Back to Daming to be a genius

Chapter 288
"God damn dog officer, even if you really want to recruit me, at least you have to send someone to contact me in private! You just shoot it up with an arrow, don't you want to kill me?"

Helplessly, he looked at the Ming cavalry scouts laughing and marching away from the city, and peeked at the suspicious eyes of the thieves and soldiers around him. Li Guo, his nephew, ordered in a low voice: "Go and report to King Chuang and ask him to come here."

Li Guo, who is not a few years younger than Li Zicheng but respects Li Zicheng's uncle very much, did not immediately follow orders as usual, but looked around first, and then said in a low voice: "Uncle, have you thought about it clearly?" ? After the last letter of appointment, King Chuang is not looking at you right now. After you drank with the Eight Great Kings on the tower today, King Chuang handed over the Ximen under my control to Ma Guangyu's people for no reason. But it's a bad signal—you're handing this letter to King Chuang now, will it be...?"

"With so many people on the city wall, wouldn't it be more suspicious if they don't hand in?" Li Zicheng asked helplessly.Li Guo peeked around and found hundreds of bandit soldiers staring at him and his uncle, so he had no choice but to agree, and hurried down the city to find Gao Yingxiang to report.Li Zicheng sullenly repacked the letter in public, and put it on the table where the torches were shining concentratedly to show his sincerity and selflessness, but he kept cursing the god-damned young master Zhang in his heart, and intentionally framed himself again and again, so hard that he was always hurt. Gao Yingxiang, who trusted him so much, became suspicious of him—of course, in addition to cursing Young Master Zhang, Li Zicheng had to slander Gao Yingxiang. Young Master Zhang's so shallow and naive divorce, even a three-year-old child would Can't tell, Gao Yingxiang even dismissed his nephew's city gate official, it's clear that he doesn't trust himself.

Li Zicheng's pretense of being honest and selfless obviously had little effect. After a while, Gao Yingxiang led a group of thieves, big and small, to the city wall. , his unattractive face suddenly became even uglier, and he asked Li Zicheng with a sullen face: "Chuang Jiang, who told you to open this letter first after it was sent up?"

"Back to King Chuang, this letter is not sealed, and you have not ordered that the junior generals are not allowed to open and read the letter of the dog officer, and the junior general will read it first." Li Zicheng replied truthfully.Although it was just a trivial matter, Gao Yingxiang, who was already suspicious of Li Zicheng, was very upset and couldn't help snorting coldly: "Well, now this king adds a new military regulation. From now on, little If the dog officer shoots a letter on the city wall again, no matter who it is, he is not allowed to read it first, and he must hand it over to the king first! Do you hear me clearly?" Li Zicheng was terrified, so he agreed honestly.

"King Chuang, this is Zhang Xiaomaidgou's plan to make the three of you into a tiger. He keeps making rumors again and again. The purpose is to drive a wedge between your generals and shake the hearts of our soldiers. Don't be fooled." Fan Wen Cheng kindly reminded: "From now on, more archers should be prepared on the city wall. If there are barbarian scouts approaching, shoot them immediately, and don't give little mad dog Zhang a chance. This is the best policy."

"Eighteen boys catch the intruder!" Before Gao Yingxiang agreed to Fan Wencheng's suggestion, suddenly slogans rang out under the city wall, and several Ming army cavalry rushed nearby and shouted loudly, "Eighteen boys catch the intruder! Eighteen boys catch the intruder! Eighteen boys catch the intruder——!" By the time the furious Gao Yingxiang ordered the archers to shoot, the Ming army cavalry had already run away, leaving only the slogan and laughter of "Eighteen boys catch the intruder" far away. It came from afar, and it was very clear in the dark night.Gao Yingxiang, who was not very literate, couldn't help but asked in doubt: "Eighteen boys caught the intruder? What do you mean by that?"

"This is...." Fan Wencheng was about to explain, but he suddenly realized that this was another plan of alienation by Young Master Zhang.Over there, Gao Yingxiang yelled angrily: "Say, what do you mean?!"

"Eighteen children means eighteen sons. Eighteen sons together form the character 'Li'." Fan Wencheng replied helplessly.Before the words finished, Li Zicheng's face turned pale with fright, while Gao Yingxiang's face darkened first, and then he laughed loudly: "Puppy officer, you are so stupid, you want to drive a wedge between the king and the general, and you send someone to call out publicly Is this king so stupid?" After finishing speaking, Gao Yingxiang patted Li Zicheng's shoulder again and said with a smile: "General Chuang, don't worry, we are as close as brothers. Soldiers kill dog officials, don't think about other things, understand?"

"The general understands, thank you Chuang Wang Shengming." Li Zicheng replied gratefully.I never thought that Gao Yingxiang said again: "Okay, Chuang, you will accompany me to drink. In the future, when the puppy officer does not come to attack the city, you don't need to patrol the city all day long. The task of patrolling the city is left to the next generation." Wang and Ma Guangyu are fine. If you have nothing to do, just come and drink with me."

"Yes, I would like to obey King Chuang's order." Li Zicheng was stunned for a moment, and then he agreed in despair. When he peeked at Zhang Xianzhong, who was in the same situation as him, he saw Zhang Xianzhong's face full of disdain. Obviously, Zhang Xianzhong also saw Gao Yingxiang. It was to guard against Li Zicheng.The other big and small thieves were whispering, although they didn't know what they were muttering about, but several thieves obviously had expressions of gloating on their faces, and Li Zicheng hated secretly, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Accompanying Gao Yingxiang after drinking wine, he spent the night sullenly. In the early morning of the next day, Li Zicheng, who always went to the city to inspect the city defense, made an exception and stayed in the bed, sleeping soundly with his arms around the woman he had snatched from the city, but it was a pity Unfortunately, Li Guo, who was also depressed, woke up Li Zicheng's dream and told Li Zicheng that Zhang Xianzhong had come to visit.Li Zicheng wanted to avoid suspicion, but when he thought of the smiles on the faces of the gang of thieves headed by Ma Guangyu who were at odds with him last night, Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and ordered: "Go and call him in, whatever Watch at the door and don't let anyone else in."

Li Guo took the order to leave, Zhang Xianzhong also entered the room quickly, looked at the woman who was dressing Li Zicheng after bedtime, Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help sighing: "After all, you are the ones who advanced into the city. You slept with us and gave it to us, all of them are uglier than pigs!" Li Zicheng said impatiently: "If you want it, take it, my stuff is not good, the good ones belong to King Chuang With Ma Guangyu and his gang."

"Then I won't be polite." Zhang Xianzhong was also not polite, he hugged the crying woman in his arms, bit her face a few times before asking: "General Chuang, King Chuang won't allow you to visit the city again, Do you understand the meaning?"

"I'm not stupid, how could I not understand?" Li Zicheng replied angrily.Zhang Xianzhong asked again: "Then what do you plan to do in the future?"

"What else can we do?" Li Zicheng said with a wry smile, "Take your time. When the dog officials start attacking the city, kill a few more dog officials on the battlefield, and the suspicion of King Chuang should disappear."

"But the question is, do you have this chance?" Zhang Xianzhong said surprisingly, and whispered: "How powerful is the dog officer's mad dog army, even if you haven't seen it, you should have heard of it? Now the dog officer is not in a hurry The siege has been digging trenches and repairing fortifications to surround us, just waiting for reinforcements from his mad dog army, and when his mad dog army arrives in Xi'an, can we still hold the city of Xi'an?"

"Xi'an City is so fortified. Officer Sun has not touched the city wall after attacking for more than a month. Even if the Mad Dog Army comes, we should have some hope?" Li Zicheng, who had never fought against the slave army, asked tentatively.Zhang Xianzhong sneered and scolded: "There is hope! I have fought against the Mad Dog Army. Their muskets are far and accurate. They can shoot three or four hundred steps away. Standing under the city wall, they can kill us all. On the city wall, those who have farts hope to stick to it! To tell you the truth, no one who has fought against the Mad Dog Army has any hope of defending Xi'an. They all have the idea of ​​​​running away as soon as the Mad Dog Army arrives! Killed a few dog officers to show your loyalty, I think you may be beaten into a beehive by the muskets of the mad dog army before even touching the hair of the dog officers!"

Li Zicheng sat on the bed and stopped talking, while Zhang Xianzhong pushed the woman in his arms aside, walked up to Li Zicheng, bent down and said in a low voice, "General Chuang, there are only two ways for the two of us to survive right now. As Cheng said, the Crazy Dog Army hasn’t arrived in Xi’an yet, so I’ll take the army and run away early—but let me remind you first, it doesn’t matter if I run away, I am the boss in the army, I have the final say, but you It's different, once Gao Yingxiang suspects you, your head will be in danger."

"Then the second way you mentioned, could it be...?" Li Zicheng asked in a deep voice.Zhang Xianzhong nodded, then pointed to the woman next to him, and said in a low voice: "Is there any girl in sight? As long as we take the second route, there are as many girls who are more beautiful than her, and after we ask for it, we will use it again." You don’t have to worry about being caught alive by the officers and soldiers, you can play as you want, understand?”

Li Zicheng stopped talking again. After thinking about it for a long time, Li Zicheng lowered his voice and said: "But the question is, is the puppy officer sincere in recruiting us? What conditions are you giving us?"

"In my opinion, Officer Puppy really wants to recruit the two of us this time." Zhang Xianzhong said in a low voice, "You see, he first pardoned our previous sins, then hinted that our other sins can also be pardoned, and even directly We sent you a letter of appointment—both of us are from the public family, and you should also understand that if we take the letter of appointment with the seal of the puppy officer to the military camp to take up posts, we will immediately become the second-rank seniors. Officer, ride a good horse when you go out, and ride a beautiful woman when you go home. And what the puppy officer said is right. Since ancient times, if you want to be an official, you must either study for the number one scholar, or kill and set fire. Murder and arson are recruited, and you can still be an official."

Li Zicheng was silent again, and this time he didn't say a word for a long time. Zhang Xianzhong saw Li Zicheng's thoughts, and said in a low voice: "Of course, we can't just believe what the dog officer said. I came to you just to let you Help, send a reliable brother out of the city to quietly contact the puppy officer, see how sincere the puppy officer is, and what conditions he will offer us, and then make a plan. How about it, can you help with this? "

Li Zicheng thought about it for a while, and finally asked: "Who are you going to send out? Although I can't go up the city wall now, there are a few places on the city wall that are still guarded by my brothers. It should be no problem to leave the city quietly!"

"I plan to send Zhang Hualong out. He is the brother who first followed me in the uprising, and he is also my fellow clan. He is reliable." Zhang Xianzhong replied.Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "I asked my nephew Li Guo to go with him, he is familiar with the terrain."

Zhang Xianzhong was overjoyed, and took the initiative to extend his right hand to Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng hesitated a little, but finally extended his right hand, and held Zhang Xianzhong tightly...

........................

Of course, the discipline of the peasant uprising army was far inferior to that of the regular army. In addition, Li Zicheng had won the army's morale after three years of uprising, and he had many hard-core brothers on the city wall. It didn't take much effort to touch the city wall, and with the help of his confidant soldiers, he quietly lowered the city wall with ropes, and took advantage of the night to touch the Ming army camp.Halfway through the journey, Zhang Hualong and Li Guo were discovered by Ming army scouts. After explaining their identities and asking to meet Young Master Zhang, the Ming army scouts flew to report to Young Master Zhang. After hearing the news, Young Master Zhang was overjoyed and hurriedly set up the best banquet in the big tent. , and prepared a lot of gold, silver and jewels, and then personally led Song Xiance and Shi Kefa to the gate of Daying to welcome them.

"Grassmen Zhang Hualong and Li Guo, pay homage to Mr. Zhang." Li Guo and Zhang Hualong were very excited to see Young Master Zhang coming out of the camp to greet him in person.Young Master Zhang laughed, helped the two generals himself, and said with a smile: "Two generals, hurry up, I have already heard the names of the two of you, and one is one of the five tiger generals of the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong. He is brave and mighty, and the other is the nephew of Li Zicheng, the hero who is powerful in Shaanxi, and he is a rare talent, a rare talent!"

"Caomin and others dare not be." Li Guo and Zhang Hualong replied modestly.Young Master Zhang waved his hand with a smile, and said: "You two generals don't need to call themselves generals. I will announce now that from now on, one of you will be a general in Yan'an Prefecture, and the other will be a general in Xi'an Prefecture. Both of you are court officials." Now, your military talisman letter will be replenished to you as soon as it enters the big tent!"

"Participants? We are now the imperial court's generals? Really?" Both Li Guo and Zhang Hualong, who were born in bumpkins, couldn't believe their ears. In their impression, the imperial court's generals were those who rode Tall horses, with a large group of super officials in front of and behind them, they are elusive, and they never dreamed that they would one day become such super officials.Song Xiance next to him smiled and said: "Two generals, Zhang Butang is the governor of the five provinces of the imperial court. He said that you are generals, so of course you are the generals of the imperial court. Don't worry, the official salaries of the two of you will start from today. I counted it for you from the beginning."

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang, thank you, Mr. Zhang." Li Guo and Zhang Hualong were overjoyed, and quickly kowtowed to Young Master Zhang.Young Master Zhang laughed and picked up the second general again, and greeted: "Two generals, this is not a place to talk, please come inside, I have already prepared a banquet for you in the commander's tent, to clean up the dust for you." The second general He was very grateful, and let Young Master Zhang lead the way by himself, leading the way all the way to the Ming army tent.

In the tent, the banquet has been set up, Young Master Zhang sat in the main seat, and asked the two generals to sit in the second seat for the first time, Song Xiance, Shi Kefa and others sat in three seats and four seats, Young Master Zhang took out the flattery that he hadn't used for a long time For his ability, he flattered Zhang Hualong and Li Guo to persuade them to drink, until the two generals praised them as rare in the sky and unique in the earth, and rewarded each of the two generals with 300 taels of silver on the spot, as a reward for the two generals' surrender.Li Guo and Zhang Hualong are both villagers. They have been fighting for many years, but they still feel inferior. Seeing the kindness of a court official like Young Master Zhang, they are inexplicably grateful. A good official surrendered.

After drinking for three rounds, Young Master Zhang finally turned the topic to serious business, and asked tentatively: "Two generals, one of you is the eighth king's confidant, and the other is the nephew of General Chuang. You came out of the city this time. It’s their trust, right? If you have anything to say, you’re welcome.”

"My lord, we were indeed sent by my uncle and the Eight Great Kings." Li Guo said honestly, "My uncle wants me to ask you, is it true that you want to recruit us? Will we be held accountable for our crimes?" Zhang Hualong also nodded and said: "Master Zhang, the Eight Great Kings really want to return to the court, but you also know, my lord, that the crimes we committed are indeed not small. , the imperial court asked us to settle old accounts. So the Eight Great Kings want to ask you, what do you use to guarantee our safety after surrender?"

"What guarantee?" Young Master Zhang hesitated for a moment, turned to Zhang Shitou and waved, called Zhang Shitou to the front, pulled out the saber in his waist, and rolled up the sleeve of his left hand, revealing his white and delicate arm, with the horizontal knife in his hand, solemnly Said: "My official Zhang Haogu now swears to the blood of heaven, if the two generals Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong sincerely submit to me and serve the country, then even if I risk my life, I will protect them for life, prosperity and wealth, and their lives are safe! If you break this oath, let me die tragically under the knife, and fall into the eighteenth level of hell after death, and you will never be able to stand up!" After finishing speaking, Young Master Zhang stroked his hand lightly, and blood quickly oozed out of his skin and dripped into the wine glass .

Young master Zhang is really good at watching people order dishes. For low-educated thieves like Li Guo and Zhang Hualong, it won't do much to bring out Confucius and Mencius's Four Books and Five Classics.When Zhang Hualong and Li Guoer saw Young Master Zhang cut his arm and made a poisonous oath, they immediately moved Shuang Deshuang to kneel down, kowtowed and said: "Master Zhang, we believe it, and we swear that from now on, we will only If you go through fire and water, if you dare to raise troops and make trouble again, we will die badly and fall into the eighteenth level of hell after death, and we will never be able to recover."

"Two generals, please get up quickly." Young master Zhang helped the two generals again, and with a wink, asked his soldiers to bring two boxes of jewels, pointing to the jewels and said: "Two generals, please take the two boxes of jewels back, one box will be given away." Give it to General Li Zicheng, give a box to General Zhang Xianzhong, and tell them that I am waiting for them to come back. I will reserve the positions of the general soldiers of Yan'an Prefecture and the general soldiers of Xi'an! Also, the brothers who are willing to come back with them, want to Those who continue to serve in the army will be incorporated into the official army. From now on, they will kill the enemy to eat food and receive wages to support their families. Farm tools—by the way, there is still an acre of dog potato seeds that can produce one or two thousand catties of grain, and they will not be able to eat all the grain in the future!"

"Don't worry, my lord, we will definitely bring your original words." Zhang Hualong and Li Guo replied with great joy.Zhang Hualong asked again: "Sir, what should we do? Should we come directly? Or wait for you to attack the city and open the city gate for you?"

"Let's discuss this slowly. The two generals, please sit down first." Young Master Zhang helped the two generals back to their seats, and said in a deep voice: "Two generals, before you start, you still need to ask General Zhang Xianzhong and General Li Zicheng to present a plan to Gao Yingxiang ——By the way, it is best to ask General Li Zicheng to propose this strategy, which will also help General Li Zicheng regain Gao Yingxiang's trust and facilitate your actions."

"Ask my uncle to offer advice to Gao Yingxiang? What advice?" Li Guo asked doubtfully.Young Master Zhang smiled, and said in a deep voice: "The very simple strategy is to let Gao Yingxiang hold a meeting on February [-]th, and ask all the rebels in Xi'an to express their views. Those who are willing to stay in Xi'an must send the army Hand it over to Gao Yingxiang for reorganization, and accept Gao Yingxiang's command and jurisdiction. The rebels who don't want to stay in Xi'an city have to leave the city and let Gao Yingxiang save military supplies."

(End of this chapter)