In the afternoon of the seventh day of April, Dou Jiande's 110,000 troops successfully arrived at the north bank of the Yellow River and set up a camp north of Niuzhukou. Generals Yang Gongqing and Wang Xingben of the Zheng army who fled to Xingze rushed to defeat the future with their remnants. Joining forces with Dou Jiande brought Dou Jiande some forced conscripted Yellow River fishing boats, and also brought Dou Jiande the news that Chen Sangliang was confirmed to be in Hulao Pass.
After confirming that his nemesis, Chen Sangliang, was indeed in Hulao Pass, Li Mi looked at Hulao Pass in the south, and couldn't help thinking of all the past events when he and Chen Sangliang met, fell in love, wanted to kill each other, and remembered the first time they met in Luoyang City. The lucky escape from the Xiaoshan battlefield, Chen Sangliang's intentional indulgence outside Menghai City, the re-meeting outside Luokou Cang, and the battle of wits and courage again and again. Feeling overwhelmed with emotion, Li Mi suddenly discovered that his hatred for Chen Sangliang had actually diminished a lot. On the contrary, he was very fond of this hateful and respectable enemy, and wanted to meet Chen Sangliang again.
But unfortunately, Li Mi knew in his heart that although he and Chen Sangliang were separated by only a few miles, it was impossible for him to have an immediate chance to meet again, because he had to get out of Dou Jiande's army as soon as possible, and he could no longer participate in it. What's the harvest of Hulao Pass. Therefore, no matter how much Li Mi misses his friends, he can only sigh softly and say in his heart: "Little thief, let you go this time, next time, next time we will fight to the death with dignity."
After sighing, Li Mi turned back to look at the expression of Dou Jiande on the imperial chariot. What surprised Li Mi was that Dou Jiande was also looking at the south bank of the Yellow River in a daze. look. When Li Mi was wondering why Dou Jiande, a country bumpkin, had such a sentimental look, Qi Shanxing, the Shangshu left servant of the Great Xia court, also saw that Dou Jiande's expression was wrong, so he asked Dou Jiande curiously: "May I ask your majesty, why are you so preoccupied? Are you worried that when our army is crossing the river, we will be attacked by Chen bandits halfway across the river?"
Dou Jiande was really in a trance, or was it because Qi Shanxing repeated the question for the second time that Dou Jiande came back to his senses, and first shook his head and said contemptuously that I still used him to attack Chen Thief halfway? Then he hummed and said, "I don't like the name of the Yellow River ferry in front, I find it disgusting."
Qi Shanxing and many civil and military officials of the Xia Dynasty were confused, so they quickly asked Dou Jiande why he hated the name of the ferry. Beans into the mouth of the cow... Huh, it's not good!"
Everyone knows how serious the feudal superstition is in this era, so after hearing this, Qi Shanxing, Fan Yuan, Hu Dayen and other big Xia civil and military officials were stunned at first, and then immediately felt very unlucky. Li Mi secretly laughed at Dou Jiande's stupid hat Besides, he hurriedly took the opportunity to flatter his horse, and said with a smile, "don't worry, your majesty, although the names of the places ahead are not pleasant, your majesty is the master of the world. The people of Kyushu, the country, and the land are all in your majesty's pocket, and the ferry ahead naturally belongs to you." Your Majesty owns it. If Your Majesty doesn’t like the name of this ferry, you can change the name of this ferry with just a word of wisdom, turning evil into good fortune, so why worry about it?”
Dou Jiande is indeed very superstitious. Although for some reason Li Mi has been vigilant and hated to the extreme, he still nodded and said: "What King Wei said is very true, let's do it like this. Let me see, what name should I change? What? Well..., Fakou! Let’s change the name of the Yellow River Ferry ahead to Fakou!”
"Spout? Bean sprouts?"
Li Mi almost burst out laughing when he heard it, but fortunately he held it back, and hurriedly followed Daxia Wenwu to flatter him, praising Dou Jiande for changing Niu Zhukou's name so well, so wonderfully. Seeing that Dou Jiande's mood had improved somewhat, Li Mi felt that this was the opportunity, and quickly cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, regarding the Luoyang war, I have a suggestion, please accept it."
Glancing at Li Mi, Dou Jiande's eyes were a bit complicated, and he said casually, "Let's listen."
"I want to go to the area of Qiao, Peng, Qingxu, and recruit some old troops for your majesty to help." Li Mi said with a smile: "The leaders of the rebel army in the southeast area were all subordinates of this minister before. It is very convenient for me to communicate with them. Your Majesty It is time to use people to conquer Luoyang personally, and I would like to take an imperial decree from His Majesty to appease them to surrender. If he succeeds, His Majesty will not only have many skilled fighters before him, but also gain a large land and city... "
"No need!"
Li Mi was very surprised by Dou Jiande's reaction. Before Li Mi finished speaking, he interrupted directly, and said coldly: "My current army is enough, so there is no need to bother Ai Qing to recruit new troops to fight. Qing Xu Qiao and Peng Zhu As the leader of the righteous teachers in the county, I will spread the message to appease me, so I don't need to worry about Aiqing."
Li Mi was a little dumbfounded. He never expected that he had already flattered Dou Jiande so much. Dou Jiande still didn't trust him so much. At the same time, Li Mi, who was good at observing words and expressions, also clearly found that Dou Jiande's tone seemed to have some anger. Very dissatisfied with the request. Surprised, Li Mi couldn't help but said in his heart: "What's wrong? Could it be that Niuzhukou's ridiculous place name really made Dou Jiande, a bumpkin, so unhappy?"
At this time, one or two civil servants of the Great Xia really stood up to Li Mi's support, suggesting that Dou Jiande agree to Li Mi's request—because if this is successful, it will indeed help the Great Xia court obtain many cannon fodder troops and large tracts of land. It's a pity that Dou Jiande seemed to have taken the wrong medicine, and he roared angrily: "If I say no, then I don't need it, don't talk too much!"
The civil and military officials who were equally astonished hurriedly shut up. Li Mi, who had seen Dou Jiande's unruly temper, did not dare to persist. He shut up obediently and lowered his head slightly. To put it bluntly, I will kill you immediately even if the white horse mutiny! But don't be too happy, when I get the real evidence, and wait for that bastard Yang Jishan to come here... Humph!"
After speaking in his heart, Dou Jiande ordered again loudly: "Decree to the whole army, rest for one night, and the whole army will cross the river tomorrow. Fan Yuan will lead 10,000 elite troops to cross the river first. If the Chen bandits go out to intercept them, we will fight resolutely! We must win!" Da Xia All the civil and military officials sang promises and agreed together, and they all murmured in their hearts whether His Majesty took the wrong medicine today, why is he so angry for no reason
When he left Dou Jiande in confusion and returned to his entourage, two absolute confidants, Wang Bodang and Wang Xuance, immediately greeted him. While saluting Li Mi, Wang Bodang said in a low voice, "Master, what happened?" What's wrong? Why do you have a tail behind you?"
"Is there a tail behind me?" Li Mi's heart trembled, while pretending to be talking to Wang Bodang and Wang Xuance quietly, while observing sideways casually, he found that there was indeed a tail behind him sneakily, Li Mi couldn't help but feel more Confused, he thought to himself: "What happened? How could someone spy on me? Didn't the eyeliner that Dou Jiande planted beside me have been removed long ago?"
Li Mi was even more surprised and worried. In the evening of the same day, a group of guards from Dou Jiande's Imperial Forest Army suddenly came to his camp, claiming that they had come to strengthen Li Mi's protection under the imperial decree of Dou Jiande. Li Mi was shocked and quickly ordered Wang Bodang to come forward to find out the reason. The guards of the imperial forest army said that it was because they were very close to Chen's army. Dou Jiande was afraid that the Sui army's secret agents would sneak into the camp and hurt his important officials, so he added troops to protect Li Mi. After listening to the complaint, Li Mi knew that Dou Jiande had indeed become suspicious of him, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong, and at the same time, his life was hanging by his hands and he didn't dare to resist, so he could only accept Dou Jiande's so-called kindness with trepidation, and at the same time, he hurriedly searched for Dou Jiande's sudden love for him. Find out the reasons for your doubts and study other ways to get out.
In the early morning of the next day, under the support of the remnants of Zheng Jun Yang Gongqing, Dou Jun began to cross the river in an all-round way. More than 200 boats and boats on the river kept coming and going, transporting Dou Jun soldiers across the Yellow River in an endless stream. The scouts of the Sui army found out about these situations, and hurriedly sent the news to Hulao Pass to report to Chen Sangliang. All the generals of the Sui army suggested that Chen Sangliang send troops immediately, and win a battle before attacking halfway to boost morale and discourage the enemy's spirit. . However, Chen Sangliang shook his head resolutely, and refused: "There is no need to attack, let him cross the Yellow River with Dou Jiande."
"Your Highness, the bandit army is very powerful, with a strength of more than 100,000. If you let them all cross the Yellow River, it will be difficult to defeat them in one fell swoop." Yin Kaishan asked very suspiciously: "Now is the time to severely injure the enemy's forward. This is a great opportunity, His Highness has always used soldiers like a god, why should he miss it for nothing?"
Chen Sangliang smiled, and said: "If Mr. Dou Jiande goes to Baima Yanjin to cross the river, then I will send an army to seize the opportunity of half-crossing the river anyway, but since Mr. Dou Jiande is at Niuzhukou Ferry , then we don’t need to send troops.”
"Why?" Sui army generals asked in surprise.
"Because Niuzhukou is a deadly enemy." Chen Sangliang replied with a smile: "Niuzhukou is surrounded by the Yellow River to the north, Hulao Pass to the west, and Tongji Canal to the east. But the counties and cities in the south have been smashed, there is no food and grass supplies and strong cities to defend, and there are three small rivers, Suo, Jing, and Zheng, blocking the way, and the farther south you go, the farther you will be from Dou Jiande's lair. , so as long as we defeat Dou Jiande in the Niuzhukou area, we can immediately injure or even wipe out his main force! Since Dou Jiande likes to enter such a battlefield that is so beneficial to us, why should I stop him?"
Surprised, he exchanged glances with the generals, and then Feng Deyi cautiously reminded: "Your Highness, Dou Jiande's bandit army is formidable and strong. We want to defeat him at Niuzhukou, but I'm afraid it won't be that easy. Bar?"
"The situation is unstoppable? Why didn't I find out?" Chen Sangliang laughed out loud, and said with a smile: "If Hulao Pass is still in the enemy's hands, and Dou Jiande's thieves directly crossed Hulao Pass and marched towards Luoyang, then it is true It can be regarded as overwhelming. But now that Hulaoguan is in our hands, what is there for Dou Jiande's bandit army to be overwhelming? Don't forget that back then even the king had no choice but to use Hulaoguan. Relying on Wang Shichong's flanking attack, Zhai and Li's bandits were finally forced away, so how could Dou Jiande's bandits have more attacking means and strength than this king's?"
Speaking of this, Chen Sangliang paused, then smiled and said: "So this battle, we must not be in a hurry, we must first use the Hulao to close Jiancheng to drain the vigor and morale of Mr. If the generals and soldiers are tired of fighting, and then send troops to attack, they will definitely win a big victory!"
Seeing that Chen Sangliang spoke so confidently, and there was no need to be afraid of Dou Jiande's frontal attack since there was a tiger prison to guard the city, the Sui army's civil and military personnel did not insist on calling for a fight. Then Yin Kaishan suggested: "Your Highness, let's take advantage of Dou Jiande's ordinary man who has not yet prepared the weapons to attack the fortified point. Let's divide our troops and take down the Luokou warehouse. If we take down the Luokou warehouse, we can completely solve the problem of food and grass without having to fight against the enemy." Worried about being flanked by Wang Xuanying's troops when Dou Jiande is fighting."
"It's still not necessary." Chen Sangliang said with a smile, "Dou Jiande is here to rescue Wang Shichong. When he sends troops to attack the city, will Wang Xuanying stand by and watch? When Wang Xuanying is forced to send troops, we will first severely damage his defenders in the field." The main force, and then send troops to attack Luokoucang, not only can we gain a lot of confidence, but also reduce many casualties."
All the generals of the Sui army nodded in agreement, flattering that the king of Tang had a good plan and that ghosts and gods were unpredictable. Chen Sangliang smiled, then turned to Wang Fubao and said, "Fubao, I've given you a task of scolding, you have to suffer some grievances, but for the sake of our overall situation, you must accept this grievance."
"Please give orders, Your Highness." Wang Fubao clasped his fists without hesitation.
"You take three hundred cavalry out of the city, go to the front of Dou Jiande's bandit army to show off, pretend to recruit your former companions, and completely anger Dou Jiande for me." Chen Sangliang said: "If Dou Jiande sends troops to attack you, you can't fight, withdraw immediately Come."
Wang Fubao promised, and immediately went down to assemble the cavalry to go out of the city to show off. Although some people in the Sui army were worried that Wang Fubao would take the opportunity to escape, but considering Chen Sangliang's unsuspecting habit of employing people, he knew that it would be useless even if he opened his mouth. No one wasted this bit of saliva.
As Chen Sangliang expected, when Wang Fubao appeared in front of Dou Jun's formation with 300 cavalry, there were indeed countless Dou Jun generals roaring and cursing in Dou Jun's formation, and then Wang Fubao persuaded his old colleagues to lead the army to surrender Later, the generals of the Dou army headed by Fan Yuan became even more furious, and immediately sent troops to attack. Wang Fubao remembered Chen Sangliang's order to lead the army to retreat immediately. They failed to kill a cavalryman of the Sui Army. On the contrary, they were shot to death and injured more than 20 people by the strong bows and crossbows on the city wall, so they had to retreat bitterly.
When the news reached Dou Jiande, Dou Jiande was naturally furious. While cursing Wang Fubao's shameless betrayal, he ordered the army to prepare siege weapons immediately after crossing the river, and launch an attack as soon as possible to take down Hulao Pass. At the same time, it is natural to send people to go up the Yellow River in small boats to Luokou Cang to contact Wang Xuanying, asking Wang Xuanying to send troops to attack Hulao Pass when the self army is attacking the city, so as to share the positive pressure for the self army.
On Li Mi's side, of course, Li Mi could see that this was Chen Sangliang's old trick again, bullying Dou Jiande just like he bullied Yang Xuangan back then—deliberately provoking and provoking, luring Dou Jiande to attack hastily without sufficient preparation. But Li Mi no longer cares about persuading Dou Jiande like he persuaded Yang Xuangan back then, because Li Mi, Wang Bodang, Wang Xuance and others have not only been closely monitored by Dou Jiande's guards, they can't move freely at all, and followed Dou Jiande across the Yellow River Later, when the camp was set up ten miles east of Hulao Pass at night, Yang Jishan, who was leading Li Mi's last lineage, unexpectedly also came to Dou Jiande's camp and came in front of Li Mi.
Seeing Yang Jishan's sudden appearance, Li Mi was very surprised at first, and then was taken aback. He hurriedly ordered Wang Bodang to guard the tent door, and then asked in a low voice, "Why are you here? Where is our army? Why didn't I see any new soldiers?" The army is here?"
"Our army is still in Suanzao." Yang Jishan replied: "I was ordered to lead the army westward to help the war, but yesterday I suddenly received an imperial edict from Dou Jiande, asking me to temporarily leave the army in Suanzao and give Fang Xuanzao the command for the time being. I rushed to Niuzhukou to see you, so I came."
"It's broken!" Li Mi complained, and he was even more sure that Dou Jiande had indeed become suspicious of him, and he was probably ready to attack him, but Yang Jishan hurriedly asked Li Mi what happened, why did Dou Jiande suddenly attack him? Li Mi didn't answer this weird edict, but just asked angrily: "Why don't you find an excuse to refuse? Why do I entrust the last direct line to you, don't you know in your heart?"
When Yang Jishan heard the cry of grievances, he hurriedly said: "At first I wanted to find an excuse to refuse to leave the army, but Fang Xuanzao reminded me that you are still here. If I disobey, you will definitely be in danger, so I have no choice but to Come here first with a team of cavalry."
Li Mi almost fainted when he heard that, he knew in his heart that Fang Xuanzao had probably been secretly bribed by Dou Jiande, and he also knew that he could no longer count on his direct line to help him. But Yang Jishan hurriedly asked the reason for this strange incident. Li Mi was forced to have no choice but to whisper the truth in Yang Jishan's ear, and also said that Dou Jiande might have noticed that he was planning to defect. He turned pale when he heard that, and hurriedly asked: "Then what should we do? Now we are all in Dou Jiande's camp, which is equivalent to the fish in the case. If Dou Jiande strikes suddenly, we can't resist it at all?"
Li Mi didn't answer, and after a long silence, he said in a low voice: "I can only run away, Mr. Dou Jiande is so anxious to kill, if he doesn't run, we are all dead."
"Then where are we going?" Yang Jishan hurriedly asked again: "Should we flee back to Suanzao and join our army?"
Li Mi shook his head, and said: "You can't go back to Suanzao, Fang Xuanzao urged you to leave the army and come here to meet Dou Jiande, there are nine out of ten it is unreliable, we will only die in vain if we go back."
"Then run there? To the south? If Mr. Dou Jiande sends out cavalry to chase after him, how can we resist?" Yang Jishan asked again in a low voice.
Li Mi stopped talking again, and after a longer silence, Li Mi asked Yang Jishan in a low voice: "Jishan, do you still hate the little thief Chen Yingliang?"