The news that the Sui army marched into Shanggu County reached Youzhou City a few days ago. This news frightened the officials of Youzhou City. Although they knew that the Sui army would attack Hebei sooner or later, when this day finally arrived, many officials still felt anxious and uneasy.

In particular, the Sui army's attack was not what everyone imagined next spring, but was launched in November, which put the Youzhou officialdom in an inexplicable panic, and everyone began to consider their own way of retreat.

Early in the morning, Wen Yanbo, Sima of Youzhou General Administration, came out of his home in a carriage and drove towards the General Administration. Wen Yanbo was the younger brother of Wen Daya, the Minister of Inner History of the Tang Dynasty. Luo Yi surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and Wen Yanbo played a key role.

Like all officials, Wen Yanbo was also worried about the expansion of the Sui army's power. Whether from Youzhou's strategic position or Yang Yuanqing's personal feelings, Youzhou must be the first target of the Sui army's offensive.

What made Wen Yanbo even more sad was that the Tang Dynasty gave up Youzhou. In the settlement agreement reached between the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was clear that Youzhou was not in the inherent territory of the Tang Dynasty. Although Wen Yanbo also knew that Luo Yi did not really surrender to the Tang Dynasty, at least Luo Yi did a good job on the surface and called himself a Tang minister. All his subordinates called Tang officials. However, the Tang Dynasty voluntarily gave up Youzhou in order to make a ceasefire, but morally lost.

Although the Tang Dynasty appointed Luo Yi as Na Yan, transferred him back to the court to serve as a senior official, and appointed Liu Hongji as the new Youzhou general manager to deprive Luo Yi of his military power, the emperor's intention was very obvious, just to anger Luo Yi, let Luo Yi break up with the Tang Dynasty, and to free the Tang Dynasty from moral embarrassment.

Unexpectedly, Luo Yi saw through the intention of the Tang Dynasty. On the one hand, he wanted to return to the court to report his duties in a high-profile manner, but on the other hand, he was reluctant to set out. This made the Tang Dynasty's Ruyi plan fail. Now that the Sui army is attacking Hebei on a large scale, it is even more impossible for Luo Yi to go back. So what should the Tang Dynasty do? Is it just accused of the Sui Dynasty's attack on Youzhou?

Wen Yanbo was not worried about his own destiny. What he was worried about was that the Tang Dynasty would break its trust in the affairs of Youzhou. Who would dare to surrender to the Tang Dynasty in the future?

The carriage drove across the street, and Wen Yanbo looked at the bustling street through the car window. There were many pedestrians, and many people were carrying large and small bags. Wen Yanbo then remembered that it was less than a month since the New Year. He felt a little strange. The news of the Sui army's attack on Hebei had spread. Do the people in Youzhou still have the heart to celebrate the New Year?

"parking!"

Wen Yanbo gave the order, and the carriage slowly stopped. He pointed at a middle-aged man carrying a large bag and ordered his followers to follow him: "Call that person up to me."

Several followers urged them to step forward and took the middle-aged man to the carriage. The middle-aged man trembled and shouted repeatedly: "Master, I haven't violated any law!"

Wen Yanbo laughed softly and said, "You don't have to worry. I just asked you a few words and didn't say you were illegal."

When the middle-aged man heard that he was just a question, he felt relieved. "What are you going to ask?"

Wen Yanbo pondered for a moment and asked, "Don't you know that the Sui army has begun to attack Hebei?"

"I know, everyone knows that this matter has spread long ago."

"Then aren't you afraid? You're still so excited to celebrate the New Year." Wen Yanbo asked as he stared at the man.

The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head and grinned, "This... do you want to hear the truth?"

"Of course, I want to listen to the truth. Just tell me the truth and I forgive you for not guilty."

The middle-aged man smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, as long as it was not Wei Daoer, no one would be afraid. Everyone said that General Manager Yang was good. He led the entire city of military and civilians to prevent epidemics and saved the entire Youzhou City. Many people are still grateful to him now. And I heard that the Sui Dynasty also had tax exemptions and land distribution, and did not force people to serve in the army. To be honest, everyone is still looking forward to General Manager Yang coming back!"

Wen Yanbo didn't say anything for a long time. He waved his hand and let the middle-aged man go. After a long time, he sighed. The people's hearts were actually looking forward to the Sui army coming, how could they bear it?

"Let's go! Go to the General Administration."

The carriage started and drove towards the General Administration.

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In the Youzhou General Administration, Luo Yi paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, looking worried. He had just received the news that the Sui army captured Shanggu County, and Yang Yuanqing personally led an army of 50,000 to Yi County. Shanggu County was about to become a major support center for the Sui army to attack Hebei, or in other words, a major support center for attacking Youzhou, and then it will use Youzhou as the foundation and then sweep over Hebei.

Luo Yi was very upset. Starting this summer, in order to cope with the upcoming crisis, he expanded his troops desperately, so that his troops reached 50,000. Although it was not as good as Wei Daoer, the whole people had already reached the level of two households and one army, which made the people of Zhuo County, Yuyang County and Anle County under his jurisdiction over the people were resentful.

Fortunately, he still had a lot of his old secrets left by Yang Guang when he was conquering Goryeo, which stabilized the public's anger. What he was most worried about now was that the newly recruited 20,000 people were not trained enough and their morale was unstable. Will the morale collapse like the Wei Daoer army, causing the Sui army to win without fighting? Although this possibility is not great, the strong pressure of the Sui army's eastern expedition still caused Luo Yi to suffer insomnia for several consecutive nights, and the insomnia caused him to feel even more irritable.

Just as Luo Yi was thinking about his solution, a guard reported at the door, "Report to Prince, Sima Wen, please see him!"

Luo Yi nodded, "Please come in."

He tried hard to calm his emotions. He did not want his subordinates to see his anxious mood, which was not good for stabilizing the officials' emotions.

Soon, Wen Yanbo walked into the room and bowed, "See the Prince!"

"Sima, please sit down!"

Wen Yanbo sat down and saw Luo Yi's eyes flushed red. This was obviously caused by continuous insomnia, which showed that Luo Yi was under great pressure.

Before Wen Yanbo could speak, Luo Yi asked him first, "I want to know, what is the people's hearts now? Have you fallen into chaos?"

Luo Yi was worried that the chaos in the people would affect the stability of the morale of the army. Wen Yanbo did not dare to tell the truth to him, so he could only smile bitterly: "The people in Youzhou are still relatively calm now, and everyone is busy celebrating the New Year. My subordinates estimated that the Sui army captured Shanggu County and just wanted to obtain an entrance for eastward expansion. Moreover, they could not leave the hidden danger of Wei Daoer. Yang Yuanqing would definitely get rid of Wei Daoer first. At least they would not attack Youzhou before spring, and the people would not be confused during this period."

"Sima Wen, how likely do you think we are to form an alliance with Dou Jiande?" After hesitating for a moment, Luo Yi finally couldn't help asking in a deep voice.

"Associate with Dou Jiande!"

Wen Yanbo was shocked and hurriedly said, "Dou Jiande is the mortal enemy of the Youzhou army. General Xue died at the hands of Dou Jiande. All the soldiers of Youzhou hated Dou Jiande to the core. If the prince and Dou Jiande form an alliance, how can they explain to the soldiers? The Xue brothers would not agree. Besides, Gao Kaidao has made it clear that he is willing to fight the Sui army's eastward expansion with the Youzhou army. His subordinates believe that there is no need to get involved with Dou Jiande again. Even if it is a stopgap measure, it will arouse the disgust of the soldiers. What does the prince think?"

"I'm just a thought, just say it casually."

In fact, Luo Yi has been considering forming an alliance with Dou Jiande in the past two days. Dou Jiande secretly sent an envoy to meet him a month ago and expressed his desire to reconcile with the Youzhou army. This shows that Dou Jiande also had the idea of ​​joining forces with him to deal with Yang Yuanqing.

It is precisely for this reason that Luo Yi's desire to form an alliance with Dou Jiande in the past two days has become stronger and stronger, but he is worried about being resisted by his subordinates, so he asked Wen Yanbo tentatively. He found that Wen Yanbo was very resistant and did not mention the matter immediately.

But Wen Yanbo knows Luo Yi very well. Luo Yi will never mention this for no reason. He must have had this idea in his mind. Wen Yanbo said earnestly: "Prince, Dou Jiande is a wolf-like ambition. It has been a day or two for him to plot against Youzhou. To a certain extent, Yang Yuanqing is still terrible. Of course, we are the common enemy now, and it may be possible to jointly deal with the Sui army's expansion eastward expansion, but what about the future? Have you ever thought about it? Once Dou Jiande's power enters Zhuo County, I am afraid that we will destroy our people in the future, not Yang Yuanqing, but Dou Jiande."

Luo Yi was meditating and silent. Of course he knew the risks of joining with Dou Jiande. It was just that he could not bear the pressure of the Sui army's expansion eastward expansion. He thought of joining Dou Jiande. Everything has a price. The key is whether he can bear this price.

Seeing that Luo Yi had not completely dispelled the idea of ​​joining Dou Jiande, Wen Yanbo advised him: "Prince, we actually have enough food and hundreds of thousands of deputy soldiers. This is our advantage. We can make full use of this advantage without relying too much on outsiders. Moreover, we have vast land like Zhuo County and Yuyang County. As long as the strategy is right, we can completely resist the Sui army, and the prince does not have to worry too much."

Wen Yanbo's words hit Luo Yi's worries. Luo Yi sighed, "I think my troops are still too few. If I could have 80,000 troops, maybe I could resist the Sui army's expansion eastward expansion. I have weapons and armor and food, but I have no source of troops. Is there any way sir?"

Wen Yanbo smiled slightly and said, "Now there are two months left before the flowers bloom next spring. The prince can make full use of these two months to send people to various places in Hebei to promote, saying that Youzhou is preparing to release large-scale grain and disaster relief. At that time, there will inevitably be a large number of people coming from Hebei to collect rice. Isn't it easy to recruit 30,000 troops from these people?"

Luo Yi was overjoyed. This was a wonderful method. Why didn’t he expect that the entanglement in his heart for a few days suddenly became clear. He kept saying, “That’s it! I want to provide disaster relief immediately.”

Wen Yanbo also said: "While we are providing disaster relief, we also need to stabilize Yang Yuanqing and tell him that there are too many hungry people in Hebei and we are appeaseing the victims. I think the Sui Dynasty will not risk the world's worst. When we are providing disaster relief, it will give us time to train. What does the prince think?"

Luo Yi nodded, "Sima is right, I will send someone to Shanggu County now."
Chapter completed!