In fact, since the moment when Xue Renyue chose to flee to the southern mountains, the short-lived Western Qin regime has been doomed to the fate of complete destruction, and the reason is very simple, even if Xue Renyue can survive in the mountainous area, he doesn't know how much time it will take to return to Tianshui, and with this time, the main force of the Sui army along the spacious official road has already entered Tianshui, and will not give Xue Renyue any hope for a comeback.

The result was also very trouble-free, as Xue Renyue fled into Wangshan, seeing that the Sui army was pursuing too tightly, and seeing that the heavy snow closed the mountain and there was no way out, and escaping into the mountains was not starvation to death but also had to be frozen to death, Xue Jujun's general Zhang Gui simply cut Xue Renyue's head with a knife, and ran back to the Sui army with his head to ask for surrender. It's a pity that Zhang Gui, who was born as a slave thief, has a bad reputation, is notoriously evil, brutal **** and likes to kill innocents indiscriminately, even if the killer surrenders Chen Fuliang can't tolerate it, he still ordered him to be put into a prisoner car, escorted to Daxing for torture and interrogation, and finally cut off his head in Daxing.

Xue Jujun's heavy general Zong Luohu chose to surrender to the Sui army, and also surrendered to Chen Fuliang, as well as Liang Liang and Zhai Changsun, two important ministers, Liang Lishu and Liang Hulang and many other Xue Jujun generals died in the chaos, and many Qiang soldiers under Liang Lishu also chose to surrender to the Sui army, and the Sui army in Guanzhong recruited and rebelled, and received nearly 20,000 surrendered soldiers and a large number of war horses. Xue Renguo, who was injured in the melee, was left in the army because of his firm attitude at the last moment, and was affirmed and rewarded by Chen Fuliang.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Fuliang ordered Ma Sanbao to lead an army of 10,000 troops into Tianshui, and Jiang Mo, a loose cavalry squire recommended by Xuanling, was the Taishou of Tianshui, and joined hands to receive the land and city of Xue Jujun and the remnants of the army, and suppressed a possible rebellion. After Li Liang and Liang Shi, who formed an alliance with Xue Ju and went south, found out the news of the destruction of Xue Ju's army, they also collected their troops together and fled back to their nest to protect themselves, and went home to wait for Chen Fuliang to send someone to cut down their whole family.

At the same time, Chen Fuliang also attached great importance to Yu Wenxin, the envoy of the Li family, who was accidentally captured by his soldiers on the battlefield, not only ordered to be treated kindly, but also took some time to meet Yu Wenxin alone to try to surrender, and by the way, he also learned about the specific situation of the Li family's army now, so as to choose the next target.

The general trend has been set, and he feels that his hard work in the past two years has repaid Li Yuan's great kindness, Yuwenxin simply accepted Chen Fuliang's surrender, and expressed his willingness to give Chen Fuliang as a cow and a horse to help him abuse, Chen Fuliang was overjoyed, and immediately praised Yuwenxin as the water supervisor of the capital, plus the doctor of Chaosan, after Yuwenxin thanked him, Chen Fuliang asked Yuwenxin about the recent situation of the Li family and the specific situation of the Taiyuan army.

Yu Wenxin answered Chen Fuliang's question truthfully, and said: "Prime Minister, Taiyuan is the place where the Li family started, with rich products, sufficient soldiers and food, and its strength should not be underestimated. As far as Xia Guan knows, the scale of Li's army is actually above 60,000, of which more than 26,000 elite and strong soldiers, enough food and grass to support five years, weapons and armor enough to arm 100,000 troops, and trade with Turkic tribes, exchange horses, the scale of cavalry has reached more than 8,000, in terms of strength alone, it is enough to be on the battlefield and any way under the prime minister's command for a long time, even if it meets the prime minister's main force, you can also rely on the natural danger of the Bird Mouse Valley to compete with the prime minister's main force. ”

"The Li family brothers still have such a strong force?" Chen Fuliang asked suspiciously, and said: "Judging from the situation that our army has mastered, Taiyuan soldiers and horses should only be about 40,000, and the cavalry is at most about 5,000 people, not as many as you said, Mr. There is also this grain and grass, the Li family stipulated that the tax the year before last was two stones per ding, two horses of silk, and three taels of raw silk, but last year it was said that it was to prevent Liu Wuzhou, and two percent was added on this basis, and he would rather lose the support of the people than reduce or reduce taxes, not like the grain and grass are very sufficient? ”

"That's the ploy of the eldest prince Li Jiancheng." Yu Wenxin replied: "Today's strong and powerful, except for the prime minister, you never announce the size of the force, all of them are bluffs to exaggerate their strength, such as Xue Ju, including the old and weak soldiers, only 130,000 people, dare to declare 300,000 to the outside world, Li Mi thief army of elite soldiers at best only 60,000 or 70,000, still dare to claim 500,000 elite soldiers, its purpose is nothing more than to deceive the people, encourage and attract small groups of rogue to join, in addition to being ridiculed in front of the real strong enemy, in fact, it does not have much effect, and may also attract the enemy's vigilance and hostilityand became the target of public criticism. ”

"Jian? In this situation, Jiancheng Gongzi feels that he should keep his light and keep his eyes open, so as not to be too sharp and attract outsiders, especially the prime minister. Yu Wenxin explained: "So he came to do the opposite, after returning to Taiyuan, he paid special attention to the control of the army's establishment, claiming to be eight general views of 40,000 troops, but in fact it was thirteen general managers of more than 60,000 troops, five of which were pretending to be civilian to conceal their true identity, and the army under his command was either overnumbered in other general management armies, or pretending to be old and weak soldiers in Tuntian, stationed in the prime minister's meticulous work is difficult to take care of Lou Fu Lishi and other places, busy farming and leisure time drills, and during drills, transfer to change flags and other methods to hide from the sky and sea, Let the two armies become one army, not to mention the prime minister, your command is meticulous, even the army of Liu Wuzhou, which is close at hand, has always thought that Taiyuan only has more than 40,000 troops. ”

"It's the same in terms of grain and grass." Yu Wenxin explained: "In fact, Taiyuan Mansion has never been short of grain and grass, when Li Yuan went south, in order to leave a way out, he left a large amount of grain and grass in Taiyuan to prevent military supplies, and after breaking through Huoyi, he did not use a single grass and grain in Taiyuan, and the so-called opening of the warehouse to release grain also always leaves room for each time, usually only a small part of the county treasury is distributed, and a large amount of grain is hidden in order to prepare for war. The purpose of raising taxes is just to deceive outsiders, especially the prime minister, the purpose of which is to make outsiders feel that the Li family is no longer good and has nothing to fear, so as to hide their strength and avoid becoming the prime minister's primary target. ”

Seeing that Chen Fuliang's expression was uncertain, and there seemed to be some doubts about the faith, Yu Wenxin hurriedly added: "Prime Minister, I think you also have an inside line in the Li army, but they will definitely not be able to detect these situations, because these measures of Jiangongzi are not only not announced to the public, but also kept them as secret as possible internally, in fact, if it were not for the Xiaguan who assisted Li Yuanji to stay in Taiyuan before, and Li Yuanji trusted him to be in charge of the secrets of money and grain, he would not be able to know the true situation of the Taiyuan army, and Jiangongzi's Taoguang and obscure plan, It is also the channel of Xiaguan Tong guò Li Yuanji who knows some of the situation and guesses it himself. ”

Hearing this, Chen Fuliang smiled and said: "Thank you Mr. for your advice, now I finally understand why Fan Zi Gai Fan, who had a great kindness to me at the beginning, stayed behind, why he failed to purge the Taiyuan army, leaving so many loopholes for Li Yuan's old thief to drill, in my opinion, Jiangongzi is indeed a big expert in pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger." ”

"Exactly." Yu Wenxin nodded and said: "Gongzi Jiancheng is indeed a rare benevolent gentleman, magnanimous and broad-minded, but he is also a troubled man with ambitions, the reason why he has been concealing his strength is not only that he doesn't want the prime minister to be too wary of him, but also that he wants to wait for the opportunity to go south again and recapture the middle of Hedong Guanzhong." This time, he not only sent Xia Guan Xijin to seek an alliance with Xue Ju, but also sent another envoy to secretly contact Liang Shidu, Dou Jiande and others to seek an alliance, so as to avoid direct conflict with them and consume strength, and also use their strength to weaken other enemies. ”

The Li brothers will definitely secretly hook up with Liang Shidu, Dou Jiande and others, which was expected by Chen Fuliang, so Chen Fuliang not only did not wonder, but also smiled contemptuously, and asked casually: "Gongzi Jiancheng, have you secretly contacted Wang Shichong and Li Mi?" ”

"Nope." Yu Wenxin's answer made Chen Fuliang stunned, and then Yu Wenxin explained: "In fact, there are indeed many people who have built a son to seek an alliance with Wang Shichong and Li Mi, especially the son of Shimin, after returning to Taiyuan, he asked for an alliance with Wang Shichong and Li Mi several times, but Gongzi Jiancheng categorically refused. ”

"Why?" Chen Fuhao asked curiously.

"It's also to avoid attracting your idea, Prime Minister." Yu Wenxin replied: "Chenggong Gongzi expects that you will never allow Wang Shichong to occupy the eastern capital for a long time, Li Mi has occupied Luokoucang for a long time, knowing that once you free your hand, you will definitely attack them first, and he knows that Wang Shichong and Li Mi are despicable and cunning, once they form an alliance with them, they will definitely have the intention of causing trouble to the north, and try in every possible way to lure the prime minister into sending troops to Taiyuan first, and forming an alliance with them will have less benefits and more harm, so he deliberately kept a distance from Wang Shichong and Li Mi, so as not to anger you and cause a monstrous disaster." ”

Chen Fuliang was a little dumbfounded, and suddenly found that Li Jiancheng was indeed very smart, and he was very good at his own thoughts - because once Li Jiancheng formed an alliance with Wang Shichong and Li Mi and openly held hostility towards him, then he could rely on the danger of being in danger to defend and try to make Wang Shichong and Li Mi contain each other.

After the shock, Chen Fuliang quickly smiled again, and said to himself: "Brother Jiancheng, I was really almost deceived by you, but unfortunately you are unlucky, and someone who knows your inside story defected to me." Okay, when I clean up the Eastern Front a bit, it's up to you next. ”

The traffic is not all over, the means of news dissemination are backward, Chen Fuliang still doesn't know that General Yun Lao has tossed Hua and his brother, Wang Shichong and Li Mi to the death, so he said this to himself, of course, Yu Wenxin over there didn't know the situation on the battlefield in the Eastern Capital, and after a little hesitation, in line with the professional ethics of working hard for whoever gets paid, Yu Wenxin still took the initiative to say: "Prime Minister, as far as the lower officials know, the current situation on your eastern front is complicated, and you can't afford to send troops to Taiyuan on a large scale for the time being." If the prime minister is willing, the lower officials still have a plan, which can make the Taiyuan Li clan chaos without a fight, weaken their own strength, and facilitate the prime minister's future army. ”

"What is your plan, sir?" Chen Fuliang was overjoyed when he heard this, and then immediately came to his senses and said, "Sir, doesn't he want me to break up the Li family brothers, so that Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin can kill each other and kill each other?" ”

"Li Shimin?" Yu Wenxin was stunned, and said suspiciously: "Prime Minister, the lower officials want to build a plan for you to divide the Li family brothers, but it is useless to divide Li Shimin?" He was beaten by you in Huoyi, Hedong, and now he is called the Right Governor, in fact, the army that is really loyal to him is only five or six thousand, and he is often placed at the forefront of the northern line by Jiangongzi to confront Liu Wuzhou head-on. ”

"Who's that divided?" Chen Fuliang asked rhetorically - Li Er had a very uncomfortable life after escaping back to Taiyuan, which the Sui army had already reported, but as a traverser who knew the changes in Xuanwumen, when it came to the separation of the Li family brothers, Chen Fuliang's first reaction was to separate Li Da and Li Er.

"Li Yuanji." Yu Wenxin gave an answer that surprised Chen Fuliang very much, and then Yu Wenxin explained: "Prime Minister, don't underestimate this Li Yuanji, although he is only seventeen years old now, when it comes to great ambition and vicious personality, he is definitely above his two brothers. Before Li Yuan asked him to stay in Taiyuan, he was in charge of the money and food of the Taiyuan army alone, and he was in charge of the officials' life and death, and he was in charge, and it was not an exaggeration to say that he was the emperor of Taiyuan. ”

"After Li Jiancheng led the army to flee back to Taiyuan, Li Yuanji, because he was ranked fourth and was only fifteen years old at the time, listened to the persuasion of everyone and handed over the power of Taiyuan to his eldest brother Li Jiancheng." Yu Wenxin continued: "But soon, Li Yuanji felt regretful, wanted to take back the Taiyuan power from Li Jiancheng, and relied on his previous power in Taiyuan to have many henchmen in the army, so he went behind his brother's back to form a faction, and his brother took back power in the future, although Li Jiancheng was aware of this, but he thought that Li Yuanji was young and ignorant and took the initiative to hand over the Taiyuan military power, and he had a lot of tolerance for this, and let Li Yuanji's three absolute cronies serve as the commander-in-chief, mastering more than 15,000 troops, It is a family of its own in the Taiyuan army. ”

Chen Fuliang was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, "What about Li Erlang?" What kind of relationship does he have with Li Yuanji now? ”

"The specific situation is not very clear." Yu Wenxin shook his head and said, "But Xia Guan suspects that Prince Shimin and Prince Yuanji may have secretly concluded an alliance to join forces against their eldest brother Jiangongzi. ”

"Is there any evidence?" Chen Fuliang hurriedly asked.

"Yes." Yu Wenxin replied: "Li Yuanji is lustful, there are more than 60 concubines who are still not satisfied, and they still forcibly accept folk women as concubines from time to time, Li Jiancheng has many ways to prevent and persuade this, and the second prince is noncommittal on the surface, but the two beautiful women he obtained during the war with Liu Wuzhou appeared in Li Yuanji's back room. Because Xia Guan had also won Li Yuanji's trust before, he could often go in and out of his mansion, and he accidentally knew about it, so Xia Guan suspected that Li Yuanji and the second son might have been secretly befriended and were ready to join forces to deal with the eldest prince. ”

Chen Fuliang nodded with satisfaction, and also agreed with Yu Wenxin's analysis very much - because with Li Er's current situation, if he wants to take the military power from Li Da and be the master of his own country, it is undoubtedly the only choice to secretly join forces with Li Yuanji, and history wants to kill Li Er first and then kill the eldest brother Li Yuanji, who is the emperor himself, for his own interests, it is absolutely possible to make a 180-degree turn and join forces with Li Er. Thinking of this, Chen Fuliang hurriedly asked again: "Mr. Yuwen, then how should I start to separate?" ”

"It's very simple, just pretend to let Li Yuanji be in charge of Taiyuan alone." Wen Xin replied: "Li Yuanji's personality is arrogant, but his ambition is not very big, the lower officials can see that he just wants to continue to be the emperor of Taiyuan, so that people can't stop his arrogance and lasciviousness like Li Jiancheng, and he is not like Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin still have the idea of going south to chase the deer, if you lure Li Yuanji to take advantage of it, and give him the title to allow him to live in Taiyuan, he will inevitably accept your appeasement and bribery for the prime minister, and use it for the prime minister, and then the prime minister you will drive him to launch a mutiny to capture Li Jiancheng, whether it is successful or not, The Taiyuan army will inevitably be in chaos, creating a good opportunity for you to enter the army. ”

Chen Fuliang was overjoyed when he heard this, first applauded, and then carefully asked Yu Wenxin about the inside of many Taiyuan troops, and after having a deep understanding of the internal situation of the Li brothers, Chen Fuliang let Yu Wenxin go down to rest. However, after Yu Wenxin left, Chen Fuliang sneered again, and said secretly: "After all, he is not a traverser, it would be good if Li Yuanji was only satisfied with Taiyuan, this kid's means are much more ruthless than his eldest brother, and his ambition is not smaller than his second brother." However, the current relationship between Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng can be put to good use. ”

Twisting the slight whiskers that gradually grew on his lips, Chen Fuliang found that this matter was still more dangerous, and it was definitely not difficult to separate Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, but he had to prevent Li Er from taking the opportunity to reap the benefits, Chen Fuliang was not afraid of Li Jiancheng being the boss, and he was not afraid that Li Yuanji, who was ambitious and incapacitated, was in charge of the Li family's army alone, but he was still very wary of Li Er, so after thinking about it for a long time, Chen Fuliang decided to put this matter aside for the time being, and was ready to wait until the Eastern Front problem was solved. However, in order to take precautions, Chen Fuliang felt that he should get in touch with Li Yuanji first to facilitate the next action plan, and immediately calculated this matter.

In fact, even Chen Fuliang did not expect that the problem of the Eastern Front would be solved so perfectly by General Yun, and after basically solving the aftermath problem of Anding and Beidi counties, Chen Fuliang, who did not dare to leave Daxing for a long time, had just ordered to lead the main division, and General Yun sent someone to send the good news that he had successfully made Hua and his brother, Li Mi and Wang Shichong defeated and injured.

At the end of the first month, Chen Fuliang led the main force to return to Dacheng and offered prisoners to his honorary boss Yining Emperor Yang Xingji, but at the celebration of the court, even Chen Fuliang was a little caught off guard What was that several of his friends Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng and others suddenly jumped out and jointly played to Yang Xingji, saying that Chen Fuliang's merits were high and that he was worthy of the world, and he should be the king, and then before the shocked Chen Fuliang came back to his senses, including Qu Tutong and Pang Yu and other old ministers of the former dynasty, the civil and military officials had already seconded the proposal. Playing together to ask Chen Fuliang to be crowned a prince, Chen Fuliang and the matchmaker Pang Yu of the eldest grandson Xiao Luoli also simply begged Yang Xingji to give Chen Fuliang Jiuxi, and directly pushed Chen Fuliang to the position of Cao Boss Sima Lao Thief.

Yang Xingji, who was only seven years old, couldn't even speak, so he could only turn his gaze for help to Chen Fuliang, Chen Fuliang came back to his senses and pretended to be modest for a few words, but was opposed by hundreds of civil and military officials, and many officials also made it clear that if Chen Fuliang did not accept the prince, they would die in this Jinluan Palace! Chen Fuliang was forced to be helpless, in order to save the precious lives of these upright and capable ministers, he could only reluctantly accept the kindness of the hundred officials, but he was very resolute in thanking the nine extinguishing gifts - this thing is too ostentatious, too damaging Chen Fuliang's image of loyal ministers, so Chen Fuliang doesn't want it for the time being.

Then, of course, it was to discuss Chen Fuliang's title as the king, and the civil and military officials didn't know Chen Fuliang's conscience, so they didn't dare to speak casually, and Yang Xingji also asked Chen Fuliang to decide for himself. Chen Fuliang only hesitated for a moment, and soon said: "Then Tang, before the first emperor was killed, the last will was to change me to the Duke of Tang, the first emperor's holy decree cannot be violated, just Tang." ”

"Congratulations to His Royal Highness on being named King of Tang! His Royal Highness the Tang King Chitose! ”

Standing beside the little emperor Yang Xingji with his sword on his shoulders, holding his head high to accept the salute of the civil and military officials, Chen Fuliang was full of thoughts, and couldn't help but think of all kinds of past events and old people, and even remembered Li Yuan, who was buried by his own body under the pretense of Yang Xingji's reputation, sighed in his heart, and said secretly: "Lao Li, this is fate, you can rest assured to close your eyes, believe me, I will definitely create a more brilliant and greater Tang Dynasty for you!" ”