In the Li Zheng Hall, Queen Changsun took the medicine and fell asleep quietly. Fang Xuanling stood beside her with her hands tied, her face full of worry. Everyone was silent, except for the ticking of the water, which made it seem even quieter.
I don't know how long it took, but there were slight footsteps in the hall. Empress Changsun slowly opened her eyes and said, "Is Duke Wei back? Has the Emperor returned to the palace?"
"Reply to the queen," Wei Zheng had just stood still. After hearing this, he quickly replied in a low voice: "The emperor is very ill and said..."
Fang Xuanling's pupils shrank when he heard this, and anger loomed on his face, and he snorted: "The Supreme Emperor is indeed old, how long has it been, and he still has the leisure to be angry!"
Wei Zheng opened his mouth and then closed it. The thing was not done. Even if his mouth was all over his body, he couldn't say anything.
"Prime Minister, be careful what you say!" Queen Changsun's face turned pale, her breathing became more and more rapid, and she was about to cough again, so Fang Xuanling quickly closed her mouth.
Empress Changsun coughed a few times and finally stopped, saying: "It seems that the Supreme Emperor still refuses to forgive... Well, I will go and explain myself. Someone is here, prepare the chariot."
"Absolutely not!" Not only Fang Xuanling, but also Wei Zheng also stopped her. Looking at the current state of Queen Changsun, she is really not optimistic. If something happens, neither of them will bear it.
Sorry.
"Go...must go." Empress Changsun's voice was broken and difficult, but her tone was very firm.
Seeing that any further persuasion would only increase the pressure on Queen Sun, both Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng stopped talking and allowed the female officer to make arrangements.
The female officer spread a thick Persian blanket in the four-wheeled carriage, and carried the Empress Changsun to the carriage. She also asked Liu Shenwei to accompany her with the medicine box. Everything was ready. Half a day had passed, and the sky was turning dark.
Towards the end of the night, Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng wanted to persuade Empress Changsun to go again tomorrow, but Empress Changsun said that this was just the right time to dress lightly so as not to attract attention and frighten the people.
Late at night, when the group arrived at the mouth of the valley, Queen Changsun had fainted again.
After receiving the news, Li Yuan could no longer push back and sighed heavily. On the one hand, he arranged for Empress Changsun to stay, and on the other hand, he summoned Wei Zheng and Fang Xuanling and expressed their willingness to temporarily accept the destiny treasure and supervise the government affairs.
No need. He has abdicated and will not sit back on the throne again. Haven't the Xue Yantuo people not invaded yet? They will live in the valley first, and all relevant matters will be handled in the valley. At the same time, he also made it clear that this
It was just a stop-gap measure in the current critical situation. Once things eased, he would hand over immediately. He just wanted to live his life as a free man and didn't want to be disturbed by worldly affairs.
Speaking of which, he has been overly cautious. Even Fang Xuanling can't find any fault. Now the situation is critical, and many major issues in the court need to be decided. Under the supervision of Wei Zheng, Fang Xuanling returned to the government.
The palace took all the memorials to be done and came back to report to Li Yuan.
Li Yuan had not participated in government affairs for many years, and he was getting older. He would definitely not be able to understand so many memorials, so he asked Wei Zheng to help him read them, condense the long memorials into a few useful sentences, and then make a decision.
After all, Wei Zheng was capable. He glanced at a memorial and basically filtered out the nonsense. He picked out the important ones and said a few words. Li Yuan was the founding emperor. There was no need for training in business, so it was easy to make decisions.
Disposed of quickly.
He just left Fang Xuanling aside and couldn't get a word in at all.
Fang Xuanling saw that this was not going to work. Although he knew he would not be welcomed, he still bit the bullet and stood up and said: "The most important thing right now is how to deal with Xue Yantuo's invasion. These memorials are minor matters, don't be anxious!"
Li Yuan nodded, glanced at Fang Xuanling, and said, "Fang Qing's family must have made a plan in their minds when they said this. So tell me how to solve it?"
Fang Xuanling was so choked that he almost lost his breath. If I knew how to solve it, I would have done it a long time ago. Why should I stand here and be angry? But he definitely couldn't say that, and said: "Your Majesty, I can't think of it.
There is no way, but it is related to the rise and fall of the country. Should the Emperor put aside his prejudices first... summon all the civil and military officials together and let's discuss it!"
"What are we discussing?" Li Yuan chuckled and said: "Now we have no soldiers and no generals. We do have food and grass, but is it too late to recruit troops and buy horses? It will not help! The most important thing to do at this time is to trust the soldiers in front.
I believe they can withstand the enemy and defend the city. Other than that, there is nothing they can do."
"Then do nothing?" Fang Xuanling laughed angrily and said, "Just watch helplessly as the Tang Dynasty was lost in Xue Yantuo's hands?"
"If that's the case, there's nothing we can do about it." Li Yuan said coldly: "If that's the case, it's fate! But if we gather all the officials and brainstorm as you said, we won't need Xue Yantuo to call us, and the country will be in chaos."
Li Yuan spoke categorically, saying: "I have had an experience since I started the army in Jinyang. The real threat is not in the grasslands, but in the Central Plains. Those nomadic peoples are a group of reckless men who only know how to plunder, but these nobles in the Central Plains,
They are hungry wolves who eat people without spitting out their bones. If the imperial court is in chaos now, it will send them a signal that the imperial court is no longer sustainable, and then war will break out in no time!"
He stared at Fang Xuanling and said: "If the various regions are divided now, just like they were in the late Sui Dynasty, tell me, what will the imperial court do to suppress the rebellion?"
Fang Xuanling couldn't answer, and it took him a long time to say: "We have to do something, we can't just sit back and wait for death. Now that Li Mu has disappeared, we can't expect him to eat both the Turks and Xue Yantuo with 10,000 soldiers and horses. How can this happen?"
possible?"
"Yeah, how is that possible..." Wei Zheng also murmured. Both of them knew very well that with the army running out of food, and with wolves in front and tigers behind, there was no chance for Li Mu.
Fang Xuanling said angrily: "Li Mu is still too young. The imperial court has issued an order telling him not to underestimate the enemy and rush in. But now, Dingxiang is besieged and when he is needed to defend the city, he is nowhere to be seen!"
"Just fart!" Li Yuan retorted mercilessly. He already knew the whole story. Naturally, Li Yuan was completely on Li Mu's side, but Fang Xuanling was Li Shimin's minister after all, and he was an acting emperor.
I couldn't say anything more, so I cursed, waved my hand and drove away.
Of course Fang Xuanling did not dare to talk back and resigned aggrievedly. Even now, he does not feel that he did anything wrong!
Just here in Chang'an City, when there was a rumbling about Xue Yantuo's matter, Li Mu, who was in the midst of the controversy, was leading his cavalry troops and trudging through the storm-ravaged desert.
The sandstorm had subsided for a while when it got dark yesterday, but Li Mu and others were not happy for long before it started raging again. In the second half of the night, the wind howled, flying sand and rocks, and the power of heaven and earth reached its extreme.
Sergeant Tang felt like he couldn't hold on any longer. If he hadn't heard from Li Mu when it got dark, it was only forty miles away from the oasis, and everyone would have just laid down on the ground without hesitation, thinking that they would be there at any time.
What happened!
"Bite your teeth, we'll be there soon!" the generals shouted at the top of their lungs to boost morale.
"Bah! You've been on the horse dozens of times!" The soldiers were now grumpy. They didn't care about their superiority and inferiority. They cursed one after another: "Why haven't you got on your mother's horse yet?!"
"Yes, these forty miles are too long!" The soldiers finally burst out with strong suspicion: "How can you go all the way without even dying?!"
"It's windy! It's windy!" The generals were actually puzzled. Although everyone lost their ability to judge under the strong wind and sandstorm, they couldn't get there after walking all night, which was really unreasonable! But they couldn't waver at all, otherwise they would be on the verge of collapse.
The army will completely collapse in the next moment.
The generals could only ignore their conscience and shout: "It's ahead!"
"Hey, don't hurry up, move to the front!" The soldiers cursed: "Only a devil will believe your lies!"
"Then don't leave!" The generals also got angry and cursed: "Stay here and wait to die!"
This is the truth that really motivates the soldiers to keep moving forward - after going deep into the desert, turning back is death, and not moving is also death. Only by moving forward can they win a glimmer of life. Do you think they have any other choice?
"Gan! You are not leading the wrong way!" The soldiers turned their anger to the scouts who were leading the way.
The sound carried along the wind and reached the ears of the scouts in front. Weifu and others shrank their necks and thought to themselves, if they really went in the wrong direction, they would definitely be eaten alive by these angry soldiers when the sandstorm was over. But they were really wronged.
Because from the moment they entered the desert, Li Mu had been leading the way, and they were just walking in front symbolically.
Weifu became increasingly uncertain. He leaned into another scout's ear and whispered: "Brother, have you found the marks along the way? Why do I feel something is wrong? Is the direction correct?"
"I don't know either." The scout said in a frustrated voice: "The marks we made can't be seen at all when the wind and sand blow. In this vast desert, they are all the same, and you can't tell them clearly."
"How do you think Lord Marquis knows where to go? Is he also blindly leading the way?" Wei Fu muttered in a low voice.
"How about we run away?" The scout's mental endurance finally collapsed and he suggested in a low voice: "Even if I die in a sandstorm, I don't want to be eaten by these lunatics."
"Asshole! You bastard!" Wei Fu patted the scout on the head and said, "Our lives have been sold to the Marquis a long time ago. Now you want to run away. Do you have a conscience?"
That's what I said, but what I was thinking in my heart was this. If I really went the wrong way, do you think the Marquis could run away? If the soldiers want to eat, they will be the first to eat him. Everyone will die together, and there will be no death on the road to hell.
lonely.
While he was thinking wildly, he suddenly stepped on something under his feet and almost tripped him. Wei Fu thought it was a dead bone or something, bent down and touched it, and suddenly he was stunned and pulled out a wine jar from the sand.
Weifu's heart almost jumped out of excitement, and the scout was even more excited. He wanted to shout at the army behind him, but Weifu covered his mouth and cursed in a low voice: "Shut up! Idiot! Shock!" What should I do if I meet the enemy?!"
He signaled the scouts to continue moving forward, while he turned back with the wine jar and reported the news to Li Mu.
In fact, Li Mu relied on the system to locate the landmarks and already knew where he was. But he still showed excitement and asked Wei Fu to quickly pass the news to the back. No matter how late it was, he was afraid that the soldiers would not be able to bear the pressure and mutiny. , if that were the case, I would really not be lonely on the road to hell anymore.
…
In the typhoon shelter, although the carnival was over, the Turks were still hungover and snoring loudly in the tents. Several Turkic nobles who did not drink were so noisy that they tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep, and it was easy to wait until dawn. , just fell asleep.
One of them, Sasha, suffered from insomnia. He had not slept much since entering the typhoon shelter. He always felt that something was going to happen and was very upset. He really couldn't sleep, so he got up and dressed up and walked out. Your own tent.
There are a series of tents in the oasis, and there is a lot of snoring in each tent without exception. There is almost no human figure, only the horses are screaming and calling for their masters. Sasha can't help but shake his head when he sees this. These guys, these guys He was so drunk that he didn't even feed the horse!
Sasha walked in the camp for a while, and for some reason, he felt chills on his back, and the ominous premonition became stronger. But he couldn't think of a reason after thinking about it, and he only felt his bladder tightening.
Come on, let's pee first. Sasha braved the wind and sand and walked to the corner of the oasis. He untied his belt and started to pour water. Unexpectedly, when he was halfway through urinating, he saw a lot of water appearing in the yellow sand sky in the distance. Dark shadow!
Sasha's hair stood on end, her teeth chattered, she held back all the rest of her urine, and screamed in her heart: 'Could it be the legendary ghost...'
There are many legends circulating on the grassland, including the legend of ghosts that appear in sandstorms... It is said that they are the wandering souls of people who died in the sand sea! At this time, in this kind of place, can one appear in oneself? In front of him, the only thing Sasha could think of was a ghost!
It wasn't until the distance between the two sides was less than one foot that Sasha, who was so frightened that he couldn't urinate, saw clearly that those guys who were covered with gray hair and whose faces could not be seen clearly were not ghosts at all, but living people!
Sasha was even more frightened, because he could see clearly that the figures surrounding him were none other than the Tang Army who had chased them away like rabbits!
"Tang Jun..." Sasha trembled, her teeth chattered, and she sat down on the ground, screaming: "You are Tang Jun!"
"Congratulations on your correct answer!" It's the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty who finally arrived at the oasis after going through a sandstorm after all the hard work!
These Tang Army soldiers stared at Sasha with lustful eyes, swarmed up with ecstasy on their faces, and pushed Sasha to the ground!
The next moment, countless Tang Army cavalry roared out from the strong wind and flying sand, and rushed into the Turkic camp with overwhelming force! The Turkic horses were so frightened that they neighed and screamed in an attempt to wake up their master!
But their master was still sleeping soundly, and the Tang army had already rushed into the camp, but they still couldn't wake them up!