The people in Luoyang City were in chaos, and every city gate was crowded with people who wanted to escape from the city. They desperately begged for permission to open the city, but the defenders on the city were unmoved. Ge Shu Yao led a group of cavalry from
As I passed through the city, I saw people crying for father and mother everywhere in the city. Many women held their children and cried bitterly.
An old woman stood at the door, leaning on her stick and shouting: "Hide the child in the cellar. If you want to kill him, I will chop him up to die for him!"
At this time, a white-haired old man ran out and knelt in front of Ge Shu Yao and cried: "Master, please persuade General Ge Shu! Let him surrender. My two grandsons are still young and they are innocent.
ah!"
Ge Shuyao sighed softly, "I will tell you this, old man, please get up!"
Ge Shuyao no longer wanted to patrol anymore, turned his horse's head and said: "Go back to camp!"
Time gradually passed one o'clock, and the lights in the military camp were brightly lit. Ge Shu Yao summoned all the generals to the Chinese army's tent. Ge Shu Yao said to them: "I am determined to sneak attack the enemy's camp at night. If I can defeat the enemy, we will have a great victory."
, If we cannot defeat the enemy, we will break through and go south. Will you, gentlemen, come with me?"
Everyone knelt down on one knee and said: "I am willing to advance and retreat together with the commander-in-chief!"
Ge Shu Yao nodded and said: "Call the soldiers to gather immediately. At two o'clock, we will break out from Jianchun Gate. In order to prevent the news from being leaked, from now on, no one is allowed to leave the military camp!"
General Li Bowen's expression suddenly changed. He lowered his head to hide the panic in his eyes. Now he was really going to die!
........
At two o'clock, Ge Shu Yao led 6,000 soldiers and appeared in front of Jianchun Gate. He ordered in a low voice: "Open the city!"
The city gate slowly opened and the suspension bridge was lowered. Ge Shuyao took the lead and was the first to kill.
At this time, there were a thousand soldiers lying in ambush outside the city. When they saw the Tang army coming out, the leading general immediately approached them and asked, "Is this General Li Bowen?"
Ge Shu Yao was startled and then became furious. He said coldly: "I am Li Bowen!"
He spurred his horse to gallop and stabbed the enemy general with a sudden thrust. He was unable to dodge and was pierced through the chest by the bullet. The soldiers were in chaos and fled in all directions.
Ge Shuyao turned around to kill Li Bowen, but failed to find him. A soldier reported: "General Li just said that he forgot something important and went back to the city to get it."
Ge Shu Yao sneered and asked Zhu Si to kill him!
He shouted, "Brothers, kill me!"
The six thousand troops shouted and followed Ge Shuyao towards the enemy camp.
It was God's will that Zhu Si's army had entered a wartime state and was waiting to enter the city. Ge Shuyao led the army into the camp, only to find that the enemy troops were already prepared. The enemy troops were coming from all directions. He was not sleeping. He suddenly woke up.
, Li Bowen is going to offer the city tonight, and the other party will definitely be waiting for him.
Ge Shuyao immediately shouted: "Break through the encirclement and go south!"
But it was already too late. Zhu Si had already received the news that the enemy troops had broken into the camp. He immediately ordered: "Surround them and don't let them escape!"
‘Dong! Dong! Dong!’ The drums were beating loudly in Zhu Si’s camp. Tens of thousands of troops guarding the east of the city surrounded Geshu Yao’s army from four directions, and reinforcements continued to come from other city gates.
There was a huge disparity in the strength of the two armies. Six thousand troops were gradually killed and dispersed. Ge Shuyao was surrounded by thousands of enemy troops. All the soldiers around him were killed, leaving him alone. He waved his spear to kill left and right, but he could not be killed.
After emerging from the siege, I heard the enemy soldiers shouting: "Capture Brother Shu Yao!"
Ge Shu Yao's men were trapped and exhausted. At this time, a cold arrow shot out and hit his horse. The horse fell to the ground and overturned Ge Shu Yao. The surrounding enemy soldiers were overjoyed and swarmed forward to capture Ge Shu Yao alive.
Ge Shu Yao pulled out his sword and killed several people in a row. The soldiers were so frightened that they retreated. Thousands of people surrounded him in a small circle one foot wide. Everyone's eyes flashed with a ferocious light like a wolf, eager to face the prey, ready to move.
, Ge Shuyao knew that he could not escape, so he let out a long sigh and cut himself to death with a horizontal sword!
In May of the fourth year of Jianzhong's reign, Zhu Si led an army of 200,000 to surround Luoyang. Jiedu's envoy Ge Shuyao failed to break through and committed suicide rather than surrender. The entire army of 6,000 was destroyed.
Zhu Si appreciated his brother Shu Yao's loyalty and ordered his brother Shu Yao to be buried lavishly. The army immediately entered the city and Luoyang officials surrendered.
Since then, a large area of land west of Zhengzhou and north of Xiangzhou has been occupied by Zhu Si.
The consequences of the fall of Luoyang were very serious, which meant that Ma Sui, the military governor of Hedong, and Li Baozhen, the military commander of the Zhaoyi Army, were left alone.
At this time, Hedong had been completely lost. Ma Sui's troops were too few, with only more than 8,000 men, and could not stop the attack of Li Huaiguang's 30,000 troops. He had to abandon Hedong, led his army to retreat to Xiangzhou, and joined forces with Li Baozhen to control it.
There were only two places left in Xiangzhou and Weizhou, with less than 20,000 soldiers and horses. They sent people to Chengdu and begged the emperor to approve their withdrawal to Bianzhou south.
At this time, changes also occurred in Hedong. Li Huaiguang was extremely ambitious. After he occupied the southern part of Hedong Road, he proclaimed himself the King of Jin and the Governor of Hedong. He built a royal palace and established a vassal town in Linfen County, Jinzhou.
He no longer paid allegiance to the Yuan family, but sent people to Chang'an to request the emperor Li Jishi to grant him the title.
After Li Huaiguang's rebellion, the Northern Tang Dynasty controlled by the Yuan family reduced its military strength to 30,000 people, suffered a serious loss of strength, and fell into an unprecedented crisis.
Among the three Tang dynasties that emerged at the same time, Taiyuan in the Northern Tang Dynasty was the most low-key and weakest. Although the crown prince Li Song ascended the throne, he was not recognized by the world. Li Song issued several edicts to announce Ma Sui and Li Baozhen.
Everyone who entered the court was rejected without hesitation.
Not only that, old ministers and celebrities living in Taiyuan also fled one after another for fear of getting involved with the Northern Tang Dynasty. As a result, the Northern Tang Dynasty could not find court officials, so they had to promote low-level officials to officials. For a time, subordinate officials in the government were promoted one after another.
, either as ministers or ministers, they did not know how to govern the country, but they were all proficient in corruption, bribery, exploitation and extortion, which made the Northern Tang court a mess and the people complained.
If the Li Huai'en self-reliance incident had not occurred, perhaps Beitang would have continued to live in such a muddle. However, after the Li Huai'en incident, it would have been difficult for Beitang to survive.
Once Li Huaien counterattacks Taiyuan, the Northern Tang regime will be destroyed instantly.
In addition to the imperial palace Jinyang Palace, the second largest palace in Taiyuan City is the Palace of the Prince of Wei, which is also the palace of the Yuan family.
Yuan Xuanhu was named King of Wei and Grand Master. He did not hold any actual official position, but he was the real ruler of the Northern Tang Dynasty.
Among his three sons, the eldest son Yuan Jin was granted the title of Duke of Jin and became the Prime Minister of Zhongshu Ling. The second son Yuan Lu was granted the title of Duke of Lu and the title of General Huqi. He was appointed as the right servant of Shangshu and Shangshu of the Ministry of War, mastering 20,000 natural strategies.
The imperial army and 10,000 Wei family soldiers were the last 30,000 troops of the Northern Tang Dynasty. The third son of Yuan Chu was granted the title of Duke of Chu, and served as Shangshu Zuopushe and Hubu Shangshu, and controlled the financial power of the Northern Tang Dynasty.
In addition, Han Jinxing, the Minister of Personnel who holds the power of personnel affairs, is the son-in-law of Yuan Xuanhu, and all the generals of the Forbidden Army are descendants of the Yuan family.
Another person in the Northern Tang Dynasty who could compete with the Yuan family was Li Huaiguang. He was named the Fenyang County King, the champion general, and commanded an army of 30,000 people. Although his title was only lower than Yuan Xuanhu, his official rank was only third grade, not to mention
Far inferior to the first-rank officials of the three brothers of the Yuan family, not even the son-in-law of Yuan Xuanhu, he could only stand side by side with a bunch of nephews of the Yuan family. This was of course the Yuan family's attempt to suppress Li Huaiguang, but it also planted the seeds of Li Huaiguang's betrayal and self-reliance.
Seed.
In the lobby of Prince Wei's Mansion, more than a dozen members of the Yuan family gathered together. The head of the family, Yuan Xuanhu, was sitting on a soft couch, looking a little tired. He waved his hands and said: "Since we are all here, let's start! Jiulang, what do you say?
."
The Jiulang mentioned by Yuan Xuanhu was his nephew Yuan Zheng, who was appointed as the Minister of Rites. He had just returned from his mission to Uighur and brought an important statement from the Uighur Khan.
"I stayed at the court of the Uighurs for nine days, met with the Tianqin Khan three times, and also met with the Uighur Prime Minister Duoloosi. The Uighurs' attitude was very clear. They opposed the Northern Tang Dynasty and only recognized Li Shi as the legitimate king of the Tang Dynasty. The Uighurs
We are willing to support our Yuan clan, but the premise is that the Northern Tang Dynasty is abolished. Once the Northern Tang Dynasty is abolished, the Uighurs will station 10,000 troops in Yunzhou and go south to provide assistance at any time according to our needs."
"What are their conditions?" Yuan Chu asked.
"They only have two conditions. One is to abolish the Northern Tang Dynasty, and the other is to ask us to pay tribute of 100,000 pieces of silk every year, and nothing else."
Yuan Chu, who was in charge of finance and taxation, was surprised. One hundred thousand bolts of silk a year was equivalent to fifty thousand guan. This was a lot of pressure!
Yuan Xuanhu said slowly: "Currently, our territory consists of one prefecture and seven prefectures. The prefecture is Taiyuan Prefecture. The prefectures refer to Shizhou, Xizhou, Lanzhou, Daizhou, Shuozhou, Yuzhou and Yunzhou. The population is three hundred.
The remaining 10,000 people are mainly concentrated in Taiyuan Prefecture, and the army only has 30,000 people. It can be said that both Zhu Tao and Li Huaiguang can easily destroy us. If we want to protect ourselves, we must get the support of Huihe."