The ignorant and ignorant Chen Sangliang had never heard of the name Daocheng before, so when the monk Daocheng sent people to sneak out of the city to contact the Sui army, the cunning and suspicious Chen Sangliang once suspected that it was the Taiyuan army. Jiexiu guard Fan Botong's trick to lure the enemy, he bought Dao Cheng, a demon monk and bald donkey, to set him up. The Yin Sui army provoked him to buy time for the main force of the Taiyuan army. Finally, he carefully analyzed the steps of the plan and found that the danger was very small. Only then did Chen Sangliang ask Liu Shishan and Qiu Shili to try their luck with three thousand troops with the attitude of giving it a try.
This luck really made Liu Shishan and Qiu Shili two generals meet. With the help of believers in the defenders, Daocheng Monk made a rope ladder out of Buddha flags in a whimsical way, and dragged a group of Sui soldiers to the city. Soldiers of the Sui army attacked and hacked to death the soldiers at the gate of the city, opened the gate and lowered the suspension bridge to welcome the brigade into the city. Joyful Liu Shishan and Qiu Shili led the troops into the city together, and hacked to death Fan Botong, a loyal official of the Li family who refused to surrender, in the street fighting. It was easy to remove the nail that was stuck in the throat of the main force of the Sui army in Jiexiu City.
The victory report was sent back to the Sui army camp. The overjoyed Chen Sangliang of course immediately ordered to summon the demon monk Daocheng and give him a heavy reward. As a result, the demon monk Daocheng was still a bit of a moral person. Not only did he insist on declining Chen Sangliang's reward, he was also very humble. Said to Chen Sangliang: "His Royal Highness Tang, the little monk should sacrifice the city, not for the reward of His Highness, but to follow the Buddha's decree and sacrifice his life to save the Buddhist sentient beings. I have exhausted my modest efforts, and I will be able to explain a thing or two to the Buddha when I see the Buddha after I pass away in the future.”
"What does the master mean by this, why can't I understand?" Chen Sangliang was confused.
"Your Majesty may not know something." The demon monk Daocheng said honestly: "Because the false general Li Yuan claimed to be the descendant of Lao Tzu and Li Er, after conspiring against him, he forcibly put Lao Tzu above Confucius and relegated Buddhism to the third place. Wait, there are countless victims of the three Jin monks, and the young monks have also suffered a lot, and they are often worried that the line of Buddhism in the Middle Earth will be cut off at the hands of Li Ni. The day before yesterday, His Highness personally led the king's teacher here. The young monk first heard that the king is respectful. The Buddha modeled the reincarnation of Chen Qingzhi, the favorite general of Emperor Wu of Liang, and the white-robed soldiers he built with his own hands must chant scriptures to surpass the opponent before going into battle. At night, he dreamed that the Buddha told the little monk that his highness is the one who rescued the Buddhist sect of the three Jins, and asked the little monk to help his highness with all his strength Capture Jiexiu and lead Li Yuan to rebel, so this little monk obeys the order."
Chen Sangliang, Li Jing, Yuan Tiangang and the others looked at each other and smiled wryly. They knew very well in their hearts that this demon monk Daocheng must be thinking about it day and night, that's why he dreamed that Liaotou ordered him to defect to the Sui army, but now the demon monk Daocheng He also made great contributions to the Sui army. Chen Sangliang was embarrassed to tell Daocheng that this was just his psychological effect, and he could only order the small temple where Daocheng lived to be rebuilt and the golden body rebuilt. Monk Daocheng also did this. Thank you respectfully, and leave happily.
"Unexpectedly, I can still take advantage of this." This was the first sentence Chen Sangliang said after Monk Daocheng left. , the Buddhist disciples suppressed by Li Yuan will firmly stand on my side, if Li Yuan knows about it, he will be angry if he finds out about it."
"This also reminded us that attacking the city requires attacking the heart." Li Jing saw another level, and said: "When Li Yuan raised his troops, in order to win people's hearts and buy fame, in addition to opening warehouses and giving relief, no one over seventy years old All the people in the city will be awarded scattered officials, and as long as the people in the market have skills, they will be appointed to official positions and hired. It is very deceiving some people in the Sanjin Dynasty to die for him. The Li family brothers can occupy one side after Li Yuan's death. This little support from the people. If we can start at this link, use benevolent government to compete with the Li brothers for the hearts of the people, and make the people of the three Jin Dynasties, the army and the people work for me, then even if the Li family has a strong city to defend food and grass, it will inevitably It is difficult to continue to gain a foothold in Taiyuan in the Three Jin Dynasties."
Chen Sangliang nodded his head, Yuan Tiangang also agreed, and the famous sycophant Feng Deyi over there immediately suggested, "Your Highness, since this is the case, why don't our army issue an order saying that although the people of the Three Jin Dynasties were Li Yuan's traitor bewitched and threatened to be forced to follow the traitor. His deeds were pitiful. Therefore, all scattered officials who were canonized by Li Yuan's traitor were recognized. , and all of them will be retained in their original positions and rewarded as appropriate, won’t it be possible to win the hearts of the people of Sanjin back?”
"A clever plan, you can implement it quickly!" Chen Sangliang was overjoyed when he heard that, and said: "Anyway, those loose officials only give their official titles but not their salaries and grains. Those of the Three Jin Dynasties who like to engrave their official titles on their tombstones just go ahead and engrave them on their tombstones. It has nothing to do with our big money, this favor can do it!"
"Your Highness, why don't the five counties of Taiyuan, Lishi, Xihe, Yanmen, and Loufan be exempted from taxes, money, and food this year." Yuan Tiangang also suggested: "Anyway, even if we win these five counties, this year's You can't collect much tax, money and food, so you simply use the excuse that the five counties are devastated by the war. Your Highness, you sympathize with the innocent people in the five counties and decided to exempt the five counties from taxes, money and food this year. Breaking through the brothers of the Li family will free them from this year's taxation, money and food, and make them more loyal to our army."
Chen Sangliang laughed when he heard it, applauded repeatedly, and immediately decided to accept it, and ordered Feng Deyi to write a book on the spot, and wrote it as an appeal to the five counties controlled by the Taiyuan Army. As expected by Feng Deyi, Yuan Tiangang and others, after the proclamation was first posted on the Jiexiu city gate, the people of Jiexiu who belonged to Xihe County really cheered and cheered for Chen Sang, who was still holding the banner of the Sui army. The hostility of the Liang army is greatly reduced, the favorability is greatly increased, and the psychological resistance is almost non-existent. There are still many people in Jiexiu who don't know the truth. Sangliang lives a hundred years old, and has a lot of blessings and longevity.
After pulling out Jiexiu, the nail stuck in the throat of the army, Chen Sangliang, who had always been as timid as a mouse, finally had no more scruples. On the tenth day of June the next day after breaking the city, he personally led the main force northward to Taiyuan. Before that, Liu Heikai had already led five thousand partial divisions to go northward to attack Xicheng, the prefecture of Xihe County. Qu Tutong also led a fifth-rate army to go northward to attack Pingyao, Qixian County, Taigu and other places. The good news is that Pingyao was successfully captured. After seeing Chen Sangliang's Anmin statement, Qi County also chose to surrender to the Sui Army cavalry led by Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin. The main force of the Sui Army went north to Taiyuan. Has been completely unblocked.
Where there is good news, there is bad news. On the same night, Sui Jun’s detailed work finally sent the news that Liu Wuzhou personally led the army to the south to help the Li brothers, and also reported the marriage between Liu Wuzhou and Li Er. The news was not too strange, and he snorted coldly: "As expected, Liu Wuzhou and the Li family brothers were hooked up by adulterers and prostitutes, and they came at the right time. The decisive battle in Taiyuan just saved our army from crossing Mount Heng. Hard."
"Your Highness, the intelligence report sent by our army is that Liu Wuzhou personally led the main force to come. The momentum is not trivial. It is best to be careful." Confidential Secretary Sun Fujia poured some cold water on Chen Sangliang, and suggested: " Li Shangshu used to be the magistrate of Mayi County, and he was forced to leave Mayi after Liu Wuzhou's rebellion, so he must know a lot about the internal situation of Liu Wuzhou's rebel army, why don't His Highness invite Li Shangshu to discuss countermeasures together?"
When Chen Sangliang heard it, he thought it was reasonable, but when he first ordered, Yuchi Jingde had entered the account and reported that Li Jing and Yuan Tiangang were seeking an audience together. in the account. Then after Li Jing and Yuan Tiangang entered the account, Chen Sangliang immediately smiled at Li Jing and said, "Uncle, the good news is that Liu Wu and Zhou Pifu, who forced you to escape alone, have come to give you a chance to avenge you, and even made his appointment The main force of Yang's bandit army has also been brought."
"I also heard the good news, so I hurried here to seize the opportunity." Li Jing said with a smile: "Otherwise, if you come late, Liu Wuzhou will be ruined by Your Highness, and I may never have the chance to find Liu Wuzhou in this life. It's an old account."
Chen Sangliang laughed when he heard this, and then invited Li Jing and the others to sit down, and while handing over the Sui Army's detailed reports to Li Jing and the others to watch, he said to Li Jing: "Uncle, my nephew has never met Liu Wuzhou, and I know him well." Not much, I just heard that he is also skilled in war and is very cunning, so I ask my uncle to enlighten me on his specific situation."
"Your Highness, you are welcome, and I dare not be admonishing you." Li Jing said modestly, and then said: "Liu Wuzhou is from Jingcheng, Hejian. He was born in a wealthy family. After making some military exploits, he was appointed captain of the feudal festival. In the tenth year of Daye, because his family moved to Mayi, he went to Mayi again to serve as the captain of Yingyang Mansion. All over the town support him. I have indeed had a lot of contacts with him, and it can be seen that he is a good general and handsome talent, who can employ people, know people, and win over people."
"Your Highness, Liu Wuzhou has also won over the last general." Yuchi Jingde interrupted and said, "At that time, the last general was still blacksmithing in Shanyang, because he was famous for fighting against injustice, so Liu Wuzhou took the initiative to come to the door. When we met, it was Qian Shiguan. He was very generous, and invited the general to drink a few times, and wanted the general to work under his account. But at that time, the general's mother was still alive, so he didn't agree. have gone with him."
"It's a good thing you didn't go with him Jingde, otherwise at this time, I would have to worry about my own head on the battlefield between the two armies." Chen Sangliang smiled and praised Yuchi Jingde, and then said: "Liu Wuzhou is bold. Generous, cunning and wise, he can win over people, employ people and know people, so does it mean that he has no weaknesses?"
"No, Liu Wuzhou has a fatal weakness." Li Jing said with a smile: "Liu Wuzhou is good at making friends with heroes and rangers, and he is good at winning over his subordinates, but he is aggressive and brutal towards officials, gentry and common people, taking what he wants and killing him at every turn. He is not good at uniting the gentlemen of the country, and there are many desperadoes under his command, the military discipline is corrupt, and the situation of local rape and looting is very serious, so he once captured Yanmen County but failed to gain a firm foothold, and was quickly driven back Mayi."
"Then why has he been able to persist in Mayi for so many years?" Chen Sangliang asked, "He has the support of the people in Mayi?"
"It's not that he was very supportive of Mayi, but he killed all the people in Mayi who didn't support him." Li Jing smiled and said, "If it wasn't for your highness, you severely weakened the Turkic Khanate in the Yanmen War, the first emperor The Turkic Khanate split into dozens of tribes, allowing him to rob the Turkic tribes to occupy the Yanma Road, and later, if our army did not seriously threaten the Li family brothers so that they would have no time to conquer Liu Wuzhou, Liu Wuzhou would have been unable to stand in Mayi. Living."
After finishing speaking, Li Jing quickly added another sentence, saying: "But Your Highness should not underestimate the enemy too much. It is true that Liu Wuzhou is unpopular, but he has a huge military force and a large number of cavalry. He must not be underestimated on the battlefield. Now he and The Li family brothers formed an alliance and married, and even sent troops to help the Li family brothers resist our army, and they will definitely get the food and grass support from the Li family brothers to make up for his shortfall in money and food. If we want to break him, we must face a hard battle."
"Must face a bitter battle?"
Chen Sangliang's smile seemed to disapprove of his cousin's analysis, and he smiled viciously. Li Jing, Yuan Tiangang and others saw Chen Sangliang's wretched appearance, and immediately said in their hearts: "Come again! Now, it must be a scheming against another, maybe they will find ways to make Liu Wuzhou and the Li family brothers fight first!"
Sure enough, after the sinister smile, Chen Sangliang didn't even blink his triangular eyes, and immediately said with a smile: "Everyone, didn't you realize that it's time for our envoys to appear on the stage again? , even if we temporarily tolerate each other in order to resist our army, there will definitely be conflicts and frictions between each other. If there are conflicts, there will be rifts, and if there are grievances, there will be opportunities for us? Do you think Qian Xiangmin should make a hard trip again? gone?"
…
"Ah-choo! Ah-choo!" Qian Xiangmin, who was sleeping, suddenly sneezed twice and woke up, and subconsciously hugged the quilt tightly, trembling and whispering: "Why is it suddenly so cold? It's like Is there an evil spirit coming up from the ground? Could it be that His Royal Highness Tang wants to send me to be some kind of envoy again?"
…
It was good for Qian Xiangmin. After hearing Chen Sangliang's shameless words, although Li Jing, Yuan Tiangang, Sun Fujia and others all laughed and said that they guessed right, but after laughing, Li Jing He still continued: "Your Highness, separating Liu and Li's bandit army is indeed a good plan to break the banditry, but I don't think it can be done immediately. There are two reasons. One is that Liu Wuzhou sent troops to help the Li family brothers resist our army. The Li family brothers serve as a barrier, and it will be easy for our army to break through Liu Wuzhou. Liu Wuzhou will not fail to see this, so our use of alienation is not only doomed to be ineffective, but also very likely to backfire. It will completely anger Liu Wuzhou and make our army even more difficult in the future. There is a chance to drive a wedge between the enemy coalition."
"The second point is more critical. We haven't scared Liu Wuzhou yet." Li Jing added: "Liu Wuzhou is a violent man, and a violent man must be arrogant. We know that we are really afraid of him, and then he either opens his mouth like a lion, or wants to use force to force our army to surrender. For such a person, we have to beat him to fear and subdue him, let him know the strength and strength of our army, let him He has timidity and fear, so that we can get twice the result with half the effort if we try to separate ourselves."
After thinking about it for a while, Chen Sangliang nodded helplessly, and said: "What uncle said is very true, so let's do it this way, don't try to provoke discord for the time being, first fight hard with Liu Wu and Zhou Pif to scare him Let's talk about it."
Yuan Tiangang, Yuchi Jingde and others, who were already tired of Chen Sangliang's shameless divorce, nodded together and said that it was true, but Li Jing saw the disappointment in Chen Sangliang's heart, and smiled again: "Your Highness, if you must like If there is a strategy, there is no chance. If there is no accident, the Taiyuan bandit army and Liu Wuzhou bandit army will inevitably set up defenses on the Dongwo River (now the Xiaohe River) to block our army's advance. Crossing the river and attacking our army would be too disadvantageous If you like, Your Highness, you can use your best strategy to lure the enemy across the river for a decisive battle, so that ours will be much easier, and your highness, your endlessly wonderful strategies will come into play."
"My cousin still knows me." Chen Sangliang applauded and laughed, and said shamelessly: "Every time I fight a war, I don't need to use tricks. gone."
Laughing, Chen Sangliang couldn't wait to unfold the map of Taiyuan, and began to study the geographical terrain of the Dongzuo River, wondering what wicked tricks to use to lure the enemy across the river for a decisive battle. Yuan Tiangang, the world's chief geography expert, also came to help. Li Jing on the other side picked up the Sui Army's detailed spy report and looked at it carefully. Then Li Jing was a little stunned, and said to himself: "Liu Wuzhou married his younger sister to Li Erlang? That younger sister of Liu Wuzhou? He just married three The older sister married Yuan Junzhang before, and the other two, one is said to have married Song Jingang last year, and should be the fourth and slightly older one, so the one Li Erlang wants to marry should be Liu Wuzhou's youngest sister, that little girl..."
Talking to himself, Li Jing immediately burst out laughing, and turned to Chen Sangliang and said, "Your Highness, I have good news for you. Li Erlang, whom you hate the most, is about to marry a tigress." We've entered. If it's not as expected, Li Erlang is going to marry Liu Wuzhou's youngest sister, Liu Xiaomou. I've seen that little girl before. She's very aggressive and savage, and Li Erlang has to offend her."
"You deserve it! You deserve it!" Chen Sangliang gloated, and then couldn't help asking curiously, "Uncle, isn't that little girl Liu Wuzhou pretty?"
"This..." Li Jing hesitated for a moment, and said truthfully: "The last time I saw her more than three years ago, she seemed to be only twelve or thirteen years old. She was a beauty, and she should be very beautiful now."
"Why is the good cabbage being given to pigs?" Chen Sangliang was not happy when he heard it, and cursed: "Liu Wu, Mr. Zhou, it's not good to marry a beautiful sister, but I want to marry Li Erlang. It's like inserting a flower Push the younger sister into the fire pit on the cow dung! Liu Wuzhou's younger sister is also short-sighted, how could she fall in love with a lustful hungry ghost like Li Erlang?!"
…
Chen Sangliang was really wrong about this point. Although Li Er was very satisfied with Liu Wuzhou's younger sister, Liu Xiaomou, but Liu Xiaomou didn't have much feeling for Li Er because of the incompatibility. In the middle, Liu Wuzhou, who wanted to win over Li Er, called Liu Xiaomou to the banquet on purpose, asked his sister to pour wine for the Li family brothers, and took the opportunity to let Li Er and Liu Xiaomou bond, but Liu Xiaomou still had no good looks towards Li Er, and after pouring the wine Then he sat beside Liu Wuzhou, without looking at Li Er again, which made the banquet scene quite awkward.
In order to resolve the embarrassing situation, Li Er could only take the initiative to change the subject, and said to Liu Wuzhou, Song Jingang and others: "Brother, Brother Song, since you also agreed to fortify the Dongwo River to resist the main force of the Chen thief, then the little brother must I would like to remind you one thing, that is, you must be on guard against the shameless tricks of Chen Yingliang's traitors! Especially beware of his schemes to divide and lure the enemy! If your army is a little negligent, Chen will definitely suffer a lot!"
"Of course." Liu Wuzhou replied casually, and then said: "Don't worry, brother-in-law, I have heard about that traitor Chen Yingliang for a long time, and he is the best at using tricks and tricks. Brother will be careful. If he really uses tricks, I will definitely see through. .”
"Brother, you still underestimate that traitor Chen Yingliang." Li Er said with a wry smile: "That traitor has already reached the point where he has no trace of his tricks, and if he is careless, he will definitely fall into his trap. "
"Chen thief can be so powerful with tricks?" Song Jingang asked curiously, who hadn't suffered a lot yet.
"It will only be stronger than this!" Li Er smiled even more wryly, and then reminded: "Chen thief is best at solicitation and bribery, if the younger brother is not bad, before the war, Chen thief will definitely have an envoy to contact your army At that time, I hope that the two elder brothers will distinguish carefully. It is best not to see the Chen thief's envoy or read the Chen thief's letter, otherwise, maybe the noble and our armies may repeat the same situation as Di Jean and Li Mi's mistakes!"
Liu Wuzhou, Song Jingang and others were skeptical, but Li Jiancheng nodded solemnly, rarely agreeing to his second brother's opinion seriously, but Liu Xiaomou couldn't listen anymore, turned his mouth away, and interjected: "Cowardly as a mouse! I don't believe Chen The thief is so powerful, let alone why he will definitely send people to sow discord before the battle, and he must not see his envoys to read his letters."
"Xianmei, before the battle, Thief Chen sent envoys to sow discord, I bet on that." Li Er smiled and said, "This is his habit, and it cannot be changed."