The Sui army led by Li Jing and Cui Shi only numbered 20,000 people, even including the more than 2,000 exhausted troops from Wei Yunqi and the 5,000 troops from A Chi and Qi Bi. However, the enemy troops they captured amounted to a staggering 44,000 people. In addition to the 13,000 people from Murong Yan's headquarters, there were also more than 30,000 Turkic prisoners and surrendered iron soldiers brought by Murong Yan. Lease people's families.
This complex and large number of captives, if used properly, can be a powerful auxiliary force, but Li Jing and Cui Shi do not have the courage and foolishness of Yang Ji to directly activate the surrender army and win a beautiful victory.
They knew that in addition to Murongbei, the enemies they were about to face would also include Turks. In order to prevent the prisoners from rebelling during the battle, they decided to select Tiele, who hated the Turks and had recently surrendered to Murongbei, from among the prisoners. After the soldiers They urgently identified and screened, and finally selected only 6,000 qualified warriors.
The rest were taken to the Xianbei Prairie by Master Cui, the governor of the Moxi Governor's Mansion. After the Northern Expedition ended, they moved from the Xianbei Prairie to Liangzhou.
In order to prevent the prisoners from mutinying collectively, Li Jing adopted the method Yang Ji used to deal with the Turkic soldiers, and imprisoned the generals in one place to distance them from the ordinary prisoners. Without these leaders to take the lead, the tens of thousands of prisoners would They are nothing to fear but a pile of scattered sand and a flock of sheep.
However, out of caution, Li Jing still guarded these generals with slightly higher military positions separately to prevent them from gathering together to discuss ways to escape or cause trouble.
"That big man is Che Leliao?" Li Jing and others entered the camp where the general was imprisoned. From a distance, they could see a tall man with his hands and feet tied, sitting on the ground and cursing the Sui soldiers guarding them. .
Shi Huaiyi, who was responsible for guarding the prisoners, quickly replied: "It's him!"
"Well, he is indeed a reckless man." Li Jing smiled and nodded. This Che Leliao was huge. Even among a group of generals sitting on the ground, he felt like he stood out from the crowd and was very easy to recognize. .
"What I want is a reckless man. Such people are easier to scheme with." Ling Jing smiled slightly and said to Li Jing: "General Li, ask Murong Yan to find some Tongluo officers, and then without alerting them, I put them together pretending not to know, and I want to reveal some information to them."
"But it's up to Ling Sima to make the decision." Li Jing sent someone to find Murong Yan. As for how Ling Jing planned to plot against Che Leliao, he didn't want to care about it, and he didn't have the time to care about it.
Because although Murong Yan was defeated, the two armies of Murong Bei and the Turks were like a huge stone weighing on Li Jing's heart. He could not afford to delay for a quarter of an hour. He had to arrange generals for the six thousand prisoners selected overnight.
Only by arranging all the generals, big and small, can we completely control this army in the shortest time, rush to join Yang Ji in the shortest time, and ensure that this army will not rebel in future battles.
As for Master Cui, the burden on his shoulders is no lighter than that of Li Jing. After all, so many prisoners are under his management. If he handles them improperly and arranges them poorly, he will definitely eat them to the bone.
The two of them explained for a while and then left.
. . . . . . .
The time has entered the early summer of the first year of Daye, and even the nights in the Great Lakes District have lost the chill of spring; the night is getting darker, and the light of torches and bonfires flickers in the night wind.
Many Sui soldiers had already settled in their tents to rest, but more soldiers were sitting in small groups chatting by the campfire, talking about the tragic bloody battle in Bailangyuan, especially the bravery shown by the Qiang soldiers in this battle. The fierceness and fighting spirit caused the Sui soldiers to sweep away their previous contempt and contempt; instead, they were filled with sincere admiration and respect.
There were also some surrendered soldiers selected by Li Jing who spontaneously sat by the campfire. However, compared to the excitement and pride of the Sui soldiers, these surrendered soldiers who were worried about their fate seemed relatively dull.
A drunken Sui military lieutenant carried a leg of lamb and a bag of koumiss to the bonfire where several surrender soldiers gathered, and ordered in Turkic: "Give this roasted leg of lamb to that Cheleriao." , give him another bag of milk wine."
The surrendered soldiers stood up after hearing the words. When one of them saw that he had a face of the same race, they took the leg of lamb and milk wine, and bravely asked: "Why do we give special treatment to Che Leliao?"
"What the hell do you know?" The captain burped and looked at the soldiers from the Tongluo tribe with drunken eyes: "In our Great Sui Liangzhou Army, some soldiers are Tiele people, and some soldiers are People from the Murong tribe. Why did Murong Yan try so hard to persuade you? The reason is that King Wei had a concubine named Murong Xianyue, who was Murong Bei's niece...well, she seemed to be Murong Yan's sister. As for whether it is true or not, I don't know for sure. But this Che Leliao is Murongbei's confidant general, so naturally we should give him special treatment."
The surrender soldiers were surprised and doubtful when they heard this, but when they thought of the overly enthusiastic Murong Yan, they became dubious. A clever surrender soldier put on a smile on his face and asked in a flattering manner: "We really don't know this. General, give us a good talk!"
"Hiccup! Let me tell you..." The captain was so drunk that he couldn't speak clearly, but he spoke in an orderly manner. Once he started talking, he couldn't stop talking, but the content was full of his own glory. These soldiers were confused after hearing the past events.
"We already know the general's achievements." The clever soldier stared at the drunken captain and pretended to be unhappy and said: "It's just that you mentioned King Wei's attitude towards the Sui people, the Tiele people, and the Sogdians. It’s the same, then why do you give special treatment to that Che Lelia?”
"Alas!" The captain sat up, lying on his side by the bonfire, supporting his head with one hand, and said with a mysterious face: "I am also a Tiele person. When I see you, I feel particularly kind. Some of you I can tell you what I said, but you must not spread it to me!"
The surrendered soldier sat down, patted his chest and assured: "General, just say it, we Tiele people value our commitments the most."
"Hey, I only found out about this after accidentally listening to what General Li said." The captain looked around carefully and lowered his voice: "Where is Murong Bei? He was raised up by King Wei. They are all from our Sui Dynasty and have not betrayed our Sui Dynasty at all. Haha, is it surprising?"
Before anyone could ask, he closed his eyes and said to himself, "Anyway, I was quite surprised."
"Really?" The surrendered soldier held his breath, looked at him carefully, and lowered his voice: "General, this seems impossible, right? After all, many people died in Sui Dynasty in this battle. If King Wei still regards Murong Bei as one of his own, isn't he afraid of the objections of his soldiers?"
The captain said contemptuously: "Hey, you are still too young and don't know the importance of things and the ways of playing games at the top. Uh, by the way... what's your name?"
"Merde!"
"Mode, right? Let me tell you, this Murong Bei is certainly insignificant, but he pretended to surrender to the Eastern Turks on the order of the king, and has successfully penetrated into Qimin Khan's internal affairs. When I, the Sui Dynasty, will defeat the internal forces of the Eastern Turks, , But! Qimin Khan still doesn’t believe in him, so we fought this battle. The more brutal the fight is now, the more Qimin Khan believes in Murong Bei." The captain glanced at Mo De proudly, He continued: "Tell yourself, compared with the easy annihilation of the powerful Eastern Turks, what is the sacrifice in front of you? If it were you, would you do this?"
"I..." Although Merde is clever, his level is too low. How can he know the conspiracies between countries, and how can he know such a grand strategy? At this moment, I combined the meaning of the captain's words, Murong Bei's rise, and Murong Yan's performance today, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
"I'm telling you! Murong Yan's defeat was actually planned by both parties." Seeing that this person believed his words, the captain dropped another bombshell, which stunned the surrendered soldiers.
"Planned?" After a long while, Merde woke up from the shock. He looked at the captain in disbelief: "General, did you say that all this was planned in advance?"
"Nonsense, think about it, General Wei only has 10,000 people, but Murong Yan originally had 50,000 or 60,000 people. Even if these people stand and let our soldiers kill them, they won't be able to kill them all in a while. If Murong Yan didn't do it intentionally, they How could it be defeated so quickly?" The captain chuckled and continued: "Murong Bei's army is composed of three parts. In addition to his army, there are also the Pugu tribe and the Tongluo tribe, but these two tribes are not very strong. Obedient, Murong Bei was worried that after he surrendered to the Eastern Turks, Pugu Chong and Tong Luo Mo would directly surrender to Qimin Khan, which would ultimately ruin our good deeds in the Sui Dynasty, so he used the help of General Wei to consume Pugu Chong and Tong Luo Mo. Now that the armies of Pugu Chong and Tong Luo Mo are finished, as long as Pugu Chong and Tong Luo Mo are solved, Murong Bei can directly lead the armies of Pugu Chong and Tong Luo Mo, and then Surrender the Eastern Turks boldly and confidently!"
Merde was completely confused. He said incredulously: "The general means that the Sui army's march north this time is actually to deal with the Eastern Turks. The purpose of weakening the Pugu and Tongluo tribes is to make Qimin Khan Do you believe in Murong Bei, and secondly, help Murong Bei eliminate hidden dangers?"
The captain laughed and said, "It's really clear at one point. It's not in vain that I think so highly of you."
Moder said dumbly: "How is this possible?"
"How is it impossible?" The captain glanced at Mo De dissatisfied and said angrily: "If Murong Bei hadn't ventilated his anger in advance, how could the king and General Li Jing have trusted Wei Yunqi to fight this battle? Do you really think that a soldier Can an unknown person stop an army of tens of thousands?"
He smacked his lips and continued: "Why did the king and General Li Jing let Wei Yunqi be the original commander of White Wolf? They gave him the credit for nothing. Why did they give him the credit for nothing? Because he is the prince's clan brother, because he is the prince People. As for the prince’s face and orders, the king and General Li Jing have to give and obey."
"This, this, this is too, too scary, isn't it?" Moder and others were completely frightened, feeling that the Sui people's ability to calculate people in roundabout ways was too powerful and terrifying.
If this is what the captain said, then the Sui Army's Northern Expedition was an out-and-out conspiracy, and Wei Yunqi's 10,000 Sui Army soldiers in this conspiracy, like the soldiers of the Pugu tribe and the Tongluo tribe, were all from the Sui Dynasty Used to deal with the victims of the Eastern Turks. The Sui Dynasty's goal was not the small Great Lakes area at all, but the Eastern Turks east of Dujin Mountain.
Thinking of this, everyone felt horrified.
"This is what is true in the art of war. What is false is true, what is true is false, what is false is true... Hehe..." The captain smiled awkwardly. It was a rare occasion for him to pull the text, but unfortunately he only remembered this, and said instead: "It's actually enough for us to have Murong Yan. The other generals were not prepared to arrest him at all, but they didn't know about this plan, so they also surrendered... Sigh, we have to find a way to put them back tomorrow, which is really troublesome. "
Mod asked: "Isn't Murong Yan dead?"
The captain asked back: "Did you see his head?"
"That's not true! Everyone said yes, so we also believed it." When Mod said this, he already understood in his heart. He knew that Murong Yan was still alive, and the head used to recruit them to surrender was a fake.
He looked at the captain who seemed to be sleeping, and couldn't help but ask again: "General, how are you going to release him?"
"It's simple!" The captain opened his eyes, yawned, and stood up and said, "According to our rules, we will send a few people to deliver a message to the enemy, telling the enemy general that your army has been defeated. As long as this When the news spreads throughout the army, the enemy's morale and morale will be greatly reduced."
Morde smiled reluctantly and said: "That's it! Thank you General for your advice."
"Okay, you guys send the leg of lamb and milk wine over to Cha Li. He is a powerful general under Murong Bei. We, General Li, take him very seriously." The captain staggered and left humming a tune.
"Mord, what should we do?" Seeing the captain leaving, several soldiers asked in a low voice.
Although Merde is young, he is the most assertive person among this group of people. He thought for a moment and said: "We must find a way to inform the chief, otherwise we will die without knowing."
"But there are Sui soldiers around, how can we escape?" a soldier said in embarrassment.
"I'll take the opportunity of delivering food to ask General Cheler!" Moder shook the leg of lamb and milk wine in his hand and walked towards the place where the prisoners were held.
"What are you doing?" Several Sui soldiers walked out of the darkness and stood in front of Mod.
Mod said: "It was one of your generals who asked me to deliver the leg of lamb and milk wine to General Cheleriao."
The leader of the fire chief said: "Go."
"Thank you!" Merde bowed and walked towards the small tent where Che Lelia was being held.
Che Leliao's mouth was dry from scolding and his belly was hungry. At this moment, he suddenly saw the youngest centurion in his hand walking towards him, holding a fragrant leg of lamb and a bag of wine. Not only did he not feel happy, Instead, he was quite angry and asked loudly: "Mod, are you surrendering?"
"I surrender!" Moder knew that his general had a loud voice, so he held up the leg of lamb. At this moment, when he saw Che Leliao opening his mouth and preparing to curse, he stabbed the leg of the lamb into his chest with quick hands and eyes. Mouth, although Che Leliao rolled his eyes when he stabbed him, he was more afraid that Cheleliao would alert the Sui soldiers outside, so he whispered: "General Chele, I said it was a lie to surrender to the Sui Army. I just heard A piece of information related to the life and death of our Tongluo tribe. In case the Sui soldiers outside become suspicious, I will say this and you will listen."
He was so anxious that he didn't care whether the general could bear it or not. He just took a little breath and then told the news he had heard.
Che Leliao was doubtful at first, but as time went by, the expression on his face became more and more angry. If he hadn't been stabbed in the mouth by Morde, he would have cursed.
"General, you are happy to scold us, but once the Sui army soldiers hear this, they will definitely kill us. It doesn't matter if we die, but if the chief doesn't know about this conspiracy, our entire tribe will be ruined!" Merde watched. Che Leliao, who was struggling and trying to speak, frowned and said, "As long as you promise me not to scold, argue, or struggle, I will pull it out."
Che Leliao nodded repeatedly, indicating that he would not scold, argue, or struggle.
Seeing this, Merde slowly pulled out the leg of lamb.
Che Leliao retched for a while, suppressed the anger in his heart, gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice: "I have long said that Murong Bei is an insidious villain, don't believe him. But the chief just refused to listen, and was so stupid. Following his orders, so many warriors died innocently in battle!"
He lost his temper and then asked: "When you get this news, you should try to run to the chief! What's the use of coming here?"
"No!" Merde shook his head: "The Sui army guards us very tightly and we can't escape. That's why I came to find you. Only you have the ability to leave."
"Are you stupid?" Che Leliao looked at the cowhide ropes binding his hands and feet, then looked at the Sui soldiers hanging around, looked at Mod with some pity, and whispered: "You can't even run away like this. , How can I run away like this? Are you kid scared out of your mind? "
"General!" Murder lowered his voice and said quickly: "The Sui general said they would release Murong Bei's generals back tomorrow, but you were mistaken by them as Murong Bei's confidant general, so you are also among the ranks to be released. .”
"That's good!" Che Leliao was happy, but after a while, he frowned and said, "That's wrong!"
"What's wrong?" Moder asked quickly: "What did the general mean when he said something was wrong?"
Che Leliao said in a deep voice: "I am the chief's son-in-law. How can Murong Yan and Murong Yan treat me as one of their own?"
"But your position as Captain of Ten Thousands was appointed by Murong Bei. Moreover, Murong Bei has allowed you to fight abroad in the past two years and helped you establish your own Chele Department." Mod said in a low voice: " What you got from Murong Bei is far more than what the chief gave, so they must think that you have rebelled against the chief."
"That's right." Che Leliao suddenly understood and nodded repeatedly: "We grassland people respect and worship the strong, and the Murong family is the master of the Great Lakes area. They think it is normal for me to abandon the weak and join the strong."
"It's good that the general understands, then I'll leave first." Moder still couldn't help but worry. Cheleriao's bad temper was as famous as his bravery in the Great Lakes area. After walking a few steps, he turned back and confessed: "This leg of lamb and milk wine I’ll keep it for you, I’ll let the Sui soldiers come and feed you, you’ll have a good rest tonight, don’t curse anymore, and have enough energy to run away.”
"I've figured it out. Let's go quickly." Che Leliao urged impatiently.
"Okay!" Moder then walked out of the tent with confidence, said a few words to the soldiers at the door, and left quickly.
In the darkness outside the tent, Ling Jing saw Merde leave and couldn't help but smile. The fish took the bait. Next, he only needs to release Che Leliao tomorrow. When Moder disappears, he and the captain who pretended to be drunk disappear into the night.
Returning to the Chinese army's tent, Ling Jing said to Li Jing: "The bait has been set, and we still need the general's cooperation to finish the play tomorrow."
Li Jing glanced at Ling Jing curiously and asked with a smile: "How do I sing?"
Ling Jing said: "Just transfer Murong Yan and Murong's generals away."
"Looking at Sima's determined look, the plan has been completed, right?" Li Jing asked with interest.
Ling Jing nodded and said: "As long as the step is completed tomorrow, we can sit back and watch the internal strife between Murong Bei and the Tongluo tribe! At that time, we can join forces with the king and take advantage of the chaos to attack."
. . . . . .
Early the next morning, Li Jing summoned Murong Yan and asked him and Shi Huaiyi to lead a group of surrender troops to the Xianbei prairie to transport grain with great fanfare. Almost everyone knows that they left, but few people know exactly what they are going to do.
More than an hour later, Li Jing met Che Leliao in the main tent. He pretended not to know and asked, "Are you General Che Leliao?"
"It's me." Che Leliao saluted and answered in half-baked Chinese.
"He is really a strong man. No wonder Murong Khan considers him his confidant." Li Jing praised him, and then said to him with a pleasant look: "Murong Khan is a great man of our time. His sincerity and his loyalty to the Sui Dynasty are ours. I have received it. But now the war against the Eastern Turks is about to begin, and our troops are still less than Ashina Qilifushe, so there is no room for carelessness. In order to prevent accidents from happening, my king said: As long as he offers his servant's bones, With the head of Tongluomo, the saint will allow him to establish the Xianbei Khanate on the land of Eastern Turks in the future. After you return, please bring this message to Murong Khan."
"Yes, I will definitely bring the original words." Che Leliao was afraid that Li Jing would see the murderous intent and hatred in his eyes, so he bowed his head deeply and saluted.
"Come here, send General Che Le Liao out of the camp." Li Jing stood up and walked to Che Le Liao's side, patted his shoulder, and said with a smile: "Send my regards to Murong Khan for me. On the day of success, I, Li Jing, Lead his horse to the saddle for him, and boast about his achievements in prospering the city!"
"Yes!" Che Leliao responded in a dull voice, and then followed the two soldiers straight out of the camp. At this moment, he wished he could use his wings to rush to Tong Luo Mo in the shortest time, and tell Tong Luo Mo about the shocking conspiracy of the Sui Dynasty and Murong Bei, so that he could prepare in advance.
After Che Leliao walked away, Li Jing asked Ling Jing, who was looking down: "Ling Sima, do you think this plan can work?"
"Murong Bei is an ambitious man. He first betrayed Bujia Khan, and then relied on the support of the Sui Dynasty to reach his current position. His ambition to replace the Eastern Turks or the Western Turks has long been obvious. I believe that Pujia Khan Both Gu Chong and Tong Luo Mo know this." Ling Jing said with a smile: "At the same time, I also believe that Pu Gu Chong and Tong Luo Mo know that if Murong Bei wants to realize this ambition, he must rely on further support from the Sui Dynasty. In this way , it is reasonable for him to do anything for me, Sui Dynasty. What’s more, he has long wanted to annex Pu Gu and Tong Luo, so I think Tong Luo Mo will fall into the trap. "
Li Jing nodded and said no more.
