At the end of the Sui Dynasty, I am the king

Chapter 147: Envoy Zhang Xutuo

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After a secret discussion, Chen Yingliang and Xu Minlian teamed up and took advantage of Yang Xuanting's brother to make a fortune. First of all, they jointly signed a petition without any shame, claiming that they found that Yang Xuangan's remnant party had revived in Huaiyang County. However, because of the national law, they did not dare to go across the county to kill with the consent of Zhao Tuo, the prefect of Huaiyang County, and they were afraid of being exposed, so they cleverly set up a trap to lure the remaining party of Yang Xuangan to surrender. Gaining Yang Xuanting's trust, he lured him away from the team and beheaded him. Chen Yingliang led the army to attack and smash Yang Ni's remnants, but he didn't know that Yang Jishan and Li Mi were also among the bandits, so they couldn't be captured.

Brazenly turning a blind cat into a dead mouse into a loyal service to the country, Xu Minlian and Chen Yingliang sent someone to contact Zhao Tuo, the prefect of Huaiyang, to inform him of the situation of the war, and asked him to help capture Yang Jishan and Li Mi, and sent envoys to copy the memorial. , Orally asked Zhao Tuo if he needed to add a sum, saying that Zhao Tuo also helped Qiaojun to trap and kill Yang Xuanting. Then he made a request on behalf of Chen Yingliang, saying that it was the army of Qiao County that wiped out the remnants of Yang Ni who originated in Huaiyang County. Some.

Of course Zhao Tuo understood that Xu Minlian and Chen Yingliang were jointly extorting money, but Zhao Tuo didn't even have the courage to refuse to be extorted, because the Yang Xuanting brothers and Li Mi were resurgent in the territory under his rule. He didn't know that Chen Yingshang was Yang Xuanting. If Zhao Tuo didn't share the credit for this matter quickly, the furious Emperor Sui Yang knew that he was so incompetent and negligent, and his head would drop in minutes!

So Zhao Tuo, who originally wanted to renege on his debts, had no choice but to thank the Qiaojun army for their efforts in suppressing thieves with a lot of money and food in his eyes, and then separately sent generous gifts to Xu Minlian and Chen Yingliang, begging the two The vampire added to the memorial that he knew about it and helped Qiaojun trap Yang Xuanting. In the end, he had to thank Xu Minlian and Chen Yingliang a thousand times, and he was so grateful.

In the end, Xu Minlian and Chen Yingliang naturally had to carefully package Yang Xuanting's head, together with the revised memorial, and send it on a fast horse to the county of Sui Yang to dedicate it to Emperor Yang of Sui who was there. According to the situation of the battle, see if it is possible for Emperor Sui Yang to continue to die, expand the scale of the war, and induce a larger-scale civil uprising.

After arranging the envoys to go north, Chen Yingliang stayed in the west of Qiaojun for a period of time, and carefully inspected the situation of the counties in the west of Qiaojun. What shocked Chen Yingliang was that even after the winter wheat had just been harvested, the surrounding areas in the west of Qiaojun were still It is because refugees are everywhere, tens of thousands of hungry people, and they continue to flow into Qiao County, where money and food are relatively good. Refugees and hungry people fled into the country.

There is no natural disaster, and the winter wheat has just been harvested, and there are so many hungry and displaced people around. Of course, Chen Yingliang knows what the root cause of the disease is, but he is powerless to solve it. He can only suggest that Xu Minlian expand the team of village braves again, and arrange for the generals to be trained by himself. The army is stationed in key locations such as Chengfu, Guyang and Qiaoxian to take precautions at any time. After repeated consideration, Xu Minlian gritted his teeth and agreed to Chen Yingliang's suggestion, but he still couldn't help asking Chen Yingliang in private: "Chen Tongshou, isn't this just treating the symptoms and not the root cause, when is it a problem? "

"Mr. Xu, you and I know what the origin is, but do you dare to cure it?" Chen Yingliang asked with a wry smile, Xu Minlian was at a loss for words, so he could only look at Chen Yingliang with a wry smile, each drank a glass of dull wine and settled down.

Originally, Chen Yingliang was still considering whether to launch a formal cross-county campaign, leading the army to go south in a flash, and raided Fang Xianbo, the leader of the Ruyin thief who had already confirmed his position, but he had not yet made up his mind. People have already sent the news that Dong Chun, who stayed behind in Pengcheng, defeated Zhang Dahu's army in Pengcheng in Changli. Although Zhang Dahu's head was beheaded, Zhang Dahu's deputy, Zong Shimo, led the remnant troops to flee southward, and it is possible to escape. To the vicinity of Yongcheng. Chen Yingliang, who was threatened by his old nest, did not dare to neglect, and hurriedly led the army back to Yongcheng. At the same time, before the army set off, Chen Yingliang had already ordered Dong You and Changsun Wuji to arrange manpower to keep an eye on the Mangdang Mountain area in the north of Yongcheng. Just in case.

Chen Yingliang's order made Yongcheng somewhat puzzled for a while, and the eldest grandson Wuji, who was only Chen Yingliang's aide, gave some pointers, saying that the area between Mangdang Mountain and Yushan Mountain is high in mountains and densely forested, and the terrain is complex. It is a natural lair for bandits. The Changli battlefield is relatively close, and Zhang Dahu's remnants are likely to run to this area to hide when they are desperate. If they don't take precautions early, once Zhang Dahu's remnants gain a firm foothold in these places, it will be very difficult to destroy them. up. Dong You, the commander of Yongcheng, suddenly realized, and quickly arranged for special personnel to monitor the area around Mangdang Mountain.

Changsun Wuji's Crow's Mouth was once again fulfilled. When Chen Yingliang returned to the army and arrived in Yongcheng two days later, the eyeliner Dong You sent to Mangdang Mountain found the trace of Zong Shimo's team. There were still more than 4,000 people. Dare to be negligent, and quickly led the army to march north. With the help of the eyeliner arranged in advance, he quickly found the location of Zong Shimo's team, and immediately launched an attack. Zong Shimo, who had planned to stay here for a long time, was caught off guard. Fleeing from Lidi came with a shortage of people and horses, and they were short of food and grass. They were easily defeated by Chen Yingliang. Zong Shimo died in the rebellion, and the rest escaped from the mountainous area of Mangdang Mountain and fled to the north of Liang County.

This time, Chen Yingliang did not order to surrender, because with the increasing size of the army, there were only seven counties in Qiao County, no matter how good the money and food situation was, it was beginning to be unsustainable. At the same time, he had to conquer Goguryeo three times for Emperor Sui Yang To supply money, food and military supplies, Chen Yingliang, even as the prefect of Qiao County, had to consider the size of the army that Qiao County could bear, so Chen Yingliang did not order the slogan of surrender and no killing this time, but only ordered the army not to kill indiscriminately However, even so, nearly a thousand ragged, yellow and emaciated bandits put down their weapons and surrendered voluntarily.

When dealing with these captives, Chen Yingliang shed tears. After selecting hundreds of young and strong men to supplement the army, Chen Yingliang ordered all the rest of the captives to be deported back to their hometown Pengcheng County, and they were only given two steamed buns each. Dry food, countless unkempt captives knelt in front of the Qiaojun army and cried, begging to join the Qiaojun team, or stay in Qiaojun where the money and food situation is better to make a living. Many people kowtowed and bled, but Chen Yingliang could only have tears hanging from the corners of his eyes, and his expression was indifferent He categorically refused, and ordered the army to kill the captives who refused to repatriate, and killed dozens of people to drive these crying people back to Pengcheng, and handed them over to the Xiaoxian Township Yong team in Pengcheng for disposal.

Of course, Chen Yingliang didn't have other ways to deal with these captives. The Pengcheng team who took the time to receive these captives also scolded Chen Yingliang behind his back for many things. Even Kan Leng, the right-hand man who had just washed his identity, was cautious He said to Chen Yingliang: "Tong Shou, even if these people go back to Pengcheng, even if they are not buried alive or starved to death, sooner or later they will have to...restart again. Rather than wasting energy in the future, it is better to... let them go now." solved!"

Chen Yingliang remained silent with a straight face, and after a long time sighed softly: "I can't be so cruel, let's give them a chance, I hope they can mend their ways, and I hope they can find a way out." Kan Leng was speechless, feeling that Chen Yingliang The benevolence of some women is also touched by Chen Yingliang's kindness.

As a modern person who has been brainwashed by humanitarianism, Chen Yingliang certainly could not be cruel enough to massacre the prisoners of war who were also Han Chinese—the exception of foreigners, but the kind-hearted Chen Yingliang underestimated the dangers of people in troubled times, and learned that Chen Yingliang sent the prisoners of war After returning to Pengcheng, Dong Chun, who stayed behind in Pengcheng, also scolded Chen Yingliang for his hypocrisy and meddling. He refused to directly solve the captives and made trouble for himself. Overjoyed, he immediately sent someone to send a flying horse order to order Xiao County magistrate to immediately release all the prisoners handed over by Chen Yingliang, and let them find their own way out without giving them a penny or a grain of rice!

Dong Chun's insidious tricks had a satisfying effect. After those prisoners of war were released, they had no home to return to, and no food to eat. In order to survive, they had no choice but to continue to rebel and become thieves. Some of them regrouped and continued to be bandits. Some of them formed groups of three or five, each joining the plethora of mutated militias in the south of Pengcheng. As a result, Qiao County's reputation of being kind to prisoners and not killing prisoners of war quickly spread among the mutated militias, large and small. open. At the same time, Dong Chun gritted his teeth and separated 1,000 people from the tense main force, and asked his deputy to lead the south to wipe out the bandits.

In this special environment, the seeds of kindness that Chen Yingliang sowed finally borne evil results. On the one hand, the Pengcheng Sui Army, who was like a wolf and a tiger, would not leave any chickens and dogs in their path, and on the other hand, they did not kill people indiscriminately and paid more or less to the two. Mantou's Qiaojun army, the rioters who can't fight but can run, of course know how to choose, they almost all flocked to the west to escape for their lives in Qiaojun, Chen Yingliang hurriedly sent troops to stop them, but they couldn't stop them. The troops continued to pour into Qiao County, and the security of the villages and townships in Qiao County to the east of Tongji Canal suddenly deteriorated, and the Linhuan area, which was relatively empty, was even more riotous, forcing Zhang Zhiyuan, the magistrate of Linhuan County, to impose martial law on the whole city , Even sent a messenger to ask Chen Yingliang for help.

What makes Chen Yingliang want to cry even more is that these mob teams have fully understood his weakness of kindness, and they ran to the hinterland of Qiaojun when they had the opportunity, and ran away when they were stopped by the Qiaojun army. In order to survive, the Qiaojun army did not dare to kill innocent people because of Chen Yingliang's strict order. They could only confiscate their tattered weapons and send them back to Pengcheng with one or two steamed buns. In turn, they lured more rioters to move westward. Many rioters just left Qiao County during the day and sneaked back at night, making the Qiao County army busy and exhausted in vain.

After half a month of tossing like this, he really couldn't resist the pressure from inside and outside, as well as the angry protests of his accomplices. The brave and righteous soldiers in the villages and villages executed the lawless rioters and ordered the army not to take prisoners. When they found the rioters, they immediately killed and drove them away, even if they knelt down and surrendered!

After the new order was delivered, the officers and soldiers of Qiaojun, who had been full of anger for a long time, killed thousands of rioters on the first day, but the rioters who had tasted the sweetness still refused to give up, and at night they still sneaked into Qiaojun overnight. He also tried to attack the cargo and passenger ships on the Tongji Canal. Chen Yingliang, who had to rely on the canal to raise half of his military expenditure, was furious when he heard the news. At Suishuikou, command the army to mop up the mutineers on the north bank of Suishui River, and at the same time forcefully return the civilian boats and small boats on the Suishui River to the south bank, and gather them at Suishui Ferry to be guarded by the officers and soldiers, leaving only the only wooden bridge at the ferry for north-south communication. Do not give large groups of rioters a chance to cross the river.

During the raid, another group of refugees who didn't know that the Qiaojun army had sealed the border came to Suishui Ferry. They didn't even take any decent weapons, just took some sticks, bamboo spears and wooden forks for self-defense. After being stopped by the Qiaojun army, none of the dozens of people ran away. They all threw down their sticks and bamboo guns and knelt in front of the Qiaojun soldiers, shouting to surrender, and crying bitterly, begging to join the Qiaojun team. The guards at the ferry categorically refused and expelled them to leave, but these refugees refused to give up whatever they said.

At this time, more than ten knights came galloping from the direction of Pengcheng. They were all dressed as sergeants, and the leader was wearing a black bright armor. Looking at the equipment, they knew they were from the regular army. Chen Yingliang, who was resting on the south bank of Sui River, was afraid that Dong Chun would send someone to contact him for something important, so he ordered Zhang Di who was next to him, "Tell the brothers on the north bank to drive away those refugees immediately, and do it if they don't leave."

Zhang Di took the order and loudly issued an order to his subordinates on the other side. The Qiaojun soldiers on the north bank followed the order to expel them. Some soldiers began to kick and smash the refugees with their guns to drive away the refugees. The refugees still knelt down and galloped to the ferry The knights of the Sui army reined in their horses beside the official road, rested, and watched the soldiers of Qiaojun drive out the refugees.

The group of refugees still refused to leave. They just kowtowed and cried even louder on the north bank. Chen Yingliang, who had already been enraged by these dissatisfied refugees, couldn't bear it anymore, and decisively shouted: "Do it! Fight them all!" Let's go! Rebels, shoot and kill!"

The order was conveyed, and the Qiaojun soldiers who were also made extremely angry by these refugees were not polite, and immediately beat the group of refugees viciously with their swords and wooden sticks. Some of the refugees, but still some of the refugees refused to leave, and they did not resist at the same time. They just rolled on the ground crying and shouting, "Mr. Jun, Mr. Jun, please be kind, please show mercy, we will not survive even if we go back." , Either starve to death or be dragged up the mountain to become a robber! Military Lord, please show mercy, we don’t want to be robbers, we don’t want to starve to death!”

There was also a refugee who had been beaten to the point of bleeding, and simply hugged the thigh of a Qiaojun soldier, and wailed loudly while enduring his beating, "Master, just let me cross the bridge!" , I arrived in Qiao County, you can tell me to do anything, anything! I don’t want to starve to death, I don’t want to be a bandit!”

In the past, the Qiaojun soldiers brought out by Chen Yingliang must have turned a blind eye to let them cross the bridge, and might have introduced them to find a job on the canal wharf, but now they have suffered enough similar losses The Qiaojun soldiers didn't dare to do this anymore, so they took out the horizontal knife and shouted: "Let go! Get out! If you don't get out, I'll kill you!"

The refugee still refused to let go, and continued to cry and beg. The Qiaojun soldier with his legs hugged had no choice but to slash him down, "Death!"

There was a crisp crackling sound, but the bloody splatter as imagined did not appear. On the contrary, the horizontal knife of the Qiaojun soldier flew into the sky. Everyone was shocked. It landed more than ten feet away, and there was a horsewhip wrapped around the blade, and everyone was even more shocked. When they looked around carefully, the general of the Sui army who was wearing black bright armor before started to drink loudly. "Kill innocent people indiscriminately! Is this the virtue of your officers and soldiers in Qiao County?"

"Indiscriminate killing of innocent people?!" The Qiaojun soldier's nose was almost out of breath, he kicked the refugee over and shouted, "Fuck your shit! If I killed innocent people indiscriminately, these people would have died hundreds of years ago Time! You bastards in Pengcheng, you drive the people to us, we haven’t settled with you yet, how dare you say that I killed innocent people indiscriminately?!”

Hearing the Qiaojun soldier open his mouth to curse, the entourage brought by the black-armored knight immediately drew his sword out of its sheath, while Chen Yingliang hurriedly shouted at the south bank: "Stop! Stop! Who are you? ?”

Shouting, Chen Yingliang hurriedly patted his horse and rushed across the wooden bridge. When he got to the other side, Chen Yingliang realized that the black armored general looked similar to himself. He was a handsome boy who made men hate him at first glance. He was only a little older than Chen Yingliang. , holding a four-meter horse spear in his hand, majestic, heroic and far superior to himself, Chen Yingliang, who was kicked by the enemy not long ago, was inevitably a little jealous, and asked again: "Who are you? Come to Qiao County What are you doing?"

"Who are you?" The black-armored general didn't answer the question, but sternly shouted: "Chen Yingliang led the troops like this? These people have already begged you so, and you still want to beat and kill these poor people, do you mean it?" Do you want to drive them into bandits? When I meet Chen Yingliang, I will ask him face to face, is he trying to force the people to death or to turn them back when he lets you treat the people like this?!"

"What a big tone, there must be something behind it." Chen Yingliang was a little stunned by the black armor general, and knew that he would be misunderstood by people who didn't know what he did, so Chen Yingliang was not angry, but just had a pleasant face Said: "General, you misunderstood, we are forced to do this, and I will explain it to you in a moment."

"No need to explain!" The black armor general waved his horse and scolded: "Immediately release these people, pay them money for soup and medicine, and then take me to see Chen Yingliang. I have important military matters to see him!"

Seeing the black armor general speak so loudly, Chen Yingliang was taken aback again, but Zhang Di, who followed Chen Yingliang across the river, couldn't bear it anymore, and shouted: "Boy, who are you? How dare you call us Chen Tongshou by our name like that? Don’t think that you are great wearing Mingguang armor, to tell you the truth, in terms of military exploits alone, there are not a thousand, but eight hundred people in Qiaojun’s army who are qualified to wear Mingguang armor!”

"It's up to you?" The black armor general snorted coldly, and then said loudly: "I am the vanguard under the tent of General Zhang Xutuo, the ambassador of the 12 counties on the South Road of Sui Dynasty. My surname is Hua, my name is Mulan, and my name is Zi Ying, under the order of Ambassador Zhang, came to discuss military affairs with Chen Yingliang! Chen Yingliang is there, I want to see him immediately!"

"Zhang Xutuo's people are great?" Zhang Di did not show any weakness, and sneered: "No matter what kind of twelve counties he is, he doesn't care about our Qiao County..., woo, Tongshou, Chen Tongshou , why are you covering my mouth? Why are you winking at me? It seems that our Qiao County is not under Zhang Xutuo's control?!"