Under the pretext that the road between Weinan and Zhengxian was washed away by a flash flood, he temporarily decided to abandon the action of returning to Yongfengcang, and Li Yuan's nonsense was also blinded by those powerless and powerless ordinary people, who could not hide his real ruling foundation, the Guanlongmen valve, which has deep roots, has its own intelligence network and news channels, although the speed is not as fast as the fast horse transmission of Li Yuan's rebels, but it is not much slower, and in some details, the information of the rebels is not even as detailed as the intelligence of these Guanlongmen valves.

With such intelligence capabilities, of course, the situation of the rebels' partial divisions in the Tongguan battlefield quickly reached the ears of the Guanlong Gate Lords, although these families in Daxing or there were family representatives in Daxing, although the Guanlong Gate Valves did not say anything on the surface, did not dismantle Li Yuan's platform to expose Li Yuan's lies, but they did not dare to bet all their chips on Li Yuan, and more or less left some back-ups, on the surface they were still fully supporting Li Yuan's rebels, but they began to arrange a retreat behind their backs. Many children of powerful families who were originally waiting in line for Li Yuan to meet also quietly withdrew from the queue.

Of course, the Guanlong Gate Valve is in the same breath, and wants to expect them to draw a clear line with Li Yuan's rebels immediately, and re-devote themselves to the warm and broad embrace of the Great Sui Imperial Court, which is absolutely impossible, and the Guanlong family headed by the Eight Great Lords are all quietly observing, observing Chen Fuliang's every move to the west, and analyzing and judging whether Chen Fuliang is worthy of turning against him.

Of course, Li Yuan is also paying close attention to Chen Fuliang's every move, in addition to the military level, he also pays more attention to the political level, Li Yuan also knows that Chen Fuliang governs the army strictly, and has always strictly forbidden soldiers to disturb the people, but Li Yuan also believes that Chen Fuliang must not be able to compare with himself in winning the hearts of the people, but Li Yuan was soon disappointed, because Chen Fuliang's military discipline is not only better than before, does not disturb the people or hurt the people, and the means of buying people's hearts are also more ingenious.

Li Yuan's co-optation of the family gate lord is nothing more than appointing his children as officials to protect their property and land, Chen Fuliang also did this, for example, all the children of the gate lord family went to the Sui army in the eastern capital to join the army, Chen Fuliang accepted and appointed them, and did not commit any crime on the land of the gate lord family's manor. But this is not over, Chen Fuliang also openly promised to inform the Guanzhong gate lord family in a clear text, saying that even if there are children who are forced to serve the rebels as thieves, the family will not be held accountable, and the children who are forced to follow the thieves can be recalled, and they will also ask the court to give a reward. The families of the soldiers of the thief army who are forced to serve as thieves can also apply to the Guanzhong local government for subsidies if they have difficulties in life. - As for how to distinguish between being forced to be a thief or taking the initiative to be a thief, Chen Fuliang didn't even mention it in the list, deliberately leaving a loophole for everyone to exploit.

The most ruthless is Chen Fuliang's paper begging for thieves, openly allowing officials and civil volunteers from all over Guanzhong to disguise themselves to join the enemy when they are forced to do so, keep their useful bodies, and wait for the time to come back anyway, no matter whether they are good or lowly farmers, they will not be held accountable! This sentence firmly hit the key point of the rebels, so that all the officials, gentlemen and people who surrendered to Li Yuan's rebels before have a way to retreat, when the rebels were in a big swing, the wall grass in the rebel army was extremely firm, and now the situation of the rebels is becoming more and more embarrassing, these wall grass of course gave birth to the idea of leaving a way out for themselves, and when doing things for the rebels, they dare not do things again - the old general Yun Dingxing is one of the outstanding representatives.

After Huayin County, Zheng County and Weinan County, the main force of the Sui army pointed to Zheng County and Weinan County surrendered, although the county orders of these two places were not as ruthless as Wang Yongnian, killing the backbone of the rebels who refused to surrender to Chen Fuliang as a greeting gift, but they also had to run to Chen Fuliang's horse and cry, glad that they finally survived until the return of Wang Shi and were able to return to the Great Sui court, and some remnants of Li Jiancheng's army, which had fled in this direction before, fled all the way to the west, Don't dare to stop a single soldier to block the footsteps of the main force of the Sui army.

In addition, Feng Yi, a relative of Uncle Xiao, was too protective of Xiao Zao, and regardless of the deep hatred between his relatives and Chen Fuliang, he quietly sent someone to contact Chen Fuliang to test whether Chen Fuliang could forgive him for the crime of surrendering to the county, and Chen Fuliang swore in front of Xiao Zao's envoy to Weishui, saying that as long as Xiao Zao returned anyway, he would not only guarantee that Xiao Zao would not die, but as long as Xiao Zao made some contributions to the Sui army, he would also go to the court and ask for credit for Xiao Zao! Then coupled with Li Jiancheng and Dou Cong's abandonment of Pujin and Guanxi's escape, Xiao Zao also made a wise choice, immediately arrested the families of Feng Yi's officials Ren Bao and Jin Xiaomo, who had previously taken the initiative to join the rebels, and executed all the wounded rebel soldiers who were recuperating in Feng Yicheng, and surrendered!

The people's hearts that gradually began to come back allowed the main force of the Sui army to speed up the advance, from Tongguan to Xinfeng for two hundred miles, the main force of the Sui army only walked for more than three days, and then was stopped by Li Yuan's fourth son-in-law Duan Lun who was stubbornly defending Xinfeng City. At the same time, the rebel division Dou Cong, who had been hit hard during the westward crossing of Luoshui, had just arrived in Wannian, and was still being bitten by Li Jing and Qu Tutong, and then wanted to cross Weishui in the south, Guangtong Canal and Duan Lun would not only be destined to be hit hard again by the Sui army's pursuers, but also very likely to be attacked by the main force of the Sui army, and the whole army would be annihilated! - Don't expect Duan Lun to dare to send troops across the Guangtong Canal to meet Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng, Duan Lun dares to do this, Chen Fuliang can smile crookedly.

Forced to be helpless, Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng could only hurriedly send a fast horse to report Li Yuan's situation, requesting to abandon the original plan of crossing Weishui to the south to join Duan Lun, and instead continue to go west to Jingyang, cross Jingshui and return directly to Daxing, and ask Li Yuan to send troops to respond, so as not to repeat the mistake of Luoshui's fiasco.

Approaching the evening of the seventh day of October, Dou Cong, Li Jiancheng's emergency documents and Duan Lun's emergency documents were sent to Daxing by fast horses at the same time, and sent to Li Yuan, Li Yuan, who was talking to Xiao Yu's envoy, had a blue face, and the rebel Zhu Wenwu, who was accompanying him, was also panicked after learning that Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng could not return to Xinfeng to form a peripheral barrier, and reminded one after another: "General, we must block Chen Yingliang's dog thief in Xinfeng for a while, otherwise, we will not have time to repair the city defense, transfer food outside the city, and contact other friendly troops to help." Also, less than ten days after we defeated Daxing, Chen Yingliang's thief came to Daxing City, and the blow to the hearts of Daxing people must have been very great. ”

"Of course I do!" Li Yuan said angrily: "But now that Chen Yingliang's thief has hit Xinfeng first, Da Lang and Dou Cong can't cross Weishui at all, how can they buy time for us in Xinfeng?" ”

"Father, my brother's army has been defeated in successive battles, and their morale has been weakened, and it is impossible to expect them to force their way across Weishui. The soldiers and horses under the command of the fourth brother-in-law were all recruits he had only recruited and gathered in Lantian two months ago, and his combat effectiveness was weak and inexperienced, so it was difficult to expect him to hold Xinfeng for a long time. Li Er opened his mouth and said: "The only way to do this is to agree that my brother and uncle will directly withdraw to Daxing to recuperate, preserve our combat strength, and send another army to reinforce Xinfeng, block Chen Yingliang's advance, and buy time for our main counterattack." ”

"That's all there is to it." Li Yuan nodded helplessly, and said, "Who wants to help defend Xinfeng?" Anyone who wants to go can go, and the old man has a word first, and he must keep it for at least ten days. ”

Intimidated by Chen Fuliang's undefeated and obscene, all the rebels did not dare to speak up, but Li Er volunteered and said: "Father, the child is willing to lead two thousand cavalry to reinforce Xinfeng and help my brother-in-law defend against the enemy." ”

"Two thousand cavalry?" Li Yuan was a little angry when he heard this, and said angrily: "You want to make a surprise attack again, don't you?" The area around Xinfeng is Weishui Guangtong Canal to the north, and Lishan Mountain is to the south, is it a place for cavalry to fight? If you want to go, you can give you 10,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, only allowed to defend the city, not to attack at will, otherwise don't go! ”

Without ****** support, the number of Li Yuan's rebel cavalry was far less than in history, Li Yuan insisted on refusing to give a large number of cavalry, and Li Er had no choice but to sing the promise to receive the order with the intention of having no fish and shrimp, but he also named several fierce generals such as Li Xiaogong, Wang Junkuo, Gao Zhensheng and Liang Jianfang, but fortunately, Li Yuan did not refuse this time and nodded in agreement. At the same time, Li Yuan decided to write to agree that Li Jiancheng and Dou Cong would directly withdraw to Daxing, and send Zheng Yuanshou, a powerful general, to lead the army north to meet Dou Cong and Li Jiancheng.

The military situation was like fire, and Li Er, who had been allowed, immediately went to arrange the expedition team, and it was at this time that Pei Lin bowed his hand to Li Yuan and said: "General, there is something that must be reported to you, the local government has reported that after my left wing army (Li Jiancheng's army) was defeated by Chen Yingliang's thieves, some of them fled directly to the west, and some of them violated military discipline and invaded the people to kill and loot, causing great public resentment. ”

"Tell Erlang to check carefully after arriving in Xinfeng, see who did it, and find out ......." Li Yuan, who was in an extremely bad mood, casually ordered, but before he finished speaking, Li Yuan suddenly froze and said in surprise: "There are rebels invading the people, killing people and looting? ”

"Exactly." Pei Lin hurriedly nodded, and said: "At that time, there were too many defeated soldiers, and they were all scattered, so I haven't been able to find out what those generals' subordinates did." ”

"It reminded me of something important." Li Yuan suddenly showed some smiles, beckoned Pei Lin to his face, and whispered in his ear, "Did you find the child I asked you to secretly look for and who looks similar to His Royal Highness the Acting King?" ”

Pei Lin is such a smart person, Li Yuan nodded, Pei Lin immediately woke up, and said in a low voice: "I found it, although it is not exactly the same, but there are also seven or eight points, as long as you don't speak or act, put on the clothes of His Royal Highness the Acting King, and hide the hope of most people." ”

"You don't need him to speak, just put on his clothes." Li Yuan smiled, and ordered in a low voice: "Go and arrange the preparations, by the way, let Erlang notify me when he leaves, I will see him off, and there are important things to explain to him in person." ”

Pei Lian understood the promise and immediately went down to arrange the preparations, first sent someone to inform Li Yuan of the order, and then arranged reliable people to send the Yang Yu stand-in that had already been prepared, along with the Yang Yu clothes found in the palace, to Li Erjun. And when Li Er was about to set off at the time of the first shift, Li Yuan also personally went outside the city to see off his son, and whispered in the ear of his baby son to explain a good time, Li Er first nodded after listening, and then had some worries, and said in a low voice: "Father, everything else is easy to say, after this corpse is transported back, what if it is recognized?" ”

"Silly boy, every time those civil and military officials meet him, they are separated by a distance of ten or twenty steps, so can you see his appearance carefully? People who are familiar with him are in our hands, can we see him is not a word? Li Yuan smiled very treacherously, and said in a low voice: "Remember, we must let a few people see and hear it, and testify to us, as long as we can splash dirty water on Chen Yingliang's thief and completely mix the water, even if the two little cubs of the Yin family run to Chen Yingliang's thief in the future, we can bite back and say that he thief is a lie fabricated to get rid of his crimes." ”

Li Er nodded, taking his father's words to heart, Li Yuan patted his son's shoulder again, and said in a low voice: "Leave this matter to Xiaogong, don't let others know, and avoid leaking the news." Li Er promised, and then led the army to rush overnight and rushed to the Xinfeng battlefield to help Duan Lun.

Now it's time to take a look at the situation on Chen Fuliang's side, after resisting the Xinfeng city that is only more than 70 miles away from Daxing, because he found out that there were more than 10,000 defenders in the city, and knew that Duan Lun had previously strengthened the city defense, Chen Fuliang, who didn't like to fight tough battles, did not rush to order an attack, but just ordered the army to be stationed in the south of Xinfeng, with his back to Lishan Xiazhai, to build a camp and prepare siege weapons, and at the same time to visit the city in person, peep into the Xinfeng city defense, and study the strategy of breaking the enemy.

Fortunately, the city defense of Xinfeng County, which has not fought for decades, is not too strong, the city wall built of rammed earth and wall bricks has been weathered for a long time, it has been quite dilapidated, although it is still not strong enough after emergency repairs, it is not as high as Zhangba, the thickness is not as good as the newly built Yongfeng Cangcheng, the depth of the moat that introduced the living water of the Guangtong Canal is very sufficient, but the width is only one zhang to the point, the rebels are completely because of the successive loss of Tongguan and Yongfeng Cang, and they were caught off guard and were forced to build a peripheral defense line here, and at the same time, the composition of the soldiers and horses in the city Chen Fuliang is also very clear, The main force is Li Yuan's son-in-law Duan Lun, who was recruited in Lantian only two months ago, a typical rabble, not strong in combat, supplemented by a part of the rebel defeated soldiers who fled from the Tongguan battlefield, they have long been afraid of being invincible by the Sui army in the eastern capital, and it is not difficult for the Sui army in the eastern capital to deal with.

Keenly aware of the situation of the rebels' hasty deployment here, Chen Fuliang immediately concluded that in order to gain time for Daxing to deploy defenses, Li Yuan's rebels would definitely increase their troops in Xinfeng, and immediately sent people to closely reconnoiter the enemy from the east. Chen Fuliang was overjoyed when he saw that the banner of Duan Zi had indeed appeared in the city, and immediately hit his horse to the edge of the moat, shouting at Duan Lun, who had several connections in the city, to surrender.

"General Duan Lun, I know the reason why you were forced to be a thief, you are the fourth son-in-law of Li Yuan's old thief, the old thief rebelled, you will be implicated as a son-in-law, even if you don't even sit in prison, you will definitely be dismissed from office, deprived of your title, and you have to rebel! But have you ever thought about it, in order to avoid the crime of sitting together and only going to prison for the sky, you will commit the crime of killing the whole clan, are you worth it? When I was in Daxing, you and I had several encounters, although there were not many conversations, but there was never a dispute with you because of your father-in-law's family, and now Li Yuan's old thief has been defeated in successive battles, and this official personally led the army here, why do you still have to resist? Can the more than 10,000 rabble you have gathered in Lantian be the opponent of my Great Sui Hundred Battles Division? It's better to open the city and surrender early, anyway, come back, this official will play tomorrow, and ask for merit and reward for you, then you will not only atone for your previous sins, but also be promoted, wouldn't it be wonderful? ”

is different from Chai Shao, Chai Shao is like a brother and sister to Li Er, but Duan Lun has the best relationship with Li Jiancheng, and he can marry Li Yuan's fourth daughter because Li Jiancheng is a matchmaker. So after listening to Chen Fuliang's shouting and surrender, although Duan Lun didn't accept it, he didn't scold him, but just shouted from Chen Fuliang: "Chen stay, don't waste your strength, Duan Mou has never regretted what he has done, if you want Xinfeng County, just take it with a real knife!" ”

"Brother Duan, what am I in a hurry to do with Xinfeng City?" Chen Fuliang smiled and said loudly: "I want to besiege the city and send reinforcements, Xinfeng is only more than seventy miles away from Daxing, in order to let you tie your head to the waistband of your pants to buy him time, the old thief Li Yuan will definitely send you reinforcements, I will fight your reinforcements, I want to see how many reinforcements he Li Yuan is willing to send to Xinfeng for your son-in-law!" ”

Duan Lun didn't speak anymore, but just ordered the defenders to release arrows to expel him, Chen Fuliang smiled and led the troops to retreat, and Yuan Tiangang next to him asked curiously: "Stay behind, you personally come forward to surrender, can you pull Duan Lun over?" ”

"Of course not, he is Li Yuan's son-in-law after all, so how easy is it to surrender?" Chen Fuliang replied with a smile: "I personally came forward to recruit him, because I know very well that he will not have any overreaction, and his weak attitude will inevitably affect the morale of the traitors in the city, which will be beneficial and harmless to our next siege battle." ”

"What about the siege and reinforcements?" Yuan Tiangang asked curiously: "If you stay behind, you openly threaten to besiege the city and send reinforcements, do you want to paralyze the defenders in the city, or do you really want to do this?" ”

"It's impossible to paralyze the enemy." Chen Fuliang shook his head and said: "The thief army has just suffered a loss in Yongfeng Cang, and he will not be fooled again immediately." It depends on the situation, if the enemy is afraid, of course I have to solve the enemy's reinforcements first and then turn back to attack the city, if the enemy's reinforcements are not enough to fear, I will use the enemy's reinforcements to lure Duan Lun out of the city and break him outside the city! ”

During the conversation, a man dressed as a common man was suddenly led in front of Chen Fuliang, and saluted Chen Fuliang and said: "Chen stays behind, General He sent a villain to report to you, our army has made many inquiries, but has never found the whereabouts of His Royal Highness the Acting King and Deputy Yin Left-behind. Our army infiltrated Daxing and also went out of the city to report, saying that the thief army was still still wanted to arrest the Yin deputy who had kidnapped His Royal Highness the Acting King and fled to stay behind, and there was no news that His Royal Highness the Acting King had been found. ”

"Strange, our army is only more than seventy miles away from Daxing, why hasn't the Yin World Master brought His Royal Highness the Acting King down to see me?" Chen Fu's conscience was puzzled, and he said secretly: "Ran in other directions?" Impossible? Huxian, Lantian and Taiping Palace in the south of Daxing were already under the control of the thief army before the destruction of Daxing City, and even if it was easy to hide in the Qinling Mountains, it was unlikely that the Yin Shishi would take Yang Yu to the south. It's even more impossible to go to the north and west, even if you go temporarily, you must have to find a way to turn around and go east, nine days have passed, how can the Yin World Master return to this area, why hasn't it appeared yet? ”

Thinking about it, Chen Fuliang asked casually: "Those who fled with His Royal Highness the Acting King and the Yin Deputy Left Behind have you found out who else?" ”

"I haven't found it, and there is very little news about this in Daxing City." He Er sent back the fine work shook his head, and then hurriedly said: "Yu left behind, there is another small matter, our fine work found out, the thief army once blocked the mansion left by the deputy Yin in Anyefang, and I heard that all the family members left behind by the deputy Yin were also taken away to interrogate in the army, but the specific situation is unknown. ”

"What about Yue? Have you ever been captured by thieves? Chen Fuliang blurted out.

"Yue'e? What Yue'e? "The fine work who came to report the news and Yuan Tiangang and the others next to him are all the same.

"Of course it's Yin Yue, the beloved daughter Yin Yue'e who is left behind."

"No, I don't know, the villain and the others haven't probed for news about this."

"It's a pity, little sister Yue, you must not have an accident. Otherwise, I don't know how to explain it to your father. "I'll use the enemy's reinforcements to lure Duan Lun out of the city and break him outside the city!"

During the conversation, a man dressed as a common man was suddenly led in front of Chen Fuliang, and saluted Chen Fuliang and said: "Chen stays behind, General He sent a villain to report to you, our army has made many inquiries, but has never found the whereabouts of His Royal Highness the Acting King and Deputy Yin Left-behind. Our army infiltrated Daxing and also went out of the city to report, saying that the thief army was still still wanted to arrest the Yin deputy who had kidnapped His Royal Highness the Acting King and fled to stay behind, and there was no news that His Royal Highness the Acting King had been found. ”

"Strange, our army is only more than seventy miles away from Daxing, why hasn't the Yin World Master brought His Royal Highness the Acting King down to see me?" Chen Fu's conscience was puzzled, and he said secretly: "Ran in other directions?" Impossible? Huxian, Lantian and Taiping Palace in the south of Daxing were already under the control of the thief army before the destruction of Daxing City, and even if it was easy to hide in the Qinling Mountains, it was unlikely that the Yin Shishi would take Yang Yu to the south. It's even more impossible to go to the north and west, even if you go temporarily, you must have to find a way to turn around and go east, nine days have passed, how can the Yin World Master return to this area, why hasn't it appeared yet? ”

Thinking about it, Chen Fuliang asked casually: "Those who fled with His Royal Highness the Acting King and the Yin Deputy Left Behind have you found out who else?" ”

"I haven't found it, and there is very little news about this in Daxing City." He Er sent back the fine work shook his head, and then hurriedly said: "Yu left behind, there is another small matter, our fine work found out, the thief army once blocked the mansion left by the deputy Yin in Anyefang, and I heard that all the family members left behind by the deputy Yin were also taken away to interrogate in the army, but the specific situation is unknown. ”

"What about Yue? Have you ever been captured by thieves? Chen Fuliang blurted out.

"Yue'e? What Yue'e? "The fine work who came to report the news and Yuan Tiangang and the others next to him are all the same.

"Of course it's Yin Yue, the beloved daughter Yin Yue'e who is left behind."

"No, I don't know, the villain and the others haven't probed for news about this."

"It's a pity, little sister Yue, you must not have an accident. Otherwise, I don't know how to explain it to your father. ”