In the study, Yu Wenshu was busy packing up his things, and in ten days, he was going to go with Yang Guang to inspect Jiangdu, during this time, he had to arrange everything, he had accumulated enough money and food in Danyang County, just waiting for the last opportunity to come.

He remembered that his eldest son, Yu Wenhua, was still in Shangluo County, and the guards who went to arrest Pei Renji yesterday had all returned, bringing the news that Pei Renji had absconded in fear of crime, which made Yu Wenshu breathe a sigh of relief, so that it could be confirmed that Pei Renji did have a problem, and he could explain it to the saint.

It's just that why haven't you come back? Now is a critical moment, you can't delay a big thing for a little money, Yu Wenshu pondered for a moment, and a bold idea was born in his heart, so he simply let his eldest son directly lead the army to Danyang County, and this 10,000 army was used as the basis for his own army.

This thought made Yu Wenshu excited, and he immediately returned to the table, ready to write a letter, and just picked up the pen, the voice of the butler came from the door, "Master, the eldest prince has sent someone to deliver the letter, and the situation seems to be very urgent." ”

Yuwen Shu was stunned, did something happen? "Bring it in!"

Soon, a confidant of Yu Wenhua was brought into the study, and when he entered the room, he knelt down and cried, "Master, something happened to the eldest son!" ”

"Out... What's wrong? Yu Wenshu asked with a trembling voice, and an extremely ominous premonition shrouded in his heart.

"The eldest prince of Yuwen was caught."

Jiading hurriedly took out a letter, handed it with trembling hands, Yuwenshu snatched the letter, opened it impatiently, and read it in a hurry, he froze as if he was struck by lightning, the letter floated down from his hand, Shangluo County Taishou Zhang Ji rebelled, and his son fell into the hands of Zhang Ji.

Yu Wenshu only felt a heartache, and fainted all of a sudden, and the concubine next to him was so frightened that she ran out and shouted: "Someone! Come on! The old man fainted. ”

More than a dozen guards rushed into the room to rescue Yuwen Shu, he was too old to faint easily, Yuwen Zhiji also came, he picked up the letter from the ground, read it in a hurry, and his heart was half cold all of a sudden, Shangluo County Taishou Zhang Ji actually rebelled and took the eldest brother as a hostage.

Yuwen Zhihe hated it in his heart, it is estimated that the eldest brother extorted money too ruthlessly and forced people to rebel.

At this time, Yuwen Shu woke up slowly, and his first sentence was: "Keep it a secret, and no one is allowed to mention this matter." ”

"What about faith? Where is the faith? ”

Yuwen Zhihe hurriedly handed the letter over, "Father, do you want to care?" ”

Yu Wenshu took the letter and gasped: "I'm not in the way, you let everyone go down." ”

The guards all retreated, Yuwenshu read the letter again, the letter has two pages, the first page is written by his son Yu Wenhua, let his father keep quiet, the handle of Yuwen's family fell into the hands of Zhang Ji, which made Yuwenshu frightened, what kind of handle is it?

The next page of the letter was written by Taishou Zhang Ji, saying that Yu Wenhua and the blackmail were too ruthless, forcing himself to rebel, if he dared to send troops to exterminate, he would cut off Yu Wenhua's head, and make the old bottom of the Yuwen family public, so that his Yuwen family would be destroyed.

The next few lines said that if he agreed to his conditions, he could be put back to Yu Wenhua, but Zhang Ji did not write what conditions.

Yuwenshu looked at it several times, but he couldn't find where Zhang Ji's conditions were? He immediately ordered: "Call the messenger." ”

The messenger Ding was soon led in again, and Yuwen Shu asked him, "Do you want Zhang Ji to bring any message?" ”

The family shook his head, "I didn't say anything, I accompanied Gongzi to the county office, I stayed at the door and waited, but a soldier arrested me, and I didn't even see Gongzi's face." ”

Yu Wenshu has completely calmed down, he has realized that Zhang Ji is delaying time, maybe he has another purpose, this matter is still in a hurry, forcing Zhang Ji to be anxious will jump over the wall in a hurry, fortunately, Yang Guang is about to leave, and this matter will not be exposed.

Yu Wenshu immediately summoned another guard with strong martial arts, and he said to the guard and this family: "You bring another five hundred taels of gold to Shangluo County, and tell Zhang Ji that you must not hurt my son's life, and if he dares to touch my son's hair, I will let his whole family die without a place to die." ”

The guards and the family left, and Yu Wenzhi asked worriedly, "Father, what should I do about this matter?" ”

"How do I know?"

Yuwen Shu gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "That useless thing, holding 10,000 troops and being caught by others." ”

After a while, Yu Wenshu said again: "There is no way to do this, only wait, your big brother has no use value, they will put forward conditions sooner or later, remember, this matter must be blocked news, if people ask, just say that your eldest brother is in Shangluo to suppress bandits." ”

Yu Wenshu thought of the imperial court again, and he had to find a way not to make the imperial court suspicious, and an unexpected incident gave him a headache.

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Qi County, Zhang Xutuo rectified 10,000 remnants of Qi County, and borrowed 5,000 troops each from Beihai County and Lu County, he led 20,000 troops to Beihai County and Qi County, after months of fierce battles, after more than 30 large and small battles, successively defeated Guo Fang's pre-department, Qin Junhong's department and Zuo Xiaoyou's department, so that his strength grew to 50,000 people, and finally forced Lu Mingyue to abandon Licheng County, and led the army to retreat west to Changqing County, Jibei County.

At this point, Licheng County, which had fallen to thieves for nearly half a year, was finally recaptured, but Licheng County had been ravaged and devastated, nearly six adults were tortured to death, especially the families of officers and soldiers were killed and wounded, Zhang Xutuo's two daughters were humiliated to death, and the families of the generals Luo Shixin and Niu Jinda were all killed by the enemy, only Qin Qiong's wife and mother happened to be not in Licheng County and escaped.

Zhang Xutuo was full of grief, pacified his subordinates, buried the corpses, rebuilt the city, rectified the soldiers and horses, the more hatred pressed him, the less he would easily go to war, rectified and trained the army for nearly two months, the imperial court sent weapons and armor from Jiangdu, and his 50,000 troops became an elite army again.

In October, Zhang Xutuo left 20,000 troops, ordered the general Jia Wuben to guard the city, and sent 10,000 troops, divided into ten battalions, to garrison on the south bank of the Yellow River to prevent Douzigang bandits from crossing the river to the south.

He personally led 20,000 elite troops to Jibei County, and before leaving, the soldiers swore an oath in front of the monument of the victims in Licheng County that they would kill Lu Mingyue's army and leave no one behind.

Banners were unfurled, armor was shining, cavalry and infantry were 10,000 each, a total of 20,000 troops marched westward.

Zhang Xutuo urged the horse to catch up with Luo Shixin, and when he saw that Luo Shixin was depressed, he patted him on the shoulder, "The deceased are gone, and we who are alive should avenge them and sacrifice our relatives with the enemy's head and blood."

Luo Shixin nodded silently, tears flashed in his eyes, his father, wife and children all died in the hands of the bandits, this revenge will not be avenged, he Luo Shixin swears not to be a man.

"Master, why is this bandit so vicious?"

Zhang Xutuo sneered and said: "Many of these bandits are good farmers, their homes have been damaged, their families have died tragically, they have hatred in their hearts, they should have vented their hatred to the imperial court, but they didn't dare, the bad roots and cowardice in his bones made them only dare to vent their hatred on weaker people." ”

Luo Shixin slowly straightened his waist, he knew that the grief in the master's heart was not pressed on anyone, but the master would not show the grief, this is the real iron-blooded man, he should follow the master's example.

"Master, Lu Mingyue has an army of 150,000, eight times as many as us, how should we deal with it."

"We have hatred in our hearts, and he is cowardice in his heart, and when we see them abandon the city and flee, we know that they are afraid, and hatred can make us burst out tenfold with strength, but cowardice weakens their morale, and they will surely be defeated."

Zhang Xutuo smiled again, "But hatred can only accumulate in the hearts of soldiers, for the general must stay calm, can not let hatred blind the eyes, that Lu Mingyue is also a person with brains, was defeated by Yuanqing in Zhuo County, and was able to make a comeback, and defeated Xu Jinfang with the strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain, which shows that this person has extraordinary ability, not to be underestimated, let alone underestimate the enemy." ”

Luo Shixin was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Why is Master unwilling to help Senior Brother?" ”

Zhang Xutuo's face changed, and he said coldly: "Help him what?" Help him usurp the throne and seize the Great Sui Dynasty? The eldest husband should be loyal to his father, loyal to the Great Sui, so as to be worthy of heaven and earth, if he Yang Yuanqing dares to have different intentions, I Zhang Xutuo will never admit that he is my apprentice. ”

Perhaps feeling that his words were too heavy, he smiled again: "Let's not talk about this matter, we have to concentrate on dealing with Lu Mingyue now." ”

．．．．．．．．．

Two days later, Zhang Xutuo's army entered the territory of Changqing County, Jibei County, which is where Lu Mingyue's lair is located, Zhang Xutuo rode a horse and ran up a gentle hill, looking into the distance, the terrain in this area is flat, there are many rivers, you can see a large area of reeds everywhere, it is easy to hide, and it is more suitable for ambush warfare.

At this time, a Sui army scout from a distance rushed over, ran up the hill in a moment, and bowed down to report: "Qi Qi Marshal, the main force of the enemy army has been found thirty miles ahead, and it is speeding towards our side. ”

"How many are there?"

"About 1340,000 people."

Zhang Xutuo beat the hand curtain and looked into the distance, and now he couldn't see anything, he immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the army will camp on the spot, and within half an hour, the camp must be completed!" ”

His army was tired from afar, and he did not want to fight the enemy army at once, so the Sui army quickly set up camp, and in less than half an hour, they set up a neat camp.

Half an hour later, Lu Mingyue personally led the army to arrive a few miles away from Zhang Xutuo's camp, Lu Mingyue hated and feared Zhang Xutuo in his heart, this person led 10,000 remnants of the army to sweep Beihai County and Qi County, more than 30 battles, never lost, only a few months to recover 50,000 troops, and become an elite army, it can be seen that this person's ability to lead troops and train the army is extraordinary.

However, Lu Mingyue is also different from the ordinary bandit leader, he has a keen eye and the ability to capture fighters, he found that Zhang Xutuo came to the west, and did not follow with a heavy baggage, but a light army, which means that sooner or later the Sui army's grain and grass will have problems.

Lu Mingyue was not in a hurry to fight a decisive battle with Zhang Xutuo, and also ordered, "The army is camped on the spot!" ”