In late April of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the Ming Jingshi finally ushered in the season of spring flowers and birds.

The weather is getting warmer day by day, the canal has long been thawed and opened to ships, and there are more and more merchants coming from the south to the north and from the east to the west.

Inside and outside the capital division of the Ming Dynasty, the streets and alleys were full of traffic, and more and more flowers were blooming.

After the results of Chongzhen's fourth year of spring were announced to the world, the people from all provinces who had gathered in Beijing because of their participation in the examination were quickly divided into two groups.

A group of high school students in this spring school, at this time they are feasting on guests and friends, and then they will stay in Beijing to wait for the distribution and arrangement of the imperial court.

On the other hand, it is the frustrated people of this branch of Chunqiu, who packed their bags at this time, bid farewell to Changting, and left gloomily, looking forward to the next big competition in three years.

In this season when some people are happy and some people are worried, Cao Cao Luo Rucai, the former leader of the bandits in northern Shaanxi, under the escort of Wu Sangui, a young officer of the fourth town of the Guards Army, and Meng Xianjie, finally arrived outside the Fucheng Gate of the Ming Dynasty after a long journey of more than a month.

Cao Cao's camp defectors who were ordered to enter Beijing with Luo Rucai, as well as his previous mastermind Ji Jue.

These two people, since they went out of Lintao City to welcome the official army into the city, were detained in the army on the spot by the fourth town of the Guards Army, so that the courtiers of King Wu Anbo were under the control of the Fourth Town.

With the sharpness of Luo Rucai and Ji Jue's minds, they realized that something was wrong at that time.

After they were brought back to the Guards camp in Anding City, the two of them felt even more remorse in their hearts, knowing that this time they were really self-defeating.

Fortunately, what the two of them feared the most did not happen in the end.

Although the royal courtiers detained them, they did not attack them.

In the past, the imperial court and the official army, which had always been ruthless in dealing with the leaders of the northwest bandits, still kept their original promise after they lost control of Cao Ying's people.

This made Luo Rucai's heart both puzzled and happy.

Especially when he heard that Li Banghua, the military minister of Dongsheng Hou who was stationed in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty to supervise and suppress thieves, intended to let him continue to lead the old department and follow the official army to encircle and suppress other thieves, Luo Rucai's heart was full of the pleasure of the conspiracy succeeding and the treacherous plan being sold, and he was once full of longing for the future.

At that time, Luo Rucai, although he was already in the Anding camp in the fourth town of the Guards, was still thinking day and night about when he would be able to get out of the control of the official army, get back his team, and then wait for an opportunity to escape from Anding and escape from Shaanxi, and finally make a comeback in Henan or Huguang and other places.

It was in this unrealistic vision of the future that at noon on March 16, the fourth year of Chongzhen, Luo Rucai, Ji Jue and others finally ushered in the holy decree of the imperial court and the edict of Emperor Chongzhen in Anding City after being detained for nearly a month.

Emperor Chongzhen's assignment and disposal of Cao Ying, as well as his will to appoint him as the commander of the Jingshi Jinyi Guard, Si Zheng Sipin, made all Luo Rucai's previous calculations and longings turn into a dream in an instant.

Luo Rucai and Ji Jue listened to the holy decree of the Ming court, they were completely dumbfounded, and when they understood, their first reaction was that they resolutely could not go, resolutely not to go to Beijing.

Once you go to Beijing, it is really a bird into the bird cage, the carp into the fish tank, and then it is even more difficult to think that the sea is wide and the sky is high and the birds can fly.

It's just that for Luo Rucai at this time, people under the eaves can't help but bow their heads after all.

In the face of Emperor Chongzhen's holy decree, in the face of the Cao Ying people who had been dispersed, especially in the face of those northwest officials and generals who had not believed in his sincerity of surrender since his surrender, and had been shouting and shouting at him, Rao was known as Cao Cao, and had always been known for his scheming, but at this time, for a while, there was no other way to go.

Luo Rucai was in the camp of the fourth town of the Guards in Anding City, and after reluctantly receiving the holy decree of the imperial court, he also thought of various ways to deal with it.

For example, he seriously thought about letting those subordinates who could still be contacted raise troops to make a rebellion, and then he, the master of the Cao camp, would come forward to carry out the second recruitment, so as to highlight the importance of letting him stay in the northwest to stabilize the Cao camp's annexation.

It's a pity that Luo Rucai and Ji Jue think so, it doesn't mean that Luo Rucai's original generals will also think so.

After all, the entire Cao Ying, and only the two of them, were called to Beijing by the imperial court's holy decree, but the other leaders of the original Cao Ying did not have such a result.

On the contrary, Luo Rucai's original generals, such as Wang Yuncheng, Wu Ruyi, Wang Kesheng, Hao Jingchun and others, all changed from the original Cao Ying thief to the official and military generals of the Ming Dynasty, and they were also famous guards generals.

Under such circumstances, let them lead their own troops to raise troops in chaos surrounded by the imperial army, and no matter how loyal and filial their subordinates are, they must also carefully ponder the pros and cons of doing so.

After the defection of Cao Ying in Lintao City, there were only more than 3,000 people left.

After the dust of the melee in Lintao City settled, the former Cao Ying's generals Wang Yuncheng, Wu Ruyi, Wang Kesheng, Hao Jingchun and others all added up, and there were only less than 3,000 men left.

Among them, the number of people is the largest, that is, Wang Yuncheng's department, after the war, there are not about 1,000 people left, and they are now following the fourth town of the Guards Hu Dawei Department, stationed in Hezhou City.

The remaining three original Cao Ying's men and horses, after the battle of Lintao, were roughly the same, and the number was only six or seven hundred, such as Wu Ruyi and Wang Kesheng's department.

And there are only about 500 of them, such as Hao Jingchun's department, which was separated from Wang Yuncheng's department because of his meritorious service after the war.

Now there are more than 1,200 people in Wu Ruyi and Wang Kesheng's department, and they have also been incorporated into the command of Liu Xingzhi, the deputy commander of the fourth town of the Guards Army, and are following Liu Xingzhi to continue to garrison Lintao City, which has a very important strategic position.

And Hao Jingchun, who turned out to be fighting in Cao Ying, was greatly praised by Fierce Tiger after the Battle of Lintao, and was then incorporated into the Fierce Tiger Division.

When the imperial court's decree was delivered to Anding City, it turned out that only Hao Jingchun's troops were stationed outside Anding City with Hao Jingchun's troops who were as fierce as a tiger.

Hao Jingchun, who is in his twenties, has been a thief for several years, and since he voted for Luo Rucai in Shilou Mountain, he has been loyal to Luo Rucai, and Luo Rucai also trusts him very much.

On the night of March 16 in the fourth year of Chongzhen, Hao Jingchun, the new garrison officer of the first standard front battalion of the fourth town of the Guards Army, who was as fierce as a tiger, received a message from Luo Rucai that he hoped that he could raise troops and make trouble.

However, the progress of things is completely different from the imagination of Luo Rucai and Ji Jue.

That night, both inside and outside the city, there was silence and peace everywhere, and nothing happened.

Hao Jingchun received a message from Luo Rucai who tried his best to get people to bring out the camp in the city of the Guards, but now Hao Jingchun is no longer the Hao Jingchun of the past.

He didn't dare, and he didn't want to start a rebellion outside Anding City just to keep Luo Rucai in the Northwest Army.

The reason why he didn't dare was because he had too few men and horses, and he was no match for the officers and troops left inside and outside Anding City in the Fourth Town of the Guards.

Because along with the holy decree of the imperial court, there were also a large number of ordnance, military rations, military salaries, and ammunition and other materials that were delivered to the city of Anding.

Hao Jingchun is not a fool, since he followed the official army to fight a melee in Lintao, he realized that neither the Cao Camp where he was or the Daxi Camp that he followed the official army to pursue was the opponent of the Fourth Town of the Guards.

If before, when they faced the officers and soldiers of Shaanxi or the officers and soldiers under the command of Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of the three sides, they could still rely on their strength to fight with those officers and soldiers, then in the face of the current guards of the imperial court, they could only flee for their lives.

After all, where can a person's flesh and blood withstand the fierce offensive of the Guards' new muskets, artillery, thunderbolts, and fierce fire bombs?!

Today, there were only about 500 of his old brothers left, and they were still in the first camp of the fourth town of the Guards.

Once he starts an army and makes a rebellion, not to mention that he can't save Luo Rucai and the others at all, even his current status and future, etc., will disappear in an instant.