In the thirteenth year of Daye in the Sui Dynasty, in the early morning of the eighth day of October, Lishan, Jinsha Cave.
Jinsha Cave, also known as You Cave, is located in a very remote and hidden place. Even the local people in Lishan rarely know about this cave. The secret palace was not discovered by the scholar Liu Ruiwu until more than 700 years later in the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, and it was confirmed that there was indeed a secret palace in the cave, as well as white jade statues of Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan, which is rare in Jinsha cave. It can be seen that it is well-known and secretive.
The wind was blowing and the temperature was dropping. A handsome young girl's face suddenly appeared from this little-known cave. She carefully observed the situation outside the cave until she confirmed that there was no danger before she walked out of the cave with confidence. , said to the cave: "Little brother, come out, it's all right."
With a childish promise, a ten-year-old boy walked out of the cave. The girl and the boy were both dressed in civilian clothes, each carrying a small package of dry food and a water hyacinth, as if they were going to go a long way. On the way, the little boy also said to the girl: "Sister, shall we go out of the mountain today?"
"Go to the side of the mountain and have a look. If our Great Sui official army comes back, we will join them." The girl replied: "If we can't find our Great Sui official army, we will come back and continue to wait for Daddy. Go outside the mountain to see the situation."
The little boy agreed, and then said: "Sister, today is already the ninth day, why haven't father and brother come here to look for us? Could something happen to them?"
"No, definitely not." The girl comforted softly, and said, "Father and elder brother are so skilled in martial arts, no matter how many bandit soldiers there are, they can't beat them. I arranged this hiding place, so I didn’t dare to come back.”
She comforted her younger brother with her mouth, but the girl felt heavy in her heart. She remembered that night full of blood and slaughter, the horseshoes thundering like thunder, the flash of swords and swords, and the sharp arrow suddenly shot through the throat of her companion beside her. . But in order not to scare her young brother, the girl suppressed the fear and worry in her heart, comforted her brother, and led him slowly to the edge of the mountain, looking for the familiar red flag of the Sui army.
Almost at the same time, the 10,000 reinforcements led by Li Er also crossed Baqiao and approached the edge of the Xinfeng battlefield. The chance for the Xinfeng defenders to rendezvous has already sent troops to line up, blocking the way for the rebels to go to Xinfeng City. Li Er, the leader of the rebel army, didn't care about this situation, and he didn't order to continue the attack. He just ordered to stop the advance and build a camp with his back on the Zishuiba Bridge to protect himself.
Chen Sangliang underestimated Li Er's patience. He didn't expect that Li Er would give up his aid and set up camp under Xinfeng City. Chen Sangliang immediately sent Kan Leng and Kan Leng to lead the army westward to attack, preventing the rebels from setting up camp. Li Er guarded the front with a strict formation, and ordered the rear army to step up the construction of the camp. During this period, the Sui army once launched a tentative attack, but was defeated A large number of elite rebels equipped with bows and crossbows repelled with random arrows. After hearing the report, Chen Sangliang ordered to stop the attack, lined up for orders, and sent out more light cavalry to harass and attack the rebel logging soldiers, making it more difficult for the rebels to log, and also slowing down the speed of the rebels' camp building.
During this period, Duan Lun once sent an envoy to contact Li Er, asking Li Er to continue to march forward, and to send troops to help Li Er enter the city, but Li Er flatly refused, asking Duan Lun to strictly guard the city, and not to go out at will, and directly explained himself Not marching with all their strength, it was not because they were afraid of the Sui army in the eastern capital, and retreated to Baqiao. In addition to blocking the way for the Sui army to advance westward, it was more about fighting for a chance to turn defeat into victory!
Chen Sangliang, who knows the history, can see Li Er's ambitions with his toes—Li Er put the relatively safe Guangtong Canal in the north, but chose to go south of Guangtong Canal and come straight to the main force of the Sui army. Life and death refused to retreat from the water, and it was obvious that they wanted to seize the initiative on the battlefield, keep the opportunity to launch an active attack, seize the opportunity to defeat Chen Sangliang's undefeated reputation, and also make him Li Er's great reputation.
It's a pity that Chen Sangliang is not Wang Shichong, nor Dou Jiande. In history, Li Er was able to defeat both Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande at the same time because Wang Shichong, who poisoned Yang Tong, was completely isolated politically and was seriously unpopular. In the panchang battle, the vitality was exhausted, and the strength was far from that of Li Erjun, who was in the rising period; defeating Dou Jiande was completely lucky. Dou Jiande's army had just started to cross the Yellow River, and Wang Shichong's army guarding the Hulao Pass suddenly surrendered Li Er, let Li Er grasp the absolute initiative of the Hulao Pass battlefield. When Li Er launched a cavalry raid, Dou Jiande was unlucky enough to be blocked by civil and military officials under his command, unable to organize and lead the cavalry to meet him. Kill him in front of him and pick a cheap one that is bigger than the sky.
Neither Wang Shichong nor Dou Jiande have the weaknesses of Chen Sangliang. Although Chen Sangliang, who held high the banner of loyalty to the country, is not very popular with the people, he has the hearts of the army and officials. He is not at a disadvantage politically. Strong and powerful, they will not suffer any losses when they encounter the main force of the rebel army, so naturally they don't need to be afraid of the more than ten thousand partial divisions under Li Er's command. At the same time, Chen Sangliang did not have the upstart virtues like Dou Jiande, and he had to hold a court meeting to temporarily give up his command before the battle. Li Er wanted to find a bargain like Dou Jiande from Chen Sangliang, but he couldn't even think about it.
At the same time, Li Er dared to come straight to the main force of the Sui army with more than ten thousand partial teachers, and his arrogance somewhat angered Chen Sangliang, and thinking of how many of his current women had been abused by Li Er, Chen Sangliang was even more furious. Where to come—although to be precise, it was Chen Sangliang who robbed Li Er's several wives. Thinking of these new and old grudges, Chen Sangliang, who has always been a low-key man, rarely threatened directly, and said viciously: "Li Erlang can't see the sun rising in Xinfeng tomorrow. Before tomorrow morning, I will defeat him!"
"Stay behind, you want to launch a night attack again?" Wei Zheng asked curiously.
"Otherwise, why would I want Kan Leng and Qin Qiong to monitor him?" Chen Sangliang said with a sneer, "Li Erlang came overnight last night, and today I will use some elite soldiers to toss him all day, and tonight, my chance will come." gone?"
Li Er quickly saw through Chen Sangliang's intentions when he met his opponent. At noon, he saw that the Sui army in front was only facing each other in strict formation and did not launch an attack. Li Er's deputy Li Xiaogong, Wang Junkuo and others were all puzzled. , I didn’t understand Chen Sangliang’s intentions. When he asked Li Er, Li Er immediately smiled with disdain: “Why? For the night attack, our army marched overnight yesterday, and today we deliberately lured our elite soldiers to face each other. Consuming the physical strength and energy of our soldiers, won't his chance come at night?"
After suddenly realizing that Chen Sangliang was really despicable, Li Xiaogong couldn't wait to ask: "Erlang, since this is the case, should we launch an attack and kill the officer army on the opposite side?"
"Don't underestimate the enemy, the army on the opposite side is not simple." Li Er shook his head, pouted his mouth at the Sui army's formation ahead, and said, "Did you see that? The banner with Kan characters, the banner with Qin characters, we are facing Kan Ling and Qin Qiong, these two bandit generals are famous brave generals under the command of Chen Yingliang's little thief. They are both brave and resourceful, and they are especially good at fighting fierce battles. Our attack will only waste our soldiers and our insufficient strength. The little thief's arms."
"Then what should we do?" Wang Junkuo was a little worried, and said, "If we let the soldiers spend the whole day here, our main soldiers will definitely be very tired at night, which is not conducive to fighting."
"What are you afraid of?" Li Er smiled and said: "The most fearful thing in fighting at night is that you will be unprepared and rush to fight by surprise. Now that we have concluded that the little thief Chen Yingliang is coming to attack at night, not only do we not need to be afraid of him, but we can also take the opportunity to set up traps. Defeat his robbing army. Chen Yingliang's invincible reputation has lasted for more than four years, and it is time to end."
In the afternoon at Shen Shizheng, when the mysterious pair of siblings were still struggling on the forest path in Mount Li, Chen Sangliang suddenly sent someone to order Kan Leng and Qin Qiong to retreat and return to the camp. Although Qin Qiong and the others didn't understand why Chen Sangliang made them work hard for most of the day, out of confidence in Chen Sangliang's tactics, they led the army to retreat slowly and retreated to the Sui army camp twelve miles away to rest. . Li Er didn't launch a pursuit either, he just confirmed that the Sui army was far away and then lifted his guard, letting the main soldiers return to the rudimentary camp to rest.
Kan Leng, Qin Qiong, and the light cavalry of the Sui Army were definitely not in vain. Because of their containment and obstruction, the rear of the rebel army could only cut wood from the west of Baqiao to build a camp. When the Sui Army retreated, they did not have time to build the fence of the camp. Only dug a shallow circle. Seeing this situation, Li Er was not worried, and directly ordered: "Stop digging trenches, and build the fence with all your strength, and it must be completed before dark. The main soldiers return to their tents to rest immediately, and the auxiliary soldiers prepare dinner and dry food torches for night battles. Tell us Soldiers, you are not allowed to disarm, you only have one and a half hours to rest, and at the first shift, you must all get up and assemble."
"Erlang, what are you going to do?" Li Xiaogong asked quickly.
"It's already early winter, and it gets dark early." Li Er said calmly: "It will be completely dark at the second quarter of the Youshi. At that time, I will lead the cavalry out of the camp first, and lie in ambush in the middle of Lishan Mountain in the southeast. After I leave , You are the main force in the camp. At the beginning of the revolution, you and Wang Junkuo each led 2,000 soldiers out of the camp and ambushed on both sides of our camp. , When the officers and soldiers rob the camp and enter the camp, the auxiliary soldiers suddenly rush out to scare the officers and soldiers, and then you charge out left and right, attacking the two wings of the officers and troops, and when the officers and soldiers are defeated, I will take the opportunity to fight out again, and I will definitely win a big victory."
"A clever plan is a clever plan, but the little thief Chen Yingliang has always been scheming, so I'm afraid he was prepared." Li Xiaogong reminded.
"That's why I personally led the cavalry out of the camp to ambush." Li Er smiled, pointing to Lishan Mountain in the southeast and said: "The only place to ambush the strange soldiers in this area is Lishan Mountain. It happens to be able to overlook the situation of the entire battlefield, if the little thief Chen Sangliang has other arrangements, he will definitely not be able to escape my eyes."
Li Xiaogong was overjoyed when he heard that, he quickly praised Li Er for making the arrangements properly, and then lowered his voice and asked: "Erlang, what about that person's affairs? Are you going to follow the plan secretly today?"
Li Er finally frowned, only to realize that he had been so secretive that he had forgotten this important matter. After thinking for a while, Li Er said: "Take that child to the edge of Mount Li now. If you can meet the people, you will act according to your plan. If you can't find witnesses from the people, you will take refuge in the mountains for one night to avoid the spread of the war. Come back tomorrow." Join us."
Li Xiaogong quickly agreed, and immediately went to arrange reliable confidantes to act according to the plan, while Li Er asked the cavalry general Gao Zhensheng and Liang Jianfang to organize the cavalry to prepare for the night battle, while sneering at the east and said: "Chen Yingliang, come on, for Wugou, this time I will definitely I want to defeat you!"
…
Almost at the same time, in the Sui army camp, Chen Sangliang personally led the army, Zhong Wenwu, to the gate of the camp to meet the troops of Kan Leng and Qin Qiong. Liang went out of the camp himself, and he was really ashamed, but Chen Sangliang said with a smile: "Who said you have no credit? Letting the main force of the rebels stand with you for half the day is already your great contribution." It is thanks to you that our army was able to defeat the bandit soldiers tonight."
"Stay behind, are you going to launch a night battle today?" Kan Leng and Qin Qiong both asked quickly.
"Already preparing, I will send someone to deliver your dry rations and torches for the night battle." Chen Sangliang nodded, and then said: "Although you may not need to participate in the battle tonight, just to be cautious, you still need to make some preparations." , you have an hour and a half to rest, you are not allowed to disarm, you must get up and eat, and prepare for the night battle."
"Correction at the beginning?" Qin Qiong hesitated, and said hurriedly: "Chen Liushou, it's too early, isn't it? Usually the robbery of the camp is done at or after the third watch. Our camp is only eleven or twelve miles away from the traitor camp. Is there still time to get up and prepare for the second watch?"
"Who said I was going to rob the camp?" Chen Sangliang smiled.
"Stay behind, aren't you going to rob the camp?" Wei Zheng, Yuan Tiangang and the others next to him were also taken aback, and asked one after another: "Then what should we do? We can't launch a decisive battle right?"
"That's right, it's time to launch a decisive battle!" Chen Sangliang nodded, and said with a sneer: "Don't underestimate that kid Li Erlang, don't forget that during the Yanmen War, I arranged for that kid to go to the Turkic camp to feign surrender. After listening to my order, he immediately guessed my entire tactical plan, and gave me a hard blow, almost scaring me to death!"
"So, I dare to conclude that he must have seen through the night attack tactics I planned to rob the camp." Chen Sangliang smiled even colder, and said: "So this time I will deliberately do the opposite, pretending to be ready to arrange arrangements Raiding the camp at night, but in fact suddenly launched a direct decisive battle, killing him by surprise!"
"Brilliant plan!" Liu Heikai was the first to wake up, and said happily: "Our elites are far more than the rebels. Even if General Kan and General Qin can't fight tonight, our remaining strength will still help the rebels. Formed an overwhelming advantage, the bandit army was exhausted and caught off guard, and the camp was far from strong enough, we still have a good chance of winning the decisive battle head-on."
Only then did the civil and military members of the Sui army suddenly realize that Chen Sangliang also gave Liu Heitai a thumbs up to express his praise, praising Liu Heitai as a general, and then told Kan Leng and Qin Qiong: "Go and rest, tonight Stay in the camp with some auxiliary soldiers, and if the rebel army in Xinfeng City comes to help, you will be responsible for the attack." Qin Qiong and Kan Leng agreed, and then hurriedly led the army back to the tent to rest, and Kan Leng murmured that it would be best for the rebel army in Xinfeng to leave the city. , so that I can kill a happy one.
After leading the crowd back to the big tent of the Chinese army, Chen Sangliang immediately dispatched troops and generals, deciding whether to use 20,000 troops to launch a decisive battle, or to lead the decisive battle by himself. Ma Sanbao, Cheng Yaojin, Liu Heitai, Yu Chijing De and Luo Shixin and other capable generals were all accompanying them, and the Nationalist Army, which had been easily unnecessary to dispatch, was also named by Chen Sangliang to fight, and he spent a lot of money on his love rival Li Er extravagantly. At the same time, in order to ensure the suddenness of the decisive battle, Chen Sangliang specifically explained that he would go out of the camp to gather at 3:00 You Shi, without lighting the torches for the time being. After the assembly was completed, he would suddenly light up the torches and launch an attack on the rebel camp more than ten miles away with great fanfare. .
In addition, Chen Sangliang made two more arrangements. The first arrangement ordered Cheng Yaojin to lead the cavalry as the vanguard. The enemy is timid, destroying the gate of the camp if there is a chance, and waiting for orders if there is no chance, but be sure to guard against the cavalry raid from the southeast of Lishan Mountain. However, Chen Sangliang's second arrangement surprised everyone—Chen Sangliang actually asked the national army to serve as the rear mission and walk at the end of the army.
Hearing this order, Guo Feng and Chen Ci quit immediately and protested: "Chen Jishi, since the founding of the army, when has the Nationalist Army ever been at the end of the ranks? They are all pioneers, put us at the end of the team, do you believe us?"
"It's not that I don't believe you, it's because I absolutely believe in you that I put you at the end of the team this time." Chen Sangliang raised his face seriously, and said solemnly: "Judging from the information our army possesses, our The opponent, Li Erlang, is best at cavalry raids. He likes to find out the enemy's weak points in the array, and then make a sudden surprise attack. This is very similar to the way you report to the National Army, so I have to keep you just in case, and be prepared at any time. Li Er will do the same to me."
After explaining the reason, Chen Sangliang pointed in the direction of Lishan Mountain and said: "Tonight we will send troops to fight from east to west. The terrain in this area is that Lishan Mountain may hide ambushes. If there is any surprise attack by the enemy, the ambush must come from On Lishan Mountain, the left wing of our army will be the first to bear the brunt, so you should try to keep your formation to the left tonight, don't fire too many torches, and don't reveal your white robes for the time being. It worked wonders."
Guo Feng and Chen Ci suddenly realized that they nodded and sang promises. Chen Sangliang turned to Luo Shixin and said, "Shixin, I arranged you on the left wing of the central army before because of my absolute trust in you. Don't worry about panic, just attack head-on, and the Nationalist Army will naturally attack the enemy's flank and share the pressure for you."
Luo Shixin sang promises with a very relaxed attitude. Chen Sangliang, who knew the history, was a little worried, so he added another sentence with a straight face, and said: "I remind you very seriously, remember, don't underestimate the enemy! I am a waist and kidney I leave it to you to protect me, and whether I can take more beautiful concubines and have more children depends on whether you can protect my waist and kidneys!"
Hearing this, all the civil and military members of the Sui Army burst into laughter, and Luo Shixin also grinned so much that he quickly cupped his fists and said, "Please don't worry, Chen Liushou, I will take care of your concubine. After tonight, I will keep it safe." You can ride a concubine tomorrow and have a baby."
The generals of the Sui army burst into laughter again, and Chen Sangliang also smiled, and couldn't help but think of the Yin Shishi who had never met before molesting Yue'e, and secretly said: "Little girl, you must live, don't worry, As long as we can meet, I will definitely take good care of you, and I won't let you be bullied by that pervert Li Er like in history."
"Ah Choo! Ah Choo!"
At the same time, in the Lishan forest, the mysterious girl who was walking hard with her brother on her back suddenly sneezed twice, rubbed her nose, looked at the gradually gloomy sky, and cried softly, "Oh no, it's getting dark, and the road is still far away , my little brother sprained his ankle again, if we can’t get out before dark, we might get lost.”