Next to a remote path, there is a humble tea shop.

The catkins are flying, the trees are shading, but there are many pedestrians on the remote roads. Because of the remoteness, they will not meet officers and soldiers, and because of the remoteness, the thieves are not interested in paying attention to this side.

The road is very long, there is only this tea shop for dozens of miles before and after, and when pedestrians pass by, they will beg for saliva to drink, and occasionally someone will leave a white coin to show their gratitude, but this kind of thing rarely happens.

The owner of the tea shop is an old man in his fifties, who sits on a stool and beats his legs constantly. The water that those passers-by drank was brought here by him from a small stream far away, and it was not easy for the old man to go back and forth more than 20 times a day.

It was already past noon, and there was only a white coin on the plate, and the old man didn't seem to care, his eyes narrowed into a slit in the sunlight. I glanced at who was in the bucket and felt that it could hold out for a while.

This is the foot of Langya Mountain, since Li Zitong's death, the people here have not been broken, and these people are all people who want to avoid the war and flee to the territory of Southern Sui.

Drinking the sweet stream water that others had worked hard to pick for no reason, they felt guilty when they were in a hurry, and they wanted to give a white coin to repay the old man, but they were really penniless, so they could only use words to cover up their embarrassment.

The old man's expression was very indifferent, his relatives had all died in the war, what was the use of asking for more money? He wasn't curious about what others were talking about, and he was still thumping his sore thighs to himself.

There was a sound of horses' hooves from the south, and the old man raised his head in confusion, and the people who were sitting on the ground and talking on the stones also raised their heads, and everyone fled to the south. Look at those on horses, dressed in ordinary clothes and looking calm. With a childish face, could it be a scout of the Southern Sui court?

"Old man, is there any water?" Li Xuanba didn't care about other people's eyes, they went all the way, I don't know how many people persuaded them, and more people looked at them with the same eyes: "Our brothers are very thirsty. I want to ask for some water. ”

There were two large buckets at each end of the stick, one was empty and the other was only half of the water.

"Let's drink a few little brothers." The old man pointed to the bucket with water and smiled kindly. He didn't get up because Li Xuanba and the others didn't look like poor people, and still sat on the stool.

Li Xuanba and the others got off the horse, tied the reins to the tree, and were not polite, taking turns scooping water with bowls to drink. There wasn't much water in the bucket, so they couldn't stop a few of their big men from drinking. It bottomed out quickly.

The old man's expression did not change, he stood up very casually, nodded to Li Xuanba and the others, and prepared to pick up a wooden stick to fetch water.

Li Xuanba glanced at Li Qifu, Li Qifu understood, took the flat burden from the old man's shoulder, and said politely: "Old man, you lead the way in front." Let the kid do the work. ”

The old man obviously didn't expect Li Xuanba and the others to make such a move, and he was stunned. Walking in front with a smile. Seeing the old man's somewhat rickety back, Li Xuanba shook his head slightly and sat down casually.

The grass on the ground around the tea shop is obviously shorter than the surrounding grass. It proves that people often get together to rest here.

"Little brother, there is a shortage of soldiers in the north, what are you going to do over there?" Li Qifu's act of carrying the burden for the old man made the people present feel good, and someone kindly reminded: "If you are arrested to be a strong man." That's miserable! ”

Liang Xiao and the others seemed to sit down very casually, but in fact they deliberately surrounded Li Xuanba in the middle, and those with a little vision could easily see that Li Xuanba was the leader of this group.

"We were asked to pick up a few people from the north." Li Xuanba smiled slightly, and said casually: "Forgive me for taking the liberty, are you planning to go to Jiangdu?" ”

"A place like Jiangdu, how can we go to it?" The man from before laughed and said, "As long as the imperial court can let us enter Donghai County, we will be very satisfied." ”

"Of course." Li Xuanba said: "However, I heard that the imperial court has issued an edict, all the people who enter the territory of Southern Sui must abide by the imperial decree, if you go, you can't do anything wrong." ”

"It's good to be able to live, who has the strength to do other things." The other muttered quietly.

"This son, I heard that the emperor of the Southern Sui Dynasty is benevolent and loves the people, and people like us who have left their hometowns will distribute food in the imperial court, I don't know if it's true?" Someone asked nervously, and the others also quieted down and looked at Li Xuanba with blank eyes.

"That's true." Li Xuanba replied: "The imperial court will indeed distribute grain to the people in other places, but they must accept the dispatch of the imperial court to open up wasteland and cultivate land. ”

"That's how it should be." The man's face was happy and relieved: "We were originally worried that this was a rumor, thank you Gongzi for telling me." ”

"It's not far from Donghai County, and you can see the notice when you enter the city, and I'll just tell you a day in advance." Li Xuanba waved his hand and signaled that he was not polite: "By the way, listening to your accent, it seems that you are the people in the Xingyang area, why don't you go to Luoyang, but go here?" Is there something going on in Luoyang? ”

It turned out that after Wang Shichong Chen soldiers passed through the Jiqu River, Wagang discussed the coping strategy internally, except for Pei Renji's plan to attack Luoyang, the rest of the generals all asked for battle, and Li Mi at this time was no longer the one who could listen to the advice, especially the Xiaoguo army that repelled Yu Wenhua and made him arrogant, and immediately agreed to fight head-on, intending to destroy the elite division of the Eastern Capital in one battle.

Li Miqin led the internal army, and Cheng Yanjin and others garrisoned on the north mountain, and Shan Xiongxin led the troops to camp in the north of Yanshi City.

Wang Shichong first sent cavalry to attack Shan Xiongxin, and when Cheng Yanjin and Pei Xingyan came to the rescue, the cavalry suddenly changed their target and engaged the reinforcements of Wagang.

The combat power of the Jianghuai army is not weaker than that of the Xiaoguo army, Pei Xingyan was shot by a stray arrow because of carelessness, Chen Yanjin was almost killed by a general of the Jianghuai army with a horse lance in order to save Pei Xingyan, although he survived by luck, he was also seriously injured and was unable to fight again.

In this match, many generals of the Wagang Army were wounded and their morale was low.

But Li Mi had defeated Wang Shichong many times, and he had always despised him in his heart, and he camped in Bishan without setting up barriers or taking any precautions.

Wang Shichong sent hundreds of cavalry to ambush in the valley at the bottom of the mountain, and when the two armies were ready to fight the next day, before the Wagang army set up a position, Wang Shichong led all the soldiers and horses to kill him, and in order to confuse the enemy, he tied up a person who looked very similar to Li Mi, and shouted that Li Mi had been captured.

On the other side, Li Mi's army was exhausted, the camp was empty, and hundreds of cavalry in ambush in the valley rushed to Li Mi's camp and set fire to it.

"Li Mi" was captured, the camp was destroyed, the Wagang army was disheartened, and once defeated, Li Mi fled in the direction of Luokou with only more than 10,000 people. (To be continued.) )