After learning that Xianning was surrounded by the Ming army, Zhang Xianzhong was also shocked. He did not care whether Li Dingguo had betrayed him, but prepared to break it into pieces as Li Dingguo said, evacuate Xianning as soon as possible and hide in the deep mountains and old forests.
But knowing that Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo had not yet arrived to participate in the encirclement, only Shang Yi and Zuo Liangyu had arrived in Xianning. Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help laughing again and said: "As long as Zuo Liangyu is here, we will not die." Immediately.
He also ordered Xie Fengzhou to go to Zuo Liangyu and ask for one hundred thousand taels of silver and thirty thousand stones of grain in exchange for Zuo Liangyu's way of life.
Zhang Xianzhong's decision immediately frightened Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, and Li Dingguo. What's wrong with Zhang Xianzhong? He must be confused. He was just fooled by Shang Yi. Why doesn't he have a long memory?
You take money and food to buy food for transportation, aren't you afraid that you will be full of meat and beat the dogs again, and you will never come back?
Because the suspicion on Li Dingguo had not been cleared at this time, it was difficult to say anything more, but the other three people advised Zhang Xianzhong that the world had changed, and the officers and soldiers were now paid and did not work, so don't go there anymore
I'm looking for Zuo Liangyu, let's discuss other ways.
But Zhang Xianzhong insisted on his plan. First, if the army dispersed and broke out, this batch of money and food would not be able to take much with it. If it stayed in Xianning, it would be confiscated by the Ming army or burned down. It is better to give it a try, maybe it will be useful.
Oh! Secondly, Zuo Liangyu is not Shang Yi. Maybe Shang Yi will ignore the rules of this game, but Zuo Liangyu is different. He has done this kind of thing more than once before, and he still has credibility, so he still has considerable authority.
Calculable.
So at Zhang Xianzhong's insistence, no one else said anything, and finally sent Xie Fengzhou to meet Zuo Liangyu to discuss the deal.
As expected by Zhang Xianzhong, after Xie Fengzhou met Zuo Liangyu, he explained his intention and the two parties immediately hit it off and reached an agreement. At the same time, Zuo Liangyu also promised that he would never break his promise like Shang Yi.
In fact, Zuo Liangyu sent troops from Jiujiang not to annihilate Zhang Xianzhong, but to let Zhang Xianzhong go as soon as possible. Because Zuo Liangyu knew very well that in the past few years, he had used the emperor's imperial edict as a toilet paper, and
The military discipline is corrupt, the reputation is extremely bad, and there are too many people offended. Many people have long been holding back and want to kick themselves. But now that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are making trouble more and more fiercely, the court still needs to put down the rebellion on its own, and he has to fight desperately
He bluffed and bluffed the court, so he didn't dare to touch himself for a while.
If Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are killed, the imperial court will probably take action on itself. Even if his boast is great, it will eventually be blown away. Therefore, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong must be retained and allowed to make trouble.
Only then did he have the capital to continue dealing with the court and maintain his current position.
Although Zuo Liangyu was hiding in Jiujiang, he was always paying attention to the movement of the imperial court to suppress the bandits. Unexpectedly, Shang Yi suddenly appeared and defeated Li Zicheng in De'an Mansion, forcing him to lead his troops northward.
Then he beat Zhang Xianzhong to a pulp, cheated and kicked him. Not only was his vitality severely damaged, but he was also in danger of being destroyed. And Zuo Liangyu also realized that his crisis was coming.
Although Zuo Liangyu and Zhang Xianzhong are old rivals, they have fought each other to the death several times. At that time, they both wanted to kill each other. But it was also the same time, and the fate of Zhang Xianzhong now is closely related to Zuo Liangyu.
.Once Zhang Xianzhong is really dead, Zuo Liangyu's value will be reduced by more than half. And now that Shang Yi is here, the court may not need Zuo Liangyu anymore. Maybe it will have to deal with Li Zicheng before he is killed.
Zuo Liangyu took action. Zuo Liangyu still remembered clearly how He Renlong died. Although Zuo Liangyu also gloated about the misfortune and showed no sympathy at that time, Zuo Liangyu did not want to become the second He Renlong.
dragon.
Therefore, even if Zhang Xianzhong did not come to Zuo Liangyu and did not send money, food and materials, Zuo Liangyu still planned to find an opportunity to let Zhang Xianzhong go, so he tried his best to ask for the right to attack Zhang Xianzhong first in front of Shang Yi. Because Zhang Xianzhong was saved,
It is equivalent to protecting yourself.
Zhang Xianzhong and Zuo Liangyu have also been old rivals for more than ten years. They naturally have a clear understanding of the psychological condition of their old rival, so they overcame all opinions and insisted that Xie Fengzhou come to negotiate with Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liang
Jade also understood this, so the old enemies hit it off immediately and reached an agreement immediately.
However, Zhang Xianzhong has been bitten by a snake once and has been afraid of straw ropes for ten years. Although he believes that Zuo Liangyu will not learn from Shang Yi's style, he has to be careful and be careful about sailing the ship for ten thousand years. And Zuo Liangyu also has this in mind.
Expressing understanding and comparing one's feelings with one's own, I would be much more careful if I were in it. I can only blame Shang Yi for breaking the rules of the world, which greatly reduced his integrity.
Therefore, after some detailed discussions, the two sides reached an agreement. Zuo Liangyu gave up the way out to the south and allowed Zhang Xianzhong to escape into Jiangxi. Zhang Xianzhong did not send money and food to Zuo Liangyu's army, but stayed in Xianning City.
, let Zuo Liangyu enter the city to receive it; when Zhang Xianzhong retreated, he left 5,000 troops in Xianning County. After walking thirty miles, he sent someone to notify the remaining soldiers to withdraw from Xianning, leaving money and food to the Zuo Army.
Zuo Liangyu can first send 500 people into the city to check the money and food, and they are also hostages. Once there is a problem, the Western Army will kill these 500 people mercilessly, and then set a fire.
The money and food were all burned up, leaving King Zuo Liang with nothing.
After the negotiation, both Zhang Xianzhong and Zuo Liangyu felt very satisfied and immediately started to implement it. Zuo Liangyu first sent troops to the city to check the money and food, while Zhang Xianzhong also sent spies to see if Zuo Liangyu really sent the south to the city.
The roads were cleared, and after both sides confirmed clearly, Zhang Xianzhong left three thousand soldiers, led by Xie Fengzhou, in the city. He led Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, Li Dingguo, Xiao Yan and others, as well as
All the troops left the city from the south gate and set off towards Jiangxi.
The men and horses advanced all the way and walked more than 20 miles. As expected, no ambush was found. It seemed that Zuo Liangyu had really made way. Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong also breathed a sigh of relief and said to the generals: "What do you think?
So, aren't we coming out now? Let's all work harder today and hurry up. When we get to Jiangxi, we will be safe. Even if Shang Yi catches up, we don't have to be afraid of him."
At this moment, gunshots like "bang bang bang bang" like exploding beans suddenly came from both sides. The Western soldiers walking on the outermost side were unprepared and were shot down in a row.
In front of the Western Army, a row of Merchant Army musketeers also appeared, each holding a musket and shooting at the Western Army.
"It's the merchant army, and the merchant army is coming again." The Western Army's team suddenly became chaotic.
It turns out that judging from Shang Yi's understanding of Zuo Liangyu in history, Zuo Liangyu at this time would never be a person who actively suppressed the bandits and strived for merit. Therefore, there must be another intention behind this move, and it was 100% likely.
Prepare to release Zhang Xianzhong.
Zuo Liangyu has done this kind of thing more than once in history. The most typical one was in the 14th year of Chongzhen (1641) when Yang Sichang came out of Beijing to supervise the division and surrounded Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai in Sichuan. The result was Zuo Liangyu
The unreasonable withdrawal to Xing'an, Shaanxi Province opened up a gap for Zhang Xianzhong to leave Sichuan and enter Huguang, allowing Zhang Xianzhong to escape from death. Not only did he escape the siege of the Ming army, but he also took advantage of the Ming army's concentration in Sichuan and the emptiness of Huguang.
He captured Xiangyang and killed King Xiang. It was this incident that also led to Yang Sichang's death.
Therefore, Shang Yi judged that Zuo Liangyu must be planning to repeat his old tricks. In name, he wanted to attack Zhang Xianzhong, but in essence, he wanted to let him go and continue to play with the bandits. So Shang Yi pretended to agree, and then
Facing Zuo Liangyu, he asked for the defense on the northeast and northeast sides of Xianyang. As a result, Zhang Xianzhong would definitely not dare to go from these two sides, and would only go to the southwest.
Because one can reach Hunan to the west and Jiangxi to the south, it is difficult to judge which side the Western Army will have. Therefore, Shang Yi ordered Cheng Jin and Cheng Gang to each bring a musketry battalion and two pikemen companies, bypassing the left
Liangyu's army was lurking in the southwest of Xianning, preparing to ambush the Western Army. As a result, Zhang Xianzhong went south, where Cheng Gang led his army to ambush.
Zhang Xianzhong thought he had been deceived by Zuo Liangyu again, and he was pretending to let him go, but in fact there was a merchant army waiting for him here. Unexpectedly, all the Ming soldiers were not trustworthy these days, and they were first tricked by Shang Yi.
After playing a trick, Zuo Liangyu played another trick, which made Zhang Xianzhong furious, but there was nothing he could do.
In fact, there were still 40,000 to 50,000 remaining members of the Western Army at this time. Excluding the 5,000 soldiers who remained in Xianning, the Western Army still had a total of more than 40,000 people. Chenggang only had one musket battalion with more than 800 muskets.
If Zhang Xianzhong could grit his teeth and break through from here, it would be difficult for the merchant army to stop him. Although he would suffer some losses, he would still be able to break out of the Ming army's encirclement and enter Jiangxi.
But now the Western Army is afraid of the Merchant Army. They don't dare to fight against the Merchant Army, and the signs of the Merchant Army are very obvious. Therefore, when the soldiers of the Western Army hear the gunshots, they tremble in their hearts. There are still
He had enough time to observe how many people there were in the Merchant Army, but at the same time he thought that he had been deceived by Zuo Liangyu, and was immediately defeated. Fortunately, the Merchant Army was not Kuyuan, but just stayed here to prevent the Western Army from passing. At the same time,
Send someone to deliver a message to the Western Front and ask Cheng Jin to come over and join him.
The Western Army retreated for more than ten miles and saw that the Merchant Army did not catch up. Zhang Xianzhong breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly stopped the troops temporarily. At the same time, he sent spies to go around to inquire about the situation, and gathered his generals to discuss the next step.
What should we do? We definitely can’t leave from the south, and I heard from Zuo Liangyu that the Merchant Army is guarding both sides of the northeast, heading east to Dazhi and north to Wuchang. Even if there is no Merchant Army guarding, we can’t go to these two areas.
There is only one way to go, so there is only one way, which is to go west into Hunan.
At this time, Tanji also reported that there was only Zuo Liangyu's camp in the west, and there were no other troops. Zhang Xianzhong thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and said: "Let's go, beat Zuo Liangyu, and fight with him.