Li Jiancheng and Li Er brothers voluntarily gave up Daxing and went north. Although they were forced, they were quite correct decisions. At least part of the army was saved, so that they had some strength to fight back and replenish food and grass on the way north. During the journey, they looted the grain depots of Huayuan, Tongguan, and the inner three counties successively, obtained the grain needed for the journey, and distributed all the food that could not be taken away to the people of the three counties under the banner of volunteers, so that the Sui army who followed them On the contrary, Qu Tutong suffered from food shortage, which seriously affected the speed of pursuit.
When Li Jing defeated Xue Renguo in Fufeng County, the Li family brothers hurriedly retreated to Hukou with the remnants of the defeated generals. Fortunately for the Li family rebels, Zheng Zeng, the current prefect of Wencheng across the Yellow River, was the former prefect Zheng Yuanshou Zheng Yuanshou, the son of Zheng Yuanshou, had been bombarded to death by Chen Sangliang. Zheng Zeng and Chen Sangliang also had revenge for killing his father. At the same time, Zheng Zeng was also the cousin of Li Jiancheng's official wife Zheng Guanyin, and he was related to Li Jiancheng and had always had a good relationship. Without hesitation, the Wencheng rebels were organized to take the Li family brothers across the river. The Li family brothers, who had been homeless for many days, had a relatively safe place to stay. They also temporarily stopped Qu Tutong's pursuit by virtue of the natural danger of the Yellow River. soldier.
Of the 100,000 rebels in Daxing City, less than 20,000 were able to escape the Yellow River with the Li family brothers, and nearly half of them were wounded soldiers. The reason for leaving so many remnants and defeated generals was because Li Yuan's rebels were soldiers from Jinzhong. For the most part, Jinzhong soldiers refused to leave the team in order to return to their hometown, and insisted on following the Li family brothers. Otherwise, thousands of people could protect the Li family brothers to cross the river, and Li Jiancheng and Li Er should sing Amitabha.
Civil and military officials of the rebel army also suffered heavy losses. Dozens of civil and military officials, including Liu Wenjing, Zheng Yuanshou, Wang Changxie, Dou Cong, Li Xiaogong, Li Xiaochang, Ma Yuangui, and Xu Shixu, either died on the Daxing battlefield or fell on the way to escape. Most of the capable generals who fought in Taiyuan were lost. On the contrary, Zhu Can, whom Chen Sangliang didn't like at all, was very lucky to follow Pei Ji all the way to Wencheng, and because Chen Sangliang would never forgive him, he won the forgiveness and understanding of the Li family brothers, and returned to the Li family. Served as a general in the rebel army—in any case, Zhu Can is indeed a general who can lead troops and fight.
Because Chai Shao was the first to betray Daxing Miyagi, and the Li family brothers failed to bring back the corpse of Li Yuan parked in Miyagi. For this reason, after living in Jichang City, Zhichang City, Wencheng County, Li Jiancheng and Li Er brothers still cried bitterly for this. They were sad and blamed themselves for being unfilial and failed to preserve their father's body, but in fact they were grateful for their brother's death. Escape, luckily save your life. The rest of the rebel soldiers also burst into tears, rejoicing that they were able to return to their hometown in Hedong alive.
Qu Tutong, who was getting older and weaker, gave the Li family brothers a chance to breathe. Originally, the Yellow River was frozen in the middle of winter, and even without a ferry boat, they could cross the river on ice. After repelling, Qu Tutong, who was worried about the exhaustion and lack of food in the army, stopped the attack on his own initiative, and instead asked the army to rest and collect food and grass. The exhausted Li Yuan rebels were able to rest in Wencheng with peace of mind, recover their strength and regroup the scattered and defeated troops. At the same time, an unexpected situation occurred—the news that Li Mi and Zhai Rang's coalition forces had breached Hulao Pass and Luokou Cang suddenly reached Wencheng. In the county, the Li Yuan rebels who originally planned to withdraw all of them to their old nest in Taiyuan saw the dawn of the counterattack, and gave birth to the idea of adjusting their strategy.
But the hope of a counterattack is also very slim. Even with the rebels in Wencheng, the Li brothers only have more than 20,000 defeated troops with low morale. It is not easy to defend the natural danger of the Yellow River. The Sui army returned to rescue Luoyang, and the Li brothers had little hope of returning to Daxing, so whether it was Li Jiancheng or Pei Ji, they only gave up the idea after a little calculation.
Only Li Er refused to miss this slim hope. After some deliberation, Li Er privately found Li Shentong, Duan Zhixuan and Tang Xian, who were close to civil and military affairs, and discussed with them the plan to stay in the south of Jinhe River. Pei Ji volunteered to lead an army to stay in the south of Shanxi to resist the Sui army's counterattack against Taiyuan, and also waited for the opportunity to counterattack Daxing.
Li Er's plan surprised Li Shentong and others. Li Shentong, the uncle with the best relationship with Li Er, even cried out in surprise: "Erlang, are you crazy? The thief Chen Yingliang took down Daxing, and it is very likely that he will personally lead an army against us. To launch an attack, Qu Tutong is on the other side of the Yellow River, and he may cross the river to kill him at any time, you take the initiative to ask to lead the army to stay in the south of Jinhe River, what is it if you are not courting death?"
"Of course I'm not crazy. I've thought it through carefully." Li Er shook his head and said in a deep voice, "I think it's very unlikely that Chen Yingliang, the dog thief, will personally lead an army to attack Jinnan. The immediate danger of Bai Yupo's thieves is that Li Mi and Zhai Rang are behind him, and Li Gui and Xi Turk may take the opportunity to enter the Guanzhong. Almost none. So as long as we defeat Qu Tutong, we will hope to gain a firm foothold in Jinnan, and wait for the opportunity to counterattack."
Shaking his head, Li Er raised three fingers and continued: "And I also think that there are three advantages for me to stay in Jinnan. The first is to keep the communication with Li Mi and Zhai Rang open, and take the opportunity to pass Get their direct help by various means, and use the soldiers, horses, food and grass in their hands to weaken the enemy for us."
"What about the other two advantages?" Duan Zhixuan, Li Er's confidant general, quickly asked.
"The second advantage is to avoid conflicts and conflicts between me and my brother." Li Er said: "After my father died, my brother and I jointly took charge of the military power. Contradictions have intensified and conflicts have expanded. Instead of making such a situation easier for foreign enemies in the future, it is better to part ways earlier, each in charge of an army, to avoid fighting for power and profit, and avoid fratricide, which will hurt both sides."
Duan Zhixuan and Tang Xian nodded together, they both felt that what Li Er said was quite reasonable, Li Shentong lowered his voice and said, "Erlang, of course what you said makes sense, but don't be stupid and stay in Jinnan? Your father is in Taiyuan It has been in business for many years, with a solid foundation and abundant food and grass, which is ten times better than that in southern Shanxi. You are willing to hand over such a good place to your brother? Pei Ji is actually for you. It is not hopeless for you to return to Taiyuan to take sole control of the military .”
"This is also the third advantage I want to talk about." Li Er said in a low voice: "I also know that Taiyuan is a good place, but Liu Wuzhou in the north and Liang Shidu in the west all look down on the tiger in Taiyuan. If our army is defeated, they will inevitably have the idea of taking advantage of the fire. After our army withdraws to Taiyuan, we must first face their direct threat. In fact, it is the same as when I stayed in Jinnan. I mastered the southward attack in Jinnan Is it better than me and him going back to Taiyuan at the same time to fight for power and gain and being beaten passively?"
Hearing what Li Er said, Li Shentong found out that this is indeed the case. Li Er volunteered to stay in Jinnan, and there are indeed many strategic benefits. In order to allow Li Er to resist the Sui army's counterattack for him, Li Jiancheng will definitely not be stingy with food, grass and weapons. Li Er's support, and at the same time, most of the counties in southern Shanxi were peacefully liberated before, and they were not affected by the flames of war. The population base is still there. As long as there is food and weapons, it is not difficult to raise the army again. After thinking about this, Li Shentong nodded and said: "Erlang, if you are determined to stay in Jinnan, then I will not force you, and I can stay with you. The great thing is that if you can't keep Jinnan, you can withdraw to Taiyuan. Not too late."
Li Er was overjoyed, and then said: "We must be able to defend it. My father brought hundreds of thousands of soldiers into the pass, most of them were soldiers from southern Jin. It is impossible for them to be completely wiped out by the army. Most of them must be just They were scattered, and they will return to their hometown in a short time. As long as we recruit these wandering soldiers again, the troops will soon surpass Qu Tutong again, and the geographical advantage is in our hands again. It's not difficult to break through."
Seeing that Li Er was so confident, Duan Zhixuan and Tang Xian thought they could escape back to Taiyuan even if they couldn't hold on, and they all expressed their willingness to stay with Li Er. So he ran to find Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji, and asked to lead an army to stay in southern Shanxi to resist the Sui army's counterattack.
Hearing Li Er's request, Pei Ji, who secretly turned to Li Er, was of course taken aback, and quickly hinted to Li Er not to be stupid, but unfortunately Li Er pretended not to know. But Li Jiancheng was overjoyed. After persuading Li Er hypocritically, he readily accepted Li Er's request, and then not only decided to leave most of the soldiers and horses to Li Er, but also promised to send them to Li Er immediately after returning to Taiyuan. Come to food, grass and military equipment to help Li Er stay and rebuild the army for a long time. Regardless of Pei Ji's objection, Li Er thanked his elder brother with a smile on his face.
Afterwards, Pei Ji naturally had to complain about Li Er's stupidity, and Li Er could only nag Pei Ji about his plan again, finally getting Pei Ji to accept his point of view, and then Li Er pleaded with Pei Ji again: "Uncle, after you and your brother have returned to Taiyuan, please speak well in front of your brother so that he must keep his promise and send me food, grass and weapons as soon as possible. Also, my fourth brother, Li Yuanji, please Take good care of him, let him continue to lead the army, and never let my brother take away the military power from him."
"Don't worry about food, grass and armaments. Your brother has a kind personality. He shouldn't be able to do something like go back on his word." Pei Ji replied casually, and then asked doubtfully: "But, what's the matter with your fourth brother? You Why should he continue to command the army?"
"My little nephew is thinking about your uncle's safety." Li Er said with a smile: "When you were in Daxing before, your uncle secretly turned to your little nephew. My brother knew this very well. You followed him back to Taiyuan, uncle. I'm afraid he will feel revenge. My fourth brother Li Yuanji was ordered by his father to stay in Taiyuan and take control of Taiyuan's army. When my elder brother goes back and wants to confiscate the military power, the fourth brother will definitely feel dissatisfied. Uncle, you just need to stand by the fourth brother's side and help He has some soldiers and horses in his hands, wouldn't he be as stable as Mount Tai in Taiyuan?"
After being stunned for a while, Pei Ji went up and down Li Eryitong as if he didn't know him, and then cupped his hands and said, "Second Young Master is brilliant, I admire you."
So, under the circumstances that everyone was happy, on November 11th, Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji returned to Taiyuan with 3,000 troops, leaving Li Er who volunteered to lead the army to stay in Wencheng, supplemented by Li Shentong and Duan Zhixuan. , Tang Xian, and Zhu Can and other civil and military officials resisted Qu Tutong's pursuit, and at the same time let Li Er take charge of Jiangjun, Longquan, and Linfen counties. Command.
Immediately afterwards, after Li Jiancheng and others left, Li Er, who was finally in charge of his own house, ordered his first order to gather the defeated rebels who were fleeing back from Guanzhong. The second thing was to send people east to Hanoi to fight Zhai and Li Lianjun contacted each other and asked to form an alliance with Zhai Rang and Li Mi, and expressed their willingness to regard Li Mi as the leader of the alliance. —This is not black Li Er. In fact, Li Yuan also expressed his willingness to regard Li Mi as the leader in the letter to Li Mi in exchange for a temporary friendly relationship with Li Mi.
In addition, Li Er not only took the opportunity to plead with Li Mizhai for assistance in the army and food, but also offered advice to Li Mi, suggesting that Li Mi divide his troops to march westward, attack the Weihan Road west of the eastern capital, and cut off Chen Sangliang's return. To aid the road to the Eastern Capital, Li Er is willing to send a force to cross the river in Shan County, and join forces with Li Mi's army to capture Changping Cang next to Shan County, and jointly establish a bridgehead for Li Mi's army to take Guanzhong from the west.
Next, of course, Li Er will have to face a fierce battle with Qu Tutong immediately, but fortunately, Qu Tutong's army has been running around in and out of Guanzhong for these years, fighting again and again, and the soldiers under his command are exhausted and full of war weariness. , the situation is no better than Li Er's soldiers and horses. Li Er, who is talented and bold, is confident that he can still support it.
…
Jiang County was basically still under the control of Li Yuan's rebels. Pei Renji, a professional cheater, took advantage of Wang Shichong's opportunity to go south to aid Luoyang, the eastern capital, after he recovered, and once again led his army into the hinterland of Hanoi County. The whole area simply and neatly drove away the former colleague Huangtaoshu, and went straight to Hanoi to threaten the county government. This greatly facilitated the contact between Li Er and Li Mi. On November 18, the envoy sent by Li Er hit up with Pei Renji Then, with the help of Pei Renji's army, he quickly crossed the Yellow River and got in touch with the main force of Li Mi's army.
When Jin Xiaomo, the envoy sent by Li Er, saw Li Mi, both Li Mi and Zhai Rang had already fought outside Huiluocang. Wang Shichong's army was exhausted from repeated battles, and they only dared to defend Cangcheng and did not dare to attack. Paradise was defeated by Zhai and Li's allied forces, and the main general Liu Xu was captured and surrendered. The total strength of Di and Li's allied forces has exceeded 250,000, and there are 200,000 Chen soldiers outside Huiluocang alone, which is extremely powerful. Under such circumstances, it has already been discovered that Li Yuan is dead. The Li family brothers fled north in a tragic defeat. Of course, Zhai Rang's family, who was born as a bumpkin, didn't take kindly to Jin Xiaomo sent by Li Er. They didn't even bother to arrange a seat for Jin Xiaomo, which made Jin Xiaomo very upset It was embarrassing and depressed.
Fortunately, Li Mi, who came from a famous family, was very gracious and self-cultivated. He did not despise Jin Xiaomo because of Li Yuan's rebellion. In order to understand the specific situation of Guanzhong and East battlefields, Li Mi warmly received Jin Xiaomo, while carefully inquiring about the current situation of the Li family brothers. The situation and Chen Sangliang's various situations, while picking up Li Er's autographed letter to read carefully, after thinking about it in his mind, Li Mi also passed the letter to Zhai Rang and others to let them know it well.
Li Er's plea for food and reinforcements made Zhai Hong and Zhai Mohou, the idiot father and son, yelled, saying what a joke, why should they give Li Er precious food? Although Li Mi, who held two warehouses in Luokou and Liyang, didn't feel sorry for the food, he was unwilling to work hard to send food to the Hedong battlefield. What interested Li Mi was Li Er's proposal to jointly attack Changping warehouse proposal.
Li Mi's staff member Zu Junyan was also very interested in this proposal, and said to Li Mi: "Wei Gong, although the Changping warehouse is not as large as the Luokou warehouse, it is much larger than the Huiluo warehouse in front of us now, and it has a lot of grain. Weihan is steep and narrow, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If our army can take Changping warehouse first and defend Weihan, even if Chen Yingliang wants to return to Luoyang, the eastern capital, it will definitely not be so easy. In the future, we will win After the Eastern Capital, if we want to enter the Tongguan Pass, the grain stored in the Changping warehouse can be used as military rations for us, which can save a lot of trouble in grain transportation.”
Li Mi nodded, and said: "That's exactly what I mean. It will be beneficial to us and not harmful to us to win the Changping warehouse first and strangle the dangerous path of Weihan. It's just..., just...."
"Just what?" Zhai Rang next to him asked.
"It's just that I can't find a suitable person to lead the army." Li Mi said hesitantly: "I know the situation in the Changping warehouse area very well. There is indeed a lot of food in the warehouse. The nearby Hongnong Palace is where the tyrant Yang Guang travels to and from Luoyang. The palace where I live every time between Daxing and Daxing. The rare treasures in the palace are piled up like a mountain. If we can take them down, it will be of great help to our army. But now who do we send to attack Changpingcang? Our army can fight well The veteran generals all have their own heavy responsibilities, and I really can't find a suitable candidate..."
Before Li Mi finished speaking, the eyes of Zhai Hong, Zhai Mohou and his son were already shining. After looking at each other, Zhai Hong and his son said in unison: "Wei Gong, why don't you let us go?"
"Duke Xingyang, Zhai Changshi, do you want to go?" Li Mi asked in surprise.
Di Hong and Di Mohou nodded quickly, and patted their chests to promise that they would take Changping Cang and Hongnong Palace, and seize the grain, gold, silver and jewelry there for public use. Li Mi hesitated again, and then turned to ask Zhai Rang Of course, Zhai Rang knew what Big Brother Baby and Baby Nephew were up to, and couldn't bear to refute their interest, so he said: "Wei Gong, since they are interested, let them go, anyway, our current soldiers and horses are so More, let them take a partial teacher to try."
Seeing that Zhai Rang also agreed to let his two most reliable accomplices attack Changpingcang, Li Mi, who had known for a long time that Chen Sangliang's wife-uncle Gao Shilian was the prefect of Hongnong, hesitated for a while, and then nodded in agreement with Zhai Hong and Zhai Mohou's father and son. An army of 10,000 went to attack Changpingcang. At the end, Li Mi was not at ease and warned: "Mr. Xingyang, Zhai Changshi, you must be careful and safe. It doesn't matter whether you can win the Changping warehouse, but you must come back alive."
After instructing Zhai Hong and his son, Li Mi turned to Jin Xiaomo again, and promised to support Li Er after the land contact was established, and asked him to contact Li Er immediately, so that Li Er could send troops to Shan County as soon as possible, and join forces with Zhai Hong and his son to seize Changpingcang. . Talking about various joint matters with Jin Xiaomo, he said with a sneer in his heart: "Children of the Li family, are you an idiot when you think I am a fool? Given your current situation, do you still have the energy to march into Shan County? You want to deceive me by using the food stored in the Changping warehouse Send troops to share the pressure for you, I'm not that stupid!"
"But that's okay, the trap that the little thief Chen Yingliang set up in Changpingcang can just be given to the idiot father and son of the Zhai family. Let's see if they have a chance to encourage Zhai to make the old man the emperor and force me to be the Zhai family for the rest of my life." dog!"