On the night of February 16 of the thirteenth year of the Great Sui, the heavens played a huge joke on the Great Sui Dynasty in the waning West Mountain, and without any preparation in advance, Chen Yingliang, who stayed behind in the Eastern Capital, judged the real goal of the Wagang Army by virtue of an impeachment note and a transcribed letter, and took more than 200 personal soldiers to ride the mounts of the civil and military officials of the Eastern Capital forcibly requisitioned in front of the gate of the imperial city. successfully saved Luokoucang, the world's largest granary, which was already doomed to fall.

Things should have been celebrated at this point, but no one expected that it was still on the same night, but because of the Henan arrest ambassador Pei Renji personally led the army to rescue Luokoucang, took away a large number of elite defenders of the Tiger Prison Pass, and gave the Wagang Army a God-given opportunity to echo the front and back of the Tiger Prison Pass. Even Luoyang City, the eastern capital of the Great Sui, no longer dared to sit back in peace.

In this regard, the biggest culprit Pei Renji declared to the outside world, saying: "The old man is worried about the safety of Luokoucang, the old man received the news at that time, only more than 200 personal soldiers brought by Chen Liushou in the eastern capital rushed to Luokoucang to reinforce, before the old man only sent a thousand reinforcements to Hugao Pass, but the Wagang thieves were personally led by Zhai Rang and Li Mi, the momentum is not trivial, the old man is worried that Luokoucang will be lost, so he personally led the army to reinforce Luokoucang, but I didn't expect the Wagang thieves to be cunning to this point, was able to take advantage of the small space where the old man temporarily left the Tiger Prison Pass to see the stitches and take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack. ”

"Greedy for merit, profit makes wisdom faint!" This is Chen Fuliang's most polite evaluation to his distant uncle, and he also speculated very viciously about the psychology of his distant uncle at that time, "What? Did the Wagang thieves really make a detour to attack Luokoucang? It's over, how can the old man explain to His Majesty now? The Wagang thieves are interspersed with surprise attacks under my nose, Chen Yingliang has already warned me before, I don't believe that there is such a thing and refuse to send troops, or the royal power resists the order and insists, so I was forced to send a thousand reinforcements, no matter whether this Luokoucang can be kept or not, Your Majesty can't spare me! ”

"Wait, Zhai Rang and Li Mi personally led the army to attack Luokoucang? Good! God-given opportunity, if the old man can capture and kill these two thieves or one of them, it will be a great achievement, and His Majesty will definitely be happy! Yes, send troops immediately, the sooner the better! Otherwise, the reinforcements from the Eastern Capital will definitely come to Luokoucang in an endless stream, and if Chen Yingliang is allowed to rob this miraculous feat, the old man's face will have no place to rest! ”

Regardless of whether Pei Renji cares about chaos, makes mistakes in his busyness, or is greedy for merit, and is dizzy, it is too late to say this, after successfully taking the Tiger Prison Pass, the Wagang Army occupying the Tiger Prison Pass has already controlled all the initiative on the battlefield of the Eastern Capital, and can retreat according to the Xiongguan Pass, and if you enter, you can attack all parts of the Eastern Capital at any time, if you have the opportunity, you will fight, and if you don't have the opportunity, you will withdraw, and the battle or not and the advance and retreat are all decided by the Wagang Army, but the Dongdu Army, which has no danger to defend, can only be guarded everywhere and passively beaten everywhere, If you are not careful, you are likely to repeat the mistake of the Tiger Pass, and you will be at an absolute disadvantage tactically, and you will not be able to recapture the Tiger Pass for a day, and you will not be able to reverse this passive situation for a day.

It is precisely because of this that after successfully seizing the Tiger Prison Pass, although the leader of the Wagang Army, Zhai Rang, has not yet been able to withdraw to the Tiger Prison Pass, and the west city defense of the Tiger Prison Pass is still in the process of consolidating, the Tiger Prison Pass still broke out in bursts of cheers one after another, up to Zhai Hong, Shan Xiongxin, Xu Shixun and Wang Ruxin and other Wagang generals, down to the families of ordinary soldiers and soldiers, all of them are full of smiles, since joining the Wagang Army, Yang Zhiji, who has rarely shown his feelings, can't help but burst into tears on the wall of the Tiger Prison Pass, Recalls the glory of following his brother Yang Xuangan to seize this tiger prison.

As the greatest hero of the capture of this tiger prison pass, Li Mi was of course regarded as a god by the generals of the Wagang army, and in the case of Zhai Rang's whereabouts for the time being, even Zhai Rang's brother Zhai Hong and nephew Zhai Mohou, as well as Shan Xiongxin and Xu Shichang and other old people in Wagang, also consciously accepted Li Mi's orders, under the command of Li Mi, cleaned up the remnants of the enemy in the city, counted military supplies and consolidated the western city defense, in fact, Li Mi regarded Li Mi as the temporary boss of the Wagang army.

But then again, the current Li Mi is also very fair, he clothed his own clothes and food, and rewarded all the gold and silver to his subordinates, not to mention, in the case of having set up his own door, Li Mi also completely achieved a bowl of water during the temporary era of the leader of Wagang, and did not favor the Pushan public camp soldiers under his command at all, and the money, food, and military supplies obtained were all equally divided, not taking a penny of the Wagang army, and at the same time took the initiative to send a large number of people out of the customs to the vicinity of Luokoucang to inquire and find Zhai Rang's whereabouts, Therefore, the generals of the Wagang Army also respect and love Li Mi as much as they respect Zhai Rang, and they completely obey Li Mi's orders unconditionally.

In the afternoon, he went out to inquire about Zhai Rang's whereabouts and brought back the first piece of news about Zhai Rang, saying that Zhai Rang had been attacking Luokou for a long time, and seeing that the most ferocious and brutal Baoguo army in the eastern capital had arrived, he took the initiative to retreat to the southern mountains. It was also after receiving this news that Li Mi realized that his wise man must have made a mistake, and after all, he forgot the contact signal with Zhai Rang to make an appointment to capture the Tiger Prison Pass, causing Zhai Rang not to dare to retreat to the Tiger Prison Pass without knowing whether his surprise attack on the Tiger Prison Pass was successful, so he could only go south. So Li Mi also rarely knocked his head and blamed himself, and said: "One hundred secrets, I am really one hundred secrets, how can I forget this?" ”

Hearing Li Mi's words, the left and right cronies Wang Bodang, Fang Xuanzao and Li Xuanying and others hurriedly asked the reason, Li Mi smiled and explained, but several cronies didn't care, and said What is this, the great thing is that Zhai Rang will come back a few days later. Among them, Fang Xuanzao, who had already known Li Mi during Yang Xuangan's rebellion, also laughed in a low voice: "It's best if Zhai Rang can't come back, and the Wagang army has no leader, so they can only obey Pushan Gong forever." ”

Several cronies all nodded, but Li Mi smiled and said, "Don't say that, although King Zhai has many flaws, he is still quite good to us, I still hope that he can come back safely and celebrate the victory of Tiger Prison with us." ”

Laughing and stopping his henchmen and lackeys from continuing on this topic, Li Mi summoned the Wagang generals again, and announced the news of Zhai Rang's safe retreat in public, and the Wagang generals who were worried about Zhai Rang's safety were all overjoyed, and hurriedly begged Li Mi to immediately send someone to contact Zhai Rang, inform Zhai Rang of the good news, and also try to take Zhai Rang back to the city, Li Mi smiled and agreed, and immediately arranged for people to go out of the customs to find Zhai Rang in the area of Fangshan, and sent people to detour to the south of Fangshan, where they could go there to greet Zhai Rang, who might also directly evacuate Fangshan and flee for his life.

It was also a coincidence that just after arranging these things, when all the generals of the Wagang army were still gathered together, the herald outside the door suddenly came to report, saying that the army that swept away the remnants of the enemy had found an important figure in the pit of a private house, claiming that his surname was Xiao Huaijing, and that he was currently serving as a supervisor in Pei Renji's army. When Li Mi heard this, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly shouted: "Quick, come and see me." By the way, let him take a bath first, and don't smoke the generals here. ”

Li Mi's words of course caused the audience to laugh, after a lot of time, Uncle Xiao Guo was really wet and was escorted into the lobby, and there was really a lot of aftertaste of the reincarnation of grains on his body, seeing Uncle Xiao Xiao's wolf appearance, of course the generals of Wagang were laughing again, Li Mi was angry and funny, and shouted to the escort soldiers: "I asked you to bathe Xiao Jian Jun, who told you to wash him with water?" Quick, invite Xiao Jianjun to the back hall, let him bathe and change clothes, and then invite him here. ”

Hearing this, Uncle Xiao Guo, who unfortunately fell into the pit and suffered humiliation, was so moved that tears fell, and immediately knelt down to Li Mi on both knees, kowtowed to express his willingness to surrender, Li Mi accepted Uncle Xiao's surrender with a smile, and asked people to take Uncle Xiao Xiao down to bathe and change clothes, and it was also after Uncle Xiao Xiao left, Zhai Rang's brother Zhai Hongcai shouted to Li Mi: "Pushan Gong, what are you polite to these dog officials?" Forget it with a knife, why bother? ”

"You can't kill it, this Xiao Huaijing is still very useful." Li Mi smiled and shook his head, refusing to explain the real reason why he didn't kill Uncle Xiao Guo, let alone disclosing that the failure of the Wagang Army's sneak attack on Luokoucang was all because Uncle Xiao Guo inserted a pole to guide the extraneous branches, but he just said nonsense: "This Xiao Huaijing has already taken the initiative to express his willingness to surrender, if we kill him again, who else in the officials around the country will dare to surrender to us in the future?" You should have heard of the truth of the golden bones, General Zhai, right? ”

After a lot of time, Uncle Xiao Guo, who had changed into clean clothes, was taken to the hall again, and once again took the initiative to salute Li Mi to express his willingness to surrender, Li Mi comforted him with kind words, and asked him about his capture, only to know that when the Tiger Prison was broken last night, Uncle Xiao Guo failed to escape out of the city with the defeated soldiers of the Sui army, and was afraid of being killed after being discovered by the Wagang army, so he ran to hide in the house, and later when the Wagang army searched for the remnants of the enemy everywhere, Uncle Xiao Guo hid in Tibet again, but unfortunately fell into the pit and was found, And that's what happened.

After listening to Uncle Xiao Xiao's introduction, Li Mi was somewhat puzzled, so he asked: "Xiao Jian Jun, I remember that after the city was broken last night, a large number of officers and soldiers fled from the city, and they also took away a lot of wounded war horses, how could you, as a prison army, not be with the main army?" ”

Uncle Xiao Guo burst into tears when he heard this, and choked up: "King Li, it's not that I don't want to run away with them, it's that they don't want to flee with me, because I oppose Pei Renji's indiscriminate reward of soldiers, Pei Renji's generals and soldiers under the command of the puppet all have a bad attitude towards me and don't want to be with me, so after your army entered the city last night, they ran away directly, and no one was willing to pay attention to me." ”

"This guy should be put back." Li Mi immediately made up his mind in his heart, and said secretly: "Of course, it is best to let him go back to act as an internal agent for me, even if he can't, letting him go back can disgust Pei Renji, and he can also sell a face to Tang Guogong, so that I can collect more information about the Eastern Capital through the channels of Tang Guogong in the future, and now that I am facing Chen Yingliang's traitors, I need the intelligence support of the Eastern Capital even more." ”

After making up his mind, Li Mi was thinking about how to release Uncle Xiao Xiao reasonably and let him use it for his own use, but a soldier wearing people's clothes stumbled in outside the door, and as soon as he entered the door, he shouted: "Pushan Gong, kings, the big thing is not good, King Zhai was caught by Chen Yingliang and Chen Gouguan!" ”

"What?" All the Wagang generals jumped up, and Li Mi was so shocked that he jumped up and blurted out, "How is it possible? King Zhai had already withdrawn to Fangshan, how could the officers and soldiers still be able to capture him? Is the message reliable? ”

"The villain heard it with his own ears." The report was written with a crying voice: "The officers and soldiers over there in Luokoucang kept cheering, claiming that they had captured King Zhai, and there were rumors among the people that King Zhai had indeed failed to escape into Fangshan, and was ambushed by the officials and soldiers on the road, and was captured alive by the officers and soldiers, and had been escorted to Chen Yingliang's dog officer. ”

Li Mi's already dark face became even darker, and between the nervous calculation and analysis of the truth of the news, Zhai Hong, Zhai Mohou, Shan Xiongxin and other generals over there had already shouted: "Send troops immediately to rescue the king!" ”

"Wait, don't rush!" Li Mi hurriedly stopped and said: "King Zhai was unfortunately captured, it is still just a rumor, and it has not been confirmed, the official army of the Eastern Capital is rushing to Luokoucang to rescue in an endless stream, and the officers and soldiers under Pei Renji have all fled to Luokoucang. We can't be in a hurry, we can confirm whether King Zhai is really captured first. ”

felt that Li Mi's words made some sense, so the Wagang generals did not immediately send troops, and Uncle Xiao Guo over there took the opportunity to say: "King Li, how about the villain go to find out the news for you?" The villain was captured alive by you, Chen Yingliang and Pei Renji don't know yet, the villain can go back and say that I escaped and returned to the team, or you can take the opportunity to inquire about the news for you. ”

The Wagang generals were stupid to believe Uncle Xiao Xiao's words, Li Mi also glanced at Uncle Xiao Guo, and said, "Xiao Jianjun doesn't need to worry, you can discuss if you want to go back, but I have to think about it." ”

After that, Li Mi first ordered the soldiers to invite Uncle Xiao Xiao down to rest and temporarily put him under house arrest, and then ordered the Wagang generals to immediately return to their posts, strictly organize the army to remain vigilant, and be ready to fight at all times, and then immediately sent more scouts to disguise themselves as ordinary people and go out of the city to the Luokoucang and Fangshan areas to listen to the news, and took the initiative to ask the Wagang generals to go out of the city to listen to the news with their relatives and henchmen, in order to show fairness. As soon as the Wagang generals walked on the front foot, the generals under Li Mi immediately came to the front and scrambled to whisper: "Pushan Gong, is it true or false?" ”

"There's no way to tell yet." Li Mi replied in a low voice: "It stands to reason that it is unlikely that Zhai Rang will really be captured alive, but Chen Yingliang's thief is best at capturing the thief and capturing the king first, and likes to arrange traps for the enemy leader alone, Yang Xuangan, Meng Rang, Tian Heishe, Tian Baishe and Zhang Qian, and even Shibi Khan, who commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, were planted in the hands of Chen Yingliang's thief, so I don't dare to conclude whether Zhai Rang has really capsized in the gutter." ”

"Preferably true." Yang Jishan, whose personality has changed greatly after a long time, rarely opened his mouth to say a word, and sneered: "If Zhai Rang really capsizes in the gutter, the Wagang Army will be ours." ”

"Ninety percent true." Fang Xuanzao said with a cruel smile: "The detailed report said that the officers and soldiers over there in Luokoucang have already been happy, and the possibility of false news is very small, otherwise, it will hurt the morale of the officers and soldiers too much." ”

Li Mi's heart moved slightly, and he once felt that Fang Xuanzao was reasonable, but considering Chen Fuliang's treacherous and treacherous methods, Li Mi still shook his head and said: "Don't be in a hurry, Chen Yingliang's thief is too treacherous, it is not difficult to let the officials and soldiers cheer loudly, we have to prevent him from deliberately spreading false news to profit from it, so now we must not take any action, we must confirm whether Zhai Rang is really captured." ”

said so, but it was normal for people, Li Mi couldn't help but add softly in his heart, and said secretly: "It's better to be true." ”

The bad news came like snowflakes, and the scouts who were scattered before kept returning, all of which confirmed that Luokoucang had turned the sky upside down, and everyone said that it was said that the officers and soldiers had captured Zhai Rang alive, and the reason why Zhai Rang was captured alive by the officers and soldiers was even more strange, some said that Zhai Rang was captured by the soldiers around him and offered it to Chen Fuliang in exchange for a heavy reward, and it was also said that Zhai Rang was caught by the officials and soldiers who unfortunately fell off the cliff and broke his leg in the mountains and was caught by the officials. What's even more outrageous is that Zhai Rang was actually shot to death by a stray arrow in the Battle of Luokoucang.

Hearing such bad news, Li Mi's henchmen and lackeys were of course secretly happy, but the generals of the Wagang army were all anxious, regardless of the danger, they sent scouts one after another to the vicinity of Luokoucang to listen to the news, and when it was dark, even more terrifying news came, that is, Zhai Rang was put into a prisoner car and was taken to Luoyang, the eastern capital, in the evening. As a result, it was natural that the generals of Wagang naturally requested that troops be dispatched immediately, and the light cavalry rushed to chase and rescue Zhai Rang.

After the generals of Wagang made this request, of course, they were immediately scolded by Li Mi, "You are all fools? Is there a reason in the world to escort important prisoners out of the barracks overnight? Chen Yingliang's traitor did this to lure the snake out of the hole, lead you to send troops to rescue, and then take the opportunity to set a trap to ambush you! You are not allowed to go! Also, all the scouts you scattered were also withdrawn, and you sent such scouts out of the city, but the news of King Zhai was not detected, but leaked our military information to Chen Yingliang's traitors! ”

"What then?" Shan Xiongxin asked with a sweaty head: "Now that King Zhai's whereabouts are unknown, I don't know whether he was captured by officers and soldiers, so we can't just sit here and wait, right?" ”

"Don't rush." Li Mi shook his head and said very calmly: "Don't worry, within tonight, there will be accurate news, if King Zhai is really captured, then there will definitely be soldiers under his command who will come to Tiger Prison Pass to report the news tonight." If the news is false and King Zhai retreats into the mountains, then he will definitely send someone to Hujiao Pass to understand the situation and get in touch with us, and then he will know whether it is true or false. ”

felt that Li Mi's analysis was reasonable, and the Wagang generals relaxed a little, and began to patiently wait for Zhai Rang's messenger to sneak into the Tiger Prison Pass to contact the self-army, as a result, on the night of the great victory, the generals of the Wagang Army not only had no mood to celebrate and rest, but also almost all ran to the west gate of the Tiger Prison Pass to probe their brains and wait for the news, Li Mi was also tossing and turning in the headquarters left by Pei Renji, and his heart was fluctuating, hoping that the news was true, but also worried that this was a despicable trick to lose his conscience and Chen Fuliang, and what was behind it- With Chen Fuliang's person, such a thing is of course very possible.

The one who should come should always come, and at night around the second watch, sure enough, there was a rider who came to the city under the Tiger Prison Pass and called the city, but unfortunately this person was not only not the messenger sent by Zhai Rang, but also claimed to be the messenger sent by Chen Yingliang, the eastern capital of the Great Sui, and there was an important matter about Zhai Rang to discuss with the generals of the Wagang Army and Pushan Gong Li Mi. And when the soldiers who were ambushed outside the city escorted the messenger into the city, and then carefully saw the appearance of the person who came by the light of the torches, Xu Shixian, the general of the Wagang Army, also immediately shouted, "Qian Xiangmin! Dog Horseman! ”

"...... Xu, King Xu, is that you? It's been years, and I can't imagine that you still remember me. ”

Qian Xiangmin, who still had tears on his face, also recognized Xu Shiyun, an old friend of Tongjiqu, and when he saw Xu Shiyun subconsciously pulling out the waist knife, Qian Xiangmin immediately howled like killing a pig, "King Xu, you are calm, don't blame me for not reminding you, we Chen Liushou said, if I suffer any grievances here, if you punch me, he will cut a knife on Zhai Rang's body, and if you kick me, he will cut a piece of meat on Zhai Rang's body with his own hands!" If I can't go back, he will hand over King Zhai to the soldiers of Qi County, and let every soldier of Qi County cut a knife on King Zhai to avenge Ambassador Zhang Xutuo and me! "Set a trap to ambush you! You are not allowed to go! Also, all the scouts you scattered were also withdrawn, and you sent such scouts out of the city, but the news of King Zhai was not detected, but leaked our military information to Chen Yingliang's traitors! ”

"What then?" Shan Xiongxin asked with a sweaty head: "Now that King Zhai's whereabouts are unknown, I don't know whether he was captured by officers and soldiers, so we can't just sit here and wait, right?" ”

"Don't rush." Li Mi shook his head and said very calmly: "Don't worry, within tonight, there will be accurate news, if King Zhai is really captured, then there will definitely be soldiers under his command who will come to Tiger Prison Pass to report the news tonight." If the news is false and King Zhai retreats into the mountains, then he will definitely send someone to Hujiao Pass to understand the situation and get in touch with us, and then he will know whether it is true or false. ”

felt that Li Mi's analysis was reasonable, and the Wagang generals relaxed a little, and began to patiently wait for Zhai Rang's messenger to sneak into the Tiger Prison Pass to contact the self-army, as a result, on the night of the great victory, the generals of the Wagang Army not only had no mood to celebrate and rest, but also almost all ran to the west gate of the Tiger Prison Pass to probe their brains and wait for the news, Li Mi was also tossing and turning in the headquarters left by Pei Renji, and his heart was fluctuating, hoping that the news was true, but also worried that this was a despicable trick to lose his conscience and Chen Fuliang, and what was behind it- With Chen Fuliang's person, such a thing is of course very possible.

The one who should come should always come, and at night around the second watch, sure enough, there was a rider who came to the city under the Tiger Prison Pass and called the city, but unfortunately this person was not only not the messenger sent by Zhai Rang, but also claimed to be the messenger sent by Chen Yingliang, the eastern capital of the Great Sui, and there was an important matter about Zhai Rang to discuss with the generals of the Wagang Army and Pushan Gong Li Mi. And when the soldiers who were ambushed outside the city escorted the messenger into the city, and then carefully saw the appearance of the person who came by the light of the torches, Xu Shixian, the general of the Wagang Army, also immediately shouted, "Qian Xiangmin! Dog Horseman! ”

"...... Xu, King Xu, is that you? It's been years, and I can't imagine that you still remember me. ”

Qian Xiangmin, who still had tears on his face, also recognized Xu Shiyun, an old friend of Tongjiqu, and when he saw Xu Shiyun subconsciously pulling out the waist knife, Qian Xiangmin immediately howled like killing a pig, "King Xu, you are calm, don't blame me for not reminding you, we Chen Liushou said, if I suffer any grievances here, if you punch me, he will cut a knife on Zhai Rang's body, and if you kick me, he will cut a piece of meat on Zhai Rang's body with his own hands!" If I can't go back, he will hand over King Zhai to the soldiers of Qi County, and let every soldier of Qi County cut a knife on King Zhai to avenge Ambassador Zhang Xutuo and me! ”