Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 365: Surrender
"Sing--"

"Tens of millions of years old..."

On the fifth day of September in the sixth year of Xiantong, as the Xichuan light cavalry delivered memorials to Chang'an, even Li Yi, who disliked attending court, had to hold three regular court sessions in a row in the past ten days.

The first regular court session was to celebrate Gao Pian's surprise attack on Guankou and his defeat of the Duokang Tubo.

The second regular court meeting was to discuss Liu Jilian's dispatch of troops to occupy three states, resulting in the loss of Sanchuan's northwestern barrier.

Now the third regular court session is being held, but fortunately the news is good.

Ten days ago, Gao Pian assembled 4,000 elite cavalry and 10,000 infantry and marched towards Jiazhou.

When You Shilong learned the news, he immediately led the people to retreat to Shizhou, and the Tang army recaptured Jiazhou without bloodshed.

However, You Shilong's approach to Jiazhou can truly be described as scraping the ground three feet deep.

Most of the 100,000 people in Jiazhou were abducted, and only 20,000 to 30,000 people escaped by fleeing to other states or into the mountains.

If we count the number of people abducted by Dali in Chengdu, the number of people abducted by Dali would be no less than 200,000.

In addition, during the one month that Duokang Tubo occupied Guankou, the number of people they captured and abducted was no less than 200,000.

Jiannan Road has only four million people, and now the number of people abducted is so large, nearly 10% of the population of Jiannan Road in the old book. How can this make Li Yi and others happy?
"Your Majesty, Gao Pian, the governor of Dongchuan, has led his troops to build Taihe Town in the middle reaches of the Dadu River. It will be difficult for the southern barbarians to invade Jiazhou in the future."

Xu Shang began to comfort Li Yi, and Li Yi nodded in response with a cold face, then glanced at the ministers in the hall.

"The barbarians and southern barbarians have been repelled, but of the seven states lost, only one was recovered. Of the remaining six states, three were occupied by Liu Jilong and three were occupied by the barbarians."

"I would like to ask you, what do you think should be done about this matter?"

The ministers were all nervous, and no one wanted to be the first to speak and set the tone.

At this time, it was Lu Yan who understood the emperor's thoughts and stood up decisively and bowed:

"Your Majesty, I think Liu Jilong's deployment of troops across the border is an act of disloyalty, even though he has the intention to recover the lost territory."

"If Liu Jilong is willing to withdraw his troops and hand over the three states to Dongchuan, his crime can be forgiven."

"If Liu Jilong refuses to change his ways, we can raise an army to attack him!"

Lu Yan's words set the tone for the content of the court meeting, and the faces of officials such as Zhang Yichao, Feng Bangyan, and Yang Zhiwen changed.

"Your Majesty, I second the proposal!"

When Lu Yan finished speaking, many officials saw the emperor's satisfied expression, so they stood up to express their agreement.

However, at this critical moment, Zheng Ting, the Minister of War who had always supported the court, sang a different tune.

"Your Majesty, I beg Your Majesty to think twice. Now is not the best time to attack Liu Jilong!"

After Zheng Ting stood up, everyone looked at him with surprise. Even Li Yi couldn't help but ask, "Minister Zheng has always supported the court in pacifying Longyou. Why do you have a different opinion today?"

"Your Majesty..." Zheng Ting calmed down and continued:
"Before this, the imperial court had no major enemies. Even the barbarians were stopped outside the Three Passes and Lizhou."

"Now that Taoguan has been lost, although Xichuan soldiers have built Guankouguan, they suffered heavy casualties in this battle. It was a fluke that we recovered Jiazhou."

"After being transferred to the post of Jiedushi of Xichuan, General Gao also transferred 5,000 elite cavalry and 7,000 horse and infantry to Xichuan, resulting in the number of troops in Dongchuan being no more than 23,000, and Xichuan only having more than 35,000."

"There are only 20,000 soldiers and horses in Shannan West Road. After the loss of soldiers and horses in Fengxiang Town, there are only 20,000 soldiers and horses left."

"In this case, the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing only have 90,000 soldiers, and Sanchuan only has 78,000 soldiers."

"If the imperial court still needs to guard against foreign bandits, southern barbarians, and northern barbarians, then the available troops may only be a hundred thousand."

"I think we can send someone to ask Liu Jilong if he is willing to return the three states. Even if he is unwilling to return them, we should not start a war easily. Instead, we should wait until Sanchuan, Beijing Northwest and other towns have enough troops. It will not be too late to start a war then."

In the Battle of Xichuan, the Tang army suffered nearly 40,000 casualties, which was a considerable loss for the Tang Dynasty.

Zheng Ting also saw the military strength of the local vassal states, so he did not dare to talk about going to war lightly.

Li Yi frowned slightly when he saw that what he said was reasonable and well-founded, but some officials who did not understand the situation were still clamoring.

"Although the troops of the eight garrisons in the northwest of Beijing and the three rivers suffered losses, with a force of 100,000, why couldn't they defeat Liu Jilong?"

"Minister Zheng has somewhat encouraged the arrogance of the feudal lords and destroyed the prestige of the imperial court."

"Your Majesty, I request your order to pacify Longyou..."

Those officials who only held nominal positions kept inciting Li Yi. Fortunately, Li Yi knew the situation of the imperial guards, so he did not agree, but nodded and said:
"In that case, let Yang Zhiwen be the envoy to visit Longyou in person."

"I accept the decree..."

Yang Zhiwen, the Minister of Rites, stepped out from the crowd, bowed, and felt relieved.

At the same time, Li Yi continued, "The emperor ordered Li Fu, the governor of Dongchuan, Gao Pian, the governor of Xichuan, and Wang Shi, the governor of Shannan West Road, to recruit soldiers and horses to supplement the troops."

"I obey your order..." Xu Shang and Lu Yan bowed and saluted, but at this moment they saw a eunuch walking in from outside the hall.

The person who came was the eunuch Tian Yun. He did not stop but walked directly to the Golden Platform and presented a memorial, while whispering a few words in Li Yi's ear.

Li Yi's expression turned ugly at a visible speed. He then opened the report and took a quick look at it before saying:
"Liu Jilong reported to the court that the foreign bandits were rampant and the neighboring towns were unable to control them, which led to the fall of Songzhou."

"At present, he has led his army to recapture Songzhou and seven other states including Wenfu, Longmao, Weiyi, etc., and the foreign bandits have been driven out of Weixi."

"In addition... the magistrate of Wannian County reported that Gao Qu, the co-prime minister, died of illness. I want to posthumously honor him. What do you think?"

The two pieces of news not only made Li Yi look ugly, but also made the ministers look at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what to say.

"Your Majesty, Gao Qu had frequent dealings with corrupt officials and evil businessmen during his lifetime. I suggest that he should not be posthumously honored!"

Before everyone could react, an official stood up and refuted the emperor's idea of posthumously conferring a title on him.

When everyone heard the voice, they looked and found that it was Cao Ye, Doctor of Taichang.

Facing Cao Ye's words, Li Yi frowned secretly: "Gao Qu made great contributions during his lifetime. Why should I treat him harshly?"

"If Your Majesty really wants to posthumously honor him, please use 'Ci' as the posthumous title!" Cao Ye did not change his words, which made the ministers gasp.

"La" is an evil posthumous title. If Gao Qu was really given this title posthumously, he would probably not have peace even after his death.

"You..." Li Yi was furious, but when he thought that this was in the imperial court, he suppressed his temper.

"Everything shall be subject to what has been decided before. Court is dismissed!"

As soon as he finished speaking, without waiting for the ministers to ask, he stood up and walked down the golden platform, and the Minister of the Honglu Temple also hurriedly saluted: "Dismiss—"

"Tens of millions of years old..."

Amid the cheers of his ministers, Li Yi left the Purple Palace and rode in a carriage to the Xianning Palace.

He did not appoint a new prime minister, nor did he say whether to posthumously honor Gao Qu.

However, sometimes not expressing one's opinion already represents one's attitude, so the ministers gradually became concerned.

Compared to their idea of trying to reach the phase, Lu Yan felt refreshed at this moment, with worries mixed with a little sadness.

Gao Qu, who often disagreed with him, died just because of a simple cold. This made him feel sad and a little lonely at the same time.

Before this, he wished Gao Qu would die sooner, but when he really died, he felt a little uncomfortable.

"Ugh……"

He sighed in his heart, then glanced at Xu Shang.

Xu Shang frowned slightly, as if he was thinking about something.

Xu Shang was a fair person, but he also knew that the general trend was unstoppable. Even though he knew that Lu Yan had accepted serious bribes in private, he never impeached him.

It was because he knew very well that although Lu Yan was not a good person, he was the kind of person that the Tang Dynasty needed right now.

While he was thinking this, Lu Yan bowed to Xu Shang and said, "Prime Minister Xu, in my opinion, Longyou may not return the six states."

Although Lu Yan was not good at military affairs, he also knew the importance of the six states.

With the six states, Longyou could regard Xichuan as its back garden and easily advance forward. Liu Jilian would naturally not give up such an important place.

Compared to him, Xu Shang saw more, because after all, he had led troops in battle himself and knew how difficult it was to attack a city.

Because of this, he couldn't help but doubt the speed at which Liu Jilian easily recovered the four states and was preparing to recover the three states of Wei, Mao and Yi.

"Did Liu Jilong and Shang Moyan really break up?"

Xu Shang was confused, and then he couldn't help but think of Zhang Huaishen, who had also lost contact with Liu Jilong.

He was unsure, and in response to Lu Yan's question, he could only evade the question by saying, "When Yang Zhiwen returns to the court, we will know whether Liu Jilong is willing to return it."

"Even if you don't want to return it, now is not a good time to defeat Liu Jilong."

"We are about to harvest in autumn, and after the harvest it will be winter. It will be difficult to travel in the Long Mountains, so it is not a good time to start a war."

After Xu Shang finished speaking, he bowed to Lu Yan and said, "I still have government affairs to attend to in the government office, so I won't exchange pleasantries with you."

He turned and left, while Lu Yan stood there pondering over his words. While he was thinking, Li Yu, who had returned to Xianning Palace, summoned Qi Yuanshi and Qi Yuanjian.

A few days ago, Wang Maoxuan retired. Although all the people he recommended got corresponding official positions, the Beisi still became a one-man show of Qi Yuanshi and Qi Yuanjian.

As the two entered the Xianning Palace, Li Yi spoke up, "If the imperial court wants to attack Liu Jilong, how many troops can the imperial guards send out?"

With a sullen face, he asked the two of them directly, but even so, they still played dumb.

"If your majesty is determined to attack Liu Jilong, the imperial army of 100,000 will move like thunder!"

Qi Yuanshi tried to evade the emperor, but Qi Yuanjian saw the emperor's seriousness and added after thinking:
"If we want to defend the capital, I'm afraid we can only send 30,000 troops."

Qi Yuanjian's words made Li Yi frown. He thought that this group of people had been taking advantage of the situation for so many years, but when the court's survival was at stake, they still wanted to take advantage of it all.

"Guanzhong is only separated from Longyou by Longshan and Qinlong Prefectures."

"If the two states are conquered, can the imperial army stop Liu Jilong?"

Li Yi questioned the two men, and they frowned when they heard the emperor's words, as they both heard the emperor's hidden meaning.

The land in Guanzhong has become less and less in recent years, but the land has not disappeared, it has just been hidden.

Although there are aristocratic families among them, more land is occupied by the eunuchs of the Northern Division.

It can be said that their wealth is all in the land, and if Liu Jilian conquers Qinlong, their land will become ownerless.

If the imperial court can come back, they will still have a chance to take back the land. If the imperial court cannot come back, then millions of acres of arable land in Guanzhong will be transferred to Longyou.

Thinking of this, Qi Yuanshi and Qi Yuanjian couldn't help but feel uneasy.

After thinking it over again and again, Qi Yuanjian gritted his teeth and said, "I think we can dismiss some of the old and weak and train 30,000 imperial guards to garrison there."

The number of soldiers and horses has not changed, because the Shen Ce Army does have 30,000 men at the moment, and they are not willing to recruit again.

However, Qi Yuanjian was willing to lay off the old and weak, which meant that a group of soldiers in the Shence Army on paper would disappear, saving the court a lot of money and food.

"In that case, I'll leave this matter to you two."

Li Yi nodded, then waved his hand, signaling the two to leave.

Seeing this, the two men gritted their teeth but still left Xianning Palace.

A few days later, the Shence Army re-copied the military register and saw that the number of soldiers on the register was over 94,000. They claimed that 7,000 old and weak soldiers were laid off, saving the court nearly 300,000 strings of money and grain.

At the same time, time gradually entered the autumn harvest period, and people all over the world began to rush to harvest food.

However, in Huainan and Henan, where refugees were everywhere, bandits were bred. Many of them plundered villages, and their numbers were increasing.

It seemed that whenever it was time to pay summer and autumn taxes, groups of bandits and refugees would appear out of nowhere.

Liu Zhan, who was appointed to the Xuanwu Army, reported the matter to the court, hoping that the court would reduce taxes to appease the people, but the reports often fell on deaf ears and received no response.

Although the Xichuan campaign was over, a large number of people were affected. Gao Pian ordered disaster relief and set up porridge stalls to comfort the victims and enable them to resume business.

In addition, Gao Pian also recruited many strong men from the refugees, which restored the number of troops in Xichuan to 40,000.

All of Gao Pian's methods were collected by spies in Longyou and sent to Liu Jilian, who at this time led his troops to Wenshan County in Maozhou.

Outside Wenshan County, flags covered the sky, and camps of tens of thousands of people filled the river valley so tightly that even the farmland was flattened.

Even so, no one cared about these thousands of acres of arable land, only because Liu Jilian led his troops here.

Three days ago, Liu Jilian and Hu Siguang joined forces and marched south, leading 5,000 elite cavalry, 15,000 armored soldiers, a total army of 20,000 people, and another 30,000 civilian laborers to transport grain from Songzhou to the south.

Upon learning that Liu Jilong was only leading 20,000 men south, many of Duokang's generals became obsessed with evil ideas and hinted overtly or covertly to Shang Moyan to take this opportunity to defeat Liu Jilong.

Forty thousand armored soldiers and fifty thousand troops are their confidence.

Even though they were defeated by Gao Pian at Guankou, they only thought it was a sneak attack by Gao Pian and they underestimated the enemy.

However, when Liu Jilian really led his army here, they realized that they were extremely wrong.

"Sorry..."

Outside Wenchuan County, the Sanchen flags of the Longyou Army were fluttering, and the 20,000-strong army was lined up in the valley. Although they did not reveal any offensive intentions, they still made the opposing Kang army of more than 90,000 nervous.

On the one hand, the 20,000 soldiers in Longyou moved in unison and there was silence in the battle formation, demonstrating their military discipline at all times.

On the other hand, there were gags, standing like a mob, and even a large army of Dokangs making noises.

When the two are facing each other, you can tell which one is higher and which one is lower by just looking up...

The Dokang Tubo had 40,000 armored soldiers, but only 10,000 of them were veterans, and the remaining 30,000 were troops wearing armor, and they had never received any training.

Looking at their scattered troops, Duokang's generals shut their mouths.

At the same time, more than a hundred elite cavalrymen walked out of the Longyou army and slowly marched to the Duokang Tubo formation a hundred steps away.

Hu Siguang reined in his horse in front of the battle array and shouted to the people in the battle array, "Shang Moyan, there is no need to dispatch so many troops to welcome the commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief invites you to come over for a chat!"

He addressed Shang Moyan by his name, which made many Duokang generals tighten their reins.

But before they could get angry, they saw Shang Moyan riding out on his horse, while Mo Ludanzeng was left in the formation.

"There are too few soldiers and horses to demonstrate the prestige of the commander-in-chief!"

Although Shang Moyan developed ambitions, he still did not dare to openly break off relations with Liu Jilong.

In order to show his sincerity, he only brought two elite cavalrymen and followed Hu Siguang to the Longyou army formation.

A tent had been set up in front of the army. When Hu Siguang and his men arrived and dismounted and walked into the tent, Shang Moyan also met Liu Jilong, whom he had not seen for many years.

Compared to many years ago, Liu Jilong has not changed at all, as if he has remained at the age of 25.

If he had not had a long beard, Shang Moyan might have thought that Liu Jilong had taken some magic medicine to preserve his youth.

"Sit down."

Unlike many generals, Liu Jilian did not like to wear gorgeous armor, but instead wore an ordinary set of armor.

Even so, the aura of the superior did not disappear just because he was wearing ordinary armor.

On the contrary, Shang Moyan, wearing golden armor, looked like a rooster in heat in front of him.

Shang Moyan couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed, so he sat in front of Liu Jilong with a dry laugh.

There weren't many things in the tent, just a round table, two chairs, and a tea stove and tea sets on the table, and nothing else.

Liu Jilong started to make tea for Shang Moyan. After a while, he poured out the tea and pushed it in front of him: "Drink!"

Shang Moyan reached out his hand subconsciously, but the tea was too hot. Although he brought the cup to his mouth, he couldn't drink it.

"Jie Shuai asked you to drink..."

Hu Siguang, who was standing next to him, spoke slowly, but his hand was on the hilt of the knife.

Cold sweat broke out on Shang Moyan's forehead. He thought he was very powerful and was no longer afraid of Liu Jilong.

But when Liu Jilong sat in front of him like this, he couldn't help but feel stage fright.

Just as he was about to drink the scalding hot tea, Liu Jilong took the initiative to speak: "Seven days ago I asked you to withdraw from Maozhou, but now you have stationed a large number of troops waiting for me to come. What are you going to do?"

"I..." Shang Moyan didn't know what to say. His eyes were wandering and he didn't dare to look Liu Jilong in the eye.

After a while, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence from between his teeth: "I just..."

"You've grown wings, and you want to fight me?"

Liu Jilong interrupted him, but what he said made Shang Moyan panic: "I didn't..."

"Then what do you want to do by gathering so many troops here?!"

Liu Jilong stood up suddenly, and Hu Siguang pulled out his sword seven inches. Shang Moyan was frightened and knelt on one knee holding his helmet:

"I just want to ask the commander to review my troops..."

Faced with his excuse which was not an excuse, Liu Jilong did not respond to him, but walked out of the tent.

When he reached the door, he turned around and looked at Shang Moyan's kneeling back: "I don't want this to happen a second time!"

After he finished speaking, he walked out. Hu Siguang snorted coldly, put away his sword and followed Liu Jilong out.

After they walked away, Shang Moyan stood up with the help of two close followers.

He looked like he had been fished out of the water; his whole body was soaked with sweat and his forehead was cold.

"Help me... help me go back..."

(End of this chapter)