The White Lotus Hall of Taiji Palace, here is the dormitory of Concubine Yin De, it is already a watch at this time, the palace is surrounded by palace guards, a team of guards patrols back and forth, and there is a secret whistle hidden in the dark, all kinds of signs indicate that the Tang Emperor Li Yuan stayed in the White Lotus Hall tonight.

It was already late at night, the guards were wearing thick-soled soft boots, their steps were as light as possible, and it was very quiet inside and outside the palace.

"Who is it?" The guards rushed up and intercepted those who dared to run unrestrainedly.

"It's me!" The voice of the person who came was very stern, and the guards recognized it as Zhou Jun, the general of the Zhige, and they were all frightened and dodged away.

Zhou Jun glared at the guards fiercely, and walked up the steps quickly, but the two eunuchs stopped him, "General Zhou, the Holy Lord has rested, don't disturb!" ”

Zhou Jun hurriedly clenched his fists and said: "I know, but I have a hundred thousand urgent matters to report to the saint, and ask the two fathers-in-law to report to the saint." ”

The two eunuchs glanced at each other, generally they couldn't disturb the rest of the saint, but Zhou Jun, as a general of the Zhige, should know this rule better, there must be something important, if something goes wrong, they can't afford it, a eunuch nodded, "General Zhou, please wait!" ”

The eunuch turned around and walked towards the palace, Concubine Yin De's bedroom was even quieter, the two incense burners in the corner of the house were full of green smoke, filled with a thick sandalwood incense, the ground was covered with a thick carpet of the Western Regions, the wall was hung with colorful and gorgeous Shu brocade, and above the main hall fell a grapefruit-sized night pearl in the middle of several long silk curtains, sprinkling a faint and clear light to every corner of the hall.

Two thick curtains hung low in the middle of the main hall, dividing the main hall into two, and eight palace maids stood outside the curtain, holding various utensils, waiting for the call of the saint and the mother.

On the jade steps in the main hall, there is an ivory gold wire bed, and a thick hibiscus warm tent is hung on the bed, and in the tent, the Tang Emperor Li Yuan is sleeping with the young and beautiful Concubine Yin De.

At this time, it was already one watch, but Concubine Yin De's voice was still heard in the tent, "Your Majesty must agree to the matter of the concubine's father, and if you don't agree, I won't follow." ”

"Aifei, don't worry! Your father is the national abbot, how can the membrane be investigated? Rest early! I'm tired.

"No, Your Majesty must personally promise the concubine, otherwise the concubine will cry to the saint."

"Good! Good! Good! I formally promised my concubine that I would never pursue your father's affairs. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, sleep Your Majesty! The concubine warms up His Majesty's body. ”

At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside the curtain, followed by a eunuch who reported, "Your Majesty, there is an urgent matter to report." ”

Li Yuan and Concubine Yin De had just finished doing the loving thing and were already exhausted, but at this time, someone came to disturb him, which made him very angry, but the funeral said that there was an urgent matter, so he held back his anger and asked coldly, "What is the matter?" ”

"Your Majesty, it was General Zhou of Zhige who came to report, and he said that there were three pots of beacon fire lit on the left peak of Lishan."

The Lishan beacon fire was lit, which meant that the foreign enemy Koubian was either Turkic or Tuyuhun, but the Turks and the Tang Dynasty basically did not border, which can be ruled out, and it should be the possibility of Tuyuhun being greater.

Although this is also a big deal, Li Yuan is too tired to put it aside for a while, so he said, "I know, and I will discuss it with the ministers tomorrow." ”

After a pause, the eunuch cautiously reminded again: "Your Majesty, it is the beacon fire of Zuo Feng." ”

"What!"

Li Yuan sat down suddenly, there are two beacon seams in Lishan, the right peak beacon is the Kansai and the north newspaper jǐng, and the left peak beacon gap is the Kanto newspaper jǐng, the Kanto out jǐng, which means that the enemy in the pass has invaded, so frightened that Li Yuan is sleepy, and hurriedly put on his robe and get up

Concubine Yin De didn't dare to sleep anymore, she shouted, and several palace maids immediately came in, put on thick robes and flat scarves for Li Yuan, and Li Yuan hurriedly walked to the outer palace.

Zhou Jun, the general of the Zhige, was waiting here, and when he saw Li Yuan coming out, he hurriedly stepped forward to report: "Your Majesty, the beacon fire has just been lit, and it is likely that something happened to Pujin Pass." ”

Li Yuan also guessed that there was an accident on the side of Pujin Pass, it should be the Sui army that invaded Guanzhong, which made him panic in his heart, Guanzhong was empty, and Chang'an only had 20,000 troops, if there was really a Sui army attacking Guanzhong, how would he deal with it?

Li Yuan's back was shocked into six cold sweats, and he hurriedly ordered left and right: "Quickly go and summon the capital of the Five Phases Kingdom to my imperial study." ”

Li Yuan didn't feel sleepy, he went back to the palace to wash up briefly, and then hurried to the imperial study......

On the Wudedian Square, the heavy snow has been swept away, Pei Lian, Chen Shuda, Xiao Li, Dou Rail, Dugu Zhen and other five phases have rushed to come, at this time they all know about the Lishan beacon fire, this news also shocked them, the five of them are gathering together to discuss.

"I said last time, send all the troops out, Guanzhong is empty, and the risk will be very great, but none of you listen, and no one of you will persuade the saint, and now the problem is out, what should you do if you say it?"

Pei Lian's voice was very loud, with a hint of resentment, when he sent troops, he thought that it was inappropriate to send troops to the country, but at that time, Li Yuan was angry, he didn't dare to persuade him, so he wanted others to mention this matter, but no one paid attention to him, and now that it was really in danger, he immediately began to complain to everyone.

The other four all glanced at him coldly, Pei Lin was good at making small movements behind his back, and everyone was very jealous of him, and they didn't care about him, and no one paid attention to his complaints.

At this time, a eunuch walked out of the steps and said in a loud voice: "There is a decree in the Holy Spirit, announce the five phases of the country." ”

The five Xiangguo tidied up their clothes and walked into the Wude Hall together, at this time the lights in the imperial study had been lit, and a few pots of charcoal fire had baked the room very warm, Li Yuan was standing in front of a map of Guanzhong with his hands, and was silent for a long time.

"See Your Majesty!" The five prime ministers have bowed down the mountain

Li Yuan waved his hand, "Everyone, Aiqing, give me a seat!" ”

The eunuchs moved to a single couch, and everyone sat down, Li Yuan sighed and said: "I'm really sorry to bring you to sweep the country in the middle of the night, I think everyone knows, Lishan has ignited a beacon fire, and the situation is still unknown, but I am really worried, the Sui army is very likely to take advantage of the emptiness in the pass to kill in, let's talk about it!" What now? ”

The five of them were silent, and for a moment, Dou Liang bowed slightly and said: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that it is more likely that the Sui army will enter the pass from Pujin Pass, and now Pujin Pass should be no longer guaranteed, if so, as soon as tomorrow at noon, the Sui army will be killed to Chang'an, Weichen considers, there should be two emergency response plans." ”

Li Yuan was overjoyed, he now hopes to get advice with practical content, Dou Liang was the Taishou of Fufeng County, he led the army and the people to fight for half a month, and successfully resisted the attack of Yang Xuangan's 100,000 army with 15,000 troops, and he was very experienced in deploying defense, Li Yuan trusted him very much, so he hurriedly said: "Dou Xiangguo, please speak."

Dou Liang smiled slightly, "Actually, everyone wants to get my plan, one is to defend the city, the other is to ask for help, but the Yulin army and Jin Wuwei are ordered to immediately go to the city to defend, and at the same time recruit Chang'an Qingzhuang to assist in defending the city, if the minister is not mistaken, the Sui army should be a light cavalry assault, without siege weapons, so the problem of Chang'an City is not very big, but the Sui cavalry into the pass, will greatly affect the morale of the army and the people, will shake the confidence of the army and the people in the Tang Dynasty, so we must ask for help, let the prince's army and the army of King Qin return at the same time." ”

Next to him, Chen Shuda frowned and said: "Maybe the purpose of the Sui army is to encircle Wei to save Zhao and force us to withdraw the army, if we let the two armies come back to help, wouldn't we just fall into the Sui army's strategy, and Xiangguo didn't think of this?" ”

Dou Liang shook his head, "Chen Xiangguo is too worried, Yang Yuanqing's heavy army is in the north, and there are 30,000 Turkic troops raging in the hinterland of Hedong, and his army has no time to go south, so there will not be many troops for this sneak attack, at most 20,000 people, in fact, what I mean is to annihilate this sneak attack army in Guanzhong, but it can boost the morale of the army and the people, in addition, the army does not have to return all the reinforcements, 50,000 people each is enough." ”

Pei Lin also said: "We can even let the King of Qin cross the river from Shaanxi County to the north and counterattack Hedong County, cutting off the back route of this sneak attack on the Sui army, or Suo Xìng will go north and seize Hedong County and Jiang County, these two counties have large populations and developed agriculture, which will be our biggest harvest." ”

At this time, Li Yuan saw that Xiao Li had been silent in thought, so he asked, "What does Xiao Xiangguo think?" ”

Xiao Li had a worried look in his eyes, and said slowly: "Weichen is thinking, why didn't the Sui Dynasty send troops some time ago, when Guannei Dao was not occupied, and Luoyang was not besieged, at that time, sending troops could better contain us, but now that the troops are being dispatched, don't the Sui army know that they will be surrounded and annihilated in Guanzhong?" Didn't the Sui army know that Hedong County would be attacked by the Tang army instead? ”

Xiao Li's doubts made Li Yuan seem to understand something, "Xiao Aiqing means ......"

Xiao Li nodded, "Weichen is seventy percent sure that the Sui army has defeated the Turks, and only in this way can they dare to raid Chang'an like this." ”

Xiao Li's bold judgment made Li Yuan gasp, if this was the case, the situation would change.

Just at this mussel, there was a sound of running outside, and someone reported outside the door: "Your Highness Qiqi, there is an urgent report in Taiyuan!" ”

The Tang Feng in Taiyuan has been destroyed, but there are still some Tang forces hidden in Taiyuan, although they dare not take any action, but if there is any major change in Taiyuan, they will also send news.

A sense of foreboding swelled in Li Yuan's heart, could it be...... He hurriedly ordered: "Submit it quickly!" ”

A eunuch hurriedly walked in, presented a copy of the information that had been copied with both hands, Li Yuan took the information and read it, there was only one line on it: 'Sui army victory' Taiyuan is full of celebration......

Li Yuan's heart was cold, as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and he smiled bitterly and said to Xiao Li: "Sure enough, Aiqing was right, the Sui army defeated the Turkic army. ”

There was a whisper in the imperial study, Li Yuan couldn't sit still, he stood up and walked to the window with his hands behind his back, staring at the night sky, his heart was extremely heavy, the last thing he wanted to face finally came.

"Your Majesty, hold Chang'an first, and then make a decision depending on the development of the situation." Dou Rail suggested.

Li Yuan nodded, turned back to everyone, and said, "You can let the crown prince and the king of Qin each return 50,000 troops to help Guanzhong!" ”

He said to Dou Orbit again: "The heavy responsibility of defending the city will be handed over to Spring Aiqing." ”

……