"How is this possible? Chen Yingliang sent troops to take over Chaoyi, Zhongdan and Pujin Pass, making it clear that he was guarding against the old man, and was ready to start a war with the old man, why did he send my family here? And all my family members have been sent? ”

Could it be that Chen Yingliang is preparing to take the old man's family as hostages and force the old man to comply? If the old man doesn't agree to his request, he will kill the old man's family on the spot?! ”

First puzzled, and then suddenly thought of this possibility, Qu Tutong was shocked in his heart, and subconsciously shouted: "Wang Xingben, Xun Tianhe, immediately order two thousand elite soldiers to follow the old man out of the camp." ”

Wang Xingben and Xun Tianhe were confused, and rushed out of the tent to gather the army, Guo Wenyi, who was in a stupor, also quickly came back to his senses, and thought of the same key issue with Qu Tutong, and hurriedly said to Qu Tutong: "Old general, if Chen Yingliang's traitors take your family as a hostage and force you to submit, you can pretend to agree, try to save your family, and then kill all his lackeys and minions." Your Majesty will certainly not blame you. ”

Qu Tutong did not speak with a gloomy face, and the other Sui generals on both sides exchanged their heads and ears, and they all suspected that Chen Fuliang had sent all of Qu Tutong's family members to the Yellow River crossing, and he was afraid that he had no good intentions. After another moment, Wang Xingben and Xun Tian and the second general entered the account to report that the troops and horses had been assembled, Qu Tutong quickly arranged for the generals who stayed in the camp, and immediately went out of the tent with Wang and Xun Erjun to lead the army to attack, and Guo Wenyi volunteered to go with him, and Qu Tutong did not stop him.

All the way to the Yellow River ferry not far from the camp, under the sunset, on the ferry wharf on the other side of the Yellow River, there was indeed a team of Sui soldiers surrounded by some old and weak women and children waiting on the wharf, seeing Qu Tutong's handsome flag appeared on the east bank of the Yellow River, a few children were still jumping and jumping on the wooden wharf, and the Sui military captain guarding the wharf on the east bank also immediately greeted him, and said happily to Qu Tutong: "Ambassador Qu Tu, the ferry is ready, do you want the sailors to drive the boat?" ”

Qu Tutong didn't answer, but carefully observed the situation on the other side, but Qu Tutong was puzzled that although his family did have Sui soldiers from the eastern capital guarding him, those Sui soldiers under Chen Fuliang's command did not draw their swords and raise their guns to prepare for battle, and most of them had already set up camps on the high ground on the shore, which did not look like they were ready to start fighting. Suspicious, Qu Tutong went to the captain guarding the dock and asked, "Do you understand?" Who is the leader of the people on the other side? ”

"Ambassador, I understand, with your eldest son Qu Tushou as the leader." The captain guarding the dock replied truthfully.

Surprised, he glanced at the situation on the other side again, Qu Tutong thought for a while, and then ordered: "You personally take the ferry over and tell the people on the other side that except for the old man's family, no one else is allowed to get on the boat, and all of them stay on the west bank to wait for their lives, and wait for the old man's family to cross the Yellow River." ”

The captain sang a promise, and was about to rush to the boat, Qu Tutong ordered again: "Wait, if the people sent by Chen Yingliang detain the old man's family and prevent them from getting on the boat, don't pay attention to the old man's family and turn around and come back immediately!" ”

The captain of the Sui military opened his mouth wide, and it was not until Qu Tutong emphasized this order again that the captain sang the promise in despair and hurriedly went to board the ship and set sail. Guo Wenyi, who was next to him, couldn't wait to bow his hand to Qu Tutong, and said with great admiration: "The old general is not afraid of violence, has a clear distinction between public and private, and is loyal to the Great Sui court. ”

With the efforts of the sailors of the Sui army, the two ferries soon crossed the surface of the Yellow River in the Fenyin section of the Kuandarixu, and gradually approached the wharf on the west bank of the Yellow River. ”

Guo Wenyi's cruel smile quickly solidified on his face, and the expression on Qu Tutong's face soon fell back into a state of stupidity, because the two ferries he sent across the river were very directly docked, and his family members couldn't wait to get on the boat, but the soldiers of the Daxing Sui Army sent by Chen Fuliang left the dock without hesitation and retreated to the high ground on the shore, and did not detain any of Qu Tutong's family members. Seeing this scene, Qu Tutong and Guo Wenyi also involuntarily had a thought in their hearts, and said secretly: "Chen Yingliang, what kind of fame are you doing?" ”

Several soldiers of the Daxing Sui Army suddenly came down from the high ground on the shore and walked towards the wharf, Guo Wenyi's heart was also reborn with hope for a while, but when he saw that those Sui soldiers were handing over a sedan chair to the dock defenders, Guo Wenyi suddenly fell into despair. Qu Tutong was also a little confused at first, but when he woke up, a warm current welled up in Qu Tutong's heart, and he suddenly understood one thing - from Daxing to Fenyin for 350 miles, Chen Fuliang's subordinates used this sedan chair to carry his elderly mother here.

The two ferries were full of Qu Tutong's family and returned to the wharf on the west bank, the boat had not been pulled to the dock by the Sui soldiers with a rope, Qu Tutong, who had just met with his family more than half a year ago and hurriedly separated, couldn't wait, and rushed directly to the wharf, and then saw his two sons, holding his white-haired mother next to the side of the ship, Qu Tutong could no longer suppress the emotions in his heart, and knelt on the dock with a plop, his mouth just opened, tears had already burst out of his eyes, and he cried, "Mother forgive sins, Children are not filial......! ”

Qu Tutong's mother, as well as his wife and children, daughters-in-law and sons-in-law, grandchildren and grandchildren, dozens of people, all crying and laughing, competing around Qu Tutong to salute and greet, several young grandchildren and grandchildren also rushed to let Qu Tutong hug them, grandfather and grandfather kept shouting, the eldest grandson Qu Tutong Zhongxiang also hugged Qu Tutong's eldest great-grandson in front of him, and let Qu Tutong hug his great-grandson who he had never seen before, and the family cried together.

Seeing the reunion scene of Qu Tutong's family, Wang Xingben, Xun Tian and other Sui soldiers on the battlefield couldn't help but think of their family members who had not seen each other for a long, long time, and the long-accumulated nostalgia rolled and boiled in their chests, making these tall men unconsciously burst into tears, and many people also left tears on the spot and cried.

Only Guo Wenyi, who was sent by Yang Tong, was not emotional, on the contrary, his expression was very embarrassed and ugly, and his eyes kept rolling rapidly, thinking about how to counteract the impact of Chen Fuliang's actions on Qu Tutong. After thinking for a while, Guo Wenyi also found his hand and called a retinue of his own, whispered a few words in his ear, and asked him to immediately return to the camp of Li Er's army in the north and report the situation to Li Er.

Crying and laughing, Qu Tutong finally remembered to lead his family back to the camp to rest, in order to repay the Daxing soldiers who escorted his family to this place, Qu Tutong also immediately sent a boat to meet Chen Fuliang to send those Sui soldiers to cross the river, but unfortunately those Sui soldiers refused Qu Tutong's kindness, saying that they would leave after a night's rest, and did not want to cross the river back and forth. Qu Tutong didn't force them, but ordered someone to send them some wine and meat rewards, and then personally led the army to escort their families back to the camp. Along the way, Qu Tutong naturally had to talk about his farewell feelings with his family, and kept choking with tears.

The arrival of Qu Tutong's family naturally caused a huge sensation in Qu Tutong's army, since the time of Li Yuan's army, the Sui soldiers who followed Qu Tutong to Hedong County to fight have not been able to go home for more than half a year, and the homesickness is already very strong. -- Although these feelings have not yet affected the morale and cohesion of the army, if Qu Tutong dares to order the army to march east to Luoyang and go to the eastern capital to fight for Yang Tong, then even if there will be no mutiny in the army, at least the phenomenon of desertion will definitely appear one after another.

After settling the family and the sky, Qu Tutong finally remembered that Chen Fuliang sent his two sons for court business. Out of gratitude and respect for Chen Fuliang, Qu Tutong lit a large number of candles in the Chinese army's tent in accordance with the imperial court system, summoned the army's Chinese military officers, and met with Chen Fuliang's two sons who served as envoys.

Qu Tushou and Qu Tuquan knew their father's temper, and they didn't dare to be commensurate with Qu Tutong as father and son in the big tent of the Chinese army, but honestly claimed their official names, and paid homage to Qu Tutong to meet Shangguan, and then Qu Tushou said: "General Qu Tu, the lower official Qu Tushou came to report to you on the order of General Wuwei and Chen Yingliang, who stayed in the Eastern Capital, and went against the thief Yu culture and committed the murder of the king, killed the emperor, and the emperor was killed. ”

"I know, the old man has ordered someone to arrange the funeral, and the whole army can wear filial piety tomorrow." Qu Tutong nodded, and asked again: "In addition to reporting the funeral, what else does Chen Liushou have to explain?" ”

"General Qu Tu, Chen Liushou also ordered the lower officials and others to invite you to return to Daxing on his behalf to discuss the important matter of supporting the new emperor." Qu Tushou replied respectfully: "Chen Liushou also said that if you don't mind General Qu Tu, you can temporarily take your place as a subordinate and preside over the Hedong army, so that you can return to the eastern capital with confidence." ”

Of course, Chen Fuliang did this to further appease and curry favor with Qu Tutong, and of course Qu Tutong knew it, Guo Wenyi next to him saw that the situation was not good, and quickly stood up and said: "Old general, you must not be fooled, Chen Yingliang deliberately sent your family members to invite you back to Daxing, on the surface to show sincerity, but in fact it is just throwing bricks and attracting jade, wanting to trick you to Daxing to house arrest, take the opportunity to confiscate your military power, and even take the opportunity to kill you to remove the obstacles to his usurpation of power. ”

"Besides." Guo Wenyi hurriedly added: "His Majesty the Emperor was killed, and His Royal Highnesses King Qi, King Zhao and King Yan were also killed, and His Royal Highness the Acting King also died unfortunately. Chen Yingliang made it clear that he wanted to support the hypocrite and take the opportunity to usurp power! ”

Qu Tushou and Qu Tuquan were puzzled to see Guo Wenyi, and then to see their father's reaction, Qu Tutong hesitated again, Qu Tutong was very grateful to Chen Fuliang in his heart, but Qu Tutong was not blind, what Chen Tuliang did in Daxing, Qu Tutong had already inquired clearly through various channels, and he had already seen that Chen Fuliang was not holding back any good fart, and in the future, he would be a Yiyin Huoguang or Chen Fuliang's conscience was not eaten up by dogs, and it was very possible to follow Wang Mang, Cao Pi, and Emperor Wen of Sui! At the same time, after the death of Emperor Yang of Sui and his other children and grandchildren, Yang Tong is indeed the undoubted heir to the throne, Chen Fuliang did not hurry to send someone to invite Yang Tong to succeed to the throne, but he wanted to invite himself back to Daxing to discuss the important matter of supporting the emperor, even if the behavior was not much worse.

Therefore, Qu Tutong understands very well in his heart that the reason why Chen Fuliang shows favor to himself is nothing more than that he is afraid of the army in his hands, and wants to solve his own trouble by gentle means, if he leaves the protection of the army and is invited to return to Daxing, everything will follow Chen Fuliang's words, but to keep the high-ranking officials Houlu, glory and wealth, if he helps Chen Fuliang seize power and usurp the throne, he may be able to mix the treatment of a founding father in the future. But if you dare not listen to Chen Fuliang's words, then ......, hehe, Chen Fuliang can send Qu Tutong's family to Huairou today, and he will definitely be able to send Qu Tutong's family to Huangquan Road to be Qu Tutong's companion at that time.

Seeing Qu Tutong's hesitation, Guo Wenyi knew that he was wavering, but fortunately, he took two steps forward, walked in front of Qu Tutong, and said in a low voice: "Old general, there is another thing to blame for the lower official did not report to you, three days ago, after the lower official returned to the camp of the current Tang Guogong Li Shimin, the envoy made a report to Tang Guogong, knowing that the old general, you happened to have sent someone to invite Chen Yingliang to send troops to Hedong, and immediately someone proposed to build yì, if the old general, you insist on refusing to accept the edict of the Eastern Capital, Please ask Tang Guogong to deliberately leak the old general's plan to trap Chen Yingliang to Chen Yingliang, cut off the old general's back road, and force the old general to do it anyway. ”

Qu Tutong looked at Guo Wenyi angrily, Guo Wenyi hurriedly smiled and said: "Please rest assured, the old general, Tang Guogong is a benevolent and righteous person, not only did he not adopt this proposal, but he also immediately reprimanded the person who spoke up, and issued a strict decree prohibiting anyone from doing things privately, and those who violated the order will be beheaded!" ”

Qu Tutong was even more furious, and he also understood what Guo Wenyi meant, knowing that Guo Wenyi was threatening himself, if he refused to accept Yang Tong's edict, then Li Er's side would definitely take advantage of the previous coincidence of asking for help to take the opportunity to spread the rumor that he was ready to collude with Yang Tong and Li Er to kill Chen Fuliang, and to separate his relationship with Chen Fuliang and kill people with a knife.

At this time, it happened that Qu Tushou remembered a major event again, and hurriedly took out a letter from his arms, held it with both hands and said: "General Qu Tu, this is a handwritten letter from Chen Liushou to you, please take a look." ”

The soldiers immediately stepped forward and forwarded the letter to Qu Tutong, Qu Tutong glared at Guo Wenyi angrily a few times, and then took the letter easily, seeing that the letter was tightly sealed by the fire paint without any damage, he crushed the fire paint again, took out the letterhead and watched, and then only looked at it twice, Qu Tutong stood up violently, first looked at his two sons in disbelief, and then looked at the letter in his hand in disbelief, and finally exclaimed, "Shou'er, Quan'er, this letter, Is it really Chen Liushou handed it over to you? ”

"Yes." Qu Tushou and Qu Tuquan www.biquge.info a funny exchange, and then Qu Tuquan added: "It was handed over to us by Chen Liushou himself." ”

Qu Tutong is probably the most shocked and unexpected in his life, and then hurriedly lowered his head to read the content of the letter, turned over a few letterheads and read it several times, Qu Tutong said in despair: "In the whole world, there are still such generous people? ”

"Old General, what's wrong?" Guo Wenyi noticed that something was wrong, and hurriedly asked cautiously.

Smiling, Qu Tutong handed Chen Fuliang's handwritten letter to Guo Wenyi, Guo Wenyi hurriedly took it and watched it, but after only a cursory look, Guo Wenyi collapsed on the ground on the spot, screaming in disbelief: "This, how is this possible?" He already knew? How did he know? He knew about our plans, and even sent all your family members here, and asked them to bring this letter, saying that he already knew? ”

…………

At the same time, in the camp of Li Er's army, fifteen miles to the north, after knowing from Guo Wenyi's entourage that Chen Fuliang had sent all Qu Tutong's family to Hedong, Li Er immediately knew that Chen Fuliang was going to buy people's hearts with fake benevolence and righteousness again, and coveted the Guanzhong generals and soldiers under Qu Tutong's command whose morale was not high enough but was quite strong, and even more coveted several key cities and grain, grass and ordnance controlled by Qu Tutong's army. Li Er only thought about it for less than five minutes, and immediately made up his mind, deciding to take a gamble no matter what, and immediately and completely block Qu Tutong's retreat.

At the same time that Guo Wenyi collapsed to the ground, Li Er's brother Li Baiju, the cucumber prince, came to Li Er's front to meet him according to the order, Li Er did not be polite to him, and immediately led him to the map sand table, pointed to the wharf on the west bank of the Yellow River Fenyindu and said: "On this wharf, there is an army from Daxing, the number is unknown, but it is certainly not much, I have prepared fifty elite soldiers wearing official uniforms for you, and immediately take them across the Yellow River and go south to attack this army." Remember two points, first, to act under the banner of Qu Tutong, and second, to let some Daxing soldiers flee back to report the news. ”

Li Baiju agreed without hesitation, and immediately led the fifty fake Sui soldiers prepared by Li Er for him out of the camp and crossed the river at the crossing of the Yellow River.

…………

The picture returned to the Sui army camp in the south, Guo Wenyi's appearance of slumping on the ground and screaming naturally made the Sui army generals curious, and asked the reason, Qu Tutong did not hesitate this time, in front of his two sons, and also in front of the Sui army generals, he gave a detailed introduction to the ins and outs of the matter, and also showed Chen Fuliang's letter in public. The result is also very natural, the more the Qu Tushou brothers listened, the more they looked like earth, and the more they listened, the more they sweated, but the more the generals of the Sui army listened, the more angry they became, the roars and scolding were endless, and they were more and more discouraged and disappointed with Yang Tong, who had just ascended the throne, and full of admiration and yearning for Chen Fuliang.

It took a lot of time to finish explaining what had happened to everyone in the tent, and then let everyone calm down for a while, Qu Tutong cleared his throat, and then said: "Princess, Your Majesty was killed in Jiangdu, it stands to reason that His Royal Highness King Yue should inherit the unification, but it ......." ”

"Boom!"

The sudden explosion interrupted Qu Tutong's words, everyone was surprised to identify the source of the sound, and soon found that the explosion was actually coming from the direction of the Yellow River in the west, and then there was an explosion sound of gunpowder bottles, also from the direction of the Yellow River in the west. The Daxing soldiers sent by Chen Liushou may have been sneak attacked! ”

…………

The distance was too far, the mountains and forests were blocked, and the sound of the river interfered, the fifty fake Sui troops led by Li Baiju did not hear the explosion of gunpowder bottles fifteen miles away, but carefully drove the boat to the west bank of the Yellow River, and sent people ashore to find out that there was no abnormality. Li Baiju commanded in a low voice: "Don't light torches, go south quietly." Remember, from now on, we are the generals of the Great Sui Right Yiwei and the soldiers under the command of Huayuan Gongqu Tutong! On the order of General Qu Tu, crusade against the thief Chen Yingliang! ”