Of course, Zhu Cang was escorted back to Taiyuan City by the soldiers of the Sui army, or quietly he was escorted to a hidden place outside the north gate of Taiyuan East City, and then he untied the rope on his body, stuffed him with a bloody broken knife, and forced him to go to Taiyuan City with a crossbow. Zhu Cang hated so much that he wanted to kill someone, but he didn't dare to hold a broken knife with a rolled blade and a dozen or so Sui soldiers desperately, so he had to crawl to the north gate of Taiyuan Dongcheng and loudly declare his identity and ask to enter the city.

Fortunately, the cruel and murderous Zhu Cang is also well-known in the Taiyuan Army, and after reporting his identity, he was hanged by the guards in a hanging basket and put on the city, and his identity was verified, and he did not find the letter sewn directly into Zhu Cang's underwear, so he notified Zhu Cang's boss Li Er in accordance with the rules of the army. As Zhu Cang expected, although Li Er pretended to believe his explanation that he had fled back to Taiyuan with great strength, he personally came forward early the next morning to take him back to Xicheng and brought him back to Li Er's home in Xicheng, but after arriving at a place where there were no outsiders, Li Er immediately revealed his true form, and immediately began to carefully interrogate Zhu Cang's escape - at the same time, Zhu Cang also carefully saw that Li Er's right hand had been pressed on the hilt of the sword.

According to Chen Fuliang's instructions, Zhu Cang, who knew that he couldn't hide it, took the initiative to confess, honestly admitted that he was captured by the Sui army, and fabricated a purely capture experience, saying that he and Liang Jianfang and others were surrounded by the newspaper as soon as they fled into the open terrain, Liang Jianfang and Wang Huaiwen refused to surrender and were killed successively, Liu Xiaoyan was also robbed on the spot by the lustful Chen Fuliang, and he pretended to beg to surrender in order to keep his useful body, but Chen Fuliang ordered himself to return to Taiyuan, and he came back in order to take the opportunity to return to Li Er. Finally, with Li Er's nod and agreement, he took off his clothes, unwrapped his needle and thread, took out Chen Fuliang's letter, and held it in front of Li Er with both hands.

If it is said that the capture of Zhu Cang is still only suspicious, then seeing the official defense appointment certificate written by Chen Fuliang himself, Li Er simply couldn't believe his eyes at all, holding the thin paper like a wooden chicken, he was so distracted that he forgot to even beware of Zhu Cang's sneak attack and assassination, and muttered in his mouth, "Wei Guogong, the general of the right Xiao cavalry guard, the doctor of Jin Ziguanglu, give a golden coupon for avoiding death, except for rebellion, ...... for life?" Am I right? Chen Yingliang, that traitor, actually wants to surrender me? Even such a condition was offered? ”

The conscience of heaven and earth, at this moment, Li Er was indeed a little moved. But this is not surprising, after all, the current situation of the Taiyuan army is here, even if you want to hold the city without breaking, it will be difficult to survive until Chen Fuliang can't afford to be exhausted and forced to retreat! And as long as it is a little bad, Li Er, who has a deep hatred with Chen Fuliang, will definitely be a tragic end with broken bones and no place to be buried! Li Er, who had long been aware of this, suddenly saw such a turnaround, of course, he would be pleasantly surprised.

Moreover, Li Er is also very clear about one thing, that is, even if the Taiyuan army wins the victory in the defense of Taiyuan, then after the victory, it will be difficult for Li Er, who eats inside and out, to find a chance to make a comeback under the rule of Li Jiancheng.

"Why does this man seem to be really moved?" Zhu Cang is also a person who is good at observing words and feelings, and he secretly saw that Li Er's expression was wrong, and he inevitably had some luck in his heart, and said secretly: "If Li Erlang really decides to surrender, then maybe it will be even better, this horseman's skills and martial arts are above me, and his scheming is deep and vicious, and it is not hopeless to kill Li Jiancheng ruthlessly." He succeeded, even if Lao Tzu passed in front of Chen Yingliang's husband, Chen Yingliang's husband was not in a thousand ways, but his reputation has always been very good, and what he said is basically counted. ”

Sure enough, under the emotion of his heart, Li Er finally couldn't help but ask again, "Thief Chen wants you to bring this letter to me, what else do you have to say?" ”

"Yes." Zhu Cang replied truthfully: "The thief Chen wants you to persuade the right governor to open the city and surrender, and if it succeeds, he will give you the things in the letter to the right governor." He also said that if the Governor of the Left refuses to surrender, the Governor of the Right Governor only needs to take down or remove the Governor of the Left, open the gate of Taiyuan City and surrender, and he will also write these things to you. ”

"What?" Li Er suspected that he had heard it wrong, and asked in surprise: "If you want me to persuade my brother to surrender, why didn't he personally come forward to persuade him to surrender, didn't he and my brother wear a pair of pants before?" Why do you want me to persuade my brother to surrender, and why do you want me to get rid of my brother if he refuses to surrender? Is this really Chen Yingliang's traitorous words? ”

"It's true, the last general will not dare to deceive the right governor, this is indeed the original words of the thief." Zhu Cang nodded, and it was rare to say a big truth.

Li Er was a little confused for a while, but after thinking about it carefully, he sent it again? It is not impossible to do this, the first is this Taiyuan War, Li Jiancheng's determination to resist was beyond everyone's expectations, and successively pulled Dou Jiande and Liu Wuzhou, the two strong neighbors, into the water, not to mention, and did not leave a way back to attack the main force of the Sui army with a flood and put it into practice, so simple that now at the end of the road, there is no sign of asking Chen Fuliang for peace and surrender, and the position of fighting to the end makes the Li clan who was very suspicious of his possibility of surrendering Chen Fuliang was extremely surprised.

The second is that Chen Fuliang may have already secretly recruited Li Jiancheng, but he was categorically rejected by Li Jiancheng. Therefore, it is not impossible for Chen Fuliang, who failed to surrender Li Jiancheng, to surrender Li Er and Li Yuanji instead!

Thinking of this, Li Er was inevitably excited again, and it was inevitable that he was a little shaken, but the wavering was shaken, and this shaking strength was not enough to destroy Li Er's sanity. After trying to calm himself down, Li Er first sneered, and then scolded: "Shameless traitor, he finally showed his despicable face, when he was cold, how much did my brother care for him, he even wanted to kill my brother?" And you want me to kill my own brother? Dream! Despicable villain! ”

After scolding, Li Er casually put the letter on the table in front of him, and then instructed Zhu Cang: "Get up, for the sake of your initiative to confess, I won't pursue this matter, go down to bathe and change clothes, and we'll talk about other things slowly." Come and serve General Zhu to bathe and change clothes, and then prepare a table of good wine and food for him. ”

Zhu Cang thanked him respectfully, and obediently followed Li Er to call the maid who entered the door to go down to bathe and change clothes, Li Er first secretly ordered the personal soldiers borrowed from Li Yuanji to secretly monitor Zhu Cang, and then picked up the letter of appointment written by Chen Fuliang, thinking in his heart, "What should I do?" Although Chen Thief is treacherous and despicable, he has a good credit, is he considering taking a gamble? Or take advantage of this opportunity to make Chen Yingliang a traitor and regain the trust of Li Jiancheng's straw bag? But what if the thief doesn't keep his word? What should I do if Li Jiancheng still refuses to hand over the military power to me? Li Jiancheng's suspicion and vigilance against me are not ordinarily serious? ”

"Let's wait a little longer." After thinking about it for a long time, Li Er finally decided to maintain a wait-and-see attitude for the time being, and while carefully transferring the letter of appointment into the envelope and hiding it in his arms, he secretly said: "Now, I first have to confirm two things, first, is Li Jiancheng really determined to fight Chen Yingliang to the death with the traitor?" Second, can Taiyuan City be defended?! ”

On the afternoon of the same day, the main force of the Sui army led by Chen Fuliang personally returned from Yuci to the city of Taiyuan, and joined forces with the rear army led by Li Jing, and then immediately joined forces to go north, and together they moved to the Chongsheng Temple in the northeast corner of Taiyuan City to set up camp, and set up a strong camp in a deep ditch and high base, and put on a posture of preparing for a long-term station. At the same time, what frightened the Taiyuan army was that Chen Fuliang also brought nearly 10,000 Yang army prisoners captured on the battlefield to the Taiyuan battlefield, and did not incorporate or dismiss them on the spot.

When the main force of the Sui army passed through the east city of Taiyuan, Li Er once again accompanied Li Yuanji to the Taiyuan city wall, and checked the enemy situation with his eldest brother Li Jiancheng. Seeing Liu Wuzhou's dejected appearance riding his horse under the escort of the Sui army, Li Er and Li Yuanji inevitably had a sense of schadenfreude in their hearts, but Li Jiancheng was in tears and choked up, "Brother Wu Zhou, I hurt you." ”

At the same time, Yaoyao saw that the head of Taiyuan City looked like an ant queen, and the famous sycophant Feng Deyi also ran to Chen Fuliang's face, and suggested: "Your Highness, there are many civil and military generals of the thief army in Taiyuan City, and it is expected that Li Jiancheng will peek at His Highness's majestic posture in Taiyuan City. ”

"No need, the news of our army's capture of Liu Wuzhou alive will be reported to the Li thief army by our own scouts, so there is no need to humiliate Liu Wuzhou like this anymore." Chen Fuliang shook his head and refused, thought about it for a while, and simply said: "Go and pass on my decree, among the prisoners captured by our army, there is a family in Taiyuan City, as long as he is willing, he will be released on the spot immediately, and let them return to the city to reunite with their families." ”

The horse's fart slapped on the horse's leg, and also attracted a completely opposite order, Feng Deyi was a little crying and laughing, but he didn't dare to disobey Chen Fuliang's order, he could only hurry to the rear army to escort the prisoners of war, $ Sure enough, there were really more than 300 Taiyuan army prisoners in Taiyuan City who wanted to go home, Kan Liang, who escorted the prisoners of war, acted according to the order, and immediately released them on the spot, and let them go back to the city to reunite with their families in front of everyone, more than 300 Taiyuan prisoners of war repeatedly pinched their thighs to make sure that this was not a dream, and immediately cheered and left, Most of them also knelt down on their knees to Chen Fuliang's handsome banner and kowtowed to thank him when they left.

The power of false benevolence and false righteousness is infinite, and Chen Fuliang's release of more than 300 Taiyuan prisoners of war on the spot suddenly gave the Li brothers a big problem, let them into the city, these prisoners of war will definitely become Chen Fuliang's free drummers, shake the hearts of the defenders and hit morale, and if they are not released into the city, they will definitely hit the morale of the army even more, and they will be in a dilemma. In the end, Li Jiancheng was forced to be helpless, and he could only follow Yin Kaishan's advice, and let people shout loudly to tell those prisoners to be calm and not impatient, and wait for the main force of the Sui army to leave and let them enter the city.

Of course, Li Jiancheng did this for the sake of safety, but it also attracted the dissatisfaction of those prisoners who were eager to enter the city to reunite with their families, even if they didn't dare to reveal it publicly, they all whispered: "It's better for His Royal Highness the Tang King, I will go home directly when I enter the city, and then force me to go to the battlefield, don't expect me to work hard!" ”

The main force of the Sui army finally went away, and those prisoners also entered the city one by one under the strict monitoring of the Taiyuan defenders, looking at the direction where Chen Fuliang's handsome banner was gone, Li Jiancheng was in a complicated mood, and said in his heart: "Brother Ying Liangxian, why don't you come to meet me?" Have you forgotten that we haven't seen each other in almost three years? However, it's better if you don't come to see me, we have met, you will definitely surrender me, I will definitely refuse you, and our brotherhood will be completely severed. ”

Li Jiancheng's mood is complicated, in fact, the mood of most of the Taiyuan military officials is even more complicated, especially when they saw those Taiyuan Army prisoners of war who were released on the spot by Chen Fuliang, the Taiyuan military and civil and military people even said in their hearts: "Chen Yingliang is a person who can forgive even Chai Shao, Chai Shao forced him to hang himself and almost died, and he also forgave Chai Shao several times and three times for not dying, no matter how deep our enmity with him is, can we have Chai Shao and his enmity?" ”

Attacking the Taiyuan army one after another, around the second watch of the same night, Li Shentong, the only one in the Li clan who held the power of the army, suddenly rushed back to the south gate of Taiyuan Xicheng with blood and two relatives who were also wounded, and just boarded the stone bridge across the river, the war horse under the crotch fell on the stone bridge and never stood up, and also injured Li Shentong, who was already injured. After the soldiers carried Li Shentong, who could no longer stand up, into the city, they immediately cried and told the southern gate guard of the Taiyuan Army who came to greet him, "Xicheng was broken by Liu Heimin, and the two thousand defenders plus two thousand township soldiers only fled back to the three of us, and the rest were either killed or surrendered." ”

The reason for the fall of Xicheng was that in addition to Liu Heimin's fierce attack, Chen Fuliang's letter of buying the hearts of the people of the five counties of Taiyuan also played a major role, and the people of Xicheng and the local township soldiers who were looking forward to getting rid of the pressure of paying taxes this year not only did not contribute to the work when they assisted in defending the city, but also continued to secretly provide various intelligence support to the Sui army. As a result, Li Shentong's way to flee west to Lishi was blocked, and he could only flee to Wenshui County in the northeast, and at the same time, because the city of Wenshui County had been changed to the banner of the Sui Army, Li Shentong did not even dare to enter Wenshui County, and fled directly back to Taiyuan.

Li Shentong's unexpected return, in addition to bringing Li Jiancheng the bad news that Xicheng and Lishi are difficult to protect, but also to the Li clan in Taiyuan City brought the backbone, Li Jiancheng visited Li Shentong's injury and soon left with a heavy expression, but no one in the Li clan left Li Shentong's sickbed, and took advantage of Li Jiancheng's departure, Li Er, Li Yuanji's brothers have not come to visit for the time being, and Li Shentong is conscious, and quickly convened a clan meeting.

"Uncle Clan, since the death of the head of the family, among our Li clan, you are the oldest and have the highest prestige." The first to speak was Li Jiancheng and Li Fengci, the cousin of Li Er and others, and said to Li Shentong in a low voice: "Chen thief soldiers pressed the border, our army was defeated in successive battles, and now only Taiyuan is left to defend the lonely city, where is our Li clan going, and I ask you to get an idea for us." ”

"What ideas can I have?" Li Shentong looked aggrieved, and said with a dying breath: "The matter has come to this, don't say it's me, even if Brother Shude (Li Yuan) is reborn, it must be helpless, there is nothing to do, what else can I think?" ”

"Brother, have you thought about ......?" Li Shuliang wanted to speak and stopped, and said: "At the beginning in Daxing, we knew that Yang Guang would definitely not give up and would not spare us, but now that Yang Guang is dead, the government and government are all controlled by Chen Yingliang, Chen Yingliang's personality is far gentler than Yang Guang, and he is famous for not caring about previous suspicions, even Chai Shao, Xiao Yu and Dou Jin, Chen Yingliang didn't care, and they were all appointed to official positions, and Chai Shao was also re......used. You say, ...... we? ”

Li Shentong closed his eyes and whispered in a hoarse voice: "Since you already have these thoughts, why don't you do it?" No one stopped you? ”

"Brother, someone just stopped me." Li Shuliang said with a wry smile: "Brother, you know, because of the matter of the left and right governors, Jiancheng's nephew hates us clan relatives to the bone marrow, except for your brother, all the people are gradually deprived of military power and real power by him, and now even if the members of our Li clan want to enter and leave the city, they must first ask for his Li Jiancheng's consent." Even if we can find a way to sneak out on our own, our family won't be able to escape? ”

"Uncle Clan, one more point." Li Daozong, who was far less backbone than his younger brother, added: "If we go to see King Tang empty-handed, I'm afraid we can only barely keep our lives at most, and more ......, we must not even think about it." ”

Li Shentong refused to open his eyes, closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep, and asked in a low voice after a while: "Zuo Dudu, what is your attitude?" ”

"It doesn't seem that there is that plan, and yesterday they all shouted on the city wall to live and die with Taiyuan." Li Shuliang replied in a low voice, and said with a wry smile: "We were really wrong before, we were afraid that he would exchange the lives of our entire clan for his life when we were in Daxing, and we also helped Erlang, who had a deep enmity with Chen Thief, to fight for power with him, so I knew that he was actually more determined and stubborn than Erlang, and insisted that even if he couldn't avenge the old master, he would never bow his knees to ......the enemy who killed his father." Alas, if we had known this, we shouldn't have gotten into trouble at that time. ”

"Uncle Clan, you are highly respected, and you are the only one in our Li clan who can hold the power of the army under the command of the Governor of Zuodu." Li Fengci said cautiously: "I don't know if the clan uncle can ......, whether he can persuade Brother Cheng, as early as when Chen Yingliang was cold, he was already a brother and sister with Chen Yingliang, and Chen Yingliang is a very moral person, if he is ......, if he takes the lead in ......, all of our Li clan?" members, it's all beneficial. ”

After being silent for a long time, Li Shentong said as if in a dream: "For the continuation of my Longxi Li family's bloodline, I promise you, but you don't have to worry, Taiyuan may not be able to hold it, and I have to find out the attitude of completion." If Taiyuan can be kept, we don't have that need, but if Taiyuan really can't be kept, I will think about you. ”

…………

Another night passed quickly, and the next morning, when Chen Fuliang yawned and came to the Chinese army's tent in the new camp, Li Jing, Yuan Tiangang, Qu Tutong, Feng Deyi, Sun Fujia and other staff officers had already arrived. After meeting, Yuan Tiangang also hurriedly presented a new sand table of Taiyuan terrain to Chen Fuliang's hands, and said with a smile: "Your Highness, this is a small gift made by the lower officials in order to congratulate you on breaking Liu Wuzhou's thief army, I hope you like it." ”

On the sand table, Taiyuan has been blocked by a dam to Fenshui road, southwest of Taiyuan Jinshui birthplace Longshan, there is also an additional Sui military camp and a small embankment, the small embankment blocks the road to the south of Jinshui, forcing all the water into the Zhibo Canal that goes straight into Taiyuan City.

After carefully looking at the situation of the sand table, Chen Fuliang smiled and said with a smile: "Lord Shangshu, the gift you made with your own hands, can I not like it?" But it's too early, right? When did I say that to attack Taiyuan, we must attack with water? ”

"Your Highness, take it." Li Jing smiled and said: "This is what Yuan Shangshu spent a lot of effort to make by himself, even if you pity the people and don't want to hurt the innocent, you should accept it, don't let down Yuan Shangshu's kindness." ”

With a helpless smile, Chen Fuliang could only take the beautifully made sand table with both hands, and said with a smile: "Since this is Mr. Tiangang's hard work, then I will accept it, but I also said it first, I can consider water attack tactics, but I will never flood the city unless it is absolutely necessary!" ”

"Nope! To attack Taiyuan, you must attack with water! Yuan Tiangang, who is actually very gentle in personality, rarely contradicted Chen Fuliang once, and said categorically: "Your Highness, the lower officials know that you pity the people, but if you want to take Taiyuan at the lowest cost, there is only one way to attack by water!" Xia Guan proposed that our army send troops to seize the Fenshui Bridge today, march to Longshan to seize the entrance of Zhibo Canal, and garrison troops to guard it! Please allow Your Highness! ”

"There's no need to be in such a hurry, is there?" Chen Fuliang asked with some confusion.

"It has to be in such a hurry!" Yuan Tiangang's attitude was even more firm, and he also knelt down to Chen Fuliang, clasped his fists and said: "Please Your Highness immediately order the general to send troops, break through the Fenshui Bridge, and take Longshan!" ”

Chen Fuliang was stunned by Yuan Tiangang's rare attitude, and Li Jing, Sun Fujia and others, who had never seen Yuan Tiangang speak to Chen Fuliang in such a tone, also looked at each other a little, and then Qu Tutong hurriedly reminded carefully: "Yuan Shangshu, Your Highness has not decided how to capture Taiyuan, why do you insist on influencing His Highness's strategy for using troops?" ”

Blinking his eyes, Yuan Tiangang suddenly slowed down a little, and said with a smile: "Because doing this is equivalent to telling the Taiyuan thief army that we are ready to use water to attack, and there are also some well-educated people on the side of the Taiyuan thief army. ”

Yuan Tiangang's words reminded Chen Fuliang and reminded Chen Fuliang that even if he didn't plan to use water attack tactics that hurt innocent people too much, he could first pretend to be ready to divert water to irrigate the city to intimidate the enemy, bluff and scare the enemy's interior, and then use what kind of discord and anti-theft to buy sneak attacks to lure snakes out of the hole and attack the west, etc., it is much easier and easier. So after hesitating for a moment, Chen Fuliang nodded and said, "Okay, Yuan Shangshu's words are reasonable, then I will immediately send troops to capture Longshan Zhibo Canal." ”

After that, Chen Fuliang added: "But it's still the same sentence, it's okay to capture Longshan to intimidate the enemy, and I still have to seriously consider whether to divert water to irrigate the city." ”

Yuan Tiangang smiled and nodded, but did not speak, but when he lowered his head, a hint of a wicked smile appeared on the corner of Yuan Tiangang's mouth.