"Your Majesty, the old minister is sorry for you! You entrusted His Royal Highness the King of Guanzhong Daxing to the old minister, and entrusted the old minister with the important task of staying behind, but the old minister let them fall into the mouth of the traitor and face the danger of exhaustion, the old minister is sorry for you! Lao Chen is a broken corpse, and it is difficult to atone for this sin! Your Majesty, how will the old minister explain to you in the future! ”

"His Royal Highness the Acting King, the officials and soldiers of Daxing, the people of Guanzhong, the old man is ashamed of you! The emperor entrusted you to the old man, but the old man threw away the main force in the customs cleanly, so how can you resist the thieves entering the customs! The old man has no face to see you, what face does the old man have to see you again?! ”

"Fan Huazong, the old man is sorry for you! If the old man could listen to your bitter words, why would he be today?! You old thing, the old man has no face to see you anymore, no face to see you again! ”

"Wei Wensheng, you pig and dog are not as good as old things! Many of you loyal ministers of the court have been persuading and persuading with good intentions, why can't you listen to half of the sentence? Why are you obsessed? Why make mistakes again and again? You sin deserves death, old horseman! You have killed countless Great Sui soldiers, you have killed Guanzhong, you have harmed Daxing, and you have killed thousands of Great Sui people! You old and stubborn, even if you are executed by the emperor, it will be difficult to resist your sins! ”

After being carried into Hongnong City to wake up, Daxing stayed behind to guard Xuan has been crying endlessly, constantly wailing and blaming himself, hating his stubbornness, and regretting that he did not listen to the good words of his subordinates and friendly troops, leading to today's critical situation, regretting and blaming himself to the extreme, and also bitter to the extreme, crying all night, no matter what, he couldn't listen to the persuasion and comfort of others, so that Yang Zhiji had to arrange a large number of people to take turns to guard his side, for fear that something would happen to him - after all, Wei Xuan's seventy-three-year-old age is placed here.

Wei Xuan can't be blamed for being fragile, the battle situation has been doomed to be difficult to protect in Guanzhong, dragged down by the tired friendly army, Chen Yingliang failed to rush to the Hongnong battlefield in time to join Yang Zhiji, and failed to use the stepped advance strategy agreed with Yang Zhiji to rush to Tongguan for reinforcements, and the rebel team that was interspersed with roundabouts bypassed Hongnong in a detour and occupied a favorable terrain in front. The defenders of Tongguan, who are outnumbered, will face the dilemma of fighting alone, and the opponent is still the Yang family brothers who have deep roots in Guanzhong, and the loss is almost a foregone conclusion.

Maybe some friends want to ask, since the rebels have returned to the front, why don't the Sui army try to break through by force, break through the interception of the rebel team and reinforce Tongguan? The answer is that the reason why the Cuihan Road is called a dangerous road is that the dangerous road is narrow in his mountain road, the south is the undulating Qinling Mountains, the north is the surging Yellow River, the narrowest part of the road is less than two zhang, as long as the rebel team hurriedly builds some simple fortifications, it is enough to make the Sui army pay a heavy price, and it is enough to resist the Sui army for a long time, win the main force of the rebel army to resist, and completely annihilate the Sui army team that cannot advance or retreat in the Kunhan Road.

It may be the only way to follow the rebel team to take a small road and go back to reinforce Tongguan, but the wise Yang Zhiji and the cunning Chen Yingliang are not optimistic about this method, because the reason why the rebel team can penetrate to the west of Hongnong is that the mountains around Hongnong to Shaanxi County are relatively gentle, the population is quite large, and the demand for road traffic is large. And after passing through the relatively open area of Hongnong, there is only such a main road as Cuihan Road, and the mountain roads are no longer so complicated and numerous, even if there are, they are hidden deep in the mountains and mountains, rugged and difficult, and it is time-consuming and laborious to walk, once the rebel team has stationed troops on these trails, even if it is a small number of troops, it is enough to make the Sui army pay ten times the price.

Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if there is no rebel interception, it will be too late, because as far as the local snake Yang Zhiji knows, among the paths west of Hongnong, even if it is the most recent, it will take more than two days to return to Tongguan from Hongnong, and the main force of the rebels will march on the official road, and they can reach Tongguan in a day and a half at the earliest, and then easily block the mountain path of the Sui army to reinforce Tongguan.

It is precisely because of this that Yang Zhiji and Chen Yingliang did not go to the idea of taking the path interspersed with detours from the beginning, and racked their brains just to think about how to reinforce Tongguan, or to contain the main force of the rebels, but due to the limitations of strength and geographical advantages, even if they figured out some ways to contain the main force of the rebels, they could only rely on luck to speak, and there was no certainty that they could ensure the safety of Tongguan.

The night passed quickly, and in the early morning of the next day, Chen Yingliang and Yang Zhiji, who were worried about Wei Xuan's situation, rushed to visit Wei Xuan, and saw that the white-haired Wei Xuan was already crying with red and swollen eyes, dying, and asked Yang Zhiji to take him down, put him in a prisoner car and escort him to Liaodong to be handed over to Emperor Yang of Sui for disposal, Yang Zhiji and Chen Yingliang were inevitably very sympathetic, and persuaded Wei Xuan not to blame himself too much, and said that although it was a desperate situation at present, the main force of the rebels had not broken through Tongguan after all, and there was still a chance to block the main force of the rebels from entering the pass.

No matter how much he persuaded him, Wei Xuan, who was desperate and remorseful, cried and said, "What other chance? The traitor strikers have been interspersed in front of us, what is the situation on this road in the west, the old man knows better than anyone else, as long as there are a thousand traitors to choke the danger, it is difficult for us to advance an inch, and the main force of the traitors is already close at hand, and we can be caught in front and behind at any time. ”

After that, Wei Xuan cried loudly again, Yang Zhiji's persuasion was useless, so he could only say like this: "Don't worry about staying behind, it is difficult for us to reinforce Tongguan at the moment, but the main force of the traitors has not crossed Hongnong after all, and the main force of the traitors carrying a large amount of grain and grass must pass under the city of Hongnong if they want to go west, I have already thought of a plan, maybe we can induce the main force of the traitors to suspend their westward advance, stop and attack the city of Hongnong, and then we can use the advantage of the city to compete with the main force of the traitors, we can buy time for our main force of the Great Sui." ”

"What is His Royal Highness King Cai's plan? Please tell us quickly. Wei Xuan was so overjoyed that he forgot to cry and blame himself, and quickly sat up from the bed and asked.

"Scold!" Yang Zhiji replied: "Scold Yang Xuangan, and then use some small means to induce him to attack Hongnong City!" ”

"Scolding? Can scolding be useful? "Wei Xuan.

"Please rest assured, it will work." Yang Zhiji smiled and said: "Yang Xuangan was born in a famous family, relying on his father's shadow and smooth career, he has never encountered setbacks in his life, and he must have developed a high-minded and arrogant character, and high-minded and arrogant people are the most humiliated, so as long as Xiao Wang comes forward in person, goes to the city and scolds in public, and scolds Yang Xuan's rebellious thief to the point that it is unbearable, then Yang Xuan will definitely disregard the consequences and immediately attack the city!" ”

"Brilliant plan!" Wei Xuan was overjoyed, jumped off the bed barefoot and waved his hand and said: "His Royal Highness King Cai has a wonderful plan, the old man has dealt with Yang Rebellion, this traitor is indeed an arrogant person, scolding and angering him, he will definitely receive the effect of agitation!" That's it, when Your Highness went to the city to scold, the old man also accompanied you to the city, and joined hands to scold Yang Xuangan for being a traitor and lure him to attack Hongnong City! ”

After hearing Yang Zhiji's clever plan, Wei Xuan, who was still dying just now, suddenly smiled and increased his confidence, but Chen Yingliang next to him knew that something was wrong, and he didn't want to hit Wei Xuan, but the matter was serious, Chen Yingliang could only stubbornly say: "Your Highness, Wei Liu, said that you don't get angry, it is useless to insult Yang Xuangan, because someone has already used it against Yang Xuangan." ”

"What? Someone has already used this trick on Yang Xuangan, who? Yang Zhiji and Wei Xuan were both taken aback.

"That's me." Chen Yingliang pointed to his nose and smiled bitterly, and said: "At the beginning of the defense of Luoyang, in order to induce Yang rebels to launch an attack on the city with insufficient preparation, I had already scolded Yang Xuangan on the wall of Shangchun Gate in Luoyang, and shot off half of his ears. The villain pondered, even if Yang Xuan felt that the thief was stupid, it was estimated that he would not suffer two losses and be fooled twice. ”

With a wry smile, Chen Yingliang gave a general introduction to the situation at that time, which stunned Yang Zhiji, and also made Wei Xuan so angry that he screamed, roaring like thunder, "Bastard boy, you actually used such a clever plan early, and only shot off half of Yang Zhiji's ears, it's just a tyrannical thing!" Tyrannical Creatures! ”

"Wei Shangshu don't worry, Xiao Wang still has a plan." Yang Zhiji grabbed Wei Xuan, who was like thunder, and said with a smile: "Xiao Wang can arrange some people to welcome Yang rebels, pretending to be close to Yang rebels, and take the opportunity to falsely claim that there is a lot of money and food in Hongnong Palace, arousing the greed of traitors, and then arrange for Hongnong County to make Zu Junyan come forward to deceive and surrender, secretly send a letter to Yang rebels, and voluntarily serve as Yang rebels' siege of the rebels." In this way, Yang rebels feel that Hongnong is at his fingertips, and he will definitely ....... ”

"His Royal Highness King Cai, stay behind, you forgive your sins." Chen Yingliang said tremblingly: "The trick of deception, the villain has also used it in Luoyang, and he has cheated Yang rebels very much, and it is estimated that Yang rebels will not be fooled again." ”

"What? You've already used the trick yet? Yang Zhiji had an urge to vomit blood.

Chen Yingliang nodded with a wry smile, and carefully introduced his bitter meat deception plan to Yang Zhiji and Wei Xuan, but Yang Zhiji also spurted out of his mouth with a mouthful of old blood, and screamed: "Chen Jiroom, you are too ruthless, right?" How did he use all the tricks that this king had worked out with great difficulty to lure the enemy, and he used them more cleverly than me, and even used the bitter meat tricks? ”

"Because I copied your clever plan." Chen Yingliang said secretly in his heart with a sad face: "I have read a book about you, Feng Menglong's "Complete Works of the Wisdom Tank", and your seat is in front of Zhang Xun. But I really didn't mean to copy you, if I had known that I was also going to participate in the defense of Hongnong, I would definitely not have copied you. ”

Yang Zhiji vomited blood from Chen Yingliang's secret cooperation with himself, but Wei Xuan was roaring loudly, "You kid, are you from Daxing?" Who are you, and why did he use all these good ideas? Why can't you offer the old man a clever plan to break the enemy? ”

"I gave you a lot of good ideas before, but you don't want to listen, what can I do?" Chen Ying muttered in his conscience.

At this time, Liu Changgong also walked in, first saluted Yang Zhiji and Wei Xuan, and then said: "Your Highness, Wei Liu, the number of my team has been counted, including me, there are still 3,669 people left, the rabbit cubs have rested all night, and they are almost recovered, how to fight next, what preparations need to be made, please show Your Highness and the adults who stayed behind." ”

"What? Chased all the way here by a team of traitors, your team is scattered and killed less than 400 people? Wei Xuan was a little surprised.

"Thanks to the Lord who stayed behind, the number of people who were separated and killed in battle was less than four hundred." Liu Changgong was a little proud -- he fled for more than 100 miles, was cut by the main force of the rebels for more than 100 miles, and the army lost less than 10 percent.

"Fan Huazong's fate is good, if you can have a talent like you under your command, it is no wonder that you can hold Luoyang City and hold on until the main force of the Great Sui returns to help." Wei Xuan's feelings fell again, and he choked up: "After returning to the army for more than 100 miles, he was pursued by the main force of the traitors for more than 100 miles, and the loss was less than 10%, and the 40,000 troops that the old man brought to the Luoyang battlefield are still how many people are left?" How many people are left? ”

Seeing that Wei Xuan was about to cry again, Liu Changgong, who knew that Wei Xuan had cried all night last night, was also afraid that something would happen to the old stubborn, so he hurriedly said: "Wei Liushou, don't say that, your team has suffered heavy losses, because your team and the thieves are fighting head-on, and it is normal for the casualties to be larger, but my team will not be able to do it, those veteran oilers will not be able to run for their lives, except for drinking and gambling to fight with the wind, nothing else, all of them are rotten wood that cannot be carved, and the mud cannot be supported on the wall!" ”

"Those bunnies, in addition to escaping and defending the city, may be of some use, but when they come to the field, they will only escape faster than the other, and they are far worse than the Daxing elite soldiers under your command! You're just a little unlucky, you're unlucky, the end of the hero, oops, wrong, it should be the end of the hero. ”

Lao Qiu Ba Liu Changgong was very inconsolable, and after listening to his persuasion, Wei Xuan, who was originally just choked, couldn't help but burst into tears again, and cried bitterly: "The old man's evaluation worthy of the end of a hero? What kind of hero is the old man? 40,000 troops out of the customs, how many people are left now, how many people are left? What kind of face does the old man have to meet the father of Guanzhong? What kind of face do you have to meet the elders of Guanzhong? ”

"The end of the hero? What kind of face do you have to meet the elders of Guanzhong? ”

The speaker had no intention, the listener had a heart, hearing Wei Xuan's two words of crying bitterly, Chen Yingliang, who had always been worried about how to stop the main force of the rebel army from moving west, moved violently, and the eyeballs in his triangular eyes suddenly turned rapidly, and then, Chen Yingliang suddenly remembered what Liu Changgong had just said - those veteran soldiers can run for their lives, except for drinking and gambling to fight with the wind, nothing else!

Thinking of this, Chen Yingliang pondered for another moment, then gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and said loudly: "Don't worry if you stay behind, I have already thought of a strategy, I will definitely be able to block the main force of the traitors, and prevent Yang Rebels from stepping into the pass!" ”

"What? Will you be able to stop Yang from rebels? So sure? Wei Xuan raised his head again.

"Wei Liushou, don't worry, Brother Ying Liang has a lot of ghost ideas, that time in Bishan, he even calculated that the traitor was hungry to fight, he said that if he is sure, he must be sure." Liu Changgong hurriedly bragged to Chen Yingliang, and quickly turned to Chen Yingliang and asked, "Brother Yingliang, if you have come up with any good ideas, tell us quickly." ”

"It's simple, head-to-head!" Chen Yingliang was shocked, and replied loudly: "Gather all the combat forces in our hands, set up a battle formation outside Hongnong City, and fight to the death with Yang rebels in a dignified manner!" ”

"Head-to-head?" Liu Changgong was dumbfounded no matter how confident he was in Chen Yingliang, and exclaimed: "Brother Yingliang, are you crazy? Fight the thieves head-on, you want to die? ”

"What are you kidding?" Wei Xuan was also furious and said: "The old man insisted on the frontal decisive battle of the Yang rebels, so he was defeated again and again, and finally the 40,000 troops were wiped out, and now how many troops are there in Hongnong City, you still want to fight the Yang rebels head-on, don't you want to find death?" ”

"Wei Shangshu, forgive the villain." Chen Yingliang said in a deep voice: "The reason why you have been defeated again and again in front of Yang Rebellion's traitors is not that your army is inferior to the traitor team, but that Wei Shangshu yourself is inferior to Yang Rebellion's team in terms of tactical wisdom, which led to the successive defeats of the Daxing army." And when it comes to tactical intelligence, the villain is confident that he will never lose to Yang Rebel, as well as his wise men Li Mi and Li Zixiong! ”

"What do you say? The old man is not as good as Yang rebels in terms of tactics and intelligence, but you are confident that you will be able to beat them! Wei Xuan was furious and said, "In this way, in terms of wisdom and tactics, you are also confident that you will be able to defeat the old man, the former right guard general?!" ”

Chen Yingliang didn't answer, and simply gave Wei Xuan a default.

"Ying Liang, pay attention to your identity." Yang Zhiji is a good person, first reminded Chen Yingliang, and then said: "Also, don't come nonsense, now add up the army in Hongnong City, I'm afraid there are less than 6,000 people, excluding the city defense team, the team that can go out of the city for a decisive battle is less than 5,000 people, how can it be the opponent of the main force of the traitors?" ”

"Brother Yingliang, you'd better count on those fools under my command." Liu Changgong also warned kindly: "You and I have fought together many times, you should know what kind of virtue they are, if you expect them to fight to the death like your white-robed soldiers, then you don't even think about it, those veterans, I am heartbroken for them." ”

"Brother Liu, you seem to have forgotten something." Chen Yingliang said coldly: "The **** soldiers under my command were originally composed of soldiers drawn from the battalions of the Right Guard, and many of them are still from your team, all of them are soldiers of the Right Guard, why can't they fight to the death like the soldiers of the Newspaper Army?" ”

Liu Changgong was speechless, and it took a long time to say: "You trained the national army for thirteen days, and it took thirteen days to become an elite soldier, and now you have so much time?" ”

"It won't take thirteen days this time." Chen Yingliang replied confidently: "This time, there is the National Army as the core backbone, and in just two days, I will make them as capable as the National Army!" ”

"Two days?" Liu Changgong's eyes widened, and he blurted out, "You are an immortal?" Can you turn those veterans into elite soldiers in two days? ”

Chen Yingliang no longer paid attention to Liu Changgong's question, but turned to Wei Xuan and Yang Zhiji and bowed, and said solemnly: "Wei Liushou, His Royal Highness King Cai, more than a month ago in Luoyang City, the villain once said to Fan Liushou, if he believes me, give me half a month, I can conjure an elite soldier for him." As a result, it only took me thirteen days to give him a newspaper ****, a newspaper army that has not suffered a defeat until now. ”

"Wei stays behind, His Royal Highness King Cai, now the villain must once again speak wildly, for the sake of Dasui, and for the sake of Guanzhong and Daxing not to be poisoned by traitors, please believe me, as long as you hand over the army in Hongnong City to me for command, and then fully cooperate with my tactical arrangements, and provide the villain with the one he needs, then the villain can guarantee that he will be able to defeat the main force of the traitors under Hongnong City!" Keep Guanzhong safe! ”

"It's still what the villain said in front of Fan Liushou." Chen Yingliang added: "The villain is willing to make a military order, if it fails, behead him!" ”

Wei Xuan and Yang Zhiji looked at each other, and immediately hesitated, but Liu Changgong wiped his sweat and said: "Brother Yingliang, don't be joking, you have already made so many contributions in Luoyang, why do you still have to play this time?" Do you know that if you lose this time, all the previous military merit rewards will be gone? ”

"For the sake of the Great Sui, I die without regrets, not to mention the reward?" Chen Yingliang replied shamelessly to the extreme, and urged: "His Royal Highness King Cai, the guards are left behind, time is running out, please decide, if you believe that I can create such a miracle as serving the national army again, please hand over all the troops on the Hongnong battlefield to my command, and you, also obey my command!" ”

He stared at Chen Yingliang with a complicated expression for a long time, and Wei Xuan, who had already lost no longer and couldn't lose anymore, finally made up his mind, gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and said viciously: "Okay! Since Fan Zigai that old thing dares to bet on you on his lifetime name, the old man has nothing to lose anyway, so he bets this old life on you! Okay, the old man promises you! ”

Chen Yingliang thanked Wei Xuan for his trust, and turned his gaze to Yang Zhiji, but Yang Zhiji, who was cautious by nature, hesitated for a longer time than Wei Xuan, and then said calmly: "Chen Jiroom, what do you want Xiao Wang to do?" In Hongnong City, in addition to the royal things, whatever you want, I will give you! ”

Chen Yingliang cautiously leaned into Yang Zhiji's ear and whispered: "Your Highness, the villain doesn't want royal things, the villain only needs a jar of honey, a hundred specially made five-baht coins, all the saltpeter, sulfur and hundreds of catties of charcoal in Hongnong City, and some craftsmen!" The sooner the better! ”