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

Chapter 524 Convergence
Li Zicheng looked ahead. More than a hundred miles away was Mizhi, his hometown.

After leaving home, Li Zicheng had not returned for many years. He did not expect that he would have a chance to return home this time. After the mutiny of the Gansu Army, Li Zicheng killed the main general Wang Guo, and then led his men to capture the county town. After looting, he took Wen Xinghu, Li Guo, Hao Yongzhong, Tian Jianxiu and about 600 brothers and directly abandoned the city and headed straight for Shaanxi.

Li Zicheng's hometown was in Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province. After the incident, he originally wanted to return to Mizhi to avoid the limelight. However, most of the 600 people he brought with him ran away halfway, and only a little over 200 people followed him back to Shaanxi.

Shortly after entering Shaanxi, Li Zicheng and his entourage encountered a group of rebels. The leader of this group of rebels was Wang Zhijue, who was also from Shaanxi. In the first year of Chongzhen, he could not survive, so he rebelled in Yichuan and formed an army.

Wang Zhijue's bandit nickname was Zuo Guazi, so he was also called Wang Zuo Gua. After he started his rebellion, he conquered cities and plundered territories, and he was very powerful for a while. However, because of the encirclement and suppression by the local Ming army, Wang Zhijue first fled from Yichuan to Suide, and soon from Suide to Jingbian. A few days ago, Jingbian was severely attacked by the Ming army. After being defeated, Wang Zhijue led his troops to Yan'an, and happened to meet Li Zicheng and his gang coming from the west halfway.

When both sides met, they were extremely defensive.

Li Zicheng initially thought that Wang Zhijue was an intercepting government army, and Wang Zhijue also thought that Li Zicheng was a government army. The two teams almost had a small-scale conflict, but they soon figured out each other's identities and finally shook hands and made peace, which can be regarded as a deal without fighting.

Upon learning that Li Zicheng and his men were from the Gansu border army, who had mutinied and killed their leader and fled to this place, Wang Zhijue immediately wanted to recruit them.

Wang Zhijue had a lot of men under his command, more than 3,000 in total, but only a few of them could really fight. Most of them were young and strong men whom Wang Zhijue had rallied after the rebellion, or were common people who had been coerced by him.

But the two hundred people under Li Zicheng were different. They were all from the elite frontier army, and their fighting power was much stronger than those young and strong men and the common people holding hoes and sticks. So Wang Zhijue took a liking to Li Zicheng at first sight, and put on a very good attitude to recruit Li Zicheng, saying that since brother Li had nowhere to go for the time being, it would be better for everyone to join forces. He, Wang Zhijue, was now the leader, and his military advisor and brother were the second and third leaders. If Li Zicheng was willing to cooperate, he could give him the position of the fourth leader.

Just like the heroes of Liangshan back then, they raised the banner of "doing justice on behalf of heaven", occupied the mountain and became king, recruited heroes from all over the world, drank big bowls of wine and ate meat, wasn't it joyful?
It just so happened that Li Zicheng was also considering where to stay at this time, and he hadn't thought about what to do after returning to his hometown. If he was alone, it would be fine, but he still had so many brothers, and after the mutiny, he killed the commander and the county magistrate. Li Zicheng had no way back. Now that Wang Zhijue was recruiting him, he might as well join Wang Zhijue, which was also a way out.

In this way, the two sides hit it off and joined forces. Li Zicheng and his brothers directly voted for Wang Zhijue. Wang Zhijue kept his promise and gave Li Zicheng a position as the fourth in command. In addition, Li Zicheng's brothers were still managed by Li Zicheng and did not interfere in their internal affairs.

Li Zicheng was quite satisfied with this arrangement. After the two sides became one, Li Zicheng continued to roam around Shaanxi with Wang Zhijue, robbing houses everywhere, and lived a carefree life.

But the good times did not last long. Just two months later, Wang Zhijue ran into big trouble. Because he was too violent in Shaanxi, the Ming troops in Shaanxi began to encircle and suppress Wang Zhijue's troops under the organization of the government. Although Wang Zhijue led his troops to break through the Longmen Ferry in Hancheng, killed the captain Wang Zuo, and then moved to Zhenning, Yaozhou and other places, under the encirclement and interception of the government troops, Wang Zhijue's troops not only suffered heavy losses, but also lost the space to maneuver.

Facing the encirclement and suppression from all directions, Wang Zhijue could no longer hold on, and had no choice but to consult with his brothers. During the discussion, Wang Zhijue told everyone something. He said that Zhang Nian, the prefect of Yan'an, sent someone to contact him and promised that as long as he surrendered to the court, he would forgive his past mistakes. This was a way out for Wang Zhijue, who had nowhere else to go.

Regarding this situation, Wang Zhijue's old brother agreed to surrender. The reason was simple. The government troops were too powerful and they would definitely not be able to defeat them, but it would also be difficult to escape. Now several government troops had blocked their way. If they continued, they would only be wiped out.

A good death is worse than a miserable life. If there is a chance of survival, why fight for it? Besides, Wang Zhijue and his men rebelled because they could not survive. Now that the court has let them off, why should they continue to resist?

Most people agreed with Wang Zhijue's suggestion to surrender, but Li Zicheng opposed it. The reason was simple. On the one hand, Li Zicheng was not Wang Zhijue's man, and the two sides only got together halfway. On the other hand, the reason for Li Zicheng's rebellion was different from Wang Zhijue's. He rebelled after the border army mutinied and killed the commander. In addition, Li Zicheng had several murder cases on his back. If he surrendered with Wang Zhijue, Wang Zhijue might be fine because of the court's promise, but what about Li Zicheng? If he was not careful, he would be killed after finding out Li Zicheng's background.

Faced with such a result, Li Zicheng did not dare to take the risk at all. He strongly opposed surrendering to the government troops. However, when Wang Zhijue's people, including Wang Zhijue himself, had the intention to surrender, he was powerless to do anything about it.

However, although Wang Zhijue decided to surrender, he still had some loyalty to Li Zicheng. Before surrendering, he found Li Zicheng and talked to him. He decided to let Li Zicheng leave first, and used the surrender as an excuse to contact the officers and soldiers and put forward conditions to create an opportunity for Li Zicheng to leave the main force, thus allowing Li Zicheng to leave with his men one step ahead and escape the encirclement of the officers and soldiers.

After leaving Wang Zhijue, Li Zicheng and his companions took a detour to avoid the soldiers and continued to head towards Mizhi. After more than ten days, they finally arrived near Mizhi. Seeing Mizhi right in front of them, Li Zicheng was filled with emotion.

"I heard that Buzhi is in Mizhi?" Li Zicheng suddenly asked, squinting his eyes.

"I heard about this a few days ago, but I don't know if he's still here." Li Guo replied. "Whether he's here or not, let's get there first, and rest for a few days when we get there." Hao Yongzhong shouted with a grin. After they broke away from Wang Zhijue, they hid during the day and went out at night, taking remote paths. It took a lot of effort to get here from Yan'an, and they all looked exhausted.

"Brother Hao is right. When we get to Mizhi, we brothers must have a good rest, have some wine and meat, and find some wives. There's an old saying that goes, 'Mizhi women are better than Suide men'. It's well-known." Tian Jianxiu agreed with a smile.

"Yes, yes, yes! I've heard this so many times that my ears are callused. By the way, brother, are the women in your Mizhi really that pretty?" Wen Xinghu's eyes lit up and he asked Li Zicheng quickly.

Li Zicheng pointed at Tian Jianxiu and laughed, "I can't give you a wife now, but I have a man from Suide. If you can't make it, you can ask Brother Tian to give it to you..."

"Hahaha!"

"Hahahaha!"

Everyone burst into laughter and looked at Tian Jianxiu with teasing eyes, which made Tian Jianxiu feel a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and laughed out loud.

After having fun for a while, Li Zicheng saw that they had almost rested, so he pointed forward and said, "Let's go, brothers. No matter whether Bu Zhanni is in Mizhi or not, let's go there first. Whether he is in Mizhi or not, we can talk about everything after we get to Mizhi."

"Listen to big brother!"

Everyone hurriedly said and continued to move towards Mizhi. On the second day, before they reached Mizhi, they met Buzhanni's people. As soon as the two sides met, Li Zicheng, who had been prepared, directly reported his origins. When he learned that these people had escaped from Wang Zhijue's side, Buzhanni's people were immediately overjoyed. After confirming their identities, they took Li Zicheng to meet Buzhanni.

Bu Zhanni is a well-known person among the Shaanxi rebels. Both his fame and strength far surpass those of Wang Zhijue.

In the early years of Chongzhen, many people started rebellions in the northwest. In addition to Wang Jiayin, who was very powerful at the beginning, there were also Bushanni and Wang Zhijue. As for other people with bandit nicknames, such as "A Lamp", "A Wall", "A Breeze", "Flying All Over the Sky", "Rolling Wolf", "Shiny Soles", "King of Chaos"... these people were even more numerous.

However, among the most famous people in Shaanxi today, Bu Zhanni and his few companions are still the most famous. The reason why Bu Zhanni started the rebellion was no different from that of other people. They all robbed the food of the rich families because they could not survive, and then gathered people to rebel.

After Buzhanni started the uprising, he quickly formed a strong team and thrived in Shaanxi. Moreover, this guy was different from Wang Zhijue. From his bandit nickname, we can see that Buzhanni was a cunning and smart guy. He never confronted the government troops head-on. He used his familiarity with the terrain to always stick to guerrilla tactics. He also mastered the essence of guerrilla warfare: retreat when the enemy advances and advance when the enemy retreats.

In addition, many times when Bu Zhan Ni saw that the situation was not right, he would run from Shaanxi to Gansu, taking advantage of the border between the two provinces to jump back and forth between the two provinces, making the government troops helpless against him.

Relying on these means, Buzhanni's team is getting bigger and bigger. Now Buzhanni has nearly ten thousand troops. He ranks among the top among the twenty-four bandits in Shaanxi and is a well-known figure.

When he heard that Wang Zhijue's people had come to surrender voluntarily, Bu Zhanni was very happy and met Li Zicheng and others in person.

After confirming that there was no problem with the identities of Li Zicheng and others, Bu Zhanni directly appointed Li Zicheng as the captain of the rebel army.

Li Zicheng himself was fine with this result, but several of Li Zicheng's brothers were somewhat indignant. They felt that what Buzhanni gave was too little. You know, when Li Zicheng was under Wang Zhijue, he was at least the fourth in command, but when it came to Buzhanni, he was just a captain?
However, these objections were suppressed by Li Zicheng, who told his brothers that they had to bow their heads under the eaves. Their number was not large, only about 200 people, which was nothing compared to the tens of thousands of people who were not involved in the mud.

In terms of the number of people, there is no problem for Li Zicheng to be a captain, and these people are not very famous. Now they have nowhere to go. For the time being, they might as well stay under Buzhanni. It will not be too late to think of a solution when there is a chance in the future.

(End of this chapter)