In the thirteenth year of the Great Cause of Sui, on the tenth day of October, Xiaoxue, the capital of Sui State, Daxing City, Liren City.

The snow is very small, only a thin layer is accumulated on the roof tiles, but under the dual influence of war and climate, the price of vegetables in Liren City has soared several times, and the white siad (cabbage) with yellowed leaves can be sold for more than 100 yuan, and the types are very few, only some radish, sunflower and onion and garlic, etc., occasionally some vines and leeks appear, and they are quickly sold by the cooks of the powerful and rich people, and it is difficult for ordinary people to even see them.

In the afternoon, the business is relatively light, the vegetable seller, the butcher or around the fire nap, or bragging, one of the vegetable seller's stone case is the most lively, surrounded by more than 20 people, listening to the stone case master spitting and boasting, the thief eyebrows and rat eyes of the stone case owner is also a person to go crazy, the more people listen to his bragging, the more he comes to the spirit, pointing to his own pile of vegetables of the stone case gushing endlessly.

"See? Do you see it? At the beginning, Grandpa Chen was squatting under my old Guan case to pick up vegetable leaves! I still remember his appearance, his face was yellow with hunger, his clothes were patched and patched, even those dirty vegetable leaves he wanted, I asked him how many days he hadn't eaten, he said that almost every day of the year, he relied on vegetable leaves to make porridge and drink, counting the rice in the pot. I saw that he was pitiful, so he asked him to come in and pick, pick a good pick, just come to me to pick in the future, he gave up to my old Guan and made a move, and took the initiative to help me move vegetables, and then Grandpa Chen He also really often came, and often hid under this stone case, when he saw someone pick off the leaves, he immediately picked so as not to be trampled on, once he was stepped on his hand, and he cried in pain, alas, that look, I still feel pitiful when I think about it. ”

"Brother Guan, Grandpa Chen was so pitiful at the time, didn't you help him?" A listener asked curiously.

"Why didn't you do it?" Lao Guan, who was a thief with eyebrows, rolled his eyes, and said very proudly: "I not only let him pick vegetables and leaves here at will, but also let him come to me often when the market is loose, and if there are vegetables that can't be sold, I will give them to him directly!" Chen Sanbo of his family has always remembered me, and then Grandpa Chen got ahead, Chen Sanbo also specially explained to the subordinates of the family, so that they often come to me to buy vegetables, once Chen Sanbo came to buy vegetables in person, and specially brought me a jar of wine, saying that it was to thank me for taking care of him and Grandpa Chen. ”

"Blown?" Another listener didn't believe it and questioned: "What is Grandpa Chen's identity after he gets ahead?" What is Chen Sanbo's identity? When Yang Xuangan came back, Grandpa Chen personally led Chen Sanbo back to the city to thank him for his years of nurturing grace. ”

Hearing this, the vegetable vendor Lao Guan's obscene face suddenly turned red with anger, patted his chest and said: "If I, Guan Yun, tell a lie, let me hit five thunders in the sky!" The wine that Chen Sanbo gave me, I am still reluctant to drink it! Do you dare me and bet? Bet on anything, and I'll be able to bring that jar of wine in no time!" ”

"It's true, we've seen it with our own eyes." Several adjacent vegetable vendors testified one after another, saying: "When Chen Sanbo gave Lao Guan wine, we were all present, and we all saw it with our own eyes, and I heard that the jar of wine was still the treasure of Wei Lao's family, and Wei Lao stayed behind and gave it to Grandpa Chen, and Chen Sanbo took Xie Laoguan for Grandpa Chen." ”

Many listeners were in an uproar, and they were surprised that there was such a strange thing, and Lao Guan's obscene face became even more proud, but soon, some listeners couldn't help but regret Lao Guan: "Brother Guan, you were really a good person and didn't do enough, if you had given more to Grandpa Chen, now you still need to sell vegetables here?" ”

At the mention of this sad incident, the smugness on Lao Guan's face immediately disappeared, and he shook his head and sighed: "Can you see that?" Am I not a living immortal? If I had known that Grandpa Chen could have his current status, I would have invited him home as an ancestor! Then my family will not have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of their lives. ”

Saying that, Lao Guan shook his head again and again, regretting it to the bone, and said with a smile next to him: "Lao Guan, be content, compared with the Chai family, you are considered lucky, you don't look at it, the Chai family bullied Grandpa Chen and forced him to withdraw from the marriage, what happened to him?" Compared with the Chai family, you can burn high incense. ”

"Yes, yes, compared to the Chai family, I am considered lucky." The old man nodded again and again, thinking deeply, and mentioned the well-known grievances between Chai Shao and Chen Fuliang, everyone present was interested, and they talked about the old things back then, and they all laughed at Chai Shao's family's eyes, and the dog's eyes looked down on people, and later fell to a worse than Chen Fuliang when he was poor and deserved retribution, but the people present didn't notice that not far from them, a man in brocade with a long sword on his shoulder, was silently listening to their discussion, and his expression was extremely lonely and melancholy.

It's not that there are no good things to say about Chai Shao, at least one of the people said: "Chai Gongzi is now extremely Tailai, rich again, he went bankrupt to help the general atone for his crimes, and now the general has entered Daxing, and immediately confiscated all the property of Grandpa Chen in Daxing, rewarded Grandpa Chai, and also named Grandpa Chai as the head of the Imperial Forest Army, and his power is overwhelming." ”

"He's a rabbit's tail, he can't grow." A listener pointed out contemptuously and whispered, "Do you know? Grandpa Chen's army has reached Xinfeng, the general sent troops to save Xinfeng, set off the night before yesterday, and yesterday was beaten by Grandpa Chen and fled back with heavy casualties, or in a few days, Grandpa Chen will fight back to Daxing again. ”

"Why don't we know about this?" The people chatting were all surprised.

"Lie to you that you're the turtle king." The well-informed people swore an oath, and said in a low voice: "The general does not dare to make this news public at all, and those defeated soldiers fled back and lived directly in the barracks, and were not allowed to go out." However, some of our local soldiers in Daxing were frightened and fled directly back to their homes to hide, so this matter leaked out. ”

When everyone was surprised and unbelievable, the brocade man who had been listening to the side slowly stepped forward, walked to the stone case of the vegetable vendor Lao Guan with his back hand, Lao Guan also said that he was going to buy vegetables, and quickly got up to greet the guests, but the brocade man did not say a word, just bent over, leaned over to look at the bottom of the stone case, his expression was very complicated, Lao Guan asked him what was the matter, but the brocade man straightened up without saying a word, hung his head and walked away, and finally said a word, "Don't talk about the war, spread rumors, or I will send someone to arrest you." ”

"What a big breath, who are you?" Lao Guan asked unconvinced.

"The head of the Imperial Forest Army, Chai Shao." The man in brocade replied casually, and walked away without looking back, leaving a vegetable vendor idler looking at each other behind the stone case where Chen Fuliang had picked vegetable leaves, and was surprised.

Chai Shao, who went out of the palace to relax, went straight back to the palace city, and just arrived at the gate, a herald greeted him, saying that Li Yuan was holding a meeting in the Wude Palace, and asked Chai Shao to go over immediately, Chai Shao promised, first changed into official uniforms, and then hurried to the Wude Palace, which had been changed by Li Yuan to the general's mansion, and saw that most of the rebel civil and military generals were already present, and Li Jiancheng, Wang Changhuan and Dou Cong, who also fled back to Daxing yesterday, were also in the palace, and sat down to listen to Li Yuan's talk.

Seeing that Chai Shao was late, Li Yuan glared at his son-in-law with some dissatisfaction, first motioned for his son-in-law to sit down, and then continued: "In view of Chen Yingliang's huge momentum and rampant soldiers, the old man thinks that it is meaningless to continue to send troops to reinforce Xinfeng, and will only give Chen Xiaothief a chance to break us all, instead of wasting troops in vain, it is better to concentrate all his forces on Daxing, relying on Daxing Jiancheng, and fight to the death with Chen Yingliang's thief!" ”

"Father, what about Duan Lun?" Li Jiancheng, who had a very good relationship with Duan Lun, asked: "Do you want him to abandon the city and break through the siege and withdraw to Daxing?" ”

"Nope! Let him continue to stick to Xinfeng! Li Yuan said viciously: "We need time, Duan Lun can't abandon the city, he can only hold on, even if the whole army is annihilated, as long as he can buy us a few days, it's worth it!" Send someone to give Duan Lun an order, ordering him to defend the city for ten days, and only after ten days can he abandon the city and break through! ”

Li Jiancheng was silent, knowing that Duan Lun would not be able to hold for ten days no matter what, and he didn't dare to say anything superfluous, and the rebels Wenwu and Chai Shao also knew that Li Yuan didn't intend to care about Duan Lun's life or death, but they didn't speak, because the rebels really needed time to consolidate the defense of Daxing City, and with the strong city to compete with the sharp Chen Fuliang, sacrificing Duan Lun was a pity, but it was also a necessary choice.

Then Li Yuan arranged the defense of the outer city, although the city wall of the outer city of Daxing is far less solid and thick than that of later generations, it is not strong enough and difficult to defend for a long time, and the Sui army of Daxing has directly given up the outer city before, and the Sui army in the eastern capital may also set up camp with its back to Weishui in the future and directly attack the palace city, but in order to consume the strength of the Sui army and protect the source of soldiers, Li Yuan still decided not to give up the outer city for the time being, and arranged for the generals under his command to guard the gates of Daxing one by one. However, at this moment, Dou Wei, who was in charge of confidential affairs for Li Yuan, suddenly hurried into the Wude Hall and whispered in Li Yuan's ear.

I don't know what Dou Wei said to Li Yuan, in short, Li Yuan's face quickly became ugly, and he also set his eyes on Yu Zhining, one of the eight major valves of Guanlong, who was at the scene, Yu Zhining was a little flustered but didn't understand the reason, so he could only ask tentatively: "General, what's wrong?" ”

Yu Shiqian, the head of the Yu Valve family, had helped Li Yuan clean up Chen Fuliang before, Li Yuan didn't want to offend his important supporters too much, so he hesitated for a moment before saying: "Zhining, the soldiers of our army found that there was a man who was suspected of being a fine work in the Eastern Capital, and entered the home of your brother Yu Qinming. ”

"Is there such a thing?" Yu Zhining was shocked on the surface, but he was not surprised at all in his heart - the gate valve family is this virtue, and no one will hang themselves on a tree.

"When the old man first entered the customs, Zhining, you took the initiative to go to Changchun Palace to join the old man, and the old man couldn't help but give you this face." Li Yuan, who also understood the strangeness, suppressed his anger and said quietly: "You go to see Yu Qinming now, and within an hour, take the initiative to hand over the person and explain the reason, and the old man will never pursue it." ”

Yu Zhining agreed, hurriedly said goodbye and left, and the other representatives of the Guanlongmen valve present also exchanged glances, and they all scolded secretly in their hearts, "**** mother!" In front of the door of Lao Tzu's house, is there also your eyeliner monitoring? ”

Of course, Li Yuan also knows that these Guanlong gate valves are not absolutely reliable, there must be other gate valves secretly colluding with Chen Fuliang in private, but Li Yuan really has no way, the news of the rebels' successive defeats in front of Chen Fuliang can be blocked from the people, but they can't hide these big-rooted gate valve families, these gate valve families will definitely not dare to go all the way to the dark for the sake of family interests, if the rebels don't hurry up to win a battle to boost morale, such things will only increase, and sooner or later there will definitely be a situation where the whole family will defect to Chen Fuliang.

was upset, and after arranging the defense of the outer city, Li Yuan ordered the meeting to be dismissed, just leaving Pei Lian, Liu Wenjing, Li Jiancheng and Dou Cong and a few other henchmen to accompany him, and Chai Shao, who was in charge of the defense of the palace, was also left, and after the outsiders left, Li Yuan immediately vented his anger at Chai Shao and scolded: "Where did you go just now? As the commander of the Imperial Guards, why did you leave Miyagi without permission? ”

"Father-in-law, my father's condition has worsened, and my son-in-law has gone back to visit." Chai Shao replied respectfully: "I walked around the street by the way and learned about the people of Daxing, so I am late, please forgive my father-in-law." In addition, the son-in-law also found an important situation. ”

"What's important?" Li Yuan hurriedly asked.

"The news of Erlang's defeat in Xinfeng has reached the people." Chai Shao replied truthfully: "After some soldiers from Daxing escaped from the battlefield, they did not return to the barracks and returned to their homes, so the news spread to the people. ”

Li Yuan's face became even more ugly, and after a long time, he sighed dejectedly: "You can't contain fire in the paper." ”

The resourceful Pei Lin and Dou Cong and others were also depressed and had no choice, because the current situation of the rebels was too passive, Li Er led the army to reinforce Xinfeng, and was defeated by Chen Fuliang and fled without even touching the city wall, Li Er himself was nowhere to be found, and there was no news of him alive or dead; Li Jiancheng and Dou Cong's army crossed Jingshui along the way, but Zheng Yuanshou, who received them to cross the river, was defeated by Li Jing and Qu Tutong in the battle behind the palace, and the loss was not small, and then Li Jing and Qu Tutong immediately went south to Xinfeng, a small Xinfeng City, and it was a miracle that Chen Fuliang, Li Jing and Qu Tutong were besieged by the three-way army at the same time, not to mention ten days, even if they could survive five days, it was a miracle.

After feeling sorry for himself for a moment, Li Yuan shook his head, tried to cheer himself up, and said to Chai Shao: "It's good that you can listen to the news attentively, but you are the head of the Imperial Forest Army, and you have the heavy responsibility of guarding the palace city, and you must not leave the palace city at will in the future." In this way, take all your family members to live in Miyagi, and it will be convenient for you to take care of them, and you will not be allowed to go out of the city at will without my order in the future. ”

Chai Shao promised, and Li Yuan instructed again: "By the way, by the way, sort out all the large and small yamen official offices in the palace city, so that it is convenient for future soldiers and families of hundreds of officials to live." ”

"Hundreds of officials' families?" Chai Shao.

"Yes." Li Yuan nodded, and Yin Yin said: "Chen Yingliang's thief is sharp, but his rear is not stable, and the weather is getting colder, his grain, grass and horse feed must be supplied from the rear, and it is difficult to transport, as long as we rely on Daxing Jiancheng to block his footsteps and hold on for a period of time, his rear will inevitably change, and we can also usher in the opportunity to turn defeat into victory." Therefore, for the sake of prudence, we must be prepared to give up the outer city and defend the palace city, and arrange the residence of the families of hundreds of officials in advance, which is also to take precautions and be prepared. ”

Chai Shao agreed, but he was a little suspicious in his heart, and said secretly: "Does my father-in-law want to take the family of hundreds of officials as hostages and force the whole army to defend the palace city?" ”

After discussing the military situation, Yu Zhining led his brother Yu Qinming to meet Li Yuan, and Yu Qinming, who was ordered to hang his hands, also honestly handed over the handwritten letter and messenger written by Chen Fuliang to him, explaining that he did not know that the messenger was sent by Chen Fuliang, and thought that it was a person sent by his relatives so he received it, and immediately brought it to Li Yuan after discovering that he had been deceived. Li Yuan didn't read the letter either, but praised Yu Qinming's loyalty to the country, forcibly rewarded Yu Qinming with an official position, and ordered it to be made public so that Yu Qinming had no way to retreat, and then let the following carefully interrogate the Sui army and track down the same party without mentioning it.

It was also after the Yu brothers left, Li Yuan opened Chen Fuliang's letter to check the contents, and what made Li Yuan angry and afraid was that Chen Fuliang did not mention a word in the letter to recruit Yu Qinming for his use, but only praised Yu Qinming's father Yu Zhongwen's world-class merits with sweet words, praised Guan Long Yu's talents, and said that he was lacking talents under his command, and implored Yu Qinming to recommend a few Yu Valve disciples to Chen Fuliang to ensure that they would be reused.

Chen Fuliang's letter is more hateful than direct surrender, it is completely aimed at the insurance psychology of the gate valve family's diversified investment, once the gate valve family sends people to Chen Fuliang to listen to it, it is equivalent to leaving a way out for their own family, even if they do not immediately fall to Chen Fuliang, they will definitely not use all their strength to support Li Yuan's rebels, and directly weaken the foundation of Li Yuan's rebels, which is a hundred times more vicious than directly bribing and bribing. And Li Yuan scolded Chen Fuliang for being shameless and vicious, but he also had to admire: "What a thief, really powerful, military and political omnipotence, the old man really underestimated him in this regard before." ”

"It's a pity that we made a mistake, not only missed a talent like Brother Ying Liangxian, but also formed too many indissolvable mortal enemies with Brother Ying Liangxian." Li Jiancheng also sighed: "Otherwise, Brother Ying Liangxian will definitely be used by our army, how can our army have today?" ”

Li Jiancheng's emotion was stopped by Dou Cong and Pei Lin with their eyes, Chai Shao hung his head and did not speak, but his heart was no longer as angry as usual, on the contrary, he admitted calmly, "Yes, if I hadn't made the wrong choice at the beginning, we wouldn't be where we are today, I regret it, I really regret it." ”

The matter was not over, just as the rebels were racing against time to strengthen the inner and outer city defenses of Daxing, and Li Yuan was still dreaming of using the Daxing city defense to block Chen Fuliang's sharp offensive, in the evening of the same day, a sweaty fast horse suddenly rushed into Daxing City, bringing an extremely shocking news to the rebels - just this morning, the Sui army led by Li Jing and the Qu Tutong army went south to join the main force of the Sui army, and then less than an hour later, the main force of the Sui army immediately moved westward and killed Daxing under the leadership of Chen Fuliang! The armies of Li Jing and Qu Tutong were stationed in the camp left by the main force of the Sui army and continued to confront the rebel Xinfeng defenders!

"Chen Yingliang is a thief crazy?" Li Yuan exclaimed: "He thinks that with the 50,000 troops in his hand, he can defeat the old man's hundreds of thousands of Daxing defenders and capture the inner and outer cities of Daxing?" ”

No one could answer Li Yuan's question, but the scout who came to report the news played again: "General, there is one more thing, the officials and the army suddenly have filial piety in the whole army, and there seems to be something serious. ”

"The whole army hangs filial piety?" Li Yuan was stunned at first, and then an extremely ominous premonition came to his heart. It's a pity that we made a mistake, not only missed a great talent like Brother Ying Liangxian, but also formed too many mortal enmities with Brother Ying Liangxian that could not be resolved. Li Jiancheng also sighed: "Otherwise, Brother Ying Liangxian will definitely be used by our army, how can our army have today?" ”

Li Jiancheng's emotion was stopped by Dou Cong and Pei Lin with their eyes, Chai Shao hung his head and did not speak, but his heart was no longer as angry as usual, on the contrary, he admitted calmly, "Yes, if I hadn't made the wrong choice at the beginning, we wouldn't be where we are today, I regret it, I really regret it." ”

The matter was not over, just as the rebels were racing against time to strengthen the inner and outer city defenses of Daxing, and Li Yuan was still dreaming of using the Daxing city defense to block Chen Fuliang's sharp offensive, in the evening of the same day, a sweaty fast horse suddenly rushed into Daxing City, bringing an extremely shocking news to the rebels - just this morning, the Sui army led by Li Jing and the Qu Tutong army went south to join the main force of the Sui army, and then less than an hour later, the main force of the Sui army immediately moved westward and killed Daxing under the leadership of Chen Fuliang! The armies of Li Jing and Qu Tutong were stationed in the camp left by the main force of the Sui army and continued to confront the rebel Xinfeng defenders!

"Chen Yingliang is a thief crazy?" Li Yuan exclaimed: "He thinks that with the 50,000 troops in his hand, he can defeat the old man's hundreds of thousands of Daxing defenders and capture the inner and outer cities of Daxing?" ”

No one could answer Li Yuan's question, but the scout who came to report the news played again: "General, there is one more thing, the officials and the army suddenly have filial piety in the whole army, and there seems to be something serious. ”

"The whole army hangs filial piety?" Li Yuan was stunned at first, and then an extremely ominous premonition came to his heart.