Four people came to the outside of the tent, ordered their troops and horses, and a thousand cavalry entered the city from the east gate in a mighty manner.
Liu Bei's cavalry were all Youzhou cavalry. When they were formed, he went back to Zhuo County to recruit them. Not only did they have superb riding skills, but all of them had martial arts skills. After being covered with iron armor, they were all heavy cavalry, rushing into the center like a black cloud.
Outside the east gate.
After passing through Ma Market, we arrived at the Middle East Gate. The suspension bridge on the Yushui moat outside the gate was closed. Liu Bei stood by the Ma River and shouted: "I am Liu Bei, the captain of Sili, open the city gate!"
"Please get the official seal."
The gatekeeper on the city gate probed his head and responded.
The twelve gates of Luoyang are under the jurisdiction of the city gate captain. Under them are the left and right gate commanders, and then the city gate marquis. Each gate has a gate marquis, commanding hundreds of soldiers and horses, and is divided into three shifts. Each city gate is about
Seventy or eighty people.
Since the incident occurred suddenly, the city gate captain had no time to notify all the gatekeepers, so the gatekeepers at the Middle East Gate had no idea that a major incident had occurred and continued to be on duty as usual.
"Please come over for inspection."
Liu Bei took out the official seal and held it high in his hand.
The gatekeeper opened the city gate and brought two soldiers out. The three lowered the suspension bridge and trotted across the suspension bridge. When they saw the army behind Liu Bei, they were startled and said, "Why are there so many soldiers and horses?"
He also heard the sound of horse hooves just now. The problem is that there is a horse market outside the Middle East Gate. Many horses are locked up inside. After all, the outer city does not have city walls. It is normal for horse dealers to transport horses to the horse market in the middle of the night. The gatekeeper did not think about it.
so many.
Liu Bei threw the official seal over and said coldly: "Something happened in the palace. I have to go to the king. Don't be nagging. After the inspection, open the city gate quickly."
"Yes Yes Yes."
The gatekeeper hurriedly inspected the official seal of the Sili school captain. After confirming that it was correct, he shouted behind him: "Open the city gate."
The gate of the East Gate slowly opened. Compared to the South Gate, the East, West and North gates are indeed a little more troublesome. There is a moat and a drawbridge. After crossing the drawbridge, you have to cross the city gate. Otherwise, his thousand cavalrymen will have to wait until they have wings.
, otherwise you will not be able to enter Luoyang City at all.
The cavalry ran like flying through the streets in the city, their horseshoes stepping on the bluestones making a "dong dong dong" sound. As soon as they arrived in Yongheli, raging flames rose up in the direction of Nangong on the left, lighting up the night sky.
.
"What?"
Liu Bei was shocked. Yuan Shao was so crazy and set fire to the palace. This was too treasonous. Even if it was to avenge the general, how could he do such a treacherous act? What is the difference between this and treason?
Chen Mu also looked at it from a distance. After entering from the Middle East Gate, there was a long compound road. The compound road ran through the entire Luoyang City and belonged to the center line of Luoyang City, separating the north and south palaces.
Their location was on the East Gate Road, with Yonghe Lane and Buguang Lane on the right. The residences of Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong and others were in between. Chen Mu had been here many times and was very familiar with them.
To the south on the left is the river in the city, with willow trees hanging by the river. On the other side of the river is the wall of Nangong, and within the wall is the East Palace of Nangong.
"Brother, let's go in directly through Bei Tuen Mun."
Chen Mu's heart moved. He knew that if the eunuchs were in the West Palace now, they would definitely retreat from the White Tiger Gate. If nothing unexpected happened, Zhang Rang and others would kidnap the emperor and flee to Mang Mountain. If they continued to the west at this time
, it means cutting off Zhang’s retreat, and then things will not unfold easily.
After entering from Bei Tuen Gate, there is the East Palace. Now the East Palace is in flames and is in a sea of fire. Liu Bei was eager to save the emperor and immediately said: "Then listen to the words of the fourth brother and go from Bei Tuen Gate."
The Nangong Palace was in chaos, and the Beitun Gate was already unmanned. The city gate was opened, and soldiers and horses entered the palace smoothly.
I saw the raging fire in Dongguan not far away, lighting up the area as bright as day. Dozens of palace maids and eunuchs fled. They were frightened to death, but there were also pursuers behind them. They were afraid of being massacred, so they had to huddle in the north.
In the turret at the corner of the palace gate next to Tuen Mun, people were shivering.
When Liu Bei saw hundreds of soldiers wielding butcher knives to kill dozens of palace maids and eunuchs, he became furious and shouted: "Stop, don't kill innocent people indiscriminately!"
These rebels were frightened by their thousand cavalry, and a military commander stood up and asked: "Who are you?"
"I am Liu Bei, the commander of the Sili School!"
Liu Bei glared angrily and shouted loudly: "You actually caused chaos in the palace, slaughtered the palace people wantonly, and set fire to the palace. This is a capital crime of treason!"
The military commander hesitated and said: "This is an order from Captain Yuan...and the eunuch killed the general. We are here to avenge the general."
"Don't make excuses. I thought you were avenging the general. Spare your life, otherwise I will behead you!"
Liu Bei drove these people away.
Before leaving, the military commander curled his lips and said, "Now that there is such massacre everywhere in the palace, how many people can the captain save?"
"you!"
Liu Bei's eyes flashed with anger. The military commander realized that he had said the wrong thing, so he shrank his head and ran away with his soldiers.
Chen Mu advised: "Brother, you can't control that much now, it's more important to go find the emperor."
"But these palace people..."
Liu Bei visited everywhere.
The outstanding feature of Luoyang Imperial Palace is its size.
Covering an area of 3.6 square kilometers, it is five times the size of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
You should know that there are only 60 palaces in the North and South Palaces in total. Each palace is magnificent and vast, ranging from tens to hundreds of meters apart.
The Nangong alone covers an area of about 1.3 square kilometers, is about 1.3 kilometers long from north to south, and is about 1 kilometer long from east to west.
So except for the palace, most areas are squares paved with marble.
By the firelight from the burning palaces near Beitunmen, Liu Bei saw that on the square and in the East Palace, there were rows of people passing by. After the East View, Chengfeng Palace, Bamboo Palace, Shou'an Palace and other places were full of palace people who were panicking.
, the eunuchs, maids, and the slaughtered palace guards.
In the dark night, people were running around like ants. If they ran a little slower, they would be overtaken by the wolf-like pursuers behind them. Those people didn't care whether they were innocent people or not. They just slashed at them with their knives. The originally snow-white marble floor was covered with debris.
Full of blood and corpses.
The sounds of killing, screams, and the sound of collapse when the flames burned the palace were intertwined. The light reflected by the raging flames shone on Liu Bei's painful face. He saw that the palace had become a hell on earth, and a look of unbearability appeared in his eyes.
"Second brother, you take five hundred people and rescue innocent palace people everywhere. My third and fourth brothers and I will go to the West Palace to look for the emperor."
Liu Bei gritted his teeth and turned to Guan Yu.
Chen Mu scratched his head, wearing a mask of pain just like the innocent people who were being hunted.
We already have few troops, but if we divide our troops at this time, our big brother is afraid that he will be angry to death just to be happy.
"Brother, we have few soldiers..."
Chen Mu still wanted to make one last effort.
Liu Bei turned his head, tears flashing in the corners of his eyes, and said with a hard-pressed pain: "Fourth brother, I know. But they are all innocent people, and I really can't bear it. I know maybe I am wrong, and I should think about my brothers.
But......"
Guan Yu said in a deep voice: "Brother, you don't have to blame yourself. As long as you give me a hundred soldiers and horses, it's just a few random soldiers. I will be able to save these innocent palace people."
Chen Mu said helplessly: "Okay, but brother, remember not to be reckless. We have few soldiers, so we have to be cautious. It would be best if we can save the emperor. If we can't save him, we can't conflict with Yuan Shao. Try to avoid it as much as possible."
Come on, brother, please remember that we are here to save King Qin, not to quell the rebellion."
Liu Bei nodded hurriedly and said: "I understand."
At that moment, the four brothers divided their forces, and Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Chen Mu and the others headed towards Jiademen.
Guan Yu led a hundred people into the South Palace, ran past the East Palace that had been shrouded in fire, and went around to save innocent people who were about to be massacred.
In the square outside the East Palace, Guan Yu stopped several massacres, but there were some who did not listen to his advice. The knife fell from his hand, and after beheading the leader, he was quickly frightened and saved some people.
But soon, something happened that made him furious and really angry.
When he arrived at the Zhongde Hall, a group of soldiers walked out while tying their clothes.
All the palaces in Luoyang are not on flat ground, but are built on high platforms. There are palace steps in front of the palace, which are on a steep slope, connecting to the square outside the palace. The palace stairs are white, with white marble guardrails on the left and right, and a slope on the left of the guardrail for riding cars.
Go up, and on the right are steps for people to climb up.
When Guan Yu saw this group of soldiers coming out, he felt something was wrong, so he rode a horse and galloped from the driveway on the left side of the slope in front of the palace to the entrance of the palace. He only took a look inside and his eyes burned.
I saw the corpses of several palace maids lying strewn about in the palace. They had been brutally humiliated during their lifetimes, their clothes were in tatters, and their deaths were horrific.
What's wrong with these maids?
Firstly, he does not hold a high position, and secondly, he does not bring trouble to the government. He is a pitiful person, yet he still suffers such cruel hands.
Guan Yu turned around and looked at the group of soldiers who had walked dozens of meters outside the palace. The anger in his eyes seemed to be spitting out fire.
Here, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Chen Mu galloped outside the Jiade Gate. Yuan Shao's army had already entered. The West Palace was in chaos. When they passed by, there were corpses everywhere, and the monstrous fire also enveloped the West Palace.
"Where is Yuan Shao?"
Liu Bei galloped with his troops and intercepted a group of troops. These people were not the Southern Army, but the Yulin Army. They were originally palace guards and naturally knew the situation well.
"Zhang Rang kidnapped the Emperor and King Chen Liu and escaped from the White Tiger Gate. Captain Yuan gave chase."
The terrain in the palace is extremely open, and the cavalry's combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of infantry. In addition, Liu Bei's cavalry are all fully armored heavy cavalry, which intimidates people for a while. Even the palace guards do not dare to be arrogant and honest.
Answer truthfully.
"Where are the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother?"
Liu Bei asked quickly.
"The Queen Mother has been protected. I don't know about it from the Queen Mother, but those roughnecks from the Southern Army have already gone to Beigong. I heard they are going to kill the eunuchs in Guangyong Lane. I don't know if they will."
It hurt the Queen Mother."
The Yulin Army told the truth.
Liu Bei was so sweaty that he opened his mouth and said: "What should we do? The emperor's side, the empress dowager's side..."
Emperor Xiaokang, Liu Hong, treated him well. On one side was the late emperor's son, and on the other was the late emperor's mother. Liu Bei was in a dilemma for a while, not knowing which way to go.
Chen Mu reminded: "Brother, there is Yuan Shao on the Emperor's side. Even if we go, it will not help. The critical moment is on the Empress Dowager's side."
"Yes, let's go to Beigong first."
Liu Bei suddenly realized that Yuan Shao on the Emperor's side was chasing him, and there was someone who could control the situation. However, the rebels on the Beigong side were uncontrollable, and they might do something harmful to the Empress Dowager, and he had to stop them.
Thinking of this, he immediately led his soldiers out of the White Tiger Gate, then took the compound road from the right to the Zhuque Gate of the Beigong, and arrived outside the Beigong.
There are a total of twenty-six palace gates in the north and south palaces of Luoyang. Among them, the south palace has seven palace gates connecting to the outside of the palace, and seven palaces in various places inside the palace. The north palace has five palace gates connecting to the outside of the palace, and various palaces in the palace.
There are seven palace gates.
Among them, in the four directions of southeast, northwest and north, except for the palace gate of the North Palace and the East Palace, which is called Dongming Gate and not Canglong Gate, the other White Tiger Gate, Zhuque Gate and Xuanwu Gate are located in the north and south palaces respectively.
In order to distinguish them, the four gates of the South Palace are generally called the South White Tiger Gate and the South Zhuque Gate. The North Palace is called the North White Tiger Gate and the North Zhuque Gate.
Exiting the Nanbaihu Gate, retracing the road from the right to the north, nine hundred cavalry galloped into the North Zhuque Gate.
I saw that Beigong was also in flames. The Empress Dowager lived in Yongle Palace, located above the North White Tiger Gate, and the so-called Yongxiang was located next to Yongle Palace.
Now the entire Luoyang palace, both the north and south palaces, has become a military disaster.
After the tens of thousands of troops brought by Yuan Shao were dispersed, there were often groups of hundreds of soldiers led by a military commander or general, slaughtering the palace people everywhere, with rivers of blood flowing and wailing all over the land.
When Liu Bei arrived at Yongle Palace, the Yongle Gate outside Yongle Palace was closed tightly. Thousands of soldiers gathered outside and smashed the door frantically.
The gate of Yongle Palace was not as strong as the gate of Jiade Palace. Under the crazy pushing of the soldiers, it was already crumbling. With the last cry, Yongle Gate collapsed.
The red-eyed soldiers waved their butcher knives and swarmed towards the Yongle Palace in excitement.