The old Li family is indeed very good at winning people's hearts. After conquering Huoyi, in addition to routinely opening warehouses and releasing grain, Li Yuan also ordered all the elderly over 70 years old in the city to be granted as scattered officials (there are officials who are said to have no salary and no official power). If the gentry and students are willing to serve Li Yuan's rebels, they can meet Li Yuan for an interview at any time. They can appoint official positions on the spot in a few words. The speed of being appointed was too fast and there was no time to receive the official seal and order. These people could only receive notes with the name of the official position.

Although the process was rough and rash, the effect was very good. In order to truly obtain the official position written on the note, the little landlords who had read books for a few days and learned martial arts for a few days still followed Li Yuanyu wholeheartedly and willingly acted as a front guard for Li Yuan. The most cruel thing was the policy of captives. For the soldiers of the Daxing Sui army captured by Li Yuan, Li Yuan's rebels did not kill any of the soldiers who were willing to join the rebels. The prisoners from Guanzhong wanted to return to their hometown in Guanzhong to release them on the spot, and gave them travel expenses and food, and were all awarded fifth-rank scattered officials. As a result, these released prisoners naturally became the best propaganda machine for the Li Yuan's rebels.

First of all, the Daxing Sui army led by Pang Yu and Huo Shiju was still suffering from these propaganda machines. After fleeing from Huoyi to Linfen City, Linfen County, in a panic, Pang Yu and Huo Shiju, who refused to give up, gathered the remaining defeated generals to prepare for another battle. They accidentally gathered many of these prisoners into the army. The result is naturally conceivable. After losing Huoyi and food, supplies and fled to Linfen for hundreds of miles. The Daxing Sui army was tired and hungry, and had serious escape. The morale of losing the battle was low. After listening to the Li Yuan rebel policy promoted by these prisoners, the morale of the army became even more shaken. When the Li Yuan rebels were at the city of Linfen on the eighth day of the eighth month, just after the attack, a rebellion occurred within the Sui army. Many soldiers launched a rebellion under the leadership of the grassroots rebel generals, and they cooperated with the rebels to attack the city inside and outside.

As the city expanded and the rebels' offensive became more and more fierce, Pang Yu and Huo Shiju once again had no choice but to continue to flee south with the army they could still command. As a result, less than a thousand people left of the 60,000 troops they brought from Taiyuan to escape from Taiping Pass and enter Jiang County. The rest were either killed or surrendered to the rebels. They were defeated and could not lose again, and they could not lose again. Pang Yu and Huo Shiju both burst into tears. Then they did not dare to stay in Jiang County, and directly crossed Jiang County to Hedong to surrender Qu Tutong. Li Yuan's rebels continued to surrender and arbitrage, sang loudly and quickly entered Jiang County. All the city passes along the way were surrendered in the wind, and no more horses stopped Li Yuan's footsteps.

On August 12, Li Yuan's rebels approached Zhengpingcheng, the governor of Jiangjun County, and stationed troops in Gushan. The prefect of Jiangjun wanted to open the city to surrender. Chen Shuda, who was loyal to Emperor Yang of Sui, killed the prefect and led his troops to defend the city. Unfortunately, only one day passed, Li Yuan's rebels launched an attack. Chen Shuda was also betrayed by his subordinates and was knocked unconscious by his subordinates. After binding, they brought the city together to Li Yuan. Li Yuan personally relaxed Chen Shuda and asked to sit in the upper seat. Chen Shuda knelt down and surrendered. The other seven counties in Jiangjun also took the initiative to surrender, including Wenxi County, the base of the Lao Pei family.

The advancement was so fast and the war was so smooth that the commander who had been replaced might have been proud and arrogant. However, Li Yuan and his son, as commander, were very calm, because they knew very well that the reason why the self-armed army achieved such results was entirely because of the weak opponents, the enemy's commander's successive decision-making mistakes and the self-armed army was too lucky. The further south the battle would only be more difficult, and the hidden dangers of the self-armed army were countless. First of all, the problem of food and grass. With such crazy rapid advancement, the food transport team in the rear could not be kept up. At the same time, there were many problems in the rear Taiyuan, both with the threats from Liu Wuzhou, Wei Daoer and the remnants of the Sui army in Yanmen, and the grain production was far from enough to supply the increasingly large team of Li Yuan's rebels.

The supply of grain and grass in the rear was not guaranteed, and only food was collected from the enemy. Although Li Yuan's rebels could obtain grain at will from the counties that conquered and surrendered, at most they could only maintain military rations and it was difficult to ensure long-term supply. If you want to obtain sufficient and stable grain and grass supply, the only way was to seize a state-owned granary as soon as possible. There were only two national granaries in front of Li Yuan, one was the Yongfeng warehouse in the western suburbs of Tongguan, and the other was the Changping warehouse in Shan County. However, if Li Yuan had a few courages, he would not dare to make the idea of ​​Changping warehouse. Li Yuan's rebels really dared to cross the Yellow River from Sanmenxia to take Changping warehouse directly, Chen Sangliang's mouth could make him smile. So Li Yuan actually had only one choice, which was to quickly take the Yongfeng warehouse.

Yongfeng Cang is not that easy to get. There are two roads from Jiangjun to Yongfeng Cang. One is the flat and wide Hedong Road. Take off Hedong and walk the Pujin Floating Bridge to directly cross the Yellow River. The advantage of taking this road is that it is relatively safe and can maintain contact with the rear. The difficulty is that Qu Tutong, a famous general of the Sui army, is in Hedong. If you want to cross the Yellow River, you must pull out Qu Tutong's nail.

The other road is to cross the Yellow River directly through Longmen or Hukou, and bypass Hedong and attack Yongfeng Cang. However, this road is more dangerous. After the main force crosses the river, Qu Tutong can send troops to cut off the contact between Li Yuan's rebels and the rear, and can also move westward through Pujin Bridge to intercept the rebels south at any time. What is even more terrifying is that once the main force of the rebels crosses the Yellow River and enters Guanzhong, 99% of the Daxing side will ask for help from the east. At that time, Chen Sangliang will lead troops to Tongguan to control Yongfeng Cang, which is only five miles away from Tongguan. Qu Tutong also cut off the contact between the rebels and the rear of Taiyuan. Then, without fighting, starvation can starve Li Yuan's rebels to death.

There was no choice but to reject the proposal of a few strategists to cross the Yellow River directly, and decided to lead the army to take Longmen first, open up the connection with the rebels of Fengyi, and then go south to attack Qu Tutong. At the same time, in order to restrain the most terrifying enemy Chen Sangliang, Li Yuan, whose team had expanded to more than 120,000 people, resolutely distributed 30,000 rebels and handed them over to Duan Zhixuan, the general who performed well in the previous battle, and supplemented it with Zhang Daoyuan and Tang Jian, and ordered Duan Zhixuan to lead this side troops to Jiangxian south, and then to Yuanxian County, and then go east to Hanoi, attack Hanoi and threaten Luoyang, and do his best to restrain the Sui army in the eastern capital, so that Chen Sangliang had no time to advance westward to reinforce Daxing.

"General Duan, although you are a partial army, your responsibilities are of great importance and are not under the main force at all. Whether our army can enter Guanzhong first depends on you." This is the original words that Li Yuan gave to Duan Zhixuan, "The two counties of Jiangyuan have sent envoys to surrender. You can go south with confidence. Time is urgent. You must arrive at Yuan County within three days, attack Wangwu in the east, threaten Zhuguan, and force Hanoi to seek help from the east capital."

"Remember that you must spread news along the way, just say that you are just my vanguard. Our army will first take Hanoi and then take Dongdu. If the East does not send troops, or the East Town will send other generals to reinforce Hanoi, you must do your best to launch an attack and put pressure on it. If Chen Yingliang comes in person, you must be firm in your own hands and must not be greedy for merit and make a light advance. It will give Chen Yingliang a chance to win quickly. At that time, as long as you can hold Chen Yingliang for more than ten days, after our army takes over Daxing, I will also remember your first merit."

After bowing his head and singing, Duan Zhixuan immediately led the side troops to the south, but Li Yuan was still unwilling to rest assured. He also asked him to contact his friends and relatives in the Dongdu area, and asked them to come forward to put pressure on Yang Tong to send Chen Sangliang to Hanoi to ensure the safety of Dongdu. At the same time, he prayed that the second son's prophecy would come true. Li Mi also sent troops to attack Lin Customs clearance and threaten Hanoi, creating more panic for the Dongdu Luoyang.

Li Er's crow mouth has always been very agile. On the same day, the rebel messenger, who was equally fast, successfully delivered Li Yuan's letter to Li Yangcang and to Li Mi, who was licking the wound. After reading Li Yuan's letter, Li Mi smiled and said, "With Duan Zhixuan as the vanguard of the army, he will enter Hanoi, and then arrive, and then meet at the county seat? The Duke of Tang is very calculating. He wants to trick me into sending the main force into Hanoi to help him share the pressure. He thinks very beautifully.

"Mr. Wei is very clear. This is indeed just Li Yuan's bait." Zu Junyan, who recently defected to Li Mi, nodded and pointed out: "Li Yuan is the head of the Li family, one of the eight major clans of Guanlong. His foundation is in Guanzhong. Guanzhong is empty. Luoyang has Chen Yingliang in charge and Wangwu. The danger of the Yellow River is far more difficult than taking Daxing. As long as Li Yuan is not stupid, his primary goal is to send a side army eastward to Daxing in Guanzhong. His purpose is nothing more than to lure us to send troops to Hanoi, threaten Luoyang, and restrain Chen Yingliang, a terrible enemy for him. We must not be fooled."

"We can't say absolutely. Li Yuan's guess is that he can't go all out, but he can't go all out." Li Mi said with a smile: "Our best choice should be to send a side division to attack Lin Customs clearance and threaten Hanoi. And we can't do it perfunctorily, we must really attack with all our strength."

"Mr., if you do this, what if Chen Yingliang is really attracted?" Wang Bodang asked worriedly.

"Bodang, do you think Chen Yingliang really can't see that Li Yuan's real goal is Guanzhong?" Li Mi laughed and said, "The grudge between Li Yuan and Chen Yingliang is different from the sky. If Li Yuan was allowed to obtain Guanzhong and live in danger, he, Chen Yingliang's little thief, could he have a peaceful life? I dare to conclude that Li Yuan's plan to lure the enemy will definitely not be successful, and Chen Xiaozhe will definitely not really send troops to rescue Hanoi. Our partial army just keeps up and will not be in danger of attracting Chen Xiaozhe."

"Miscellaneous Scheme" Zu Junyan applauded and said, "If our army captured Linqing Pass and looked down at the hinterland of Hanoi, Chen Yingliang led his army westward to rescue Guanzhong, and Hanoi was within his reach. After taking Hanoi, he could look down at Luoyang from a high place. If he had the opportunity, he would cross the river and advance. If he had no chance, he would seize the river and defend it, and wait for a better opportunity to appear."

Li Mi nodded in laughter and recognized this judgment. In addition to Fang Xuanzao, who had already led the side troops to the south, other Li Mi army generals also stood up one after another and volunteered to take on this task, but Li Mi shook her head decisively and refused, saying, "Don't go, let Pei Renji and his son go."

"Let Pei Renji go?" Wang Bodang and others were stunned and hurriedly reminded: "Duke Wei, is Pei Renji from Zhai Rang?"

"Pei Renji is Zhai Rang's person, but he should not be valued. He was very wronged under Zhai Rang's command, so I asked him to go." Li Mi smiled and said, "I not only want Pei Renji to go, but also let him take my Wei Gongjun. What do you think Pei Renji would have?"

Li Mi's army smiled knowingly. At that moment, Li Mi immediately sent someone to invite Zhai Rang to discuss the Western Expedition with Zhai Rang. He also used the excuse that Pei Renji was familiar with the internal situation of the Sui army and asked Zhai Rang to send Pei Renji as a general to lead the army to the west. Zhai Rang, who was soft-hearted, was afraid of losing his strength, so he wanted to refuse but was embarrassed to speak. Fortunately, Li Mi promptly proposed that Zhai Rang would take the general and send troops to him. Zhai Rang was overjoyed and agreed immediately. After Pei Renji, who was frustrated in the Wagang Army, learned about this, he was naturally grateful to Li Mi, and his butt position naturally became more and more proactive towards Li Mi.

"Remember that our dispatch of troops is not perfunctory, but to really attack Hanoi Chen Yingliang and Li Yuan, and will never let Li Yuan not fight. We will attack us first. We must take this opportunity to take over Hanoi, threaten Luoyang, and take the initiative in strategy. When Chen Yingliang sends troops to deal with Li Yuan, we will enter Dongdu again, and Luoyang is within our ability." This is Li Mi's clear explanation to Pei Renji.

Next, it was soon the turn of Hanoi to complain. The rebels of Li Yuan had just explored 30,000 to the west and came to the Zhe Pass. The east and the east reported that Pei Renji led 20,000 troops to advance to customs clearance. The east and west were in a hurry. Meng Shanyi, the commander of Hanoi, and Dugu Wu, were in a hurry and were in a hurry. The civil prefect Liu Xie was even more frightened and trembled. He had to join forces to jointly seek emergency response to Dongdu in the south and requested the eastern capital Luoyang to send reinforcements to the north to help Hanoi resist the rebels' attack.

Chen Sangliang's life was not easy, because during the Battle of Hulao Pass, the big and small thieves in the Central Plains took the opportunity to rise. More than a dozen counties around the eastern capital Luoyang had already become a mess, and countless thieves of all sizes emerged. Most of them had never heard of the name Chen Sangliang. Although these thieves did not have the courage to go deep into Henan County to seek death, they kept fighting around Henan County, causing trouble for Chen Sangliang, and created a large number of refugees and victims to flock to the relatively peaceful Luoyang. Although these refugees provided Chen Sangliang with enough sources of soldiers, they became irregular time bombs in the eastern capital, which was very difficult to deal with.

The surrounding thieves and chaos in the Dongdu court can pretend to be ostrich and turn a blind eye, but the Dongdu court cannot care about the big troubles in Hanoi, especially the Hanoi party reported that Li Yuan's rebels and Li Mi's thieves both threatened to meet at the city of Hanoi and jointly seize Luoyang. In addition, some people deliberately spread rumors and exaggerated the threats of the two thieves' troops to the eastern capital Luoyang. The Dongdu court, led by Yang Tong, was even more worried and had to discuss the matter on the morning of August 17th and discuss the issue of sending troops to rescue Hanoi.

Of course, Chen Sangliang could see at a glance that Li Yuan and Li Mi, the couple who were colluding, just wanted to restrain themselves, and also publicly pointed out in the court that Li Yuan's real goal could not be Dongdu but Daxing. But the problem is that these two side troops of the bandit army were not feint attacks, but real attacks with real swords and guns. If Hanoi was not saved, this strategic land might really fall. Therefore, although Yang Tong, Yuan Wendu, Duan Da and others felt that Chen Sangliang's analysis was reasonable, he still proposed that he had to send troops to Hanoi to ensure the safety of the northern line.

Chen Sangliang sent some new recruits to deal with the matter casually, but as the Dongdu left behind, Chen Sangliang could not ignore the safety of Dongdu. At the same time, if Hanoi really fell, Dongdu was in a hurry. If he wanted to send troops to rescue Guanzhong, Yang Tong would probably not be so easy to get in a hurry. With no choice, Chen Sangliang could only ask Yang Tong to give him a day to consider and decide how to deal with it the next day. Yang Tong agreed. After the court dispersal, Chen Sangliang immediately summoned his accomplices and asked them to help him figure out how to deal with this situation.

First, he told the accomplices very clearly that he could only send some new recruits to the north to reinforce. Chen Sangliang asked Yiyu to speak freely. Fang Xuanling first said: "Brother, I only send some new recruits to deal with perfunctory things. I am afraid it is difficult. Li Yuan's purpose is very obvious, to attack Hanoi and restrain you. If you don't go to Hanoi personally, Li Yuan's rebel army's partial division will never stop attacking. Brother Yu speculated that Li Mi's purpose should be to take advantage of the opportunity you need to be wary of Li Yuan and seize Hanoi to take the initiative. So if we don't show our strength, Li Mi's thief army will definitely not slow down the offensive."

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After hesitating for a long time, Chen Sangliang, who had no choice but to do anything, made up his mind and nodded, "Okay, I'll let Liu Changgong lead 10,000 troops to fight Duan Zhixuan. You serve as a staff officer, give you a thousand elite soldiers, a regiment of serving the country, and a hundred musketeers. Then send Liu Heita to you, but you must promise me something."

"Brother, please give me instructions." Pei Xingfang answered quickly.

"No matter what the victory or defeat is," Chen Sangliang said word by word: "You must come back alive."
Chapter completed!