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

Chapter 313 Oh no! Zhang Xianzhong has betrayed us!

He understood instantly upon hearing the message and immediately said:
"Don't worry, Godfather, they're definitely willing to do this when it comes to their lives! After all, staying here would only mean certain death!"

"But if there really is someone who is unwilling, then I will personally send them on their way!"

His voice carried a hint of ruthlessness, and his eyes revealed a hint of murderous intent.

Luo Rucai didn't say anything more, because he knew that Shizai wouldn't disappoint him.

The two sides then discussed some details, and each detail was carefully considered to ensure that nothing went wrong.

Not long after, the skinny man who had been sent away by Shi Zai to buy wine and meat suddenly returned. He was carrying a jar of wine in his left hand and a food box in his right.

Upon seeing him approaching from afar, those around the tent immediately coughed a few times to remind Shi Zai and Luo Rucai inside.

Upon receiving the signal, Luo Rucai and Shi Zai quickly stopped talking and pretended to chat about everyday matters.

When the skinny man returned, he didn't see the fat man and was somewhat puzzled, but he didn't say anything. He simply handed the wine and meat to Shizai.

Not long after, the fat guy who had gone off to pursue a PhD returned, his face beaming with joy, clearly having won quite a bit of money.

But when the skinny man asked him what he had been doing, the fat man only said that he had diarrhea and went to the outhouse.

The skinny guy didn't suspect much, since there had been people getting diarrhea every day recently.

After getting the wine and meat, Shi Zai entertained Luo Rucai, and the father and son drank and toasted each other for a while.

About half an hour later, Luo Rucai finally left.

Before long, the news reached Li Zicheng's ears.

To be honest, although Li Zicheng relied heavily on Luo Rucai and thought he was indeed very capable, he was still somewhat uneasy about him.

After all, Luo Rucai was once a local hero with a large army under his command. Although he has now joined him, who knows if he will really be loyal to him?

Therefore, when Luo Rucai came to him, Li Zicheng ruthlessly swallowed up all of Luo Rucai's troops.

Remember, it's all the soldiers!

He didn't even leave Luo Rucai a single personal guard, scattering them all to various places, all to ensure Luo Rucai would wholeheartedly follow him.

This includes Zhang Xianzhong!
Because Li Zicheng knew that these warlords were all ruthless and he had to be wary of them.

However, Li Zicheng did not forbid them from meeting with their former subordinates, because doing so would make him seem petty.

Therefore, when Li Zicheng heard these words, he did not realize that anything was wrong.

I thought Luo Rucai was just going to see his old subordinates.

However, Li Zicheng was unaware that a conspiracy against him was quietly brewing.
Time flies, and before we knew it, it was evening.

The lights in the camp gradually went out, and the surroundings were plunged into darkness.

Only the occasional call of an unknown bird broke the silence of the night.

Li Zicheng had just drunk a few cups of wine and was about to rest when his subordinate rushed in to report.

"King Chuang, Mr. Luo is outside requesting an audience, saying he has important matters to discuss with you."

what?
Upon hearing this, Li Zicheng, who was just about to go to sleep, was instantly surprised.

Because he couldn't understand what Luo Ru could possibly be up to at this time.
Soon, he suddenly remembered the meeting between Luo Rucai and his former subordinates earlier that day.

This made his heart tighten, and an ominous premonition welled up in his mind.

His intuition told him that Luo Rucai's visit must be related to this matter!
Thinking of this, he quickly said:
"Go and invite him in quickly."

Not long after, Luo Rucai hurriedly walked in.

His steps were hurried and frantic, as if something terrible was chasing him.

The moment Luo Rucai entered, he knelt down with a thud and burst into tears, saying:

"King Chuang, I have failed in my duty to manage my subordinates and deserve to die!"

His voice was filled with regret and self-blame, and tears welled up in his eyes, making him look extremely sad.

When Li Zicheng saw Luo Rucai's state, he was immediately startled, then quickly reached out to help Luo Rucai up and asked:

"Why do you say that, sir? You are the strategist of my rebel army, a pillar of the nation. What happened? Why do you look like this?"

Immediately afterwards, Li Zicheng helped Luo Rucai to his seat.

Then Luo Rucai choked up and said:

"To be honest, yesterday my former subordinate Yuan Dafu suddenly came to me and said that he wanted me to lead them to surrender to the imperial court."

"He even paid to send the soldiers away so he could conspire with me about this."

"According to him, they will launch a mutiny tonight, surrender to the Ming Dynasty, and even take the head of the rebel king with them."

What? Such a thing actually happened?
Upon hearing this, Li Zicheng felt a chill run down his spine.

He never expected that someone would pull this trick on him right under his nose.

You said you wanted to break away from the peasant army and surrender to the Ming Dynasty, but you actually wanted to take his head, the head of the rebel king, with you when you surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. Isn't that going to kill him?
But the next second, Li Zicheng suddenly calmed down.

He was, after all, a powerful figure who had weathered countless storms, and he was not swayed by the news.

After a moment, Li Zicheng asked with a suspicious look:

"As you said, this happened last night, so why are you only telling me tonight?"

At that moment, Li Zicheng's eyes were sharp as knives, as if he could see through Luo Rucai's heart.

Upon hearing this, Luo Rucai feigned some hesitation and said:
"To be honest, I also felt a pang of pity, fearing that the King of Chuang would kill all my former subordinates because of this, since some of them may not have been involved in this matter."

"Therefore, I spent the whole day today verifying the loyalty of those people and finally determined the list of those involved in this matter. That is why I came to see King Chuang and hope that he will not blame the others."

As he spoke, Luo Rucai took out a list from his pocket and handed it to Li Zicheng.

The list contained the names of his former subordinates, with Yuan Dafu at the top.

Upon hearing this, Li Zicheng had no more doubts, so he quickly said in a friendly tone:

"So that's how it is. I almost misunderstood Mr. Luo. Rest assured, I did not kill innocent people indiscriminately, and I will absolutely not blame anyone else for this."

However, the next second, Li Zicheng glanced at the name on the note and quickly frowned.

Because some of these were former generals of Zhang Xianzhong.

Then he asked in confusion:

"What's going on? Why are there Zhang Xianzhong's former subordinates on this? Could it be that Zhang Xianzhong was also involved in this?" Li Zicheng's eyes revealed a hint of vigilance, as if he was pondering the conspiracy hidden behind this.

Luo Rucai quickly shook his head and said:

"I believe Zhang Xianzhong would not betray the King of Chuang, but these few of his men were indeed involved in this matter, probably behind Zhang Xianzhong's back."

Li Zicheng didn't say anything when he heard this, but his expression became somewhat solemn.

He always felt that there might be a bigger conspiracy behind this matter.

Immediately afterwards, a thoughtful glint appeared in his eyes, as if he were devising a countermeasure.

Unbeknownst to anyone, at that moment, a cold glint flashed in Luo Rucai's eyes, and a barely perceptible sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

Because at this moment, Luo Rucai's scheme finally began!

In order to escape from Li Zicheng's clutches, Luo Rucai made thorough preparations and outmaneuvered everyone!
First, there was Yuan Dafu and his group. Luo Rucai had secretly handed Yuan Dafu a note when he went to see him earlier, which detailed the plan for tonight.

Of course, this plan was tailor-made for Yuan Dafu and his associates, like a meticulously planned but deadly game of chess.

Luo Rucai ordered Yuan Dafu and others to sneak up on the location of the rebel army's granary under the cover of night and set it on fire.

However, the granary was of paramount importance to the rebel army, concerning the life and death of the entire army. Therefore, the granary was surrounded by Li Zicheng's elite troops.

They patrol day and night, extremely vigilant; getting close to the granary would be no easy feat.
As for arson, it's even more difficult!
Luo Rucai was naturally aware of this, so his purpose in setting the fire was not really to burn down the granary, but to cause chaos.

Even if Yuan Dafu and his men only set a fire a few hundred meters away from the granary, some people who were far away and unaware of the situation would mistakenly believe that the granary was on fire.

While setting the fire, they also shouted at the top of their lungs:

"Zhang Xianzhong has betrayed us! Zhang Xianzhong has betrayed us!"

There are two purposes to doing this.

Firstly, it is naturally for the purpose of better inciting chaos.

After all, if the grain depot catches fire, coupled with these shouts, the entire camp will inevitably descend into chaos.

Secondly, they wanted to forcibly drag Zhang Xianzhong into the mess.

Recently, in order to show his trust in Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng actually put Zhang Xianzhong in charge of managing the granaries.

Although Zhang Xianzhong only held the title, the actual management of the granary was actually done by Li Zicheng's old troops. But since Zhang Xianzhong stayed at the granary every day, if the granary caught fire, and someone shouted that Zhang Xianzhong had rebelled, do you think Li Zicheng would think?
Li Zicheng was always suspicious, and under these circumstances, he would certainly suspect that Zhang Xianzhong might actually have rebellious intentions.

At that point, even if Zhang Xianzhong jumped into the Yellow River, he wouldn't be able to clear his name.

Even if he had a hundred mouths, he would find it difficult to explain this sudden turn of events to Li Zicheng.

So what should Zhang Xianzhong do at that time?

Did they directly rebel against Li Zicheng?

Or should we let Li Zicheng do as he pleases?
Luo Rucai didn't know, but that wasn't something he should worry about, because by then, he would have already escaped with his men.

Although Luo Rucai and Zhang Xianzhong had a fairly good relationship, and Luo had even planned to help Zhang Xianzhong escape, such a relationship was completely negligible in the face of life and death.

As early as when he decided to break away from the peasant army and surrender to the imperial court, he no longer regarded Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng as his comrades, but as his enemies.

Since they were enemies, he didn't have many reservations about attacking them.

Now he only cares about his own interests and future, and he is willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve his goals.

This includes people like Yuan Dafu!
Because he knew in his heart that Yuan Dafu and the others originally planned to do this behind his back, but later they felt they were not confident, so they told him about it last night.

Since that's the case, we can't blame him for being ruthless.

In his view, Yuan Dafu and others were actually a pawn, a piece in his plan that he could discard once it was used up.

What he could really rely on was the loss of their cargo.

Therefore, the next plan is that after Yuan Dafu and others cause chaos, Li Zicheng will definitely send troops to suppress them.

At that time, the entire camp will be in chaos.

At this time, Shi Zai would bring his elite troops to meet him, and then they would take the opportunity to break through Li Zicheng's camp and head straight to Tongguan to surrender to Sun Chuanting.

From then on, they will completely shed their identity as peasant army!
In fact, if Li Zicheng had any sense at all, he would have realized something was wrong at this point.

That's why Luo Rucai insisted on waiting until evening to tell him such an important matter.

Even if Luo Rucai really just wanted to confirm who was actually involved in this matter, did he really have to wait until this late at night?

He could have told Li Zicheng about this much earlier, so that Li Zicheng could have taken precautions.

But he didn't do that, and the trickery involved is easy to spot!
At this moment, Li Zicheng was extremely anxious and could no longer think about the matter in detail.

His heart was filled with anxiety and unease, and he was only thinking about how to deal with the possible crisis at hand.

Moreover, even if he did think of this, Luo Rucai would come up with a solution.

For example, Luo Rucai could easily get away with it by saying that the investigation takes time, or that compiling a list takes time, etc.

Moreover, Li Zicheng had no time to think about this matter anymore; the most important thing now was to resolve these issues as soon as possible!
Sure enough, the next second Li Zicheng immediately gave the order:

"Quickly summon Li Guo, Liu Zongmin, Gao Yigong, Tian Jianxiu, and the others. Tell them to come see me immediately, and be quick!"

Li Zicheng's voice was urgent and anxious, as if every word was filled with gunpowder.

Upon hearing this, the guards nearby did not hesitate for a moment and quickly left.

They knew the rebel leader's temper all too well; at this crucial moment, anyone who dared to delay would be risking their life.

Luo Rucai didn't dare to get up and leave at this moment, because he knew that if he left now, it would be too easy to expose himself.

He had to pretend nothing was wrong and stay there, waiting for the right opportunity to leave quietly.

While waiting for Li Guo and the others, Li Zicheng paced back and forth in his tent with a look of anxiety on his face.

His steps were hurried and heavy, each step seeming to tread on the hearts of everyone present.

At this moment, Li Zicheng was truly terrified.

Because he also thought of the matter of him having Zhang Xianzhong manage the granary.

Although strictly speaking, Zhang Xianzhong only held the title, and the actual management of the granaries was still done by his old guard and personal soldiers, this still made him somewhat uneasy.

Because if Zhang Xianzhong really decides to betray him, he will definitely still find a way to do something.

The more Li Zicheng thought about it, the more frightened and uneasy he became.

(End of this chapter)