Volume 5: Zhongshan is full of smoke and rain

Chapter 1: Fighting for the country at all costs, and if you want to be a loyal minister, you can't get it (I)

On the first day of March of the fourth year of Tongguang, the emperor ordered Li Siyuan, the governor of the Han Dynasty, to lead the army to Yedu to ask Zhao Zaili. Renzi, Li Siyuan led the army to Yedu and camped in the southwest corner.

In March, Ding Weishuo, Li Shaozhen recovered Xingzhou, captured the thief Zhao Tai and other 21 people, and joined Li Siyuan in Yedu. Li Siyuan ordered Zhao Tai to be beheaded under the capital of Ye to deter the enemy.

Jiayin, Li Siyuan entered the camp outside the Guanyin Gate, and ordered the troops to attack the city

The tent was brightly lit, and Li Siyuan was discussing with Li Shaozhen about the siege of the city the next day. This time to attack Weizhou, Li Siyuan on behalf of Li Shaorong as the commander, the troops and horses he led by the pro-army and Li Cunqiao allocated a part of the Ma Zhi, Li Shaozhen led 5,000 town troops as a supplement, Li Shaorong stationed more than 10,000 troops in the south of the city.

After the military discussion, the generals dispersed, Li Shaozhen did not return to the camp in a hurry, because it was late, Li Siyuan then set up wine and food to entertain Li Shaozhen.

"It has been a long time since the rebellion in Yedu, and Li Shaorong has led the troops for a long time, but he has not been able to shake the city defense for half a minute. The head of the horse for many years, few defeats, is the country's heavy weapon, now the head of the country, not a single soldier, and Ye Du chaotic pawns have appeared in a state of fear. To break the city and quell the chaos, you have to rely on the authority of the governor. Li Shaozhen said, "If Your Majesty had sent the governor here earlier, why would the Yedu Rebellion be as prosperous as it is today!" ”

In the face of Li Shaozhen's compliment, Li Siyuan just shook his head, "Wang Shi pacified the two rivers in two months, this is the prosperity of our dynasty, if the monarch and the minister can work together, the world can be peaceful, but the rebel ministers and thieves suddenly made a mess, and fell into the Central Plains in the beacon fire, which is hated." Since ancient times, whenever there is a military disaster, it will be the people of Li who will suffer. Hei Yuan has no other thoughts, but hopes to calm down the chaos as soon as possible, so that the people can suffer less crimes. ”

"The general manager is lenient and righteous, which is admirable." Li Shaozhen arched his hand.

Li Siyuan ridiculed: "The general praised it falsely, I started from the end of the micro, but I just know more about some people's sufferings." ”

"According to the general manager, how long will it take to quell the rebellion in Yedu?" Li Shaozhen's eyes rolled.

"Before the war started, we had never fought against the enemy, and I did not dare to speak at this time." Li Siyuan was cautious in his words, but he had the confidence of a famous general in his expression, "However, we are ordered to rebel, as long as the soldiers are united, although the thieves are powerful, it is not difficult to calm down." ”

"That's what the chief says." Li Shaozhen nodded in agreement, and then sighed: "I heard that the envoy of Lu Longjie is now crusading against the Khitan thieves, and now he has come to the West Tower, making Yelu Abaoji embarrassed. This time, Lu Long sent troops to the grassland to beg for thieves, which is really admirable! Today, there is Lu Longjiedu to make the country fight not to be subordinate outside, and the governor is in the internal rebellion, and jointly support the community, this situation is fascinating, and the history must have the name of the chief manager and his son! ”

Hearing this, Li Siyuan finally smiled, "Congjing, this kid, can just toss!" ”

"Haha," Li Shaozhen laughed.

The two talked speculatively, and suddenly heard a sudden commotion outside the tent, and from time to time the noise became louder. Li Siyuan frowned slightly, got up and called the guards outside the tent to reprimand him: "The city will be attacked tomorrow, who is making noise at this time?" ”

The guards were immediately ordered to check, and not far after he walked out, a sergeant hurriedly came to report: "Sergeant Zhang from Ma Zhi gathered a crowd to make a rebellion, killed the general, burned the camp, and approached the Chinese army!" ”

"What?!" Li Shaozhen was shocked, "Why are you making trouble from Ma Zhiyuan?" ”

Li Siyuan's face sank like water. Some time ago, Ye was in turmoil, Li Shaorong was ineffective in combat, Li Cunqiao wanted to conquer in person, because he had to rebel with the palace gate, so he gave up, so Li Siyuan took command of the expedition. I never thought that today I would make trouble again!

Li Shaozhen looked at the chaotic camp, knowing that its situation was already too frightened to control, and hurriedly asked Li Siyuan: "Chief, the chaotic soldiers burned the camp, and the momentum was quite big, what can I do?" ”

"Gao Xingzhou, you go and contact General Li Shaorong and ask him to come and help Ben Shuai quell the chaos!" Li Siyuan raised his feet and walked outside the camp, "The rest will follow the commander to stabilize the rebels!" ”

When Li Siyuan led his own army out of the camp, hundreds of thousands of people led by Zhang Po had already poured into the front of the camp. Li Siyuan stopped the chaotic crowd and rebuked loudly: "Yingxiao mutiny, can you know military law?" Zhang is broken, what do you want! ”

The chaotic crowd shouted: "The soldiers have followed Your Majesty for many years and fought countless battles to win the world." Now Beizhou is homesick, but His Majesty won't let me wait to go back. A few people from Ma Zhi are noisy, and His Majesty will get rid of Ma Zhi. We had no intention of rebelling, but we were forced by the situation to survive! ”

Li Siyuan scolded with a dark face: "Nonsense! ”

Zhang Po said at this time: "We intend to join forces with the soldiers in the city, please Your Majesty call Emperor Henan, let you call Emperor Hebei, please don't shirk!" ”

Li Siyuan's color changed suddenly, he was not only shocked that Zhang Po was going to force him to be the emperor, but he was even more shocked that Zhang Po said this, it was like he had already conspired with the rebels in the city!

At the moment, Li Siyuan persuaded everyone hard, using both soft and hard, but he always refused to obey orders, but surrounded Li Siyuan.

Li Siyuan was very anxious, thinking why Li Shaorong hadn't come over yet, and he had to rely on his own troops to defeat him, and he had to get Li Shaorong's help. At this time, in order to avoid being trapped in the chaos, he said: "You don't listen to the words of the marshal, the marshal is incompetent, I can't help you wait, you want to be a thief, just wait, the marshal has returned to Beijing since the division!" ”

Seeing that Li Siyuan wanted to leave, Zhang Po pulled out his knife and stepped forward, blocking in front of Li Siyuan, with a hideous face, "Where does the chief manager want to go?" If you don't see the opportunity, something bad will happen! ”

Li Siyuan was surrounded by rebellious soldiers, but still refused to agree to be emperor. Li Shaozhen saw that Zhang Po and the others would make a move at any time, so he secretly stepped on Li Siyuan's feet. Li Siyuan had an idea, turned around and said, "Since this is the case, let's go to the city!" ”

Zhang Po and others thought that Li Siyuan was in order, and they were overjoyed, and hurriedly greeted the subordinates, both embracing and hijacking, coercing Li Siyuan to flock to the gate of Weizhou.

When they arrived at the city, Zhang Rui and others shouted to the city wall: "We intend to join forces with you, support Governor Li and call Emperor Hebei, and reject the imperial court soldiers and horses, and open the city gate as soon as possible!" ”

Zhao Zaili hurriedly climbed to the top of the city, and saw that there were many soldiers outside the city, and the black pressure was overwhelming, and he couldn't help but be surprised, although he heard Zhang Di's words, although he was suspicious, he was overjoyed, and was about to open the door, but was stopped by Huang Fuhui, he said: "Do you know that this is not Li Siyuan's fraud?" When he saw that our city was strong, and that it was difficult for him to storm it, he devised this trick, and if he deceived him into opening the gates, would we not be killing ourselves! ”

Zhao Zaili was shocked and difficult to decide, and asked Huang Fuhui: "How is this good?" ”

Huang Fuhui was about to say again, but there was a sudden change in the city, only to see Li Siyuan taking advantage of Zhang's unpreparedness, he suddenly grabbed the knife and slashed at Zhang Rui!

Zhang Po was negotiating with the head of the city, but Li Siyuan had such a hand, and was cut in the neck with a knife, and immediately blood flowed and he fell down miserably. Seeing that Zhang was ruined and suffered, everyone from Ma Zhi was shocked, Li Siyuan and Li Shaozhen took the opportunity to fight, "I, Li Siyuan, have been loyal to the court all my life, and I have a good reputation, how can I be ruined in the hands of thieves such as Er, even if I die in battle, I will not leave a reputation for eternity!" ”

On the city wall, Zhao Zaili was dumbfounded, but Huang Fuhui's eyes lit up, and he immediately made a decision, raised his knife and shouted: "The enemy army is in civil strife, this is a good opportunity to break the enemy, open the city gate, and go out of the city with the general!" ”

The guards of Weizhou swarmed out and fought out of the city. From Ma Zhi chaotic people to join forces with Weizhou, but they never wanted to encounter such a situation, and suddenly they were in chaos, and they were killed by Weizhou's guards, and they fled in embarrassment.

Li Siyuan and Li Shaozhen wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape, but they were trapped in the chaotic army and could not get out, but they were caught by the guards of Weizhou. Looking at his own camp again, through the impact of the chaos from Ma Zhi and the Weizhou guards, it has been destroyed in one fell swoop, and the pro-army soldiers are even more wolf rushing at night, scattering and fleeing for their lives.

Hearing that Li Shaocheng had been arrested, Zhao Zaili hurriedly went out of the city to greet him. Li Siyuan was besieged by the sergeants, but he held his head high, his instrument was lofty, he was upright, he was not afraid, and his demeanor was impressive.

Zhao Zaili saluted in front of Li Siyuan: "The soldiers have failed the governor, now Zhao Zaili and the defenders of Weizhou, I am willing to obey the commander's order and help the governor to call the emperor Hebei!" ”

Huang Fuhui asked the sergeant to put down his weapons and take the lead in bowing, "We are willing to listen to the orders of the chief manager and help the chief to be called Emperor Hebei!" ”

Previously, Huang Fuhui was in turmoil, knowing that his prestige was not enough to command the whole army, so he coerced Zhao Zaili to take the lead; Zhao Zaili was able to rule Weizhou, but he could only live in a corner to protect himself, and he had no prestige to further achieve great things, so he simply followed Zhang's broken words to help Li Siyuan become emperor.

Li Siyuan didn't say a word, and together with Li Shaozhen, he was surrounded by Zhao Zaili and Huang Fulin into the city. Immediately, Zhao set up a banquet to entertain him, and there were countless flatteries during the banquet. Huang Fuhui and others all knew that it was not a long-term plan to trap Weizhou, and if Li Siyuan was proclaimed emperor, he would naturally be prosperous and rich after the deed, which was not comparable today.

Li Siyuan neither agreed nor refused, and only drank with everyone.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Siyuan gradually let go of his hands and feet, and when he was drunk, everyone climbed the city tower and talked about the situation. Li Siyuan finally said: "This city is strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it can be a foundation place. However, there are not enough soldiers and horses in the city, and we must recruit troops and horses to make it happen! ”

Zhao Zaili, Huang Fuhui and others thought that Li Siyuan was finally willing to agree to the matter, and they were overjoyed and echoed, "What the chief manager said is very true! ”

Li Siyuan then said: "Our pro-army is the elite of a hundred battles, and for many years it has been with this commander in the southern and northern expeditions, and it can be regarded as the backbone. The battle has just been chaotic, but our pro-army has been scattered, and when the commander goes out of the city, he will gather all the armies, so that we can do something! ”

Zhao Zaili, Huang Fuhui and others did not deceive, and they all agreed.

In their opinion, now the Central Plains is full of smoke, and the world is in turmoil, Li Siyuan is an important minister of the country, and has made countless contributions to the imperial court, but he is full of suspicion.

On the same day, Li Siyuan and Li Shaozhen went out of the city to gather the rout.

When they arrived in Wei County, they only gathered more than 100 people, and these soldiers all discarded their armor in the rout. Fortunately, the 5,000 town army under Li Shaozhen's command did not suffer a major chaos because they had never camped in the same place as Li Siyuan, and the soldiers were complete.

Li Siyuan Rong Ma life, but also experienced such a big defeat, thousands of pro-army actually fought a war and only more than 100, can't help but feel sad from it, thinking of the defeat of this battle, although successfully escaped, but the guilt is inevitable, a lifetime of reputation ruined in the hands of the rebellious army, is even more heartbroken, he said to Li Shaozhen: "The country is in trouble, to such a field, I have no shame to return to the court, only to return to the vassal to be guilty, and then try to do it later!" ”

Li Shaozhen said busily: "The manager must not do this move!" The commander is the commander of the three armies, and now he has suffered a catastrophe, but he has been hijacked by the rebels. Li Shaorong did not save the chief manager that night, and then retreated without a fight, in order to shirk responsibility, he must say that the chief manager was rebellious. If the governor returns to the domain, he will cede the land and invite the king, will not he confirm his words? According to the following opinion, the chief manager might as well return to the court and clarify to His Majesty in person! ”

Li Siyuan invited Li Shaorong to jointly suppress the rebellion from Mazhi that night, but Li Shaorong did not move, so that Li Siyuan was in a predicament. Afterwards, Li Siyuan was coerced into the city by Zhao Zaili and others, and Li Shaorong withdrew his troops from the south of the city.

Li Siyuan thought about it for a long time, and felt that it could only be so.

Subsequently, Li Siyuan went south to Xiangzhou and collected the defeated troops along the way. Later, Demafang made Kang Fu give 2,000 war horses, and Li Siyuan let his subordinates recover some of their appearance, so that they would not be too ugly when they returned to the court.

At this time, Li Shaorong had already returned to Weizhou, and he urgently reported to Li Cunxuan, saying that Li Siyuan had betrayed.

When Li Siyuan heard the news, he was very anxious and hurriedly sent someone to defend himself.

However, it was played many times, and for many days, the court did not come.