Tongguan was in a hurry, and it was already late at night when Gao Xianzhi's request for help was handed over to Chang'an. Li Longji put on his clothes, opened his red sleepy eyes, pursed his lips and looked at the comment, and his cold face did not say a word.

"In just half a month, why did the 60,000 defenders in Tongguan lose more than 20,000?" Li Longji murmured with an ugly expression.

Gao Lishi was the one who handed the memorial. At this time, he stood behind Li Longji and looked sleepy, but he was still energetic.

Since An Lushan started his rebellion, Li Longji finally restored his spirit to a generation of wise rulers. He had long ordered Gao Lishi to report any military information on the front line to quell the rebellion, no matter at any time or anywhere.

Gao Lishi remembered it, so he still plucked up his courage to wake Li Longji up in the middle of the night.

"Your Majesty, I think...will you summon the old general Yang, Chen, Guo and others to discuss it?" Gao Lishi advised carefully.

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Li Longji had no expression on his face, and he still looked at the melody over and over again with a cold face. After a long time, he nodded gently from his nostrils.

Gao Lishi knew about it and immediately left the palace to order people to summon Yang Guozhong, Chen Xilie and Guo Ziyi.

The emperor summoned him in the middle of the night and had to do something important. After being woken up in his mansion, the three important officials did not dare to delay at all. They immediately dressed neatly and entered the palace.

The lights in Xingqing Palace were brightly lit, and the three important officials were no longer sleepy. After reading Gao Xianzhi's request for help, the monarch and ministers fell silent.

Li Longji's eyelids drooped, as if he was not awake, but his rapid breathing and the phlegm sound from the old man's unique throat showed that he was not dozing off, but was in a state of nervousness.

Chen Xilie looked anxious and wanted to speak but stopped. Guo Ziyi's expression was calm and she stroked her beard and thoughtful. Only Yang Guozhong's eyes flashed and his expression was very serious, but he didn't know what he was thinking.

After a while, Li Longji sighed: "Tongguan is in an emergency, and there are no troops to support Chang'an. I will discuss it. What should I do about this?"

Chen Xilie looked at Yang Guozhong and saw that he had no intention of speaking, so he first said: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that if you still have to rush to Tongguan, it is better to allocate another 10,000 or 20,000 from the Chang'an garrison to help Tongguan to solve the urgent needs of General Gao."

Yang Guozhong shook his head and said, "Chen Xiang said this is a bad thing. There are only 30,000 defenders left in Chang'an City. The garrisons of the southern prefectures and counties are still on the way to Beijing to serve the king. It will take at least one month to arrive at Chang'an. No matter what, the troops in Chang'an City cannot be transferred outside, otherwise the capital of the Emperor will become an empty city. How can His Majesty deal with it?"

Chen Xilie said dissatisfiedly: "What should we do according to Yang Xiang's wishes?"

Yang Guozhong looked at Li Longji's face first, and saw that he had no intention of being angry, so he slowly said: "Your Majesty, I think you can temporarily recruit new recruits in Chang'an City, and then dispatch several generals to send new recruits to Tongguan. On the way to Tongguan, the generals kept training new recruits. After a few days of training, it was probably possible to use them. In this way, there was no need to use the Chang'an defenders, but also to assist Gao Xianzhi..."

Guo Ziyi frowned and said in a deep voice: "Yang Xiang's words are simply nonsense. The recruits recruited temporarily are almost the same as those in the market. I hope these people will pick up weapons to guard Tongguan. When the war occurs, they will throw away weapons and run away with their heads and run away. One person will escape. The morale of the entire army will be affected. Tongguan will be even more critical. Your Majesty, Yang Xiang's words are absolutely undesirable."

Yang Guozhong said calmly: "Person Guo may not know that the population of Chang'an City is over one million, and there are a large number of young and strong men in the market, from peddlers to merchants and yamen. In the event of national crisis, all subjects must share the worries of the country. The garrison of the pass has never been the responsibility of the army. All the subjects of the Tang Dynasty have the responsibility to resist the enemy. If they can recruit young and strong Chang'an City, they can have an additional 100,000 troops within a few days. Even if these 100,000 troops are not good, it is not difficult to take ten to one, right?"

Li Longji frowned. He was also a soldier before ascending the throne, so he naturally knew that Yang Guozhong's words were undesirable.

Ordinary people and military soldiers have two concepts. It is completely meaningless to compare them purely by quantity.

But now Tongguan and Chang'an are in a critical moment, and the southern king-supporting army has not arrived for a long time. Some of the troops of the military governors in various places are still on the road, and some are trapped in the quagmire of war and cannot move. Li Longji suddenly realized that the army he could mobilize was only 30,000 defenders in Chang'an.

At such a critical moment, no matter how ridiculous Yang Guozhong's advice was, Li Longji had to think seriously, because he had no other choice.

"Recruiting the people of Chang'an as soldiers and rushing to Tongguan to rescue emergency services, it seems... Well, Old General Guo thinks it is not advisable?" Li Longji turned his head and looked at Guo Ziyi.

Seeing that Li Longji seemed to be moved, Guo Ziyi couldn't help but feel anxious and stood up and said, "Your Majesty, it's absolutely not advisable! The people recruited soldiers temporarily and let them go to the battlefield in just a few days of training. Not only is it useless to defend Tongguan, but it will affect the morale of the defenders of Tongguan. A commoner threw down his weapons and fled, and there will be a second, a third, and in the end, hundreds, and hundreds, everyone ran away. Even the real guardians would follow him. The old minister led his troops all his life. This is absolutely true. Please think twice."

Li Longji sighed: "However, Tongguan is in a hurry, and it is about to be broken by An Lushan. I can't come out to rush to Tongguan to help. Chang'an City will not be saved sooner or later. Can Old General Guo have a way?"

Guo Ziyi suddenly fell silent.

A good wife cannot cook without rice. No matter how powerful a general is, it is futile to have no soldiers in his hands.

Yang Guozhong's eyes rolled and said, "Your Majesty, I think not only can I recruit the people in Chang'an as soldiers, but the generals guarding Tongguan should also carefully consider it. Gao Xianzhi is a famous general in the state, but he lost more than 20,000 troops in half a month to defend the pass by relying on the natural danger of Tongguan, and he lost more than 20,000 troops in half a month when he guarded the pass. I think Gao Xianzhi may not be suitable to continue leading troops to guard the pass."

It is not just because Yang Guozhong is not capable, but he is highly valued by Li Longji. It is not just because of Yang Guifei, but because this incompetent person is very skillful in speaking and can often express Li Longji's thoughts in one word.

When Li Longji received Gao Xianzhi's request for help, he was quite dissatisfied with Gao Xianzhi's death and casualties. However, the generals of the state fought for the emperor, so Li Longji couldn't say hurtful words.

As a result, Yang Guozhong said the hurtful words at this moment.

Li Longji raised his eyebrows and said with great interest: "What is Guozhong's opinion? I would like to hear it carefully."

Yang Guozhong said: "Gao Xianzhi was once the governor of Anxi, and the barbaric land of Anxi, thousands of miles of yellow sand. Gao Xianzhi led his troops to fight in the plains and deserts, but guarding the pass was a city offensive and defensive battle. Gao Xianzhi's strengths were not here. From the severe damage to Tongguan, it can be seen that Gao Xianzhi is not good at guarding the pass, and I think it is better to change generals."

Li Longji became more interested and smiled and said, "Oh? Guozhong thinks who can be replaced as the general who guards the pass?"

Yang Guozhong said without hesitation: "I think you can replace Ge Shuhan."

The candidate Ge Shuhan was carefully considered by Yang Guozhong.

The Chang'an court has always had a party branch, and Geshuhan was the party of Yang Guozhong. In order to deal with Li Linfu, Li Longji deliberately cultivated Yang Guozhong's court power, which not only allowed Yang Guozhong to hold more than 20 positions, but also intentionally or unintentionally encouraged Yang Guozhong to interact with court officials.

This is another manifestation of Li Longji's stupidity. In the Wei Jian case, Huangfu Weiming, who was the governor of Hexi at the time, visited a night market with Wei Jian, the Minister of Justice at that time, and Li Longji took advantage of the situation and turned it into a major case. Wei Jian and Huangfu Weiming were both sentenced to death.

There is no other reason, because Wei Jian and Huangfu Weiming are the princes of the Eastern Palace, and Li Longji wants to suppress the prince, so he used these two people to establish his authority.

But when he arrived at Yang Guozhong, Li Longji turned a blind eye to Yang Guozhong's friendship with the side general Ge Shuhan, and allowed the two to get intimate with a tacit attitude.

Because Li Longji needed Yang Guozhong to grow up quickly, occupy a certain amount of power in the court, and replace Li Linfu, which also poses a certain threat to the prince.

So with Li Longji's tacit consent, Yang Guozhong deliberately made friends with court officials and border generals, including Gu Qing and Geshu Han. Yang Guozhong's purpose of making friends with border generals was actually not so ulterior motives. He had no intention of rebelling, and winning over border generals was purely for dealing with An Lushan.

At this point, Tongguan is in an emergency. As the right prime minister, Yang Guozhong had no plans for the country and country destiny at this time. His first reaction was to replace Gao Xianzhi, who was just as close to him, and replace him with Geshuhan, who was his own party.

In fact, if Gu Qing's Anxi Army was not trapped in Luoyang and had no time to guard him, Yang Guozhong's original intention was more inclined to let Gu Qing guard Tongguan.

After all, Gu Qing is much more generous than Geshuhan.

It is difficult to defend Tongguan, but once it is kept, the benefits will be extremely high. If you suppress the rebellion in the future, whoever defends Tongguan will inevitably be ranked first in the list of merit by Li Longji. Not only will it be promoted, it will be impossible to list the heroes of Lingyan Pavilion.

Unfortunately, such a fat errand cannot be handed over to Gu Qing, so he can only substitute the second-ranked Yang Party confidant Ge Shuhan, and he is no longer a foreigner.

Perhaps no one believed it. Until the Tang Dynasty was in danger, even Li Longji was anxious and worried, but Yang Guozhong still had no panic.

In his opinion, the An Lushan rebellion was just a small storm in the Tang Dynasty, and it was not worth worrying. A mere 150,000 rebels had lost tens of thousands from the north to the south, and now there are only 100,000 left. How could it be possible to push down the walls of prosperity? It is impossible. Once the court came to its senses, it could easily pacify it with its backhand. So what Yang Guozhong had to do now is to gain enough political capital in this war and support his accomplices.

Not only did Yang Guozhong think so, but most of the court officials, including the Chang'an court, thought so. Even if An Lushan's troops were approaching Tongguan, the court officials still did not believe that the prosperous Tang Dynasty would be overthrown so easily.

"Ge Shuhan suffers from wind disease, I'm afraid..." Li Longji shook his head hesitantly.

The imperial physician he sent had returned to Chang'an, and Li Longji finally believed that Geshuhan was really suffering from wind disease.

Yang Guozhong hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, although Geshuhan suffers from wind and disease, he does not need to fight in person to guard Tongguan. He just needs to sit behind and plan. In the face of the country, Your Majesty can draw an order. Geshuhan has been in good health for a long time and must know the general situation. Even if he is seriously ill, he will devote his entire life to our emperor."
Chapter completed!