The End of the Sui Dynasty

Although Yang Guang asked for a secret hunt for Chen Dongfu, the news of Chen Kefu's defection and escape from Beijing quickly spread throughout Kyoto. In less than two hours, even the boat lady above Luoshui in Kyoto already knew that Chen Kefu, the newly appointed generalissimo of the Mobei Provincial March, and the military of the fifteen counties of Liaoxi, Liaodong, and Murowei, had defected from Beijing after a rebellion.

At first, nine and a half out of ten people who heard the news did not believe it, and just yesterday, Chen Kefu also held a grand wedding in Beijing, not only married the daughter of the prime minister of the dynasty, but also gave the marriage by the emperor's decree, and the Ministry of Rites and Qin Tianjian jointly handled it. That lively scene still lingers in the festive atmosphere among the Jingshi. With Chen Kefu's favor and such power, how could he rebel and defect? Everyone who heard the news was so stupid that no one believed it.

However, when Jin Wuwei and several large barracks in Kyoto, as well as the Praetorian Guard, received the emperor's edict and began to hunt down Chen Kefu. The nobles of the major families in Kyoto were the first to believe it, and Chen Kefu's Liao Mansion was soon blocked by the Praetorian Guards, and even the rest of the Chen Kefu people in the Beijing division were also searched for one by one, more and more people began to believe it.

I don't know who started the rumors, saying that the emperor had an order, if Chen Kefu was captured alive, he would be crowned a marquis, 10,000 bounty coins, and 10,000 acres of land, and those who had no officials would be directly promoted to five-rank officials, and those below the fifth rank would be directly promoted to three levels, and those above the third-rank would be promoted to one level. Even those subordinates who caught Chen Kefu, regardless of life or death, were worth a hundred gold coins each.

Hearing such news, the whole of Kyoto went crazy. I heard that Chen Kefu escaped in a hurry, but he was only away from Beijing for more than an hour at this time, and there were only more than 100 people around him. Everyone was moved, even if they caught a guard of Chen Kefu, they could exchange it for a hundred gold coins, and a hundred gold coins was a big number. Now in Kyoto, 100 gold coins can be exchanged for 100 copper coins in Sihai Money, 130 moldy meat is good for 5 moins, and if it is exchanged for white coins, it can be directly exchanged for 200 yuan.

This is 200,000 yuan, even if the white money is not valuable, at the price of 50 yuan of rice today, this is a full 4,000 buckets of rice, so much rice is enough for a family of five to eat for 30 years, which is a huge wealth.

What's more, in the eyes of those aristocratic families who have many generals, it is not impossible to catch Chen Kefu if they are lucky. Take Chen Kefu, this is a marquis, and 10,000 gold coins and 10,000 acres of fertile land. All of a sudden, the eastern capital was full of turmoil, and the crowd was in love. Not only did the aristocratic families mobilize and equip all the generals, but even those ordinary people also held axes and kitchen knives, led the donkeys in the family, and formed groups of three or five to catch Chen Kefu.

Outside the city gate of Luoyang, there was a crowd of people for a while, and people who went out of the city lined up in a long line. Even those foreign officials who had not yet returned to Beijing couldn't help but take their guards out of the city to find Chen Kefu.

There are nearly 200 people in the group of Li Shimin's brothers, all of whom have horses, and Li Shimin and dozens of others are all armored, bows, arrows, horses, and horses, and are fully equipped. Even the subordinates all held wooden shields, carried horizontal swords, and rode war horses. The group roared out and chased straight east. However, their team is not the largest of all the civilian armed forces.

Yu Wenshu, Pei Yun, Yu Shiji, Lai Hu'er, Pei Shiju, Liao Wang Yang Lai, Yushi Dafu Gao Zhen and other ministers all sent a huge team of family members. Yang Lai, the king of Liao, who had the largest number of people, personally led the team, and there were nearly 1,000 shì guards who quickly went out of the city. The rest, such as the Yuwen family and the Pei family, also had two or three hundred people each riding war horses and were fully armed.

In addition to these chaotic spontaneous bounty hunters, the black-clothed iron guards, the Xiao Cavalry Army, the Feather Forest Army,

The Xiaoguo Army, Jin Wuwei and other Kyoto guards sent cavalry one after another. And the generals of several large battalions of the foreign army outside the city also received orders and dispatched the most elite cavalry to pursue. Henan Prefecture and other yamen also sent their own catchers and soap squads, with iron chains and iron rulers, to chase away.

The centaurs along the way quickly discovered the clues, and the information was finally gathered to the five headquarters of the black-clad guards. Sima Dekan and the other five each led a cavalry to pursue, and Sima Dekan looked at the handscroll in his hand on the horse, his face was extremely heavy. This handscroll is recorded with the information reported by the fast horses from all walks of life, and it has been less than two hours since the city gate was opened, and the chasing men and horses have actually found the marks of ten suspicious people and horses. And what made him even more troubled was that among the several big rivers near Luoyang, there were suspicious fleets that had just left. ,

He carefully looked at the markings on the scroll, each horse represented a team of horses, each boat represented a team, and now on his scroll, there were already nine horses, ten, except for the team to the west, there were traces of the team in the north, east, and south directions.

"Herald, pass on the whereabouts of the suspicious teams on this scroll to all search and arrest teams, whether they are the Praetorian Guards or the government soldiers, or those who catch them. Regardless of whether Ben Hou is a government soldier or a fast arrester, Ben Hou only asks to catch Chen Kefu in the shortest possible time. It is rumored that everyone has to live, Chen Kefu must live, as for others, life or death do not matter! "Yes!" Dozens of heralds each copied a handscroll and rode out in all directions.

At this time, on the ninth day of the first lunar month, the land of Henan is still a cold spring. Although there is no cold in Liaodong, the land of Henan is also a north wind howling. After a year, there was just a heavy snowfall in Henan, and although it has melted a lot now, the mountains are still covered with snow. Fortunately, it didn't rain, and the road was still workable.

Chen Kefu and his group of 500 men marched eastward along a hidden road specially designated by the Secret Service Division, followed by brothers from the Secret Service Division to help them sweep away their traces. This is also the reason why when Sima Dekan's men and horses investigated, they only found traces of people and horses on land and water.

When they first left the city, the sky was still bright, and Chen Kefu and his party galloped wildly, moving very fast. However, after an hour, Chen Kefu and the others were fine, but some of the ladies in the team couldn't support it. Li Xiuning, Yang Jier, and the eldest grandson Wujian are better, and they used to ride horses often, and they can still persist even if they are tired at this time. But the eldest grandson's aunt and several cousins and cousins, as well as Luo Lin's mother's young siblings, couldn't support it. They were all young, and they barely rode their horses for an hour, but at this time they couldn't hold on.

"Everyone get off the horse and rest for a quarter of an hour, drink some water and eat some dry food." Seeing that those people couldn't keep up with the team, Chen Kefu had no choice but to order a pause.

Qin Qiong sent a few guards to explore the way, walked up to Chen Kefu and said, "Dashuai, we haven't left Henan County yet, and we are still very dangerous." There were a lot of fù in the team, and they couldn't move quickly at all. If this continues, it will definitely be delayed for a lot of time. According to the opinion of the last general, it is better to take the brothers and go first, and the last general will bring dozens of brothers to escort the family and hurry separately. Luo Lin also nodded, "Dashuai, time is precious now, and we can't delay for a moment." Dashuai, you will go first according to what Shubao said. There are still hundreds of thousands of soldiers and millions of people in Liaodong waiting for you to return to preside over the overall situation as soon as possible, so leave it to me here.

Of course, Chen Kefu understood what everyone meant, and he really couldn't rush at full speed with these fùru. Even if you have two horses, it's in vain, and you can't drive much in a day. But he couldn't make up his mind to leave these people behind. The fù in the team is his woman or the family of several Kyoto-born generals such as Luo Lin and the eldest grandson Wuji, their sons and husbands follow him, how can he leave them alone.

"I can't leave them behind!" Chen Kefu shook his head.

"Chen Lang, you are wrong, we are so many people together now, and the speed is slow, which is the most obvious big goal. If we separate, Chen Lang, you take more people with you, and we will leave a dozen or so guards for the dozens of fù left, and then we will dress up in disguise, which will be safer. Zhang Chuchen, dressed as a personal guard, said softly.

After the Red Whisk Girl followed him, because she wanted to avoid letting Yuwen Shu know that he had abducted the people from Yuwen Mansion, Chen Kefu had been arranging her in the Chen Mansion without anyone knowing. This time he left, Chen Kefu also directly disguised her as his own personal soldier. Fortunately, Zhang Chuchen was born in Kabuki, but he knows some huā boxing embroidery, and his riding skills are also good, and he is also generous when he talks and walks, and after changing into armor, no one finds out.

Fang Xuanling also persuaded, "They are right, Dashuai, the most important thing at the moment is that you return to Liaodong as soon as possible to preside over the overall situation." Otherwise, if Liaodong is lost, what is the use of us running back to Liaodong. Shubao is right, the smaller the number of people, the less likely it is to be discovered. Don't worry too much, isn't there a brother from the Secret Service Division to answer along the way? Chen Kefu thought for a while and said, "I think so, we are still in Henan County right now, and it is too dangerous." We will not be separated for the time being, and we will wait until we get out of Henan County to Xingyang County, and then we will consider whether to go separately. ”

The eldest grandson Wuji was silent for a while, "Dashuai, in fact, after arriving in Xingyang, we can ask the brothers of the Secret Service Division to arrange the old and weak family members in a secret place first. Let's go back to Liaodong first, and wait until Dashuai Yi appears in Liaodong, I believe that the Central Plains will be much safer along the way, and then let the brothers of the Secret Service Department secretly send all the families to Liaodong. ”

"I'll think about it, it's not too early, let's go ahead. In any case, let's leave Henan County first. After leaving the city easily from Luoyang City, Lian Kefu still faintly felt in his heart that with the full cover arrangement of the Secret Service Division, it might not be dangerous to withdraw to Liaodong. If he could take these family members away, he would naturally want to take them together.