On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 433 Young son as hostage

Cheng Yaojin was now proud of his success. Cui Che regarded him as his first achievement with his performance in capturing the three cities of Heyang and defeating Li Zixiong's left army of the Western Sui Dynasty in the Battle of Jinyong.

Cui Che reported to the emperor that he promoted Cheng Yaojin to a noble title, granted him the title of Duke of Dong'a, granted him a settlement of 1,500 households, and rewarded him with 2,000 bolts of cloth and 3,000 shi of grain.

Since the discussion of merit, Su Dingfang had to walk around Cheng Yaojin when he saw him. He really didn't want to see the black guy looking so proud.

Su Dingfang and Shen Guang also received heavy rewards. Su Dingfang was the Marquis of Wuyi County, and Shen Guang was the Marquis of Wuxing County.

It's just that Su Dingfang has more food towns than Shen Guang. Su Dingfang has 1,500 households in the food towns, which is the same as the county prince, while Shen Guang only has 1,200 households.

The root cause lies in the battle for Luoyang. The contributions made by Su Dingfang and Shen Guang were even greater than those between the two, but Su Dingfang was canonized as the son of Wuyi County when he was in Jinyang.

At that time, Shen Guang had just started his official career and had not caught up with the Jinyang reward. It was naturally impossible for Cui Che to put Shen Guang and Su Dingfang in the same rank. Even if they were both county princes, they would have to be different in terms of food.

This time around, Cui Che was obviously not as generous as he was in Jinyang when it came to the title reward.

Just like when Yang Jian quelled Yuchijun's rebellion, every military commander, no matter how important the merit was, had a duke at his disposal.

However, after proclaiming the emperor and establishing the country, and having secured power, it would be extremely difficult for the subordinates to challenge a prince.

After the battle against Chen, Yang Jian also awarded a group of dukes, such as Cui Che, Gao Jiong, Yang Su, He Ruobi and others. They all waited until Nanchen was destroyed before they received the title of duke.

Cui Che is in the same situation now. He has completely controlled the Eastern Sui Dynasty. There is no need to reward people indiscriminately to win over civil and military officials. He can just reward people based on their merits.

After sending the wounded soldiers back to Hedong, Cui Che took Cheng Yaojin as his general and led 20,000 soldiers to stay in Luoyang, leaving it to Cheng Yaojin to reorganize the Luoyang troops.

And he himself led 60,000 infantry and cavalry southward and attacked Yi and Lu states.

Zhang Xiang, the governor of Yizhou, was just a civil servant. Seeing the army's defeat at Jinyong, all the Yizhou soldiers who escaped were frightened and did not dare to resist. The governor of Yizhou was also frightened. When Cui Che's troops came to the city, he raised eight soldiers from Yizhou. The county descended.

However, Zhang Xiang, unlike Changsun Hong, did not receive real power. Cui Che appointed him as the Minister of Rites.

When all the real power was divided up by the Cui Che shogunate, joining the court as an official was actually a rise and fall in secret, but at least it was acceptable on the surface.

After the defeat, Li Zixiong, the governor who fled back to Luzhou, also did not choose to fight stubbornly.

It has been said before that Li Zixiong is from Guandong, and now that Cui Che is about to sweep the Central Plains, Li Zixiong, as a Guandong native, has no intention of martyrdom for Yang Guang.

In the original time and space, Yang Xuangan launched a rebellion. Yang Guang suspected that Li Zixiong was involved, so he recruited him to join the court. However, Li Zixiong killed the envoy and defected to Yang Xuangan. In the end, Yang Guang executed this important minister who he once praised as a talented Wuhou.

Naturally, Li Zixiong cannot be compared with Zhuge Wuhou, otherwise he would not have been killed by Cheng Yaojin, the Pei family and his sons, but he was indeed able to run the army on horseback and the people on horseback.

Cui Che admired Li Zixiong very much. He had served as local governor many times and achieved great success wherever he went.

When Li Zixiong returned to Luzhou, Cui Che treated Li Zixiong with courtesy. He said to Li Zixiong:

"I only want to keep Li Gong as the governor of Luzhou, but I also hope that Li Gong will protect me from the enemies in Jingxiang."

Li Zixiong was greatly surprised. He knew Cui Che very well. He had the same suspicious personality as Yang Guang in Daxing City.

Since Cui Che raised his troops in Youzhou, no governor has surrendered and been able to stay in office there.

Either he was transferred to another state or county, or he was conscripted into the court and deprived of real power, such as the previous governor of Yizhou.

But Cui Che made an exception in front of him alone.

Seeing Li Zixiong's confusion, Cui Che explained with a smile:

"Luzhou is an important place and cannot be guarded by a non-general. Li Gong has generals and can take care of the people. With such a talent, why would Cui look for someone else?"

Li Zixiong said excitedly:

"The king does not regard Li as a surrender, but condescends to the throne and surrenders at every turn to make Li frightened. Now he is entrusted with an important task. How dare Li not do his best to serve the king."

Cui Che just listened to this. He could reuse Li Zixiong. Apart from his talents, Li Zixiong was also from Guandong. His relatives are all in Hebei now.

Li Zixiong quickly called his son Li Min.

Even though Li Zixiong is over fifty, Li Min, the only son, is only seven years old.

Li Min was still 15 years old before the Sui Dynasty, and he was far away from the rule that he could not go to work with his father. Naturally, Li Zixiong brought him to Luzhou and stayed with him to educate him personally.

Li Zixiong took the initiative to send Li Min to Jinyang to study. He said it was to study, but in fact he was used as a hostage.

Cui Che also knew that Li Zixiong always had a son. He smiled and said:

"The young man from the Li family is going north, and he will be friends with my badger in the future."

Hearing this, Li Zixiong smiled even more.

Cui Badger is the eldest grandson of Cui Che. If he can be friends with the third generation of the Cui family, his future will naturally be unlimited.

Now Cui Che will become the leader of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi, which is one of the reasons why Li Zixiong is willing to join him.

After occupying the north of the Han River, Cui Che did not continue to cross the Han River and go south to Jingxiang.

The first is that he lacks a navy under his command. The only naval force with a large scale is still in Qingzhou, under the command of Bodhisattva Nu.

The land of Jingxiang is crisscrossed by water networks, and it is difficult to plot without a strong navy.

The second is that Cui Che received the news that Yang Su led his troops eastward and stationed in Shaanzhou.

This move is of course to prevent Cui Che from advancing westward, but it can also force him to return to Luoyang to aid Luoyang, preventing Cui Che from continuing to go south, or to support the eastern battlefield.

Yu Zhongwen, who had previously fled to Shaanzhou, has been escorted back to Daxing.

The news of Luoyang's fall made Yang Guang furious.

Since Duan Wenzhen, who proposed the strategy of lurking in Mang Mountain and attacking Cui Che, had died in the battle, all Yang Guang's anger fell on Yu Zhongwen alone. Yang Guang pardoned the other generals and imprisoned Yu Zhongwen alone.

Yu Zhongwen fell ill due to worry and anger and died in prison.

When Cui Che returned to Luoyang, the city was already under martial law.

As the saying goes, a person's name is like a tree's shadow. Although Yang Su was defeated for a while in Hedong, young Cheng Yaojin did not dare to take it lightly when facing Yang Su. Until Cui Che led the main force of 60,000 soldiers back to the army, Cheng Yaojin

Finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Cui Che has no plans to plot against Shaanzhou.

Mainly traveling from south to north, the soldiers are now tired and in urgent need of time to breathe.

Secondly, Yang Su is now in Shaanzhou and playing at home. If he wants to beat him again, it will not be as easy as before.

At least Yang Su won't be troubled by logistics anymore.

Yang Su followed Yang Guang's orders and focused on defense, and the western battlefield of the Central Plains War came to an end.

(End of chapter)