Throw the Xinfeng City that has not yet been captured to Li Jing and Qu Tutong, who have just met with the division, and immediately lead the main force of the Eastern Capital to the west to Daxing, Chen Fuliang of course has his own difficulties in doing so.

In fact, the Sui army was also quite puzzled by Chen Fuliang's decision, and the opposition was not small, even his cousin Li Jing advised Chen Fuliang to act cautiously, not to be too anxious, and should first take Xinfeng to open up the Guangtong Canal waterway grain road, and then march into Daxing is not too late, Qu Tutong also volunteered to serve as the vanguard of the siege, promising to break Xinfeng within three days to atone for his crimes, but because of Yuan Tiangang's judgment and prediction of the climate, Chen Fuliang resolutely rejected Li Jing and Qu Tutong's kindness, and insisted on personally leading the main force directly into Daxing.

Of course, Chen Fuliang knows the danger of doing this, the total strength of the main force of the Sui army is only about 50,000, and the main force of Li Yuan's rebels is conservatively estimated to be more than 140,000, almost three times the main force of the Sui army, and it can be replenished at any time, Xue Ju in the west, Li Liang and Bai Yupo, the slave thief in the north, are likely to fall to Li Yuan's rebels at any time because of the cold lips and teeth, and Xiao Yu, the uncle of the Great Xiao State who guards the passage into Shu in the southwest, has been Chen Fuliang's sworn enemy since the first meeting, unless his head is in the water, it is impossible not to support Li Yuan's rebels, If these people also join the battlefield, then in terms of strength alone, the Sui army in the eastern capital will fall into the absolute downwind.

There are soldiers who must be saved outside, and there is a city that can be defended inside, and there is a heavy problem in front of the main force of the Sui army is the Daxing city defense, the current city wall is only a rammed earth structure Daxing outer city is indeed sure to be captured, but it is destined to pay a heavy price, and then hit the palace city inside, the Sui army will face a solid palace wall that is more than three zhang high and more than two zhang thick, and the special rammed earth is covered with a blue brick structure, and the special rammed earth is mixed with sieved fine clay and lime and glutinous rice juice to ram it, and the solid Cheng dù directly chases the concrete, and each piece of special green bricks has the name of the craftsman, It is so strong that it is difficult to break with a hammer, and when it is stacked, it is bonded with glutinous rice juice, and the brick joints can't even be inserted into the paper.

Before leaving, Chen Fuliang also announced the bad news that Yang Yu, the acting king, was killed by the rebels, and ordered the whole army to hang filial piety, and the death of the acting king Yang Yu, together with the confessions of Yin Yue'e and the rebel prisoners, as well as the before and after Li Yuan's rebels tried to plant blame for the Sui army in the eastern capital, and wrote a list of texts, spreading the news to all parts of Guanzhong, and sent a large number of spies to Daxing to post it to show the public, seizing the highest point of morality. It also exposed the hypocrisy of Li Yuan's rebels' so-called support for Yang Yu's ascension to the throne.

The main force of the Sui army did not go too fast, set off at noon on the tenth day of the first month of October, and only arrived at the camp by the Chanshui in the evening, and did not cross the river overnight, which gave the rebels some time to respond, and also gave the news to spread time, in the evening of the same day, not only did the rebels know the reason for the Sui army to wear filial piety, but many family members and civil and military officials in Daxing City also knew about it, but the largest number of ordinary people were still kept in the dark, and the vast majority of the people did not even know that the main force of the Sui army was only thirty miles away from Daxing City. Still dreaming of a good life under the rebels.

After learning that Yang Yu was killed by the rebels, he was forced by the rebels to control the obscenity of the inner and outer city defense of Daxing, most of the civil and military officials did not dare to speak up, only Yang Yu's attendant Yao Silian led a few low-level officials who were not afraid of death to come to the gate of the imperial city to ask for a meeting, and asked Li Yuan to explain the matter in person, Li Yuan did not dare to meet him, and sent Pei Lin to deny it on his behalf, insisting that this was Chen Fuliang's slander and framing, Yao Silian and others naturally did not believe it, He also asked Li Xiaogong, the murderer named by Chen Fuliang, to come forward to explain, but Pei Lin categorically refused, and under Li Yuan's secret order, he violated the national law by using the excuse that Yao Silian and others did not return to the workshop at night, and arrested them all and took them to prison.

When Yao Silian and the others, who were struggling and roaring, were just escorted away, Li Er, who was covered with mud and scars on his face, stumbled to the gate of the imperial city again, and brought back Yin Hongzhi, the youngest son of the Yin Shishi, to Li Yuan, Li Yuan heard the news and was overjoyed and immediately received him, but when his son wolf was unbearable and was carried in front of him, Li Yuan also turned from joy to anger, kicked Li Er's chest, and roared: "You did a good thing!" Who told you to go to the south bank of Guangtong Canal to save Xinfeng? Why don't you take the North Shore? The old man has told you a few times, in front of Chen Yingliang's thief, don't take risks, don't take risks! Why don't you listen? ”

This time it was Li Er's loss, he was kicked with four feet to the sky, Li Er didn't dare to say anything, and after struggling to kneel down to Li Yuanjishou again, Li Er hung his head and said: "The child is guilty, the child originally wanted to take a small break in the edge of the Eastern Capital official army, reverse the passive situation and boost the morale of our army, according to the child's did not expect that the Eastern Capital official army was as strong as a fight, and the continuous division of troops still had an obvious advantage over the partial division under the command of the child, and the defeat of Lishan was all due to the child's overestimation of the strength of his own army and the light enemy, and the child was willing to receive the crime he deserved." ”

"And Chen Yingliang's example, what's going on?" Li Yuan smashed the list text stolen by the rebel scouts in front of Li Er, and roared and asked.

After carefully reading Chen Fuliang's list of revealing the fact that the rebels killed Yang Yu, Li Er was even more depressed, and hurriedly gave a detailed introduction to Li Yuan about what happened, and then handed over the young son Yin Hongzhi who he had captured, and introduced that he had already asked for a confession on the road, before escorting Yang Yu out of the city, Yin Shishi did arrange a secret foothold in Lishan Jinsha Cave, and hid dry food, drinking water and clothes in the cave. After escaping by luck, he hid there and waited according to the requirements of the Yin World Master, and then there was what happened.

After listening to Li Er's report, and knowing that the rebels killed the fake Yang Yu and happened to take the only two real insiders Yin Yue'e sister and brother as witnesses, Li Yuan was surprised that things were so coincidental, and he could only look up to the sky and sigh, wailing: "Providence is so, Providence is so!" The old man tried his best to make Chen Yingliang's thief bear the name of the killer, who would have thought that such a thing would happen, and it doesn't matter if he found a fake witness and met a real witness, and indirectly sent one of the only two insiders to Chen Yingliang's thief, God don't bless me. ”

"Father, I can't admit it, I can't admit it!" Li Er was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly said: "Father, this matter must not be admitted, Chen Yingliang's thief is like a bamboo, and he will be in Daxing City tomorrow, Daxing is the time when the people are flustered, if we are charged with killing His Royal Highness the Acting King, the people's hearts will immediately collapse, and the people's hearts will be scattered, not only is it not the opponent of Chen Yingliang's thief, but it may also cause civil strife!" ”

"Of course the old man knows this." Li Yuan said with a gloomy face: "But now that the human and material evidence are in the hands of Chen Yingliang's thief, what else can we do?" ”

"Deny it, bite back, muddy the water!" Li Eryi pointed to Yin Hongzhi, who was crying next to him, and said quickly: "The child risked his life to bring him back, just to let him bite Chen Yingliang thief, father, you might as well let him come forward to testify for us, that is, he saw Chen Yingliang's subordinates kill His Royal Highness the Acting King, after the matter was exposed, his sister Yin Yue'e was captured by Chen Yingliang's thief, and he was rescued here by us, Chen Yingliang's claims on the list are all lies, and the daughter of the Yin World Master was forced by Chen Fuliang to give false testimony, and then he also announced to the world and completely muddied the water, It also makes the world not know who told the truth between us and Chen Yingliang's thief. ”

"You're not just covering your ears and stealing the bell, you're still a scoundrel." Li Yuan shook his head, he didn't immediately accept the baby's Jiany, but he didn't refuse either.

"General, the matter has come to this, and you can only obey the power." Pei Lin echoed: "The matter of His Royal Highness the Acting King, if we don't hurry up to give an explanation to the people of the world, we will be very passive in terms of morality, although the construction of the right governor is a trick and a backbite, but the prince and the loser Kou, as long as we defeat Chen Yingliang's thief, in the history books of later generations, it will only be recorded that Chen Yingliang's thief killed His Royal Highness the Acting King!" ”

Li Yuan didn't refuse his precious son's Jianyi, and after listening to Pei Lian's encouragement, Li Yuan could only nod and say: "Okay, it's only like this, tomorrow in the Wude Palace, convene a hundred civil and military officials, announce this matter in public, and first deduct the charge on Chen Yingliang's thief." Pei Lian, this kid is handed over to you to let him remember the words that should be remembered. ”

Pei Lin promised, and hurriedly asked people to take Yin Hongzhi, who was only ten years old, down to coerce and lure, and forced him to give false testimony at the next day's meeting to frame Chen Fuliang, and Li Yuan also yelled at Li Er: "Go ahead, go down and rest, and talk about the rest tomorrow!" ”

Li Eryingnuo, who had not had a good rest for three consecutive nights, did not go down to rest immediately after standing up, but just asked Li Yuan again: "Father, Chen Yingliang's thief let the partial division besiege Xinfeng, and led the main force directly west to Daxing, I don't know what my father thinks about this matter." ”

"The old man is also wondering about this." Li Yuan replied: "If it were another enemy, the old man would definitely think that the enemy had been carried away by the successive victories and carelessly underestimated the enemy, so he ran with an army of 50,000 to attack Daxing City, which was guarded by the old man's 150,000 army, but Chen Yingliang would never make such a mistake, so the old man still can't guess his true purpose." ”

"The child also thinks so, with Chen Yingliang's ability as a thief, it is impossible to make the mistake of underestimating the enemy." Li Er nodded, and said in a deep voice: "So, the kid is very suspicious, Chen Yingliang's thief wants to use himself as bait to lure us out of the city for a decisive battle, to fight a general battle with us, and to end the war in Daxing!" ”

"Chen Yingliang's thief has such confidence?" Li Yuan's expression showed some disdain, and he snorted coldly: "In front of the old man, he also dares to have such confidence? ”

"I don't know if Chen Yingliang's thief has such confidence, but he has to attack the enemy with a small number of people, and the most ideal way to defeat us is to win in the field." Li Er said in a deep voice: "So the child thinks that this time we must not fight a decisive battle lightly, it is best not to fight a field battle, and always rely on Daxing Jiancheng to confront Chen Yingliang's thief, frustrate his spirit, drag down his Ruhong morale, and then try to break the enemy!" ”

Li Yuan had long noticed that Chen Fuliang was afraid of fighting a tough battle, and he liked to use soldiers to be opportunistic, and he knew that the construction of his baby son was very reasonable and symptomatic, but for various overall considerations, Li Yuan could not immediately accept Li Er's correct construction, so he just nodded and said: "It makes sense, the old man will use the troops carefully, you go down to rest, and discuss the specific battle tomorrow." Li Er agreed, and then hurried down to rest.

There was nothing to say all night, and in the early morning of the next day, Li Yuan immediately sent a large number of scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Sui army, and asked to report the movements of the Sui army every half an hour, without the slightest carelessness, and then Pei Lin came to report, saying that Yin Hongzhi, the youngest son of the Yin Shishi, had memorized all the things that should be said, and also promised to serve the rebels.

In order to let these people hear Yin Hongzhi's testimony, Li Yuan also temporarily decided to hold a meeting outside the hall, so as not to squeeze these civil and military officials into the Wude Palace, but waited in front of the Wude Hall for half an hour in the cold wind of early winter, which made Li Yuan's father and son stunned and angry, the deadline for half an hour had arrived, and less than half of the more than 700 civil and military officials came, and the rest were not sick and on leave. Even their families didn't know where they went, and there were many members of the Guan Longmen valve, the most important supporters of the Lao Li family.

Of course, Li Yuan's father and son knew the reason why these wall grasses were sick and hidden, looking at the crowd of officials outside the hall, Li Yuan and his son wanted to drag those wall grass to cut off their heads on the spot, of course, Li Er also sent people to catch all the wall grass that pretended to be sick and avoided to attend the meeting, Li Yuan also gritted his teeth and wanted to agree, but at this moment, Yin Kaishan, who was in charge of the sentinel affairs, hurriedly came to report, reporting that Chen Fuliang had led the main force of the Sui army to cross the Chanshui, The front is less than 20 miles away from Daxing, and at the same time, there are many people in Guanzhong who are sandwiched to meet the Sui army in the eastern capital, and there are quite a few people in Guanzhong who bring their own dry food and ask to join the Sui army in the eastern capital.

"Daxing people are sandwiched to greet the officers and soldiers?" Li Yuan was a little dumbfounded, and blurted out: "Those people are crazy? Why did they greet the officers and soldiers? ”

"Our army has already found out the reason." Yin Kaishan replied with a sad face: "Most of those people are people who didn't get the relief grain from us at the beginning, Chen Yingliang thief sent a light cavalry messenger to Xiaoyu all over the country yesterday, saying that after breaking through Daxing, he will also open a warehouse to release grain, help the people in Guanzhong, and make up for the losses we have caused to the people, so those people who have not received relief from us are scrambling to meet them, and some people who have already received relief from us have also gone, and they all want to give relief to white-collar workers again." ”

"These insatiable shameless rats!"

When Li Yuan gritted his teeth, an even more shocking news suddenly came, Li Yuan's wife and uncle Dou Wei, who was in charge of confidential affairs, suddenly came to report, saying that several rebel soldiers were quietly plotting to secretly collude with the Sui army in the eastern capital, preparing to kill the soldiers and surrender to Chen Fuliang in wartime. Li Yuan's surprise was not trivial, and he blurted out, "The soldiers there?" The Zuotun guard soldiers brought by Yun Dingxing? Or the Daxing soldiers who surrendered to us before? ”

"It's a Taiyuan soldier."

When Li Yuan's father and son hurriedly asked the reason, Dou Wei explained in a low voice: "Those Taiyuan soldiers are all veterans who participated in the Yanmen War, and they were saved on the battlefield by Chen Yingliang's Qian Pengyan, and they knew that Chen Yingliang's thieves were very good at fighting, and they felt that we had no hope, so they decided to surrender to Chen Yingliang. ”

The green tendons on Li Yuan's forehead began to jump, and he finally knew how bad the current situation of the army was - Chen Fuliang's undefeated prestige was too loud and prominent, so prominent that no one in the world dared to ignore and forget it, and at the same time, a considerable number of the elite soldiers of the rebel army were once Chen Fuliang's old troops, and they knew Chen Fuliang's sincere love for his subordinates, and also knew that Chen Fuliang's military tactics were like divine help, and he never missed, and the elite soldiers who should be the core backbone were instead advocating for Chen Fuliang's self-help. How can this battle be fought?

"We must first fight a winning battle, defeat the undefeated prestige of Chen Yingliang's thief, and boost the morale and fighting spirit of our army, otherwise, this battle will not be fought."

Tie Qing said this sentence to himself in his heart, Li Yuan first ordered Dou Wei to execute all those wavering elements in a low voice, and then decisively gave up the plan to arrest those pretending to be sick officials for a meeting - it was useless to arrest them, and there was nothing to gain except for being more undesirable, so Li Yuan also ignored the grass falling in the wind for the time being, but immediately called out Yin Hongzhi and forced him to declare in public that Chen Fuliang's list was false, and testified that Yang Yu, the acting king, was actually killed by the Sui army under Chen Fuliang......

………………

In fact, Li Yuan was already very lucky, if he could see Chen Fuliang's current situation with his own eyes, then he would definitely not be so angry that his face turned blue, but he would faint on the spot. In fact, as early as last night, when the main force of the Sui army was still resting overnight on the banks of the Chanshui River, the various gate valve families in Guanzhong had already sent representatives of their children to ask to see Chen Fuliang, explaining to Chen Fuliang the reason why his family was forced to disguise himself as a thief, and also introduced what kind of indomitable struggle their family made against Li Yuan's rebels underground. And promised to protect the mansion property of these gate valve families in Daxing, and strictly forbade soldiers to loot and plunder.

Of course, Chen Fuliang also knew that these wall grasses were unreliable, but there was no way, in order to kill Li Yuan's rebels, Chen Fuliang had to at least maintain a superficial friendly relationship with these gate valve families, so Chen Fuliang not only tried his best to envelop these Guanzhong gate valve families, but also declared in front of these Guanlong gate valve representatives, "In fact, I am also a side branch of Guanlong, my wife Changsun is the daughter of Changsun Shenggong, Changsun Sheng is a genuine Guanlong family, I am his son-in-law, and I was born in Daxing and grew up in Daxing, So I'm also a side branch of Guanlong. ”

The shameless words are not in vain, Chen Fuliang can brazenly publicize that he is a side branch of the Guanlong Gate Valve, which naturally expresses his respect for the Guanlong Gate Valve, and the respected Guanlong Gate Valve family is psychologically satisfied, and the interests are asked for by Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang has to repay him a little, so in fact, including the two sons of Li Yuan's wife's Dou family, they all secretly came to Chen Fuliang to ask for a meeting, and accepted Chen Fuliang's appointment and dispatch, and the children of other large and small gate valve families, of course, will not be less.

At noon, the main brigade of the Sui army arrived outside Daxing City, ten miles away from the Chunming Gate of Daxing City, backed by the Guangtong Canal to establish a camp, the rebels held the city without making any moves, Chen Fuliang did not order an attack, and the two armies were temporarily peaceful. However, behind the peace and quietness, it was Chen Fuliang's worries, and he said secretly: "Today, I can't do anything to build a village." Starting tomorrow, within three days, if I can't lure the old thief Li Yuan out of the city for a decisive battle, then three days later, the snow will fall, and the ice and snow will absorb the bouncing power of the solid cannonball, and the power of my artillery will be greatly reduced. ”

Worried in his heart, Chen Fuliang had a smile on his face, and ordered loudly in front of the children of those gate valve families, "Order the whole army, deep ditches and high fortifications, build a strong camp, build a temporary wharf in Guangtong Canal to facilitate grain transportation, Daxing City is high and deep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, we must be ready to fight a protracted war!" "What kind of indomitable struggle against Li Yuan's rebels underground, Chen Fuliang didn't sleep for almost the whole night, just entertaining and receiving these representatives of the gate lords, and comforting them with kind words, willing to serve in the army immediately retained, appointed officials on the spot, and promised to protect the mansion and property of these gate lord families in Daxing, and strictly forbidden soldiers to loot and plunder.

Of course, Chen Fuliang also knew that these wall grasses were unreliable, but there was no way, in order to kill Li Yuan's rebels, Chen Fuliang had to at least maintain a superficial friendly relationship with these gate valve families, so Chen Fuliang not only tried his best to envelop these Guanzhong gate valve families, but also declared in front of these Guanlong gate valve representatives, "In fact, I am also a side branch of Guanlong, my wife Changsun is the daughter of Changsun Shenggong, Changsun Sheng is a genuine Guanlong family, I am his son-in-law, and I was born in Daxing and grew up in Daxing, So I'm also a side branch of Guanlong. ”

The shameless words are not in vain, Chen Fuliang can brazenly publicize that he is a side branch of the Guanlong Gate Valve, which naturally expresses his respect for the Guanlong Gate Valve, and the respected Guanlong Gate Valve family is psychologically satisfied, and the interests are asked for by Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang has to repay him a little, so in fact, including the two sons of Li Yuan's wife's Dou family, they all secretly came to Chen Fuliang to ask for a meeting, and accepted Chen Fuliang's appointment and dispatch, and the children of other large and small gate valve families, of course, will not be less.

At noon, the main brigade of the Sui army arrived outside Daxing City, ten miles away from the Chunming Gate of Daxing City, backed by the Guangtong Canal to establish a camp, the rebels held the city without making any moves, Chen Fuliang did not order an attack, and the two armies were temporarily peaceful. However, behind the peace and quietness, it was Chen Fuliang's worries, and he said secretly: "Today, I can't do anything to build a village." Starting tomorrow, within three days, if I can't lure the old thief Li Yuan out of the city for a decisive battle, then three days later, the snow will fall, and the ice and snow will absorb the bouncing power of the solid cannonball, and the power of my artillery will be greatly reduced. ”

Worried in his heart, Chen Fuliang had a smile on his face, and ordered loudly in front of the children of those gate valve families, "Order the whole army, deep ditches and high fortifications, build a strong camp, build a temporary wharf in Guangtong Canal to facilitate grain transportation, Daxing City is high and deep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, we must be ready to fight a protracted war!" ”