While preparing for the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan, Chen Sangliang made another important military decision.
Ma Sanbao, deputy chief of the West Route Army of the Sui Army, reported to Chen Sangliang that Li Gui, who claimed to be Emperor Liang, had his head flooded. He believed in the flattering words of a barbarian wizard in the first year, and believed that a jade girl would be sent down from the sky for him. , It took a lot of money to set up a jade girl platform in Liangzhou to wait for the goddess to come. As a result, the goddess did not come, and the famine came first. The main purpose of the alliance with Xue Ju to attack Pingliang was to grab food to alleviate the urgent need. After the failure, the famine in the area became more serious. After Ma Sanbao and Jiang Mo basically took over Xue Ju's land, they saw that the opportunity was rare, so they took advantage of the approaching spring plowing to launch an attack on Li Gui, not seeking to defeat Li Gui, but only to delay the farming time in the land controlled by Li Gui's army, not to give Chances for them to plant seeds smoothly.
Not bad, driving Xue Ju to surrender as a vanguard, Ma Sanbao successfully broke through the Jincheng Pass, and marched to Huining, an important grain-producing area in Wuwei County, forcing Li Gui to send troops to rescue Huining, delaying the farming season. At the same time, the Hu people under Li Gui’s rule also took the initiative to contact the Sui army, expressing their willingness to act as internal agents to help the Sui army get rid of Li Gui. Ma Sanbao himself was proficient in Hu language, and his deputy He Panren was simply a Hu. Ma Sanbao felt that the opportunity was rare, so he sent a memorial to Chen Sangliang, asking Chen Sangliang to allow him to initiate an attack on Li Gui. All-out war, waiting for an opportunity to eliminate Li Gui and restore the five counties of Xiliang.
Although he was very wary of the Hu people's forces, but considering that once the remote five counties of Xiliang were separated from the central government for too long, it would definitely give more opportunities for foreign races to infiltrate and invade. Chen Sangliang agreed to Ma Sanbao's petition and canonized Ma Sanbao, the general manager of the Xiliang Road march, allowed him to launch the Western Expedition, reinforced his troops and provided him with food and grass supplies, and entrusted all the Xiliang war to his oldest accomplice and lackey.
In addition, Chen Sangliang accepted the volunteering of An Xinggui, an official from Daxing, and sent An Xinggui, who was born in a wealthy family in Wuwei, back to Wuwei to act as a spy. His subordinates killed Li Gui. ——If this is accomplished, Chen Sangliang will of course give An Xinggui a high ranking official, if not, Chen Sangliang will also bestow An Xinggui with a posthumous title. Everyone will trade fairly and not take advantage of An Xinggui.
Li Gui's matter can basically end here. Li Gui, who is constrained by climate, environment and resources, is doomed to not be able to make too much trouble, and it is not worthy of Chen Sangliang's concern. What Chen Sangliang is most concerned about right now is It is still the fighting situation on the battlefield of Quemogu Valley. But what Chen Sangliang really didn't expect before was that the development of the war in Queshu Valley would completely deviate from his previous estimates and predictions, and it might even disrupt his overall plan of the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan.
Chen Sangliang's previous order to Liu Heitai was to bluff, to create the illusion that the main force of the Sui army might attack Taiyuan at any time, so that the Taiyuan army would enter a state of full combat readiness prematurely and exhaust the enemy. The pig iron cannon that exploded was just a prop used to intimidate the Li family brothers. But what Chen Sangliang never expected was that because of a small mistake, his bluffing plan went on a completely different track, causing the Sui Army of Huo Yi to fight Li Erda in advance, and then recruited the main force of the Taiyuan Army, pulling It opened the prelude to the decisive battle between the main force of the Taiyuan Army and the Sui Army in Hedong.
Judging from the reports from various open and dark channels, Chen Sangliang found that Liu Heizai was also somewhat involuntary in this matter. It was entirely because of Li Er's idea of cracking down on fake artillery that he started the war on the spot, and abandoned the artillery to force the Taiyuan Army and Huo Yi Sui The army was forced to fight a war of attrition. At the same time, Liu Heitai also reported his plan to Chen Sangliang, determined to use his own army to fight against the main force of the Taiyuan army first, so as to exhaust him more effectively. The main force of the Taiyuan army and the consumption of their combat power will allow the main force of the Sui army to fight better and more easily during the Northern Expedition in the future. To put it bluntly, it means sacrificing the individual to achieve the overall situation, let the Sui army in Hedong bleed and sweat first, so that the main force of the Sui army will bleed less and sweat less in the future.
The younger brother endured hardships by himself, tied his head to his trouser belt and worked hard, so that the boss could easily pick up the cheap in the future to show off. When the boss naturally likes such a younger brother, Chen Sangliang also likes Liu Heitai's loyalty. But Chen Sangliang's liking doesn't mean that Chen Sangliang's other younger brothers like him. Since then, he quickly climbed to the position of commander-in-chief of the Hedong Military Region like a rocket. Liu Heita was already extremely jealous, but now Liu Heita It also disrupted Chen Sangliang's Northern Expedition plan, resulting in the sacrifice of many Sui soldiers on the Queshu Valley battlefield. Complaints and strange words against Liu Heita will naturally appear anyway, and the insinuating official documents accuse Liu Heita of ineffectiveness and unnecessary casualties of soldiers. Letters also began to appear on Chen Sangliang's desk.
Whether Liu Heitai can do things or not, Chen Sangliang knows very well whether the sacrifices of the soldiers killed in the Queshugu battle were in vain, Chen Sangliang also knows in his heart, and completely turns a blind eye to these sour documents. But what happened next made it impossible for Chen Sangliang to pretend he couldn't see or hear.
The situation seemed to be critical. Sui army veteran Huo Shiju, Deputy Chief of the Hedong Road Marching Army, and Linfen Taishou Ziqi jointly signed a report. In a hurry, Huo Shiju must secure Linfen City, which has a large stockpile of food, grass and military supplies. He dare not take the risk of sending troops to rescue, so he can only ask Liu Heita for instructions, but Liu Heita wrote back directly to Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi, saying that there is no need to rescue these two counties , Taiyuan Army likes to go and get it!
The matter is not over yet, Liu Heita directly ordered the two counties to fall, and Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi also reported an even more shocking thing - they heard rumors that Liu Heita was unfavorable in the war in Queshu Valley Afraid of being held accountable by Chen Sangliang, and being surrounded by the main force of the Taiyuan Sui army with no hope of breaking through, greedy for life and afraid of death, he secretly contacted the Taiyuan army to beg for surrender, and prepared to sacrifice Huoyi City to the Taiyuan army in exchange for his life!
The report of Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi naturally shocked the decision-makers of the Sui army. Chen Sangliang had no choice but to continue to pretend to be deaf and dumb. Would not do such a thing, all this is just a shameless alienation by the Li family brothers, and they also stated that they support Liu Heitai's decision to abandon Yang County and Yueyang County - with Chen Sangliang's current strength, he has long since had no need to stick to it For the gains and losses of one city and one place, it is enough to lose Yang County and Yueyang in the future and get it back in the future. It is worthwhile to lose two small counties temporarily in exchange for Huoyi and Linfen being as stable as Mount Tai.
The most disgusting thing is the estrangement, which is the same for the Sui army. After hearing Chen Sangliang's statement, someone soon said: "His Royal Highness, Liu Heita is a general of the bandit army. He is capricious. Now that he is trapped in an isolated city, facing the main force of the Taiyuan bandit army alone, it is hard to guarantee that he will not surrender when the battle is unfavorable."
This statement attracted a lot of echoes, and even the eldest grandson Wuji, who is now serving in the Ministry of Internal History, did not dare to take it lightly, and reminded: "Your Highness, Liu Heizai has not followed you for a long time, and he is not your old subordinate. elder… ."
"Shut up!" Chen Sangliang finally caught a punching bag, and yelled at his brother-in-law: "What kind of old man is not an old man? From your point of view, then my Tang Dynasty Prime Minister's Mansion can only use my civil and military skills when I was in Qiaojun." Subordinates? Count yourself, how many civil and military officials in my prime minister's mansion can follow me longer than Liu Heita? Am I not even able to trust them and drive them out of the prime minister's mansion? !"
Unlucky elder Sun Wuji, who became an archery target, shut up obediently, while Qu Tutong, Du Ruhui, Pang Yu, Sun Fujia and other new lackeys of Chen Sangliang who were far less experienced than Liu Heitai were all moved, thankful that he followed Chen Sangliang Such a generous boss who employs people without doubt. Chen Sangliang snorted again, and then said to everyone: "Masters, I know you have good intentions, but I can assure you that Liu Heita will not have two hearts, he is not that kind of person! If a national scholar treats him, he will repay me with a national scholar!"
Everyone shut up obediently, not daring to remind Chen Sangliang to beware of Liu Heizai's rebellion, but they still felt somewhat dissatisfied in their hearts. Chen Sangliang also knew everyone's thoughts very well, but Chen Sangliang was speechless—President Chen Sangliang Can't tell everyone that I am a time traveler, saying that I already knew what kind of character Liu Heita is like
Although he can use his authority to suppress everyone's doubts about Liu Heitai, the possible dangers on the Hedong battlefield cannot be ignored. Even Li Jing, who had never spoken before, said, "Your Highness, the main force of the Taiyuan Army is moving south. The whole county of Linfen is in a hurry. We can no longer stick to the previous Northern Expedition plan, and must make certain adjustments. The ministers believe that it is best to immediately send an army north to Linfen to reinforce Linfen County to ensure the safety of our military supplies and grass. We should also properly restrain the main force of the Taiyuan Army and serve Liu Hei. General Min can share some of the pressure to prevent the situation from deteriorating further."
"This subject also thinks so." Pang Yu also hurriedly said: "If something goes wrong in Linfen, Jiang County will be in a hurry. At that time, Yu Wenhuaji stationed in Hanoi will definitely take advantage of the fire and make our army more passive. Please order to lead a team The army went north to Linfen to rescue the two generals Huo Shiju and Liu Heita."
Pang Yu opened his mouth, and Qu Tutong and Li Jing immediately volunteered to lead an army north to reinforce Liu Heitai. After thinking for a while, Chen Sangliang shook his head and said, "We must send a support army to Liu Heitai, but Don't bother you to go out in person. You have already had the experience of leading troops alone. This battle is just to contain the troops, not a decisive battle with the Taiyuan bandits. It would be too overkill to send you. I mean, let Cheng Yaojin and One of Qin Qiong led the army to the north, and I also cultivated their ability to be independent so that they can be used in the future."
Considering that this battle did not have much success, Pang Yu and Qu Tutong kept their mouths shut, and Li Jing did not insist, but nodded thoughtfully and said: "Your Highness is absolutely right, it should be given to General Cheng and General Qin." This is an opportunity to lead the army alone, they are all in their thirties, and they are in the prime of life, now they have been trained, and His Royal Highness will use them well in the future."
Speaking of this, Li Jing paused, then smiled and said: "However, it is estimated that these two generals both want this opportunity, and it is difficult for you to decide who to give this opportunity to, Your Highness."
"It doesn't matter, let them decide for themselves." Chen Sangliang replied with a smile: "If they all want to go, but no one will let the other, then let them decide who will go, martial arts competitions, casting lots, Whoever is lucky will go."
While everyone laughed, Chen Sangliang ordered Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong to be summoned, announced his decision to them, and asked them who would lead 10,000 troops to go north to help Liu Heitai. As expected, Qin Qiong and Qin Qiong Cheng Yaojin really rushed to go together, he wanted to lead a soldier to fight a battle alone, even brothers and friends would not give in to each other, and then decided on his own to compete with Wu Ding's coach without Chen Sangliang asking! Fortunately, Chen Sangliang changed his mind again, fearing that the two generals would be accidentally injured in the martial arts competition, he decided to use lottery to determine the coach. Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin applauded together, and then impatiently begged God and Buddha to beg him to be selected.
The result of praying to God and worshiping Buddha is that Qin Qiong's character is better, and he won the position of the chief general of the reinforcements this time. Although Cheng Yaojin was willing to gamble and admit defeat, he was so regretful that he yelled. Chen Sangliang comforted him with a smile, saying that in the future Cheng Yaojin must be given the same opportunity to make up for it, and Qin Qiong was ordered to start preparing to send troops immediately, and arranged for Qin Qiong to lead the army to the north to aid Liu Heitai two days later.
In fact, Chen Sangliang is more willing to let Qin Qiong choose the main general, because Qin Qiong not only has more experience in the battlefield than Cheng Yaojin, but also can use his brain and personality more cautiously in battle, and it is not easy in front of the treacherous Li family brothers. suffer. Therefore, after sending Qin Qiong to lead the army northward, Chen Sangliang no longer worried about the situation on the Linfen battlefield. He concentrated on dealing with internal affairs and prepared as much as possible in advance so that he could lead the main force northward with no worries. At the same time, I am also waiting for news about the vertical and horizontal alliance with the warlords around Taiyuan.
The news came from the nearest Liang Shidu first. Liang Shidu agreed to accept Chen Sangliang's order to send troops to attack Lishi County controlled by the Li family brothers on Chen Sangliang's behalf, and return Lishi County after the incident To Chen Sangliang, at the same time Liang Shidu was quite generous and sent someone to escort Chen Sangliang's envoy who contacted Liu Wuzhou to Mayi, showing some sincerity to Chen Sangliang—but the condition was that Chen Sangliang would Liang must make him the king of Liang. Chen Sangliang considered that Liang Shidu's soldiers and horses were quite strong, and he was a greater threat to Daxing, his old nest, so he agreed to Liang Shidu's request. Liang Shidu was overjoyed. He also immediately handed over the envoy sent by the Li brothers to ask him for help as a show of sincerity.
Then there was news from Liu Wuzhou. Liu Wuzhou agreed to help Chen Sangliang capture Loufan County and Yanmen County. The conditions he offered were also to be granted the title of prince and the land of Yanmen County. At the same time, he also sent troops to escort Chen Sangliang. Another envoy of the party went to Yu County to contact Luo Yi. Chen Sangliang bargained and agreed to make Liu Wuzhou king of Dingyang, and rejected Liu Wuzhou's request for land. There was no response to Yuan Yuan's letter after going north, so it is not yet certain whether Liu Wuzhou will stab the Li family brothers in the back.
Luo Yi is farther away, and it is even more impossible to receive news in a short period of time. Fortunately, Luo Yi has a record of envoys who treated Chen Sangliang kindly before, and his refusal to accept Chen Sangliang's consolation is also an excuse to be alone in Hebei surrounded by enemies. He dared to be the target of public criticism, so Chen Sangliang reckoned that even if Luo Yi would not send troops to help him fight the eastern part of Taiyuan County, it was unlikely that he would help the Li brothers and make things difficult for him.
Although the hope is slim, but because he likes Dou Jiande's upright character very much, Chen Sangliang still gave Dou Jiande a chance to reform himself, and once again sent envoys to Linming to contact Dou Jiande to appease him. Dou Jiande sent troops to attack the Li family brothers. At the same time, Chen Sangliang also specially arranged for Xiao Shouye, the second son of the Great Xiao Guojiu, to serve as an envoy to let Dou Jiande know that he is magnanimous and disregards past suspicions.
As a result, Chen Sangliang found himself slapped in the face by Dou Jiande again, and this time it was far worse than last time. Ten days after Qin Qiong dispatched troops, Yuan Zicai, the prefect of the Shangdang who had surrendered to Chen Sangliang, sent an urgent report. It is said that Dou Jiande's 20,000 troops invaded Shangdang County, and at the same time Xiao Shouye returned to Daxing with Yuan Zicai's messenger. A bloodied dog was loaded into a prison car and escorted to Shangdang to hand over to Chen Sangliang's subordinates. It was extremely embarrassing not to give Chen Sangliang.
In addition, Dou Jiande also wrote a reply letter to Chen Sangliang. In the letter, Dou Jiande was very arrogant and canonized Chen Sangliang as the manager of Linming Market, telling Chen Sangliang that he would not only send troops to help the Li family brothers , but also to break through Daxing and take Chen Sangliang back to Linming to see the vegetable stalls, so that Chen Sangliang can return to the glory days of picking vegetables and leaves for a living.
After reading Dou Jiande's reply, Chen Sangliang couldn't help being furious no matter how good-tempered he was, and he didn't understand what kind of medicine Dou Jiande had taken wrongly, so why did he have to make trouble with himself? In a rage, Chen Sangliang immediately ordered Shangdang and Linfen to send orders, asking them to closely monitor the movement of Dou Jiande's army, and to order Qin Qiong to let him try to lure the enemy, and find a way to hook Dou Jiande across the Taihang Mountains to Linfen County Wait to die!
Then, Chen Sangliang soon realized that he had done another stupid thing. On the first day of April, when Chen Sangliang was still preparing to send troops to the Northern Expedition in the second half of the month, Li Jing, who was appointed Minister of the Ministry of War, suddenly rushed into the Wudedian, with a somewhat nervous expression, handed a pond newspaper with chicken feathers to Chen Sangliang, and said, "Your Highness, the Linfen urgent report is bad news."
"Bad news?" Chen Sangliang was taken aback, and said in surprise: "An accident happened in Linfen City? It's impossible, isn't Qin Qiong's reinforcements already arrived in Linfen City?"
"It's not Linfen City, it's General Qin Qiong." Li Jing said with a bit of bitterness: "General Qin and the bandit army Yin Kaishan fought in Yueyang. Chuan came out, General Qin led his army to fight, but was defeated by accident, and the loss was not small, Yin Kaishan took the opportunity to send troops to attack, General Qin was forced to retreat to Linfen."
Chen Sangliang opened his mouth so wide that two eggs could be stuffed in, and he exclaimed, "Qin Qiong was defeated? How is it possible? How many troops does the enemy have?"
"Your Majesty, I couldn't believe it just now." Li Jing replied with a wry smile: "How many troops the enemy has, you may not believe it if you tell Your Highness, only 3,000 troops!"
"Three thousand troops?" Chen Sangliang couldn't believe his ears again, and said in a daze, "How is it possible? Qin Qiong will also be defeated by others?"
"General Qin Qiong fell for the enemy's arrogant strategy." Li Jing replied with his head bowed: "When the bandit army was fighting with General Qin, they feigned defeat and fled into the mountain road, and deliberately broke up and pretended that they had no power to fight back. He was caught in the trap, thinking that the enemy was already defeated, so he was not too wary. Wang Fubao, the general of the bandit army, took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack at night when the general was about to pass, and personally led 300 elite soldiers dressed in the uniforms of our army, and suddenly rushed into our barracks. His other subordinates also beat drums and horns in the mountains to scare our army. Our soldiers didn't know how many enemies were coming, and they couldn't distinguish between the enemy and us in the dark before dawn. Our army has no power to fight back."
After all, Li Jing added another sentence, saying: "Also, General Qin also found out that this Wang Fubao's military strength is actually around 10,000 people. Our army underestimated the enemy's carelessness."
Chen Sangliang stood dumbfounded on the spot, and after a long time, he cursed, "What is the origin of this Mr. Wang Fubao? He is so cunning that even Qin Qiong can be fooled by him!"
"Your Highness, have you never heard of Wang Fubao's name?" Li Jing asked in surprise, and said again: "This Wang Fubao is a famous general under Dou Jiande's command. He fought many important battles during Dou Jiande's growth. Don't you know, Your Highness?"
After careful recollection, Chen Sangliang found that he had indeed seen Wang Fubao's name in the spy report, and vaguely remembered that he had won many victories under Dou Jiande's command, but because he was not on TV in the 21st century I have seen this person in the book, so I have not paid attention to it. Li Jing over there said again: "Your Highness, when I returned to the Eastern Capital from Mayi, I passed through Hebei and had some contact with Dou Jiande's army. As far as I know, this Wang Fubao is very popular with Dou Jiande's soldiers. The word of mouth is also very good, he is a rare general talent, General Qin Qiong was defeated by him, although it was unexpected, it is not too strange."
"No matter how talented you are as a general, it belongs to Dou Jiande." Chen Sangliang snorted, but just after he finished humming, Chen Sangliang suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly shouted: "Sun Fujia, hurry up, get Dou Jiande right away." Bring the spy report over there."
After Sun Fujia agreed, Li Jing hurriedly asked the reason again. Chen Sangliang frowned and replied: "I seem to remember that there is such a thing in our detailed investigation report, saying that this Wang Fubao has a bad relationship with his colleagues. Being excluded, I just don’t know if I remember wrongly.”
With a flash of Li Jing's eyes, he already understood the vicious intentions of his unscrupulous nephew, and hurriedly said: "I hope your Highness remembers correctly, if this Wang Fubao is really excluded by his colleagues under Dou Jiande's command, then we can say that it is easy for us to deal with this Wang Fubao." gone."