In addition to being able to accurately seize the climate opportunity that is conducive to the self-army's operations, there is also a greater advantage that you can prepare in advance to deal with climate change, the snow is falling heavily in the Daxing area on October 15, and the climate drops suddenly, the Sui army officers and soldiers who have long prepared enough heating firewood, winter clothes and military tents are almost not affected by the winter cold, and can easily cope with the heavy snow, even those rebel prisoners who have just been captured on the battlefield can also huddle dozens of people in a tent to rest overnight, and cut firewood to make a fire for warmth. At least you don't have to worry about freezing to death.

In fact, in the nineties of the sixth century AD, the climate in northern China has begun to rise, and the climate in the Sui and Tang dynasties is much warmer than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wuhu Chaohua and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Xi'an in the seventh century has recorded that there is no ice and snow for three years, and the kapok can bloom directly in the north of the Qinling Mountains.

Fang Xuanling's crow beak is also quite effective, on the night of the end of the battle of Daxing, although the heavy snow suddenly became colder, many representatives of the gate valve family couldn't wait to run to see Chen Fuliang with generous gifts, even if they didn't get Chen Fuliang's overnight reception, they were not angry, and they also asked Fang Xuanling to arrange for themselves to meet Chen Fuliang as soon as possible, many children of the family in order to cut the queue to see Chen Fuliang early, and quietly stuffed gold and silver into Fang Xuanling's hands, Fang Xuanling was not happy to accept them.

Of course, the children of these gate valve families are not cheap, and they give bribes and gifts just to see a poor boy who was still picking vegetables and leaves to boil porridge and drink in Daxing City four years ago, these children of the family and the representatives of the gate valve are very proficient, they have seen with their own eyes the miserable appearance of Li Yuan's rebels in front of Chen Fuliang, and they have seen Li Yuan's 70,000 army run back in less than an hour by Chen Fuliang, knowing that Li Yuan's rebels are already in the general trend on the battlefield in Guanzhong, and the comeback of the Great Sui court is a foregone conclusion. Who is it that does not please the coach of the Sui army, Chen Fuliang, please at this time? At this time, if you don't hurry up to Chen Fuliang to stand in line and hug your thighs, how long will it be delayed? And since you want to stand in line and hug your thighs, the sooner the better? Or is it later the better?

It's a pity that Chen Fuliang, who is a villain, is not in a hurry to meet them now, and he slept until dawn, got up lazily and ate a full meal, and then swaggered to the Chinese army's big tent to meet with the generals on duty, Chen Fuliang first asked about the situation in the army, and made the highest instructions to speed up the collection of rebel prisoners, and then the first concern was the specific situation of Li Yuan, and asked Fang Xuanling and several other staff: "Is there any movement in Daxing City?" Did you give Li Yuan's old thief a funeral and filial piety? ”

After getting a negative answer, Chen Fuliang was not surprised, and nodded and said: "It's a good thing that there is no mourning, if the old thief Li Yuan is really dead, the thief army will not dare to give him a big funeral no matter what, and the lack of movement proves that the old thief Li Yuan is likely to have died of his injuries, at least he is extremely injured." If the thief army really mourns the old thief, we have to be careful. ”

"Last night, a few representatives from the gate valve who came out of the city asked to see me, and I also asked about some information by the way." Fang Xuanling said: "After the thief army was defeated and returned to the city yesterday, the old thief Li Yuan never appeared in public in front of people, and at the same time, there were no rumors that the old thief Li Yuan was dead or seriously injured in the city and within the thief army. ”

The scale of the outer city of Daxing is twenty-five miles wide from east to west, twenty miles long from north to south, and it is difficult to achieve a tight seal with a circumference of ninety miles, coupled with a large number of children of the Guanzhong gate lord family serving as middle and low-level generals and officials among the rebels, it is easy for the representatives of the gate lord family in the city to quietly get out of the city, which Chen Fuliang knows very well, and it is not surprising that he received the news from the city, and asked: "How about the troop movement of the thief army?" Are there any signs of shrinking into the inner city? ”

"Nope." Fang Xuanling shook his head and said: "I also pay attention to this matter, Yuan Kao, the second son of Yuan Yuanya of Shunyang County, introduced to me, saying that several of his fellow clans who served in the thief army are still on duty in the outer city, and the thief army has not shown any signs of giving up the outer city and retreating to the imperial city and the palace city. ”

Chen Fuliang, who didn't like to attack the fortification, frowned, and then comforted himself: "It's okay, the thief army has just been defeated, and giving up the outer city immediately will only hurt morale even more, no matter whether Li Yuan's old thief dies or not, how can the thief army have to hold on for a few more days before they can consider giving up the outer city, let's wait, the thief army will definitely give up the outer city on its own, and we can't afford to lose our strength in the battle of the outer city." ”

"Brother Xian, I think it's best not to wait passively." Fang Xuanling said: "Li Yuan is seriously injured and will die, or has died of serious injuries, we are only speculating at present, we can't confirm it, if we wait passively, if the thief army insists on keeping it secret and refuses to give up the outer city, or if Li Yuan's old thief survives and doesn't kick his legs, then wouldn't we waste a lot of time in vain, leading to the unexpected consequences of extraneous branches?" In the opinion of the foolish brother, it is best for us to prepare for the attack on the outer city of Daxing, and to seize the outer city by force, which can not only eliminate the source of supply of the thief army, but also allow our army to have houses to spend the winter, so that it is a safe policy. ”

Chen Fuliang nodded, and Yuan Tiangang over there also said: "Stay behind, since the thief army has strictly sealed the news that the old thief Li Yuan is seriously injured and will die, then we don't need to be polite, we can help them make the news public, and send some troops to Daxing City to shout to tell the thief army that the old thief Li Yuan has been seriously injured by our artillery, and further hit the morale and fighting spirit of the thief army, so that even if we are forced to give up the siege, the resistance we face will be much smaller." ”

Of course, Chen Fuliang, who hated the most to attack the fortification, immediately agreed to Yuan Tiangang's construction, and immediately arranged for the general Liu Shishan to be in charge of this matter, and then pinched his chin and muttered: "Blindly guessing Li Yuan's old thief's injuries and life and death is not a way, we have to think of a way to find out what the situation of Li Yuan's old thief is now, if Li Yuan's old thief dies, what adjustments will be made within the thief army, and who will succeed the commander, we must find a way to find out, so that we know ourselves and the enemy, and we can minimize the loss when attacking the fortification." ”

"I'm afraid it's going to be hard at the moment." Fang Xuanling said: "At present, the only people who can know the specific situation of Li Yuan's old thief are definitely his two precious sons, as well as his most trusted henchmen, the possibility of taking the initiative to join us is very small, although other ordinary thief generals may also be shaken, but the possibility that they can know Li Yuan's real situation is very small." ”

Chen Fuliang thought about it for a long time before he said: "It's time to contact Zhu Cang, he is half of Li Erlang's cronies, even if he doesn't know Li Yuan's specific situation, he will have the opportunity to spy on him." ”

"Stay behind, haven't you always disliked Zhu Cang?" Yuan Tiangang was a little strange, and said: "Besides, Zhu Cang, this person is eagle-eyed, good at killing, and his capricious personality is more unreliable than Yun Dingxing, and he may betray us at any time, instead of persuading him anyway, it is better to appease Miao Haichao, Miao Haichao has a deeper relationship with those who stay behind you, and is simple and loyal, as long as he accepts the appeasement, he will definitely spare no effort to do things for us." ”

"Miao Haichao's personality is a hundred times stronger than Zhu Cang, but his ability is not as good as Zhu Cang, and he is not very trusted by the thief army, so it is difficult to access such an important secret." Chen Fuliang shook his head, and then smiled and said: "As for Zhu Cang, I don't like him, his character and virtue are indeed extremely rotten, but the situation of Li Yuan's thief army is here, if he wants to betray us, we have to weigh the consequences, and it is not very likely that he will provide us with false information." ”

"And the most important thing." Chen Fuliang smiled again and added: "I contacted Zhu Cang, not to appease or persuade him anyway, but to use this chess piece that I have been hiding and idle for four years. ”

Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang and others were surprised and asked the reason, but Chen Fuliang smiled and did not answer, and said: "You will know in the future, I remember that Zhu Cang served in the Third Army on the right wing of the thief army, and arranged for someone to go to the prisoner of war camp to find me a few prisoners of war from the third army of the thief army, if not, as long as it is a prisoner of war on the right wing of the thief army, but it is best to be a team commander or something, and have a little status in the thief army." ”

Yuan Tiangang and the others agreed to go down to make arrangements immediately, and Fang Xuanling, who was actually Chen Fuliang's secretary, raised his pen and asked, "Brother Xian, are you preparing a letter to Zhu Cang now?" What's the content? ”

Chen Fuliang wanted to casually explain the specific content of the letter, but when the words came to his lips, he changed his mind and said: "I'll write it, this matter involves too many past events, brother, you don't know that it's inconvenient to write." ”

After Fang Xuanling agreed, Chen Fuliang, who usually likes to be lazy and let the staff ghostwrite, really sat next to the bookcase, and it was rare to pick up the pen to make a book in person, but after picking up the brush, Chen Fuliang didn't know how to put down the pen - because Chen Fuliang was really not kind enough to Zhu Cang before, Zhu Cang took the initiative many times to say that he wanted to be an accomplice to Chen Cang as a lackey, but Chen Fuliang has always been lukewarm to him, only taking a little gold and silver to lead, and never gave Zhu Cang any chance. Now that he suddenly asked Zhu Cang to tie his head to the waistband of his trousers and take the risk of spying on important military information, Chen Fuliang was really a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, Chen Fuliang's face and conscience have never been difficult with him, and after a little hesitation, Chen Fuliang still wrote a letter, brazenly praising Zhu Cang's loyalty and loyalty to himself, saying that it was not useless for him to let Zhu Cang lurk for many years, and finally waited for the opportunity to let Zhu Cang make great contributions for himself and for the Great Sui Imperial Court, promised to give Zhu Cang a bunch of official rewards, and then asked Zhu Cang to spy on Li Yuan's current specific situation for himself. But as it was written, Chen Fuliang changed his mind again, and said secretly in his heart: "Zhu Cang only has such a little use value? If I want to take advantage of his capriciousness and cunning, why don't I let him do more for me? Do something more critical? ”

After stopping his pen and thinking about it for a long time, Chen Fuliang made up his mind, first tore up the letter that had already written more than half of it, and then instructed Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng, who were looking at him strangely: "Brother Qiao Song, I have changed my mind, I still trouble you to ghostwrite this letter for me, I will dictate the general content, and you watch the polishing and make the book." Mr. Xuancheng, you prepare an official defense for me, write Zhu Cang's name, and make him the general of the right military guard. ”

After Chen Fuliang rearranged a qiē, the soldiers of the Sui army also brought Chen Fuliang a few carefully screened prisoners of war, and the result was quite lucky, among the several prisoners of war happened to be a rebel of the Third Army, or a local named Chen Gang in Daxing, Chen Fuliang was overjoyed after asking his identity, and then immediately entertained his fellow townsman and family with good wine and meat, gave some rewards, promised him an official position, and arranged for him to carry letters back to the city to deliver letters.

…………

On the first day of the battle outside the city, the traitors were dispersed, and many rebel soldiers fled in other directions, and then returned to the rebels to return to the team, which was a good cover for Chen Fuliang's messenger Chen Gang to return to the city, plus Chen Gang was a local in Daxing City, and it was more logical for his family to return to the city again, only in the afternoon, Chen Gang, who was still wearing rebel clothes, ran to the Guanghua Gate in the northwest corner of Daxing and asked to enter the city, explaining that he was scattered by the Sui army when he went out with the army, and fled to Longshou Mountain to hide all night, He returned to the city and entered the city quite smoothly, and the letters sewn into the inside of his clothes were not found.

After returning to the city, the rebel generals who urgently needed cannon fodder to defend the city naturally arranged for Chen Gang to return to the team immediately, and Chen Gang continued to return to the rebel right-wing army camp Yirenfang, but he could not see Zhu Cang immediately, until it was dark, Chen Gang seized the opportunity to meet Zhu Cang, who was currently serving as the head of the rebel army, and asked him to retreat, and then presented Zhu Cang with Chen Fuliang's secret letter.

Zhu Cang is a very smart person - not smart enough and can't do so many evils, in fact, as early as when Chen Gang asked Zhu Cang to retreat, Zhu Cang had already guessed that he was a messenger sent by Chen Fuliang nine times out of ten, although he was very dissatisfied with Chen Fuliang who had been despising him, but when things came to this point, seeing that Chen Fuliang finally remembered himself, Zhu Can's heart was still a little pounding, secretly excited, and subconsciously agreed to branch left and right. However, after taking the letter presented by Chen Gang with both hands and taking a closer look, Zhu Cang froze.

On the letter signed by Fang Xuanling, Chen Fuliang did not mention his previous agreements with Zhu Cang, but only recounted the old ones, and then he was very orthodox to persuade Zhu Cang to surrender anyway, saying that he knew that Zhu Cang surrendered to the rebels in Taiyuan because of the lack of food and grass, and it was understandable that he was forced to surrender, and he absolutely did not care, and pointed out that the rebels are now defeated, as long as Zhu Cang is willing to surrender anyway, He also found out the specific situation of Li Yuan for the Sui army, and he rewarded Zhu Cang with gold and silver, and named Zhu Cang as the general of the Huya Lang of the Right Military Guard, and also attached a formal letter of appointment for official defense -- it was completely to buy Zhu Cang with a monetary position.

It is conceivable that Zhu Cang was puzzled after seeing this letter, as early as four years ago, Chen Fuliang had already confessed that Zhu Cang deliberately approached Li Yuan and his son, waiting for the opportunity to lurk under the account of Li Yuan and his son, after the Yanmen War, Chen Fuliang gave Zhu Cang a few bones and said that he still regarded Zhu Cang as a subordinate of his cronies, in fact, Zhu Cang can be regarded as Chen Fuliang's accomplice and lackey, Chen Fuliang can only give an order if he has any explanation, and can he still persuade Zhu Cang to surrender and buy and induce him anyway?

"This Chen Gang, could it be the bait sent by Li Yuan's old thief family to test me?"

Looking at the messenger Chen Gang in front of him, Zhu Cang once had such an idea, but Chen Gang misunderstood Zhu Cang's meaning, and hurriedly said: "Zhu Juntou, the villain is just here to deliver the letter, Grandpa Chen said that you and he are old friends, and you won't embarrass me, I don't know what the villain says in the letter, if you don't have anything else, the villain will leave." ”

Looking at Chen Gang's submissive appearance, the smart man Zhu Cang suddenly understood something, and under the secret joy in his heart, Zhu Cang immediately jumped up, flew up and kicked Chen Gang on all fours, and then shouted: "Come on, take down this spy!" ”

"Zhu Juntou spares his life, Zhu Juntou spares his life!" Chen Gang, who was so frightened, hurriedly begged for mercy, but Zhu Cang ignored it, personally grabbed his collar, threw him to his subordinates to tie up, and immediately escorted this Chen Gang out of the door to find his direct boss Tongjun Yangtun.

Li Er, who attaches great importance to military power and security, is of course in the right-wing army at this moment, and Zhu Can, who was introduced by Yangtun, also soon met Li Er, who was thinking about how to completely control the rebels, after meeting, Zhu Cang knelt down to Li Erji, presented Chen Fuliang's letter and letter of appointment with both hands, took the initiative to confess what happened tonight, and handed over the messenger Chen Gang sent by Chen Fuliang.

The subordinates can be so loyal to refuse Chen Fuliang's bribery, of course, Li Er is very happy to personally pick up Zhu Can, kind words and comfort, and give a heavy reward on the spot, but Zhu Cang insisted on not accepting it, and said righteously: "Right Governor, the last general will be greatly favored by the general and you, even if he is broken, it will be difficult to repay him, then Chen Yingliang's dog thief has discriminated against the last general in every way when he was in the county, and made it difficult in every way, and the last general hates him to the bone, how can he be bought by him again?" In the end, this move is all revenge, and I really dare not receive the reward again! ”

Li Er, who knew that Chen Fuliang was indeed very unkind to Zhu Can, laughed loudly, and insisted on giving the reward to Zhu Can, Zhu Cang resigned, but he had to accept it, and then Zhu Cang took the initiative to say: "Right Governor, Chen Yingliang's thief once commanded all the soldiers and horses in the Battle of Yanmen, and he has many acquaintances with the old department in our army. ”

"That's what worries me the most right now." Li Er nodded gloomily, and after a little calculation, Li Er said again: "Zhu Juntou, I now appoint you as the deputy commander of the Third Army of the Right Wing Army, and concurrently serve as a military judge, take a good look at the Third Army of the Right Wing for me, and if there is any movement, you can come and report to me at any time." ”

"Xie Youdu." Zhu Cang hurriedly thanked him, and some sinister smiles appeared on the corners of his mouth.

"Besides, look after Miao Haichao for me." Li Er said again: "You can use any excuse to approach him and test his true thoughts, if there is any change, I will allow you to cut it first and then play!" Zhu Cang took the initiative to say again: "The right governor, Chen Yingliang's thief once commanded all the soldiers and horses in the Yanmen War, and he knew a lot of old people in our army. ”

"That's what worries me the most right now." Li Er nodded gloomily, and after a little calculation, Li Er said again: "Zhu Juntou, I now appoint you as the deputy commander of the Third Army of the Right Wing Army, and concurrently serve as a military judge, take a good look at the Third Army of the Right Wing for me, and if there is any movement, you can come and report to me at any time." ”

"Xie Youdu." Zhu Cang hurriedly thanked him, and some sinister smiles appeared on the corners of his mouth.

"Besides, look after Miao Haichao for me." Li Er said again: "You can use any excuse to approach him and test his true thoughts, if there is any change, I will allow you to cut it first and then play!" ”