Chapter 165 A bowl of water is flat, not blowing or black
"Are you Yuan Shizhong? I have heard of it. You have been a thief for more than two years. Since you have returned home and moved around, you must have heard of my general's name."
In Zhecheng County Yamen, Huang Degong met Yuan Shizhong for the first time. Of course, he did not behave like a polite corporal. Instead, he looked aloof and tough and spoke arrogantly.
This is also in line with his character. He is a fierce and reckless warrior, and he is not good at understanding people's minds.
Who knows whether Yuan Shizhong sincerely surrendered; whether he had no choice but to surrender because Zhecheng County was defeated and his way back was cut off; or whether he surrendered simply because he was pretending to surrender!
Therefore, when Yuan Shizhong first sent someone to contact him, Huang Degong didn't believe it at all, and even made a condition that if Yuan Shizhong wanted to surrender, he would personally bring a small group of pro-troops to Zhecheng County for talks.
Unexpectedly, Yuan Shizhong only hesitated a little for a long time, but he gritted his teeth and came. Sure enough, he only brought about a hundred cavalry guards, and the remaining more than 10,000 thieves stayed in Luyi County.
After showing such sincerity, Huang Degong was willing to see him, and what happened just now happened.
In Huang Degong's view, there were so many bandit chieftains who had pretended to surrender before, but few of them dared to come in person and be controlled by the government troops. Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Luo Rucai had surrendered several times, all asking to retain their establishment and demarcate territory to defend themselves.
Yuan Shizhong was not afraid of being trapped and killed by the army, which seemed to be a bit sincere.
As for Yuan Shizhong, who was under the low eaves at the moment, of course he had to be more groveling. Even if he didn't think so in his heart, he had to pretend. Faced with Huang Degong's arrogance, he also accompanied him carefully:
"General Huang is famous, how can he not know the crime? Back then, the crime general was in Puyang, and he was forced to rebel by poverty. What gathered was a group of hungry people who had nothing to eat. Because they could not bear to kill and massacre the people in the county and the prefecture to raise food, plus Puyang
There was no danger to defend, so we fled south and returned to Bo. In the past two years or so, all our camps in Henan have been afraid of General Huang and have not dared to go south to Zhili or underestimate Fengyang."
Yuan Shizhong is also a man with a rough appearance, but he is so careful and polite in his words. The scene looks quite strange.
However, Huang Degong liked this attitude very much. Although he didn't read, he could still understand basic observation. After observation, he felt that Yuan Shizhong's surrender should be sincere, but the excuses used to defend his previous crimes may not be credible.
.
But believe it or not, these are not important. How to arrange and use it after the imperial edict in the future is Shen Futai's concern. He only needs to worry about the other party not being in danger at the moment.
Huang Degong paused for a moment and then ordered: "In that case, you first lead the cavalry under your command to follow me and move together. As for the rest of your army, let a lieutenant general you trust lead you southward.
Positive.
This general will give you a letter as a token. When you meet the defenders of General Liu Guoneng Liu in Xinyang Prefecture, you just have to listen to his arrangements and accept the placement.
General Liu is also a general who abandoned the dark side and surrendered to the light. You should be able to trust him for the time being to accept your surrender, right? As long as you accept this condition, I promise to recommend you to a guerrilla position in front of Shen Futai. The rest depends on
Your future meritorious service will be demonstrated."
Huang Degong didn't want to bring more than 10,000 people with him. On the one hand, it was difficult to control. If his army incorporated more new auxiliary troops than his current strength, what if there was a mutiny? The damage would be comparable to that of a frontal battlefield.
It's still troublesome to face more than 10,000 enemy troops.
Secondly, Huang Degong was surrounded by cavalry, and Yuan Shizhong stayed behind. If they had to act in unison, it would slow down the pace.
Therefore, the best option is to divide and conquer and let Yuan Shizhong follow with all his cavalry strength, which can not only control the situation but also keep a hostage.
Yuan Shizhong wanted to prevent himself from being betrayed by his subordinates. The generals he selected to lead the remaining troops south to surrender to Liu Guoneng must be absolute confidants. Otherwise, if something went wrong, the selected generals would lead their troops to join Li Zicheng or Yuan Zongdi again.
, then Yuan Shizhong would not even be able to cry anymore.
When he heard this severe request, Yuan Shizhong also felt bitter in his heart.
But he knew that it was the former bandit leaders who had pretended to surrender that had ruined the market's credibility. If he wanted to surrender sincerely, he could only accept this test.
Fortunately, the recipient chosen by Huang Degong was Liu Guoneng. Liu Guoneng had also been a thief general, so it should be easier for them to understand each other.
He also quickly lowered his stance: "Thank you, General Huang, for your recommendation."
Then he said that his army did not have many cavalry, only close to a thousand at most, and they could all follow Huang Degong. The remaining 12,000 people could be taken to Ruyang by his brother.
Seeing that the work was done, Huang Degong felt a stone fall in his heart, so he simply put some wine in the Zhecheng County Yamen to appease Yuan Shizhong and asked him to mobilize all the cavalry from Luyuan County as soon as possible.
…
Because of the need to accept the surrendered troops, Huang Degong did not immediately go to Shangqiu to trouble Yuan Zongdi, but stayed in Zhecheng for another half day, preparing to leave the next day.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to win over people and get close, he also took the opportunity to learn from Yuan Shizhong more about the underlying reasons for the opponent's surrender, as well as the military deployment of the Chuang Army in Guide Mansion, including asking Yuan Shizhong to figure out why Yuan Zongdi had not withdrawn his troops at this time.
Retreat to Chen County and seek to rendezvous with the main force of the Chuang Army.
Of course, Yuan Shizhong was able to answer all these questions one by one.
In the initial part about the motive for surrender, he simply reiterated Li Zicheng's cruelty in Henan and favored the Shaanxi people, but used the Henan people as cannon fodder and robbed the local people.
Naturally, they, natives of Henan, had some issues with Li Zicheng. In addition, he had also surrendered to Luo Rucai first, so he was even more unpopular.
When the wine was in full swing, he became bolder and hinted that Huang Degong should not have killed Li Jiyu a few days ago. Li Jiyu was also a native of Henan. He had been a thief for less than three years and had surrendered to Luo Rucai first. Now he was ostracized and used as cannon fodder.
If Huang Degong had been more patient at the time, maybe Li Jiyu could have surrendered directly, but now he was killed directly by Huang Degong in a surprise attack while sneaking into Chen County.
Of course, Huang Degong would not regret this, and he said carelessly that swords have no eyesight and that surprise attacks on the battlefield are impossible.
In order to appease him, the only thing he could say was that if Yuan Shizhong performed well, he would later persuade Shen Futai to consider assigning the two to three thousand prisoners of Li Yuyu's tribe who had been recruited by the army to Yuan Shizhong's leadership.
In addition, Huang Degong also learned more about the "conflicts between some local bandit leaders in Henan and Li Zicheng" mentioned by Yuan Shizhong, and learned that the local leaders in Henan were quite dissatisfied with Li Zicheng's indiscriminate killings and looting, and felt that they had killed too many people.
Local folks from my hometown.
Huang Degong was a little surprised by this statement, but he didn't think it was inappropriate. He knew the talent of the bandit, and after further questioning, he knew what was going on.
Later "History of the Ming Dynasty" described Yuan Shizhong as "a more enlightened and benevolent person among thieves" who did not kill people or rob. This is of course inconsistent with the facts. It was only because Yuan Shizhong finally wanted to return to the imperial court and was killed by Li Zicheng. The scholar-officials then
Write him as a good guy.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Han officials hoped to create an aura of "the leaders of the peasant army who abandoned the dark side and turned to the bright side were all good, and the leaders of the peasant army who harmed the Han people were the most evil." Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a filter bonus.
But the problem must be viewed from both sides. The real world is complicated. Whether it is Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong or Yuan Shizhong, they all have a murderous side and a cautious side.
It's just that the ancients' cautious killings were often only aimed at fellow villagers. The further away from their hometown, the less scruples they had, and the more they were not afraid to trample on human lives with brutal means.
The illiterate people in the late Ming Dynasty rarely had feelings for their family and country, only their fathers and fellow villagers.
Even Li Zicheng rarely killed his father or fellow villagers in Mizhi County other than his enemies.
But after leaving Mizhi County, when he was short of food, he could start slaughtering and plundering.
Once you leave Yan'an Prefecture, you can slaughter 20% of the people.
Outside of Shaanxi Province, half of them can even be slaughtered.
When Zhang Xianzhong arrived in Sichuan, there was no need to set a bottom line.
Each rogue chieftain has a very flexible minimum level of brutality in different areas.
You cannot simply characterize a person just because of his or her brutality in a specific place.
Yuan Shizhong and Li Jiyu did indeed slaughter far fewer people than Li Zicheng in Henan, and looted far less. This is an ironclad fact.
But what the motivation was, future generations don’t know. Maybe they were from Henan themselves, which would also play a big role.
Specifically speaking to Yuan Shizhong, he swore that when he raised troops in his hometown in Puyang, he would only kill the enemies of the government and not harm the villagers. But there were constant disasters that year. After killing the government and not paying taxes, there was still not enough food, so he had to rob the people.
.
You want to eat?
In the vastness of the world, no ethical, moral, or legal limit is as high as the survival instinct.
When the Malthusian trap comes, the essence is that this land can no longer support so many people, and half of them have to die. No one is right or wrong, and everyone is shot every other by drawing lots.
According to the natural laws of the prairie, the number of wolves and sheep has a growth and decline curve. Can this be morally right or wrong?
Yuan Shizhong had no choice but to cross Jishui south to kill and plunder the territory of Guide Prefecture. In this way, he would not be killing his fellow villagers in the same prefecture and county.
Beggar your neighbor, if you kill outsiders, your softness will drop to a new level.
As for later generations saying that Li Zicheng "didn't pay for the food when King Chuang came"... Please tell me, it was historically after March of the 16th year of Chongzhen, when he had already captured Kaifeng Mansion and had a sense of base area, and then he started to do this.
Before that, there was no ground-level consciousness at all (it would be impossible to stand firm even if you had such a consciousness, because you couldn't defeat the army), so how could you not be cruel?
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Since ancient times, wandering thieves are more cruel than sitting thieves. This is an iron rule.
The thieves need a base area, and they cannot massacre the base areas and things that belong to them. Those who have no sense of base area, if they kill them, they are not killing their own people, so why not kill them.
Huang Degong roughly figured out the reason why Yuan Shizhong was not so cruel in the local area, and he couldn't understand the essence of Li Zicheng's cruelty. After finding the core of the conflict, he became more confident in reusing these local Henan people as thieves and chieftains.
Of course, he will also ask his staff to write these considerations and paraphrasing the confessions into future letters to Shen Futai and Liu Guoneng, so that they can have more understanding when accepting the troops and reduce the conflicts of conflicts during the running-in process.
risk.
After understanding this truth, it seems that the local bandit generals in Henan who had surrendered to Luo Rucai before and were used as cannon fodder by Li Zicheng, and who were dissatisfied with Li Zicheng's massacre of their fellow villagers, were all divided and disintegrated.
Possibility.
This piece of information is very important and will have a considerable impact on the subsequent decisive battle with Li Zicheng. If used well, even if it cannot attract more people, it can at least deepen Li Zicheng's internal suspicions.
They even dare not use Henan people to fight against Chenshu people, for fear of local defections.
…
After thoroughly understanding the relevant situation, the last part of the value that Huang Degong tried to squeeze out of Yuan Shizhong was the information on Chuang Jun's recent military deployment.
After all, Yuan Shizhong had just arrived, so he must know many secrets of the friendly forces.
After Huang Degong asked about some surrounding factors, he focused on a key point: "Yuan Guerrilla, you said that Yuan Zongdi was sent by the bandits to Guide Mansion to get food. It has been a long time since our army captured Chen County and entered Zhecheng.
It’s been two days,
Li Zicheng should have sent the news that Shen Futai has arrived in Chen County and that Yuan Zongdi needs to concentrate his troops to participate in the decisive battle in Chen County. Why is Yuan Zongdi still besieging Shangqiu City? Could it be that he wants to betray Li Zicheng?"
Regarding this question, Yuan Shizhong really wanted to take the opportunity to show his loyalty and answer in detail. However, he was not very capable and could not explain too profound truth. He could only speculate:
"The general is not sure about this, but before he came back, he received the last piece of information from the intruder's messenger, which said that all our generals in Guide Mansion should go all out to assist in the attack on Shangqiu.
.
There is information that King Lu, King Sifu, and King Si Zhao who fled from Huaiqing, Weihui and other places two months ago may be in Shangqiu City. Yuan Zongdi is asked to try to kill the above kings and give Chen Shuren another
The crime of trapping the vassal."
Huang Degong was shocked when he heard this: "What? King Lu, King Fu and King Zhao are actually in Shangqiu City? Why didn't I know? How could Li Zicheng find out about something that the court has not heard of?"
Yuan Shizhong could not explain: "The general is not clear about this. The general can only tell what the intruder conveyed. General Huang does not believe it. The intruder's messenger was also tied up by the general and sent to him. Huang
The general can torture him personally."
Huang Degong's mind was racing, and several motives had flashed through him: Regardless of whether King Fu King Lu was in Shangqiu City or not, he had already made a plan to hold Yuan Zongdi back. Therefore, no matter whether the kings were there or not, it would not affect his decision-making.
.
If it were, then the credit for relieving the siege of Shangqiu would be even greater, and it would also save Shen Shuren from being convicted, and achieve multiple things with one stone. Therefore, no matter what, the rescue of Shangqiu was decided.
The effect of finding out the truth is nothing more than strengthening your own decision-making and determination.
——
PS: There are two updates today, and the second update will be released before 5pm, so the number of words in the first update does not need to be too many.
I also feel that this chapter did not advance the plot very much, and I am really embarrassed to have to stop it after only 4,000 or 5,000 words in one day. But a new character hastily appeared at the end of the previous chapter, so I still need to look back at the causes and consequences.
In addition, it is useless not to explain or analyze, lest fans of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong say that I am a black peasant army leader. Because as long as it is written that "a certain peasant army leader is not as cruel as Li Zicheng", even if it is a historical fact, that kind of thing will definitely appear.
Speech.
We have no choice but to settle the matter with a bowl of water - I did not say that the morals of the peasant army leaders who surrendered to the imperial court were higher than those who did not. I think it was just that the level of brutality would increase when the illiterate people in ancient times left their hometowns.
You can also assume that if Yuan Shizhong went to Shaanxi, he would kill more people than when Li Zicheng came to Henan. But Yuan Shizhong never went to Shaanxi, so this hypothesis cannot be verified.