Let's also take a look at the situation on Chen Yingliang's side. When the four remaining guards in the Eastern Capital were arguing with each other, after half a month's march, the 10,000 reinforcements led by Chen Yingliang successfully arrived at the foot of Taiyuan City. Immediately saw Fan Zigai who was lying ill in bed.
Still the same sentence, Chen Yingliang didn't have the slightest worry about the battle in Fenshui. Even if he didn't bring a single reinforcement, with the more than 30,000 troops in Taiyuan County alone, Chen Sangliang was sure to defeat the rebels who were fleeing in Fenyang. Tuo and Chai Baochang, the only thing Chen Yingliang was worried about in Taiyuan County was Fan Zigai's physical problems—after all, Chen Sangliang's conscience hadn't been eaten by dogs.
Fortunately, a small part of Fan Zigai's illness was caused by the fact that he was unable to defeat the enemy after a long battle, and also because he was ashamed of the court and Emperor Sui Yang. He got news from the court that Emperor Sui Yang sent Chen Sangliang to lead the army After coming to reinforce him, Fan Lao stubborn also immediately understood that Emperor Sui Yang didn't blame him, and still trusted and cared for him—otherwise, he wouldn't have sent Chen Sangliang, whom he personally promoted. When the depression disappeared, Fan Lao's stubborn condition immediately improved, and after Chen Sangliang led his army to Taiyuan City, Fan Zigai, who had been bedridden for many days, personally led Taiyuan Wenwu out of the city to meet Chen Sangliang.
To be precise, it can be regarded as a teacher-student relationship between Fan Laojiao and Chen Sangliang after a long absence. The scene is also quite touching. Chen Sangliang, whose official rank has been equal to that of Fan Zigai, dismounted from his horse a few miles away and strode forward. When he came in front of Fan Zigai, he performed the official etiquette first, then immediately knelt down on one knee and saluted as a junior, and said loudly: "Grandson Chen Yingliang, I pay my respects to Grandpa Fan. I am sorry that my grandfather is sick and my grandson is going to die. Grandpa Fan, your illness is serious." How's it going?"
One sentence moved Fan Zigai to tears, and also made Taiyuan Hu Benlang next to him sigh Gao Junya, Juncheng Wang Wei and others. They were all moved by Chen Sangliang's respect for his elders and his gratitude. In the end, Chen Sangliang respectfully invited Fan Zigai into the carriage, and personally drove Fan Zigai into the city with a whip, in order to repay Fan Zigai's kindness to him—not to mention, Chen Sangliang really wasn't just pretending this time. Without Fan Zigai's unconventional promotion and care, Chen Sangliang really wouldn't be where he is today.
All the way to send Fan Zigai back to his residence, Chen Sangliang wanted to send Fan Zigai back to the hospital bed to recuperate immediately, but the old stubborn pointed out that the state affairs were important and insisted on holding a military meeting before going back to rest. Chen Yingliang and Gao Jun Ya and the others couldn't get over the old stubborn stubborn temper, obediently obeyed, and then at the meeting, Fan Zigai demanded on the spot that all civil and military officials in Taiyuan obey Chen Yingliang's orders, and fully cooperate with Chen Sangliang's work of suppressing thieves, without any slack and contradicting Those who violated the order were severely punished until Taiyuan Wenwu respectfully took orders, and Fan Zigai told Gao Junya and Wang Wei to help Chen Sangliang familiarize himself with the situation in Taiyuan as soon as possible, and then returned to the bedroom to rest with Chen Sangliang's support.
He personally fed Lao Lei Zongheng Fan Zigai a bowl of medicine. Chen Sangliang wanted to accompany Lao Jian again, but Lao Jian's temper was more conscientious than Chen Yingliang's, and he forced Chen Yingliang to leave his bedroom and deal with official and military affairs first. Chen Yingliang had no choice but to tell the servants of the Fan Mansion to take good care of Fan Zigai, then hurriedly left the Liushou Mansion and went out of the city to arrange for the army to set up a camp. Next to the army's camp, I also took the opportunity to observe the situation of the Sui army in Taiyuan.
Chen Sangliang also knew Fan Zigai's temperament habits in governing the army, that is, no matter how strict he is, no negligence or mistakes are allowed. Compared with the Great War, the Sui Army in Taiyuan has significantly improved in terms of discipline. The banners and tents are very neat and orderly. The structure of the camp is as depicted, without any irregularities. The basic qualities that should be possessed. However, Chen Sangliang found that compared with the previous Taiyuan Sui Army, the current Taiyuan Sui Army seemed much more rigid. Even though they were resting, there was almost no laughter in the camp, and it was rather lifeless.
After discovering this, Chen Sangliang inevitably frowned, because Chen Sangliang knew very well that although the discipline in the army is as important as Mount Tai, it must be implemented flexibly in terms of details, and the soldiers must be given a chance to relax and vent, because relying on the edge of the knife Soldiers who eat blood for a living are already under tremendous psychological pressure. If they are not vented and relaxed, their minds are like a bowstring. Like a bowstring stretched to its limit.
"We have to find a way to enliven the atmosphere of the Sui army in Taiyuan." Chen Yingliang had just made up his mind on this idea, but suddenly discovered another anomaly. Xu Shixu, Sima Xu Shixu of the Yingyang Mansion in Taiyuan, who had performed quite well on the Yanmen battlefield, was actually wearing The ordinary team was dressed in regular clothes and led a group of Sui soldiers to patrol the Taiyuan camp. Seeing this scene, Chen Sangliang was unavoidably even more puzzled, and secretly said: "What's the matter? Apart from his bad mouth, Xu Shixu fought well on the Yanmen battlefield? Why didn't he get a promotion after the Yanmen battle? And was demoted to team leader?"
At this time, the messenger came to report that Gao Junya and Wang Wei had come to the camp to ask for an audience. Chen Sangliang did not hesitate, and immediately rode back to the camp of the Chinese army. As expected, Wang Wei and Wang Wei were waiting in the tent. When they saw Chen Yingliang entering the tent, they immediately bowed their heads and saluted. Chen Sangliang hurriedly supported the two of them one by one, and said with a smile: "General Gao, Cheng Wang Juncheng, we are old acquaintances, why should we do this?" It’s a big gift? There’s nothing you can do in front of outsiders, you don’t have to be so restrained without outsiders, relax, please sit down, please sit down.”
He is really familiar with Chen Sangliang, knowing that Chen Sangliang is easy-going, Gao Junya has nothing to hide when he speaks, so he just smiled and said: "Don't blame the general, I have developed a habit under Fan Liushou, and the superiors and subordinates must salute when they meet. If the etiquette is not correct, you will have to be punished, otherwise Fan Liushou will get angry, so even if you know that the general doesn't care about these things, you can't help but follow his old man's rules."
"Grandpa Fan's temper is a bit stubborn, you have suffered." Chen Sangliang smiled, and said again: "However, you are not bad, when the Dongdu was defending the war, no one in the Dongdu soldiers dared to raise their heads and talk to Grandpa Fan. Look at each other, or you will be punished. Wu Jie, the Huya general from the fifth rank, just slacked off to sleep during the night, and was immediately beheaded by Grandpa Fan. Compared with that time, Grandpa Fan's temper is much better now. "
"We also know about this. Fan Liushou often uses it to intimidate us." Gao Junya said with a smile: "We also have an example here. A school captain was lazy to go back to sleep while on duty at night. Fan Liushou found out that he was beaten twice with the forty army stick At eighty, he died when he was hit with more than sixty sticks. Fan Liushou still refused to spare him, and ordered the military law team to finish beating the remaining army sticks, and then dragged the body out to bury him. Since then , we are all afraid of his old man, he is indeed strong enough."
Chen Yingliang smiled heartlessly, and said that he would persuade Fan Zigai to stop being so stubborn, and then he asked about Gao Junya and Wang Wei's intentions, and Gao and Wang immediately reported the situation of the Fenshui battle It is said that Fan Zigai ordered them to send them to help Chen Sangliang formulate a plan to destroy the enemy as soon as possible. Chen Sangliang smiled, and after receiving it, he casually flipped through the military intelligence report and asked casually. The current situation of the rebel army, Gao Junya hurriedly marked an approximate location on the sand table of the map. Chen Sangliang was a little surprised when he saw the location, and asked in doubt: "Lingjing shop? This place is not far from Taiyuan? Even if Grandpa Fan is sick, he can't send troops , why not send a few generals to lead the army to conquer?"
Gao Junya and Wang Wei smiled wryly. After the wry smile, Wang Wei said: "To tell you the truth, General Gao asked for orders to go out, and the subordinate officials also volunteered to lead the army to guard the city, so that General Gao can attack with peace of mind, but Fan Liushou did not." I didn’t agree. I was worried that the two thieves Jingchai would run away after a fight as usual, and then fled into the deep mountains and old forests to circle around with us, so I decided to continue to adopt his old man’s strategy of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness. Go bust the thieves."
Chen Yingliang was a little silent, and asked Gao Junya after a while: "General Gao, the army must be very dissatisfied?"
"I'm a little dissatisfied." Gao Junya nodded, looked around again, and said in a low voice: "General, don't tell Fan Liushou a word. Many generals and soldiers in the army are complaining that Fan Liushou is biased, saying The Taiyuan army was born by stepmothers, and they are not allowed to kill thieves when they have the opportunity to make meritorious service, but they only want to leave the credit to you, so I have a lot of resentment towards Fan Liushou."
There was another moment of silence before Chen Sangliang said: "General Gao, the reinforcements I brought are exhausted from afar and need some time to rest. Tomorrow you will lead ten thousand Taiyuan Sui troops to Lingjing store to hunt for thieves, and take the Pingshu road." Lu, let the word out today and tell the Taiyuan soldiers that I have obtained Fan Liushou’s consent, and if I win the battle tomorrow, the reward for beheading will be increased by 30%, and the reward for capturing the prisoners alive will be increased by 50%!”
"General, isn't it too risky to do this? What if Fan Liushou disagrees?" Gao Junya asked worriedly: "His old man's temper is notoriously stubborn. What if he disagrees with the reward?" , don’t the soldiers complain even more?”
"Don't worry, I'm sure." Chen Sangliang said with a smile: "Grandpa Fan himself once said that in the whole world, except for our emperor, I am the only one who can persuade him. I slapped myself on the mouth. Also, I won’t hide it from you, I did it in Dongdu before, and Grandpa Fan obediently paid for me to wipe my ass besides scolding me.”
Seeing what Chen Yingliang said, Gao Junya was immediately happy, and rubbed his hands excitedly, saying that this time he could finally make the soldiers happy. Chen Yingliang also smiled slightly, and said again: "General Gao, remember to let the soldiers catch more prisoners. When you arrive, send them to Taiyuan and hand them over to me, and don’t abuse or harm them.”
"This..." Gao Junya hesitated for a moment, and then said: "The final general will do his best, but you must also be considerate of the final general's difficulties. Before, Fan Liushou buried all the captured prisoners alive. Regardless of men, women, old or young, those bandit soldiers would rather die than surrender now, so I am afraid that the last general will not be able to catch many."
"It's okay, just do your best." Chen Sangliang replied casually, thinking about how to persuade Fan Lao to stubbornly agree with his Huairou strategy, but at this moment, a report came from outside the tent, saying that it was Jinyang Palace Supervisor Pei Ji asking to see him When Chen Yingliang heard the surprise, he hurriedly asked: "Why is Pei Ji still the Jinyang palace supervisor? Just now when Grandpa Fan led the civil and military officials to welcome me, I didn't see him. I thought he had been replaced."
"Pei Gongjian has not been removed." Wang Wei replied truthfully: "Although Fan Liushou has always disliked him, he is an official directly under the imperial court, and Fan Liushou has nothing to do with him. He didn't go to greet you just now, and it was because Fan Liushou deliberately did not." Call him."
Sighing secretly that Old Fan's stubbornness would really offend people, Chen Sangliang hurriedly asked the messenger to summon Pei Ji to enter the account. After a while, Pei Ji, who was quite famous in history, entered the Chinese army's tent, and when he respectfully saluted Chen Yingliang, Chen Yingliang personally He picked him up and didn't ask him why he didn't go to the city gate to meet him. He just made friends with Pei Jila as a junior of the Pei family, and called Pei Ji respectfully uncle. He quickly explained that he happened to be on official business, so he was unable to meet Chen Sangliang in front of the city gate, and begged Chen Sangliang not to mind.
When he laughed and said it didn't matter, Chen Sangliang also took a closer look at Pei Ji, who had only met once before and had not had time to observe carefully, and found that he was in his early forties, his features were very handsome, and he was considered a handsome man. Qu Gao is not like a civil servant, but more like a military commander, but he speaks and acts in a gentle manner, with a very elegant demeanor, but it is a pity that Chen Sangliang and him have no decent topics to talk about, so when Ma Sanbao and Cheng Yaojin will report to set up camp During the business, Pei Ji took the initiative to leave and left, not daring to disturb Chen Sangliang's handling of military affairs.
He carefully ordered the army to set up trees as fences, and Chen Yingliang asked Gao Junya to help provide timber. Gao Junya agreed immediately, and immediately rushed to the Sui army camp in Taiyuan to allocate timber for Chen Sangliang, and Chen Sangliang sent Pei Ji to He handed the gift box to Gao Junya, and said: "General Gao, take it and tell the soldiers in Taiyuan that this is something I got by accident. Tomorrow, when I send troops to Lingjing Store, whoever kills the most enemies will get the things inside." Whoever, the reward will continue to be distributed as usual."
"The general really understands the soldiers' thoughts, and I will finally thank you for those Qiu Ba." Gao Junya did not refuse, and took the gift box with a smile. When she opened it curiously, Gao Junya even screamed out. voice, "So much?!"
Turning his head in surprise, Chen Sangliang realized that the meeting gift Pei Ji gave him was indeed not thin. There were ten pieces of silver cakes and a pair of jade walls in the gift box. However, Chen Sangliang didn't feel distressed, just smiled. He said: "I didn't expect Pei Gongjian to be so generous, so let's change it. The person who beheaded the most will get Yubi, and the soldier who catches the first ten prisoners will get these ten silver cakes."
Gao Junya happily agreed, while Wang Wei next to him said in surprise: "Old Pei is really an iron cock this time, with such a generous shot, he must have something to beg the general, right?"
If it was someone else, Chen Yingliang would definitely not have any doubts, but because he knew who Pei Ji was, Wang Wei's unintentional words immediately aroused Chen Yingliang's vigilance, and Chen Yingliang asked quickly: "Wang Juncheng, listen to your words , Pei Gongjian has a very stingy personality?"
"It's not just stingy?" Wang Wei sneered, and said, "It's notorious for plucking the feathers of geese, scraping oil from the belly of mosquitoes, and cutting meat from the legs of egrets, picking and greedy."
"Shanxi old guy is already famous, and this Pei Ji is directly nicknamed the first guy in Shanxi." Gao Junya also disliked Pei Ji, sneered, and said: "General, you have to be careful, this old guy is for you Sending such a heavy gift must be something important for you."
Chen Sangliang's face became a little serious, and after a while, Chen Sangliang smiled again, and said with a smile: "Whatever he does, for the sake of his honor, as long as what he asks of me does not violate the laws of the country, be a It doesn't matter if you follow the water. But don't let Grandpa Fan know about it. He is famous for his incorruptibility. If he knows that I accept gifts for no reason, he will probably spank my ass." Gao Junya and Wang Wei together Laughing, all nodding yes.
Not a moment later, Gao Junya hurried to the Sui army camp in Taiyuan. While allocating timber to the reinforcements brought by Chen Sangliang, he announced Chen Sangliang's decision in public. As a result, the effect of boosting morale was immediate, but within a short time , The earth-shattering cheers sounded in the Taiyuan Sui army camp that was still lifeless before, one after another, for a long time, asking the Taiyuan generals who followed Gao Junya to send troops to fight against the thieves in groups, surrounded Gao Junya tightly, Everyone is smiling and in high spirits.
…
While the Taiyuan soldiers who had been suppressed for a long time finally burst out laughing, Jinyang Palace Supervisor Pei Ji also returned to Jinyang Palace. Li Er, who had put on makeup, was waiting in Pei Ji's signing room, his expression still unusually calm and composed. Seeing Pei Ji suddenly push the door open, Li Er was not surprised, and asked with a smile, "How is it? Have you sent it out?"
"Send it away." Pei Ji nodded, and then sighed: "It's a pity that Gao Junya and Wang Wei are both nearby, so it's inconvenient to talk, so I couldn't say what I asked him to keep my position as palace supervisor."
"It's okay, it's not too late to talk when we have a chance, anyway, he won't leave anytime soon." Li Er said with a smile.
Pei Ji nodded, and asked carefully: "Second Young Master, can he really persuade Fan Zigai not to impeach me? That old bastard has always disliked me, and has always wanted to get me away. This time he managed to catch me. I am afraid it will be difficult for him to let go of the reason for the escape of the Jinyang Palace."
"Don't worry, that kid's butt is not clean either. As long as you feed him enough, and you are a member of the Wenxi Pei family, he won't fail to show his respect." Li Er comforted: " Old Fan Jianjiu and him are very sympathetic. He refuses to listen to other people's words, but he can still listen to what the boy said. And even if he can't talk to Lao Jianjiu, my father will try his best to send the memorial to His Majesty. Do whatever it takes to keep you."
Pei Ji nodded, and said regretfully: "It's a pity that Tang Guogong just couldn't make up his mind, otherwise, a few days ago would have been the best opportunity. The old stubborn and headstrong offended the Taiyuan army all over again, and the army hated him deeply. There are people everywhere, if Tang Guogong can make up his mind at that time, things will definitely happen."
"Is that so easy?" Li Er smiled, and said again: "Father sent me here to see if there is a chance to do it, but after I looked carefully, I found that the opportunity was not ripe yet. It’s true that he’s a bit unpopular, but after all, he’s honest and self-disciplined, and his prestige is too high. If he really wants to do it, he’s not very sure of success, so I have no choice but to keep you first, keep the old department left by my father, and wait slowly. The opportunity presented itself."
Pei Ji nodded, and respectfully thanked Li Er for his kindness of preservation, and Li Er said again: "Let's do it this way, boy Chen Yingliang, you should run around more often, and beg him every chance you have, in the name of Wen Xi Pei's name." The signboard begs him, if you still need money for activities, just ask me."
"Thank you, Second Young Master." Pei Ji thanked him again, and said: "Duke Tang has already been harmed by that boy, and if Second Young Master spends so much money to make Tang Guogong worse, I feel really sorry."
"What are you being polite about? Who is Uncle Pei? You and my father are life and death friends. Your business is our Li family's business. Uncle, if you are in trouble, my nephew will naturally try to help you." Li Er smiled modestly, but said in his heart "You really don't need to be polite to me. Only if you keep you can the things in this Jinyang Palace be surnamed Li at any time. There are hundreds of thousands of military rations, hundreds of thousands of armors, and mountains of silk, satin and colored silk. There are these things." With it in hand, even raising an army of 100,000 is easy."