Late Tang

(Thanks to alphac and Liyuan for their support, thank you!)

Li Keyong woke up slowly.

A bell rang in the darkness, a faint, unfamiliar bell.He reached out to touch the horse lamp by the bed, then touched the matchbox on the table, struck a match and lit the lamp.He squinted his eyes and looked around, and found that it was a luxurious bedroom full of post-Xuanzong style, with Jiangnan furniture.The house is decorated with many new and luxurious items from Shandong, glass mirrors, horse lanterns, a large four-poster sandalwood bed and a pair of duck-down calfskin upholstered chairs.On the transparent and crystal-clear glass tea table, there is a set of glazed tea sets.

Where am I?

A line of writing is engraved on a pair of gauze curtains hanging on the bed post: Dongdu General Hotel.

He got up and looked at his pocket watch, it was only four o'clock in the morning.He stretched out his hand and rang the bell on the wall. In the past two years, in this kind of luxurious restaurant, the message bell from Qin Fan has been installed.This kind of bell is very magical, because copper wires are installed in the walls, and they are connected in series to a message room on each floor.As long as each customer's guest rings the bell, a corresponding bell will ring in the message room.To make it more complicated, there are even several different bells in each room, representing the different needs of guests.As soon as the bell is pressed, the required service is immediately available.It is like the enjoyment of an emperor, luxurious but comfortable.

"Prince Jin is well, I hope the little one didn't wake you up!" A small brass horn on the wall uttered a sound.

Li Ke used a microphone connected to the wall next to him, "What's the matter?"

He looked sleepily at the gold pocket watch around his neck again, it was exactly four o'clock in the morning.He just slept for a while, he remembered that he went to bed at two o'clock in the morning, but it felt like he had slept for a long time.

"Back to King Jin, I'm Mi Rong, a messenger from Yanmen wanted to see you, but he insisted that the matter was very urgent."

Li Keyong was still a little dazed when he just got up, and rubbed that one eye, the emissary of Yanmen?Probably someone from Shi Yan or his uncle Li Delin.At this time, his gaze was fixed on a piece of yellow silk on the table, on which was an imperial decree. The pile of gorgeous words in front of the imperial decree passed by, and his eyes directly looked at the last line.

"Keep using Kezhong Shuling, add Taifu, and serve as Marshal of the Eastern Capital and Shannan, and add power to Tokyo to stay behind!"

Li Keyong snorted, Zheng Congxuan and other old thieves trapped him firmly in the Hedong coalition army, but how could Li Keyong be reconciled.He knew that Brother Yang Fugong wanted to win him over with all his heart. Although Sha Tuo had lost several battles over the years, Sha Tuo's army is still a powerful army in the world.Li Keyong did not refuse Yang Fuguang's solicitation, and after expressing his position, Yang Fuguang was really overjoyed.He mentioned that he wanted to get rid of Zheng Congxuan's constraints, and Yang Fuguang immediately helped to operate.In a short period of time, the emperor has issued an imperial decree to transfer him from the Hedong Allied Forces. Now, he is no longer under Zheng Congyu's command, but the Marshal of Dongduji and Shannan Zhudao, and he has a power to stay behind in Tokyo.

After receiving the imperial decree, Li Keyong led his [-] soldiers and [-] civilians to separate from the Hedong coalition forces.He originally wanted to go back to Yanmen directly, but the old bandit Zheng insisted on the way back north, so Yang Fuguang urged him to go south to defeat the bandits, to reward the emperor with military meritorious service.In desperation, Li Keyong had no choice but to lead his troops across the Yellow River and into Shanzhou.

Originally, Li Keyong thought that there would be a big battle going south, but unexpectedly, under the pressure of the army, almost all the rebels in Henan surrendered.

Li Ke took Shanzhou without a single soldier, Zheng Congxuan and others also entered Heyang, Yang Fuguang and Zhu Wen entered Ruzhou, Zhu Wen then sent letters to Ge Congzhou and Zhang Guimou generals, successfully recruited these old bureaucrats, and recovered Wu Zhou, Yingzhou.

Afterwards, Li Keyong marched from the west, Yang Fuguang, Zhu Wen, etc. from the south, and Zheng Congxuan, Wang Chongrong, etc. from the north, and drove all three directions to the city of Dongdu.The Huangchao bandit army in the eastern capital directly opened the door to offer the city and surrendered, and the soldiers and horses of the imperial court recovered the eastern capital Luoyang with ease.

Now, he is in the extremely luxurious General Hotel in Luoyang, the eastern capital. Dongcheng is now the site occupied by Li Keyong.The general's store is his temporary military headquarters.

If he could not return to the north, Li Keyong could only abandon those barbarians who went south.Uncle Li Delin asked him to find a way to go back to Yanmen several times, even if he left the army in Henan, he could go back alone.Cheng Huaiyi sent several urgent letters in succession, saying that the remaining generals asked to go out to fight, but he refused all of them, and Shi Yan also sent a few people, but it was the Hu people who urged him to send troops.

Li Ke was very annoyed, if he could send troops, he would have already done so.As for his uncle asking him to return to Yanmen alone, he refused.Tens of thousands of troops finally took it back, how could they let it go so easily?And now there are still important things in the south, he can't go back.After finally invading Luoyang, it was the time when people were robbing money, food, people, and territory, so he would not leave easily.As for those barbarians, let them fight with Li Jing, if Datong is lost, it will be lost, anyway, it has been lost for many years, and it was only captured by Li Siyuan before.As long as the Yanmen army does not leave the pass, the Qin army will not have the strength to go south for a while.

Li Ke kept his tone as calm as possible, "I'm tired, and..."

"But, King Jin?" The thing in his hand is really miraculous. A thread connects the two ends, allowing two people to talk to each other even though there are many walls between a long distance.But maybe because of this, the guy over there dared to question his words.

"He said it was urgent!"

Undoubtedly, it must be the Hu people who urged him to send troops again, or Li Delin asked him to return to Yanmen, or Cheng Huaiyi couldn't control the generals who stayed behind.After the First World War in Weizhou, he felt that the current Shatuo was getting worse and worse, and it was far worse than it was three years ago.Thinking back to the defeat in the Battle of Daibei, they lost so badly at that time, but the hearts of the people were united and never wavered.He suddenly remembered Li Siyuan, Li Sizhao and Kang Junli, these are the generals who were so loyal to him, loyal and capable.It's a pity, he even had some regrets in his heart.

"Write down what people reported, and give a reward for this king. Let's talk about something after dawn." Before Mi Rong had time to speak, he put down the copper cylinder.

Li Ke sat up, facing the exquisite mercury mirror next to him, he stared tiredly at the opposite mirror, and the one looking back at him was a stranger, a terrifying stranger.Her hair was disheveled and exhausted, her face was covered by a black eyepatch, and there was a hideous scar across her entire face, with a purple-red flesh protruding from the scar.

He couldn't believe that the person in the mirror was himself. He was only 25 years old, but looking at the face in the mirror, he looked like he was 52 years old.

He has been really frustrated and unlucky these past few years, but he doesn't want to look in the mirror and feel sorry for himself.His originally sharp eyes looked blurred and dull tonight, his shriveled chin was covered with black curly beard, and he even found that there were white hairs appearing on the temples beside his ears, which were burrowing deeply into his originally thick and In thick, black hair.

Just yesterday, Li Keyong, who received the imperial decree from the emperor, reluctantly recognized Yang Fuguang as his adoptive father on his own initiative.Yang Fuguang took in several adoptive sons at a time in front of the palace gate in Luoyang yesterday.Li Keyong, the envoy of the Yanmen Festival, Wang Chongrong, the envoy of the Jiedu of Hezhong, Zhuge Shuang, the envoy of the Jiedu of Heyang, Zhu Quanzhong, the envoy of the Jiedu of Xuanwu, Qin Zongquan, the envoy of Feng[***], Zhou Ji, the envoy of Zhongwu, Zhong[* **] Jiedu envoy Lu Yanhong, Zhen [***] Jiedu envoy Li Quanzhong!

This time the recovery of Luoyang, in terms of merit, Yang Fuguang's merit is the first. He successfully instigated many feudal towns to return to the Tang Dynasty, and contacted the towns, and finally regained Henan and Luoyang without bloodshed.

And now the spies in Chengdu of various towns have sent back news that the emperor now reuses the Yang brothers, favors Yang Fugong internally, and trusts Yang Fuguang externally.Especially Yang Fuguang, who holds soldiers and horses in his hand, is even more valued by Li Xuan.Under Yang Fuguang's Fang Yi, Li Quanzhong, who was expelled from Hebei by Li Jing, Wang Chongrong, Zhuge Shuang, and Qin Zongquan who had surrendered to Huangchao, Wang Chongrong, Qin Zongquan, Zhou Ji, Lu Yanhong, etc. Li Jing's rivals Zhu Quanzhong, Li Keyong, etc., all eventually gathered under his command, and wanted to use him to borrow the emperor's big tree to enjoy the shade.

An eunuch, but became the adoptive father of the commander-in-chief of the eight towns, this is only possible in today's world.

Although he was absolutely unwilling in his heart, Li Keyong had no choice.He has already seen that the feudal towns in Hebei can't stop Li Jing, and the barbarians in the north seem to be no match for Li Jing. He struggles and works hard, but he can only watch Li Jing come over step by step, growing stronger and stronger. The gap between them is getting bigger and bigger.Now he can no longer fight against Li Jing with his own strength, he can only contact all the forces that can be contacted.But now, the emperor seems to have been unhappy with Li Jing for a long time.

For the sake of Shatuo, even if he became a eunuch's son, he endured it.

As the son of an eunuch, he also has a bunch of messy righteous brothers.

Zhuge Shuang, Zhu Quanzhong, and Lu Yanhong were all rebels. Wang Chongrong, Qin Zongquan, Zhou Ji, and Li Quanzhong were all military leaders who started their careers in chaos. .Think about yourself, aren't you similar to them?Now that such a group of people gathered together, although they all came from bad backgrounds, but now they are each in charge of a town, the combined force is still very strong.entire

The two banks of the Yellow River, west of the canal and east of Tongguan, are under the control of these eight brothers.

But among these people, Zhu Quanzhong was the one he was somewhat displeased with.This guy now has the largest territory among all the people, and he is also granted the title of king like him.But he looked down on Zhu Asan, because he used to be a soldier of Li Jing's subordinates, and later joined Huang Chao, and finally betrayed Huang Chao's wealth. Among the generals, he was the least famous, and his background was extremely low. The son of his son, he was just a pig feeder until he was 20 years old.After betraying Huang Chao to win Liang Wang and Zhen [***] Jiedushi, he took the initiative to get close to Wang Chongrong. The age difference between the two was not that big, but he brazenly called Wang Chongrong his uncle.But now, within a few days, they started calling Wang Chongrong brother again in a blink of an eye, and also called him brother.

Fuck, dead swineherd, when he was 12 years old when he was suppressing rebels in Xuzhou, Zhu Asan at that time only knew how to feed pigs to the landlord's house in Xiaoxian County, Xuzhou.A guy like this has the guts to pretend to be his brother?

In short, he didn't like Zhu Asan when he saw him, and he was naturally discordant.Maybe it's because he used to be Li Jing's subordinate, maybe it's because he's the commander-in-chief of Zhen[***]jie now, or maybe it's because he has struggled for so long, but has repeatedly failed. There are so many state territories, and the king of Liang was also named.Maybe it was jealousy, maybe, anyway, he was just unhappy with Zhu Ahsan.

When Zhu Asan offered to show his kindness to him, he didn't pay attention, just nodded indifferently, then turned his head and left.He could see that Zhu Asan was a little embarrassed, but he didn't care.A pig-herding man, who started his career by constantly betraying, for this kind of guy, there are not many people enough to kill him.Although Zhu Asan just expressed his willingness to give some food and grass to the Shatuo Army, this did not make him look directly at him.To gain his respect, one must have strength, and he didn't think Zhu Ahsan had the strength to make him respect.It's just a guy who's been lucky for a while.

The ringing of the bell in the room interrupted Li Keyong's thoughts.

He picked up the microphone and said dissatisfiedly, "Hi!"

As expected, it was his personal bodyguard Mi Rong. "Prince Jin, please forgive my interruption. It is really an urgent military situation. General Cheng Huaiyi was defeated and killed, Yanmen Pass was lost, Daizhou was lost, Xinzhou was lost, and the entire Yanmen Town has been captured by the Qin army!"

Li Keyong suddenly lost his sleepiness, "Bring that messenger to my room immediately, and immediately notify Cunzhang and other generals to come over."

"So what happened?"

Li Ke walked back and forth in the study next to the bedroom anxiously, his face uncertain.This is simply a bolt from the blue, how could Yanmen Town be lost all of a sudden?

"How could it be possible for the Qin army to conquer Yanmen Pass all at once? Yanmen Pass is known as a one-handed pass, and it is the first dangerous fortress opened by Wan Fumo!" He finally couldn't help it, and roared loudly at the messenger who reported the letter.

"Because, because..." the envoy's face was pale, terrified, and his voice trembling: "Because, General Cheng Huaiyi and others saw Zhang Zimian hastily retreating northward, and the Hu people in the north continued to win, so all the generals unanimously demand After leaving the customs to pursue. As a result, General Cheng Huaiyi finally left the customs with [-] cavalry and [-] civilians. After three days of leaving the customs, he was ambushed by the Huishui River in the south of Shuozhou City, and the entire army was wiped out. Then the Qin army sent troops to pretend to be me. The army escorted the captives back to Yanmen Pass, opened the city gate in a fraudulent manner, and took Yanmen. Immediately afterwards, all the cities and passes of Yanmen Town were captured by the Qin army in one fell swoop. Yanmen Town was completely gone."

Li Cunzhang and others who had just rushed over heard all these words, "Didn't the King of Jin ask Cheng Huaiyi several times to guard Yanmen Pass and Taixi Pass and not go to war?"

"All gone? All the cities in Yanmen Town are lost. What about the army?"

"It's all gone too. Huishuihe's [-] soldiers and horses, more than [-] died in battle, and the rest were all captured. The guards in the counties and counties of the two prefectures in Yanmen Town, more than [-] soldiers and horses left behind, were all killed." The messenger cried and mourned. road.

"Where are the family members? Where are our family members?" Li Cunzhang roared angrily.

"They were all captured by the Qin army. The Qin army arrested 10 people in the cities of Yanmen. All the Shatuo people and their family members, regardless of men, women, young or old, were taken away."

"puff!"

Li Ke surged up with energy and blood, and couldn't control it any longer. A mouthful of blood spewed out, and he fell backwards! (To be continued.)