Qu Tutong has more than 20,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, but his morale is not high, he is tired of fighting for a long time, and his war-weariness and homesickness are very strict, and at the same time, the grain and grass and military supplies also have to rely on Chen Fuliang's supply, even if Qu Tutong refuses to hand over the military power, leading the army and Chen Fuliang to do it, Chen Fuliang will not go out in person, and only Liu Heimin, who guards the court, and Qin Qiong, who guards Yongfengcang, can strangle him!

But then again, Chen Fuliang is not afraid to turn his face with Qu Tutong and make a move, but if there is a fight, the biggest beneficiary will definitely be Li Er, who is crawling on the border of Hedong like a hungry wolf, and if Qu Tutong is completely forced to Li Er's side, with Li Erzhi's ability and Qu Tutong's control of Hedong Jiancheng, how can it create some trouble for Chen Fuliang, so Chen Fuliang spent some effort to show favor to Qu Tutong Huairou, and the layout tried to pull Qu Tutong to his side.

Fortunately, although there were a lot of mistakes during the operation, Qu Tutong still made up his mind to accept Chen Fuliang's kind invitation, leaving Wang Xingben, a powerful general, to stick to Fenyin City, and led the main army to withdraw to Hedong, and then led his family to return to Daxing to join hands with Chen Fuliang to support the new monarch - it was also a disguised surrender of military power and surrender to Chen Fuliang.

Li Er refused to give up, and some wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of Qu Tutong's retreat to launch an attack to make a profit, but after Duan Zhixuan, who was sent by Li Er, led the army to catch up with Qu Tutong's palace army, Duan Zhixuan soon found that this cheap was not so easy to pick - Qu Tutong's Guanzhong Xiaoyong was not invincible, but the morale was not high because he was tired and homesick after a long battle, and now these Guanzhong soldiers have seen the hope of going home, Duan Zhixuan went to pursue Qu Tutong's army again, and did not let these Guanzhong Qiuba go home to reunite with their families, These Guanzhong Qiu Ba's eyes were naturally red, so that Duan Zhixuan let him learn what is called Qin Tone high, no need for Qu Tutong to lead the main force to turn back to rescue, just with Xun Tianhe led the palace army to kill Duan Zhixuan in horror, had to give up the pursuit of gray and flee north, Qu Tutong army took the opportunity to speed up the south, quickly got rid of Li Er's entanglement and retreated to Hedong City.

In order to show his cooperative attitude to Chen Fuliang, Qu Tutong also showed some sincerity, and as soon as he withdrew to Hedong, he handed over the army to the command of Liu Heimin on the other side of the Yellow River, and he immediately led his family back to Daxing. When Chen Fuliang heard of the great joy, he immediately ordered the Qutu Tong army to be rewarded from Youyou, promised three months of vacation to allow the soldiers to return home to reunite with their families, and gave money, food, and travel expenses; At the same time, he appointed a temporary Hedong envoy to Liu Heimin, ordered Liu Heimin to take over Qu Tutong and lead the military affairs of Hedong, expand the army on the spot, and ordered Huo Shiju, who was guarding Puban, to accept Liu Heimin's command together with Wang Xingben, who was guarding Fenyin, and let Liu Heimin take up the heavy responsibility of the Hedong Theater.

When Qu Tutong returned to Daxing, Chen Fuliang personally led the civil and military officials out of the city to greet him, and saw the majestic appearance of Chen Fuliang's commander-in-chief hundred officials, Qu Tutong who wanted to get Chen Fuliang under his account as a cow and a horse more than four years ago was very embarrassed, but he still made a gift to Chen Tuliang in public, Chen Fuliang quickly picked up Qu Tutong with his own hands, and comforted Qu Tutong with kind words, and praised Qu Tutong's deep understanding of righteousness, public loyalty to the country, and finally entered the city hand in hand with Qu Tutong, and held a banquet in the imperial city to celebrate.

Next, of course, is the question of the choice of the puppet emperor, although Chen Fuliang has made it clear that he wants to support Yang Xingji, who is only five years old, as the emperor. Although Qu Tutong did not explicitly object, he still raised an objection to Chen Fuliang very tactfully, saying that Yang Xingji's bloodline with Emperor Yang of Sui was a little too far away, and he was established as the emperor, I am afraid that it will be difficult for people in the world to be convinced. Chen Fuliang may wish to consider Yang Daoxuan's candidate, because in the Daxing clan, not only is Yang Daoxuan's blood relationship with Emperor Yang of Sui the most recent, but Yang Daoxuan's father Yang Zhiji is also a prince with a good reputation among the people.

Chen Fuliang did not argue with Qu Tutong, but just asked Qu Tutong to discuss this matter with Yang Daoxuan by himself, but after Qu Tutong had a secret talk with Yang Daoxuan, he had to sigh that Yang Zhiji was indeed far-sighted, and agreed to support Yang Xingji. Then Chen Fuliang, who had already prepared a qiē, immediately put Yang Xingji on the throne in front of the spirit of Emperor Yang of Sui, led hundreds of civil and military officials to bow to Yang Xingji's ministers, and officially supported Yang Xingji as the emperor, and also announced on the spot that he would change the Yuan Yining, and Emperor Yang of Sui would be Emperor Shizu Ming.

On the same day, Yang Tong also sent an envoy to Daxing, issued an edict declaring himself the legitimate heir to the throne, gave Chen Fuliang the official position of a general, and asked Chen Fuliang to lead the naturalization of Guan Chinese and Wu hundred officials, and make the last effort to recruit Chen Fuliang. As a result, Chen Fuliang politely ordered the expulsion of Yang Dong's envoys, and in turn demanded that the eastern capital surrender to Yang Xingji and naturalize, revealing his ambition to seize power with his fangs exposed.

Even Qu Tutong handed over the military power, and Chen Fuliang, who was no longer restrained, acted more unscrupulously, and on the second day of Yang Xingji's succession, Chen Fuliang issued an edict in the honor of Yang Xingji, and gave himself a large number of official positions such as the prime minister, the general, the Shangshu order, and the military and military governors inside and outside, and held the real power of the military and government in Guanzhong, and rewarded himself with the two powers of fake Huang Yue and the envoy with the reputation of Yang Xingji, so that he could represent the emperor to kill and take away the civil and military officials and the military and civilian people at will, and promote the dethronement of the emperor, and also follow Li Yuan to live in the Wude Palace, Handle a qiē military and political official business in the Wude Palace.

After the Great Sui version of Chen Mengde was released, Chen Fuliang naturally played with power to collect power and centralize power, vigorously promoted his henchmen and rewarded the old ministry, and sealed Wei Zheng as the secretary of the Ministry of Ministry, Fang Xuanling as the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Li Jing as the secretary of the Ministry of War, Yuan Tiangang as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Du Ruhui only sealed the squire of the Criminal Department with little qualifications, and the Shangshu of the Criminal Department was led by Gao Shilian Yao, who is still in Hongnong, and at the same time, Chen Fuliang let these five important subordinates and Gao Shilian also lead the positions of the three provinces, and firmly controlled the six departments of the three provinces in his hands.

Qu Tutong was named the prince and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites by Chen Fuliang, not only did not give him military power, but also showed enough respect, and asked him to preside over the imperial examination to offend the family of the gate lords, so that he had no strength to compete with himself, and at the same time let Yun Dingxing serve as the waiter of the Ministry of Rites to Qu Tutong as his deputy, Qu Tutong also knew very well that Chen Fuliang had not fully trusted himself, so he did not shirk, and honestly accepted these appointments.

In terms of the most important army, the generals of the Sixteen Weifu are of course also served by Chen Fuliang's accomplice lackeys, and Liu Changgong, who hugged the thigh and had a lifelong friendship with Chen Fuliang, picked a big bargain and was named the general of the right Yiwei, and became the de facto second person in the military when the post of the general of the left Yiwei was temporarily vacant; Li Jing was appointed General of Zuo Wuwei, Ma Sanbao was appointed General of Right Wuwei, Kan Liang and Wei Chi Jingde were appointed as Zuo Yiwei's left and right generals, Liu Heimin was appointed General of Zuo Wuhou, Cheng Yanjin, Niu Jinda, Luo Shixin and others were also appointed as other Weifu generals.

Bao * completely separated from the right Wuwei separate preparation, under the direct jurisdiction of Chen Fuliang, Guo Feng and Chen Ci led from the rank of Sanpin auxiliary general, Zhao Yu and Yu Le led the rank of Sipin Xiaocai general, the four generals were knighted, and the **** soldiers were all awarded the rank of six ranks, licensed for three generations, and planned to expand the army to eight schools of 1,600 people.

The ninth-rank titles abolished by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty were also picked up by Chen Fuliang to buy people's hearts, and the nineth-level titles of king, county king, national duke, county duke, county duke, marquis, uncle, son, and male gave Chen Fuliang enough space to buy people's hearts and reward meritorious heroes, and at the same time, Chen Fuliang also adopted Fang Xuanling's Jianyì and set up a virtual and real food system.

In terms of personnel, Chen Fuliang ordered all counties in the world to be attached to Yang Xingji's honorary edict, and at the same time, he couldn't wait to send Liu Changgong to lead 20,000 troops south to Bashu, to grab the rich and empty Sichuan territory, and also solve the trouble of Uncle Xiao, Liu Changgong's deputy was Pei Xingfang, who was named the chief of the right Yiwei Changshi, and was paired with Miao Haichao, who was loyal enough in the battle of Daxing.

The Western Front was still entrusted by Chen Fuliang to his cousin Li Jing, and Li Jing also fought for Chen Fuliang's face, and had completely solved Bai Yupo before, incorporated a large number of surrendered troops, and forced Li Hongzhi to lead the people to surrender, and killed Tang Bi, who tried to rebel after surrendering, and unconsciously raised more than 50,000 troops in Fufeng to Chen Fuliang, completely reversing the western line shì. Xue Ju once again sent Xue Renguo to invade the east, but the result was that Xue Renguo had just come out of the Great Earthquake Pass, and he was beaten by Li Jing again, and fled back to Tianshui with heavy losses.

There is Liu Heimin in Hedong, even if he can't win Li Er, he won't take advantage of him, Chen Fuliang doesn't have to worry much. The same is true on the Eastern Front, Chen Fuliang sent the old fox Liu Jingye to Hongnong to serve as the Taishou, in exchange for Gao Shilian to prepare him to guard the old nest for himself, and appointed He Yanyu as the general of the Right Prison Gate, and appointed Yao Yi as the commander of Shaanxi County as Henan Zanzhi, so that they could guard the East Gate for themselves, and look at the melee in the Central Plains from the danger of Kuihan, and wait for the opportunity to appear before sending troops outside the pass.

Although Shangluo County is a poor county, after all, it borders Guanzhong, even if it can be passed on, the local soldiers in this poor place can't solve the problem of rogue thieves in the territory, so Chen Fuliang also wants to send an army to Shangluo to suppress the rebellion, and at the same time capture Zheyang and Nanyang in the south. However, what annoyed Chen Fuliang was that he could no longer find a suitable candidate to lead this partial division, and he could not draw too many of the main generals under his command to the south and weaken the main army used to deal with strong enemies such as Li Er, Yang Tong and Li Mi, so Chen Fuliang thought about it and couldn't decide who to send to take on this important task after thinking about it for a long time.

After raising this issue at a court meeting, Qu Tutong and Pang Yu were eager to try and wanted to lead this partial division to fight a piece of territory, but Chen Fuliang couldn't trust them for the time being, and didn't dare to give them this military power, and refused under the pretext that the new plan of the dynasty still needed them to maintain it. As a result, what Chen Fuliang didn't expect was that after the dispersal of the dynasty, Chai Shao ran in front of Chen Fuliang and volunteered to lead this partial division.

At first, he regretted forgetting that he was a great general, and then Chen Fuliang was still a little hesitant, and said to Chai Shao: "Brother Sichang, it's not that I can't trust you, I also know very well that you are a great general, but your wife and sister-in-law Li Xiuning have just been pardoned and released from prison by His Majesty Xià (Yang Xingji), and your husband and wife have just been reunited, how can I bear to break you up immediately?" ”

"She's lost her hair and became a nun." Chai Shao bowed his head and replied: "I have never told you, when she was in prison, I visited her several times, but she ignored me. Later, Her Majesty pardoned her, I went to pick her up, she said a few words to me, saying that our Li family is sorry for me, I surrender to you She doesn't blame me, but after all, you and her have a revenge for killing her father, she can't avenge her father, but she doesn't want to take care of the world anymore, so she went straight to the temple and broke off her earthly relationship with me. ”

Chen Fuliang was silent, and only said after a while: "I hurt your husband and wife." ”

"No, I did it myself, I hurt her." Chai Shao shook his head, and pleaded again: "Brother Ying Liangxian, let me go to Nanyang, I also want to leave Daxing temporarily, let me calm down, don't worry, don't give me too many soldiers and horses, five thousand troops are enough, I promise to take Shangluo and Nanyang for you, if you don't win, I am willing to lead the army." ”

After thinking about it, Chen Fuliang said: "I will appoint you as the general of the Right Martial Guard, Tiger Benlang, and give you 8,000 troops, the money and grain situation in Shangluo, Zheyang and Nanyang is not good, the roads are rugged and difficult, the grain and grass are difficult to transport, and the 8,000 army is the limit, in addition, I will send Li Shicai to you as a deputy." ”

"Thank you, brother." Chai Shao hurriedly thanked him, and said, "Brother Xian, if you don't mind, can you send Dugu Huaien to me as a deputy?" ”

"What do you want him to do?" Chen Fuliang shook his head and said, "That gentleman, what other effect can you bring away besides increasing trouble?" ”

"Of course the foolish brother knows that he is a fool, and it is useless." Chai Shao nodded, and said in a low voice: "But after all, he made meritorious contributions for you during the Daxing War, and he was frivolous and brutal, Brother Xian, you left him in Daxing, reuse it must be a scourge, and if he doesn't reuse, he will definitely be dissatisfied, it is better to take him out and let him go to the battlefield to practice actual combat experience, if he can really change his temperament and practice his ability, Brother Xian, you can naturally use him with confidence in the future, but if he still can't support the wall in the mud, there are no eyes on this battlefield, and no one can blame you, Brother Xian." ”

Chen Fuliang stretched out his hand with some emotion, held Chai Shao's hand, shook it vigorously, nodded and said, "Brother Sichang, you are my good brother, good uncle." ”

Chai Shao smiled and said modestly: "The virtuous brother has won the award, but the foolish brother is just atoning for his sins." ”

In this way, the division of the southeast road was finalized, Chai Shao and the generals Li Shicai and Dugu Huaien also quickly led 8,000 troops to Shangluo, and at the same time, the counties around Daxing also rushed to send official letters, expressing their recognition of Yang Xingji, who was supported by Chen Fuliang, as the emperor of the Great Sui Dynasty, and accepted Chen Fuliang's command. Uncle Da Xiao, who had already sent a son before, also sent all the remaining sons as hostages in one go, and sent a letter to Chen Fuliang in his personal honor, saying that he wanted to return to Daxing to apologize to Chen Fuliang in person, and asked Chen Fuliang to send officials to take over as the Taishou of Hechi - as for the reason, of course, Liu Changgong's army was already marching towards Hechi.

Chen Fuliang was very happy to accept the kindness of Uncle Da Xiao, and without hesitation arranged for Yuan Qi's eldest brother to take over as the Taishou of Hechi, and promoted Uncle Da Xiao to a higher level, let him serve as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and transferred him back to Daxing - in all fairness, Uncle Da Xiao is actually a capable minister, as long as he is obedient and obedient, Chen Fuliang will never mind reusing him, decorating his golden signboard of repaying grievances with virtue and generosity.

On the fifth day of the first month of June, when Chen Fuliang was discussing with Fang Xuanling and others to formulate a national policy against the Qiang tribe and the chieftain of the Di people, a personal soldier suddenly hurriedly entered the room, and submitted a military report to Chen Fuliang, and was also named by Yang Tong as the Duke of Wei, Tai Lieutenant, Shang Shuling and the Generalissimo of the Southeast Road March.

After reading this Tang report, of course the traverser Chen Fuliang sneered, but Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and others, who were not traversers and could not obtain information about the Central Plains, were taken aback, and said in surprise: "How is it possible? Li Mi's military strength was far superior to that of the Eastern Capital, how could he accept the surrender of King Yue in turn? ”

"How could it be?" Chen Fuliang sneered and said, "Forgot about Yu Wenhua? The reason why Yu Wenhua was able to launch a mutiny in Jiangdu to kill the emperor was that the Guanzhong soldiers of Xiao Guowei wanted to return to their hometowns, and Yu Wenhua and now control the Jiangdu army, if he didn't hurry up and take these Guanzhong soldiers back to his hometown, how could his army agree? Yu Wenhua and returned to Guanzhong with the army, first of all, he had to pass through Li Mi's control area, Li Mi did not accept Yang Dong's surrender, when he and Yu Wenhua and the front were working, if Wang Shichong also took the opportunity to send troops to attack him, what should he do? ”

Fang Xuanling and the others suddenly realized, and hurriedly praised Chen Fuliang for knowing thousands of miles and knowing things like a god, and then Wei Zheng said: "If Li Mi and Yu Wenhua really start a decisive battle, this battle will inevitably be extremely tragic, Li Mi has more food and enough food, and Yu Wenhua's soldiers are brave and elite, and they are homesick, no matter who wins or loses, the losses will definitely not be less than there." Oh, by the way, Prime Minister, you are an expert in the use of soldiers, do you think Li Mi and Yu Wenhua and the war, who can have a greater chance of winning? ”

Wei Zheng's question can be regarded as asking Chen Fuliang, although Chen Fuliang knows that Li Mi won in history, but now Li Mi is not as strong as in history, especially in terms of brave generals, the most critical ones have been dug up by themselves, and Yu Wenhua and although the pig's head is the same as in history, the hundreds of thousands of Guanzhong elites who are in a hurry to go home are not vegetarians, and if they are not careful, the reality will be diametrically opposed to history. So after thinking about it for a long time, Chen Fuliang could only shake his head and said: "I can't predict either, Li Mi is resourceful, but Yu Wenhua and his soldiers and horses are too strong, and whoever wins or loses is possible." ”

"It doesn't matter who wins or loses." Yuan Tiangang smiled and said: "No matter who wins, the loss will definitely not be too small, Li Mi won, let's not be afraid of him, Yu Wenhua and win, and then think about it, the hope is smaller, and it will be easier for us to deal with it." Let them fight, as long as they don't join forces to fight us. ”

"That's right." Chen Fuliang, who was in a favorable position, nodded very proudly, but just halfway through the point, Chen Fuliang froze violently and blurted out: "Wait! We can't be optimistic, we must guard against Li Mi and Yu Wenhua and joining forces to come at us! ”

"How is this possible?" Yuan Tiangang said in surprise: "Li Mi and Yu Wenhua have joined forces, Yu Wenhua and will definitely borrow food from Li Mi, Li Mi dares to let Yu Wenhua and enter the Tiger Prison?" Dare to let Yu culture and approach Luokou Cangcheng? ”

"It's not impossible!" Chen Fuliang shook his head categorically, and said in a deep voice: "Li Mi is not short of food, as long as he can use it to send away Yu Culture and this plague god, he is by no means negotiable, even if he doesn't dare to let Yu Culture and enter the Tiger Prison to explode his chrysanthemums, he can also lend the road in Hanoi to Yu Culture, exchange food for Yu Culture and take the road on the north bank of the Yellow River to enter Guanzhong." If I were Mi Lee, I would definitely do it. ”

"Also, don't forget Jinnan's-stirring stick." Chen Fuliang nodded to the northeast again, and said in the shade: "That-stirring stick will never miss this opportunity to retaliate against us, if I were him, I would definitely use the alliance to persuade Li Mi and Yu Wenhua to join forces to make it difficult for us, and let Yu Wenhua and take the road of Hanoi to directly enter Hedong, it will definitely be more beneficial for him, at least it can give him countless opportunities to fish in troubled waters." ”

Considering the cleverness of Jin Nan's-stirring stick, Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang and others nodded one after another, admitting that this was indeed possible. Then Yuan Tiangang hurriedly asked, "Prime Minister, is there any way for you to avoid this situation?" ”

Chen Fuliang