The situation on the Hulaoguan battlefield is getting worse for the Zhai-Li coalition army. In terms of strength comparison, the Zhai-Li coalition army with many generals actually has an advantage against both the Sui army in the eastern capital and Wang Shichong. Chen Sangliang can't be destroyed, at least he can be severely injured, and he has a greater advantage over Wang Shichong. If it wasn't for Chen Sangliang's unprecedented conscience discovery, during this period of time, he frequently attacked and threatened the back of the Zhai Li coalition army. However, the main force of Zhai Li's coalition forces may have defeated Wang Shichong long ago. Even if Wang Shichong could not be destroyed, he would definitely be able to drive Wang Shichong away and drive Wang Shichong back to Guancheng to continue eating vegetable dumplings.
Both Chen Sangliang and Wang Shichong have an advantage, but when Chen Sangliang and Wang Shichong joined hands, Zhai Rang and Li Mi frowned. Horses are tenacious, indomitable, and are best at fighting protracted battles. Even if the Zhai-Li coalition has an advantage, they cannot defeat them in a short period of time, and once time drags on for a long time, the rear will inevitably change—for example, this time, the elite of the Zhai-Li coalition As soon as the main force was restrained by Wang Shichong on the Banzhu battlefield, Chen Sangliang immediately jumped on the western front, beating Li Mijun's partial division to the point of crying and howling, unable to parry, and had to repeatedly ask Zhai Rang and Li Mi for help.
It is only a trivial matter that the teacher suffered heavy losses. What made Li Mi and Zhai Rang most angry was Chen Sangliang's despicable and despicable tricks. He was full of tricks, not to mention his success in cheating, and abruptly abducting Liu Heitai, who has unlimited potential. The most hateful thing is that Chen Sangliang tried his best to sow Li Mijun's internal relationship, alienate the close alliance between Li Mijun and Wagang Army, and finally forced Li Mijun to recommand Hao Xiaode to hate Wagang Army to the bone, and he may go to Xiangdong at any time. The Sui Army helped Chen Sangliang attack Hulao Pass. As a last resort, Li Mi could only hastily decide to temporarily let Wang Shichong, who was still struggling, persuade Zhai Rang to lead the main force back to Hulao Pass immediately to deal with the aftermath. prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
Zhai Rang hesitated and didn't want to retreat, because the Zhai-Li coalition army not only had the advantage in the Banzhu battlefield, but also broke through the antler defense line of Wang Shichong's barracks, and was only one step away from entering Wang Shichong's camp. General Fei Qingnu led the Death Squad to regain the line of defense, but as long as the Zhai Li coalition continued to attack, it was only a matter of time before they completely defeated Wang Shichong, so Zhai Rang wanted to completely eliminate Wang Shichong first, and then return to the division to save Hulao Pass.
Pei Renji, who was well aware of the internal situation of the Sui Army, helped Li Mi persuade Zhai Rang. Pei Renji pointed out: "Although Wang Shichong is not afraid, he is destined to be no match for our army, but most of his soldiers are soldiers from the Jianghuai River, and they are either fellow villagers or relatives. The cohesion is very strong. It is easy to defeat them on the battlefield, but it is difficult to break them up. If we continue to attack, even if Wang Shichong is finally annihilated or beaten away, our elite main force will inevitably pay a heavy price. In Chen Yingliang's decisive battle, it will be very difficult for us to be sure of victory. And the war between us and Wang Shichong will continue to drag on for a long time. If there is any mistake at Hulao Pass, we will completely lose the initiative on the Eastern Capital battlefield. At that time, Chen Yingliang You don’t need to fight us, and you don’t need to expect Wang Shichong to continue to hold us back, just by consuming food and grass can completely consume us!”
"If Duke Dongjun is worried that Wang Shichong will imitate Chen Yingliang and take advantage of the opportunity of our main force moving westward to make troubles, it is even more unnecessary." Pei Renji added: "I have already said before that Wang Shichong is too selfish and likes to preserve things the most. The strength is on the sidelines, and now he has suffered heavy losses and injuries, and he definitely does not want to continue to attack, so even if we withdraw from the Banzhu battlefield, Wang Shichong will definitely not dare to follow Chen Yingliang's initiative to attack and share the pressure for Chen Yingliang. And Wang Shichong came thousands of miles away However, it is difficult to supply food and grass, and the counties behind him are corrupted, and they cannot provide him with food and grass supplies. As long as it takes a long time, Wang Shichong's food and grass will not be enough, and he will definitely retreat without fighting."
Considering that the situation at Hulao Pass was really critical, Zhai Rang was forced to accept the proposal of Li Mi and Pei Renji, and agreed to withdraw to Hulao Pass to clean up the mess. The result was just as Pei Renji expected. Although there were continuous cheers erupting in the camp, as expected, no soldiers were dispatched to pursue them, and they immediately repaired the fortifications to strengthen the camp, and there was no sign of moving the camp westward. And if Zhai Rang and Li Mi could know Wang Shichong's remarks on this, then they would definitely admire Pei Renji's high opinion even more-Wang Shichong said this, "It's Chen Yingliang's turn to take the main force of the thief army, and finally it's Lao Tzu's turn Hide behind and sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight."
When Zhai and Li's allied forces retreated to Hulao Pass, it was already the morning of the second day after Hao Xiaode's disastrous defeat. The soldiers of the Sui army had already burned the camp they had taken down to ruins. It was just a dinner for Hao Xiaode's remnants and defeated generals. Li Mi, who suffered a big loss this time, was also very gracious, and he didn't pursue Shan Xiongxin's refusal to let Hao Xiaode go back to the city, but Zhai Rang couldn't save face, and took the initiative to scold Shan Xiongxin, forcing Shan Xiongxin to apologize to Hao Xiaode, Then Zhai Rang ordered to open the city gate, and sent envoys to invite Hao Xiaode into the city, saying that he wanted to make amends to Hao Xiaode in person.
After returning to the city, Hao Xiaode behaved very calmly, not only did not cause trouble and entanglement, but also accepted the apology from Shan Xiongxin and Zhai Rang with a blank face. He only asked Zhai Rang and Li Mi to provide a camp for his remnant army to rest as soon as possible, but Hao Xiaode expressed The more calm they got, the more Li Mi and Zhai Rang felt uneasy about him. After discussing in low voices, they used the excuse that Hao Xiaode's army was exhausted from successive battles, and sent Hao Xiaode to lead his army to retreat to the camp east of Hulao Pass to rest. Hao Xiaode was also very forthright. After accepting this arrangement, he immediately led his army out of the city and went to the camp designated by Li Mi and Zhai Rang to rest. Seeing Hao Xiaode's back leaving without turning his head, Zhai Rang and Li Mi also had the same thought in their hearts, "Hao Xiaode, you can't be trusted anymore."
Not all good things happened, Li Mi and Zhai Rang withdrew back to Hulao Pass and established a firm foothold. Soon, a soldier presented a letter to Li Mi. After whispering the identity of the sender, Li Mi quickly opened the letter and read it. After a few glances, Li Mi soon laughed wildly triumphantly. Zhai Rang and others asked Li Mi why he was so happy. Li Mi laughed and said: "Dongdu sent a tip, old man Fan Zigai finally died, he died On the night of that day, Tang Guogong Li Yuan suddenly appeared in Taiyuan, organized the old army to launch a mutiny, killed Fan Zigai's deputy Wang Wei, occupied the second city of Taiyuan in Jinyang, and set up a banner against the Sui Dynasty!"
Zhai Rang and the others, who hadn't even heard Li Yuan's name a few times, were confused, but Pei Renji immediately jumped up and asked in surprise: "Is the news reliable? Tang Guogong has already been tossed like that by Chen Yingliang. Can you launch a mutiny in Taiyuan and win the important town of Taiyuan in one fell swoop?"
"Of course it's reliable." Li Mi laughed and said, "General Deben, you must not underestimate Tang Guogong. He is one of the patriarchs of the eight great clans in Guanlong. He had mastered the Li clan when he was only seven years old. After a year of operation, a mere one million yuan and 400,000 silk can really make him bankrupt? The purges that the old fool Fan Zigai carried out in Taiyuan can really uproot Tang Guogong's power in the Taiyuan army Except? Fan Zigai's foolish and blind tactics, the Taiyuan army has long been extremely dissatisfied with him, Tang Guogong wants to make a mutiny, isn't that easy?"
Although Pei Renji still felt a little unbelievable about this matter, but seeing Li Mi's self-confidence, he guessed that the matter should be true, so he immediately said happily: "Okay! Okay! The enmity between Li Yuan's family and Chen Yingliang is irreconcilable, and Li Yuan's army must be killed sooner or later." Looking for revenge on Chen Yingliang on the battlefield, we have added a new reinforcement, good thing!"
Zhai Rang and others next to him hurriedly asked what was wrong with Li Yuan and Chen Sangliang. Pei Renji smiled and introduced, Li Mi continued to read the letter, and soon, Li Mi cheered again, "There is another good thing! The ship organized sailors, loaded pigs and sheep with cloth, and took out 50,000 shi of grain from Shangluo warehouse to load it on board, and moored at Luoshui wharf. Our insider reported that these grains, pigs and sheep were intended to be used by Yang Tong to reward Wang Shichong, but there was no chance, so It hasn't been delivered yet!"
"It's no wonder that Wang Shichong wants to stay on the bank of the Yellow River!" Pei Renji was pleasantly surprised again, and suddenly realized: "It turns out that Wang Shichong hoped that Luoyang, the eastern capital, would supply him with food, grass and military supplies through waterways, so he refused to stay away from the waterway no matter what, even if he retreated to Banzhu. , but also rely on the Tongji Canal to set up camp!"
"That's great!" Zhai Rang also jumped up happily, and said with great joy: "Luoyang, the eastern capital, must pass through the Yellow River north of Hulao Pass to deliver grain to Wang Shichong. We will immediately organize ships to intercept and seize this batch of grain!"
"What Dongjun Gong said is true, we must take this batch of grain and grass no matter what!" Pei Renji nodded his head and said: "Taking this batch of grain and grass will not only save us from worrying about food problems, but also allow Wang Shichong to completely run out of food. Go away obediently, and drive him away without sending troops!"
"Don't be too happy." Li Mi thought carefully, then quickly shook his head and said: "Not to mention that our communication channel with Dongdu's internal line is not very smooth, even if we can know the time when the official army's supply fleet departs from Luoyang The official and army grain ships have to pass through the Luokou warehouse before turning into the Yellow River. At that time, the traitor Chen Yingliang will definitely prevent us from sending troops to rob the grain, and do everything possible to cover the grain ships passing through our defense area. If we want to rob the grain, it will definitely take a lot Less hands and feet."
"Dongjun Gong, Wei Gong is right, we think it is not so easy to rob grain." Xu Shiji also poured cold water on: "Although there are many water experts in our army, the Yellow River is still no better than the Tongji Canal. The water route is very complicated. The military fleet is sending food from upstream to downstream, and from the Luokou warehouse downstream, it can cross the Hulao Pass and sail downstream in at most two hours. If we cannot rob the ship within these two hours, it will be very difficult. It is difficult to have the opportunity to completely cut off the water and food roads of the officers and soldiers."
"What are you afraid of? We have been eating on the water for so many years, and we are still afraid of those landlubbers from the army?" Zhai Rang waved his hand and shouted: "Collect ships immediately, prepare water warfare equipment, send more scout boats, closely monitor the movement upstream, and then arrange Land scouts, monitor the Luokou Cang Wharf, and if we find the government and army fleet, we will immediately send troops to intercept it!"
The intelligence channel is not smooth, and Zhai Rang's arrangement is undoubtedly the safest arrangement. Although Li Mi and others think this method is too stupid, they have no choice but to agree to this arrangement temporarily, and Mulan behind Shan Xiongxin is also blinking. Eyes, keep this in mind...
…
At the same time, the issue of transporting food to Wang Shichong was also placed in front of Chen Sangliang. After finding out that Zhai Rang and Li Mi led the main force back to the Hulao Pass, Chen Sangliang immediately knew that Wang Shichong would definitely send someone to urge food soon. At the same time, Dongdu also sent news the day before, reporting to Chen Sangliang that the grain ship had been prepared, and asking Chen Sangliang for the sailing time. Chen Sangliang only made a calculation, and immediately told Wei Zheng: "Mr. Xuan Cheng, please write a letter to His Royal Highness the King of Yue for me, asking him to prepare a fleet of the same size, empty ships are enough, but the sailors and escort soldiers must be complete, and then send them to Luokou together with the grain ship Cang, I have great use."
"Why?" Wei Zheng was stunned for a moment, then immediately came to his senses and said, "Stay here to avoid the Wagang bandits stealing food?"
"Of course." Chen Sangliang replied: "The Wagang bandits have made a living by plundering the Tongji Canal for many years. They are familiar with water warfare. Once they find out that we are going to deliver food to Wang Shichong through the waterway, they will definitely organize ships and sailors on the water. Looting, there is no water army in the east, no matter how many landlubbers are sent to guard the boat, once the Wagang bandits successfully intercept on the water, all the food and grass will be robbed by the Wagang bandits. If you want to send the food to Wang Shichong successfully, you must We must prepare two grain fleets, one real and one fake."
Wei Zheng nodded, and then asked worriedly: "Stay behind, what if the Wagang bandits intercept our two fleets at the same time?"
"Don't worry, the Wagang thieves don't have this power." Chen Sangliang replied with a smile: "Although the Wagang thieves are familiar with water warfare, how many ships can they find to carry soldiers in a hurry? Stopping a fleet is enough for them I have a headache, and to stop two fleets at the same time, even if the Wagang thieves send all the urine buckets and wooden basins in Hulao Pass to the Yellow River, they can't do it."
Wei Zheng suddenly realized, so he immediately wrote a book and wrote a memorial for Chen Sangliang. Chen Sangliang turned to Yuan Tiangang again, and said with a smile: "Mr. The weight of pigs, sheep, vegetables and horses is roughly calculated, and how many straw bags of soil are needed, which are as heavy as the five stones of grain, cattle, sheep, vegetables and horses, and then prepare so many straw bags for me and fill them with soil."
"Staying behind is as careful as a hair, and loaded with the same heavy soil. Even if the Wagang thief is familiar with eating on the water, he will never be able to tell which one is a real grain ship and which one is a fake grain ship through the draft of the ship." Yuan Tiangang erected Thumbs up, and then asked worriedly: "Stay behind, but we are carrying fake grain and grass, so we can't hide it from the soldiers and sailors on board? If they leak the news, won't the Wagang bandits know the truth right away?" Fake?"
"Don't worry, I have considered this detail a long time ago, and I have my own way to keep it secret." Chen Sangliang replied with a smile: "By the way, by the way, organize some soldiers who can sail. If not enough, you can find boatmen from Gong County. .Also, prepare some seals to seal the cargo hatch." Yuan Tiangang agreed, and immediately used his strengths to follow the plan.
The Eastern Capital Sui Army and the Zhai-Li Allied Army were very exhausted, so even though the main force of the Zhai-Li Allied Army returned to Hulao Pass, they were not in a hurry to launch a battle against the Eastern Capital Sui Army. The battlefield at Hulao Pass remained calm for the time being. . During this period, Mulan sent Chen Sangliang the news that Zhai Rang and Li Mi were preparing to rob food through Zhang Kai's channel. Chen Sangliang was glad that he had already prepared, and at the same time, he immediately understood that Li Mi had an insider in the Eastern Capital. He immediately began to track down the spies, strengthened the blockade of the water and land connection between Dongdu and Hulaoguan, and tried his best to cut off Li Mi's source of information.
Still during this period, Wang Shichong, who was desperately trying to take advantage, sent an envoy to urge the grain and grass. Chen Sangliang smiled and agreed, saying that Wang Shichong had shared the huge pressure for himself this time, and he would definitely send the grain to Wang Shichong's army as soon as possible. The soldiers of Pengcheng will never be allowed to fight hungry. The envoy Wang Shichong thanked him happily, and reminded Chen Sangliang to be careful of the Wagang bandits intercepting them on the water. Chen Sangliang waved his hand and said, "Go back and tell my father-in-law, and tell him to rest assured that if the Wagang bandits can rob me For the food and grass sent to him, I wrote it upside down."
By the way, after the envoy brought Chen Sangliang's words back to Wang Shichong's army, Wang Shichong, who was extremely distrustful of his son-in-law, also said: "There will definitely be trouble, if Chen Yingliang boy will keep his promise and send me food as soon as possible. The Wagang bandit in the water war couldn't stop the food he gave me, and my character for king was written upside down."
At the same time, Chen Sangliang suddenly ordered the construction of a temporary wharf ten miles upstream of Gong County, and organized civilians to pack soil with straw bags near the wharf and pile them up on the shore for later use. The military agent found out, and it was quickly sent to Hulaoguan, and sent to Li Mi and Zhai Rang. Of course Zhai Rang was at a loss when he found out the news. He didn't understand what Chen Sangliang was going to do. After thinking about it for a while, his face immediately changed drastically, and he scolded: "What a traitor! You are afraid that we will rob food on the water, and you have to prepare two fleets, one real and one fake!"
After listening to Li Mi's careful analysis of Chen Sangliang's sinister intentions, Zhai Rang, Shan Xiongxin and other Wagang generals panicked and said, "Wei Gong, what should we do? Although we have many sailors, we have too few ships. An official fleet is very difficult, Chen Yingliang's traitor arranged two fleets, one real and one fake, if we rob the fake fleet, wouldn't our hard work be in vain?"
Li Mi didn't answer, his face was somber, he was just calculating nervously, thinking that if Chen Sangliang wanted to arrange two fleets, one real and one fake, he would definitely seal the scene tightly while pretending to be fake food. To be prudent, he might even let the sailors of the fleet leave the scene temporarily. So that the sailors and soldiers don't know whether they are escorting real food or fake food, so that no information is leaked. If you want to know which fleet is real and which fleet is fake, you only have two There are two methods, one is to choose one of two gambles, all bets are correct, all bets are correct, and all bets are incorrect, all lose.
"Exploring the scene at any cost, the chances are too small. Chen Yingliang's traitor is so deliberate here, he will definitely not give me such a chance." Li Mi felt a little desperate, and then suddenly thought of a question, secretly said: "Chen Yingliang's traitor is setting up a real and fake fleet. Let me choose one of the two, it will definitely prevent me from being lucky and betting on the right one. The safest way is to release false news and let me make a wrong judgment! In this case, why don't I come to wait for the work, and wait for him, Chen Yingliang, the traitor Make moves first, then do the opposite, and take the opportunity to find out the real official army grain ship!"
It was also a coincidence that just as Li Mi thought of this key issue, the messenger suddenly came to report in a hurry, saying that there was a person outside the pass who claimed to be Li Shicai's confidant soldier. Li Mi and Zhai Rang reported. Hearing this news, a smile appeared on Li Mi's black face, and said: "God help me, please hurry up!"
"Wei Gong, Chen Yingliang is treacherous, be careful." Both Pei Renji and Xu Shiji reminded.
"It doesn't matter, I just like Chen Yingliang's cleverness this time." Li Mi replied with a smile.