Yuan Tiangang's crow's beak has always been effective, on the night of the 14th, the north wind in the Daxing area, which was already very cold, the clouds were covered, and the snowflakes were fluttering, and sure enough, the first heavy snow of this winter fell, and it did not stop for most of the night, turning the large-scale Daxing country into a white expanse, as if it was wearing filial piety for the recently deceased hero Li Yuan.

In accordance with Li Yuan's last order, the rebels did not dare to make the news of Li Yuan's death public, let alone give Li Yuan a funeral and filial piety, but Li Jiancheng's brothers and the rebel generals knew very well in their hearts that they knew that the paper could not contain the fire, and the news of Li Yuan's death would sooner or later be known by the military and civilians in Daxing City, and Chen Fuliang outside Daxing City would also know about this situation sooner or later, and would definitely take advantage of the fire to rob and take the opportunity to attack the Daxing rebels, whose morale was already very low.

How to deal with Chen Fuliang's robbery is a matter of the future, and there is a more important thing to do for the rebels at the moment, that is, the issue of Li Yuan's heir, originally logically speaking, Li Jiancheng, as the eldest son of the grandson, is the undoubted heir, Li Yuan also had an obvious attitude when he was dying and wanted to hand over the position of the rebel commander to Li Jiancheng, but Li Yuan's second son Li Shimin had a different opinion, and insisted that Li Yuan passed the position of commander to him when he was dying, and he should succeed him as the commander of the rebels.

"Uncles and uncles, generals, soldiers, you have seen with your own eyes, my father held my hand when he was dying, and asked me to inherit his will, and lead the righteous master to continue the bloody battle with Chen Yingliang's traitors to the end, and avenge his old man! Father's words are still in my ears, although I am not talented, but I am also willing to take up this heavy burden, work together with you to fight against the thief, avenge my father, and save your life, official position! ”

Li Er's words were of course pure nonsense, but Li Yuan failed to finish his last words when he was dying, but gave Li Erhu the opportunity to stir up trouble and make trouble, Li Jiancheng in grief is a long mouth, and there is no way to completely refute the crooked reasoning of the treacherous brother, he can only condemn his brother's unfilial piety and viciousness with tears, and deliberately do not let Li Yuan finish his last words. Li Er unceremoniously shouted loudly, "I'm going to hurt the righteous soldiers?" If your father really passed on the position to you, I'm afraid you will kill 100,000 righteous soldiers, right? ”

"With your virtue, if you are asked to command the whole army, can you not have the idea of surrendering to Chen Yingliang's thief? When the time comes, you can sell us to enjoy the glory and wealth, what should we do? What about the uncles and seniors who followed my father to raise the army? How could Chen Yingliang's traitor spare us? How can a tyrant spare us? ”

Li Er's words hit the key point of many rebels' civil and military forces, and now Chen Fuliang is taking a Huairou policy to desperately appease the rebel soldiers, but Chen Fuliang is still just a wage earner for the Great Sui Imperial Court, the maid takes the key and is not in charge, and the rebel generals who accepted Chen Fuliang's appeasement are still likely to be settled by the Great Sui Imperial Court, and then think of the bear temper of Emperor Yang of Sui, Pei Ju, Dou Cong, Dou Wei, Wang Changhuan and Zhan Jun and other rebel civil and military forces can't help but shudder, and they are inevitably worried about supporting Li Jiancheng to succeed to the throne.

There are also members of the Li clan led by Li Xiaogong, Li Shentong, Li Xiaoji, Li Baiju and Li Shuliang, who were also moved by Li Er's words, worried that Li Jiancheng, who had a good relationship with Chen Fuliang, would choose to surrender after succeeding to the throne. Therefore, even though they knew that Li Yuan wanted to pass on the throne to Li Jiancheng when he was dying, these Li clans were all silent, covering up and conniving at Li Er's unreasonable troubles with silence, and stirring up nonsense.

With Li Er's ingenuity, of course, it can be seen that the core class of the rebel army wants to stand on his side, and under the great increase in confidence, Li Er pointed out again: "Besides, with your merits and achievements, brother, what qualifications do you have to inherit the handsome position left by your father?" Father ordered you to guard Yongfengcang to ensure the supply of food and grass for our army, and you only lasted a few days in front of Chen Yingliang's thief? My father asked you to lead the army to retreat to Xinfeng, not only did you not even be able to enter Xinfeng City, but you were already defeated by the official army on the way, but you had to rely on your father to send an army north to meet you! There is also the Battle of Huoyi, if I hadn't led the cavalry to attack the back of the official army, your head would have been cut off by the official army at that time! How can you convince the public with such a record? Who would dare to serve you as the master, defeat after defeat under your incompetent command, and give up their lives in vain? ”

"Can you convince the public with your record?" Li Jiancheng sneered at each other: "You go to reinforce Xinfeng, it's not like you have been defeated for less than a day!" ”

"I am not strong enough, although I am defeated, I am still glorious." Li Er sneered and said: "I used more than 10,000 partial divisions to resist the 50,000 main force of Chen Yingliang's dog thieves, and I was defeated by defeat, or I was defeated because I was defeated in the field battle. You have an army of 60,000, the strength is on par with Chen Yingliang's traitors, and you have a strong city to defend, you lost worse than me, and you have the face to talk about me? Besides, I at least captured Yin Hongzhi, the youngest son of Yin Shishi, in Xinfeng, and didn't let him fall into the hands of Chen Yingliang's dog thief, so that we can completely bear the charge of killing His Royal Highness the Acting King, compared with me, what do you gain in Yongfeng Cang? also lost all the three sisters! ”

"Shut up!" Li Jiancheng was a little annoyed and angry, and said angrily: "I am the eldest son, and I should inherit the family business!" ”

"I didn't say I wouldn't let you inherit the family business!" Li Er took the opportunity to hit the snake with the stick, and said loudly: "My father died, you inherited the family business of the Li family in Longxi as the head of the family, I don't object, I still support it, and I will immediately admit that you are the head of the family!" But the righteous teacher left by my father is not our family property, and the position of the righteous teacher should be occupied by a virtuous person! ”

"Erlang is right." Li Xiaogong, who was sure to be dead after surrendering, seized the opportunity to speak, and agreed: "Erlang is right, Dalang, you are the eldest son, and the head of the Li valve family should be taken over by you, but the righteous master is not the family property left by his uncle, and the position of the commander of the righteous master, you are not qualified to inherit it, and you must be virtuous." Erlang is both resourceful and well-organized, and I support him as the successor to the coach. ”

Li Jiancheng was furious and roared: "Li Xiaogong, are you blind or have a black conscience?" When my father died, he obviously wanted me to succeed as the manager, don't you see? ”

"I don't see it." Li Xiaogong replied very simply, and said: "I only know that there are people who are like brothers and sisters to the enemy who killed their father, and they also greet each other on the two armies, and they also entrust their wives and children to the care of the enemy who killed their father, and I don't feel at ease about such a person as the commander." ”

"Two sons, don't fight." Pei Lian, who presented Jinyang Palace and Taiyuan City to Li Yuan, stood up and said: "The second prince is right, the eldest prince, you should inherit the head of the Li family, and you can also discuss if you want to succeed to the position of the commander of the righteous master, but you must first promise us that you will never surrender to the tyrant lackey Chen Yingliang, and cut off relations with him, and then we will discuss who will succeed the commander of the whole army." ”

"I have to swear to avenge my cousin!" Li Shentong interjected and said: "Please swear in front of your cousin's spirit that you must avenge him and fight Chen Yingliang's dog thief to the end, and then we can consider you as the commander." ”

Li Jiancheng hesitated a little, and Li Er took the opportunity to say in a weird manner: "Brother, the hatred of killing your father is not shared, as a son of man, don't you even want to do the most basic filial piety?" ”

Li Jiancheng was even more hesitant, although his character was relatively kind, he was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he was unwilling to give up his own status and power -- otherwise, there would be no changes in the Xuanwu Gate in history. So after hesitating for a while, Li Jiancheng still knelt in front of Li Yuan's spirit, and swore loudly, promising to avenge Li Yuan and never surrender to Chen Fuliang. In fact, until the last moment, Li Jiancheng really didn't have this mind, and with Li Jiancheng's current power in the rebels, it would be even more difficult to do so.

"Now that the eldest prince has sworn revenge, then we can rest assured." Pei Lian, who had a high status in the rebels, nodded, and said: "Otherwise, since the general didn't have time to establish the successor of our army commander before his death, then we simply ask the eldest prince to serve as the left commander, and the second prince to serve as the right commander, share the general's banner and take charge of the army, and discuss and act in case of trouble, I don't know what the two sons think?" ”

"Okay, I agree." Li Er agreed, and he was very confident that he would quickly and completely overthrow his brother and pull all the rebel troops to his side. In order to ensure that he can fully grasp the power, Li Er also said: "The left and the right are in charge of the army together, if there is a disagreement and controversy, it will inevitably delay the major events of the warplane, in my opinion, it is better to add one more person, please Pei Lin Uncle Pei to serve as the chief Shi Ling, and I and my brother will jointly govern the military power, if there is a dispute between me and my brother, the opinion of Uncle Pei shall prevail, Uncle Pei thinks that which of us has the right opinion, and who will adopt the strategy proposed!" ”

Of course, the members of the Li clan who had no way out agreed with Li Er's suggestion, and the sinful Dou Cong, Dou Wei, Wang Changhuan, Tang Xian and other foreign surnames also voted in favor, Li Jianwei wanted to oppose it, but he couldn't stand everyone supporting Li Er's suggestion, so he could only nod his head in agreement, and said with great depression in his heart: "Brother Ying Liangxian is right, my younger brother is indeed not a good thing." ”

Chai Shao, who is also an important figure in the rebels, was also at the scene, but he never spoke, allowing the Li brothers to fight for power and profit in front of Li Yuanling, and never got involved, but Chai Shao, who was not a stupid person, could see that Li Er, who had a good relationship with him, was completely a scoundrel and seized power, and snatched away all the military power that should belong to Li Jiancheng. When the Li brothers discussed the next tactical plan, Chai Shao saw again that the ostensibly fair Pei Lin had actually been secretly facing Li Er, forcing Li Jiancheng to agree to a series of personnel appointments, allowing Li Er's subordinates to hold critical positions, supplementing the leadership that had suffered heavy casualties under the cover of Sui artillery, and holding real power, while Li Jiancheng's people were assigned to irrelevant positions.

Chai Shao's position as the head of the Imperial Forest Army has not been affected, and Chen Fuliang's enmity is as deep as the sea, and Li Er has always been friendly, and he actually controls the defense of the Wude Palace, Li Er of course will not overthrow Chai Shao and let Li Jiancheng's people take the position, not only that, Li Er also raised Yì to increase the strength of Chai Shao, so that Chai Shao can control the palace more powerfully, and the defense of the imperial city outside the palace city also continues to be in charge of Li Shentong, Li Jiancheng is called Zuo Shuai, but in fact, he can't control the imperial city and the army of the palace city at all.

Li Er didn't seem to be very relieved about Chai Shao, and after arranging various personnel adjustments to strengthen the rebel command that had suffered heavy casualties under the Sui army's artillery, everyone temporarily dispersed to rest, and also took advantage of this opportunity, Li Er called Chai Shao aside alone, and asked curiously: "Brother-in-law, during the battle yesterday, I vaguely saw that you seemed to have been beaten down by Chen Yingliang's thief's generals, how did you escape back?" ”

"Isn't it just a war horse? He was also held to the chest by his lackeys with a horse lance. Chai Shao, who was already disheartened, replied casually: "It was Chen Yingliang's thief who said that he would only dirty his knife if he killed me, leaving me and letting me live, which was more uncomfortable than letting me die, so he deliberately let me go." ”

After carefully observing Chai Shao's expression, it didn't seem to be deliberately lying, and knowing that Chai Shao was indeed more uncomfortable alive than dead now, Li Er put his mind at ease, patted Chai Shao's shoulder and said, "Brother-in-law, don't worry, we will definitely be able to take revenge!" You are my brother-in-law, and you have always been a brother and sister to me, I will not let you be humiliated by Chen Yingliang's dog thief in vain, we still have a chance to turn defeat into victory, Chen Yingliang's dog thief's rear is full of dangers, Li Mizhai will definitely not miss this opportunity to take the opportunity to enter the Eastern Capital, as long as we stick to the inner and outer cities of Daxing, we will definitely be able to wait until Chen Yingliang's dog thief is forced to retreat! ”

Chai Shao nodded, but his expression was not excited, Li Er was a little uneasy, so he told again: "Brother-in-law, in addition to being careful about the defense of the palace city, there is also the Xuanwu Gate, you must also be careful for me, although the section of the city in the Xuanwu Gate is the most solid, and the terrain of Longshou Mountain in the north is narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of troops, Chen Yingliang's dog thieves are unlikely to launch a strong attack directly on the Xuanwu Gate, but it is still necessary to prevent him from highlighting the surprise soldiers to attack the Xuanwu Gate." If there is any accident there, the palace city and the outer city of Daxing will be safe to defend immediately, and there must be no accidents. (The Sui Dynasty did not have Tang Dynasty palaces such as Daming Palace, Xineiyuan and Xiaoerfang, and the Xuanwu Gate actually faced directly outside Daxing City.) ）

"Of course I do." Chai Shao nodded, and said casually: "If Erlang is not at ease, you can send someone to guard the Xuanwu Gate, and I will guard the palace." ”

"Brother-in-law, I don't believe who do you believe?" Li Er smiled and said, "With you guarding the Xuanwu Gate and the palace city, I don't worry, I still need to send other outsiders?" Oh, by the way, there's something you need to keep an eye on me, brother-in-law. ”

"What's the matter?" Chai Shao asked casually.

"Princess Yang Yu, you must show me prison!" Li Er suddenly raised his face, lowered his voice and said viciously: "In the palace city, any palace person can have an accident, but Princess Yang Yu must not have any accidents!" At the critical moment, she may be able to play a heavy role! ”

Chai Shao asked the reason suspiciously, but Li Er smiled and refused to explain, and said: "Don't ask more, you will understand in the future, in short, if Princess Yang Yu uses it well, maybe my sister can be saved." ”

Chai Shao was even more puzzled, and remembered a trivial incident before, so he nodded and said: "Okay, it will be okay left and right, I will go and see the situation now, and arrange double the troops to garrison Princess Yu's residence." Li Er smiled and immediately nodded in agreement.

In this way, Chai Shao finally took time out of his busy schedule and came to the harem to visit Yang Yu'er in person, because Yang Yu'er's mother Jiang Cairen was not very favored, and the mother and daughter lived in the palace city in a relatively remote place, and the residence was not large. asked Chai Shao whether he needed to send more chamberlains and palace maids, and Chai Shao casually asked how many palace maids and chamberlains served Yang Yuer's mother and daughter.

The answer is that there are only two eunuchs and two palace maids, and when Chai Shao was considering whether to send more people, the courtyard door that had been closed before was suddenly pushed open by a small crack, revealing half of the wrinkled old eunuch face, Chai Shao recognized him at a glance as Xie Mudong, who was often with Yang Yu'er, and shouted, "Xie Nei Waiter." ”

"It turned out to be Mr. Chai." Xie Mudong also recognized Chai Shao, hurriedly saluted Chai Shao in the door, and said respectfully: "Don't misunderstand, the old slave heard a movement outside the courtyard, take a look, there is no other meaning." ”

After hesitating for a moment, Chai Shao instructed: "Xie Neishi, you come out, I have something to ask you." ”

Xie Mudong was a little stunned, but under Chai Shao's urging again, he was cautiously discharged from the hospital and came to Chai Shao's front to be questioned, Chai Shao first called him to a remote area in the distance, drove away the servants around him, and then whispered to Xie Mudong: "Xie Neishi, that's the case, my sister said to me, when I sold all my property to my father-in-law to make up for my sins, you accidentally found some special circumstances, what is the specific situation?" ”

Hearing this question, Xie Mudong's wrinkled old face turned pale all of a sudden, and he quickly denied it, shook his head and said, "The old slave doesn't know, the old slave doesn't know anything." ”

"But my sister told you you know." Chai Shao saw that Xie Mudong's expression was wrong, so he whispered again: "Say it, don't worry, no matter what it is, I won't sue others." ”

Xie Mudong still shook his head, resolutely refused to answer, and couldn't wait to find an excuse to ask to go back to serve Yang Yu'er's mother and daughter, but the more Xie Mudong was like this, the more suspicious Chai Shao became, so he simply threatened: "Do you want to say it?" If you don't say anything, I'll hand you over to the general and ask him to send someone to interrogate you personally. ”

"Don't, don't, don't." Xie Mudong was so frightened that he almost collapsed on the ground, and hurriedly held on to the trees next to him, pleading with a pitiful face: "Chief Chai, you are gracious, please see that the old slave went to the prison several times before to send medicine to your father, don't hand over the old slave to the general, let alone let the general know about it." ”

A casual threat, but Xie Mudong's reaction was so intense, Chai Shao was even more suspicious in his heart, so he said in a low voice: "If you say it, I won't tell my father-in-law, if not, I will immediately escort you to see him, saying that you secretly colluded with Chen Yingliang and tried to serve as an internal response for him!" Don't think I don't know, you and Chen Yingliang have known each other for a long time! ”

However, Xie Mudong could only say with a pitiful face: "Manager Chai, the old slave can sue sù, but you have to promise the old slave two things, the first is that you must not let anyone know about it, and the second is that you must calm down and don't get angry." ”

"Do you have to hold your breath? Don't get angry? Chai Shao had an ominous premonition, nodded, and said in a low voice: "Okay, I promise you." ”

"Mr. Chai, in fact, you'd better not know." Xie Mudong sighed first, and then attached himself to Chai Shao's ear and muttered in a low voice............

Chai Shao really didn't get angry, listening to Xie Mudong's whispered introduction, Chai Shao just unconsciously had blue tendons on his forehead, his hands clenched into fists, his knuckles turned white, and his nails went deep into the flesh of his palm, almost breaking his skin and bleeding. And when Xie Mudong finished speaking, Chai Shao was silent for a long time, then gritted his teeth and asked word by word: "Did you lie to me?" ”

"Manager Chai, the old slave is a bold man, and he doesn't dare to lie to you." Xie Mudong said with a sad face: "After the old slave inadvertently knew about that incident at that time, he now regrets that his intestines are already green, and he only hates himself for meddling in his affairs and knowing that he shouldn't know. ”

Staring at Xie Mudong's expression, seeing that he had no false expression except for fear and trembling, after a long time, Chai Shaocai said: "You go back, don't worry, I won't let people know anymore." ”

Xie Mudong was pardoned, and quickly said goodbye and left, but Chai Shao hung his head motionless, his hands and fists kept clenching, and he didn't know how long it had been, Chai Shao raised his head, looked into the distance and sighed, and then thought about it, but Chai Shao's eyes inadvertently glanced at a majestic and towering building, and suddenly froze again, his mind kept churning, and he didn't move for a long time.

That majestic building is called Xuanwu Gate.