The carriage door opened, and a young man walked out of it. He was of medium figure, wearing a blue cloth shirt, a flat scarf, and an ordinary long sword. Although his skin was tanned, it was still hard to hide his bookish spirit. This person was Li Yuan's son-in-law Chai Shao. Compared with the previous year, his appearance changed a lot and he had a beard. Even Zhang Xuan might not be able to recognize him at first sight. ▲∴,

At this time, a family member stepped forward and said, "Young Master, the master is waiting in the study!"

“Lead ahead!”

The family hurried towards the inner house with Chai Shao.

The owner of this house was Li Jiancheng, who was the second in charge of Wagang Mountain. This was a different house he purchased in Yangwu County and also his contact point. Several loyal subordinates who were responsible for delivering letters lived.

In the study room of the inner house, Li Yuan was drinking herbal tea while reading books quietly. His so-called going to Jiangdu to report his work was just an excuse to avoid the person surveillance in Taiyuan reporting to the emperor that he had left Taiyuan secretly. His real intention of leaving Taiyuan was to come to find his eldest son Li Jiancheng.

So after Li Yuan showed up in Qiao County, he immediately left the fleet and transferred to Yangwu County.

The reason why Li Yuan wanted to meet his son in person was because the battle in the Central Plains really made him uneasy, especially after he received news of his eldest son that the Bohai Association had already gained the upper hand in the Wagang Army, he was even more worried about the safety of his eldest son and whether his plan to recruit the Wagang Army would be successful.

He felt it was necessary to have a good talk with his eldest son.

At this time, footsteps came from outside the door, and then Chai Shao's voice came, "Son-in-law is here to pay homage to my father-in-law!"

Li Yuan was stunned. Why didn’t Jiancheng come? He stood up and walked to the door. Sure enough, he only saw Chai Shao. He asked strangely: “Son-in-law, where are you Jiancheng’s elder brother?”

"You are a father-in-law, it's really inconvenient for you to go down the mountain."

"I understand. Let's talk about it when you enter the house!"

The father-in-law and son-in-law walked into the study. Li Yuan asked Chai Shao to sit down and asked anxiously: "This time the Wagang Army failed to fight the Eastern Expedition. How much loss will be there?"

"Reporting to my father-in-law, this Eastern Expedition was mainly Zhai Hong's army and Shan Xiongxin's army. Their army suffered heavy losses. On the contrary, our army defeated Yang Qing's army at the foot of Wagang Mountain, and its strength has been enhanced. At present, there are 8,000 troops in the hands of the eldest son, all of which are elite troops."

Li Yuan was overjoyed and there were actually 8,000 troops, which was beyond his expectations. He hurriedly asked: "Where is the Bohai Association? How many troops have they controlled?"

Chai Shao smiled slightly, "It's very interesting to say. This time Zhai Hong's army in the Eastern Expedition dropped to more than 7,000 people. Zhai Hong was furious and said that Bohai would harm his army and demanded that Bohai would drive him out of Wagang."

"Wait a minute!"

Li Yuan interrupted Chai Shao, "I heard it right! Is it Zhai Hong? Hasn't he always been a supporter of the Bohai Society?"

"My father-in-law heard it right. It was Zhai Hong. He suffered the most losses in the Eastern Expedition. Compared to supporting the Bohai Association, his interests are the first priority. This time he suffered heavy losses in his interests. He began to resent the Bohai Association."

"What about Zhai Rang? What did he say?"

Chai Shao laughed, "This is the interesting thing. Zhai Rang scolded him hard and did not allow him to attack the Bohai Association again. My father-in-law understands it! Zhai Rang is playing balance, and he wants to win over the Guanlong nobles. He also needs to get the support of the Bohai Association. After all, he doesn't want to surrender to either party at all, he just wants to use the competition between the two parties to get benefits."

Li Yuan nodded, and he remembered an important thing again and asked: "How to solve military rations, military funds? Is Zhang Xutuo under great pressure?"

Chai Shao nodded silently. "This is the biggest problem we have encountered. Zhang Xutuo is worthy of being a famous general. He did not attack the mountains, but used a cauldron to gradually destroy the farmland around Wagang Mountain. Our farmland has dropped sharply by 30%. It is estimated that it will be sad today. The military ration problem is not small, but the more serious thing is the insufficient military capital, including pig iron, leather, weapons, etc. The armory of Wagang is empty."

"Then why can't you go down the mountain after building it?"

"My father-in-law, it's not that the elder brother cannot go down the mountain, but that he cannot leave the army. Zhai Hong is eyeing our army and he wants to swallow our army very much. We must be vigilant."

Li Yuan walked a few steps in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about his eldest son's response. Only with food and military funds could he develop. Zhang Xutuo was under too much pressure on Wagang and had to find a way to relieve this pressure.

"It's better to do this!"

Li Yuan turned around and said to Chai Shao: "You go back and tell Jiancheng, and ask him to send someone to take a walk on the way of King Yang Qing, and ask Yang Qing to help."

Chai Shao was stunned and asked in confusion: "Does my father-in-law think Yang Qing will help?"

Li Yuan nodded, "This person is greedy for money, and he has always been called the King of Central Plains. How could he feel comfortable when Zhang Xutuo broke ground on his territory? As long as he gave enough money, I believe Yang Qing will help this and solve the food and military capital problems of the Wagang Army."

"I understand, I'll go back and discuss with my elder brother."

Li Yuan reminded earnestly: "I still say the same thing, let Jiancheng find a way to build a foundation in Hanoi County. Although there is no hurry to do so, I have to start thinking about it."

"I remember it, I will definitely tell my elder brother."

Chai Shao hurriedly left the mansion when it was dark. Li Yuan looked at his carriage with his hands behind his back and walked away, but he was thinking about the chaos in the world. Although Zhang Xutuo defeated the Wagang army and Zhang Xuan unified Qingzhou, it seemed that the Sui Dynasty had some hope.

But Li Yuan knew very well that the stability of the Sui Dynasty was just an appearance, and the foundation of the Great Sui Dynasty had been shaken, just like sitting on firewood. With just a fire, those who were ambitious in various places would definitely rise up, and this day was not far away.

Although Zhang Xutuo led his army to attack the Wagang army, his army was not enough to block the entire Wagang Mountain. Apart from Pei Xingyan's 10,000 troops, he only had 20,000 troops. Zhang Xutuo knew very well that the risk of turning the whole into pieces was very easy to be defeated by the enemy. More importantly, his current state was just to block the Wagang army's eastern expedition.

In fact, the Wagang Army's eastern expedition had failed, and Zhang Xutuo's military operations had come to an end. The next step is to continue to attack the Wagang Army or withdraw troops or retreat. There is no formal conclusion yet, so Zhang Xutuo mainly stationed troops in Kuangcheng County, and from time to time sent troops to destroy the farmland near Wagang Mountain, making the Wagang Army unable to carry out summer planting, thereby affecting its autumn harvest.

It is precisely because Zhang Xutuo's army was stationed in Kuangcheng County, and Pei Renji's army was mainly stationed in Jibei County. In this way, the Wagang Army's path to the mountain and down the mountain was not completely blocked, and the Wagang Army could still go up and down the mountain from both sides of the east and west.

The next morning, Chai Shao returned to Daying from Wagang Shanxi Road. Of course, Chai Shao's pseudonym in Wagang Army was Li Xu, and almost no one knew that he was Li Yuan's son-in-law. Everyone knew that he was the second general's clan brother and his right-hand assistant.

The disastrous defeat of the Wagang Army in the Eastern Expedition caused a huge change in the internal power structure of the Wagang Army. The Xitang, headed by Li Jian, increased its prestige greatly because of defeating Yang Qing and protecting Wagang Mountain, and its power also expanded rapidly. Xitang, headed by Zhai Hong, was depressed due to the disastrous defeat of Liang County, and even internal conflicts arose. Zhai Hong also admitted his cowardly and did not dare to stand up and provoke again.

At the same time, Zhai Rang's central hall forces also suffered a considerable blow, mainly because Shan Xiongxin was defeated by Zhang Xutuo in Kuangcheng, and thousands of trucks of supplies and supplies fell into the hands of the Sui army. One was rising and the other was getting worse. Zhai Rang had to raise Li Jiancheng's seat in Juyi Hall one level, from being on par with Zhai Hong to being second only to himself.

This time, it was not because of the influence of the Guanlong nobles, but because of the growing power of Li Jian.

In the early morning, mist like milk covered Wagang Mountain. Chai Shao hurried into Li Jiancheng's yard, and a figure immediately came out of the room. It was Li Jiancheng who had been waiting for a long time.

"How is it? Have you seen my father?" Li Jiancheng asked impatiently.

Although Li Jiancheng did not sleep all night and was anxiously waiting for news from Chai Shao, Chai Shao also rushed all night and was exhausted, both of them were in good spirits.

"When I met, my father-in-law gave us good advice."

Li Jiancheng was also excited and quickly pulled Chai Shao into his study to have a detailed discussion. The two sat down. Chai Shao told Li Jiancheng the conversation with his father-in-law in the original place, and finally said: "Father-in-law still hopes that we can establish power in Hanoi County, but this time my father-in-law is no longer anxious. He just hopes that the elder brother will consider it as soon as possible. In addition, there is no need to withdraw all of them. Just establish a foundation in Hanoi County."

Li Jiancheng paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Establishing a power in Hanoi County has been under his consideration. If it weren't for the failure of the Eastern Expedition, he would have gained a foothold in Hanoi County. This was also his goal to break away from Wagang and establish his own power.

Li Jiancheng has seen through Zhai Rang's essence. He is definitely not trying to surrender to the Guanlong nobles or the Bohai Association. Zhai Rang just wants to use these two major forces to realize his ambition to dominate the Central Plains.

Now that Li Jiancheng's wings are gradually becoming fuller, there is indeed no need to rest on others. However, the key now is to defeat Zhang Xutuo. If Zhang Xutuo does not leave Wagang, Li Jiancheng will not be able to go north.

"My father meant to let me follow Yang Qing's path?" Li Jiancheng turned around and looked at Chai Shao and asked.
Chapter completed!