With the initiative of the Zhai and Li coalition army to abandon the pass, the battle of the Tiger Prison Pass, which lasted for nearly five months, finally came to an end, the exhausted Zhai and Li coalition army fled east by crossing the Tongji Canal on the Xingze Road, and the Wang Shichong army, which suffered heavy casualties, was more exhausted than the Wagang army, and self-protection was a problem, and there was no spare strength to intercept and block, watching the Zhai and Li coalition army flee from under their noses, the same tired Sui army in the eastern capital was blocked by Xu Shichang for a day, and it was too late to finally take the Tiger Prison Pass that Xu Shiyun voluntarily gave up, and he couldn't catch up. simply didn't waste his strength, and the magnificent battle of the Tiger Prison ended in a rather funny way.

The ending is funny, but the process of many defeats and injuries is cruel and abnormal, in this repeated tug-of-war and continuous war, Zhai Li thief army and the Eastern Capital Sui army, as well as the Pengcheng Sui army that arrived later, all paid a heavy price, just during the period when Chen Fuliang was in charge of the army, there were more than 15,000 Sui soldiers in the bloody battle forever closed their eyes, and more than 3,000 were disabled, including both the invincible battalion that purely made up the numbers, as well as Chen Fuliang's Qian Peng lineage, the elite of Qi County left by Zhang Xutuo, and many new soldiers and old pawns of the right military guard, If you add the casualties of Pei Renji's time in charge of the army, the casualties of the Sui army in the eastern capital actually reached nearly 26,000 people.

Wang Shichong's losses were also large, although the Pengcheng Sui army joined the battlefield for a short time, but because there was no strong camp to defend, and because it was basically against the main force of the thief army, and because Wang Shichong accidentally hit the plan in the last battle, he was forced to fight an avoidable decisive battle outside the camp, and the Pengcheng soldiers who went out to fight more than 32,000 people, less than 13,000 people were alive to join the Sui army in the eastern capital, including more than 1,000 seriously wounded who were difficult to heal. Although this result proves that Wang Shichong is indeed a good commander of the army, and more than half of the battle losses have not collapsed and fled, it also makes Wang Shichong so distressed that he can't sleep for several nights, and he can't cry anymore - most of these are his children when he started.

However, compared with the Zhai Li thief army, the Sui army in the eastern capital and the Sui army in Pengcheng were much luckier, the Zhai Li coalition army, which once had more than 150,000 troops in its heyday, was joined forces by Chen Fuliang and Wang Shichong to **** down, and finally crossed the Tongji Canal alive There were less than 70,000, and the rest were either annihilated on the battlefield, or were captured and surrendered, among which Li Mi, who had the most cannon fodder, suffered the worst losses, especially in the battles of Hao Xiaode's camp, only seven or eight thousand people of the 30,000 Li Mi thief army returned to the East Gate camp, and there was a strong city to defend the loss of the Wagang army. But it also paid nearly 20,000 casualties, although most of them were cannon fodder, but there were also many elite soldiers of Wagang who had followed Zhai Rang's campaign for many years.

The sea of corpses and blood, the real mountain of corpses and the sea of blood, from Luokoucang to the Tiger Prison Pass, and then from the Tiger Prison Pass to Niuzhukou to the ruins of the Banzhu Palace, there is a corpse smell everywhere, and there are corpses everywhere, and most of the corpses are so many that most of the injured Sui soldiers can't deal with it, forcing Chen Fuliang to take out money and food to organize the people to clean up the battlefield, and also promised that in addition to armor and weapons, all the money and clothes on the corpses will belong to the people, and it took five days to barely clean up the dead bodies on the huge battlefield.

The heavy losses are also worth it, taking back the strategic place of Tiger Prison Pass, which is equivalent to reversing the passive beating situation of the Eastern Capital battlefield, Chen Fuliang does not need to stay in Luokou Cang for a long time as a warehouse keeper with the respect of staying behind, and at this time, Chen Fuliang dared to set up a mourning hall in the Tiger Prison Pass, pay tribute to the old Bole Fan Zigai, who is as kind to him as a mountain, and wear linen and filial piety for him, and cry loudly. And it was also at this time that the soldiers of the Sui Army in the Eastern Capital finally learned the news that Fan Zigai was dead, and Li Yuan raised the flag and rebelled in Taiyuan.

As if it was a time to compete with Chen Fuliang, Chen Fuliang set up a spiritual memorial for Fan Zi in the Tiger Prison Pass on the same day, the Eastern Capital transferred the Taiyuan military information to Chen Fuliang, Xihe County Cheng Gao Deru was loyal to Emperor Yang of Sui, refused to accept Li Yuan's order, Li Yuan sent Li Jiancheng and Li two brothers to send troops to conscript, as a result, it took only nine days for the Li brothers to go back and forth, they broke the Xihe County and captured Gao De Rusheng and beheaded him; At the same time, he sent troops to feint to attack Yanmen County, forcing Chen Xiaoyi and Wang Zhibi, who were besieging Liu Wuzhou, to withdraw from the army, Liu Wuzhou took the opportunity to counterattack and defeat the Yanmen Sui army, and then there were unconfirmed rumors that Li Yuan and Liu Wuzhou reached an agreement, Li Yuan recognized Liu Wuzhou's self-appointed position as the Taishou of Yanmen, and allowed Liu Wuzhou to take charge of Yanmen County - to be precise, it was to use Liu Wuzhou's hand to deal with the Yanmen Sui army, and Li Yuan took the opportunity to obtain peace in the north.

In view of the critical situation in Taiyuan, the acting king Yang Yu did not have time to ask Emperor Yang of Sui, so he sent Pang Yu, the general of the Zuojian Gate, and Hu Benlang to lead Huo Shiju and Song Laosheng to lead an army of 60,000 to the north, and went to Xihe to rescue Gao Deru, who was loyal and did not surrender (he did not expect Gao Deru to be defeated so quickly when he set out on the expedition), suppressed Li Yuan's rebellion, and sent the Guannei to arrest the ambassador Qu Tutong to the east of the river as a backup. Therefore, the envoy sent by Yang Dong conveyed Yang Dong's message, asking Chen Fuliang to rest assured that he would take care of the aftermath of the Great War in Tiger Prison, and there was no need for Chen Fuliang to worry about it in Taiyuan for the time being.

There is another thing that surprised Chen Fuliang but is not surprising, the envoy of the Eastern Capital told Chen Fuliang, saying that after Daxing received the news of Li Yuan's rebellion, he immediately sent people to arrest Li Yuan's son-in-law Chai Shao and daughter Li Xiuning, who would have thought that Chai Shao and his wife had left the paralyzed Chai Shen and Chai Qian missing, and the Daxing official government painted a picture to arrest the couple, but so far their whereabouts have not been found. When Chen Fuliang heard this, he smiled bitterly: "I really want to take revenge and want to go crazy, poor my Uncle Chai Shi, I really don't know if he can survive this time." ”

Shaking his head and sighing, putting aside the affairs of the Chai family, Chen Fuliang hurriedly asked about his cousin Li Jing's situation, after learning that Li Jing had no news so far, Chen Fuliang was inevitably worried, but he had no choice but to continue to send people to visit and find Li Jing, and then concentrate on dealing with the aftermath of the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass, and arrange the preparation for retreating back to the Eastern Capital; At the same time, he also asked Yang Dong to allow Wang Shichong to enter the Tiger Prison Pass to rest and recuperate, and replace Pei Renji to prevent Zhai Li's thief army from going and returning; It was also decided that Helan Yi would stay in Luokoucang and continue to strengthen the newly built Luokoucang city defense.

Chen Fuliang's request was quickly approved, and after arranging various affairs, on the tenth day of the seventh month, Chen Fuliang officially led the army to triumph, and two days later returned to the eastern capital, Yang Tong personally led the civil and military officials out of the city to greet him, Chen Fuliang hurriedly dismounted and bowed to the guilt, and asked Yang Tong to punish himself for not being able to recapture the Tiger Prison Pass and failing to annihilate Zhai Li's thief army after a long battle. Yang Tong personally picked up Chen Fuliang and comforted Chen Fuliang with good words, saying that Chen Fuliang had no merit in this battle, and the reason why this battle was protracted was all because the thief army was too strong, the terrain was unfavorable and the weather had nothing to do with Chen Fuliang, and at the same time, Chen Fuliang was rarely rewarded with some jewelry, silk and beauties to consult.

Yang Tong's reward reminded Chen Fuliang of one thing, the day after returning to the Eastern Capital, Chen Fuliang, who was busy with official business, took the time to go to the prison to visit Pei Cuiyun and her mother who were being imprisoned in the women's prison, although Pei Cuiyun's mother and daughter were abused in prison, but reunited in prison after a long absence, Pei Cuiyun still couldn't help crying in Chen Fuliang's arms, Chen Fuliang pretended to shed a few crocodile tears, and promised to try his best to rescue Pei Cuiyun and her mother from prison, If it was not good, he also asked Yang Tong to reward Pei Cuiyun, who was going to be demoted to slavery according to the law, to himself, and only after a long time did he say goodbye to the troubled junior in tears.

It was also in the evening of the same day that Chen Fuliang was able to sit down and talk alone with Xuanling, a think tank who had been staying behind before, to discuss the specific plan for the next step. It was Fang Xuanling who took the initiative to raise this issue and asked Chen Fuliang: "Brother Xian, the Tiger Prison Pass has been taken back, although Wang Shichong is a subordinate person, he is quite reliable in terms of fighting, as long as he can stay in the Tiger Prison Pass for a long time, at least he can ensure that Luoyang's eastern front is worry-free, so that Brother Xian you can free up your hands to deal with other changes, I don't know what your next plan is Brother Xian?" ”

"Of course, I really want to raise troops to the north and strangle the enemy Li Yuan in the cradle." Chen Fuliang smiled bitterly and spread his hands, and said: "But there is no way, in this battle of Tiger Prison Pass, the loss of my elite soldiers is too great, and the rest are too tired, and most of them are injured, and they can't do it if they want to send troops, so they can only rest the army first, restore their combat strength, and then think about it in the long run." ”

Fang Xuanling nodded, and asked again: "Brother Xian, His Royal Highness the Acting King sent Pang Jianmen and them to lead an army of 50,000 to the north to conquer Li Yuan in Taiyuan, I don't know what you think of victory or defeat?" Are they sure they can defeat Li Yuan? ”

"It's hard to say." Chen Fuliang replied truthfully: "Although Li Yuan has not been in the army for a long time, the soldiers lack training, and the foundation is not deep enough, but I know too well the virtue of the Daxing army. What's more critical is that His Royal Highness the Acting King ordered Li Yuan to be conquered, not to let them defend against Li Yuan's southward movement, and if they take the offensive, they will not be very sure. ”

Fang Xuanling nodded again, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Brother Xian, haven't you noticed that you are too restrained now?" Although you are staying in the eastern capital, you have to ask His Royal Highness the King of Yue for everything, sitting on the mountain of grain but unable to recruit troops independently, Miss Pei has a life-saving grace for you, but after the disaster, you can't even get rid of the crime of implication for her, His Royal Highness the King of Yue is getting older and older, and gradually shows his courage and opinion, if this goes on like this, your future is unpredictable. ”

Chen Fuliang smiled and asked with a smile, "Brother, are you trying to persuade me to follow Li Yuan's example?" ”

"Brother Xian laughed, Brother Fool has that kind of guts?" Fang Xuanling smiled, and suddenly said: "Brother Xian, you know what I am trying to persuade you to do, Wang Shichong has come to the Eastern Capital, someone can take over from you to guard the safety of the Eastern Capital, and His Royal Highness will not refuse your volunteering, Taiyuan is a good place, and it is far away from Jiangdu and Daxing and Luoyang, where you can really show your strength." ”

Of course, Chen Fuliang knew that Fang Xuanling wanted to persuade himself to ask for reinforcements to the Taiyuan battlefield, and then take the opportunity to seek the position of staying in Taiyuan and get rid of the shackles to show his strength, but for various considerations and some reasons, Chen Fuliang couldn't accept Fang Xuanling's construction, so he could only shake his head and say: "Brother, of course I understand what you mean, but there is no way, my losses in this battle of Tiger Prison Pass are too great, and the vitality of the army has not yet recovered, so I will send troops to fight now, to be honest, I am not sure." ”

Thinking of the full camp of wounded soldiers when Chen Fuliang returned triumphantly yesterday, Fang Xuanling didn't want to say anything more, so he could only change his words and say: "Since Brother Xian has this concern, it can only be to let the army rest first and make every effort to restore the vitality of the army in the Eastern Capital, I hope that Pang Zhige and they can support them for a while and buy some time for you to recuperate." ”

Chen Fuliang smiled, and said secretly in his heart: "Brother Qiao Song, do you think I really want to go to Taiyuan?" Not to mention that I really can't go now, even if I can go, I won't go, and if I do, I will never be able to fulfill the promise I made four years ago. ”

Thinking of the promise he made to the girl in his arms four years ago, Chen Fu's conscience was beating, and he couldn't help but say in a low voice in his heart: "Li Yuan, you have to fight for it, and, Yu'er, wait for me." ”

In the early morning of the next day, Chen Fuliang excused the Eastern Capital army to suffer heavy losses in the Battle of Tiger Pass, many soldiers and soldiers, and at the same time the strong enemy was not destroyed, and the surrounding area of Henan County was also a continuous beacon fire, so he asked Yang Dong for permission to expand the army again, which coincided with Yang Dong's previous recital asking Emperor Yang of Sui to allow the Eastern Capital to expand the army again was also approved, and Yang Dong, who was not short of food, weapons and silk silks, immediately agreed to expand the Eastern Capital army to more than 160,000. Chen Fuliang was overjoyed and immediately began to recruit troops, and in order to rapidly improve his combat effectiveness, he immediately concentrated his energies on army training by recruiting a large number of prisoners who had been captured on the battlefield of Tiger Pass.

History is so complex and changeable, in history, the king Yang Yu sent Song Laoshan north to confront Li Yuan, because Li Yuan had already threatened to attack Daxing, and because Yang Yu sent Pang Yu and Huo Shiju to lead the army east into the eastern capital, helping the eastern capital to resist Li Mi Zhairang, who had successfully taken Luokoucang at that time, and dispersed the Daxing forces, so Yang Yu's order to Song Laosheng was to defend Huoyi and resist Li Yuan's southward movement. And now, because of Chen Fuliang, the demon moth of the Eastern Capital, he disrupted the situation, although he was slightly inferior but did not show defeat, and the mobile forces in Yang Yu's hands were able to go north, but because he felt that the strength was enough, Yang Yu issued an order contrary to the historical details - ordering Pang Yujun to attack Taiyuan and crusade against Li Yuan.

When the Daxing Sui army had just crossed Huoyi and entered the territory of Xihe County, it was just about to attack the throat of Jiahubao, where Li Yuan's rebels were entrenched, and the hinterland of Shanxi suddenly continued to rain (historical facts), the land was muddy, the roads were slippery, and the army could not fight. Regardless of the fatigue of the soldiers, they refused to retreat and return to Huoyi to take shelter from the rain, and the army was very tired from this.

At the same time, Li Yuan also took the opportunity to personally lead the main force of the rebels to Jiahu Fort for reinforcements, taking advantage of the psychology of the Daxing Sui army to attack the fortifications and being eager to fight, and lured Song Laosheng into the depths of the precipitous Bird Mouse Valley, and the ambush suddenly killed and cut off Song Laoshan's retreat, Pang Yu urgently ordered Huo Shiju to send troops to respond, and happened to be in Li Yuan's encirclement to help, Li Yuan's rebels who were familiar with the terrain were haunted in the more than 100-mile-long Sparrow Mouse Valley, and frequently attacked, and the Daxing Sui army who was not familiar with the terrain was miserable, and finally not only Song Laosheng failed to rescue him, On the contrary, there is a lot of cost.

The result of the fierce battle in the Valley of the Sparrow Mouse was the defeat of the Sui army, the Song Laoshan army was cut off from food and grass, the soldiers surrendered one after another in order to survive, the Song Laosheng who refused to surrender was also killed by his subordinates, and the head was given to Li Yuan as a gift, and the more than 10,000 troops brought into the valley were all wiped out, Pang Yu and Huo Shiju had no choice but to give up attacking Jiahu Fort and retreat to Huoyi, Li Yuan's rebels took the opportunity to chase and kill, Duan Zhixuan also took the opportunity to send troops to counterattack, the Daxing Sui army was both tired and demoralized, failed again, and paid a lot of price before returning to Huoyi to defend the city, Li Yuan waved his army south, ready to attack Huoyi.

On the same day that the Eastern Capital received the news, Li Jing, who had been missing for a long time, finally appeared in front of Chen Fuliang, when Chen Fuliang was personally supervising the training of recruits in the army, Li Jing, who was dressed in cloth and covered with dust, wanted to enter the camp and was blocked, and when he wanted to meet Chen Fuliang, the camp gate guards asked Li Jing's identity and origin, Li Jing replied with a wry smile: "Please report to Chen Liushou, that is, his cousin is here, and he will naturally meet." ”

After the suspicious battalion gate official sent someone to send the news to Chen Fuliang, he was soon extremely surprised to see that Chen Fuliang, who was covered in armor, actually ran three points faster than a rabbit, and almost rushed to the front of the camp gate, and the pro-soldiers behind him couldn't keep up at all. Chen Fuliang hugged Li Jing and cried loudly like a child again.

The uncle and nephew hugged their heads and cried for a long time, and after finding a place to sit down, Chen Fuliang remembered to ask Li Jing how to get out of Mayi and how he came here? Li Jing replied with a wry smile, saying that when Liu Wuzhou rebelled, he was lucky not to be affected by Shenwu, and he wanted to organize soldiers and horses to participate in the conquest of Liu Wuzhou, but he never thought that Fan Zigai died suddenly, and Li Yuan raised troops to rebel and block the road, Li Jing knew that Li Yuan would definitely not let go of himself, and he could only enter Yanmen County by the remaining veins of Taihang in Dongyue, and then take the road of Lingqiu Flying Fox into Hebei, traveled thousands of miles, and endured all the hardships before coming to Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Probably introduced his escape experience, Li Jing said with a wry smile: "Virtuous nephew, my uncle is here to trouble you, as a county prince of Mayi, I lost the city and abandoned my post and left, and the court will investigate it, if it is heavy, it may be killed, if it is light, it will be demoted to a civilian, and if it is light, it will be demoted to a civilian level, and if I can survive this time, it depends on you." ”

"Uncle, don't worry, it's on the little nephew." Chen Fuliang patted his chest and said: "In order to maintain the imperial court code, it is of course impossible for you to completely exonerate your uncle, but it is absolutely no problem to get a demotion, and my uncle, my new official position after your demotion, I have already prepared it for you." ”

"You've been ready for me for a long time?" Li Jing was dumbfounded, and hurriedly asked, "What official position?" ”

"You'll know when the time comes." Chen Fuliang laughed, and couldn't wait to pull up Li Jing and said, "Uncle Cousin, come quickly, go into the city to see your nephews and grandchildren, and I will ask them to kowtow to you." Li Jing knew that Li Yuan would definitely not let go of himself, and he had no choice but to enter Yanmen County with the remaining veins of Taihang in Dongyue, and then take the road of Lingqiu Flying Fox into Hebei, travel thousands of miles, and endure hardships before coming to Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Probably introduced his escape experience, Li Jing said with a wry smile: "Virtuous nephew, my uncle is here to trouble you, as a county prince of Mayi, I lost the city and abandoned my post and left, and the court will investigate it, if it is heavy, it may be killed, if it is light, it will be demoted to a civilian, and if it is light, it will be demoted to a civilian level, and if I can survive this time, it depends on you." ”

"Uncle, don't worry, it's on the little nephew." Chen Fuliang patted his chest and said: "In order to maintain the imperial court code, it is of course impossible for you to completely exonerate your uncle, but it is absolutely no problem to get a demotion, and my uncle, my new official position after your demotion, I have already prepared it for you." ”

"You've been ready for me for a long time?" Li Jing was dumbfounded, and hurriedly asked, "What official position?" ”

"You'll know when the time comes." Chen Fuliang laughed, and couldn't wait to pull up Li Jing and said, "Uncle Cousin, come quickly, go into the city to see your nephews and grandchildren, and I will ask them to kowtow to you." ”