Chapter 43 King's return

In late March of the first year of Xingyuan, Dezong Li Shi finally arrived in Liangzhou (now Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province) after more than 20 days of bumpy carriages and horses. Liangzhou is the governing place of Shannan West Road. Since ancient times, the land has been poor and the people are poor. After an Anshi Rebellion, the household registration has been reduced by more than half.Therefore, although this way has 15 states under its jurisdiction, its fiscal revenue is not as good as that of several counties in the Central Plains.After Dezong arrived with all the civil and military officials, the supply in all aspects was very poor, and even the most basic food supply was in danger of being in short supply.

This is obviously an extremely stupid and lacking idea of ​​the big picture. If Dezong's imperial court in exile really hides in a corner of Shu, the loyalty of Guanzhong soldiers and people to Li Tang will inevitably be greatly weakened, and the recovery of Chang'an may be in the foreseeable future. The reason is very simple. If you, the emperor, have fled thousands of miles away, who will work for you?Don't say that the plan to restore Chang'an will run aground, and rebellions in various places may spring up like mushrooms after rain.Anyway, there is no one in Guanzhong, who wouldn't want to take the opportunity to play a game of chasing the top?

On the contrary, if Dezong puts the overall situation first and sits in Liangzhou with peace of mind, it will have a deterrent effect on various potential rebel forces, and it will have a soothing and encouraging effect on the military and civilians in Guanzhong.Therefore, this matter is not trivial, and it can be said that it is directly related to the safety of Li Tang Sheji. After Shannan West Road Jiedu Envoy Yan Zhen learned of the emperor's intention to enter Shu, he immediately said: "Shannan West Road is adjacent to the Gyeonggi area, and now Li Sheng is preparing to conquer Chang'an, and needs the support of His Majesty and the imperial court. The days of Chang'an may be very far away."

When Dezong heard this, he couldn't help hesitating.Civil and military officials also talked about this matter, and they couldn't agree on what to do.At this moment, a memorial from Li Sheng was delivered to Liangzhou.He said it more clearly than Yan Zhen: "Your Majesty's stay in Hanzhong is enough to tie the hearts of billions of people and make it possible to wipe out the rebels. If you take a small house and move the capital to Shu, the officials and people will be desperate because of it. There are fierce generals like clouds and counselors like rain, and they will be helpless and call for help!"

Just a few days ago, Dezong had just granted Li Sheng the post of Jiedushi of the four towns of Jingji, Weibei, Fufang, and Danyan. Obviously, he had placed all the important tasks of restoring Chang'an and helping the community on him.Now, of course, Li Sheng's remonstrance carried great weight, and Dezong had nothing to say, so he had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​entering Shu. On April 10 of this year, Tian Xu, who came to power by mutiny, received the Jiedu envoy from Emperor Dezong, and was officially appointed as Wei Bo Jiedu envoy. Between the court and Zhu Tao, Tian Xu wisely chose the court and kicked Zhu Tao away.

Obviously, the bet was right. However, Zhu Tao, who was kicked away, would not let it go.He immediately stepped up his attack on Beizhou and Weizhou, the important towns of Weibo.At the beginning of May, Wang Wujun and Li Baozhen saw that Wei Bo was in danger, so they kept their promise, and personally led their troops to Beizhou, camping thirty miles away from Beizhou. Zhu Tao, who was attacking Beizhou, heard the news and quickly recalled Ma Shi, the general who attacked Weizhou, and prepared to concentrate his forces to fight to the death with the two armies of Wang and Li.Zhu Tao wanted to launch an attack the next day, but several aides persuaded him that Wang Wujun was good at field battles, so he should not confront him head-on, and he should send troops to cut off his food supply, and then wait for an opportunity to attack when he is exhausted.

Zhu Tao hesitated for a while.At this time, the generals Yang Bu and Cai Xiong came to his big tent with the Huihe generals. They're here to fight. The Huihe general slapped Zhu Tao on the chest and said: "Every time we Huihe people fight with neighboring countries, we only need 500 cavalry to destroy thousands of enemy cavalry, just like the autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves. I have been in the king's army for a long time. There are a lot of gold, silk, wine and meat, and I want to make meritorious service for the king. Now is the right time. Tomorrow, please ride the horse to the high hill, and watch how the Huihe iron cavalry will kill Wang Wujun for the king, so that he will not even think about going back with a single horse!"

Yang Bu and Cai Xiong also joined in on the sidelines: "The king is a hero who is world-renowned, and he sent his army southward. He originally wanted to sweep Henan and wipe out Guanzhong, but now he waits and sees when he faces a small enemy. Your Majesty, please agree to Huihe's request to fight." When Zhu Tao heard this, he was immediately filled with pride, so he decided to fight. Of course Zhu Tao didn't know at this time—tomorrow's battle would completely end his dream of competing in the world, and would bring a painful end to his military career. In the early morning of the next day, Wang Wujun ordered Zhao Lin to lead 500 cavalry to ambush in a forest next to the position, and let Li Baozhen form a phalanx at the back.As soon as the battle started, the cowhide Huihe people raised their whips and rushed straight at Wang Wujun's front army.

Wang Wujun's cavalry suddenly lifted the reins and avoided to the sides.The Huihe cavalry rushed to the back of the formation, and when they were about to return to their horses, Wang Wujun ordered the whole army to attack. Zhao Lin's ambush soldiers also rushed out from the forest and cut off the Huihe cavalry.The Huihe people were dumbfounded at once, the general who was so bullish yesterday didn't care about his face at this moment, he hurriedly led his troops to break out of the siege, and fled all the way. Wang Wujun and Li Baozhen took advantage of the victory and charged.Seeing that the Uighurs were defeated, Zhu Tao's cavalry quickly turned around and fled, and immediately overwhelmed their own infantry positions, so the two armies of infantry and cavalry were completely defeated before they could engage in battle.Zhu Tao tried desperately to stop it, but his army was defeated like a mountain, and he couldn't stop it at all, so he fled back to the camp and stood behind closed doors.

In this battle, Zhu Tao dispatched 30,000 troops, more than 10,000 were killed, and more than 10,000 fled. In the end, there were only a few thousand people left who followed him back to the camp. It can almost be said that they lost everything. In the evening of that day, thick fog suddenly appeared on the battlefield. Wang Wujun and Li Baozhen did not dare to attack rashly, so they set up camp at the northwest and northeast corners of Zhu Tao's camp.That day and night, Zhu Tao set fire to the camp, and then fled from the south gate with the remnants of his troops to Dezhou in the east.The mountains of money and materials he plundered in Wei Bo could not be taken away either, and they all fell into the hands of Wang Wujun and Li Baozhen.Due to the thick fog and dark night, the two armies of Wang and Li did not send troops to pursue them.Zhu Tao escaped unharmed.

After running to Dezhou, Zhu Tao, who was still panting, angrily chopped off the heads of Yang Bu and Cai Xiong.But the matter had come to this point, even if Zhu Tao smashed these two guys into pieces, it would not help. If he wanted to blame, he could only blame himself for being too confident and underestimating the enemy. Afterwards, Zhu Tao fled back to Youzhou in embarrassment. Although he was lucky enough to save his life, after this battle, Zhu Tao was seriously injured.From then on, Zhu Tao was too busy to take care of himself, let alone his dream of competing in the Central Plains and ordering the world. After Li Huaiguang withdrew from Guanzhong, Li Sheng's plan to conquer Chang'an entered a countdown state. At the same time, Zhu Xi and Yao Lingyan also began to feel fear.They frequently sent spies to sneak into Li Sheng's defense area in an attempt to find out the Tang army's plan to attack Chang'an, including the specific attack time.Unexpectedly, these spies were captured one by one by Li Sheng's scouting cavalry. On May 20th of the first year of Xingyuan, Li Sheng held a grand military parade in the garrison, and deliberately arranged for Zhu Xi's spies to sit on the viewing stand to watch the whole ceremony.After the end, Li Sheng hosted a banquet for them and gave them travel expenses one by one, flattering the group of people.Finally, Li Sheng said something to them: "Go back and tell all the rebel soldiers to guard Chang'an carefully, and don't betray Zhu Xi!" The spies looked at each other. They knew that nothing could show Li Sheng's self-confidence better than this sentence, and nothing could break the fighting spirit of the rebel soldiers more than this sentence. In short, this is Li Sheng's psychological warfare. The next day, Li Sheng led a large army to the Tonghua Gate (the first gate in the northeast of Chang'an), showing off his might.Everyone in the rebel army was terrified and did not dare to go out of the city to fight.On that day, Li Sheng called all the generals to discuss the plan to attack the city.Everyone agreed: "We should conquer the outer city first, occupy Fangshi, and then attack the imperial city north." Li Sheng objected. In my opinion, the rebel army is now concentrated in the Forbidden Garden to the north of Daming Palace. It is better for our army to attack from the north of the garden and destroy the command center of the rebel army. , the market is not disturbed, it is the best policy!" All the generals agreed, and the plan was decided.Afterwards, Li Sheng sent a fast horse to inform the soldiers and horse envoy Hun Yu in Duzhi, Luo Yuanguang, the Jiedu envoy of Zhenguo, Shang Kegu, the Jiedu envoy of Shangzhou, and other ministries in Duzhi, and agreed on a date to meet under the city of Chang'an. The battle of Tang Jun's counterattack to Chang'an began. —— On the 22nd, Shang Ke's troops arrived west of Lantian alone, defeated the rebel army Qiu Jingzhong's troops here, and beheaded Qiu Jingzhong. —— On the 25th, Li Sheng's army advanced to the Guangtai Gate in the northeast of Daming Palace. —— On the 26th, Li Sheng's army was building a camp. Zhu Xi took advantage of Li Sheng's unsteady footing and ordered generals Zhang Tingzhi and Li Xiqian to go out of the city to attack.Li Sheng smiled and said to the generals: "I was worried that the rebels would not fight behind closed doors, but I didn't expect them to come to die on their own initiative. This is God's help, and the opportunity to fight must not be lost!" —— On the 27th, the rebels fought again and were defeated by Li Sheng; on the same day, Luo Yuanguang's troops also defeated the rebels on the west bank of Chanshui (a tributary of Bashui).That night, Li Sheng ordered his troops to cut a gap two hundred paces wide in the north wall of the Forbidden Garden, planning to break into the Daming Palace from here and launch a strong attack on the rebel headquarters. —— On the 28th, Li Sheng ordered the entire army to launch a general offensive.Unexpectedly, the rebels had already built a row of wooden fences at the gap in the north wall of the Forbidden Garden overnight, and Tang Jun's several charges were repelled.Li Sheng was furious and yelled at the generals: "If you don't get in today, I'll cut off your heads!" The generals were terrified, so they had to lead the crowd to charge desperately, and finally broke through the rebel fence, and the soldiers broke into the Daming Palace in separate ways.At this time, Yao Lingyan, the leader of the rebel army who came to the front line to command the battle, was still fighting hard, but the Tang army's offensive was too fierce, so he had to lead his troops to fight and retreat.When the Tang army forced the rebels to Baihuamen, thousands of rebel cavalry suddenly rushed out from behind the Tang army.Seeing that the Tang army was about to fall into the enemy's situation, Li Sheng immediately turned his horse's head and led more than a hundred cavalrymen to kill them. At the same time, he ordered his left and right to shout: "Li Sheng is coming!" When the rebel army heard Li Sheng's name, they immediately lost their fighting spirit and scattered in all directions. At this point in the battle, the rebels are basically doomed.Zhu Xi and Yao Lingyan knew that the situation was over, so they had to flee from the west gate of Chang'an with nearly 10,000 people.While appeasing the soldiers and people in the city, Li Sheng ordered the envoy Tian Ziqi to lead his troops to pursue Zhu Xi and others.On the same day, Hun Yu, Han Youhuan and other ministries also joined forces to conquer Xianyang.At this point, Chang'an and nearby cities, which had been occupied for eight months, finally returned to the hands of the Li and Tang Dynasty. On the fourth day of June, Li Sheng sent a fast horse to present the victory report of Chang'an's recovery to Dezong.When Dezong heard the news, he couldn't help crying with joy: "Li Sheng was born for the sake of the country, not for me alone!" After Zhu Xi and Yao Lingyan escaped from Chang'an with the rest of the people, they ran all the way northwest, intending to defect to Tubo. However, their tribe kept fleeing along the way.There were nearly 10,000 people when they first left Chang'an, but when they ran to Jingzhou (now north of Jingchuan County, Gansu Province), there were only a hundred cavalry left.The terrible thing is that Tian Xijian, the defender of Jingzhou at this time and appointed by Zhu Xi as Jingyuan Jiedu envoy, still closed the city gate and refused to accept them. Zhu Xi was furious, and shouted to Tian Xijian from the bottom of the city: "I gave you the honor, why did you become ungrateful and add insult to injury when I was in danger?" Then he ordered people to burn the city gate. Tian Xijian stood on the top of the city and looked at Zhu Xi with a sneer. That's right, my official, Tian Xijian, was appointed by you, Zhu Xi, but why didn't your official, Zhu Xi, be appointed by Li Shi?Since you can betray Li Shi, why can't I betray you? Of course, Tian Xijian didn't talk to Zhu Xi like this.He just ordered people to bring the festival of the Jiedushi, throw it into the fire under the city gate, and shouted: "Return your banner!" With nowhere to go, and with pursuers behind, Zhu Xi's followers cried out in despair.Some soldiers from Jingyuan simply killed Yao Lingyan, beheaded him and surrendered to Tian Xijian.Zhu Xi had no choice but to take the rest of his own soldiers, staff and clansmen and continue to flee northward to Yimaguan (now southwest of Qingyang County, Gansu).When passing through Ningzhou (now Ningxian County, Gansu Province), the governor Xia Houying refused again behind closed doors, so Zhu Xi had to turn west and continue fleeing. When Zhu Xi and his party fled to Pengyuan Xichengtun (now east of Zhenyuan County, Gansu Province) exhausted, two people didn't want to run away anymore. They are Zhu Xi's generals Liang Tingfen and Han Min. Liang Tingfen deliberately slowed down, let his mount fall behind the crowd, and then calmly put up the bow and arrow, and shot Zhu Xi off the horse with one arrow.Zhu Xi was injured and fell into a dirt pit. Before he could struggle to get up, Han Min swung his knife and chopped off his head.Afterwards, Han Min and others returned to Jingzhou with Zhu Xi's head and surrendered to the court. A few days later, Zhu Xi's head was sent to Emperor Xingzai of Liangzhou. At this point, the major rebellion triggered by the Jing division change has finally settled, and Gyeonggi, which was once turbulent with war, has finally restored its former peace. In the final analysis, Zhu Xi's rebellion can only be regarded as a farce at best, and he himself is nothing more than a clown. Regarding Zhu Shi's defeat, Mr. Bo Yang made a very pertinent comment: "There are many historical sites, and no one who is eager to become an emperor has a good end. It is the same as a hundred-story building; moreover, when the king (meaning the king) still has room to retreat, when the emperor is on the road of no return. When Sun Quan persuaded Cao Cao to be the emperor, Cao Cao laughed and said: "This kid wants to get me Sit on the stove!" Zhu Xi, He De, He Neng, saw that the throne was vacant, and immediately put his butt on it. Just for this, he was simple-minded.... Li Huaiguang's army was weaker, and Zhu Xi immediately raised his face and turned friends. As an enemy, why is his knowledge so shallow. A person who only knows how to put on airs to get addicted to work is too low-level... lacking both wisdom and common sense, he is just a fool." Sincerely said. On July 13th of the first year of Xingyuan, Dezong Li Shi, who had been in exile for more than ten months, finally returned to Chang'an. The Daming Palace still stands there, silently waiting for the return of the king. Everything is as it was before in the bright sunshine. Even though every brick wall on the Xuanwu Gate has experienced blood and death, and even though every inch of the alchemy in front of the Hanyuan Hall has witnessed conspiracy and betrayal, under the bright sun, they still look like So solemn and quiet, as if nothing had happened. The return of the king Li Shi was welcomed by thousands of soldiers and civilians. Li Shi kept a reserved and beautiful smile all the way.That smile seemed to say: The common people will come here safe and sound, and Chang'an will come here safe and sound!All disasters and misfortunes will eventually pass, let us regain the courage and strength of the past, and rebuild a beautiful and happy homeland! However, no one knew that there was another voice ringing in Li Shi's heart at this moment.The voice seemed to say: There is a thing in this world that is lost, it is lost, and it cannot be found. Li Shi didn't know what he had lost. But he knew something must be missing...