Shouchun County, Huainan County, Li Mi's main force slowly retreated to Zhongli County, he had already received the exact news, Shan Xiongxin was defeated, Jiangyang Cangcheng was lost, Jiangdu County fell into the hands of the Great Sui, Shan Xiongxin died tragically in Quanjiao County, Du Fuwei and Yang Tong joined forces in Qingliu County, Jiangdu, Liu Lancheng broke the cauldron and sank the boat, fought against the water, but fell into Yang Dong's plan to lure the enemy deeper, not only defeated himself, but also lost Dingyuan City that night, and the next step was to kill himself along the flat official road.

A series of bad news made Li Mi fall into despair, he finally realized that he had been tricked, Du Fuwei and Yao Junsu were weak, but they set a trap for him, the purpose was to set their main force away from Jiangdu, so that the Great Sui Navy could completely take Jiangyangcang and Jiangdu City, and he couldn't resist this temptation, so he fell for Yang Tong's plan to transfer the tiger away from the mountain.

Although Li Mi had nothing to do and was flustered, he did not dare to show the slightest expression in front of his subordinates, let alone retreat in a panic, just because Yao Junsu, who had been reinforced by 30,000 soldiers, followed closely behind him like a fierce wolf, and another 20,000 soldiers, from Lujiang Shen County to Zhongli Dingyuan County in the north, were coming towards him, once he showed a panicked appearance, it would cause the army to be unstable, and finally collapsed without a fight, Li Mi now has more than 90,000 soldiers, and he feels that he still has a glimmer of hope to recapture Jiangyangcang and Jiangdu City.

The reason why he still has this glimmer of hope is because Li Mi got another piece of information, although Yang Tong led more than 100,000 soldiers to the south, but his navy had been taken south of the Yangtze River by Zhang Zhenzhou, and divided his troops to attack Danyang, Biling, Xuancheng, Wu County, Yuhang, Huiji, Sui'an, and Xin'an Eight Counties, and after Yang Dong conquered Dingyuan County, Du Fuwei, who was familiar with the south, turned south and took his army to assist Zhang Zhenzhou.

That is to say, Yang Tong's strength is only his first army, and the strength is about 50,000, and during this period of time after the long journey to the south, he has been rushing to fight, under such high intensity, even if it is an iron soldier, he will be tired, if he takes the army led by Yang Tong at all costs before the Sui army of Shenxian County and Yao Junsu converge, he may be able to come back to life and recapture Jiangyangcang and Jiangdu City.

For the Wei army, the loss of Jiangyangcang means that they are in danger of running out of food, and the loss of Jiangdu means that the army's morale is unstable, because whether it is the families of ordinary soldiers or the families of generals, they are in Jiangdu City, and its fall shows that everyone's wives and children have fallen into the hands of the Sui army. If these two places cannot be recaptured, Li Mi will have only one way to lose.

Night.

The Wei army entered Zhongli Dingyuan County, and set up a large camp at the foot of Wufeng Mountain and the south bank of Chishui west of Dingyuan County.

After a long journey, the soldiers were exhausted, but the soldiers had learned the news of the loss of Jiangdu County, and they were worried about their relatives who had fallen into the hands of the Sui army, and they could not sleep, so they gathered in groups of three or five, discussing their own way out, and telling their worries; From the beginning of the camp, deserters appeared in the army, from a few to dozens of people, and later even evolved into the escape of entire brigades and regiments.

With the beginning of the escape, all kinds of rumors began to spread among the army, and suddenly the people's hearts were panicked and the morale of the army was seriously shaken.

The appearance of the deserters also made Li Mi very angry and panicked, and he ordered Liu Lan, who fled and governed the army strictly, to become a law enforcement officer, commanding 5,000 internal army patrols, but whenever he encountered a fugitive, he was beheaded on the spot to set an example.

The Great Tent of the Chinese Army.

Li Mi was like an ant on a hot pot, pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, he had just received a fatal piece of news, Yao Junsu was seventy miles away and the Sui army of Shenxian County, so that the army in his hands swelled to 70,000 people, and was driving towards this side without hurry, if Yang Tong and Yao Junsu attacked his camp left and right, then he was really dangerous.

On the one hand, the discouragement of his own army and the rout of the army, and on the other hand, the threat of attacking from the left and right can be described as internal and external troubles, and the grim situation made Li Mi restless, and he did not know what to do.

"Holy Lord, Weichen Fang Xuanzao asks to see." At this time, Fang Xuanzao's voice came from outside the tent.

When Li Mi heard this, he stopped his steps, to be honest, he is now a little dissatisfied with Fang Xuanzao, as his mastermind, he didn't see through Yang Dong's layout, not to mention, and forgot about the Sui Dynasty navy that was prestigious to Goguryeo, which was a crucial dereliction of duty, but Li Mi was already six gods and no master, and he also wanted to hear the other party's opinion, so he said: "Come in." ”

Fang Xuanzao opened the curtain and entered, and stepped forward to give a deep salute: "Weichen see the saint." ”

He also knew that Li Mi had a grudge against him, and to some extent, it was indeed his dereliction of duty, because the seven counties of Huaibei had never been detained by the Sui army, so he always believed that Yang Tong attacked Li Tang first, and thought that after Li Tang was destroyed first, Yang Tong would consider Wei. But he never thought that the huge momentum created by the Sui army in Nanyang, Xiyang, Huai'an, Nanjun, and Jiangxia gave people the illusion of attacking Tang, and then attacked Jiangdu directly from the sea, which made Fang Xuanzao extremely unconvinced, but he had to admit that this was his strategic mistake, otherwise he would not have advocated the westward expedition, let alone today's predicament.

"Sit down."

Li Mi sighed and sat on the main seat, but Fang Xuanzao, who felt that he had made a big mistake, was a little restrained, and did not dare to take a seat according to his words, so he asked respectfully and in a low voice: "Holy Lord, are you worried about the Sui army on the left and right?" ”

Li Mi smiled bitterly and nodded: "The two Sui armies together have a total of 1340,000 people, they are brave and good at fighting, and they are surrounded by a great victory. And the heart of our army has been dispersed, and I have nothing to do now, I can only watch Yao Junsu approach step by step, and watch the momentum of the attack slowly form. ”

Speaking of this, he looked at Fang Xuanzao and motioned for the other party to sit down again, until the other party was seated, and then asked again: "So far, does Mr. have a good solution to the current crisis?" ”

Fang Xuanzao said: "Wei Chen has thought of a way, but I don't know if the saint can accept it. ”

Li Mi perked up and hurriedly said, "Come quickly." ”

"As the saint said, our army is already on the verge of collapse, and if the two Sui armies arrive, I'm afraid not many people will dare to fight the Sui army. Weichen meant to abandon the south, quickly lead the army north to the Central Plains, based on the seven counties of Huaibei, capture Qingzhou, and then unite with Li Yuan to fight against the Sui Dynasty and threaten Luoyang from the east. Fang Xuanzao said his opinion.

Li Mi was stunned and frowned, "I also thought so, but the southern soldiers will not go north with me. At the beginning, in order to return to Guanzhong, Xiaoguo Army did not hesitate to follow Yu Wenhua and do the things of Jun, which shows that once people's homeland is attacked, it is quite terrifying. ”

Fang Xuanzao sighed and said: "Shengshang, there are nearly 100,000 troops in his hands now, plus more than 100,000 people in Huaibei, in fact, there are more than 200,000 troops, and our army here does have tens of thousands of soldiers from the south, but these people live in a comfortable south, both in terms of combat effectiveness and will to fight are far inferior to the people of the Central Plains. The important thing is that we have a popular base in the Central Plains, and that is the main scourge of Yang Guang, and the people are afraid of the Sui Dynasty, and as long as we announce it, the people will support us strongly. ”

This suggestion makes it difficult for Li Mi to make decisions, mainly because the Sui army in the Central Plains is more, once he fails, he will really be completely finished, and now he regrets it a little, he knew that he should have listened to the advice of Fang Xuanzao and Shan Xiongxin now, and simply gave up the seven counties of Huaibei, gave up the land of Jianghuai, and focused on the territory south of the Yangtze River.

In the final analysis, the problem still appears in him, the decision-maker, and it is not to blame Fang Xuanzao, the mastermind, if he had listened to their persuasion earlier, he would have realized the dream of dividing the river and ruling the river, and at this point, Li Mi let out a long sigh: "Rong Zhen thinks about it!" ”

Fang Xuanzao hurriedly said: "Holy Lord, the cavalry of the Sui army is too powerful, the only way at the moment is to use the southern army to cover people's eyes and ears, and lead the army of the Central Plains to the north overnight, once the encirclement of the Sui army is formed, it will be difficult for us to retreat." ”

"I'll think again."

"When the interruption continues, it will be chaotic, holy."

"Sir, go down first." Li Mi rubbed his aching head.

"Wechen obeys."

Fang Xuanzao was helpless, and he retreated unhappily.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion outside, and I heard someone yelling loudly: "You bastards, let me go!" ”

Li Mi and Fang Xuanzao looked at each other for a moment, and both of them could hear that this was the voice of Li Wenxiang, the deputy general of the Internal Army.

Li Mi said angrily: "Why are you making noise here? ”

"Holy Lord, General Li has been arrested." One of the soldiers replied quickly.

Li Mi frowned, thought about it, and went out with Fang Xuanzao to watch.

I saw a firelight in the distance, and I saw a group of law enforcement internal soldiers, pushing a general, who was burly, and his rough face was covered with a thick beard, as if the legendary Zhang Fei was flying.

This person is Li Mi's internal army deputy general Li Wenxiang, he was originally the leader of the Liyang thieves in Ji County, honest and brave, after surrendering Li Mi, he was cited as a confidant, if it wasn't for the simple-minded, brave and unscrupulous, he would have led an army by himself.

A group of law enforcement soldiers pushed him in front of Mi and kicked him in the crook of the leg, Li Wen fell to his knees with a sumo of sumo, and a captain of the inner military academy with a blue nose and swollen face stepped forward to salute and said angrily: "Qi Qi Sheng, General Li wanted to escape at night, but fortunately he was discovered by the brothers, but he fought hard to resist arrest and killed more than 50 of us, and countless brothers were wounded. ”

Li Wenxiang shouted: "If I don't resist, I will be killed by you, and you forced me." ”

"We were ordered by the Holy One to arrest the deserters, and we did kill some people. But you are the deputy general of our internal army, how dare we kill you? We persuaded each other with good words, but you didn't listen, so we were forced to surround us, but you took advantage of our unpreparedness to attack the killer, if General Liu hadn't happened to patrol it, we would have been killed by you a long time ago. After arguing, the lieutenant saluted Li Mi and said, "Saint, many people have seen this, and it is definitely not a crime committed by us and other pawns. ”

Li Mi strode forward with a calm face, stared at Li Wenxiang for a moment, suddenly made a move, slapped Li Wenxiang a few times, twisted his face, and gritted his teeth and said: "I trust you so much, entrusting my net worth and life to you, but you actually betrayed me, are you worthy of me?" Where is the conscience? ”

When Li Wenxiang heard this, he lowered his head silently and said in a low voice: "My mother is still in Jiangdu City, I am afraid that the Sui army will harm her, and I will never betray the heart of the saint." ”

"You ......" Li Mi snorted coldly, kicked him to the ground, and said hatefully: "Yang Tong is strict in governing the army, the Sui army has not committed any crimes against the people, and the military discipline is stricter, which is better than my Wei army, this point, the lieutenant generals and colonels all know this, although everyone is worried about their relatives, but no one has ever worried that the Sui army will harm our relatives." ”

In order to appease the generals and colonels who came to hear the news, Li Mi had to say good things for the Sui army, but the generals nodded with deep understanding, the strictness of the Sui army's military law is proportional to their combat strength, since Yang Tong was in charge of the army and the establishment of the Military Affairs Department, the Sui Army has not had a very influential disturbance of the people, even if there is, it is a very small number, and all of them have been severely punished by the civilian personnel of the Military Affairs Department afterwards, about this, even if they are enemies, they have to admire. Thinking of this, the generals were a little relieved.

If Li Mi knew that his family had been slaughtered by Niu Jinda, he didn't know how he felt, so he continued to talk eloquently: "My children are also in Jiangdu, and everyone's relatives are in Jiangdu, not only you Li Wenxiang." No one else escaped, only you, Li Wenxiang, ran away, and he also poisoned the brothers he brought with him and brutalized his comrades, are you worthy of the brothers who admire you and are proud of you? ”

Fang Xuanzao knew that Li Mi had already moved to kill, and hurriedly persuaded: "Shengshang, General Li is an upright and scheming person, he is the most filial piety, and the Shengshang is exactly this point in the phase, so he will be reused, for the sake of his southern and northern wars and ignorance, just spare his life!" ”

The generals also pleaded one after another, Li Wenxiang is honest and honest, strong in martial arts, all the generals will seek advice from him when they encounter problems in martial arts, and he also knows everything, speaks endlessly, and everyone likes him very much.

Li Mi said in a calm tone: "The country has national laws, the family has family rules, and the army has military discipline, if he doesn't kill anyone, I can be punished lightly." But now, if I forgive him, how can I serve the people in the future? How can innocent and dead soldiers be blinded under the Nine Springs? ”

Everyone was silent when they heard this, Li Wenxiang killed more than one person, and a team of soldiers was just gone, if he was not beheaded to show the public, what would he do in the future?

"This case can't ......be opened" Li closed his eyes and ordered very painfully: "Push it down, cut it!" ”

Li Wenxiang kowtowed nine times with a bang, and said loudly with tears streaming down his face: "Holy Lord, the last general knows that he is wrong." The last general knew that his sin deserved death, and he didn't dare to beg for mercy, so he only asked the saint to take care of the old lady on my behalf for the sake of the last general's merits, and said that the last general went to Huaibei. In the last days, you will be your soldiers. ”

"I have promised you that as long as I recapture Jiangdu, as long as I am alive for a day, I will regard your mother as my own mother. If I, Li Mi, break this oath, heaven and earth will not tolerate it," Li Mi's eyes were red, containing a layer of tears, but he had to be ruthless, otherwise it would cause more deserters, and sighed: "You can go with confidence." ”

Fang Xuanzao fell to the ground and sobbed: "Holy Lord, spare General Li's life!" ”

All the generals couldn't bear it, and they all knelt down and pleaded: "Holy Lord, spare General Li this time!" ”

"The law is unforgiving." Li Mi was unmoved, waved his hand violently, and shouted: "Push it down, behead the public!" ”

"Holy one, the last will go." Li Wenxiang stood up, and without the soldiers' pushing, he strode outside.

Li Mi couldn't hold back the tears in his eyes anymore, and two lines of hot tears rolled down.

When the battle of Xingyang was defeated, Li Mi swam across the canal to escape, but it was in the cold winter of the ice and snow, he had leg cramps in the icy river water, and fell to the bottom of the river like a stone. It can be said that if it weren't for Li Wenxiang sacrificing his life to save him, there would have been no such person as him Li Mi in the world, and he Li Mi would never forget this kindness.

But Li Wenxiang has killed too many people, and the mistakes he made are too big, so he usually just beats up, at most he will be beaten, but now the army's heart is unstable, and everyone is watching, if he Li Mi bends the law for personal gain, how can he serve the public?

He really had to kill......

After a while, the soldier presented his head to the "Holy Lord, Li Wenxiang has been punished and beheaded." ”

Li Mi wiped a handful of tears without hesitation, quickly recovered his mind, and said coldly: "Take his people to teleport the three armies, and those who dare to flee will be executed!" ”

。。。。。。。

Although Li Wenxiang became a deserter, after all, he was Li Mi's confidant general, and the Wei soldiers thought that the punishment would pass, but now they were shown to the public.

This reminds some veterans of the Wei army of what happened a few years ago, when Li Mi took over Wagang, in order to strictly correct military discipline, he slaughtered nearly 10,000 lawless soldiers, and piled up countless corpses to form the strict military law of the Wei army.

At first, the officers and men of the whole army still didn't believe it, but when Li Wenxiang's head was passed on again, it had a good deterrent effect, and the wave of fleeing of the Wei army was suddenly suppressed.

However, the morale of the army was not stabilized by this, but became more and more turbulent, although there was no longer dissent, but a greater storm was brewing in the camp.

The officers and men of the Wei army were in the midst of internal and external troubles, not only worried about their relatives who fell into the hands of the Sui army, but also afraid of the sudden attack of the Sui army, and afraid of the knives of the law enforcement army, all of them were in tension, fear, and anxiety, and once this negative emotion was ignited, the consequences would be unimaginable.