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

Chapter 483 Prisoner
No one expected that Li Zicheng would come up and kill Wang Guo with one simple and clean stroke. When Wang Guo's headless body swayed a few times on the ground and then fell down with a thud, everyone came to their senses.

At this time, Li Zicheng bent down and picked up Wang Guo's head, holding it in his hand and shouting at Wang Guo's guards: "Wang Guo has surrendered! Why don't you throw down your weapons and surrender?"

With the death of their main general, the morale of the kingdom's personal guards plummeted. Moreover, they were outnumbered and surrounded by soldiers coming from all directions. They would certainly not win if they continued to fight, and there was no point in resisting. Although they were personal guards, they were also soldiers who were paid and ate food. Now that their main general was gone, what else did they have to fight for?

As the first man laid down his weapon, several other bodyguards also surrendered. After they all gave up resistance, Li Zicheng winked at Wen Xinghu, who understood and took his men to tie up the dozen bodyguards and dragged them away.

Then, Li Zicheng held up Wang Guo's head and showed it to everyone, letting everyone know that Wang Guo was dead. The soldiers who had just been clamoring for Wang Guo's life had gradually calmed down. They were at a loss, looking at each other, not knowing what to do next.

Li Zicheng knew what was going on when he saw this. He immediately made Wang Guo's crimes public in anger. These crimes were nothing more than what everyone had said before, such as embezzlement of military pay, withholding of military rations, and abuse of soldiers. In addition, Li Zicheng elaborated on it and said that Wang Guo and the magistrate of Jin County colluded with each other and deliberately withheld money from everyone, intending to use this as an excuse to exclude dissidents. As soon as these words came out, they immediately aroused the indignation of everyone, and the uneasiness that they had just felt disappeared in an instant.

After killing Wang Guo, Li Zicheng knew that this matter would not end peacefully. He could no longer continue to serve as a soldier, and the only feasible way was to take his brothers and become bandits to fight for a future for himself.

Wang Guo's army has about 3,000 soldiers, among whom Li Zicheng, as the captain-general, can control more than 100 of them. If he wants to become a bandit, he must have strength, and more than 100 people are definitely not enough. So Li Zicheng must take this opportunity to win over more brothers to join. Of course, he does not expect these 3,000 people to follow him. Not to mention that everyone has different ambitions. As a captain-general, he is just a low-level officer. Although Wang Guo is dead now, there are still deputy captains, captains and garrisons with higher ranks than him in the army.

Since he had made up his mind, he might as well make a big fuss. Only by making a big fuss, the court would eventually hold him accountable and he would not be the mastermind. Moreover, if he wanted to become a bandit, he could not just rely on people. The first thing was to feed so many people, and there were other supplies. Now all these were gone. Li Zicheng thought of these things in a very short time. This was also when he judged that it was impossible to save Wang Guo. Instead of letting Wang Guo die in the chaos, it would be better to kill Wang Guo himself and then use Wang Guo's death to win people's hearts and start a rebellion.

In this way, it can be regarded as repaying Wang Guo for his kindness. After all, his sword was decisive and Wang Guo's death was not painful. If he had not died in his own hands, but was hacked to death by the chaotic army, who knows how much pain Wang Guo would have suffered.

Although Li Zicheng's position was not high, he was well-known in the army. Moreover, everyone saw Li Zicheng kill Wang Guo with their own eyes, so they naturally regarded him as their brother. In addition, what Li Zicheng said made sense. What he said was correct. Since the main general had been killed, it was impossible to continue to serve the king. Then everyone scattered and fled for their lives. But there was a saying about how to escape. Without food and money, where could they run? It would be better to join forces and go all out. They would directly charge into Jin County, chop off the head of the county magistrate, and then plunder Jin County. In this way, they would have everything. Whether they ran away or became bandits, they would have the "capital".

As Li Zicheng spoke of his plan, the crowd became more and more excited. Their blood was already aroused, and everyone had long been extremely dissatisfied with the magistrate of Jin County. Killing Wang Guo would be the same as killing one more magistrate. What's more, they could also get the food, gold and silver in the city. Why not do it?

Just like that, under the leadership of Li Zicheng, everyone decided to follow Li Zicheng to do something big. Li Zicheng agreed immediately when he saw that there was potential for success. Then he gathered troops and headed directly towards Jin County. Jin County was just a small county, and the army was stationed outside the city. There were no soldiers defending the city at all. Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, Li Zicheng and others climbed up to the top of the city with ladders and opened the city gate before the soldiers guarding the city could react.

As soon as the city gate opened, Li Zicheng's men rushed in, and the entire Jin County fell into Li Zicheng's hands in an instant. Then the rebel army set fire and looted everywhere in the city. Jin County, which was quiet the moment before, was filled with crying and screaming the next moment. When it was dawn, Jin County had changed beyond recognition. Countless people died at the hands of the rebel army that night. Even the county magistrate did not know who killed him, and neither he nor his family survived.

After entering the county government office, Li Zicheng looked up at the plaque hanging high above the government office, laughed loudly, walked forward and sat steadily in the main seat.

At this time, Wen Xinghu and Li Guo successively reported that they had taken control of the county treasury and the mansions of several wealthy families in the city, and had seized nearly 10,000 dan of grain, more than 15,300 taels of silver, 145 taels of gold, some military equipment, etc.

"Uncle, there could have been more, but the brothers from other camps have already occupied them. In order to avoid conflicts among our own families, we did not intervene." Li Guo bowed and reported to Li Zicheng.

"Haha, I ate the meat, and you brothers should have some soup. Don't worry about these trivial matters." Li Zicheng waved his hand and said generously. Before entering the city, Li Zicheng reorganized the army. In addition to the more than one hundred brothers he originally had, two captains who had a good relationship with him also joined him. Together with some brothers selected from the original army, Li Zicheng now has more than 600 people under his command.

That is to say, after Wang Guo's death, among the 3,000 soldiers of his loyal army, Li Zicheng now has the greatest strength, accounting for one-fifth. As for the other four-fifths, Li Zicheng knew that they were not on the same side as him, so he let them organize themselves and didn't care too much. Anyway, once the matter of Jin County is settled, everyone will go their separate ways and no one can control anyone else. After entering Jin County, Li Zicheng asked Wen Xinghu and Li Guo to attack the county government and several wealthy families in the city respectively. They were all postmen, and as people in the original system, they knew the situation in the county very well, which was much better than ordinary soldiers.

So taking advantage of the chaos, Li Zicheng quickly captured the county government, killed the entire family of the Jin County magistrate, and then took over the county treasury and the treasuries of several wealthy families in the city, obtaining grain and silver.

As soon as Li Zicheng said this, everyone burst into laughter. They all felt that what the leader Li Zicheng said was right. They had eaten the meat after conquering Jin County, and it was okay for the other brothers to drink some soup. Anyway, they couldn't take so much food away, so it wouldn't be a waste to give it to the brothers.

"Boss Li, there are some people imprisoned in the county prison. When we broke into the county government office, I led my brothers to open the county prison and released all the people inside according to your instructions. However, after hearing what Boss Li said, two people refused to leave and wanted to see you, Boss." Wen Xinghu said with a bow.

Li Zicheng immediately became interested. He had also been imprisoned in the prison, and if it weren't for Wen Xinghu's help, he would have been killed. So when Li Zicheng entered the city, he had an explanation for the people imprisoned in the prison, and he directly released these people after taking over the county government office.

But now Wen Xinghu said that there were two prisoners who refused to leave and wanted to see him. Li Zicheng became interested and asked Wen Xinghu to bring people over to take a look. What kind of hero had such courage that he would not run away and insisted on seeing him?
After a while, Wen Xinghu brought two people to the hall. The two men were not very old, and looked to be in their early twenties. They were dishevelled and seemed to have been in prison for a long time. One of them was taller and had a sturdy build, while the other one was slightly shorter and also had a strong look.

"This is our leader, Boss Li!" After Wen Xinghu brought the man up, he pointed at Li Zicheng who was sitting in the main seat and said.

The two men hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down in front of Li Zicheng, calling him "Brother Li" and thanking Li Zicheng for saving them from the dire straits. As heroes, they had to come and express their gratitude for such a favor, as it was human nature.

Upon hearing this, Li Zicheng was very happy. He immediately asked about their lives and what they had done to be imprisoned.

The shorter man clasped his fists and said, "Brother Li, my last name is Tian Jianxiu, and I am from Suide, Shaanxi. I offended someone while doing business in Jin County and was falsely accused and thrown into prison. It was only thanks to Brother Li's help that I was able to escape."

"Are you from Suide?" Li Zicheng's eyes suddenly lit up and he instantly took a liking to Tian Jianxiu. You know, Li Zicheng is from Mizhi, and Mizhi and Suide are not far away, less than a hundred miles apart. From this point of view, they can be considered fellow villagers.

"That's me." Tian Jianxiu nodded.

"Hahaha." Li Zicheng laughed and asked in his hometown dialect. Tian Jianxiu was also amused when he heard it. After all the joking, they were actually from the same hometown. The two of them started chatting with each other. As they chatted, they learned that what Tian Jianxiu called as traveling business was not a legitimate business, but smuggling. He had originally made an appointment with a big family in Jin County, but he didn't expect that after arriving in Jin County, the other party would go back on his word and want to cheat him. They used their relationship with the county magistrate to fabricate a crime and put him in jail. As for the goods he brought, they were naturally confiscated.

After being locked up in prison for two months, Tian Jianxiu was heartbroken. If nothing unexpected happened, he might die in Jin County and never be able to return home. Unexpectedly, the sky suddenly changed overnight and Jin County was captured. When Tian Jianxiu was released from prison by a soldier wearing a Ming army uniform, he didn't know what happened.

After asking about the situation, he learned that it was a mutiny in the army that broke up Jin County. Now the county magistrate and county officials had been killed, and even the wealthy family who had harmed him had been beheaded by Li Zicheng. After escaping from the disaster, Tian Jianxiu asked to meet Li Zicheng. As a man, how could he not meet his benefactor and thank him in person? Besides, Tian Jianxiu had no other place to go now. If Li Zicheng was worth serving, he would follow Li Zicheng.

(End of this chapter)