Four hundred and ninetieth chapters great mourning
Zhao Da got off the boat and hurried back to Jinzhou under the escort of a group of Tiqi to deal with the funeral arrangements. Liu Ling had to take the boat to Huazhou and then rush back. The reason why he did not return with Zhao Da was because Liu Ling
We also have to make arrangements for Huazhou. The army returning south led by Chen Yuanshan, Mao Yuan, Hua Ling, and Zhao Er will arrive in Huazhou in the near future, and we also have to make arrangements for the offensive against Kaifeng in the spring of next year. The matter of Jinzhou is indeed urgent, but few
If the 100,000-strong army is not well arranged, Liu Ling will not feel at ease.
I originally planned to take a closer look at the Huazhou Shipyard, but obviously time did not allow it. If I disembarked from Huazhou and worked hard, it would be no more than a day or two later than Zhao Da. For such a big event as a national funeral, if Liu Ling did not rush back,
Even if the old prime minister Lu Sen leads the court, he does not dare to make decisions without authorization.
Although there was a lot of discussion in the court about the death of the Queen Mother and the young emperor Liu Li, everyone knew what happened that day. The Yulin Guard mobilized abnormally that day and surrounded many courtiers' mansions. Then the soldiers and horses of the Jinzhou Garrison Camp
He rushed into Jinzhou City quickly and unexpectedly, and rescued the ministers. After that, officials from the Control Yuan entered the palace in large numbers. The ministers were not fools, and they all guessed that the weather might be changing.
Then the exact news came out. It turned out that the young emperor Liu Li was instigated by Pei Zhan, the defeated general of the Great Zhou Dynasty. He sent people to ambush the Han Dynasty in the Hedaochuan area with the intention of killing the Han Dynasty. Then the palace sent Yulin guards to besiege the Han Dynasty palace and try to capture the Han Dynasty.
All the relatives of the King of Han were killed. Fortunately, the abnormal mobilization of the Yulin Guards attracted the attention of the garrison, and they arrived in time to rescue the Han Palace. Even so, the guards and generals of the Han Palace suffered heavy losses. Fortunately, the King of Han was there.
After all, He Daochuan was in danger. Under the crisis, he fought his way out under the desperate protection of his guards.
Immediately, people from the Control Council entered the palace to control the situation, but after seeing what happened, the Queen Mother and the young emperor tried to use Pei Zhan, the defeated general of the Great Zhou Dynasty, as a scapegoat. But they did not expect that Pei Zhan turned out to be a peerless master, killing hundreds of imperial guards.
After that, he finally killed the Queen Mother and His Majesty the Emperor. General Lang Qing and Pei Zhan of the Yulin Guards died together. When the people from the Overwatch Council and the garrison entered the palace, the Queen Mother and His Majesty the Emperor had already passed away.
This news was like a gunpowder bag for the Han army. Once it exploded, it immediately caused an uproar. Everyone was shocked by the actions of the Queen Mother and the Emperor, and even more frightened by Pei Zhan's ferocity. How could such a person sneak into the palace?
?How did you get close to His Majesty the Emperor?
Some people speculate that Pei Zhan was secretly summoned into the palace by the Queen Mother. Although the King of Han did not make any move to usurp power, no one could even see that the King of Han coveted the chair at all. After all, the current Han King is still too young.
He was a little stronger, and the people only knew that there was the King of Han but not the emperor. Although the little emperor was not old, he already had his own opinions. Perhaps it was because of his young age and the encouragement of evil people, his competitiveness and self-esteem that he did what he did.
Such an unwise move.
Everyone has lingering fears. Such battles between royal families are always frightening. No matter who wins or loses, the foundation of the Han Dynasty will be shaken. And it is obvious that if the Queen Mother and Her Majesty succeed in killing the King of Han this time,
If so, I'm afraid that the country of Han will soon be in turmoil. Now the Han Dynasty seems to be firmly in the position of the most powerful country in the Central Plains, but this is entirely maintained by the King of Han's unparalleled martial arts. The Han Dynasty has been fighting for years, and the national treasury can barely
Can it be maintained, but with powerful enemies in the north, south, and west surrounding it, will the Han Dynasty collapse immediately without the King of Han?
Some people even thought that if the emperor died, then he should die. After all, the emperor's death would not have much impact, but if the King of Han died, the Han Dynasty would really be in danger.
Of course, some people also thought, was this a trap set by the King of Han?
But this suspicion is very small, because no one has found the reason why the King of Han could not wait to get rid of the Queen Mother and the Emperor. The King of Han had just won a great victory in the north, and was about to take Yu Wei south to attack the Tang Dynasty. How could he do it at this juncture?
How to retreat from chaos? With hundreds of thousands of troops heading south, the King of Han would never do such an unwise thing.
Moreover, this matter was obviously hasty and completely inconsistent with the King of Han's habit of making decisions before taking action. Furthermore, the King of Han valued his family so much, how could he risk his own family as a bet? This was not in line with King Han's temperament, so everyone
Everyone would rather believe that the truth of the matter is just like the rumors.
Naturally, the rumors were deliberately leaked by the Supervisory Yuan. No one could do such a thing more professionally than the people in the courtyard. And the things leaked are basically true, except for the attack on the Han Dynasty in Hedaochuan. The damage to the Han Dynasty palace
But it was very disastrous. If Liu Ling hadn't urgently mobilized Ji Chengyun's vanguard battalion to rush back day and night, the Han Palace would have been captured by Pei Zhan and the dead soldiers of the young emperor Liu Li.
After all, Liu Ling is not a god. He just sensed some uneasiness in Jinzhou and responded accordingly. To be honest, Liu Ling did not expect that the young emperor Liu Li and the Queen Mother would actually go to this point. The Supervisory Yuan is investigating whether
Who was secretly influencing the emperor? Liu Li and Pei Zhan suddenly took action. If Liu Ling hadn't ordered the Supervisory Council to be on alert at all times during this period, Lang Qing's Yulin Guards would have massively invaded the Supervisory Council, and they would have suffered huge losses.
It's hard to accept.
From being passive to taking the initiative, and then taking control of the overall situation, Liu Ling did not have any ability to predict the future, but relied on his absolute control over the Overwatch Council and the army. After all, Lang Qing's Yulin Guards were still too small in number, and Lu Shisan
When he was summoned to the palace by the Queen Mother, he had already ordered the garrison camp to be prepared and to enter the city immediately if anything happened.
One side goes all out to plan, the other side goes all out to prevent.
The key to success still depends on strength.
If the power possessed by the Queen Mother and the young emperor Liu Li were stronger, even if Liu Ling did not fall into an ambush when he smashed Hedaochuan, his family in Jinzhou would have been killed and injured. If it really came to that point, Liu Ling would have to return to Jinzhou.
On the day of Zhouzhou, Jinzhou may be bleeding into rivers. In fact, from the moment the Queen Mother finally stood beside Liu Li and gave orders, the outcome was already doomed. In the face of absolute strength, all conspiracies and tricks will eventually go bankrupt. The only one
The difference is the process.
There are powerful institutions like the Overwatch Council to suppress it, and tens of thousands of garrison troops entering the city to maintain it. Even if the ministers have speculations and a few people have taken drastic actions, the situation will not change much.
After Liu Ling stopped in Huazhou for a while, he took Chen Xiaoshu and hundreds of Tiqi back to Jinzhou day and night. In any case, the plan to set up the Central Plains next year could not be changed. Chen Yuanshan and others were specially ordered by Liu Ling not to rush back to Jinzhou to attend the funeral.
, with him as the chief general and Mao Yuan as the deputy general, the 150,000-strong army gathered in Huazhou to rest and regroup. As soon as spring comes next year, they will launch an offensive on Kaifeng, and then wipe out the remaining forces of the Zhou Dynasty such as Qingzhou Yuele and lay a solid rear for the southern expedition.
.And Hua Ling and Zhao Er led an army of 200,000 people to continue southward, and they must arrive in Shuzhou to join Du Yi at the end of the first month.
Before the rainy season, the army must go south to invade the Tang Dynasty!
This is an established plan and cannot be changed.
Hundreds of thousands of troops, all dressed in plain clothes, tied with white silk ribbons, and unfurled white flags, were like a white ocean, like a blanket of goose feathers and heavy snow. Everyone had sadness on their faces. The emperor and the queen mother were actually killed by spies of the Zhou Kingdom.
This is a hatred that cannot be tolerated! The soldiers are gearing up and their morale is high.
There is a saying that a sad army will win. Li Tianfang had a sad premonition of his own doom in Kaifeng City. On the Ghost Festival, almost all his troops were wiped out in Weizhou. After escaping all the way back to Kaifeng in embarrassment, Li Tianfang managed to gather tens of thousands more people.
The army, but he also knew very well that Kaifeng was almost an isolated city now. He had no backup, and even the Han army could kill him. But at this point, what else could he do? Surrender? Liu Ling could only
I'm afraid that his letter of surrender will be torn into pieces. Li Tianfang gritted his teeth at Pei Zhan. If he loses, he will lose. What are you going to do in Jinzhou? It's better now. The Han army is holding back from top to bottom.
A burst of anger. If this anger pours down on Kaifeng, I am afraid that this big city will be burned to ashes immediately.
But Li Tianfang still didn't want to die after all. He had no choice but to write a handwritten letter to Liu Ling, stating that he had no intention of resisting Han King Tianwei. When the Han army went south, he would lead Kaifeng officials Fu Shen out of the city to surrender. But he also did not
I don't know if this letter has reached the hands of the King of Han, but there is no reply.
This letter really did not reach Liu Ling's hands, because the official who delivered the letter was afraid that he would be torn alive by the angry Han soldiers. After returning home, he arranged the escape route for his family, and then he did not go far after leaving Kaifeng.
He turned around and ran away. That's why there was the Battle of Kaifeng, and that's why Li Tianfang was completely annihilated.
But no one would have expected that Kaifeng would be breached so easily, and that Zhengzhou, guarded by a civilian official, would hold on for so long and cost the Han army a heavy price. Only then did the Han army, which finally broke through Zhengzhou, take crazy revenge.
No one in the Zhou army who defended the city that day was spared, and they were all killed. Wu Zilai, the governor of Zhengzhou, was dragged behind the horse by the Han army soldiers and was dragged directly into a puddle of flesh. Of course, this is a story for later. The cruelty of the war cannot be ignored.
Estimated, killing and death are the main themes on the battlefield.
Liu Ling rushed back to Jinzhou as fast as possible day and night. Instead of returning to the Han Palace, Liu Ling went directly into the inner courtyard of the palace. The Minister of Military Aircraft Department and the civil and military officials led by Lu Sen wanted to welcome Liu Ling out of the city, but they did not expect Liu Ling to leave the city.
Ling came back so quickly. Liu Ling came back just two days after Zhao Da arrived in Jinzhou. He was covered in dust and his face was haggard and exhausted.
After waving his hand, Liu Ling stopped the civil and military officials from saluting, changed into white clothes in the palace courtyard, and walked into the main hall where the coffin was placed with a heavy face.
Instead of bursting into tears, Liu Ling's heavy expression has infected countless people.
Because the journey was much closer than that of Liu Ling, although the communication took some time, Zhou Yangong arrived in Jinzhou only half an hour later than Liu Ling. Several ministers from the Military Aircraft Department handed Liu Ling the agreed funeral arrangements.
After looking over, Liu Ling nodded in front of the soul, indicating that the funeral should be carried out according to the established ceremony.
One day later, Liu Ling personally commanded an army of 30,000 men to escort the coffin back to the Taiyuan Imperial Tomb.
Wherever the army passed, the mountains and rivers turned white.
Zhou Yangong stood at the gate of Jinzhou City and watched the army march away. His injury had not yet recovered, and he was supported by Pan Jinlian, murmuring.
"The dragon escaped from the shallows and flew into the sky..."
Pan Jinlian tilted her head and asked, "What did you say?"
Zhou Yangong still had a sad expression on his face. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he suddenly smiled and said: "It's nothing. When the prince comes back from Taiyuan, I will ask him to marry you."
Pan Jinlian's face turned red, and she said shyly: "Why are you talking nonsense during the funeral?"
Zhou Yangong smiled and did not say his true feelings to his future wife who risked her life to save his life, because such words were too treasonous.
What he wants to say is, a great funeral? Why does it seem to me to be a great joy? (To be continued)
