage to die in a fight at that time? Why did he still have the courage to die in a fight like this?
How can I not slit my neck with a dagger and give myself a decent and heroic ending?
Zhang Shoubei threw the dagger to the ground sadly. He knew that he did not have the courage to fight to the end, nor the determination to kill himself. He could only close his eyes and wait for death. After a while, several soldiers from the Little Tiger Squadron rushed in under the leadership of the government officials.
When they came over, the two servants resisted for a while, but they were outnumbered and were quickly killed by the intruders.
Before the soldiers of the Little Tiger Squadron could take action, a local warrior muttered, "I asked you to deduct my salary," rushed forward, shot Zhang Shoubei through the heart, and stabbed him to death.
After a while, a policeman from Li Laiheng came over. He saw that Zhang Shoubei had been stabbed to death by a government officer, and there was a short knife thrown there not far from his hand. He didn't seem to put up any fierce resistance.
Li Laiheng did not know what Zhang Shoubei was thinking about before his death, and he was not interested in it. In the old system of the Ming Dynasty, some questions that were impossible to answer did not exist in the new system of breaking out of the army and starting from scratch.
Creating a new system is much easier than patching up and pasting an old system!
"Cut off the head and send it to the boss."
Several other troops from the camp had already taken control of other important points in the city. Gao Yi led his troops to guard the city gate and divided his troops to suppress the rebels in the city. After Li Shuangxi and Dang Shouze took over the treasury in the city, they began to arrest the gentry.
Since most of the squires were plundered by Li Laiheng in Guandi Temple to plunder their hoards of grain, gold and silver, this time the squires in Shanyang County were not able to organize servants to resist in their own courtyards like they had done before in Longju Village.
Li Zicheng arranged his troops with Gao Yigong at the top of the city to ensure that the remaining soldiers in the city could not take advantage of the chaos to get out of the city. Then he arrived belatedly and led his soldiers to Guandi Temple. Originally, after Li Zicheng broke the city, he usually directed the general to the superintendent.
It was placed in the county government office. However, in Shanyang County, the location of the Guandi Temple was better, and it had been arranged by Wang Zhixian, Zhang Shoubei and others, so Li Zicheng moved directly to the Guandi Temple.
"Leghorn."
"Master! I have personally led the troops to search and kill the garrison!" After Li Laiheng sent Zhang Shoubei's head, he returned to Guandi Temple to deal with the remaining squires and Zhang Jiaoyu. He considered that Li Zicheng was also here.
, he did not make any arbitrary decisions, and just asked the soldiers of the Little Tiger Squadron to tie up all the officials and gentry, and wait for the old boss to come and deal with them.
"I asked the brothers to tie up the remaining officials and gentry, and they will wait for the boss to deal with them."
"Act vigorously and resolutely, and act like a tiger!" Li Zicheng nodded and praised twice. Perhaps it was their nominal kinship, or perhaps it was their de facto relationship with Mizhi fellow villagers, which made Li Zicheng always have a little too much affection for Li Laiheng.
preference.
"Laiheng, let's sit down and talk. Those officials and gentry will be handed over to Shuangxi in a while and they will be tortured."
Li Zicheng didn't pay much attention to Zhang Jiaoyu and the other squires. He first sat down in front of the Guandi Temple and then waved to Li Laiheng to sit down with him.
"The old camp instructions you wrote before are very useful. This time the army suddenly launched a large-scale encirclement and suppression, the old camp moved quickly, transported supplies, transferred the old and weak, everything was in order, all because of your instructions. Liu Zongmin
I've always had my eyes set above my head, and I don't look down on such details, so I think you are really a rare talent in cooking."
Li Laiheng was very impressed by Li Zicheng's praise. He naturally knew that this method of combining modern logistics and management was far superior to Tian Jianxiu's almost primitive and crude method, and it was normal for the efficiency to increase several times. But he
On the surface, he still acted like he was taking credit but not arrogant, and declined a few words.
"This is the credit of Mrs. Gao, Uncle Yufeng, and Uncle Hanju for running the old camp. The detailed rules I wrote can only help a little bit."
Li Zicheng looked at Li Laiheng and couldn't help but laugh twice, "Little tiger, you are still young. You can be proud of this kind of thing, there is no need to deliberately refuse."
But then, Li Zicheng's expression became more serious again and said: "You are still young, so you don't need to think too deeply and complicatedly. From now on, if you remember anything, just say it."
I don't know whether Li Zicheng's two words were complimentary or derogatory, or just a simple reminder. In short, Li Laiheng was still a little scared and felt that maybe he shouldn't show off too much.
"The army is about to raid Shangluo, and soon we will all go south to western Hubei." Li Zicheng's eyes were fixed on Li Laiheng. His eyes were calm and powerful, and full of a special sense of sharpness. Li Laiheng felt that besides being scrutinized, he also felt
There is a sense of comfort in talking as equals.
"Tian Yufeng and Yuan Hanju brought back hundreds of scattered troops. In addition, this raid on Shangluo counties also added a small amount of troops..." Li Zicheng suddenly changed the topic and turned the topic to the issue of the strength of the troops breaking into the camp, "
I intend to reorganize the various troops in the camp, and I want to see if you have any other comments, Little Tiger."
Li Zicheng suddenly put this major issue related to the organizational structure and power distribution of the camp before Li Laiheng, which of course made him secretly frightened. Li Laiheng wondered whether his position in Li Zicheng's mind was really good enough to serve as a staff member
On the other hand, they carefully prepared their words and tried their best to answer Li Zicheng's questions.
"Hmm... Laiheng is not particularly familiar with the generals of the various teams in the camp. I'm afraid he can't reasonably adjust the deployment to make the best use of the people." Li Laiheng couldn't guess Li Zicheng's intention, so he spoke more carefully and tried to take the big picture.
The starting point does not involve specific individuals, "But I often heard my adoptive father say that the old commander always starts from the big picture when deploying troops. When preparing troops and horses, you should also start from the big picture."
"Now in the camp, there is only one level of organization. The strength of each team is different, and the number of people is very different. I think it is not convenient to deploy under unified command. Maybe we can unify the strength of each team. On top of this, another
Let a general lead several armies."
Li Zicheng nodded and seemed quite satisfied with Li Laiheng's answer. But he pondered for a while and did not speak immediately. Instead, he thought for a while and then said: "This is very close to what I thought before. I'm going to add up the team."
As one bidder, the camp temporarily organized two bidders, letting Jiexuan and Yufeng take charge. In addition, I heard from Yigong that you captured many mules and horses in Shanyang County, and I think they can be formed into a cavalry team.
"
When Li Laiheng heard this, he felt a little uncomfortable. If Li Zicheng planned to reorganize all the teams of different strengths in the camp into teams of the same strength. Then except Liu Zongmin and Tian Jianxiu who still led a large number of troops, the other generals
Wouldn’t his status be the same as his own?
He was worried and asked: "Then...will my adoptive father still be in charge of the team?"
"I think Jixuan and Yufeng are responsible for counting the teams. It's a bit hard. We can ask Buzhi and Hanju to help share the burden respectively." Li Zicheng's implication seemed to be to let Li Guo and Yuan Zongdi take over the roles of Liu Zongmin and Tian respectively.
Jianxiu's deputy, and this deputy should also directly lead several troops.
Li Laiheng nodded, feeling that this arrangement made sense. He estimated that the cavalry team should be led by Liu Fangliang. But he didn't know if Li Zicheng talked about this matter with him, just casually, or did it have some deep meaning?
But then he thought again, Li Zicheng had absolute control and dominance in the current camp, and there was no need for too many tricks. He calmed down and replied: "The arrangement of the boss is very suitable.
It should be implemented as soon as possible.”
"Well..." Li Zicheng was thoughtful. He picked up the half-flask of wine left by the squires, filled a glass, and asked, "Leheng, would you like a drink?"
Li Laiheng nodded and reached out to take the wine glass. Just when he was about to drink it, Li Shuangxi and Dang Shousu, both wearing armor, pushed open the door of Guandi Temple and strode in.
When Dang Shousu saw Li Zicheng drinking and discussing matters with Li Laiheng alone, he thought about something more. Li Shuangxi still didn't seem to care at all. He sat down next to Li Laiheng and said, "Boss, the little tigers are all here."
Ah, Shousu and I have already robbed all the big households in the county. Brother Gao has almost collected all the gold, silver, rice and wheat. It’s time for us to set off! I guess Uncle Jixuan and Uncle Yufeng still have a few more.
The tiger is impatiently waiting!"
Li Zicheng stood up, walked to the statue of Emperor Guan, poured all the wine in his hand in front of the table where the sacrifices were made, and said slowly: "The war is dangerous, but I hope the Holy Emperor will protect you..."
He turned around, looked at everyone, and shouted: "Let's go!"