The imperial capital and Yanzhou had been recovered, and the third prince, the commander of this military attack, had committed suicide in front of the battle line, although a few soldiers were lucky enough to escape. However, because the North Road was blocked, they had to disperse into the hinterland of the Wei Dynasty and survive.
The appearance of the Rong people is very different from that of the Wei people. Even though the country is in chaos now, they are immediately identifiable as soon as they show up. It is only a matter of time to annihilate them - anyway, the number of these people is impossible to capture the city and occupy the county. After discussion, Shen Zangfeng and others decided to let private soldiers from the nobility like Mo Binwei go after him. This not only gave people like Mo Binwei an opportunity to gain credit and reputation, but also allowed the border troops to rest near the capital.
After all, both the Xiliang Army and the Qingzhou Army came in a hurry, not to mention all the baggage - the two frontier armies, the west and the south, were waiting and watching after the imperial capital was besieged, and their intentions were ulterior.
If Su Xiuming and Shen Zangfeng hadn't made a decisive decision and abandoned Yanzhou and went back to ask for troops in person, the imperial capital would still be in the hands of the army at this moment.
Previously, they were eager to save people and used various means to bring out the army, leaving a lot of overt and covert troubles that they planned to deal with later. Now both sects have encountered catastrophes during the breakout. They originally expected their elders to come forward to stabilize the status of the sect. Now, not only is it impossible, even their own status is threatened. At this time, of course, the baggage should be saved sparingly, and the crusade against the Rong people should be delayed. In short, the future troubles should be solved first.
The situation in Ranli Hall is not much better - although Liu Xixun and his son also left the east gate, they survived by chance, and suddenly returned to the Liu family's ancestral home a few days ago and took out the documents that Marquis Weiyuan had wished him during his lifetime. Several letters almost expressly stated that Ranlitang would be passed on to him, crying out in public about how such a kind and generous elder like Weiyuan Marquis could never leave the year, and how he, as a descendant who was cultivated by Weiyuan Marquis like his heir, did not. I can send Marquis Weiyuan on his last journey...
Liu Bozhao's ability was mediocre, and he was simply a compromise between the parties. They thought that he was the eldest son of Weiyuan Marquis, so he was allowed to "preside over" Donghu. Now that Liu Xixun was crying like this, he seemed to be forcing the palace. In addition, the Taiwei's faction had stirred up trouble among the Donghu clansmen, and the Ranli Hall became a mess.
In this way, the three major frontier armies were powerless to take advantage of the Rong people's retreat to directly attack the king's tent, so they had to make great efforts to appease people's hearts, using the excuse that the elders and relatives of each family who had suffered disaster needed to be collected and buried, and the government had to be re-established, and orders were given. The army was stationed in Gyeonggi and postponed its northward advance.
Although all the decent mansions in the imperial capital were burned down by the soldiers, so that the surviving female relatives had no choice but to seek shelter outside the city, but fortunately the palace still survived.
Everyone simply temporarily stayed in several side halls, and the main hall where court meetings were held in the past naturally became the place for discussion.
The first thing they wanted to discuss was a new king - couldn't a country live without a king for a day - there were still quite a few members of the clan in the imperial capital, but after breaking through the siege at the east gate, only three or two people survived.
Among them, Shen Bo and the emperor's eldest son Shen Lang were the first to be confirmed to have died, because the chariot he was riding in when he broke out of the siege was discovered by the Xiliang Army's scouting horses before the Qingzhou Army arrived, and was trampled on by the rebels. Mud-like flesh and blood flowed out from the middle of the broken carriage, mixing with the surrounding snow and soil. The state was horrific.
Moreover, after the Xiliang Army carefully searched nearby, they found several fragments of royal robes, as well as some jade pendants and other items.
According to the surviving chamberlains in the palace, these robes and jade pendants could only be worn by the emperor or princes, and were exactly what Shen Bo and his son wore when they left the palace.
Because it was the first day of the first lunar month. Although there was no banquet in the palace on New Year's Eve last year, as the emperor and the prince, they also need to pay homage to the previous emperors of the Wei Dynasty - this requires wearing formal robes and princely attire.
Royal ceremonies are complicated, so when they received the news that food and grass had been burned and Ximen was in danger, the father and son of the Tian family didn't even have time to change their mourning clothes. Then the ministers knocked on the palace gate to ask for an audience, and the monarch and his ministers urgently discussed how to break out of the encirclement. In this way, Shen Bo and Shen Lang hurriedly put on a concealing robe over their royal robes and boarded the car.
In this way, both human and material evidence were available, and Wei, the young emperor who had not been on the throne for a long time, had no choice but to put several pieces of wheels and a handful of mud and blood into the coffin. The news that the Holy Emperor and the Emperor's eldest son had unfortunately both died at the hands of the Rong had spread throughout the north.
Before the death of this sage, Guo Zuo of the Wei Dynasty had become increasingly weak after several generations of weak kings since Xizong.
After the change in the imperial capital, the influence of the royal family declined to the point of being almost nonexistent.
However, this thread of Guozuo still has a breath like gossamer... Because no one, whether they are refugees, bandits, or the nobles who are now nominally presiding over the world's government affairs on behalf of the superiors, can replace the Wei family and ascend the throne as emperor.
At this time, some of the refugees and bandits were already quite famous.
Cao Jianlin and Xu Zongwen of Youzhou, who started the rebellion earlier than Lu Haozhi, had better fates than Lu Haozhi and were never annihilated. Now they have developed and grown, claiming to have an army of 200,000 and 100,000 elite cavalry under their command. Although there is definitely moisture in the number of people in this army, it is not a bit of moisture. But these days, whether refugees or bandits go to war, there is a common tactic, which is to always lead a large number or even several times more unarmed people into the battle.
Although the three major frontier armies are all used to seeing blood, they may not be shy about killing women and children, but they are worthless if they can't stand the refugees. Just exchange them for dozens or hundreds of soldiers who are fully armed, well-trained, and experienced in hundreds of battles. The border troops also made money!
Not only Youzhou, Zhao Qian of Huoxian County; Sun Wuding of Pingzhou; Quwen of Gunzhou; Zhao Man of Liyue Mountain; and the leaders of the Mengshan Army formed by the seven counties of Mengshan who have proclaimed themselves generals...
Although they are all well-known figures throughout the country, it is not enough to be the best - at most, none of these people are self-proclaimed generals, let alone emperor or king.
For example, Zhao Qian from Huo County refused to admit that the uprising was an uprising for a long time. He firmly insisted that he could not bear the intrusion of bandits, so he formed his own Xiangyong, and he only wanted to be called Zhao Yuanwai. After occupying Huoxian County, I found that there was no big movement from the imperial court, so I became bolder and carefully raised the banner of guerrilla general - according to the Wei system, guerrilla generals were from the fifth rank.
At that time, nearly 400,000 refugees had gathered under Zhao Qian's command. Although the fighting strength among them would definitely be greatly reduced, they could still be regarded as heroes.
But he repeatedly emphasized that this was all because there were too many bandits in places like Huo County. The government's current corrupt administration had no one to care about such things. He also saw the difficulties faced by the folks in the countryside, so he took the lead to organize some manpower to maintain order... It is said that Zhao Qian's hometown is more than 200 miles away from Huoxian County, and it is not even in the same state...
Sun Wuding from Pingzhou was older. He specialized in business without capital in his early years, but he was more courageous than Zhao Qian. However, Sun Wuding is still only known as General Ningyuan... Well, this is the lower rank of the fifth rank...
Since Sun Wuding, the Ningyuan general who was not recognized by the Wei Dynasty, had a higher rank than the guerrilla general who was also not recognized by the Wei Dynasty, and Pingzhou was not far from Huo County, Zhao Qian even fought with Sun Wuding several times. He thought that Sun Wuding I am deliberately suppressing myself...
As for the generals Qu Wen, Zhao Man, Meng Shan and the like, they were still very active in the area where they started, but now they are unable to do anything without their roots. This is also the reason why the nobles rushed to the imperial capital one after another before, and they were very sensible and allowed them to go all the way.
Otherwise, a fool would let go of such a good opportunity to take advantage of the situation!
This is the gentry below and above. In such troubled times, Wei, Song, and Duanmu, who majored in civil affairs, must have a weaker voice than Shen, Su, and Liu. Even if the Shen, Su, and Liu families now have their own problems within the clan, where the three major border troops are placed is their weight!
But that's the problem. There are three border armies, and all three have developed private soldiers.
So no one should take advantage of this opportunity to gain power...
The relationship between the Liu family and the Shen family and the Su family is relatively distant. Liu Bozhao and Liu Xixun have not yet decided the winner. They have not even competed for the Burning Quinoa Hall, let alone dreaming about the throne far away in the imperial capital. . Although the Shen family and the Su family are two generations of in-laws, and the people in charge are still uncles and nephews, both Su Xiuming and Shen Zangfeng are typical descendants of the elite.
A typical family member has a very clear sense of family interests.
Comparing family interests with uncle-nephew love, there is no need to think about it, it must be the former!
Who told Shen Su to have a different surname
Although Shen Zangfeng is magnanimous, he can give up such important interests to Shen Lianshi or Shen Liankun, but he will never give them up to anyone in the Su family! Even his biological uncle or cousin.
Su Xiu Ming and Su Yu Wu thought the same way.
After all, regardless of whether you have any intention of giving the throne a try yourself, people's minds are fickle. If one of the Shen family or the Su family recommends the other to power, they will achieve the ninth-five-year status. Who knows that once the newly-appointed Nine-Five Master's position is firmly established, will his first order be to repay the favor as agreed before he came to power, or will it be an imperial edict to annihilate the Nine Clans to eliminate future troubles
Be it Shen Zangfeng or Su Xiu Ming, what they are carrying on their shoulders now is the life and future of the entire family. How can they act impulsively and leave everything to the control of others
All in all, with the tacit compromise of all parties, I thought it would be better to let the Wei family hold on for a few years to settle the situation.
In any case, everyone in the Shen family is just a puppet, just in name.
Since it's just a puppet, it doesn't matter who does it. The most important thing is to be obedient and sensible... There is such a person in the surviving clan of the imperial capital: King Run.
He was the half-brother of the late emperor. Before the breakout, he had grandchildren who were older in seniority and age. The ready-made reason is that the country is now uneasy. The new emperor died in the chaos less than a year after he ascended the throne. The eldest son of the emperor was also killed. The second son of the emperor was not born yet and he hanged himself with the empress Wei... Now the Wei Dynasty needs nourishment. Royal elders like Wang came out to stabilize people's hearts.
Moreover, King Run was left by the late emperor to live in the imperial capital for these years. He was most generous and fat and didn't worry about anything. After decades of not worrying about anything, I understand that if he wanted to worry about it, he would have nowhere to start.
In this way, the nobles reached a unanimous agreement, and regardless of whether the kings who were coming or had already arrived with their troops had any plans or ideas, they directly held a court meeting to officially confirm the news of Shen Bo's death.
Then, without waiting for the kings who were invited to the court to react, the nobles together announced King Run as the new emperor.
Although the kings were dissatisfied with the gentry's approach of treating the clan as nothing, they were frightened by the ferocity of the border troops they saw after arriving in the capital and did not dare to object.
King Run then walked to Danqi in front of everyone, went to the palace, rolled up his sleeves and sat on the royal chair. He was worshiped by the kings and ministers and became the emperor of Wei.
Now that there is a new emperor, the first thing to do is to give Shen Bo a posthumous title and a temple name.
This is just a formality. In the posthumous title, "When you are in trouble in the country, you are called pity; when you are in difficulty, you are pity", which is equivalent to describing the situation before and after Shen Bo ascended the throne. It is a ready-made idea. In addition, no one has the time to spend too much time on this, so in a few words, it was decided that Shen Bo's posthumous title would be Emperor Sheng Mu Renxiao, and his temple name would be Min Zong.
Since the death of the late emperor Huan Zong has been less than a year, according to the practice of the Wei Dynasty to change the reign year, Shenbo, which suffered a big change on the first day of the first lunar month this year, did not have time to change the reign name. But now that the Wei Dynasty is suffering from bad luck, both the new King Run and the nobles feel that it is better to change the Yuan Dynasty now to get rid of the bad luck - since Emperor Huanzong took the throne, the Wei Dynasty has been in decline!
The next day, the reign name "Jingyou" that Huanzong had used for decades was changed to "Xingping".
Prosperity and peace in the world.
This is the common wish of the king and his ministers.
It is also a lie that both the monarch and his ministers are well aware of. (To be continued)