In the middle of the night, Li Shaorong, who had been tired all day, was awakened from his deep sleep.

"What's going on?" Li Shaorong, who was lying in his clothes, turned over and sat up.

Yuan Xingkai entered the house and whispered: "Big brother, the chamberlain Li Chang said outside the city that he had an urgent matter to see, and it seems that something big has happened!" ”

"Hmm!" Li Shaorong suddenly sobered up, "Where are the others?" ”

"It's still outside the city, it's dark outside, I'm afraid there will be some accidents."

"I'll go over now!" Li Shaorong hurriedly asked people to put on armor and came to Nancheng.

When Li Chang, the chamberlain who escaped from Luoyang, came to the city of Doctrine, although the rebels had not yet rounded the southern city, the guards guarding the city naturally would not let him in easily.

Li Chang, who was riding on a horse, angrily scolded at the city head for a while, and after a while, he saw a rope put down on the city head. One man went down the city. Li Shaorong was so bold that he came out of the city alone. Now that the war in Xiaoyi City is in full swing, it is natural that he can't let people enter the city easily, and he doesn't want to break the rules, so he just goes out of the city by himself.

"What's going on? In the middle of the night, what are you shouting down there?! Li Shaorong shouted from afar when he saw Li Chang.

"General...... Holy ...... The Holy One has died......"

When Li Chang saw Li Shaorong, he immediately cried bitterly.

"What?!" When Li Shaorong heard the news of the emperor's death, he suddenly felt that the world was spinning, and the whole person was stunned.

After a long while, he asked out loud, "What's going on?!" ”

It turned out that Li Cunqiao drove the expedition in person, and after arriving in Xingyang, he learned that Li Siyuan had occupied the Great Liang and knew that he could not do anything, so he also drove Luoyang, preparing to wait for the prince to lead the expedition to the elite division of Shu, and then raise troops to quell the rebellion.

Who knew that Guo Congqian, who served as the commander of the forbidden army, took the opportunity to instigate the soldiers to rebel and burn down the Xingjiaomen. The Son of Heaven Li Cunqiao personally led more than 100 pro-troops to quell the rebellion and disperse the rebellious army. Unexpectedly, in the chaos, he was shot in the face by a stray arrow. Wang Quanbin, Fu Yanqing and others helped him to the Qianxiao Palace, and Li Cunqiao finally died after struggling to drink a bowl of cheese.

Seeing that the emperor was dead, many close ministers and generals in the palace fled.

Li Shaorong stood for a long time, and then interrupted Li Chang's crying: "How many princes and princes? ”

"The queen has long been rolled up with gold and silver and does not know where to go, only Zhongmen envoy Zhang Han took King Tong, King Ya and the three princes to Xinguan, ready to go to the crown prince. Zhang Zhongmen ordered a certain person to come and report the bad news to the general. ”

Li Shaorong looked up to the sky and lamented that he blocked the rebels in Gongzhou and Xiaoyi, and his original intention was to mobilize manpower for the Son of Heaven to return to Luoyang, and prepare to rely on the city to refuse to defend, so as to wait for the prince to lead the army of Shu to return to help and buy time. But now, in a rebellion, even the emperor died in the chaos, and even he himself couldn't tell whether he was helpless or resentful.

Now that the general trend has gone, it is meaningless to stick to this city of filial piety.

He motioned to the head of the city to lower the drawbridge and open the gates.

Yuan Ren, Yuan Xingqi, and Yuan Xingkai came out of the city with a team of cavalry.

After Li Shaorong saw these people coming, he said in a deep voice: "Xingqi, you first take a team of people to Luoyang and take all the family members out." Then protect the family and go to Singuan, where we will meet. ”

Yuan Xingqi was stunned for a moment, and then realized the order issued by Li Shaorong, and arched his hand and said: "The last general obeys the order!" After that, he got on his horse and took a dozen of his men and turned away.

Li Shaorong sighed, pondered for a while, and seemed to have made a major decision, only then did he raise his head and say, "Yuan Ren!" ”

Among the generals in front of him, a big man in full armor strode out with a helmet in his right hand: "The last general!" ”

"You go into the city now, and quietly bring out all the cavalry troops, and don't alarm the other troops!"

"Yes!" Yuan Ren agreed and turned away.

Yuan Xingkai looked at Yuan Ren's back and disappeared into the darkness of the city gate cave, his face changed a few times, and said: "Big brother, most of the soldiers guarding the city are the big brother's subordinates!" ”

Li Shaorong shook his head, with a look of grief and indignation on his face: "Emperor Wu and His Majesty treat Li Siyuan as much as a mountain, who knows that he has wolf ambitions, and he knew that His Majesty was going to do something to him that day, so he shouldn't be dissuaded...... Now the plan, stay in the green mountains, don't be afraid of no firewood, let's go to find the prince......" Speaking of this, his expression was also regretful. Now that the disaster has caused Xiao Wall and turned into elbows and armpits, Li Siyuan and Wei Bo's rebels are in the same stream, which is also unexpected.

Yuan Ren quietly went out of the city from the south gate with the remaining more than 300 cavalry troops, but it still alarmed hundreds of defenders, and they also came out of the city with the cavalry.

Li Shaorong looked at the infantry soldiers who followed, frowned, but didn't say anything, just instructed Yuan Ren: "Let's go, let's go back to Xinguan first!" ”

This defeated army, which fled from Xiaoyi City overnight, crossed Luoshui overnight and entered Yanshi before dawn.

Li Shaorong ordered to forcibly requisition and rob dozens of civilian carriages and mules in the city, and the whole army rested for a while, and after eating some dry food, the infantry army rode in a car and retreated in the direction of Xinguan with the cavalry.

The defenders in Xiaoyi City knew before dawn that the main general had fled overnight, and they immediately dispersed. When Li Siyuan received a report after dawn, he ordered the pioneer Shi Jingtang to enter the city, but the city was already undefended. After Li Siyuan entered the city, he immediately ordered Shi Jingtang and Li Congke to lead the cavalry to pursue Li Shaorong's deserted army in the direction of Luoyang.

Li Shaorong led more than 700 remnants of the army to rush for most of the night, and arrived in Luoyang in the morning, but chose to go around the city and go straight to Hangu Xinguan, west of Luoyang.

Shi Jingtang led the cavalry to Luoyang, the imperial capital, at noon, but saw that the gate of Luoyang was wide open and defenseless, so he entered Luoyang under the welcome of Prime Minister Dou Luge. This was a great achievement, and Zhu Shouyin, the commander of Douluge and the Fan Han Ma Bu Army, sent a letter to Li Siyuan, asking Li Siyuan to enter the city and supervise the country in order to stabilize the situation in Luoyang.

After hearing the news, Li Siyuan was surprised and delighted, and he stayed where he was, and entered Luoyang with the army the next day.

After Li Siyuan led the army into Beijing, he ordered people to carefully collect Li Cunqiao's body, caress the coffin and weep bitterly, and sent troops to garrison the city to stabilize the situation. Prime Minister Dou Lu Ge and Lu Shuo and privy envoys Li Shaohong and Zhang Juhan led hundreds of officials to persuade them to enter, but they were all rejected by Li Siyuan. Li Siyuan's son-in-law, Shi Jingjiao, and Zhongmen envoy An Chongzhu also thought that if Li Siyuan directly claimed the emperor, the signs of rebellion would be too obvious, so they instructed the hundred officials to ask Li Siyuan to be the prisoner of the country.

Li Siyuan still refuses to accept this, claiming that he has no intention of rebelling at all, and this time he came back only to stabilize the situation in Beijing, and when the crown prince succeeds to the throne and buries Li Cunxuan, he will return to Youzhou as the original festival envoy.

However, Shi Jingjiao and An Chongzhi persuaded Li Siyuan: "The prince is still alive, so it is not appropriate to be too humble. ”

Li Siyuan no longer shirked, and the next day he lived in the Xingsheng Palace to serve as a prisoner, and accepted the congratulations of hundreds of officials, in fact, he was no different from the emperor. Because of such a toss, Li Siyuan had no intention of chasing and killing Li Shaorong and others who had escaped, but also allowed this group of remnants to escape from Shaanzhou to Guanzhong smoothly.

……