Man Tang Huacai
Chapter 514 Escort
Chapter 514 Escort
Li Longji often dreamed of Xue Bai recently. Although he fled to Shu County, he still couldn't do without opera, poetry, dominoes, and cooking. Whenever the daytime fun was over and it was late at night, he would always think that Xue Bai seemed to run to his bed and make love with the beauties he kept.
With great talent and ambition throughout his life, how could he be insulted like this by a child in his later years?
This thought supported his old body, inspired him, and made him determined to work hard to govern the country, and sooner or later he would lead his army into Chang'an, wipe out the rebellion, and restore the former glory...
"Emperor, this is bad!"
The eunuch's hurried footsteps disturbed the quiet night. As soon as the palace door was pushed open, the wind blew in, carrying with it the shouting from afar.
Li Longji, who had experienced many upheavals in his life, was very experienced. He immediately realized that there was another rebellion and stood up and shouted angrily, "Did the traitor Xue send someone here?"
"I heard that the people of Yizhou were in turmoil."
Li Longji didn't believe it, so he went up to the Xuanying Tower in the palace to watch the battle formation himself.
Xuanying Tower is a new high building in the palace, built on Phoenix Mountain, with a view of Fujiang River and Jincheng scenery, and more importantly, it can see the invading rebels early. It can be seen that decades of power struggles have made Li Longji anticipate today's disaster.
He went up to the tower and looked out, and could see thousands of soldiers rushing out from Yizhou City, armed with open weapons, and quickly surrounding the palace.
At the same time, the civil and military officials and generals who were protecting the emperor also arrived. Cui Yuan and Lu Qi were young and strong, and they ran to Li Longji faster than other officials and protected him in a nervous manner.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for being late in protecting you."
Others came later than them. If they were to be convicted, then others would be even more guilty. Li Longji could not charge his officials with crimes at this time, so he said, "I will convict you. Stand up and tell us how to defeat the thieves."
Lu Qi had already known the whole story and knew that it was his policies that forced some soldiers and civilians in Yizhou to rebel. Hearing the words that he was innocent, he skipped over the reason for the rebellion and said, "I think the reason these soldiers and civilians rebelled was that they were bewitched and angry for a while. The emperor only needs to issue an edict to persuade them to surrender, make them return to the right path, pardon them, and reward them with money and goods, and then they can be pacified."
Li Longji saw that the situation was getting serious and was afraid that it would threaten his own safety, so he agreed to Lu Qi's words and ordered him to persuade the rebels to surrender. Lu Qi quickly arranged for Wei Dubin and others to make a promise to Guo Qianren.
At this moment, Wei Jiansu, Zhang Yi and other ministers arrived.
"Your Majesty, I think we must not surrender in this turmoil, we must resolutely suppress the rebellion!" When Wei Jiansu saw Lu Qi sent someone to surrender, he immediately bowed down and said, "Your Majesty went to Shu to raise food, money and military supplies to suppress the Hu rebellion, but those who are not aware of the situation mistakenly spread that he was avoiding disaster. If we appease the rebels now, it will definitely damage the prestige of the Your Majesty and also the national prestige of the Tang Dynasty."
"I second the proposal. Only by executing the ringleader of the thieves can we serve as a warning to others."
After hearing what they said, Li Longji thought it made sense, so he asked Lu Qi to call Wei Dubin back first.
However, with the momentum of the heavens, the rebels had already entered the palace and rushed towards Xuanying Tower. The palace gate guard hurried over, strode up the tower and knelt before Li Longji, saying: "I am guilty, the newly recruited soldiers are not strong enough to fight, I ask the emperor to withdraw temporarily..."
"The tyrant is there!"
Suddenly, shouts interrupted the report. It turned out that the newly recruited imperial guards were leading the rebels. Soon, the rebels surrounded Xuanying Tower.
"Whoosh."
From a distance, an arrow shot at the railing of Xuanying Tower. Then a man of ordinary stature strode in and shouted, "The one who betrayed the Tang Dynasty is Yizhou soldier Jia Xiu, the tyrant king deserves death!"
He was originally an unknown person, but with this shout, his name will be passed down. It can only be said that "in prosperous times, one seeks survival, and in troubled times, one only leaves a name behind."
At this time, Princess Ningqin was also accompanying Zhang Yi on the side of Li Longji. Seeing the arrow still trembling on the railing, she was frightened and pushed Zhang Yi, saying, "Prince consort, protect my grandfather and me."
Zhang Yi was unwilling to take risks, nor did he want to be in the spotlight. He stood there in a low-key manner and quickly pulled his wife.
Princess Ning Qin continued, "You are a man of both civil and military talents, and this is the perfect time for you to make great achievements."
As she said this, everyone looked over. Li Longji's eyes were filled with relief. He said, "I wanted to make my son-in-law the prime minister, but was misled by Yang Guozhong. Today, I can let all officials see the talent of my son-in-law."
Things had come to such a point that Zhang Yi had no choice but to step out and follow the emperor's orders to repel the rebels.
Fortunately, he came from Lingwu and brought many people with him, including the family servant Zhang Yin, who was a brave warrior who had been served by the Zhang family for many years. In order to repay the Zhang family's great kindness over the years, Zhang Yin led his men to charge in front, setting an example for the imperial army and boosting morale, and soon fought with Jia Xiu.
At this time, all the dignitaries were standing around Xuanying Tower. Everyone held their breath and watched a few small figures fighting with the soldiers to the death. The fight would decide their own fate and also the fate of the Tang Dynasty.
"Jia Xiu, I'm here to help you! The tyrant emperor, take your life!"
Finally, Guo Qianren arrived and provided support immediately.
Upon seeing this, Zhang Yin roared and chopped down with all his might, killing Jia Xiu before Guo Qianren arrived.
"You lackeys of the imperial court, damn you!"
Guo Qianren was furious and led his troops forward to kill Zhang Yin.
Seeing that his loyal servant was dead, Zhang Yi did not dare to stay any longer and retreated quickly. He was very conspicuous in the crowd in his purple clothes. Guo Qianren immediately raised his knife to chop at him, and ordered that the high official should not be allowed to leave. The rebels rained arrows at him.
In the chaos, Zhang Yi was hit by an arrow in the thigh. In pain, he felt that the biggest mistake he had made in his life was marrying Princess Ningqin.
"Prince Consort! Quick, take the Prince Consort away."
However, it was his noble status as the son-in-law of the emperor that made the imperial guards come and protect him as they retreated to Xuanying Tower.
At this time, Chen Xuanli had arrived and led his troops to kill the rebels. The rebels were originally a mob, and they rose up suddenly, catching the officers and soldiers off guard, and were able to kill their way into the palace. As soon as the regular officers and soldiers arrived, they quickly retreated.
A rebellion was quickly suppressed. However, a loud shout was heard from afar.
"The treasury is open!"
~~
The palace was brightly lit.
When Chen Xuanli was busy rescuing the emperor, he inevitably neglected the protection of the treasury and the inner treasury. Few of the rebellious mobs dared to fight to the death with the emperor, so more people went to plunder and gained a lot.
While the imperial guards were protecting the emperor, they rushed out of the palace with gold, silver and jewelry in their hands and agate and jade hanging around their necks, cheering. The Jiannan soldiers who were guarding outside came to support them, and seeing this, they also robbed the rebels, and the scene was in chaos.
On the other hand, many Jiannan soldiers saw that the retired emperor had collected so many treasures in such a short period of time during his visit to Shu, and dissatisfaction quickly spread.
"The government army has so much money, why are they still withholding our rewards?!"
"The Imperial Guards' salaries are so much higher than ours? The imperial court has money but keeps saying it has no money..."
In fact, Li Longji had to reward officials, bestow favors on the imperial guards, win people's hearts, guard against Tubo, and prepare to pacify Guanzhong, while also maintaining his usual extravagant lifestyle. His expenses were indeed stretched to the limit and he was very short of money.
It can only be said that these ordinary soldiers had never seen a big scene. When they saw the money in the treasury that was enough to make them rich for the rest of their lives, they mistakenly believed that the emperor was extremely wealthy.
In the past, when generals embezzled money and paid less food, or when the treatment of the imperial guards was higher than that of the Jiannan Army, everyone could tolerate it. But today, I feel sad when I see it.
This may be the biggest impact of Guo Qianren's rebellion.
Guo Qianren led the remaining troops to escape from the palace. Listening to the sound of horse hooves behind him, he felt anxious and had to consider what to do next.
He realized that he was just a small figure, and in a fit of rage, he decided to rebel. However, he could never overthrow the Tang Dynasty and become emperor himself. He had neither the talent nor the prestige to do so. Even if he won tonight, he would surely die when the officers and soldiers from other places came to help.
But now that things have developed to this point, there is no turning back. Surrender means death.
After much thought, Guo Qianren found that he only had three ways to survive.
One is to go west to seek refuge with Tubo, which is the best way. Tubo will surely give him a high position and a way out. Although he is just an ordinary person, he has his own principles and bottom line. Thinking of the shame of his fellow villagers if he leads the Tubo people to invade Yizhou in the future, he immediately shook his head and gave up the idea. The second is to go north to seek refuge with Shi Siming, but the journey is too long and leaving his hometown is not what he wants. The third is to go into the mountains in the west and become a bandit. He will hide in the mountain cave and never come out. It's a pity that he can no longer play dominoes with his old friends...
"Escape to the west!"
However, he never thought of going to Guanzhong to join Xue Ni. Perhaps deep down in his heart he felt that the court in Chang'an was more orthodox than the emperor, but now he had rebelled against the Tang Dynasty.
The team headed westward, and gradually, they could see the towering mountains before them.
Suddenly, a small group of people rushed out from the side of the forest, which scared Guo Qianren. However, the next moment, the other side rushed towards the Tang army and supported them.
"There's an ambush!"
The Tang army generals who were chasing Guo Qianren were panicked and stopped immediately.
Guo Qianren did not dare to stay for long, nor did he care about the reinforcements. He led the remaining troops directly into the valley.
After finally shaking off the pursuers, they stopped to rest. Not long after, someone came to report: "General, someone has come to surrender to us!"
"who is it?"
"The villain doesn't know."
"So you came to us?"
"Isn't that what the story says? When Emperor Gaozu of Han started his rebellion, many famous scholars came to join him."
The man who came was tall, with a rough and ferocious face, like a general, full of murderous aura, much more majestic than Guo Qianren.
As soon as they met, the visitor asked, "General, you have rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and driven out the Emperor. May I ask what your plans are for the future?"
"Let's go to the West Mountain." Guo Qianren replied.
"Haha, I thought you were ambitious."
This person was Jiang Hai. He didn't expect that the thing he had worked hard to plan and carefully arranged but failed to accomplish, the young general from Yizhou in front of him just did it without any hesitation.
All we can say is that things that happen naturally in the world are more accidental and more absurd than premeditated things.
Li Longji had to mobilize more troops to guard against the danger after being alerted by Guo Qianren. Jiang Hai's original plan became even more difficult to implement. On the one hand, he sent someone to notify Yan Wu to come as soon as possible, and on the other hand, he also planned to recruit Guo Qianren's troops.
"It's great that you raised an army to start a rebellion, but what will you do if the troops in Zhezhou and Jingzhou who are guarding against Tubo return?" Jiang Hai said, "Winter is coming soon. You have no food and no place to stay. What will you do then?"
Guo Qianren was ridiculed, but he was not angry. Instead, he asked sincerely, "May I ask, sir, how can I make progress?"
~~
The palace was heavily guarded, making it even more difficult to storm. After the commotion, officials waiting to see the emperor gathered in groups of three or four outside the palace gate, discussing something.
"Lu Qi has brought harm to the country and must not be allowed to stay."
Wei Jiansu said in a resolute voice: "I want to report to Your Majesty and demote Lu Qi. Are you willing to join me in making this suggestion?"
Zhang Yi was injured in the leg, and his face was pale due to blood loss. He ran to discuss with Wei Jiansu despite his injury. He was planning to get rid of Lu Qi. He immediately responded: "The mutiny was caused by this traitor, so we should get rid of him."
Also discussing with them was Chen Xuanli, who had just put down the rebellion. He didn't say much, just nodded.
This is how the matter is settled.
When the three of them were in Chang'an before, they had fought against Li Linfu, Wang Yu, or at worst, Yang Guozhong, a traitor. Lu Qi was young and inexperienced, and he had suddenly risen to a high position, so how could he be their opponent?
Especially Zhang Yi, who was injured this time, thought that he should be appointed as prime minister and take charge of the government anyway.
At the same time, someone was watching their discussion from afar, and then reported it to Lu Qi who was preparing for the audience earlier.
This is Lu Qi's strength in uniting the party and eliminating dissidents. Earlier, when his colleagues were still paying attention to other important matters, he had already placed spies in advance to eliminate dissidents.
Hearing the news, Lu Qi was shocked. Then he rolled his eyes, straightened his clothes, and went to see Li Longji calmly.
"Your Majesty, Guo Qianren has been escorted away by an ambush troop."
Li Longji's face darkened, showing anger, and he said, "Can a Yizhou city gate garrison officer have such momentum?"
Lu Qi said: "I think Guo Qianren may have colluded with Xue Bai or the Tibetans, otherwise how could he dare to commit such a heinous crime? I originally thought that he would go north after his defeat, but now he is going west. I think this villain has defected to Tibet."
After a whole night of noise, Li Longji was exhausted. After all, at this age, he liked ministers like Li Linfu who could take charge of things independently. He also had high hopes for Lu Qi, so he asked, "Do you have any plan?"
"Tibetan had previously sent envoys to seek an alliance, saying they would help the Tang Dynasty pacify An Lushan, but the court suspected it was a fraud and rejected it." Lu Qi said, "Now the emperor has defeated Guo Qianren, the Tibetan traitor, and sent troops to guard Zhe, Jing and other states. The so-called kindness and power, the emperor has shown his power, why not send a minister to Tibet? It doesn't cost troops, money or food, and solves a major problem. In this way, you can concentrate on pacifying Guanzhong."
After listening to this, Li Longji thought it made a lot of sense.
His mind was on Chang'an, and it would be best if the border conflict could be temporarily postponed without sacrificing a single soldier, so he asked, "Who do you think we should send?"
Lu Qi said: "I am willing to go!"
His attitude was very firm, and he expressed his determination to die for Li Longji. However, he had made great contributions in saving the emperor in Hanzhong, and Li Longji was unwilling to let him take risks, shaking his head and saying, "How can I send you there?"
"This matter is of great importance, so we must send an important official, preferably a prime minister. Am I not good-looking or too young to demonstrate the power of the Tang Dynasty?"
After Lu Qi's words, his opinion became very clear. Wei Jiansu was the prime minister, and he was also handsome and elegant.
"Wei Pushe is suitable..."
"Just send Wei Jiansu." Li Longji made the decision quickly.
Lu Qi rolled his eyes, and casually said, as if he had just remembered something: "Today, I saw Prince Consort Zhang, and all the loyal servants in his family were extremely brave."
Li Longji immediately narrowed his eyes, and a hint of fear flashed across his eyes.
He had always been suspicious of Zhang Yi, the son-in-law of the emperor, and now he thought of the time when Zhang Yi protected Xue Bai.
……
When Wei Jiansu, Zhang Yi and others came to see the emperor, they saw Lu Qi standing aside.
They were confident in their hearts and just glanced at the young man. They were about to ask him to demote him to a remote place in the south to gain experience for a few years, but the emperor spoke first.
"I intend to send Wei Qing to Tibet as an envoy. What do you think?"
Wei Jiansu was stunned, and before responding, he unconsciously glanced at Lu Qi again. This time, he was in a trance, and felt as if he saw Li Linfu again.
Everything seemed to have changed. The sage experienced great chaos, fled to Shu, and became the emperor. But everything seemed to have not changed. The emperor's heart was still the emperor's heart, and the prime minister was still the prime minister who was good at amassing wealth and forming a clique to suppress dissidents.
As soon as they started fighting, Wei Jiansu and Zhang Yi realized that they had lost. They had never won before.
~~
A few days later, Wei Jiansu led a group of envoys westward. Meanwhile, among the mountains, another group was heading eastward.
As the sun set, the loyal ministers disappeared on the winding ancient road in the mountains, and the treacherous ministers climbed up the East Mountain and overlooked the Shu County Palace again.
Yan Wu's face was full of dust. He held up the telescope and observed for a long time, and no one knew what he was thinking.
"Why did you bring back so few people?" Jiang Hai asked.
"When doing something like this, too many people will make it easier for the news to leak out," Yan Wu said. "Besides, the Tibetans are invading in large numbers, so the defense of Zhezhou cannot be neglected. I pretended to be injured, handed the troops to Wang Tianyun, and quietly retreated."
"Be careful." Jiang Hai said, "But it's not easy to storm the palace. Guo Qianren has already tried it once and it alerted the enemy."
"Do not."
Yan Wu took the intelligence sent by the scout, looked at it for a while, and said, "Someone is helping us."
"Who?"
Yan Wu quickly took action. He asked Guo Qianren to provoke the officers and soldiers, and then retreated into the mountains.
The imperial guards were responsible for guarding the emperor, so they could not come to pursue the rebels. Li Longji ordered Cui Yuan to send the Jiannan Army to lead troops into the mountains to fight the rebels. Guo Qianren was familiar with the terrain and had hidden himself. The Jiannan Army could not find the rebels, so they had to go back and report that the rebels had fled far away. But at this time, Guo Qianren sent out his troops again, ready to attack the palace at any time.
Many generals of the Jiannan Army were punished for this, and after two or three times, Cui Yuan ordered the Jiannan Army to extend the defense line far to ensure the safety of the palace.
Previously, the palace treasury had been robbed, and the soldiers' pay and rewards were already insufficient. The Jiannan Army saw that the imperial guards had nothing to do while guarding the palace and received generous salaries. Then they looked at their own army, which had not only guarded the border and fought against Tubo for many years, but also marched thousands of miles south to conquer Nanzhao and established great military exploits. But they only exchanged their lives for meager soldiers' pay, so they couldn't help but complain.
On that day, Cui Yuan once again urged to send troops to attack Guo Qianren, but the generals in the army were unmoved and gathered together to discuss endlessly.
"Have you heard? The consort Zhang Yi performed a great service in protecting the emperor, and was even injured in a vital part. But the emperor not only did not reward him, but also dismissed Zhang Yi from his position as co-prime minister."
"The Emperor has always trusted the villain Lu Qi and kept his mouth shut. How is this different from trusting Li Linfu back then?"
"Although Guo Qianren rebelled, it was because Lu Qi was forced to do so in order to amass wealth. Rather than asking us to punish Guo Qianren, we should punish Lu Qi."
"Hush, that's clearing the court of evildoers, are you planning to rebel?"
At this time, a lieutenant's eyes flickered, and after hesitating for a moment, he said, "Generals, I have something to say..."
"explain."
"Have you forgotten, generals? Prince Qing has ascended the throne in Chang'an and stabilized Guanzhong, becoming the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. And it was Prince Yong who assisted the emperor in suppressing the Hu rebels in the east and Prince Zhong in the west. When the Nanzhao Rebellion was quelled, although the Jiannan Army belonged to Xianyu Jiedu, it was also counted as having made military achievements with Prince Yong. He can be called an 'old subordinate'."
When they heard the word "old subordinates", everyone's eyes lit up, and the captain's voice suddenly became more infectious.
"The Emperor is old, he trusted An Lushan first, then Lu Qi. Why don't we protect the Emperor and return him to Chang'an to offer sacrifices to the previous emperors? To calm the people's hearts and make great contributions to the emperor is loyalty; to reunite the father and son of the emperor is filial piety; to express old feelings to the Prince of Yong and help him quell the Hu rebellion is integrity; to grant rewards to the soldiers and take care of parents, wife and children is righteousness. Isn't it better to be loyal, filial, chaste and righteous than to be bullied by treacherous people?"
"it is good!"
Someone immediately slammed the table and shouted, "The country is in trouble, how can we hide in Shu? We must escort the emperor back to the capital and punish the traitors!"
"Done!"
Most of the soldiers were reckless men, and they had been feeling depressed for many days. Thousands of people quickly gathered and rushed to the palace regardless of anything, intending to rebel in the name of escorting the retired emperor.
After the horses neighed and the horses' hooves rang loudly, even the lieutenant who had spoken so timidly was stunned. He himself had not expected that his words would lead to such a situation, so he rode west in a hurry to report to Yan Wu.
Yan Wu was also surprised when he heard the news, fearing that the Jiannan Army would hurt Li Longji in anger. If so, the righteous reputation of the Emperor of Chang'an and the Prince of Yong would be severely damaged, which would be very detrimental to the overall situation.
"Quick! Follow me to protect the emperor!"
Yan Wu immediately mounted his horse, gathered his men and rushed to the palace.
His behavior seemed righteous, as if he was extremely loyal to the emperor. Jiang Hai grinned when he heard it, thinking that in this way, the reputation issue that his husband was most worried about was solved.
"Let's go! Protect the emperor!"
Guo Qianren was stunned for a moment, picked up Tang Jun's helmet and put it on, and immediately shouted: "Protect the emperor!"
~~
"Emperor, this is bad!"
Hearing such exclamations again, Li Longji stopped playing the Jiegu drum and asked impatiently, "What happened again?"
"Reporting to the Emperor, there is a rebellion... This time it is the Jiannan Army that is rebelling."
Li Longji's hands pressing on the drum could not help but clench. He felt a little angry. He was angry at the God for always liking to give him, the emperor, setbacks.
"Call Chen Xuanli here. I want to see why the Jiannan Army rebelled."
As he said this, he stood up and walked towards Xuanying Tower again. Before he arrived, he could already hear the shouts of "Bring back the Emperor to the capital" coming from far outside the palace.
"Protect the emperor!" The imperial guards guarding the palace gate shouted.
Soon, the Jiannan Army who came over shouted: "We are here to protect you!"
For a moment, the words "protect the emperor" were heard everywhere in the air. When Li Longji heard this, he felt even more terrified.
(End of this chapter)
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