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

Chapter 317 Remember this! All the bad things were done by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, it has nothing to do with us!

Sun Chuanting then quickly got up, groggily dressed, and hurriedly headed towards the city wall.

Throughout the journey, he kept pondering various possibilities.

Could it be that Li Zicheng's camp was poorly managed, leading to an accidental fire?
wrong
If it were an accidental fire, it would have been extinguished by now. How could it have gotten bigger and bigger?

After all, Li Zicheng and his old soldiers were not to be trifled with; how could they just stand by and watch their entire camp be burned?

Could someone have deliberately set the fire?
But who would have the audacity to set fire to Li Zicheng's camp?
Lost in thought, Sun Chuanting finally climbed the city wall. When he looked out into the distance, the sight before him made him gasp in shock.

Ten miles away, a sea of ​​fire was already visible.

The raging fire, like angry fire dragons, wantonly devoured everything around it.

Although it was too far away to see exactly what was happening, the fire was real, turning half the sky crimson.

"How is this going?"

Sun Chuanting muttered to himself in surprise.

Even if it were a fire, it couldn't have burned this badly, could it?
Li Zicheng wasn't stupid. If there was a fire, wouldn't he send people to put it out?

The reason this fire got so big is probably because someone did it on purpose!

Moreover, this person must have been planning this for a long time, otherwise they would never have been able to create the current situation!
However, Sun Chuanting couldn't figure out who had such a grand scheme to set fire to Li Zicheng's territory.

But without a doubt, this was a good thing for the Ming army.

Because such a large fire would surely kill many people. Although most of these people were ordinary peasant soldiers, in Sun Chuanting's view, before they officially surrendered, they were just traitors and enemies of the court.

Therefore, the trace of pity in Sun Chuanting's heart quickly vanished without a trace.

Then, as if remembering something, he quickly said to the general beside him:

"Immediately dispatch scouts out of the city to find out what exactly is going on as soon as possible."

"In addition, order the soldiers guarding the city to be on high alert, as someone may soon lead an army to surrender to the court."

Sun Chuanting knew that if someone was doing this intentionally, their ultimate goal was to betray Li Zicheng and surrender to the imperial court.

And barring any unforeseen circumstances, this person will lead his team to the outskirts of Tongguan City tonight.

He wanted to see who this person was, to have such courage and skill!
Before long, hundreds of scouts were ready to go. They rode tall horses, wore armor, and their eyes revealed determination and courage.

With a command given, they shot off from Tongguan City like arrows released from a bow, heading straight for Li Zicheng's camp.

At the same time, Tongguan also strengthened its defenses.

The soldiers on the city wall stood ready, their weapons gleaming coldly in the moonlight. They kept a close watch on their surroundings, afraid of missing any suspicious signs.

After all, no one knows what will happen next, so we must be on high alert!
Time flies, and before we knew it, it was late at night.

The night was as dark as ink, and a mysterious and oppressive atmosphere permeated the silent forest.

At this time, Luo Rucai's group of more than 8,000 people had been walking in the forest for more than two hours, which is equivalent to four hours.

They were truly exhausted from the journey.

The road beneath our feet was rugged and overgrown with thorns, and every step required tremendous effort.

In addition, the mountain roads were made even more difficult to travel after the previous snowfall.

Moreover, due to the hasty preparations, they did not bring any food, and even only a small amount of water.

This resulted in everyone being extremely hungry, thirsty, and their steps becoming increasingly heavy.

But there was nothing they could do about it. After all, they were dealing with a matter of life and death, so they didn't have time to prepare these things.

However, considering that they had completely betrayed Li Zicheng, they had no choice but to surrender to the imperial court.

So even though they were extremely exhausted, they gritted their teeth and persevered.

At this moment, they are resting in an open space.

Some soldiers slumped to the ground, panting heavily, while others leaned against trees, closing their eyes to rest and try to regain some strength.

Luo Rucai, on the other hand, was standing on a high ground, looking at the moon and stars in the sky to determine their positions.

In this vast forest, one could easily lose one's way if one is not careful, but fortunately he was able to determine his location by the stars, so the team did not get lost and continued to move in the right direction.

Just then, Shizai walked over.

Shi Zai, who was holding a water jug, handed it to Luo Rucai and said:

"Godfather, have some water."

Luo Rucai reached out and took the kettle, tilted his head back and took a big gulp.

The cold water flowed down his throat, bringing him a sense of comfort. He squinted his eyes slightly, enjoying this moment of pleasure, before returning the water bottle to Shizai.

Then he thought of something else and said:

"By the way, give the order to give water to the peasant soldiers who came with us, and try to make sure that each of them gets a sip of water."

Although there was still snow on the mountain at this time, and people could make do with what they had, there were just too many people this time, more than 8,000, so some people couldn't even get any snow.

Besides, this thing is prone to causing diarrhea. If you get diarrhea at this time, you might very well be trapped and die in the mountains!

In order to ensure that these people could follow him out of the mountains alive, Luo Rucai issued such an order.

Upon hearing this, Shi Zai showed a hint of worry on his face.

He hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't help but say:

"Father, we don't have much water right now. What if we give it to them and then run out of water later?"

Luo Rucai chuckled upon hearing this, then patted Shizai's shoulder dismissively and said:

"Don't worry, I've already calculated it. We'll reach Tongguan in half an hour at most, and then none of this will be a problem."

"On the contrary, if they can't move without water, they might die here."

"You must remember, the more people you take to Tongguan, the more the imperial court will value us."

Shi Zai couldn't refute this.

He nodded and said, "Yes! I'll go and give the order right away."

Soon, Luo Rucai's personal guards took out their water and distributed it to the ordinary peasant soldiers.

However, at that moment, Shi Zai suddenly remembered something, and his brows furrowed slightly, a look of worry appearing on his face.

At the same time, Luo Rucai took advantage of the darkness to see the expression on Shi Zai's face.

A thought struck him, and he asked:
"At this point, just say what's on your mind, don't beat around the bush."

Upon hearing this, Shi Zai took a deep breath and mustered his courage to ask:
"Father, I also think that surrendering to the court at this time is the best decision, but I still have some concerns. Do you think the court will really accept us?"

"After all, we were rebelling before, and the court had tried to recruit us, but we still rebelled again. Not to mention, we killed a lot of Ming Dynasty imperial family members."

"Do you think the Ming Dynasty emperor would really let bygones be bygones?"

"What if he holds a grudge about this and insists on killing us after we surrender?"

It must be said that the issues that need to be considered regarding load are indeed very critical.

However, it is clear that Luo Rucai had already thought of these things.

The next second, Luo Rucai said:
"Don't worry, I've already thought of what you're worried about."

"Although we did surrender and then rebel before, it is clear that things are different now than they were then."

"Because this time, in order to surrender to the imperial court, we have completely offended Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong."

"At this point, we have no other way to go but to surrender to the imperial court."

"The imperial court naturally understands this, so they should no longer have any suspicions about us."

As for the second point regarding the missing data...
Luo Rucai paused for a moment, a sly glint in his eyes, then smiled and said:
"Who said we massacred members of the Ming Dynasty's imperial family?"

Ok?
Shi Zai was stunned when he heard this. He stared wide-eyed at Luo Rucai with disbelief.

Not
What does it mean to say, "Who said we massacred members of the Ming Dynasty's imperial family?"
To put it simply, when they besieged Kaifeng, didn't they kill more than a thousand members of the Ming Dynasty's imperial family together with Zhang Xianzhong?

Why is Luo Rucai saying such things now?
Seeing Shi Zai's bewildered expression, Luo Rucai suddenly put on a serious face and said:

"From now on, you must remember one thing: we have never killed any members of the Ming Dynasty imperial family. This was always done by Zhang Xianzhong himself, and it has nothing to do with us."

"The same applies to Li Zicheng's side. In short, we rebelled because we were forced to, and we never participated in the massacre of Ming Dynasty imperial family members."

"These things were done by Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, and have nothing to do with us!"

Upon hearing this, Shi Zai was completely dumbfounded.

He never expected that Luo Rucai would push all these things onto Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.

But soon, ShiChang realized what was happening and looked relieved.

Because this seems to be the best way to solve this problem.

What Shizai is most worried about now is whether the court will bring up the previous massacre of the imperial family members after he surrenders to the court.

If that's the case, they probably won't have a good life even if they surrender to the imperial court.

However, after hearing Luo Rucai's words, Shizai was completely relieved.

In short:

The bad things were all done by Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, while Luo Rucai and his entire army never did such things.

Of course, if we delve deeper into this matter, there are many obvious flaws, and figuring out the truth is not difficult.

However, in the current situation, the real truth is not that important.

As long as the problem of the peasant army can be completely solved, everything else is just a trivial matter.

In fact, Luo Rucai was right. Neither Chongzhen nor Zhu Cilang really cared about those members of the imperial family who were killed by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

It was precisely because so many members of the imperial family perished in this war that Zhu Cilang was able to successfully establish the "Zhu Family Army" of the Ming Dynasty.

If so many members of the imperial clan hadn't died, Zhu Cilang's idea of ​​forming this special army might not have been able to be implemented smoothly at present.

As for the overseas fiefdoms to follow, it's hard to say when that will happen.

From this perspective, the peasant army's massacre of the Ming imperial family was actually beneficial to the Ming Dynasty!
Immediately following Luo Rucai's instructions, Shi Zai did not dare to delay and quickly informed the others about the matter.

With a serious expression, he repeatedly declared that no matter who asked later, they should insist that the reason they rebelled was because they had no other choice.

As for the massacre of members of the imperial family, they absolutely denied it, attributing it all to Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.

Anyway, these two guys are now thorns in the side of the imperial court and there is no way they can surrender to the court, so they can take the blame.

Upon hearing this, the others naturally agreed without hesitation.

After resting for about fifteen minutes, Luo Rucai felt that the time was right, so he waved his hand and led the team back to Tongguan.

At their current marching speed, it won't be long before they reach Tongguan Pass.

Meanwhile, atop the Tongguan city wall, Sun Chuanting, using the dim moonlight, was carefully observing Li Zicheng's camp not far away through binoculars.

The fire had been raging for several hours. Although it was no longer as fierce as before, the billowing smoke and remaining flames still gave a sense of the enormous damage caused by the disaster.

Without a doubt, Li Zicheng suffered a tremendous blow in this fire, and his army must have been severely weakened.

This made Sun Chuanting even more curious: who could have such great abilities to cause such great losses to Li Zicheng?

He secretly planned that once that person arrived, he would definitely question him thoroughly, hoping to obtain some information that would benefit the court.

Meanwhile, the scouts that had been sent out earlier also returned one after another.

However, the information they brought was of little use; all they knew was that a rebellion had indeed been launched that night, triggering this series of events.

But as for who that person is, there is no specific name.

Even though the scouts captured a few peasant soldiers, they couldn't extract any useful information from them.

Because these peasant soldiers were from the lowest rungs of society, they had no idea what was happening and were simply caught up in the chaos with a blank expression.

Sun Chuanting was somewhat helpless about this, but then he rallied his spirits and continued to wait.

Because he knew in his heart that that person would definitely bring his troops to Tongguan to surrender to the imperial court!
At that time, the truth will come out!
(End of this chapter)