After the two explosions, there was no loud sound on the side of the Yellow River, but the more this happened, the more Qu Tutong's father and son, Wang Xingben and others were more panicked, and hurriedly sent people to the ferry to check the situation, and at the same time immediately ordered the whole army to be on alert, gather elite soldiers, and send scouts to reconnoiter the movements of Li Erjun's camp to prevent Li Erjun from taking advantage of the fire to rob.

Not counting the distance, the news soon came from the ferry, saying that the sound of the explosion was indeed coming from the west bank of the Yellow River, and at the same time, the Sui soldiers guarding the wharf also saw the torches in the vicinity of the Daxing Army campsite on the west bank, and the sound of shouting and killing could be faintly heard. Qu Tutong listened to the complaint, and the Qu Tushou brothers over there were even more anxious, and hurriedly said: "Father, Zhao Peng and Zhao Xiaowei they escorted the children and others to Fenyin, and they took good care of our family on the road, and they respected their grandmother even more, and they took turns to carry the sedan chair for their grandmother for more than 300 miles, you have to go and save them quickly, otherwise, we will be too sorry." ”

"Ambassador, please give the last general 500 elite soldiers, and immediately cross the river to rescue them." Wang Xingben also couldn't wait to take the initiative to ask.

"Okay, let's go." Qu Tutong agreed, and then ordered: "Bring more ferries over, remember, you must try to save the soldiers sent by Chen Liushou as much as possible." ”

Wang Xingben sang a promise, and immediately rushed away from the tent to lead the army, Qu Tutong was a little relieved, but after a little calculation, Qu Tutong immediately felt that the situation was wrong, the soldiers under his command would never go to attack the friendly camp, the small group of rogues who were fighting in the Fenyin area did not dare to approach at all, and ordinary people would not take the wrong medicine to attack the regular army, so who went to attack the Sui army camp? Thinking of this, Qu Tutong's gaze immediately turned to Guo Wenyi, who was still in the tent, although Guo Wenyi was also secretly looking at Qu Tutong, but there was no ghost in his heart, and he was not timid, but he didn't let Qu Tutong make any flaws. Qu Tutong was puzzled, so he called his own soldiers to give Wang Xingben an order, and asked Wang Xingben to investigate who attacked the Daxing Sui army by the way.

Let's take a look at the situation on Wang Xingben's side, leading five hundred elite soldiers all the way to the ferry wharf, although the shouts and explosions on the other side of the Yellow River have disappeared, Wang Xingben still let the army quickly board the ferry, and forcibly cross the Yellow River at night to rescue the west bank. And as the ferry gradually approached the wharf on the west bank, Wang Xingben and others were relieved that the flag of the Daxing Sui army was still fluttering in the firelight, and it could be vaguely seen that the Daxing Sui army was surrounded by wooden cars with their backs against the rock wall to form a semi-circular defensive position, and the frame of the car array was still there, even if there was a loss, it would not be too big, Wang Xingben was a little relieved, but he immediately doubted, "Who attacked our Daxing friendly army?" ”

At the same time, what was even more strange was what happened, seeing the ferry of Qu Tutong's army approaching the wharf, the soldiers of the Daxing Sui army on the shore not only rushed to the dock to meet Qu Tutong's army, but on the contrary, they also threw down the car formation and fled south, and they could also hear nervous shouts, "Qu Tutong's old thief's people are here again, there are more than a dozen boats, don't guard, go back to Chaoyi!" ”

Hearing this shout clearly, Wang Xingben and other soldiers of the Hedong Sui Army were dumbfounded on the spot, and hurriedly let the boat dock as much as possible, while shouting: "Brother Daxing, don't be afraid, we are here to save you, what happened?" Why are you running? ”

No one paid attention to the questions of Wang Xingben and others, the soldiers of the Daxing Sui army on the shore just ran desperately to the south, seeing that the situation was not right, Wang Xingben could only lead his subordinates to hurry ashore, while sending a small number of people to reconnoiter the surrounding movements, while chasing the Daxing soldiers who were unable to escape, and relying on the familiarity with the road terrain and the physical advantage, they soon caught up with the Daxing soldiers. Zhao Peng, the captain of the Daxing Sui Army, may have seen that the situation was not good, so he quickly ordered the army to turn around and line up, and stood in front of the formation with a horizontal knife, and yelled at Wang Xingben and others: "Pifu, don't think that we are afraid of you if there are many of them, Lao Tzu followed Chen to stay in the south and fight in the north, dozens of times more thieves than you have seen it, if you have the ability, let the horse come, Lao Tzu will fight with you!" ”

Wang Xingben also hurriedly ordered the army to stop, and shouted at Zhao Peng: "Captain Zhao, isn't it?" What's wrong? We are the people under the command of General Qu Tu, and we are your allies, how can we fight with you? I am Wang Xingben, the Jinwu general under the command of Ambassador Qu Tu, and I have something to say to me! ”

"The one who knows that you are Qu Tutong's old thief!" Zhao Peng put the horizontal knife and the scarf of the slashing skull, the scarf, the ancient fan, the scar, the ancient fan, the scar, the scar, the ancient fan, the sting, the stinging, the slashing, the sting

"Ambassador Qutu sent someone to attack you?" Wang Xingben and the others' jaws almost fell to the ground, and then Wang Xingben blurted out: "How is this possible? I'm Ambassador Qutu's deputy, and he sent someone to attack you, how did I not know? ”

"Still pretending?" Zhao Peng sneered and said, "The person who attacked us just now, do you dare to say that it was not sent by Qu Tutong's old thief?" ”

"I can swear to God, I really don't!" Wang Xingben stuck the horizontal knife on the ground, stroked his chest with his left hand, pointed to the sky with his right hand, and said very seriously: "In the past, the gods were above, and if I Wang Xingben said a lie, I would be hit by five thunders in the sky, and there would be no place to bury me!" I've been with Ambassador Qutu since I left the dock today, and I've never seen Ambassador Qutu send someone to attack you! ”

"It's really not you?" Zhao Peng was also fluted.

"It's not us." Wang Xingben nodded hurriedly, and hurriedly asked, "Captain Zhao, what happened just now?" Please sue me. ”

After hesitating for a moment, Zhao Peng still said truthfully: "Just now, the old thief Qutu sent a few people to give a thank you gift, and we almost fell for it when they wanted to enter our camp, or our secret sentry found out that there were ambushes behind them in time, and issued a warning, so we quickly stopped them." Seeing that the situation was not right, those ambush soldiers also hurriedly rushed up, saying that the old thief Qutu had received the edict from His Royal Highness the King of Yue, and wanted to crusade against Chen Liu, and also took our sacrificial flag, and then attacked our car formation. ”

"Thankfully, we have powder bottles." Zhao Peng asked the soldier next to him to show a gunpowder bottle and said: "We saw that the situation was not right, so we quickly threw two gunpowder bottles in a row, blew them up, and shot a few more arrows to kill, and those people ran away, taking the wounded and corpses with them." But our brethren were wounded by their bows and arrows several times, and then you came. ”

"This is a cowardly baby pretending to be us, and he wants to put a basin on Ambassador Qu Tu's head!" Wang Xingben, a native of Yuncheng, scolded a hometown swear word in anger, and quickly explained: "Captain Zhao, this is someone who wants to deliberately drive a wedge between you and us, and a wedge between Chen Liushou and Ambassador Qu Tu!" Don't worry, if you send Ambassador Qu Tu and his family, our brothers in Hedong have nothing to thank you in their hearts, how can they harm you? You go back with us, I will take you to see Ambassador Qu Tu, ask him to thank you and make amends to you in person, and I will immediately arrest those cowards who pretend to be us, and hand them over to you to cut to death with a knife! ”

The other soldiers of the Hedong Sui army also scolded those impostors angrily, and they also persuaded Zhao Peng and others to return to the Qu Tutong camp with them, but after Zhao Peng and his subordinates discussed a few words in a low voice, he said to Wang Xingben: "General Wang, we believe your words for the time being, but we also have to consider our own safety, so we can't go back, we can only go back to Chaoyi overnight, but fortunately, our envoy has also been delivered." General Wang, if you are considerate of us, let us go, we will naturally report to General Liu truthfully when we arrive in Chaoyi, if you must let us go with you, then there is no way, we can only kill back to Chaoyi. ”

"We still have powder bottles!" The Daxing soldiers beside Zhao Peng also held gunpowder bottles and shouted: "Don't look at the number of you guys, if you really fight, you may not be our opponents!" ”

In history, Wang Xingben, who defended Hedong City with Yao Junsu and refused to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, was of course a loyal and righteous person, and he did not hesitate after listening to the request of Zhao Peng and others, and immediately said: "Okay, you go, I know that you can't trust us now, I will let you go back to Chaoyi to prove that the person who attacked you just now is not our brother, you can leave now." But....... ”

"But what?" Zhao Peng hurriedly asked.

"But you're going to sue us, those cowards who pretended to be us, where did they go?" Wang Xingben yelled angrily: "I'm going to pull out those cowards and cut them to death with a knife one by one!" ”

"Ran north! Ran in the direction of the upper reaches of the Yellow River! ”

Zhao Peng did not hesitate to point to the way Wang Xingben and the others came, Wang Xingben did not hesitate, pulled out his knife and turned around and walked north, saying loudly as he walked: "Go back and thank Chen Liushou for me, he avenged my good brother Yao Junsu, I will definitely repay him if I have the opportunity!" Brothers, chase me and take out those cowards who are pretending to be us! ”

The soldiers of the Sui army in Hedong agreed one after another, and without saying a word, they turned around and followed Wang Xingben to chase those fake Sui troops, looking at the back of Wang Xingben and his party gradually moving away, in fact, Zhao Peng, who was the second deputy of He, also showed a smug smile, and said secretly: "Go, go and chase, anyway, this is an indescribable thing, you can't catch up, it's those people who pretend to be you who run too fast, you have no ability, and it has nothing to do with us!" After laughing, Zhao Peng gave an order, and more than 100 soldiers of the Sui army immediately returned to Chaoyi south overnight, no longer giving Qu Tutong's army any chance to confront them and find the murderer of the sneak attack.

…………

Wang Xingben was in the north to pursue the fake Sui army, naturally had to send people to Qu Tutong to report the specific situation, heard that someone under his own banner sneak attack on the people sent by Chen Fuliang, Qu Tutong was of course so angry that he was smoking, and his muscles jumped violently, and he immediately launched a rush to Guo Wenyi, roaring and asking: "Guo Wenyi, is it your subordinates who pretended to be old men and attacked the camp of Daxing soldiers?" ”

"Old general, the subordinate is a big bold, and he doesn't dare to do this?" Guo Wenyi hurriedly shouted injustice.

"Are you a fool to be an old man?" Qu Tutong said angrily: "You and Li Shimin are traitors to the thief and wolf, and you sneak attack the Daxing soldiers under the banner of the old man, and the news reaches Chen Liushou, Chen Liushou will inevitably think that the old man is declaring war on him, and when you meet the old man's sword soldiers, you can take the opportunity to force the old man to give in to you, right?" It's a shame that you still have the face to appease the old man under the banner of His Royal Highness King Yue, like you who are such a sinister and despicable shameless villain, the old man disdains to be a minister in the same palace with you! ”

Guo Wenyi's face became extremely ugly, and after thinking for a moment, Guo Wenyi sneered and said, "Old general, you evaluate the lower official like this, and the lower official has nothing to say. But old general, is it too arbitrary for you to put the charge of sneaking attack on Chen Yingliang's subordinates on the heads of the subordinates? The heroic spirit of the Great Sui Emperor is above, if you can come up with evidence that we pretended to be you to attack Chen Yingliang's subordinates, then the lower official will not say a word, immediately bow down and confess, behead Ling Chi, and never frown! But if you can't produce evidence, old general, and want to take the opportunity to refuse to accept the will of the new emperor and return to Daxing to set up a new emperor with Chen Yingliang, then old general, ask yourself, are you worthy of the two generations of emperors of the Great Sui? ”

Qu Tutong was speechless, because Qu Tutong did have the intention of taking the opportunity to refuse to recognize Yang Tong as the new emperor, and he was almost about to announce that he would return to Daxing and join forces with Chen Fuliang to set up a new emperor, although these things have excuses and reasons, but deep down, Qu Tutong still understands very well that he is a little sorry for Yang Jian and Yang Guang, the two generations of emperors.

"Report ——!" New news suddenly came, and a scout rushed into the tent, and the chief inspector said: "Ambassador Qu Tu, General Wang, they have caught up with those thieves who are pretending to be soldiers of our army, and are fighting with them in the area of the Fenshui River estuary!" In addition, our army scouts found that Li Shimin's thief army showed signs of increasing troops at the Yellow River crossing! ”

"Just catch up!" Qu Tutong was overjoyed, and hurriedly shouted: "Order Wang Xingben, let him catch a few live mouths for me at any cost!" Xun Tianhe, immediately let the cavalry gather and be ready to attack at any time! ”

The herald and Xun Tianhe sang the promise together, and immediately rushed down to carry out their own orders, Qu Tutong, who had been shaken before, immediately regained his spirits, and looked at Guo Wenyi with a sneer, Guo Wenyi was sweating profusely, and did not dare to look at Qu Tutong, and he was even more bitter in his heart, and said secretly: "Tang Guogong (Yang Tong gave Li Er's title), could it really be you?" ”

…………

Guo Wenyi was still just complaining, but Li Baiju, a cucumber prince of the Li clan with a ridiculous title, was complaining bitterly, he led fifty rebel soldiers wearing Sui army uniforms to sneak south, but before he could touch the Fenyin ferry to carry out a secret mission, he saw a large number of torches coming from a distance. Li Baiju, who noticed that the enemy was ten times his own, hurriedly ordered the army to turn around and go north, and fled to and from the road, who would have thought that his army would not be able to walk fast at night without torches, but the pursuers behind were rushing fast with torches, and they were about to catch up.

I don't understand the purpose of the enemy, Li Baiju very cautiously ordered the army to lurk in the lush vegetation on the side of the road, who would have thought that he had just taken people to hide, the Sui army had already come to the front, and the Sui soldiers with torches to closely search any hidden place where people could be hidden, Li Baiju and others hid because of the dense vegetation, and became the focus of the search. Then, several rebel soldiers were discovered because they did not hide their figures, and they immediately attracted a group of Sui soldiers to attack, and Li Baiju and others had to be forced to meet the battle, and fled to the ferry after fighting.

What made Li Baiju even more incomprehensible was that the Sui army that suddenly came out was not only full of well-prepared elite soldiers, but also rushed fiercely one by one, scolding constantly, "Coward!" Dare to pretend to be Lao Tzu to sneak attack the people left behind by Chen, and take your life! Impersonating! Lao Tzu told you to pretend! ”

The crowd is still angry, the five hundred Sui army elite under the command of Wang Xingben of course beat Li Baiju and others to the point of fart, ghosts crying wolves, more than 50 people only 15 people escaped on the ferry to escape across the east coast, although Li Baiju was also one of the fifteen people who escaped by luck, but in the hands of Wang Xingben, Wang Xingben cut off his left forearm, and became a lifelong cripple on the spot. Most of the remaining rebel soldiers were chopped into dumpling stuffing by the angry Sui soldiers, and five or six people were captured because they were seriously injured or unconscious, and after being tortured by Wang Xingben himself, several captives honestly confessed that they were disguised as Sui soldiers on the orders of Li Er to attack the Daxing Sui army.

When the captives were escorted back to Qu Tutong's camp, Guo Wenyi was completely speechless, and Qu Tutong, who had been extremely shaken before, was furious, and immediately got off the donkey, under the pretext that the people used by Yang Tong were too despicable, and did not avenge the country's hatred and family hatred to surrender Li Er, and also connived at Li Er to continue to do evil, as a virtue is simply the same as Liu He, the abolished emperor of the Han Dynasty who did 1,127 ridiculous things in 27 days after ascending the throne! Therefore, Qu Tutong decided to refuse to accept Yang Tong's edict and returned to Daxing to join hands with Chen Fuliang to establish a new monarch and inherit the Great Sui Dynasty!

Things have come to this point, Guo Wenyi didn't have anything to say, fortunately, Qu Tutong, who knew very well that Guo Wenyi was actually a loyal minister, didn't embarrass him, just pointed to his nose and shouted: "Go back and tell Li Shimin, although His Royal Highness the King of Yue has surrendered him, the old man still doesn't recognize him as a Great Sui courtier, and still treats him as a traitor!" If he sincerely wants to repent and atone for his sins, in addition to not playing these tricks in the future, he has to bind himself to the old man to surrender! Moreover, on behalf of the old man, I would like to say to His Royal Highness the King of Yue, if he wins the support of the old man and Chen Liushou and becomes the emperor, he must first show some of the prestige of the people, and first explain clearly what he had done before slandering Chen Liushou for rebellion! ”

Guo Wenyi was silent, and he didn't dare to say anything more in order to survive, so he could only leave Qu Tutong's camp obediently with Yang Tong's holy decree, but after returning to Li Er's camp, Guo Wenyi immediately fired at Li Er, yelling: "Tang Guogong, why are you so confused? Sent people to attack the Daxing army under the banner of Qu Tutong, why didn't they flee after they succeeded, and why did they stay there for Qu Tutong's people to arrest the witness? Now it's okay, Qu Tutong, who originally had hope, was completely annoyed by you, and he was determined to return to Daxing to hand over his military power, how can the emperor's plan to recapture Yongfeng Cang and Chang Ping be implemented? ”

"Wronged, I'm more wronged than what Chen Yingliang's traitor said!" Li Er shouted bitterly and defended: "I sent someone to do this, but before my people could do it, they were stopped by Qu Tutong's people first. Those fake Qu Tutong subordinates who sneaked up on the Daxing army are not my people at all! ”

"It's not yours, who's it?" Guo Wenyi asked angrily: "Who else in this area could do this except your army?" ”

"I've been thinking about it for a long time, and you're not going to believe it." Li Er replied helplessly: "I suspect that there is no fake Qu Tutong's subordinates at all, this qiē is all a trick of Chen Yingliang's traitors, and let his henchmen write and sing a play, the purpose is to arouse Qu Tutong's anger and make Qu Tutong unwilling to cooperate with me." It's just that I was unlucky, and I happened to think of a little bit with Chen Yingliang, so I went to help him send some witnesses, so that I jumped into the Yellow River and couldn't wash them. ”

At the same time in Qu Tutong's camp, Qu Tutong announced in front of the whole army that Wang Xingben would be left to hold Fenyin City and lead the main force to withdraw to Hedong, and then he made it clear to all the officers and men of the army that after he returned to Daxing, the first thing he would do would be to implore Chen Yingliang to send troops to Hedong and rotate his subordinates to return to Guanzhong to reunite with their families. As a result, before the words fell, the officers and soldiers of the Sui army were already thundering with joy, and many generals and soldiers were so excited that they cried loudly, rushing to thank Qu Tutong for his decision to reach their hearts and lungs.

Seeing the excited expressions of the soldiers under his command, Qu Tutong's expression not only did not have the slightest joy, but on the contrary, he looked up at the sky and muttered, "Two generations of emperors, the old minister has done his best, it's not that the old minister doesn't want to continue to serve His Royal Highness King Yue, it's that His Royal Highness the King of Yue has done too much to make the old minister sad, and the soldiers under the old minister's command are so homesick, the old minister took them to Chen Yingliang as enemies, no need to fight, or it won't be long before they will fall apart on their own." All the old minister can do now is to try his best to protect them, and also try his best to persuade Chen Yingliang to only be Yiyin Huoguang, don't follow Wang Mang Cao Pi, especially don't follow you, Emperor Gao Zuwen. “