Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"Marshal, Li Zicheng has assembled at least 50,000 troops in Baoning Prefecture!" Huang Degong said with some surprise.

Although Li Zicheng did not participate in the war between Zhang Xianzhong and the imperial court during these days, he did not do nothing.

Not only did he strengthen the defense of the Jianmen Pass line, leaving Sun Chuanting no chance to take advantage, he also integrated the troops of the Thirteen Yaohuang Families and gathered them all in Baoning City.

Moreover, according to reports from scouts, Li Zicheng's troops have undergone a complete transformation and their overall strength is stronger than Zhang Xianzhong's.

Li Dingguo had only 16,000 soldiers under his command. How could he resist Li Zicheng's more than 50,000 elite troops?

Huang Degong talked a lot with Li Dingguo these days. The more he talked, the more he felt that Li Dingguo was a talented guy, so he was the first to speak.

Unexpectedly, Li Dingguo did not hesitate and immediately bowed and said:

"I will not disappoint the commander-in-chief if I receive the order.

I just don't know what the commander wants to tell his subordinates?"

Zhang Shikang called Li Dingguo over and whispered something to him. Li Dingguo was stunned for a moment, but quickly got on his horse to greet his men.

Li Dingguo was fearless and the brothers who followed him were naturally not cowards. When they heard that the Grand Marshal really wanted them to be the vanguard, they all worked hard.

The reason for this was all because of the treatment Zhang Shikang gave them. Not only were one main general and two deputy generals given high-ranking official positions, but all the middle and low-level generals also received corresponding positions.

It only took one day for him to go from a rebel to a general of the Ming Dynasty and an official of high rank.

Not only that, these days, not only did they not encounter any discrimination in the Guards camp, they also learned a lot from other soldiers of the Guards.

For example, the Imperial Guards enjoy the best treatment among all the troops of the Ming Dynasty. Another example is that any military merits of the Imperial Guards are actually rewarded, and no one dares to embezzle the military merits of the Imperial Guards.

And these rewards were not empty words. There were nearly twenty earls in the Guards alone, all of whom were conferred by the emperor himself in the past two years.

From being a rebel, he went straight to becoming a high-ranking military general. No one discriminated against him, and he received the best treatment. If he had any merit, he would be rewarded. For Li Dingguo and the 16,000 soldiers under his command, happiness came too suddenly.

What else is there to say? Just work hard!

An hour later, Li Dingguo and his troops finally arrived outside Baoning City.

But outside the small Baoning City, there was a huge crowd of Li Zicheng's soldiers, including spearmen, swordmen, harrowmen, shieldmen, and thousands of cavalrymen on both wings.

The military appearance is solemn and dignified. Although the materials of the military uniforms are ordinary, the soldiers' faces are full of pride.

With just a glance from a distance, Li Dingguo knew immediately that these troops were elite.

Even so, Li Dingguo was not afraid at all. He had the imperial court's 54,000 troops behind him, and they would arrive in an hour at most.

Li Dingguo was no longer fighting alone. From the moment he knelt down, he had the entire court behind him.

Li Dingguo immediately sent someone to pass a message to Li Zicheng, asking for a dialogue in front of the enemy.

After receiving the order, the soldier ran towards Li Zicheng's army alone without any fear on his face.

On the other side, Li Zicheng, dressed in armor, frowned.

Behind him stood two military advisors and a dozen generals.

Niu Jinxing was wearing a long gown and stroking his mustache with a confident expression. Song Xiance was wearing a green cloth shirt and his face looked a little serious.

Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu were communicating about something, while Liu Zongmin, Hao Yaoqi, and Liu Tichun were looking at Li Dingguo's troops in the distance with either fierce or gloomy eyes.

After that, there are the dozen or so bosses of the Thirteen Huang Clan, including the King of Fighting for Heaven Yuan Tao, the King of Order Zhang Xian, the King of Rebellion Liu Weiming, the King of Fighting for Food Huang Yaozi...

Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were the same age, both in their early thirties, but more than a decade of rebellion had already made him exceptionally calm.

Especially the disastrous defeat two years ago made Li Zicheng realize a lot.

In the past two years, he has run the five prefectures of Songpan, Long'an, Baoning, Shunqing and Kuizhou as his base camp.

This was an experience he had never had in his previous decade of working.

Song Xiance told him that only by stopping running away and learning how to manage and build could he truly succeed.

If it were in the past, Li Zicheng would definitely have sneered at it, but now he took it seriously.

He learned from the lessons of past defeats and really started to manage these places.

When Song Xiance said that the court's series of reforms were very clever, Li Zicheng followed suit and began to eliminate landlords and gentry in his own territory and began to redistribute land to the people.

By now, the people of several states loved him, and Li Zicheng truly felt the benefits of his governance.

Li Zicheng has put a lot of effort into the army in the past two years. He has not only formulated a series of new military regulations, requiring soldiers not to leave the camp at will, but also not to bully the civilians.

As tax revenues in various provinces had been increasing, and Li Zicheng had fixed the number of troops at around 70,000, the extra money and food was used for frequent training.

In just two years, Li Zicheng not only learned how to govern and won the support of the people under his rule, but also had a powerful elite army.

If the story ended here, Li Zicheng felt that with this as a foundation, it was only a matter of time before he defeated the corrupt Ming Dynasty.

But it was also in the year when he entered Sichuan that drastic changes took place in the imperial court. The newly rising young master of the Duke of Yingguo family performed a series of miracles one after another.

The Donglin Party collapsed, the landlords and gentry were uprooted, and even the once-arrogant Jian Nu fell into this man's hands repeatedly.

When the Ming court completed the land reform, Li Zicheng felt something was wrong. The reason why he could call up hundreds of thousands of soldiers with a single move was because the people of the Ming Dynasty had no food to eat.

But after the land reform was completed and all the people had land, who would follow him in rebellion?

This kind of sorrow and melancholy always existed in Li Zicheng's heart, but he still held a glimmer of hope at that time.

That was because of his confidence in his elite troops. He believed that as long as he could win the war, it would be best to directly eliminate the guy named Zhang Shikang.

Based on his understanding of the Ming officialdom, he knew that the court would soon be plunged into internal strife again, and there would always be opportunities.

Holding on to this glimmer of hope, he has been waiting until now, until last month, when he witnessed with his own eyes the court's firearms, the fierce fighting power of the Guards, and Zhang Xianzhong's complete defeat.

Li Zicheng finally realized that he was still too naive!

Zhang Shikang was able to eradicate the Donglin Party and quickly put down the rebellion in Jiangnan. He was no ordinary person.

The firearms of the Guards were completely beyond his expectations. He originally thought that Zhang Shikang might just be lucky to defeat the Jiannu.

But now, he doesn't think so.

The Ming Dynasty court seemed to be completely awakened because of this person.

Once this beast wakes up, all the villains, including myself, will no longer have any chance.

Li Zicheng was therefore in great pain every day. In the past two years, he used all his energy to manage his territory, train his soldiers, and do everything he thought could improve himself.

But in the end, I sadly discovered that all this was meaningless.

It was also after the Battle of Yongchuan that Li Zicheng decisively withdrew his troops.

He called a meeting of all the senior generals, a meeting that would determine the fate of everyone.

The meeting lasted for more than an hour, during which the generals of each team argued with each other, and even Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance blushed.

But when the reality is laid out before everyone, everyone has to admit it.

Finally, all the soldiers came to a conclusion:

Apart from surrendering to the imperial court, the only thing waiting for them is death.

……