Chapter 45 Forty-four

seven blood characters The ominous cries of the old raven echoed from the palace walls, Changsun Wuji led Ma Xuanliang and several other guards hurriedly through the corridor in the palace.From a distance, I saw Fan Xin, who was dressed in rags and was very weak, kneeling under the steps of the Liangyi Hall together with a subordinate official.Fan Xin said in a trembling voice, "Master Changsun." Changsun Wuji stepped forward and "slapped" it was a slap in the face. Fan Xin was hit with his head tilted, and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.The official stood up and stopped Changsun Wuji: "Please don't hit my lord." Changsun Wuji couldn't use his strength, so he kicked Fan Xin to the ground and shouted: "Hit him!" That's light, not to mention losing the city, and still have the face to come back to deliver a letter to Hu Kou, I wish I could kill you as a soft bone!" Fan Xin clutched his chest, fell to the ground, and struggled to get up.

Changsun Wuji broke free from the subordinate officer, twisted Fan Xin's collar, lifted him up, and hit him with a wave of his palm.The subordinate official knelt down and hugged Changsun Wuji's leg, weeping: "Uncle Guo, my lord is not soft-boned. He deliberately let Hu Kou attack the city to warn the court! When the city was broken, he hugged him. Determined to die, he came back because he had a few important things to say to the emperor, if it was just for his own survival, why didn't he run away?" Changsun Wuji was stunned for a moment, and said tremblingly, "Did you lose Suizhou on purpose?" Fan Xin said, "Hu Kou's siege of Suizhou but not attacking clearly concealed a huge conspiracy, and the lower officials couldn't pass the news to the court. So we had to let the enemy go into the city, and if the city is lost, the reinforcements will naturally not have to go any further." Changsun Wuji asked again: "Don't you know that if you lose the city, you will lose your head?" Fan Xin lowered his head. The head said: "Which is more important, the head of the lower official or the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Tang Dynasty?" Changsun Wuji was stunned for a moment, and looked at Fan Xin in a daze. He was really surprised by the other party's actions. Roughness breeds some remorse.

Fan Xin continued: "My lord, Xieli offered such a high bargaining price just to anger the emperor. Hu Kou slaughtered half of Suizhou, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty would force the emperor to fight to the death with Xieli's army. And our army The current combat power is far inferior to that of the Hu people. In the past few confrontations with the Hu soldiers, there have been big defeats and small defeats. Now the enemy has 200,000 troops stationed in the city of Suizhou, all of which are elite cavalry, and they are waiting for our army to go Fighting them desperately. Please ask the prime minister to dissuade the Holy Majesty, and you must not be arrogant, otherwise our army will be defeated and the Tang Dynasty will perish!"

Changsun Wuji sighed: "You risked your life to come back just to talk about this matter?" Fan Xin nodded: "I have been in the frontier for ten years before and after I was an official, and I saw with my own eyes the torment the people suffered under the iron hooves of the enemy. I heard their cries of losing their loved ones with my own ears. They have endured so much suffering, and they are looking forward to a king who can win the battle. For this final victory, my Tang Dynasty must have extraordinary perseverance , wait until the national strength and military strength are ready enough to defeat the opponent before thinking about revenge. Lord Wanwang can tell the emperor what this official said, otherwise this official will not die with peace in his eyes!"

Changsun Wuji's eyes were red: "I promise you." Fan Xin's eyes filled with tears, he kowtowed heavily, and then said to Ma Xuanliang: "Master Ma, take me where I should go!" He got up to leave, Changsun Wuji looked at his staggering back, feeling a bleeding in his heart. In the era of advocating family status, there were not many people like Changsun Wuji who could put aside worldly views and sympathize with Fan Xin's fate.More people wanted to make a big fuss about this matter because they looked down on Fan Xin's background. Some officials from high families knelt down in front of the Taiji Hall for a few days to remonstrate. All delayed.Li Shimin had no choice but to personally persuade everyone to go back. He walked to the Taiji Hall and asked the courtiers crowded there knowingly: "Are you all asking me to kill Fan Xin?" Di shouted: "Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Suizhou have suffered because of Fan Xin. Don't kill An Neng to calm the hearts of the subjects?"

Li Shimin glanced at the man and said calmly: "Well, what you said is quite reasonable, but, I have an imperial affairs that has been delayed for several days, and you are in a hurry, so I have to come here first. It's so big, it's full of threads, and there are countless things to do every day, how about you let me finish this thing that should have been done a long time ago, and then talk about your business?" After the emperor said this, who would still say that? Dare to object, all the ministers looked at Li Shimin, wondering what kind of medicine he was selling in the gourd.

Li Shimin took out a broken key, held it up high, and said to the officials: "This is the key of the Tang Suizhou Treasury. The official with this key rewarded him, and because of you, we can only meet him here now, is Zhao Gongcun here?" Someone led Zhao Gongcun, who had already broken a forearm, to come over.Zhao Gongcun fell to his knees and saluted, and shouted: "Long live my emperor, long live my lord." Li Shimin helped Zhao Gongcun up, and said to the crowd: "It is such a little Si Cao who joins the army and guards the treasury with his life. The enemy can't take the key and can only chop off his arm, but the severed hand is still holding the key. The enemy I had to chop off his severed hand, and ended up chopping off the key, and how much money is there in the treasury? There are only a dozen coins!" The officials discussed for a while, and Li Shimin turned to Zhao Gongcun and asked, "Why do you want to pay for this little money?" An arm?" Zhao Gongcun replied, "I'm not doing this for the money, but to abide by my duties."

Li Shimin's face showed excitement, and he said loudly to the ministers: "Did you hear this? How much is the word duty? You all regard yourself as a loyal minister. What is a loyal minister, is duty and responsibility." Loyal ministers! Now that the military situation is so urgent, the soldiers are looking forward to the court’s rations every day, but what about some people? They ignore their own duties and come here to criticize others. What kind of loyal ministers are they?” All the ministers bowed their heads, Someone started to leave quietly. Then Li Shimin announced that Zhao Gongcun's dedication to his duties was a model for officials all over the world, and the imperial court specially promoted him to be a member of the Ministry of Rites, Wailang, to show his appreciation.Zhao Gongcun grabbed the ground with his head filled with tears, and kowtowed to God for his grace.Li Shimin said to the crowd: "I've finished what I should do, now I can tell you about Fan Xin—"

Before he finished speaking, a surprised expression appeared on his own face. There were only a few people left in front of the Taiji Hall. Li Shimin finally breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes swept over, and those guys got up and left in a hurry. Everyone only hates that their feet are too slow. The defeat of Suizhou filled the hearts of every subject in Chang'an City with haze, so much so that the annual horse racing on Leyouyuan was much less atmospheric than in previous years.The shame of Bianqiao made Li Shimin realize that the cavalry under his command were far inferior to Jieli's iron cavalry. Therefore, he attached great importance to horse administration. Since the first year of Zhenguan, a horse race meeting was held in Leyouyuan every spring. The second is to breed horses among the people.For the first two horse races, Li Shimin came to the scene in person.This time, because he had just lost the battle, he was really not in the mood, so he entrusted his eldest grandson Wuji to accompany Prince Li Chengqian.