It was the third time in the past 20 days that he entered the imperial city of the Eastern Capital, and the third time he entered the meeting hall. Chen Yingliang saw at a glance that Fan Zigai and Huangfu Wuyi, who were likely to have a romantic relationship, were in the hall. Pei Hongce and the supervisor in charge Zhao Changwen, the servant of the Huangmen of Luhemen, was also in the hall, Chen Yingliang did not dare to neglect, and hastily saluted first to Yue Wang Yang Tong, and then to Fan Zigai, Huangfu Wuyi and others.
"No." Fan Zigai waved his hand casually, and then quickly asked Chen Yingliang, "Yingliang, apart from reasoning, what other way can you confirm that the letter last night was forged by Yang Rebels?"
"Lord Fan, didn't you compare the handwriting with the seal?" Chen Yingliang asked cautiously, "As long as you find Wei Shangshu's past letters or memorials and compare the handwriting, you may find some clues."
"Of course I checked the handwriting." Fan Zigai took out a few letters and said, "The old man found Wei Wensheng's previous letters, compared them with the letters found on the corpse last night, and found that the handwriting was indeed somewhat imitated. The traces and seals are also slightly different, but the differences are very small, there is really no way to confirm whether the letter from last night is forged, so the old man asked His Highness King Yue to summon you to the imperial city to see if you can confirm it."
"You can give it a try." Chen Yingliang asked for several letters from Fan Zigai, and verified the handwriting and seals. I also found that the letter from last night seemed to have been forged, but I couldn't find any major flaws. As a last resort, Chen Yingliang could only use his brains to find a new way to solve the case.
Fortunately, Chen Yingliang originally worked in this profession, so he quickly thought of another point, and hurriedly asked: "Master Fan, the body of the messenger last night has not been buried or cremated, has it?"
"Zhao Shilang, what did you do with that body?" Fan Zigai asked Zhao Changwen, who was in charge of closing the gate.
"Temporarily stopped in the garrison barracks at Luhemen, and is going to let his family members collect the body in the afternoon." Zhao Changwen replied respectfully.
"That's great." Chen Yingliang was overjoyed, and hurriedly cupped his hands to Zhao Changwen and asked, "Xiaosheng, dare to ask Mr. Zhao, can you confirm that the messenger was killed by the rebel scouts at midnight last night? This is very important, please Mr. Zhao." Introduce carefully."
"It can be confirmed." Zhao Changwen replied confidently: "When the accident happened last night, I lived in the city tower. After being woken up by the guards, I asked the time. The guards said that they had just knocked on the clapper for the third watch. This point Can't go wrong."
"Lord Fan, please send a capable assistant to investigate that corpse." Chen Yingliang said hastily: "As far as I know, an experienced senior assistant can judge the approximate time of death of a corpse based on clues such as corpse spots and bruises. If we find out the time of death of that corpse, we can know whether he was transported to the Luhemen after his death, or was killed only after he arrived at the Luhemen."
"Good idea, why did I forget this?" Fan Zigai was overjoyed, and immediately ordered Pei Hongce to send several experienced old officials to examine the corpse, and asked to find out the time of death of the messenger. Pei Hongce, who is also in charge of local civil affairs, also Not daring to be negligent, he quickly went out to make arrangements in person, and Zhao Changwen, who was in charge of closing the door, also went out to discuss with him. It was only after Pei Hongce and Zhao Changwen left that Fan Zigai praised Chen Yingliang again: "Yingliang, this time it's all thanks to you again. It's really rare that you can be so careful at such a young age."
"Thank you, Mr. Liushou, for your praise. Serving the court is what a villain should do." Chen Yingliang said modestly, and then said: "Mr. Liushou, the matter is very important. I wonder if Mr. Liushou has sent messengers out of the city to contact Mr. Wei. Confirm this?"
"Already dispatched, but..." Fan Zigai looked very depressed, and said through gritted teeth: "However, these useless scout messengers are too unreliable. Until now, I haven't even confirmed the location of Yang Ni's main force. The couriers sent to contact various places were repeatedly robbed and killed. They either fled back to Luoyang with their heads in their hands, or surrendered to the rebels directly. This made the old man almost blind and knew nothing about the enemy situation outside the city! The new messengers sent out , whether I can contact Wei Wensheng, the old man is not sure!"
Chen Yingliang didn't dare to speak this way, and he also sympathized with Fan Zigai's depression, because the scouts of the Dongdu garrison were too disappointing. When they had an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment and military training, they couldn't even beat them. Even the most basic reconnaissance of the enemy's situation could not be done. They were repeatedly beheaded and captured by the scouts of the rebel army, and they made false reports and false reports one after another. After the national army fought to the death and finally confirmed the division of the rebel army, the scouts from Dongdu couldn't even detect the current location of the main force of the rebel army. Chen Yingliang dared not call for battle easily when the enemy's situation was unknown.
Quietly sympathizing with Fan Zigai, who had obviously aged a lot these days, Chen Yingliang remembered another big event, and hurriedly focused his attention on the letter from Wei Xuan that might have been forged by the enemy. We all know that Li Mi used Wei Xuan's tone to tell Fan Zigai that Wei Xuan had accepted Fan Zigai's suggestion and decided to station the main force in the Weihan Road, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and sent forwards to highlight the Weihan Road to look for opportunities— Li Mi's purpose for doing this is twofold. One is to prevent Fan Zigai from continuing to communicate with Wei Xuan and persuade Wei Xuan to adopt the most unfavorable strategy for the rebels. Walking out of Xiaohan Road, the decision-makers of the Eastern Capital thought that the Sui army appearing in the open area was just Wei Xuan's forward.
A layman watches the excitement, while an insider watches the way. Chen Yingliang, who has been relying on analyzing the psychology of criminals for a long time, saw a huge possibility after reading this letter. Finding the significance, he looked at Fan Zigai and Huangfu Wuyi, and found that they were discussing some unimportant military and political affairs. Chen Yingliang pursed his lips, and then mustered up his courage to say: "His Royal Highness, Fan Liushou, General Huangfu, If this letter can be confirmed to be fake, then the villain can guess the tactical plan of Yang Xuangan's traitor, and also guess the weakness of his tactical deployment."
"What do you mean by that?" Fan Zigai raised his eyebrows.
"My lord, can you allow the villain to speak out?" Chen Yingliang asked first—Chen Yingliang really had to ask first this time, after all, this is the conference hall of the Eastern Capital Imperial City, and Chen Yingliang, who has no official position, is planning to say something out of thin air If you speculate, you have to be careful.
"Of course." Huangfu Wuyi took up the conversation and said with a smile: "I have heard from your uncle Li Guogong that you have some unique insights in military strategy and political affairs, and many of his good suggestions come from your plans. , but you boy refuses to enter Youwuwei, this general has never had a chance to listen to your opinion, and today just happens to have the opportunity, so feel free to say it, as long as it is not something taboo, I will take care of it for you if you make a mistake."
"Tell me." Fan Zigai also said: "You said you can guess Yang Ni's tactical plan, how can you guess? What is Yang Ni's tactical plan?"
"If it can be confirmed that this letter was forged by Yang Ni, then Yang Ni's tactical plan must be to besiege the city and fight for reinforcements. First concentrate on destroying our Daxing reinforcements, and then turn around and attack Luoyang." Chen Yingliang replied confidently: "If Yang Ni If the rebel army can do this, then he can gain a huge strategic advantage. First, he can concentrate on attacking Luoyang without distraction, capture a large number of officials' family members in Luoyang city, and force many officials of our Sui Dynasty to follow the bandits. , and then it is best to take Luoyang. Even if it is blocked by the Luoyang city wall, Yang's rebel army can calmly move westward, attack Guanzhong Daxing, where the main force has been wiped out, and block Tongguan to prevent our Da Sui from returning to the main force. .”
"Concentrate on destroying our Daxing reinforcements first, and then turn around and attack Luoyang?" Fan Zigai repeated, with a somewhat puzzled expression.
"That's right!" Chen Yingliang nodded vigorously, and said loudly, "And the villain's guess is not groundless! Fan Liushou, please think about it carefully. If Yang Ni forged this letter from Wei Shangshu, then Yang Ni forged this letter." What is the purpose? Apart from stabilizing our Eastern Capital army, what purpose can it have?"
"Yang Ni forged this letter to stabilize us?" Fan Zigai understood.
"That's right." Chen Yingliang nodded and replied: "Yang Ni not only wants us not to contact Wei Shangshu's reinforcements, but also wants us to stay in the eastern capital honestly and not risk going out of the city to destroy him and annihilate us." The tactical plan of the Daxing reinforcements allowed him to concentrate his forces on one point and concentrate on dealing with our reinforcements. Previously, Yang’s rebellious army had been fighting under the city of the Eastern Capital every day, which was also one of Yang’s tricks to not want us to send troops. Its purpose was nothing more than a bluff , wanting to use a small number of partial divisions to contain our Eastern Capital defenders, so that his main force can focus on dealing with our reinforcements without worrying."
"There is one more point." Chen Yingliang added, "Yang Ni forged this letter to deceive us, and it proved another point. What he is most afraid of now is that Wei Shangshu will take a defensive position, and the troops in Weihan Road will only defend and not fight. Otherwise, if Yang Ni is not afraid of our tactic, then he can ignore our tactic, and there is no need to go to such great lengths to forge letters."
"It makes sense." Fan Zigai nodded, and said, "If Yang Ni is not afraid of the old man's tactical advice to Wei Wensheng, then even if he intercepts the old man's personal letter to Wei Wensheng, he can ignore it and take the risk. Lie to the old man."
Agreeing with Chen Yingliang's judgment, Fan Zigai hurriedly asked again: "Then you can guess the weakness of Yang Ni's tactical deployment. Where is Yang Ni's weakness?"
"Jinyong City!" Chen Yingliang replied decisively: "Yang's rebellious army stationed in Jinyong City's rear army came to Dongdu City every day to bluff and create the illusion of a strong army. Too many troops were dispatched to meet the defeated soldiers, and then they have been disappearing for the past few days. Based on this alone, the villain can be sure that Yang Ni's Jinyong City battalion may have a lot of troops, but they are definitely not strong, and they are definitely not the opponent of our Dongdu army. That's why Yang's rebel army has been obediently hiding in the Jinyong City camp for the past few days, not daring to take a step closer to Luoyang City, because they are afraid that we will find out their true colors as paper tigers, and we will hunt down and beat them by their weaknesses!"
After looking at Fan Zigai, Huangfu Wuyi and others who were pursing their lips and thinking, Chen Yingliang added, "Master Left Behind, the rebel general Yu Rou we captured on the battlefield last time must know the truth and reality of Jinyong City, Lord Left Behind may as well Sending someone to interrogate Yu Rou in detail will definitely gain something."
"Don't mention that idiot." Fan Zigai replied helplessly: "Although Yang Xuangan entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, this idiot is so stupid that he doesn't even know the specific situation of Yang's rebel army. The strength of the rebel army and the deployment situation, this idiot is always asking three questions, only saying that there are many, many, hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily join the rebellion every day, how many rebel troops there are in Jinyong City, he has no idea I know, no matter how many questions there are, there are so many that I can’t even live in the city, so I can only live outside the city.”
"Soldiers are expensive, not expensive." Chen Yingliang replied in a deep voice: "Even if there are tens of thousands of mobs, they are by no means an opponent of a thousand elite soldiers. Yang's rebel army from Jinyong City dare not come to Luoyang City to fight these days."
"From your tone, you want to fight Jinyong City?" Fan Zigai smiled.
"The villain has this plan." Chen Yingliang replied loudly: "But the number of soldiers serving the country in the four regiments is too small, and the villain still needs thousands of rear troops to cover. They don't need to charge forward, as long as they stand behind Just put on a show, build up momentum for the national army, wait until the villain's team wins, and then help fight the wind and kill the enemy's defeated soldiers!"
Fan Zigai was so moved that he almost wanted to blurt out his agreement. Huangfu Wuyi, who knew Fan Zigai's character well, coughed quickly and reminded: "Fan Liushou, we are still only speculating, and we haven't confirmed that this letter was forged by Yang Ni. .Also, the city of the Eastern Capital is too large. There are twelve gates in the city alone. We need a large number of troops to defend the city. The reserve team that can be dispatched, even with the Nationalist Army, is only four to five thousand people."
Fan Zigai's gaze dimmed, but he refused to give up, so he retrieved those letters from Chen Yingliang, compared them carefully for a long time, and suddenly said through gritted teeth: "I can be sure that this letter There are at least three traces of imitation on the seal, and the words on the seal are thinner, so it is likely to be a forgery! But I just can’t be sure, I can’t be sure!”
"Please don't worry, stay-at-home adults. When Uncle Pei and the others arrange for him to perform an autopsy, everything will be answered." Chen Yingliang comforted him, but he felt a little trembling in his heart, because Chen Yingliang knew very well that if he used this strategy instead, he would definitely have the answer. Find a way to deceive the messenger for his own use, let him go to the bridge across the river by himself, and then break his promise and say nothing, let his accomplices and lackeys kill the messenger on the bridge, and try to avoid revealing clues as much as possible—if Yang Xuangan can As cunning as Chen Yingliang, even an autopsy would find no evidence.
Fortunately, Chen Yingliang's worries were finally superfluous, and after waiting for an unknown amount of time, Pei Hongce and Zhao Changwen suddenly rushed into the hall like crazy, and yelled as soon as they entered the hall: "His Royal Highness, Fan Liushou , General Huangfu, the autopsy has been done, and the courier found that our messenger didn't die in the middle of the night last night, and should have died yesterday evening at the latest!"
"Are you sure!" Fan Zigai asked loudly.
"Absolutely sure!" Pei Hongce nodded vigorously, wiped his sweat and said: "Also, our foreman also found that there were circles of extremely dark bloody marks on the wrists of the corpse's hands. The three foremen can be sure, Our courier was killed with his hands bound, and it was only after a while that they were untied, so the traces of the ropes were left behind!"
"Thank God, it's fortunate that Yang Xuan felt that this idiot did not keep things secret, leaving such an obvious loophole." Chen Yingliang quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sure enough, it's a forgery!" Fan Zigai gritted his teeth, and suddenly became furious again: "Trash! These rubbish! The letter of delivery can be intercepted by the rebel, and the old man was almost deceived by the fake letter of the rebel! Send the order, Do not distribute the pension money and rations for this courier and his four entourages, if they have already been sent, I will also recover them!"
"Fan Liushou, please suspend the fury of thunder." Chen Yingliang hurriedly cupped his hands and saluted, and said loudly: "This is not a bad thing, at least it proves that the current weakness of Yang's rebel army is the Jinyong City camp. If our army sends troops immediately, Attack the Jinyong City camp with all your strength, and you will win a big victory, and you can also receive the effect of killing two birds with one stone. It not only indirectly shared the frontal pressure that Master Wei Xuanwei was under, but also made Yang Ni's traitors catch fire in the rear. Crack down on the arrogance of Yang's rebel army, and prevent the rebellion from becoming more rampant!"
His eyes rolled wildly for a moment, Fan Zigai gritted his teeth, and shouted: "Okay, Yingliang, you go down immediately and prepare to send troops tomorrow to attack the rebel camp in Jinyong City! You lead the Nationalist Army as the vanguard, and the old man will come again Send Liu Changgong to lead 3,000... No, the old man sent Liu Changgong to lead 4,000 elite soldiers as the rear army, to build up momentum for you!"
"Regarding this point, the villain has two requests, please be sure to agree to the stay-at-home adults." Chen Yingliang said.
"Say, as long as it's reasonable, the old man will agree!" Fan Zigai waved his hand.
"Master Xie Liushou, the villain's request is very simple." Chen Yingliang cupped his hands and said: "First, please Sir Liushou give General Liu Changgong a death order. Thousands of rear troops will never be allowed to take a step back! Because the two armies are in battle, once our rear troops flee before fighting, it will definitely have a huge impact on the morale of the forward army!"
"This is easy to handle." Fan Zigai nodded, turned to Yang Tong and cupped his hands and said, "Your Highness, I would like to ask for an order from the old minister. When we go to battle tomorrow, Your Highness, please send a team of forbidden troops to watch Liu Changgong go into battle! If he dares to lead the army Take a step back, and the soldiers of the imperial army will cut him off on the spot!"
"Sure." Yang Tong, who was completely a puppet, agreed without hesitation. Fan Zigai thanked him, then turned to Chen Yingliang and said, "Tell me your second request."
"The second request is to ask the adults who stayed behind to allow the villain to adapt to the situation and lead the army to retreat during the battle." Chen Yingliang said respectfully: "The villain is not greedy for life and afraid of death, and dare not fight to the end. Too few, including the villain, there are only 845 people in total. If the rebel army has too many troops, or the main force of Yang's rebel army returns from the western front, even if everyone fights to the death to report to the national army, it will be nothing A drop in the bucket cannot turn the situation around.”
"Of course you can, you are allowed to adapt to the situation on the battlefield." Fan Zigai waved his hand, and sighed: "Based on your boy's performance these days, if you say that you will fight timidly and lead the army to flee for your life, I will be the first to disbelieve you! It's a pity that you are too young, and you don't have qualifications and official positions, otherwise, I really want to give you the command of the four thousand army!"
"Thank you, Sir Liushou, for your trust!" Chen Yingliang quickly knelt down on his knees, clasped his fists and said loudly: "His Royal Highness, Fan Liushou and General Huangfu trust the villain so much, the villain can only repay it if he leads the army to fight to the death and fight the enemy bravely! , I will never regret a hundred deaths!"
Fan Zigai showed a gratified smile, Huangfu Wuyi also nodded and said: "Ying Liang, if others say this, the general may not believe it, but you say this, I believe it. Go prepare and tell Baoguo The soldiers of the army, who have made great achievements in killing the enemy and come back triumphantly, will definitely not lose to them in terms of rewards!"
Chen Yingliang was overjoyed and thanked, and then he bid farewell to everyone and went down to prepare. Looking at Chen Yingliang's leaving back, Pei Hongce suddenly realized that he, his distant nephew, seemed to have become the only one in the Dongdu decision-making team and the entire Youwuwei in the counter-insurgency war. Hope, the biggest backbone, the entire eastern capital of Luoyang, seems to have already revolved around his distant nephew. After discovering this, Pei Hongce couldn't help sighing in his heart: "My distant nephew has a bright future."
To the great relief of Fan Zigai, Huangfu Wuyi and the others, they received a new report not long after, that is, in the camp of the Baoguo Army in Jiaoyefang, earth-shattering cheers suddenly sounded, and then It was a neat and loud slogan sound, piercing the sky, and even in Lixing Square, which was a square away from Jiaoye Square, one could clearly hear the neat slogan of the National Defense Army, "Kill the thief and put down the rebellion! Serve the country with loyalty! Kill Putting down traitors! Serve the country faithfully!"