On the night of February 16th in the thirteenth year of the Sui Dynasty, God made a huge joke on the declining Sui Dynasty. Without any preparations, Chen Yingliang, who stayed behind in the Eastern Capital, relied on an impeachment memorial and a copied letter. , determined the real target of the Wagang Army, led more than two hundred soldiers, rode on the mounts of the civil and military officials of the Eastern Capital who were forcibly requisitioned in front of the imperial city gate, and ran for hundreds of miles in three hours, using local materials to organize defenses , Qiaobu empty city plan to buy precious time, successfully saved Luokou warehouse, the largest granary in the world, which was doomed to fall.
At this point in the matter, it was supposed to be celebrated by the court, but no one expected that on the same night, because the Henan arrest ambassador Pei Renji personally led an army to rescue Luokou Cang, and took away a large number of elite defenders of Hulao Pass , gave the Wagang Army a godsend opportunity to attack Hulao Pass before and after the response from inside and outside. The Luokou Warehouse, thirty miles away, has never had a peaceful day, and even the city of Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Great Sui Dynasty, never dared to rest in peace.
In this regard, the biggest culprit, Pei Renji, declared to the outside world, saying: "The old man was worried about the safety of Luokou Cang. At that time, the old man received the news that there were only more than 200 soldiers brought by Chen Liushou from Dongdu who rushed to Luokou Cang for reinforcements." Before, the old man only sent 1,000 reinforcements to Hulao Pass, but the Wagang bandits were personally led by Zhai Rang and Li Mi. The momentum was extraordinary. The old man was worried that the Luokou warehouse would be lost, so he personally led the army to reinforce Luokoucang, I just didn’t expect that the Wagang bandits would be so cunning that they could take advantage of the small space where the old man temporarily left Hulao Pass and take advantage of the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.”
"Eager for meritorious deeds, blinded by profit!" This is Chen Sangliang's most polite comment to Uncle Yuanfang, and he also viciously speculates on Uncle Yuanfang's psychology at that time, "What? The Wagang bandits really took a detour to attack Luokou warehouse? It's over, old man How can I explain to His Majesty now? The Wagang bandits sneaked in and attacked me right under my nose, and Chen Yingliang had already warned me before. I don’t believe there is such a thing and they refused to send troops. I have sent a thousand reinforcements, no matter whether this Luokou warehouse can be saved or not, His Majesty will not spare me!"
"Wait, the two thieves, Zhai Rang and Li Mi, personally led the army to attack Luokou Cang? Good! If the old man can capture and kill these two thieves or one of them, it will be a great achievement. Your Majesty will be delighted! Yes, immediately Send troops, the sooner the better! Otherwise, the reinforcements from Dongdu will definitely come to Luokoucang for rescue in an endless stream, and if Chen Yingliang steals this extraordinary feat, the old man will have no place to save his face!"
Regardless of whether Pei Renji cares about chaos, makes mistakes in the middle of a busy schedule, or is greedy for success and blinded by profit, it is too late to say these things now. After successfully capturing Hulao Pass, the Wagang Army occupying Hulao Pass has already taken control on the Eastern Capital battlefield. Once you have lost all the initiative, you can retreat and defend according to Xiongguan. If you advance, you can attack all parts of the Eastern Capital at any time. If you have a chance, you can fight, and if you don’t have a chance, you can retreat. The Wagang Army has the final say on whether to fight or not, and to advance and retreat. There is no danger. The defendable Dongdu army can only take precautions everywhere, and is passively beaten everywhere. If it is not careful, it is likely to repeat the mistakes of Hulao Pass. It is at an absolute disadvantage tactically. This is a passive situation.
Because of this, after successfully capturing Hulao Pass, although Zhai Rang, the leader of the Wagang Army, has not been able to withdraw from Hulao Pass, the west city defense of Hulao Pass is still being consolidated against time. There was still bursts of cheers erupting in Guancheng, from the top Wagang generals such as Zhai Hong, Shan Xiongxin, Xu Shiji, and Wang Ruxin, to the ordinary soldiers and their families, all of them were smiling. Yang Zhiji, who seldom reveals his emotions, couldn't help crying on the wall of Hulaoguan, recalling the glory when he followed his brother Yang Xuangan to capture this Hulaoguan.
As the greatest hero in capturing the Hulao Pass, Li Mi was of course enshrined as a god by the generals of the Wagang Army. With Zhai Rang's whereabouts temporarily unknown, even Zhai Rang's elder brother Zhai Hong and nephew Zhai Mohou , and Shan Xiongxin, Xu Shiji and other Wagang elders also consciously accepted Li Mi's orders, and under Li Mi's command, cleaned up the remaining enemies in the city, counted military supplies, and consolidated the west city defense. In fact, they regarded Li Mi as the temporary boss of the Wagang Army .
But then again, the current Li Mi is also very fair in dealing with things. He owns simple clothes and food, and rewards all the gold and silver he earns to his subordinates. In the case of having established his own family, Li Mi has also completely done it when he was temporarily acting as the leader of Wagang. A bowl of water was flat, and he did not favor the Pushan public soldiers under his command at all. All the money, food, and military supplies were shared equally, and he did not take a penny from the Wagang Army. To inquire and find Zhai Rang's whereabouts, so the generals of the Wagang Army also respect and love Li Mi as much as Zhai Rang, and obey Li Mi's orders unconditionally.
In the afternoon, the spy who went out to inquire about Zhai Rang's whereabouts brought back the first news about Zhai Rang, saying that Zhai Rang had been attacking Luokou for a long time, and saw that the Baoguo Army, which is most famous for its ferocity and cruelty, arrived, and retreated voluntarily. Went to the southern mountains. It was also after receiving this news that Li Mi realized that a wise man must make a mistake. After all, he still forgot the contact signal to make an appointment with Zhai Rang to capture Hulao Pass. , Not daring to retreat to Hulaoguan, only to go south. That's why Li Mi seldom beat his head and blamed himself, saying: "One hundred secrets and one sparse, I am really one hundred secrets and one sparse, how can I forget this?"
Hearing Li Mi's words, the left and right cronies Wang Bodang, Fang Xuanzao, Li Xuanying and others hurriedly asked the reason. After Li Mi explained with a smile, the few cronies didn't care. Come back in a few days. Among them, Fang Xuanzao, who had known Li Mi as early as the Yang Xuangan Rebellion, laughed in a low voice: "It would be best if Zhai Rang didn't come back. The Wagang Army has no leader, so they can only obey Pu Shangong forever."
All the close friends nodded, but Li Mi smiled and said: "Don't say that, although King Zhai has many flaws, he is still very good to us. I still hope that he can come back safely and celebrate the great victory of Hulaoguan with us." .”
Smiling, he stopped his confidant lackeys from continuing on this topic. Li Mi summoned the generals of Wagang and announced the news of Zhai Rang's safe retreat in public. Li Mi immediately sent people to contact Zhai Rang, informed Zhai Rang of the good news, and also managed to take Zhai Rang back to the city. Li Mi agreed with a smile, and immediately arranged for people to go out of the pass to look for Zhai Rang in the Fangshan area, and sent people to detour to the south of Fangshan to go to the city. There, Yinghou may also directly withdraw Zhai Rang who escaped from Fangshan.
It was also a coincidence that just after all these arrangements were made, when all the generals of the Wagang Army were still gathered together, a messenger outside the door suddenly reported that the army sweeping up the remnants of the enemy had found an important figure in the latrine of a private house , claiming to be Xiao Huaijing, an official admonishment doctor, currently serving as the supervisor of Pei Renji's army. Li Mi was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly shouted: "Hurry up, come and see me. By the way, let him take a bath first, so as not to fume the generals here."
Li Mi's words naturally caused the audience to burst into laughter. After a long time, Little Xiao Guoshu was escorted into the lobby with his whole body wet, and he still had a lot of aftertaste of reincarnation of grains on his body. Wagang's generals were of course laughing at this embarrassing appearance, Li Mi was angry and funny, and shouted to the escorting soldiers: "I told you to bathe Supervisor Xiao, why did you wash him with water? Hurry up, Invite Xiao Jianjun to the back hall, let him take a bath and change clothes, and then invite him here."
Hearing this, Uncle Xiao Xiao, who unfortunately fell into the latrine and suffered so much humiliation, was so moved that tears came down. He immediately knelt down to Li Mi and kowtowed to express his willingness to surrender. Li Mi smiled and accepted Uncle Xiao Xiao. After Xiao Guoshu left, Zhai Hongcai, Zhai Rang's elder brother, yelled at Li Mi: "Pu Shan Gong, why are you being polite to these dog officials? Just kill them with a knife." Now, why bother?"
"Can't be killed, this Xiao Huaijing is still very useful." Li Mi smiled and shook his head, he refused to explain the real reason why he didn't kill Xiao Guoshu, and he didn't disclose that the failure of the Wagang Army's attack on Luokou Cang was all because of Xiao Xiao's intrusion. One shovel led to extra problems, and it was just nonsense: "This Xiao Huaijing has already expressed his willingness to surrender. If he is killed again, who else will dare to surrender to us in the future? General Zhai, you should have heard of the principle that a thousand gold is worth a bone. Bar?"
After a long time, Xiao Guoshu, who had changed into clean clothes, was brought to the hall again, and he saluted Li Mi again to express his willingness to surrender. Li Mi comforted him and asked about his capture process. Only then did I know that when the city of Hulao was broken last night, Uncle Xiao Guo failed to escape out of the city with the defeated soldiers of the Sui army. He was also afraid of being discovered and killed by the Wagang army, so he ran to hide in a residential house. Later, the Wagang army While searching for the remnants of the enemy everywhere, Uncle Xiao Guo hid in Tibet again, but unfortunately fell into a latrine and was found, and this is what happened later.
After listening to Uncle Xiao Xiao's introduction, Li Mi was somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Junior Xiao, I remember that after the city was broken last night, a large group of defeated officers and soldiers fled out of the city, and took a lot of soldiers with them. The wounded horse, as the supervisor, why are you not with the main army?"
Little Uncle Xiao Guo burst into tears when he heard this, and choked up, and said, "King Li, it's not that I don't want to escape with them, it's that they don't want to flee with me, because I oppose Pei Renji's excessive reward of soldiers, the generals and soldiers under Pei Renji's command , all treated me badly, and they didn't want to be with me, so after your army entered the city last night, they ran away, and no one wanted to pay attention to me."
"This guy should be put back." Li Mi immediately made up his mind, and secretly said: "It is of course best to let him go back and act as my internal agent. Even if you can't, letting him go back can disgust Pei Renji, and you can also sell face. To Tang Guogong, it will be convenient for me to collect more information on Dongdu through Tang Guogong's channels in the future, now that I have faced Chen Yingliang's traitor head-on, I need the intelligence support from Dongdu even more."
Having made up his mind, Li Mi was planning how to release Uncle Xiao Guo in a reasonable and reasonable way and let him use him for himself, but a soldier in civilian clothes stumbled in from outside the door, and yelled as soon as he entered the door: "Pu Shangong, my lords, something is wrong. King Zhai was captured by Chen Yingliang and Chen Gouguan!"
"What?" All the Wagang generals jumped up, Li Mi also jumped up in shock, and blurted out: "How is it possible? King Zhai has withdrawn to Fangshan, how could the officers and soldiers catch him? The news is reliable No?"
"The villain heard it with his own ears." The messenger played with tears in his voice: "The officers and soldiers at Luokou Cang kept cheering, claiming that they had captured King Zhai, and some people rumored that it was King Zhai who really failed to escape. Fang Shan was ambushed by the officers on the road, captured alive by the officers, and brought before the dog officer Chen Yingliang."
Li Mi's already dark face became even darker. While he was nervously trying to analyze the news, Zhai Hong, Zhai Mohou and Shan Xiongxin shouted, "Send troops immediately to rescue the king!"
"Wait a minute, don't be in a hurry!" Li Mi quickly stopped, and said: "Unfortunately, King Zhai was captured. It is only a rumor at present, and it has not been confirmed yet. The officers and soldiers of the Eastern Capital are rushing to Luokou Cang for rescue in an endless stream. The officers and soldiers under Pei Renji's command They also all fled to Luokou Cang, and the outcome is unpredictable when we send troops at this time. We can't be in a hurry, we must first confirm whether King Zhai has really been captured."
Feeling that Li Mi's words made sense, the generals of Wagang didn't send troops immediately, and Xiao Guojiu took the opportunity to say: "King Li, how about the villain go to find out the news for you? The villain was captured alive by you. At present, Chen Yingliang and Pei Renji doesn't know yet, the villain can go back and say that I escaped by chance and returned to the team, or he can take the opportunity to find out news for you."
The generals in Wagang were foolish enough to believe the words of Uncle Xiao Guo. Li Mi also glanced at Uncle Xiao Guo, and said, "Don't worry, Supervisor Xiao. If you want to go back, you can discuss it, but I have to think about it."
After all, Li Mi first ordered the soldiers to invite Uncle Xiao Xiao to rest and temporarily put him under house arrest. He then ordered all the generals in Wagang to return to their posts immediately. Going out of the city to Luokoucang area and Fangshan area to inquire about the news, and actively asked the Wagang generals to go out of the city to inquire about the news, to show fairness, the anxious Wagang generals sang promises, and rushed down to arrange arrangements. As soon as the Wagang generals walked away, the generals under Li Mi's command immediately approached him, scrambling to be the first to whisper, "Pu Shangong, is it real or not?"
"There is no way to judge yet." Li Mi replied in a low voice: "It stands to reason that Zhai Rang is unlikely to be captured alive, but the thief Chen Yingliang is best at the tactic of capturing the thief first and capturing the king first. He likes to target the enemy leader alone. Setting traps, people like Yang Xuangan, Meng Rang, Tian Heishe, Tian Baishe, and Zhang Qian, and even Shibi Khan, who commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, fell into the hands of Chen Yingliang's little thief, so I also I can't tell whether Zhai Rang has really capsized in the gutter."
"It's better to be true." Yang Jishan, whose personality has changed drastically after the storm, seldom said a word, and said with a sneer: "If Zhai Rang really capsizes in the gutter, the Wagang Army will be ours."
"Ninety percent true." Fang Xuanzao said with a smirk, "Xiao Zuo reported that the officers and soldiers at the Luokou Warehouse were overjoyed, and the possibility of false news is very small, otherwise, it would hurt the morale of the officers and soldiers too much. .”
Li Mi's heart moved slightly, and for a time he felt that Fang Xuanzao's words were reasonable, but considering Chen Sangliang's deceitful and cunning methods, Li Mi shook his head and said, "Don't worry, the little thief Chen Yingliang is too treacherous. It's not difficult, we have to prevent him from intentionally spreading false news and profiting from it, so we must not take any action now, we must confirm whether Zhai Rang is really captured."
Li Mi said so on the lips, but it is human nature, Li Mi still couldn't help adding in his heart, secretly said: "It's better to be true."
Bad news came like snowflakes, and the scouts who had been scattered before kept reporting back, all confirming that the Luokou warehouse had fallen apart, and it was spread by word of mouth that the officers and soldiers had captured Zhai Rang alive, and Zhai Rang The reasons for being captured alive by the officers and soldiers are even more bizarre. Some say that Zhai Rang was captured by Zhongfu, some say that Zhai Rang was captured by soldiers around him and presented to Chen Sangliang in exchange for a heavy reward, and some say that Zhai Rang was unlucky in the mountains. The one who fell off the cliff and broke his leg was caught by the officers and soldiers. What's even more outrageous is that Zhai Rang was actually shot to death by Liu Ya in the battle of Luokoucang.
Hearing such bad news, Li Mi's confidantes and lackeys were of course secretly happy, but all the generals of the Wagang Army were all anxious, and regardless of the danger, they sent scouts one after another to the vicinity of the Luokou warehouse to inquire about the news. , The more terrifying news came that Zhai Rang had been driven into a prison van and taken to Luoyang, the eastern capital, in the evening. As a result, the Wagang generals of course requested to send troops immediately, and rushed to chase and rescue Zhai Rang on Qingqi.
After the generals of Wagang made this request, Li Mi immediately scolded them bloody, "You are all fools? Is there any reason in the world to escort important prisoners out of the barracks overnight? Chen Yingliang's traitor did it clearly to lure the snake out of the hole. Lead you to send troops to rescue, and then take the opportunity to set up traps to ambush you! You are not allowed to go! Also, take back all the scouts you scattered, and send those scouts out of the city. Don’t find out the news of King Zhai. The military information leaked to the traitor Chen Yingliang!"
"Then what should we do?" Shan Xiongxin asked profusely, "Now King Zhai's whereabouts are unknown, and whether he was captured alive by the officers and soldiers is also unknown. We can't just sit here and wait?"
"Don't worry." Li Mi shook his head and said very calmly: "Don't worry, there will be accurate news within tonight. If King Zhai is really captured, then there will be soldiers under his command to take advantage of the darkness tonight." Come to Hulao Pass to report. If the news is false and King Zhai has successfully retreated into the mountains, then he will definitely send someone to Hulao Pass to understand the situation and get in touch with us, and we will know the truth by then.”
Feeling that Li Mi's analysis made sense, the generals of the Wagang Army felt a little relieved, and began to wait patiently for Zhai Rang's messenger to come to Hulao Pass to contact the self-army. As a result, on the night of the great victory, the generals of the Wagang Army not only He was not in the mood to celebrate and rest, and almost ran to Hulaoguan West Gate to probe his head and wait for the news. Li Mi was also tossing and turning in the headquarters left by Pei Renji, unable to sleep, with ups and downs in his heart. Chen Sangliang's despicable trick, what's behind it? With Chen Sangliang's personality, such a thing is of course very possible.
Those who should come will always come, and at around two o'clock in the night, there is indeed a rider who came to the city of Hulaoguan to call the city. Unfortunately, this person is not only the messenger sent by Zhai Rang, but also claims to be sent by Chen Yingliang, who stayed behind in the Eastern Capital of the Great Sui Dynasty. Messenger, you need to discuss important matters about Zhai Rang with the generals of the Wagang Army and Pu Shangong Li Mi. And when the soldiers ambushing outside the city escorted the envoy into the city, and then took a closer look at the appearance of the visitor with the light of the torch, General Xu Shiji of the Wagang Army immediately yelled, "Qian Xiangmin! Dog! ordinary man!"
"Xu..., King Xu, is that you? I haven't seen you for several years, I never thought you would still remember me."
Qian Xiangmin, who still had tears on his face, also recognized Xu Shiji, an old friend of Tongjiqu, and when he saw Xu Shiji subconsciously pull out his waist knife, Qian Xiangmin immediately howled like a pig, "King Xu , you calm down, don't blame me for not reminding you, we Chen Liushou said, if I have been wronged by you here, if you punch me, he will cut Zhai Rang's body, and if you kick me, he will cut me with his own hands. Cut a piece of flesh on Zhai Rang's body! If I can't go back, he will hand over Zhai Rang and King Zhai to the soldiers of Qi County, and let every soldier of Qi County cut a knife on King Zhai to avenge Ambassador Zhang Xutuo and me !"