The embarrassment and slow progress of the main force of the Sui army in the tough battle was like a shot in the arm. It finally boosted the morale of the Taiyuan army. He and courage returned to the Taiyuan Army officers and soldiers, so when Li Jing led his army to arrive at Lengquanguan on the third day and launched a tentative attack on Lengquanguan, not only was it easy to be repelled by the Taiyuan Army, but also let Taiyuan The morale of the army was once again boosted, and their confidence was greatly increased.
In fact, this attack launched by Li Jing was entirely for the purpose of reconnaissance of the Taiyuan Army's defensive deployment, fortification weaknesses, coverage of long-range weapons, and shooting blind spots. As far as the main force of the Sui army was concerned, it wasn't even considered a wound to the fur. However, seeing that the soldiers of the self-army were all beaming and cheering inside and outside Lengquan Pass, Li Jiancheng ordered to reward the guards and sent them to the camp outside Jiexiu City. Held a celebration banquet in the middle of the day, and celebrated the first victory in the pass with his civil servants—after all, morale can be boosted but not discouraged.
Of course, Li Er, who is still the right governor of the Taiyuan Army in honor, also participated in this banquet. Although he did not participate in the battle of guarding the pass, Li Er also had his own channels to know the real situation of the battle at Lengquan Pass, so at the banquet, Li Er said On the contrary, he kept congratulating his elder brother on his victory, but there was always a hint of sarcasm in the corners of his mouth and eyes, and he sneered at his elder brother's words and deeds by slapping his face and pretending to be fat.
That is to say, Li Erkou was wrong, and the emotions of other Taiyuan Army civil and military officials were generally quite excited. Several people pointed out, "It has long been heard that Chen Yingliang's traitors are most afraid of fighting tough battles. Now it seems that the rumors are absolutely true. In the next three small fortresses with only one school guard, more than a thousand soldiers of the Chen thieves died. When they attacked Lengquan Pass today, the Chen thieves didn't even have the courage to attack the city. The trebuchets were directly repelled. From this we can see that the Chen bandits are extremely afraid of attacking tough battles. As long as our army resolutely adopts the correct strategy of the left commander to defend the wall and not fight, we will be able to consume the Chen bandits and defend the enemy at the gate of the country. outside!"
"Lengquan Pass is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and it's not difficult to defend, but the key is that we can't have any problems inside!" Taiyuan Army veteran Yin Kaishan pointed out: "Chen bandits are treacherous, and every time the famous city of Xiongguan is difficult to conquer, Chen bandits must be full of tricks. Whether it's bribery, or false surrender, sneak attack, cheating, abducting, and stealing chickens and dogs, we can do anything! When we were in Daxing, we suffered such a big loss. We were betrayed by Chaishopiff to the Xuanwu Gate, and our army was defeated without a fight. This time , we must learn a lesson, we can never give Chen thief the same chance again, and we must never believe any of Chen thief's rhetoric and lure."
"What the old general said is very true, and it should be true!" Li Er agreed with the civil and military officers of the Taiyuan Army, and then Li Er added in his stomach, "It's all nonsense! Saying it is equivalent to not saying it!"
With a sneer, Li Er paid attention to observe his elder brother's expression again, and saw that although Li Jiancheng nodded his head big, but his expression was not excited, obviously he also didn't take Yin Kaishan's correct nonsense, Li Er continued to sneer, just as Li Jiancheng also He raised his eyes to look at Li Er, and said to Li Er: "Second brother, our army's small victory today has boosted morale, but after all, it did not hurt the main force of the bandit army. An even bigger attack, in your opinion, can our army be able to stop the full attack of the bandit army?"
"Brother, if you can't stop it, don't you have to stop it?" Li Er replied calmly: "Unless you want to change your strategy, brother, put the army of Chen thieves into the hinterland of Taiyuan, rely on Taiyuan to fight mobile warfare with Chen thieves, and keep fighting." Harassing Chen's thief's grain road back, otherwise, our army can only defend Lengquan Pass with all our strength, keeping the enemy out of the country's gate."
Li Jiancheng was silent. In fact, Li Er had proposed such a strategy a long time ago. He persuaded Li Jiancheng to lead the main force to retreat to Taiyuan, let Li Er lead the partial division as a guerrilla army, and constantly harass the Sui army's grain roads and the Sui army to fight guerrilla warfare. However, Li Jiancheng had various considerations. He did not adopt it, determined to stick to the cold spring pass and wait for the water attack fighter to appear, and he was unwilling to use the risky tactics of the second brother. This cannot be said that Li Jiancheng and Li Er are right or wrong. In fact, both tactics have the hope of success, and they also have their own shortcomings. Dangerous, Li Er and Li Jiancheng have different opinions, and it is completely because the two brothers have different military styles and habits.
At this time, it was getting late and a powerful enemy was approaching. Li Jiancheng did not dare to let the generals gather for a drink all night. When they were about to leave the banquet, a soldier suddenly entered from outside the tent and said to Li Jiancheng: " I report to the Commander-General of the Left, our patrol officers and soldiers captured a spy on the mountain road, and found a letter from him, which was written to the Commander-General of the Right." After that, the soldier also praised himself with a letter top of the head.
"Sure enough, it's here!"
Before the words of the soldiers were finished, the brothers of the Li family and the civil and military officers of the Taiyuan Army had already laughed out loud. Yin Kaishan also said with a smile: "The old man is really not wrong. The traitor Chen Yingliang saw that Lengquan Pass was so strong that it was difficult to get out. He also gave birth to the shameless and poisonous scheme of swindling and kidnapping, which is still his best estrangement scheme. It is a pity that the governor of the left is not Zhai Rang, and the governor of the right is not Li... "
Speaking of this with a smile, Yin Kaishan realized that he had used a very inappropriate metaphor, and quickly shut his mouth—it was rumored that Li Mi was forced to kill Zhai Rang by Chen Sangliang's divorce. Fortunately, neither Li Jiancheng nor Li Er minded his slip of the tongue. Li Er turned to Li Jiancheng and said with a smile, "Brother, thief Chen must have come to tell you that my younger brother is going to sacrifice Cold Spring Pass. Do you believe it?"
"If someone said Erlang that you are going to sacrifice and surrender, brother Wei might still believe it." Li Jiancheng said with a smile: "But what Chen Yingliang said, brother Wei can only listen to it the other way around."
Everyone in the Taiyuan Army laughed together, and they all said that was exactly the case. The words of Chen Sangliang, who had a reputation in this respect, were indeed the most correct only by listening in reverse. Amidst the laughter, Li Jiancheng accepted the letter presented by the soldiers with a smile, but after seeing the envelope, Li Jiancheng's smile froze on his face, and he blurted out: "Feng Deyi! Why did Feng Deyi write to A letter from the second brother?!"
The laughter in the large tent of the Chinese army stopped abruptly, and Li Er looked up in surprise, and asked, "Feng Deyi's letter to his uncle? Isn't it from Chen Yingliang?"
Li Jiancheng showed the envelope in his hand, and let Li Er see that the words of his nephew Li Shimin and Feng Deyi were clearly written on the envelope, and then Li Jiancheng asked again: "Second brother, since this letter is written by Uncle Feng , how about you take it out and see for yourself?"
Li Er made some calculations before answering: "I'd better ask my elder brother to dismantle it. Although Uncle Feng had a lot of contacts with my younger brother before, I heard that he has betrayed Yu Wenhua and defected to Chen Yingliang's traitor. Ni, my little brother Guada Lixia, it’s better to ask your elder brother to dismantle it for you.”
"Then you're welcome, brother."
Li Jiancheng was really not polite. He immediately opened the sealed letter and took out the letter written by Feng Deyi to read it. He became more and more serious, and finally couldn't help but glance at Li Er. The civil and military officers of the Taiyuan army who had been observing Li Jiancheng's expression secretly cried out in their hearts. Li Er was inevitably a little worried, and couldn't help asking: "Brother, what happened? What exactly did Master Feng say in the letter?"
Li Jiancheng didn't answer, and didn't give the letter to Li Er to read for himself. After thinking for a while in silence, Li Jiancheng suddenly stared at Li Er and asked, "Second brother, you told Feng De about the water attack plan for brother." Yi's?"
"What?" Li Er's shock was no small matter, and he exclaimed, "I told Feng Deyi about your water attack plan, brother? Whose nonsense is this? I haven't seen it for at least three years. He is gone! How to tell him?"
"Water attack? What water attack?" At the same time, there were many civil and military personnel from the Taiyuan Army who were surprised. Because of their loyalty and close relationship, in fact, many civil and military personnel in the Taiyuan Army did not know that Li Jiancheng was planning to use floods to deal with Chen Sangliang and Chen Sangliang. The main force of the Sui army. And Yin Kaishan, Zhang Lun, Zhang Daoyuan and other important Taiyuan army officials all changed their faces, and exclaimed together: "Chen thief, you already know that we are going to attack with water?"
Li Jiancheng didn't answer anyone's questions, but just kept observing Li Er's emotional reaction carefully. Although he didn't see any flaws, Li Jiancheng knew very well that his younger brother's city was deeper than his own, and his acting skills were far better than his own. It was excellent, so Li Jiancheng was still a little skeptical. After thinking for a while, Li Jiancheng handed the letter to Li Er.
The general content of the letter is as follows: "Nephew Shimin, I, Feng Deyi, have received the letter you wrote to my uncle last time. Thank you for reporting to me that that bastard Li Jiancheng is preparing to build a dam upstream of Wenshui River. Flooding our army, uncle, I don’t have to worry about feeding the fish in a daze, and I’m making a big splash with His Royal Highness Tang Wang. His Royal Highness Tang said that although there is some hatred between him and you, you still treat him He has broken promises, but he even forgives your brother-in-law Chai Shao several times, not to mention that you still made amends this time and took the initiative to report to our army your damn brother's plan to attack poison with water? Are you afraid that he will care about the past? If you don’t dare to contact him directly, please ask the old uncle to report on your behalf, in fact, there is no need for it! There is no need for it!”
"So you can rest assured that you can kill your elder brother Li Jiancheng. As long as you kill Li Jiancheng and surrender, His Royal Highness Tang Wang will not only let you go, but he will also make you the governor of the Hebei Road Army, and let you take Taiyuan soldiers and horses to Ganluo Yi Dou Jiande, who has a wife and son, a prince of all generations, His Royal Highness Tang Wang is faithful to his words, and he will follow his words. You can rest assured. By the way, there is one more thing, the messenger you sent to deliver the letter. Back, I accidentally broke my leg in the mountains, so I have no choice but to pick one of your former troops from among the prisoners of war to deliver the letter. Your uncle Feng Deyi."
After reading this extremely vicious letter, Li Er almost strangled old uncle Feng Deyi's thoughts, and smiled angrily: "Okay! Okay! The traitor Chen Yingliang really did everything he could to harm me. Even Feng Deyi has moved out, this old man is working hard enough and loyal enough to please his new master! I'm afraid he is not as loyal to Yang Guang as he is to the traitor Chen Yingliang now!"
After saying that, Li Er immediately knelt down on one knee to Li Jiancheng, cupped his fists and said, "Brother, I can swear to God, I never sent anyone to contact the old man Feng Deyi, let alone reveal to him your master plan of water attack! If my younger brother speaks half a lie, the world will not tolerate it!"
"Of course I can trust you." Li Jiancheng nodded, and then said in doubt: "But how did Chen Yingliang know that our army was going to attack with water? Even among our army, only a very small number of people knew about it, and Chen Yingliang How did you find out?"
The faces of Yin Kaishan, Zhang Daoyuan and other insiders changed, and they hurriedly saluted together, swore that he would never reveal this important plan, and then Yin Kaishan said cautiously: "Mr. ?”
Li Jiancheng remained suspicious, but Li Er suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said, "Brother, could it be leaked from brother-in-law? Brother-in-law also knows about your plan, and was unfortunately captured alive by Chen's army on the Lingshi battlefield." , it is possible to report this matter to the bandit army."
"Impossible!" Li Jiancheng waved his hand decisively, and said solemnly: "It is said that one or two of the thief army's secret agents slipped through our army's blockade and reported the news to Chen Yingliang. I still believe this, but Duan Lun is absolutely impossible. With his temper, he would rather perish with the main force of the bandit army than reveal a single word to Chen Yingliang!"
Li Er closed his mouth, feeling somewhat resentful in his stomach, and secretly said: "Listen to your tone, you trust Duan Lun, brother-in-law, more than you trust me, my own brother?"
After analyzing it for a long time, Li Jiancheng couldn't figure it out. Believing that his second brother could not bow his knee to his love rival, Li Jiancheng could only tentatively think that the Sui Army's secret agents were lucky enough to find out that Li Shentong built a dam in the upper reaches of Wenshui River to store water, and then passed through Taiyuan by chance. The army's strict seal brought the news back to Lingshi, but did not pursue it further, and asked Li Er and the generals to get up. However, Yin Kaishan raised a new question and asked: "Commander Zuo, since the traitor Chen Yingliang already knows that our army is building a dam in the upper reaches of Wenshui River, he must be prepared, and our army's water attack is already very difficult to be effective. But What shall we do next? No matter how fortified the Cold Spring Pass is, if the bandits continue to attack at all costs, if there is any mistake at the pass, it will be even more difficult for us to escape unscathed?"
Li Jiancheng's face became gloomy again. In fact, Li Jiancheng knew very well in his heart that Lengquanguan could not be held forever, and he tried his best to hold on to Lengquanguan just to fight for the flood season to come. Kill the main force of the Sui army, and now that the Sui army is already prepared, the water attack must have no effect. If there is any accident at Cold Spring Pass, the Taiyuan army will have no natural danger to defend, and then try to retreat hundreds of miles away. Taiyuan City is definitely more difficult than ascending to the sky!
——The current number of Sui army cavalry is unusually large, without the support of the Turks and because Liu Wuzhou robbed the horse farm and cut off the salt horse road, the Taiyuan army has very few cavalry, and there is absolutely no way to stop it The pursuit of the Sui cavalry! The cavalry of the Sui Army wanted to cut off Li Jiancheng's return route before the main force of the Taiyuan Army withdrew to Taiyuan City, and it was absolutely easy!
When Li Jiancheng was thinking about this problem, Li Er was of course also thinking about how to deal with this sudden change. As a result, after pondering over and over again, Li Er couldn't help showing a little joy, because Li Er suddenly discovered that Li Jiancheng was forced to accept The possibility of his plan to defend against the enemy has greatly increased, and this is the only way for our own army to preserve the army when Lengquanguan falls, and deal with the pursuit of the Sui army! Overjoyed, Li Er quickly went to see Li Jiancheng quietly, only to find that Li Jiancheng was looking at him. He was so frightened that Li Er hurriedly bowed his head, thinking to himself: "You can't be happy at this time, otherwise you will only attract suspicion."
Li Er's reaction was a little slower. In fact, the flash of joy on his face did not escape Li Jiancheng's eyes. Reminiscent of Li Er's firm opposition to his strategy of defending against the enemy and his obedience to the enemy, he was just kinder. But Li Jiancheng, who is definitely not a good person, inevitably has a question in his mind, "Could it be that the second brother really leaked my water attack to Brother Yingliang in order to take charge of the army and let me hand over the military power to him?" A plan? To force me to adopt his plan to defend against the enemy, and to force me to hand over military power to him?"
Doubts flashed in his mind, and Li Jiancheng, who knew the virtues of his other good brother Chen Sangliang, tried to calm himself down and stopped thinking about this idea, and then said to everyone: "How to resist the next step?" Enemy, let me think twice, in short, Cold Spring Pass must not give up, and I will make up my mind as soon as possible about how our army will go next."
Li Er agreed with all the civil and military personnel in the Taiyuan army, and then Li Er pondered in his heart: "Chen thief framed me with a fake book, which shows that he is determined to get rid of me. Not only is there a possibility of another trick next, it's true." When the Cold Spring Pass cannot be guarded, Thief Chen will never miss the opportunity to kill me in the pursuit battle, and he will definitely force me to lead the army to the rear and let me die in vain because of my brother's suspicion of me. , How should I deal with Chen Thief's last move? And how should I escape from Chen Thief's pursuit?"