Chapter 182 Taiyuan
Li Jiancheng went directly from Dingxiang County through Yanmen to Taiyuan County, and the news of his return spread quickly. There was no need for conscription or recruitment, as there were thousands of young and strong knights who followed him spontaneously along the way.

Moreover, as the news spread far and wide, the number of people continued to increase, and even local officials and generals tried to show goodwill to him and sent him food and meat.

The only thing that everyone was still watching was where Li Jiancheng was going. If he went straight to Jiangdu, then he would have to be a loyal minister of the emperor, which would not be worthy of their goodwill.

But if Li Jiancheng went straight to the Eastern Capital or other counties, in short, as long as he was not going to see the emperor, it meant that he wanted to establish himself.

Everyone knows that with Li Jiancheng's family background, reputation and connections, once he raises an army, many people in the world will respond, and he will immediately become one of the world's top hidden dragons.

Of course, it is worth their bet, and they may even be generous enough to bet their lives and fortune on it, to show their support for the dragon.

At this time, most of Taiyuan had been occupied by Li Shanfei, and only Jinyang City was still struggling under the leadership of the defending general Pan Changwen. Zhang Xutuo, who had been counting on reinforcements, had died, and there were no other decrees from the court. If nothing unexpected happened, Jinyang would not be able to hold out for long.

Li Jiancheng sent someone to the rebel camp to deliver a message. Li Shanfei, whose real name was Wei Daoer, was illiterate, while the second leader, Mantianwang Wang Xuba, had attended a private school for several years. He took the letter and read it.

Then he said to Wei Daoer: "My dear, you want us to go see him."

Wei Daoer sneered: "We brothers have nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses in total. We can be kings or emperors as we please. Taiyuan will soon be ours. If he wants us to meet him, should we just go and meet him?
Not to mention that he just gave us some silver money back then. Even if my dear father were alive and dared to point fingers at me now, I would chop him into pieces and feed him to the dogs!

"Old Wang, I got the news a long time ago that he had escaped from the Turks. I was very kind and did not send anyone to kill him. Is this grace of sparing his life considered as repayment for the favor?"

Before Wang Xuba could speak, someone immediately responded, "That's right. Who is worthy of Your Majesty to meet? He should be the one to pay us a visit. Then Your Majesty might even promote him to be a county magistrate!"

"Hahaha." Wei Daoer pointed at the man who spoke: "Well said, you are a talent, I want to promote you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. You are the one who will become the emperor. If I follow Your Majesty, I will be a marquis sooner or later. Then I can promote that Li."

Wei Daoer was grinning from ear to ear, but suddenly his expression changed and he looked at Wang Xuba coldly and said, "Brother, don't remember those little favors. We fought hard for our lives, but he wants to take away our foundation with just one word. Why?"

Wang Xuba nodded when he heard this: "Forget it, I'll listen to you and find a chance to repay him in the future."

Wei Daoer nodded in satisfaction, and then ordered his men to drive the messenger out, but secretly sent someone to follow him. If Li Jiancheng refused to leave, he would be killed!

On a low hill not far from Jinyang City, Li Jiancheng looked out at Jinyang from afar and said, "When I followed Yang Su to defeat Han Wang Yang Liang, we entered Jinyang after the victory. At that time, I was thinking, it would be great if I could stay in Jinyang as a governor."

"Jinyang has also been waiting for you for a long time!"

The person who was speaking was a descendant of the Wang family of Taiyuan, and he also represented several other major families in Taiyuan. Li Jiancheng had some friendship with him when he was in Jinyang, and they had given each other gifts during festivals over the years.

"What about General Pan?" Li Jiancheng hesitated and said, "I don't want to be loyal to the Sui court anymore, but I don't want to be an enemy of my former colleagues either."

Wang Tian was delighted to hear this. With Li Jiancheng's status and his refusal to pledge allegiance to the court, he had no other choice but to hide his identity and retire to the mountains, or to become independent.

"General Pan is devoted to protecting the people. Although he is not familiar with poetry and literature, he can be called a gentleman in terms of his character."

Li Jiancheng nodded, a gentleman can be deceived by his own methods. After Wang Tian left, the messenger who was driven out by Wei Daoer came back to report, his face was a little bruised and swollen, obviously insulted, but he still reported everything he saw and heard without any personal emotion.

"Someone stuffed this into my arms during the chaos, and then I was thrown out of the camp."

Zhang Huli took the letter, opened it and handed it to Li Jiancheng. The handwriting was very familiar. There was only one place name in it, which was just twenty miles away.

After thinking for a moment, Li Jiancheng immediately led his more than 4,000 soldiers and horses away, as if he was heading to the Eastern Capital.

At night, he went to that place under the protection of Zhang Huli and Qin Shubao. Zhang Huli explored the surroundings in advance. With his skills, as long as there were enough ambush soldiers, he would be able to discover them.

And if it weren't for the large ambush troops that surrounded them, with his and Qin Shubao's skills, no one could stop them from protecting their young master and evacuating!
After a long time, Zhang Huli led a man over. It was Wang Xuba, who was known as the King of Mantian. He was about 40 years old, tall and strong with big hands, but his demeanor and temperament still had a bit of literary air.

"I greet you, my dear!"

Li Jiancheng frowned: "You shouldn't have come in person. Wei Dao'er is cunning and suspicious. He will definitely send someone to check whether you are in the account."

"My lord, thanks to your great blessing, I have secretly found my brother. We are brothers and were born from the same womb. No one can tell us apart except our very close elders. I ordered my brother to patrol the camp. When Wei Daoer sees me patrolling the camp, he won't be suspicious."

Li Jiancheng nodded and said, "Since you are willing to come here alone tonight, it seems that you still recognize me."

"My lord, you have been so kind to me in the past. I will always remember your kindness and wait for the day when I can repay you. Then I will stay under your command and serve you like a dog and a horse!

"My dear, I have 100,000 men under my command, but only 40,000 of them are capable of fighting. Wei Dao'er is stronger than me, and he has more than 60,000 soldiers and horses capable of fighting."

Li Shanfei's group claimed to have an army of 500,000, but in reality there were only 100,000 soldiers, and the rest were old and weak civilians who were forced to join the army.

Li Jiancheng glanced at Zhang Huli and Qin Shubao and said with a smile: "That's enough."

"I heard that you guys take turns to attack?"

"Yes, these days I am under Wei Daoer's command, and in a few days I will attack Jinyang City."

"Okay, when you launch the main attack, the city will pretend to be breached, and you will lead your troops directly into the city. After Wei Daoer also leads his troops into the city, you will cooperate with the ambushes on both sides to turn back and counterattack Wei Daoer. I will lead my troops to attack his rear army, and then his army will surely be defeated."

After listening to this, Wang Xuba swallowed his saliva and said, "This... My lord, are you trusting me too much?"

Li Jiancheng smiled calmly and said, "It's just a Jinyang City. I can get away and go to Chang'an or Luoyang to raise an army. But it will be difficult for you to survive under Wei Daoer.

Even if you survived under Wei Daoer's command, I would find time to send troops to kill you one day. You are just a bunch of rabble. You should thank Li Mi for killing Zhang Xutuo."

…………

(End of this chapter)