The good things between Chen Yingliang and Wang Xueji still failed. Chen Yingliang originally wanted to talk to Wang Xueji alone, but he couldn't find this opportunity. Wang Shichong, who knew his daughter's stubborn temper, was afraid of causing death, so he didn't dare to continue on this topic. At the end of the banquet, Wang Shichong didn't say a word, and Chen Yingliang's dream of having a beautiful concubine for the winter was completely shattered in a daze.
Originally there was only time to get along, Chen Yingliang would definitely have a chance to get Wang Xueji back into bed again, but unfortunately Chen Yingliang's love luck was as bad as killing the enemy. Kuai Ma Fei reported that during the period when the northern part of Xiapi was guarding the city to prevent Li Zitong from advancing westward, a bandit leader named Zhao Daxi in Tan County took the opportunity to gather a crowd to make trouble, killed officials and envoys, plundered the village, and recruited refugees from Langya to the south to expand his team. The scale has exceeded 10,000 people, and Pei Zhe is unable to wipe it out, so he has to ask Chen Yingliang for help.
Tan County is located at the junction of the four counties of Langya, Donghai, Pengcheng, and Xiapi. It is the heart of Chen Yingliang's supervision of the four counties. If an accident occurs, the four counties will be affected. Pei Zhe is a member of the Wenxi Pei clan, and it is Chen Yingliang who decided A magistrate who cannot sit idly by, and at the same time, this Zhao Daxi is a thief that Chen Yingliang has never heard of. With the gradual changes in history, Chen Yingliang is of course not sure whether Zhao Daxi is a big thief buried in history. So Chen Yingliang had no choice but to bid farewell to Wang Shichong's family and lead the army to the north to suppress the rebellion and suppress the bandits. He couldn't say a word to his beloved niece Wang Xueji until the troops were dispatched.
Fortunately, Zhao Daxi, a bandit with leadership and organizational skills, is only in the initial stage, the team lacks training, and the combat effectiveness is still in the growth stage. After Chen Yingliang led the army to Tan County, it was relatively smooth and quickly suppressed this group. The peasant uprising army even captured Zhao Daxi alive and executed them in a chariot, as an example to others, but because Zhao Daxi fled to Langya with high mountains and dense forests before his defeat, Chen Yingliang was forced to pursue them for more than 200 miles, and it took more than 20 days to wipe them out. This group of bandits exhausted Chen Yingliang himself and the Qiaojun army.
Pressing the gourd and raising the ladle, Chen Yingliang and the Qiaojun army quickly experienced the pain of Zhang Xutuo and the Qijun Sui army who were exhausted. Zhao Daxi had just been wiped out here, and the East China Sea was in emergency one after another. Du Fuwei, Zhao Pozhen and other big thieves took turns looting the refugees in Donghai County. In order not to freeze to death and starve to death in winter, these refugees had to rise up and turn into bandits. The better Xiapi fled, and Chen Yingliang once again had no choice but to lead the army eastward to suppress the bandits.
It was not easy to wipe out the bandits and thieves in the northern part of the East China Sea. It was already the end of the tenth year of Daye. Originally, Chen Yingliang wanted to spend a year in Donghai County, so that the soldiers of Qiao County could have a rest, but new bad news came suddenly. — Dong Chun, who stayed behind in Pengcheng, didn't know who offended there. He was impeached, passive and fearful of war, greedy for life and afraid of death, which led to rampant thieves in the territory, which angered Emperor Yang of Sui, who had returned to Daxing from Liaodong, and ordered to lock it up. Beijing, the Ministry of Communications discusses crimes!
Dong Chun is not convinced. Of course Chen Yingliang knows it, but he is General Zuo Xiaowei after all, Dinghaishenzhen in the north of Pengcheng, and also the helper who relieved the most pressure for Chen Yingliang. Chen Yingliang had no choice but to lead his army back to Pengcheng to preside over the situation just in case. As a result, at the end of the ten-year anniversary of Daye, Chen Yingliang was the year at the foot of the snowy Xu Mountain, sleeping alone in a tent with air leaks everywhere, so miserable and lonely that he almost wanted to cry out loud.
On the third day of the first month of the 11th year of Daye, the exhausted Chen Yingliang came to Pengcheng smoothly, and met Dong Chun who had been put into a prison car and was about to be taken to Dongdu. When they met in the prison car, Chen Yingliang and Dong Chun inevitably sighed at each other. Chen Yingliang couldn't find anything to comfort Dong Chun. He could only hold Dong Chun's old hand that was stiff and skinny from the cold, and said with a sob: "Old general, I can't help you." You, but don't worry, I will take care of your family in Pengcheng, and I will never let them go hungry or cold."
Hearing these words, Dong Chun burst into tears. While weeping and apologizing, he said to Chen Yingliang: "Vice Envoy Chen, Pengcheng is handed over to you, and the old department left by the old man is also handed over to you. They are all very loyal and loyal. Brave, it’s just that they are too tired, if you give them a little rest time, they can charge into battle for you vigorously, kill thieves and put down rebellion…”
In the wind and snow, Chen Yingliang, who was covered in ice and snow, shed tears and said goodbye to Dong Chun in the prison car. The prison car slowly moved away and gradually disappeared into the wind and snow. Dong Chun's family members, as well as the Pengcheng soldiers left behind by Dong Chun, many of these Pengcheng soldiers have scars on their faces and bodies, and many of them have sunken eye sockets, skinny bones, not hungry, but tired...
Dong Chun was taken away, but Emperor Sui Yang did not appoint a new Pengcheng to stay behind. Chen Yingliang could only relocate his administrative office to Pengcheng, the most important of the four counties to supervise, and actually exercise the power of Pengcheng to stay behind. No local official dared to be disobedient. However, what Dong Chun left to Chen Yingliang was not only the more than 9,000 Pengcheng soldiers who were exhausted on the battlefield of suppressing bandits, but also the devastated mess, countless refugees starved to death, and bandits who could not be killed no matter how hard they were killed. In desperation, Chen Yingliang had no choice but to accept Cheng Yaojin's suggestion to encourage all townships and villages to build docks and form a large number of local township warriors to resist looting by bandits and bandits.
Even if Wubao is built, it can only temporarily protect the people from immediate harm. Countless thieves and bandits have to gather crowds to besiege Wubao in order to eat. Chen Yingliang also has to send troops again and again to suppress the bandits. Every time, the army is exhausted enough, bandits and bandits are like weeds and thorns, they can't be cut off no matter what, just after killing all the bandits in this area, the bandits and bandits in that area rise up again, and the army just Let's go, and there are new bandits and rogues here on the back foot. They are really exhausted, but the results have not been great.
In the end, don’t say that the generals of the Sui Army couldn’t stand it, even the elder brother-in-law and eldest Sun Wuji, who didn’t have to lead the army, couldn’t stand it anymore. He ran to Chen Yingliang and asked, “Brother, we can’t kill all the thieves and bandits no matter what. Even if the team is not exhausted, the morale of the army will be seriously affected. I heard that some people in the army have begun to desert. Don't catch them and say that he is not afraid of death, but is too tired. He would rather be beheaded and march. I don’t want to fight like this again.”
"I know this." Chen Yingliang, who was obviously thinner from exhaustion, replied: "Those two deserters are old soldiers left by Dong Chun. They have been fighting in the anti-insurgency battlefield for five years and have not returned home once. They are homesick. So when they were deserters, I have already executed them. It’s okay, this is a normal phenomenon, and our Qiaojun lineage is relatively normal at present.”
"But if this goes on like this, even our Qiaojun army will have such a situation sooner or later. We have to find a way to solve this problem." Changsun Wuji said again.
Chen Yingliang smiled bitterly, sighed softly and said: "I have met our current good emperor, what can I do? The root of the world is full of bandits, and you don't know that if you only treat the symptoms but not the root cause, the bandits and bandits are of course getting worse and worse. many."
Changsun Wuji was dumbfounded, while Chen Yingliang sighed again, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, just hold on for a while, I assure you, within this year, I will take you out of this incurable Qingxu battlefield, Go to a more peaceful place to rest and recuperate, and marry your sister by the way."
"Within this year?" Changsun Wuji was overjoyed and asked hurriedly, "Brother, how do you plan to get out of this mess? Are you using the Pei family's relationship to transfer you away?"
"You'll know when the time comes." Chen Yingliang shook his head, unwilling to answer this question—and he couldn't answer it, because Chen Yingliang knew very well that Emperor Yang of Sui would definitely not agree to suppress the uprising quite a bit in terms of the current situation in Qingxu Shandong battlefield. Even if the capable executioner is transferred away, even Pei Ju may not agree to let him go, which makes the already corrupt Qingxu battlefield even more difficult to clean up. If he wants to leave this mess, he can only count on that historical event to appear...
At this time, Yuan Tiangang suddenly came to Chen Yingliang, presented a letter to Chen Yingliang, and respectfully said that it was the letter sent by Zhang Xutuo just now. When Chen Yingliang opened it, he immediately smiled bitterly. Ji and Yuan Tiangang saw that Chen Yingliang's expression was not good, so they hurriedly asked about the content of the letter, Chen Yingliang smiled bitterly and replied: "Zhang Xutuo asked me, can I spare my hand and do him a favor by sending troops to Qi County to help him deal with Lu Mingyue, the big bandit in Zhuo County? "
"Lu Mingyue?" Changsun Wuji was a little surprised, and said, "Hasn't he always been active in the north of the Yellow River? When did he cross the Yellow River? How could Zhang Xutuo not even be able to defend such a natural danger as the Yellow River?"
"When Lu Mingyue was crossing the river, Zhang Xutuo was killing Zuo Xiaoyou on the Squatting Dog Mountain in Donglai. He couldn't distinguish his origin to guard the Yellow River. Lu Mingyue took the opportunity to cross the river and succeeded." Chen Yingliang handed the letter to Yuan Tiangang and Changsun Wuji, sighing : "Just finished suppressing Zuo Xiaoyou, who has 100,000 people, and immediately ran back to Qi County to face Lu Mingyue, who also has more than 100,000 people. Zhang Xutuo and his team are more tired than us."
After carefully reading Zhang Xutuo's autographed letter, Yuan Tiangang and Changsun Wuji immediately understood why Chen Yingliang had to sympathize with him. In early February, Zhang Xutuo wiped out Zuo Xiaoyou after a bitter battle in the squatting dog mountain in Donglai County. They couldn't take a breath, and they had to go back to the division for more than 600 miles to face Lu Mingyue. The soldiers of Qi County and Zhang Xutuo couldn't bear it even if they were beaten by iron. The reason why the arrogant Zhang Xutuo asked Chen Yingliang for help was also because the army was too exhausted and the soldiers were working too hard, so he had to ask Chen Yingliang to help share some of the pressure.
After the same sigh, Changsun Wuji asked Chen Yingliang again: "Brother, shall we send troops to rescue?"
"It's too far away, and our army can't bear it even if we go hundreds of miles to Qi County." Chen Yingliang shook his head and said, "You reply Zhang Xutuo's letter for me, saying that our army is exhausted and needs to rest urgently, so we can't go north to rescue. If he is willing, he can drive Lu Mingyue into Lu County, and then I will try to lure Lu Mingyue to go south, and wait for work to break him in the north of Pengcheng."
"Can Zhang Xutuo agree?" Changsun Wuji was a little worried.
"He doesn't agree, and I won't go either." Chen Yingliang replied: "It's agreed that I will only supervise the four southern counties, and he has no right to force me to go north to Qi County. By the way, I will give him some advice by the way, so that his army can survive Take a break, let me fight this battle."
Changsun Wuji agreed, and then went down to write a letter, while Chen Yingliang instructed Yuan Tiangang, "Mr. Yuan, give an order to Tao Guang, the county magistrate of Teng County, to contact Lu Mingyue if he goes south and enters Lu County. Lu Mingyue, just find any excuse to promise to donate the city, and lure Lu Mingyue to go south to Teng County. After the matter is completed, I will recommend him to be the prime minister of Pengcheng County." Yuan Tiangang agreed, and hurriedly wrote the order.
The two letters were sent away separately. As a result, Tao Guang, the magistrate of Teng County in the north of Pengcheng, sent the reply first. After reading the reply, Chen Yingliang couldn't help laughing out loud. It turned out that Tao Guang not only promised to complete the task He also declined Chen Yingliang's appreciation and promotion, and just proposed that he heard that the county magistrate of Feng County, Qiaojun County, which was in a relatively good situation, was vacant. make…
"Tao Guang? It's such a good name, it's really an escape! Escape!" Chen Yingliang sighed, and secretly said: "Zhang Xutuo, I will help you with this at the end. I'm sorry, I have to escape too. , this hopeless mess of Shandong Qingxu can only be returned to you."
…
At the same time, Zhang Xutuo, who hurriedly ran back from Donglai to his hometown Qijun to fight the fire, also received a reply letter from Chen Yingliang in Licheng, the county government. Angry, he threw the letter on the ground, slapped it on the handsome table, and roared: "I knew this little slicker would not send troops honestly! It's true! It's true! Drive Lu Mingyue into Lu Mingyue!" County, then you can lure Lu Mingyue to go south to Pengcheng, and wait for the decisive battle in the north of Pengcheng, that sounds good! What about the people along the way? What about the villages along the way?"
Before the Meng Haicheng battle, seeing Zhang Xutuo so angry, the generals of Qi County must have raped Chen Yingliang's ancestors for eighteen generations, but this time it was very unexpected. The hot-tempered Luo Shixin and Mulan were silent and refused to join in the curses. Zhang Xutuo didn't notice this abnormality for a while, but slapped the table again and shouted: "Send the order, let the army rest for the night, tomorrow the soldiers will enter Zhu'a, and have a decisive battle with Lu Mingyue's traitor!"
"Nuo." There was an uneven singing of promises in the big tent, and the voice was a little weak. Zhang Xutuo, who was in a rage, was even more dissatisfied when he heard it, and immediately said angrily: "Didn't you eat? Answer again!"
"No." The voice was tidy, but the strength was still not strong, so Zhang Xutuo finally realized that something was wrong, looked at the generals under the tent and asked: "What's wrong with you today? Why are you so weak? It's impossible Are you sick?"
"Reporting to the ambassador, it's not that I'm sick, but I'm a little tired." Qin Qiong bit the bullet and replied: "Surround Zuo Xiaoyou and the rebels, force him to surrender, and then chase and kill the rest of the party Xiexiang and Li Wan who refused to surrender. We were all wiped out with great difficulty, and we returned to the division for more than six hundred miles immediately, and we were all a little tired."
Zhang Xutuo was stunned for a moment, and then immediately said: "Persist a little longer, after Lu Mingyue is destroyed, we will go back to our hometown to rest and let the soldiers go home and reunite with their families for a while."
"Ambassador, this is the thirteenth time you have said this." Tang Wanche said cautiously, "Also, we have returned to our hometown, and our hometown is Licheng."
Zhang Xutuo was dumbfounded, and when he carefully looked at the generals in the account, Zhang Xutuo realized that although all the brave generals under his command stood up straight, everyone was dusty, but there was an undisguised expression on their faces. Tired and sleepy, even Luo Shixin, who is as strong as a gifted child, is already so tired that the eye circles of his eyes have turned black, and the delicate little girl Mulan is even paler, with traces of sweat on her forehead. When he went to look at the soldiers in his tent again, Zhang Xutuo saw that these loyal soldiers who could use their bodies to shield themselves from arrows on the battlefield all had red eyes and black eye circles, and many of them were already too thin The cheekbones are raised, and the expression is haggard and pitiful, which makes people feel distressed.
Lowering his head silently, Zhang Xutuo pondered for a moment, got up and picked up the letter that he had just thrown out, and read it again. After reading it again, Zhang Xutuo sighed, "Boy Chen, the old man blamed you, You are not stealing, cheating, you really want to share the pressure for the old man."
Sighing, Zhang Xutuo ordered: "Send the order, the whole army will rest on the spot, defend the city firmly, divide the army into five teams, go home for two days in turn, and tell the whole army that if Lu Mingyue runs east or west, We will send troops to attack and drive them south, if Lu Mingyue goes south into Lu County, we will continue to rest and let Chen Yingliang take care of Lu Mingyue for us."
"No!" All the generals of Qi County cheered up, clasped their fists together and sang promises, with a neat and powerful voice, Zhang Xutuo smiled wryly and waved his hands to disperse the tent.
The generals of Qi County happily went out to send orders, and then there were earth-shattering cheers and joy in the barracks, one after another, one after another, for a long time, hearing these cheers from the heart, Zhang Xutuo couldn't help being extremely moved He blamed himself, and realized that he had indeed abused his military power too much. The war-weary and homesickness in the army was already very strong, but he was just afraid of himself, and he didn't dare to reveal it before. Shaking his head again, Zhang Xutuo suddenly saw that Mulan was still in the tent, and asked, "Mulan, why didn't you leave?"
Mulan didn't answer, Zhang Xutuo suddenly came to his senses, stroked his forehead and said: "This old man is really careless, you are also homesick, right? Why don't I give you a month's leave so that you can go home and see your parents and brothers?" ?”
"Ambassador, you misunderstood." Mulan shook her head and said in a low voice: "I'm not homesick, I just feel sorry for him. I was wrong about him."
Zhang Xutuo smiled, and asked with a smile: "Then do you miss him? Do you want to meet him again?"
Mulan's pale face turned red, she didn't speak, but nodded slightly.
"Well, I will give you this chance." Zhang Xutuo said with a smile: "If you are in a hurry this time, after Lu Mingyue's traitor goes south, the old man and you will lead an army south to pursue him. Help him. Let me meet him by the way."
Mulan still didn't say a word, but she sighed in her heart: "What's the use of seeing him? He's already engaged, so why should he be a concubine? A concubine? A concubine...?"