The situation on the Hulao Pass battlefield is getting worse and worse for the Zhai Li coalition. In terms of strength comparison, the Zhai Li coalition, which has many soldiers and wide generals, actually has an advantage in both the Sui army in the East Capital and Wang Shichong. Even if he can't destroy Chen Sangliang, he can at least damage Chen Sangliang and have a greater advantage in Wang Shichong. If Chen Sangliang had not discovered his conscience for the first time, he would have frequently attacked and threatened Zhai Li coalition during this period, the main force of the Zhai Li coalition might have already defeated Wang Shichong. Even if he can't destroy Wang Shichong, he would definitely be able to beat Wang Shichong away and drive Wang Shichong back to Guancheng to continue eating vegetables.

There is an advantage over any of Chen Sangliang and Wang Shichong, but when Chen Sangliang and Wang Shichong joined forces, Zhai Rang and Li Mi frowned. Chen Sangliang occupied Luokou Cang and had a city to defend. Wang Shichong's troops were tenacious and persevering. They were best at fighting protracted wars. Even if the Zhai Li coalition had an advantage, they could not defeat them in a short time. Once time was delayed, the rear would inevitably change - for example, this time, the elite main force of Zhai Li coalition was just restrained by Wang Shichong on the Banzhu battlefield, Chen Sangliang immediately jumped on the clown on the Western Front, beating Li Mi's side troops to the death of ghosts and howling, and he had to ask for help from Zhai Rang and Li Mi again and again.

The heavy losses of the partial division were just a trivial matter. What made Li Mi and Zhai Rang the most angry was Chen Sangliang's despicable trick, which was unpredictable. Not only did he cheat and cheat, but he did not say that he had a desperate attempt to provoke the internal relationship between Li Mi's army and the Wagang army. In the end, he forced Li Mi's army to hate the Wagang army. He might go to Xiangdongdu Sui army to attack Hulao Pass at any time. Li Mi could only hurriedly decide to temporarily let Wang Shichong, who was still struggling to support him, and persuade Zhai Rang to lead the main force back to Hulao Pass immediately to deal with the aftermath and prevent the situation from worsening further.

Zhai Rang hesitated and didn't want to retreat, because Zhai Li's coalition not only had an advantage in the Banzhu battlefield, but also once broke through the deer-anteed horse-resisting defense line of Wang Shichong's army camp, and was only one step away from entering Wang Shichong's camp. Although the defense line was finally recaptured by the Sui army's general Fei Qingnu, the suicide squad, it was only a matter of time before Zhai Li's coalition army continued to attack fiercely and completely defeated Wang Shichong, so Zhai Rang wanted to completely solve Wang Shichong first, and then return to the army to save Hulao Pass.

Pei Renji, who knew the internal situation of the Sui army, helped Li Mi to persuade Zhai Rang. Pei Renji pointed out: "Although Wang Shichong is not afraid, he is destined to be an opponent of our army, but most of his soldiers are Jianghuai soldiers. They are either fellow villagers or relatives. They are very cohesive. It is easy to defeat them on the battlefield, but it is difficult to defeat them. If we continue to attack, even if we finally annihilate or kill Wang Shichong, our elite main force will inevitably pay a heavy price. When we look back and fight Chen Yingliang to a decisive battle, it will be difficult for us to win again. The war between us and Wang Shichong will continue to be delayed for a long time. Once there is any mistake in Hulao Pass, we will completely lose the initiative in the Dongdu battlefield. At that time, Chen Yingliang will not have to fight with us, nor do we need to expect Wang Shichong to continue to restrain us behind our backs. Just by consuming food and grass, we can completely die."

"If the Duke of Dongjun is worried that Wang Shichong will follow Chen Yingliang and take advantage of our main force to move westward to make trouble, this is even more unnecessary." Pei Renji said again: "I have said before that Wang Shichong is too selfish and likes to preserve his strength and watch the fire from the other side of the river. Now he has lost a lot of money and has injured his vitality, so he definitely does not want to continue attacking. So even if we withdraw from the Banzhu battlefield, Wang Shichong will definitely not dare to follow Chen Yingliang and take the initiative to take the initiative to share the pressure for Chen Yingliang. Wang Shichong came thousands of miles away, and it is difficult to replenish food and grass. The counties behind him are decayed and cannot provide him with food and grass. As long as time goes by, Wang Shichong's food and grass are not good enough, he will definitely retreat without fighting."

Considering that the situation in Hulao Pass was indeed critical, Zhai Rang was forced to accept the proposal of Li Mi and Pei Renji and agreed to withdraw Hulao Pass to clean up the mess. As Pei Renji expected, after learning that Zhai Li's coalition forces retreated westward, although Wang Shichong's camp did not send a continuous cheer, he did not send a soldier to pursue him. He could not wait to repair the fortifications immediately, and there was no sign of moving the camp westward. If Zhai Rang and Li Mi could know what Wang Shichong said about this, then they would definitely admire Pei Renji's high opinion even more - Wang Shichong said, "It's Chen Yingliang's turn to take over the main force of the thief army, and it's finally my turn to hide behind and sit in the mountains to watch the tiger fight."

When the Zhai and Li coalition forces withdrew from Hulao Pass, it was already the morning of the second day when Hao Xiaode's army suffered a crushing defeat. The soldiers of the Sui army had already burned the captured camp to ruins. During this period, Shan Xiongxin never dared to open the city gate and let Hao Xiaode return to the city, but only provided a dinner for Hao Xiaode's defeated general. Li Mi, who suffered a great loss this time, was also very graceful and did not pursue Shan Xiongxin's refusal to let Hao Xiaode return to the city. Zhai Rang couldn't stand his face and took the initiative to scold Shan Xiongxin and forced Shan Xiongxin to apologize to Hao Xiaode. Then Zhai Rang ordered the city gate to open and sent envoys to invite Hao Xiaode into the city, saying that he wanted to apologize to Hao Xiaode in person.

After returning to the city, Hao Xiaode was very calm. Not only did he not make trouble, he also accepted the apology from Shan Xiongxin and Zhai Rang with expressionless expression, and just asked Zhai Rang and Li Mi to provide camp rest for his remaining troops as soon as possible. However, the calmer Hao Xiaode was, the more he was afraid of him and he discussed a few words in a low voice. He sent Hao Xiaode to lead his army to retreat to the camp east of Hulao Guan to rest. Hao Xiaode also accepted the arrangement readily. After thanking him, he immediately led his army out of the city and went to the camp designated by Li Mi and Zhai Rang to rest. Seeing Hao Xiaode leaving without looking back, Zhai Rang and Li Mi had the same thought in his heart, "Hao Xiaode, it's no longer reliable."

There are no good things. Li Mi and Zhai Rang withdrew from Hulao Pass and settled down. Soon, a personal soldier presented a letter to Li Mi. After whispering the identity of the sender, Li Mi quickly opened the letter and watched it. Then he only looked at it a few times. Li Mi quickly burst into laughter and laughed proudly. Zhai Rang and others asked Li Mi why they were so happy. Li Mi laughed and said, "The East Capital sent a tip, and the old man Fan Zigai finally died. On the night of his death, Li Yuan, Duke of Tang, suddenly appeared in Taiyuan, organized his old subordinates to launch a mutiny, killed Fan Zigai's deputy Wang Wei, occupied the second city of Taiyuan in Jinyang, and rebelled against the Sui Dynasty."

Zhai Rang and others who hadn't even heard of Li Yuan's name several times were confused, but Pei Renji immediately jumped up and asked in surprise: "Is the news reliable? The Duke of Tang has been tortured by Chen Yingliang to do that. Can he launch a mutiny in Taiyuan and take over the important town of Taiyuan in one fell swoop?"

"Of course it's reliable." Li Mi laughed and said, "General Deben, don't underestimate Duke Tang. He is one of the heads of the eight major clans of Guanlong. He has already mastered the Li family when he was only seven years old. After more than 40 years of operation, a mere million guan and 400,000 silk can really make him lose everything? The old and confused Fan Zigai's purge in Taiyuan can really uproot the power of Duke Tang in Taiyuan's army? Fan Zigai's old and blind methods are rude. The Taiyuan army has long been extremely dissatisfied with him. If Duke Tang wants to carry out a mutiny, isn't that easy?"

Although Pei Renji still felt a little unbelievable about this, seeing Li Mi's expression of confidence and expecting that the matter should be true, he immediately said happily: "Good, the Li Yuan family has irreconcilable hatred with Chen Yingliang. Li Yuan will definitely seek revenge on the battlefield sooner or later. We have added a new strong support, a good thing."

Zhai Rang and others next to him quickly asked what the holidays were with Li Yuan and Chen Sangliang. Pei Renji smiled and introduced him. Li Mi continued to read the letter, and soon Li Mi cheered again, "There is another good thing Yang Tong asked the ship to organize sailors, load pigs and sheep cloth, and took out 50,000 stones of grain from Shangluo Cang and loaded them on the boat. He parked at Luoshui Wharf. Our inside report said that these grains were prepared by Yang Tong to reward Wang Shichong, but there was no chance, so it has not been sent yet.

"No wonder Wang Shichong wanted to stay on the bank of the Yellow River." Pei Renji was surprised again and suddenly realized: "It turns out that Wang Shichong was counting on the eastern capital Luoyang to replenish his food, grass and military supplies through waterways, so he refused to stay away from the waterways. Even if he retreated to Banzhu, he had to rely on Tongji Canal to establish a camp."

"That's great." Zhai Rang also jumped up with joy and said happily: "The eastern capital Luoyang will deliver food to Wang Shichong. We must pass through the Yellow River north of Hulao Pass. We will immediately organize ships to intercept and take down this batch of food and grass."

"What the Dongjun Gong said is very true. You have to take down this batch of food and grass no matter what," Pei Renji nodded and said: "If we take down this batch of food and grass, we can not only not worry about food problems, but also Wang Shichong completely cut off food. Get out of the way and drive him away without sending troops."

"Don't be too happy too early." Li Mi thought carefully, and soon shook her head and poured cold water on her face, saying: "Not to mention that the contact channels between us and the inside of Dongdu are not very smooth. Even if we know the time when the official army supply fleet set off from Luoyang, the official army's ration ship must pass through Luokoucang before turning into the Yellow River. At that time, Chen Yingliang's traitors will definitely prevent us from sending troops to rob grains and try every means to cover the grain ship through our defense zone. If we want to rob grains, it will definitely take a lot of effort."

"Duke Dongjun, Duke Wei is right. It's not that easy for us to rob grains." Xu Shiyu also poured cold water on the cold water: "Although we have many good water players in our army, the Yellow River is never as complicated as Tongji Canal, and the water flow routes are very complicated. The official army fleet sends grain from the upstream to the downstream, and goes downstream from Luokou Cang. It can cross Hulao Pass and drive downstream in at most two hours. If we cannot successfully rob the ship within these two hours, it will be difficult for us to have the opportunity to completely cut off the official army's waterway food route."

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The Sui Army and the Zhai Li coalition, which fought one after another, were very tired, so even though the main elite of the Zhai Li coalition retreated to Hulao Pass, they did not rush to launch a battle against the Sui Army in Dongdu. The battlefield in Hulao Pass was temporarily calm. During this period, Mulan sent Chen Sangliang through Zhang Kai's channel that Zhai Rang and Li Mi were preparing to rob grain. Chen Sangliang was glad that he was prepared, and he immediately understood that Li Mi had installed inside spies in the Dongdu City, so he immediately started to investigate the spies, strengthened the blockade of the water and land connections between Dongdu and Hulao Pass, and made every effort to cut off Li Mi's intelligence source.

During this period, Wang Shichong, who was desperately trying to take advantage, indeed sent an envoy to urge the food and grass. Chen Sangliang smiled and agreed, saying that Wang Shichong had shared the huge pressure for him this time, and he would definitely send the food to Wang Shichong's army as soon as possible, and would never let the soldiers of Pengcheng go hungry to fight. Wang Shichong's envoy thanked him happily and reminded Chen Sangliang to be careful of the Wagang thieves intercepting the water. Chen Sangliang waved his hand and said, "Go back and tell my father-in-law that he would be willing to let him go. If the Wagang thief can rob the food and grass I sent to him, I will write my word Chen in the reverse way."

By the way, after the envoy brought Chen Sangliang's words back to Wang Shichong's army, Wang Shichong, who was very disbelief of his son-in-law, also said: "There will definitely be troubles. If a boy Chen Yingliang really keeps his promise, he will bring me food as soon as possible. The Wagang thief who is proficient in water wars cannot stop the food he gave me. My word Wang is written in reverse."

At the same time, Chen Sangliang suddenly ordered the construction of a temporary wharf ten miles upstream of Gong County, and organized civilians to fill soil with straw bags near the wharf and piled them on the shore for later use. Unfortunately, the Sui army's action was discovered by the Wagang Army and was quickly sent to Hulao Guanzhong and in front of Li Mi and Zhai Rang. Zhai Rang was of course confused when he found this news. He didn't understand what Chen Sangliang was going to do. After Li Mi only thought about it, his face immediately changed drastically. He slapped the table and cursed: "What a traitor, I'm afraid we're robbing food on the water, and he actually had to prepare two fleets of real and fake."

After listening to Li Mi's careful analysis of Chen Sangliang's sinister intentions, Zhai Rang, Shan Xiongxin and other generals of Wagang were panicked and said, "Duke Wei, what should we do? Although we have many sailors, there are too few ships, so it is very difficult to rob a military fleet. Chen Yingliang arranged two fleets, one true and one false. If we robbed the fake fleet, wouldn't it be in vain?"

Li Mi did not answer, calmly and looked nervously, thinking that if Chen Sangliang wanted to arrange two fleets, one true and one false, he would definitely block the scene tightly when pretending to be fake grain. On a cautious basis, he might also let the sailors leave the scene temporarily, so that the sailors did not know whether they were escorted to real food or fake grain, so that there would be no information leak. If he wanted to know which fleet was real and which fleet was fake, then there were only two ways. One was to choose one of two gambling, and the bet was win, and the bet was lost. The other way was to explore the scene at any cost and confirm the identification of the real food team.

"I was too careful to explore the scene at any cost and seize it. The traitor Chen Yingliang is so deliberate that he will definitely not give me such a chance." Li Mi felt a little desperate, and then suddenly thought of a question and said to him: "Chen Yingliang's traitor arranged a real and fake fleet and asked me to choose one of two. He will definitely prevent me from being lucky and bet right. The safest way is to release fake news and let me make a wrong judgment. Since that is the case, why don't I come to have a chance to work and take the initiative to take action, wait for him, Chen Yingliang's traitor to make a move first, and then go against the rules and take the opportunity to find the real official and military ration ship."

It was also coincidental that Li Mi just thought of this key issue, and the messenger suddenly came to report it, saying that there was a person outside the pass that claimed to be Li Shicai's confidant soldier. He sneaked back to Hulao Pass under the order of Li Shicai, who had surrendered to the Sui army, and he had to report important matters to Li Mi and Zhai Rang. Hearing this news, Li Mi smiled immediately on his black face and said, "God helps me, please invite me quickly."

"Duke Wei, Chen Yingliang is treacherous, be careful." Pei Renji and Xu Shiyu both reminded.
Chapter completed!