At the time of the fourth watch, Chang'an City is still dark, ten thousand sounds are silent, only occasionally hear the sound of bangzi, until after the fifth watch, Chang'an City will have a little movement, the officials will get up one after another to prepare for the court, the store is also ready to open, the porter also has to pack up and go out to work, but at this time it is only the fourth watch and three moments, the city is still very quiet.

At this moment, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance, and several cavalrymen galloped forward on two war horses each, and rushed to the east city in a moment, shouting for the leading cavalry: "Open the city gate quickly!" 100,000 urgent. ”

When the defenders of the city saw that there were only three messengers, they slowly opened the gates of the city, and the three messengers threw arrows to the defenders, and galloped away into the city.

The rapid sound of horses' hooves woke up the residents on both sides of Chunming Street, and everyone talked about it, not knowing what was going on? The messenger rushed to the palace in one breath and shouted to the defenders above: "The military situation is urgent, and it must be reported to the Holy God immediately." ”

The Son of Heaven Li Yuan slept in Concubine Yin's palace last night, and he usually didn't get up until after the fifth watch to freshen up and prepare for the court, and at this time he was sleeping soundly, and he didn't dare to disturb the sleep of the Son of Heaven.

But Li Yuan was still gently pushed awake by Concubine Yin De, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! ”

Li Yuan half-opened his eyes tiredly and asked, "Are you going to the court?" ”

"Your Majesty, it is said that there is an urgent military intelligence report."

Hearing that it was an urgent military situation, Li Yuan woke up suddenly, and hurriedly asked, "Is it the military information sent by King Qin?" ”

There was a report from a eunuch outside the tent: "It's not His Royal Highness the King of Qin, it's a military intelligence sent from Hedong, saying that 100,000 are urgent." ”

Li Yuan was stunned for a moment, could it be that Taiyuan was lost?

He hurriedly sat up, Concubine Yin De put on a robe for him, Li Yuan put on the robe, walked out of the inner tent and asked, "Where is the military report?" ”

Outside, a eunuch walked in, knelt down to present a volume of military newspapers, Li Yuan picked up the military newspaper, tore off the sealed wax, opened the military newspaper and hurriedly read it, he suddenly thundered like five thunders, the military newspaper fell off from his hand, his legs were weak, and he was crumbling, and the eunuch next to him was quick and fast, and he helped Li Yuan.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty steady! ”

Concubine Yin Defei also put on a light veil and came out, and together with the eunuchs, Li Yuan sat on the dragon couch, Li Yuan seemed to be stunned, Concubine Yin Defei was anxious, and asked in a low voice: "What happened, why did Your Majesty do this?" ”

The eunuch shook his head in fear, he didn't know anything, at this time, Li Yuan suddenly shouted, "God kill me!" ”

"Your Majesty, what happened?"

Li Yuan finally regained his composure at this time, he shook his head painfully, and said to the eunuch: "Quickly go and summon all the officials above the third rank to come to the Wude Hall to discuss major matters." ”

The eunuch rushed away, and Li Yuan said to Concubine Yin De: "Pujin Pass and Hedong City have been lost, and the Sui army has captured them, and Guanzhong is in danger!" ”

Concubine Yin De is a native of Bingzhou, she knows the importance of Hedong City and Pujin Pass, she was so frightened that she was shocked, and exclaimed: "Your Majesty, has Bingzhou been lost?" ”

Li Yuan was also flustered, his fourth son Yuanji and many important ministers were in Taiyuan, if Taiyuan was lost, then he should have received the news a long time ago, but if Taiyuan was fine, then how could Pujin Pass and Hedong City be captured by the Sui army?

Li Yuan's heart was in a mess, he stood up and walked a few steps and said, "Immediately freshen up for me, I want to discuss with the minister!" ”

The fifth correction is four o'clock in the morning, the sky is not yet bright, the lights in the Wude side hall are bright, more than a dozen important ministers have hurried to the palace, at this time it is still early to go to the court at the beginning of the hour, the ministers have guessed what should have happened, whispering in the side hall.

At this time, Dou Wei, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, asked, "Chen Xiangguo, the Holy Lord urgently summoned us, what happened?" ”

Chen Shuda was the important minister on duty last night, if something happened, he should know the situation, everyone looked at him, Chen Shuda smiled bitterly and said: "It should be an urgent military report sent more than half an hour ago, I don't know the specific situation, the military report was sent directly to the inner palace." ”

There was a sudden discussion in the hall, everyone was speculating, either the Central Plains war report, or the Taiyuan defeat, other places are unlikely, among which the Central Plains war report is the most likely, where is the outbreak of fierce battles, King Qin will send the war report to the capital in an urgent way every day, and the time to send it is also at this time, but it generally does not alarm the Son of Heaven, is it a major military situation?

At this time, one of the guards shouted: "Your Majesty has arrived!" ”

The ministers got up one after another, only to see Li Yuan, the son of heaven wearing a regular dress, walked into the side hall from the side door surrounded by more than a dozen palace maids, the Sui and Tang emperors did not have to dress so ceremoniously in the last dynasty, it was only during the great dynasty or sacrifices that they would pay attention to the etiquette of dressing, and usually the court wore regular clothes, wearing a gauze crown, wearing a bright yellow dragon robe, and a jade belt around the waist, which was similar to the style of the ministers' court clothes, but there were all the differences in color.

"Your Majesty the Emperor!"

Li Yuan looked worried and waved his hand, "Everyone sit down!" ”

When everyone saw the heavy complexion of the saint, they were secretly surprised in their hearts, could it be that the battle situation in the Central Plains was unfavorable?

Li Yuan sighed and said slowly: "I'm sorry to bring you here so early, but something really happened, I received an urgent military report half an hour ago, just yesterday evening, the Sui army captured Pujin Pass and Hedong City. ”

This news caused an uproar in the side hall, everyone looked at each other, everyone showed a look of extreme shock, the Sui army captured Pujin Pass, so the gate of Guanzhong was not completely open?

Everyone's hearts began to panic, how many Sui troops had captured Pujin Pass, and would they attack Guanzhong again and kill Chang'an?

At this time, Liu Wenjing asked anxiously: "Your Majesty, has Taiyuan been captured by the Sui army before?" ”

Liu Wenjing also returned to Chang'an from Shangluo County last night, and he didn't know anything about the situation in Chang'an, and he thought that something had happened in the previous two days.

Li Yuan shook his head, "Before this military report, I didn't receive any military information from Bingzhou, I only knew that Liu Wu's army had just gone south from Loufu Pass and looted autumn grain in the northern part of Taiyuan County, and that's it. “

"Actually, how could the Sui army suddenly come and occupy Pujin Pass and Hedong City, could it be that they came from the waterway?"

Everyone knows that the Sui army's naval division is very powerful, and if the Sui army kills from the waterway, it will not be strange.

"The military report is very simple, there are no specific details, it was sent by the defenders outside Pujin Pass, and it is estimated that the general of Shentong does not know that this happened."

Speaking of this, Li Yuan handed over the eunuch's military newspaper to everyone for circulation, and there were only two sentences in the military newspaper, and everyone quickly circulated it.

At this time, Ma Sanbao, the general of Zuo Xiaowei, got up and saluted: "Your Majesty, can you let Weichen say a few words." ”

Ma Sanbao was originally the maid of Princess Pingyang, the daughter of Li Yuan, and was promoted step by step because of his courage and courage, and at the beginning of the year, he followed Li Shimin to pacify Xue Rengao and made great contributions, and was promoted to the general of Zuo Xiaowei, which was deeply appreciated by Li Yuan.

Li Yuan trusted Ma Sanbao very much, and knew that what he said must be reasonable, so he nodded and said, "General, please speak!" ”

Ma Sanbao said unhurriedly: "Pujin Pass is very dangerous, if it is attacked normally, it will take at least one day and one night, and it is impossible for us to get the news after it falls, indicating that the Sui army is a surprise attack on Pujin Pass, so it seems that the Sui army should not be a large-scale westward expedition, but an adventurous expedition." ”

"Then where do you think the Sui army took the risk of killing?"

"Wechen also thought about it just now, we have deployed troops near Fuyang and Jingcheng to monitor, we will know the other party's every move, and the Sui army crossed, Shangdang County and Changping County will also have official flying pigeons to send messages to Chang'an, so it should not come from these two channels, either Baicheng, or Yiguan, if it is Weichen to send troops to Hedong City, Weichen will definitely choose Yiguan, directly from Hanoi County to Hedong County, very hidden, the distance is also short, Weichen has seventy percent certainty to infer that, The Sui army should have been killed from Yiguan. ”

Ma Sanbao is worthy of being a general in the army, the analysis is very clear and convincing, Li Yuan also accepted Ma Sanbao's inference, he put down his heart a little, and asked: "If the Sui army is just a surprise attack, then what are their intentions, how many troops have they sent, and how should we deal with it, everyone has their own opinions, let's talk about it!" (To be continued.) )