In May of the 16th year of Chongzhen, outside Kaifeng City.

Li Zicheng inspected the camp with General Chuang. Looking at the endless camps in front of him, he smiled and said: "Our rebel team is getting bigger and bigger!"

The generals around him were all excited. They followed King Chuang around Henan and Shaanxi, singing and walking, and gathered half a million people along the way.

Hundreds of thousands of horses consume a lot of food and grass every month. Li Zicheng once learned from Fengyang Prefecture and divided the fields in Nanyang Prefecture. However, when the slogan of not paying grain was shouted, he could not get a grain of rice, so he had to go back to his old business.

The invading army could only obtain food and property and replenish its military strength by continuously attacking cities and territories. However, the more soldiers there were, the greater the consumption. In order to support the huge invading army, Li Zicheng had to continue to attack cities and the cycle continued.

In the old camp, the war horses neighed and the soldiers shouted in an orderly manner.

Li Zicheng heard that there were many reinforcements from officers and soldiers from all walks of life, especially that there were many strong troops and generals, so he tightened his grip on the training of the old camp and the cavalry army.

As for most of the infantry, Li Zicheng's requirements were not high. As long as they could fight in formation and stab forward with a spear, after all, the Yang family's marksmanship, which was practiced daily in the Ming army, only required a few moves.

Tens of thousands of people practice spear formation, which is quite spectacular. There are also sword and shield soldiers and archers practicing, which is very similar to the same thing.

Li Zicheng saw that there were more and more coughing cases in the army, and he couldn't help but frowned and asked: "Why haven't these people been dealt with yet?"

Plague was the most feared thing when marching and fighting. This plague was so severe that households were wiped out in many places where the marching army passed. Li Zicheng had to pay attention to it. He ordered to kill all the soldiers infected with the plague, or to expel them from the military camp.

Let it fend for itself.

Tian Jianxiu, the general of the Chuang Army, replied: "King Chuang, most of these people are from other departments of the rebel army. It is difficult for us to deal with them..."

Li Zicheng frowned and said nothing. He began to think about how to completely control the defecting rebels.

Although he defected, he was only regarded as the king of Chuang. In fact, the subordinates in each battalion still went their own way.

However, there were tens of thousands of horsemen and nearly 200,000 infantry who broke into the camp. Most of the other rebel armies had thousands of horsemen and 10,000 or 20,000 infantry. The total number could compete with the people and horses who broke into the camp.

After a long time, Li Zicheng said: "Gather the leaders of each battalion to discuss matters in the central army tent."

...

Several large banquet tables were set up in the military tent of the camp, and the leaders of the various rebel armies sat in attendance, drinking wine and fist-fighting with each other, waiting for Li Zicheng's arrival.

The banquet was rich in food and wine, including chicken, duck, and fish, which made people appetizing just by looking at it.

One of the leaders worried: "I heard that King Chuang lived a simple life, sharing weal and woe with his soldiers, and ate only coarse grains and wild vegetables. Will I violate his taboos by drinking and feasting here?"

Yuan Shizhong put down his wine glass with a snap and frowned: "What are you talking about? Why did we rebel? Isn't it just for good food and drink? This is the kind of life we ​​have now. If we continue to live a hard life, what's the point?"

"Yes, although I admire King Chuang as a person, I don't agree with him when it comes to eating and drinking!"

"...."

Everyone was talking a lot. Some people were afraid of Li Zicheng, while others looked down on Li Zicheng from the bottom of their hearts.

The reason was that Li Zicheng was very unhappy when he saw the leaders of each battalion drinking and having fun every day, acting like old rich men, and often privately scolded them as drunkards and women.

Yuan Shizhong defected to various leaders of Li Zicheng. After getting along with each other for nearly half a year, he also felt that Li Zicheng had many problems.

sacred!

They even told their subordinates privately that Li Zicheng was a complete country bumpkin who didn't know how to play with money. No wonder his wife ran away with his brother and went to the imperial court!

In the middle of the banquet, a young leader was holding a wine glass and slowly sipping it, looking at the shouting leaders around him from time to time with his cold peripheral vision.

His name is Wang Zhen, he is in his early twenties, a native of Henan, with tiger eyes and sword eyebrows, and a fierce look. At first glance, he does not look like a good guy.

Wang Zhen became a bandit in Ye County two years ago and was nicknamed Zhentianhu. With his excellent skills, he rose to prominence in the rebel army and raised a team of 8,000 people.

After the Chuang Army broke through Luoyang, Wang Zhen led 8,000 troops to defect to Li Zicheng. He reluctantly joined the last seat and listened to the big guys chatting. What he wanted to join most was the old camp of the Chuang Army. However, the old camp had strict inspections and it was very difficult to get in.

big.

"King Chuang is here!"

With a loud shout, everyone in the tent immediately put down their bowls and chopsticks and became restrained. Even Yuan Shizhong, who had the loudest voice and was eloquent, suddenly fell silent and put down the chicken legs in his hands, feeling that they were no longer so fragrant.

Li Zicheng and a group of insurgent generals strode into the tent, and habitually hugged the rebel leaders around them: "Hello, brothers!"

"King Chuang!" Everyone responded quickly, as if they were friendly brothers.

This time we came to discuss matters, and eating and drinking was just a trivial matter. Everyone hurriedly ordered people to remove the banquet and sit down together to discuss matters.

The generals of the invading army gathered together at the top, and their conversations were full of Qin accents. When they talked about military affairs, they mainly discussed among the generals. Although the leaders of each group were dissatisfied, they did not dare to express their dissatisfaction.

Li Zicheng didn't take it seriously either. These gangsters were afraid that the officers and soldiers would be encircled and defeated one by one, so they defected to him. I didn't forcefully annex them. It's a sign of mercy from me.

Although the rebels in various places are holding the banner of anti-Ming, they are secretly trying to swallow up each other. Which one of you here has not done this kind of thing?

Li Zicheng looked around at the generals and said: "I called everyone here today mainly to say hello to you. There is a plague outside, and our army must take precautions against it. I hope that the leaders of each battalion can take the initiative to eliminate the infection in their respective battalions."

Plaguebearer.”

As soon as he finished speaking, someone asked: "May I ask King Chuang how to clear it?"

Li Zicheng narrowed his one eye and chuckled: "Of course they were expelled or buried."

The leader asked: "King Chuang means that we should kill our brothers?"

He continued: "When we came out to rebel, the oath we swore that day was to share blessings and hardships, but now we are abandoning them because our brothers are sick. What kind of loyalty is this!"

"Who the hell are you? How dare you talk to King Chuang like that!"

The speaker was sitting at the head of the general of the Chu army. He was nearly forty years old. He was wearing heavy iron armor. He was very tall, with a rough face and a short beard. He spoke in a voice like muffled thunder, and his eyes were bright with gaze.

However, he was extremely powerful, and it was none other than Li Zicheng's confidant general Liu Zongmin.

The leader was not afraid at all and said: "This is Wu Yousheng from Shanxi!"

Liu Zongmin laughed and said: "It turns out that he is a little thief who dominates the mountain and is king. Are you worthy of talking to King Chuang like this, just because you have thousands of refugees who are as skinny as monkeys?"

Wu Yousheng laughed and said: "Haha, I am a little thief who dominates the mountain. Are you not the same? You are fooling yourself and others!"

Liu Zongmin immediately became angry and shouted: "Your mother is a bastard. You must be tired of living. I'll chop you up if I don't live!"

Seeing that Liu Zongmin was about to take action, Wang Zhen glanced at Li Zicheng, who was sitting in the front seat. Seeing that he was silent, he knew that he wanted to establish his authority. He quickly stood up and went straight to Wu Yousheng, who was about to draw his sword to resist.

When Wu Yousheng saw someone coming from beside him, he quickly swung his sword to fight back, but Wang Zhen easily dodged it.

Wang Zhen looked fierce and knocked him back with a heavy elbow, then quickly punched him in the chest.

A dull blow sounded, and Wu Yousheng's eyes suddenly widened, bloodshot eyes spread, his face turned as red as pig liver, and he fell straight down.

Two old soldiers came forward to investigate. Their faces were slightly shocked and they reported to Li Zicheng: "King Chuang, he is dead. His sternum was completely broken and his heart was broken by a punch."

Liu Zongmin exclaimed: "What a guy! I defeated this guy with one punch, not bad!"

Wang Zhen just nodded slightly, still with a cold expression on his face. He was famous for his cold face. Since the partnership, people around him had never seen him smile. Some people also called him a cold-faced tiger.

Li Zicheng stared at him for a moment and then said: "What is your name and why do you want to kill him?"

Wang Zhen said: "I am Zhen Tianhu, Wang Zhen! The plague is causing great harm. He refused to obey King Chuang's arrangement of isolating the patients. Since he wanted to die, I made it possible for him!"

Li Zicheng nodded and said lukewarmly: "You killed the rebel brothers privately. I should have executed you according to the covenant. I want you to take the overall situation into consideration, so let's forget about it. There is no place for you here. Get out!"

Everyone whispered in low voices, and some secretly laughed. This Zhentianhu wanted to lick Li Zicheng and become a hawk, but he didn't expect to be turned away. It was really embarrassing!

Liu Zongmin was about to persuade Li Zicheng, but when he saw Li Zicheng's serious face, he had to swallow his words.
Chapter completed!