Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 858 Siege
Of course, what frightened Li Shouwen even more was the cheers that followed. He carefully observed the faces of the palace maids and chamberlains guarding him, and the smiles on their faces made him tremble all over. Being precocious, he understood what this meant - the queen gave birth to a boy and he was no longer useful.

So he cried, he knelt on the ground, called to the window for his mother, called for the Bodhisattva, called for everything he knew. Unfortunately, even if the palace maid outside the door heard his plea, there was no response. They only opened the door at a fixed time every day, brought in the meals, and took away the toilet bowl and the almost intact utensils. Li Shangwen lay on the bed dumbfounded.

On the third day, Li Shouwen finally started to eat. In the face of hunger, the pain in his soul was not worth mentioning. He wolfed down the food in the tray, and then expressed his hope to the waiter who delivered the food. Once the queen, he didn't care what he would face, it was better than dragging it out like this.

On the morning of the seventh day, Shaojian Wang personally came to Li Shouwen's residence and led him to meet the queen.

"I heard that the queen gave birth to a boy this time!" Li Shouwen said, "I wonder what he looks like?"

"Excuse me, Prince Poyang!" Wang Shaojian was wearing a scarlet robe with a smile on his face: "The dragon seed that the queen gave birth to for the saint is naturally good-looking!"

"That would be the best!" Li Shouwen said with a smile: "With this boy, the world will be stable!"

"It would be great if King Poyang had this idea!" Wang Shaojian stopped, raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and said with a smile: "You stay here later, let me go in and pass the news first!"

Li Shouwen waited for a moment and saw Wang Shaojian coming out. He cupped his hands and led Li Shouwen into the small hall next to him. He saw the queen leaning on the brocade couch with a haggard face and smiled at Li Shouwen. Smile: "Good boy, I know you want to see me these days, but you have so many things to do recently that you really can't spare the time. You haven't been wronged recently, right?"

"Queen!" Li Shouwen looked respectful: "The baby is fine. Thank you for your concern. I just heard that you have just given birth and I want to say hello to my queen!"

The queen frowned: "Everything is fine here, just take care of your own affairs!"

"Thank you, Queen Mother, for your teaching!" Li Shouwen lowered his head: "My child has something to ask, please grant me your permission!"

"What's the matter?" A trace of impatience flashed across the queen's face.

"Back then, my father named my child the King of Poyang. Now that my child is getting older, he has reached the age to go to the fiefdom. Now that my mother has a child, my child sincerely asks me to go to the fiefdom as soon as possible to build a national barrier and protect the royal family! "

Hearing Li Shouwen's words, a trace of surprise suddenly flashed across the Queen's face. Even though she was quite disgusted with the eldest son of the concubine who had been captured by force, a trace of intolerance flashed in her heart. Li Shouwen's fiefdom was located in today's Poyang County, Shangrao, Jiangxi Province. This place was not bad in the Song Dynasty, but at that time, although it could not be said to be a wild land, it was still a remote area. It can only be said that it is very rare for Li Shouwen to voluntarily go from Chang'an to a place like this to join the feudal clan at his age. Moreover, the vassal kings in the Tang Dynasty were not like those in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. If they did not have corresponding official positions, they would generally be monitored by local officials, and life would be quite difficult.

"It's a little early for you to go to a fiefdom at your age!" The queen said softly: "It's better to stay in the palace for a few more years, and it won't be too late to become a fiefdom when you are older!"

"But--!"

Before Li Shouwen could say anything more, the queen waved her hand and interrupted the other party's request: "Shouwen, you are such a rare good boy. You should go back and rest first. Can we talk about the feudal affairs for a while? ! Mr. Wang——"

"The old slave is here!"

"Send King Poyang back to rest!" the queen said in an unquestionable tone. Wang Shaojian responded, walked up to Li Shouwen, and said with a smile: "Your Highness, Her Majesty the Queen has already spoken, please come!"

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Hexi, Ganzhou.

Counting from the day when the Tubo people besieged the city, almost nine months had passed. During this long period of time, the officials and people in the city were looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements from the court day and night. During this period, although the Tang army coming from Longyou launched several rescue operations, they were either ambushed and defeated by the Tubo people, or they were unable to advance and had to retreat. As the siege lasted longer and longer, the officials and people in the city gradually realized that this Tubo attack was by no means a simple raid. Instead, they wanted to capture Ganzhou and even the entire Hexi Corridor, cutting off the Western Regions from Longyou. The connection surrounded Datang from three sides.

After realizing this, the officials and people in Ganzhou City calmed down. They demolished many houses in the city and used the building materials to strengthen the city walls and use them as rolling stones. The strong men in the city had two meals a day, and the old, weak, women and children had one meal. One meal a day, preparing for a long-term stalemate with the Tubo people, and what worries them most is the food reserves. No matter how much food is stored in the city, they will still have to finish it. If they want to persevere, they must either relieve the siege before the food runs out, or at least transport food from outside. Go to the city to help.

One afternoon in early October, about after Shen Shi, Zhang Quanwen came out of his mansion with two slaves. Due to his illness some time ago, he has not been seen on the streets for some days. He is thin and his legs and feet feel weak when he walks, like an old man who has suffered a serious illness. Seeing that there were few pedestrians on the streets and most of the shops were closed, which was in sharp contrast to the prosperity of the past, I couldn't help but sigh to myself.

Zhang Quanwen walked for a while and found that there was a long queue in front of a store. He felt a little strange. He sent someone to ask and found out that it was a drug store. The people queuing up to buy were medicinal materials that could satisfy their hunger, such as dried yam. , Poria, lotus root, Rehmannia glutinosa, Polygonatum, Asparagus, and even Polygonum multiflorum, Chuanxiong, Angelica sinensis, Guanggui, peony, Atractylodes, Rou Wu Rong, Tusizi, Plantain and even Eucommia, Sichuan Wu, Cao Wu, Chai Wu Some people want to buy medicines such as Hu, Angelica dahurica, Platycodon, and Tribulus. People who bought the medicinal materials quickly took them home as if they had found treasures, obviously fearing that they would be snatched away on the street.

Zhang Quanwen walked past the drug store and saw that the road ahead became increasingly deserted, and there were even no pedestrians on some streets. Such a prosperous city, known as the Golden Zhangye since ancient times, is now miserable and miserable, like hell. He walked through a small vegetable garden with only a few half-dead seedlings in it. Behind the bamboo fence stood a middle-aged man and a little boy, holding sharpened bamboo guns in their hands. They looked at Zhang Quanwen and his party with vigilance, obviously protecting their vegetable garden.

After walking more than a hundred steps forward, he saw a large cesspool and a small puddle. Zhang Quanwen saw several people squatting by the puddle, pouring the small bucket of dung they had just scooped out of the cesspool into the bamboo. sieve, and then put the bamboo sieve into the puddle and shake it, so that the feces becomes broken and thin, and flows away from the sieve gaps, leaving the white, immobile insects inside the sieve. Although Zhang Quanwen doesn't go out these days, he often hears about people finding maggots from manure to satisfy their hunger. Now he actually saw it with his own eyes. He felt nauseous and didn't dare to look any further, so he quickly moved on.

Not far away, Zhang Quanwen saw a middle-aged man and a child less than ten years old using a hoe to dig through the dung pile and pick up more than twenty grubs there. As he approached, the child hurriedly knelt down and protected the grub with both hands, while staring at him with surprised and hostile eyes. The middle-aged man also stopped his hoe and looked at him with wary eyes. This look made Zhang Chengren feel terrible, and a chill ran down his spine.

The pale setting sun shines on the gray roof tiles, making everything feel eerie. Especially since many houses are now empty, people have moved away or starved to death. The doors and windows of these empty houses were quickly torn down, and in some cases the entire house was demolished. Most of the dismantled timber and bricks were sent to the city walls. A gust of autumn wind blew, and Zhang Quanwen felt a chill on his body. The dry leaves on the ground rustled. Due to lack of firewood, almost all the trees have been cut down recently. Only the dry leaves on the ground had not been swept away for a while, and they were rolling all over the ground in the autumn wind. At this time, two people passed by at an intersection not far away. The two people had sunken eye sockets and cold eyes. They were holding a bag of things in their hands. When they saw Zhang Quanwen, the two people turned around and ran away. Zhang Quanwen shouted twice, and the two men ran faster. He frowned and asked, "Who are those people? Are they thieves?"

"It's possible!" The guard leader on the side replied in an uncertain tone: "Many houses in this area are no longer occupied. Even if there are thieves, it is difficult for anyone to take care of them!"

"Hey!" Zhang Quanyi sighed. He was about to say something when he suddenly heard a woman's wail coming from the west. He quickly sent someone to ask, only to find out that a child had died last night and had just been killed. After snatching the body away, the family members came to catch up and couldn't catch up, so they howled loudly.

"This is strange. Why does the thief want the child's body?" As soon as Zhang Quanwen finished speaking, he suddenly felt a sense of fear, goosebumps appeared all over his body, and all his hair stood on end: "It's difficult, could it be!"

"My husband guessed it right!" the guard leader said with a bitter smile: "They probably snatched the child's body and used it to satisfy their hunger. In fact, this is not bad. After all, it is the body of a dead person. It is said that there are people in the city who intercept and kill passers-by and cut off their meat. use!"

"It's inhumane! It's inhumane!" Zhang Quanwen held it in for a long time, and finally only said these two sentences. The guard leader sighed: "My lord, you don't know that only when people have food to eat will they pay attention to morality, etiquette, justice and shame. If there is nothing to eat, then we are no longer human. Now the old, weak, women and children in the city only have two bowls of thin porridge a day. If after a while, there are no more two bowls of thin porridge, then they won’t care about anything!”

Zhang Quanwen nodded heavily. He knew what his subordinates said was right. No matter how harsh the laws he set were, people must survive. If they couldn't even eat, they would starve to death. Then anything can be done.

"We can't go on like this!" Zhang Quanwen whispered: "We must relieve the siege as soon as possible, otherwise Ganzhou will definitely not be able to defend it!"

Thinking of this, Zhang Quanwen no longer wanted to patrol the streets. He quickly returned to the Yamen, summoned several guards and gentry under his command, and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, you must send envoys out of the long siege as soon as possible and clear this place." Report the situation to the court, otherwise, even if the Tubo people do nothing, Ganzhou will not be able to hold on for long! "

"The long siege of the Tibetan thieves has been built. I'm afraid it won't be easy to break out, right?" asked Cao Gang, the captain of Zhechong School.

"Under a heavy reward, there must be a brave man!" Zhang Quanwen said: "The government is willing to give out a bounty of 300 guan! How about asking the rich households in the city to give 300 guan as well?"

"Okay!" Cao Gang is a local surname. He nodded and represented several famous surnames: "The government should give 400 guan, and the rich households in the city should pay 600 guan. It would be easier to chip in a thousand guan. This kind of thing cannot be stingy!"

"Yes, you really can't be stingy!"

"I pledge a hundred thousand dollars for this money!"

"I'll also pledge a hundred dollars!"

"I'm willing to pay you two hundred dollars!"

"Then it's decided!" Zhang Quanwen saw everyone nodding and breathed a sigh of relief: "Then we'll post a list to recruit recruits immediately. Time is tight and there's no room for delay!"

Not long after Zhang Quanwen posted his appeal, more than a hundred people came to apply. Zhang Quanwen selected four people, bitten their fingers and wrote a request for help with blood. First, he gave the reward of thousands of coins to the four people, and then prepared wine and meat for them to go on a strong journey: "Strong men, the lives of more than 10,000 people in Ganzhou City are all entrusted to you!"

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Longzhou.

"Mr. Liu, please take a look!" Pei Xingjian took out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Liu Rengui: "This is a distress document sent from Ganzhou!"

"Oh, Ganzhou is surrounded like this, but it is rare to be able to send a distress document!" At this time, Liu Rengui had a head full of white hair, and his white eyebrows covered most of his eyes. He took the distress document and Seeing that the text on it turned out to be a strange red-black color, my heart suddenly thumped: "A blood letter?"

"That's right!" Pei Xingjian sighed: "Mr. Liu, when we used Ganzhou as bait, Pei made the plan to defeat the Tibetan thieves. The current situation in Ganzhou City is also expected, but the tragic situation in the letter is still unclear. It’s unbearable to see. The ancients said that three generations are a taboo for Taoists, so true!”

"Pei Gong's words are serious!" Liu Rengui smiled: "You command the army, and the overall situation of the northwest of the country depends on your shoulders. How can you act according to your own likes and dislikes? Although Ganzhou suffered this time, Qinling labored on the expedition. Under Dunbing City, this deal is worth it!"

"That's what I said!" Pei Xingjian smiled bitterly: "But-"

"There is nothing to say!" Liu Rengui said: "We have to be loyal to the emperor because we eat the emperor's salary. The city of Ganzhou is miserable, and the Tubo soldiers are even more miserable. Our soldiers are recharged and ready to fight against the thieves. We can win a great victory and relieve the worries of future generations!”

"Okay!" Pei Xingjian sighed: "That's all it can do. Then I'll write back to Zhang Quanyi and tell him to continue to hold on. Reinforcements have been deployed and will arrive soon!"