Li Yuan's attempt to stop the merchants from selling grain to Chen Yingliang was a little late, and when Wu Shitong, the father of a famous black fungus, brought the news to Qi County and Taigu and asked the local merchants not to sell grain to Chen Yingliang, most of the local merchants had already made peace with Chen Yingliang and sold a large amount of grain to Chen Yingliang, plus the grain that Chen Yingliang brought with the army, at least for forty days, the Peng Sui army did not need to worry about the lack of grain and grass.

There is no way, the merchants in Qixian and Taigu are not stupid, and they are very smart, knowing that after the Qinwang army will continue to go north and pass through the local area, there is no doubt that the price of grain will definitely soar, but no matter how high the price of grain rises, it is useless to be forced to sell grain at a low price by the wolf-like Qinwang official military knife, and if he does not sell it at that time, he will be charged with communicating with the Turks. In this case, instead of staying in these grains and being robbed, it is better to quickly sell them to Chen Yingliang, who bought them at a high price with real money.

After replenishing this batch of military rations, Chen Yingliang immediately continued to lead the army north, but on the road is to meet Li Jiancheng, the only person who can communicate with the old Li family, so friends reunited after a long absence, Chen Yingliang and Li Jiancheng had to hug each other and yell a few times, surprised why they could meet here and now, and then Chen Yingliang was not polite, and invited Li Jiancheng to go north with him on the same road, and at the same time to say goodbye to each other on the road.

Li Jiancheng is not a scheming person, of course, he also knows what the consequences will be if Chen Yingliang is in front of his father, but Li Jiancheng's character is more kind, and he knows that deliberately delaying Chen Yingliang's advance speed is not only useless, but will only offend Chen Yingliang, a friend whose family is very sorry, so Li Jiancheng did not hesitate, and immediately led the entourage team to rush side by side with Chen Yingliang, and also took the initiative to give up his horse to help the Peng Sui army carry grain and grass, and share the pressure on Chen Yingliang's necessary war horses.

Chen Yingliang talked with Li Jiancheng for a long time, and then learned that after Li Yuan was appointed as the ambassador of Hedong and Shanxi, Li Jiancheng came to Li Yuan's account to experience, accompanied Li Yuan to suppress the peasant uprising of Wudu'er and Chai Baochang, and once personally went into battle to kill the enemy, made a lot of contributions, and is currently in Li Yuan's account as a civilian. And when Chen Yingliang asked why Li Yuan's father and son had not yet gone north to King Qin, Li Jiancheng also told the truth, explaining that his father was in Changping when he received the edict, and he was not prepared to be strict enough, and hastily organized soldiers and horses to delay time, so he has not led the main force north to Yanmen so far.

After listening to Li Jiancheng's answer, Chen Yingliang quietly gloated, and asked Li Jiancheng directly: "Brother Jiancheng, since you are not ready, then it is possible for me to go to Yanmen Qinwang before you, if I am really the first, what do you think?" ”

"Of course I think you're not interesting enough." Li Jiancheng also confessed, and said with a smile: "My father is stationed in Taiyuan, close to Yanmen, and you are stationed in Pengcheng, thousands of miles away from Yanmen, but you rushed to the battlefield of King Qin first, so that my father was disgraced. ”

"My brother is really a real person, this is too true." Chen Yingliang laughed and asked again: "Brother, do you want me to wait for your father and go north to King Qin together, or simply persuade me to give King Qin's first merit to your father and let him lead the army north first?" ”

"Of course." Li Jiancheng replied more frankly, and said with a smile: "But I will never say such a thing, because if I say such a thing, then you will look down on me, and our Li family will be even more sorry for you." ”

After that, Li Jiancheng couldn't help but sigh lightly, and Chen Yingliang also sighed lightly, sighing lightly for the fruit of a tree, why is there such a big difference between sweet and sour? Then Chen Yingliang, who had already guessed Li Jiancheng's intentions, did not hesitate, and immediately introduced the reasons why he came so quickly, explaining that it was all a coincidence, and when he received the edict of King Qin, his team happened to be in the most favorable position to send troops, and he happened to be ready to send troops in advance, so he could react so quickly.

After listening to Chen Yingliang's introduction of truth and falsehood, Li Jiancheng was inevitably envious, extremely jealous of Chen Yingliang's shit luck, and then excitedly said that he finally had the opportunity to fight side by side with Chen Yingliang, and finally had the opportunity to see Chen Yingliang's battlefield majesty with his own eyes, and said with a smile: "Brother Xian, when you get to the battlefield of King Qin, you have to help the foolish brother more, and the foolish brother is not greedy for too much credit, as long as he can be promoted to another level." ”

Chen Yingliang smiled and said of course, and then after the two talked and laughed for a while, Li Jiancheng hesitated, suddenly changed his low tone, and said in a low voice: "Brother Xian, there are some things that must be told to you, Xiu Ningmei said, Miss Chai is still thinking about you, and would rather never marry for life, or even kill herself for the short term, rather than choose a good son-in-law." Also, the Cheshire Princesses suffered a sudden stroke in September last year and have been bedridden for almost a year. ”

The expression on Chen Yingliang's face disappeared, and he snorted after a while: "Chai Shao must hate me more, right?" Maybe I'll blame him for his stroke, thinking that I killed his father like this. ”

It was Li Jiancheng's turn to be silent, and after a while, Li Jiancheng said in a low voice: "Brother Xian, brother Jianyi, after you return to Daxing, you might as well go to the Cheshire Mansion to ask for relatives, and take Miss Chai as a partial house, first, so that Miss Chai will not be helpless for life, and second, it can make the Duke of Cheshire blind after his death, and completely resolve this grievance." In any case, the two of you are world friends, and letting your Chai Shibo pass away with peace of mind is also filial piety to him. ”

Chen Yingliang was noncommittal, and said after a while: "Later, now that state affairs are important, I can only think about how to kill the Turks and rescue His Majesty the Emperor from the siege." ”

Li Jiancheng sighed lightly again, knowing that it was not so easy to get Chen Yingliang to make this decision, and he also knew that it was even more difficult for his family to completely resolve the past grievances and hatreds with Chen Yingliang, so Li Jiancheng didn't say anything more, but secretly prayed in his heart, "May God bless that my father and virtuous brother can abandon their past suspicions this time and work together to ease the past grievances." Don't be like before, calculating and intriguing with each other, and the grudge is getting deeper and deeper. ”

Li Jiancheng's prayers were destined to be useless, and a day later, when Chen Yingliang led Qian Peng's army to the city of Taiyuan, he immediately received the news that Li Yuan had led 10,000 troops to the north the first day. Knowing this, Li Jiancheng, who knew that the army was not prepared at all, was silent, but Chen Yingliang was unceremonious, and ordered the army to continue to go north.

The soldiers and horses have not yet been assembled, and the main force has not yet arrived in Taiyuan, but Li Yuan first went north with 10,000 troops, and Chen Yingliang certainly knew what the purpose was, since Li Yuan was in the front, and remembered that Li Yuan and Li Er had taken revenge on their own generals, and all kinds of frame-ups, Chen Yingliang couldn't help but be angry, and simply ordered the army to travel 120 miles a day, and swore to rush to the battlefield of King Xinkou Qin before Li Yuan, and slapped him hard. As a result, a mega-marathon of up to 30,000 people began.

Fortunately, Chen Yingliang's Qian Peng team may still be lacking in other aspects, but it is a first-class good hand in long-distance marching, running around on the Qingxu battlefield full of civil upheavals every day, tired of running for his life, Qian Peng Sui's army has already been trained into scuds, and has accumulated countless experience in rapid marching. For example, in the case of not being able to confirm whether the water source in front is sufficient, Qian Peng Sui Jun did not stupidly prepare dry food such as dry food pancakes, but chose to drench the straw bag with salt water, and then use the straw bag to hold cooked rice, load it in the car and advance with the army, and when he is hungry, he will reach into the bag and grab a handful to eat, so that the salt water can not only prevent the rice from rotting, but also season and supplement the salt after gradually penetrating the rice, the taste is better, far better than eating those dry steamed breads in the past, easy to digest directly, naturally do not need a lot of supplementary drinking water and find water sources, The speed of the march can also be guaranteed to a certain extent.

In this way, although the Peng Sui army set off more than a day later than Li Yuan's team, after more than a day of rapid marching, the Peng Sui army gradually caught up with Li Yuan's team north of Fenyang - to be precise, it caught up with a large number of soldiers left behind by Li Yuan's team. After these stragglers learned the approximate location of Li Yuan's team, Chen Yingliang, who felt that there was still hope, was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered the army to continue to maintain the speed without the slightest negligence.

Finally, when the Qian Peng Sui army crossed the Zhoushan and arrived at the Lanshui River, they finally saw Li Yuan's team crossing the river, and at the same time that the soldiers of Qian Peng shook the sky, Li Yuan also panicked, and quickly ordered the army to speed up the crossing of the river, and after crossing the river, there must be no stop, no pause, and then Xu Shixu, who accompanied Li Yuan to the north, built a bridge and destroyed the bridge, delaying Chen Yingliang's marching speed, but he was slapped by Li Yuan and scolded him for looking for death - destroying Chen Yingliang's march road in front of so many people, Delaying Chen Yingliang's Qinwang speed, Chen Yingliang will have evidence even if he accuses Li Yuan of a crime of treason!

Originally, Chen Yingliang built a pontoon bridge, crossed the river immediately, and continued to compete with Li Yuan's team for speed, but after Chen Yingliang made a little calculation, he flatly shook his head and refused, and ordered the army to rest on the spot, while making food and preparing torches, while waiting for Li Yuan's team to cross the river, preparing to wait for Li Yuan to leave before crossing the river. When everyone was surprised to ask the reason, Chen Yingliang smiled and said: "I have already asked clearly from the guide, there are still seventy miles from Lanshui to Xinkou, we have enough rest here, after Lanshui, we can go directly to Xinkou to rest again, seventy miles away, enough for us to surpass Li Yuan." ”

The generals of Qian Peng suddenly realized, and hurriedly explained Chen Yingliang's request, so that the officers and men in the army could seize the time to rest, and immediately went north after passing the Lanshui, until Xinkou set up camp again to rest, and the well-trained soldiers of Qian Peng followed the order, and countless people sat on the ground and fell asleep directly, patiently just waiting for Li Yuan's team to cross the river. At the same time, although the two armies were only a mile apart, not a single soldier came and went, and the sparks of competition were clattering.

About half an hour later, Li Yuan's patchwork Qinwang team finally crossed the Fenshui River and headed north, and when he was leaving, Xu Shixu, who was loyal to Li Yuan, quietly ordered the soldiers to do some tricks and feet on the wooden stakes and ropes of the pontoon bridge, so that the pontoon bridge was no longer so reliable. It's a pity that Chen Yingliang has been guarding against this for a long time, in addition to letting the grain and grass carry the weight from the fixed bridge, he also sent people to cross the river first to reinforce the pontoon bridge, nail new wooden stakes and carefully check the ropes to ensure that the team can cross the river safely, and naturally quickly discovered those small actions made by Xu Shixu.

The speed of the well-trained Peng Sui army when crossing the river was of course much faster than Li Yuan, the sky was just slightly dark, and the Qian Peng Sui army had already crossed the Lanshui on the whole line, and then put on the torch and continued to go north, and at the same time, although Li Yuan's team had also put on the torch and continued to go north, but there were more cases of falling behind, and at the same time, because of the lack of training, the speed of the march was also greatly slowed down, not only did not open the distance with the Peng Sui army, but on the contrary, it was chased closer and closer by the Peng Sui army. The distance between them was quickly reduced to within fifteen miles.

When he saw the dense torches that appeared in the rear, all the generals under Li Yuan's command panicked, and rushed to Li Yuan to ask what to do, Li Yuan hesitated, and almost wanted to adopt the construction of his beloved nephew Li Xiaogong, let the team move forward in a horizontal line, deliberately blocking Chen Yingliang's way forward, and not giving Chen Yingliang a chance to surpass! Fortunately, the last reason stopped Li Yuan from doing this, and after hesitating for a moment, Li Yuan simply ordered: "Pass the order, let the army rest on the side of the road, and go north to Xinkou tomorrow." ”

"What? Rest? All the generals under his command were taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "Then don't we want Chen Yingliang to surpass him?" His Central Plains team arrived at King Xinkou Qinwang before our Shanxi team, so where does our face exist? ”

"You stay and rest, and I'll take some cavalry north first." Li Yuan gritted his teeth and said: "As long as I myself go to Xinkou first and light up the banner of the Hedong consolation envoy, even if our Hedong team arrives first!" ”

Hearing this decision to cover their ears and steal the bell, Xu Shixu and Li Xiaogong and other generals all looked sad and cried, but the cruel fact is here, the hastily assembled rabble could not outrun the regular army under Chen Yingliang no matter what, and there was no choice, Li Xiaogong and Xu Shixu and others had no choice but to obey Li Yuan's decision and let the team camp and rest on the side of the road, while Li Yuan led more than 50 horsemen to the north first, and rushed to Xinkou overnight to meet the Qinwang team there.

On Chen Yingliang's side, seeing that Li Yuan's team actually stopped to rest, Chen Yingliang was inevitably a little puzzled, but the soldiers of Qian Peng were thunderous and fast, and it didn't take much time to catch up with Li Yuan's team's camping place and pass by Li Yuan's camp. During the period, the officers and soldiers of the two armies still did not communicate a word, the marathon-winning Qian Peng team smiled and walked away, and Li Yuan's team, under the leadership of Xu Shixu and Li Xiaogong and other generals, sat and lay on the side of the road to watch the Qian Peng team pass in front of them endlessly, with different eyes, some envy, some hatred, and more curiosity, I don't understand why this original team can run so well.

Since he had surpassed Li Yuan's team, Chen Yingliang did not let the army continue to march overnight, after crossing Li Yuan's camp for ten miles, Chen Yingliang also ordered the army to stop camping and rest, and then continue to go north after dawn or after discovering that Li Yuan's team was going north.

Li Yuandu had already gone north first, Xu Shixu and Li Xiaogong naturally took the team to rest until dawn before sending troops north, after the scouts found out about this situation, Chen Yingliang, who had let the army rest for most of the night, also immediately ordered to go north, but before leading the army out of Wuli, the forward sentry suddenly flew a report, saying that it was the discovery of the enemy's situation, Chen Yingliang was shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly ordered the army to prepare for battle, and personally went to the front to check the situation.

When he arrived at the Ma Sanbao team that had to serve as the vanguard, Chen Yingliang just reined in his horse, and immediately saw that there were more than 30 Sui cavalry galloping back in front of him, and nearly 100 Turkic cavalry were chasing after him, and then the Turkic cavalry also saw Chen Yingliang's huge team, and immediately screamed in fright, and quickly turned around and ran, and the Sui cavalry that was chased by them was also able to get rid of the pursuit and escape. Seeing this scene, Chen Yingliang of course understood that he had only encountered a small group of Turkic guerrilla sentinels, in addition to ordering the army to be on guard, and then he sent people to contact the group of Sui cavalry who were being pursued and killed, and asked them where the soldiers and horses were, and what the situation was on the Xinkou front.

The envoys sent to contact those Sui cavalry stepped forward, but what puzzled Chen Yingliang was that before the envoys approached, those Sui cavalry had already ridden south, and they were far away from their own team and went south. Seeing this scene, Chen Ying's conscience was suspicious, and he also said that their Turkic soldiers had changed their disguises, so he decisively ordered the cavalry to intercept and surround those Sui cavalry, and inquire about their identities. Qin Qiong, who Zhang Xutuo lent to Chen Yingliang, did not hesitate, and immediately led the experienced Qi County cavalry to swarm up, outflanking left and right, and soon surrounded those Sui cavalry regiments, shouting and shouting, demanding that they confess their identities.

After some negotiations, Qin Qiong quickly lifted the siege again, and returned to Chen Yingliang with the cavalry team again, his face was full of laughter, and he smiled at Chen Yingliang: "Deputy envoy, I have asked clearly, and I have carefully checked their official anti-fish talismans, they are indeed our own people, not Turkic cavalry disguises." ”

"Then why didn't they come and join us?" Chen Yingliang asked in surprise.

"Because someone is embarrassed and doesn't have the face to meet you." Qin Qiong said with a smile: "Last night, someone led a small number of light cavalry to the north of Xinkou, wanting to snatch our Qinwang Shougong, never thought that when it was only ten miles away from Xinkou, he encountered a Turkic guerrilla sentinel and was chased all the way here, if it wasn't for the Turkic cavalry being scared away by us, it would be a problem if the person couldn't run away." Deputy envoy, do you think he still has the face to see you? ”

Qin Qiong's words were not finished, and the surrounding soldiers were already laughing like thunder, and Chen Yingliang couldn't help but laugh, and said with a smile: "This makes people not as good as the sky, I want to take a small number of cavalry to show the banner first, and use tricks to win the first merit of King Qin, but I almost took my life, the sky has eyes, and the world is fair!" ”

After laughing, Chen Yingliang said loudly again: "Since even God wants to give us the first merit of King Qin, then we can't shirk!" Pass my order, the whole army will continue to go north, hold high my handsome flag, and sing our military song! Let His Majesty the Emperor know, let our friendly troops in Xinkou know, and let everyone in the world know that our official army of the three counties of Pengqi is the first regular army of King Qinwang to arrive at the battlefield of Yanmen! ”

"The wolf smoke rises, and the rivers and mountains look north

The dragon curled the horse, and the sword qi was like frost

The heart is like the Yellow River

Who can resist for thousands of years

How many siblings and loyal souls are buried in the long knife of hatred

What a pity to die to repay the family and the country......"

The blood-boiling military song echoed in the Luliang Mountains, Chen Yingliang's 12 counties to arrest the deputy envoy banner in the mountain wind, neatly singing a loud military song, around the time of the afternoon, 20,000 Peng Sui troops finally arrived at the destination of the trip - Xinkou! Hearing this loud and majestic military song, and seeing the huge contingent of the Qian Peng Sui army, the Turkic sentinels who were patrolling the surrounding outposts were in chaos, rushing back to the camp and reporting this sudden situation to the main Turkic forces surrounding Yanmen and Laoxian.

At the same time, the Qinwang team of the surrounding counties and counties that arrived at Xinkou first to assemble has also been alarmed by the military song, and these Qinwang teams with no more than two thousand, or even only a few hundred people rushed to the side of the camp, looking at the south to help with great surprise, and many local officials and generals in Shanxi were so excited that they shouted, "Tang Guogong's reinforcements have arrived!" Tang Guogong's reinforcements have finally arrived! We finally have a backbone! Finally there is a team that can compete with the Turks! ”

And with the gradual approach of Chen Yingliang's banner, and when Chen Yingliang's banner was gradually seen clearly, the excitement of these Shanxi civil officials and military generals quickly stopped abruptly, and was replaced by one after another and unbelievable exclamations, "The twelve counties of Henan Province are arresting the deputy envoys? The team of the Central Plains? How could they have come now? They flew in?! ”

Among the civil and military officials in these surrounding counties, only a middle-aged civil official in his early forties did not scream, but he couldn't help but be stunned for a long time before muttering, "How could he come so quickly?" Even faster than Ambassador Lee? How did he do it? ”

After muttering, the middle-aged civil official showed some strange smiles again, and whispered to himself: "No matter how you came here, in short, we can finally meet each other, you kid forgot about the past, I haven't forgotten!" How do you clean up and teach you a lesson, little one? I'm a little undecided. ”。 Qin Qiong, who Zhang Xutuo lent to Chen Yingliang, did not hesitate, and immediately led the experienced Qi County cavalry to swarm up, outflanking left and right, and soon surrounded those Sui cavalry regiments, shouting and shouting, demanding that they confess their identities.

After some negotiations, Qin Qiong quickly lifted the siege again, and returned to Chen Yingliang with the cavalry team again, his face was full of laughter, and he smiled at Chen Yingliang: "Deputy envoy, I have asked clearly, and I have carefully checked their official anti-fish talismans, they are indeed our own people, not Turkic cavalry disguises." ”

"Then why didn't they come and join us?" Chen Yingliang asked in surprise.

"Because someone is embarrassed and doesn't have the face to meet you." Qin Qiong said with a smile: "Last night, someone led a small number of light cavalry to the north of Xinkou, wanting to snatch our Qinwang Shougong, never thought that when it was only ten miles away from Xinkou, he encountered a Turkic guerrilla sentinel and was chased all the way here, if it wasn't for the Turkic cavalry being scared away by us, it would be a problem if the person couldn't run away." Deputy envoy, do you think he still has the face to see you? ”

Qin Qiong's words were not finished, and the surrounding soldiers were already laughing like thunder, and Chen Yingliang couldn't help but laugh, and said with a smile: "This makes people not as good as the sky, I want to take a small number of cavalry to show the banner first, and use tricks to win the first merit of King Qin, but I almost took my life, the sky has eyes, and the world is fair!" ”

After laughing, Chen Yingliang said loudly again: "Since even God wants to give us the first merit of King Qin, then we can't shirk!" Pass my order, the whole army will continue to go north, hold high my handsome flag, and sing our military song! Let His Majesty the Emperor know, let our friendly troops in Xinkou know, and let everyone in the world know that our official army of the three counties of Pengqi is the first regular army of King Qinwang to arrive at the battlefield of Yanmen! ”

"The wolf smoke rises, and the rivers and mountains look north

The dragon curled the horse, and the sword qi was like frost

The heart is like the Yellow River

Who can resist for thousands of years

How many siblings and loyal souls are buried in the long knife of hatred

What a pity to die to repay the family and the country......"

The blood-boiling military song echoed in the Luliang Mountains, Chen Yingliang's 12 counties to arrest the deputy envoy banner in the mountain wind, neatly singing a loud military song, around the time of the afternoon, 20,000 Peng Sui troops finally arrived at the destination of the trip - Xinkou! Hearing this loud and majestic military song, and seeing the huge contingent of the Qian Peng Sui army, the Turkic sentinels who were patrolling the surrounding outposts were in chaos, rushing back to the camp and reporting this sudden situation to the main Turkic forces surrounding Yanmen and Laoxian.

At the same time, the Qinwang team of the surrounding counties and counties that arrived at Xinkou first to assemble has also been alarmed by the military song, and these Qinwang teams with no more than two thousand, or even only a few hundred people rushed to the side of the camp, looking at the south to help with great surprise, and many local officials and generals in Shanxi were so excited that they shouted, "Tang Guogong's reinforcements have arrived!" Tang Guogong's reinforcements have finally arrived! We finally have a backbone! Finally there is a team that can compete with the Turks! ”

And with the gradual approach of Chen Yingliang's banner, and when Chen Yingliang's banner was gradually seen clearly, the excitement of these Shanxi civil officials and military generals quickly stopped abruptly, and was replaced by one after another and unbelievable exclamations, "The twelve counties of Henan Province are arresting the deputy envoys? The team of the Central Plains? How could they have come now? They flew in?! ”

Among the civil and military officials in these surrounding counties, only a middle-aged civil official in his early forties did not scream, but he couldn't help but be stunned for a long time before muttering, "How could he come so quickly?" Even faster than Ambassador Lee? How did he do it? ”

After muttering, the middle-aged civil official showed some strange smiles again, and whispered to himself: "No matter how you came here, in short, we can finally meet each other, you kid forgot about the past, I haven't forgotten!" How do you clean up and teach you a lesson, little one? I'm a little undecided. ”