At the beginning of the fourteenth year of the Great Cause, the world became lively. △
Li Mi and Wang Shichong from Henan could not wait to fight a battle in Gong County. Wang Shichong was severely defeated and returned to the Eastern Capital with more than 10,000 remaining soldiers. They huddled in the Eastern Capital City and did not dare to come out again.
At this time, Fan Zigai was dead, and the power of the Eastern Capital was gradually in the hands of Wang Shichong. The officials were frightened, but they had to rely on him to defend the Eastern Capital. Wang Shichong's domineering image gradually became apparent.
After the defeat, Wang Shichong focused more on running the Eastern Capital, and all military and government orders were issued outside the military government. His status in the Eastern Capital was almost the same as that of Li Yuan of Chang'an.
Li Mi seemed to have strong troops and horses, but in fact, after years of fighting, his soldiers were very tired. The eastern capital still seemed within reach, but it stood firm and made it impossible for anyone to start.
After defeating Wang Shichong, Li Mi sent 300,000 troops to besiege the eastern capital.
Just when Li Mi was taking advantage of the victory and wanted to attack Luoyang, something big happened.
These days, what can be called a big event must not be so ordinary.
Sui Emperor Yang Guang died.
The wings of the butterfly finally set off a huge storm and caused a chain reaction.
The time for Li Yuan to enter Chang'an was advanced, the news spread, and Jiangdu Xiaoguo returned westward one after another.
The guards around Yang Guang were all soldiers from the Guanxi Prefecture. After following Yang Guang to Jiangdu, they were first welcomed by the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River, but in the blink of an eye, everyone understood.
This emperor was no longer the second son of the emperor who had mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to pacify the south of the Yangtze River. The mud-born Bodhisattva could not protect the capital by himself, so the entrance hall of Jiangdu Palace quickly became deserted.
The soldiers were gradually running out of food and clothing, and Yang Guang no longer cared about anything else. He drank and had fun in the palace all day long. Yu Shiji and others lived in luxury and were greedy for food and military supplies, which only increased Xiaoguo's resentment.
When they heard that Duke Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty had sent troops to Chang'an and pacified Guanxi, everyone wanted to return and fled one after another.
At this time, the two prodigal sons of the Yuwen family who commanded Xiaoguo were also a little panicked. Their superiors kept accusing them of the retreat of their soldiers, and the generals below also kept asking them for food.
These two brothers, who came from the Yuwen clan, a powerful family in Kansai, didn't have much ability, but now they gritted their teeth and did something huge.
Under the instigation of the playboy Yu Wenzhiji, Yu Wenhuaji, who had always been very soft-hearted, began to incite Xiaoguo's emotions. At the end of the fourteenth year of Daye, he led the guards Xiaoguo to attack Jiangdu Palace.
At this time, Yang Guang was as fat as a pig and his body had already collapsed. It was extremely difficult for him to escape. He could only watch the ferocious brother Yuwen break into the palace and put a rope around his neck.
So, Yang Guang died. When he died, only brother Yuwen was present. No one knew whether the emperor maintained the dignity of the emperor in the last moments of his life, or whether he was full of ugliness...
Anyway, the fourteenth year of Daye had just passed. The two sons of the general Yu Wenshu hanged Yang Guang in the palace. They also killed the emperor's close minister Yu Shiji and more than a hundred people. He suddenly became the biggest rebel leader this year. By the way,
Many people have gotten rid of a piece of their heartache.
Yang Guang's death left him with a reputation for eternity.
There is no way, he did bring a powerful empire into troubled times. In fact, only one thing can firmly nail him to the pillar of shame in history.
In the early years of the Great Cause, the Sui Dynasty had a population of 50 to 60 million, which had almost restored the population at its peak in the Han Dynasty. The land annexation was not serious, and people gradually became wealthy. The sharpness of the wars was also unparalleled among all dynasties.
The same is true for crowns and territories.
But by the time Yang Guang died, the world's population had dropped to more than 20 million. More than half of the tens of millions of people who had disappeared died in various projects during the Daye Year.
If the people's power is abused to this point, the fall of the Sui Dynasty is an inevitable result.
In fact, by the eighth year of Daye, even without the subsequent Three Conquests of Goguryeo, the world was already in chaos. The Three Conquests of Liaodong actually only accelerated this process.
Moreover, by the fourteenth year of Daye, the Sui Dynasty had also lost all the territory it could lose.
This is the mess left by Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty. War smoke is everywhere, the land is desolate, there are ruins everywhere, and there are corpses everywhere.
In the absence of foreign enemies invading the hinterland, all reasons are pale and feeble in the face of such a scene...
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Yu Shiji's reputation was not very good, but when he died, he was much more dignified.
Hearing that Xiaoguo was causing trouble, Yuwen brothers led their troops into the palace. Yu Shiji felt that his death was coming, so he calmly explained the funeral arrangements without much panic. Maybe he had already anticipated the arrival of this day, so he could be so calm and leisurely, right?
In any case, the rebel army broke into Yu Shiji's mansion and chopped Yu Shiji into pieces with swords.
It is said that most of Yu Shiji's descendants and family members died calmly like Yu Shiji.
Of course, no matter what the rumors say, the Yu family's bloodline is almost dead.
The Yuwen brothers led an army to plunder Jiangdu, declaring King Qin Yang Hao as emperor, and then took the officials of Jiangdu back north.
This incident brought the war in Dongdu to an abrupt end.
It was almost March when Li Po, who was in Youzhou, received the news.
He was different from others, not so shocked. He just felt that many people in the world should be happy that this person finally died, right? Anyway, he felt that if this person died early, it would be better if he looked at the world.
What did he do?
Even someone like him, who just wanted to live a peaceful life, was forced to come to Hebei to be beaten to death. Do you think this is justified?
So he doesn't care much about Yang Guang's life or death.
However, the speed of immigration and food transportation has accelerated, because he has already foreseen what this news will bring to everyone.
War, definitely war.
Now that Yang Guang is dead, everyone will be able to pull off the last fig leaf from their heads in one fell swoop, and their mutual conquests will become even more unscrupulous.
Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimps, and he neither wants to be shrimps nor small fish, so he can only continue to run.
As expected, news came to him one after another.
Dou Jiande in the south has directly proclaimed himself emperor. I wonder how many days he can sit on the throne?
Wang Shichong of Luoyang introduced a puppet to change Yuan Huangtai, and he became more and more addicted to doing what Cao Cao did.
Li Yuan was better. He directly made a concession and became the emperor himself. The country was named Tang and the Tang Dynasty was established. However, he faced Xue Ju's crazy attack.
When the chaotic news reached Youzhou, Li Po felt that this was a very historical event, but he didn't feel very comfortable because he was also caught in this chaotic situation.
And the allure of Datang seems to be a bit insufficient for him...
This feeling was terrible, and the slight pleasure brought about by Yang Guang's death suddenly disappeared.
In April, he finally emptied the entire Youzhou. After a year, it was not necessary to mention the hardships. The successive wars and changes in the world structure made him feel even more exhausted.
At the end of April, Li Po gathered his men and finally embarked on his return journey.
When he looked back at the cloud-like emperor's palace next to the Zhuojun County City, he couldn't help but sigh...
At this time, he didn't know whether he was doing the right thing or not. Without the food and people in Youzhou, Hebei would really become a mess.
What role did he play in it?
Such thoughts arose in his mind, but he instinctively suppressed them in an instant.
Damn Youzhou, what he wants to think about now is that the population of the three counties of Daizhou has increased significantly, and this year's drought has passed. Chen Xiaoyi from Yanmen and Su Dan from Loufan have already begun to work non-stop for spring plowing.
After surviving the difficult thirteen years, in the fourteenth year, the three counties of Daizhou finally became somewhat prosperous.
People in the northern parts of Yanmen and Loufan counties as well as Mayi are mainly engaged in animal husbandry, while the southern part is cultivated land. If there is a harvest this year, the three counties of Daizhou can be called elite soldiers.
There is enough food.
And this requires people to put in more effort and sweat.
As the controller of the three counties of Daizhou, there are many things waiting for Li Po to do, much more than the previous years combined.
Taking advantage of his free time in Youzhou this winter, Li Po had already made a rough plan for what was to come.
In his view, it is nothing more than politics, military, economy, and culture.
Culture is not something to talk about, but it is what he is most concerned about. This must be a long-term effort, and it is too early to tell now.
Li Po remembered a saying that all prosperity and destruction stem from systems.
Li Po felt that this sentence was very reasonable, and this was the first thing he had to do when he returned to Daizhou, which was to unify government orders and laws.
The world was in such chaos, he thought a lot during this winter in Youzhou, and finally made up his mind.
Instead of looking at this messy situation, it is better to run Daizhou first.
And this requires talent and time. He doesn't know if others will set aside such a time period for him.
But if he doesn't try, Daizhou will always be Daizhou, being controlled by others and facing the Turks from the north. He has had enough of being in a dilemma...
During the long flying fox road, Li Po was distracted from time to time, and no one bothered him. Everyone was homesick, and the speed was very slow. Only the red eyes were by his side, glancing at him from time to time, for fear of him.
It's like he fell off his horse.
And the Taihang Bandits, who were very famous at the time, have been extinct for a long time now. I am afraid they either starved to death in the mountains or went down to join the rebel army. Do you want to take advantage of the chaos in the world to become famous?
Li Po didn't know how many days he had walked, but when he looked up, the main peak of Mount Heng was already within sight, which meant that they had entered the boundary of Lingqiu.
There are two hundred Hengan town troops stationed here, which are almost like scouts. They must not only monitor the Feihu crossing in the future, but also pay attention to the Turkic movements in the north.
Li Po took a look and saw that they had built a very high beacon tower, which stretched from Lingqiu County along the foothills of Hengshan Mountain to Yunnei. It can be seen that Li Bi has not been idle this year.
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