During the preparations for the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan, Chen Sangliang made another important military action decision.

Ma Sanbao, deputy general manager of the Western Route Army of the Sui Army, reported to Chen Sangliang that Li Gui, who claimed to be Liang Emperor, had a water in his head. He believed that a Hu wizard who believed that the first year was flattering, believed that God would drop a jade girl from the sky for him. He wasted the people and the money. He set up a jade girl platform in Liangzhou to wait for the goddess to come. As a result, the goddess did not come and famine came first. The main purpose of joining Xue Ju to attack Pingliang was to grab food to alleviate the urgent need. After the failure, the famine in the land was even worse. Ma Sanbao and Jiang Mo basically took over Xue Ju's territory and saw a rare opportunity, so they took advantage of the spring plowing approach to Li Gui, not seeking to defeat Li Gui, the purpose was just to delay the farming season in the land controlled by Li Gui's army and not give them the opportunity to plant smoothly.

Not bad, driven Xue Ju's surrender to his subordinates as the vanguard, Ma Sanbao successfully broke the Jincheng Pass and came to Huining, an important grain-producing area of ​​Wuwei County, and forced Li Gui to send troops to rescue Huining delayed the farming season. At the same time, the Hu forces under Li Gui also took the initiative to contact the Sui army, expressing their willingness to act as an internal support to help the Sui army kill Li Gui. Ma Sanbao himself was proficient in Hu language, and his deputy He Panren was simply a Hu people. After learning, it was found that these Hu people were not a fraudulent surrender, but were indeed dissatisfied with Li Gui's brutal rule. In order to re-drag the Silk Road and facilitate business, Ma Sanbao felt that the opportunity was rare, so he sent a memorial to Chen Sangliang, asking Chen Sangliang to allow him to launch a full-scale war against Li Gui, waiting for an opportunity to eliminate Li Gui and restore the five counties of Xiliang.

Although he was very vigilant about the Hu forces, considering that once the already remote Xiliang counties escaped from the central government for too long, they would definitely give foreign races more opportunities to infiltrate and invade. Chen Sangliang still agreed to Ma Sanbao's request and appointed Ma Sanbao as the chief marching commander of Xiliang Road, allowing him to launch the Western Expedition, strengthened his troops and provided food and grass supply, and entrusted all the Xiliang war to his oldest accomplice.

In addition, Chen Sangliang accepted the volunteering of An Xinggui, an official from Daxing, and sent An Xinggui, who was born in a wealthy family, back to Wuwei to act as a spy, and asked An Xinggui to pretend to escape back and call the police to Li Gui, deceive Li Gui's trust, and then took the opportunity to instigate Li Gui's subordinates to kill Li Gui. - If this matter is done, Chen Sangliang will of course give An Xinggui a high-ranking official. If not, Chen Sangliang will posthumously grant An Xinggui a posthumous title. Everyone trades fairly and do not take advantage of An Xinggui.

Li Gui's affairs can basically end here. Li Gui, who is restricted by climate, environment and resources, is destined to not be able to cause too much storm and waves, and it is not worth Chen Sangliang's much concern at the moment. What Chen Sangliang is most concerned about at the moment is the situation of the war on the Que Rat Valley battlefield. But what Chen Sangliang didn't expect before was that the development direction of the Que Rat Valley war would be completely separated from his previous estimates and expectations, and it might even disrupt his overall plan to fight against Taiyuan.

Chen Sangliang's previous order to Liu Heita was to bluff, creating the illusion that the main force of the Sui army could launch an attack on Taiyuan at any time, causing the Taiyuan army to enter a state of full combat readiness too early and exhaust the enemy. The twelve pig iron cannons that would explode after ignition by ignition were only props used to intimidate the Li brothers. But what Chen Sangliang never expected was that because of a small coincidence, his bluff plan actually took a completely different track, which led to the Sui army in Huoyi and Li Er fighting in advance, and then recruiting the main force of the Taiyuan army, opening the prelude to the decisive battle between the main force of the Taiyuan army and the Sui army in Hedong.

Judging from reports from various light and dark channels, Chen Sangliang found that Liu Heita was also involuntarily in this matter. It was entirely because Li Er had the idea of ​​fighting counterfeit artillery first. He abandoned artillery and forced the Taiyuan Army to fight attrition with Huoyi Sui Army. At the same time, Liu Heita also reported his plan to Chen Sangliang, and decided to use his own military strength to first fight with the main force of the Taiyuan Army, and to consume their combat power more effectively, so that the main force of the Sui Army can fight better and easier in the future when the Northern Expedition. To put it bluntly, it is to sacrifice oneself to make the overall situation, and let the Sui Army in Hedong bleed and sweat first, so that the main force of the Sui Army will shed less blood and sweat less in the future.

The younger brother suffered and tied his head to his belt to fight to the death, so that the boss could easily pick up the bargain in the future. When the boss naturally liked such a younger brother, Chen Sangliang also liked Liu Heita's loyalty. But Chen Sangliang's liked him did not mean that Chen Sangliang's other younger brothers liked him. As a result, he quickly climbed to the position of commander-in-chief of the Hedong Military Region like a rocket. Liu Heita was already extremely jealous. Now Liu Heita disrupted Chen Sangliang's Northern Expedition plan, causing many Sui army soldiers to die in the battlefield of the Queshi Valley. The complaints and strange words against Liu Heita naturally appeared no matter what, and insinuated Liu Heita's incompetent accusing Liu Heita of being ineffective in doing things and causing the soldiers. Official documents and letters that said casualties also began to appear on Chen Sangliang's desk.

Chen Sangliang knew very well whether Liu Heita could do things. Chen Sangliang knew whether the fallen soldiers in the Battle of Bird and Rat Valley were in vain. He ignored these sour documents. But what happened next made Chen Sangliang unable to pretend to be invisible or inaudible.

The situation seemed very critical. Huo Shiju, the veteran general of the Sui army, and the deputy general of the marching army of Hedongdao, jointly reported that the Taiyuan army general Yin Kaishan led his army south to attack Yangxian and Yueyang in the central part of Linfen County. The two counties were in an emergency. Huo Shiju had to protect Linfen City, which had a large amount of food and grass, and did not dare to risk sending troops to rescue him. He could only ask Liu Heita for orders. However, Liu Heita directly replied to Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi, saying that there was no need to save these two counties. The Taiyuan army could just go and get it if they like it!

Before the matter was over, Liu Heita directly instructed the two counties to fall. Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi also reported an even more amazing thing. They heard rumors that Liu Heita was afraid of being held accountable by Chen Sangliang because of the unfavorable war in the Queshi Valley. He was surrounded by the main force of the Taiyuan Sui army and had no hope of breaking through. He was afraid of life and death and secretly contacted the Taiyuan army to surrender, preparing to sacrifice Huoyi City to the Taiyuan army for life!

The report of Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi naturally shocked the decision-making level of the Sui army. Chen Sangliang could no longer continue to act deaf and remained dumb. He could only express his opinion in front of a group of civil and military departments, saying that he believed that Liu Heita would never do such a thing. All of this was just the shameless disagreement of the Li brothers. He also expressed his support for Liu Heita's decision to abandon Yangxian and Yueyang. With Chen Sangliang's current strength, he had long since no one had to stick to the gains and losses of one city and one place. If he lost Yangxian and Yueyang, he would take it back in the future. It is worth losing two small counties for the time being to be as stable as Mount Tai.

The most disgusting thing is the plan of disagreement, which is the same for the Sui army. After hearing Chen Sangliang's statement, someone quickly spoke: "Your Highness, the King of Tang, Liu Heita, a general surrendered by the thief army, is capricious. Now he is trapped in the lonely city and is alone in dealing with the main force of the thief army in Taiyuan. In the unfavorable war, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not surrender."

This comment attracted a lot of echoes. Even Changsun Wuji, who is now working in the Inner History Province, dared not take it lightly and reminded him: "Your Highness, people's hearts are separated from each other. Liu Heita has not followed you for a long time, and he is not your old man..."

"Stop!" Chen Sangliang finally caught a punching bag and roared at his brother-in-law: "What old old men are not old men? In your opinion, then I, the Prime Minister's Mansion of Tang, can only use my civil and military department when I was in Qiao County? You count yourself. How many civil and military officials in my prime minister's mansion can follow me longer than Liu Heita? Do I not even trust them and want to drive them out of the Prime Minister's Mansion?!"

Changsun Wuji, who was unlucky to be the target of the arrow, shut up obediently. Qu Tutong, Du Ruhui, Pang Yu and Sun Fujia and other new lackeys who were far less experienced than Liu Heita were all moved. Fortunately, he followed Chen Sangliang, a generous boss who was employed without doubt. Chen Sangliang snorted again, and then said to everyone: "My husbands, I know you have good intentions, but I can guarantee you that Liu Heita will not have two hearts. He is not such a person! If I treat him as a national soldier, he will also repay me with a national trainer!"

Everyone shut up and did not dare to remind Chen Sangliang to beware of Liu Heita's rebellion, but he was still a little dissatisfied. Chen Sangliang also knew everyone's thoughts very well, but Chen Sangliang was speechless - Chen Sangliang could not tell everyone that he was a time traveler, saying that he had known what kind of personality Liu Heita had long ago?

Although the people can use authority to suppress everyone's doubts about Liu Heita, the possible dangers in the Hedong battlefield cannot be ignored. Even Li Jing, who had not spoken before, said: "Your Highness, the main force of the Taiyuan Army has been moving south in large numbers, and the entire Linfen county is in an emergency. We can no longer stick to the previous Northern Expedition plan. We must make certain adjustments. My ministers believe that it is best to send an army north to Linfen immediately to reinforce the Linfen county to ensure the safety of our military supplies and food, and appropriately restrain the main force of the Taiyuan Army, share some pressure for General Liu Heita, and avoid further deterioration of the situation."

"My dear too." Pang Yu also said quickly: "If there is any mistake in Linfen, Jiangjun will inevitably be in a hurry. Yu Wen and the one stationed in Hanoi will definitely take advantage of the situation to rob our army, making our army more passive. Please order the order to lead the army north to Linfen to rescue the two generals Huo Shiju and Liu Heita."

Pang Yu spoke, Qu Tutong and Li Jing immediately volunteered to lead the army north to reinforce Liu Heita. Chen Sangliang calculated for a while, but shook his head and said, "I have to send a reinforcement for Liu Heita, but there is no need to bother you to take action personally. You have all had the experience of commanding troops alone. This battle is just a partial army to restrain it, not a decisive battle with the Taiyuan thief army. Sending you there would be too much use. I mean, let Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong lead the army north, and I will also cultivate their ability to stand alone so that they can make great use in the future."

Considering that there were indeed not many prizes in this battle, Pang Yu and Qu Tutong closed their mouths, Li Jing did not insist, and nodded considerately and said: "What Your Highness said is that it is time to give General Cheng and General Qin a chance to command troops alone. They are both around 30 years old and strong. Now they are trained, so your Highness will be of great use in the future."

Speaking of this, Li Jing paused and smiled and said, "However, I guess both of these generals want this opportunity. You may not be able to decide who you give this opportunity."

"It's okay, let them decide for themselves." Chen Sangliang replied with a smile: "If they all want to go and no one wants to let anyone, then let them decide who will go, it's okay to compete, it's okay to draw lots, and whoever is lucky will go."

While everyone laughed, Chen Sangliang ordered Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong to summon him and announced his decision to them, asking them who would be willing to lead 10,000 troops north to help Liu Heita. As expected, Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin were indeed rushing to go together, and they both wanted to lead the troops alone to fight a war. Even if the brothers and friends refused to give in, Chen Sangliang decided to compete for the military commander without having to speak up! Fortunately, Chen Sangliang changed his mind again, afraid that the two generals would accidentally get hurt, so he decided to use the lottery to determine the commander. Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin applauded together, and then couldn't wait to pray to the gods and Buddhas and beg for him to win.

The result of asking God and worshiping Buddha was that Qin Qiong had a better character. He was the position of the reinforcements as the chief general of the reinforcements this time. Although Cheng Yaojin was willing to accept the loss and did not cheat, he was so regretful that he screamed. Chen Sangliang smiled and comforted, saying that he would give Cheng Yaojin the same chance to compensate in the future. He also ordered Qin Qiong to immediately prepare for the dispatch of troops and arranged for Qin Qiong to lead the army north to assist Liu Heita in two days.

In fact, Chen Sangliang was more willing to let Qin Qiong play the main general, because Qin Qiong not only had richer experience in battlefields than Cheng Yaojin, but also had a more brain-heavy personality in warfare, and it was less likely to suffer losses in front of the treacherous Li brothers. Therefore, after sending Qin Qiong to lead the army north, Chen Sangliang no longer had much concern about the situation on the battlefield in Linfen. He focused on handling internal affairs and tried to prepare everything he should prepare so that he could have no worries when he led the main force north, and at the same time he was waiting for news of joining the warlords around Taiyuan.

The news came first from the Liang Shidu, who was closest to the capital, Liang Shidu agreed to accept Chen Sangliang's order and command, and sent troops to attack Lishi County controlled by the Li brothers for Chen Sangliang. After the matter was completed, Lishi County was returned to Chen Sangliang. At the same time, Liang Shidu generously sent people to escort the envoys who contacted Chen Sangliang and Liu Wuzhou to Mayi, and showed some sincerity to Chen Sangliang - but the condition was that Chen Sangliang must make him the King of Liang after the matter was completed. Chen Sangliang considered that the Liang Shidu was quite strong and threatened his old lair to Daxing, so he agreed to Liang Shidu's request. Liang Shidu was overjoyed, in addition to agreeing to send troops at the same time as the main force of the Sui army, he also immediately handed over the envoys sent by the Li brothers to ask for help to show his sincerity.

Then there was news from Liu Wuzhou. Liu Wuzhou agreed to help Chen Sangliang capture Loufan County and Yanmen County. The conditions offered were to be granted the title of king and to obtain land in Yanmen County. At the same time, soldiers were sent to escort another envoy of Chen Sangliang to Yan County to contact Luo Yi. Chen Sangliang bargained and agreed to make Liu Wuzhou the King of Dingyang, and rejected Liu Wuzhou's land request. There was no reply for a while after the letter went north. Therefore, it is not yet possible to determine whether Liu Wuzhou would stab the Li brothers in the back at that time.

Luo Yi's side is farther away, and it is even more unlikely to receive news in a short period of time. Fortunately, Luo Yi had a record of a messenger who treated Chen Sangliang well. Refusing to accept Chen Sangliang's pleading was an excuse to hang alone in Hebei surrounded by enemies and dare not become the target of public criticism. Therefore, Chen Sangliang estimated that even if Luo Yi would not send troops to help him attack the eastern part of Taiyuan County, it would be unlikely that the Li brothers and him would be embarrassed.

Although the hope is slim, because he likes Dou Jiande very much, Chen Sangliang still gave Dou Jiande a chance to reform himself. He sent envoys to Linming to contact Dou Jiande to seek resoluteness. He sincerely appointed Dou Jiande as King of Ji and asked Dou Jiande to send troops to attack the Li brothers. At the same time, Chen Sangliang also specially arranged for Xiao Shou, the second son of the Great Xiao Guojiu, to serve as an envoy, so that Dou Jiande knew his magnanimity and disregard for past grudges.

As a result, Chen Shouliang found that he was slapped in the face again by Dou Jiande, and this time he was much more severe than last time. After more than ten days of Qin Qiong sent troops, Yuan Zicai, the prefect of Shangdang who was first subdued and surrendered to Chen Sangliang, sent someone to report that Dou Jiande had 20,000 troops invaded Shangdang County. At the same time, Xiao Shouye also returned to Daxing with Yuan Zicai's messenger. He wiped tears and said that he was not only flatly rejected Chen Sangliang's pacification and enthronement, but also scolded himself for being bloody and put it in a prison car to Shangdang and handed it to Chen Sangliang's subordinates, not giving Chen Sangliang a great face.

In addition, Dou Jiande also wrote a reply letter to Chen Sangliang. In the letter, Dou Jiande was very arrogant and appointed Chen Sangliang as a minor official in the market management of Linming, telling Chen Sangliang not only to send troops to help the Li brothers, but also to conquer Daxing and capture Chen Sangliang back to Linming to see the vegetable stall, so that Chen Sangliang would return to the glorious years of picking vegetables and leaves for a living.

After reading Dou Jiande's reply, Chen Sangliang couldn't help but get furious even though he had a good temper. He didn't understand what medicine Dou Jiande took wrong, and why did he have to be unable to get along with him? In a furious manner, Chen Sangliang immediately ordered Shangdang and Linfen to send orders, requiring them to closely monitor Dou Jiande's army's movements and order Qin Qiong to ask him to try to lure the enemy, find a way to hook Dou Jiande across the Taihang Mountains and wait for death in Linfen County!

Then, Chen Sangliang soon discovered that he had done something stupid. On the first day of April, when Chen Sangliang was still preparing to send troops to the northern expedition in the second half of the month, Li Jing, who was named Minister of War, suddenly rushed into the Wude Hall, and delivered a report with a chicken feather to Chen Sangliang with a nervous expression, saying, "Your Highness, Linfen's urgent report is bad news."

"Bad news?" Chen Sangliang was stunned and said in surprise: "What happened in Linfen City? It's impossible. Didn't Qin Qiong's reinforcements have arrived in Linfen City long ago?"

"It's not that something happened in Linfen City, it's General Qin Qiong." Li Jing said bitterly: "General Qin and the bandit army Yin Kaishan fought in Yueyang. Although he won the field and defeated Yin Kaishan to retreat to the city, Dou Jiande's partial army Wang Fubao suddenly broke out from Hechuan. General Qin led his army to fight, but unexpectedly suffered a defeat and suffered a great loss. Yin Kaishan took the opportunity to send troops to the army? General Qin was forced to retreat to Linfen."

Chen Sangliang's mouth was so open that he could stuff two eggs into it, and he screamed and asked, "Qin Qiong was defeated? How is it possible? How many troops does the enemy have?"

"I didn't dare to believe it just now." Li Jing replied with a wry smile: "How many troops are the enemy? You may not dare to believe it after talking about your highness. There are only three thousand troops!"

"Three thousand troops?" Chen Sangliang couldn't believe his ears again and said in a daze: "How is it possible? Qin Qiong would be defeated by others with less?"

"General Qin Qiong was caught in the enemy's arrogant military plan." Li Jing replied with his head down: "When the bandit army fought with General Qin, he fled into the mountain road, and deliberately collapsed and dispersed and no longer had the power to fight back. General Qin was caught in the trap when he was careless, thinking that the enemy had been defeated and was not too careful. General Wang Fubao, the general of the bandit army, took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack at the fifth night, and personally led 300 elite soldiers wearing the uniforms of our soldiers and suddenly entered our camp. His other subordinates also beat drums and yelled in the mountains to scare our army. Our soldiers did not know how many enemies we came, and they could not distinguish between enemies and us in the dark curtain before dawn. They were killed by the bandit army. When the bandit army brigade came, our army lost the power to fight back."

After saying that, Li Jing added, saying, "Also, General Qin also discovered that Wang Fubao's military strength was actually about 10,000 people, and he deliberately led only 3,000 troops to advance first, just to show the enemy's weakness and make our army underestimate the enemy's carelessness."

Chen Sangliang stood there in a daze and was stunned. After a long time, he cursed, "What is this Wang Fubao's origin? He is so cunning, even Qin Qiong can be fooled by him!"

"Your Highness, have you never heard of Wang Fubao's name?" Li Jing asked in surprise, and said, "This Wang Fubao is a famous general under Dou Jiande. He fought many important wars during Dou Jiande's growth. Don't you know?"

After careful recollection, Chen Sangliang found that he had indeed seen Wang Fubao's name in a detailed report, and he also vaguely remembered that he had won many victories under Dou Jiande's command, but because he had never seen this person on TV or on books in the 21st century, he had never paid attention. Li Jing from there said again: "Your Highness, when he returned to Dongdu from Mayi, he passed by Hebei, and had some contact with Dou Jiande's army. As far as he knew, Wang Fubao was very grateful to Dou Jiande's soldiers, and had a good reputation among the people. He was a rare talent for generals. Although it was unexpected, it was not too strange."

"There is no matter how talented the general is, it is also Dou Jiande's." Chen Sangliang snorted, but just after he finished humming, Chen Sangliang suddenly remembered something and shouted: "Sun Fujia, hurry up, bring Dou Jiande's detailed investigation report immediately."

While Sun Fujia agreed, Li Jing hurriedly asked the reason again. Chen Sangliang frowned and replied: "I seem to remember this article in our detailed study, saying that Wang Fubao had a bad relationship with his colleagues and was very excluded under Dou Jiande's command. I just don't know if he remembered it wrong."
Chapter completed!