Tang Wude 2nd year, May.

A cavalry team galloped across the Wei Bridge and galloped towards Chang'an City.

The cavalry did not stop in front of the gate of Chang'an City, they galloped all the way into the city, and the soldiers guarding the gate did not dare to stop them. The first of the generals, young and burly, dressed in a dusty armor of bright light, rode his horse until he stopped in front of the imperial city.

jumped off the horse, looked at Chang'an City at dusk with burning eyes, and handed over his fish charm.

Guarding the city gate is the Son of Heaven Yuancong Forbidden Army, Zuojianmen General Xu Luoren is the younger brother of Zuowuhou General Zhending Marquis Xu Shixu, and both brothers are the emperor's Yuancong heroes. After Li Yuan became emperor, just as Luo Cheng conferred the title of Liaodong Yuanmou meritorious hero, he also set a group of meritorious heroes and awarded the title of meritorious hero.

Among them, there are Jiangdu 18 Yuan meritorious heroes, and Chang'an 36 Yuan meritorious heroes, so as to confer those meritorious heroes who assisted and supported him in Jiangdu and Chang'an.

The Xu brothers respectively commanded the 20,000 soldiers and horses of Chang'an City, known as the Yuan Cong Forbidden Army, which was a descendant line personally controlled by Li Yuan, and it was also the last defensive force in Chang'an City today.

"Your Majesty is waiting for you in Yanying Palace, General Chai."

Since Li Shimin, the king of Zhao, and the king of Lujiang were defeated and captured in Hedong, and Li Xiaoji, the king of Yong'an, was killed in Lingzhou, during this time, the emperor summoned the civil and military every day to discuss matters in the palace. Sometimes a dozen or twenty people were summoned a day.

Most of the generals of the Tang Army were not sincere and afraid, and now the Tang Army has suffered defeats on battlefields in various places, and the emperor has lost his head overnight when he hears it.

Dugu Huaien, who was stationed in Hanzhong, was summoned to Chang'an by Li Yuan not long ago, and the emperor worshiped him as the general manager of Shangshujiashan South Road of the Ministry of Works, and asked him to attack the barbarian rebels of Xicheng County and Badong County.

But after returning to Hanzhong and sending troops, he suffered a few defeats, and Li Yuan angrily gave several reprimands one after another, and who knew that Dugu Huaien was also angry.

When he was in Chang'an, the emperor promised to give him money and food for soldiers and horses, but as soon as he returned to Hanzhong, he did not give him the money and food for soldiers and horses that he had originally promised, but transferred 3,000 people from Hanzhong.

Dugu Huaien, who only had 5,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, was short of soldiers and food, and he couldn't get rid of the barbarian rebels who had already come to Qin Jun's eyebrows, so in a fit of anger, he simply plotted to rebel against the enemy and directly sent his cronies to the opposite side to contact General Qin.

Li Yuan of Chang'an City was still looking forward to Dugu Huaien, his uncle and cousin, being able to make meritorious contributions, but when he turned around, the news came that Dugu Huaien led 5,000 Hanzhong Tang troops to surrender Hanchuan County to Qin General Shan Xiongxin, which almost made Li Yuan half dead. The angry Li Yuan also didn't care that Lonely Huaien was his maternal uncle's son, and ordered Dugu Huaien's wife and children in Chang'an to be arrested and killed.

Afterwards, Li Yuan patted the table and said to the generals, "Luo Cheng marched all the way, Shan Xiongxin, Du Fuwei and others were originally just a group of soldiers and horses, but why were they able to gain a foothold in Shannan, why were they able to raise food, he Dugu Huaien, as a relative of the emperor, led 5,000 soldiers and horses to defend Hanzhong, and fought at home, but he couldn't beat the guest army, and after a few words of reprimand after the defeat, he rebelled and defected to the enemy, how shameless and incompetent is this?" ”

Chai Shao removed his dusty armor in front of the imperial city gate, unsheathed his sword, and then entered the imperial city with the Praetorian Guards, and then crossed the imperial city to the imperial palace.

Although the time was urgent, the chamberlain still took him to a side hall first, where he bathed and changed clothes.

Chai Shao, who had washed up and changed into a new set of clothes, was brought to the emperor.

When the emperor saw him, he walked straight over, and Chai Shao saw that the emperor really had gray hair and red eyes.

"Sichang, you're finally here, and now only you can save Datang."

"Your Majesty."

"Call me Father."

Li Yuan took Chai Shao's hand, he wanted to marry Li Xiuning to Chai Shao, but in the end, he was the master to marry Xiuning to Luo Cheng, before Jiangdu raised troops, Li Yuan finally chose a daughter to marry Chai Shao in order to win over Chai Shao, a young talent, at that time the girl was only thirteen years old, and she was already the eldest of Li Yuan's unmarried daughters, but Li Yuan didn't care about this, or forced this daughter to Chai Shao.

Chai Shao's performance in the past two years made Li Yuan feel that his original decision was very right.

Li Yuan now has seven daughters who are married, and the seven attached horses he selected, Young Master Feng, Dou Dan, Duan Lun, eldest grandson Xiaozheng, Zhao Jingci, Dou Lu Huairang, and Chai Shao, all performed well, especially Chai Shao performed the best.

During the Jiangdu Rebellion, Chai Shao stood firmly on his side, escorted him out of Jiangdu City, helped him persuade Shen Guang and Chen Ling, and later recaptured Jiangdu, Chai Shao also helped pull a lot of aristocratic guards.

Although Chai Shao was defeated and captured in the first battle of Shallow Water Plains in Longyou, after the second victory in Shallow Water Plains, Chai Shao replaced Li Shimin to stay in Longyou, but on the one hand, he integrated the Western Qin army, and on the other hand, he attacked from all sides, and quickly won the entire Longyou region for Li Tang, and made great contributions to Li Tang's stable backyard.

It can be said that Chai Shao has only fought one defeat since the Jiangdu uprising, especially when he was in Longyou for half a year, and now he has integrated the Tang army and the Western Qin army in Longyou, with a total of 200,000 horses.

Now Li Yuan is the most short of soldiers, extremely short of soldiers, Jiancheng and Shimin have been defeated twice, and Li Yuan's foundation is almost shaken clean.

Now there are 20,000 soldiers in Lantian, 30,000 in Tongguan, 20,000 in Tongzhou, and 20,000 in Chang'an, this is the last strength on his side, a total of only 90,000.

With these 200,000 soldiers and horses in Longyou, Li Yuan is eager to contribute to the Li family's defense of Guanzhong.

After several big defeats, now Li Yuan no longer dares to talk about any attacks.

The Tang Army has shifted from attacking to defensive, and has even begun to focus on defense.

For this reason, Li Yuan had to transfer this large army of Longyou, even if many of them were newly recruited former Western Qin troops, and there were a large number of Longyou Qiang tribesmen in the original Western Qin army, as well as a large number of bandits and outcasts rebels.

Li Yuan couldn't control it, and he had to pull this 'heavy army' to the east to improve Chang'an's Guanhe defense line.

Of the 200,000 horses, he only left about 40,000 people in all parts of Longyou, and then the remaining 140,000, he asked Chai Shaoquan to bring them over and reorganize them into 12 armies, each with about 12,000 people.

"The Guanhe defense line is the last line of defense for our Chang'an, and it can't be lost again no matter what. Dugu Huai'en coerced Hanzhong to surrender to Qin, but fortunately, Dou Kang held on to Hechi and Sanguan, guarded our southwest gateway, and kept the connection with Bashu. ”

"Wuguan is lost, we can only retreat to the Lantian Pass in the southeast gate, fortunately, the road is dangerous and difficult to walk, and Luo Cheng's main force is not over there, so now our key is to guard the Tongguan Pass in Huazhou and Pujin in Tongzhou, which is the east gate and the east gate in the pass, and there is no room for loss.

Li Yuan is knowledgeable about military affairs, so he knows very well the importance of Tongguan and Pujin, this is Chang'an's Guanhe defense line, if he can hold the danger of this mountain and river, there can still be a glimmer of life, if he can't hold it, it will be over.

"Did Your Majesty let the ministers go to reinforce Tongguan?" Chai Shao asked.

"No, don't go to Tongguan." Li Yuan shook his head.