Emperor Sui Yang

There are two Changbai Mountains in China. The larger one lies across the eastern part of Northeast China. It is the highest mountain system on the eastern edge of Eurasia. The four major water systems of Songhua River, Tumen River, Yalu River and Suifen River all come from here. This is Changbai Mountain.

In Shandong, there is also a small Changbai, also known as Changzaishan or Changzaishan. This one is much smaller, connecting Zibo, Jinan and Binzhou.

Wang Bo ran into this Changbai Mountain.

Rebellion has always been impossible with the help of mountains. Food does not grow on mountains. The reason why Zhang Xutuo urgently recruited troops was because he received a tip that Wang Bo planned to attack Zouping County north of Changbai Mountain.

The grain comes from the villages below the county seat, but the granary is located in the county seat. How much can you rob the common people?Grabbing the granary is the truth, and then it is the turn of the small landlords in the village.

The current rebel army is already powerful, and more than 1 people have already gone to Zouping County. Wang Bo’s hometown is Zouping County. Whoever has no money will be cleared.

Zhang Xutuo had experience in countering rebellion, and he knew that to capture the thief, the king should be captured first, as long as Wang Bo is killed, the rebel army will be in disarray.

He let out rumors to the outside world, threatening that he would lead an army of [-] and was ordered to catch thieves, and the bewitched civilians would return home as soon as possible and would not be held accountable.

In normal times, these words may still have some effect, but right now, the common people can't live anymore, it doesn't matter whether you pursue it or not.

When he led his army to Zouping County, the county seat had already been breached, all the officials had been killed, and the wealthy businessmen and businessmen had been looted.

The rebels burned, killed, and looted without discrimination, and even killed their own people. Wang Bo is still in the early stage of rebellion and doesn't know how to restrain his subordinates. After all, he is a blacksmith. It would be embarrassing for him to restrain military discipline.

But in history, Wang Bo in the later period was quite organized, because at that time, he had many children from aristocratic families under his command, and the overall quality of his troops was still very impressive at that time.

Illiterate rough people are responsible for killing people, and scholars are dog-headed military advisers, which is standard for rebellion.

Half of Zouping county town had been burnt to rubble. Looking at this scene, Zhang Xutuo felt great hatred in his heart.

However, he marched all the way in a hurry, the soldiers were already extremely tired, and now they needed to rest before continuing to chase the enemy.

"Let's rest here tonight and go to Linji tomorrow," Zhang Xutuo ordered.

His son Zhang Yuanbei has friends in Zouping County, but the house of the other party is still full of black smoke, the fire is still burning, and there is no one inside.

I just heard him say bitterly: "The traitor is hateful, he kills one side, but the few temples in the city are safe and sound, which shows that he is also afraid of retribution."

"This is where the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and ourselves lie," Zhang Xutuo said in a deep voice, "The thieves can do whatever they can, but I can't. Didn't some thieves be caught in the city? How did the interrogation go?"

Zhang Yuanbei smiled wryly and said: "What kind of bandits? They are farmers in the villages near Zouping County. They have no food and follow the king's bandits to do evil. They are popular in the city. They didn't keep up with most of the bandits. When they were caught, they didn't Knowing that Wang Bandit has gone away, I found out something, I heard that Wang Bandit's old lair in Changbai Mountain is no longer there, and he plans to take over the county, Linji County, I'm afraid it will be the next Zouping County."

The banner played by Wang Bo is to follow him to have food. Does Changbai Mountain have food?There are only grass and stones, so after using this excuse to recruit enough people, the next step is to get food.

Zhang Xutuo said in a deep voice: "Show the heads of these people and hang them on the city gate."

After all, he started discussions with other generals.

It is no exaggeration to say that the 5000 people he has now are a mob. A total of 2000 people have weapons, and the rest are farm tools and sticks.

The military mansion of the Sui Dynasty originally stored the ordnance of the soldiers, but the armory of the military mansion was relatively dark, and things were lost every three days. In addition, Zhang Xutuo led troops north to Bohai County to suppress the rebellion, which consumed a lot of weapons. , Most of the treasuries of the Qi County Military Mansion are empty.

For this situation, Zhang Xutuo has nothing to do. If he wants to employ people, he must tolerate their shortcomings, otherwise no one will be available.

The current [-] soldiers are very difficult to restrain in today's difficult situation, so Zhang Xutuo wants to break them up, and the ones in one place and the other can't get together, and they have to be stationed in military schools Wei, responsible for leading this group of people, must be tough in the early stage, killing a few is used to deter others.

What he really relies on is the more than 1000 people in the military mansion. As long as this army is not broken up in a decisive battle, the chances of winning will be great.

It's a pity that Yang Xuangan's part of sending food, he begged several times, but people refused to stay. If these people can help, why would Wang Bo worry about suppressing it?
After resting overnight, Zhang Xutuo led his army on the road the next day.

After walking for a day, on the way, he received news that the king thief had conquered Linji County, but this time, the opponent did not wantonly burn, kill and loot the city, but instead built a city, with the tendency of occupying the city as king.

Zhang Xutuo suddenly felt that something was wrong, and immediately ordered to stop the march.

This is what makes them so powerful. They can fight with 5000 people, but it is not easy to fight in the county.

The key reason is that the siege has always been very costly. If the army is one, it is good to say that at present, his subordinates are all temporarily recruited farmers and scattered people. Once the siege fails, this army will be difficult to control.

Moreover, he was also carrying food, grass and luggage, and the rebels in Linji City were probably also investigating their movements. If he went any further and was caught off guard by others, he would be finished.

So Zhang Xutuo ordered the army to be stationed in the village, and began to build camps and camps, and then sent out sentries to spy on the military situation.

The two sides were so separated by twenty miles, stalemate with each other, only a small-scale fight after the sentinels met, other than that, everything was calm.

But three days later, a person came from Linji County.

Zhang Yuanbei knew this person because he was the follower of Luo Ming, the county magistrate of Linji County, his good friend in Licheng.

"My family's Dalang has been killed by thieves, and Erlang is still in the city. I hope the general will remember his past friendship and go to rescue him," the Luo family entourage cried.

Luo Ming was born in the Luo family in Licheng, and Licheng is the capital of Qi County, so he has a deep friendship with Zhang Yuanbei who has lived in Licheng all year round.

His Linji county magistrate was recommended by Zhang Xutuo.

Now that he heard the bad news suddenly, Zhang Yuanbei was also furious: "Where is the letter hidden?"

"Hiding in a tenant's house in my family, pretending to be his son, escaped for a while," said the follower.

Shixin, Luo Shixin, is 12 years old this year. Historically, he started to hang out with Zhang Xutuo at the age of 14, and made many military exploits.

But right now, his life is very dangerous, after all, there is a line in Wang Bo's catchphrase: Kill the foolish king and dirty officials.

Luo Erlang, the younger brother of the county magistrate, is naturally also on the must-kill list. As for dirty officials, in the eyes of the common people who rebelled, all officials are corrupt officials, so killing them is the right thing to do.

"What's the current situation in the county?" Zhang Xutuo asked.

The entourage said: "None of the wealthy households survived, but there is still a shortage of food in the city. The king thief is constantly sending people to loot the surrounding villages and transport food to the city."

"Can you get in?" Zhang Xutuo asked.

The entourage thought for a while, and said: "In Luxiang in the north of the county, there is my family's [-] mu of fertile land. I have been collecting the rent there. I can pretend to be a tenant there and defect to the enemy army. It should not be difficult to sneak into the city."

Zhang Xutuo pondered for a moment, looked at his confidant Xiong Bao and said:

"You take some people with a Linji accent, go with him, pretend to be tenants and sneak into the city, within three days, find a way to break the bolt of the south gate, set fire to it, and I will lead the army into the city. "

"A lowly post takes orders!" Xiong Bao followed Zhang Xutuo for many years, and was also the secretary of the Hushi Mansion in Qi County to join the army.

Then, Zhang Xutuo said to his son: "Take 200 people and station in Yaokou Village, keep an eye on the direction of the county seat, and rush in when you see the fire horn."

"Okay," Zhang Yuanbei agreed happily.

This is the tacit understanding between father and son, one dares to order, and the other really dares to go.

Right now, Jibei County, which is located in the southwest of Qi County, is also in a mess, but here there is no leader of the rebellion like Wang Bo, most of them are rampant bandits.

But there are too many bandits here.

However, the military mansion of Jibei County has all its troops hoarded in Lu County, the government office, and does not go outside to suppress bandits at all. Cui Luo, the prefect, ordered all counties and townships to guard themselves against bandits.

In Dong'e County, there was a young man named Cheng Yaojin who gathered [-] people and repelled several groups of bandits.

For ordinary people, Cui Luo would not ask the court to reward the other party, because there is no benefit, but Cheng Yaojin is not an ordinary person.

His father used to be the prefect of Dongping County in the south of Jibei County. He has worked there for more than ten years. He used to be the governor of Jeju, but his father has passed away.

His grandfather, his great-grandfather, were all Qichen officials, and his father-in-law was Sun Lu'er, the magistrate of Dong'e County.

The reason why Cheng Yaojin guarded Dong'e City was because firstly, this was his hometown and his family property was in the city; secondly, his eldest son had just been born, so he would not allow his wife and son to have any accidents.

In the current Dong'e City, all the soldiers are under his control, and the old man is about to be emptied by him.

This is normal. When the army is in turmoil, it is the army that has the final say.

Back home, Cheng Yaojin took off the refined armor he had bought through the help of his connections, fondled him fondly for a while, then came to the bedside, raised his son above his head, and laughed loudly:

"Bao Jia, Bao Jia, your grandpa and I are now the Hussar General of the Jibei Military Mansion. In the future, you boy will be able to take over from me."

The eldest son's name is Cheng Chumo. When he was born, it happened that Cheng Yaojin got the refined armor, so he directly gave his son a nickname, Baojia.

His wife Sun frowned and shook her head: "Don't lift him like this, he can't stand your strength."

Cheng Yaojin chuckled, handed his son to his wife, and said with a smile:
"If you don't have any strength, how can you go into battle and kill thieves? Man, you should be born strong and mighty. You have to feed my son well. Baojia will be taller and bigger than me in the future." .”

In fact, Cheng Yaojin was not strong in his early years, that is to say, during this period of time, he frequently fought with bandits, was too tired, and ate a lot. After two months of effort, his muscles had already grown up. They were stiff and looked very formidable. fierce.

His weapon is not a gossip Xuanhua axe, but a horse lance for mounting and a Mo knife for dismounting. He is one year younger than Yang Ming, and within two months, 74 thieves' heads have been accumulated in the army tent.

He is a ruthless person. (end of this chapter)