In the big tent, Yang Yuanqing was listening to the report of Shi Yang Yi, the magistrate of Hanoi, Yang Yi was also a member of the Sui Dynasty, and he knew who he should be loyal to, so he bowed down and said: "The Queen Mother is very satisfied with the various conditions of the palace, and has settled down, without any opinions, I am very grateful to His Royal Highness for the arrangement." ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, in his impression, Empress Xiao was mean and narrow-minded, but after encountering a catastrophe, her temperament began to change, and she was even very polite to a county order, which shows her change, this is a smart woman, such a woman will be easy to deal with in the future.

"How is the eldest grandson?" Yang Yuanqing asked again.

"The eldest grandson was very silent, seemed to be in a very low mood, and did not say a word from beginning to end, and the lower officials ignored him when he talked to him, and the queen mother also reprimanded him for being rude."

Yang Qi's low mood was expected by Yang Yuanqing, and it was understandable that he was the eldest grandson, and the responsibility on his shoulders was much greater than that of everyone else, I hope he can recognize the situation and not do stupid things.

At this time, Yang Yi said again: "The Queen Mother asked me to tell Her Highness that she wants to have a good talk with His Highness." ”

Yang Yuanqing smiled, "I have worked hard to arrange the palace these days, if you see the Queen Mother, just say that the Sui army is about to launch the Luoyang Battle in the past few days, I am very busy, I will go to meet the Queen Mother when I have time, and ask her for peace." ”

"The lower official understands, the lower official takes his leave!"

"Go ahead!"

Yang Yi said goodbye and left, Yang Yuanqing pondered for a while, he sat back in his seat, and picked up Li Mi's alliance agreement casually, he had already talked to Fang Xuanzao, and the two sides basically reached a consensus.

However, this so-called alliance did not have any practical significance, Li Mi refused the request to fight the Tang army with the Sui army, and he also rejected the request of the Sui army not to march into the Central Plains, and both sides avoided substantive issues, it should be said that this was only a ceremonial alliance agreement.

But this kind of ceremonial alliance is also very necessary, at least the two sides have ended the state of hostilities, and many things can be sat down and discussed, and the two sides have changed from rigid confrontation to soft confrontation, which is good for both Sui and Wei, many times. Sitting down and talking can solve the problem, after all, war is only a continuation of diplomacy.

For example, if the Sui army occupied Dongjun, if there was no such alliance agreement, it was very likely that a battle would break out between the two sides, but with this alliance agreement, Yang Yuanqing would be able to give Li Mi a face and find an excuse, such as relief for the victims. Defense Dou Jiande and so on. In essence, the Sui army occupied Dongjun, but Li Mi could also explain to the soldiers, which was a tacit understanding.

Just like Tang and Wei also signed an alliance agreement. Therefore, the Tang army can use the pretext of dealing with the Sui army to blatantly send troops to Yingchuan County, their real purpose. But it is to occupy the Central Plains.

Yang Yuanqing carefully read these clauses again, the last of which is that the Sui army is not allowed to support Jiangdu Chen Ling, this clause is a bit funny, a bit of a cover-up and stealing the bell, it is equivalent to implying that the Wei army wants to seize Jiangdu, I don't know if there is this clause in the agreement between Li Mi and Li Yuan?

At this time, there was a report from the pro-soldiers outside the tent, "Chief Administrator." The patrol found a boat by the river, and the people on board, claiming to be Wang Shichong's envoy, had come to ask for an audience with the governor, and were now waiting outside the camp. ”

Yang Yuanqing frowned slightly, and asked again, "What is the name of the envoy?" ”

"It seems to be Wang Renze."

It turned out to be him, Yang Yuanqing smiled understandingly, "Bring him to me!" ”……

This is the fourth time Wang Renze has come to see Yang Yuanqing. But it was also the most nervous time for him, he didn't know if he could save Zheng Guo, Wang Ren followed the soldiers into the camp, waited in front of the deputy tent for a while, and a personal soldier came out and said, "My lord invites you in." ”

Wang Ren has dark skin. He was athletic, but he wore a white robe. Wearing a flat scarf, it looked a little nondescript, he tidied up his clothes, and walked into the big tent quickly, inside the tent, Yang Yuanqing was sitting in front of the desk to review the music, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed down and said: "Wang Ren will see His Royal Highness the King of Chu!" ”

Although Wang Ren was named the king of Tang, he and Yang Yuanqing's king of Chu really can't be compared, and even he himself doesn't have the courage to admit his own king, Yang Yuanqing of course will not recognize his king, let alone Wang Shichong's emperor of a city.

"General Wang, it's been a long time, please take a seat!"

Yang Yuanqing politely invited Wang Renze to sit down, and served tea to the soldiers again, and then asked with concern: "I don't know how the battle situation in Luoyang is now?" ”

Wang Ren sighed, "The Zheng army was defeated in two battles and lost more than 20,000 people. ”

"Why is that?"

Yang Yuanqing was a little puzzled, "As far as I know, part of your army is the elite soldiers trained by my master, and the other part is the fierce Jianghuai army, which is quite strong in combat, why did you lose both battles?" ”

Wang Ren smiled bitterly, "This is indeed difficult to explain, and if you don't hide it from His Royal Highness the King of Chu, it is because the clan interferes too much in the army." ”

"Oh!" Yang Yuanqing's face showed a look of sudden realization, "So that's the case, it seems that King Zheng has a problem with his employment." ”

With the increase in conversation with Yang Yuanqing, Wang Renze's inner tension also slowly relaxed, although he is a military general, he is as cunning and clever as Wang Shichong, and there is already a glimmer of hope in his Yang Yuanqing's attitude and tone.

In fact, when he crossed the Yellow River, he saw a big ship covering the sky and the sun on the north bank, and he knew that the Sui army would definitely send troops, and would definitely not allow the Tang army to occupy Luoyang, so when the Sui army would send troops, this was the key to the whole war situation, and this was also what Wang Ren asked for when he sent the Sui Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Wang Ren said in a very sincere tone: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, Zheng Guo has always been the head of the Sui Dynasty, has always followed the Great Sui, loyal, and now the Tang army is coming, Luoyang is in danger, I implore His Royal Highness to save Luoyang for the sake of the past we have been loyally following, otherwise, we are forced to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, which will make Luoyang a big trouble for the Great Sui." ”

Wang Renze's pleading words obviously contained a threatening meaning, if the Sui Dynasty refused to support Luoyang, then they would surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and let Luoyang become a confidant of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Yuanqing's face changed, and he said angrily: "Are you threatening me?" ”

Wang Ren was actually in a hurry, and he regretted it after speaking, he immediately knelt down on his knees, and cried suddenly: "Wang Nu will never dare to threaten His Highness at all, the situation in Luoyang is really critical, we hope that the Sui army will be like a baby looking forward to his parents, if His Highness does not save him, Luoyang will be finished, and I beg His Highness to send troops!" ”

Wang Ren begged bitterly, already in tears, Yang Yuanqing's face softened slightly, and then said: "It's not that I refuse to save King Zheng, but the court is very opposed, and the ministers of the court all say that since ancient times, there has only been one emperor in the world, and there has never been an emperor to save another emperor, this is my difficulty, as long as King Zheng can solve this problem for me, I will send troops immediately!" ”

This is the condition set by Yang Yuanqing, asking Wang Shichong to remove the emperor title and restore King Zheng, Wang Ren sighed secretly in his heart, Yang Yuanqing's condition is really not easy!

He still wanted to say something, but when he saw Yang Yuanqing's fierce gaze and the slightest non-negotiable decision, the last glimmer of hope in his heart was shattered, and he had no choice but to agree: "I immediately rushed back to Luoyang and persuaded the lord to remove the emperor's title and declare himself a vassal to the Great Sui, I only hope that His Royal Highness can keep his promise and send troops as soon as possible." ”

Yang Yuanqing said lightly: "If this is the case, I will never break my word!" ”……

Wang Shichong got accurate information, Qin King Li Shimin is in the camp next to the Qingcheng Palace at the foot of the Beibi Mountain at the moment, the Tang army's barrier has not yet been built, and there are only 20,000 troops in the barracks, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Wang Shichong finally failed to resist this temptation, and personally led an army of 50,000 to pour out, they crossed the valley, entered the Qingcheng Palace camp, and launched a fierce attack on the Tang army camp.

At the same time, Li Shimin arranged 5,000 crossbowmen in the camp, and 10,000 Xuanjia light cavalry lined up at the foot of Beibi Mountain, and sent Wei Chi Gong to lead 5,000 cavalry across the valley to attack Wang Shichong's rear army.

The battle lasted for a whole hour, Wang Shichong's army frantically attacked the Tang army camp, encountered the stubborn resistance of the bow and crossbow army and the continuous left and right attacks of the Tang army cavalry on both sides, and the corpses were everywhere, but Wang Shichong seemed to have an iron heart, no matter the heavy casualties, he must take the Tang army camp, he had seen Li Shimin in the barracks.

After paying the price of thousands of killed, the Zheng army finally opened a gap and rushed into the Tang army camp, at this moment, the 10,000 cavalry led by the Tang general Zhai Changsun and the Tang general Hou Junji suddenly arrived, scattered and galloped, raising a cloud of dust under the horses' hooves, they slashed with their swords, stabbed with spears, and Wang Shichong's elite Jianghuai army started a fierce battle outside the camp.

This time, under the leadership of Wang Shichong, the Jianghuai army was completely free of the chaos of the first two times, they advanced and retreated quite methodically, fought bravely, and attacked extremely sharply, Zheng Jun took the lead in defeating Hou Junji's 5,000 cavalry, forcing Wei Chi Gong's troops to give up attacking the rear army, and led 5,000 cavalry to replace Hou Junji's defeated army.

The casualties on both sides continued to increase, due to the disparity in strength, Li Shimin's army could not resist, the army was scattered, Li Shimin only had a dozen cavalry behind him, and the general Qiu Xinggong followed.

More than 100 Wang Shichong's cavalry chased closely, Li Shimin's personal soldiers around him fought less and less, only Qiu Xinggong was left alone, at this time, a burst of random arrows came, Li Shimin's mount was killed by an arrow, Qiu Xinggong dismounted and knelt to shoot, shot dozens of people, the arrows were not missing, and the pursuers retreated in panic.

Qiu Xinggong gave his war horse to Li Shimin, he fought on foot, killed more than a dozen people in a row, at this moment, a passionate horn sound came from afar, the main force of the Tang army came back, 60,000 main forces rushed to kill, overwhelming, the momentum was huge, Wang Shichong saw that the battle could not be won, so he had to order the withdrawal of the army.

The Tang army chased all the way, until the city, both sides of the battle suffered heavy casualties, the Tang army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, Wang Shichong lost nearly 20,000 people, so that the Zheng army only had 30,000 people, Li Shimin immediately surrounded Luoyang, led the army to attack the city day and night, Wang Shichong led the army to resist desperately, Luoyang City was in danger