Wang Si turned out to be Zuo Liangyu’s son-in-law!

Li Ping had a look of shock and disbelief on his face, as did several other people in the room.

However, they couldn't help but not believe Mi Cang's words, even Shi Lei, who was already habitually suspicious.

They did not doubt Mi Cang, and Mi Cang had no reason to lie to them.

But it's still surprising.

Who would have thought that the key Li Zicheng used to dissuade Zuo Liangyu was not the letter, but the leader of the messenger himself.

It turned out that Zuo Liangyu's family was not killed in the mutiny in the 11th year of Chongzhen as Zuo Liangyu said.

Maybe this is just a way for Zuo Liangyu to protect his family in troubled times, to prevent their family from being remembered by others.

However, in December of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng still captured Zuo Liangyu's wife and daughter when he captured Xuzhou.

Li Zicheng, who had found a treasure, was very kind to Zuo Liangyu's family. He adopted them in the safest old camp and "raised them generously", and asked General Wang Si to marry Zuo Liangyu's daughter.

This time, Li Zicheng sent Wang Si to Wuchang to meet with Zuo Liangyu. First, he reported that his family members were safe and sound, and second, he tried to persuade Zuo Liangyu to join forces with him. In fact, he wanted Zuo Liangyu to stay in Wuchang honestly and avoid trouble.

happy.

Although Zuo Liangyu did not agree to anything or guarantee anything in the end, he also expressed his gratitude to Li Zicheng for his kindness and gave Wang Si a lot of property to take back to Li Zicheng, thanking Li Zicheng for taking care of his family.

This attitude is actually quite clear.

Although Zuo Liangyu has killed countless people, he is by no means a heartless person. Especially his experience of being alone since childhood made him attach great importance to his family, which is also his softest and weakest point.

Li Ping knew very well that Zuo Liangyu had always been very over-tolerant of him. In addition to his scheming, the fact that he had been kind to his family and had always been remembered was also indispensable.

Li Ping finally figured out why he always felt that Zuo Liangyu was a little too abnormal when facing Li Zicheng.

Zuo Liangyu's inexplicable retreat from the battle in Zhuxian Town and his easy retreat from Xiangyang could not be completely explained by the situation, fear, and self-respect of raising a thief. Li Ping always felt that there should be other factors.

Even if it's not the main factor.

And Yonekura, who is good at observing, also provided an important detail.

When Mi Cang accompanied Wang Si to meet Zuo Liangyu, he noticed that Zuo Liangyu didn't seem surprised to see Wang Si, and seemed to have already known that his wife and daughter were still alive.

Li Zicheng and Zuo Liangyu seem to have been in contact before!

This puts things right.

No wonder Li Zicheng was slow to respond to Zuo Liangyu's reoccupation of Wuchang and was not in a hurry to take action. No wonder Li Zicheng suddenly asked Wang Si to take the risk himself instead of writing a letter.

After hearing what Wang Si said, Zhou Wen was a little excited and sighed repeatedly.

"If it had been earlier, we could have detained Wang Si." Zhou Wen said angrily amid everyone's doubts.

Wang Si left Wuchang by boat early the next morning after he disappeared in the rice warehouse, and has now passed through Li Ping's control area.

"What are you detaining him for? Do you want to cause trouble for our commander in chief?" Ma Yongming asked strangely, and Duan Qiang was also confused.

Shi Lei's eyes flashed.

Li Ping understood what Zhou Wen meant. They had already learned about Mi Cang's experience and knew about Qiu Zhitao. That's why Li Ping mobilized so many people to meet Mi Cang in person.

In addition to the Logistics Department, all the principals and deputies from the Staff Department and the Teaching Department are here.

They had already learned from Micang's advance explanation that Sun Chuanting had left the country and headed south, and before that, the staff office had long realized and analyzed that Li Zicheng's northward journey was directly related to the life and death of the Ming Dynasty.

"I said it was a secret seizure, not an explicit seizure, so that Li Zicheng could not receive a reply, misinterpreted General Ping's attitude, and made Qiu Zhitao's lies look like the truth." Zhou Wen explained.

Although he understood what Zhou Wen meant, Li Ping still showed a somewhat surprised expression. He did not expect Zhou Wen to react so quickly and be so courageous. At least he had never thought of this himself, nor did he dare to think about it.

While Li Ping's mind was still in confusion, Zhou Wen once again said something shocking.

He advised Li Ping to secretly report the matter to Yuan Jixian or spread it secretly.

Zhou Wen believed that this could force Zuo Liangyu to go to war against Li Zicheng, which would not only reduce their military pressure, but also more effectively support the Ming Dynasty's most critical northern war situation.

Except for Song Baolai, Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei, Li Ping's subordinates all thought that the order to attack westward issued by Li Ping some time ago was entirely to contain Li Zicheng, and they did not know Li Ping's true thoughts.

Ma Yong and Duan Qiang immediately expressed their support for Zhou Wen's proposal. The setback in the military operation in Hanchuan County made them feel a lot of pressure.

Only Shi Lei remained expressionless and did not express his position.

Of course, Li Ping did not express his position. He only said a few words after thinking about it briefly.

The inexplicable Zhou Wen reluctantly analyzed the general trend of the world and wanted to further elaborate on its power, but he soon discovered that Ma Yong and Duan Qiang not only stopped agreeing with him, but also looked at him with strange expressions on their faces. Li Ping

There was absolutely no intention of arguing with him or even explaining.

Looking at Li Ping's expression, which was still getting serious and examining himself, Zhou Wen finally realized something.

His expression was desolate, and then he choked out a difficult and hoarse sentence: "Let's talk about it then!"

Seeing that Zhou Wen was no longer entangled, Li Ping, who looked more relaxed, began to urge Mi Cang, who was a little confused, to continue.

Li Ping also wanted to know some other information. They were extremely lacking in comprehensive military and political information about Li Zicheng, and Mi Cang was the first person they came into contact with from Li Zicheng's central headquarters in Xiangyang.

Even though Yonekura was just the head of the bodyguards, they were guarding Li Zicheng's military government after all. Even if they only heard and heard some trivial information, it might be of great help to them, and there might be surprises.

Then something really happened!

Those things that Mi Cang thought were not that important once again shocked everyone.

And again and again.

Yonekura knows far more than anyone imagines! He is really an observant person! He is also a person with very sensitive ears!

For example, the scholar Chen Sheng whom Li Ping met in Huangpi County and admired deeply, Li Ping finally learned about him and learned that he had been fulfilling his mission.

Moreover, Chen Sheng also completed the task by mistake, but the result seemed to be worse for Ming.

Moreover, Chen Sheng's whereabouts were unknown soon after Luo Rucai was killed. Mi Cang speculated that Li Zicheng might have handled the situation to make it a murder case that would never be overturned.

Also like Xie Yinglong, the handsome and powerful general who caused them trouble in Hanchuan.

As far as Yonekang knows, Li Zicheng had a large number of artillery and started using firearms in large quantities because of this person.

After Xie Yinglong surrendered to Luoyang, he commanded artillery to bombard the east city of Luoyang. After that, Li Zicheng's artillery support for attacking Kaifeng, Nanyang, Guide and other cities came entirely from Xie Yinglong's troops.

For another example, Luo Rucai failed to attack Yunyang Mansion before he was killed, and Li Zicheng also failed to succeed after that. Yunyang Mansion is still under the strong control of the official army.

Historically, the Ming Dynasty did not know that the Yunyang Mansion, which was completely trapped in the area controlled by the peasant army, had not been lost until June of this year, when Gao Doushu of Jingnan Road, the Huguang Inspector General in charge of the defense of Yunyang, sent a letter to the soldiers.

What's even more amazing is that the Yunyang Mansion was not lost until Li Zicheng's defeat.

However, Li Ping, Zuo Liangyu of Wuchang and the civil servants did not know about the fact that Yunyang was not lost until Mi Cang came.

Moreover, not only Yunyang Mansion was not captured.

Li Zicheng also failed to successfully encircle and suppress the small groups of officers and soldiers who had retreated to the mountains to hold on. For example, at Baiyun Mountain, he assembled heavy troops and fought for more than 40 days but failed to capture it, so he had to give up.

The attack and combat capabilities of Li Zicheng's troops are far from being as strong as legendary, and their current appeal is not as great as everyone imagines.

In particular, the great defeat suffered by Li Zicheng's navy during the attack on Yunyang along the Han River had a huge impact on many peasant army generals. The aborted strategy of advancing eastward along the Yangtze River towards Nanjing was rejected by almost all peasant army generals.

Neither is optimistic about it.

The overemphasis on local ideology and clan concepts in Li Zicheng's troops is also affecting the further development, growth and mutual unity of his troops, and even affecting the decision-making at the highest level.

Yonekura particularly emphasized this point.

He found that the top brass of Li Zicheng's troops were mostly from Shaanxi and the lower ranks were mostly from Henan. This led to a strong voice among the troops to fight back to Shaanxi and Henan, and the troops were generally unwilling to fight or stay in the southern region for a long time.

This surprised Li Ping, which was completely different from his previous perspective of analyzing Li Zicheng and his strategic goals.

But he also benefited a lot and understood better the reasons for Li Zicheng's rapid defeat.

Perhaps Li Zicheng was from the Chengye Township clan and the Baiye Township clan.

A strong sense of rural ethnicity can indeed maintain the loyalty and stability of the army to the greatest extent in the early days and when the scale is still small, and enable the army to have strong combat capabilities.

But once the plate gets bigger, it will definitely be a disadvantage, and it will be very disadvantageous.

Because the sea is open to all rivers, and tolerance is great!

…

Mi Cang brought too much news, and the old man who accompanied him with his eyes wandering around also added a lot of civil affairs information that Li Ping was very interested in. Li Ping was simply pleasantly surprised.

He intuitively felt that this young man named Yonekura most likely did not have such a situation in history, and everything he was experiencing now should be one of the benefits brought to him by the butterfly effect.

However, Li Ping is also not optimistic about Qiu Zhitao's so-called plan that may have an impact on the current overall situation, although he does not know whether this is also a historical change caused by his arrival.

He holds the same view as Yonekang.

It's indeed child's play!

Moreover, Li Ping had no idea how the famous Sun Chuanting could make such a low-level mistake and write the battle plan in a secret letter so hastily and then have to cross thousands of miles of enemy-controlled areas.

This means that once the letter is intercepted, there is no need to fight the war.

And at present, the possibility that the letter has been intercepted is very high. Li Zicheng suddenly no longer trusts Zuo Liangyu and anxiously sent Wang Si to Wuchang. This may be related to this.

And this is not Li Ping's judgment alone. Ma Yong, Zhou Wen, Shi Lei and even Duan Qiang all hold the same judgment.

Everyone found it incredible and everyone thought it was a joke.

But unfortunately, this is indeed what happened in history, and Li Zicheng also successfully intercepted Sun Chuanting's letter.
To be continued...