Just as Zhang Xuan worried, Li Yuan really sent Qu Tutong to lead an army of 50,000 into Changping County as Li Jiancheng's reinforcements, so that the number of troops in the Tang Army's eastward expedition reached 80,000, and Li Yuan was bound to win Hebei.

Although everything has been done for the Eastern Expedition, only the grain ship has never arrived, which has dragged down the Tang Army's Eastern Expedition plan, and Li Jiancheng has been waiting for five days in Xinxiang County, and there is still no news of any grain ship.

He had already realized that something must have happened to the grain ship, but at this time Li Jiancheng did not expect that Wei Wentong sent someone to falsely pass on his order to deceive the grain ship back to Hedong County, and Li Jiancheng was most worried that the Wagang Navy had attacked his grain fleet.

In Xinxiang County, Li Jiancheng was pacing back and forth in the back hall restlessly, he looked at the hall from time to time, he was waiting for Wei Zheng's news, he got the news that Wei Zheng had returned to Xinxiang, but Wei Zheng had not shown up until now, which made Li Jiancheng's heart burn.

At this time, a soldier reported, "Governor Qiyu, Wei Changshi is here!" ”

"Let him in!"

Li Jiancheng hurriedly greeted him, only to see Wei Zheng walking into the courtyard quickly, Li Jiancheng complained a little, "Changshi entered the city early tomorrow, why did he come now?" ”

Wei Zheng was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "It's not that the lowly post is slow, but that the governor is too anxious." ”

Li Jiancheng didn't care about explaining, and hurriedly asked, "How much grain is there in each county now?" ”

Now food is the lifeblood of Li Jiancheng, his army is light troops into Hanoi County, only brought fifteen days of dry food, now seeing that the grain is about to run out, but the grain fleet has never heard of it, but the official grain in Xinxiang County has been requisitioned by the Sui army, there is no food supplement, how can he not be anxious.

"I have two bad news to tell the governor, and I hope the governor can calm down." Wei Zheng said calmly.

Li Jiancheng's heart sank, as if he had stepped on the air. His only hope now is that Hanoi County itself still has grain, but Wei Zheng said that it is likely that the grain in other counties, like Xinxiang County, has been transferred by the Sui army.

"Long history, please tell me!" Li Jiancheng sighed softly, he was no longer hopeful.

"Back to the governor, the Sui army has indeed been prepared. This time, I inspected the counties of Hanoi County, and found that all the counties were the same, the grain had been transferred by the Sui army, all the granaries were empty, and the counties were still waiting for us to go to relief. ”

"Sure enough, it's bad news."

Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly and asked again: "Then there is another bad news?" ”

Wei Zheng took out a letter and handed it to Li Jiancheng, "I just came from Gongcheng County, Dou Ge Lao just received an urgent letter from Hedong County, and the eldest grandson Shunde asked why we sent the grain ship back to Hedong County?" ”

"What!"

Li Jiancheng stood up abruptly. His eyes widened, "When will I send the grain ship back to Hedong County?" ”

He snatched the letter, opened it impatiently and read it, he couldn't believe the content of the letter, he sat down in a daze, no wonder the grain ship never arrived, it turned out to be back to Hedong County, and it was actually his own order.

"Hasn't the Governor thought of the reason yet?"

Li Jiancheng has already understood. It must have been Wei Wentong who intercepted the person he sent to deliver the letter, and sent the opposite order in his own name. He gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "The puppet deceived me too much, I will break through Wuzhi County and cut this puppet with a thousand knives!" ”

"So I want the governor to calm down first, and Wei Wentong will clean him up later, think about our Eastern Crusade plan first, what should we do next?"

Li Jiancheng is also very human after all. Although he was extremely angry, he still restrained his anger and forced himself to calm down.

He pondered for a while, and then said slowly: "There is no food for the officials of Hanoi County, but there should be food for the people. Let's see if we can raise some of it from the private sector. ”

Wei Zheng shook his head, "Maybe I want to crack down on the governor's idea, Hanoi County is affected by the drought in the Central Plains, and this year's summer grain harvest is also poor, I asked a lot of farmers, everyone is waiting for the autumn grain, and there is not much grain from the people, this is one of them, if the governor does not believe my investigation, he has to set up troops to loot the civilian grain, whether it is to rob Hanoi County or Ji County, then the Tang Army will become the enemy of the entire Hebei, and become Zhang Jin's second, we will not be able to gain a foothold in Hebei, this is the second, which is more important, the governor chooses for himself." ”

Li Jiancheng was immediately deflated, and said for a while: "What should I do if Changshi said?" ”

Wei Zheng pondered and said, "I suggest changing the plan. ”

"How to change?"

"Temporarily abandon Hanoi County, return to Changping County, first concentrate forces to exterminate Liu Wuzhou, relieve the trouble of Taiyuan, and then we will go from Yanmen County to Feihu Cheng into Youzhou, with Youzhou as the foundation of Nantu Hebei."

Li Jiancheng was stunned for a long time, and said with a wry smile: "I'm afraid that Zhang Xuan will also come back at that time, and when we exterminate Liu Wuzhou, Luo Yi will also be exterminated by Zhang Xuan." ”

"Although there is this possibility, we have no losses, and we also exterminated Liu Wuzhou and relieved Taiyuan's worries, which can be regarded as a small victory."

Li Jiancheng stood up, walked to the side window with his hands, looked at a laurel tree in full bloom outside the window, and felt very depressed in his heart, he had carefully planned a plan for several years, but it was completely destroyed by an insignificant small loophole, this is called a thousand-mile causeway, destroyed in the anthill, it is God who does not give himself this opportunity, otherwise how could Wei Wentong suddenly appear in Wuzhi County?

At this time, Wei Zheng walked to Li Jiancheng's side and comforted him: "The governor doesn't have to blame himself, our plan itself is a risky move, the process is not under our control, there will be many unexpected accidents in the middle, the accident in Wuzhi County is just the first step, and there will be more obstacles in the future."

Frankly speaking, the chances of this plan succeeding are very small, once we can't quickly take Wei County, Zhang Xuan will inevitably personally lead a large army to help, once his army cuts off our rear route, the consequences are unimaginable, so I don't think it is necessarily a good thing to withdraw now. ”

"Changshi is right, Wei County has gathered 30,000 Qingzhou troops, as long as they stick to the city, we really can't take Wei County, it's because I think too much about the prospect and think about the problem too simply."

Li Jiancheng let out a long sigh and said gloomily: "According to the words of Changshi, we will withdraw to Changping County, but I have to write a letter to my father to ask for guilt, I have failed his expectations." ”

Three days later, Li Jiancheng led an army of 25,000 troops from the north of Gongcheng County to Changping County, preparing to join Qu Tutong and go north to Taiyuan to exterminate Liu Wuzhou's army.

And just two days after Li Jiancheng withdrew, Zhang Xuan led 10,000 cavalry into Hanoi County, at this time he learned that Li Jiancheng had withdrawn, Zhang Xuan did not return to Wei County, but continued to move forward and came to Wuzhi County.

When 10,000 cavalry appeared under the city of Wuzhi County, the gate of Wuzhi City had been opened, and Wei Wentong led 4,000 troops to wait outside the city. ”

Wei Wentong hurriedly stepped forward, knelt down on one knee and clenched his fists, looked at Zhang Xuan and said sincerely: "Wei Wentong came to serve the general, I hope the general will be included!" ”

Zhang Xuan hurriedly turned over and dismounted, helped Wei Wentong up, and said with great emotion: "If General Wei hadn't dragged the Tang Army for me this time, Hebei would have been in danger, and I will write down General Wei's achievements in the world first." ”

Wei Wentong was overjoyed, Zhang Xuan actually gave himself an evaluation of the world's merits, which was completely said by Du Ruhui, he was full of gratitude to Du Ruhui in his heart, and hurriedly said: "If there are ten points of merit, then there are only four points for the humble position, and the other six points should be attributed to Mr. Du. ”

After speaking, Wei Wentong turned around and ran back to the team, pulled Du Ruhui over, and introduced Zhang Xuan with a smile: "This is Mr. Du!" ”

Du Ruhui thought that Zhang Xuan had written to invite him a long time ago, but he ignored it, and now he still chose Qingzhou, he was a little embarrassed, he didn't dare to look at Zhang Xuan, and hurriedly bowed down to salute, "Student Du Ruhui see the general!" ”

Zhang Xuan suddenly remembered what Fang Mou Du Duanzhi said, Fang Xuanling is already his own military advisor, and now Du Ruhui has also joined, cut off Li Shimin's two wings, how high can Li Shimin fly?

Zhang Xuan was overjoyed in his heart, and couldn't help laughing and said: "I have Fang Junshi, and now I have come to Du to join the army, why worry about big things, tonight I want to reward the three armies, and set up a military banquet for General Wei and Fang to join the army, we are not drunk!" ”

When the reward order came out, both the Qingzhou cavalry and Wei Wentong's army resounded with cheers. (To be continued.) )