In the eventful autumn of the first year of Xiangfu, the battle situation in Guangling Dao was really heartbreaking and at the same time full of complaints. Yang Shenxing's army was captured in the urn when he left Jizhou, and Yan Zhenchun's 30,000 elite cavalry were wiped out. The real guns were facing off against the Western Chu rebels. In contrast, the awkwardness of several Jingnan Wangshi simply made the government and the public feel absurd! Huainan King Zhao Ying led his army to leave the jurisdiction and stationed at Huashan Mountain, and did not move. Jingan King Zhao Xun's six thousand cavalry did not move after arriving at Hao'ao Lake. Flying chickens and dogs jumping, really arrived at the south of Guangling Road, and completely disappeared. Can you, Your Highness, not rush to Jing Nan at all, but come here swaggering to beat the autumn wind and nourish the autumn fat
But in a few days it will be the year-end of the second year of Xiangfu. King Huainan's dispatch of troops has lifted people's spirits. Li Yang's attitude towards this vassal king who is known for his weakness has greatly changed. , Xiaoxue, and hate these three levels!
Among them, Song Wuyang, the guard of the Huangyang Pass, had already participated in the rebellion and erected a large flag with the Jiang character at the pass. However, Huainan King Zhao Ying lined up a mile outside the pass and rode out alone to recruit Song Wuyang. The latter ordered the city crossbow to shoot and was killed The deputy general Wang Xi suddenly drew his sword and beheaded him on the spot. Wang Xi opened the door to welcome the army under Huainan King Zhao Ying to enter the pass. The king of Huainan took the surrendered general Wang Xi as the vanguard with 3,000 soldiers and horses, and rushed to Xiaoxuan Pass overnight. The guard Ji Yun was determined not to surrender. Zhao Ying ordered a strong attack and personally supervised the battle. Wang Xi's troops braved the arrow rain to fill the trench first, and then set up a ladder to attack the city with the force of ants. They attacked the city twice and killed more than 500 people. , Zhao Ying refused, let Wang Xi watch the battle from the sidelines, and ordered the direct line of troops to attack the city. At dusk, a steady stream of bed crossbows, catapults, and ramming trees rushed to the battlefield one after another. The bloody battle between the two sides continued until night fell, and the Huainan infantry died Among the 800 people in the city, Zhao Ying always rode under the banner of Zhao Zi with a whip in his hand, and remained indifferent. At dawn on the second day, the siege started again. Xia Ping, Zhao Ying's confidant general, led eighty first-timers to attack the top of the city for the first time. Wang Xi went to fight angrily, the ants attached to him, his iron armor was embedded with six or seven feather arrows, he was rubbed on his shoulder by a huge stone, smashed back to the ground, got up, climbed up the ladder, and was poured down by a pot of boiling oil, from the ladder Falling to the ground, the guards risked their lives to carry it back.
Zhao Ying, who was wearing the bright yellow king's python robe, looked at the extremely stalemate and tragic battle situation, and his ears were filled with the wailing and shouting from the top of the city, as well as the sound of drums beating beside him, and of course the cold wind blowing. With the sound of fluttering the flag with the word Zhao, this man surnamed Zhao, who had always been the object of ridicule in the Liyang Dynasty, slowly raised his head to look at the word Zhao embroidered on the flag, pursed his lips, as if he had been carrying a weight for many years. Finally, he smiled with relief.
The battering hammers on the siege side were replaced with a fourth one, and most of the huge bed crossbows that could reach 300 paces and still have considerable lethality were destroyed, and the crossbows on the crossbow platforms of Xiaoxuan Pass had long since disappeared. The dense crossbow arrows can be shot, sporadic, and there is no arrogance. However, Xiaoxuanguan, which vowed to live and die with Chengguan, is still dying. The defense is fierce. There are more than 2,000 nails five inches long and six taels in weight. The retrieved Yaksha and Chejia broke their thick ropes, but there were still brave warriors throwing "iron owls" composed of sharp iron hooks and long iron chains from the top of the city. After throwing them hard, You can hook the armor or even the body of the siege soldiers, and hang the hooked person in the air like fishing.
There are also strangely shaped scorpion axes or hooks or shovels to slash the arms of the climbers.
Zhao Ying, who rode his horse a little closer to the battlefield, saw with his own eyes that a soldier's entire arm was cut off, and that arm fell from the top of the city before the soldier.
Zhao Ying was indifferent to this, and turned the horse's head indifferently.
The precarious Xiaoxuan Pass was in an emergency, and Ji Yun had no choice but to ride quickly out of the east city gate to seek help from Yu Hen. It was agreed that both parties would surprise the Huainan King's camp at dawn, and that Xiaoxuan Pass would open the city gate and rush out to recharge his batteries. Of the two hundred cavalry, Ji Yun led the charge, and after the cavalry were the only four hundred people left in Xiaoxuan Pass. Zhao Ying ordered his masters to lead ten cavalry elite scouts to chase and kill them, but they were still wounded and escaped. The next day at Yinshi, Ji Yun, who knew that Xiao Xing was concerned and would not be able to defend any longer, really wanted to die, and appeared at the gate of the city with two hundred cavalry. Ji Yun, who is in his prime, is not hesitating his life, nor is he ignorant of current affairs, but when he was crowned at the age of 20, there was no father who should have conferred the crown on him, and there were no guests to watch the ceremony and celebrate. He added the cloth crown himself, because Ji Hai, who was a great general of Chu, had already died in battle, and the three uncles also died in battle one after another.
Sitting on the horse, Ji Yun asked his subordinates to open the city gate, looked back at the faces illuminated by the torches, did not speak, and just clasped his fists suddenly.
On this day, Ji Yun, the guard of the Xiaoxuan Pass of the Western Chu rebel army, left the city at Maoshi to attack the King of Huainan on his own initiative. It's just that "Zhao Ying's army" seemed to have expected it, and they lined up and defended in an orderly manner. Among the three passes, the one with the largest number of cavalrymen hated this pass. Regardless of the defense order made by Xie Xizhen, the main general on the western front at that time, he dispatched all his troops, and 800 cavalry troops and 2,500 infantry rushed to the rescue. There was an attack on the way, and the vanguard 800 cavalry suffered heavy casualties under the powerful crossbow, and the army collapsed at the first touch. Earlier, he used a surprise soldier to replace the Zhao character banner. He hated the infantry leader who led 700 soldiers and horses to flee back to the city and killed himself.
After charging three times, Ji Yun was killed by a feathered arrow shot by General Hou Datong, King Zhao Ying of Huainan, which passed through his head and fell off his horse to his death.
The 200 riders and 400 infantry at Xiaoxuanguan also all died in the battle.
Wearing an eye-catching python robe, Zhao Ying got off her horse, walked past the corpses, and slowly climbed to the top of the city. Looking at the rising sun in the east, she said with a smile: "The sun shines brightly, and the lamb's fur is like wetness."
King Huainan, who had won three passes in succession, did not deliver even a single piece of good news to Tai'an City, and did not even occupy one of the gates of Guangling Road West. The intention of dividing the troops to digest the victory was just to let the seriously injured Wang Xi and his remnants stay in Huangyang Pass. After planting the Zhao character banner at the top of the Sanguan City, he led all the Huainan Taoist soldiers to continue eastward. Feng pointed directly at the steep and difficult Yaoyou pass. Between the two passes, there is a rare plain area west of Guangling Road, which is densely covered with water networks.
Huainan King took all the horses available for riding after finishing the level of hatred, and slowly pushed forward. This posture seems to be quietly waiting for the commander of the Great Chu West Front who rushed to Yaoyouguan urgently, that genius general whose name was remembered by the entire Liyang Dynasty at a young age, Xie Xizhen.
On the plains closer to Yaoyou Pass, both sides had enough time to rectify and scout and reconnaissance, and the two armies began to confront each other at a distance. Huainan King Zhao Ying put on an exquisite armor outside the python robe after dismounting, and carried a quiver that had been treasured for many years on his back. . This feudal prince surnamed Zhao who was ridiculed as a man of great ambition, this poor wretch who has been reprimanded many times by the current emperor after drinking and pretending to be crazy after he became a feudal man, this man who has been childless since his eldest son died in Dantong Pass for "no reason", Turning on the horse, Zhao Ying looked straight ahead, and smiled at the two generals who had followed him for many years: "Hou Datong, Yu Qianshan, and Xia Ping were one step ahead of us, and died on the battlefield as we promised when we were young. Now it's our turn There are three of us. After so many years, it has caused you to live so aggrieved."
Hou Datong laughed and said: "It's really aggrieved to live, but it's a pleasure not to die. I will kill a few more Western Chu remnants later, and I promise to piss off Lao Xia. Haha, forget that this guy is already dead!"
Yu Qianshan looked more like an elegant strategist shaking a feather fan than the rough-looking Hou Datong, but he also wore armor and a sword. He smiled and said, "You guys are so happy, it's hard for me, a scholar."
Before ordering the charge, Zhao Ying closed her eyes and said softly, "Father, my son is not filial. I haven't had the chance to toast to the imperial mausoleum these years. Let's replace wine with blood today."
Huainan King Zhao Ying was right in front of him, and there were two thousand heavily armored infantry lined up to reject horses, and each flank of the infantry had a thousand elite cavalry, and nearly a thousand rangers wandered far away, waiting for the opportunity to move.
On this day, except for the 4,000 soldiers recruited from all over the Huainan Road, the vassal king Zhao Ying, Hou Datong and Yu Qianshan's two confidantes, and all the guards, everyone died in battle, and no one was shot in the back by an arrow. Death, no one was hacked to death by the ranger behind the back.
On the same day, after hearing the news that Zhao Xun, King of Jingan, galloped all the way from Hao'ao Lake with six thousand riders, he arrived at the periphery of the battlefield at dusk. While his rider was motionless, when he saw the body of Huainan King Zhao Ying being picked off his horse by a Western Chu military general, the young vassal king Zhao Xun still resolutely led his army to charge!
Of the 6,000 Qingzhou riders, only 200 riders were left to protect Zhao Xun and escape from the battlefield.
In this battle, the two vassal princes who participated in Jing Nan died and were injured.
At the end of the new year, the great victory of the rebels in Western Chu means that the encirclement, which is not heavy at all, is wide open, and the wind leaks from both sides. It can be said to be worse for the Liyang court. After Yan Zhenchun died in battle, the capital was once again shrouded in a thick layer of haze. Fortunately, after Yang Shenxing and Yan Zhenchun, another prudent veteran who became famous in the Spring and Autumn Period, after having a long and frank talk with the coach Lu Shengxiang, led his troops southward, and an army of 30,000 went straight to the Qingyang Basin. Trying to rescue the 40,000 Jinan infantry trapped by General Yang Shenxing.
General Lu Shengxiang, who had been stagnating at Youlu Pass, finally made a move in the eyes of everyone, and led his army to march south along the Eastern Henan Plain.
But the most reassuring thing was not the mobilization of nearly 100,000 troops, but just because two people appeared in Tai'an City.
One was His Majesty the Emperor, who ordered His Excellency Shou Fu to go to jail after returning to Beijing from the border patrol, and the other was General Gu Jiantang, who accompanied the King.
The monarch who once punished the King of Huainan for a trivial matter only issued two imperial decrees after returning to Tai'an City. The latter one is to let the vassal king Zhao Ying die with the utmost sorrow and honor, and posthumously posthumously "Yi" and say, "If I lose my share".
The end of the year is difficult, but we have to pass it after all.
In Tai'an City, the sound of firecrackers bid farewell to the old year, but it was less festive than before.
In this way, the Liyang court ushered in the second year of Xiangfu.
The first morning morning of the new year.
Emperor Zhao Dun was sitting on the dragon chair. This was the first time the king had sat facing south like this since he ascended the throne. He looked straight at the view through the wide palace gate There is no remaining royal way.
The emperor listens to the world from the south, and governs from the Ming.
Perhaps it was because he was keenly aware of today's distraction that the eunuch Song Tanglu, the supervisor of ceremonies, did not yell out the phrase "If there is something to play, there is nothing to retreat to the court" on time.
All the civil and military officials in the court hall and the courtiers outside the palace bowed their heads respectfully, restrained their eyes, and waited quietly with breathless concentration. Those old courtiers who were miserable about the early court incident all began to doze off without showing any signs.
Little by little, the emperor withdrew his gaze slowly, from the seemingly endless royal road leading directly to the southern border to the palace gate. The emperor still clearly remembered that he summoned the two generals who first destroyed the great Chu and then pacified the Western Shu. The lame man walked neither too fast nor too slowly, not because of his lameness, but because he was walking on the path that should be the most serious thing for a courtier, but he didn't take it seriously. This man wears a Handling the world-shattering Xu family knife, he approached step by step, making himself, as the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, feel a sense of shameful suffocation.
And the young man behind the cripple is handsome, dressed in white, and really young, making people feel close to him when they see him, especially him, the new king who is sitting in the mountains and rivers, he can't wait to lower his figure and talk to him , in the bottom of my heart, the new emperor thinks that the first emperor can have that cripple to fight for him, so he himself should have a white-clothed soldier saint who is even better, and he can give a young general as boldly as the first emperor. The greatest authority, the most soldiers and horses, lead him off, let him let go of his hands and feet to whip the outside of the Great Wall, and the monarch and his ministers join forces to establish an unprecedented frontier merit.
It's just that the young man in white refused. The emperor was disappointed, but not angry.
Later, the emperor looked at those young scholars who would shine in the future in the same way in the morning light. They walked into his sight step by step with unconcealable restraint and excitement.
Yin Maochun, Zhao Youling, Bai Guo, Wang Xionggui, Zheng Zhenxian, Qian Youjian...
There are so many things to see.
Together they created the Spring of Yonghui in the Liyang Dynasty.
And they are destined to be handed down in the history with the widow through the ages.
At the court meeting in the last years of Yonghui, there were no two rebellious and unruly kings Xu Xiao and Zhao Bing in the temple, but there were such meritorious generals as Gu Jiantang, Yang Shenxing, Yan Zhenchun, and Lu Sheng, like Lu Baijie, who had enough years to accumulate military exploits young generals. There are aging civil servant leaders like Zhang Julu, Huan Wen, and Yao Baifeng, celebrities in their prime like Yin Maochun, and even those top three champions who seem to be inexhaustible.
The first emperor once deeply regretted that when he first set his sights on the world, he was struggling to employ people everywhere.
But he, Zhao Dun, was different. He really felt the arrogance of sitting in the mountains and rivers.
The emperor looked away again and saw the palace gate.
That threshold is a vital dragon gate, and all officials in the world want to cross it.
He watched with his own eyes an elderly civil servant and military general who was embroidered with white pheasants or bears, kneeling on the square outside the temple year after year, looking eagerly at the Golden Temple, which the common people said, until he knelt down into the coffin Haven't been able to get into it yet.
I have also seen many scenes where I wanted to laugh but resisted it. Some people fainted from hunger and sunburned and were carried away by eunuchs; Colleagues who secretly elbowed each other the next day. Someone else was yawning quietly and was spotted by him, the emperor, jokingly calling him with a straight face to go to the palace to listen to the training. He remembered that guy didn't wait for him to speak, and fell to the ground with a frightened seven-foot man, kowtowing non-stop , tears flow. He asked warmly, and learned that he was on duty at the yamen of the household department the night before, and almost didn't sleep all night, so he was allowed to take a day off and rest for a day. He also smiled and asked the head of the household department in the hall if he could approve it. At that time, it was not Wang Xionggui Not to mention that Bai Guo sat in the position of Minister of the Household Department. The old Shangshu, who has always been known for his rigor, seldom jokingly echoed, "Once your Majesty opens his mouth, the minister will approve it." Six years later, the official of the Household Department went to Huainan Road. Gao was promoted to the county guard, while Lao Shangshu had already retired and returned to his hometown.
The emperor withdrew his gaze again and placed it in the hall.
The chair of Sun Xiji, the old grand master of Xichu, is gone. The old man should be standing in front of that little girl in the Xichu Palace.
The emperor didn't hate this old man. He admired the old man's profound knowledge in several conversations with his ministers. He even privately stated that only the water and soil of Western Chu could give the old man such a unique aura. Of course, it was only temporary. The old man nodded sincerely. recognized. Even if such an old man went to Western Chu, the emperor felt that even if the imperial army pacified Guangling Road in the future, as long as the old man was willing to live, then the Liyang Dynasty should have the mind to let the old man enjoy his old age in peace.
The emperor finally looked at the young man standing face to face with his back to him, wearing a yellow python robe.
It was his son, Prince Zhao Zhuan.
The emperor was not dissatisfied with this son who had been in prison for some time.
Just by looking at him, he felt a little guilty towards his eldest son, Zhao Wu, so he planned to marry Chen Yuyuan, who was said to be peerless, to Zhao Wu from the frontier.
But jumping over the crown prince's head, the emperor saw a dazzling vacancy.
There is Huan Wen, who has been standing there for some years, and there is also a new secretary, Qi Yanglong.
On the other side stood Gu Jiantang, who had returned from the Liangliao Kingdom.
Only that person is missing.
The emperor subconsciously clenched the armrests of the dragon chair with both hands.
He went to the Imperial Prison once, but he always stood far away, from late at night to early morning, but he didn't come close to face that person.
He was afraid, afraid that the purple-bearded and blue-eyed boy would be in a mess in prison, and he was afraid that he would see the head assistant of the dynasty in a state of despair.
But the real fear in my heart is that this scholar named Zhang Julu will not feel depressed at all, but will only laugh and call Zhao Dun a fool!
The emperor, whose lips were trembling slightly, let go of his hands quietly.
Song Tanglu said loudly almost at the same time: "If you have something to play, you will leave the court if you have nothing to do!"
…
In the bone-chilling night, a couple walked hand in hand in the silent palace. When they came to a majestic palace, the radiant man turned around and helped his wife tighten the knot on the chest of the fox fur, and then looked up at the palace. Pointing at the top of the hall, he said with a soft smile: "Benevolence is mutual, the monarch and his ministers share the autumn moon. Congenial spirits, brothers sit together in the spring breeze. This is the friendship between the late emperor and Xu Xiaoyang Taisui there."
The man gently held his wife's hands sideways, lowered his head to help her take a deep breath, and then said: "'A man should fly like a male, but a female can lie down?!' This is what Zhao Heng blurted out in front of the late emperor when he was seven years old. I can’t tell.’I hope there are four people who are safe, green mountains, books, beauties and elder brothers.’ This is what Zhao Yi said, so the world belongs to my elder brother, but I am willing to give him a Guangling Dao. Zhao Yi When that guy Bing was young, he often claimed that he could hear the chirping of the dagger beside the bed as a dragon and a tiger, but as he got older, he became more reticent, so I sent him to the southern border to fight Bei Mang. It had nothing to do with him. As for Zhao Ying Zhao Sui, I have never had any feelings for them, but since Zhao Ying died well, I will not be stingy."
The man looked at his wife with flushed eyes, and suddenly smiled, "I know, my days are numbered."
His wife, Zhao Zhi, the empress of the world, rested her head gently on his shoulder.
It was just Zhao Dun, not some emperor, stroking his wife's hair, and said softly: "I have no regrets in this life, but I feel that I have too little time with you. It's funny to say, maybe when I face those cabinet ministers, I face those The time spent playing chapters is more than the time spent by your side."
Zhao Zhi asked suddenly: "Do you still remember our trick back then? At that time, you were just the prince, and I was the prince's concubine."
Zhao Dun laughed loudly, took a step back, bowed solemnly and said, "The empress is a thousand years old."
Zhao Zhi also took a step back, "Long live Your Majesty, long live, long live."
After a while, Zhao Dun covered his mouth, still coughing non-stop.
Zhao Zhi gently patted his back for help.
After Zhao Dun came over slowly, he held her hand tightly, "Let's go."
Zhao Zhi hummed.
She said: "Your Majesty, do you know? I am very happy to marry you. I am even happier to grow old with you."
"I know you always feel that you are not good-looking enough, but in fact, you are no longer good-looking. Look, you have white hair, and I still can't get tired of watching it. It is exactly the same as when I saw you for the first time. If you don’t like it, you’ll love it so much, you’ll never dislike it in this life.”
"It turns out that you can also say these love stories."
"Haha... Of course I can say love words, but I used to think that the best love words in the world are the ones I have come to today with you, and let you know that I like you more than love at first sight."
The woman who was tightly held by the hand stopped, sobbing and sobbing, not having the demeanor that a woman's mother should have.
He also stopped, trying to reach out to help her wipe away her tears.
But he ended up falling for her.
She hugged him, and although the tears were still there, her eyes were extremely firm, and she said in a low voice, "It's good to leave, you can finally rest in peace. The seal on it..."
…
Only two years after entering Xiangfu, a terrible news came.
At the beginning of spring of the Liyang Dynasty, the whole country was completely unrecognizable.
In such a huge city of Tai'an, weeping could be heard everywhere.
Then, a young man surnamed Zhao, who had been a prince for more than twenty years and had only worn the prince's python suit for a year, justifiably put on the unique clothes of the dynasty and ruled the world.
The young king of a country is wearing a brand new dragon robe that fits perfectly.
Sit high in that chair.
When he knelt down and worshiped in the civil and military ceremony of the Manchu Dynasty, he raised his eyes and looked into the distance blankly like the emperors of all dynasties.
At this time, the emperor should have raised his hand empty-handed, and said in a solemn voice without losing etiquette, "Everyone is flat."
But he didn't rush to speak.
He squinted his eyes, admiring the dark kneeling figures inside and outside the hall.
If he doesn't speak, no one can get up.
Because from now on, Emperor Liyang is Zhao Zhuan!
He glanced towards the northwest intentionally or unintentionally, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly imperceptibly.