Cheng Yaojin and Niu Jinda are indeed people who keep their promises. Not a few days after Chen Yingliang led the Qiaojun army to return to Yongcheng triumphantly, Cheng Yaojin and Niu Jinda brought some family members and two hundred Jinbei soldiers with them. Xiangyong came to Yongcheng to return. Chen Yingliang was overjoyed when he heard the news. He personally led all the civil and military officials of the city out of the city for twenty miles to meet him. Colonel, Niu Jinda was awarded the title of Captain of the Infantry.
So far, Chen Yingliang's civil and military team has basically been finalized. The generals mainly include Cheng Yaojin, Niu Jinda, Ma Sanbao and Kan Leng. In addition, Wei Zheng, who was ordered to go south to investigate the case but was unable to complete the task for the time being, was also forcibly entrusted by Chen Yingliang with the important task of law and Cao, and asked Wei Zheng to help him manage military and civilian judicial matters. There are not many people in this set of teams, but they are capable and capable, each with their own strengths, and it is also the basic team that Chen Yingliang relied on to start his career.
The team has been finalized, and the next step is to expand the army. As the new deputy commander in chief of the twelve counties to suppress bandits, the strength of the twelve regiments under Chen Yingliang's command is of course not enough. It was decided to expand the force to thirty regiments, with four regiments of cavalry, eight regiments of heavy infantry, and eighteen regiments of light infantry and crossbowmen.
Time waits for no one. Chen Yingliang's military expansion has already started before Cheng Yaojin and others arrived in Yongcheng. Fortunately, there is a lack of everything around Qiaojun, except for the refugees and hungry people. The recruiting notice has just been posted and it is located in Qiaojun. The recruiting points on the border were already crowded with refugees, and the generals of the Sui army were allowed to select the young and strong. In just three days, qualified soldiers were recruited. At the same time, after taking office as the deputy commander-in-chief of bandit suppression, Chen Yingliang didn't need to force the poor prefect Xu Minlian to pay for food and money. The four counties of Pi, Donghai and Langya have provided money and food.
At the same time, Chen Yingliang finally met his old neighbor Dong Chun for the first time. Just as Yang Wang worried about, Dong Chun, the left-behind and left-guard general in Pengcheng who was old enough to be Chen Yingliang's grandfather, was obviously not convinced by Chen Yingliang, a young man. The immediate superior, not far from Yongcheng, not only did Dong Chun not come to see the Shangguan, but even the notice sent by Chen Yingliang was also in charge of the official documents. Dong Chun also delayed for several days before replying. It was also very simple and only wrote the three words "I got it", expressing my disdain and dissatisfaction with Chen Yingliang with a very contemptuous attitude.
Of course, Chen Yingliang knew that it would take some effort and time for him to make Dong Chun obey orders, and his contempt and disrespect towards Dong Chun could only be temporarily recorded in the black ledger, and he would deal with it slowly when he had the opportunity. In charge of the riots in the four counties, as well as the specific situation of the officers and soldiers in the four counties. Fortunately, Dong Chun did not dare to play tricks on Chen Yingliang in this regard. While replying, he truthfully reported all kinds of military information, and at the same time assessed Donghai, Xiapi and Langya, whose power was held by Chen Yingliang. The prefect and captain of the county did not dare to be negligent, and they all reported their respective situations truthfully, so that Chen Yingliang had a general understanding of the four counties under his supervision.
Judging from the situation reported by the supervisory four counties, Chen Yingliang discovered that the big thief Zhang Xutuo was most worried about, Peng Xiaocai, was actually not very dangerous. He is good at fighting, but because the terrain in the Yimeng mountain area is too complicated. Whenever the army invades, Peng Xiaocai will lead the team into the deep mountains and old forests to play hide-and-seek with the army, dragging the army down alive. It would not be difficult for Peng Xiaocai to lure him out of the mountains, and then fight him in the plains. It would not be difficult to defeat or even annihilate him, there is no need to worry about it.
On the contrary, it was Donghai County, which Zhang Xutuo didn't mention at all, that made Chen Yingliang vigilant, because Yin Weng, the prefect of Donghai, reported to Chen Yingliang that after Du Fuwei's team rushed eastward into the East China Sea, not only did the team go again A rapid expansion, and designed to kill Zhao Pozhen, the leader of the East China Sea thief, annexed Zhao Pozhen's team, and became the leader of the East China Sea; Meng Haigong seized the opportunity and led more than 10,000 people to go south via Langya. At present, they have invaded Huairen County at the northernmost end of the East China Sea, and echoed with Du Fuwei who fled south of Shuyang, seriously threatening the entire county of East China Sea, which is empty of troops. Safety.
After carefully reading the reports of each county, and marking the enemy's position on the sand table of the map of the four counties made by Yuan Tiangang himself, Chen Yingliang pondered for a long time before saying: "I don't think we should send troops to Langya first, we should send troops directly to the east. First, sweep out the small group of thieves in the south of Pengcheng, and train the recruit team by the way, then send troops to the Pi, and send troops to the East China Sea at the right time, and defeat the two thieves, Du Fuwei and Li Zitong, to ensure the safety of the East China Sea. Once the thieves get big in the East China Sea, not only the city of Donghai County will be hard to protect, but Xiapi County, the richest in Xuzhou, will never have peace."
"Then what should Peng Xiaocai do?" Changsun Wuji asked: "He is the big thief named by Ambassador Zhang. If we can't wipe him out as soon as possible, Ambassador Zhang will be hard to explain?"
"Peng Xiaocai asked Dong Chun to deal with it." Chen Yingliang replied: "Dong Chun's strength is enough to deal with Peng Xiaocai, but he didn't have a chance to fight Peng Xiaocai, so Peng Xiaocai was allowed to escape until now. We just need to find a way to get him out of the Yimeng mountain area. You can easily deal with him."
"Of course what my brother said is a good idea, but how can we get Peng Xiaocai out of the Yimeng mountain area?" Changsun Wuji asked.
Chen Yingliang frowned and didn't answer, he couldn't think of any way to create a decisive battle opportunity for Dong Chun, but Yuan Tiangang, who gradually shifted his energy to military affairs, made a suggestion: "Deputy envoy, why don't you interrupt the idea of cutting off the food? Lang Ya The area is vast and sparsely populated, the land is barren, and the grain production is scarce. Peng Xiaocai's team does not do any production and relies entirely on looting for supplies. There must not be too much grain in reserve. If we can cut off his grain and grass sources, it will not take long for Peng Xiaocai to just If you can obediently get out of the Yimeng Mountains, won’t it be much easier for Dong Chun to have a decisive battle with him?”
"The idea is correct, but it's hard to do." Chen Yingliang frowned and said, "It's already the first ten days of July, and the millet will be harvested in one month. Once the autumn grain enters the warehouse, the folks will have a lot of grain in stock. Peng Xiaocai can get food just by looting the village, how can we cut off his source of food and grass?"
"Excuse the students for being unclear, this year's Qingzhou area is not a bumper year." Yuan Tiangang shook his head and said: "Students love Zhouyi astronomy, and often collect weather and weather in various places. From what the students have learned about Qingzhou's weather conditions, this year's Qingzhou There is very little rain in the area, and it is very lucky that there is no locust plague, but the grain harvest is a foregone conclusion, so as long as we try to get the people to concentrate on saving the few grains, it will not be difficult to lure Peng Xiaocai."
Hearing Yuan Tiangang's suggestion, Chen Yingliang remained expressionless, and said after a long time: "It seems that this is the only way, Wuji, write an official document for me to Langya prefect Dou Xian, ordering him to build In Mincang, after the autumn harvest, the common people were immediately required to transfer their grain to the city for storage, register and record it, and let the common people receive their own grain in batches and go home to eat. Before Peng Xiaocai was wiped out, the common people were not allowed to store grain at home for more than ten days."
"In the villages that are too far away from the city, the fort is built to store the autumn grain, which is protected by local township braves, and officials are arranged to supervise and guard it. When the enemy attacks, once the fort is in an emergency and reinforcements do not arrive, the officials immediately set fire to the stored grain. Officials who make Wubao store food for opponents will be rewarded according to the law!"
After Chen Yingliang finished reading the main idea of the official document, before Changsun Wuji could pick up his pen, Wei Zheng who was next to him objected in shock: "No, absolutely not! Fushi Chen, do you know? If you do this, how many things will happen? How many corrupt officials will take the opportunity to enrich their own pockets and extort money, and how many people will have their food rations embezzled by corruption?"
"It's better to be confiscated by corrupt officials than to be snatched by bandits." Chen Yingliang said coldly, "Wei Facao, I know the disadvantages you mentioned, but if I send a large army to Langya to suppress the bandits, how many disadvantages will there be? How much food will it cost, and how much burden will it add to the people? Whichever is the lesser of two evils, I can only choose the least harm to the people."
Wei Zheng was a little silent, but he still groaned: "But if you do this, the people will suffer too much."
"The people are suffering, but it's better than starving to death after being robbed of food." Chen Yingliang sighed, and said: "Wuji, write to Dou Xian and let him act according to plan. I believe he will do his best to take advantage of this chance. By the way, give Dong Chun an order to send 6,000 troops to Linyi to rest and wait for orders, to ensure communication with the counties in Langya, and to send troops to kill the thieves as soon as he finds the enemy."
Changsun Wuji agreed, and immediately drafted an order. Then Chen Yingliang ordered to train and prepare for the battle with all his strength. After the autumn harvest, he immediately sent troops east to the south of Pengcheng to mop up the small bandits there to train recruits. At the same time, Chen Yingliang naturally had to report the situation to Zhang Xutuo, explaining the situation and introducing the pros and cons, and asked Zhang Xutuo to arrange a team to respond to Xintai Dong'an and other counties in northern Langya to prevent Peng Xiaocai from plundering northern Langya.
Just as Chen Yingliang expected, after receiving Chen Yingliang's order to be considerate of his subordinates, the prefect of Langya, Dou Xian, was ecstatic. He hastily ordered the seven counties under his command to build civilian warehouses to stockpile autumn grain, and at the same time build docks in remote areas. Officials at all levels in Langya, who smelled the smell of oil and water, were also ecstatic about storing grain for the people. While cheering and praising the new boss for his good governance and caring for his subordinates, they worked hard to implement orders. The advantage is to incite, confuse, intimidate and coerce the people to hand over the autumn grain to the government for safekeeping. During this period, it is natural to engage in some tricks to make a lot of money.
The officials in Langya were cheering, but Dong Chun, the prefect of Pengcheng, was so angry that he scolded Chen Yingliang for acting absurdly, and at the same time impeached Chen Yingliang for his misdeeds. It is a pity that Zhang Xutuo was bewitched by Chen Yingliang's letter, and felt that forcing Peng Xiaocai to fight decisively was far better than sending a large number of troops to play hide-and-seek with Peng Xiaocai in the Yimeng Mountains. Do not skip the report, and report to Chen Yingliang first.
The highly respected Zhang Xutuo also stood by Chen Yingliang. No matter how dissatisfied Dong Chun was, there was nothing he could do. At the same time, Dong Chun received news from the court that someone had impeached him in front of Emperor Sui Yang, accusing him of being cowardly and ineffective in suppressing bandits. It is extremely incompetent to rule the country in a mess. I ask Emperor Sui Yang to deal with it according to the law! In order not to give others more excuses to blame him, Dong Chun could only curse at Chen Yingliang for his random command, while obediently leading the army northward, stationed at the Linyi battlefield designated by Chen Yingliang, and waited for the opportunity to appear.
After asking Zhang Xutuo for a little delay, when Dong Chun angrily led the army to the outside of Linyi City, the autumn harvest in Langya had already begun, and just as Yuan Tiangang's crow's mouth predicted, this year's autumn harvest in Langya County has indeed suffered a serious failure , because of the lack of rain, usually more than 200 catties of millet can be harvested per mu of land, but this year it can only harvest 130 to 40 catties, and the production has been reduced by almost half. The grain shortage in the coming year is almost a foregone conclusion, resulting in even the autumn harvest season. Still rising.
Now that the price of grain has risen against the market, the corrupt officials in Langya County will naturally work harder to implement Chen Yingliang's order to strengthen the walls and clear the fields. The people in Langya were crying and screaming, and they refused to pay the food, and they even killed people because of it. Dong Chun was so angry that he couldn't help but wrote another memorial to Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, scolding Chen Yingliang's actions for harming the people, but it was useless to waste the people and waste money.
It was also a coincidence that when the people in Langya were still working hard in the autumn harvest, the day after Dong Chun sent out his second memorial to impeach Chen Yingliang, Fei County, not far from Linyi, suddenly sent an urgent report, saying that Peng Xiaocai had been found in the north of the county. Tracks of the team. But Dong Chun, who had already suffered countless similar losses, was not fooled this time. He did not rush to send troops to conquer, but chose to stand still and send people to closely monitor the movement of Peng Xiaocai's team.
Two days later, news came that made Dong Chun feel unbelievable. Peng Xiaocai, who usually ran around like a rabbit, seemed determined to do a big business in Feixian County this time, and even gathered troops to surround a new building in the north of Feixian County. Wubao threatened to pay the food and not kill them. If they refused to pay the food and kill everyone in Wubao, the soldiers guarding Wubao hurriedly asked the county for help, and the county magistrate of Fei County also hurriedly asked Dong Chun for help.
When the matter reached this point, Dong Chun could not explain to the court if he did not send troops. Although he knew that Peng Xiaocai would probably run away with a single shot, Dong Chun personally led 3,000 troops to Fei County for reinforcements, which made it even more difficult for Dong Chun. What is believed is that when his army arrived at the scene of the incident, Peng Xiaocai's team not only did not flee ahead of time, but also bit the bullet and fought Dong Chun's team head-on.
This was a decisive battle that Dong Chun was not prepared for at all. Peng Xiaocai's team bullied Dong Chun's few soldiers. At the beginning of the battle, he rushed to the front of Dong Chun's flag, and it was difficult to kill Dong Chun's team. Parrying—Because the Pengcheng soldiers did not expect that Peng Xiaocai would dare to fight the self-army, and they also thought that Peng Xiaocai would collapse at the touch of a touch as usual.
Fortunately, after all, Dong Chun's team is well-equipped and has a lot of battlefield experience. After surviving the initial dangerous moment, they gradually freed up their hands to counterattack, gradually turned the situation around, and began to occupy the battlefield upper hand. It was also at this time that Peng Xiaocai finally ordered to retreat and escape as usual. Dong Chun finally caught Peng Xiaocai's main force and was willing to give up. Regardless of the mountainous area ahead, he still pursued closely, and personally led the army towards the front. He bit Peng Xiaocai's tail tightly and refused to let him go.
This pursuit lasted for a full day and night, and the key to victory or defeat was once again beyond Dong Chun's expectations. Just as Dong Chun's team was chasing for too long and their physical strength was declining, the Wubao in Feixian County that was surrounded before Warm millet rice was delivered in time, allowing Dong Chun's team to eat in time, regain their strength and start chasing again. But this time, Dong Chun didn't let his old opponent Peng Xiaocai slip away from him, and finally captured Peng Xiaocai alive beside a small stream, and captured the big thief who had harmed Langya and Pengcheng counties for nearly two years.
While the soldiers of the Sui army were cheering, Dong Chun wondered why Peng Xiaocai didn't escape early this time. When Peng Xiaocai was escorted in front of him, Dong Chun asked Peng Xiaocai this question face to face. Peng Xiaocai was also very proud and replied directly: " You can dig out my stomach and you will know the answer."
Of course, Dong Chun was reluctant to let Peng Xiaocai, an old opponent, die so happily, but ordered to open up the stomachs of the corpses of several bandit soldiers. What surprised Dong Chun was that the stomachs of the bandit soldiers were full of bark and grass roots. One of the thieves simply had Guanyin soil in his stomach, and he couldn't find any food. Shocked, Dong Chun blurted out to Peng Xiaocai and asked, "How long have you been out of food?"
"Thirteen days!" Peng Xiaocai roared with red eyes: "Langya was poor in the first place. The grain we looted before was left and right, and it was hard to make it to the autumn harvest. You dog officials gathered all the grain and put it in custody. Let's be more civil. If I don’t keep any food left, can I not work hard? If I don’t rush to grab some food to eat, my brothers and I will only be cannibals!”
Dong Chun was stunned, and then said weakly after a long while: "In the midst of strategizing, decisive victory thousands of miles away, the old man has really seen it today."
Four days later, the news that Dong Chun had captured Peng Xiaocai was sent to Chen Yingliang who was still in Qiao County by a fast horse. At the same time, Dong Chun sent a letter of apology written by Dong Chun to Chen Yingliang. Chen Yingliang was a little disrespectful, and admitted that Chen Yingliang's arrangements were quite effective.
Seeing the good news and Dong Chun's letter of apology, Changsun Wuji, Yuan Tiangang and others were of course happy. Qian Xiangmin was also very excited to suggest that Chen Yingliang should do the same in the other three counties, and starve to death those thieves who make a living by looting . It's a pity that Qian Xiangmin's flattery was caught on the horse's hoof. Chen Yingliang's expression changed on the spot, and he roared angrily: "You want to kill the common people? Do you know how much harm this will cause and how much the common people will suffer?" Sin? There are too many mountains and forests in Langya, the terrain is too complicated and it is too difficult to suppress the bandits, so I was forced to drink poison to quench my thirst! Doing this in other counties will not only starve to death thousands of people, but also force countless desperate people to become bandits. It won't work!"
After drinking back Qian Xiangmin, who had flattered him by mistake, Chen Yingliang quickly ordered to Changsun Wuji: "Wuji, immediately send an order to Langya County to stop collecting grain and return all the grain that has been collected to the people."
"There's no need to be in such a hurry, right?" Changsun Wuji asked suspiciously, "Peng Xiaocai's remnant party is still scattered in Langya territory just now, and the food has been returned to the people. What if Peng Xiaocai's remnant party takes the opportunity to make a comeback?"
"I don't care about that much anymore." Chen Yingliang replied: "It's not that you haven't seen the viciousness of those corrupt officials. If the food is returned to the people one day later, a group of people will definitely starve to death one day earlier. Centralizing the food storage is just helpless. Since Dong Chun was lucky enough to destroy Peng Xiaocai early on, we should quickly return the food and save as many people as possible.”
Changsun Wuji nodded, and then he sat down to draw up an order, but Wei Zheng beside him sighed, "Unfortunately, the local officials in Langya will not be so diligent in carrying out your order, deputy envoy."