Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 306: The Image of Revolution, King in Tang and Jin

Chapter 306: The Image of Revolution, King in Tang and Jin

Mangshan is at the turn of spring and summer, and the mountain roads are lush and green.

As the sun was setting, a team of several thousand people marched along a mountain path. Emperor Liu Xie sat in the imperial carriage, with civil and military officials riding horses and driving the carriage, and soldiers holding spears and halberds as guards.

"Xuan De, how long will it take to reach Heyang?" Liu Xie asked.

"We'll be in Heyang by dusk!"

Liu Bei put on his armor and reined in, riding his horse to the side of the imperial carriage, and said, "I have ordered my second brother Guan Yu to go ahead. If there is any news, he will report back to me."

Liu Xie looked back at the long line of troops, sighed and said: "The Han Dynasty is weak and declining, but fortunately I have you and Liu Youzhou among my clan members, so I will not be humiliated."

When Liu Bei first met Liu Xie, he won Liu Xie's favor because of his status; before and after the eastward migration of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei's performance of running around wholeheartedly made Liu Xie take him as his confidant, certified Liu Bei's status as a royal family member, and inherited the title of Tinghou of his ancestors. When the civil strife in Yanzhou broke out, Liu Bei was appointed as the rear general and the governor of Yanzhou by Liu Xie.

Liu Bei did not dare to be arrogant, and said with his hands clasped: "Han Dynasty, the world of the Liu family, I am a descendant of the Han Dynasty, and it is my responsibility to revive the Han Dynasty, not to mention that Your Majesty has been very kind to me."

Liu Bei had no one to rely on and wandered around everywhere. In the early days, he acted out of passion. But since he followed Zhang Yu to fight against the enemy and revive the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei gradually found his belonging around Liu Xie. Since he was a member of the royal family, he should help Liu Xie to revive the country.

As for establishing oneself and reviving the Han Dynasty?

Liu Bei had no idea at all, after all, he had no foundation. In terms of blood orthodoxy, he was only a descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan in the Western Han Dynasty, and his relationship with the Eastern Han Dynasty royal family had long been estranged. Now Liu Bei's identity as a royal family member came from Liu Xie, so for Liu Bei, his biggest goal now was to assist Liu Xie in reviving the Han Dynasty.

"Your Majesty, Envoy, urgent news!"

Wang Long rode his horse and greeted Liu Xie and Liu Bei.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with Yunchang?" Liu Bei asked.

Wang Long pulled the reins and said, "Your Majesty, Envoy, Yuan Shao sent troops to burn Heyangjin. Now there are no boats to cross the river. General Guan is searching the coast for boats to see if he can take Your Majesty across the river."

Liu Bei looked slightly surprised and asked, "Have you contacted Zhang Yang?"

"General Guan is sending people across the river to contact Zhang Yang and ask him to dispatch boats to Heyang." Wang Long said.

Wang Long glanced at the sky and said, "It's getting late today. I'm afraid the army will have to camp at the Heyang ferry and may not be able to cross the river until next year."

Seeing Liu Bei's worried look, the clever Liu Xie immediately asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Liu Bei bowed to Liu Xie and said worriedly, "Your Majesty, the Yuan clan burned the Heyang ferry because they didn't want to see Your Majesty flee north to Heyang. So my guess is correct. Yan Liang and Chunyu Qiong may lead their troops to pursue and welcome the emperor to Jizhou."

Liu Xie was furious. He slapped his armrest and said, "Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are indeed snakes and rats. The decline of the Han Dynasty started with the Yuan family. If Yuan Wei had not invited Dong Zhuo to the capital, how could the Han Dynasty decline!"

Liu Bei remained silent. As someone who had personally experienced the chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, he also believed that the chaos in the world was mainly caused by the war between the two Yuans. In fact, if Dong Zhuo was allowed to control the government, it would be nothing more than a replay of the story of Deng Zhi and Dou Xian.

"Hurry up and meet Yunchang!" Liu Bei said, waving his whip and pointing forward.

"promise!"

Not long after the carriage had moved forward, there was a sudden chaos in the ranks behind, with shouts and wails from palace maids, soldiers, and officials.

"what happened?"

Liu Bei turned his horse and looked back at the smoke and dust behind him. He ordered Zhang Fei, who was leading the cavalry, and said, "Yide, lead the cavalry to investigate and see why Dong Cheng's troops are in such a mess."

"promise!"

Zhang Fei, wearing black armor and riding a black horse, holding a spear and pointing forward, led dozens of riders to gallop towards the rear team.

"What should I do?"

Liu Xie looked at the chaotic scene, and his memory went back to the Mangshan Incident in his youth. He and his brother fled in panic and eventually met Dong Zhuo.

Seeing that Liu Xie, who was only fifteen or sixteen years old, had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of reviving the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei could not help but pull the reins tightly and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will protect your majesty."

"Thank you, my dear!"

As time went by, the rear team guarded by Dong Cheng became more and more chaotic, and people even kept fleeing from the queue, crossing Liu Xie's carriage. Liu Bei sent his generals to rebuke them, but they could not stop the fleeing.

After a while, Zhang Fei, who had been gathering information, returned on horseback, with blood stains on his armor. It was obvious that Zhang Fei had gone deep into the enemy camp to understand the situation.

Now he cursed and shouted to Liu Bei, "Brother, Yan Liang, a member of Yuan Shao's army, led his cavalry to attack Dong Cheng. Dong Cheng's troops were defeated. I don't know where he ran to."

"Father-in-law!"

Liu Xie frowned and looked worried, and subconsciously cried out.

Although Dong Cheng had a warlord mentality, he was good to his son-in-law Liu Xie and often defended Liu Xie's majesty as an emperor in front of civil and military officials. Although Liu Xie disliked Zhang Yu's background behind Dong Cheng before, after all kinds of things, Liu Xie no longer rejected Zhang Yu, but became close to him. Needless to say, Dong Cheng was the father-in-law of the emperor, and he was naturally someone Liu Xie relied on.

"go!"

Liu Bei had a keen sense of smell and immediately realized that the situation was going to get out of hand, so he said to Liu Xie: "Your Majesty, Hebei's elite cavalry is not inferior to Bing and Liang. Yan Liang is a ten thousand-man enemy under Yuan Shao's command. This time Yan Liang led the cavalry to attack, and he must have come prepared. Now let's meet up with Yun Chang. With Yun Chang's ability, we can gather the defeated soldiers and lead Zhang Hou's troops to the north, and we will surely be able to repel Yan Liang."

"What should the accompanying ministers do?" Liu Xie asked.

Liu Bei shook his head and said, "The troops were attacked, morale is low, and our forces are limited, so it is difficult for the ministers to take care of them all."

"That's it!"

Without waiting for Liu Xie to say anything, Liu Bei called on his cavalry to move quickly, and asked Zhang Fei to escort Liu Xie and his concubines, and also take along the officials who were closer to Liu Xie, such as the Secretariat and the eunuchs, while the Nine Ministers and the outer court officials were not under his control. Kong Rong was agile and saw that the situation was not good, so he climbed onto Yang Biao's carriage and fled together.

Not long after Liu Bei led his troops to escort Liu Xie away, Yan Liang rushed over with a spear in his hand, intending to take the emperor back.

Seeing that the emperor was nowhere to be found, Yan Liang led his cavalry to stop the carriage of an unknown official and asked angrily, "Where is the emperor?"

The person on the carriage was none other than Deng Yuan, one of the Nine Ministers. Seeing Yan Liang acting arrogantly, Deng Yuan, relying on his status, scolded him, "How can you interfere with the emperor's carriage? Yuan Shao has been enjoying the Han salary for a long time, how dare you send you to hijack the emperor now?"

"Noisy!"

When Yan Liang saw Deng Yuan insulting Yuan Shao, he became furious. He took out his bow and arrow and shot Deng Yuan to death with one arrow. He then ordered his cavalry to kill Deng Yuan's followers and then robbed Deng Yuan of his belongings.

"Pooh!"

Yan Liang spat on the dying Deng Yuan's face and cursed: "The Han Dynasty is dead, how dare you be so arrogant and insult me?"

Yan Liang, a great general, was like this, not to mention the elite cavalry from Hebei led by Yan Liang. Seeing that Yan Liang had no intention of enforcing strict military discipline, they simply indulged in looting, abducting the beautiful palace ladies who had no time to escape, robbing and killing the officials in the capital who were transporting valuables, and robbing the military supplies and money that were escorting the troops.

What's worse, because of the beauty of the palace maids, and because it was difficult to carry them, they and their riders beat them in a secluded place in the forest. The palace maids' painful cries echoed through the forest. However, crying did not alleviate the pain, but attracted many beastly riders.

Yan Liang ignored his subordinates' inhuman behavior and focused on finding out Liu Xie's movements. After all, he had followed Yuan Shao since the early days of his uprising, and Yuan Shao secretly allowed them to do many dirty things in order to motivate his subordinates.

After a while, Yan Liang caught Liang Shao, who had unfortunately fallen behind, and pried the whereabouts of Liu Xie and Liu Bei from his mouth. In order not to delay the pursuit, he reprimanded his beastly subordinates and asked someone to notify Chunyu Qiong to attack Liu Bei together with him.

After all the turmoil, not only was Guanglu Xun Deng Yuan killed, but dozens of outer court officials including Tingwei Xuan Fan and Taipu Tian Bin were also killed in the chaos, more than a hundred palace ladies were looted, and the number of casualties was no less than three thousand.

Although it was getting late, in order to get the emperor before Yuan Shu, Yan Liang reunited with Chunyu Qiong and continued to chase the fleeing Liu Xie.

At the same time, Liu Xie, under the protection of Liu Bei, joined forces with Guan Yu's troops, and the two armies set up camp in a village near the ferry.

In the dilapidated house, Liu Xie, the Shangshu, and the officials of the inner court sat with mournful looks on their faces.

Liu Bei, along with his attendants, served dinner to Liu Xie and other ministers.

"Your Majesty's meat soup!"

"Thank you, my dear!"

Liu Bei sat on a stool and saw that Liu Xie and the other ministers were depressed. He encouraged them and said, "Marquis Zhang's troops are still in Henei and are coming to protect Your Majesty. It won't take long. With the support of Marquis Zhang's troops, we will be able to fight against Yuan. Your Majesty and the other ministers don't have to worry!"

"Yes!"

"What Xuande said makes sense!"

…………

The king and his ministers encouraged each other with words, and the morale was barely restored.

Liu Xie was extremely hungry. He drank a few mouthfuls of the meat soup and asked, "My lords, Yan Liang's troops are chasing us now. I am afraid Yan Liang will not give up. Can we build a bamboo raft to cross the river tonight and then build a floating bridge later?"

"I'm afraid not!"

Yang Biao hurriedly said, "I am from Hongnong, and I know the dangers of the river. From the Sanmenxia River to the Heyang Ferry, the water is turbulent. And now is the turn of spring and summer, the river is surging, how can we use bamboo rafts to cross the river at night?"

Wang Li, the taciturn Grand Historian and Palace Attendant, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I have just divined for the Han Dynasty. According to the hexagram and astronomy, Taibai has violated the Zhenxing Star in the Big Dipper and passed Tianjin since last year, and Mars is retrograde and guarding the Beihe River. Therefore, Your Majesty should not cross the river now."

Wang Li hesitated and said, "If Your Majesty crosses the river, there may be bloodshed!"

Liu Xie and the other ministers did not care about Wang Li's hesitation. They were just worried about not being able to cross the river. Among the crowd, only Liu Ai paid attention to his friend's situation.

Seeing that he could not cross the river, Liu Xie looked at Liu Bei helplessly and asked, "What do you think, my dear?"

Liu Bei thought for a long time and said, "Your Majesty, Yan Liang led the elite cavalry to attack, and Chunyu Qiong and Zhang He must have been recruited as reinforcements, and they might pursue them overnight. Now Dong Cheng's troops are defeated, and his whereabouts are unknown. I dare not fight against the two alone. Therefore, in my opinion, it is better to go west to Hongnong, so as to avoid the Yuan army and get support from Guanzhong and Hedong."

"it is good!"

"Then listen to your words, my dear!"

Liu Bei, who now had an army, became the support of the monarch and his ministers. At Liu Bei's suggestion, they gave up the plan to cross the river from Heyang, marched towards Hongnong overnight, and sent fast cavalry to Guanzhong and Hedong for help.

On the way to escape overnight, more than a thousand torches illuminated the road, and Liu Ai and Wang Li were in the same car.

"Do you have anything else to say today?" Liu Ai asked in a low voice.

"Have!"

Wang Li looked uncertain and said, "I have been observing the celestial phenomena for a long time. After the defeat, I divined for Your Majesty, but the hexagram I got was unfavorable."

"Can you speak?" Liu Ai asked.

"Can you believe it?" Wang Li asked back.

Liu Ai smiled and said, "If it has entered my ears, no one else will know. With the relationship between you and me, what can't be said?"

Wang Li stroked his beard and looked at the stars in the night sky, saying sadly: "Taibai was guarding the gate of the sky, and it met with Mars, and the combination of gold and fire is indeed a sign of revolution. The Han Dynasty will eventually end, and the one who rises will be in Hebei, and the emperor will be in the land of Tang and Jin."

Hearing Wang Li's treasonous words, Liu Ai's expression suddenly changed, his heart was in turmoil and he could not calm down!
(End of this chapter)

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