Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 980: A Powerful and Fragile Empire
The Yan army came roaring in like a gust of wind.

From east to west of the empire, almost all the military governors received imperial edicts from the capital.

Luo Xinghe, Duke of Liao and the Jiedushi of Andong.

Yelu Hongguang, Duke of Ji and the governor of Youzhou.

Li Keyong, Prince of Hedong and the governor of Hedong.

Li Yanming, Prince of Yong, was the governor of Zhongdu.

Li Maozhen, Duke of Qi and the governor of Longyou.

Zhu Wen, Duke of Jincheng and the governor of Hexi.

Among these six, the three towns of Andong, Hedong and Longyou are the strongest. They can recruit more than 100,000 elite troops, and usually have only a few thousand elite soldiers under their command.

The court is in trouble now, and it is obviously impossible to maintain a large standing army. But as long as there is a war, it will only take a month to raise a strong army.

Besides, there are thousands of people available, which is enough in many cases.

One group of Yan's army attacked Liaodong directly, while the other group attacked Guanzhong as expected. The people responsible for defending this area were naturally the garrison commander of Zhongdu Chang'an and the Jiedushi of Longyou.

Faced with the aggressive Yan army, Prince Yong Li Yanming and Longyou Jiedushi Li Maozhen were in great pain. How could the army in the Central Plains compare with those elite troops that had been through many battles.

Moreover, the Yan army attacked with the will to die. There was no need to boost morale. They just rushed forward shouting and yelling. The Central Plains lacked this kind of desperate spirit.

Prince Yong Li Yanming soon came up with the idea of ​​abandoning the city and fleeing, but was stopped by Li Maozhen. Li Maozhen certainly did not want to be loyal to the Tang court.

"King Yong, if we flee back to Luoyang now, His Majesty will surely kill both of us. We should quickly write to Luoyang for help, then abandon the city and lead the army to Longyou, and then make plans.

The war still needs to be fought, but it won’t be fought in Chang’an.”

Prince Yong Li Yanming immediately understood what Li Maozhen meant. Chang'an was too big a target and the Yan army would definitely attack it. Now it was impossible to defend it at all. Instead of doing that, it would be better to abandon Chang'an directly.

The Yan army came from afar, definitely for food. The food in Chang'an City is scattered in many places, enough for the Yan army to rob for a long time.

They can take advantage of this time and run directly to the west. As for why they don’t run to the east, that’s no nonsense. To the east is the capital of gods, and there is Tongguan, which will definitely not let them pass.

As for crossing the Yellow River, that was even more of a joke. To the east of the Yellow River was Li Keyong, the governor of Hedong. Li Maozhen and Li Keyong had always had a bad relationship. Although Li Keyong had a bad temper and was sometimes brainless, he was a well-known loyal minister.

Li Maozhen's loss of Chang'an was enough for Li Keyong to kill him, so there was no way he would be allowed to cross the river.

As for losing Chang'an, it can be said that it was to preserve the manpower. Our army successfully moved to Longyou and engaged the Yan army from the rear. These were all tactics, the so-called losing sesame seeds to pick up watermelons.

Prince Yong Li Yanming did not have the courage to defend against the Yan army, but he had the courage to use the common people as human cushions. He immediately agreed with Li Maozhen, "Duke Qi is truly a famous general of the Tang Dynasty. I will follow what Duke Qi said and write a letter to Luoyang immediately to inform Your Majesty of what we have discussed. Duke Qi, there is no time to lose, let's start to organize the army and leave now.

Hateful Yan army, sooner or later I will return to Chang'an, kill all these rebels, and hang their heads on the city gate tower."

Li Maozhen despised Li Yanming in his heart, but he smiled hypocritically and said, "Prince Yong, we will definitely recover Zhongdu in the future. Don't waste time now, let's go quickly."

The more than 400,000 people in Chang'an probably never dreamed that the guardian god of Guanzhong would sell them out so easily.

Li Shen, the Emperor of Shendu, would never have thought that the two people he picked in Guanzhong would be so cowardly.

The distance between Chang'an and Luoyang is not particularly far. If one rides at full speed and travels 800 miles a day, one can reach Luoyang in just one day. Soon Li Shen received letters from Li Keyong and Prince Yong Li Yanming.

Luo Xingyun was looking at the geomancy map, calculating how many days the army in Guanzhong could hold out. He was going to go out in person, recruit troops from Luoyang, and then contact Hedong Prince Li Keyong to advance towards Guanzhong together.

"Lord Luo, Hedong Prince Li Keyong asked for battle in his letter. He said there were no enemy troops in the direction of Mayi, and that his adopted son was in charge, so there was no need to worry. He could take advantage of the ice on the Yellow River and cross it directly from Bingzhou to Guanzhong. He would never come back until the leader of the bandits was killed.

What a loyal minister. "

Luo Xingyun nodded when he heard this, and also said with emotion: "Strong winds reveal strong grass, and turbulent times reveal loyal ministers.

Although Li Keyong was unruly and power-hungry, he was loyal to the Tang Dynasty.

Your Majesty, within a month, I will be able to lead the reinforcements from Luoyang, together with the elite troops from Hedong led by Prince Li Keyong of Hedong, to attack Guanzhong. In a month, although Guanzhong will be weak, as long as Prince Yong of Guanzhong and Duke Qi fight to the death, it will not fall.

By then, we can replicate the grand occasion when the Tang Dynasty was founded, and decide the outcome in one battle in Guanzhong. I believe..."

Before Luo Xingyun could finish his words, he was interrupted by Li Shen, "It's too late."

Li Shen's voice was somewhat lost, "Lord Luo, it's too late."

Luo Xingyun turned around in confusion and looked at Emperor Li Shen, only to see that Emperor Li Shen was trembling all over, his face turned pale, and even his body was shaking and he was a little unstable.

"His Majesty."

"Lord Luo, this is a letter from Li Yanming, the Prince of Yong. What a bastard, what a bastard!"

As soon as Luo Xingyun heard Emperor Li Shen calling Li Yanming a thief, he knew something was wrong. Could it be that Li Yanming had directly surrendered to the enemy?

He quickly took the letter and read it. After quickly scanning it, his blood suddenly rushed to his head, his eyes went dark, and he almost fainted and fell down. Guanzhong actually gave up without any resistance.

Transfer to Longyou?

Isn’t it just escaping to Longyou!

The most important thing about handing over the huge Guanzhong to the Yan army was that it allowed the Yan army to obtain a large amount of supplies and attack from all directions from Guanzhong.

Moreover, with the current Longyou Army, can it really accomplish the task of encircling the Yan Army from behind when the imperial court is fighting against the Yan Army?
wrong!

Luo Xingyun suddenly thought of something. He never hesitated to think of others with the greatest malice. "Is this bastard Li Maozhen trying to take advantage of the opportunity to rebel and establish his own regime in Longyou, creating the situation that Xue Qin did back then?

But is he crazy?
How can we establish a separatist regime with only Longyou as a town, unless there is a problem in Hexi as well? "

This sudden question made both the emperor and his ministers completely confused. If they didn't resist, they would lose Guanzhong directly. This situation was something no one had expected. What was the purpose of this?

It would be fine if the Tang Dynasty lost the support of the people, but the people in Guanzhong had a strong support for the Tang Dynasty. Although the Tang Dynasty later moved the capital to Luoyang, as the ancestral home of the Tang family, Zhongdu still had a very high political standard.

The people there all leaned towards Li Tang.

In today's world, anyone who wants to establish his own regime is almost seeking death, even Prince Yong Li Yanming cannot do so.

Li Shen and Luo Xingyun were completely puzzled by what Li Maozhen and Li Yanming did and could not figure out why.

After thinking for a long time, I can only attribute it to being a born traitor and an ungrateful person. After all, there are many such shameless people in this world.

The key now is to solve this problem.

From a military perspective, the fall of Guanzhong put the Tang Dynasty in a very passive position, but not particularly passive. With Tongguan still there, Luoyang was temporarily safe, and the Hedong Army was already ready to cross the Yellow River and enter Guanzhong at any time.

But military has never been the most important thing. The Tang Dynasty ruled the Central Plains for 270 years and has a very glorious history that is deeply engraved in the hearts of countless people. There are countless benevolent and righteous people in the world who are willing to go through fire and water for the Tang Dynasty.

The strong popular will is the foundation for the revival of the Tang Dynasty. It is not an easy task to completely destroy this foundation.

The biggest problem with the fall of Guanzhong lies in politics. The ruling model of the Tang Dynasty, which consisted of counties and vassal states, was naturally as stable as a rock internally, but externally it mainly relied on economic control, military deterrence, and cultural winning over; none of the three was dispensable.

Now that Guanzhong has fallen, the Tang Dynasty has no choice but to recall the troops that were used to intimidate the vassal states. As for economic means, the Tang Dynasty still needs transfusions from the vassal states to overcome the difficulties.

What Luo Xingyun fears most is that he will not be able to repel the State of Yan in a short period of time, which will lead to unpredictable consequences.

Emperor Li Shen also thought of this. He said palely, "Lord Luo, it seems that you don't have enough time to prepare. Immediately give Li Keyong an order to lead the Hedong Army into Guanzhong.

The Longyou army could no longer be relied upon, so troops from the three towns of Anxi, Beiting and Hexi were immediately dispatched to enter Guanzhong to quell the rebellion.

Prince Luo, I will give you another imperial edict, appointing you as the Marshal of the Western Expedition, commanding the troops of the five towns of Anxi, Beiting, Hexi, Longyou and Hedong, and fighting the Yan rebels in Guanzhong. We must not let them set foot in Shandong.

If you have any other requests, I will agree to them and promulgate them all."

Luo Xingyun sighed, "Your Majesty, I have no other requests. I just hope that no more accidents will happen in other places. Your Majesty should be prepared."

After leaving the palace, Luo Xingyun hurriedly took the recruits to Hedong to meet Li Keyong.

After Luo Xingyun left, Li Shen felt more and more uneasy. Since Li Maozhen could do this, would other people do the same? After thinking about it, he realized that there were really not many people he could use now.

His sons are still too young to be of any use. Only his brothers and the sons of the Luo family are people who can be used now.

Imperial decrees were issued one after another, and the sons of the Luo family were sent to garrison in various places.

Luo Xingyun crossed the Yellow River all the way to Hedong. Now there was no need for a ferry at all because the Yellow River was frozen, and even the army could move forward without any problems. Although the climate was very dry, it was not hot, it was just that there was no rain. In winter it would be freezing cold, and there would even be a strange sight of snowing in early summer, which was frightening.

"Hopefully it's not too late."

What scared Luo Xingyun was never the rebellion of Yan State. If the mighty Tang Dynasty could not even deal with the betrayal of a vassal state, it would be too much of an insult to this dynasty that had been established for 270 years.

Hedong Jiedushi Li Keyong received the news of the fall of Chang'an very quickly, even faster than the imperial court.

Because the person who knows you best in this world is usually your enemy.

Li Keyong's relationship with Yong Wang Li Yanming and Li Maozhen was average, so he paid more attention to these two people. He was originally prepared to report them at any time and kill them, but he did not expect to see the two people abandoning the city and fleeing.

After learning about this, Li Keyong was furious and wanted to lead his troops to Chang'an immediately, but was stopped by his wife. As a military governor, it was not the right thing for a minister to do to mobilize troops without the imperial edict.

When the imperial edict came down, Li Keyong was overjoyed.

Luo Xingyun and Li Keyong met on the bank of the Yellow River. Li Keyong personally led his horse over and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty is wise. Prince Luo is in charge of the troops. This time we will surely succeed. I must personally chop off Li Maozhen's head to commemorate the dead people in Guanzhong."

What will a group of hungry soldiers do after entering Chang'an and Guanzhong in order to survive? Even if there is no order to massacre the city, it is just that there is no systematic military order. It is easy to imagine what they will do if they encounter resistance.

"Your Majesty praised the Prince in the palace, saying that a loyal minister is known in times of turmoil, and the Prince of Hedong is a loyal minister of our Tang Dynasty. If everyone was like the Prince, how could there be such a disaster now?"

Li Keyong laughed loudly upon hearing this, and then pointed at the two or three thousand people behind him, "Please look, King Luo, these are the invincible Black Crow Army under my command. Every one of them is like a deadly warrior. With these three thousand people, I am confident that I can crush the enemy and break through the formation. When we meet the Yan army, I will be the vanguard."

"The Prince of Hedong is a man of high righteousness. I will let him show his prowess."

……

After Li Maozhen and Li Yanming fled like the wind, Chang'an and the surrounding counties were quickly plundered. This was so smooth that the Yan army was somewhat unimaginable. Hundreds of thousands of people surged into Guanzhong in waves. There were indeed many of them on the battlefield, but in front of the tens of millions of people in Guanzhong, these people were not many.

These soldiers, who originally thought they were going to die, soon discovered that the South Country was indeed a paradise. There was food everywhere, making it easy for hundreds of thousands of them to survive.

Of course, the nobles who started the rebellion did not lie to them. As expected, the only way to survive was to go south. As expected, the Central Plains had hidden food, and they did not give it to them because they did not want the Yan people to survive.

The people of Yan became angry.

The current top leaders of Yan State were not overwhelmed by these things. Although they lived in the grassland, they had been reading classics since childhood and were people from the Central Plains in terms of their thinking. They understood the current situation very well.

"There are only two paths before us now. The first is to return to the grassland after robbing enough things. The other is to occupy Guanzhong and fight a life-and-death battle with the Central Plains. It would be even better if we could contact other vassal states to resist the court together."

"The first route is impossible. If we talk about returning to the Central Plains now, the soldiers outside will tear us to pieces. At most, only a few people will return to the grassland with some food.

We can only take the second path, but will they participate in our actions? "

“Why not?
The Tang Dynasty has been established for so many years, it is impossible that there are only people like us in Yan State. The idea of ​​preferring to be the head of a chicken rather than the tail of a phoenix is ​​not something that has just emerged now.

Moreover, the Tang Dynasty is now completely dependent on India and Central South to maintain its consumption, and the taxes imposed on India and Central South are at least five times higher than before.

The court's burden is five times higher, but for the people, it is probably ten times higher.

As for food, only a portion of the rations were kept, and the rest were all transported back to the Central Plains.

Last year during the rainy season in India, a state suffered a flood and there was no food relief.

There was no telling how many dissatisfied people there were in the vassal states, and the nobles in the vassal states were extremely dissatisfied with the Tang court.

It's the same with us.

Haven't you suffered enough from the sins of the second-class nobles?"

This last sentence directly hit the nail on the head for everyone. For the same title, the status in the vassal states was lower than that in the Central Plains. Sometimes, even if they entered the Central Plains, they would be discriminated against.

Are you from a stinky vassal state coming to my Central Plains to beg for food?
Ordinary people may be fine, but how could these arrogant nobles possibly withstand it?

"We are in Chang'an, issuing a written notice to the vassal states in all directions.

The Tang Dynasty has suffered from natural disasters and heavy taxes for years. This is a sign that the Tang Dynasty is about to fall. People of insight in the world should unite and overthrow the rule of the Tang Dynasty. "

These nobles of Yan State were all young men who had thought about these things for a long time, so from the beginning of the rebellion, they were very step-by-step and organized in every aspect.

……

The first country to receive the news was Song. Logically, India should have received the news first, but because Song received the news from the sea, it was faster than Chu.

However, Chu and Song are basically neighbors now. If one country knows, the other country will know soon. After all, shipping is quite developed in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and the transmission of information is many times faster than on land.

When the State of Song received the news from the Central Plains, many of its nobles secretly cheered in their hearts, while some nobles who were close to the Central Plains were very anxious.

But at this time, most people did not take any action. After all, everyone knew how powerful the Tang Dynasty was. Even in the current Tang Dynasty, if it were not worried about chaos in the world, the Tang Dynasty would not be as hard as it is now.

Even though the Tang Dynasty is struggling now, it would be easy for it to defeat any country.

until.

Chang'an fell.

The invincible Tang army fled without a fight, and the popular resistance was easily suppressed. Things seemed to have changed.

An empire needs an invincible image, an image that makes people dare not challenge it. It must make everyone believe that if they dare to challenge the empire, the end will be extremely terrible.

With this image, you can be successful in everything you do, and even achieve many victories without fighting.

For example, the Chu and Song states tirelessly provided food to the Tang Dynasty because the Tang Dynasty was so powerful that they even stationed troops there, calling it protection, but in fact it was surveillance and deterrence.

But when this invincible filter is shattered, especially in a funny way, the consequences are quite terrible.

At this time, almost all forces will inevitably have an idea in their minds, that is, why not give it a try to see if it is really so fragile.

Otherwise, go and try and see if it is still really invincible.

When this idea begins to appear widely, what awaits the empire is a sudden collapse, because the foundation of the empire is made up of these countless people who cannot defeat the empire.

When they believed it, the empire was invincible. When they began to doubt, cracks appeared in the empire. When they united, the empire was like mud and sand.

The wind whistled through the States of Song and Chu.

There were countless noisy voices in this sound, and those who heard these voices had some different thoughts in their minds.

They looked at each other, exchanged glances, and wanted to know what the other person was thinking.

In private, many people have started gathering separately, exchanging their ideas and expressing their views on the current situation.

The grain to be shipped to the Tang Dynasty in the new year has begun to be collected from the people. The clerks of the kingdom have gone deep into every village, carrying handfuls of special banknotes from Luo's Bank. This is the hard currency of almost all countries, and now only these things can take away the grain from the hands of the people.

Luo's Bank promised to exchange these things back with twice the amount of paper money in the next ten years, which is equivalent to an annualized 5% national debt. These things are actually issued to the nobles of the kingdom in order to make them work wholeheartedly.

But money is nothing in the face of power, or once they have power, these things will be theirs.

"As long as we control the Strait of Malacca and prevent any grain from entering the Central Plains this year, the Central Plains will collapse and countless people who cannot survive will rise up in rebellion."

Someone worriedly said, "Can Yan hold out for that long? The south of the Central Plains can still produce some grain. Should we send troops to harass their coastline and keep some troops in the south?"

"Since the Penglai Incident, control of our navy has been in the hands of the few military governors of the imperial court."

"What kind of Jiedushi is this? You have benefited from us so much over the years, and now you want to stay out of trouble. Is that possible?

Today, I will teach you a truth. Who an official obeys is not determined by where he comes from, but by where he gets benefits from. Can the Tang Dynasty give as much as we can?
Besides, this is our territory after all. There is nothing to be afraid of. If you really don’t listen, we will just kill you.

There are only a few thousand soldiers in the Jiedushi's office. If each of them is given two women and several hundred taels of silver notes, how can they not surrender?

I just took the head off.”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone burst into laughter. The purpose of being a soldier is to get promoted and make money. Now that he has everything, why should he work hard for the court?

"What about Luo's money bank and the Luo family that hasn't benefited from us?
It is impossible for them to do big things with us. These people are stubborn and loyal to the court. If you don't know, you would think this is Luo's world. They work so hard. "

The others were easy to deal with, except for this last one which was the most difficult one. Now everyone was silent.

After a long while, someone slowly said, "We are all mortals after all. Do you still remember the lineage of the Zhou Junwang who returned to the east?"

Everyone looked shocked.

If we say that the first vassal state to rebel was not Yan, but Qin, but not Li Chengqian's lineage. A similar thing happened in Qin as in Yan. Li Chengqian's lineage produced three incompetent emperors in succession. Although their reigns were not long, they lasted for a total of twenty years. Twenty years is long enough.

For example, the famous Emperor Yang of Sui took only thirteen years to bring down a dynasty. Twenty years was enough for the Qin State to fall into extreme chaos.

In this chaos, not only the Qin royal family was killed and blood flowed like a river, but the entire upper class was also killed and the Zhou Junwang lineage was no exception. The rebels had no worries at all because they knew it was impossible to persuade them to surrender and they would be killed. The Zhou Junwang lineage could only send people back to the east to borrow troops. Of course, they could not sit idly by and watch such a vicious incident.

The imperial court at that time was still quite powerful. It marched an army of 20,000 across thousands of miles to the west and once again started fighting in the Qin State. After a full fifteen years, the situation in the Qin State was finally stabilized. However, the lineage of Prince Zhou was almost wiped out, and Li Chengqian's descendants were cut off.

Eventually, the lineage of Prince Zhou built a fortress at the mountain pass between the Qin and Yan states. Up to now, there are only forty-three people in the main branch and side branches of that lineage.

Now that this is mentioned, the meaning is quite clear.

Of course, what can be done can be done now. Even if Luo is a god, he is still a mortal. If he is killed, he will die. There is nothing to be afraid of.

“It’s not our fault. Who made them so ignorant of the current situation? If they were willing to join us, they would naturally be treated as guests of honor. But since they have become our enemies, it’s not our fault.

After all, the Luo family never showed mercy to their enemies, so they must have anticipated their own fate."

Everyone nodded in agreement. This was the truth. Since they were enemies, there was nothing more to say.

At this time, a voice sounded, "Even if they say they are willing to join, I won't believe it."

Everyone was stunned.

Then they both took a deep breath. That was the truth. No one would believe Luo's false surrender, let alone join them in rebellion.

If Luo rebelled, there would only be one possibility, that is, the emperor was already hated by the people. In this case, Luo would first write a letter to point out the emperor's mistakes, and then try to change him.

If he doesn't listen, he will raise an army and call on the world to kill the tyrant.

Moreover, even if the tyrant is eliminated, the dynasty will not necessarily be destroyed.

For example, in the Han Dynasty's Fengtian Jingnan Campaign, the Liu family was still the emperor in the end.

What now?
Not to mention that the emperor is not a tyrant who makes people hate him.

Even if it was true, the Luo family could at most replace an emperor, and there was no way they could destroy the Tang Dynasty.

The kindness of Emperor Taizong was enough for the Luo family to help the Tang Dynasty revive once again.

Not to mention, since Emperor Shizong, the Luo and Li families have been as close as a family. If one wants to destroy the Tang Dynasty, one has to step over the corpse of the Luo family.

“Since you have made up your mind, you should quickly eliminate the officials sent by the court, get rid of the King of Song and the forces close to the Li family, and then raise the banner of resistance against the tyrannical Tang.

Then quickly send someone to inform Chu of the news and stir up chaos in Chu. The power of the Li family is still quite strong there, but the nobles in the country have long been dissatisfied with the weak Li kings. If necessary, we can lend a helping hand to the nobles in Chu. "

"Tianzhu is unreliable. Send ships out to Persia and other places to spread the news of the Tang Dynasty. Those places are far away from the Tang Dynasty and have long had the desire for independence."

“Without further delay, just do it!
Everyone, whether this will succeed or not will be revealed soon!"

(End of this chapter)