Foguang Pagoda was built in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and it is also the tallest building in Songcheng County, up to eight zhang, wooden structure, and also one of the symbols of Songcheng County, located in the Baiyun Temple near the west gate of Songcheng County.

In the night, dozens of men climbed over the wall into the Baiyun Temple, which is already commonplace in Songcheng County, the hungry people in order to find food, often in groups to climb into the temple, Taoist temple, only the patrol soldiers will stop when they see it, but now there are no patrol soldiers in Songcheng County, the hungry people are even more unscrupulous, go everywhere to steal, and even break into the houses.

But this group of hungry people who turned into the Baiyun Temple were not for food, they went straight to the Buddha Light Pagoda, and directly broke into the Buddha Light Pagoda where the scriptures were stored in the Baiyun Temple, only for a moment, the smoke in the Buddha Light Pagoda was billowing out, and the tongue of fire spit out from the windows of the second and third floors, and the fire spread rapidly upward.

Dozens of hungry people saw the fire raging, rushed over the wall and fled, at this time, dozens of monks in the temple rushed out, shouting for fire, the abbot of the temple was even more anxious to stomp his feet, decades of collection of scriptures are hidden in the tower, this can be all over.

At the same time as the fire broke out in the Foguang Pagoda, the county government also suddenly ignited a fire, the fire soared to the sky, and the people living around came to put out the fire with wooden barrels, but the fire was too big to be saved at all.

Zhu Qingyun, the chief general of the Sui army, was inspecting the north city, when suddenly a soldier shouted: "General, there is a fire in the city!" ”

Zhu Qingyun couldn't help but be stunned, his first reaction was that the Wagang army was going to attack the city, he turned around and looked outside the city, only to see that the Wagang camp outside the city was still dark and gloomy, and on the other side, the engineering camp was brightly lit, and countless craftsmen were busy making siege weapons.

There was no sign of the Wagang army attacking the city outside the city, and Zhu Qingyun was even more confused, could it be that the fire in the city was not a signal for the Wagang army to attack?

That's when it happened. A servant rushed over, panting and said, "General, it's not good!" ”

"What's going on?"

"The envoy called me to tell the general that the Bianshui warehouse was breached by a large number of hungry people, and the hungry people began to grab grain!"

Zhu Qingyun's eyes widened suddenly, and he realized it. It turned out that the fire in the city was a signal for the hungry people to grab food, and he was so anxious that he stomped his foot, "Follow me down!" ”

Zhu Qingyun led a thousand soldiers to rush towards the city, he was furious in his heart, and he cut off a dozen heads without frightening the hungry people, it seemed that he was too merciful, he had to kill, and slaughtered these chaotic people mercilessly.

Located in the south of the city, Bianshui Warehouse is a warehouse group covering an area of hundreds of acres. Surrounded by high walls, it consists of dozens of large warehouses that can store up to 100,000 koku of grain.

Because Songcheng County is an important transit place on the Tongji Canal, the imperial court in order to ensure the needs of the army and the emperor Yang Guangnan to go to the Jiangdu, it specially built this granary, the granary originally had 80,000 stone grain, Sui Emperor Yang Guang took away 50,000 stone grain when he went south, and only 30,000 stone is left in the warehouse at present. Yang Guang once decreed that these grains were all military rations for the Xiaoguo Army. Local governments are not allowed to use it.

But at this time, Yang Guang's will was no longer useful, and tens of thousands of young and hungry people had already smashed through the walls of the warehouse, swarming up from all sides, carrying bags of grain out of the warehouse. Five or six of them helped a cart to transport a cart of grain to the north of the city, and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

In the darkness, in the warehouse covering hundreds of acres, countless figures were shaking. Tens of thousands of hungry people were red in the face of the mountains of grain bales in the warehouse, and they desperately moved the grain outward, and the warehouse was in chaos.

"Don't rob!"

Jiang Baili waved his hands and shouted loudly: "Everyone carries a bag and leaves immediately!" ”

At this moment, there was a shout and screaming outside, and a teenager ran in in horror and shouted: "Officers and soldiers are coming!" ”

Everyone in the warehouse was stunned, and then Jiang Baili shouted: "Death of hunger is death, fight with them!" ”

"Fight with them!"

An ordnance warehouse was opened, thousands of knives and spears fell into the hands of the hungry people, they shouted angrily, brandished swords and spears to kill the officers and soldiers who suppressed them, on the street, tens of thousands of hungry people with sticks, hoes and knives and spears and a thousand Sui soldiers mixed together, blood mist was filled, limbs flew sideways, screams, wails, cries resounded throughout the county.

At this moment, an earth-shattering war drum suddenly sounded outside the city, 'Boom! Boom! Boom! 'The Wagang army discovered the chaos in Songcheng County and began to take the opportunity to attack the city, and the city wall became even more chaotic.

In the melee on the streets, hundreds of hungry people opened the southern city gate, and Shan Xiongxin led a group of cavalry to rush in from outside the city, each holding torches.

"The city is broken! The Wagang Army has come in! ”

The Sui army in the city was terrified, and they scattered and ran, and the Wagang army that was besieging the city had no defense, and groups rushed to the city.

At this time, Zhu Qingyun also saw the hundreds of Wagang Army cavalry coming in from outside the South City Gate, he was so shocked that he shouted: "Pass my order, withdraw the army from Xicheng quickly!" ”

"Retreat!"

Zhu Qingyun turned his horse's head and ran towards Xicheng, and the thousand soldiers who were fighting fiercely with the hungry people also retreated to the west city gate.

The Wagang army mainly surrounded the north and south gates, the Wagang army outside the north city was led by Zhai Rang himself, and the southern city was attacked by Shan Xiongxin, and the strategist Wang Ruxin suggested that Zhai Rang give up the east and west gates, as long as the Sui army withdrew, Songcheng County was at his fingertips.

Songcheng County has become a mess, the fire of the county government and the Foguang Pagoda is still burning, the hungry people of Bianshuicang fled in a hurry, tens of thousands of hungry people after paying the price of hundreds of dead and wounded, but robbed most of the grain of Bianshuicang, the retreat of the hungry people is because the Wagang army entered the city from the north and south gates.

At the same time, Zhu Qingyun led thousands of Sui troops to withdraw from the county seat from the West City Gate and retreated to the south, Taishou He Zan was nowhere to be found, and the Wagang army began to take over the security of Songcheng County, which was destined to be an unpeaceful night

The occupation of Songcheng County by the Wagang Army meant that the Wagang Army was about to occupy the entire Liang County, and in just five days, the Wagang Army's Eastern Expedition achieved major results, successively capturing Dongjun, Dongping County, Jiyin County and Liang County, which shook the world.

The Wagang army not only occupied a large area of rich land, which increased the strength of the Wagang army, but more importantly, the Wagang army cut off the road for Yang Guang, the son of heaven, to return to the capital, and the situation suddenly became tense.

Jiangdu is today's Yangzhou, is the second capital of the Great Sui after Xijing Chang'an, the reason why Jiangdu was promoted to the status of the second capital, which is inseparable from the experience of Yang Guang, the son of heaven, after the Sui army pacified the south and unified the world, in order to make the north and south as much as possible to integrate for hundreds of years, Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian ordered the second son Yang Guang to live in Jiangdu for a long time, and stayed for nearly ten years.

Yang Guang is full of feelings for Jiangdu, in addition, in order to attach importance to the south and improve the status of the south, Yang Guang will be located on the north bank of the Yangtze River Jiangdu as the capital of the Great Sui in the south, after nearly ten years of painstaking management, Jiangdu has become a prosperous and rich city in the south of the Yangtze River.

At this time, the entire imperial court had moved to Jiangdu with Yang Guang's southern tour, not only the imperial court, but also the wives and children of the court officials, who came to Jiangdu in thousands of big dragon boats under the escort of 100,000 troops, and the originally prosperous and rich Jiangdu suddenly became more lively.

However, the imperial court became extremely nervous because of the Wagang Army's Eastern Crusade, and the ministers jointly signed a letter requesting that troops be sent to exterminate the arrogant Wagang Army as soon as possible.

On the square in front of the Fengyi Hall of Jiangdu Palace, Pei Ju was hurriedly walking through the square towards the gate, Jiangdu had received an urgent report from the Central Plains for a while, but the military and the military department were still arguing about sending troops, and Yang Guang, the son of heaven, was also silent as usual, and did not express his position on this matter.

Although Pei Ju had already received Pei Renji's express report, he had been suppressing it and not reporting it, he was an old and cunning politician, he knew that in this matter, the later he expressed his position, the more advantageous, he believed that the saint would definitely take the initiative to ask himself.

"Pei Gong, please stay!"

There was an official's shout from behind, and when Pei Ju turned around, it turned out to be Wang Shichong, and it was Pei Ju's arrangement that Wang Shichong reported on his work in Jiangdu these days, so that the Flying Eagle Army had no worries about the southern expedition to Langya County.

"It turned out to be General Wang."

Pei Ju smiled and asked, "Is it the Holy Lord who summoned the general?" ”

"The saint didn't summon the lowly position, the lowly position just wanted to find an opportunity to apologize to Pei Gong, the lowly position definitely didn't have any malice against Pei Shuai, the last time the matter of Qi County, the lowly position was hot-headed and ill-considered."

Wang Shichong is undoubtedly a sober-minded person, he never takes Pei Renji to heart, but he does not dare to offend Pei Ju behind Pei Renji, it can be seen from his visit to Jiangdu this time that Pei Ju has a great influence on the saint, not that he can offend, so Wang Shichong has been looking for an opportunity to apologize.

"Huh! I have long forgotten about a trivial matter, and besides, the saint will not pursue it, what else do I care, and the general does not have to apologize for it. ”

"Pei Gong is really the prime minister's belly and can support the boat, and he has been taught!"

Wang Shichong bowed deeply, then said goodbye and left, Pei Ju looked at his distant back, and couldn't help but snort coldly. (To be continued.) )