During the preparation of the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan, Chen Fuliang made another important army? Action decisions.

Ma Sanbao, deputy commander of the Western Route Army of the Sui Army, reported to Chen Fuliang, saying that Li Liang, who claimed to be the Emperor of Liang, had a water in his head, and in the first year he listened to the flattery of a Hu sorcerer, believing that God would send a jade girl from heaven to him, and he built a jade girl platform in Liangzhou to wait for the goddess to come, but the goddess did not come, and the famine came first, and the main purpose of the joint Xue Ju attack on Pingliang was also to grab food to relieve the urgent need, and after the failure, the famine in the land was more serious. Ma Sanbao and Jiang Mo basically took over Xue Ju's territory and saw that the opportunity was rare, so they took advantage of the approaching spring ploughing to launch an attack on Li Rail, not seeking to defeat Li Rail, the purpose was just to delay the agricultural time of the land controlled by Li Rail's army and not give them the opportunity to plant smoothly.

Not bad, driving Xue Ju to descend to the vanguard, Ma Sanbao successfully broke the Jincheng Pass, and the troops came to Huining, an important grain-producing area in Wuwei County, forcing Li Liang to send troops to rescue Huining and delayed the agricultural time. At the same time, the Hu forces under the rule of Li Rail also took the initiative to contact the Sui army, expressing their willingness to act as an internal should help the Sui army kill Li Rail, Ma Sanbao himself is proficient in the Hu language, and his deputy He Panren is simply a Hu person, after understanding, it was found that these Hu people were not fraudulent surrenders, but because they were really dissatisfied with Li Rail's brutal rule, and in order to re-dredge the Silk Road to facilitate business, Ma Sanbao felt that the opportunity was rare, so he sent a chapter to Chen Fuliang, asking Chen Fuliang to allow him to launch a full-scale war against Li Rail, waiting for the opportunity to eliminate Li Liang and recover the five counties of Xiliang.

Although he was very wary of the Hu forces, considering that once the five remote counties of Xiliang were separated from the central rule for too long, they would definitely give more opportunities for foreign races to infiltrate and invade, Chen Fuliang still agreed to Ma Sanbao's request, canonized Ma Sanbao as the general manager of the Xiliang Road march, allowed him to launch the Western Expedition, and reinforced his troops and provided him with grain and grass supplies, and entrusted all the Xiliang War to the oldest accomplice lackey under his command.

In addition, Chen Fuliang accepted the initiative of An Xinggui, an official of Daxing, and sent An Xinggui, who was from a wealthy family in Wuwei, to return to Wuwei as a spy, so that An Xinggui pretended to escape back to report to Li Rail, and deceived Li Rail's trust and took the opportunity to plot against Li Rail's subordinates to kill Li Rail. - If this thing is done, of course Chen Fuliang will give An Xinggui a high-ranking official, if it doesn't work, Chen Fuliang will also give An Xinggui a posthumous title, everyone will trade fairly, and don't take advantage of An Xinggui.

Li Rail's matter can basically end here, Li Rail, who is constrained by climate, environment and resources, is destined to not be able to turn up too many storms, and it is not worth Chen Fuliang to do too much care at all, Chen Fuliang is still most concerned about the war situation on the battlefield of Bird and Mouse Valley. But what Chen Fuliang really didn't expect before was that the development trend of the war in the Bird Mouse Valley would be completely out of his prior estimates, and it might even disrupt his overall plan for the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan.

Chen Fuliang's previous order to Liu Heimin was a bluff, creating the illusion that the main force of the Sui army might attack Taiyuan at any time, so that the Taiyuan army would prematurely enter a state of full combat readiness and exhaust the enemy. But what Chen Fuliang never expected was that because of a small mistake, his bluffing plan turned out to be on a completely different track, causing the Huoyi Sui army to fight with Li Erda in advance, and then recruited the main force of the Taiyuan army, which opened the prelude to the decisive battle between the main force of the Taiyuan army and the Sui army in Hedong.

Judging from the reports of various light and dark channels, Chen Fuliang found that Liu Heimin was also a little involuntary in this matter, it was entirely because of Li Er's idea of fighting fake artillery first that he started the war, and he was forced to abandon the artillery to force the Taiyuan army and the Huoyi Sui army to fight a war of attrition, and at the same time, Liu Heimin also reported his plan to Chen Fuliang, and was determined to use his own army to fight against the main force of the Taiyuan army first, so as to more effectively exhaust the main force of the Taiyuan army and consume their combat strength. So that the main force of the Sui army can fight better and easier in the future Northern Expedition. To put it bluntly, it is to sacrifice the ego to achieve the overall situation, and let the Sui army in Hedong shed blood and sweat first, so that the main force of the Sui army will shed less blood and sweat in the future.

The younger brother endured hardships and suffered by himself, tied his head to the waistband of his trousers and worked hard, so that the boss could easily choose the limelight in the future, when the old nature likes such a little brother, Chen Fuliang also likes Liu Heimin's loyalty. But Chen Fuliang's liking does not mean that Chen Fuliang's other younger brothers like it, as a general, he quickly climbed to the position of commander-in-chief of the Hedong Military Region like a rocket, Liu Heimin was already extremely jealous, and now Liu Heimin disrupted Chen Fuliang's Northern Expedition plan, resulting in many Sui soldiers sacrificed on the battlefield of Bird Mouse Valley, and the complaints and strange words against Liu Heimin will naturally appear no matter what, insinuating that Liu Heimin is ineffective and leading to the soldiers? Official letters about casualties also began to appear on Chen Fuliang's case.

Whether Liu Heimin can do anything Chen Fuliang knows very well whether the fallen soldiers of the Battle of Bird and Mouse Valley died in vain, Chen Fuliang also knows in his heart, and he completely ignores these sour documents. But what happened next made Chen Fuliang unable to pretend that he couldn't see or hear.

The situation seems to be very critical, the Sui army veteran Huo Shiju, the deputy head of the Hedong Road march, and the Linfen Taishou Zi period jointly reported that the Taiyuan army general Yin Kaishan led the army of 5,000 to the south to attack Yang County and Yueyang County in the middle of Linfen County, the two counties are in an emergency, Huo Shiju must protect Linfen City, which has hoarded a large amount of grain and grass and military supplies, and does not dare to risk sending troops to rescue, so he can only ask Liu Heimin for orders, but Liu Heimin directly replied to Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi, saying that there is no need to save these two counties, and the Taiyuan army can go and get it if they like it!

The matter was not over, Liu Heimin directly instructed to let the two county towns fall, Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi also reported an even more shocking thing - they heard rumors that Liu Heimin was afraid of being held accountable by Chen Fuliang because of the unfavorable war in the Bird Mouse Valley, and was surrounded by the main force of the Taiyuan Sui army and had no hope of breaking through.

Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi's report naturally shook the decision-making level of the Sui army, and Chen Fuliang could no longer continue to pretend to be deaf and dumb, so he could only express his position in front of a cadre of civil and military subordinates, saying that he believed that Liu Heimin would never do such a thing, all of this was just a shameless discord between the Li brothers, and he also expressed his support for Liu Heimin's decision to abandon Yang County and Yueyang County - with Chen Fuliang's current strength, he would no longer have to be stuck in the gains and losses of one city and one place, and he would lose Yang County and Yueyang and take it back in the future. It is worth it to temporarily lose two small counties in exchange for Huoyi and Linfen, which are as stable as Mount Tai.

The most disgusting thing is the divisive plan, which is the same for the Sui army, after listening to Chen Fuliang's statement, someone soon said: "His Royal Highness the Tang King, Liu Heimin is a general of the thief army, capricious, and now he is trapped in a lonely city, dealing with the main force of the Taiyuan thief army alone, and under the unfavorable war, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not have the intention of surrendering." ”

This entry attracted a lot of echoes, and even the eldest grandson Wuji, who is now serving in the Ministry of Internal History, did not dare to take it lightly, and reminded: "Your Highness, people's hearts are separated, Liu Heimin has not followed you for a long time, and he is not ...... old man in your old department. ”

"Shut up!" Chen Fuliang finally caught a punching bag and roared at his brother-in-law: "What old man is not old man?" As far as you are concerned, then I, the Prime Minister of the Tang State, can only use my civil and military subordinates when I was in the county? Count it yourself, how many civil and military officials in my prime minister's mansion can follow me longer than Liu Heimin? Am I not even able to trust them and want to kick them out of the Prime Minister's Mansion?! ”

The unlucky eldest grandson Wuji, who was unlucky enough to be the target of the arrow, obediently shut up, but Qu Tutong, Du Ruhui, Pang Yu and Sun Fujia, who were far less qualified than Liu Heimin, were all moved, and they were glad that they followed Chen Fuliang, a generous boss who was unsuspicious. Chen Fuliang snorted again, and then said to everyone: "Princess, I know that you are kind, but I can guarantee you that Liu Heimin will not have two hearts, he is not that kind of person!" I treat him as a national soldier, and he will repay me as a national soldier! ”

Everyone obediently shut up, and didn't dare to remind Chen Fuliang to beware of Liu Heimin's rebellion, but they were still a little dissatisfied in their hearts, Chen Fuliang was also very clear about everyone's thoughts, but Chen Fuliang was speechless - Chen Fuliang couldn't tell everyone that he was a traverser, saying that he had already known what kind of character Liu Heimin was, right?

Although he can use his authority to suppress everyone's doubts about Liu Heimin, the possible dangers in the Hedong battlefield cannot be ignored, and even Li Jing, who has not spoken before, said: "Your Highness, the main force of the Taiyuan Army is moving south, and the whole county of Linfen is in an emergency, and we can no longer stick to the previous Northern Expedition plan, and we must make certain adjustments." His Majesty believed that it was best to immediately send an army north to Linfen to reinforce Linfen County to ensure the safety of our military supplies, grain and grass, and also appropriately contain the main force of the Taiyuan Army, so as to share some pressure for General Liu Heimin and avoid further deterioration of the situation. ”

"Your Majesty thinks so too." Pang Yu also hurriedly said: "Once there is anything wrong in Linfen, Jiangjun will inevitably be in an emergency, and Yu Wenhua, who is stationed in Hanoi, will definitely take advantage of the fire to rob, making our army more passive." His Majesty asked for an order to lead an army north to Linfen to rescue the two generals, Huo Shiju and Liu Heimin. ”

Pang Yu opened his mouth, Qu Tutong and Li Jing also immediately volunteered, wanting to lead the army north to reinforce Liu Heimin, Chen Fuliang thought for a moment, but shook his head and said: "I have to send a support army to Liu Heimin, but you don't have to bother you to go out in person, you have already had the experience of commanding the army alone, this battle is just a partial division to contain it, not a decisive battle with the Taiyuan thief army, it is too overkill to send you." I mean, let Cheng Yanjin and Qin Qiong lead the army north, and I will also cultivate their ability to take charge of themselves by the way, so that they can be of great use in the future. ”

Considering that there were indeed not many colorful heads in this battle, Pang Yu and Qu Tutong also closed their mouths, Li Jing did not insist, and nodded very considerately and said: "What His Highness said is very true, it is time to give General Cheng and General Qin a chance to command the army alone, they are all about thirty years old, they are in the prime of life, and now they are exercised, and their Highness will be of great use in the future." ”

Speaking of this, Li Jing paused, and said with a smile: "However, it is estimated that these two generals want this opportunity, and it is probably difficult for you to decide who to give this opportunity, Your Highness." ”

"It's okay, let them decide for themselves." Chen Fuliang replied with a smile: "If they all want to go, and no one will let anyone, then let them decide who to go, whether it is a martial arts competition, or a lot, whoever is lucky will go." ”

While everyone was laughing, Chen Fuliang ordered to summon Cheng Yanjin and Qin Qiong, announced his decision to them, and asked them who was willing to lead 10,000 troops to go north to help Liu Heimin, but as expected, Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin really rushed to go together, and they both wanted to take a soldier to fight a battle alone, even if they were siblings and friends, they would not give in to each other, and then they decided to compete with each other without Chen Fuliang opening his mouth! Fortunately, Chen Fuliang changed his mind again, afraid that the two generals would be injured by mistake, so he decided to use lots to determine the coach, Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin applauded together, and then couldn't wait to pray to God and Buddha to beg for him to be able to win.

The result of praying to God and worshiping Buddha is that Qin Qiong's character is better, and he won the position of the main general of the reinforcements this time, although Cheng Yanjin is willing to gamble and lose without cheating, but he also regrets that he screams, Chen Fuliang smiled and comforted, saying that he would definitely give Cheng Yanjin the same opportunity to compensate in the future, and ordered Qin Qiong to immediately start preparing to send troops, and arranged for Qin Qiong to lead the army north to aid Liu Heimin two days later.

In fact, Chen Fuliang is also more willing to let Qin Qiong be the main general, because Qin Qiong is not only more experienced than Cheng Yanjin in terms of battlefield experience, but also more able to use his brain in battle, and his personality is heavier, and he is not easy to suffer in front of the treacherous Li family brothers. Therefore, after sending Qin Qiong to lead the army north, Chen Fuliang no longer worried much about the situation on the Linfen battlefield, and concentrated on only dealing with internal affairs, and prepared everything that should be prepared in advance, so that he could worry about the future when he personally led the main force north, and at the same time waited for the news of the vertical and horizontal cooperation with the warlords around Taiyuan.

The nearest Liang Shidu was the first to receive news, Liang Shidu agreed to accept Chen Fuliang's command and send troops to attack Lishi County controlled by the Li family brothers for Chen Fuliang, and after the matter was completed, Lishi County was also returned to Chen Fuliang, and at the same time, Liang Shidu was generous enough to send someone to escort Chen Fuliang's envoy who contacted Liu Wuzhou to Mayi, and showed some sincerity to Chen Fuliang - but the condition was that Chen Fuliang must make him the king of Liang after the matter was completed. Chen Fuliang considered that Liang Shidu was quite strong in soldiers and horses, and he was a great threat to his old nest Daxing, so he agreed to Liang Shidu's request, and Liang Shidu was overjoyed, in addition to agreeing to send troops at the same time as the main force of the Sui army, he also immediately handed over the envoy sent by the Li brothers to ask for help to show his sincerity.

Then there was news from Liu Wuzhou's side, Liu Wuzhou promised to help Chen Fuliang capture Loufu County and Yanmen County, and the conditions offered were also to ask for the title of prince and ask to obtain the land of Yanmen County, and at the same time sent troops to escort another envoy of Chen Fuliang to Yijun to contact Luo Yi. Chen Fuliang bargained, agreed to crown Liu Wuzhou as the king of Dingyang, refused Liu Wuzhou's land claim, and there was no response for a while after the letter went north, so it is not certain whether Liu Wuzhou will stab the Li family brothers in the back at that time.

Luo Yi's side is farther away, and it is even more impossible to receive the news in a short time, fortunately, Luo Yi has a record of being kind to Chen Fuliang's envoy before, and refusing to accept Chen Fuliang's appeasement is also an excuse to hang alone in Hebei surrounded by enemies, and he does not dare to become the target of public criticism, so Chen Fuliang estimates that even if Luo Yi will not send troops to help him fight the eastern part of Taiyuan County, it is unlikely to help the Li family brothers and himself in embarrassment.

Although there is little hope, because he likes Dou Jiande's upright character very much, Chen Fuliang still gave Dou Jiande a chance to reform himself, and sent an envoy to Linwei to contact Dou Jiande to appease him, and very sincerely canonized Dou Jiande as the king of Ji, and asked Dou Jiande to send troops to attack the Li brothers. At the same time, Chen Fuliang also specially arranged Xiao Shou, the second son of Uncle Xiao? Serve as a messenger to let Dou Jiande know his magnanimity and disregard for previous suspicions.

As a result, Chen Fuliang found that he was slapped in the face by Dou Jiande again, this time it was far heavier than the last time, Qin Qiong sent troops more than ten days later, first the Shangdang Taishou Yuan Zicai, who was appeased and returned to Chen Fuliang, sent someone to send an urgent report, saying that Dou Jiande's 20,000 troops entered Kou Shangdang County, and at the same time, Xiao Shouye also returned to Daxing with Yuan Zicai's messenger, wiping his tears and saying that he was not only categorically rejected by Dou Jiande's appeasement and canonization, but also scolded himself for a bloody dog, put it in a prisoner car and escorted it to Shangdang's subordinates who handed it over to Chen Fuliang, Not giving Chen Fuliang face to the extreme.

In addition, Dou Jiande also wrote a reply letter to Chen Fuliang, in the letter, Dou Jiande was very arrogant and canonized Chen Fuliang as the management official of Linwei Market, telling Chen Fuliang that he would not only send troops to help the Li brothers, but also break through Daxing and arrest Chen Fuliang back to Linwei to see the vegetable stall, so that Chen Fuliang could return to the glorious days of picking vegetables and leaves for a living.

After reading Dou Jiande's reply, Chen Fuliang couldn't help but be angry no matter how good his temper was, and he didn't understand what medicine Dou Jiande had taken wrong, why did he have to get along with himself? Furious, Chen Fuliang immediately ordered Shangdang and Linfen to send orders, asking them to closely monitor the movements of Dou Jiande's army, and to order Qin Qiong to let him try to lure the enemy, and find a way to hook Dou Jiande to cross the Taihang Mountain and wait for death in Linfen County!

On the first day of the first month of April, when Chen Fuliang was still preparing for the Northern Expedition in the second half of the month, Li Jing, who had been awarded the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, suddenly hurried into the Wude Palace, and with a nervous expression, he handed a Tang newspaper with chicken feathers to Chen Fuliang, and said: "Your Highness, the Linfen urgent report is bad news. ”

"Bad news?" Chen Fuliang was stunned and said, "Something happened in Linfen City?" It's impossible, didn't Qin Qiong's reinforcements already arrive in Linfen City? ”

"It's not Linfen City, it's General Qin Qiong." Li Jing said in a somewhat bitter tone: "General Qin and the thief army Yin Kaishan will fight in Yueyang, although the field battle won and Yin Kaishan was beaten back to defend the city, but Dou Jiande's partial division Wang Fubao suddenly killed from Hechuan, General Qin led the army to meet the battle, unexpectedly suffered a defeat, the loss was not small, Yin Kaishan took the opportunity to send troops to clamp it, and General Qin was forced to retreat to Linfen. ”

Chen Fuliang's mouth was open enough to fit two eggs, and he exclaimed and asked, "Qin Qiong has lost the battle?" How can it be? How many troops does the enemy have? ”

"Your Majesty couldn't believe it just now." Li Jing replied with a wry smile: "How many troops the enemy has, you may not even dare to believe it when you say Your Highness, it is only 3,000 troops!" ”

"Three thousand troops?" Chen Fuliang couldn't believe his ears again, and said in despair: "How is it possible? Qin Qiong will also be beaten more with less? ”

"General Qin Qiong has fallen for the enemy's arrogant tactics." Li Jing bowed his head and replied: "The thief army and General Qin were defeated and fled into the mountain road when they were fighting, and deliberately broke up and pretended to have no strength to fight back, General Qin was a little careless, thinking that the enemy had been defeated and did not be too vigilant, the general of the thief army Wang Fubao took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack at night when the fifth watch general was outdated, and personally led three hundred elite soldiers wearing the uniforms of our army soldiers, and suddenly entered our military camp, and his other subordinates also beat drums and trumpets in the mountains to frighten our army, and our soldiers did not know how many enemies came, and they could not distinguish between friend and foe in the dark curtain before dawn, It was killed by the thief army, and when the thief army team came, our army had no power to fight back. ”

After that, Li Jing added another sentence and said: "Also, General Qin also found out that the size of this Wang Fubao's army is actually about 10,000 people, and he deliberately only led 3,000 troops first, just to show the enemy and let our army underestimate the enemy's carelessness." ”

Chen Fuliang stood dumbfounded on the spot, and only after a long time did he scold, "What is the origin of this Wang Fubao puppeteer?" is so cunning, even Qin Qiong can fall for him! ”

"Your Highness, haven't you heard of Wang Fubao's name?" Li Jing asked in some surprise, and said: "This Wang Fubao, but a famous general under Dou Jiande, he fought many important battles during Dou Jiande's growth, Your Highness, don't you know?" ”

After recalling carefully, Chen Fuliang found that he had indeed seen Wang Fubao's name in the detailed investigation report, and vaguely remembered that he had won many battles under Dou Jiande, but because he had not seen this person on TV or in books in the 21st century, he had not paid attention to it. Li Jing over there said again: "Your Highness, when Your Majesty returned to the Eastern Capital from Mayi before, he passed through Hebei and had some contact with Dou Jiande's army, as far as His Majesty knows, this Wang Fubao is very popular with Dou Jiande's soldiers, and his reputation among the people is also very good, he is a rare general, General Qin Qiong was defeated in his hands, although it was unexpected, it is not too strange." ”

"No matter how talented a general is, it is also Dou Jiande's." Chen Fuliang snorted, but as soon as he finished humming, Chen Fuliang suddenly remembered one thing again, and hurriedly shouted: "Sun Fujia, hurry, immediately bring the detailed investigation report from Dou Jiande's side." ”

After Sun Fujia agreed, Li Jing hurriedly asked the reason again, and Chen Fuliang frowned and replied: "I seem to remember that there is such a thing in our detailed investigation report, saying that this Wang Fubao has a poor relationship with his colleagues and is very excluded under Dou Jiande, but I don't know if I am wrong." ”

Li Jing's eyes flashed, and he already understood the vicious intentions of his unscrupulous nephew, and hurriedly said: "I hope Your Highness is not mistaken, if this Wang Fubao is really excluded by his colleagues under Dou Jiande, then it can be said that it is easy for us to clean up this Wang Fubao." ”