Li Yuan recently exchanged a dispensable commercial right for more than one million stone of grain, hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the follow-up money and grain will be sent to Xiangyang in a steady stream, with this batch of money and grain in hand, it is completely possible to form an army of 100,000. Li Yuan, who had been worried for a long time, could finally sleep peacefully. He is in a good mood and is happy with everyone.

Li Yuan slept in the palace of Concubine Yin De last night, he was old, and he didn't get up until after the fifth watch every day to freshen up and prepare for the morning court, and this was the time when he was sleeping sweetly, if there was nothing serious, no one would dare to disturb his sleep.

Li Yuan, who was sleeping deeply, was suddenly awakened by a chaotic footsteps, sat up suddenly, and listened carefully for a while, but heard a deafening shouting and killing.

Li Yuan was taken aback, the current situation was very similar to Yang Tong's burning of Daxing Palace, his first thought was that the Sui army suddenly attacked Xiangyang at night, and when he thought of this, he only frightened Li Yuan's soul away, and the fear in his heart made him feel like he had fallen into an abyss.

The next moment!

Grabbed the clothes in a panic and wore them, who wanted to make a mistake in the busy, mistook the clothes for pants, and was so anxious that he screamed.

Concubine Yin Defei also woke up, hurriedly came over to help, and said with a smile: "The saint is wearing the wrong one." ”

Li Yuan's old face turned red, took his pants and put them on, and advised: "You wait in the palace, don't go out." ”

Concubine Yin Defei put on a robe for him, Li Yuan took advantage of the situation to put it on, took off the giant sword, hurriedly walked out of the palace gate, and collided with Li Sixing, the general of the Zhige.

"Li Sixing!" Li Yuan asked loudly, "What happened?" ”

Li Sixing stopped his hurried steps and saluted: "The last general doesn't know that there is a rest, but the Taiji Palace has been under martial law, please rest assured." ”

Li Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the majestic and majestic Ganlu Palace, ran over without saying a word, climbed high and looked into the distance, just arrived at the top and saw the fire in the city, the fire was monstrous, several miles were engulfed in the fire, and there were many shouts from afar: "Xiangyang City is broken, the Sui army has entered the city, and my Tang army has been defeated and fled." ”

Li Yuan was shocked.

If the city is broken, he will definitely die an ugly death, so he ran down again in one breath, and said loudly to the Yuan Cong guards beside him: "Bring the concubines and the princes and princesses to the Taiji Palace, and prepare to evacuate." ”

His wife and children were lost once when he was in Daxing, which became a laughing stock, how could he run away with his wife and children this time, otherwise, the prestige of the royal family would fall to the bottom.

At this moment, a guard quickly came to report: "Qi Song Sheng, the defenders of all cities have come to report, and the city gate is safe." There were hundreds of gangsters armed with weapons and set fires everywhere in the city. ”

"Bad guys?" Li Yuan was stunned: "Isn't it Sui Jun?" ”

The guards hurriedly said: "They are all ordinary people's clothes, but their clothes are quite uniform, it seems that some private soldiers of the wealthy clan, when the guards arrest them, they rush into the squares with a bang." ”

Li Yuan's heart was a little calmer.

"Shengshang, the forbidden army came to report that the grain in the city was burned, the whole fang was burned, and Wuchuan was killed and wounded." At this time, another janissary came to report.

Li Yuan's mind exploded, his mind was blank, and he almost fell, but the two guards hurriedly supported him, and for a long time, he asked in a trembling voice: "What did you say?" ”

The Praetorian Guard repeated it again.

"Hurt me!" Li Yuan's excitement triggered a violent cough, which made him heartbreaking, and he couldn't breathe.

Li Sixing hurriedly supported the emperor, "Holy Lord, you take a rest." ”

At this moment, Li Yuan's throat was sweet, he spurted out a mouthful of blood, and fainted.

Li Sixing suddenly panicked, hugged Li Yuan, who had fallen down and fainted, and ran to the harem, turned around and shouted: "Why are you still stunned, find the imperial doctor." ”

"Whoa!"

The guards took action one after another, plunging headlong into the cold wind, holding torches high, and in the night, it was like a stream of fireflies rushing out of the palace from the imperial road, and then scattered in different directions.

Soon.

The entire Taiji Palace was alarmed by the news that the emperor had fainted, the sound of messy footsteps, shouting, and the voice of the hurriedly passed on the imperial doctor tore apart the solemn tranquility of the strictly guarded imperial city, and the firelight illuminated the entire Taiji Palace in a moment. Many of the courtiers who ran to the palace because of the fire ran towards the Liangyi Hall with shocked expressions on their faces, he was the last place they could reach, and behind it was Yongxiang, which was sandwiched between two palace walls, and the line between the front and the harem was the dividing line, and the trespasser died.

Although Li Yuan vomited blood, he soon came to his senses again, but his body was weak, he couldn't move while lying on the couch, he poured a bowl of ginseng soup down, his spirit was a little better, and he finally relieved himself at this time, he rubbed his head painfully, and the eunuch ordered with difficulty: "Quickly go and summon the officials above the third rank to the Liangyi Hall to discuss major matters." ”

"Whoa!" The eunuch galloped away.

Only then did Li Yuan say to Concubine Yin De: "The grain has been burned down, and my plan to expand the army cannot be implemented. Alas, if the Sui army comes to attack in the coming year, Xiangyang is in danger. ”

Concubine Yin Defei came from a poor family in Bingzhou, tasted hunger in her early years, and knew the importance of food, hearing Li Yuan say this, she was so frightened that her face turned pale, and she was shocked: "Holy Lord, has all the grain been burned?" ”

"The fire in the workshop is raging, there are four walls outside the workshop, people can't enter at all, if someone demolishes the wall of the workshop, they can save some."

Li Yuan was also upset, feeling a little better, so he said, "Wash me up immediately, I want to discuss with the minister." ”

"Holy! The courtiers are scattered in various squares in Xiangyang, and they will not be able to concentrate for a while. Concubine Yin Defei held his hand and said softly, "The concubine is a woman's family, and she doesn't know any big truths, but she also knows that 'chopping wood does not mistake sharpening the sword', and the battle at hand is that you have to recuperate well in order to deal with national affairs." According to the opinion of the concubines, you should take advantage of the gathering of ministers to recharge their energy in the palace first! Things outside can be done on their behalf, and when the ministers arrive, and the saints have nourished their spirits, it will not be too late to go out then. ”

Concubine Yin De looks like a flower and jade, and she also has a delicate heart for Li Yuan, which is also the reason why she has been favored for many years and has not fallen.

Li Yuan patted her jade hand and said with relief: "Concubine Ai is reasonable, I will lie down and rest first, and then give the order to let the crown prince command the army to extinguish the fire on my behalf, and the king of Jin will impose martial law on the whole city." ”

……………………

Xiangyang City was burned by the fire a total of six miles, now all are a big chaos, the original New Year is approaching, every household hoarded a lot of firewood and charcoal, this fire together, all have become flammable fireworks,

The fire spread, the smoke rolled, the flames were monstrous, the fierce tongue of fire rolled into the sky, illuminating the whole city, the blazing flames burned the snowy night sky to distort the general, this sudden fire made the people in the fang cry for their fathers and mothers, crying, screaming, shouting for help.

The Dongdaying that stayed in Xiangyang was ordered by Li Shimin, the Shangshu Order, to send 10,000 soldiers to guard the north and south streets of Xiangyang, and even the gates of the Fangfang, which were not affected by the fire, were firmly guarded, and the people were strictly forbidden to enter and leave, so as not to cause greater riots. As for the six miles where the fire broke out, the soldiers used siege equipment to collapse the walls of the square so that the people inside could escape.

Ma Sanbao, the general of the city defense, didn't care about the wind and snow, and rode a fast horse to the place where the grain was located, the fire here was the largest, and the heavy snow falling from the sky could not extinguish the blazing flame, and when it reached the sky above the flame, it turned into water vapor.

Ma Sanbao was originally Chai Shao's house slave, because of his courage and bravery, he was promoted step by step, he participated in the war to extinguish Xue Ju, and made great contributions, because he was not from a good background, his background was innocent and simple, there was no support from the interests behind him, he won Li Yuan's appreciation and trust, and was promoted step by step to the general of Zuo Xiaowei. After he arrived, he ordered some of the soldiers to blast open the wall of the workshop, and the other part of the soldiers went to the surrounding alleys, went door to door to collect barrels and shovels, fetch water and shovel snowdrifts on the side of the road to extinguish the fire, and tried to control the fire... At the same time, he commanded some soldiers to endure the moxibustion of the fire and rescue the peripheral grain.

"What about King Qi?" Ma Sanbao, who had been arranged, grabbed a captain of Wuchuan who had escaped by luck as soon as he got off the horse, and he scolded angrily.

The lieutenant couldn't stop kowtowing and said: "Back to the general, the king of Qi has not returned to Beijing on a business trip, and this place is defended by 10,000 Wuchuan soldiers led by Dou Dan, the general of the banner." ”

"What about Dou Dan, is he a dead man? They didn't come out of the fire. ”

"Back to General Dou, General Dou was burned to death by fire." The lieutenant said with a sad face.

"Good death!" Ma Sanbao lost his temper hatefully, "What happened?" Who set the fire? ”

The lieutenant said: "After the fire started, some people in white fled. The lowly does not know who they are. ”

Ma Sanbao saw that his body was scorched black, and the clothes on his body were still smoking, so he knew that this person was trying to put out the fire, so he didn't say anything more, turned his head to look at the other side, and saw hundreds of corpses lying in the snow, all of which were burned black, and many of the corpses were missing a part, and to his surprise, most of these corpses had scars, obviously not burned to death, but burned after they died, so he pointed and asked: "What is the injury of these people?" ”

"Everyone rushed to escape and cut each other. These are the people who died at the gate of the workshop, and they were dragged out with their humble duties. ”

"......" Although Ma Sanbao was speechless, he could also understand that with the fire, who still cares about whom? This kind of thing happens from time to time in the army, especially when it is attacked by the enemy at night, there are not many people killed by the enemy, and more than seventy or eighty percent of the people are killed and trampled to death by themselves in the chaos.

He found the Forbidden Army Captain in this area and asked in a deep voice, "How long will it take for the fire to be extinguished?" ”

"General Qiyu, the fire is too big, it will not be extinguished for a while, but the fire is now under control, and the people of each workshop have also spontaneously come to help, there are people pouring fire all around this workshop, if the fire spreads outward, it can ensure that the fire is extinguished at the first time, and it will never harm other neighborhoods. Fortunately, there are no people living in this square, otherwise the loss will be great! ”

"It's thanks to Tsukasa Takekawa." Ma Sanbao snorted coldly, as long as he is a normal person, he has no good impression of the indiscriminate killing of innocent Wu Chuansi, even if the Wu Chuan pawn inside dies, everyone will only applaud.

Ma Sanbao thought of the more than 20 gangsters he had met and killed on the road, and he was extremely happy and afraid, if he hadn't hit him, I am afraid that there would be more squares set on fire by them. I thought: Fortunately, King Jin reacted quickly enough, and the forbidden army was agile enough, so that the situation was stabilized, otherwise, I don't know what kind of big mess will happen this night!

Seeing that the fire was still there, and there was little food to talk about, he hurriedly ordered: "This manpower suppression is not enough." Take my warrant to go to the eastern camp, except for the soldiers guarding the camp, order all the soldiers to go out, block all the roads in the city for me, forbid the people to walk around, and catch one person when they see one, and if they disobey the order, they will be killed. Ma Sanbao gave an order to his own soldiers with a strong voice.

"Whoa!" Dozens of pro-soldiers took the order and left.

"I'll go into the palace first and report to the saint, you will be in charge of this side on my behalf, organize people to extinguish the fire, let everyone stop grabbing food, take water to extinguish the fire, as long as the water is poured to the end, the food under the ashes can be preserved, be fast!"

Generally speaking, when the fire burns to the grain depot, the grain that is sprinkled on the ground plays a role in temporarily extinguishing the fire, and the fire can only be slowly burned from the top to the bottom, if the fire is extinguished in time, the upper layer of ashes will be shoveled away after the disaster, and the grain below can still be eaten except for the scorched smell, and the grain at the bottom is no different from the normal grain. Ma Sanbao understood this truth, so he issued this order to the captain of the forbidden army.

After speaking, Ma Sanbao stepped on the war horse and galloped towards the palace.

…

In accordance with Li Yuan's order, the crown prince Li Jiancheng urgently presided over the government, first arranged for Yuan Cong to guard the martial law palace and guard various strategic places in the palace, and then ordered the Beijing officials below the fifth rank to go to each square to pacify the people, deter Xiaoxiao, and supervise the soldiers, lest anyone take advantage of the chaos to loot the people and further expand the riot!

After the arrangement, he and many courtiers who came one after another waited for the emperor's holy order in the Liangyi Palace, as well as the news in the city.

Standing at the gate of the temple, he looked at the raging fire with a sinking face, and said, "The fire must be suppressed as soon as possible, and the affected people must be forcibly moved away from their original residences, otherwise more people will be burned to death and burned!" ”

Whenever a disaster strikes, there will always be many elderly people who are reluctant to give up their wealth at home, and they would rather die with their wealth than evacuate; This extremely unwise move caused the grandchildren and daughters-in-law to be in a dilemma, missing the precious time to escape in vain, and finally had to die together in the disaster. Therefore, at such times, it is very important for the official power to forcibly intervene to violently evict these people who do not listen to the advice, and to minimize the number of casualties.

"Order the Imperial Doctor of the Imperial Physician Department to make a large number of plasters for the treatment of burns as quickly as possible!"

"The second bureau of Shangshi and Shangyao in the province of the palace is to burn the cold medicine soup ......"

Pei Lian, Liu Wenjing, Chen Shuda, Xiao Yu, and Dou Liang were also watching the fire at the entrance of the hall, all of them with serious expressions, listening to Li Jiancheng issue orders one by one. They were silent about this series of orders that cost the imperial palace, and these actions were able to win the hearts of the people of Xiangyang for the emperor and had a great effect on the stability of the imperial court. The key is that Li Jiancheng attaches great importance to the people's will, and even if he opposes it at this time, it will be invalid.

Not long after, Ma Sanbao hurried over, "The last general, Ma Sanbao, see His Royal Highness the Prince, all the ministers!" ”

"The general is exempt!" Li Jiancheng waved his hand and said, "Where does the general come from?" ”

"Back to Your Highness, the last general has just arrived from the place where the fire broke out, and he has ordered the forbidden army to take over the streets, and the fire in the grain area will soon be extinguished." Ma Sanbao hurriedly replied

"I saw it! The general will know when he looks back. Li Jiancheng pointed ahead.

Ma Sanbao turned around, and sure enough, he saw that the fire in the area where the grain was put had dimmed, compared with the other five squares that were burning, it was very exciting, and it seemed that it was not too far from extinguishing.

"General, there are more than 1.2 million stone of grain in the workshop, which is the military food of my Datang Dynasty, and it is also the foundation of the expansion of the army in the coming year. How many do you think is left? "Only Ma Sanbao has been to the scene of the fire here, and Li Jiancheng wants to know the situation there.

Ma Sanbao estimated it and replied: "Back to Your Highness, it has been an hour since the fire started!" But in the process, the spilled grain has a fire-extinguishing effect, and according to the conservative estimate, there are at least about four or fifty percent left, or even more. ”

"It's fine."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, counting four or five percent, not to mention three or four hundred thousand stones.

"However, it was also soaked in water." Ma Sanbao said again.

"It's good to eat it, it doesn't matter if it's wet or not." Li Jiancheng shook his head, glanced at Dou Liang, and asked again, "What about Dou Dan?" ”

When Dou Liang heard this, his heart became nervous.

This Dou Dan is the third son of Dou Kang, not only the emperor's son-in-law, but also his nephew, and the backbone of the Dou family; Now that such a major event has happened, Dou Dan, who is responsible for guarding the grain, needs to take full responsibility. If this nephew absconds in fear of crime, it will be a fatal blow to the Dou family's reputation, prestige, and the emperor's trust. At this time, I only heard Ma Sanbao say: "Your Highness, General Dou unfortunately died in the fire, and there are no bones left. Dou Liang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Wow to die! The emperor not only can't blame the Dou family now, but also praises the Dou family for their good education, and a praise for dying in the line of duty can't be shaken off.

"Hmm!" Li Jiancheng nodded and asked, "Was it an accident, or did someone deliberately set the fire?" ”

"The last general has already made it clear that someone set the fire! In addition, on the way to put out the fire, the last general ran into a gang of gangsters who tried to set fire! ”

"Did you catch a live mouth?" Li Jiancheng asked urgently.

"Nope!" Ma Sanbao shook his head and said with a wry smile: "These people are vicious, and their tricks are all the same, fortunately, there are more people brought by the last general, otherwise they will be harmed." After they missed, they all committed suicide by poisoning. In order to investigate the case, the last general has already had the bodies transported to the barracks. ”

Li Jiancheng tilted his head to look at Ma Sanbao and said approvingly: "The general has done a good job, I will definitely report it to the Holy Lord and let him praise it." ”

Ma Sanbao arched his hand and said: "This is the duty of the last general, and it should not be praised!" ”

At this time, a eunuch hurriedly came and saluted: "Your Highness, the Holy Lord has asked you to lead the ministers to the Liangyi Hall to discuss matters. ”

Li Jiancheng nodded and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please!" ”

"Your Highness, please!"