Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

Li Ji led 50,000 troops to Xingyang.

Upon seeing the arrival of the government troops, the soldiers guarding Xingyang City, whose gates were tightly shut, rushed to report to their superiors.

Before long, the city gates opened, and officials of all ranks from Xingyang City rushed out to greet them.

"General Li, you've finally arrived!"

Li Ji glanced at him and recognized the official leading the group in Xingyang.

"Old Zhang, what brings you to Xingyang to become an official?"

"General Li, you may not know this, but I am originally from Luoyang. Xingyang is closer to my ancestral home, so I found a way to transfer here. General, please come in, please come in!"

The governor of Xingyang was named Zhang Huanran, and his family was also a prominent clan, the Zhang family of Luoyang.

However, Li Ji did not dismount and enter the city despite Zhang Huanran's invitation.

"Old Zhang, the military situation is urgent, so I won't be entering the city. Where are the rebels now?"

"Well... they're like a swarm of bees, running around everywhere. To guard against the rebels, I had no choice but to close the city gates and try my best to appease the people, so..."

Governor Zhang stammered and kept repeating the same thing: he didn't know the location of the rebels.

Li Ji, however, was somewhat puzzled.

"Strange, why didn't the rebels attack the city?"

"No, I only heard that they wiped out the Zheng family and gained a huge fortune. Alas, the Zheng family... died a truly tragic death!" Zhang Huanran, who also came from a prominent family, felt a sense of kinship with the Zheng family's fate.

Li Ji stopped engaging in idle chatter with Governor Zhang and instead issued an order directly.

"Su Dingfang, you personally lead men to scout all around and search for any trace of the rebels!"

"promise!"

"Cheng Chuxia, you will lead three thousand troops to guard Xingyang in preparation for an attack by the rebels!"

"promise!"

"The remaining officers and soldiers shall set up camp outside Xingyang City without fail!"

"promise!"

"Prefect Zhang, I will use the grain and fodder from the granaries in your Xingyang city first, and return them to you after the battle is over."

"Understood, understood, Liu Sicang, go and get it done!"

"promise!"

The Sicang was one of the "Six Offices" of the local government in the Tang Dynasty, specifically responsible for warehousing, taxation, and material management.

As 50,000 troops arrived one after another, banners fluttered outside Xingyang City, bringing a strong sense of security to the people in the city.

At midnight, Su Dingfang, who was in charge of reconnaissance, rode a fast horse back to the camp.

Inside the central command tent, Li Ji leaned back in a chair to rest, but did not remove his armor.

During military operations, the commander-in-chief must remain vigilant at all times to avoid being caught off guard and not having time to even put on his clothes in an emergency.

It's worth noting that many generals were killed while they were fast asleep.

As a professional soldier, Li Ji would naturally not make such a basic mistake.

Once you enter the battlefield environment, you must immediately get into character, even if you have to sleep with one eye open.

"Report! General Su Dingfang requests an audience!"

Li Ji immediately snapped out of his daze: "Why so fast...call him in!"

After Su Dingfang entered, he immediately reported the information he had gathered.

"My lord, I have captured a key member of the rebel army. They say... the King of Qi is dead!"

"What?!"

"This humble general also finds it strange, but after arresting dozens of rebels, they all said the same thing. Moreover... it seems that the rebels had internal strife, and the King of Qi was hacked to death by his own men."

Li Ji stood up, his expression a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

Could this be a false report spread by the rebels?

"Su Dingfang, how many scouts did you send out?"

"A total of one thousand cavalrymen were dispatched to explore in eight directions, with one hundred and twenty-five cavalrymen in each direction, spaced one li apart."

Upon hearing this, Li Ji pondered for a while.

Su Dingfang's approach was already quite cautious, and could be considered the standard setup for scout reconnaissance at that time.

Li Ji was quite confident in the young man before him.

This man was a capable talent he had carefully selected. He had been his deputy general for more than two years without making any mistakes. He had an extraordinary talent for military strategy and might even inherit Li Ji's mantle in the future.

"Did you ask why the rebels killed King Qi?"

"I have interrogated those people and they say it was the work of the traitors Yan Hongliang and Liang Mengbiao, but the specifics are still unclear."

"Let's explore again!"

"promise!"

……

Two days later, the situation finally became clear.

Because Su Dingfang found out the burial site of "King Qi".

The coffin wasn't buried very deep, so it was easy to dig it up.

This is the second time that the "King of Qi" has been unearthed.

To be honest, it's a bit tragic.

The body had been subjected to repeated abuse and was already starting to smell bad, but the face was still vaguely visible.

The body was identified by a eunuch who had once served the King of Qi as the King himself.

Even with a fresh corpse, some subtle differences might still be noticeable.

But this body now... without a doubt, it is the deceased King Qi!

At the same time, the whereabouts of the rebel army under the command of the King of Qi were also verified one by one.

They were originally ordinary people from various places who had been coerced into following the King of Qi because their families had been allocated valuable land.

Leaving aside other places, in the seven counties within Xingyang, the people of at least three counties were incited to riot.

These so-called rebels are quite numerous, numbering at least forty or fifty thousand.

The tallied figures gave Li Ji a headache, but at the same time, he felt somewhat relieved.

As a seasoned and renowned general, he was confident that he could defeat the 40,000 to 50,000 rebel troops with low tactical and technical skills.

However, the problem is that once the war starts, our own soldiers will suffer losses, and there is no guarantee that we can capture the enemy chieftain, namely the King of Qi, in one battle.

King Qi, who could muster such a large army, was no fool; he would surely flee on horseback at the last moment.

On a vast battlefield, anything can happen.

If the Prince of Qi were to escape the battlefield by sheer luck, then Li Ji would be unable to explain himself to the emperor.

The current situation is the best possible one.

Seeing the person alive is impossible, but seeing the body dead is right before my eyes.

With this corpse, Li Ji's mission was complete.

As for suppressing the rebels... where can you find any trace of the rebels?

The rebels have long since dispersed; they're probably back home farming now.

"Prefect Zhang, please help me think of a way to prevent the corpse from decomposing too badly."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Huanran gave a few instructions to his subordinates, telling them to get on with it quickly.

Corpse preservation techniques were already quite advanced in the Tang Dynasty, encompassing a range of methods including ice-making, bathing, stuffing, and coffin preparation. Of course, this was very expensive, and only important figures would be provided with these techniques.

Was the "King of Qi" an important figure?

In the current situation, absolutely.

Many people hate him so much they wish they could eat his flesh and sleep on his skin.

After some preparation, the body of the "King of Qi" was placed in a relatively high-quality coffin and then transported to Chang'an.

Li Ji's memorial reporting on the local rebel situation was also completed, and he was already on his way to Chang'an at full speed.

It can be said that Li You's arrangements were effective.

They believed that the person lying in the coffin was the King of Qi.

The key is finding a good stand-in.

In addition, the rapid collapse of the rebel army made Li Ji and his men lower their guard.

Sometimes, victories that come too easily are likely to have problems.

However, the laziness inherent in human nature will likely cause people to overlook these problems.

……

"General Li, may I ask another question? What are the plans of the court officials regarding this rebellion?"