The embarrassing performance and slow progress of the main force of the Sui Army in the critical battle was like a shot in the arm, which finally boosted the morale of the Taiyuan Army. It gave the Taiyuan Army officers and soldiers who had been losing consecutive battles and almost despair for the first time the hope of victory, and also gave confidence and confidence. Courage returned to the officers and soldiers of the Taiyuan Army, so when Li Jing led his army to Lengquan Pass on the third day and launched a tentative attack on Lengquan Pass, he was not only easily repelled by the Taiyuan Army as a matter of course, but also defeated the Taiyuan Army. Once again, morale and confidence were boosted. In fact, the attack launched by Li Jing was entirely for the purpose of firepower reconnaissance of the Taiyuan Army's defensive deployment, fortification weaknesses, long-range weapon coverage and shooting blind spots. The Taiyuan Army's actual gains were only 30 to 40 people, against a total force of more than 80,000. For the main force of the Sui army, it was not even considered a casualty. However, seeing that all the soldiers in his army were beaming with joy and cheering continuously inside and outside Lengquan Pass, Li Jiancheng ordered to reward the soldiers guarding the pass and set up a battle in the camp outside Jiexiu City. A celebration banquet was held in the middle to celebrate the first victory in guarding the pass with his subordinates - after all, morale can be boosted but not let down. Of course, Li Er, who was still the honorary right commander of the Taiyuan Army, also attended the banquet. Although he did not participate in the battle to defend the pass, Li Er also had his own channels to know the true situation of the battle at Lengquan Pass. Therefore, at the banquet, Li Er said On the contrary, he kept congratulating his brother on his victory, but there was always a sarcastic smile in the corners of his mouth and eyes, and he sneered at his brother's words and deeds that made him look fat. That is to say, Li Erkou was not attentive. Generally speaking, the mood of other civil and military officials of the Taiyuan Army was quite exciting. Several people pointed out, "I have long heard that Chen Yingliang's traitor is most afraid of fighting a tough battle. Now it seems that this rumor is definitely true. He can barely attack." In the next three small fortresses, which were only guarded by one school, more than a thousand people were killed by Chen's army. Today when they attacked Lengquan Pass, Chen's army didn't even have the courage to attack the city. We used strong bows and crossbows to defeat them. The trebuchets were immediately repulsed. It can be seen that the Chen thieves are extremely afraid of attacking hard battles. As long as our army resolutely adopts the correct strategy of holding the wall without fighting, the left commander will definitely be able to drive away the Chen thieves and defend the enemy from the country's gate. Outside! " "Lengquan Pass is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but the key is that we can't have problems internally!" Taiyuan Army veteran Yin Kaishan pointed out: "Chen Thief is treacherous and difficult to conquer when encountering a famous city like Xiongguan. There are a lot of tricks, including bribery, false surrender, and sneak attacks, and they use all kinds of deception, abduction, and theft! We suffered such a big loss when we were in Daxing. Chai Shaopifu betrayed the Xuanwu Sect, which caused our army to be defeated without a fight! , This time, we must learn a lesson and never give Chen Ze the same opportunity again, and we must never believe any of Chen Ze's sweet words and inducements. " "What the old general said is absolutely true, and it should be so!" Li Er! Along with the Taiyuan Army Civil and Military Officers, Li Er agreed in agreement, and then Li Er added in his heart, "It's all nonsense! What you said means you didn't say it!" With a sneer, Li Er paid attention to observe his brother's expression, and saw that although Li Jiancheng was also older, He raised his head, but his expression was not exciting, and he obviously did not agree with Yin Kaishan's correct nonsense. As Li Er continued to sneer, Li Jiancheng also raised his eyes to look at Li Er, and said to Li Er: "Second brother, our army Although today's small victory boosted morale, it did not damage the main force of the bandit army. The bandit army will definitely launch a larger-scale attack on Cold Spring Pass in the future. In your opinion, can our army be able to stop the bandit army? "Brother, if you can't stop it, why don't you have to stop it?" Li Er replied calmly: "Unless brother, you want to change your strategy and put Chen Thief's army into the hinterland of Taiyuan, using Taiyuan as a support and fighting against Chen Thief. We must engage in mobile warfare and constantly harass the Chen bandit's food route. Otherwise, our army can only defend Lengquan Pass with all its strength to keep the enemy outside the country. " Li Jiancheng was silent. In fact, Li Er had already proposed this. Li Jiancheng persuaded Li Jiancheng to lead the main force to retreat to Taiyuan, and let Li Er lead a partial division as a guerrilla army to continuously harass the Sui army's food roads and engage in guerrilla warfare. However, Li Jiancheng did not adopt it due to various considerations, and was determined to hold on to Cold Spring Pass and wait for the water attack fighters to appear. Reluctance to use the second brother's risky tactics - we cannot say who is right or wrong between Li Jiancheng and Li Er. In fact, both tactics have hope of success, but also have their own shortcomings and dangers. Li Er and Li Jiancheng are not in the same opinion, and it is completely It's because the two brothers have different military styles and habits. It was getting late at this time, and a powerful enemy was in front of him. Li Jiancheng did not dare to let the generals gather for drinks all night long. When he was about to let everyone disperse, unexpectedly, a soldier suddenly came in from outside the tent and sang to Li Jiancheng: " Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief on the Left, our patrol officers captured a craftsman on the mountain road and found a letter from his body, which was written to the Commander-in-Chief on the Right." After that, the soldier also praised the letter to him. of the head. "Sure enough, it's here!" Before the soldiers had finished speaking, the Li family brothers and the Taiyuan Army civil and military forces had already laughed out loud. Yin Kaishan also said with a smile: "I was really not wrong. That traitor Chen Yingliang met Lengquan." It was difficult to get off the pass, and as expected another trap appeared.The shameless trick of cheating is still his best tactic of alienation. It's a pity that the governor on the left is not Zhai Rang, and the governor on the right is not Li ¡± Speaking of this with a smile, Yin Kaishan realized that he had used a very inappropriate metaphor and quickly shut his mouth - it was rumored that Li Mi was forced to kill Zhai Rang by Chen Sangliang's alienation plan. Fortunately, Li Mi was forced to kill Zhai Rang. Neither Li Jiancheng nor Li Er paid attention to his gaffe, and Li Er turned to Li Jiancheng and smiled: "Brother, Thief Chen must have come to report to you that I am ready to sacrifice Cold Spring Pass, do you believe it? " "If someone else said that Erlang you were ready to surrender, maybe I would believe it for my brother's sake. Li Jiancheng said with a smile: "But what Chen Yingliang said, I can only listen to it the other way around." " Everyone in the Taiyuan Army laughed together, saying that this was exactly what happened. What Chen Sangliang said, who has a reputation in this regard, is indeed most correct only if you listen to it in reverse. Amid the laughter, Li Jiancheng took over the soldiers with a smile The letter was presented, but Li Jiancheng's smile froze on his face as soon as he glanced at the envelope, and he blurted out: "Feng Deyi! Why is this a letter written by Feng Deyi to his second brother? ! " The laughter in the Chinese army's tent stopped abruptly. Li Er also raised his head in surprise and asked, "Feng Deyi's uncle's letter? Not from Chen Yingliang? " Li Jiancheng showed the envelope in his hand and let Li Er see that it was clearly written with the words "my nephew Li Shimin and Feng Deyi" on it. Then Li Jiancheng asked again: "Second brother, since this letter is written by Uncle Feng to you, Yes, how about you take it and see for yourself? " Li Er thought about it for a while, and then replied: "Let's ask my brother to do it for me. Although Uncle Feng had many contacts with my younger brother before, I heard that he had betrayed Yu Wenhua and defected to the traitor Chen Yingliang. He is now the traitor Chen. Sincerely, my younger brother is under the melon fields and plums, so it would be better to ask my elder brother to do it for him. " " Then you're welcome as a brother. " Li Jiancheng was really not polite. He immediately opened the letter sealed with fire paint and took out the letter written by Feng Deyi and read it. However, after only reading a few sentences, Li Jiancheng's face became very solemn, and his expression became serious. He became more and more serious, and finally couldn't help but glance at Li Er. The Taiyuan army officers and soldiers who had been observing Li Jiancheng's expression secretly thought that something was wrong. Li Er was inevitably a little worried and couldn't help but ask: "Brother, What happened? What did Master Feng say in the letter? " Li Jiancheng didn't answer, nor did he give the letter to Li Er to read. After thinking about it in silence for a moment, Li Jiancheng suddenly looked at Li Er and asked: "Second brother, you were the one who told me about brother's water attack plan. From Deyi? " "What? Li Er was so surprised that he screamed: "Brother, did I tell Feng Deyi about your plan to attack the water?" Whose nonsense is this? I haven't seen him for at least three years! How to tell him? " "Water attack? What water attack? "At the same time, many Taiyuan soldiers and civilians were surprised - because of their loyalty and close relationships, in fact many Taiyuan soldiers and civilians did not know that Li Jiancheng was planning to use floods to clean up Chen Sangliang and the main force of the Sui army. And Yin Kaishan , Zhang Lun, Zhang Daoyuan and other important officials of the Taiyuan Army all changed their faces, and they all exclaimed: "Does Thief Chen already know that we are preparing to attack with water? " Li Jiancheng didn't answer anyone's questions, but kept carefully observing Li Er's emotional reaction. Although he never saw any flaws, Li Jiancheng knew very well that this younger brother was more powerful than him, and his acting skills were far better than his own. He was outstanding, so Li Jiancheng was still a little hesitant. After thinking about it for a while, Li Jiancheng handed the letter to Li Er. When Li Er quickly took it and looked at it carefully, his pretty face quickly turned into a livid color. The content is as follows: "My dear nephew of Shimin, I, Feng Deyi, have received the letter you wrote to my uncle last time. Thank you for reporting to me that that bastard Li Jiancheng built a dam upstream of Wenshui River to flood me. Jun, uncle, now I don¡¯t have to worry about feeding the fish in a daze, and I am still in the limelight with His Highness Prince Tang. His Highness the King of Tang said that although there was some grudge between him and you, and you had broken trust with him, he could even forgive your brother-in-law Chai Shao several times, not to mention that you still redeemed yourself this time and took the initiative to express your gratitude to me. Did the army report your damn brother¡¯s water attack and poison plan? If you are afraid that he will care about those things in the past and you dare not contact him directly, please ask your uncle to report it on your behalf. In fact, there is no need! No need to! " "So you can rest assured to kill your eldest brother Li Jiancheng. As long as you kill Li Jiancheng and surrender, His Highness the King of Tang will not only forget the blame, but also make you a county prince, the general manager of the march of Hebei Province, and let you take Taiyuan soldiers and horses to do it. Luo Yi, Dou Jiande, Bo has a wife and a shadow son, and he will be a prince for generations. His Royal Highness, the King of Tang, is true to his word and follows the law. You can rest assured. By the way, one more thing. The messenger you sent to deliver the message accidentally broke his leg in the mountains, so I had no choice but to select one of your old troops from among the prisoners of war to deliver the message. Your uncle Feng Deyi. ¡± After reading this extremely vicious letter, Li Er simply strangled Feng De to death.The old uncle's thoughts were lost, and he laughed angrily: "Okay! Okay! The traitor Chen Yingliang did everything possible to harm me. He even moved Feng Deyi out. This old man just wanted to please him." The new master is also hardworking and loyal! I'm afraid he is not as loyal to Yang Guang as he is to the traitor Chen Yingliang!" After saying this, Li Er immediately knelt down on one knee to Li Jiancheng, cupped his fists and said, "Brother, I can do this to you! God swears, I never sent anyone to contact old man Feng Deyi, nor did I reveal your brother's water attack plan to him! If I tell you any lies, heaven and earth will not tolerate you!" "Of course I can trust you," Li Jiancheng nodded. Then he asked doubtfully: "But how did Chen Yingliang know that our army was going to attack with water? Even among our army, only a very few people knew about it. How did Chen Yingliang know about it?" Yin Kaishan and Zhang Daoyuan When the expressions of several insiders changed, they hurriedly bowed together and swore that they would never leak this important plan. Then Yin Kaishan said cautiously: "Commander Zuo, have you learned about Chen Yingliang's traitor through careful investigation?" Li Jiancheng was suspicious. Without saying anything, Li Er suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said: "Brother, could it be leaked from my brother-in-law? He also knows about your plan and was unfortunately captured alive by Chen's army on the Lingshi battlefield. They may report this to the rebel army. ""Absolutely impossible!" Li Jiancheng waved his hands flatly and said seriously: "The rebel army carefully planned that one or two fish had slipped through the blockade of our army and reported the news to Chen Yingliang. I still believe that Duan Lun is absolutely impossible. With his temper, he would rather die with the main force of the thieves than reveal a word to Chen Yingliang! " Li Er closed his mouth, feeling somewhat resentful. He thought secretly: "Listen to your tone, do you trust Duan Lun, your brother-in-law, more than you trust me, your biological brother?" After analyzing for a long time, he couldn't find the point. When he believed that his second brother could not surrender to his love rival, Li Jiancheng could only It was temporarily thought that the Sui army had a chance to detect Li Shentong's dam building on the upper reaches of Wenshui River, and had a chance to get through the tight blockade of the Taiyuan army and bring the news back to Lingshi. Will get up. However, Yin Kaishan raised a new question and asked: "Captain Zuo, since the traitor Chen Yingliang already knows that our army is building a dam on the upper reaches of Wenshui River, he must be prepared. It is difficult for our army's water attack to be effective. But What should we do next? No matter how strong the Lengquan Pass is, if the rebels continue to attack at any cost, if something goes wrong at the pass, it will be even more difficult for us to escape intact. " Li Jiancheng's face turned gloomy again. Li Jiancheng also knew very well that Lengquan Pass could not be defended forever. The purpose of holding on to Lengquan Pass with all his strength was just to wait until the flood season came when Wenshui and Fenshui surged together, and then he would open the dam and release the water to kill the main force of the Sui army in one fell swoop. Now the Sui army Now that preparations have been made, the water attack will definitely have little effect. If something goes wrong at Lengquan Pass, the Taiyuan Army will have no natural danger to defend. It will definitely be harder than climbing to the sky to withdraw all the troops to Taiyuan City, which is hundreds of miles away. ! ¡ª¡ªThe current number of cavalry of the Sui Army is extraordinary. Without the support of the Turks and because Liu Wuzhou robbed the horse farm and cut off the salt horse road, the Taiyuan Army's cavalry is very pitiful, and there is absolutely no possibility. Block the pursuit of the Sui cavalry! It would be absolutely easy for the Sui Army's cavalry to cut off Li Jiancheng's return route before the main force of the Taiyuan Army retreated to Taiyuan City! When Li Jiancheng was thinking about this issue, Li Er was of course also thinking about how to deal with this sudden change. As a result, after thinking about it, Li Er couldn't help but show a little joy, because Li Er suddenly discovered that Li Jiancheng was forced to accept The possibility of his plan to defend against the enemy has greatly increased. This is the only way for our army to protect the army when it falls at Lengquan Pass and face the Sui army's pursuit! Under the secret joy, Li Er hurriedly went to see Li Jiancheng secretly, but found that Li Jiancheng was looking at him. He was so frightened that Li Er quickly lowered his head and thought to himself: "You can't be happy at this time, otherwise it will only arouse suspicion." Li Er's reaction was slightly A little slower. In fact, the flash of joy on his face did not escape Li Jiancheng's eyes. Thinking about Li Er's previous firm opposition to his enemy strategy and his disobedience, he was kind but definitely not kind. Li Jiancheng, who was in trouble, inevitably had a question flashing through his mind, "Did the second brother really deliberately leak my water attack plan to brother Ying Liang in order to take charge of the army and let me hand over the military power to him? Forced I adopted his plan to defend against the enemy, but also forced me to hand over the military power to him?" The question flashed in his mind. Li Jiancheng, who knew well the character of his other good brother Chen Sangliang, tried to calm down and stopped. He continued thinking along this line of thought, and then said to everyone: "Let me think twice about how to defend against the enemy next. In short, we must not give up at Lengquan Pass. I will make up my mind as soon as possible about how our army will go next." Li Er Along with the Taiyuan army's civil and military personnel, they responded together.?, and then Li Er pondered in his heart: "The forgery of Chen's letter to frame me shows that he is determined to get rid of me. Not only is he likely to have other tricks next, but when Lengquan Pass can no longer be defended, Thief Chen will never miss the opportunity to kill me in the pursuit. With my brother's suspicion of me, he will definitely force me to lead the army to the rear and let me die in vain. How should I deal with Thief Chen's rearguard? How to escape from Thief Chen's pursuit?"