Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 569
In the scorching sun, the half-dead elm trees drooped their leaves and stood feebly on their posts, while the sandy dates on the side were half bent, blooming flowers, making the final savings for the upcoming fruits.

Not far away, a wide river bed stood clearly, but there was no trace of water flow. A wild sheep didn't want to give up, and kept pawing and pulling, trying to dig out some water.

"call out--"

Suddenly, an arrow shot out and hit its ass directly, and the wild sheep ran wildly, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In a short while, a huge army came overwhelmingly, covering the whole river soon, and the unlucky wild goat was naturally caught by someone.

"stop--"

Tian Jianxiu reined in the horse's reins, looking at the dry river in front of him, his brows instantly beamed with joy.

"Your Majesty, that's right, this is—"

Turning around and shouting.

After a while, Li Zicheng, who was one-eyed and full of vigor, came in a hurry, his armor and hair on his temples were covered with yellow sand.

"You boy is right."

Li Zicheng smiled contentedly, and said to the timid young man beside him, "The road guide is good. If you find water, I will let you go."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

The man beamed with joy, and bowed his hands incessantly.

Immediately, he got off the horse, and walked to the riverbed cautiously, then his eyes kept searching, and his steps were slow.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Fangliang, Hao Yaoqi, Li Laiheng, Yuan Zongdi and other four other generals, as well as some young generals, also came one after another.

Song Xiance lay on the horse's back, feeling like his whole body was going to fall apart, and he finally arrived.

And all the Chuangjun were engrossed in staring at the river bed and the man looking around, not daring to move a bit.

"Damn me to death." Hao Yaoqi poured half a bag of water into his stomach, the whole person was half-struck, and kept muttering:

"If there is no water, I will drink his blood..."

However, some soldiers couldn't bear it, and directly grabbed leaves and flowers, and chewed them in their mouths, hoping to squeeze out the juice.

Some collapsed on the yellow sand due to exhaustion, only to get burned immediately and scold their mothers continuously.

I don't know how long it took, until the sun was setting to the west, and I waited for a sentence: "Yes——"

For a moment, Li Zicheng didn't have so many scruples, and strode away, followed by others.

"Here, it's wet here, and the water will come out after digging about half a foot."

The man knelt down on his knees, picked up the river sand with his hands, and pointed at the wet ground.

"Very good." Li Zicheng breathed a sigh of relief and continued:

"Even this one well can't feed us so many people, at least twenty wells are enough."

"Go and keep looking, and you will never miss any reward."

The news of the water spread wildly to the entire army in an instant. The army cheered and their morale finally stabilized.

Seeing this, Li Zicheng really felt relieved, and the tiredness in his one-eyed eyes also relaxed a little.

Last year when the guards were defeated in Xining, he thought it was a great shame, so he immediately led troops to raid Ganzhou, but returned without success.

So he recharged his energy for many days, led an army of [-], and set off to Ganzhou eagerly to retake the Hexi area that belonged to him.

It's a pity that the weather in the northwest is really weird. The army has enough food and grass, but not enough water.

Some of the water spots and oases that were marked in the past disappeared without a trace. The army was tired and thirsty, and when they were about to lose their hold, they finally found the riverbed.

For two days in a row, the Chuangjun dug dozens of wells, and everyone's water bladders were only half filled, but the water was gone.

30,000 people and horses, the amount of water it consumes is staggering, and the depleted water beds wither.

However, although there is water, everyone has no combat power.

"Your Majesty." Song Xiance noticed the problem of morale, and said softly: "The Ming army is ready to fight, recharging their energy for a long time, but our army is running thousands of miles, morale is low, it is not easy to fight!"

"I'm going to kill Gao Yigong."

Li Zicheng's eyes were full of anger when he heard the words: "He took refuge in the Ming thief and became the general soldier. This shameless guy, if I don't kill him, I can't get rid of my hatred."

Seeing this, Song Xiance had no choice but to invite Tian Jianxiu, a good old man in the army known for his prudence.

Tian Jianxiu is also not interested in continuing to conquer Gansu.

In his opinion, the northwest region is full of sand, which is useless to use and a pity to discard. Is it possible to lose vitality for such a tasteless place?

If you want to fight, go to Shaanxi, why come to Gansu to eat soil.

"Your Majesty, the brothers don't want to go to Ganzhou anymore."

Tian Jianxiu was a warrior after all, and said directly: "This time I was lost again, and there was a lack of water. Everyone doesn't want to go to Gansu where there is nothing to eat sand."

Li Zicheng was taken aback: "That's the traitor Gao Yigong."

"Your Majesty, morale is hard to use. If I continue walking, I'm afraid it will cause a mutiny."

Now, Li Zicheng was silent.

He believed in Tian Jianxiu's judgment.

If it wasn't for a wave of vengeance supporting him, he would not have wanted to leave long ago.

He is in his 40s. It is not too much to call him an old man these days, but he is still busy fighting and doing it himself. Years of war trauma have made him exhausted.

"What do the others mean?"

After a long time, Li Zicheng opened his eyes and asked.

"I don't want to go to Gansu."

The other four generals walked into the tent at this moment, and knelt down on one knee in a bit of shame.

Li Zicheng looked at these people, and someone lost his mind for a while.

He knew that these people were tired and exhausted, or that they no longer wanted to do useless work.

He knew very well that even if Gansu was taken down, he would not be able to defend it, not to mention Shaanxi. Without artillery, the Xining Guard would not be able to take it down.

"Go back to teacher!"

Li Zicheng waved his hand desolately and issued a military order.

Soon, the army returned to Tumed Department at several times the speed of the northern march.

And at the moment of returning, many soldiers wept with joy, and even those married women went out to greet them, and many of them even hugged their children with big bellies.

Staring blankly at these women and the smiling soldiers, Li Zicheng understood in an instant.

Sighing, he shook his head and smiled wryly: "I never thought of dividing up the fields and women for this group of people, and tied their hearts."

"Revenge? In the huge army, I'm afraid I'm the only one who has such thoughts!"

With no heirs or concubines by his side, he is a lonely family, so he can naturally want revenge at all costs.

But others have changed their minds.

Departing from northern Shaanxi, he went through most of the world, including the Jinluan Temple in Beijing, and was finally driven to the shore of Qinghai Lake, where he was desperate to make do with a group of Tartars.

Li Zicheng had never imagined such a scene.

"In the past, I still laughed at Zhang Xianzhong's grassroots team in the southwest, but I never thought that I would follow in his footsteps."

After making up his mind, Li Zicheng discussed with Niu Jinxing to divide the entire Tumed part into several counties and establish a national system.

(End of this chapter)