After Hou Tiancheng left, Zhao Ziliang thought for a long time and instructed Wang Can: "Wang Can, our intelligence system has been established for more than ten or twenty years, right?" How much manpower and material resources have I put into it during this time? From now on, if you give me all the resources of our intelligence system, I don't believe that our intelligence system can't even find out the news of a small Tianxianglou, if that's the case, the ability of your intelligence system is too poor! What's the use of keeping it? ”

A cold sweat broke out on Wang Can's forehead, and he hurriedly said: "Over the years, our focus has been on the officials of the imperial court, the local military and politics, the people's livelihood in various places, prices, etc., and we have not been in contact with things on the rivers and lakes. ”

Zhao Ziliang asked, "Is there anything else?" If not, go get busy! ”

"Lord Wang, there is one more thing, news came from the north this morning, the rebel general Yin Ziqi personally led 100,000 horses to break through Yexian, to the southwest can attack Fangcheng, Nanyang line, to the northwest can be pinched Ruzhou, now there are less than 10,000 horses in Ruzhou, and it can't withstand the siege of Yin Qizhi's 200,000 army at all, Fangcheng and Nanyang are even more empty, and the two cities add up to less than 3,000 people! There is another thing, Cui Qianyou and Neng Yuanhao, who were taken to Chang'an Heavenly Prison for detention, were robbed in the middle of the road, and according to reliable information, they have appeared in Xiangzhou! ”

Zhao Ziliang frowned and said, "Did An Qingxu send someone to do it?" ”

"Otherwise, they wouldn't be in Xiangzhou! And news came from Xiangzhou, Cui Qianyou and Neng Yuanhao were reactivated by An Qingxu, and now An Qingxu has ordered Cui Qianyou to lead 50,000 troops to the north to attack Li Guangbi's department, and ordered Neng Yuanhao to lead 50,000 troops south to Huaizhou, Wang rarely only has 20,000 horses, not only to garrison all parts of Huaizhou, but also to guard against Neng Yuanhao, the situation is extremely difficult!! ”

The situation has deteriorated to this point, although Zhao Ziliang is no longer in command of the army, but he is still very worried when he hears these news, and after thinking for a long time, he instructed Wang Can: "Send someone to convey my words to Chu Ge and Li Siye and others: Don't care about the gains and losses of one city and one place, if necessary, you can carry out a strategic retreat to preserve the living force, as long as we have 100,000 elites in our hands, we will have a chance to turn defeat into victory, even if the rebels have a million troops, they are just a rabble, don't worry!" We can't let a bunch of mediocre talents toss this elite in our hands, they are cubs who sell Ye Tian and don't feel sorry, but these elites are what we spent years and countless painstaking efforts to get, they want to toss, let them toss their own people, don't toss our people! ”

Wang Can said: "Understand, my subordinates will do it immediately!" ”

On the ninth day of December, Li Siye led the army to retreat to Luoyang, and Lu Jiong, Wang Sili and others, who were stationed in Ruzhou, were worried that they would not be able to resist Yin Ziqi alone and would be besieged in Ruzhou, so they quickly led the remnants of more than 10,000 people to retreat to Luoyang. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Yang Chengye, the marshal of the Eastern Expedition, ordered the Beiting Army to attack the rebels coming from the direction of Xingyang, in view of Yang Chengye's previous series of erroneous commands caused a large number of losses, the situation was deteriorating day by day, the Beiting Army did not receive the order, Yang Chengye ordered Li Siye and Lu Jiong and others to lead troops to attack Yin Ziqi's troops, but neither of them received the order, and they did not go to see Wang Chengye at all.

Wang Chengye was unable to control the army at this time, he could only control the 12,000 Yulin army he brought from Chang'an, but the combat effectiveness of the 12,000 Yulin army was really not very good, and was defeated by the rebel general Tian Qianzhen when facing the rebels coming from the direction of Xingyang, and only 2,000 of the 12,000 Yulin army fled back.

On December 18, Chu Ge led 40,000 horses and 20,000 Central Plains troops to retreat to Hangu Pass without Wang Chengye's consent, and Li Siye also led 50,000 men under his command to retreat to Hangu Pass the next day.

Wang Chengye saw that the soldiers and horses in Luoyang City had been withdrawn, and he was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and at this time the rebels were approaching again, and he was worried that he was surrounded in Luoyang, so he hurriedly left Lu Jiong, Wang Sili and others to flee west.

When Wang Chengye left, he left a piece of appointment, appointing Lu Jiong as the Luoyang guard, Wang Sili as the deputy to stay behind, the two of them were so angry that they scolded their mothers after seeing the appointment of the official document, and they wanted to lead the army to withdraw, but they were worried that the court would investigate them afterwards, so they held on for two days.

On December 21, the road south from Luoyang has been cut off by the rebels, Lu Jiong and Wang Sili want to lead the army to retreat south, but with less than 10,000 horses in their hands to hold Luo** It is impossible, in desperation, Lu Jiong and Wang Sili wrote to the court to explain the truth and plead guilty, and led the troops to retreat to Mengjin.

On December 23, the rebels captured Luoyang again without blood, and the people in the city were slaughtered.

In the first month of the seventeenth year of Tianbao, Wang Chengye fled back to Chang'an.

The people of Chang'an were trembling this year, lest the rebels come back again, and Emperor Li Longji and his ministers were also concerned.

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month was originally the Shangyuan Festival, and the whole country was going to celebrate the holiday, but on this day, the emperor held a court meeting, because Wang Chengye, the marshal of the Eastern Expedition, fled back from Luoyang in great embarrassment.

Emperor Xuanzong looked older and older, he sat on the throne with a straight face, and the civil and military officials and ministers visited together, Xuanzong was impetuous, waved his hand and said: "King Xuan's Chengye is here!" ”

Gao Lishi immediately conveyed his will, and the eunuchs spread the will all the way outside the main hall, and Wang Chengye immediately entered the hall and knelt on the ground after hearing it: "Weichen see Your Majesty, long live, long live!" ”

Xuanzong slapped the imperial case and said angrily: "Long live? If there were a few more courtiers like you, I would be angry with you, so what else can you talk about? Wang Chengye, you made a great situation like this, do you still have the face to come back? Why don't you kill yourself to thank the world? ”

Wang Chengye was so frightened that he trembled, and hurriedly cried: "Your Majesty, it's not that the ministers are incompetent, but the generals and colonels in front are all arrogant and fierce generals, these people are unruly, they don't listen to the command at all, and the ministers can't do anything!" ”

Prime Minister Fang Xuan stood up and asked, "Wang Dashuai, aren't you afraid of losing face when you say this?" If the commander does not move, the commander in front can't explain anything else, it can only show that you are incompetent, if the capable general will find a way to make the generals under his command bow down to orders, and the incompetent people will only shift the blame for the failure to the generals under their command, saying that they do not listen to the command! But all the generals who can fight, who is not a little arrogant? You don't have what it takes to convince them, so how can they listen to you? ”

Cui Yuan stood up and said to Fang Xuan: "Lord Fang, what you said is a bit excessive, right?" Marshal Wang is the marshal of the Eastern Expedition personally appointed by His Majesty, if he is incompetent, doesn't that mean that His Majesty is ignorant? In my opinion, it is not that Wang Dashuai is incompetent, but that the generals and colonels in front are too arrogant, they do not obey the command is to disobey the military order, and disobeying the military order has always been a major crime of killing the head, please Your Majesty order to condemn those generals who disobey the military order, in order to set an example! ”

Xuanzong couldn't help it, slammed the table, and pointed at Cui Yuan angrily: "You dog, if I issue an order to condemn the generals and colonels in front, then who will lead the troops to resist the rebels?" Are you doing this to turn against them? How can there be such a stupid person as you in the world, or are you a small work planted by the rebels in the imperial court? Come on, drag this dog out and cut it down for me! ”

When Cui Yuan heard this, he was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and shouted: "Your Majesty, Weichen is loyal, Weichen is all for the sake of Your Majesty and the Tang Dynasty······

"For the sake of me and the Tang Dynasty? Why does every suggestion you make bring disaster to the imperial court? What is the use of me coming to a man like you? Drag it out and cut it! Cut Wang Chengye together, it's all some waste, what's the use of keeping it? ”

The four armor soldiers who walked in outside the hall dragged Cui Yuan and Wang Chengye outside, and the two of them were so frightened that they screamed and begged for mercy.

Generally speaking, the emperor rarely orders to kill people in court, even if he wants to kill people, he will be imprisoned in the prison first and then killed, so that there is a buffer time in the middle, in order to prevent himself from killing indiscriminately in the case of anger, and there is no room for regret when killing the wrong person, and put the person who wants to kill in the prison, and use this buffer time to weigh and consider whether to kill or not, this time Xuanzong is too angry, Cui Yuan almost every thing he does, every proposal makes the court suffer huge losses, It's just that this guy still has a group of henchmen in the court, and his power is not small, which makes Xuanzong have to pay attention to his proposal every time, this time Xuanzong didn't wait for other ministers to speak, and wanted to kill this guy first.

Sure enough, someone stood up to plead, first of all, Prime Minister Cui Lian, "Please take back your majesty's fate, Lord Cui Yuan's words are the words of the old Cheng to seek the country, Your Majesty must not abuse the innocent!" ”

Wei Jiansu couldn't help it, and immediately stood up and bowed down: "Your Majesty is angry, Lord Cui Yuan just did his duty as a courtier to advise His Majesty, as for whether His Majesty adopts it all up to His Majesty, His Majesty can't condemn him, if Your Majesty kills Master Cui today, who else will dare to speak to Your Majesty in the court?" ”

Other prime ministers and ministers also stood up to plead, even if they were not in the same camp as Cui Yuan, they all stood up, after all, if they were killed because of their words, once there was a precedent for this kind of thing, who knew who would be killed again for this kind of thing in the future? If it was something else, the people in Cui Yuan's hostile camp would not only not help to intercede, but would fall into the ground, but this kind of thing was related to all the ministers of the court, so all the ministers stood up and knelt on the ground, asking the emperor to take back his fate.

Xuanzong saw that everyone knelt down, and his mind was a little clearer, knowing that he was blinded by anger, but it was obviously impossible to take back his fate, this was undoubtedly a compromise with the ministers and undermined the emperor's authority!

Xuanzong waved his hand and said: "Come on, put Cui Yuan in the prison, strictly guard, no one is allowed to visit without my edict, and those who violate the order will be beheaded!" (To be continued.) )