Li Yuan died of illness a day ago, and the country could not be without a king for a day, so the ministers supported the crown prince Li Jiancheng to ascend the throne that night, becoming the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and the era name was Changxing.

Although the Sui army had approached the city, Li Jiancheng still cheered up, while appeasing the ministers, while cheering up the people, and at the same time ordered to transfer 100,000 stone official grain to sell to the people at a parity price, so as to stabilize the price of grain in Chang'an.

At noon the next day, the defenders came with the news that traces of the Sui army had been found in the east and north at the same time, and this news immediately made Chang'an City nervous.

At the head of the city, 20,000 Tang soldiers looked nervously outside the city, the 150,000 troops from the east had appeared in the east several miles away, the banners were overwhelming, from south to north, the army was more than 20 miles long, the momentum was extremely huge, and the Sui army was busy camping.

At this time, a soldier shouted, "The saint has come up!" ”

The soldiers dodged away one after another, only to see hundreds of guards surrounding a Huangluo umbrella cover appeared at the head of the city, which was the new emperor Li Jiancheng got the news and personally boarded the city to check the enemy's situation.

Li Jiancheng has just ascended the throne, and he has not fully adapted to his new identity, the first emperor has not been buried, the queen mother has not been honored, the queen has not been sealed, and the crown prince has not been established, and these many future affairs will be busy for at least more than a month.

But he didn't have time anymore, he ordered the inner palace to be closed, and still held court discussions in the Xiande Hall of his East Palace to deal with the crisis, in fact, he had already been in charge of the government, but nothing else had changed except for the change of identity.

Li Jiancheng was dressed in a red dragon robe and wore a crown of cupola, he slowly walked to the battlements, looked at the overwhelming Sui army in the distance, and sighed in his heart, now the imperial court has finally stabilized, but it seems that it is too late.

"Your Majesty, the military spirit doesn't seem to be very stable." Next to him, Chen Shuda reminded Li Jiancheng in a low voice.

Li Jiancheng glanced at the soldiers and saw that the soldiers around him were silent, and everyone's eyes were full of uneasiness and nervousness.

He should have appeased the soldiers, but what could he say? But Li Jiancheng also knew that so many soldiers were waiting for him. As an emperor, he had to make a statement.

Li Jiancheng smiled reluctantly, stood on a high platform, and shouted to the soldiers: "All the soldiers, I am the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and I have come to visit you." ”

There was silence at the head of the city, and nearly 10,000 pairs of eyes were watching Li Jiancheng, in their memory. It seems that the emperor has never been seen in person to boost morale.

Li Jiancheng cheered up again and shouted, "I want to tell everyone." We have enough food in our warehouse, enough to support a year, but the Sui army has not enough food, and they will withdraw after a short period of support. Our Bashu has not been lost, the Tang army is still fighting against the Sui army, and we have also achieved victory. Everyone must have faith that the most difficult time will pass! ”

There was still silence in the city, no one cheered, this was Chen Shuda suddenly applauded, he hinted at the guards, and the guards also applauded. Finally led the soldiers at the head of the city. There was a round of applause at the head of the city, and some people raised their arms and shouted. "Long live Your Majesty the Tang Dynasty!"

"Hooray!"

The cheers on the top of the city rang out, Li Jiancheng's face was a little red, and the cheers of the soldiers made him excited.

He inspected the city again and encouraged the soldiers to cheer up, and with his encouragement, the soldiers who had been sluggish finally improved a little, and the city began to busily prepare for defense.

Li Jiancheng went down to the city, but saw Xiao Yu coming in a hurry, "Your Majesty! Xiao Yu shouted, looking a little nervous.

"What's wrong?" Li Jiancheng asked with a little uneasiness in his heart.

Xiao Yu stepped forward and said in a low voice: "Today, the minister personally went to count the grain in stock, and found that there were only 150,000 stone of grain. ”

"What!"

Li Jiancheng was taken aback and asked anxiously: "But there are obviously 400,000 stones of grain stored in the account books of Taifu Temple, where are the 250,000 stones?" ”

"Weichen also asked Liang Song of Taifu Temple, he was not very clear, and asked the people below, only to know that the 400,000 stone grain included the 25 stone grain of Guangtong Warehouse, and they did not share the account, in fact, there were only 150,000 stone in Chang'an's inventory."

Li Jiancheng suddenly became anxious, "Then I ordered to transfer 100,000 stone of grain to settle the price of grain, has it already been deducted?" ”

Xiao Yu shook his head, "We haven't moved yet, if we adjust another 100,000 stone of grain to stabilize the price of grain, we will only have 50,000 stone of grain left in Taicang." ”

Li Jiancheng was silent, 50,000 stone of grain was distributed to 40,000 troops, only a little more than one stone per person, together with their families, it was enough to eat for more than a month, not to mention that there were 500,000 or 600,000 people in the city.

He sighed, turned around and drove towards the car, Xiao Yu followed again, and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, in fact, there are some big families in the city who still have a lot of grain in stock, and the minister estimates that the total grain stock of these big families is at least 200,000 stones. ”

Li Jiancheng stopped, hesitated, and said, "You mean the Guanlong nobles?" ”

Xiao Yu nodded, "The Dugu family and the Dou family control the grain and salt in Chang'an, as well as the eldest grandson's family, they all have huge warehouses in their mansions, and there are tens of millions of money and grain, if they can ..... it."

Without waiting for him to finish, Li Jiancheng waved his hand, "Don't mention this matter again!" ”

Li Jiancheng knew very well in his heart that once the interests of the Guanlong nobles were moved, Chang'an City would immediately be unable to defend it, and he could not fight their ideas unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Is the 100,000 stone grain still allocated to stabilize the price of rice?" Xiao Yu asked again.

Li Jiancheng sighed, "Then let's allocate 30,000 stones first!" Leave 120,000 stone for urgent use. ”

He got into the carriage and went to the East Palace under the escort of the guards, Xiao Yu shook his head helplessly, and had to rush to Taicang to put grain......

In front of the gate of Dugu Mansion in Wubenfang, a carriage slowly stopped, the window was opened, Dou Liang poked his head out, looking at the changes in front of Dugu Mansion with some surprise, the two halberds that were originally arranged under the steps have been removed, and the sixteen guards standing in front of the gate of the mansion have disappeared.

Dou Liang suddenly came to his senses, this is Dugu Mansion began to posture, he secretly thought in his heart, in this case, his own mansion should also remove the halberd, and learn from Dugu Mansion.

The carriage slowly stopped, Dugu Weiming, who had been waiting in front of the house, walked down quickly, Dugu Weiming is the son of Dugu Huaien, is the guard of Qianniu in the palace, after Li Jiancheng closed the inner palace last night, Dugu Weiming was sent home, and when he heard that Dou Rail was visiting, Dugu Huaien ordered his son to greet him at the door.

Dugu Weiming stepped forward to give a salute, "The head of the Dou family is above, and the younger generation is only polite." ”

Dou Liang got out of the carriage, nodded with a smile and asked, "Is your father here?" ”

"Father is here, waiting for the head of the Dou family in the study, please come with me."

Dugu Weiming led Dou Liang to walk in the house, Dou Liang actually wanted to come to Dugu Zhen, I heard that Dugu Zhen was sick, which made him a little disappointed, and Dugu Liang went to Bashu by order, he could only come to Dugu Huaien.

"Is your master feeling better?" Dou Liang asked silently.

"The head of the family is very sick, the main one is old, please ask the royal doctor to see it, the royal doctor Wang has asked us to prepare to think about the future, hey!" Dugu Weiming let out a long sigh.

Dou Liang was silent, and after a while, Dugu Weiming led him to the study, and he knocked on the door, "Father, Dou Xiangguo is here." ”

"Please come in!"

Dugu Huaien's voice came from the house, Dou Liang walked into the study, only to see Dugu Huaien sitting on the table writing something, seeing him come in, Dugu Huaien hurriedly got up and smiled: "The etiquette is not good, and Dou Xiangguo is neglected." ”

Dugu Huaien is the son of Dugu Tuo, Li Yuan's cousin, and Dou Liang's peers, but he is relatively young, only in his early forties, the original secretary of the Ministry of Industry, at the beginning of the year Yang Gongren, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, transferred to Jingxiang, he was reappointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, although he is not Xiangguo, but he is also a high-ranking minister.

Last night, after he and his ministers supported Li Jiancheng to ascend the throne, he rested at home today, but Dou Liang came to visit.

Dou Rail said a few polite words, the two sat down separately, and a maid entered the house to serve them tea, but Dou Rail didn't have the heart to drink tea, sighed and said: "I just got the news that the 100,000 troops on the West Road of the Sui Army have been killed in Chencang County, and it is estimated that they will arrive in Chang'an tomorrow." ”

Dou Liang once served as the assassin of Fufeng County, and he had a little connection in Fufeng County, and the news was very wide, and the imperial court had not yet gotten the news, so he got it first, and Dugu Huaien said for a while: "In this way, there will be 250,000 Sui troops besieging the city tomorrow." ”

"More than two hundred and fifty thousand!"

Dou Rail shook his head and said: "There are also the 80,000 main forces of Yang Yuanqing's northern line, as well as the Cheng Biting Jin Department in the south of the city, it is estimated that they will all arrive tomorrow, so that there will be 340,000 troops besieging the city." ”

Dugu Huaien was silent, he didn't know what Dou Rail came to do to him, he could only deal with it with silence, Dou Rail of course came for a purpose today, he glanced at Dugu Huai'en, and asked tentatively: "Doesn't Dugu Shangshu feel that the Tang Dynasty has gone over?" ”

Dugu Huaien smiled, "I'm afraid it's not that I think about this, but everyone thinks so." ”

"Dugu Shangshu said it well, I met Xiao Xiangguo today, and he also thought so, he said that everything he is doing now is just to protect the dignity of Datang."

"Yes, 340,000 troops are besieging the city, and we only have 40,000 people, at most one month, the Sui army will inevitably break the city, and it won't even take a month, as long as the Sui army storms the city, at most three or five days, we can't hold on."

At this time, Dou Liang took out a petition from his arms, put it on the table, and pushed it to Dugu Huaien, "This is a petition written by me contacting some ministers, I hope that the Tang Dynasty can end in a decent way, there are already more than 100 ministers who have signed, I hope Dugu Shangshu can also consider it." ”

Dugu Huaien looked at it, and said that it was a decent end, but in fact, it was to persuade Li Jiancheng to surrender in Kaecheng, which was full of dense names, and there were more than 20 people in front, all of whom were Guanlong nobles, Dugu Huaien was secretly angry in his heart, it turned out that the Dou family was hiding from the Dugu family and secretly connected with so many Guanlong nobles.

He groaned and said: "If it is only signed in my own name, there is no problem, but if it is in the name of the family, I'm afraid I will have to discuss it with the family, and then reply to Xiangguo tomorrow morning, what do you think?" ”

Dou Liang smiled, "That's good! Let's just say it. (To be continued)

(No pop-up novel network) k