Chapter 740 The prince goes to Lingwu, and heirs enter the customs
Li Longji walked out of the cubicle, with tears dried at the corners of his eyes, and having managed his emotions, he sighed: "I don't blame you for what happened today. It was caused by my lack of care in employing people. Now that the government has brought things back to order, I would like to ask all the generals to do their part."
If you perform your duties, you will be rewarded after arriving in Shuzhong."
Chen Xuanli led the crowd in shouting: "My emperor is wise, long live my emperor! The Longwu Army swears allegiance to your majesty to the death!"
Li Heng, who was kneeling aside, was stunned for a moment, with a hint of disappointment flashing in the corners of his eyes. Then everyone in the Longwu Army retreated, and the soldiers blocking the four gates of the inn had all withdrawn and regrouped.
Li Heng kowtowed to Li Longji, who was standing with his back to him, and said: "Father, as the prince, I should take the initiative to kill the thieves and restore the land, and be willing to go to Shuofang to gather soldiers to regain Chang'an."
"Since you have such intention, I will make you the Grand Marshal of the World's Armed Forces and take charge of the counter-insurgency affairs."
"I'll take my leave then."
Li Longji never looked back to see him. The rift between father and son was deep. Li Jingzhong helped the prince walk to the courtyard. Li Heng looked back at the emperor's back and quickly walked out of the south gate of the inn.
Prince Liu led more than a thousand men and horses in formation. Li Heng also got on his horse and headed towards Lingwu with his family members and vassal officials.
Xuanzong also wanted to continue to seek refuge in Shu. Before leaving, he ordered Gao Lishi to bury Yang Yuhuan under the pear tree in the Buddhist hall, and sent several capable young eunuchs to guard the grave.
But as soon as the emperor's troops left, several young eunuchs started to think about who was willing to stay in this neglected and idle Mawei Station to look at the grave of a woman. Besides, this place was still within the scope of Jingzhao Mansion. What if An Lushan's
If the cavalry comes over, can their lives be saved?
The eunuchs discussed it, divided the packages and rewards privately the next day, and fled. However, one of the eunuchs encountered a strongman who was robbing his house during his escape, and intercepted him in the middle of the path.
The bandit held a sharp ax and asked: "Who are you? Why are you running wildly in this mountain forest? If you don't tell the truth, I will chop you in two."
The little eunuch couldn't stand the fright, so his legs went weak and he told everything in detail.
The robber tugged on his beard and pondered: "I heard that Concubine Yang is as beautiful as a fairy descending from heaven, with snowy skin and jade bones. Why don't you take us there to have a look? It's not a waste of time in this world."
The little eunuch was deeply afraid of the bad taste of these people and thought that there was nothing to see in a buried woman, but he still took these guys to Mawei Station, pointed to the grave bag under the pear tree and said: "Here, that is the imperial concubine.
The grave of the empress.”
"Brothers, let's dig." The bandits jumped off their horses and started digging the grave with the long spears and daggers beside them. Soon a roll of straw mat was revealed, and inside the straw mat was the silk cloth wrapping the body. Poor beauty Yang Yuhuan?
Not even a coffin will be left behind after death.
When these people were about to cut the straw mat to see the true appearance of the imperial concubine, a horse team suddenly came out of the forest above Mawei slope, all covered with iron armor and came menacingly? How could the thieves bother to admire the imperial concubine and hurriedly mounted their horses?
Escape.
This iron cavalry came to the grave. The leader of the cavalry was holding a spear. He pointed at the little eunuch who was standing there shivering and asked: "Whose grave is this?"
The young eunuch answered truthfully: "This is the tomb of Concubine Yang."
The cavalry general frowned and was surprised. It was obvious that it would take some time for him to understand. He looked at the eunuch with a sneer and asked: "You must be the eunuch guarding the tomb. You are the one who led the bandits here because of your persistence in stealing."
"No? No? It's not me!" The little eunuch ran away in convulsions.
The cavalryman had already galloped forward, thrust out the spear in his hand, and the tip of the spear was stained with blood and penetrated from his chest. He was dead.
These cavalrymen dismounted and looked at Concubine Yang lying on the straw mat, her face still feathery. Some soldiers swallowed their saliva and asked: "What should I do?"
"What else can we do?" the cavalry general said coldly: "Leave the imperial concubine's tomb here unguarded? Sooner or later, thieves will come to rob it. According to Deputy Duan, we came to Mawei Station on the order of Doctor Li.
? Presumably Doctor Li asked us to come here because he wanted us to protect the imperial concubine’s bones and bring them back.”
"Okay? Just do it."
These soldiers cut down trees and made a simple coffin sedan, which they took turns to carry west toward Lanzhou.
Roughly the same process as Xuanzong's entry into Shu, Li Heng's road to Lingwu was also difficult and dangerous. Although his team of a thousand people was streamlined, he still needed to beg for food and drink along the way, and he had to always be on guard against rebels and those who took advantage of the turmoil to plunder.
Bandits. Fortunately, his two sons were very upbeat. King Li Tan of Jianning led dozens of horses in front and personally charged to kill the bandits who blocked the road. King Li Yu of Guangning personally led his troops to cut off the rear, which made him prematurely age.
Li Heng felt relieved.
The people were hungry and cold all the way to the base of Shuofang's army, and the situation improved. Du Hongjian, the envoy behind Shuofang's stay, personally led his troops out 300 miles to meet them and brought them to Lingwu.
…
At this time, Li Siye's army was assembled in Hexi, with a total of 80,000 combat troops, 60,000 civilians and auxiliary troops, known to the outside world as an army of 200,000. He appointed Dai Wang and Cen Shen as military personnel, and Du Fu stayed in Liangzhou. Duan Xiushi
As the commander of the front army, Feng Changqing was the commander of the rear army, and he was in charge of the middle army. He also took Tian Zhen as the vanguard, Zang Xiye as the Flying Tiger Cavalry General, and Yan Xiaosi as the commander of the Xuanwu Artillery Battalion.
Crossing the Yellow River on the Lanzhou Floating Bridge and heading towards Lanzhou.
A year before An Lushan raised his army, he began to send Micha Gan to purchase grain in Guanzhong, Jianghuai and other places and transport it to Hexi as a resource for war preparation. Now he is in Lanzhou to collect grain and grass from the people and recruit civilians.
To his surprise, the people's enthusiasm was very high, and many people were willing to join the army to fight against the rebels. Among these people were scholars, traders, and butchers.
Anyway, the unanimous consensus among the people is that the emperor was an old fool and used a white-eyed wolf. He was not satisfied with giving him wealth and honor, but even wanted to take away all the family property. The people's evaluation of Xuanzong was more sympathetic than critical, similar to Mr. Dongguo and
The fable of the wolf.
Although they probably knew about Li Longji's neglect of government for more than ten years, they all blamed Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and others. They only said that His Majesty was misunderstood by villains. Even if they mentioned the emperor's fault, it was only a faint sentence.
Your Majesty is far away from the virtuous ministers and is close to the villains. You are confused.
This is not just about the simple folk customs, but the prestige and popular sentiment established by the three generations of emperors are still at work. The prosperous age of Kaiyuan rule also made the people's hearts turn to the Tang Dynasty. They still hope to live the kind of food, clothing and prosperity they had before. Although
Traveling thousands of miles without holding an inch of troops, Guanzhong is rich and does not close its doors at night. Just as Du Fu said in his poem: Recalling the heyday of the Kaiyuan Dynasty in the past, the small town still had thousands of houses. The rice was dripping with fat, the corn was white, and the public and private barns were abundant.
This war was actually destined to be just a carnival of destruction from the beginning. Apart from robbery, An Lushan had almost no chance of winning. If it weren't for a series of tricks by the imperial court, this year's counterinsurgency would have been over.
.No one in the world hopes that An Lushan will win. Of course, those veterans of many battles in Hebei who make a living by plundering cannot be counted.
The people's support can be used and the people's support is good enough. This is enough to show that the Tang Dynasty is still strong. If you rebel under such public opinion conditions, even if you don't launch an army to rob or kill innocent people indiscriminately, everyone will still regard you as a villain and criticize you.
.
Li Siye's army went from Lanzhou to Weizhou, and then from Weizhou to Qinzhou. Qinzhou was also called Tianshui County. This was already the border area between Guanzhong and Longyou. He had previously sent Duan Xiushi's elite troops to guard the three ancient roads from Guanzhong to Longyou.
Huizhong Road, Longguan Road, and Xianyi Road were all controlled to prevent the rebels from leading their troops into Longxi.
In fact, his worries were unnecessary. After the rebels stationed in Longzhou, they stopped marching westward. An Lushan looted Chang'an and carried countless treasures, palace maids and concubines, opera and dances in the opera house, and various other things.
A variety of rare animals were sent to Luoyang, and a banquet was given to the officials in the Ningbi Pool of the Forbidden Garden.
Li Siye saw the Tangqi team transporting the body of Concubine Yang in Tianshui. Facing Yang Yuhuan who was lying on the straw mat of the coffin and sedan chair, he said with a rather sad expression: "The concubine has given me the kindness to know me. If it weren't for her and the Yang family
My sisters recommended me in the past, and I would not have achieved what I have today. But whenever disaster occurs in the world, it must be blamed on women. The source of An Lushan’s rebellion was the emperor, Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong, what do they have to do with the Yang sisters?
relation?"
All the soldiers were shocked when they heard this, and then they thought it was true. Li Siye immediately ordered someone to build a coffin and chose a cemetery for Concubine Yang to bury outside Tianshui City.