Li Ling, the leader of the rebel army in Wuzhou City, was still asleep, and suddenly got a report, saying that the Sui army had entered the city, hurriedly got up from the bed, and gathered his soldiers and horses to resist, but it was too late, seeing that thousands of Sui troops continued to pour into Wuzhou City, in desperation, he had to give up Wuzhou City, and led the remnants of the rebel army to retreat to Taihu Lake Siege 60 miles east of Wuzhou City.

After Li Che, Yu Wenshu, and Lai Hu'er led the army to recover Wuzhou City, they immediately sent people to report to Yang Su. Yang Su was overjoyed when he learned that Wuzhou City had been recovered by the official army, so he personally led the naval fleet down the river, rushed to Wuzhou from Jiankang, and divided with three generals.

Li Che truthfully reported to Yang Su that he had recruited the strange man Mai Tiecane, and he guided the Sui army to open the city gate and successfully recover Wuzhou City, and wanted to introduce Mai Tiecane to Yang Su.

Unexpectedly, Yang Su listened to Li Che's report, but smiled coldly, waved his hand to stop Li Che from wanting to pass the wheat iron rod into the council hall to see him, and instructed him: "Since it is to return to the imperial court for the sake of seeking officials, and guiding the official army to recover Wuzhou City, in the opinion of this commander, it can only make up for his crime of assassinating the imperial general." It was not suitable for the marshal to see him for the time being, so Quanta conveyed to him the meaning of the marshal, if this wheat iron rod could lead the official army to break the Li Ling rebels, then the marshal would recommend it to the imperial court, so that he could get his wish and become a great official. ”

Li Che observed his words and looks, and saw that Yang Su was quite disdainful of Mai Tiecane's move to return to the imperial court in order to be an official, this was deliberately to give Mai Tiecane another problem, and intended to argue for Mai Tiecane, but saw that Yang Su turned to Lai Hu'er to ask about the injury on his shoulder, so he had to hold back and didn't say anything, replied to obey the order, returned to his camp, and relayed Yang Su's words to Mai Tiecane word for word, and at the same time reassured him not to be discouraged, as long as he made new contributions in the future, he would definitely ask Yang Su to protect him to the imperial court.

Although Mai Tiecane did not shy away from his intention of surrendering to the Sui Dynasty just to seek officials, but this person had a very large stomach, and after listening to Li Che's relays of Yang Su's words, he didn't mind too much, but said to Li Che more seriously: "I led the officials and soldiers to open the gate of Wuzhou, General Li must have known about my surrender to the imperial court, if I want to guide the officials to defraud General Li again, I am afraid that it will be difficult to do it." However, most of the princes of Maoshan still don't know about my surrender to the imperial court, can I lead the officials and troops to Maoshan to arrest the princes of Xiao, I don't know if I can do anything? ”

Li Che was surprised, and hurriedly asked Mai Tiezhu: "I forgot to ask you before, who is the surname of this Maoshan Xiao Wangye, and what is his identity?" ”

"I once heard General Xu, who led the team to Wuzhou to reinforce him, mention that this Prince Xiao was originally the uncle of the lord of Later Liang, and because he shared weal and woe with the emperor and resisted the Sui army to attack Chen, he was named the prince."

When Li Che was in the annexation of the state, he had already heard that after the Liang destroyed the country, Xiao Yan and Xiao Chen's uncle and nephew led 100,000 clans and people to oppose Sui and Chen, and based on this, it was inferred that the Xiao prince mentioned by Mai Tiezhu must be one of Xiao Yan and Xiao Chen's uncle and nephew, so he asked him: "As far as you know, how many rebels are there under the command of Xiao Wangye in Maoshan?" Did the rebel army that came to reinforce Wuzhou return to Maoshan after a battle? What method do you plan to use to guide the official army to annihilate the Maoshan rebels? ”

"I plan to pretend to be General Li's person, and immediately set off to Maoshan to see Xiao Wangye, falsely claiming that Wuzhou City is being attacked by the official army, and ask Xiao Wangye to send troops to rescue the emergency, and at the same time, please lead the general to set up an ambush in the middle of the road, and annihilate all the rebels who came to reinforce it." Mai Tiezhu's eyes lit up, and he replied, "I don't know how many rebels there are in Maoshan, but I know that the soldiers and horses led by General Xu to reinforce Wuzhou fought with the officials and troops outside the city, and it seems that they went south. ”

When Li Che heard this, he thought to himself: Most of the rebels who had inflicted heavy losses on their own troops were outflanking Shi Wansui's troops. Thinking in his heart, he should immediately report this military situation to Yang Suyu, so that he could send troops to reinforce Shi Wansui in time, and at the same time shook his head, corrected Mai Tiecane and said: "It has been four or five days since the official army regained Wuzhou City, and I am afraid that the Maoshan rebels have already known about this situation. In my opinion, you might as well pretend to be a messenger sent by Li Ling, go to Maoshan to meet that Xiao Wangye, and falsely claim to him that the army of Yue Guogong has begun to launch a fierce attack on the Taihu Lake Bezha where Li Ling led the army to garrison, and ask Xiao Wangye to send troops to reinforce Taihu Bezha, and then I will show Yue Guogong and lead the people and horses of my headquarters to ambush Maoshan on the way to Taihu Bezha, and completely annihilate to aid the rebels, which is more appropriate. ”

At that moment, the two of them had made a decision, and Mai Tiezhu immediately said goodbye to Li Che and went to Maoshan to meet the rebel leader Xiao Wangye, while Li Che returned to the council hall of the Shuaifu to explain everything to Yang Su, asking Yang Su to send troops to reinforce the South Road Shi Wansui Division, and at the same time allowed himself to lead his headquarters to set up an ambush in the middle of the road to encircle and annihilate the rebels who came to help from Maoshan.

Yang Su listened to Li Che's report, and asked Yu Wenshu in detail about the combat strength of the Halberd Army, so he decided to send Yu Wenshu to lead the men and horses of his headquarters to set off from Wuzhou and march to the southeast to reinforce Shi Wansui, and agreed to Li Che's suggestion, and sent him to lead his men and horses to set up an ambush on the way to Taihu Lake Beizha in Maoshan Mountain, and completely annihilate to aid the rebels. After that, he immediately passed the order, since Hu'er led a "five-toothed" giant ship and eighty Huanglong warships as the vanguard, he personally led the main force of the naval army as the Chinese army, and launched a march from the waterway to the Taihu Lake Bezha, in order to take the Taihu Bezha in one fell swoop, and annihilate Li Ling's rebels along the way.

Lai Hu'er really deserves the title of fierce general, regardless of the shoulder injury that has not healed, he boarded the "Five Teeth" giant ship, led dozens of vanguard warships, and swooped straight towards the Taihu Lake Fence with murderous spirit.

When the vanguard fleet of the Sui army sailed up the river to the river 20 miles away from the Taihu Lake where Li Ling led the army to garrison, Lai Hu'er on the giant ship "Wuya" saw hundreds of rebel warships coming from the river in front of him, and hurriedly ordered all the ships on the side to prepare for battle.

When the hundreds of rebel ships sailed to the river three or four miles away from the Sui fleet, they suddenly separated from the left and right and formed two teams, among which three warships, one large and two small, sailed out.

Lai Hu'er stood on the foredeck of the "Five Teeth" giant ship, looking up, but saw that the three rebel warships on both sides of the escort were the two main warships common in the Nanchen Water Army, only the one in the middle was different, looking at the regulations of this ship from a distance, it was only slightly smaller than the "Five Teeth" giant ship, there were three layers of cabins built on it, and there were also six huge slap rods on both sides of the ship's strings, and then looked at the mast of this ship, only to see a flag with a black background and yellow edge hanging high on the mast, The line on the book is eye-catching in big red letters: Fengsheng rebels against the general Li.

From this, Lai Hu'er determined that the giant ship in the rebel fleet was the ship of Li Ling, the leader of the rebels on the East Road.