After arriving on horseback from Hebei Province and entering Liangzhou City, Zhou Jun didn't even bother to enter his home and went directly to the official office in the city.
Walking on the streets of Liangzhou City, Zhou Jun looked around and saw that the city was gloomy and gloomy. White flags were hung at the door of every house, and there were faint sounds of crying coming from inside the door.
Kong You on the side whispered to Zhou Jun: "Your Majesty, less than half of the 200,000 troops collected by Fang Guan have been returned. There are many families in Liangzhou City who sent Xiaolang to the front line without waiting for news of the great victory.
, just waiting for a handful of ashes."
Zhou Jun closed his eyes and sighed: "The chaos in Hebei, if the imperial court had known good people and used troops carefully, it would have been put down long ago. How could it have been delayed until now?"
Kong You: "The Battle of Hulao Pass, the Battle of Luoyang, the Battle of Tongguan, the Battle of Chang'an... Hundreds of thousands of Tang troops were lost in this, but the Yan army, on the other hand, became stronger and stronger as they fought, and had already faintly occupied the Central Plains.
momentum."
Zhou Jun looked at Kong You: "Bo Hong wants to say that the Yan army has become a climate?"
Kong You shook his head and said: "The biggest problem of the Yan army is that its power is unstable. After An Lushan's violent death, the new emperor An Qingxu is an incompetent person. Sooner or later, someone else will usurp the throne. By then, the Yan country will not have to use it.
If we attack them, there will be chaos within them."
Zhou Jun nodded lightly.
A group of people rode horses and came to the inner city of the official residence. From a distance, Kong You saw a forest of sergeants everywhere, wearing armor and armed with sharp weapons, ready to fight. He couldn't help but frowned and whispered to Zhou Jun: "Your Majesty, the defense in the palace has never been so strict in the past.
Yes, something is really wrong."
The latter was stunned for a moment and was about to ask.
A servant in front of the door saw Zhou Jun and ran over to hold the horse, crying sadly: "The commander is finally back!"
Seeing the sad look on the servant's face, Zhou Jun asked, "What's wrong?"
The chamberlain wiped away tears and did not answer. He just led Zhou Jun inside.
Kong You looked at Zhou Jun's leaving figure and stood still, his brows furrowed into the character "Sichuan" and he did not leave for a long time.
Zhou Jun followed the long corridor and entered the inner garden where Li Longji lived. He saw the palace people coming and going in a hurry, with nervous expressions on everyone's faces, and couldn't help but feel strange in his heart.
Arriving at the gate of the inner garden, Zhou Jun discovered that two regular servants from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gao Lishi and Fan Jinian, were actually in the courtyard.
Seeing Zhou Jun enter the hospital, Gao Lishi and Fan Jinian saluted the former, then opened the door and invited him in.
Before Zhou Jun entered the door, he looked at the two of them.
Gao Lishi's face was expressionless, and it was unclear whether he was sad or happy; while Fan Jinian secretly glanced at Zhou Jun, then glanced at Gao Lishi beside him, and finally lowered his head and remained silent.
With full of doubts, Zhou Jun stepped through the door and entered the house. The first thing he smelled was the strong smell of traditional Chinese medicine.
Walking a little further, Zhou Jun saw Li Longji lying on the couch in the house angrily, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Zhou Jun walked to the bed and bowed to Li Longji: "Your Majesty, under the imperial edict, I have come from Hebei non-stop to meet the Holy Spirit."
When Li Longji heard Zhou Jun's voice, his mouth moved slightly, and with some strength, he waved to the bedside, and with the help of Gao Lishi, he slowly sat up.
Zhou Jun looked up and was shocked when he saw the emperor's face.
Li Longji's face was haggard, his cheeks were sunken, his complexion looked like he was terminally ill, and he was not as good as before.
Zhou Jun: "Your Majesty, what are you...?"
Li Longji waved his hand: "I am old, and I can no longer withstand the ups and downs of my mood... The imperial doctor said that the failure to recover Chang'an caused the root of the disease in my heart."
Zhou Jun remembered that Li Longji in the history books left all the mess of the Tang Dynasty to Li Heng since he went to Shuzhong. He traveled freely every day and surprisingly lived until 762.
But now, there are still several years before 762, and Li Longji's health is deteriorating, and he is like this.
From this point of view, Fang Guan's 200,000-strong army failed to regain Chang'an, which was really a huge blow to Li Longji, who longed for his old land.
Thinking of this, Zhou Jun said to Li Longji: "Your Majesty, I have defeated Shi Siming in Hebei. The two armies defeated Boling and Pinglu respectively, and came to Fanyang City. It won't take many days for Hebei to be pacified. Once Hebei is pacified,
, the wars in the world will cease."
Hearing this, Li Longji looked pleased and said: "Zhou Langji, from the day I married my daughter to you, I knew you would not let me down... Sometimes, I have been thinking about how fate plays tricks on people.
, if you were my son, all the problems in the world would be solved."
When Zhou Jun heard these words, he always felt that there was something strange.
But Zhou Jun couldn't tell what was wrong specifically for a while.
Li Longji added: "Fan Yang will leave it to Guo Ziyi and the others... As for you, you will stay in the palace to talk to me these days."
Zhou Jun was stunned: "Your Majesty, the imperial edict states that the purpose of your return to the court is to collect the defeated army under Fang Xiang's command and resist the rebel army moving northward."
Li Longji: "The Hexi Army and the Liangzhou Army are under the supervision of civil and military officials. Nothing major will happen. You don't need to worry. You will stay in the palace these days and don't go anywhere."
Zhou Jun's heart was shocked, and a bad premonition suddenly poured into his heart.
After Li Longji finished speaking, he asked the chamberlain to lead Zhou Jun to a private garden in the palace to stay, citing physical fatigue.
After entering the Villa, Zhou Jun saw that there were guards inside and outside the courtyard, and the precautions were tight. He knew that something had happened.
Slowly walking to the desk, Zhou Jun sat down, looked out the window, and said quietly: "Originally, I thought that this day would come a little late, but unexpectedly it came anyway... Since you are unkind, don't
Blame me for being unjust..."
Late that night, the guards of the other courtyard were changing shifts.
Zhou Jun was meditating in his room when someone suddenly knocked on the wall outside the window.
Zhou Jun opened the window and found that the person who came was actually Fan Jinian.
Fan Jinian first made a gesture of silence, then pulled a waiter next to him who was similar in stature to Zhou Jun and asked him to climb into the room.
After doing all this, Fan Jinian made a gesture and asked Zhou Jun to come out quickly.
Zhou Jun knew that at this juncture, Fan Jinian had no reason to harm him, so he climbed out of the window and left the room, following Fan Jinian all the way out of the other courtyard and towards a remote cabin in the palace.
On the way, Zhou Jun asked Fan Jinian: "Where does Mr. Fan want to take me?"
Fan Jinian kept walking: "Zhou Erlang, someone will explain it to you later."
When he arrived at the door of the palace, Fan Jinian asked his men to look out first, and then said to Zhou Jun: "Mr. Zhou, our family is not capable enough, so we can only bribe this group of guards... There are forbidden troops inside and outside the palace. If you
It is absolutely impossible to escape. Remember, the guards will change shifts again in an hour. You must rush back to the other courtyard before that!"
Zhou Jun looked at Fan Jinian and nodded lightly.
Fan Jinian opened the door and said to Zhou Jun: "Go in, that man has been waiting for you for a long time."
Zhou Jun entered the mansion and saw that the candlelight in the room was dim, and there was only a man wearing a dark gown and a folded hood standing in the middle.
Zhou Jun walked up to the man, stood still, and asked in a deep voice: "May I ask your Excellency...?"
The mysterious man lifted his hood and revealed his face. His brows were full of sadness, but he was someone Zhou Jun never expected.