Although Li Shiji was in Dou Jiande's camp and guarded Liyang for Dou Jiande, he wanted to return to Tang all the time in his heart, but he was afraid of implicating his old father Li Gai, who was a hostage by Dou Jiande's side, so he discussed with Guo Xiaoke, the former Song Zhou Thorn History and Yangzhai County Gong.

Guo Xiaoke said: "You and I have only recently surrendered to Dou Jiande, no matter what we do at this time, we will be suspicious, so now we should make meritorious service and gain Dou Jiande's trust, and then we can plan to return to Tang." ”

Li Shiji listened to Guo Xiaoke's advice, and soon led his troops out of Liyang, attacked Wang Shichong's Huojia County, captured the city, captured many people and seized many things, all of which were dedicated to Dou Jiande, so Dou Jiande was very good to Li Shiji.

Li Shiji sent someone to persuade Dou Jiande again: "Cao and Dai Erzhou, the household registration is full, Meng Haigong occupies the two states, and Zheng Guoxiang in the eastern capital is in harmony, if a large army is sent to enter the two states, it is just around the corner." After getting Meng Haigong, he led his troops to approach Xuzhou and Yanzhou, and the south of the Yellow River could be decided without a fight. ”

Dou Jiande thought that this opinion was very correct, so he was ready to personally lead the troops to attack Henan, and first sent his Xingtai Cao Dan and others to lead 50,000 soldiers and horses to cross the Yellow River, and Li Shiji led 3,000 soldiers and horses to join Cao Dan and others.

Li Shiji's plan was to attack Dou Jiande's camp when he arrived in Henan, kill Dou Jiande, find his father and return to the Tang Dynasty with Dou Jiande's territory, but it happened that Dou Jiande's wife gave birth at this time, so Li Shiji couldn't wait for Dou Jiande for a long time.

Dou Jiande sent to Henan to visit Cao Dan, the elder brother of Dou Jiande's wife, plundered and harassed in Henan, and all the thieves who belonged to him were indignant.

The leader of the thieves, Li Wenxiang, a native of Wei County, called Li Shanghu, gathered more than 5,000 people and occupied the middle city of Mengjin to surrender to Dou Jiande, but because of Cao Dan's wanton intrusion, his heart was very uneasy, so he wanted to betray Dou Jiande. Li Shanghu's mother, Huo, is also good at riding horses and archery, and calls herself the head of Huo.

After Guo Xiaoke found out about Li Shanghu's situation, he suggested that Li Shiji and Li Shanghu should be brothers and form an alliance to conspire with each other.

Li Shiji's name has already spread all over the north and south of the river, and there are not many people who don't know him, so after Li Hushang learned that Li Shiji was going to bow to him, he was overjoyed and honored.

Then Li Shiji and Li Hushang entered the inner room together to meet Li Shanghu's mother Huo, and after the three talked for a while, Huo said to Li Shiji with tears: "Now that the Dou family has lost his moral integrity and killed Meng Jin, how can we continue to serve him?" ”

Li Shiji said: "Mother, don't worry, in no more than a month, we can kill Dou Jiande and return to the Tang Dynasty together!" ”

Huo Shi didn't seem to be satisfied with Li Shiji's answer, "Another month?" Isn't this a little longer, but I'm afraid that by then, Mengjin will become a scorched earth. ”

Li Shiji said: "Meng Haigong also promised to kill the thief Dou Jiande with us, but it will still take about a month for him to mobilize and deploy troops, and then launch an attack, although it will take a long time, but when the three of us act together, the chance of success will be much greater." ”

Huo Shi was noncommittal, and after Li Shiji said goodbye and left, Huo Shi said to Li Shanghu: "It will change after a long time, why wait for that Meng Haigong to come, it is better to fight quickly, first solve Cao Dan, annex his forces, and then go north to deal with Dou Jiande." ”

Li Shanghu has always obeyed Huo's orders, although he felt that Li Shiji's plan was more appropriate, but he still agreed to Huo's proposal.

That night, in the name of holding a dinner, Li Shanghu summoned 23 of Cao Dan's partial generals, drunk them with wine, and then killed them all, and then gathered troops to attack Cao Dan's camp.

Cao Dan's generals Gao Yaxian, Ruan Junming and others still did not cross the river on the north bank of the Yellow River, Li Shanghu used four large ships to transport Gao Yaxian, Ruan Junming and other 300 soldiers across the river, the boat to the center of the river, all the 300 people were killed, and they wanted to use this strategy to kill all the troops of Gao Yaxian, Ruan Junming and others, but at this time, there was a veterinarian who was very good at water kung fu, so he was able to escape by diving.

The veterinarian swam all the way to the south bank and reported the incident to Cao Dan, so Cao Dan was on strict alert and took precautions.

After Li Shanghu killed Cao Dan's twenty-three generals, he slowly sent someone to inform Li Shiji, and Li Shiji sighed with great regret: "The erector is not enough and the plan!" ”

Li Shiji's camp was connected to Cao Dan, Guo Xiaoke persuaded Li Shiji to attack Cao Dan, Li Shiji heard that Cao Dan had been prepared, so he hesitated, and personally went to Cao Dan's camp to spy on the sound, and found that Cao Dan's camp was really well guarded, and there was no chance to take advantage of it.

Guo Xiaoke said to Li Shiji: "Li Shanghu will not be able to succeed, after the defeat, I am afraid that we will confess, and then we will die and have no place to be buried, so it is better to take advantage of the chaos to join Tang now!" ”

Li Shiji shook his head resolutely, "My father is still in Dou Jiande's hands......"

Guo Xiaoke said: "The general can rest assured, Dou Jiande has always advertised himself as a benevolent and righteous king, and he will never do such a thing as killing innocents to destroy his image." ”

After Li Shiji heard this, he became shaken.

Guo Xiaoke hurriedly said: "If you don't make a decision early, when you and I fall to the ground in the future, if your father Shu Guogong knows about today's events, I'm afraid he will also scold you for being pedantic!" ”

Li Shiji gritted his teeth, agreed ruthlessly, and Guo Xiaoke led dozens of cavalry to leave the camp, went west to the Yellow River ferry, took a boat against the water, and went to the Tang Dynasty.

After Li Shanghu saw that the news was revealed, he selected 2,000 elite soldiers to attack Ruan Junming and Gao Yaxian's troops to the north, and defeated them, but when Gao Yaxian was defeated, he continued to pack up his troops, and gradually gathered a lot of people.

When the news of Li Shiji and Guo Xiaoke's escape to the Tang Dynasty reached Yongnian County, Dou Jiande's current royal capital, Dou Jiande's ministers all went to the imperial palace Wanchun Palace and asked Dou Jiande to kill Li Shiji's father, Li Gai.

Dou Jiande pondered for a long time, shook his head and said: "Shiji is Tang Chen, he was captured by me, and he still does not forget the Tang Dynasty, this is a loyal minister, what is his father's crime?" So Dou Jiande ordered Li Gai to be pardoned.

After that, Dou Jiande personally led tens of thousands of troops to attack the traitor Li Shanghu, Li Shanghu's troops were only a few thousand, and he couldn't resist for long, and the city was destroyed.

After Dou Jiande returned to Zhaozhou, he inspected and encouraged farming and weaving, and there were no thieves in the area under his jurisdiction, merchants and pedestrians slept in the open, and the national strength and military strength gradually became more and more abundant.