Late Tang

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In the second year of Zhonghe, 882 AD.

That year, Li Jing was 30 years old, Zhu Wen was 30 years old, Yang Xingmi was 30 years old, Qian Liu was 30 years old, Ma Yin was 30 years old, Li Keyong was 26 years old, Wang Jian was 35 years old, and Wang Rong was [-] years old.

Outside the customs, Yelu Abaoji is only a 12-year-old boy at this time, and the royal family of Bohai has reached the late stage of annihilation. On the Sanhan Peninsula, Queen Jinman of Silla and Queen Zhang Yingying of North Korea occupy one side of the peninsula, and the two sides are gearing up. , ready to divide each other and then quickly, at the same time, a large-scale peasant uprising broke out in Silla.From the Central Plains to outside the pass, the dark clouds of war are everywhere.

Near Chang'an.

The emperor, who was held hostage by Tian Lingzi, issued an edict again, conferring the order of the former prime minister, King Duo Zhong, to serve as the commander-in-chief of all the roads and camps. He also decreed that Yang Fuguang, the general political commissar of the Tang Army, should be removed from his post of supervising the army in the world.Under Wang Duo's suggestion, Tian Lingzi threw out a lot of official hats in the name of the emperor, and most of them were given to the commanders-in-chief of various feudal towns who fought against the Qi army, and most of them were Yang Fuguang's little boy. Union people.

Tian Lingzi formally issued an imperial edict to appoint: Zhongwu Jiedu envoy Zhou Ji and Hezhong Jiedu envoy Wang Chongrong as the capital's left and right Sima.

Heyang Jiedu envoy Zhuge Shuang and Xuanwu Jiedu envoy Zhu Quanzhong were the left and right vanguard envoys.

Yizhen [***] Jiedu Envoy Li Quanzhong, Baoda Jiedu Envoy Li Xiaochang, and Difficult Jiedu Envoy Tuoba Sigong served as the north, east, west, and east sides of the capital respectively.

Zheng Congyu, the defense envoy of Jidu, the capital of the East, served as the supervisor of the camp capitals of various roads, and gave Qin Zongquan, Lu Yanhong, Wang Chucun, Li Keyong, etc. the titles of all camp capitals.

Wang Duo's proposals and Hetian Lingzi's concessions have achieved certain results.At least, the Yang Fuguang brothers finally decided not to use force against Tian Lingzi for the time being before defeating Huang Chao and taking back Guanzhong.

Under the mutual concessions of the two sides, the decisive battle between the two eunuch forces did not take place. On the contrary, the towns began to send troops again, preparing for the final blow to Huangchao in Chang'an.

Wang Duo, the new commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, led a part of the troops drawn from Sanchuan to the Fuping Inspiration Temple near Chang'an. The two armies of Binning and Fengxiang stationed in Xingping, and the two party armies of Baoda and Dingnan reached Dongwei Bridge again.

Yang Fuguang took his newly built Zhongwu Badu to station in Wugong.

Yang Fugong took his shence army to station in Shayuan.

The situation this time is almost exactly the same as the previous Guanzhong battle. The towns of the Tang Army coalition forces once again threatened Chang'an from the east, west, and north. At this time, the Daqi Dynasty's orders passed only Huazhou and Chang'an.

If you count from the battle of Longweipi planned by Zheng Tian, ​​this is already the third battle of the siege of Guanzhong by the coalition forces of various towns.

Zhuzhen fought and stopped, advancing and retreating, seeing that Huang Chao was dying, but their attack became weaker and weaker.When Huang Chao is about to perish, no one wants to fight Huang Chao to the death.

For the people in Guanzhong, the glory of being the people at the foot of the emperor's capital has long gone, and now there is only endless suffering.Whether it is the Qi army or the Tang army, almost none of them is not a bandit.

The soldiers were like bandits. In order to avoid the war, the people in the capital area, as long as they could escape, almost all fled to the mountains and deep valleys, and built cottages one by one to protect themselves.On the Weihe Plain, those fertile farmlands that once gave birth to the Qin and Han Empires have been abandoned for several years. Because of the perennial abandonment, weeds and wild artemisia are overgrown.

In Chang'an City where Huang Chao is occupying, the price of a bucket of rice has risen to [-] yuan.But in fact, [-] yuan of rice has long been priced and there is no market. Occasionally, some officers steal and sell some military rations, and they have basically traded at the price of a dollar of rice.This gold is not copper coins, but gold.The food is exchanged for food as heavy as gold, and the same is often priceless.

The famine became more and more serious, and the food became less and less. More than a dozen armies gathered on the Guanzhong Plain, but the daily food consumption was huge.In the end, human flesh trading began to rise quietly among the various armies. This human flesh trading was not a rape transaction, but a real human flesh transaction.The goods sold in these human flesh markets are all living people who have been captured for meat.Most of them come from the villagers in the mountain villages and the people in the suburbs of Chang'an. Those soldiers directly judge the price based on the fat and thinness of the person. The ones with more meat can be sold for hundreds of pieces, and the ones with less meat can be sold for hundreds of pieces.Such a high price, even if ordinary people have the guts to eat human flesh, they still cannot afford it.

On the contrary, the coalition forces are in a better situation because they can still get some supplies from places other than Guanzhong. They are mainly sellers. All the armies capture the mountain people and sell them secretly to the Huang Chao army in exchange for the gold and silver they robbed and collected. treasure.The Huang Chao army was trapped in Chang'an and had already started eating human flesh. According to rumors outside, even the thieves such as Shang Rang and Huang Chao had already started eating human flesh.

A centipede is dead but not stiff. The original Qi army was originally composed of robbers and refugees. Now that it has been trapped for several years, it has already completely turned into a magic army.In order to survive, they even ate human flesh. In order to survive, they are also actively planning to break the blockade, run amok again, and seize food.

Up to now, Chang'an has long been a dead end, which is why Huang Chao has been sticking to Lantian Wuguan after losing Tongguan. Wuguan in the southwest is their only retreat.But without complete preparations, it is also difficult to escape if you rashly evacuate from the deadly place of Chang'an. 10,000+ Tang troops surrounded them, and the Qi army wanted to leave, but they didn't dare to leave the strong fortress of Chang'an.The two sides are confronting each other like this, consuming, but in general, it is getting more and more unfavorable to Huang Chao.

In February of the second year of Zhonghe, Huang Chao sent his brother Huang Ye to personally lead an army to counterattack Li Quanzhong's Tongzhou.Among the towns in Guanzhong and Henan, Hezhong Town is the closest to Chang'an and the richest.

If you are sure, you must do it, if you are not sure, you must do it.

But at this time, Wang Chongrong claimed to have [-] soldiers and horses. Although it was a bit exaggerated, the real elite also had [-].The river is rich and rich, and its strength is far from comparable to that of today's Qi army's partial division. Moreover, he was in danger of the Yellow River, and Li Quanzhong was guarding his flanks. Therefore, as soon as this Qi army stretched out its head, it hit an iron wall, and it was bloody. Had to withdraw to Huazhou.Huang Chao's first step of probing, just made a move, but failed due to the loss of troops.

By this time, Huang Chao and Qi Jun were almost crazy.

In May, Huang Chao once again planned to launch a large-scale counter-offensive. He pushed Xingping with a large army. Frightened and frightened, the three towns were defeated and retreated, and were forced to retreat to Fengtian.

Huang Chao won a small battle and grabbed a batch of food from the three towns. After the whole army had a full meal, everyone burst into tears. It had been a long time since they had eaten such a delicious meal.Immediately, they wiped away their tears, patted their stomachs, and the main force attacked the two party armies of Baoda and Dingnan, which occupied the Dongwei Bridge.They had no intention of fighting to the death with the Qi army, and they were defeated as soon as they received it. While retreating northward in a hurry, they asked Wang Duo, the capital of Lingling Temple, for help.

After Wang Duo received the report, he didn't lead any troops up, but he immediately asked Heyang Jiedu envoy Zhuge Shuang to send troops to reinforce Dang Xiang's soldiers.

Zhuge Shuang was very straightforward this time, and immediately dispatched troops after receiving the order to contain the Qi army's actions.Huang Chao immediately ordered Zhang Juyan to go south to intercept Zhuge Shuang's troops and protect the flanks of Shangrang's army.The two armies fought to the west of Tongguan. As a result, Zhuge Shuang, the grassroots on the wall, was defeated by Zhang Juyan, the leading civil servant of Daqi, and was defeated in the town.

Wang Chongrong also knew the reason why his lips were dead and his teeth were cold. He was afraid that if Huang Chao really broke out and went straight to his Hezhong Town, it would be troublesome.He immediately drew out [-] cavalry and went to rescue.He made an agreement with Li Quanzhong that the cavalry from Hezhong Town would go out of Puban, the east side gate of the pass, cross the Yellow River to the west, go around to the back of Zhang Juyan, the Qi army, and attack Zhang Juyan with Li Quanzhong's Zhen[***] and Heyang defeated troops.As a result, Zhang Juyan had already had spies to explore Hezhong and Zhenguo. Zhang Juyan reacted very quickly. He separated a small group of troops, bluffed, and frightened Li Quanzhong and Zhuge Shuang, the two defeated generals, into Tongguan and did not dare to go out. Then he led the rest of the army to lay in ambush at the Yellow River ferry. When the cavalry in the river were halfway across, Zhang Juyan's ambush rose up. Wang Chongrong's five thousand cavalry were frightened and defeated, so they had to retreat to the river.

In this battle, Zhang Juyan showed his prowess. After defeating Baoda, Dingnan and Zhen[***] three towns in a row last time, he also defeated Zhen[***], Heyang Army and Hezhong Army this time. On the east side of Chang'an, he repeatedly defeated the Tang Ting coalition forces, so that Shangrang's main force had no worries about the east, and effectively supported the actions of the Qi army's main force.For a while, his fame spread in Guanzhong and Guandong, and he became a famous general of the Qi Empire.

The Grand Tutor Shangrang of the Qi Dynasty took the opportunity to go all the way north, and the Guanzhong coalition forces retreated steadily, and the Qi army chased them all the way to Yijunzhai.

Then, at this moment, an incredible thing happened.

In Guanzhong in the second year of Zhonghe, the first snow fell a little earlier than the coming and going. It was the midsummer of June, and it snowed suddenly in Guanzhong.

This snow came a little earlier, too early.And not only early, but also big.In just a few days, the snow was as thick as more than a foot, and they were advancing all the way. The Shangrang army was not prepared for the cold at all. Most of them were even wearing thin clothes. Many people were even half-naked. As a result, the Qi army A large number of people froze to death, [-]% of the non-combat staff was reduced directly, and they lost their offensive ability, so they had to retreat to Chang'an in a hurry.

The June blizzard that happened in Guanzhong was inexplicable, not only causing heavy losses to the Qi army, but also to the Tang army from all walks of life.But relatively speaking, Tang Jun took advantage of the weather to shatter Qi Jun's fierce counterattack, and then Tang Jun, with more adequate logistics, began to counterattack Chang'an again.

The coalition forces on the western front took advantage of the setback of the Qi army's northward march, and once again attacked the outskirts of Chang'an.

After Huang Chao's Qi army escaped the sudden cold snap in Chang'an, they faced the Allied forces on the Western Front again.

Huang Chao personally led the Qi army out of Chang'an to face the Fengxiang army. The two sides fought on the banks of the Laoshui River in the west of Beijing. Although Li Changyan, the governor of Fengxiang, succeeded in driving Zheng Tian away, he was somewhat incompetent when dealing with Huang Chao.After a fierce battle, Li Changyan was defeated and retreated westward, and the Qi army advanced to martial arts again.

Wang Duo was terrified, and desperately ordered Baoda and Dingnan, who had been defeated several times by Huang Chao, to go to the vassal towns of Baoda and Dingnan. The speed made Li Sigong's attitude a little better, and ordered 8000 troops to send troops, but he dawdled desperately along the way, constantly delaying time.

However, although the Qi army at this time was rushing left and right, looking like Ling Li, it was already at the end of its strength and it was difficult to continue.Their biggest fatal flaw is the lack of food and grass. It is okay to fight back desperately for a while, but it is impossible to change their fate of destruction.

Huang Chao found out that Wang Duo had brought a batch of grain and grass from Sanchuan, so he personally sent troops to grab the grain. As a result, he robbed hundreds of carts of grain in one fell swoop, but before he was happy, Wang Duo immediately led his troops to kill and snatch it.Huang Chao didn't have time to take away the food, and his troops were insufficient, so he had to take a little by himself in the end, and set the rest on fire.

Immediately afterwards, Yang Fugong and Yang Fuguang joined forces, and the two Yang personally commanded 3 troops. At the same time, they mobilized nearly [-] people from Jingnan and Shannan. Suddenly, the situation Huang Chao faced became more and more severe. .No matter how he fluttered, he saw that the big one was getting tighter and tighter.

Chang'an West, Xianyang City.

"Brother thinks my plan is wrong?"

Yang Fugong looked at his brother Yang Fuguang and said, they are called brothers, but they are not real brothers.They were all eunuchs castrated and sent to the palace since childhood. According to the customs in the palace, after entering the palace, they worshiped the eunuch as their adoptive father. The two of them were very lucky. They worshiped the Yang family, one of the four powerful eunuch families in the palace at that time .The two did not worship the same person, but their adoptive father worshiped the same person. Therefore, their relationship can be regarded as righteous brothers.In the early years, Yang Fugong relied on his adoptive father's relationship to become a high-ranking lieutenant in the Shence Army. At that time, Yang Fuguang was just a small supervising army in the town.

But now, Yang Fuguang is no longer Wuxia Ameng, even Yang Fugong has to act according to this brother's face.Because, he has only ten thousand people under his command, but Yang Fuguang has eight townsmen, handsome sons, and more than 3 elites under his command.

Just now Yang Fugong raised one thing to Yang Fuguang, that is, Huang Chao can't survive this year. After Huang Chao's demise, the Yang brothers who led the towns to destroy Huang Chao and regain the two capitals will surely increase their prestige by then.He believes that today's world has completely fallen into the hands of Tian Lingzi, far away in Xichuan.And Tian Lingzi controlled Sanchuan, and if he wanted to break into Sanchuan, it would be too difficult to regain the emperor.But it can't work without the emperor in hand, so he suggested that it is better to abolish the emperor Li Yan and re-establish an emperor.

Yang Fugong had even thought about the candidate for the new emperor. Emperor Yizong had many sons, but when he helped Li Xuan to be the prince, he killed all four elder brothers above Li Xuan, who ranked fifth.Now Li Xuan's son is still young, and he is not in his hands, so it is impossible to establish his son.Yang Fugong planned to establish Yizong's son and Li Xuan's younger brother.There are two most suitable candidates, the sixth younger brother Ji Wang Li Bao, and the seventh younger brother Shou Wang Li Jie, both of whom are smart princes.

Ji Wang Li Bao is older and virtuous, and Shou Wang Li Jie is also intelligent and wise, but Li Jie and Li Xuan are siblings of the same mother, and they are younger, only 15 years old this year, Yang Fugong is more optimistic about Li Jie.

It's just that his brother Yang Fuguang didn't seem to respond as enthusiastically as he imagined to his proposal.He has been sitting there, silent for a long time, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Brother, what do you think?" Yang Fugong asked patiently.

Yang Fuguang sighed after a long time, "Brother wants to abolish the current emperor and re-establish the emperor, which is not unreasonable. It's just that we are worried about one person!"

"Who?"

"Li Jing!" Yang Fuguang said the name slowly. In today's world, no one can escape the name Li Jing.His strength, his prestige, makes people awe-inspiring.

Yang Fugong wanted to abolish Li Xuan and make Li Jie the emperor. From Yang Fuguang's point of view, this was all right.For more than a hundred years, the Tang Dynasty did not know how many emperors were supported, abolished, or even killed by eunuchs.Today's emperor was originally a good emperor, and he treated their brothers well, but now Li Xuan fell into Tian Lingzi's hands, and if he wanted to get it back, he had to fight Tian Lingzi.In the eyes of the Yang brothers, this is not worthwhile.Tian Lingzi is far away in Xichuan, and the three rivers are all his territory. The three rivers are easy to defend and difficult to attack, so there is not much chance of winning if he goes to fight there.Most importantly, how many people are willing to follow them to fight in Xichuan?

But without the emperor in hand, no matter how powerful the eunuchs are, they are still inherently deficient.

Therefore, it is necessary to occupy the two capitals and re-establish an emperor.

But there is a very crucial question, Xichuan has an emperor, if they establish another one, how will Li Jing react?

Li Jing is now the biggest vassal king, and his men are strong and strong. Li Jing has never fought against the flag before. If they have two emperors, and Li Jing will set up one at that time, that is also a big problem.If Li Jing doesn't turn back for a while, it is still very important to them.As long as Li Jing is still under the banner of the Tang Dynasty, they don't have to fight the Qin army immediately for a day, and they can have time to unify the towns in Guanzhong, Henan.

"This is a problem, but now he doesn't care about our side, he is in Bohai now."

Yang Fugong is also very afraid of Li Jing, but he feels that Li Jing is not a problem now, after all, Li Jing has been developing in the north for the past few years, and it seems that he has no intention of going south.

"It's better to add a new title to Li Jing and win over him. As long as he doesn't come to interfere with us for the time being, it will be fine."

"I hope!" Yang Fuguang squeezed his smooth chin. (To be continued.)