I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 416 Entering Changling

Guanzhong.

"Your Majesty, Guo Huai hasn't come out..."

Wei Yan, who had previously made a solemn vow at Wuguan, was now as if he had lost his parents and was no longer as brave as he had been when he arrived.

After several days of probing by Wei Yan, Guo Huai, who was stationed in Chang'an, did not come out to fight the Han army in the field as Wei Yan had expected. Instead, he stayed at home and even took the initiative to destroy some granaries, achieving the effect of clearing the field.

"It's nothing. I came to Guanzhong just to give it a try. It's already good enough that I can get past Wuguan Pass. How can I expect to have good luck twice?"

Liu Miao was not surprised by Wei Yan's defeat.

Even if two thousand elite soldiers, who lack the ability to siege cities, reached the walls of Chang'an, they would not be able to easily seize this central hub in the northwest.

This also proves from another angle that Wei Yan's so-called Ziwu Valley plan was complete nonsense.

Even if the defending army cannot stop the enemy from entering Guanzhong, as long as they cannot break through Chang'an, then no matter how many elite troops they send, they will only be wasting their lives.

"Your Majesty, what should we do? Should we retreat?"

The Han army has now obtained the intelligence it wanted.

That means Yuan Tan was indeed no longer in Guanzhong.

In this way, the troops originally stationed in Nanyang can be mobilized, and more troops can be deployed to the front line.

Liu Miao's trip was quite successful. To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, it would be best to return to the Central Plains as soon as possible.

"No hurries?"

Liu Miao didn't want to go back so soon.

"The reinforcements from Hebei haven't arrived yet, so we have plenty of time to stay a while longer!"

"Besides, there's a place I've always wanted to visit! I came in a hurry last time, and left in an even greater hurry, so I almost forgot about it!"

Liu Miao led his army to Baqiao in Chang'an first.

Guo Huai stared nervously at Liu Miao's crimson dragon banner.

That banner with the Chinese character "汉" (Han) ultimately felt like a needle pricking him.

"Be careful, guard against Liu Miao's attack on the city!"

Liu Miao was also watching Chang'an from afar.

"Tsk! The ancient capital of the Han Dynasty! We can only look at it like this, it's infuriating."

At this moment, Zhang Xiu, who knew Liu Miao's final destination, said something intriguing.

"If His Majesty were to go to that place, he would probably be even angrier."

Liu Miao did not refute, and after looking at Chang'an and the towering Weiyang Palace, he led his troops north again.

"Hmm? They're not attacking Chang'an?"

Guo Huai was also greatly surprised when he saw this scene!

"What are they going north for? Are they planning to cross the Wei River?"

Immediately, the advisor Sima suggested that Guo Huai send troops!

However, Guo Huai refused the offer.

"That's Liu Miao! The current Emperor of the Han Dynasty! Do you think he's a fool?"

"Besides, he's surrounded by cavalry, can't you see that?"

Guo Huai is now guarding Guanzhong alone, clearly seeking no merit but only avoiding mistakes!

Upon seeing Liu Miao leading his troops north, they merely sent scouts to follow at a distance, not daring to provoke Liu Miao.

Liu Miao swaggered along the roads of Guanzhong, as if he were back in his own home, displaying his arrogance. The conspicuous red flag fluttering in the wind attracted the attention of many people.

The Han dynasty still exists.

The people of Guanzhong were used to the bright yellow flags of the Northern Zhao, which represented the element of earth, and were momentarily taken aback when they suddenly saw the crimson dragon banner of the Han Dynasty.

Some civilians tentatively approached, wanting to offer food and water, but they were all driven away by the cavalry driven by Liu Miao.

"Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan, that father and son are both petty! When they can't find me, who knows if they won't take their anger out on these common people!"

Liu Miao turned to Wei Yan: "That's why I didn't contact Xiliang!"

After realizing that a small number of elite troops could not conquer Chang'an, Wei Yan suggested that the princes of Xiliang come to join the battle.

However, Liu Miao rejected this plan outright.

I won't stay in Guanzhong for long.

The real battlefield is ultimately in the Central Plains; there's no need to prematurely deploy too much manpower to the peripheral battlefields.

Moreover, Liu Miao never dared to overestimate the fighting capabilities of the Western Liang warlords who had not yet been unified.

"Meng Qi is still too young."

As Liu Miao dispersed more and more people, he finally arrived at his destination—

Changshan.

Or, you could call it Changling.

The tomb of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang!

Liu Miao looked into the distance and saw the two adjacent mounds of earth, and immediately burst into laughter!
"My great-grandfather really had a miserable life!"

"His fiefdom is as high as Empress Lü's, haha!" So high as the sun and moon.

The construction system of imperial mausoleums in the Han Dynasty stipulated that the emperor and empress were buried together in the same cemetery but in separate mausoleums. The empress's mausoleum was always located to the east of the emperor's mausoleum, and her burial mound was smaller than that of the emperor's mausoleum.

However, only Changling, where the tombs of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang and Empress Lü are roughly the same size and very close to each other, is different from the distant relationship between other emperors and empresses.

We rode our horses closer.

Gradually, the sharp angles of some palace buildings came into view.

Sleeping quarters, side halls, mausoleums and temples.

Even today, one can still vaguely discern the identities of these palaces.

According to the ritual system, the spirit seat of the deceased should be placed in the center of the mausoleum, and the "clothing, hat, table and staff of Emperor Gaozu of Han" should be displayed. The palace servants in the mausoleum should serve the deceased emperor and empress with the same respect as they would the emperor and empress in life, and offer them food and drink four times a day. This is called "daily sacrifice at the mausoleum".

But now, only the earth that once formed thousands of palaces flows away in the cracks, neither slowly nor quickly.

"It's a real mess."

Here, Xiao He, Cao Can, Zhou Bo, Zhou Yafu are also buried...

And Emperor Gaozu's concubine, Cao, Liu Fei's mother, was also buried here.

However, at this point, no trace of the tomb could be seen at all.

"More than twenty days later, the Red Eyebrows, greedy for wealth, launched another large-scale plunder. When the city's food supplies ran out, they packed up treasures and set fire to the palaces before leading their troops westward. Passing the southern suburbs of the shrine, their armored chariots and cavalry were at their most formidable, numbering a million. Penzi rode in a royal chariot drawn by three horses, followed by several hundred riders. They then plundered cities from the southern mountains, fought General Yan Chun of the Gengshi Army at Mei, defeated and killed him, and then entered Anding and Beidi. Reaching Yangcheng and Fanxu, they encountered heavy snow, filling the pits and valleys, and many soldiers froze to death. They then returned, excavating the tombs and taking their treasures. They then desecrated the corpse of Empress Lü. Wherever the rebels looted, those with jade caskets were found to be lifelike, hence the Red Eyebrows committed many acts of filth."

This is why Zhang Xiu said that Liu Miao would be even angrier when he arrived here.

The tombs of Emperor Gaozu, Empress Lü, and other meritorious officials of the early Han Dynasty were destroyed by the Red Eyebrow Army.

Even Empress Lü's body was dug up and desecrated, let alone the bodies of others.

"Ha~"

To Zhang Xiu's surprise, Liu Miao did not fly into a rage, but instead smiled slightly.

"I remember reading about it in the history books."

"When the Red Eyebrow Army, which was excavating the imperial tombs, retreated eastward out of Guanzhong, they were blocked by Guangwu's army at the bottom of the Xiaoshan Valley."

"Emperor Guangwu accepted the surrender of the Red Eyebrow Army and sympathized with Liu Penzi's plight. But he didn't treat the others well."

"In particular, Fan Chong, who was in charge of looting the imperial tombs, was killed by Emperor Guangwu under a pretext. The fact that even a kind-hearted man like Emperor Guangwu could 'betray his promise' shows how much Emperor Guangwu hated these scumbags."

Liu Miao had some knowledge of that period of history.

Seeing the backfilled tombs and dilapidated palaces, Liu Miao felt a rare sense of melancholy.

"These are chaotic times; I wonder when they will end."

All Liu Miao knew was that if they won this battle, the chaos might end soon. But if they lost, he didn't know how long it would last.

"Tsk! Emperor Gaozu, you shouldn't just be busy with cockfighting and dog walking down there! At least show some of the heroic spirit you displayed when you slew the white serpent! When I'm fighting Yuan Shao, you'd better just send down a meteorite to kill him!"

Xu's wishes were grand, but the tribute Liu Miao offered was rather meager.

"I came in a hurry and didn't prepare anything for you, so burning some paper money will have to do!"

Offering sacrifices at the mausoleum and temple.

Liu Miao brought none of these things, including no livestock and no ritual objects.

Fortunately, as a necessity nowadays, paper is still in ample supply.

The cow is a drawing.

Gold, painted.

Ritual vessels, too, are painted!
"We've burned so many things for you, you should do something down there and bless the Great Han, right?"

Just now, Liu Miao burned a 140 million paper money for Liu Bang.

Even with inflation, this amount should have made Liu Bang the richest man in the world, right?

Moreover, Liu Miao was very generous and poured Liu Bang a whole jug of wine! Real wine! Not a drawing on paper!
If Zhang Xiu hadn't stopped him, Liu Miao would have even wanted to draw a big bear girl for his old man to take with him.

Therefore, Liu Miao felt that he had treated this ancestor quite well!
that's it.

There were no official ceremonial officials.

There were no formal ritual vessels.

There wasn't even a formal sacrificial text; Liu Miao simply squatted on the ground and mumbled something, and that was considered the completion of the ritual.

Liu Miao had already completed what is estimated to be the simplest worship ceremony ever held at Gao Temple.

Flames danced, swirling up the ashes left after the fire, flying out from the exposed top of the mausoleum, landing in Guanzhong, landing on Changling.

The incense of the Han dynasty has finally been rekindled.

Liu Miao originally intended to visit Emperor Xiaowu's Maoling Mausoleum.

However, the scouts had already brought news that reinforcements from Hebei had arrived in Guanzhong, leaving Liu Miao with no choice but to give up.

But when Liu Miao heard the name of the general in charge of Yuan's army, he raised an eyebrow and showed a look of confusion for the first time.

"Who? Cao Cao?"

"There's actually someone in Hebei with the same name as Mengde?"

(End of this chapter)