The carriage door opened, and out of it came a young man, of medium height, wearing a blue cloth shirt, wearing a flat scarf, and wearing an ordinary long sword, although his skin was tanned, but it was still difficult to hide his bookish atmosphere, this person was Li Yuan's son-in-law Chai Shao, compared with the year before last, his appearance had changed a lot, and he also had a beard, even Zhang Xuan might not be able to recognize him at a glance.

At this time, a family member stepped forward and said, "Childe, the master is waiting in the study!" ”

"Lead the way!"

The family took Chai Shao and hurriedly walked to the inner house.

The owner of this mansion is none other than Li Jiancheng, who served as the second head of Wagang Mountain, which is a separate mansion he purchased in Yangwu County, and is also his contact point, where several loyal subordinates who are responsible for delivering letters live.

In the study room of the inner house, Li Yuanzheng was drinking herbal tea while reading a book quietly, his so-called going to Jiangdu to report to work was just an excuse, so as not to report to the Son of Heaven that he had secretly left Taiyuan, and his real intention of leaving Taiyuan was to find his eldest son Li Jiancheng.

Therefore, Li Yuan immediately left the fleet and moved to Yangwu County after making a slight appearance in Qian County.

The reason why Li Yuan wanted to meet his son in person was because the battle in the Central Plains really made him uneasy, especially after he received the news that the Bohai Society had gained the upper hand in the Wagang army, he was even more worried about the safety of his eldest son and whether his plan to recruit the Wagang army would succeed.

He felt the need to talk to his eldest son.

At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and then Chai Shao's voice came, "The little son-in-law is here to meet my father-in-law!" ”

Li Yuan was stunned, why didn't he come? He stood up and walked to the door, and sure enough, he only saw Chai Shao alone, and he asked strangely: "Virtuous son-in-law, what about your eldest brother?" ”

"Father-in-law, it's really inconvenient for the eldest brother to go down the mountain."

"I see. Let's go inside! ”

Weng and his son-in-law walked into the study, Li Yuan asked Chai Shao to sit down, and asked impatiently: "This time the Wagang Army failed in its eastern crusade, how much did it lose over there?" ”

"Father-in-law, this expedition is mainly Zhai Hong's army and Shan Xiongxin's army, and the two of them have suffered heavy losses. On the contrary, our army defeated Yang Qing's army at the foot of Wagang Mountain, but its strength has increased, and the army in the hands of the eldest prince now has 8,000 people, all of which are elite troops. ”

Li Yuan was suddenly overjoyed, there were actually 8,000 troops, which was really beyond his expectations, and he hurriedly asked, "What about the Bohai Society?" How many armies did they control? ”

Chai Shao smiled slightly, "It's very interesting to say." This time Zhai Hong's army was sharply reduced to more than 7,000 people, and Zhai Hong was furious, saying that Bohai would harm his army, and demanded that Bohai would be driven out of Wagang-"

"Wait!"

Li Yuan interrupted Chai Shao's words, "I heard you right! Is it Zhai Hong? Hasn't he always been a supporter of the Bohai Society? ”

"Father-in-law heard it right, it was Zhai Hong, and he suffered the worst loss in this Eastern Crusade, compared to supporting the Bohai Society. His interests come first, and this time he has suffered a lot of losses. He began to resent the Bohai Society. ”

"What about Zhai Rang? What did he say? ”

Chai Shao laughed, "This is the interesting part, Zhai Rang reprimanded him fiercely, and forbade him to attack the Bohai Society again, father-in-law understands!" Zhai Rang is playing balance, not only to win over the Guanlong nobles. In the final analysis, he does not want to defect to either side at all, but only wants to take advantage of the competition between the two sides. ”

Li Yuan nodded, he remembered an important thing again, and asked again: "How to solve the problem of military rations and military funds?" Is Zhang Xutuo stressed? ”

Chai Shao nodded silently. "This is the biggest problem we encountered, Zhang Xutuo is worthy of being a famous general, he does not attack the mountain, but uses the strategy of drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle, and gradually destroys the farmland around Wagang Mountain, our farmland has been sharply reduced by three percent, this autumn and winter is estimated to be sad, the problem of military food is not small, but more serious is the lack of military funds, including pig iron, leather, weapons, etc., the armory of Wagang has been empty."

"Then why can't you go down the mountain when it's built?"

"Father-in-law, it's not that the eldest brother can't go down the mountain, but he can't leave the army, Zhai Hong is eyeing our army, he really wants to swallow our army, we must be vigilant."

Li Yuan walked a few steps in the room with his hands in his hand, thinking about the eldest son's countermeasures, only with food and military resources can he develop, and Zhang Xutuo has too much pressure on Wagang, and he must find a way to relieve this pressure.

"It's better than this!"

Li Yuan turned back to Chai Shao and said, "You go back and tell Jiancheng to let him send someone to follow the path of Yang Qing, the king of Xun, and let Yang Qing help." ”

Chai Shao was stunned for a moment, and asked with some puzzlement: "Does my father-in-law think Yang Qing will help?" ”

Li Yuan nodded, "This person is greedy for money, and he has always been known as the King of the Central Plains, Zhang Xutuo broke ground on his territory, how can he be comfortable in his heart?" As long as the money is sufficient, I believe that Yang Qing will help with this and solve the problem of food and military funds for the Wagang Army. ”

"I understand, I'll go back and discuss with my eldest brother."

Li Yuan reminded again: "I still say the same thing, let Jiancheng find a way to establish a foundation in Hanoi County, although I am not in a hurry at this time, but I must start thinking about it." ”

"The son-in-law remembers, and he will definitely tell the eldest brother."

Chai Shao hurriedly left the mansion when it was dark, and Li Yuan looked at his carriage and walked away, but he was thinking about the chaos in the world, although Zhang Xutuo defeated the Wagang army and Zhang Xuan unified Qingzhou, which made the Great Sui seem to have some hope.

But Li Yuan knew very well in his heart that the stability of the Sui Dynasty was only an appearance, and the foundation of the Great Sui Dynasty had been shaken, just like sitting on firewood, just a fire, and ambitious people everywhere would definitely rise up, and this day was not far away.

．．．．．．．

Although Zhang Xutuo led the army to attack the Wagang army, his army was not enough to block the entire Wagang Mountain, in addition to Pei Xingyan's 10,000 troops, he only had 20,000 troops in his hands, Zhang Xutuo knew the risk of turning the whole into zero, it was very easy to be broken by the enemy, and more importantly, his current state was only to intercept the Wagang army's eastward crusade.

In fact, the Wagang Army's Eastern Crusade has failed, and Zhang Xutuo's military operations have come to an end, and the next step is whether he will continue to attack the Wagang Army or collect troops and retreat, there is no formal conclusion yet, so Zhang Xutuo is mainly stationed in Kuangcheng County, and from time to time he sends troops to destroy the farmland near Wagang Mountain, so that the Wagang Army can not carry out summer planting, thus affecting its autumn harvest.

It is precisely because Zhang Xutuo's army is stationed in Kuangcheng County, and Pei Renji's army is mainly stationed in Jibei County, so that the path of the Wagang army up and down the mountain is not completely blocked, and the Wagang army can still go down the mountain from the east and west.

In the early morning of the next day, Chai Shao returned to the camp from the west road of Wagangshan, of course, Chai Shao's pseudonym in the Wagang Army was Li Xu, almost no one knew him as Li Yuan's son-in-law, everyone only knew that he was the brother of the second general and the right-hand man of the second general.

The defeat of the Wagang Army's Eastern Expedition made a huge change in the internal power structure of the Wagang Army, the Xitang forces led by Li Jiancheng greatly increased their prestige and power rapidly because of the defeat of Yang Qing and the preservation of Wagang Mountain, and the Xitang led by Zhai Hong was demoralized due to the defeat of Liang County, and even internal contradictions, Zhai Hong also admitted to cowardice and did not dare to come forward to provoke again.

At the same time, Zhai Rang's Zhongtang forces also suffered a lot of blows, mainly because Shan Xiongxin was defeated by Zhang Xutuo in Kuangcheng, and thousands of carts of materials, grain and grass fell into the hands of the Sui army.

This time, it was not because of the influence of the Guanlong nobles, but because of the growth of Li Jiancheng's own power.

In the early morning, a mist like cow's milk shrouded Wagang Mountain, Chai Shao hurriedly walked into Li Jiancheng's courtyard, and a figure immediately came out of the room, it was Li Jiancheng who had been waiting for a long time.

"How's it going, have you seen my father?" Li Jiancheng asked impatiently.

Although Li Jiancheng didn't sleep all night and waited anxiously for Chai Shao's news, Chai Shao also rushed all night and was physically exhausted, but both of them were in good spirits.

"When we met, my father-in-law gave us good advice."

Li Jiancheng was also excited, and hurriedly pulled Chai Shao into his study to talk, the two sat down, Chai Shao told Li Jiancheng the conversation with his father-in-law as it was, and finally said: "Father-in-law still hopes that we can establish a force in Hanoi County, but this time my father-in-law is no longer anxious, he just hopes that the eldest brother will consider it as soon as possible, in addition, it is not necessary to withdraw all of them, as long as a foundation is established in Hanoi County." ”

Li Jiancheng paced back and forth in the room with his hands in hand, establishing a force in Hanoi County has always been in his consideration, this time if it were not for the failure of the Eastern Crusade, he would have established a foothold in Hanoi County, which is also his goal, to break away from Wa Gang and establish his own power.

Li Jiancheng has seen through the essence of Zhai Rang, he definitely does not want to take refuge in the Guanlong aristocracy or the Bohai Society, Zhai Rang just wants to use these two forces to realize his ambition to dominate the Central Plains. 、

Now that his Li Jiancheng's wings are gradually plump, there is indeed no need to look up to others anymore, but the key now is to defeat Zhang Xutuo, Zhang Xutuo does not leave Wagang, and he Li Jiancheng will not be able to go north.

"What does my father mean to let me follow Yang Qing's path?" Li Jiancheng looked back at Chai Shao and asked.

．．．．．．． (To be continued.) )