On the day of 11 May, Fan Zigai, who had worked hard for the destruction of the Great Sui Dynasty, could not resist the pain and suffering, and died, and Xue Shixiong, who was ordered to replace Fan Zigai in charge of Taiyuan, also failed to arrive in Taiyuan to take over as scheduled due to various unexpected reasons, and Taiyuan fell into a situation where the dragons were leaderless.

In order to be loyal to Emperor Yang of Sui, killing officials and killing people is like cutting weeds, and the means are rough, regardless of the importance of goodness and severity, but Fan Zigai is definitely a principled person, honest and self-controlled, and fair, as long as he abides by the law, is loyal to Emperor Yang of Sui, and useful to the court of the Great Sui, he can basically live a very nourishing life under his command - for example, a certain person who has lost his conscience.

Therefore, when Fan Zigai was alive, although the five counties under his rule were in flames and the thief army was rampant, the army and the city were basically able to maintain stability, especially the Taiyuan Sui army left by Li Yuan, who was dissatisfied with the harsh policy and harsh military law, and did not dare to make any special moves because of his fear and respect. Sensing that an opportunity had arisen, the members of the Li family who came to Taiyuan in advance did not dare to act lightly because of his presence, because they were afraid of his prestige and fame.

But since Fan Zigai is dead, the situation is completely different, although Wang Wei, the deputy left-behind county is also a loyal minister of the imperial court, loyal and reliable to the Great Sui Jiangshan, but he is far from having the prestige influence of Fan Zigai, and his control over the army is far less powerful than Fan Zigai, so this naturally gave Lao Li's family a godsend. Just a few days before Fan Zigai's death, Li Yuan, who received the news, had also personally come to Taiyuan to preside over major events, and after Pei Lin sent the news of Fan Zigai's death to Li Yuan, Li Yuan also made a decision immediately, and mutiny was launched that night with the support of the old army department.

Wang Wei's ineffective control of the army helped Li Yuan a lot, Yun Dingxing was also contained by Liu Wuzhou in Loufu County, and in a hurry, he didn't have time to return to the division to help Wang Wei stabilize the situation, Li Yuan's mutiny was successful, Pei Lin opened the door and robbed, Li's sworn friend Xu Shixu killed Wang Wei on the mourning hall of Fan Zigai, Taiyuan made Wen Dayou surrender and rebel neatly, and the two cities of Taiyuan and Jinyang fell into the clutches of Li Yuan at the same time. Li Yuan immediately proclaimed himself a general with the support of an old department, and ordered the counties of Taiyuan, Loufu, Yanmen, Xihe, and Mayi to change to red and white banners, respecting Emperor Yang of Sui as the emperor and supporting Yang Yu as the emperor, and raising troops under the banner of supporting Yang Yu's accession to the throne, so as to appease the officers and soldiers of the Great Sui and publicize the legality and reasonableness of his own army.

After receiving the news of Fan Zigai's death and Li Yuan's army, Chen Fuliang cried bitterly for the old Bole Fan Zigai, and at the same time, he did not dare to immediately announce the news, and also asked all those who knew to keep it secret for the time being, so as to avoid this sudden situation affecting morale and shaking the morale of the army, but secretly sent people north to investigate the situation and find the whereabouts of his cousin Li Jing, and then immediately refocused his energy on the war at Hujiaoguan, determined to take advantage of the current favorable situation, Do your best to recapture the Tiger Prison Pass and reverse the current passive situation on the battlefield in the Eastern Capital, so as to free up your hands to deal with the changes in Taiyuan.

Originally, Chen Yingliang once planned to use the information provided by Mulan to sneak attack the Tiger Prison Pass, but after careful calculation, Chen Fuliang found that he was thinking too simply, although the information provided by Mulan was credible and reliable, but even if he sent a false signal and deceived the Tiger Prison Pass to help, it would be difficult to take the opportunity to get the Tiger Prison Pass back, because the Wagang Army stationed in the Tiger Prison Pass would not be able to come out to rescue Hao Xiaode, the Li Mi Army, and even if it helped, it would definitely leave enough troops in the pass to defend it. It will not leave much opportunity for the Sui army.

At the same time, the distance between Hao Xiaode's army camp and the Tiger Prison Pass is only five miles, and the space that can be provided for the Sui army's surprise attack tactics is too small, even if the army is disguised as the enemy to open and close the door by deception, the follow-up reinforcements will not be able to keep up, and it will only harm the soldiers who attacked the city in vain, and if a large number of ambushes are arranged outside the city, it is difficult to hide the eyes of Hao Xiaode's army and the Tiger Prison Pass attack army, especially the attack army of the Tiger Pass, as long as one person runs back to the pass to warn, it will immediately make the Sui army's sneak attack plan go to waste.

Some refused to give up, Chen Fuliang begged the staff, and very arbitrarily told a few accomplices and lackeys, saying that the wax pill collection sent by Mulan was absolutely reliable, and they could be trusted with confidence, and then asked everyone if there was a way to use false signals to take the opportunity to take the Tiger Prison Pass. However, Chen Fuliang himself had no way to take advantage of this opportunity, let alone Wei Zheng and Yuan Tiangang, who had a more upright personality, and his distant cousin Pei Xingfang also pointed out directly: "Brother, this matter is too difficult, not to mention that the possibility of us taking advantage of the chaos to deceive the Tiger Prison and close the city gate is very small, even if we can successfully deceive the city gate and immediately invest a large number of troops into the city to fight, it will be difficult to quickly take the Guancheng, and then the thief army only needs to open the east gate of the Tiger Prison Pass, and the Li Mi thief army stationed outside the East Gate of the Tiger Prison Pass will enter the city in large numbers to rescue, The Wagang thief army and Hao Xiaode's thief army, who were deceived out of the city by us, also turned around and killed, and the east and west attacked and started a big melee with us, and the possibility of us succeeding in capturing the pass is still very large, on the contrary, the losses are doomed to be very heavy. ”

Chen Fuliang was silent, and kept thinking and analyzing in his heart, but the result was still helpless to find that Pei Xingfang's analysis was indeed very reasonable, even if the self-army deceived the city gate and invested a large number of troops to fight, it would be difficult to take the Tiger Prison Pass in a short time, and then Li Mi's army outside the east gate would enter the city to rescue, and Hao Xiaode and the Wagang Army would also turn around and kill, and the self-army would be destined to start a big melee with the enemy, and even if the Tiger Prison Pass was won, it would definitely have to pay a heavy price - it was barely worth paying the heavy price, But if you can't win the Tiger Prison, you will lose too much.

"Brother, in fact, you can't rush to capture the Tiger Prison Pass, and in this situation, the possibility that we can win the Tiger Prison Pass in one battle is too small." Pei Xingfang said again: "The thief army Hao Xiaode's troops are stationed in the western suburbs of the Tiger Pass, although the strength is not enough to fear, but it should not be underestimated, if we don't pull out this nail, we will attack the Tiger Prison Pass at the same time, we have to invest a lot of troops to monitor and guard against him, weakening our strength is not very sufficient, the younger brother believes that for the sake of safety, our primary goal should still be Hao Xiaode, not the Tiger Pass." ”

"Chen stays behind, and the line has a point." Wei Zheng said: "For the Zhai Li thief army, the Tiger Prison Pass is far more important than Hao Xiaode, if we attack Hao Xiaode, the Tiger Prison Pass thief army will definitely not fall to the rescue, but if we attack the Tiger Prison Pass, once the Tiger Prison Pass is in an emergency, Hao Xiaode will definitely go all out to help, because even if Hao Xiaode loses the camp, there is also a Tiger Prison Pass to retreat, Zhai Li Thief Army can afford to lose Hao Xiaode's camp, but it can't afford to lose the Tiger Pass." ”

"The priorities are different, our strength advantage is not large, and we do not occupy the advantage, it is too risky to put the main and the second, and once we fail, we are doomed to suffer heavy losses. Instead of taking the risk of advancing lightly, it is better to use the troops first, use the troops safely, first pull out the nail of Hao Xiaode, weaken the overall strength of the thief army, and then try to capture the Tiger Pass. ”

If Chen Fuliang is a person who likes to gamble, then he may not listen to Pei Xingfang and Wei Zheng's advice to take risks and gamble, but unfortunately Chen Fuliang is not such a person, and in the current situation, Chen Fuliang does not dare to take risks with the capital seeds, so Chen Fuliang finally changed his mind, nodded and said: "Yes, you can't take the risk of entering lightly, give priority to pulling out the nail of Hao Xiaode, fortunately, Wang Shichong can still hold on, and the main force of the thief army is also determined to deal with him first and then clean us up, we still have some time." ”

"Yes, yes." Yuan Tiangang finally seized the opportunity to speak, nodded again and again: "When formulating tactics, it is best to take the opportunity to verify the authenticity of the wax pill collection by the way, if it proves to be true, we can rest assured that the news provided by this insider will be believed in the future." ”

Yuan Tiangang's words reminded Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang immediately thought of an important question, that is, once he used the information provided by Mulan, then the Tiger Prison Pass would definitely know that there was a traitor in the pass, and maybe he would suspect Mulan. But after thinking about it, Chen Fuliang felt that not only did he not have to worry too much, but he could also frame him and take the opportunity to attack another long-coveted character, and then naturally, Chen Fuliang quickly started his head full of bad water and pondered carefully............

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Now it's time to take a look at the situation on Hao Xiaode's side, after suffering two big losses in front of Chen Fuliang in a row, Hao Xiaode, who was lonely outside the pass, of course looked forward to being able to withdraw to the pass, rest and rest with confidence, and bandage his wounds, but Li Mi sent an order to let Hao Xiaode continue to be stationed outside the camp, and continue to serve as a barrier buffer between the Tiger Prison Pass and the Sui army in the eastern capital. Tiger Prison Pass also took the initiative to agree with him on the warning signal, and did not completely use him as cannon fodder, Hao Xiaode's resentment disappeared a little, and he honestly continued to be stationed outside the gate, strictly guarding the camp and no longer going out at will.

Let Hao Xiaode secretly happy is still behind, after the defeat of the pursuit of the ambush, for two consecutive days and one night, the Sui army in the eastern capital did not launch an attack, and did not take advantage of the opportunity of Hao Xiaode's army to defeat the morale of the army one after another, and gave Hao Xiaode some respite, but Hao Xiaode did not take it lightly, and after getting two days of respite, on the second night, Hao Xiaode still arranged a large number of troops to be on duty at night, and repeatedly explained that he found that the Sui army could not attack in a sneak attack, and only allowed to repel with arrows, so as not to repeat Chen Fuliang's old tricks, and tricked Hao Xiaodejun out of the camp and beat him.

Hao Xiaode's worries really became a fact, not long after the first shift, the thief scouts found that there was an unknown number of Sui troops approaching his camp, Hao Xiaode, who had fallen asleep, did not dare to slack off when he heard the news, and quickly got up to preside over the camp defense, and personally climbed the high ground to observe the enemy situation, and found that sure enough, there was a Sui army with torches approaching his camp down the mountain. Hao Xiaode didn't understand what the Sui army deliberately exposed his whereabouts for, but he had already suffered a loss, and Hao Xiaode didn't dare to be fooled a second time, so he quickly ordered the whole army to get up and prepare for war, so that the army under his command would strictly guard the fortifications of the camp, and not a single soldier was allowed to leave the camp without permission.

The Sui army under the mountain has been decided, and after waiting for a long time to see the Sui army have the next move, Hao Xiaode is strange, the Sui army under the mountain suddenly sounded in unison, shouting to kill the sky, Hao Xiaode's camp edge also suddenly rose a lot of fire, the thorns and trees on the hillside were also ignited by the Sui army, Hao Xiaode was shocked, and said that the Sui army was going to attack the camp, and quickly ordered the whole army to step up guard, nervously waiting for the Sui army to attack. However, waiting left and right, in addition to beating drums and horns and shouting to kill, the Sui army under the mountain did not see a single soldier approaching the fence, Hao Xiaode couldn't help but be puzzled, and said: "Chen Yingliang dog official took the wrong medicine?" What are you doing with a feint at night? You want to lure me out of camp again? Am I that stupid? ”

"Look, my lord!" At this time, a soldier suddenly pointed to the top of the hill to the south and exclaimed, "Our people, light the emergency bonfire!" ”

Hao Xiaode was shocked, and hurriedly turned back to look at the south, but saw that the top of the south mountain agreed with the Tiger Prison Pass had been lit to ask for help from the Tiger Prison Pass, Hao Xiaode didn't react for a while, and said angrily: "Bastard!" Those idiots on the mountain, didn't see our camp send a signal, what are you doing with a bonfire? ”

"Could it be that they saw the fire lit by the officers and soldiers as a distress signal in our camp?" One of the thieves will analyze.

Without waiting for Hao Xiaode to agree with this point of view, Liu Heimin on the other side suddenly changed his face and blurted out: "Not good! We here, or over there in Tiger Prison Pass, there must be a traitor who told Chen Yingliang about our emergency signal, and Chen Yingliang sent people to attack our beacon tower and sent a false signal to deceive Tiger Prison Pass into sending troops! ”

"This signal was sent by the official army? How can it be? Hao Xiaode was taken aback, and was a little incredulous for a while.

"How could it be?" Liu Heimin pointed to the Sui army team that was feinting at the foot of the mountain, and said quickly: "Otherwise, what are the officials and soldiers doing with gongs and drums shouting and killing?" This is clearly to create the illusion that our camp is fighting, and send a false signal to ask for help from Tiger Prison Pass, the purpose is to deceive Tiger Prison Pass to send troops, and then either ambush the reinforcements of Tiger Prison Pass, or take the opportunity to sneak attack Tiger Prison Pass, if Tiger Prison Pass is tricked, you will immediately suffer a loss and be deceived! ”

"Send someone to Tiger Prison immediately and tell them that the signal is fake!" Hao Xiaode immediately made a decision, immediately arranged for a team of cavalry to leave the camp, and hurried to the Tiger Prison Pass to call the police.

If Hao Xiaode's people can send the news out, then Chen Fuliang really doesn't have to mix, the thief light cavalry has just come out of the camp, and before he has time to go down the mountain, there are already random arrows in front of him, and the thief soldiers are hit by arrows one after another, and the undead can only quickly return to the camp to report to Hao Xiaode. Hao Xiaode was in a hurry when he heard the report, but Liu Heimin calmly analyzed, and quickly said: "King, the official army has been planning for a long time, and the arrangement must be very perfect, we want to send a small number of soldiers to report that it is difficult to succeed, the only way is to send troops to the Tiger Prison Pass, of course, it is best to lead the official army to ambush the soldiers, if not, we can also break through the official army blockade and report to the Tiger Prison Pass." ”

As soon as Hao Xiaode heard the great joy, he immediately adopted Liu Heimin's construction, and ordered Li Shicai to lead the headquarters out of the camp and go to the Tiger Prison Pass to report the emergency, and Li Wencai, who brought his own dry food to Li Mi, received this dangerous order, although it was inconvenient to disobey, but there was some dissatisfaction in his heart, and the action of the whole army was deliberately delayed.

In fact, even if Li Shicai did not deliberately delay, he did not have time to stop the Tiger Prison Pass defenders, the Sui army had deliberately issued the sound of war drums and horns, which had already alarmed the defenders of the Tiger Pass, Shan Xiongxin and Zhai Hong and other Tiger Prison Pass guards were also immediately prepared to defend the city and attack the rescue, and then saw the bonfire for help, although Shan Xiongxin and others felt that Hao Xiaode's request for help was a little too fast, but it was already dark Chen Fuliang was notoriously scheming, Shan Xiongxin and others did not dare to see death and not save them, so they immediately sent troops out of the city and rushed to Hao Xiaode's camp to rescue- However, Shan Xiongxin, Zhai Rang and others are not fools, in the dark night, Tiger Prison Pass only sent Wang Dangren to lead an army of 3,000 to help, and did not dare to go out.

Wang Dangren's army was ambushed as expected, just more than two miles out of the city, there were already Sui army ambushes on both sides of the road, and a Sui army ambush soldiers detoured to Wang Dangren's back, directly cutting off Wang Dangren's way back, Wang Dangren's army was not very elite, in the dark night was the Sui army ambush rushed suddenly chaos, after the chaos was naturally defeated, the morale of the Sui army was like a rainbow, and they killed as much as they wanted.

It was Shan Xiongxin's turn to be embarrassed, Wang Dangren hit the ambush, Shan Xiongxin wanted to attack and responded but was afraid of being ambushed again, and he was even more afraid that the Sui army would take the opportunity to sneak attack the Tiger Prison Pass, Hao Xiaode's side was even more embarrassed, and the rescue Wang Dangren was also afraid of the ambush, if he did not attack, he would not save the reinforcements, and it would definitely be more difficult to ask for help in the future.

After sending out reinforcements with a belly of fire, there was no ambush waiting for Li Shicai, some were just the Sui soldiers who intercepted in array, or the elite soldiers of the Sui army led by Luo Shixin, Li Shicai, who didn't know Luo Shixin's strength, had the courage to attack, but was immediately slapped by Luo Shixin and looked for teeth, the elite of Qi County only used one charge, and Li Shicai's rabble rushed to pieces, Li Shicai was defeated and left, Luo Shixin chased and beat hard, and chased Li Shicai's ass directly to the front of Hao Xiaode's camp, Li Shicai's army cried and shook the sky, begged Hao Xiaode to open the camp gate and let them go back to the camp to hide.

The time to test Hao Xiaode's adaptability has come, open the camp and let Li Shicai return to the camp, the Sui army team is likely to follow into the camp, if the camp is not opened, Li Shicai will definitely have heavy casualties, under the dilemma, Hao Xiaode hesitated, but Liu Heimin reacted the fastest, and immediately shouted: "King, you can't open the camp gate, the reinforcements in the Tiger Prison Pass are in ambush, we have no reinforcements, I don't know how many officers and soldiers are ambushed outside the camp in the dark night, once the officers and soldiers take advantage of the situation to kill into the camp, the inside and outside should be combined with the foreign army into the camp, we are finished!" Immediately release the arrows and force Li Shicai to flee south, as much as he can, so that we can minimize the losses! ”

Gritted his teeth and stomped again, Hao Xiaode accepted Liu Heimin's cruel construction, and ordered the army to immediately release arrows to prevent Li Shicai's defeated soldiers from storming the camp gate, and ordered the defeated soldiers to flee to the depths of the mountains and forests in the south.

The news of Hao Xiaode's army's expulsion of the defeated soldiers fleeing south was sent to Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang, who was personally commanding in the army under the mountain, was surprised when he heard this, and said in surprise: "I can't see that this Hao Xiaode, and such a determined means, can actually be a poisonous snake to eat his wrist and a strong man to break his arm, I really underestimate him." ”

"Stay, what should I do? Do you want the Shixin brothers to attack the camp of the thieves with all their might? Qin Qiong next to him asked.

After a little calculation, Chen Fuliang shook his head and said: "No need, Hao Xiaode is willing to cut and kill even his own defeated soldiers, and his determination to defend the camp must be very firm, Shixin is not sure of attacking the camp, there is no need to expand the casualties." Give Luo Shixin an order, let him go all out to chase and kill the defeated soldiers of the thief army, and cause more casualties to the thief army, the heavier the losses of the thief army, the more powerful the dog will eat the dog in the future. ”

At the same time, Shan Xiongxin on the side of the Tiger Prison Pass also obeyed Zhai Hong's construction, and decided not to send troops to rescue Wang Dangren, and let Wang Dangren fend for himself, so as to ensure the safety of the Tiger Prison Pass, in this way, it is natural to suffer Wang Dangren and Li Shicai, who led their headquarters to attack, one was covered with corpses under the three-sided attack of the Sui army, and the other was heavily killed and injured under the pursuit of Luo Shixin, Li Shicai scolded Hao Xiaode for being a beast, and Wang Dangren, who had not seen the Tiger Prison Pass for a long time, was also furious, and roared hysterically and scolded, "Shan Xiongxin! Remember the fuck for Lao Tzu, let's see! ”

"Hao Xiaode, you remember Lao Tzu! Remember! We'll see! Wait and see! At the same time, Li Shicai was also roaring wildly on the way to escape. , Luo Shixin chased and beat hard, grabbed Li Shicai's ass and chased directly to the front of Hao Xiaode's camp, Li Shicai's army cried and shook the sky, begging Hao Xiaode to open the camp gate and let them go back to the camp to hide.

The time to test Hao Xiaode's adaptability has come, open the camp and let Li Shicai return to the camp, the Sui army team is likely to follow into the camp, if the camp is not opened, Li Shicai will definitely have heavy casualties, under the dilemma, Hao Xiaode hesitated, but Liu Heimin reacted the fastest, and immediately shouted: "King, you can't open the camp gate, the reinforcements in the Tiger Prison Pass are in ambush, we have no reinforcements, I don't know how many officers and soldiers are ambushed outside the camp in the dark night, once the officers and soldiers take advantage of the situation to kill into the camp, the inside and outside should be combined with the foreign army into the camp, we are finished!" Immediately release the arrows and force Li Shicai to flee south, as much as he can, so that we can minimize the losses! ”

Gritted his teeth and stomped again, Hao Xiaode accepted Liu Heimin's cruel construction, and ordered the army to immediately release arrows to prevent Li Shicai's defeated soldiers from storming the camp gate, and ordered the defeated soldiers to flee to the depths of the mountains and forests in the south.

The news of Hao Xiaode's army's expulsion of the defeated soldiers fleeing south was sent to Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang, who was personally commanding in the army under the mountain, was surprised when he heard this, and said in surprise: "I can't see that this Hao Xiaode, and such a determined means, can actually be a poisonous snake to eat his wrist and a strong man to break his arm, I really underestimate him." ”

"Stay, what should I do? Do you want the Shixin brothers to attack the camp of the thieves with all their might? Qin Qiong next to him asked.

After a little calculation, Chen Fuliang shook his head and said: "No need, Hao Xiaode is willing to cut and kill even his own defeated soldiers, and his determination to defend the camp must be very firm, Shixin is not sure of attacking the camp, there is no need to expand the casualties." Give Luo Shixin an order, let him go all out to chase and kill the defeated soldiers of the thief army, and cause more casualties to the thief army, the heavier the losses of the thief army, the more powerful the dog will eat the dog in the future. ”

At the same time, Shan Xiongxin on the side of the Tiger Prison Pass also obeyed Zhai Hong's construction, and decided not to send troops to rescue Wang Dangren, and let Wang Dangren fend for himself, so as to ensure the safety of the Tiger Prison Pass, in this way, it is natural to suffer Wang Dangren and Li Shicai, who led their headquarters to attack, one was covered with corpses under the three-sided attack of the Sui army, and the other was heavily killed and injured under the pursuit of Luo Shixin, Li Shicai scolded Hao Xiaode for being a beast, and Wang Dangren, who had not seen the Tiger Prison Pass for a long time, was also furious, and roared hysterically and scolded, "Shan Xiongxin! Remember the fuck for Lao Tzu, let's see! ”

"Hao Xiaode, you remember Lao Tzu! Remember! We'll see! Wait and see! At the same time, Li Shicai was also roaring wildly on the way to escape.