When Chen Shuren sent Gu Yanwu, who was kept in the dark, to Nanyang, Chen Shuren's enemies were actually doing similar operations.
Because of the distance difference, the day after "Shen Shuren knew that Li Zicheng was about to receive Zuo Liangyu's letter",
Li Zicheng, who was in the army camp outside Kaifeng City, received the letter he was supposed to receive.
At the same time, because there was no psychological preparation, the communication with the people below was not smooth. The whole process was delayed for half a day, and it was not until lunch time that the messenger was brought to Li Zicheng.
And if Shen Shuren could be present, he would have discovered that the envoy Zuo Liangyu sent to see Li Zicheng was actually an acquaintance - this man was powerful and gnarled. It was the man who clashed with Zuo Liangyu last year.
At that time, Hao Zhongzhong was beaten to a bloody pulp.
Last year, after Shen Shuren framed Zuo Liangyu and moved to town, he met Zuo Liangyu on a narrow road when he returned to Nanyang to visit Yang Sichang. At that time, Hao Xiaozhong, with Zuo Liangyu's acquiescence, tried to use violence against Shen Shuren, but was killed by Shen Shuren's side.
Zuo Zixiong flew away with the hilt of his sword. After Zuo Liangyu was defeated, he had to reward him with forty military sticks.
Although this man looks like a reckless man, he is very good at currying favor with his superiors, and his loyalty to Zuo Liangyu is very reliable, so this time he was allowed to carry out the secret mission.
On the other hand, Zuo Liangyu also considered that letting such a rough-looking person serve as an envoy would give people a straightforward sense of deception and make Li Zicheng believe in his sincerity.
…
Hao Xiaozhong was taken to a large tent of the Chinese army and waited for a long time. During this period, he was also feeling uneasy and couldn't help secretly looking around. He saw that the decoration of the tent was quite simple, and the curtains hung to keep out the cold were all cloth curtains, without brocade.
The silk made him relax a little.
This was the first time that Zuo Liangyu took the initiative to contact Li Zicheng to subdue him. None of his men had been here before, so they were naturally worried about whether Li Zicheng was cruel.
If you really meet a demon, as a rogue thief, you won't care about "the two armies are fighting without killing each other".
And if a person lives a relatively simple life, it should be easier to speak and not be arrogant.
"It seems that Li Ziguo is much simpler than Luo Rucai. I heard that Luo Rucai was originally known as Cao Cao. He was extravagant. The tent was covered with brocade and dozens of women were waiting on him..." Hao Xiaozhong thought to himself.
He has followed Zuo Liangyu for many years, and although he has never met any bandit chieftains in person, he is quite familiar with the reputation of each clan.
It's a pity that he didn't know that the reason why Li Zicheng didn't want to decorate lavishly was just to cover up his lack of lewdness. Otherwise, if the residence was luxuriously decorated but there were no women, some of his physical defects would soon be exposed.
Hao Xiaozhong waited for a while, and then a tall, bronze-skinned middle-aged man wearing a Fan Yangli and a smooth beard came in from behind the tent. He had embarrassing eyes. He was Li Zicheng.
Most of the portraits of Li Zicheng in later generations have the shape of a one-eyed dragon, but at this moment, Li Zicheng's eyes are full of energy.
Because historically speaking, during the three violent attacks on Kaifeng between the end of the 14th year of Chongzhen and the 16th year of Chongzhen, he was blinded in one eye by a soldier under Kaifeng general Chen Yongfu who shot him with a crossbow, but the "History of the Ming Dynasty" did not say specifically.
Which of the three attacks on Kaifeng was blind?
Now, maybe it's Shen Shuren's butterfly effect, or maybe Li Zicheng is really strong enough. In short, at this moment, although there are many scars on his body and face, his facial features are complete - in comparison, he is his old opponent.
Zhang Xianzhong's face had been pockmarked by Shen Shuren's lead bullet fragments, and one of his ears had been cut off.
When Hao Xiaozhong saw Li Zicheng, he immediately knelt down to salute and briefly stated his purpose of coming.
Li Zicheng also looked down on this kind of person, but after observing the other person's appearance, he was deceived by his rough appearance, and his trust in what he said increased a bit.
Li Zicheng sat on his back, pointed at Hao Xiaozhong and asked, "Zuo Liangyu wants to keep my peace with me? I haven't provoked him in the past month or so. Why is he so nervous? Could it be a deception!"
Hao Xiaozhong said truthfully: "Reporting to King Chuang, my Zuo Zongzhen was also afraid of any misunderstanding between our two armies, so he asked the late general to show his kindness. Although your army has not provoked Zuo Zongzhen so far, it has also increased its troops in Ye County.
.
As a result, our main town had to increase its troops in Yuzhou (Fangcheng) opposite to prepare for emergencies. If your army can reduce the troops in Ye County, then my main town can also reduce the troops in Yuzhou. Both sides will
Wouldn’t it be nice to reduce the losses in transporting grain to the front lines?”
Li Zicheng was stunned for a moment, and then laughed: "I remember, Zuo Liangyu and Shen Shuren are celebrating a big festival. He wants to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and kill people with borrowed swords. Old man Chongzhen is also a waste, and he actually used
These people who are in trouble are generals."
Hao Xiaozhong was angry when he saw his lord being humiliated, but he remembered the mission of this trip and endured it.
Li Zicheng did not reply to him immediately, but read Zuo Liangyu's letter carefully, and then said that he would give him a conclusion of the discussion within today, and would send someone to send the letter to Zuo Liangyu with him tomorrow morning.
…
After Li Zicheng asked Hao Xiaozhong to be taken down, of course he immediately asked the guards to invite his main advisers to discuss it together.
After a while, a former scholar-strategist with a deer-headed head and rat-like eyes who could not take part in the imperial examination because he was too ugly came up to him on tiptoes.
Li Zicheng did not say anything to him, but directly invited him to sit next to him.
This person was none other than Song Xiance, who had been with Li Zicheng for two years. He was Li Zicheng's second-ranking adviser, second only to Niu Jinxing.
There were not many scholars under Li Zicheng, and Niu Jinxing had been selected as a candidate in the Ming Dynasty, so he was relatively reserved, always regarded himself as Xiao He, and liked to talk about some upright principles.
Since Song Xiance had never received any fame, his psychological burden was much lighter. He liked to play some sinister tricks. In order to complement Niu Jinxing, he regarded himself as Zhang Liang.
In addition, Song Xiance had a background in fortune telling and Feng Shui, and was good at auspicious prophecies, superstitions and other techniques. Over time, he made the uncultured Li Zichenghu confused. Whenever he encountered a diplomatic trick, he had to crack it or use some vicious tactics.
, will discuss with Song Xiance.
"I wonder why the king summoned him?" After Song Xiance sat down, he stroked his beard and sounded like an expert from outside the world.
Li Zicheng also respected him and explained the situation in detail.
After Song Xiance listened, he just thought about it for a moment and felt that Zuo Liangyu's suggestion was acceptable. He also took the opportunity to flatter him:
"Congratulations, Your Majesty! Zuo Liangyu's sincere show of goodwill shows that there are already many conflicts within the Ming army. Your Majesty will surely defeat Chen Shuren in the near future! The generals of the Ming court will no longer dare to risk their lives for Chongzhen!
And if our army can reduce the number of troops in the direction of Ye County, we can take the opportunity to gather most of the heavy troops in Lincheng to confront the Shen Shu army in Ruyang and Shangcai. If we can seize the opportunity, we can quickly determine the outcome.
!”
After hearing this, Li Zicheng had no doubts about Zuo Liangyu's sincerity, but his interest was naturally piqued by Song Xiance's private goods:
"Mr. Song, how many times have you persuaded me to move the main force south to Yancheng? I will say it every time I get the chance. The siege of Kaifeng City is difficult now, and it is not easy to break the city. I want to keep at least half of the troops to continue the siege, sir.
Why do you always advise me to go south with the main force?"
Song Xiance said sincerely: "Your Majesty, Kaifeng City has been besieged by you for a long time. As you know, the morale of the army has been low again. What we mainly hope is to cut off food and besiege the city until all the people in Kaifeng City starve to death."
, at least surrender after hunger collapse.
It is very difficult for us to organize an all-out attack regardless of human life. Our army's artillery and artillery shells have been almost worn out in half a year of fierce fighting. For this purpose, the siege of Kaifeng is no longer needed.
There are too many people, the most important thing is to annihilate the main force of Shenshu people."
Song Xiance's words may be difficult for outsiders to understand at first glance, but Li Zicheng certainly understood the context.
In the past six months or so, the time when the Chuang army was really desperate to attack Kaifeng was actually only in April and August.
April was just after the siege, and morale was still high.
In August, because they had just defeated Sun Chuanting and Yang Sichang, their morale, which had been weakened for a long time under the fortified city, was severely restored by the huge victory in the field battle, so they felt that they were strong again and could still attack a few times.
Wave.
So at the end of August, when he heard that Chen Shuren was going north, Li Zicheng was actually looking forward to it, because he found that he finally no longer had to fight to open the city. Less than a month after the last large-scale field battle ended, another Ming army came over.
The battle in the field was a waste of lives.
For the bandits, if they can fight in the field with the official army, of course they should fight in the field as much as possible. Who the hell wants to fight in the siege of the city, it is still such a strong city.
Unfortunately, Shen Shuren's troops gathered and advanced very slowly. Even though the emperor had ordered him to break through the siege outside Kaifeng City immediately, he still used all legal and reasonable excuses to delay it as slowly as possible.
Li Zicheng was not given a chance to fight in the field for twenty days, so the two sides gathered carefully for a confrontation. After twenty days, the morale bonus that had increased after the Chuang army's last big victory was finally worn away.
So at this moment, everyone in the Chuang Army actually recognized a tacit understanding in their hearts: "We just can't break a fortified city like Kaifeng. Even if the official reinforcements don't come forward to watch the show, we still can't break it."
After Li Zicheng thought about Song Xiance's remarks, he questioned in a probing tone: "Sir, he said that it is difficult for our army to attack Kaifeng City by force, and we can only hope that the defenders will starve to death. I agree with this.
But when it comes to a decisive battle with Shen Shuren, isn't it okay to wait for him until he reaches Kaifeng City and then fight? If he stays in Shangcai for so long, our army will have to go south to Yancheng to find him? Give up the advantage of waiting for work to the enemy? This is
What’s the point? That’s not what you said twenty days ago.”
Song Xiance shook his head and sighed: "At this time, at that time, twenty days ago, when I first learned that Shen Shuren was going north, my lower official advised the king to wait for work in leisure. That's because Shen Shuren was just like other civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty.
, will be forced to attack by that daredevil Chongzhen.
But now it seems that Shen Shuren is much more slippery than Sun Chuanting and Yang Sichang, and he doesn't listen to the stupid emperor's orders. It's not that easy to wait for work.
On the other hand, the autumn harvest has ended long ago, and the current ration situation of our army is very different from that of twenty days ago. Twenty days ago, there was still some food in the camp, and we could eat wild vegetables and intercept the Yellow River Bianshui.
With some subsidies for aquatic products, plus vegetation and people, we were able to persevere. If we were to go south with the main force at that time, we would have to consider the losses in transporting grain.
But now, we basically have enough food. When the army goes south, it only needs to carry some food with them, and there is no need to transport large quantities of food with extra baggage vehicles and ships. It is a situation where we can eat wherever we go.
Therefore, leaving the main force can also allow the troops stationed under Kaifeng City to eat less food and reduce the transportation of food from other places to outside Kaifeng City. We are following the food, not the food following the people."
Li Zicheng stroked his beard and thought about it again. Song Xiance's last dialectical statement of "people follow food, and food follows people" made him feel very mysterious and very reasonable.
After a long time, he just thought of some risks and questioned: "It is right for people to follow the food, but what if there are too few troops left behind Kaifeng City and the Chenshu people use a detour to sneak attack and break through? Or the officers and soldiers from other directions.
Are you suddenly so bold that you dare to come to rescue Kaifeng?"
When Song Xiance heard this, he couldn't help but smile. At least he knew that he was in front of the king, so he didn't dare to be too presumptuous, so he held back and said:
"Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. The officers and soldiers are different from us. The officers and soldiers cannot slaughter the people and eat people. They need food channels. Now the surrounding areas of Kaifeng are in ruins, and even we have not received new food for half a year.
If the Chenshu people want to march, every grain of food must be transported from Xinyang. It is impossible to look for other directions. To transport food from Xinyang, it is nothing more than to enter Ru River from the Huaihe River, and then go to Dulu in the south of Yancheng.
The canal turns into Yingchuan River, Shahe River, and finally into Bianshui River before reaching the outside of Kaifeng City.
Therefore, the Qilu Canal outside Yancheng cannot be bypassed. Your Majesty may not know that this Qilu Canal was dug by Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, in order to communicate with Ru Ying. Your Majesty should have read "
The story of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", right? It was built by Cao Pi before he sent the Grand Sima Cao Xiu to conquer Sun Quan in the south. Without this canal, it would be very troublesome to support the Huaixi battlefield with food from Henan.
Previously, our army fought with Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu came from Poye County in Nanyang, but he still had to go east to attack Yancheng first, just to control this canal. It didn't matter whether it was Nanyang or Huaixi.
Well, the food there has to go through the Tuolu Canal before it reaches Kaifeng City and finally enters the Bianhe River. We have stationed a heavy army in Yancheng, and the Shenshu people want to go around it, that is, they will ignore the food road and go deep alone."
Li Zicheng didn't know much about geography, so he subconsciously asked: "Is there really no other way for the army to get food?"
Song Xiance looked at Li Zicheng and seemed to think he was bragging. He rolled his eyes and thought it would be better to give him a spare tire option, so that his words would be more credible.
When any counselor persuades the lord, he must give the final decision-making power to the lord, so that the lord will feel that "I made this decision", and will be more emotional about the decision and more willing to stick to it during subsequent implementation.
So Song Xiance borrowed the donkey from Poxia: "Actually, it can't be said that there is no chance at all. If we don't use the Tuulu Canal to communicate with Ruying, then the Chenshu people will have to transport the grain from Huguang to Xinyang through Xinyang Road, and then directly enter the Huaihe River from Xinyang.
flow down,
Then it was transported all the way to Shouxian County in Luzhou Prefecture, which was also known as Shouchun in ancient times. It was the first hub in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, where the Feishui River in the south of the Huainan River and the Yingchuan River in the north of the Huaihe River converged into the Huaihe River. After the grain arrived in Shouxian County, it could be directly transported to the Huaihe River.
Yingchuan River, then go upstream, and then pass through Shahe River to Bianhe River, then you will reach Kaifeng City, that is, take the route of Honggou Ancient Canal.
But the loss of this road will be great. From Xinyang to Shouxian, we have to go back six hundred miles and then turn back, which is almost a thousand miles in total."
After hearing this, Li Zicheng thought for a while and felt that there was really no need for the officers and soldiers to go through such trouble. After all, it was not a fight wherever they fought. Why did the officers and soldiers bear so much extra losses and waste part of their war potential before the war started?
And if you really want to make such a big noise, you can fight on the inside, dispatch more quickly, and respond immediately.
After thinking everything through, Li Zicheng finally made a decision and made two important decisions in succession:
"The reply to Zuo Liangyu is Mr. Lao, let's see how to better stabilize him. In addition, after the incident is completed, the siege troops under Ye County and Kaifeng City will also further dispatch to the front line of Yancheng to find Chen Shuren for a decisive battle