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20 Waving the Flag (4)

Li Chengdong fell to a dizzy way and rolled on the ground twice, his hair and beard were scattered. He thought he was captured by a general, and he struggled to look up. However, he saw the general, Mingjun officer, dressed up immediately, and the flag bearer held the big word "Sun" on the flag. He immediately turned his mind and kowtowed, "Sun Guerrilla rescue me!"

The person who came was the guerrilla Sun Shouye. Gao Jie surrendered to the official army. He was responsible for receiving the response here as agreed. After waiting for a while, he led the army forward, but he didn't expect to meet Li Chengdong's bare pole.

Zhao Dangshi also discovered Sun Shoufa. This man surnamed Sun had been stumbling under Cao Wenzhao. He had outstanding personal bravery and was good at using an iron whip. No one could defeat him. He was alone and he was better off getting out as soon as possible.

Sun Shoufa asked Li Chengdong about the reason, and sent his left and right to chase Zhao Dangshi, but the road was dark and the enemy was unclear. He was unwilling to fight in a strait. He was about to leave after a walk around the neighborhood. Li Chengdong was shocked and shouted: "Guerrilla attacks are not allowed. The military funds and the money and food tribute to the court of our camp were robbed by him. We should send troops to seize them quickly."

He begged hard, and Sun Shoufa was also quite moved. He was about to dispatch troops. When He Renlong came, he reported urgently: "The deputy general fought fiercely with the thief, and the outcome was unknown. I specially asked the guerrillas to help." The He team was responsible for responding to Gao Jie and Liu Liangzuo, and was fighting with Liu Zongmin who was chasing him.

At that moment, Sun Shoufa spread his hands: "You also heard that Deputy General He was thieves, and the situation was urgent. It was not because I didn't want to seize the baggage, but the matter was priorities and the main and secondary were clear. If your general had a mistake, wouldn't it be worth the loss?" After saying that, he stopped talking, turned his horse's head and ordered the entire army to act. Li Chengdong had no choice but to swallow his resentment and follow behind.

When Zhao Dangshi came again, there were only five or six horn carts left on the spot. He had previously ordered that most of the supplies be transferred and hidden there, and Hou Dagui was fully responsible. Now that things have been done, he and Yang Chengfu brought the remaining people back to the camp.

As the sky was dawn, Liu Zongmin also brought people back. Zhao Dangshi led the man to push the sheep horn cart and carry a large stack of heads to see him. However, he saw that Liu was in a bad state. After a detailed question, it turned out that he had already caught up with Gao. Liu and the other two were fighting fiercely. Suddenly, the officers and soldiers arrived and fought again. Not long after, another official army came. The two sides fought until the second half of the night. He felt hopeless to rebel, so he returned. After a night of struggle, the people were not stopped, and the benefits were not even divided. Many of his brothers died, so how could they not be angry?

He asked Zhao Dangshi again what happened. Zhao Dangshi had already spoken, saying that he also met the official army and had a melee. Although he defeated his people, he was unable to fight again. He only seized some supplies and killed some rebel heads, and all of them were placed under the tent. Liu Zongmin was in a bad mood and thought about how to report to Li Zicheng, so he instructed his subordinates to count the supplies heads and send Zhao Dangshi down.

Another day later, Li Zicheng returned. He was reported to Gao by Liu Zongmin, Liu and Mrs. Xing and others to the military service. Before he could remove their armor and saddle, he raised his troops to attack He Renlong in the east, and Sun Suzhou. He and Sun were already prepared and invited him to attack at Majiayao in Fuping and defeated him. Li Zicheng was depressed and led his troops westward.

Zhao Dangshi took this opportunity to propose the idea of ​​temporary separation to Li Zicheng, saying: "When the Eight Kings Xiangnian was in southern Shaanxi and moved in Sichuan, many of them were in harmony with the rebel army in Sichuan. Now, they were specially asked to go west to contact the person. If they could say that the person came to return, if the official army was blocked by the mountain road and could not come, they could also join forces with their people to initiate affairs in Sichuan, echoing the situation of the Zhangpanzi to divide the official army."

Tian Jianxiu was Li Zicheng's main counsel and whispered to him: "Gao Jie rebelled, and Zhao Dangshi hurriedly left. Something was strange. I heard that he and General Liu were chasing the rebels that night. Now that he came, General Liu had nothing to gain, and he would make a fortune. He could secretly give him off and take him off, force him to find the supplies, and he would also work hard to help the military and provide money."

Li Zicheng was silent for a long time and later said, "Although he was cunning in the world, he still did not lose his heroes. If he could not find out the whereabouts of the military capital, wouldn't he betray the brothers? Besides, he was not the troops in our camp, and he would be able to deal with them in the future. Gao and Liu thieves were betrayed recently and their morale was fluctuating. For the sake of this, it is not appropriate to fight with each other."

Seeing that he had no intention of murder, Tian Jianxiu thought about it and said, "The palm is kind." He advised again, "Since you don't do anything, you can be a favor and give him kindness, so that you can be grateful. Regardless of success or failure in the future, it will be good for the palm."

Li Zicheng nodded and stopped talking.

Zhao Dangshizi didn't know that Li and Gu were talking. After he applied to Li Zicheng, he was worried and stayed in the camp and did not dare to act rashly. The next evening, Li Zicheng sent someone to invite him and said that the banquet had been set up to serve Zhao Dangshi.

Yang Cheng's mansion was worried. He was thief-minded, afraid that Li Zicheng and others would notice the clues, so they set up a Hongmen Banquet and urged Zhao Dangshi to refuse on the grounds of discomfort. Zhao Dangshi thought about it over and over again, but he still agreed. He was alone and alone, and Li Zicheng would not have to work so much to kill him. If he pushed him three times and four times, he would seem to have a ghost in his heart.

He made up his mind and strideed to the banquet. He had encountered many dangers today, and his psychological quality was very comparable to that of a movie star. When he stretched his face, he was almost at the level of a movie hero. Everyone in the banquet knew that Gao Jie defected that night, only Li Zicheng, Tian Jianxiu and Zhao Dangshi were three people, and Zhao Dangshi were calm. Li and Tian just didn't know, so how could the others know the three people's thoughts? Therefore, a farewell banquet ended happily.

Zhao Dangshi didn't dare to drink too much at the table, but pretended to be drunk. Tian Jianxiu asked two companions to carry Zhao Dangshi and sent him back to Zhao camp in person. Halfway through, he saw that there was no one around, helped Zhao Dangshi and said in a deep voice: "General can wake up."

This statement was like a revelation, which made Zhao Dangshi scared all over. Since he had been seen through, there was no need to pretend anymore. He said embarrassedly: "Zhao is not worthy of drinking, and this is a helpless move."

Tian Jianxiu smiled: "I'm afraid the general has no choice but to Gao Jie because it is not here."

"What do you mean?" Zhao Dangshi was shocked and almost lost his composure. He tried to calmly ask. He muttered to himself, I was afraid that there would be more misfortunes this time.

"General, don't panic." Tian Jianxiu's face was as deep as water, and half of her face looked particularly strange under the moonlight. "Only you know and I know the matter."

A gust of wind blew, and Zhao Dangshi felt a chill under his clothes. Fortunately, the sky was dark and no one saw his pale face.

"What is the importance of mere weapons, armor, equipment, food, fodder, gold and silver? The general took the slips and learned about it. He praised the general's skillful methods." Tian Jianxiu said slowly, "He was kind-hearted in the hands of the plate and did not want to ruin his loyalty with the general in this matter. He also heard that the general wanted to go west, so he sent me to make a convenient move for the general."

"Your Excellency"

"This time I went to Sichuan, the road was difficult and dangerous, and the power was mixed. I was willing to cherish my talents. I could not recruit the general into the camp, nor did I want to watch the general die halfway. Therefore, I specially selected more than 500 mules and horses to give them to the general for easy walking; I also took a talisman seal for the general to carry it. Most of the troops in central Sichuan were old with the talisman. If I unfortunately met the general, I could take the talisman seal with him, and they might not be in a dilemma."

Zhao Dangshi was stunned. He thought that Li Zicheng might make things difficult for him or not, but he could not expect that he knew his behavior and still did not use any weapons. Instead, he helped him. Is he doing this ulterior motive or is he extremely kind?

No one believes that Li Zicheng is a kind person, and there will be no pie falling from the sky. Zhao Dangshi is more willing to believe that this is a trap.

How could Tian Jianxiu not see Zhao Dangshi's concerns? He smiled and said, "Person, don't worry, you are a gentleman who is a good person. You will never do those shameful things. All the horses and mules are ready. The general will take them tomorrow morning. As for the talisman seal..." He said, stretched out his hand and looked into his arms, took out a thing and stuffed it into Zhao Dangshi's hands, "I'll hand it over now."

Zhao Dangshi looked down and saw a half-palm talisman seal, and there was no idea what the ghost-drawn talisman was written on it. He heard what Tian Jianxiu said, and he seemed to have no plans. He plundered supplies and only lacked mules and horses. Li Zicheng was indeed a timely help. At least this talisman seal could be carried with him in case of emergency needs. The other party's actions were quite sincere. Could it be that he really judged a gentleman by his villain's heart?

"If this is the case, the world will not be able to repay you. Please take this prayer on your behalf." Zhao Dangshi was not a person with a narrow mind. After thinking for a while, he lost his worries. If Li Zicheng really had the intention to kill, he could do something at the banquet, and there was no need to hide it. On the contrary, since he had already attended the banquet calmly, he would just go all the way to the end. If he looked forward and worried about gains and losses, not only Li Zicheng and Tian Jianxiu would look down on him.

Tian Jianxiu waited for him to do his best and helped him over as soon as he was about to kneel down, saying, "We and the rebels join in to join us to support the general. Why should we be punished? An open-minded person must not be willing to accept this greeting from the general."

Zhao Dangshi nodded: "I am unparalleled in the hands of the plate and will accomplish great things sooner or later. Zhao went to Sichuan without any intention, but in order to contact various departments and recruit forces, he would never be selfless. Please tell him about these."

Tian Jianxiu stroked his palm and said, "I have told me several times that the general is not a thing in the pool. Now, I look at it and what I say is not bad. I hope the general will be in the future and do not follow the story of Xiying."

The story of Xiying? Zhao Dangshi was carefully sluggish in his mind. He just remembered that as early as the beginning of the year when the eight kings of Xiying Zhang Xianzhong and the King of Chuang rushed to Fengyang, a team of small eunuchs formed a music work team. Li Zicheng was very envious and then asked Zhang, but Zhang refused. The two of them had a grudge just for this little thing. Tian Jianxiu was now shocking the mountain, so he wanted to use Zhang Xianzhong to remind himself not to forget the root cause. In other words, Li Zicheng hoped to maintain a close relationship with Zhao Dangshi.

This is too worthy of himself? Zhao Dangshi couldn't help but feel ashamed. He thought about the miserable five hundred people under his command, and thought about the mountains and mountains in the river that could develop into. He was unsure of what he could do. Li Zicheng decided that he would definitely become bigger and stronger, and even compared with Zhang Xianzhong?

However, if you think about it in another direction, what if you have a small success? The camps and camps are everywhere in Shaanxi. The officials and horses are raised in prisons and garrisons. The people are raising official horses and even post horses. Just look at the command of the King of Chuang, the regular soldiers are almost one person, two horses or even three horses, and the soldiers of Li Zicheng camp are the same. In contrast, when Hong Chengchou wrote a memorial to the court, he said pitifully that "horse three steps and seven steps" was 7. The contrast is clear. There is such a surplus of mules and horses.

Under the circumstances, it would be a drop in the bucket to allocate five hundred horses. As for the talisman seal, it can only be regarded as formalism. Li Zicheng has a long way to go, and even if the local thieves in Sichuan have some friendship with him, it would be a big deal to buy it or not. Therefore, Li Zicheng only used his own small price, Gao Jie's wedding dress and Tian Jianxiu's verbal talk to him, which was undoubtedly a step forward compared to drawing his sword to face him when he was disagreeing.

The interests are mutual, to put it bluntly, Li Zicheng has invested in Zhao Dangshi now, betting that he will bring more profits in the future.

Although the other party's original intention was to win people's hearts, Zhao Dangshi really gave him a chance. Zhao Dangshi is not a person with few kindness but little righteousness, and he is happy to use these things that only want to be purely Li Zicheng. With his current situation and strength, being able to climb a big tree like Li Zicheng will definitely have more advantages and disadvantages.

Zhao Dangshi and Li Zicheng parted ways at Shimen. Li Zicheng continued to go north to attack Zhenning, while Zhao Dangshi went west.

Hou Dagui had already received the news. He was ordered to push all the captured sheep horn carts into the mountains and hide. Now he is joining the army with the headquarters, and there is a lot of supplies on the cart.

It was very inconvenient to push these many sheep horn carts full of baggage, walking in the rugged, winding, steep, and dangerous southern Shaanxi or Sichuan. Zhao Dangshi had already made a plan. The wars in Guanzhong were endless, and there were many unowned raiders who had lost their organization. He sent Yang Cheng's mansion, Hou Dagui and others to recruit more than a thousand wanderers and refugees. He used the seized supplies to equip them and re-established two divisions, using Hao Yaoqi and Xu Hun as the commander. The horse and military posts of Yang Cheng's mansion also increased from dozens to more than a hundred. In this way, the burden on the troops was greatly reduced, and only a small number of sheep horn carts were left to carry some money, grain, and so on.

Speaking of Hao and Xu, one is brave and the other is an instructor, and they are promoted to the general manager, which is enough to convince the public. These two people are grateful for Zhao Dangshi's promotion. Needless to say, Hao Yaoqi was a little flag bearer. Now he jumped to control the general manager of 500 people, so how could he not be grateful? Xu Hui was finally recognized by his hard work and was extremely happy. What excited him even more was that because he was familiar with firearms, Zhao Dangshi placed all the gun cannon chariots in the camp under his command. Therefore, his five hundred people were an independent firearms department. This point and respect made his resentment that he had "committed to the thief" slowly melted away.

The Zhao camp stayed in the Sanshui area of ​​Binzhou for several days. Because they were sandwiched between Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, no official army came to provoke him. Zhao Dangshi took advantage of this period to carefully discuss the matters of entering Sichuan with "high-level" generals such as Hou Dagui and Xu Hui, in order to make full preparations.
Chapter completed!
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