The world in the Sui Dynasty became more and more chaotic. No matter how beautifully Chen Sangliang fought in the Guanzhong battlefield, he could not stop the seventy yards of the wheel of history, let alone those thieves and bandits who raised their flags and turned into volunteers.
Xiao Xian, a relative of Uncle Xiao Xiao Guo, started his army earlier than in history. He called himself Duke Liang in Luochuan County in September, and rebelled against the Sui court. In less than five days, he raised a team of more than 30,000 people. Not only did the local troops of the Sui Army in the surrounding areas not send troops to suppress them, but they also changed their banners and joined him. .
Dou Jiande proclaimed himself the King of Changle in Hejian and changed his Yuan to Ding Chou; Guo Zihe, who is still called Li Zihe, became the King of Changle in Yulin and established Yuan Zhengping; Liu Wuzhou directly proclaimed himself emperor in Mayi and changed his Yuan to Tianxing; Lin Shihong killed Chen Sang Liang's old comrade-in-arms, Liu Ziyi, claimed to be the Emperor of Chu in Qianzhou, and his reign was Taiping; Li Mi, Xue Ju, Li Gui and others of the Duke had more than a dozen reign names in the thirteenth year of Daye.
The most troublesome ones were still Li Mi and Zhai Rang, and they managed to survive until Chen Sangliang, the loyal lackey of Emperor Sui Yang, went west to the Guanzhong. Zhai and Li's bandits immediately attacked the Eastern Capital in two directions, using the previously secretly dug tunnels to make a surprise attack. Hulao was successfully passed, and then Luokou Cang was surrounded. Wang Shichong, who succeeded Chen Sangliang to defend the Eastern Capital, was entangled in Hanoi by the main force of the Zhai Li coalition army and could not quickly return to the division to rescue. Yang Tong sent Duan Da to lead the army westward to rescue Luokou Cang However, the follow-up reinforcements led by Li Mi and Zhai Rang crossed the Yellow River first and arrived at the Luokoucang battlefield, attacking Duan Da head-on. Zhai and Li's bandits were defeated and fled, losing more than half of them.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, Pei Renji, who is used to cheating fathers, cheated Zhai and Li's allied forces again, and was ordered to contain Wang Shichong, but he fell into Wang Shichong's trick to lure the enemy, and sent troops to pursue Wang Shichong, who was pretending to retreat. Looking for Ya, there were less than 1,000 soldiers and less than 1,000 of them fled back to Linqingguan. Fortunately, Wang Shichong was eager to return to the Eastern Capital, and he got rid of Pei Renji's entanglement and immediately returned to Heyang to cross the south of the river. Only then did Pei Renji, who hated him so much, save his life.
One more digression must be made here. The author believes that in history, the Sui army in the eastern capital was able to defeat Li Mi's biggest hero not Wang Shichong, nor Yu Wenhuaji who defeated Li Mi's main force, but Pei Renji. In history, after Li Mi and Zhai Rang took down Luokou Cang, they quickly took down the last food and grass supply area for the Sui Army in the Eastern Capital and returned to Luocang. Pei Renji of Luocang went so far as to plunder at this critical moment, causing Li Mi's army to be in chaos. Relying on these grains, Wang Shichong and others led the army to the Dongdu battlefield for reinforcements, and only then did what happened later. Basically, it can be said that if there was no habitual brainwashing of Pei Renji, a cheating professional, Li Mi's defeat and death would not have happened.
Closer to home, Wang Shichong was one step too late after all. When he returned to Luoyang to regroup and prepare to rescue Luokou Cang, the Luokou Cang with only a few thousand defenders had already been breached by the red-eyed Zhai and Li coalition forces. Yizhong Liuya died, and the ecstatic Zhai ordered Li Mi to immediately open the Luokou warehouse to release grain. In less than three days, more than 100,000 cannon fodder were brought in. The strength has exceeded 200,000. Although Wang Shichong, who is good at using soldiers, is not afraid of these mobs, he meets Li Mi, who is also good at using soldiers and schemes.
Under such circumstances, even though Wang Shichong himself did not make a request, Yue Wang Yang Yu still sent an envoy to contact Chen Sangliang, the eldest brother of worship, and asked Chen Sangliang to withdraw from the Guanzhong battlefield as soon as possible to relieve the crisis in Luoyang, the eastern capital. However, what Yang Tong probably never imagined in his dreams was that his big brother Chen Sangliang didn't want to go back to Luoyang, the eastern capital anymore. At least before certain things happened, Chen Sangliang didn't want to go back to Luoyang again.
Cui Deben, Yang Tong's envoy and regular attendant on Sanqi, arrived in Daxing on October 23rd. Seeing that Chen Sangliang had successfully captured Daxing, Cui Deben was overjoyed for a while, and immediately begged Chen Sangliang when he saw Chen Sangliang Return to the army as soon as possible, but our conscienceless Chen Sangliang immediately pointed to the blood-stained inner city of Daxing and asked: "Cui Changshi, look for yourself, the blood of the palace city and the imperial city has not yet dried up. Do you dare to return to Luoyang as a teacher?"
He blocked Cui Deben's mouth confidently, and Chen Sangliang took out all kinds of intelligence reports even more confidently, flipping through them one by one and said: "Cui Changshi, please look, the defeated soldiers of Li's rebellious army are still in Sanyuan, and they will be there at any time." Maybe they will fight back to Daxing again; the slave thief Bai Yupo and the traitor Li Hongzhi, taking advantage of the opportunity of our army fighting with Li Yuan's rebel army, have already fled to the Shangyi area of Jingzhao County, which is only more than two hundred miles away from Daxing. I'm leaving, these bandits don't take the opportunity to fight Daxing? These bandits are easy to deal with. Xue Ju and Xue Ni's forwards are about to fight with our army's side division Ma Sanbao. Behind him are Dou Jing and Xiao Yu You know it’s the stuff, do I dare to leave Daxing without worry?”
Facing the hard facts, Cui Deben obediently kept his mouth shut, and then Chen Sangliang changed his tone to comfort Cui Deben, saying that he would find a way to send reinforcements to Dongdu as soon as possible, and advised Cui Deben not to worry, Wang Shichong was capable of stopping Having to live with Li Mi and Zhai Rang, he finally sent Cui Deben to the post house to rest, and Chen Sangliang asked Fang Xuanling to present himself to Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty and Yang You. The excuse is to stay in Guanzhong and not leave.
It was also a coincidence that not long after Cui Deben was sent away, Ma Sanbao sent an urgent report again, saying that Xue Renguo's army had crossed Guo County (Baoji) the day before yesterday, and Fufeng prefect Dou Jing also stood still and watched Xue Renguo leave his county. Passing through the territory of Yong County, and judging from Xue Renguo's advancing speed, Ma Sanbao is likely to have sex with Xue Renguo within today.
A new problem came up again. Chen Sangliang once considered personally leading the army westward to fight against Xue Renguo, but Daxing had just recovered, and the three cities inside and outside were devastated. At the same time, the main force of the Sui army was relatively exhausted, which was not conducive to launching a large-scale western expedition. Therefore, Chen Sangliang only considered two other countermeasures. The first was to let Ma Sanbao stick to Mei County to block Xue Renguo's footsteps according to the original plan, and at the same time let his cousin Li Jing lead a partial division to the west to reinforce Ma Sanbao.
The second plan is to lure the enemy to go deep, let Ma Sanbao fight and retreat, and gradually lure Xue Renguo eastward, and at the same time lure the main force of Xue Ju's army eastward, leading them to Daxing City, far away from Tianshui, to come down for a decisive battle, and wait for work to kill Xue Jujun's main force.
For Chen Sangliang, who was accustomed to opportunistic tactics, the second plan was undoubtedly the best and most attractive, but this plan was firmly opposed by Fang Mou Duan. Both Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui reminded Chen Sangliang: "Tactically speaking, it is indeed very correct to lure the enemy to go deep and wait for work, but from a strategic and popular perspective, doing so is very detrimental to our army."
"Daxing City has been destroyed by two wars." Du Ruhui pointed out: "Li Yuan's bandit army attacked Daxing once, and we counterattacked Daxing once. Although we and Li Yuan's bandit army were relatively restrained, we did not allow the soldiers to plunder the people and rob people's property. However, due to the confrontation between the two armies and the attack on the city, the farming and trade of the people in Daxing was still greatly affected, and even the winter wheat could not be planted due to the war, and the grain harvest around Daxing in the coming year is a foregone conclusion."
"Under such circumstances, if we lead the main force of Xue Ju's bandit army to Daxing City for a decisive battle, then not only will the people of Daxing suffer from another war, but the winter wheat in the fields to the west of Daxing will definitely be destroyed. Even if we succeed in defeating the main force of Xue Ju's army, the food shortage in Guanzhong next year will definitely be very serious, is this what you would like to see?"
"Brother Keming is right. Brother, if you want to stay in Daxing for a long time, you can no longer be like before, only focusing on tactical advantages and ignoring the feelings of the people." Fang Xuanling also pointed out: "The war in Guanzhong has been chaotic for several months, and the people have already suffered It's hard, whether it's ordinary people or aristocratic families, they all hope to end the war as soon as possible and live and work in peace and contentment. At this time, if we deliberately lead the main force of the rebel army to Daxing City for a decisive battle for the sake of tactics, the people in Guanzhong and the aristocratic families will definitely be disappointed. , This will be extremely unfavorable for you to establish a foundation in Guanzhong and consolidate the hearts of the people. Defending the enemy from outside the country is your only choice!"
Nodding silently, Chen Sangliang, a good young man in the new era, immediately accepted Fang Moudu's harsh advice, and after a little more calculation, Chen Sangliang said: "Perhaps Xue Renguo is nothing to be afraid of, I asked my cousin to bring one It's definitely not a big problem to block him or drive him back, but what if Xue Ju also brings the main force? At that time, I have to lead the main force to the west to fight?"
"I think it is unlikely that Xue Ju will continue to lead the main force westward in person." Fang Xuanling analyzed: "Xue Ju previously agreed to form an alliance with Li Yuan and send troops to resist our army. The old thief admitted that he was the emperor of the Western Qin Dynasty, but he took advantage of the opportunity to seize the entire Guanzhong. Now that the old thief Li Yuan has been defeated, Xue Ju will definitely consider the consequences of fighting our army alone after hearing the news. Behind him is Li Gui and Pingliang staying behind Zhang Long threatened that the rear was unstable, and he would not carelessly lead the main force to advance west.”
"As long as we do two things, Xue Ju will definitely not lead the main force westward!" Du Ruhui said again: "First, defeat Xue Renguo with a thunderous force, let Xue Ju's bandits know how powerful we are, and that Daxing is not good. Fight! Second, force Dou Jing to stand in line and let him turn against Xue Ju's bandit army. Xue Ju will be threatened if he attacks Daxing Liangdao again, so we can only give up this ill-prepared Eastern Expedition!"
"Forcing Dou Jing to stand in line?" Chen Sangliang hesitated, and quickly asked, "How to force?"
"Brother Yu is wrong. Brother Yu, you are too busy these days, so I haven't had time to tell you." Fang Xuanling hurriedly saluted Chen Sangliang, and then said, "It's like this. A lot of official documents and letters of Li Yuan's bandit army were found in the De Palace, and the criminal evidence that Dou Jing and Xiao Yu had secretly colluded with Li Yuan's old bandit had been obtained, and a messenger sent by Dou Jing to contact Li Yuan's bandit army was also captured. With the evidence of these people in hand, my dear brother, you want to force Dou Jing to turn against Xue Ju."
"That's right." Du Ruhui nodded, and suggested: "You just need to send a letter to Dou Jing, pretending to ask whether the matter is true or not, whether the old thief Li Yuan deliberately forged to frame Dou Jing, and took the opportunity to ask Dou Jing to stand in line to show his loyalty. Then, in order to protect himself, Dou Jing can only turn against Xue Ju and make meritorious service to atone for his crime."
"Will that drive Dou Jing to Xue Ju's army?" Chen Sangliang was taken aback.
Both Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui laughed, and then Fang Xuanling smiled and said: "My dear brother, you have underestimated the Pingling Dou family. It is true that they support Li Yuan's bandit army, but they will not be so stupid as to do it again and again. San stood in the wrong position. Although Xue Ju is a wealthy man in Longxi, he came from a humble background. Dou Jing, who came from a famous family, would definitely not like him. Although you, my brother, are in a poor family, you are still a descendant of a famous family, and at the same time you are famous. Seeing that you are implying to let the past go, Dou Jin will only go down the slope and serve the Sui court again, instead of turning to Xue Ju and serving Xue Ju, who was born as a commoner, as a cow and a horse. drink."
Nodding his head, Chen Sangliang made up his mind and said, "Okay, let's do it this way. Even if Dou Jing is completely forced to Xue Ju's side, it will be a good thing for us. At least we don't have to worry about this. Zai will rebel at any time, seduce and cover Xue Ju to attack us."
After finalizing this idea, Chen Sangliang sent someone to invite his cousin Li Jing, and at the same time asked Fang Xuanling to write a book for him, suggesting and forcing Dou Jing to stand in line. It was also at this time that Chen Sangliang finally remembered something As for the important matter, I hurriedly asked Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui: "Brother Qiao Song, Brother Keming, isn't that right? What you said just now seemed to be asking me to stay in Daxing? Maybe return to the Eastern Capital?"
Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui looked at each other and smiled, then smiled and said in unison: "Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue, accidentally made a mistake, we didn't mean that."
Chen Sangliang also laughed, and thought to himself: "You two cunning people must have seen through my thoughts long ago."
After a while, Li Jing was invited to Anxingfang to meet Chen Sangliang. Chen Sangliang immediately told Li Jing about his decision. Chen Sangliang was overjoyed to reinforce Ma Sanbao, and immediately decided to send 30,000 troops to Li Jing, and also decided to send Cheng Yaojin's cavalry to Li Jing.
Li Jing declined Chen Sangliang's kindness, and took the initiative to say: "Nephew, there is no need to send me the cavalry of General Cheng. Just like before, let me command the troops of Niu Jinda and Zhang Jixun, and give me another 10,000 new soldiers." If you send 20,000 troops, if Daxing Xinding is a place where people’s hearts are unstable and food and grass are difficult to transport, if you send troops on a smaller scale, you will be able to reduce the burden on the people in the rear and along the way.”
"Xue Ju's bandit army occupied Longxi Racecourse, there must be a lot of cavalry." Chen Sangliang was a little worried, and said: "Biao Shu, why don't you bring some more cavalry over there, I'm afraid it will not be good for the battle."
"Nephew, don't worry, I'm sure." Li Jing replied with a smile, and said, "I didn't take General Cheng to Mei County because of the unity of the army. General Cheng was your old department when you were in Qiao County. Above me, if you let me command him, I'm afraid he won't accept it in his heart. Niu Jinda and Zhang Jixun are somewhat convinced by me now, and they are more comfortable in commanding. When I have established more meritorious deeds and established more prestige, It will not be too late for you to let me command more troops."
Chen Sangliang nodded. He also knew that if he forcibly assigned some senior generals to Li Jing to command, it would probably cause discord among the generals. He also knew that his cousin, the god of war, was absolutely reliable in war, so he didn't hesitate and went to the hospital immediately. Agreeing to Li Jing's request, but for the sake of caution, Chen Sangliang still sent the Yu Le team of the Nationalist Army and the famous Qiu Shili brothers to Li Jing, and equipped Li Jing with a hundred musketeers and a large number of firearms. He didn't refuse, but accepted it with a smile.
Quickly made preparations for the expedition. In the early morning of the next day, Li Jing led 20,000 troops to the west to reinforce Ma Sanbao. Daxing's daily operations are finally on the right track. But everything cannot be smooth sailing. On the 26th, Dongdu suddenly sent an express report to Chen Sangliang with five hundred miles, saying that Wang Shichong had suffered a big defeat at the Luokoucang battlefield and had been forced to return. Back to Luocang.
Wang Shichong was unjustly defeated in this battle. He had the upper hand in the battle with Zhai Li's allied forces, but Li Mi's surprise troops attacked Heishibao, the grain storage area behind him, and the defenders of Heishibao even lit six beacons to warn him. , which caused his army's panic and morale to decline, and forced Wang Shichong to return to the army to save the grain. As a result, Wang Shichong's nose was crooked because Li Mi's army who attacked Heishi Fort was only a mere 2,000 people At the same time, Li Mi took the opportunity to counterattack across the board and defeated him. He could only flee back to Luocang. Wang Shichong's effort to maintain the balance of the Luokoucang battlefield was in vain. . And the good-for-nothing defender of Blackstone Castle immediately opened the door and surrendered to Li Mi's thieves.
The situation in the Eastern Capital suddenly collapsed. Although Chen Sangliang, who was still staying in the Eastern Capital, had some excuses for not returning to the army, he had to sit idly by. In order for Yang Tong and Wang Shichong to block Li Mi and Zhai Rang for him, Chen Sangliang In addition to considering sending an army back to aid Dongdu, he also began to consider how to promote the break between Li Mi and Zhai Rang, or to urge Li Mi to kill Zhai Rang as soon as possible, so that the internal division of the Zhai-Li coalition army.
"Or, help Li Mi take Luoyang, the eastern capital?" Chen Sangliang even had such evil thoughts, "Li Mi takes Luoyang, Yang Tong will die, and no one can restrain me north of the Huaihe River. I am in Guanzhong." Do whatever you want."
Having said that, but considering Li Mi's threat to himself after taking Daxing, and the impact on his moral reputation, Chen Sangliang immediately dismissed this idea, and continued to try his best to figure out how to get rid of the strife thousands of miles away. Zhai Rang and Li Mi, who were supposed to meet each other, tried their best to fully bear the pressure for the old man Wang Shi.