Country color

Chapter 565 Burning the City
The eunuch delivering the decree looked at dozens of generals of the Tang army kneeling on the ground, and smiled slightly.

Afterwards, the eunuch spread out the imperial decree and read it slowly. Under the gate of Hulaoguan, all the generals of the Tang army knelt on the ground and buried their faces.

But when the eunuch read it word by word, suddenly the faces of the soldiers of the Tang army turned ashen, and an inconceivable look appeared in their eyes.

Anger gradually spread on the face of the Tang army general.

The eunuch read: "The king of Qin and his subordinates will return to Chang'an immediately to accept the reward. If there is any delay, they will be executed!"

cut!
This word floated out gently from the eunuch's mouth, and all the generals of the Tang army lowered their heads. The old eunuch looked at Li Shimin and put his hands together, waiting for Li Shimin to step forward to take it with both hands, and said in a side order: "His Royal Highness Qin is not yet Accept the edict, thank you."

Li Shimin knelt on one knee, but did not move.

The scene fell silent. At this time, one of the generals of the Tang army said: "This is a false imperial decree. Don't listen to him."

"Bold!" A stern look flashed across the old eunuch's kind face, making people realize that this person is not a good man.The eight burly old eunuchs around Qianniu Mansion prepared their bodies, and they took a step forward and pressed their sabers together.Although Beishen is an eighth-rank military post, Qianniu Mansion is the emperor's forbidden army, representing Li Tang's imperial power.

"Who said it, have the courage to say it again!"

But one of the generals of the Tang army stood up boldly and said, "A certain person said that."

Everyone saw that it was Li Shimin's general Hou Junji.

"Take it!"

"Who dares!"

The old eunuch lowered his gaze, and said calmly: "If you don't want to be barbarian, just be honest with me."

Hou Junji drew his sword and said, "Nine Clans! Since I, Hou Junji, dare to question, I am not afraid of your danger. One hundred thousand soldiers of my Tang Dynasty fought for half a year, and finally defeated Luoyang. In a word, let us give up, how can there be a soldier of the three armies here?" Willing to obey."

As soon as Hou Junji finished speaking, several generals of the Tang Army stood up together.

The old eunuch looked at Li Shimin and said, "His Royal Highness Qin Wang, do you think this is what you mean? Or is it what the generals mean?"

Hearing this, Li Shimin stood up slowly, turned around to look at Hou Junji and shouted: "Hou Junji, how many lives do you have to dare to question the imperial decree, why don't you get out of here!"

Hou Junji lowered his head when he heard Li Shimin's reprimand, and immediately strode away with fists clasped.

Li Shimin looked at the old eunuch and said, "I'm not in charge, so I will plead guilty to my father for this matter."

"It doesn't matter. Your Highness King Qin, what happened just now, I can treat it as something I didn't see. It's a matter of retreating."

Li Shimin smiled and said: "Everything follows the arrangement."

The old eunuch immediately showed a look of relief.

Li Shimin changed the subject: "It's just that the Zhao army is heavily stationed outside Hulao Pass. If we have to retreat at this time, I'm afraid the Zhao army will take advantage of the momentum to pursue it, and our army will surely be defeated."

The old eunuch was taken aback and said, "What does His Royal Highness King Qin mean?"

Li Shimin smiled and said: "Father ordered the troops to retreat, Shimin will never dare to disobey, but things have changed, if they suddenly give up the tiger prison, Zhao Jun will definitely drive straight in, and it will be difficult to retreat completely at that time."

"His Royal Highness King Qin!" The old eunuch's expression changed.

Li Shimin laughed and said, "Just kidding."

Hulao Pass is as majestic as ever, Li Shimin looked at Hulao Pass with a determined expression: "Burning the city!"

Under the setting sun, the majestic Hulao Pass was burning in flames.Hulao closed the flames soaring to the sky, which was a little bit redder than the setting sun, and the clouds and smoke rose straight.

"The fire started near dusk. Tang Jun must have piled up a lot of firewood here, otherwise it wouldn't have burned so big!"

Li Chongjiu was wearing a piece of clothing. He was woken up by Wei Zheng in the middle of the night. Zhao Jun has been planning the attack on Hulao for the past few days. The last war game was played seven or eight times. Zhang Xuansu, Ji Chuan and others all believed that there is a great hope that they can capture Hulao Pass with a joint attack on land and water, coupled with Zhao Jun's siege weapon, kerosene bombs.

Now that the preparations are roughly complete, when the army is about to attack Hulao Pass, Li Shimin suddenly burns Hulao Pass and retreats.

"History is really unpredictable. It seems that the expected battle at Hulaoguan did not happen." Li Chongjiu thought in his heart.He guessed several possibilities, and he knew that the biggest possibility was that Li Yuan had doubts about Li Shimin, so he issued an order to withdraw the troops, ordering him to return to Chang'an.

However, the soldiers on the left and right all looked joyful, and they were very happy to be able to conquer such a dangerous pass without fighting.

Du Yan and grandson Shi'an both congratulated Li Chongjiu, and Du Yan suggested to Li Chongjiu: "Now Li Shimin is like a bereaved dog. Our army should take advantage of the victory to pursue and join up with Zheng Jun in Luoyang. It is the two combined strikes that will defeat the Tang army."

As soon as the words fell, Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Wu Gunai and other Zhao Junxiao generals asked Li Chongjiu for orders to pursue them.

Zhang Xuansu said: "You can't be negligent. Although the Tang army is retreating, it may be advancing by retreating. It can bite us back at any time on the way of retreating. If it is eager to advance, it may fall. Or Li Shimin's plan is exactly the same. .Don’t forget that Prince Zheng was ambushed by General Li Junxian of the Tang Army just outside Hulao Pass, and all his troops were wiped out. We must not repeat the same mistakes.”

Zhang Xuansu's words made Li Chongjiu nod his head. There is nothing wrong with being cautious, but it would be a pity if he missed chasing Li Shimin.It was a three-day journey from Hulao to Luoyang, during which anything could happen. If Luoyang surrendered at this time, all major events would be over.

At this time, General Guo Shiheng of the Zheng Army said: "What big things can be accomplished by being afraid and shrinking, but you are a coward. Right now, the rescue of Luoyang should be the top priority. Now that the prison is in prison, it is impossible to let the guest army come forward. A certain vanguard is leading the way for Zhao Jun, so you should rest assured."
Guo Shiheng is a general under the command of Xuzhou Xingtai Wang Shibian. He has always been brave and has a strong temperament.In his words, he felt that Zhang Xuansu was too cowardly, and he also had the meaning of being the first to lead the army to save Luoyang and achieve great achievements.

"Well said." Wang Xuanying nodded, he was about to say something, but when Li Chongjiu glanced at him, he remembered those two slaps and dared not make a sound.

And Guo Shiheng felt that he had succeeded in claiming credit in front of the future crown prince with Wang Xuanying's backing, and said: "That's what I said, Your Majesty Zhao begs you to let someone be the vanguard."

Du Yan hurriedly said: "There is a way to let the master not the guest, so let General Guo explore the way."

Li Chongjiu listened and nodded, thinking that it would be good to have Zheng Jun leading the way. Although the idea of ​​a dead fellow Taoist not being a poor Taoist is not a king's heart, but Wang Shichong and his son are white-eyed wolves from top to bottom, and it is only a matter of saving Luoyang now. Just reject Tang.

Li Chongjiu immediately said: "In this case, we will take General Guo as the vanguard and send troops to Hulao tomorrow to pursue the Tang army. In addition, Cheng Mingzhen will lead the navy to go upstream and attack the three cities of Heyang!"

(End of this chapter)