My timeless tavern

Chapter 556 Li Zicheng and Chai Rong
"Is Zhu Youjian dead?" Ding Xiu asked.

Yuan Chonghuan shook his head and smiled, "After lying down for a few days, I heard that he came back to life."

Yu Huatian said with a half-smile: "But if you are struck by lightning, the best outcome is probably the same as the one Brother Ding knows, right?"

Ding Xiu clapped his hands and smiled: "Of course it is so!"

Su Can listened with great interest and asked curiously, "What about Huang Taiji? Didn't you say that you had already destroyed the Later Jin?"

He was not very interested in Zhu Youjian, but was very curious about how Yuan Chonghuan would deal with Huang Taiji.

This former "imperial" beggar now raised the banner of revolution and started to fight against the Qing Dynasty from south to north.

At first he was unstoppable, but later due to his limited knowledge, he encountered many problems in the territory he conquered.

It was not until he sought advice from Zhao Gang, the "revolutionary mentor" in the tavern a few days ago, that he cooperated with the government of Wang Duoyu's world and sent a team of fifty experts to free him from the heavy affairs.

Now, he has become a hands-off boss and often hangs out in the tavern, having a great time every day. He gets along especially well with Wang Duoyu and Liu Chan.

Being in the Qing Dynasty, he was naturally very curious about how Yuan Chonghuan dealt with Huang Taiji.

Hearing his question, Yuan Chonghuan smiled and said, "I let him enjoy Zhu Youjian's treatment in advance."

"What?" Ding Xiu became interested.

Yuan Chonghuan smiled and said, "We have to thank our police officer An. I went to their place a few days ago. Did you know?"

Yu Huatian nodded: "Of course we have heard about this."

Yuan Chonghuan continued: "Although it was just a preliminary exchange and they were still drafting a detailed cooperation framework, several experts gave me a lot of interesting suggestions during the exchange..."

He was in high spirits and introduced himself to several people enthusiastically.

When he went to the "Storm" plane where An Xin was, he was dazzled and shocked by the skyscrapers and various things in modern society.

Compared with him, his colleagues Sun Chengzong, Sun Yuanhua, Zu Dashou, He Kegang and others performed even worse.

After Yuan Chonghuan gave Emperor Chongzhen a "thunder strike" in the palace that day, he emptied the gold in the palace and the treasury, and contacted his former subordinates and close people as quickly as possible.

Even though most of those who received his olive branch knew of his extraordinary talents, they still waited and watched, and only a few chose to follow him.

Sun Chengzong was his old superior and was very kind to him.

Yuan Chonghuan was very clear about his "teacher's" abilities.

In order to win him over, Yuan Chonghuan did not treat him as he did to others, but specially gave him a cup of third-generation blood demon wine worth one hundred time and space coins.

With this fine wine, Sun Chengzong's life span increased by fifty years. After listening to Yuan Chonghuan's plan, how could he still oppose him?

The others were already quite convinced of Yuan Chonghuan, and seeing his situation, they chose to follow him without hesitation.

In order to avoid being underestimated if he went there alone, Yuan Chonghuan specially formed an adventure team and took them directly to the world where An Xin was.

Although he was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the prosperity of this world.

When others saw all this for the first time, they almost thought they had arrived in the heavenly palace where gods live!

When visiting the army, everyone was deeply moved. Sun Chengzong even burst into tears and said frankly that with such a powerful army, the Jian Nu were nothing!
They even felt that the army under their command was like bandits compared to them!

The leading officer jokingly said that when they left, they could take away an infantry brigade's equipment.

Although they stated that most of the equipment were obsolete, when people saw those shiny guns, tanks, armored vehicles and artillery, not to mention Sun Chengzong and others, even Yuan Chonghuan couldn't help swallowing.

Zu Dashou and He Kegang also quarreled over how to distribute these weapons.

Yuan Chonghuan had heard in the tavern about the two men's later falling out, so naturally he didn't want to see it again.

He scolded the two of them and said on the spot that he would be responsible for all the arrangements.

In addition to the donated weapons and food, the biggest gain they received on this trip was the advice from the expert group.

Yuan Chonghuan had already decided to end the imperial system. After discussing it with others, he realized that the current situation of the Ming Dynasty required a breakdown in order to restructure it, so he decided to follow the path taken by Zhao Gang, Li Yunlong and others.

Therefore, when he heard slogans such as "All the poor people in the world are one family" from the experts' mouths, he readily agreed and asked them to help compile a number of proverbs suitable for dissemination. He planned to spread them among the army when he returned and then promote them to the public.

In addition, he also listened to the proposal of publicly trying the landlords and powerful people who committed crimes, and decided to start the trial in Liaodong.

There were not many large families in Liaodong, so they found a few notorious gentry in the city, tentatively held a public trial, and allowed the victims to complain publicly.

In order to make the event a smooth one, they initially found an excuse, and most of the people who came were there to watch the fun.

However, with the superb acting skills of the "stoog", some oppressed people could not help but stand up.

As they made tearful accusations, the onlookers felt the same pain and were gradually reminded of their sad memories. The atmosphere at the meeting suddenly changed, and the people were outraged. Finally, they rushed forward and beat the squire to death.

Yuan Chonghuan and others who were observing secretly were in a heavy mood.

They knew that people's lives were difficult, but they didn't expect it to be so difficult and to have so many misfortunes.

After this matter was settled, the first thing Yuan Chonghuan and others tacitly did was to enforce military discipline.

This is also what the experts have repeatedly emphasized.

After the grievance meeting, they clearly felt that the people looked at them differently.

Afterwards, these grievance meetings were held more and more smoothly, and expanded to outside Shanhaiguan and into the territory of the Later Jin.

In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the people, they followed the advice of experts and had people rehearse operas similar to "The White-Haired Girl", and adapted them into the local language, which unexpectedly caused heated discussions in the territory of the Later Jin Dynasty.

When the "evil gentry" of the Later Jin Dynasty were killed one by one by the people in the grievance meeting, these foreign people brought water and supplies to the army, allowing Yuan Chonghuan and others to experience the rare "close relationship between the army and the people".

So he tried Huang Taiji in public.

After all, the world is mostly populated by poor people, and the person who bears the primary responsibility for the suffering of the poor is the monarch.

Yuan Chonghuan had a complicated expression when he saw Huang Taiji being cursed and angrily scolded by the people of the Later Jin Dynasty and being thrown rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs at.

Although he was an enemy, Yuan Chonghuan had to admit that Huang Taiji was not bad in ability.

If Zhu Youjian had been replaced by him, the Ming Dynasty would at least not have collapsed so quickly.

But the other party met him.

No matter how invincible the Later Jin cavalry is, how can they compare to the guns and cannons from the future?
He even found it funny when he thought of the scene where the Later Jin cavalrymen used swords to chop tanks.

Although Huang Taiji was very capable, his rule was also marked by barbaric brutality.

He is like this to outsiders and is equally cold-blooded and ruthless to his own people.

So much so that during his public trial, even some of the Later Jin nobles who were pinned to the ground for trial shouted at him, accusing him of crimes and demanding that he be cut into pieces. "After the public trial, according to the people's opinion, I chopped him off on the spot!" Yuan Chonghuan said.

"The people of Later Jin support you very much?" Ding Xiu raised his eyebrows.

Yuan Chonghuan nodded and said with a smile: "The poor people in the world are all one family."

Thinking about his experiences in the past few days, he also felt quite incredible.

Now, it has been only more than two weeks since he came to the tavern, but his world has already undergone earth-shaking changes.

After several devastating battles, the soldiers became more proficient in the use of the new weapons and were no longer as flustered as before.

As the people shouted "heroes" again and again, the soldiers' discipline naturally improved, so much so that when they arrived at the Later Jin palace, they did not blindly plunder as they had done before.

He felt that the most valuable thing he learned from An Xin's world was not the powerful weapons, but the slogans and the ideas they represented.

If we can integrate these things and build an army based on them, we will be invincible!
While Yuan Chonghuan was chatting happily with a few people, Zhu Youjian was also in the tavern.

But now he had no time to care about Yuan Chonghuan, but quietly listened to another newcomer chatting with others.

During the ten days or so when Yuan Chonghuan destroyed the Later Jin with a crushing force and was preparing to build a "base" there to consolidate for some time before advancing towards the Ming Dynasty, two more people entered the tavern one after another.

One of them is the person Zhu Youjian is paying attention to at the moment.

He was a man wearing blue cloth and with a rough face.

This man's name is Li Zicheng.

Compared with Yuan Chonghuan, Li Zicheng was Zhu Youjian's real mortal enemy.

Zhu Youjian felt particularly uncomfortable about him entering the tavern.

Especially when he knew that this guy had already occupied and looted the city of Beijing when he came to the tavern, causing another version of himself to hang himself in Coal Hill, how could he feel happy?
Li Zicheng was now being attacked from both the Southern Ming and the Later Jin, and his situation was precarious.

After entering the tavern, all crises naturally dissipated.

The method of disintegration was very simple. On the day he first arrived, the idle Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King both accompanied him. The two of them transformed into the forms of heaven and earth, and scared away the invading enemy with their upright posture.

At that time, Li Zicheng had already retreated to Xi'an and was ready to abandon the city and flee.

The two giant footprints outside the city are still talked about by the people around here.

Li Zicheng did not take the opportunity to expand his territory during these days, but instead often came to the tavern to discuss ways of governing the country with other guests.

After these days of defeat, he has discovered his own problems.

He was often troubled by the infighting among his civil and military officials. The army expanded too quickly, and it was difficult for him to control the rest of the army except for the core of several thousand people.

The biggest problem was money and grain. He launched the slogan "No grain tax when the rebel leader comes", but it was difficult to maintain the government by simply confiscating officials and gentry.

He followed the advice of his advisers and tried many policies, but with little success.

The pub was full of talented people, and everyone spoke pleasantly, which made him feel benefited a lot.

Although Li Yunlong's words "We two, Old Li, are the same kind of people, you are not fit to be emperor" made Li Zicheng feel that the other party looked down on him, but what Li Yunlong said and the various explanations Zhao Gang gave him later made him suddenly enlightened.

He came from a poor family and hated corrupt officials and local tyrants.

From a personal belief perspective, he, like Zhao Gang and others, hopes to ensure that the people have enough food to eat.

The only thing that made him hesitant was that he had worked so hard to build the empire, but he could not become the emperor, which made him feel unwilling.

But with the repeated persuasion of Huang Yaoshi, Xu Wenqiang, Huang Feihong, Xiao Feng, Yue Fei and others in recent days, he gradually became shaken.

They explained to him the difference between temporary power and eternal fame, and also talked about the various drawbacks of the imperial system.

Finally, Han Li's casual remark "Why become an emperor if you can cultivate immortality" made Li Zicheng feel that he was too short-sighted.

He had already learned that the world where Han Li lived was filled with many countries, and that the immortal cultivators like them were the ones who were above the secular imperial power.

Instead of being a hard-working emperor, why not be a free and easy god respected by the people?
But becoming a god does not happen overnight, and Li Zicheng also had his own political ambitions.

Therefore, during this period of time, he contacted Zhao Gang and others, wanting to build a democratic Dashun with profound foundation.

In any case, his appearance made many guests look at Zhu Youjian in a strange way.

Yuan Chonghuan and Li Zicheng in succession, plus Ding Xiu before, all caused great harm to Zhu Youjian in other worlds.

Zhu Youjian himself cared so much about these things that during the first few days when Li Zicheng came to the tavern, Zhu Youjian came to the tavern much less frequently.

It was not until the appearance of another newcomer that Zhu Youjian felt a little better.

This person came to the tavern five days ago.

When he first arrived, he was wearing a yellow robe, but his face was gray, his eye sockets were sunken, his eyes were dull, and he looked like he would not live long.

He was seriously ill and dying, and indeed he would not live long.

If he hadn't entered the tavern, he would have died within a quarter of an hour.

It was Yao Chen, who came to deliver food, who gave him a pill, which helped him recover from his illness.

He called himself Chai Rong.

After he revealed his identity, Zhao Kuangyin, who was drinking and chatting happily with others, immediately changed his expression.

Many guests who knew the situation also looked at Emperor Taizu of Song.

They knew very well where Zhao Kuangyin's throne came from - wasn't it seized from the descendants of Chai Rong?
The excuse of being forced to wear the yellow robe, how could those old foxes who are well versed in the political rules not guess the inside story.

As everyone expected, the newcomer in the tavern, Chai Rong, was none other than Emperor Taizu of Zhou.

When Zhao Kuangyin heard Chai Rong talking about this with others, he didn't care that he was talking to others and hurried over to join the conversation.

He revealed his identity, which surprised Chai Rong.

When he learned that he was "forced to wear the yellow robe", Chai Rong's expression was strange for a moment, but soon returned to normal. He also claimed that he could understand the situation.

The two of them chatted happily as if they were old friends who had not seen each other for a long time.

Just like today, the two of them are still there drinking and chatting happily, discussing strategies for governing the country.

Zhu Youjian was holding a wine glass and talking to Liu Che and Xiang Shaolong. When he glanced at the two of them, a sneer emerged in his heart.

He suspected that Chai Rong had already killed Zhao Kuangyin from another world.

(End of this chapter)