Old Li's family is really good at buying people's hearts. After conquering Huoyi, in addition to the routine opening of warehouses to release grain, Li Yuan also ordered that all elderly people over the age of 70 in the city should be granted scattered officials (some officials say that they have no salary and no official power) ), gentry students who are willing to serve Li Yuan’s rebel army can visit Li Yuan at any time for an interview, and they will be appointed to an official position on the spot in a few words—the appointment is too fast, and it is too late to receive the official order. These people can only receive the paper with the official title strip.
Although the process was rough and hasty, the effect was very good. In order to really get the official position written on the small note, these little landlords who had studied books and learned martial arts for a few days still followed Li Yuan wholeheartedly and were willing to serve as Li Yuan's official position. pawn. The most ruthless policy is the captive policy. As for the captives of the Daxing Sui Army, the Li Yuan rebels will not kill any of them, and are willing to join the rebels in taking them all in. Guanzhong prisoners who want to go back to their hometown in Guanzhong will be released on the spot, and they will be given travel expenses and dry food. All of them were awarded fifth-rank casual officials. As a result, these released prisoners naturally became the best propaganda machine for Li Yuan's rebels.
The first to suffer from these propaganda machines was still the Daxing Sui army led by Pang Yu and Huo Shiju. After fleeing from Huoyi to Linfen City in Linfen County in a panic, Pang Yu and Huo Shiju, who refused to give up, gathered the defeated soldiers and prepared to fight again. Accidentally gathered many of these captives into the army, and the result is naturally predictable. They lost Huoyi, food, grass and baggage and fled to Linfen for hundreds of miles. The morale of Lien Chan's losing streak was low, and after listening to the captive policy of the Li Yuan rebels propagated by these prisoners, the morale of the army was even more shaken. When Li Yuan's rebel army approached the city of Linfen on the eighth day of the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, not long after they launched the siege, a rebellion had already occurred within the Sui army. .
With the expansion of the city and the increasingly fierce offensive of the rebels, Pang Yu and Huo Shiju once again had no choice but to continue fleeing south with the army they could command. As a result, the 60,000 troops they brought from Taiyuan The army, less than a thousand people escaped through Taiping Pass and entered Jiangjun. The rest were either killed or surrendered to the rebels. They didn't even dare to stay in Jiangjun, so they directly crossed Jiangjun and went to Hedong to join Qu Tutong. The horse blocked Li Yuan's footsteps.
On August 12th, Li Yuan's rebel army, advancing rapidly, approached Zhengping City, the prefecture of Jiangjun. Only one day later, Li Yuan's rebel army launched an attack. Chen Shuda was also betrayed by his subordinates. He was attacked and knocked unconscious by his subordinates. After being tied up, he even led the city and dedicated it to Li Yuan. Li Yuan personally untied Chen Shuda. Please take the seat and move Chen Shuda Kneeling and surrendering, the remaining seven counties in Jiang County also surrendered one after another, including Wenxi County, the base of Lao Pei's family.
The advancement is so fast and the battle is so smooth. The replaced commander may have been complacent and supercilious, but as the commander, Li Yuan and his son are very calm, because they know very well that the reason why their own army has achieved such results is entirely because the opponent is weak , The enemy's coach has successively made mistakes in decision-making and the luck of the own army is too good. The farther south you go, the more difficult it will be to fight. There are also countless hidden dangers for the own army. The first is the problem of food and grass. It is impossible for the food transport team in the rear to advance so crazily and quickly. At the same time, there are many problems in Taiyuan, the rear area. Not only are Liu Wuzhou, Wei Daoer and the remnants of the Yanmen Sui army threatened, but the food production is far from enough to supply the increasingly large team of Li Yuan's rebels.
The supply of food and grass in the rear cannot be guaranteed, and they can only obtain food from the enemy. Although Li Yuan's rebels can take food at will from the conquered and surrendered counties, at most they can only maintain the army's food supply. It is difficult to guarantee long-term supply. The only way to obtain a sufficient and stable supply of grain and grass is to seize a state-owned granary as soon as possible, and there are only two state-level granaries in front of Li Yuan. Even Li Yuan had the guts not to think about Changping Cang. If Li Yuan's rebels really dared to cross the Yellow River from Sanmenxia to take Changping Cang, Chen Sangliang's mouth would be crooked. So Li Yuan actually had only one choice, which was to take down Yongfeng warehouse as soon as possible.
Yongfeng warehouse is not so easy to get. There are two roads from Jiangjun to Yongfeng warehouse. One is the flat and wide east road. After getting off the river east, take the Pujin pontoon bridge and cross the Yellow River directly. The advantage of taking this road is that it is safer , can maintain contact with the rear, the difficulty is that the Sui army famous general Qu Tutong sits in Hedong, and if he wants to cross the Yellow River, he must pull out the nail of Qu Tutong.
The other way is to cross the Yellow River directly through Longmen or Hukou, and go straight to Yongfeng Cang by bypassing the East River, but this road is more dangerous. At any time, the rebels can go westward through the Pujin Bridge to intercept the rebels going south, and what is even more frightening is that once the main force of the rebels crosses the Yellow River and enters Guanzhong, 90% of the Daxing side will ask for help from the eastern capital. In Yongfeng warehouse, which is only five miles away from Tongguan, Qu Tutong also cut off the contact between the rebels and the rear of Taiyuan, so that Li Yuan's rebels could be starved to death without fighting!
Li Yuan had no choice but to reject the proposal of a few counselors to directly cross the Yellow River, and decided to lead his army to take Longmen first, open up contact with Feng Yi's rebels, and then go south to attack Qu Tutong. Chen Sangliang, Li Yuan, whose team has expanded to more than 120,000, resolutely split up 30,000 rebels and handed them over to Duan Zhixuan, a general who had performed well in the previous war, supplemented by Zhang Daoyuan and Tang Jian, and ordered Duan Zhixuan to lead this part of the army. Jiang County went south, and after reaching Yuan County, he went east to Hanoi, attacked Hanoi and threatened Luoyang, and tried his best to contain the Sui army in the eastern capital, so that Chen Sangliang had no time to go west to reinforce Daxing.
"General Duan, although you are a partial teacher, your responsibilities are so important that you are not inferior to the main force. Whether our army can enter the Guanzhong first depends on you." This is Li Yuan's original words to Duan Zhixuan, "Jiang Yuaner County has already dispatched envoys to surrender, so you can go south without worry, time is urgent, you must arrive at Yuan County within three days, attack Wangwu from the east, intimidate Zhiguan, and force Hanoi to ask for help from the east capital!"
"Remember! Be sure to spread the news along the way, saying that you are just my vanguard, and our army will take Hanoi first, and then Dongdu! If Dongdu does not send troops, or Dongdu sends other generals to rescue Hanoi, you must do your best to initiate To attack and put pressure on you, if Chen Yingliang comes personally, you must stand firm and defend yourself. You must not be greedy for meritorious deeds, and give Chen Yingliang a chance to win quickly. At that time, as long as you can hold Chen Yingliang for more than ten days, after our army takes down Daxing , I will give you the first credit too!"
After Jishou sang promises, Duan Zhixuan immediately took his side to the south, but Li Yuan still refused to rest assured, and asked him to contact his friends and relatives in Dongdu to put pressure on them, encouraging Yang Tong to send Chen Sangliang to Hanoi , to ensure the safety of the eastern capital, and at the same time pray for the fulfillment of the second son's prophecy, Li Mi also sent troops to attack Linqingguan to threaten Hanoi, causing more panic in the eastern capital Luoyang.
…
Li Er's crow's mouth has always been very sharp. On the same day, the rebel courier with the same speed also successfully delivered the letter written by Li Yuan to Liyang warehouse, and sent it to Li Mi who was licking his wound. After reading Li Yuan's letter Afterwards, Li Mi suddenly smiled, and said: "Use Duan Zhixuan as the vanguard to enter Hanoi, the main force will arrive later, and then join the army under the city of the county? Tang Guogong is easy to calculate. He wants to trick me into dispatching the main force to enter Hanoi with a partial army. It’s a beautiful idea for him to share the pressure.”
"Elder Wei's opinion, this is indeed just Li Yuan's bait." Zu Junyan, who had recently taken refuge in Li Mi, nodded in agreement, and pointed out: "Li Yuan is the head of the Li clan, one of the eight great clans in Guanlong. His roots are in Guanzhong, which is empty. Luoyang has Chen Yingliang sitting in it. , and the dangers of the Wangwu and the Yellow River, taking the east is far more difficult than taking Daxing. As long as Li Yuan is not stupid, his primary goal must be Daxing in Guanzhong! Contain Chen Yingliang, a terrible enemy, for him, we must not be fooled!"
"I can't say absolutely. Li Yuan can't take all of it, but he can't miss it at all." Li Mi said with a smile: "Our best choice should be to send a partial division to attack Linqingguan and threaten Hanoi. And we can't It’s perfunctory, but we must really attack with all our strength!”
"Teacher, if you do this, what if you really recruit Chen Yingliang?" Wang Bodang asked worriedly.
"Bodang, do you think Chen Yingliang really can't see that Li Yuan's real goal is Guanzhong?" Li Mi laughed and said, "The enmity between Li Yuan and Chen Yingliang is different from heaven. If Li Yuan takes Guanzhong, he will be in danger. Can the little thief Chen Yingliang have a peaceful life? I dare to conclude that Li Yuan's trick to lure the enemy is absolutely impossible to succeed. It is absolutely impossible for the little thief Chen to send troops to rescue Hanoi. The danger of the little thief Chen."
"Brilliant plan!" Zu Junyan applauded and said, "If our army captures Linqing Pass and overlooks the hinterland of Hanoi, and Chen Yingliang leads his army westward to rescue Guanzhong, Hanoi will be at your fingertips. If Hanoi is captured, you can look down on Luoyang again. Cross the river and forge ahead, if there is no chance, stick to the river and wait for a better opportunity to appear!"
Li Mi laughed and nodded, acknowledging this judgment. Apart from Fang Xuanzao who had already led the southern expedition, other generals of Li Mi's army also stood up and volunteered to take on this task, but Li Mi shook his head decisively and refused, saying: "You all Don't go, let Pei Renji and his son go!"
"Let Pei Renji go?" Wang Bodang and the others were startled, and hurriedly reminded: "Wei Gong, Pei Renji is from Zhai Rang?"
"Pei Renji is a member of Zhai Rang, but he should not be reused. He is very wronged under Zhai Rang's command, so I want him to go." Li Mi said with a smile: "I not only want Pei Renji to go, but also let him take my Wei Gongjun. , tell me, what would Pei Renji think?"
Li Mijun smiled knowingly, and Li Mi immediately sent someone to invite Zhai Rang to discuss with Zhai Rang about the westward expedition to Hanoi. He also asked Zhai Rang to send Pei Renji as a general to lead the army on the westward expedition and eat people under the pretext that Pei Renji was familiar with the internal situation of the Sui army. The soft-spoken Zhai Rang was afraid of losing his strength, and wanted to refuse but was too embarrassed to speak up. Fortunately, Li Mi proposed in time that Zhai Rang would send out the general and send troops by himself. Zhai Rang was overjoyed and immediately agreed. After Pei Renji, who was depressed in the Wagang Army, learned of this, he was naturally grateful to Li Mi, and his butt position naturally moved closer to Li Mi more and more.
"Remember! Our sending troops this time is not a perfunctory response, but a real attack on Hanoi! Chen Yingliang and Li Yuan have a deep hatred, and they will never let Li Yuan stop fighting, and attack us first. We will take this opportunity to take down Hanoi and threaten Luoyang, take the strategic initiative, wait until Chen Yingliang sends troops to deal with Li Yuan, and then we will enter the Eastern Capital, and Luoyang will be at your fingertips!" This is Li Mi's clear explanation to Pei Renji.
…
Soon it was Hanoi's turn to complain. The west had just detected 30,000 Li Yuan rebels coming to Zhiguan, and the east reported that Pei Renji led an army of 20,000 troops to clear the pass. The east and west were in a hurry. Hanoi guard Meng Shanyi Lieutenant Dugu and Wudu were overwhelmed and battered, and the civil governor Liu Xie was even more frightened, so he had to jointly send an emergency to the Eastern Capital in the south, asking Luoyang, the eastern capital, to send reinforcements to the north to help Hanoi resist the rebel attack.
Chen Sangliang's life was also difficult, because during the Battle of Hulaoguan, thieves big and small in the Central Plains took advantage of the opportunity, and the dozen counties around Luoyang, the eastern capital, had already become a mess, with countless thieves big and small emerging , Most of the thieves have never even heard the name Chen Sangliang. Although these thieves have no guts to go deep into Henan County to seek death, they continue to fight around Henan County in a piecemeal manner, causing trouble for Chen Sangliang and creating troubles. A large number of refugees flocked to Luoyang, which was relatively peaceful. Although these refugees provided Chen Sangliang with enough sources of soldiers, they became ticking time bombs in the Eastern Capital and were very difficult to deal with.
The Dongdu court can pretend to ignore the small troubles in the surrounding area, but the Dongdu side can’t care about the big troubles in Hanoi, especially the Hanoi side reported that Li Yuan’s rebel army and Li Mi’s bandit army threatened to join forces under the city of Hanoi and jointly attack Luoyang. Coupled with the fact that some people deliberately spread rumors, alarmist, and exaggerated the threat of the two bandits to the eastern capital Luoyang, the Eastern Capital court headed by Yang Yu was even more worried, and had to discuss the matter at the court on August 17th. , to discuss sending troops to rescue Hanoi.
Of course, Chen Sangliang could tell at a glance that Li Yuan and Li Mi's colluding family was just trying to contain him, and he also publicly pointed out at the court that Li Yuan's real goal could never be Dongdu but Daxing. These two partial divisions are not feigned attacks, but real attacks with real swords and guns. If Hanoi is not saved, this strategically important area may really fall. Therefore, although Yang Tong, Yuan Wendu, Duan Da and others felt that Chen Sangliang's analysis was reasonable, they still proposed to send troops to Hanoi to ensure the safety of the northern line because of the emergency in Hanoi.
Chen Sangliang casually dispatched some recruits to deal with the matter, but as the Eastern Capital stayed behind, Chen Sangliang had to consider the safety of the Eastern Capital. At the same time, if Hanoi really fell, the Eastern Capital would be in a hurry, and he wanted to send troops to rescue Guanzhong , I am afraid that Yang Tong will not be so easy to panic. As a last resort, Chen Sangliang could only ask Yang Tong to give him a day to think about it, and then decide how to deal with it the next day. Yang Tong agreed, and after the court was over, Chen Sangliang immediately called his accomplices and lackeys to help him. Figure out for yourself how to deal with this situation.
First, he told the accomplices very clearly that at most he could only send some recruits to the north for reinforcements. Only then did Chen Sangliang let the lackeys speak freely. Fang Xuanling first said: "My dear brother, only send some recruits to deal with the perfunctory. I'm afraid it will be difficult. Li Yuan The purpose of this side is very obvious, it is to storm Hanoi to contain you. If you don’t go to Hanoi to sit in the town yourself, Li Yuan’s rebel forces will never stop attacking. Brother Yu speculates that Li Mi’s purpose here should be to take advantage of your need to beware of Li Yuan, Seize Hanoi to take the initiative, so if we don't show our strength, Li Mi's bandit army will definitely not slow down the offensive."
Chen Sangliang rubbed his forehead in distress, knowing that Fang Xuanling's words were reasonable but helpless, he could only rub his forehead and said, "Do you have any method or strategy to make the two bandits retreat separately?"
Fang Xuanling shook his head, Wei Zheng and Yuan Tiangang also shook their heads, and Changsun Wuji, who was clumsy in military strategy, shook his head like a rattle, but Chen Sangliang's distant cousin Pei Xingfang kept silent and kept looking at Chen Sangliang The military intelligence battle report brought back suddenly said: "Brother, Pei Renji's journey, the younger brother has a plan to retreat."
"What's the clever plan of my virtuous brother?" Chen Sangliang asked happily.
"In the Linqingguan investigation report, the army led by Pei Renji is full of soldiers under the command of Li Mi's rebels." Pei Xingfang held up a military report, pointed to the content and replied: "Pei Renji surrendered at that time. Zhai Rang, why did Li Mi Let Pei Renji lead his subordinates to the expedition. Although the younger brother does not know, this is definitely a great opportunity to disturb the enemy. Brother might as well send an army to the north to help defend Linqing Pass, and ask His Royal Highness Yue to issue an edict to read in public at Linqing Pass to call for Pei Renji to come At the same time, he sent people to spread rumors, saying that Pei Renji wanted to send the generals and soldiers of Li Mi's bandit army to death deliberately, as a gift to His Royal Highness, Pei Renji's army must be suspicious from top to bottom, and they will panic if they don't fight, and they will have nothing to fear."
"A clever plan!" Chen Sangliang was overjoyed, slapped his thigh and said, "You are still careful, brother, why didn't I discover this detail just now? This plan has a high chance of success, and it is worth a try! There is also the way of Li Yuan's bandit army." Brother, do you have a clever plan to deal with it?"
"Insufficient information, my younger brother has nothing to do." Pei Xingfang replied with a wry smile: "My younger brother has never even heard of the names of thieves like Duan Zhixuan, Zhang Daoyuan, and Tang Jian before, and I don't know their personalities and family backgrounds. The enemy's strategy. But..., but...."
"But what?" Chen Yingliang hastily urged: "Your brother, you can speak up if you have something to say, it doesn't matter if you say something wrong."
"However, my younger brother thinks that since Li Yuan sent Duan Zhixuan to contain you, he must want to buy time, and will not ask Duan Zhixuan to rush to a decisive battle with you." Pei Xingfang said hesitantly: "My younger brother thinks that if this is the case, we might as well let our reinforcements Duan Zhixuan will definitely not be in a hurry to attack if you are pretending to use your banner to confront them."
"Brother, this can't be done." Chen Sangliang shook his head, and said weakly: "We are too unsupported by the people, there are too many channels for leaking information, and there are too many thieves and traitors in the eastern capital. Staying behind in the Eastern Capital, it is impossible to hide from the eyes of these traitors whether to lead the army to the north in person, no matter how pretending it is, the enemy will find out in less than three days."
Pei Xingfang was silent for a moment, then Pei Xingfang suddenly said: "Brother, if you trust my younger brother, you can send an army north to Hanoi, supplemented by a small number of elite soldiers and generals, and let my younger brother serve as the army's staff officer to formulate strategies and tactics for the entire army." , Defeat the bandits coming to the enemy head-on."
Chen Sangliang looked at his distant cousin intently, Pei Xingfang looked solemn, and said: "Brother, I have this confidence, Li Yuan's bandit army came eastward, and its purpose is to contain you and prevent you from approaching Hanoi. You will not stop attacking, and you will become anxious when you are slightly frustrated. If you are anxious, you will be chaotic, and if you are chaotic, you will take advantage of it. I have the confidence to seize the opportunity and defeat the enemy!"
After hesitating for quite a while, the helpless Chen Sangliang finally made up his mind, nodded and said: "Okay, I will let Liu Changgong lead an army of 10,000 to fight against Duan Zhixuan, and you will serve as a staff officer. I will give you 1,000 elite soldiers and a regiment to serve the country." Army, and one hundred Musketeers, I will send Liu Heita to you! But, you must promise me one thing!"
"Brother, please tell me." Pei Xingfang quickly replied.
"Regardless of victory or defeat." Chen Sangliang said word by word: "You have to come back alive!"
Pei Xingfang was shocked, and then he got up and bowed his hands to Chen Sangliang and said, "Don't worry, brother, I will definitely come back alive!"