On the pretext that the road between Weinan and Zheng County was washed away by mountain torrents, he temporarily decided to give up the action of returning to Yongfeng warehouse. Li Yuan's nonsense was also fooled by those powerless ordinary people, but he could not hide the truth of his real ruling foundation. The Longmen faction, the Guanlongmen faction with its big tree and deep roots has its own intelligence network and information channels. Although the speed is not as fast as that of Li Yuan's rebels, it is not much slower. In some details, the intelligence of the rebels is even faster It is not as detailed as the intelligence of these Guanlongmen Clans.
With such intelligence capabilities, the successive disastrous defeats of the rebel divisions on the Tongguan battlefield soon spread to the ears of the Guanlong clan. He didn't want to dismantle Li Yuan's platform and expose Li Yuan's lies, but he didn't dare to bet all his chips on Li Yuan anymore, and more or less left some backup players. They began to plan their retreat, and many children from wealthy families who were waiting in line to be interviewed by Li Yuan also quietly withdrew from the queue.
Of course, the Guanlongmen faction are united in the same breath, and they want to count on them to draw a clear line with Li Yuan's rebels immediately, and re-enter the warm and broad embrace of the Sui court. That is absolutely impossible. All the Long family members were quietly observing, observing every move of Chen Sangliang's westward march, analyzing and judging whether Chen Sangliang was worthy of defection or defection.
Of course, Li Yuan is also paying close attention to Chen Sangliang's every move. In addition to the military level, he pays more attention to the political level. Li Yuan also knows that Chen Sangliang is strict in running the army and has always strictly prohibited soldiers from disturbing the people. However, Li Yuan believes that Chen Sangliang will definitely win people's hearts He couldn't compare to himself, but Li Yuan was quickly disappointed, because Chen Sangliang's military discipline was not only better than before, he didn't disturb or hurt the people, and he was more clever in buying people's hearts.
Li Yuan's wooing of aristocratic families is nothing more than appointing their children as officials to protect their property and land. Chen Sangliang has also done this. The manor land is innocent. But this is not over yet. Chen Sangliang also openly promised that he would inform the family of the powerful family in Guanzhong that even if there are children who are forced to serve as rebels, the family will not hold them accountable. Please ask the court to give you a reward. If the family members of the bandit soldiers who were forced to serve as bandits have difficulties in life, they can also ask the Guanzhong local government for subsidies. —As for how to distinguish between being forced to follow the thief or taking the initiative to follow the thief, Chen Sangliang didn't even mention it in the list, deliberately leaving a loophole for everyone to take advantage of.
The most ruthless thing is Chen Sangliang's paper calling for thieves, openly allowing the officials and civilian volunteers in all parts of Guanzhong to pretend to join the enemy when they have to, keep their useful bodies, and wait for the time to come back anyway. Pursue! This sentence firmly hit the vital point of the rebel army, and gave all the officials, gentry and civilians who surrendered to Li Yuan's rebel army a way to retreat. Extremely firm, and now that the situation of the rebels is getting more and more embarrassing, these fools of course want to leave a way out for themselves. When doing things for the rebels, they are at both ends, and they dare not do things absolutely—Yun Ding General Xing Lao is one of the outstanding representatives.
These gentle methods of Chen Sangliang were immediately effective and played a huge role. After Huayin County, Zheng County and Weinan County, where the main force of the Sui Army was pointed, surrendered. Yongnian was so ruthless that he killed the backbone of the rebel army who refused to surrender and presented it to Chen Sangliang as a meeting gift, but he also ran to Chen Sangliang's horse and wailed loudly. In the Sui Dynasty, part of the remnants of Li Jiancheng's army, who were defeated and fled to this direction before, fled all the way west, not daring to stop a single soldier to stop the main force of the Sui army.
In addition, Feng Yi, the relative of Uncle Da Xiao Guo, was the prefect of Xiao Zao. Regardless of the deep hatred between his relatives and Chen Sangliang, he quietly sent someone to contact Chen Sangliang to test whether Chen Sangliang would forgive his Xianjun. For the crime of surrender, Chen Sangliang swears against Weishui in front of Xiao Zao's envoy, saying that as long as Xiao Zao returns anyway, he not only guarantees that Xiao Zao will not die, but as long as Xiao Zao makes a little contribution to the Sui army, he will also report to the court , Pray for Xiao Zao! In addition, Li Jiancheng and Dou Cong gave up Pujin Pass and fled to the west, and Xiao Zao also made a wise choice. He immediately arrested the family members of the rebel civil and military officials such as Feng Yi and Jin Xiaomo who had taken the initiative to join the rebels, and executed all of them. The wounded soldiers of the rebel army who were recuperating in Feng Yi City changed their banners and surrendered!
The hearts of the people who gradually began to come back accelerated the advancing speed of the main force of the Sui army. From Tongguan to Xinfeng, the main force of the Sui army only walked for more than three days, and then was stopped by Duan Lun, Li Yuan's fourth son-in-law, who defended Xinfeng City. pace. At the same time, Dou Cong, a partisan of the rebel army who was severely injured during the westward crossing of Luoshui, had just arrived in Wannian, and was still being bitten by Li Jing and Qu Tutong. Joining with Duan Lun is not only doomed to be hit hard again by the Sui army's pursuers, but also very likely to be hit head-on by the main force of the Sui army, and the entire army is wiped out! —Don't expect Duan Lun to dare to send troops across the Guangtong Canal to meet Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng. If Duan Lun dared to do this, Chen Sangliang could make his mouth crooked.
Forced to be helpless, Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng had no choice but to send a fast horse to report Li Yuan's situation, requesting to abandon the original plan of crossing the Weishui River in the south to join Duan Lun, and instead continue westward to Jingyang, cross the Jingshui River and return directly to Daxing. He also asked Li Yuan to send troops to respond, so as not to repeat the mistakes of Luoshui's fiasco.
In the evening on the seventh day of October, Dou Cong, Li Jiancheng's emergency documents and Duan Lun's emergency documents were sent to Daxing by fast horses at the same time, and they were sent to Li Yuan. After Wenwu learned that Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng could not return to help Xinfeng to build an outer barrier, he also looked flustered and reminded: "General, you must block Chen Yingliang's dog thief in Xinfeng for a while, otherwise, we will not have time to repair it. City defense, transfer food outside the city, and contact other friendly troops to help. Also, less than ten days after we captured Daxing, the little thief Chen Yingliang came to Daxing City, which must have dealt a great blow to Daxing's hearts."
"Of course I know that!" Li Yuan said angrily, "But now that the thief Chen Yingliang has attacked Xinfeng first, Da Lang and Dou Cong can't cross the Wei River at all. How can they buy time for us in Xinfeng?"
"Father, my brother's army has lost consecutive battles, and their morale has been depressed. It is impossible to expect them to forcefully cross the Wei River. The troops under the command of the fourth brother-in-law are all recruits he recruited in Lantian two months ago. They are weak and inexperienced. It is very difficult to expect him to keep Xinfeng for a long time." Li Er said: "The only solution for now is to agree with my brother and uncle to withdraw directly to Daxing to rest, to preserve our fighting force, and to send another army to reinforce Xinfeng to block Chen Yingliang's attack. Move forward and buy time for our main counterattack."
"That's the only way to go." Li Yuan nodded helplessly, and said, "Who is willing to help guard Xinfeng? Anyone who wants to go can go. The old man has a word first, and he must guard for at least ten days."
Frightened by Chen Sangliang's undefeated power, none of the civil and military rebels dared to say anything, but Li Er volunteered and said, "Father, my son is willing to lead two thousand cavalry to reinforce Xinfeng and help brother-in-law defend against the enemy."
"Two thousand cavalry?" Li Yuan got a little annoyed when he heard that, and said angrily, "You want to make a dangerous surprise attack again, don't you? Xinfeng is surrounded by the Guangtong Canal of the Wei River in the north and Lishan Mountain in the south. Is this the place where the cavalry fight? You can go, but I will give you 10,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, and you are only allowed to defend the city, and you are not allowed to attack at will, otherwise don't go!"
Without the support of the Eastern Turks, the number of Li Yuan's rebel cavalry is far less than that in history. Li Yuan insisted on refusing to give a large number of cavalry. Li Xiaogong, Wang Junkuo, Gao Zhensheng and Liang Jianfang were called for the roll call. Fortunately, Li Yuan did not refuse this time and nodded in agreement. At the same time, Li Yuan decided to write a letter agreeing that Li Jiancheng and Dou Cong would withdraw directly to Daxing, and sent a powerful general Zheng Yuanshou to lead the army north to meet Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng.
The military situation was on fire, and Li Er, who was allowed, immediately went to arrange an expedition team. It was at this time that Pei Ji cupped his hands to Li Yuan and said, "General, there is something that must be reported to you. The local government will report it. My left-wing army (Li Jiancheng) Army) was defeated by Chen Yingliang's little thief, some of them fled directly to the west, and some soldiers violated military discipline and invaded the people to kill and loot, causing great public resentment."
"Ask Erlang to check carefully when he arrives at Xinfeng, and find out who did it..." Li Yuan, who was in a very bad mood, ordered casually, but before he finished speaking, Li Yuan suddenly froze and said in surprise: "There is The rebels invaded the people, murdered and looted?"
"That's right." Pei Ji nodded quickly, and said: "At that time, there were too many defeated soldiers, and they were all scattered, so I haven't been able to find out whether it was the subordinates of those generals who did it."
"It also reminded me of an important matter." Li Yuan suddenly showed some smiles, beckoned to Pei Ji, and whispered in his ear: "I asked you to secretly look for someone who looks similar to His Royal Highness Dai Wang. Child, did you find it?"
What a smart person Pei Ji is, Li Yuan nodded, Pei Ji immediately came to his senses, and said in a low voice: "I found it, although it is not exactly the same, but there are seven or eight similarities, as long as you don't speak or move, put on the clothes of His Royal Highness Daiwang , there is great hope of hiding it from most people."
"There is no need for him to speak or act, as long as he puts on his clothes." Li Yuan smiled, and then ordered in a low voice: "Go and make arrangements, and by the way, ask Erlang to notify me when he leaves, and I will see him off. He confessed to his face."
Pei Ji comprehended the promise, and immediately went down to arrange preparations. First, he sent someone to inform Li Yuan of his order, and then arranged for reliable personnel to send Yang You's substitute, which he had prepared earlier, together with Yang You's clothes found in Miyagi, to Li's Second Army. And when Li Er was about to set off at the beginning of the shift, Li Yuan also went outside the city to see his son off in person, and whispered an opportunity in his precious son's ear. After hearing this, Li Er nodded first, then became a little worried, and said in a low voice : "Father, it's easy to talk about anything else. What if someone recognizes the corpse after it's brought back?"
"Silly boy, every time those civil and military officials meet him, they are separated by a distance of ten or twenty steps. How can they see his appearance carefully? We have all the people who are familiar with him. Can we meet him? A word?" Li Yuan laughed treacherously, and said in a low voice: "Remember, let a few common people see and hear, and testify for us, as long as you can pour dirty water on Chen Yingliang's little thief, The water is completely muddled, and even if the two little brats from the Yin family run to the little thief Chen Yingliang in the future, we can bite back and say that the little thief is a fabricated lie to get rid of the crime."
Li Er nodded, remembering his father's words in his heart, Li Yuan patted his son's shoulder again, and said in a low voice, "Leave this matter to Xiaogong, don't let other people know, so as not to leak the news." Li Er promised, Then he led the army to rush to Xinfeng battlefield overnight to help Duan Lun.
Next, it's time to take a look at the situation on Chen Sangliang's side. After defending Xinfeng City, which is only more than 70 miles away from Daxing, there are more than 10,000 defenders in the city. Some reinforcements were made to the city defenses. Chen Sangliang, who didn't like to fight tough battles, didn't rush to order an attack. He just ordered the army to station in the south of Xinfeng, backed by the Lishan Xiazhai, and built a camp and prepared siege weapons. At the same time, he went to the city. , Peek into Xinfeng City Defense, study the strategy of defeating the enemy.
Fortunately, the defense of the small county of Xinfeng, which has not fought for decades, is not too strong. The city wall built with rammed earth and bricks has been weathered for a long time, and it is already quite dilapidated. Although it has been repaired, it is still not strong enough, and it is not too high. Eighth, the thickness is not as thick as the newly built Yongfeng Cangcheng. The moat that introduced the running water from Guangtong Canal is quite deep, but the width is only about one foot. The rebels were completely caught off guard because they lost Tongguan and Yongfeng Cang one after another. At the same time, Chen Sangliang was also very clear about the composition of the soldiers and horses in the city. The main force was the recruits recruited by Li Yuan's son-in-law Duan Lun in Lantian only two months ago. The defeated rebels who escaped from the Tongguan battlefield had already been beaten by the Sui army in the Eastern capital and were afraid that they would be unable to speak bravely. It was not difficult for the Sui army in the eastern capital to deal with.
Keenly aware of the hasty deployment of the rebels here, Chen Sangliang immediately concluded that Li Yuan's rebels would definitely increase their troops to Xinfeng in order to gain time for Daxing to deploy their defenses. Pointing to the city to remind, that the rebel defender Duan Lun appeared on the city. Chen Sangliang was overjoyed when he saw the banner of Duanzi appearing in the city, and immediately rode his horse to the edge of the moat, shouting at Duan Lun who had met several times in the city to surrender.
"General Duan Lun, I know the reason why you were forced to follow the thief. You are the fourth son-in-law of the old thief Li Yuan. The old thief rebelled. As a son-in-law, you must be implicated. Even if you don't even go to jail, you will definitely be dismissed from office. To deprive you of the title, you have to go against it! But have you ever thought about it, in order to avoid the crime of sitting in prison, you commit the crime of killing the whole family, are you worth it? When I was in Daxing, you and I There have been a few encounters, and although there were not many conversations, they have never had a dispute with you because of your father-in-law's family. Now that Li Yuan's old thief has lost consecutive battles, and I personally lead the army here, why are you still stubbornly resisting? Can the tens of thousands of mobs gathered in Lantian be the opponents of my Great Sui Hundred Wars Division? It is better to open the city and surrender early. Anyway, when I return, I will play the Son of Heaven and ask for credit for you. At that time, you will not only atone for your sins, Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be promoted to an official position?”
Unlike Chai Shao, Chai Shao is as close as brother to Li Er, but Duan Lun has the best relationship with Li Jiancheng. The reason why he can marry Li Yuan's fourth daughter is because Li Jiancheng personally acts as a matchmaker. Duan Lun has no relationship with Li Jiancheng. It is rare to hear good things that are beneficial to Chen Sangliang. So after hearing Chen Sangliang's yelling to surrender, Duan Lun didn't accept it, but he didn't yell at him. He just shouted from Chen Sangliang: "Chen Liushou, don't waste your energy. I will never regret what Duan has done. If you want Xinfeng County, you can get it with real knives and guns!"
"Brother Duan, what am I so anxious to do with Xinfeng City?" Chen Sangliang smiled and said loudly, "I want to besiege the city and fight for aid. Xinfeng is only more than seventy miles away from Daxing. The old thief Li Yuan tied his head to his trousers to make you To buy him time on the belt, I will definitely send you reinforcements, I will fight your reinforcements, I want to see how many reinforcements he, Li Yuan, is willing to send to Xinfeng for your son-in-law!"
Duan Lun stopped talking, but ordered the defenders to shoot arrows to expel them. Chen Sangliang smiled and led the troops to retreat. Yuan Tiangang next to him asked curiously: "Stay behind, you can come forward to surrender yourself, can you bring Duan Lun over?"
"Of course not. After all, he is Li Yuan's son-in-law. How could he surrender so easily?" Chen Sangliang replied with a smile, "I came forward to recruit him personally because I knew very well that he would not react violently and his attitude was weak. , will inevitably affect the morale of the rebels in the city, and it will be beneficial and harmless to our next siege battle."
"Then what about besieging the city and fighting for reinforcements?" Yuan Tiangang asked curiously again: "If you stay behind, you openly threatened to besiege the city and fight for reinforcements. Do you want to paralyze the defenders in the city, or do you really want to do so?"
"It's impossible to paralyze the enemy." Chen Sangliang shook his head and said, "The bandit army just suffered a loss in Yongfeng warehouse, and they won't be fooled again immediately. It depends on the situation. If the enemy is scary, of course I have to deal with the enemy's reinforcements first." Then go back and attack the city, if the enemy's reinforcements are not enough to fear, I will use the enemy's reinforcements to lure Duan Lun out of the city and destroy him outside the city!"
During the conversation, a man dressed as a commoner was suddenly led in front of Chen Sangliang, and he saluted Chen Sangliang and said: "Report to Chen to stay behind, and General He will send a villain to report to you. The whereabouts of His Royal Highness Dai Wang and Deputy Yin Liushou were not found. Our army sneaked into Daxing and reported back from the city, saying that the bandit army is still looking for and arresting Deputy Yin Liushou who hijacked His Highness Dai Wang and fled. It is not reported that they have been found News from His Royal Highness."
"It's strange, our army is only more than seventy miles away from Daxing, why didn't Shishi Yin come to see me with His Royal Highness?" Chen Sangliang wondered in his heart, and secretly said: "Run in another direction? Impossible? Hu County, Lantian, and Taiping Palace in the south of Daxing were already under the control of bandit troops before Daxing City was broken. Even if it was easy to hide in the Qinling Mountains, it is unlikely that Master Yin would take Yang You to the south. To the north It is even more impossible to go west, even if we go temporarily, we must find a way to turn around and head east, nine days have passed, how come Yin Shishi should return to this area, why hasn't he appeared yet?"
Thinking about it, Chen Sangliang asked casually again: "Who fled with His Royal Highness Dai Wang and Deputy Yin stayed behind, did you ever find out who else was there?"
"No, there is very little news about this in Daxing City." The secret agent sent back by He Er shook his head, and then hurriedly said: "I will stay behind, and there is another small matter. Our secret agent found out that the bandit army once blocked it." Deputy Yin stayed in the mansion of Anyefang, and I heard that all the family members of Deputy Yin who stayed behind were arrested and interrogated in the army, but the specific circumstances are unknown."
"What about Yue'e? Was she captured by the thieves?" Chen Sangliang blurted out.
"Yue'e? What Yue'e?" Xiao Zuo, who came to report the letter, and Yuan Tiangang and others beside him were all taken aback.
"Of course it's Yin Yue'e, Deputy Yin's left-behind daughter, Yin Yue'e."
"No, I don't know, the villains and others have not investigated the news about this."
"It's a pity, little sister Yue'e, don't let anything happen to you. Otherwise, I really don't know how to explain to your father."