Chen Yingliang's road to staying behind in the Eastern Capital actually got off to a good start, with the support of King Yang Yu of Yue, and the left and right deputy left behind Yuan Wendu and Duan Da also cooperated in their work, plus Wenxi Pei's henchmen and Fan Zigai With the support of the former Ministry, Chen Yingliang quickly integrated into this important role. He was able to lead civil and military officials into the palace to meet Yang Yu with a decent appearance, and he could also sit in the imperial city like a dog and act as the military administrator of the eastern capital Luoyang and Henan County. As for civil affairs, it seems as if he has really been in charge of his own affairs in Luoyang, the eastern capital.
That's it. Age and seniority are always Chen Yingliang's fatal wounds. Even though he maintains the respect and obedience he should have to Chen Yingliang on the surface, the civil and military officials in the Eastern Capital are still dissatisfied with Chen Yingliang, the 20-year-old left behind. Catch a lot, plus Chen Yingliang has always shown others with a gentle and magnanimous hypocrisy, and his character methods are far less cruel and vicious than the old Bole Fan Zigai-killing officials and people is like mowing grass, which is a deterrent to officials at all levels in the Eastern Capital Insufficient, so soon, various disadvantages gradually surfaced.
The biggest disadvantage is that the government orders are not smooth. The various laws and decrees promulgated by Chen Yingliang in the reputation of staying behind are almost difficult to be implemented. Wen Du and Duan Da also intentionally or unintentionally made troubles, deliberately promulgated orders contrary to Chen Yingliang's decree as deputy left behind, resulting in the inability to unify the decrees, and even officials who wanted to do things were at a loss. In the end, no matter how good the decrees and regulations promulgated by Chen Yingliang were. , not being able to leave the imperial city, or even the palace city, is also empty.
After all, they are already two lives. Of course, this situation has long been expected by Chen Yingliang. Chen Yingliang did not rush to take action, but chose to temporarily make false claims with these people, while secretly collecting all kinds of necessary information, while trying his best to win over them. Fan Zigai's old department represented by Lu Chu, Wei Anshi and others, as well as the accomplices and lackeys left by the Pei brothers, first consolidated their basic base, and then tried to make progress, establishing their brutal and lustful power in the eastern capital.
Opportunities came while waiting. In mid-August, an imperial edict came from Jiangdu, saying that Emperor Yang of Sui had successfully arrived at Jiangdu Palace. Chen Yingliang took the opportunity to instigate Yang Tong to hold a celebration to celebrate Emperor Yang of Sui's safe arrival in Jiangdu, and to wish Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty a safe arrival in Jiangdu. The body of the dragon is healthy and long-lived. Yang Tong followed Chen Yingliang's advice and all officials entered the palace to celebrate. He also arranged the celebration venue in front of the Daye Hall to show respect for Sui Yang Emperor.
Just as Chen Yingliang expected, a celebration was held for such a trivial matter, and all the officials were pulled to bask in the sun in front of the Daye Hall. To the civil and military officials who are doing it, there is no shortage of strange words and complaints. As a result, this also fell into Chen Yingliang's poisonous plan. While instigating Yang Tong to recite in public Fang Xuanling's congratulatory speech on the holy body and health of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, he also instigated Pei Yun to collect the officials' faults, especially the The mistakes of those civil and military officials who deliberately confronted themselves, even farting and sneezing, were regarded as crimes and impeachment.
Then naturally, on the second day, those civil and military officials who deliberately confronted Chen Sangliang were quickly dumbfounded, and could only bow their heads and plead guilty in front of the well-documented impeachment of the censor—disrespect to Emperor Sui Yang is nothing For petty crimes, Chen Yingliang also took the opportunity to kill and kill two officials who had confronted him the most. They took the opportunity to place obedient people in some key positions, and then wrote the situation into a memorial, and sent people to Jiangdu to report to Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, so that these people would not even have a chance to complain.
After this move, all the officials of the Eastern Capital finally saw Chen Yingliang's sinister and vicious side, and began to understand that Chen Yingliang, who was hiding a knife in his smile, might be more difficult to deal with than the former Emperor Fan Zigai of the Eastern Capital. The promulgation and implementation of the provisions of the capital decree has gradually become smoother. Chen Yingliang strikes while the iron is hot, and takes advantage of Duan Da's weak and timid character. While secretly letting him know of Duan Da's faults collected as a threat, he desperately wins Duan Da over. Sure enough, he soon became obedient, and the other deputy, Yuan Wen, was unable to do anything alone, and the threat to Chen Yingliang was even smaller.
While working hard to consolidate power, Chen Yingliang certainly did not forget to attach importance to the army. He often went to the army to command and train in person, and also took the opportunity of military training to let his cronies and former troops serve as temporary commanders to preside over the training, so that in the future, Yun Dingxing and Huangfu Wuyi, Ba Yegang and other generals of the Eastern Capital, but Chen Yingliang did not dare to be too presumptuous in this matter. Basically, he just strengthened the control of the second-line army. The elite troops under Yun Dingxing, Ba Yegang and others Chen Yingliang temporarily He didn't move to avoid provoking them too much, so the army that Chen Yingliang could really control in a short period of time was still his old Qiao Peng troops and some elite Youwuwei, and his control over other troops was not that strong.
In addition, Chen Sangliang naturally had to start developing new weapons. In addition to letting Yuan Tiangang continue to preside over the development of weapons, Chen Yingliang also discovered a talented craftsman named Cui Hongdan under the discovery of Yuan Tiangang and the recommendation of Fang Xuanling. Because this Cui Hongdan was able to manufacture trebuchets operated by 14 people and eight-shot bed crossbows (historical facts), Chen Yingliang was overjoyed immediately, and immediately recommended him an official position in the Shaofu to help Yuan Tiangang manufacture weapons for future use.
Some friends must ask, isn't Yun Dingxing also a craft genius? Why didn't Chen Yingliang let him participate in the development and manufacture of new weapons? There are two answers. One is that Yun Dingxing's current official position is too high, and it would be inappropriate for him to be a craftsman. The other is that Chen Yingliang is really worried about Old General Yun's character and dare not let him know his secret trump card Therefore, Chen Yingliang specifically explained to Yuan Tiangang that he could only ask Yun Dingxing for help in details, and Yun Dingxing was not allowed to know what Yuan Tiangang was making.
During the busy time, the time has entered September unknowingly. As Li Mi expected, the place where Emperor Sui Yang's dragon boat fleet passed by was indeed full of beacon smoke, and the people who could not bear hard labor and heavy taxes were not even getting enough food for the winter. If not, they rose up one after another and raised their flags to rebel. Even in Qiao County, where Chen Yingliang once ruled, the people became impoverished and the situation was corrupt. Share the rebel army and expand the scale of the Wagang Army. Li Mi also gained the trust and attention of the leader of Wagang, Zhai Rang, and gradually became the de facto second member of the Wagang Army because of his successful suggestions and lobbying allies to join Wagang.
Under such circumstances, Li Mi, who had already secretly contacted a certain party, couldn't hold back anymore. In order to further strengthen Wagang, and also to check the growth of Chen Yingliang, a terrible opponent, Li Mi found an opportunity to meet with Zhai Rang. After a long talk, he pointed out to Zhai Rang: "My lord, now the world is restless and the people are boiling. The population of Liangjun, Dongjun and Jiyin, where we mainly operate, has been greatly reduced, and almost all the land has been abandoned. Our soldiers Although there are many horses, there is no stable and reliable supply of food and grass, and the soldiers and civilians can only rely on plundering the Tongji Canal to supply food, and there will often be shortages of food and grass. If this continues, our situation is bound to be bad."
"Yes, that's what I'm most worried about." Zhai Rang nodded in agreement, and said, "The food in Wagang village is only available for more than half a month, and now there is nowhere to buy food in the local area. Hurry up and do some big business, or we will run out of food again."
"So, my lord, we must not just sit and wait for death, and we must not just open up the idea of helping the canal to obtain grain." Li Mi took the opportunity to say: "According to the students' opinion, we should march to Xingyang, first take Jindi Pass, and look down on the hinterland of Xingyang. , Yang Qing, the prefect of Xingyang, is weak and incompetent, so he will only stick to the county and manage the city. In this way, not only will all the food grains that go northward from the Tongji Canal be obtained by our army, but the warehouses in the counties in the hinterland of Xingyang will also become ours. With the backing of these food and grass materials, we can grow our team even more and build more great achievements.”
"Pu Shangong's idea is a good idea, but can we beat Jindi Pass?" Zhai Rang asked with some concern.
"Your Majesty, don't worry, the students already have plans." Li Mi smiled slightly, took out a stack of map documents, and showed off to Zhai Rang: "The students have long wanted to persuade the King to take Jindi Pass to the west, so they have already started to collect Jindi Pass. Now I even know that Zhang Jiuji, the guard of Jindi Pass, spends the night in that woman’s room every night, and taking Jindi Pass is as easy as flipping the palm of his hand.”
After reading the information on Jindiguan that Li Mi spent a lot of time collecting, and hearing about Li Mi's plan to break through and the various benefits after breaking through, Zhai Rang finally made up his mind and personally led five thousand elites to the west, with Li Mi as his staff. , Rapidly raided Jindiguan, which is due west of Wagangzhai, and Zhai Hong and Xu Shiji led the main force to follow behind. As a result, the battle went so smoothly that even Li Mi couldn't believe it. The Wagang Army had just climbed up the wall with a simple ladder at night, and Zhang Jiuji, the guard who was greedy for life and fear of death, had already opened the west gate and fled. Fleeing, and some defenders who were dissatisfied with the imperial court directly opened the gate to welcome the Wagang Army to enter the pass. As a result, it took only three days from the dispatch of troops, and the Wagang Army took down the steep Jindi Pass at a small price. The Guancheng of Jindiguan is a foothold, overlooking the hinterland of Liangjun, which is indefensible, and also completely controls the mouth of the Tongji Canal connecting the Yellow River.
The following situation continued to be predicted by Li Mi. As a relative of the emperor, Yang Qing, the prefect of Xingyang, the prefect of Xingyang, did not have the courage to counterattack and regain Jindi Pass. Asking for help, what made Li Mi laugh from ear to ear was that Yang Qing didn't know whether it was because of water in his head or what. The time is urgent to the east and asks Chen Yingliang for help. Therefore, when Chen Yingliang received the news that the Wagang Army had breached Jindi Pass, the main force of the Wagang Army had already crossed Jindi Pass and entered the interior of Xingyang County in an endless stream. The neighboring Xingze County was still in the fall of Jindi Pass The next night, it was breached by the partial division of the Wagang Army, and Xingyang was also in a state of emergency.
Li Mi's move just happened to be stuck in the most uncomfortable rhythm of Chen Sangliang. He had just stayed in Shangdong for a few days, internal instability, and people's disapproval. Chen Sangliang had to weigh the consequences even if he wanted to immediately send troops to fight back. At the same time, the news that made Chen Sangliang vomit blood suddenly came again-Li Shanfei, the leader of the bandit who raised troops in Zhuojun County, sent his general Zhen Zhaier to cross Taihang Mountain, with more than 100,000 people to attack Taiyuan County. Zigai dispatched General Pan Changwen to fight, but Pan Changwen was beheaded by Zhen Zhai'er's army in the battle. The Sui army in Taiyuan was defeated and suffered a lot. The Fenshui area that was pacified by Chen Sangliang also reappeared in riots, but because of old age and sickness, Fan Zigai was unable to lead the army to fight in person, so he could only send his deputy Gao Junya to lead the army to fight, but the outcome is still unknown.
The east and the north are in emergency at the same time, and the time to test Chen Sangliang, the eastern capital, is coming. When he hurriedly called his staff and think tanks to discuss countermeasures, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and others gave Chen Yingliang a very dangerous suggestion. : "Stay here, we can concentrate on preventing changes in the north, and don't have to worry about the east. Xingyang County is also managed by Zhang Xutuo, the arresting ambassador of the twelve counties. Zhang Xutuo is responsible for cleaning up if something happens there. It is also enough to regain Jindi Pass and deal with the Wagang bandits, so we don’t need to worry about it.”
"But we have to take care of Taiyuan." Fang Xuanling said again: "Fan Liushou is your Bole, brother, and he has been kind to you as much as a mountain. Now he is old and sick, and Taiyuan County has a vast terrain. The ideal of the event is that if you let the bandit army grow up there, the consequences will be unimaginable. Sending troops to Taiyuan County as soon as possible can not only prevent the bandit army from getting bigger, but also repay Fan Liushou's kindness to you, killing two birds with one stone."
The reason why Fang Xuanling made this suggestion was, of course, because he did not have the historical limitations of foresight. As a traveler, Chen Yingliang felt hesitant when he saw the place name Dahai Temple in the southeast of Jindi Pass on the map. He wanted to let history develop according to the original track, but when he thought of Zhang Xutuo's tired figure, as well as the earnest teaching and care for him, Chen Yingliang felt unbearable.
"Stay behind, what's wrong with you? Why don't you speak?"
Wei Zheng's voice brought Chen Yingliang back to reality, and after regaining his senses, Chen Yingliang made some calculations, and then said: "Xingyang County is adjacent to Henan County, once the Wagang bandits are established in the hinterland of Xingyang, they will definitely threaten the Eastern Capital. Safe, I mean, you might as well first send troops to help King Xun and Ambassador Zhang Xutuo defeat the Wagang bandits, and then go back to help Fan Liushou. Fortunately, Fan Liushou did not ask us for help directly , Gao Junya is also more competent, Taiyuan is not in too much danger for the time being, we still have time to return to the army."
Although they knew that Chen Yingliang's actions would make the army exhausted easily, seeing that Chen Yingliang was determined to rescue Xingyang, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and others still nodded in agreement, and then Fang Xuanling said: "My dear brother, you don't have to do it now, you have to shoulder the burden now." With the important task of staying in the Eastern Capital, every move involves the safety of the Eastern Capital, if you want to personally lead troops to reinforce Xingyang, it is best to go to Zuo Jiangdu first and ask His Majesty for permission."
"You can also ask His Royal Highness King Yue to agree to send an army to rescue Xingyang." Wei Zheng also said: "In this way, you don't have to bear the dangerous consequences of leaving the eastern capital without authorization, and you can relieve the pressure on Xingyang and help Zhang. The ambassador strives for time for Western aid."
Feeling that Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng's suggestions were reasonable, Chen Yingliang accepted them all, and the next day he went to the palace to present Yue Wang Yang Tong, requesting to send an army east out of Hulao Pass to reinforce Yang Qing. However, to Chen Yingliang's surprise, Yang Yu, Yuan Wendu and Duan Da, the two deputy left behind, felt that there was no need to rush to reinforce Xingyang. The situation, and did not ask us for help, which is enough to prove that the situation in Xingyang is not very critical, and we don't need to send him reinforcements immediately."
"That's right, Chen Xiongqu, it's better not to act rashly." Duan Da, who has gradually become attached to Chen Yingliang, said, "The Eastern Capital's armies together have more than 80,000 people in honor, but the real core elite Not many, Chen Xiongqu, you are a man who knows soldiers, you should know how dangerous it is to send the second-line army to the field. If you send the elite to reinforce Xingyang, Dongdu will be the same as it was during the Yang Xuangan Rebellion, only a few The second-line army guards, if there is any accident in the hinterland of the Eastern Capital, the consequences will be unimaginable."
Chen Sangliang remained silent with a gloomy face, and his heart became more and more dissatisfied with the military system of this era. As long as there is no war, the soldiers will be sent home every once in a while, and they will be called to the army to gather in the army every once in a while. Just tossing around, not enough training time, less battlefield experience, and far less combat power than Zhang Xutuo and Wang Shichong's standing soldiers under the command of semi-warlords, so that I still have to worry about army training from time to time. Those who always play the role of the core backbone are still the old elites he brought from Qiao Peng—other troops, Chen Yingliang is really afraid to entrust them with important tasks now.
"General, if you are really worried about the situation in Xingyang, we can ask our grandfather for his opinion." Yang Tong suggested: "If grandfather agrees that you personally lead the army to reinforce Xingyang, we will never stop you, but Dongdu is too far away. The important thing is, as a left-behind, you don't have the imperial edict from your grandfather, so it's best not to act rashly."
After thinking about it for a while, Chen Yingliang finally accepted Yang Tong's suggestion, and decided to seek the opinion of Emperor Sui Yang first, and then Chen Yingliang brought up the Taiyuan War, but Yang Tong, Yuan Wendu, Duan Da and others still suggested Reporting to Emperor Sui Yang and seeking his opinion, Chen Yingliang had a lot of internal problems and had no choice but to nod his head. Fortunately, the situation in Taiyuan was not very critical, and Fan Zigai was still in danger. Chen Yingliang didn't have to worry too much for a while without formally asking for help.
In this way, without daring to leave the Eastern Capital without authorization, Chen Sangliang could only seek the advice of Emperor Sui Yang for everything, and when Fang Xuanling wrote a memorial for Chen Yingliang to sign, Chen Sangliang couldn't help it. He muttered sullenly, "It's really not as good as when I was in Qiaopeng. At that time, at least I could recruit and train armed local soldiers. The five counties I also manage can go wherever I want. It is much more free than staying in Dongdu now. .”
"Of course." Fang Xuanling said with a smile: "My dear brother, when you were in Qiaopeng, you drew on a piece of white paper. You can draw whatever you want. Of course, you can do whatever you want. Now you are in Dongdu, pretending In the official framework of the imperial court in the Eastern Capital, of course, hands are bound in everything and feet are tied everywhere."
"I really want to smash these frames!" Chen Yingliang muttered in a low voice, but after the muttering was over, Chen Sangliang was shocked in his heart, and said to himself: "Yeah, why didn't I think of smashing these frames, let I build it from scratch and rebuild it as I like? Even if I can’t smash these frameworks, I can borrow someone else’s hands to smash them.”
Thinking about this idea, Chen Yingliang sent someone to send the memorial on a fast horse. As a result, because the Tongji Canal was controlled by the Wagang Army, he could only pass the memorial edict through the land station. Chen Yingliang waited for 13 days before receiving the Sui Emperor Yangdi's reply. The answer is also very simple, ask Chen Yingliang to stay honestly in the eastern capital, to ensure the safety of the eastern capital Luoyang, and not to act rashly without an imperial decree, Zhang Xutuo will naturally solve the matter of the Wagang bandits raiding Xingyang County!