"How did you contact Chen Yingliang's dog thief, how to act, when to do it, and what is the contact signal? I told you, not only will I not kill you, but I will reward you. If you don't tell me, I admire you."
"Bah!" The answer to Li Er was Miao Haichao's bloody spittle and fearless curses, "Rebel, if you want to kill, kill the nonsense! Chen Liushou is so kind to me that he wants me to betray him, dreaming Just wait, Chen Liushou will be able to enter the city soon, and then we will see how he will cut this traitor into pieces..."
The violent beating by the rebel guards interrupted Miao Haichao's struggle and yelling. The guards hit Miao Haichao so hard that his head was covered in blood and he rolled all over the ground, but Miao Haichao continued to yell. A guard from the Li family came to Furious, he simply kicked Miao Haichao's chest fiercely, breaking two of Miao Haichao's ribs on the spot, spurting blood from his mouth, and fainted from the living pain.
When the rebel guards beat Miao Haichao, Li Er, Pei Ji and the others kept smiling and watching without saying a word, and Zhu Can, who was pushed to kneel on the ground, didn't say a word either, his small triangular eyes kept spinning, and he quickly calculated countermeasures . It wasn't until Miao Haichao was knocked out that Li Er smiled at Zhu Can and said, "General Zhu, it's your turn. Are you obsessed like Miao Haichao and looking for death? Or tell the truth obediently and save your life? Choose for yourself. "
"What should I do?" Zhu Can was indeed making a decision in his mind, constantly making quick calculations, and secretly said in his heart: "If I don't sell the surname Chen, I will die now, and before I die, I will have to suffer a lot of flesh and blood. At this time, I have sold the Chen, and in the future when the Chen enters Daxing City, I still won’t be able to run away to my death. If I advance or retreat, I will die, so what should I do?”
Li Er knew Zhu Can as early as during the Yanmen War, and he knew Zhu Can's capricious, selfish and vicious character for a long time. Seeing Zhu Can's expression, he knew that he had wavered, so he laughed again: "General Zhu , why are you still hesitating, afraid that after Chen Yingliang's dog thief invades the city, you will still die? Then why don't you think about it, can Chen Yingliang's dog thief enter Daxing City? You came from it, what is the Central Plains like? Don’t you know the situation? Chen Gou’s rear is so turbulent, how long can he stand in a stalemate with us under Daxing City?”
Zhu Can was even more shaken, knowing that Chen Sangliang's rear was indeed unstable, and he also knew that Chen Sangliang might indeed retreat because of the emergency in the rear, but Zhu Can was too aware of the current situation of Li Yuan's rebels, and knew that once Chen Sangliang did not hesitate to pay the price Launching a frontal attack, Li Yuan's rebels might not be able to defend Daxing City, so even if shaken, Zhu Can still dare not make up his mind easily.
"If you don't tell the truth, you will be tortured right away!" Pei Ji got impatient with waiting, and simply said: "Left Governor and Right Governor, I don't think this Zhu Can will tell the truth without punishment, drag him out and torture him."
It was also a coincidence that when Li Ergang wanted to agree to the execution, Dou Wei, who was in charge of the secret affairs of the rebel army, suddenly led a man dressed as a commoner to the Wude Hall. Commander, Pei Changshi, good news! Great news! Xue Ju agreed to form an alliance with us, and has already dispatched troops. Xue Ju's eldest son, Xue Renguo, brought forwards into Fufeng County on October 14th!"
"Really?" Brothers Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji were so happy that they stood up directly. Dou Wei quickly nodded to confirm, and then introduced the man he led to the palace to the Li brothers, Pei Ji and others, saying that he was sent by Dou Jing, the prefect of Fufeng County. The secret envoy asked Li Yuan how to get along with Xue Ju's army, whether to provide food and grass for Xue Renguo, and whether to allow Xue Ju's army to enter Fufeng City.
Knowing that the Sui army was blocking the road, the clever Li brothers, Pei Ji and others immediately guessed that the envoy sent by Wen Daya might have been intercepted by the Sui army on the way, and they were very glad that the secret envoy sent by Dou Jing finally arrived. It was better to escape the blockade of the Sui army and send the key news to Daxing City. At this time, Zhu Can, who was also extremely smart, finally made up his mind, and hurriedly shouted: "The two governors, Pei Changshi, I recruit, me and Chen Yingliang We agreed to start at midnight tonight, and open the Chunming Gate to welcome him into the city under the sign of three red lights!"
Chai Shao glanced at Zhu Can, but did not say a word, but Li Er, Pei Ji and the others laughed together, Li Er sneered and said: "General Zhu is really smart enough to know that our reinforcements are coming, Daxing is sure If you can keep it, you will be recruited immediately, and you really won’t suffer at all.”
"You Dudu, the sinner has actually wanted to recruit for a long time." Zhu Can said pitifully: "Sin will die, sin will be confused for a while, do something wrong to the governor, sin will know his mistake, sin will be willing to make atonement , to help the Right Commander defeat Chen Yingliang's thieves who stole the city, and I only ask the General and the two Commanders to forgive me, and I will not die."
"If you want to live, of course you can." Li Er sneered and said: "Tell me the truth about how you contacted Chen Yingliang's dog thief, and tell the truth to the governor. If you dare to tell half a lie, be careful with your head!"
"Damn, let's go all out. Anyway, the surname Chen has always been unkind to me. It's better to sell him and report his life first."
Zhu Can, who had made up his mind, didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately introduced the whole story in detail, and also truthfully told the truth about Chen Sangliang's arrangement for him to move closer to the old Li's house four years ago. The others were stunned the more they listened, and the more terrified they became. They were very glad that Chen Sangliang saw people's faults and used Zhu Can, who was eager for quick success, to come undercover from the army. Otherwise, Zhu Can just had to be patient a little longer. Follow the rebels back to the inner city to further gain the trust of the rebels, and then do it in the more critical inner city, then the old Li family will not be able to cry.
The most unbelievable thing was Li Jiancheng, who once interrupted Zhu Can and asked, "You said that Chen Yingliang arranged for you to deliberately approach our Li family in Longxi four years ago, to gain our trust and take the opportunity to spy on the news. Is there really such a thing?"
"It's absolutely true." Zhu Can said with a mournful face, "Because of Mr. Chai's matter, he had a big feud with the two governors and your family at that time. He was afraid that you would continue to retaliate, so he took advantage of Yun Dingxing to take me back to the Eastern Capital. Let me approach you pretending to have a deep hatred with him, and take the opportunity to spy on him. But Sin will swear to God, Sin will never dare to do anything wrong to you before!"
Li Jiancheng was silent, Li Er sneered again and again, but the other party, Chai Shao, hardly responded, and secretly thought: "He only did this for self-protection."
After listening to Zhu Can finally explaining the ins and outs of the matter, Li Er, Pei Ji and the others gradually smiled, and Pei Ji also smiled and said, "Okay! Double happiness! Xue Ju sent troops to help, and we can take the opportunity to set up an ambush tonight and wipe out all of them." With an elite army, Chen Yingliang's invincible reputation as a thief will be destroyed, and a turning point will appear in the Daxing battlefield."
"The two governors, the sinners are willing to take the lead in killing the enemy and atone for their sins. Please allow the two governors." Zhu Can hurriedly kowtowed, and then said: "Please rest assured, the two governors. In order to make Chen Yingliang trust the thief, the last general wrote to him yesterday In his letter, he deliberately mentioned the past four years ago, and Chen Yingliang's dog thief did not send anyone back to stop the last general from acting according to his plan. The officers and soldiers will definitely come tonight. It's easy for the enemy to come."
Li Er laughed again, and after a little calculation, Li Er said to Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji: "Brother, Pei Changshi, since it's still early, let's go to Chunming Gate to see how it is arranged?"
Both Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji nodded their heads in praise, and the Li family brothers immediately decided to go to Chunming Gate to investigate how to arrange an ambush. The envoy sent by Dou Jing was temporarily received by Dou Wei, and Zhu Can and Miao Haichao were handed over to Chai by the Li family brothers. Shao, let Chai Shao be imprisoned in the palace city to avoid leaking the news. Before leaving, Li Er also confessed to Zhu Can: "Listen, if you want to survive, don't play tricks. When we get rid of Chen Yingliang's thief tonight, tomorrow we will only Go to the city wall and kill Miao Haichao in front of the officers and soldiers, not only will we not kill you, but we will allow you to continue serving in the army."
Zhu Can hurriedly kowtowed to thank him, agreed without a word, and obediently accepted the binding of Chai Shao's subordinates, and took him to Miyagi for temporary detention. The guards originally wanted to tie up Miao Haichao, but Chai Shao, who had checked Miao Haichao's injuries, shook his head and said: " His ribs are broken, just tie his hands and feet and carry him up."
Chai Shao ordered Miao Haichao and Zhu Can to be imprisoned in the barracks of the Imperial Forest Army. For the sake of caution, Chai Shao ordered the soldiers to be detained separately, and asked the soldiers to cover Zhu Can's mouth with sackcloth. In order to survive, Zhu Can did not dare to resist. Before shutting his mouth, he kept begging Chai Shao to say something nice for him, but Chai Shao ignored him, and just told the guard of the Imperial Forest Army guarding Miao Haichao: "Get a wound doctor and get him some medicine to bandage him. This is a An important criminal, we cannot let him die."
It was also a coincidence that when Miao Haichao and Zhu Can settled down and returned to the hall, Chai Shao happened to meet his new deputy Dugu Huai'en, and his former friends Yuan Qi and Li Yangcheng who had turned against each other and were forcibly conscripted into the palace to serve as guards of the Imperial Forest Army When Yuan Qi and Li Yangcheng saw Chai Shao, they were as scared as a mouse seeing a cat. After saluting, they hurriedly followed Dugu Huai'en out of the hall. etc."
Subconsciously stopped, Dugu Huai'en and the others timidly asked Chai Shao what orders he had, but Chai Shao didn't answer. He first ordered the soldiers around him to wait in the hall, and then walked up to Dugu Huai'en and the others, and ordered Said: "It's been a long time since we got together, this meeting is just fine, let's go for a walk and talk alone."
As Chai Shao's subordinates, Dugu Huai'en and others did not dare to refuse. They could only obediently follow Chai Shao out of the barracks of the Imperial Forest Army, and were led by Chai Shao into the palace garden. It is very elegant, but the four former friends have their own ghosts, they all kept silent, let Chai Shao lead the way, and came to a remote rockery together, and then Chai Shao stopped, turned around and faced Dugu Huai. En, Yuan Qi and Li Yangcheng.
Seen by Chai Shao's sharp gaze, Dugu Huai'en felt a little guilty, and asked with a forced smile: "If you have any orders from Director Chai, please tell me, we are here to listen."
"You three, have you quietly left the city to contact Chen Yingliang?" Chai Shao asked suddenly.
Of course, the three dandies' concentration and city power are much worse than those of Miao Haichao and Zhu Can. When they heard this sudden question, the faces of the three dandies immediately turned pale, and they quickly denied it: "Mr. Chai, this is What happened? Who did you listen to, how could we do such a thing?"
Seeing the nervous reactions of the three ex-friends, Chai Shao, who is familiar with the characters of these three dudes, suddenly felt confident, and bluffed with a smile: "You can't hide it from me, to tell you the truth, one of you has a servant in the family, In order to please me and give me a chance to take revenge, you have secretly informed me about your secret contact with Chen Yingliang."
The most useless Li Yangcheng sat down on the snow directly, Yuan Qi took two steps back one after another, Dugu Huai'en subconsciously held the handle of the knife, but Chai Shao smiled again: "Brother Dugu, oh no, cousin Dugu, don't Use a knife, you know very well that the three of you together can't beat me. Also, Cousin Dugu, I also know that yesterday you asked to guard the three southern gates of the outer city, not to resist the attack of the government army, but to open the city gate Let the officers and soldiers enter the city, right?"
On a cold day, cold sweat rolled down Dugu Huai'en's forehead. He looked at Chai Shao with fear in his eyes, but he never thought that since Chai Shao already knew their secret, why would he bring them here Come here for a private chat. ——Of course, if Dugu Huai'en had such a mind, he would not be so stupid in history that he was scolded by his cousin Li Yuan, and then colluded with Liu Wuzhou to rebel against Li Yuan.
"Do you want to know, among you, whose family member told me the secret?" Chai Shao asked again with a smile.
"Who is it?" The three dudes asked in unison, without asking themselves.
It was Chai Shao who answered the three dudes with a relieved smile, and said in his heart that I did not misunderstand you, and then Chai Shao smiled and said in a low voice: "It doesn't matter who you are, the important thing is that you can rest assured that I won't You don’t even think about asking you to settle accounts, if I want to seek revenge from you, why don’t I tell the left and right governors and Pei Changshi directly about you? Why do I have to tell you this in private?”
After being reminded by Chai Shao, the three dandies remembered this key question, and their expressions immediately returned to normal. After looking at each other, Li Yangcheng, who was still sitting on the ground, said timidly: "Brother Sichang, you really Forget about the past?"
"No matter how much hatred you have with me, can it be as deep as the hatred between Chen Yingliang and me?" Chai Shao asked back, and then said lightly: "Chen Yingliang and I have as deep a hatred as the ocean, yet he still forgave me, more than once. Since He can forgive me, why can't I forgive you?"
After finishing his words calmly, Chai Shao stretched out his hand and said, "Take out the letter between you and Chen Yingliang, let me have a look, and I'll help you."
Dugu Huai'en was stunned for a long time, until Chai Shao urged again, then Dugu Huai'en stretched out his hand into his arms as if awakened from a dream, took out the hidden letter from Chen Sangliang from the bottom of his underwear, and put it into Chai Shao's hand with trembling hands , and then asked with great vigor, "Nephew Sichangxian, do you really want to help us? The general is your father-in-law."
"Isn't the general your cousin?" Chai Shao asked back, and then snorted coldly: "As a son-in-law, I have done my best, but your cousin is a father-in-law, hmph."
…
It was getting darker and earlier, and the sky in Guanzhong was gradually darkening just after you arrived. Bonfires and torches were lit in the camp of the Sui army. The soldiers of the Sui army who were preparing to participate in the night battle were still hurrying to rest, and the auxiliary soldiers were nervous. Prepared dinner and dry food torches, the camp before the war was extraordinarily quiet.
Just after the first quarter of the unitary hour, Yuan Tiangang's crow's mouth came into effect again. As expected, heavy snow fell in the dark sky, which effectively covered the upcoming night attack of the Sui army's main force, but it was not entirely a good thing. Study carefully After understanding the celestial phenomena and wind direction. Yuan Tiangang warned Chen Sangliang that after the heavy snowfall, the temperature in the Daxing area would drop again. If the soldiers of the Sui Army did not quickly find houses that could effectively avoid the cold to live in, no matter how fully prepared the measures to protect against the cold, the soldiers of the Sui Army would inevitably have to live in a house. Suffering from snow and cold.
Yuan Tiangang's warning made Chen Sangliang more determined to break through the outer city tonight—although it would be a pity to use Zhu Can's hole card now, but for the sake of the morale of the army and the soldiers under his command, Chen Sangliang, who has always regarded himself as a soldier who loves soldiers like a son, Sangliang still has no choice. At the same time, in order to maximize the most dangerous opportunity to kill Li Er, Chen Sangliang made an unprecedented decision to use the cavalry as the forward, and ordered Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong's second army to lead the cavalry into the city, and immediately completely block the four gates of Yirenfang. An enemy escaped from Yirenfang, and Chen Sangliang himself led the main force of the rear army to control the city gate and resist the counterattack of the rebels.
Li Jing and Qu Tutong also went to order. Chen Sangliang gave them the order that once they find that the Chunming Gate is fighting, immediately send troops to attack the Mingde and Qixia gates in Daxing South City, and break the gate as soon as possible at any cost. Destroy the enemy in the inner city and weaken the combatable force of the rebels in the inner city as much as possible.
On the Xuanwumen side, although there was little hope, Chen Sangliang arranged for Liu Heita to lead an army of 3,000 to launch a sneak attack, trying to attack Xuanwumen with gunpowder blasting tactics.
Everything is ready, only the east wind is needed. At the second quarter of the first watch, the soldiers of the Sui army who were preparing to join the battle got up to prepare for the battle. They had a full dinner and received torches and dry food. Chen Sangliang arranged the deployment beforehand, but Chen Sangliang's arrangement was also very simple. He ordered: "At the second watch, troops will be dispatched, and the horses will be hoofed, and no noise is allowed. After the gate of Chunming Gate is opened, Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong cannot have any Any hesitation, don't worry about being cheated, immediately enter the city together, block Yirenfang, and don't let anyone get away!"
Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong clasped their fists together and sang promises, but they didn't know that Chen Sangliang, who was always clever and calculating, gave them an order destined to die this time. Chen Sangliang was also completely unaware of the dangerous consequences of his arrangement, so he asked his soldiers to fill each general with a bowl of wine, and said with the bowl: "Generals, it's cold, in order to dispel the cold, and to wish us well Tomorrow night, I can rest overnight in the city and finish this bowl of wine."
After all, Chen Sangliang gave way to the generals, put the bowl to his mouth, and was about to drink it all. However, at this moment, a messenger suddenly entered from outside the tent, and said to Chen Sangliang: "I'm here to stay behind. A few people dressed in bandits' military uniforms, holding your handwritten warrant, directly entered our inner and outer camps, and came outside the tent of the Chinese army to ask for an audience."
"Didn't you see that I was busy?" Chen Sangliang, who was forced to use Zhu Can's hole card in advance, was in a bad mood, and shouted loudly: "When is this? No matter who it is, I won't see it!"
"Are you really missing? Are you not even seeing me?" A delicate young girl's voice suddenly came from outside the tent, saying with anger: "If you really don't see me, then I will leave."
Hearing this sweet girl's voice, all the generals of the Sui army inevitably looked at each other, but Chen Sangliang felt as if struck by lightning, the wine bowl in his hand fell to the ground with a slam, and then rushed out like a frightened rabbit, and immediately overturned Chen Sangliang ignored the handsome case in front of him, and kept screaming in his heart, "How is it possible? How could it be her voice?!"
He rushed to the front of the handsome tent with strides, and Chen Sangliang was stunned again. Under the light of torches and bonfires, several men dressed as palace guards stood in the wind and snow. Although the leader was wearing men's clothes, his facial features were delicate and soft. , delicate and charming, her pretty face is full of smiles, and her clear and beautiful eyes are already filled with crystal tears...
Walking up to the woman step by step, Chen Sangliang wanted to open his arms to hug her, but just as he moved his arms, Chen Sangliang came back to his senses, and instead bowed to the woman, choked up and said, "My minister Chen Yingliang, see you!" After Princess Yang Yu, Your Highness Princess Jin An."
The stunned generals of the Sui army followed Chen Sangliang and saluted. Yang Yuer's cherry lips moved slightly, but before she could make a sound, two lines of tears flowed down her snow-white cheeks. She stared at Chen Sangliang for a long time before she choked up and said: " Chen Liushou, you have no credibility, you made me wait for seventeen more days."
"I'll break my promise, I'll be punished with death." Chen Sangliang almost cried, wishing he could hold his favorite in his arms immediately, but in front of too many people, Chen Sangliang couldn't do it, he could only It was Yang Yu'er who looked at Yang Yu'er with a sore nose. There were thousands of words in his chest, but he couldn't express a single word. He was close at hand, but seemed far away in the world.
At the moment of tenderness, Yuan Qi and Li Yangcheng, who were burning pianos and cooking cranes, suddenly jumped out from behind Yang Yuer and shouted together: "Brother Yingliang, are you planning to send troops? Don't be fooled, Zhu Can has already sold you, Li Yangcheng!" The gang of traitors at home have already prepared a net at Chunming Gate, waiting for you!"