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

"Hmph, you've only surrendered for a few days, and you're already speaking for the court. You're really amazing!" Li Zicheng said with a mocking look on his face.

Seeing that Li Zicheng did not answer, Li Dingguo did not hesitate and immediately rode his horse back.

Li Zicheng frowned immediately.

“You should wait for your commander-in-chief to come and talk to me in person.

If your commander-in-chief is truly courageous, it is not impossible for him to surrender.

Don't mobilize troops at this time, it will be bad for both you and me." Li Zicheng looked at Li Dingguo who was going away and shouted again.

However, these words were somewhat timid. After Li Zicheng said this, he also smiled bitterly.

Li Dingguo originally wanted to launch an attack directly, but at this time two messengers came on horseback from the rear and stopped Li Dingguo.

Letting Li Dingguo pass the message was really Zhang Shikang's bad taste. He certainly would not really let Li Dingguo's 16,000 men fight to the death with Li Zicheng's army.

It is enough to prove the courage of Li Dingguo and his subordinates.

"King Chuang, what does Li Dingguo mean? And that Zhang Shikang, will he agree to our surrender?" Hao Yaoqi was impatient and immediately asked everyone's questions.

"Li Dingguo is just here to pass on a message. The great marshal of the Ming Dynasty is very arrogant. I think we are going to miscalculate." Li Zicheng said in a deep voice with an unhappy expression.

"Damn it, at worst we can just start fighting. We don't want to be humiliated like this!" Hao Yaoqi said angrily upon hearing this.

Liu Zongmin also echoed the words, while Li Guo and others remained silent.

"In my opinion, we should meet Zhang Shikang first to see what kind of person he is before making a decision." Song Xiance said.

Since Song Xiance joined King Chuang's army, he has given Li Zicheng many good strategies.

When Li Zicheng was defeated by Yang Sichang and only had 18 riders left, he was disheartened and it was Song's advice that helped everyone regain their confidence.

Eat the King of Chuang, drink the King of Chuang, and the King of Chuang will not pay taxes. It was with this slogan that Li Zicheng was able to quickly recruit troops in Kuizhou Prefecture and quickly expand his territory to its current size.

The subsequent series of reforms were also carried out under the advice and supervision of Song Xiance.

If Niu Jinxing is in charge of the military aspects, then Song Xiance is undoubtedly in charge of internal affairs and logistics. The two military advisors complement each other and do not conflict with each other, which leads to the current situation.

Therefore, all the generals respected the two military advisors very much.

"Mr. Song is right. I also plan to wait for Zhang Shikang to come before making any plans." Li Zicheng nodded.

If Zhang Shikang was really an arrogant and unreasonable guy, Li Zicheng would naturally not surrender, otherwise he would never end up well.

Of course, Li Zicheng's intuition told him that this should not be the case.

But no matter what, if he surrendered directly when the other party mentioned it casually, it would make people look down on him and would also tarnish the reputation of King Chuang.

The two sides then remained in a stalemate until more than half an hour later, when Zhang Shikang arrived with a large army.

Li Zicheng was worried that Zhang Shikang would start a war directly, so he took the initiative to propose a dialogue before the battle and asked to see the Marshal directly.

Zhang Shikang considered it and agreed. Li Zicheng still went to the meeting alone, but Zhang Shikang was more timid and brought Hong Xiucheng and Ma Lingqi with him.

Li Zicheng did not object, but when the two sides approached, his right hand was always on the scabbard to guard against possible attacks from the other side's two guards.

"You are Li Zicheng, and you don't look that good!" Zhang Shikang spoke first, looking Li Zicheng up and down as he spoke.

Compared with Li Dingguo, Li Zicheng is more famous.

This guy appears in almost any novel written in the late Ming Dynasty.

Putting aside the facts, Li Zicheng was able to mess up the Ming Dynasty into what it was later, and even forced Brother Chongzhen to hang himself on a crooked tree, so he must have had some abilities.

But Zhang Shikang still has to question how much.

After all, Li Zicheng was very brave inside the Great Wall, but he was defeated as soon as he encountered the Jianlu.

In the Battle of Yiptang, Li Zicheng personally led an army of more than 200,000, but was defeated by the Jiannu in just a few days.

Although Xiao Guizi interfered and plotted against Li Zicheng, the defeat was so disastrous that it is still worthy of suspicion.

You have to know that this young man Li Dingguo had defeated the Jiannu many times in succession, and even killed two Jianlu princes.

In comparison, the gap is more than just a little bit.

However, just looking at the appearance of the army behind Li Zicheng, Zhang Shikang felt that, no matter what, they were somewhat capable.

While Zhang Shikang was trying to determine his opponent's skill, Li Zicheng was actually also sizing up Zhang Shikang.

Zhang Shikang's words were naturally a bit rude, which made Li Zicheng feel particularly uncomfortable. Before he could speak, he heard Zhang Shikang say:

"I know what you are thinking. You want to surrender but you are reluctant to do so. If you don't surrender, you will have no way to survive.

If I vote, I worry about being liquidated by the imperial court; if I don’t vote, I worry that I will be finished today.

Li Zicheng, you have committed many serious crimes and even dug up the ancestral tomb of your Majesty.

I'm not saying anything bad about you, but how big of a grudge do you have to dig up someone's ancestral grave? You're so ruthless, don't you think about the future?"

Zhang Shikang said very impolitely.

As early as when Li Zicheng was hesitating, he was already trying to figure out Li Zicheng's thoughts.

When Zhang Shikang had some free time as a delivery boy in his previous life, he read a few books on psychology. Human psychology is indeed a complicated thing.

Sometimes people don’t know what they really want at all until they encounter a big thing, then they force themselves to take it lightly.

Sometimes people deceive themselves, and end up believing it themselves.

Over the past two years, the secret agents of the Imperial Household Department have truthfully reported to Zhang Shikang everything Li Zicheng has done in the five prefectures of Baoning.

Li Zicheng, who only knew how to destroy, actually learned how to govern and build, although there is suspicion that he copied his homework.

But it must be said that it was because of the emergence of Zhang Shikang that Li Zicheng understood the benefits of the base several years in advance.

But precisely because of this, Li Zicheng must be reluctant to give up everything he currently has.

If this had been possible a few years earlier, one might have achieved success and fame long ago.

This kind of thinking gradually collapsed like a mirage in the water as Zhang Shikang won a series of great victories in the war with Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Shikang understood this kind of thinking. When he was in primary school, there was a period of time when he competed with his parents and bet that he had to get first place in the class.

During that month, Zhang Shikang studied day and night and felt that he was extremely awesome. However, the class monitor only had to make a slight effort and scored 100 points in two subjects.

Zhang Shikang was devastated at the time.

And the current Li Zicheng probably has the same idea. He is carrying out reforms, distributing land, and training troops in the five prefectures of Baoning.

As a result, he led a large army to the gates of the city, and the imperial court had an endless supply of military reserves. As long as Zhang Shikang wanted, he could mobilize tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops at any time to defeat Li Zicheng without leaving any trace.

What is certain is that Li Zicheng wanted to surrender, but he had complicated thoughts.

Reluctance, reluctance, loss of face, fear of being liquidated, all these complicated thoughts led to Li Zicheng's strange behavior before.

Li Zicheng was guessed by Zhang Shikang, but of course he would not admit it. He just looked at the sky and said:

"But do you understand, how can I talk about the future at that time?"

……