On July 22, the news of the defeat of the 200,000 troops of the Tang army in Xiangzhou quickly reached Chang'an, and Xuanzong was so shocked that he fell off the dragon chair after seeing the report, and lay on the dragon couch for a long time before relieving himself. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the morning of July 23, Xuanzong sent someone to summon Yu Chaoen, who was in charge of supervising the army, to inquire about the details of the battle.

"Tell me, why did this battle come to this?" Xuanzong asked while lying on the dragon couch.

Yu Chaoen knelt on the ground and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the old slave is entrusted by His Majesty and does not dare to take it lightly, after rushing to the army, he abides by his duty, and has never interfered in the military affairs of the armies beyond his authority. On that day, our army and the rebels were inseparable, but at dusk suddenly the sky changed greatly, flying sand and rocks, big trees were uprooted, many soldiers were caught in the wind and sand and disappeared, the soldiers were horrified when they saw this, and our army did not have a unified military order, and the soldiers were in chaos, each of them broke and fled, trampled on each other, and countless people died!"

Although Yu Chaoen put the responsibility for this defeat on Guo Ziyi, Xuanzong knew very well that the responsibility for this defeat was not Guo Ziyi, but him! It was he, the emperor, who did not appoint the commander of this operation, and if there was a unified command, the losses would not be so great. The reason why he did not formulate a commander-in-chief was because none of the nine knots had a prestige higher than others, and he was worried that the appointment of the commander-in-chief would cause the result of supporting the army and self-respect, so he did not appoint a commander before the war, but only sent Yu Chaoen as the supervisor of the army, but he did not expect that it was a strong wind that ended the war, although it seemed that both sides were not defeated, but in fact the Tang army was defeated, because the Tang army trampled on each other and suffered heavy casualties.

The good situation that Zhao Ziliang had created after more than two years of hard work had all been buried in such a short period of time, and the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that Xuanzong only felt that he had fallen into an ice cellar.

"Come on, draft edict!" Xuanzong shouted at Zhao Hanlin.

An edict was sent directly from the palace without going through Shangshutai, and the eunuch escorting the edict quickly headed south to Gangneung with dozens of forbidden troops.

Xuanzong has no other way at this time, except to ask Zhao Ziliang to go out of the mountain again, he can't find anyone else who can save this crisis, the Tang Army's nine knots made 200,000 people lose most of them in the battle of Xiangzhou, and several knots have made the hard work of the past few years be dissipated, and it is definitely not an overnight thing to sign so many soldiers and train them into an army.

After the edict was delivered to Jiangling, the eunuch who escorted the edict came to the county king's mansion accompanied by Yao Zhiyuan, the commander of Jiangling County.

Zhao Ziliang had also received the news before this, but he was not prepared for anything.

"Lord Wang, the envoy sent by the imperial court has arrived, and Yao Zhiyuan, the county magistrate, is accompanying him, just outside the gate, is the prince going out to greet him?" Wang Can walked into the backyard to report.

Zhao Ziliang said: "I won't go to greet them, you take them to the front hall to serve tea first, and I'll change my clothes and go over!" ”

Since the completion of the county king's mansion built for him by the imperial court, his family has not lived in it, and has been living in the three-hall courtyard built by his own family, and he usually does not wear the county king's clothes given to him by the imperial court, and does not use the county king-level car. It was a matter for the court to ask for a reward, but he did not accept it.

Zhao Ziliang changed his clothes and walked out from behind the screen, and when he saw Yao Zhiyuan, he smiled and said, "Lord Yao is here?" Who is this? ”

Yao Zhiyuan didn't believe that Zhao Ziliang didn't know what the people around him were doing, but he didn't break it, and arched his hand: "This is Gonggong Luo sent by the imperial court, and Gonggong Luo is here to summon!" ”

Luo Fengxian said loudly to Zhao Ziliang: "Under the emperor's holy decree, Zhao Ziliang, the king of Jiangling County, receives the decree!" ”

Zhao Ziliang arched his hand and said: "This father-in-law, I'm sorry, please tell me what the will is first, if it is something I can't do, I don't dare to accept this edict!" ”

Luo Fengxian was furious: "What? Do you dare to disobey the edict? ”

Zhao Ziliang shouted to Wang Can: "Come on, send off guests!" Then he turned around and left.

Yao Zhiyuan hurriedly grabbed Zhao Ziliang and persuaded: "The king of the county has something to say, don't get angry!" It's the Divine Decree coming, and listen to the Emperor's will! ”

Zhao Ziliang snorted coldly, walked to the main seat and sat down, picked up the tea to drink, and no longer paid attention to Yao Zhiyuan and Luo Fengxian.

Yao Zhiyuan pulled Luo Fengxian to the side and muttered: "Gonggong Luo, it's not that you don't know the current situation in the court, the emperor still expects to rely on this to quell the rebellion, but you are playing prestige here, you can't do anything and go back to have good fruits to eat?" Put yourself down, don't embarrass yourself too much! ”

Luo Fengxian was angry, but he also knew that Yao Zhiyuan's words made sense, bear with it, when the rebellion was quelled, the court didn't need this person, and then he would clean him up!

Thinking of this, Luo Feng first walked over and said to Zhao Ziliang: "Lord Zhao, Your Majesty will let you be reinstated as an official and preside over the counterinsurgency, and rush to Hangu Pass to take up your post from now on!" This is an edict, you can see it! ”

Zhao Ziliang didn't accept the edict, shook his head and said: "Please go back and tell Your Majesty, just say that I have written to tell the old man to return to his hometown last year, and I don't want to pay attention to the affairs of the court, Your Majesty's grace, Weichen can only thank you here, please Your Majesty choose another meritocracy!" Someone, send off! ”

Yao Zhiyuan and Luo Fengxian looked at each other.

Wang Can walked over and said, "Two of you, please!" ”

Luo Fengxian and Yao Zhiyuan could only return to the Zhixian Yamen first, and sent 800 miles to Chang'an to report the news.

Xuanzong learned that Zhao Ziliang did not accept the edict, and knew that last year's seizure of his military power hurt Zhao Ziliang's heart, in view of the increasingly severe situation, Xuanzong had to give up his old face, and issued two edicts in a row, and the words in the edict were more earnest than the other.

Before the third edict was issued, Xuanzong ordered Cui Yuan, who had been locked in the prison for several months, to be beheaded at the noon gate, which was regarded as giving Zhao Ziliang a step down, and last year it was this guy who mainly seized Zhao Ziliang's military power, because Xuanzong knew very well that if no one was responsible for the incident last year, he was afraid that Zhao Ziliang would not take the edict to take office.

Before the third edict arrived in Jiangling, Zhao Ziliang had already learned that Xuanzong had ordered Cui Yuan to be killed, and this time he did not turn Luo Fengxian away, opened the middle door to greet him, and knelt down to receive the holy decree.

"The emperor's decree: The rebels are rampant today, the land east of Hebei is ten rooms and nine empty, the life is difficult, and I am also wrong! Wangqing does not abandon my old age and despair, but thinks of the dawn of the world, goes out of the mountain to take over the military power, quell the rebellion, and return the world's billions of living beings to a bright future. Zhao Ziliang, the king of Jiangling County, was immediately reinstated as an official and became the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, with full authority to deal with counterinsurgency matters."

The emperor admitted his mistake, put his posture so low, and killed Cui Yuan to get justice for Zhao Ziliang, Zhao Ziliang was not good at repeatedly prevaricating, and immediately packed up and prepared to go to the post after sending Luo Fengxian away.

On October 25, the seventeenth year of Tianbao, Zhao Ziliang took his wife and three hundred personal soldiers to escort him to his hometown and rushed to Hangu Pass to receive the handsome seal.

Yao Zhiyuan brought the officials to greet him, and a servant brought a glass of water and wine, Yao Zhiyuan picked up a small cup and said to Zhao Ziliang: "Today, the prince of the county set off to the army to take over the handsome seal, and the lower officials and other representatives of the hometown came to toast a glass of water and wine to the prince of the county, and wished the prince of the county a victory!" ”

Zhao Ziliang took the wine glass and drank it all, put down the wine glass and hugged his fists and said, "Thank you for coming to see each other, please go back!" ”

After speaking, Zhao Ziliang boarded the boat with his wife, and the three hundred escort cavalry also got on the boat one after another, and the officials stood on the shore and waved goodbye.

After crossing the river, Zhao Ziliang found Wang Can and instructed: "Quickly send someone to Hanguguan, let Chu Ge and others set up the marshal's camp first, and the marshal's camp will be set up in Shaanxi County, and let them give Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, Zhang Shouyu, Li Huan, Xu Shuji, Dong Qin, Ji Guangchen, Wang Rare, Wang Sili, Lu Jiong, Lai Yao and others in my name to hand over all the military affairs in their hands to the deputy, and use this winter time to rush to Shaanxi County to discuss the overall strategic meeting, and they must arrive before the first day of December, otherwise they will be punished for delaying the fighter plane!" ”

"Yes!" Wang Can agreed, and immediately said: "Marshal, since the fiasco in the Battle of Xiangzhou, Huaixi Jiedu made Lu Jiong commit suicide for fear of being convicted!" ”

Zhao Ziliang exclaimed: "What? When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me? ”

Wang Can said: "It was about the end of July, and the marshal was in a very bad mood when he heard the news of the Xiangzhou fiasco, so his subordinates didn't tell the marshal the news!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was silent for a while, feeling that Lu Jiong had died a pity, and the responsibility for the fiasco in the Battle of Xiangzhou was not Lu Jiong.

The youngest son Zhao Chu is one year old, he doesn't cry or make trouble, but he is very naughty, but it does not affect the itinerary.

It only took ten days to get to Nanyang, and the road after arriving in Nanyang was not very good, Zhao Ziliang wanted to go to Shaanxi County to preside over the overall situation, and he couldn't go to Luoyang, because Luoyang was now entrenched by the rebels, so he could only take Shangnan all the way to the north, but this road was not very easy to walk, Mrs. Meng and some maidservants could not take the mountain road, Zhao Ziliang had to send more than half of his personal guards to let them go to Shangzhou to the northwest to Chang'an, and then go to Shaanxi County to meet him after resting in Chang'an for a while.

Zhao Ziliang arrived in Shaanxi County on the 10th day of November, when Mrs. Meng was on her way to Chang'an with her son Zhao Chushangzhou.

After learning that Zhao Ziliang had arrived at the camp of the marshal of Shaanxi County, Chu Ge, Li Siye, Zhao Ting, Bai Xiaode, Li Sheng and others stationed in the area of Hangu Pass handed over military affairs to their deputies, and they quickly rushed to Shaanxi County to meet Zhao Ziliang. (To be continued.) )