Late Tang

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The capital, Chang'an.

It was already February [-]th, but Li Xuan felt that Chang'an was still frozen in the cold winter, the sky was gloomy and there was no sunlight, the cold wind whimpered, and the voice was bleak.

After being the emperor for six years, it was only then that he discovered that the Great Tang Empire was not as indestructible as he had imagined, but a building that was about to collapse, dilapidated everywhere, but could not find a pillar to support it.

Huang Chao's proclamation spread to Chang'an with a biting chill just like the cold winter that just passed.

Li Jing summoned important ministers to discuss matters in Yanying Hall. Four prime ministers, Dou Luzhen, Cui Hang, Yu Cong and Li Wei, came, but Lu Xie said he was sick and lay in the mansion.

As soon as Dou Luzhen and Cui Hang entered the palace, they couldn't help but burst into tears and choked up.Who would have expected that the situation would be so bad.

Li Xuan is also a little confused at this time, although he wants to cheer up, but right now he is just the son of heaven.His eyes swept over the ministers, but they all lowered their heads. Finally, they couldn't help but look at Tian Lingzi, who had been keeping a low profile recently.

Seeing the emperor's expectant eyes, Tian Lingzi broke the silence and said calmly: "Please quickly select the elite from the Left and Right Shence Army, and I would like to lead them to Tongguan to defend against the enemy."

At this time, Cui Anqian, Zhang Zimian, and Du Wei had retreated to Tongguan with [-] troops, but Tongguan was not a dangerous place.

However, Li Xuan felt very comforted when he heard this. Although my father also has many bad things, but at this critical time, he still sees loyalty in times of crisis.

However, at this moment, Li Xuan couldn't do without Tian Lingzi.What's more, Tian Lingzi has never led soldiers to fight, so Li Xuan is still a little worried about letting him go to Tongguan at this time.

What's more important is that although Chang'an's Shence Army originally had many elites, since Tian Lingzi purged the Shence Army and wantonly rejected those generals and officers who refused to take refuge in him, the current Shence Army's combat power is low and it is false. There are a lot of people who have changed their names.

"The soldiers of the guards haven't experienced a real battle for a long time, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to stop Huang Chao."

Although Tongguan has a commander-in-chief like Cui Anqian, the total number of soldiers and horses in Tongguan does not exceed 3.And what about Huang Chao?But it is said that there are 60 soldiers and horses. Although this is a bit exaggerated, it is said that all the soldiers and horses of Huang Chao add up to 40 people. 40 people, of which there must be more than [-] elite bandits.

Right now, Huang Chao has just invaded Luoyang, the undefended eastern capital, and Liu Yunzhang, who stayed behind in the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty, actually led the officials and people of the eastern capital to the outskirts of the city to greet him, just like they used to greet the emperor on tour.

Huang Chao was also very happy to take down Luoyang, the eastern capital, without spending a single soldier.Instead of robbing and annihilating silver, instead of comforting and asking, no one was killed. The military discipline of the "Rebel Army" is immaculate, and the neighborhood and village are orderly...

Although the fall of Luoyang was related to the court ordering Cui Anqian and others to retreat to Tongguan, the surrender of Luoyang city officials still disappointed the court.

At such a time, how could Tian Lingzi really be willing to go to Tongguan to resist the 60 bandits.He was only advancing and retreating, so when the emperor said these words, Tian Lingzi immediately praised the emperor, "Your Majesty is wise, and the sacred heart is far-sighted! The bandit army is so powerful that Tongguan may not be able to stop the grass bandit, but it is not the same. It’s not that there is no other way, when the Emperor Congestion was rebelled by An Lushan, he visited the land of Shu.”

As soon as this remark came out, the few important ministers who had been left alone immediately understood.

Cui Hang immediately followed up and supported Tian Gonggong's plan, "At the beginning An Lushan attacked Tongguan with only 5 people, but now Huangchao has 60 troops."

Prime Minister Dou Luzhen also immediately said: "Back then, Brother Shuhan led an army of 15 and failed to defend Tongguan. Now Huangchao has 60 troops, but it is impossible for Tongguan to gather 15 troops. How can we defend?"

Li Xuan was stunned for a moment. He just said that he was worried about the combat effectiveness of the Shence Imperial Army, but he didn't mean that he planned to give up Chang'an.Who would have thought that the topic would suddenly turn to abandoning Chang'an and visiting Shuzhong.

These ministers actually wanted to give up Chang'an immediately after giving up Luoyang.

At the beginning, the ministers said that they would abandon Luoyang, and the reason was to defend Chang'an.But now that the first battle has not been fought, they actually want him to give up Chang'an again.Although Li Xuan is young, it is difficult to accept.Tian Lingzi didn't notice the dissatisfaction in the emperor's eyes, but he was still eloquently persuading the emperor to go to Shuzhong.

Li Xuan finally couldn't help it, snorted coldly, and said to Tian Lingzi: "Needless to say, Qing sent troops on my behalf to guard Tongguan."

Tian Lingzi, who was drooling, was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect the emperor to have such a firm reaction today, so he directly rejected his proposal.

Tian Lingzi was stunned for a moment, but soon came back to his senses.He thought about it, but did not persuade the emperor.

With the current situation, he felt that if he waited a few more days, the emperor would be more anxious than himself.

You know, Huang Chao has 40 troops, while Tongguan only has 3 troops now.As for the soldiers and horses in other aspects of the imperial court, there are no other soldiers and horses in other aspects.Hezhong Town and Zhongwu Town have already established their own regimes, and the five towns of Hedong, Zhenwu, Tiande, Datong, and Xiayin previously mobilized by the imperial court went south. As a result, they had just walked halfway and replaced Zheng Congxuan as the commander of the camp in the west of Hebei. Tolic used it in the opposite direction again.

Li Ke used this unfamiliar white-eyed wolf to take advantage of the opportunity of the five towns to go south, and after capturing Lu Longjun's Xin, Wu, Confucian, and Gui prefectures, he suddenly turned his back on his carbine and turned around and entered Wei Dynasty. Li Keyong has captured the three prefectures of Wei, Dai, and Xin in a row, and stormed Yunzhou of Datong.

The ministries of Daibei who had already gone south halfway, when they heard the news, immediately ignored the safety of the court, and the three ministries of Sage, Anqing, and Qibi all directly returned to Daibei.

Even Zheng Congxuan could only obey the request of the soldiers in Hedong at this time and lead his army back to rescue Taiyuan.In this way, in the end Zhenwu, Tiande, and Xiayin's soldiers and horses wanted to go south, but there were too few soldiers and horses, so they had to go back to Hedong.

The reinforcements from the east that the imperial court was most looking forward to were gone, and the reinforcements from the southeast were unlikely to come, let alone the reinforcements from Henan.

Tian Lingzi finally thought about it, and recommended three scapegoats to the emperor, Zhang Chengfan, the horse general of the Left Shence Army, Wang Shihui, the infantry general of the Right Shence Army, and Zhao Ke, the soldier and horse envoy of the Left Shence Army.

Li Jing appointed three generals to immediately select soldiers and horses, ready to go to Tongguan.At the same time, Li Xuan finally appointed Tian Lingzi, the father who controlled the Shence Army, as the commander-in-chief of the Left and Right Shence Army and the soldiers and horses of the towns in Guanzhong. Deputy Commander.

In the next few days, the situation in the Great Tang Empire continued to deteriorate as Tian Lingzi expected.

Taining Jiedu envoy Qi Kerang fled in Henan for a period of time, but in the end he failed to escape back to Taining. His way back east was blocked by Zhu Wen and Ge Cong on Tuesday. In the end, the Jieshuai wandered around the towns , gathered thousands of defeated soldiers, and fought a little autumn wind from various towns, and finally retreated into Tongguan with the defeated soldiers.

On February 27, Huang Chao's army captured Guozhou.

Seeing Huang Chao getting closer and closer, the court became even more panicked.

On the 28th, the imperial court ordered Luo Yuangao, the general of Zuo Shence, to be the envoy of Heyang Jiedu. Heyang is next to Luoyang and separated by a river.The imperial court hopes that after he takes office, he can counterattack Luoyang from the side and back, and hold back Huang Chao. On the other hand, he also hopes that Heyang Town can block the westward advance of Hebei rebel Weibo Town.

At the same time, the emperor Li Xuan made another decree, taking Wang Chongrong as the Jiedu envoy of Hezhong, Zhou Ji as the envoy of Zhongwu Army, Qin Zongquan as Feng[***] Jiedu envoy, and Lu Yanhong as Zhong[***] ] Jiedushi, with Li Keyong as Yanmen Jiedushi.

These appointments not only wiped out Zhongwu Town and Hezhong Town, which had rebelled, but also named the three military leaders who split from Zhongwu Town as Jiedu envoys, and especially established Fengguo and Zhongguo Townships.

Moreover, even Li Keyong, who rebelled twice, the imperial court endured it at this time. Not only did he not hold him accountable, but he also used Li Keyong's current occupation of the seven prefectures of Xin, Dai, Wei, Xin, Wu, Confucianism, and Gui. The land was newly built as Yanmen Town, and Li Keyong was officially granted as Yanmen Jiedushi.

At this time, the imperial court was still counting on using this kind of small favor to make Wang Chongrong, Zhou Ji, Qin Zongquan, Lu Yanhong, Li Keyong and others who had already become rebels work for the imperial court again and deal with Huang Chao for the imperial court.

By this time, the positions of Jiedushi have been wholesaled like Chinese cabbage.

However, the imperial edicts are easy to issue, but after these imperial edicts are issued, it is hard to say whether the towns will really obey the edicts and send troops.

Leaving the Hall of Yanying, Li Xuan leaned on the soft couch in the Imperial Study Room, feeling as if he had collapsed.

There was a thick pile of memorials on the imperial case, almost all of which were persuading him to move to Shuzhong.

This is a difficult decision, and Li Xuan still insists deep in his heart, he does not want to give up Chang'an.Luoyang has been lost, so should we lose Chang'an?

All over the court, there is not a single talent available.

Li Xuan let out a long sigh, feeling extremely tired.

There was a sound of hurried footsteps outside, Li Xuan frowned and opened his eyes.Zhang Tai came into view.

"Great victory, Your Majesty, a great victory in Hebei!"

The words Hebei Dajie fell into Li Xuan's ears, making the tired emperor stand up all of a sudden.

"Aiqing, what is the great victory in Hebei?" Li Xuan asked hastily.

Zhang Tai quickly handed over a letter box in his hand, and shouted excitedly, "Your Majesty, it's a great victory in Hebei. The King of Qin led an army of 11 to go south. First, he fought against the rebels in Guiyi, Zhuozhou, and wiped out the enemy in the first battle." More than [-]. Then the army swept across more than ten counties of Mo and Ying. Just three days ago, the king of Qin divided his troops to guard the three passes of Mozhou, isolated the rebels in Lulong and Yiwu towns from Youzhou, and then led his army to surround the heavy city of Yingzhou Hejian threatened Chengde and forced Wang Jingchong to give up the captured Cangzhou and retake Hejian with [-] troops. The two armies fought, Wang Jingchong was defeated, and King Qin beheaded more than [-] people again. Di Wuzhou, soldiers have crossed the Yellow River." (To be continued.)