After listening to Fang La's words, Si Xingfang lowered his head sadly. He was from the south of the Yangtze River. Now he is following Fang La to the Central Plains. When will he be able to return home?
Fang La knew Si Xingfang's thoughts, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the Wagang Army is the most powerful in the world. With their help, we will fight back to Jiangnan soon."
"What about the young master and the young lady?" Si Xingfang couldn't help but ask.
"Jie'er, I have sent someone to inform him. I believe that with his ability, as long as there is no accident, it will not be a problem to break through the encirclement. It's just Baihua..." Fang La suddenly looked gloomy, "Judging from the current battle situation, she is very good. She may have fallen into the hands of the Sui army and passed false information to us. With my current ability, it is impossible to save her. I can only hope that she will be lucky!"
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At the same time that Fang La planned to go to the Central Plains to join Li Mi, a big change was taking place in Wagang Village, which laid a deep foundation for the future demise of Wagang Village.
Since Li Mi joined Wagang Village, they have won consecutive battles, ambushed Zhang Xutuo, and lured Pei Renji to surrender. Although Pei Renji suffered heavy losses when rescuing Xiao Xian, the Wagang Army's advantage in the Central Plains remains unchanged.
Two months ago, Wang Shichong's troops, which had been in confrontation with the Wagang Army for a year, were finally defeated by Li Mi. Wang Shichong only led thousands of remaining soldiers to retreat to Hanjia City. During the Sui Dynasty, Wei Jin, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, Wang Bian, the Huben Lang general, and Fei Qingnu, the brave general, were all killed in the battle. Li Mi took advantage of the situation and led an army to occupy Jinyong City. The force quickly grew to 600,000. Chen troops lined up at Beimang Mountain and headed south to threaten Shangchunmen. Sui generals in Yanshi, Baigu, Heyang and other places led their troops to surrender one after another.
When dealing with the surrendered Sui army officials, Li Mi comforted them with kind words, ordered them to perform their duties, strictly enforce military discipline, and beheaded those who committed murder, which made his prestige rise day by day, far surpassing that of Zhai Rang. At this time, Li Mi had become the veritable lord of Wagang, but many important generals in the Wagang army, such as Xu Shiji, Shan Xiongxin, etc., still respected Zhai Rang, the old lord of Wagang.
Zhai Rang was a rough man. He didn't even realize that his existence had seriously threatened Li Mi's rule. Not only did he not know how to restrain himself, but instead relied on his kindness to Li Mi to promote his cronies and openly declared: "Without me, where would it be?" Will there be Duke Wei?"
What intensified the conflict between Li Mi and Zhai Rang was Zhai Rang's elder brother Zhai Hong, who was uneducated and extremely greedy and lustful. He used his younger brother Zhai Rang's identity to rob women, plunder money, occupy fertile land, and committed all kinds of evil.
After Li Mi went to Wagang, he strictly enforced military discipline and killed more than a dozen of Zhai Hong's close associates who were working for him. Zhai Hong hated Li Mi and tried to persuade Zhai Rang, "Brother, you are confused! There is only one emperor, how can you give up to him?" What about others! If you don’t want to be the one, you can let me be the one!”
There was also Zhai Rang's confidant Wang Ruxin, who privately persuaded Zhai Rang to take charge of Otsuka, command all officials, and take back the power from Li Mi's hands.
These things reached Li Mi's ears without exception, which made him quite annoyed. After repeated persuasion by his confidants Fang Yanzao, Zu Junyan, Xing Yiqi and others, Li Mi finally made up his mind to eradicate Zhai Rang.
When everything was ready, Li Mi pretended to have a banquet with wine and invited Zhai Rang, Zhai Hong, Zhai Mohou, Pei Renji and Hao Xiaode to join the banquet. Zhai Rang didn't know what the plan was, so he went to the banquet openly. During the dinner, Li Mi ordered all the soldiers to go out of the camp to serve, leaving only a few to serve here.
Fang Yanzao said to Li Mi again: "It's freezing cold. Can Wei Gong reward Situ's retinue with some food and wine?"
Li Mi nodded, "Yes!"
After Zhai Rang heard Li Mi's words, he did not move, but looked at Zhai Rang who was sitting at the table.
Zhai Rang laughed and said: "Wei Gong rewards you with food and wine, you go quickly!"
After everyone heard Zhai Rang's words, they all walked out of the tent.
Seeing this scene, Li Mi became more determined to eradicate Zhai Rang.
After drinking for a while, Li Mi suddenly smiled at Zhai Rang and said: "Zhai Situ, I have come here to get a few good bows, and I can hit the target with hundred shots. I wonder if Zhai Situ is interested?"
Zhai Rang is a warrior and has always loved magic weapons and horses. When he heard what Li Mi said, he immediately nodded and said, "The Bow of Duke Wei must be a genuine product in the world. How can Zhai not take a look at it?"
Li Mi immediately ordered someone to get the bow. After a while, he saw a guard as strong as a bear bear walking slowly into the tent holding a big bow.
Zhai Rang was startled and turned to look at Li Mi, "Wei Gong, who is this strong man? He looks so brave!"
Li Mi stroked his beard and said: "This strong man is Cai Jiande, Gu's personal bodyguard. He is indeed a unique skill. The bow in his hand is even more extraordinary. It was presented by Yang Qing, the king of Xun, the month before last. It is said to be Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty." The gift is a five-stone strong bow, I wonder if Situ Zhai dares to try it?"
Zhai Rang laughed and said: "Since Wei Gong said so, then I will show my shame!" He took the big bow from Cai Jiande, weighed it carefully and said: "It's only four stones and five buckets, let me try it!"
After saying that, he was so angry that he took a bow stance. He held the bow arm with his left hand and placed the bow string with his right hand. The muscles in his arms swelled, and his waist also inflated instantly. He roared: "Open!"
The bowstring was gradually pulled back by him, and just now Manchu suddenly heard Cai Jiande roaring from behind, "Zhai Rang, the traitor, suffer death!"
With a "pop" sound, Zhai Rang's skull rolled to the ground. His big eyes were as wide as bells, as if he still didn't understand what happened!
"Li Mi, how dare you kill my brother!"
Zhai Hong shouted, drew his sword and rushed towards Li Mi. Uncle Wang flew out of the banquet and flashed the arrow in his hand, only to see a flash of cold light. Zhai Hong was killed on the spot.
At the same time, Fang Yanzao led hundreds of soldiers and rushed into the tent with shining weapons, slashing and killing Zhai Mohou, Wang Ruxin, Hao Xiaode and other Zhai Rang's confidants.
Although Zhai Rang is no longer the lord of Wagang, he still has a lot of prestige among the Wagang army. When the news of his death came out, many Wagang generals were not ashamed of Li Mien's act of revenge and ran away angrily.
The most important one is Xu Shiji, the former third leader of Wagang Village. After hearing the news of Zhai Rang's death, he immediately led his direct troops to leave Beimang Mountain, occupied Liyangcang, formed his own army, and announced his absence. Follow Li Mi's orders.
In addition to Xu Shiji, Wagang generals Luo Shixin, Xie Yingdeng, Wang Junke, and Niu Junda also left angrily. Luo Shixin and Niu Jinda went to Jingxiang to defect to Qin Qiong, while Xie Yingdeng and Wang Junke went to Guanzhong to defect to Li Yuan. The former brothers of life and death parted ways.
