Liang County is Kaifeng to Shangqiu area, Tongji Canal through the county and, there are rivers such as Bianshui, Jishui, Zhuanshui, Suishui, etc., the river network in the county is vertical and horizontal, the transportation is convenient, the period of the Great Sui Dynasty has built a freight transfer station in the county of Songcheng, there are hundreds of large warehouses, not only has the convenience of transportation and material storage and transportation, and the surrounding fertile fields are thousands of miles, it is also a county with extremely dense population in the Central Plains. The importance in the Central Plains is second only to that of the Heluo region. It is precisely because of these advantages that after Li Mi's Xingluo City was lost, he once wanted to set up his own capital here.

When Li Mi and Wang Shichong were fighting, because Li Mi was mostly on the attacking side, Liang County did not suffer too much trauma and became Li Mi's grain production area, so when defending against the Sui army. Xu Shiji asked the deputy general Chen Zhiluo to lead an army of 20,000 to sit here, and Pengcheng County and Huaiyang County became horns. Therefore, it has become one of the key targets of Li Jing's division of Xu Shiji and Wang Bodang, as long as Liang County is captured, then Xu and Wang will fall into a situation of fighting for themselves. This battlefield was in charge of Yang Gongren, the commander of the east, and when he waited for Yang Dong's news, he cooperated with Li Jingzhi's strategy and appointed Pei Xingyan and Gao Yaxian to capture Liang County.

The news of Li Mi's defeat in Jiangdu has come, the Wei army is fluctuating, Chen Zhiluo is an experienced general in a hundred battles, knowing that the result of dividing the army is to let his army be eaten away by the Sui army one by one, so he gave up most of the county and concentrated the army in Songcheng County, but despite this, he is still the salient in the triangular defense, and under the heavy control of Xu Shiji and Wang Bodang by the Sui army, everything can only rely on himself.

He also divided his army into three, of which 20,000 troops guarded Song City, and the other 10,000 soldiers and horses were stationed in Yucheng in the northeast of Song City and Zhecheng in the southwest.

This is not what Chen Zhiluo is worried about, the key is that the commerce of Liang County is monopolized by a few Dongguan scholars, so he only controls the army, but the economy and people's livelihood are almost in the hands of the Dongguan scholars, and even Li Mi has to look at the faces of these scholars.

Due to Li Mi's slaughter of the Jiangnan Shi clan and the Sui Dynasty's banner of justice, these Shi clans saw Li Mi like a grasshopper after the autumn, so they cut off the grain trade with Li Mi's army, coupled with the loss of Jiangdu, the food supply in Song City became increasingly tight, and Chen grain alone was far from being able to feed 30,000 troops and 30,000 people, let alone supply the people in the city.

The lack of food by the scholars directly caused the price of grain to skyrocket, and in just a few days, the price of grain increased tenfold.

The soaring price of grain also made many merchants see business opportunities, and they organized fleets to buy grain in various places, but they were intercepted by the Sui army in the canal, causing heavy losses to the merchants, and the grain purchase plan failed.

Chen Zhiluo also suffered great pressure, at this time Songcheng County because of the frequent deployment of troops, the army was in chaos, but the people of Songcheng were surprisingly calm, just a few days ago Songcheng County broke out a rice rush trend, was suppressed by the army, more than a dozen leaders were publicly beheaded.

The street is very quiet, the rice has risen to a terrifying 800 yuan, every family has to cut back on food and clothing, hoping to survive this war, they know that as long as they persist until the end of the war, whether it is the Sui Dynasty or the Wei Dynasty will adjust grain to stabilize the price of grain, this is the valuable experience of the people in troubled times for many years. But this is only the local people, for the hundreds of thousands of people who fled from all over Liang County, fighting rice for 800 yuan is tantamount to murder and robbery, and the hungry people are forced to sell their meager family property for a mouthful of life.

So when the Sui army suddenly killed, the Wei army was in a hurry and the atmosphere was suddenly tense, but the people living here did not have much common hatred and hatred, on the contrary, many people hoped that the Sui army could break the city as soon as possible and end this damn war as soon as possible.

At the head of the city, Chen Zhiluo looked at the Sui army on both sides of the Tongji Canal outside the city, and his mood was extremely heavy.

Song City is a county rule, the circumference of the city is more than 30 li, there are six city gates, at least 30,000 or 40,000 people are needed to fully defend, and the 20,000 troops in his hands seem to be far from enough, if it is in peacetime, the key is that Li Mi's fiasco in Jiangdu has seriously shaken the morale of the army, so that everyone is full of pessimism about the Great Wei Dynasty, and feels that their army is not the invincible Sui army opponent in the world at all.

Liu Zhi, the Taishou of Liang County next to him, saw Chen Zhiluo's worries, so he comforted: "I have sent someone to report to General Xu and General Wang urgently, Liang County is an indispensable county of my Great Wei, I believe that the two generals will definitely send troops to support, as long as we hold on for about ten days, the reinforcements will arrive." ”

Chen Zhiluo smiled bitterly, as long as the Sui army attacked the city on a large scale, he was afraid that he would not be able to hold it for three or five days, but the Sui army did not seem to have any plans to attack the city, maybe they still had two or three days.

"The pressure on the two generals is extremely great, I'm afraid I can't count on the two of them, even if they send troops, I'm afraid they won't be able to escape the doom of the Sui cavalry."

Speaking of this, Chen Zhiluo said to Liu Zhi again: "We only have 20,000 troops, at least six places need to be defended, if the Sui army attacks from the six cities, I don't even have a reserve army, there are no soldiers to maintain order in the city, once the hungry people make trouble again, our trouble will be big." I think it's better if we can open a position to help the victims. ”

Liu Zhi said with a sad face: "Due to the limited transportation capacity, when Shengshang launched the Western Expedition before, the grain from Jiangyang Cang was given priority to Zhongli County, and it has been a long time since there were grain ships in Huaibei; Jiangdu is now lost, and there is no hope for the grain of the south. There are less than 5,000 stone of grain in the county warehouse, how can it help the victims? If the relief is given to the victims, the local people will probably not be satisfied? ”

Liu Zhi, as the chief guard of a county, of course he didn't want a civil uprising, he thought about it for a while and said: "There are tens of thousands of stone grains in Bianshuicang, I don't know if the general can ...... it."

"Absolutely not, absolutely not."

Chen Zhiluo's face changed slightly: "Bianshui warehouse is the granary of the army, I plan to double the reward for the soldiers, only in this way can the soldiers in the army be stabilized, if it is used to help the victims, what should the soldiers do?" If the soldiers are not satisfied, we will not be able to hold out for ten days. ”

Liu Zhi sighed and said: "If the Sui army conquers Song City, these grains will not be able to be saved, so it is better to hide them from the people, so as not to be taken away." ”

Chen Zhiluo pondered for a moment, but still shook his head resolutely and said: "I also know that the envoy has a good idea, but I can't afford the consequences of the army mutiny, please forgive the envoy!" ”

"So be it." Chen Zhiluo's eyes flashed with coldness, and he said coldly: "Since the city sergeant clan does not cooperate, then I will follow the example of the saint, slaughter them in the name of collaborating with the enemy, and use their food to help the victims." ”

Chen Zhiluo was originally a wealthy family in Lingnan, a native of Xin'an County, Yang Guang expanded the Xiaoguo Army in Jiangdu, and he led more than 10,000 soldiers to recruit and became a general of the Xiaoguo Army.

Li Yuan occupied the Sui capital Daxing in the name of opposing Sui tyranny, but the Tang army had just entered Guanzhong and was attacked by the 300,000 army of Xue Ju of the Western Qin, while the Tang Dynasty defeated the Western Qin army in one fell swoop with an army of 130,000. This is a key battle for the Tang Dynasty to gain a foothold in Guanzhong, and it is also one of the reasons why history praises Li Shimin's military talent. "Make the Turks support the Tang Dynasty and break the Western Qin army with Li Shimin.

Li Yuan not only proclaimed himself a vassal to the Turks, but also changed the flag of the army, the military flag of the Central Plains is generally red, the ethnic minorities in the north like to use white, Li Yuan's military flag is white, that is, the red color and white are mixed, the red color and white are just the color of the peach blossoms, "red and white are like a garden", looking like peach blossoms from a distance.

When "if you can get from me, do not invade the people, and conquer the income, your children and jade silks, you can have them." The news spread to Jiangdu through the Dugu clan and other Guanlong nobles, and the Xiaoguo army was homesick, and its commander Sima Dejia teamed up with his top boss Youtun Wei General Yu Wenhua and launched a mutiny. Chen Zhiluo is also one of them, he knows that once he is defeated, Yang Tong will never let him go, so whether it is public or private, he must stick to Song City, in order to achieve this goal, he doesn't care about the scholar clan or anything.

"It's... I'm worried that there will be a big mess. Liu Zhi hesitated a little, he was a Luoyang Hanshi, he had participated in Yang Xuangan's rebellion, and he had a friendship with Li Mi.

"Isn't it messy enough now?" Chen Zhiluo snorted coldly and said, "As soon as these scholars saw that the situation in our dynasty was not good, they spoke for the Sui Dynasty one after another, once the Sui army attacked the city, it would inevitably be an internal response, so we should start as soon as possible, and sooner rather than later." ”

"It's fine." Liu Zhi pondered for a while, and then agreed to Chen Zhiluo's plan, as a habitual rebel, his situation was not much better than Chen Zhiluo.

Chen Zhiluo received support and said with great joy: "Then let's make a living." ”

"Go back to the castle tower."

………

Night.

A group of people secretly gathered in the Zheng Mansion of Songcheng, all with solemn faces, and no one spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Son of Heaven is unkind, and he regards our Shi clan as a mustard, and he slaughtered the Jiangnan Shi clan for money and food. Now that Jiangdu has been lost, the logistics supply can no longer keep up, as far as I know, not only the Liangjun army is short of food, but Xu Shiji and Wang Bodang are also at risk of running out of food. If Li Mi wants to fight against the Sui Dynasty, he needs a lot of money and grain, so as long as he kills us people, he can get a lot of money and food. ”

Zheng Renyuan of the Xingyang Zheng family who spoke, the family will not put their eggs in the same basket, and the Zheng family is no different.

When the Zheng family's ancestral house was slaughtered by the 'chaotic army', the Zheng family was divided into two, one part supported Li Yuan, one part supported Li Mi, Zheng Mi's account under Zheng Yuanbi, Zheng Detao, Zheng Ting, Zheng Qianxiang and others were all the children of the Zheng family in Xingyang, based on Liang County, this branch with Zheng Renyuan as the head of the family, but Li Mi's killing of the Jiangnan Shi clan, as well as the unfavorable form, caused Zheng Renyuan to be vigilant, when all the children of his own family died in Zhongli County, Knowing that the Zheng clan no longer had any influence in the Great Wei Dynasty, he was afraid that he would follow in the footsteps of the Jiangnan Shi clan, so he discussed a way out with Cui, Lu and other representatives of the Kwantung Shi clan, who were also based on this.

Zheng Renyuan had a very solemn expression on his face, looked at the heads and representatives of the Shi clan who were invited by him, and said in a deep voice: "Li Mi personally conquered Huainan, but under the bloody killing of the Sui army, he could not advance an inch, but was taken by Emperor Shengwu and defeated by Zhongli, and it is said that Li Mi has fled to Huaiyang. But with his current situation, I'm afraid he won't last long. We all know that the Sui Dynasty has expanded rapidly in recent years, and there has been a serious shortage of officials, that is to say, as long as we dedicate Song City and help the Sui army, even if we cannot hold important positions in the Sui Dynasty in the future, we can also become normal people with the nationality of the Sui Dynasty, so that our children can also participate in the imperial examination of the Sui Dynasty. ”

Speaking of this, he looked at everyone again, and said with a smile: "For our millennium clan, the most important thing is time, we don't fight for the day, we don't fight for one generation, we can't fight in this dynasty, it's a big deal to fight for the next generation." As long as we have the opportunity, we may not be able to influence the heir of the Holy Martial Emperor. ”

"Zheng Gong is extremely right." Lu Hong of the Lu family said with a smile: "Not long ago, Emperor Shengwu wantonly cleaned up the officialdom and killed hundreds of officials, which shows that the Han Shi has a bad character and poor upbringing, and once he gains power, he is easy to lose himself, and a person can't even control his own behavior, how can he be in charge of the country?" ”

"Lu Gong is right, talents can rejuvenate the country, and mediocre talents can only destroy the family, if Emperor Shengwu Wu reuses mediocre talents, his Great Sui will definitely not be able to go long."

"I don't know what the envoy wants?" Cui Yan, the head of the Boling Cui family, frowned and asked, when Yang Tong unified Jizhou and Youzhou, he wanted to go back with high spirits, but he was stumped by Yang Dong's "how to prove that the land is yours, and now it is your ancestors who lie in the cemetery", Lu Clan, Boling Cui Clan, Qinghe Cui Clan, Zhaojun Li Clan, and Bohai Gao Clan have become the laughing stock of the world, and they all hate Yang Tong to the core, but time has passed, and the former enemies have actually become' The defenders of the Shi clan', which made them all decide to put aside their past grievances and plan to approach the Sui Dynasty, and not allowing the people of Song City to sell grain was their first means of currying favor with Yang Dong.

"Now that the Sui army is coming to the city, it is the time for us to make meritorious contributions." Zheng Renyuan said with a smile.

"Although the morale of the Wei army is low, there are still 20,000 people in the city." Cui Yan pondered for a moment, and then said: "With the people requisitioned by Chen Zhiluo, there are 40,000 soldiers, how should we act?" Chen Zhiluo is a person who participated in the murder of the king, and this kind of person is by no means a good type. ”

If you want to rebel without soldiers, isn't this looking for death?

"After Emperor Shengwu defeated Li Mi in Liyang last year, the Xiaoguo army that had participated in the Jiangdu Rebellion was all slaughtered, which shows that Shengwu Du has a deep complaint against these people. It is precisely because Chen Zhiluo is one of the thieves of the Jiangdu Rebellion, so I should send him to Emperor Shengwu, as the so-called wealth and wealth are in danger, how can I get enough promotion capital without taking risks? Zheng Renyuan said.

Everyone nodded.

It's no secret, everyone knows it.

"Don't worry, I, Zheng, have been prepared. Wang Xingnai, the guard of the north gate of Song City, is my Zheng protégé, and there are 500 elite Sui Dynasty under his command who can be mobilized. ”

Five hundred?

The muscles on everyone's faces twitched violently a few times, what can five hundred people do?

"Five hundred men is indeed a little less, but if we give up the gates, we can still do it." Zheng Renyuan smiled and continued: "There are still many disaster victims in the city, as long as they are mobilized, then the whole city will definitely fall into turmoil, and with Chen Zhiluo's 20,000 soldiers, the defense is still insufficient, how can there be strength to quell the rebellion?" And as far as I know, there are some young and strong slaves in each family, and if you add them up, there are one or two thousand people, and these people are not strong in battle, but they can also play a role in the chaos. ”

"Now that Gong Zheng has a detailed method, I, the Lu family, should take Gong Zheng as the leader." Lu Hong gritted his teeth and agreed. As Zheng Renyuan said, risks and opportunities coexist, if you want to occupy a place, you must pay the corresponding price, if it is not a risk, who is sure that Yang Tong will let them go? You must know that they were the main force that abused Yang Dong, and in order to kill him, they did not hesitate to frame him in various ways, hoping that Yang Guang would convict him.

"My Cui clan also has two hundred young people, and I am willing to hand them over to Zheng Gong for dispatch." Cui Yan also said.

"What do you hand over to Zheng Gong for?" At this time, a sneer suddenly came from the door of the lobby.

As soon as everyone turned around, their faces suddenly changed.

I saw Chen Zhiluo walking in with more than 100 personal guards, and these personal guards were dripping blood with their unsheathed swords, and there was a strong smell of blood on their bodies.

"Ahh

A housekeeper came in a hurry, and when he passed by Chen Zhiluo's side, he cut off his head with a knife.

Zheng Renyuan was shocked in his heart, and said calmly: "General Chen, what does this mean? ”

Lu Hong also said sharply: "Does General Chen want to take the opportunity to kill us all?" ”

"That's right." Chen Zhiluo sneered

"You ......" Zheng Renyuan was frightened and sat on the ground.

"I originally wanted to come to the door one by one, but I happened to be summoned by Zheng Gong to gather the heads of various families, which saved me a lot of trouble." Chen Zhiluo was also glad in his heart, if it was a day or two late, I was afraid that these people would surrender the city, and ordered fiercely: "Give Ben to destroy these thieves." ”

After listening to Chen Zhiluo's words, these guards immediately went crazy, regardless of these high-ranking clan masters, they launched an attack without hesitation.

"Kill it." At this moment, a group of dead soldiers of the Zheng family who had arrived after hearing the news launched an attack outside, and suddenly, the continuous screams reached the hall.

"Sure enough, I want to rebel."

Seeing more than 100 dead soldiers killed, Chen Zhiluo roared, his body rushed into the chaos, and with the mold knife in his hand, he saw the rebels fall to the ground one by one, and the morale of the guards was high, and they all relied on weapons to kill the dead soldiers of the Zheng family.

These people are all the original Xiaoguo army, all of them are brave and good at fighting, although the Zheng family is not afraid of death, but who is the opponent of the tacit understanding of the upright division? It was quickly slaughtered.

Zheng Renyuan and the others were panicked, where did they expect Chen Zhiluo's soldiers to be so powerful? The dead soldiers of the Zheng clan didn't even have a chance to resist.

"A group of wine bags and rice bags actually want to rebel, it's really self-defeating!" Although Chen Zhiluo is a general who kills the king, but he looks down on these rhetorical people from the bottom of his heart, these days, the knife is the sharpest weapon, what kind of thing is a book?

"Kill!"

A cadre of guards rushed into the hall like a tiger and slaughtered the leaders of the clan who had fled in disorder.

After losing the people who were led by these people, the dead soldiers of the Zheng clan were quickly annihilated, the Zheng Mansion was full of corpses, no one survived at all, and all those who dared to rebel were killed by Chen Zhiluo.

"All families who participate in the rebellion will be killed." Chen Zhiluo did not hesitate to give an order, none of these families are good things, since they are killed, they must be killed, only by cutting the grass and eradicating the roots, can we ensure that Songcheng is not chaotic, and only then can we have food relief for the victims, so that the people of Hecheng can stabilize and not cause trouble to the army.

On the third floor of an inn opposite Zheng's mansion, a dark-skinned young man sighed: "There is not enough success, but more than failure." ”

"It's normal." Another Tsing Yi said indifferently: "Hehe, with Chen Zhiluo's hand, this saves the saint a lot of trouble." Anyway, we have a way to open the city gate, and we haven't thought about relying on these scholars, but these people can be regarded as dying, at least, they can make Song City chaotic for a while. ”