With a word that woke up the dreamer, Hong Chengchou suddenly realized, did he take himself too seriously?
When the Turks and Jurchens surrendered to Youzhou Army, they were led by An Lushan, Shi Jingtang, Shi Siming and Wu Sangui. He was just a small general, how could he win the attention of His Majesty the Sui Emperor?
After thinking about this, Hong Chengchou's eyes began to brighten, and he nodded and said: "What General Li said is that His Majesty is so wise today, how can he ruin the reputation of the Emperor for you and me?"
Seeing Hong Chengchou's reaction, Li Ling immediately suggested: "In this case, Mr. Hengjiu, why don't you and I take advantage of the night to mobilize our troops and go to submit to His Majesty?"
Hong Chengchou frowned and did not answer.
"Is it possible that Sir is worried that we will be stopped by the Turkic patrol outside?"
Li Ling still said in a low voice: "If this is the case, sir, you can rest assured. In fact, except for the two brothers Zhang Hongfan and Zhang Yuanna, the other generals are not willing to work for the Turks anymore. People like He Zhebie can't stop us at all."
Hong Chengchou raised his eyebrows slightly, but this time he didn't cry out again. According to the current situation, these colleagues who followed Shi Jingtang, An Lushan and others to surrender to the Turks should really think about their retreat.
Only people like Zhang Hongfan and Zhang Yuan would follow the Turks all the way to the dark side. These two people didn't know what was going on. They were obviously Han people, but they seemed to have great hatred for the Han people. They started killing people on the battlefield. More ruthless than the Turks.
"Hong is not worried about being intercepted by the Turks, but he is thinking that even if His Majesty does not hold us accountable for the crime of subjugating thieves, it will inevitably be affected by this in the future. Since we want to return to the Sui Dynasty, we must bring this to the Sui Dynasty. Cleanse the traitor’s name!”
Hong Chengchou said with a firm face that this was actually his heartache. Historically, Hong Chengchou worked so hard to wipe out the Nanming Dynasty. In the final analysis, it was the second ministers thought in his heart that caused the trouble. He gained a reputation as a good bird choosing a tree to roost. Unfortunately, in the end, his Manchu masters did not buy it and incorporated him into the second ministers. pass.
But now, the Sui army is powerful, and Temujin is about to be expelled from Youzhou. After Hong Chengchou was clicked by Li Ling, his heart became active again.
Before he defected to the Turks, he was just a small general. At that time, Shi Jingtang and An Lushan, several generals with military power, were determined to follow the Turks, and he had no choice but to do so.
If he could make great achievements and return to the Sui Dynasty at this time, perhaps he would be praised by the world as a loyal man who endured humiliation and endured heavy burdens, was deeply trapped in the enemy camp, and returned to the Sui Dynasty with his heart.
"General Li, since the soldiers are no longer willing to sacrifice their lives for the Turks, in Hong's opinion, it is better to gather the brothers and give the Turks a hard blow inside, cooperate with your majesty's army inside and outside, and defeat Temujin's army. Camp, this can also clear the past sins of our Youzhou soldiers."
"good!"
Li Ling was also worried that even if Yang Gao didn't care about his previous crime, he might not care about it in his heart, which would affect his future career, so he immediately nodded in agreement.
"In this case, I will work hard for General Li to contact reliable soldiers in the past few days. Remember, you must be careful to beware of double-minded people, especially the Zhang brothers."
Li Ling nodded heavily, expressing his full distrust of the Zhang brothers.
The two of them discussed it and settled down. After Li Ling returned, he contacted several other generals of the Youzhou Army and secretly began to purge the disloyal people under his command. At present, the Youzhou Army has defectors every day, and the loss of dozens of people every day does not attract much attention at all.
Hong Chengchou took the excuse of wandering around the Turkic camp, carefully noted down the defense situation of the Turkic camp, and drew a map, carefully marking the various bright and dark posts, observation posts, hidden camps, antlers to block horses, horse corridors, food, grass, and weapons. Stock up on points.
A few days later, Li Ling took this defense plan and the blood letters of many generals in Youzhou to kill thieves. Taking advantage of the darkness, he relied on his extraordinary martial arts to avoid the Turkic cavalry outside and arrived at the Sui army camp.
At the same time, the Sui army. Han Xin defeated Zhao Kuangyin's partial division blocking the road, and the two Sui armies successfully joined forces. The strength of the army had reached 300,000.
Yang Gao then left Zhang Xun in charge of Zhuo County and personally led an army of more than 200,000 people to the north, vowing to completely drive the Turks out of Youzhou.
Li Ling presented the defense plan and the blood letters of Youzhou generals. Yang Gao did not hesitate at all. While he ordered Li Ling to be taken down to rest, he also ordered people to invite important civil and military officials such as Yue Fei, Han Xin, Liu Bowen, Fang Xuanling, and Chen Ping to discuss the matter.
After reading the defense plan and the blood letter, several people exchanged glances and nodded to each other.
Among the people, Chen Ping, who had the lowest official position, was the first to speak: "Your Majesty, your Majesty promised in front of the battle in the past that, except for Shi Jingtang and other bandit leaders, the rest of the soldiers will not have previous crimes. According to the current situation, the officers and soldiers of the Youzhou Army are willing to contribute to the Sui Dynasty. It makes sense.”
"In this defense map, there is nothing wrong with the distribution of Turkic troops and the key locations. I think this map is real when I see it." Yue Fei analyzed it from a military perspective.
Han Xin said: "The Turks have been defeated in consecutive battles. Now the total strength of the entire army is less than 100,000. Our army is twice that of the thieves. Even if the Turks set up an ambush, they will never be our opponent in a decisive battle. Our army As long as you are careful, there is nothing to fear even if you pretend to surrender?"
Yang Gao had no doubts about Li Ling's surrender. But when Li Ling said that Hong Chengchou had conspired with him, Yang Gao couldn't help but feel a thump in his heart. In history, after Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he did not care at all about the kindness shown to him by the former Emperor Chongzhen. He made suggestions for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, suppressed and massacred the anti-Qing rebels, and killed many loyalists who supported the Ming royal family.
But after thinking about it, Yang Gao finally understood. What is Hong Chengchou's biggest weakness? He cherishes his life. As Fan Wencheng said, Hong Chengchou cherished his clothes very much, not to mention his own life.
Today's situation is different from that of the late Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, court officials formed cliques and constantly attacked each other. Peasant armies in various places continued to have uprisings, and all the elites from the nine sides who could fight were basically defeated. Moreover, the official Hong Chengchou at that time paid homage to the Governor of Ji Liao. With his official position and reputation at the time, once the surrender was cleared, the matter would surely spread throughout the country, and there would be no way for him to look back.
And now Hong Chengchou is just an unknown general. According to the current situation where the Sui army has the upper hand, he may not follow Li Ling and return to the Sui Dynasty.
Furthermore, as Han Xin said, the total strength of the Sui army was twice that of the Turks. In the face of absolute strength, as long as they were careful, the Turks had no chance of overturning.
After thinking this, Yang Gao no longer hesitated, immediately stood up and said: "The Youzhou soldiers are thinking about the Sui Dynasty. This is a good opportunity for our army to defeat the thieves. Come and ask Li Ling to come over!"
