Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 482 If you don’t do it, you won’t stop.

After being driven away by Wang Guo, Li Zicheng returned to his tent in dejection.

Seeing him come back, Wen Xinghu and Li Guo hurried forward to ask what happened, but when they saw Li Zicheng's appearance, needless to say, they realized that it was a wasted trip.

Li Zicheng sighed and told the two of them about his meeting with Wang Guo. After listening to Li Zicheng's story, Wen Xinghu became furious and cursed Wang Guo for being ungrateful and not only did he not praise or comfort Li Zicheng, he even scolded Li Zicheng.

"General Wang is simply unreasonable. The soldiers are in a state of disarray and everyone is starving, but he doesn't take it seriously. It's fine that there is no food for the time being, but he doesn't even pay a penny. Is he going to starve the brothers to death?"

"Haha, General Wang is so high up, how could he know the situation of his brothers? He is the chief general anyway, and it's okay for him when his brothers are not well fed. Could it be that as a lieutenant general, he would eat wild vegetables like us?" Li Guo sneered, with a look of strong dissatisfaction on his face.

"Enough!" Hearing the two of them talking more and more outrageously, Li Zicheng stopped them and said, "No matter what, General Wang has done a favor to you and me. If it weren't for General Wang's support, I wouldn't be able to be the captain. As for you, how could you become the general flag?"

After these words were spoken, Wen Xinghu and Li Guo fell silent. Li Zicheng was right. No matter how Wang Guo treated them, he was still good to them. The three of them had only been in the border army for more than a year, and in such a short time they had risen from a small soldier to an officer. How could this be possible if it wasn't for Wang Guo's promotion?

You know, there are a lot of old people in the border army. Some of them have been working in the border army for more than ten years and are still ordinary soldiers. So from this point of view, the kingdom has not treated them unfairly.

Shaking his head, Li Zicheng warned them that what they had just said could be said in private, but never in front of outsiders. Once it got to Wang Guo's ears, it would be a big deal. As for the issue of military rations, Li Zicheng had reminded them of everything he should have reminded them of today, and he had said everything he could say. As the commander, Wang Guo naturally knew the importance of the issue of military rations. Since he asked everyone to wait, then let's wait a little longer. After so many days, it would only take two more days at most.

Li Zicheng never expected that he would wait a little longer, just as he said, they had been here for so many days, so it would be okay to wait two more days. But human nature is different, especially in the current situation, with a long period of lack of military rations and the delay of military pay. If they were in the garrison camp, it would be fine, but they were going to the capital to defend the king, which was completely different.

What is serving the king? Serving the king means risking your life and taking a knife to defend the capital, and to fight with foreign races! On the battlefield, life and death are determined by fate, and wealth and honor are determined by God. No one can guarantee that they can come back alive. Since you are going to fight, at least you should be fed, right? Even the death row prisoners have to eat a bowl of dry rice before being beheaded. As the old saying goes, you can be anything except starving. They are not beggars, nor are they refugees. They are frontier troops wearing Ming army armor and holding weapons to fight for the country. The dignified Ming frontier troops can't even guarantee food when they go to serve the king? How can they not feel resentful?

This resentment accumulated gradually, becoming more and more serious day by day. Especially after arriving in Jin County, this resentment could no longer be suppressed.

The troops were all looking forward to improving their conditions and having a good meal after arriving in Jin County, and even better, some military pay. But now that they had arrived in Jin County, the first meal was still wild vegetable porridge and wild vegetable dumplings. That was fine, because everyone could understand that it would take time for the military rations to be issued since they had just arrived. But when they saw that the second meal was still these things, many people were instantly angry.

That night, when the soldiers in several barracks saw that there was still no proper food delivered and no instructions from their superiors, several hot-tempered soldiers could not sit still. They didn't even eat and went straight to the officers above to ask about the situation.

But what could the officers above them say? They ate about the same as the sergeants below them, and even their own food was insufficient, not to mention other things.

This resentment quickly spread, and for a moment everyone was very excited. Led by a few people, they decided to go directly to the commander Wang Guo to ask for an explanation.

When they found Wang Guo, he became even more angry when he heard that it was another headache about military rations. He was already overwhelmed. In the morning, Li Zicheng came and explained patiently, but not long after, the people below started making trouble again. Wang Guo was very angry.

After leaving the tent, Wang Guo directly asked the people who came to ask for explanation what they were going to do. The army was noisy and lawless, could it be a rebellion?

The soldiers quickly said that they were not rebelling, but were only asking about the issue of military rations. They showed Wang Guo some wild vegetable porridge and wild vegetable dumplings, and asked him why they were being fed these things every day when they were marching day and night to defend the king? Aren’t they the army of the Ming Dynasty? Aren’t they the people of the Ming Dynasty? Moreover, they were going to defend the king to fight, and they couldn’t be full with these things, let alone have the strength to fight. Was Wang Guo taking them to die?

Hearing what these soldiers said, Wang Guo became even angrier, but seeing the excited people, he suppressed his anger and immediately said that the issue of military rations had been resolved and would be satisfied in the next few days. He asked everyone to go back first and not make trouble. If anyone made trouble again, they would be subject to military law. Wang Guo's words did not persuade everyone to leave. Instead, they doubted Wang Guo's promise. Someone immediately asked Wang Guo when he could solve the problem of military rations. Besides, if the military rations could not be solved for the time being, the military pay could be solved, right? The military pay has been owed for nearly half a year, so it should be paid at least, right? As the main general, it is okay for you, Wang Guo, to lead your brothers to risk their lives, but your brothers' lives are not given for nothing. First, they are not given food, and second, they are not given military pay. What exactly do you want to do, Wang Guo?

As soon as these words were spoken, Wang Guo could no longer suppress his anger and started to curse at the soldiers. After cursing for a few words, he pulled out his whip and whipped the guys who were shouting the loudest, while shouting that if they dared to make trouble again, he would chop off their heads by military law.

If Wang Guo had used kind words, he might have been able to appease him, but unfortunately, Wang Guo was already blinded by anger at that time. Moreover, he was a lieutenant general and the leader of the royal defense troops, but he was pointed at and questioned by a few low-ranking soldiers. How could he afford to lose face like that?
When Wang Guo was whipping people with a whip and shouting that military law would be used to chop off their heads, how could the soldiers who had been filled with resentment for a long time hold back? In the eyes of these simple-minded soldiers, Wang Guo would not give the brothers a way to live, so fine, no one would live, anyway, we would all die, I would kill you first.

Immediately, several soldiers drew their weapons to resist. Seeing that the soldiers dared to resist, Wang Guo became furious and ordered his guards to suppress them directly. For a while, the two sides started fighting. When the first person was hit directly and fell to the ground with blood flowing and screaming, the situation that could have been saved suddenly got out of control and the situation deteriorated completely.

On one side was Wang Guo and his personal guards, and on the other side were the soldiers who came to seek an explanation.

The two sides fought fiercely and soon became bloodthirsty. As the fight got bigger and bigger, the other camps rushed over after hearing the news. When they saw the commander Wang Guo, his personal guards and his soldiers fighting in a group, with broken limbs and dead and wounded people all on the ground, they were dumbfounded.

Before they could figure out what was going on, a soldier shouted, "Wang Guo is going too far! He is withholding our military rations and salaries and is trying to kill us on charges of treason. If we want to live, we should fight together and kill Wang Guo to vent our anger!"

Because many people in the army had long been dissatisfied with Wang Guo and were holding a fire in their hearts, when they heard these words and saw Wang Guo wielding a knife and leading his personal guards to attack their brothers ruthlessly, and shouting that he wanted to kill all these villains, everyone immediately believed what their brothers said.

Everyone looked at me, I looked at you, and in an instant I made up my mind. I immediately drew my knife and joined the soldiers, swinging my knife towards the kingdom.

Wang Guo never expected that things would develop to this point. He no longer had the chance to explain. As more and more soldiers shouted to kill him, he and his personal guards could no longer stop them and had no choice but to retreat step by step.

At this moment, Li Zicheng, who had heard the news, arrived with his men. Wang Guo was overjoyed to see Li Zicheng. He hurriedly shouted for Li Zicheng to come and help, and to join forces with his personal guards to suppress the mutiny.

Li Zicheng arrived late, but when he saw the scene and heard the shouts of the people, he immediately understood the situation and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Something really happened..."

Li Zicheng went to Wang Guo today because he was worried about something happening, but Wang Guo didn't take it seriously at all. He originally thought that he could hold out for a few more days, but he didn't expect something to happen so soon. Now Wang Guo was under siege, and his guards could no longer hold out. As more and more soldiers came to besiege him, Wang Guo's defeat was imminent.

Although Wang Guo had done Li Zicheng a favor, Li Zicheng understood that helping Wang Guo would be of no avail in this situation, because he could not stop the mutiny of the entire army by himself. What's more, his men had become green-eyed after eating wild vegetables these days and they also had resentment towards Wang Guo. If Li Zicheng stood on the side of Wang Guo, it would be equivalent to standing against his brother and he would become an accomplice of Wang Guo. Once Wang Guo was destroyed, his fate would not be much better.

Thinking of this, Li Zicheng made up his mind instantly. He shouted, "General, don't panic!" without stopping the movements of his hands and feet, and ran straight towards the kingdom.

Seeing Li Zicheng rushing to the rescue, Wang Guo was overjoyed, and was glad that he had not misjudged Li Zicheng at the beginning. Li Zicheng was able to draw his sword to help in such a critical moment. After the mutiny was quelled, Wang Guo planned to reward Li Zicheng handsomely, and then promote him to the rank of deputy captain. After the King's Assistance was over, he would commend Li Zicheng for his merits, and by then he might even be promoted to a captain or even a garrison commander.

But Wang Guo never expected that when Li Zicheng came like a gust of wind, his personal guards all knew Li Zicheng and did not stop him. Li Zicheng was in front of him in a blink of an eye. Before Wang Guo could be happy, he suddenly saw Li Zicheng swung the sword in his hand. Wang Guo felt dizzy and seemed to be flying. In his last moments, he only saw Li Zicheng's sword swinging across a headless body, and that body looked very familiar. Wang Guo understood something instantly, but he could no longer shout because endless darkness had already come. His head flew into the air and finally fell into the dust.

(End of this chapter)