When retreating, although Li Mi volunteered to take on the task of the queen in order to unite the overall situation, but in front of the Sui army soldiers who counterattacked comprehensively, Li Mi's selflessness still failed to change the fate of the complete rout of the Zhai and Li coalition army, even if his main Chinese army was formed as the backbone of the elite veterans of the Pushan public camp, it was still crushed by the momentum of the Baoguo army and the cavalry of the Sui army, if it wasn't for Li Mi seeing the opportunity to put down the flag in time and not let the Sui army find out where his position was, and Cai Jiande led his own soldiers to protect desperately, and it was difficult for Li Mi himself to escape the poisonous hands of the Sui army.

Fortunately for the Zhai and Li coalition army, the Shilipu battlefield is not too far from the Tiger Prison Pass, the distance of more than ten miles of road, leaving not much space and time for the Sui army to pursue, Zhai Rang, Li Mi, Pei Renji, Xu Shiyun and Yang Jishan and other big thieves finally escaped back to the Tiger Prison Pass with some of their elites, Shan Xiongxin also escaped back to the Tiger Prison Pass with injuries under the protection of Mulan, and the thief cavalry under Shan Xiongxin also escaped back with the advantage of maneuver and was not annihilated.

However, the infantry of the Zhai and Li coalition army was miserable, especially those cannon fodder infantry who joined the thief army in order to eat, neither the elite main force ran fast, nor was it valued by the main general, and not only did not get cover for the behind, but also a large number of them were abandoned and abandoned, and the tiger prison Guan Zhai Rang, who fled back first, just saw the Sui army's pursuers approaching the moat, regardless of the tens of thousands of infantry on the other side of the moat who had not entered the city, he immediately ordered to pull up the drawbridge and close the city gate, in order to prevent the defeated soldiers from storming the city gate, and did not hesitate to throw down the yaksha, The heavy yaksha full of spikes fell, and the flesh and blood of the thief infantry in front of the city gate flew sideways, and then saw the city gate mercilessly closed, and the drawbridge was slowly pulled up, and the thief infantry who had not entered the city cried and shook the sky, wailing all over the ground, but they still couldn't shake Zhai Rang and Li Mi's actions of abandoning them as outcasts.

In the end, just outside the Tiger Prison Pass, the Sui army captured more than four thousand heads, and most of the dead were trampled to death by their own companions, if it weren't for Chen Fu's soft conscience and order to surrender, there would be no problem with doubling this number, but even so, it was also on this battlefield that the thief soldiers who surrendered to the Sui army in order to survive still reached more than 5,000 people, and only a small number of thief soldiers obeyed the orders of the generals and climbed the mountains on both sides of the Tiger Prison Pass to escape, Chen Fuliang took into account the fatigue of the army, He did not order a mountain hunt and kill.

Not to mention how Chen Fuliang led the Sui army in the eastern capital to clean up the battlefield and lead the army to retreat outside the city, just say that after Shan Xiongxin escaped back to the Tiger Prison Pass under the protection of Mulan, the first thing he saw was the defeated and wounded soldiers of the thief army that filled the streets, all of them were dusty, and all of them were terrified, and the miserable voices of calling for brothers and brothers and looking for fathers and sons could be heard everywhere, and then thinking back to the 60,000 male divisions with a strict team when they set off in the early morning, Shan Xiongxin couldn't help but feel like a knife, and couldn't help but shake his head and said: "I really didn't expect it, I really didn't expect that group of white-robed maniacs to be so powerful, our defeat this time, losing is losing in the hands of that group of white-robed maniacs. ”

"Brother, are we losing at the hands of Duke Wei?" Mulan took the opportunity to sow discord and said: "If it weren't for Duke Wei's misjudgment and falling for Chen Yingliang's thief's tricks, let us suddenly run into the first elite newspaper of the official army in an unprepared situation, even if we couldn't win those white-robed madmen, we wouldn't have lost so badly." Brother, please persuade Dongjun Gong more, don't listen to Wei Gong everywhere, Wei Gong is smart, but he is not as treacherous as Chen Xiaothief, if we continue to fight like this, our heads will have to be given to Chen Xiaothief sooner or later. ”

Shan Xiongxin was silent, and he also felt that Mulan's words made some sense, Li Mi was obviously not Chen Fuliang's opponent in terms of playing conspiracy and tricks, and if he continued to fight like this, the Wagang army would suffer an even heavier defeat sooner or later. At this time, Mulan and Shan Xiongxin suddenly heard Shan Yingying's voice again, but saw Shan Yingying, dressed as a young woman, under the protection of several soldiers, struggling to pass through the streets crowded with defeated and wounded soldiers, and was coming over here, Mulan and Shan Xiongxin hurriedly greeted them, and Shan Xiongxin also complained: "Yingying, the city is so chaotic now, what are you doing here?" Why not stay at home? ”

"I heard that we lost the fight, and I was worried about your situation, so I came to you." Shan Yingying explained casually, and exclaimed: "Brother, why are you injured?" Is it heavy or not? ”

"It's okay, minor injury." Shan Xiongxin replied casually, but before he finished speaking, Shan Xiongxin couldn't help moaning because of the severe pain in the wound, the muscles on his face twitched, and Shan Yingying was even more concerned when he saw it, and quickly joined forces with Mulan to put Shan Xiongxin in the station, took the gold sore medicine and personally medicated Shan Xiongxin, and tossed for a long time before bandaging the three wounds on Shan Xiongxin's body, and then Shan Xiongxin immediately urged Shan Yingying to go home, and asked Mulan to send her back.

It took a lot of effort to pass through a chaotic street and send Shan Yingying home, and then Mulan first drove away the outsiders, and immediately said to Shan Yingying: "Sister, I almost had a chance to meet him today, but I didn't succeed." ”

After that, Mulan hurriedly said about what happened on the battlefield today, Shan Yingying's expression darkened after hearing this, nodded but did not speak, Mulan took the opportunity to throw out a long-brewing sentence, and said in a low voice: "Sister Yingying, my sister also has to remind you, even if you meet him, it won't have much effect, he is an important minister of the court, you are the sister of the general of Wagang, even if he has you in his heart, it is difficult for you to be together, he also has to pay attention to the impact and consequences, as long as your brother is still in the Wagang army for a day, He will not be able to be united with you in the right light. ”

Shan Yingying's eyes darkened, almost shed tears, and she refused to speak, Mulan observed the words, and when she saw that the time was ripe, she whispered again: "If you want to be a good couple with him, there is only one possibility, that is, your brother repents and takes you to join him, then he will not only accept you, but also accept you." ”

Shan Yingying's body shook, first shook her head, and then whispered: "I don't want to be married to him, I just want to ask him face to face, why did he lie to me like that in the first place?" What the hell did he think of me? Besides, my brother is so loyal to the Duke of Dongjun, how could he betray the Duke of Dongjun and take me to him? ”

Mulan was silent, pondering in her heart, and said secretly: "Shan Xiongxin is loyal to Zhai Rang? Not necessarily, I'm afraid? Don't think I can't see it, Shan Xiongxin and Zhai Rang have a close relationship, but it is only a relationship of mutual dependence, Shan Xiongxin only thinks about the interests of the Wagang thieves first, and has no intention of dying for Zhai Rang, can I think of something to force Shan Xiongxin out of the Wagang thief army? Having cut off the arms of Zhai Rang and Li Mi, if I want to avenge Zhang Dashuai, it will be much easier for me to ....... ”

At the same time, after finding out the news of the crushing defeat of the Zhai and Li coalition forces in the Battle of Shilibao, Wang Shichong, whose face was by no means under Chen Fuliang, really strengthened the attack on Li Mi's camp, Fei Qingnu and Wang Renze's two generals once broke through the fence of Li Mi's army and pushed the war to the fence defense line, Li Mi was forced to be helpless, so he had to quickly organize a defeated army out of the city for reinforcements, and Zhai Rang, who was afraid that the back road would be cut off, also sent a new force to defend the city, and handed it over to Pei Renji and his son to lead the reinforcements out of the city, which took a lot of effort, Wang Shichong's army, which had only planned to be perfunctory, was not prepared for the night battle because of the lack of preparation for the night battle, although it had the upper hand but lacked dry food torches, and had no choice but to give up the action of attacking the camp overnight, and returned to the Banzhu camp with great regret.

It must be mentioned here by the way, Li Mi is also stained with Wang Shichong's shameless notoriety this time, if it were not for Wang Shichong's notorious killing of the surrendered army, at the most critical moment of the war, Hao Xiaode, who was stationed outside the east gate of the Tiger Prison, would have had the idea of an uprising in the line of fire, but because he was afraid of Wang Shichong's shameless viciousness, Hao Xiaode finally gave up this plan.

The Battle of Shilipu was defeated, and the peripheral fortifications on the east gate camp were also smashed by Wang Shichong, and the two-front battle was a two-line fiasco, although the Tiger Prison Pass was still in his hands, and the elite backbone was still mostly preserved, but the morale of the Zhai Li coalition army was still extremely heavy, especially the fact that the elite of the nest could not defeat the Sui army in the eastern capital in the field battle, which made the decision-making level of the Zhai Li coalition army fall into deep despair, and they no longer dared to have any hope for breaking through Luokoucang. From top to bottom, morale was low and the army was panicked.

Under such circumstances, Zhai Rang, who had already given birth to the idea of giving up the Tiger Prison Pass, was naturally even more shaken, coupled with the instigation and instigation of Zhai Hong and Zhai Mohou's father and son, Zhai Rang finally made up his mind. On the morning of the second day of the Battle of Shilipu, Zhai Rang invited Li Mi to enter the pass to hold a meeting and convene several confidants and generals to discuss the matter of abandoning the Tiger Prison Pass and retreating.

Although he had long guessed that Zhai Rang would be firm in this idea, Li Mi still strongly opposed Zhai Rang doing this, because it was indeed a pity to give up the Tiger Prison Pass, and after losing the strategic initiative in the Eastern Capital Battlefield, he didn't know how much he would pay if he wanted to get it back in the future, so Li Mi still pointed out to Zhai Rang that although the current situation of the self-army was indeed a little bad, the losses of the Sui Army in the Eastern Capital in the Battle of Shilipu were not as small as that, and at present, the Zhai Li Alliance Army and the Eastern Capital Sui Army were at most just a balanced situation that no one could help anyone. Although Wang Shichong, who was entrenched in the rear, was dangerous, his strength was slightly weaker, and as long as the Zhai and Li coalition forces eased their breath to defeat Wang Shichong before the grain and grass ran out, they could still grasp the strategic initiative on the battlefield in the eastern capital, and there was still hope for capturing Luokoucang and even the eastern capital Luoyang.

Li Mi's analysis of the strategic situation is of course correct, continue to rely on the Tiger Prison Pass, even if you can't win Chen Fuliang, you can also disgust Chen Fuliang, who is eager to withdraw, but it's okay for Chen Fuliang, Zhai Rang said this time that he refused to listen to Li Mi's fooling, and shook his head again and again: "Gong Wei, your talent has always been admired by the old man, but in this situation, it is still too mysterious for us to continue to stay in the Tiger Prison Pass, even if Chen Gouguan is difficult to deal with, Wang Gouguan is also a difficult cargo, and he was so critical beforeNow that he has plenty of food and grass and a strong camp, it will be harder for us to pull out his nail. We are playing against these two treacherous dog officers at the same time, and no matter what mistakes there are, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

Li Mi insisted on persuading again, Zhai Rang insisted on not listening, and Zhai Hong also said: "Duke Wei, if you like Tiger Prison Pass so much, how about we make a deal?" We will exchange the Tiger Prison Pass with you for the grain in Liyang Cang, we will leave the Tiger Prison Pass to you, and you can give us half of the grain in Liyang Cang, or 30%. ”

Hearing this, the generals under Li Mi's command were angry, but Li Mi himself remained silent, on the contrary, he was still considering the feasibility of Zhai Hong's proposal, originally exchanging a part of the grain stored in Liyang Cang for the Tiger Prison Pass, which is strategically important for the eternal Xiongguan, which was not completely unacceptable to the broad-minded Li Mi, but after careful consideration, Li Mi found that even if he did this, it would not be of much use, because the current strength in his hands was not enough to control the two important places of Tiger Prison Pass and Liyang Cang at the same time. The opponent is too strong, and there is a dangerous Yellow River in the middle, and the connection is very easy to be cut off, and the consequences of a slight mistake are unpredictable, and there may be a risk of destruction.

It was also a coincidence that at this time, a herald hurriedly entered the lobby and presented a feather arrow tied with a letter to Zhai Rang, saying that the Sui army in the eastern capital had just shot the wall with an arrow, and the cavalry of the Sui army in the eastern capital left after shooting the arrow, and did not say a word, Zhai Rang took down the letter curiously and took a closer look, and then immediately scolded him, everyone was shocked to ask about the content, Zhai Rang replied scoldingly: "Chen Yingliang dog official, actually persuaded the old man to take down the head of the Duke of Wei and dedicate it to the imperial court, in exchange for glory and wealth, and also promised that I only need to lead the army to surrender, He will beg for mercy in the presence of the tyrant, and I will not die. Raised by a son of a bitch, you are so arrogant just after winning a battle, the old man will kill you sooner or later. ”

Zhai Rang is not a person who sells his friends to seek glory, this Li Mi can see, but whether the rest of the Wagang Army has this mind, Li Mi does not dare to guarantee it, when he peeks to see the reaction of everyone, what makes Li Mi desperate is that Zhai Rang Zhai Hong and Zhai Mohou beside him are not only not the slightest bit angry, but also vaguely happy, seeing this scene, Li Mi's heart is both secretly angry and faintly desperate, knowing that it is destined to be impossible to have friction between the self-army and the Wagang army forever, Chen Fuliang, who has a despicable character, will definitely never give up the labor-saving and useful plan to break the enemy by sowing discord, and if he continues to confront Chen Fuliang, there will only be more and more such things, and the contradictions between the Self-Army and the Wagang Army will only become more and more acute, and the suspicion will become wider and wider.

"Why don't you give up the Tiger Prison Pass?" Li Mi couldn't control this thought, and said secretly: "Chen Yingliang's thief is also eager to withdraw from the battlefield of Tiger Prison Pass, I gave up Tiger Prison Pass to cross the Yellow River to the north, Chen Yingliang personally crossed the Yellow River to chase and kill me, it is unlikely that Chen Yingliang will personally cross the Yellow River to chase and kill me, and it is difficult for him to do this with his current strength, temporarily get rid of this terrible enemy, I can win time to recover my vitality, annex and control Zhì Wagang, and when the opportunity is ripe, it is not too late to turn around and take Luokoucang." At that time, maybe the opportunity will be better, after all, the hatred between Chen Yingliang's thief and Li Yuan's family is so deep, this thief and Li Yuan's old fox will have a decisive battle sooner or later, and when the time comes, I will make another move, and the situation is likely to be more favorable. ”

Thinking of this and thinking about it for a long time, Li Mi finally gritted his teeth and made up his mind, nodded and said: "Okay, since Dongjun Gong has decided to give up the Tiger Prison Pass to temporarily avoid the official army Fengrui, then I don't object, so I will do it, I will take the army back to Liyangcang, Dongjun Gong, what are your plans?" ”

Zhai Rang smiled, smiled a little embarrassed, and said: "Duke Wei, the old man has given up the Wagang cottage for a long time, and it is not realistic to go back there to rebuild the cottage now, if Wei Gong doesn't mind, the old man wants to go north to Liyangcang with you, and go there to join forces with you to continue to fight against the tyrant." Of course, Duke Wei, you are still the leader of the alliance, and the old man is still obeying your command. ”

"Thank you Dongjun Gong for your love, I dare not be ashamed." Li Mi said modestly, and then took the initiative to say: "Dongjun Gong, please rest assured, after your army arrives at Liyang Cang, the grain and grass will also be supplied by me, and what city granary we capture in the future will also be divided equally according to the previous agreement." ”

Zhai Rang was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly thanked Li Mi, and then couldn't wait to discuss with Li Mi how to abandon the pass and retreat, Li Mi replied: "The strong enemy is currently retreating, we must carefully plan and retreat, and how to retreat must be carefully considered before I talk about it, but the first thing at the moment is to keep it secret, we must not let the officials and soldiers know that we have planned to abandon the pass and retreat, this matter can only be known by a few of us present, and it is absolutely not allowed to leak it out, even if it is our relatives and soldiers, we are absolutely not allowed to let them know!" ”

Zhai Rang only wanted to be able to get out, and of course he agreed to Li Mi's request, but Zhai Hong was a little disdainful, and said, "Duke Wei, you don't believe in our relatives so much?" ”

"It's not that I don't believe it, I'm trying to be cautious, Chen Yingliang's dog official is treacherous, we can't help but prevent him from planting a traitor in the tiger prison!" Li Mi said sharply: "Old General Zhai, you don't want to suddenly have an official army from the upper reaches when you cross the Yellow River to the north, right?" ”

Zhai Hong's heart froze, so he quickly nodded and agreed, Zhai Rang strictly required the Wagang generals present not to disclose this secret to anyone, and threatened that once it was discovered, they would not be spared, and the Wagang generals agreed one after another, as a result, Mulan, who was not qualified to participate in this meeting, also lost the opportunity to know the news, and naturally there was no way to report to Chen Fuliang............

Only a day later, on the night of the next day, Li Mi personally designed a large retreat, but the first step was not to use ships to carry grain and grass to cross the river, but to send an army to the east overnight, to sneak attack Wang Shichong's Banzhu camp, and deliberately exposed traces were found by Wang Shichong's army, Wang Ren on duty at night led the army to meet the attack, the thief army was defeated and left, Wang Ren led the army to chase and kill, and the result was chased west for just ten miles, and was immediately attacked by the thief army ambushed on both sides of the road, Wang Ren was defeated, When Wang Shichong heard the news, he hurriedly sent Fei Qingnu to send troops to respond, and in the end, although Fei Qingnu successfully rescued Wang Renze, Wang Shichong's army still suffered a lot of losses.

Wang Shichong's army is not without gains, Xiao general Fei Qingnu during the reception of Wang Renze, more or less captured the wounded two thief prisoners, Wang Shichong sent people to interrogate the prisoners and learned that Zhai Rang and Li Mi have declared to the army, saying that the next target of Zhai and Li thief army has been changed to themselves, to take their own Banzhu camp and then turn back to deal with Chen Yingliang, Li Mi has also mobilized 30,000 troops from Liyang Cang to cross the river from Baima, ready to kill Wang Shichong behind his back. Wang Shichong was shocked when he heard the report, and hurriedly ordered the army to make every effort to strengthen the camp, and then sent people to Luokoucang to contact Chen Fuliang, report the situation to Chen Fuliang, and ask Chen Fuliang to launch a siege to relieve the pressure on his own army.

"Let Chen Yingliang continue to fight with the main force of the thief army, and if I don't confirm that the main force of the thief army is attracted to the east of the Tiger Prison Pass, if the old man sends troops again, the old man will write the king word upside down again." This is the oath that Wang Shichong made in his heart. The Wagang generals agreed one after another, and as a result, Mulan, who was not qualified to participate in this meeting, lost the opportunity to know the news, and naturally there was no way to report to Chen Fuliang............

Only a day later, on the night of the next day, Li Mi personally designed a large retreat, but the first step was not to use ships to carry grain and grass to cross the river, but to send an army to the east overnight, to sneak attack Wang Shichong's Banzhu camp, and deliberately exposed traces were found by Wang Shichong's army, Wang Ren on duty at night led the army to meet the attack, the thief army was defeated and left, Wang Ren led the army to chase and kill, and the result was chased west for just ten miles, and was immediately attacked by the thief army ambushed on both sides of the road, Wang Ren was defeated, When Wang Shichong heard the news, he hurriedly sent Fei Qingnu to send troops to respond, and in the end, although Fei Qingnu successfully rescued Wang Renze, Wang Shichong's army still suffered a lot of losses.

Wang Shichong's army is not without gains, Xiao general Fei Qingnu during the reception of Wang Renze, more or less captured the wounded two thief prisoners, Wang Shichong sent people to interrogate the prisoners and learned that Zhai Rang and Li Mi have declared to the army, saying that the next target of Zhai and Li thief army has been changed to themselves, to take their own Banzhu camp and then turn back to deal with Chen Yingliang, Li Mi has also mobilized 30,000 troops from Liyang Cang to cross the river from Baima, ready to kill Wang Shichong behind his back. Wang Shichong was shocked when he heard the report, and hurriedly ordered the army to make every effort to strengthen the camp, and then sent people to Luokoucang to contact Chen Fuliang, report the situation to Chen Fuliang, and ask Chen Fuliang to launch a siege to relieve the pressure on his own army.

"Let Chen Yingliang continue to fight with the main force of the thief army, and if I don't confirm that the main force of the thief army is attracted to the east of the Tiger Prison Pass, if the old man sends troops again, the old man will write the king word upside down again." This is the oath that Wang Shichong made in his heart.