After scolding Chen Fuliang, who had rewarded him without authorization, Fan Zigai's stubborn old man still reluctantly agreed to Chen Fuliang's reward plan, and then coughed and scolded Chen Fuliang, who was hammering his back: "Stinky boy, just this once, don't think about next time!" You rewarded you in Qian County without authorization, and there was some criticism in the court, and you came to Taiyuan to fool around, did you still take the court decree in your eyes? You are not afraid of being impeached by the imperial historian, and the old man is also afraid of insulting his own name. ”

"Just this time, just this time, next time my grandson will definitely not dare." Chen Fuliang made a blind promise with a hippie smile, and while continuing to rub his back and shoulders to the old stubborn, he asked a question that had been buried in his heart before, and said: "Grandpa Fan, my grandson saw today, how did Xu Shixu, who used to serve as Sima of Taiyuan Yingyang Mansion, be demoted to the team?" Grandson remembers that his appearance on the battlefield of King Qin is good? On the night of the decisive battle of Yanmen, he also assisted Li Jiancheng to withstand the onslaught of the main Turkic force, and afterwards his grandson also gave him a credit, why was he demoted? ”

"I came down." Fan Lao stubbornly replied casually: "During the purge of the Taiyuan army, the old man found that he and Li Yuan had a very close past, and had a lot of private contacts, and felt that he was unreliable, and could not find any evidence to kill his head, so he found an excuse to revoke his position as Sima and demote him to lieutenant. Later, he showed a bad attitude in the war to pacify the Jingchai thief army, so he demoted him to a team leader, originally wanting to drive him out of the army, who knew that this horseman was very thick-skinned, and he still relied on the army to not leave. ”

Chen Yingliang was a little distracted, and the rhythm of beating Fan Zigai's back slowed down, and the old stubbornness noticed this change, so he turned his head a little and asked, "What?" Do you think it's inappropriate for the old man to arrange this? ”

"It's not inappropriate, the relationship between Xu Shixu and Tang Guogong is extraordinary, which Sun Er has already noticed as early as the Yanmen battlefield." Chen Yingliang groaned and said, "Grandpa, you deliberately belittled him, but also to prevent it, there is nothing wrong with it. Grandpa just felt a little strange, grandpa, you cleaned him up like this, Xu Shixu's attitude of expelling him from the army has been very clear, why does he continue to rely on the Taiyuan army? ”

"There should be no way out, so I can only stay in the army and eat." Fan Zigai said casually: "Thinking about staying up until the old man is transferred out of Taiyuan, or until the old man dies, he may still have a chance to make a comeback." ”

Under normal circumstances, Fan Zigai's analysis may be very correct, Xu Shixu, who has no way out, can indeed only swallow his anger in the army in order to survive, waiting for Fan Zigai, who is not pleasing to his eyes, to be transferred away or die of old age, but for a traverser, Li Yuan's hardcore friend Xu Shixu insists on staying in the Taiyuan army, which inevitably makes Chen Fuliang a little vigilant. After thinking about it again, Chen Fuliang said: "Grandpa Fan, can you let your grandson see the official records of your purging of the Taiyuan army?" Sun Er also once commanded the Taiyuan army, and he also knows a little about Tang Guogong's henchmen, and wants to staff you to see if there is anything that needs to be added. ”

"Absolutely." Fan Zigai agreed, and instructed: "After a while, the old man will ask the clerk in the record office to hand over these records to you, and give the old man a careful look, if the old man has any omissions, immediately sue me, kill if you should kill, catch when you should be caught, and don't let any of them go!" ”

Chen Fuliang respectfully agreed, and after serving Fan Zigai with his own hands, it was not until Fan Zigai fell asleep that Chen Fuliang left lightly, and returned to the camp outside the city to rest with Fan Zigai's purge record of the Taiyuan army. However, it was said that he was resting, but in fact Chen Fuliang had not slept all night, in addition to studying the military situation and personally inspecting the camp, he also consulted the purge records of the Taiyuan army and analyzed how Fan Zigai weakened Li Yuan's control over the Taiyuan Sui army to the point.

It's okay not to look at it, after carefully checking the purge records, Chen Fuliang's brows wrinkled even tighter, Fan Lao's stubborn blow to Li Yuan's cronies was not ruthless, Liu Hongji and Changsun Shunde, the two unlucky guys, were directly exiled to Lingnan, Hou Junji, who contacted Li Yuan for the Turks, was beheaded for public display, Gao Binlian, Tang Xian, Tang Jian and Wang Kangda and other more than ten civil and military officials were demoted to civilians, and more than 30 low-level generals of the Taiyuan Sui Army with a criminal record were slaughtered, and the warrior Tong of the Qin Wang's army was prevented by Shanxi merchants from selling grain to King Qin's army for Li Yuan. All the family property was seized and confiscated, although Wu Shi Tong himself escaped by luck, none of his family members ran away, all the men were killed, and all the female dependents were demoted to slaves and maids - it's a pity that Wu Shi Tong's famous daughter is not even liquid now, otherwise Chen Fuliang will only open his mouth, and there will definitely be no problem with Fan Zigai to be a maid.

The purge methods are indeed ruthless enough, but Chen Fuliang can conclude that there are still omissions - at least Li Mi's in-law Liu Wenjing did not appear on this list, and what made Chen Fuliang even more uneasy was that some of Li Yuan's old generals represented by Xu Shixu, Dou Cong, Zhang Daoyuan and Yin Kaishan, although they were all demoted and reduced because of their innocent family background, personal cleanliness and military exploits, they were still left in the Taiyuan army and became hidden bombs from time to time.

In addition, there is Li Yuan's baby nephew Li Xiaogong, although he resigned with Li Jiancheng and left the Taiyuan army, but in the purge records, Chen Fuliang did not find the written record that Li Xiaogong's subordinates were also cleaned up, which means that as long as Li Xiaogong reappears in the Taiyuan army, it may be possible to re-pull up a group of old troops for his own use.

Based on these circumstances, Chen Fuliang came to the conclusion that this was an unsuccessful purge, and the key reason for the failure of the purge was that Li Yuan's crimes were not obvious, and his henchmen did not completely expose their crimes, so that Fan Zigai could not find sufficient reasons to completely eradicate Li Yuan's hidden forces in the Taiyuan army. In addition, Chen Fuliang even suspected that Li Jiancheng, a friend who worked hard to help Fan Zigai purge the Taiyuan army, may also have played a disgraceful role in the incident - after all, no matter how generous Li Jiancheng's character is, it is unlikely that he will really help Fan Zigai uproot his father's power in the Taiyuan army.

"It's also a shame that Grandpa Fan is staying in Taiyuan this time, otherwise something might have happened." Chen Fuliang came to a conclusion and said secretly: "Although Grandpa Fan is short-tempered and his methods are rough and direct, he is blameless in terms of personal morality, he is honest and self-disciplined, does not accept bribes, and cracks down on corruption very hard. If someone else is replaced, this Fenshui thief chaos may be the best opportunity for the old Li family to do it. ”

Having said that, Chen Fuliang is still very worried, because there are still too many hidden dangers in the Taiyuan army, and Fan Zigai's temper is too rough and strict, plus Fan Zigai has a head on his head that likes to enter the water Emperor Yang of Sui, once any unpopular decree is promulgated, Fan Zigai will not compromise on the implementation of the room, maybe something will happen, in addition, in this chaotic era at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the possibility of emergencies is too great, a little negligence, Fan Zigai may not only be unprotected in the evening, It may even end up badly!

"Should we give Grandpa Fan a wake-up call and completely eradicate the hidden danger that Li Yuan left in Taiyuan?" Chen Fuliang once planned to do so, but considering some other problems, Chen Fuliang inevitably hesitated and hesitated.

"Forget it, let's wait and see." Chen Fuliang finally made up his mind and said secretly: "Grandpa Fan is too old, after the Fenshui War, Taiyuan may not continue to work in this position, if I take over, then I will continue to clean the Taiyuan army and completely eradicate the bane left by Lao Li." If I hadn't taken over, then ......, and it wouldn't have been bad to put history back on track. ”

At the same time that Chen Fuliang made up his mind, in the early morning of the next day, the 10,000 Taiyuan Sui army led by Gao Junya also opened to the Lingjing shop of the activities of the Jingchai thief army, and the Taiyuan Sui army, whose morale was encouraged by the heavy reward, did not disappoint Chen Fuliang, and rushed down all the way, and arrived at the battlefield in the afternoon of the same day. Gao Junya, who had been explained by Chen Fuliang, did not chase into the mountains and Jing Pantuo and Chai Baochang to hide and seek, and collected the troops after clearing the remnants of the enemy in the plain, and at the same time, according to Chen Yingliang's request, he captured more than 200 prisoners for Chen Fuliang and returned.

Tens of thousands of troops only captured more than 200 prisoners in a battle, the reason is, of course, because of Fan Zigai's brutal treatment of prisoners, in order not to be buried alive by prisoners, the soldiers of the rebel army, regardless of men, women and children, would rather die in battle than be prisoners, Taiyuan Sui army wants to capture prisoners again, of course, it is difficult to climb to the sky, if it is not for Chen Fuliang to promise a heavy reward, but also added additional rewards, greedy for rewards of the Sui army soldiers worked hard to capture the enemy, whether Gao Junya can catch prisoners in this battle is still a big problem. But even so, most of the more than 200 captives were covered in bruises, and they were all trembling, mentally prepared to be buried alive and die a miserable death.

These captives soon found out that they were worried in vain, and when they were escorted to the city of Taiyuan, Chen Fuliang not only met them personally, but also comforted them with kind words, gave them medicine and food, and let these captives relax a little, Chen Fuliang announced his own terms of surrender, declaring that as long as they did not participate in adultery and plunder, and did not kill innocents, those who surrendered would not be killed, and they would be released immediately, let them go home to farm, and those who led the people to surrender could also be rewarded, and those who surrendered in the young and strong could also be incorporated as appropriate. And if you get the head of Jing Pantuo and Chai Baochang to come and surrender, you will be rewarded with 100 gold!

After declaring his surrender conditions, Chen Fuliang immediately ordered the release of these prisoners, and personally distributed the travel expenses and dry food to these prisoners, and personally sent them to Fenshui, and when Fan Zigai received the news and rushed over, these prisoners had already gone far, and then Chen Yingliang naturally had to wear out his mouth to persuade Fan Zigai to change his course, Huairou pacified and sent troops to suppress the two-pronged approach, pacified the Fenshui thief rebellion, and also listed various benefits for Fan Zigai to appease the people from an economic point of view. To put it mildly, it took a full day for the old stubborn to reluctantly nod and agree with Chen Fuliang's counterinsurgency strategy - the old stubborn had no choice, his previous counterinsurgency strategy had proven unworkable, and he was forced to ask Emperor Yang of Sui for help, in order not to be completely unable to explain to Emperor Yang of Sui, Fan Lao stubborn could only try Chen Fuliang's counterinsurgency plan.

As Chen Yingliang expected, after more than 200 captives brought Chen Fuliang's surrender clause back to the north bank of Fenshui, the people of Fenshui, who had long been looking forward to a peaceful life, persuaded their relatives who were forced to surrender to the official army. Chen Yingliang also ordered his immediate release and no more indiscriminate killings.

The effect of the two-pronged approach is surprisingly good, the pure rabble of the Jing Chai thief army is not the opponent of the regular army of the Sui army at all, every battle will be defeated, only passively beaten, there is no room for fighting back, the thief soldiers who saw the way out also surrendered one after another, and in less than half a month, more than 10,000 rebel men and women laid down their arms and surrendered to the Sui army, Chen Yingliang only executed more than 100 of them who killed innocent and **** people's daughters, and the rest were all released home, and the people who were forced to surrender for the thieves were more, and hundreds of rebel men and women went down the mountain to surrender every day, There were also countless small groups of rebels operating west of Fenyang who also took the initiative to surrender in front of Chen Yingliang, and the soil on which Jing Pantuo and Chai Baochang relied for their survival became smaller and smaller.

Unable to parry Chen Fuliang's carrot and stick offensive, Jing Pantuo and Chai Baochang were forced to lead a breakthrough to the northeast, in a vain attempt to flow to the Xinkou area to continue to cause trouble, but there were traitors around him, some soldiers fled and reported the news to Chen Yingliang, Chen Yingliang immediately ordered Cheng Yanjin to lead the cavalry north to set up an ambush, Jing Pantuo and Chai Baochang just escaped from the mountains and were attacked by Cheng Yanjin, Chen Fuliang also personally led the army to kill from the south, under the attack of the two phases, Jing Chai thief army was defeated, completely collapsed, Jing Pantuo was beheaded by Niu Jinda, and Chai Baochang led a few remnants of the party to flee to Yangxing Mountain, but he was betrayed again, and his head was cut off by his own soldiers in his sleep, and he was offered to Chen Fuliang in exchange for a reward.

In this way, it only took more than 20 days before and after, Chen Fuliang completely annihilated the main force of the Jingchai thief army, and the large and small rebel armies who were forced to rebel by Fan Zigai also surrendered, only a few fierce people refused to surrender, but they did not dare to continue their activities north of Fenshui, and most of them fled to the north to make trouble for Chen Fuliang's cousin Li Jing, Chen Fuliang ordered the troops to be collected, and withdrew to Taiyuan City while appeasing the people.

On that day, Fan Zigai naturally had to hold a banquet in his own left-behind mansion to celebrate Chen Fuliang's achievements, Taiyuan civil and military forces were basically all together, and even Pei Lian, who had not received the invitation, was cheeky and uninvited, congratulating Chen Muliang's victory in Fenshui, although Fan Zigai deliberately ignored him, Pei Lin didn't care, he just flattered Chen Yingliang, and pestered Chen Fuliang, Chen Yingliang also looked at Wenxi Pei's face and vanity and grievances, which made Fan Lao, who had been looking at Pei Lonely, very dissatisfied.

After all, Fan Zigai is already a seventy-two-year-old man, even if he is in a good mood, he can't bear it, and he was forced to quit halfway, Chen Fuliang personally carried him back to the room to rest, but when he returned to the lobby, Chen Fuliang was stopped by Pei Lin in the corridor again, begging Chen Yingliang to give him a little time to talk alone, Chen Yingliang knew that he must have something, and for the sake of the face of the old Pei family, he did not refuse, so he also went to the garden to talk alone. Then when Pei Lian congratulated Chen Fuliang on the victory of Fenshui, Chen Yingliang waved his hand impatiently and said: "Uncle Pei, a small victory is not enough to worry about, uncle has something to say, General Gao and Wang Juncheng are still waiting for me in the hall." ”

"General, then the subordinate will speak directly." Pei Lin nodded, and then said: "In fact, the last time we met, the lower official wanted to talk about this matter, but at that time, there were General Gao and Wang Juncheng beside him, and it was inconvenient for the lower official to speak, and then the general went to the counterinsurgency battlefield, and there was no chance. ”

"Uncle, what happened to you?" Chen Yinghao asked curiously.

"The lower officials did not manage the Jinyang Palace well, and the three palace people fled without permission, and they fled without a trace, and they have not been caught so far." Pei Lin said with a sad face: "Fan Liushou was furious after hearing the news, and he had already impeached the lower officials, and asked the imperial court to remove the lower officials and go to prison for questioning. The lower officials also heard the rumors, saying that Fan Liushou had already sent out the music half a month ago. ”

"It's been half a month since the pieces were sent out, how can I help you?" Chen Yingliang said suspiciously: "If the recital has not been sent away, I can ask Fan Liushou for a favor for you, or if the recital has just been sent away, you can also send a fast horse to chase it back, this recital has been sent out for half a month, how can I help you?" ”

"General, as long as you are willing to stretch out your hand, you will definitely be able to help the lower officials." Pei Lin gave up his hands and made a gesture, and explained: "The lower official is just a seven-grade small official, His Majesty will definitely not personally judge the matter of state affairs, and the affairs of the lower official must be judged by the Imperial Historical Observatory, the imperial historian Pei Yun and the general are as close as uncles and nephews, so as long as the general says a word, the lower official can keep the official job, and the lower official is brave, and please raise the noble hand of the general, please raise the noble hand of the general and put down the official horse." ”

After that, Pei Lin hurriedly said: "General, you must ask the lower official why he didn't open his mouth to Doctor Pei, and the lower official didn't dare to deceive you, the lower official did have some relatives with Doctor Pei, but it was too far away, and there were hundreds of people in the Pei clan, and Doctor Pei might not be able to take care of them one by one. But if you open your mouth, the general, the lower officials may be saved. ”

Chen Fuliang calculated, such a trivial matter, it is understandable to pull Pei Lin casually, but what consequences will be led by pulling Pei Lian, but it is worth Chen Yingliang's consideration - pull Pei Lin and keep his position, then history is on a different track, no one rebelled in Taiyuan, then Pei Lin is destined to disappear in the long river of history, and the rich materials of Jinyang Palace will only fall into the hands of the ultimate victor, which is not beneficial and harmless to himself.

Keeping Pei Lian, if he can replace Fan Zigai and stay in Taiyuan, Pei Lian's chess piece can play an important role, and it will be beneficial to himself without harm.

Keeping Pei Lone, if history returns to the normal track under the strong inertia, and the Li family, who still has spare strength in Taiyuan, continues to make trouble in Taiyuan, then the materials of Jinyang Palace are destined to continue to be cheap Lao Li, and it will be harmful to themselves.

But if he doesn't keep Pei Lin and let him be dismissed from office and go home to hold the child, then if he can take over the Taiyuan Guard, he will naturally have to spend countless means to get the materials of Jinyang Palace, and if he can't take over the Taiyuan Stay, Pei Lian, Li Yuan's most important internal response in Taiyuan, will fall from power again, then history will be completely changed, and his historical prophetic advantage will be completely lost............

In just a moment, Chen Yingliang weighed the pros and cons, and immediately made up his mind, nodded and said: "Okay, since Uncle Pei has opened your mouth, then the little nephew will do his best, I will send the letter of intercession for you, together with the report of the victory chapter to Daxing, as for whether it is too late, whether you can ask Uncle Pei Yun can only depend on your own creation." ”

When Pei Lin heard the great joy, he hurriedly thanked Chen Yingliang for his kindness, Chen Yingliang smiled perfunctorily, and said secretly in his heart: "Grandpa Fan, I'm sorry for you, this Pei Lin is too important, for the sake of Yu'er, and for myself, I must temporarily leave this bane of Taiyuan." ”

Returned to the lobby with Chen Yingliang, and drank a few glasses of wine with everyone, Pei Lin also made a resignation under the pretext of being too drunk, Gao Junya and Wang Wei and other Taiyuan civil and military personnel did not treat Pei Lin with no one to see, so naturally there was no retention, after Pei Lian got out, the first thing was of course to return to Jinyang Palace immediately, and report the good news to Li Eryu, who was waiting for news there, Li Eryi was overjoyed, and immediately said: "Uncle, since your matter is no longer a big problem, then I have to say goodbye and leave today." ”

"Second son, don't you need to be in such a hurry, right? It's never too late to rest for a few more days before leaving. Pei Lian, who was already in a good mood, persuaded.

"No, I have to go back to Daxing right away." Li Er's face was solemn, and he explained: "I have to go back and contact the Guanlongmen valve, and let them go all out to persuade His Majesty to transfer Chen Yingliang back to the Eastern Capital, otherwise, once His Majesty Xià has a whim, he will order Chen Yingliang to stay in Taiyuan and take over Fan Zigai's position, or serve Fan Zigai as his deputy, then we will be completely finished." ”