My father is Chongzhen? Then I have no choice but to rebel.

Chapter 312 Going to Liaodong is better than starving to death, right?

Immediately afterwards, Shi Zai pretended that nothing had happened and calmly handed the bowl of wine to Luo Rucai.

"Godfather, have another bowl!"

Luo Rucai calmly accepted the wine bowl without uttering a word, only taking a small sip of wine.

He then slowly put the wine bowl down.

Immediately afterwards, he glanced discreetly at the two peasant soldiers standing outside the tent.

Without Luo Rucai needing to say anything more, Shi Zai already understood.

It was obvious that Luo Rucai wanted him to find a way to get rid of those two guys.

After all, they were only four or five steps away from Luo Rucai at this moment, and whatever they said would be heard clearly.

However, they were about to discuss a matter of life and death, so naturally they had to find a way to get rid of these two troublesome fellows.

The next second, Shizai narrowed his eyes slightly, quickly thinking of a countermeasure.

A moment later, he nodded to Luo Rucai, then took out two silver ingots from his pocket and walked out with steady steps.

The moment he stepped out of the tent, a fawning smile spread across his face, and he said to the two peasant soldiers outside the door:

"Brothers, could you do me a small favor?"

Upon hearing this, the two peasant soldiers standing guard at the camp entrance looked at Shizai with curiosity.

It's worth mentioning that these two people are not the same two people from last night.

After all, they needed to 'protect' Luo Rucai 24 hours a day. If there were only two people, they definitely wouldn't be able to handle it. So there were a total of six people, who 'protected' Luo Rucai at different times.

Of course, calling it protection is really just surveillance.

Getting back to the main point, when the two peasant soldiers heard Shi Zai say this, they immediately laughed and said:
"No, no, please tell me what you need."

Although they were Li Zicheng's personal guards, their rank was too low, otherwise they wouldn't have been sent to monitor Luo Rucai. Therefore, they didn't dare to put on airs when faced with the loss of cargo.

After all, Luo Rucai is here too!

The next second, Shi Zai didn't stand on ceremony and stuffed the silver in his hand into the hands of the two of them, one ingot for each of them.

The two men instinctively clenched their hands the moment they touched the silver. They knew what it was without even looking at it, and a hint of surprise flashed in their eyes.

Before they could ask what it meant, Shi Zai smiled and said:
"Brothers, my godfather has come all this way to see me, but I really have nothing to offer him. That would be impolite. So I would like to trouble you two to use this money to buy some wine and meat so that I can entertain my godfather."

"As for the remaining silver, consider it a token of our gratitude to you both."

Upon hearing this, the two weighed the silver in their hands and found that it was about ten taels, which would amount to twenty taels for both of them!

To be honest, this amount of money is more than enough to host a lavish banquet, and there would still be a lot left over.

But the two men didn't rush to agree. One of them, the thinner one, said with a troubled expression:

“Brother, you can handle this yourself. Why make us both come all this way? You know we can’t just leave the strategist’s side.”

Upon hearing this, the other person also looked at Shizai with some curiosity, trying to discern something from Shizai's face.

Upon hearing this, Shi Zai pretended to be embarrassed, scratched his head, and then said helplessly:

"As you two brothers probably know, we are currently facing a food shortage here, and since we are not the direct troops of the rebel king, we can't buy anything good even if we have money."

"If I were to send someone to buy something with these twenty taels of silver, they would probably only be able to buy a few jars of inferior wine!"

“But you two brothers are different. You are the direct descendants of the King of Chuang. With you stepping forward, they probably won’t dare to make things difficult for you and will definitely sell you some food.”

Upon hearing this, the two peasant soldiers nodded as if they understood.

After all, everyone knows that the peasant army is indeed short of food, and Li Zicheng has given orders not to waste or sell it.

Of course, such things can be negotiated. As long as you have money and are part of the elite troops, you can definitely buy them.

But others can't.
Then, the two looked at each other, exchanging thoughts with their eyes.

Finally, the skinny man who had spoken earlier said:
"Alright, I'll help you with this, but I can go by myself. Why don't you stay here and 'protect' Military Advisor Luo?"

As the skinny man spoke, he looked at the slightly overweight man next to him.

Upon hearing this, the fat man quickly nodded:

"Very well, I'll wait for you here."

Upon hearing this, Shizai frowned slightly, feeling secretly anxious.

He originally intended to get both of them out of the way, but unexpectedly only one of them got away!
This is not possible!
However, he certainly couldn't say these words directly. He then silently turned and left, but this time he didn't go into the tent. Instead, he went to the other side.

Several of his close associates were standing there.

Shi Zai walked up to one of his confidants and whispered a few words in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

Upon hearing this, the confidant quickly nodded and then ran away.

A short while later, a shout suddenly came from about ten meters away:

"Come on, brothers, let's play a couple of rounds! Big bets pay out big, small bets pay out small, the more you bet, the more you win, hurry up!"

The sound was like a thunderclap, echoing through the silent camp.

With shouts and calls, seven or eight people quickly gathered together, and eventually started playing the game of pursuing a doctorate in public.

They sat huddled together, staring at the dice in the dealer's hand, their eyes gleaming with greed and excitement, shouting incessantly:

"big big big!"

"Small! Small! Small!"

The shouts quickly alerted the fat man standing at the entrance of the tent.

It should be noted that although these people were all from peasant backgrounds, they inevitably developed some minor flaws after following Li Zicheng in his rebellion.

And pursuing a doctorate is one of them!

Although Li Zicheng had repeatedly forbidden people from pursuing doctoral degrees, it was impossible to stop them. Therefore, whenever they had free time, people would secretly gather together to pursue doctoral degrees.

This includes the fat man, of course.

His gaze darted back and forth between the gambling crowd and the camp, his mind filled with hesitation.

Should I go over and play a couple of rounds, or stick to my duty?

But clearly, the loss of load had anticipated this.

The next second, several people walked past him, one of them calling out to him:
"Hey bro, what are you doing here? It's so boring! Come on over and play a couple of rounds! The bookies haven't been having much luck lately and have lost a lot of money. It'd be a shame not to gamble a bit."

Upon hearing this, the fat man could no longer contain himself; the allure of pursuing a doctorate gripped his heart like an invisible hand. Finally, he decided to go and try his luck!
But he was too embarrassed to say directly that he wanted to pursue a doctorate, so the next second he suddenly clutched his stomach and said to Luo Rucai inside the tent:

"Military Advisor Luo, my stomach suddenly feels uncomfortable, and I need to go to the outhouse."

His voice trembled slightly, and his eyes revealed a hint of guilt.

Upon hearing this, Luo Rucai, who was inside the house, responded calmly:

"I understand. Go ahead."

Upon hearing this, the fat man didn't hesitate any longer and quickly ran away.

After the fat man left, Shi Zai returned to the camp.

At the same time, several of his confidants rushed to the outside of the tent, pretending to chat while keeping a close watch on the surroundings.

Upon arriving before Luo Rucai, Shizai spoke directly:

"Godfather, now we're surrounded by our own people."

Upon hearing this, Luo Rucai breathed a sigh of relief, his tense shoulders relaxed slightly, and the worry in his eyes lessened somewhat.

Because now, there are some things he can finally say.

Before he could speak first, Shizai couldn't help but ask:
"Godfather, why are you suddenly doing this? If Li Zicheng finds out, we'll all die!"

Luo Rucai gave a bitter smile, a smile tinged with helplessness and bitterness, and then he slowly said:
“This is not something I wanted to do, but something Yuan Dafu and his group wanted to do. Last night, Yuan Dafu came to me and told me about it, and they are going to take action tonight.”

what?
Upon hearing this, Shi Zai was stunned for a moment, his face filled with disbelief.

Then he said urgently:
"What's going on? Why am I completely unaware of this?"

His voice carried a hint of anger and confusion, as if he had been betrayed.

Luo Rucai smiled helplessly:

"Not only are you completely unaware, but even Yang Chengzhu, Li Rugui, and Liu Xiyao are unaware!"

"It's obvious that Yuan Dafu and the others planned this on their own and didn't intend to tell you."

Upon hearing this, Shi Zai's face immediately darkened, because the three people Luo Rucai had mentioned earlier did not have a good relationship with Yuan Dafu.

He is no exception!
The next second, he said fiercely:

"How dare these guys? Doing something like this without telling us, aren't they sending us to our deaths?"

“Once they take action, regardless of success or failure, Li Zicheng will assume that we were also involved. At that point, we will all die, and even your godfather might die!”

Shi Zai's voice was filled with anger and dissatisfaction; his hands were clenched into fists, as if he wanted to beat Yuan Dafu to death immediately.

Luo Rucai nodded upon hearing this and said:

“You’re right, so we have no choice but to do this. And you should have seen it too: the situation in the world has changed. Continuing to follow Li Zicheng will only lead to death.”

"We must think about the future, and surrendering to the court is our only hope for the future."

"Even if we do reach Liaodong, we might not go to war with the Jurchens. But even if we do, it's still better than starving to death here, right?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Zai no longer concealed his true thoughts and said directly:
"Godfather, I've wanted to say this for a long time: Li Zicheng never considered us as his own people!"

“Logically speaking, after you led us to surrender to Li Zicheng, even if he wanted to take away your military power, he shouldn’t have left you with no trusted confidants. Now you don’t even have a single one of your own people by your side. It’s difficult for your former brothers to even see you now.”

"Li Zicheng even sends people to monitor you wherever you go. What does that mean?"

"And in the last few days, the brothers have started to go hungry. If it goes on for a few more days, I'm afraid they'll really starve to death!"

His voice carried a hint of grievance and dissatisfaction, and his eyes revealed resentment towards Li Zicheng.

These words struck a nerve with Luo Rucai, and a flash of humiliation and anger crossed his eyes. However, now was not the time for Luo Rucai to dwell on such matters, so he simply waved his hand and said:
"Alright, let's not bring this up again. Let's focus on the bigger picture."

Immediately afterwards, Luo Rucai explained his plans for tonight's operation.

His voice was deep and steady, and every word seemed to have been carefully considered.

Indeed, that was the case. Luo Rucai only slept for a short while last night, and spent most of his time planning this matter.

After all, it was a matter of life and death, so he had no choice but to be cautious!

Upon hearing these plans, Shi Zai was initially taken aback, but soon a look of admiration appeared on his face.

"Our godfather is indeed resourceful. If we follow this plan, we will surely be able to escape from here safely."

His voice was full of praise for Luo Rucai, and his eyes were full of admiration.

Luo Rucai continued:
"Don't worry, although my reputation is not as high as that of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, I am still a powerful figure in my own right. I'm sure the court will not underestimate me and will entrust me with important responsibilities."

"Once we reach Liaodong, your father will definitely secure a future for you and your brothers!"

When Luo Rucai said those last words, his tone became somewhat strange.

Clearly, Luo Rucai was warning Shi Zai not to abandon him and lead his men to surrender to the imperial court.

If he really does that, he won't get away with it.

In fact, Luo Rucai was overthinking things, because Shizai was truly loyal to him, and Shizai also knew that what Luo Rucai said made sense.

If Luo Rucai leads them to surrender to the imperial court, the court will definitely take it seriously, after all, Luo Rucai is a fairly well-known peasant army leader.

His status and prestige were second only to Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

If the imperial court wanted to recruit the remaining peasant army, it would certainly treat Luo Rucai well.

As long as Luo Rucai is valued, he will have a bright future. But if Luo Rucai is not valued, he will just be an ordinary peasant army general.

Even if he did surrender to the imperial court, he might not even be able to get a minor official position and would only be able to farm in Liaodong.

Besides, Luo Rucai has always been cunning; who can guarantee that he doesn't have a backup plan?

Therefore, whether out of loyalty to Luo Rucai or out of concern, Shizai would not abandon Luo Rucai.

Thinking of this, Shi Zai hurriedly said:

"Father, rest assured, if I cannot take you with me, I am willing to die with you!"

At that moment, his voice was filled with determination and loyalty, and his eyes were filled with resolve.

Upon hearing this, Luo Rucai nodded, a hint of relief in his eyes, and finally added:
"Remember, tonight is a matter of life and death, so you must be on your guard. When I get back, secretly gather the others and inform them of this, so that they can all be prepared."

"If they're willing to follow, fine; if they're not, you know what to do."

As Luo Rucai spoke, he revealed a cold look in his eyes, a look as sharp as an ice blade in the dead of winter, sending chills down one's spine.

(End of this chapter)