On the first day of the sixth month, the vanguard of the Northern King had arrived at the Yellow River Crossing under the leadership of Yang Ke, the prince of the Northern Wang, and opposed the regular army of the Wei Dynasty across the bank. In addition to stationing north of the Yellow River, the vanguard began to deploy defenses to prevent the imperial army from crossing the river to the north.

By this time, the rebellion of the Northern King had been revealed, and Luoyang City was also under martial law at the beginning of June.

On the second day, the main army of the Northern King also arrived on the north bank of the Yellow River, and since then, the imperial army and the Beiwang Army have officially confronted each other on the north and south banks of the Yellow River.

For several days, the palace was heavily guarded, and the empress had to summon the Privy Council and the Ministry of War into the palace every day to discuss the formation and completion of the river defense line. Judging from the current situation, there is nothing wrong with the defense line of the imperial court, and it is the empress's younger brother Yang Yu who leads the establishment of the defense line, and the empress trusts her younger brother very much, so that the river defense line will not have any flaws from the outside.

The empress also issued a strict order that the river defense army would not be allowed to lead troops across the river without authorization to engage in a hard-to-face battle with the soldiers and horses of the Northern King. In order to prevent someone from "collaborating with the enemy", the empress even ordered the boats and boats of the imperial army on the south bank of the Yellow River to be burned, which was equivalent to completely blocking the footsteps of the northern king to the south.

By doing so, the Empress was closing both sides of the Yellow River, and the Privy Council and the Ministry of War also had quite an opinion on this, but the current arrangement of the Empress was generally not wrong, and even if the people below had small opinions, they did not hinder the implementation of this will. By the third day of the sixth month, the river defense line of the entire imperial court had been completely completed, and Yang Yu, the king of Ji, was in the river defense line during the day. In the evening, he returned to the palace to return to the empress, and he worked very hard. The empress was also very satisfied with what Yang Yu had done.

By the day of the third day of June, the Dongwangfu Annex was still calm, and Han Jian did not make any moves. At this time, there were also people in the imperial court staring at the Dongwangfu Annex, their purpose was not clear to Han Jian, but he was also very clear that his position was crucial in this power struggle, because it involved the position of the southeastern counties and states of the Wei Dynasty. Han Jian's support for the empress will make the road to pacify the south very difficult for the king of the north next. If Han Jian supports Beiwang...... This possibility was not even thought of by the King of the North. If Han Jianzhen supports the Northern King. will not help the imperial court to eradicate the power of the Northern King in the capital again and again. Now the outside world thinks a lot that Han Jian may choose neutrality and make a decision after the dust settles.

This seems to be the reason why the relationship between the empress and the king of the east was ossified, forcing the king of the east to such a path of neutrality. There will also be people in the outside world who think that the empress is at such a time. It is a little unwise to have a stiff relationship with the East King. But some people who are interested are also very clear. Although the king of the east has the support of the southeast county state behind him. But when it comes to the big issue of Luoyang City's ownership, it can be said that I am useless. Because the power of the East King did not extend to Luoyang City.

And Han Jian, a person who "cannot have an important impact on the current situation in Luoyang", is planning a big action. Neither of the forces on either side expected this.

……

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The Luoyang defense line is composed of two aspects: the river defense line and the city defense. With the army of the Northern King pressing the border. The imperial court river defense line has been established completely, and it is only waiting for the king of the north to cross the river to test the solid Cheng dù of the river defense line.

At the same time, the imperial court's Luoyang city defense was also complete. Compared with the river defense, the Luoyang city defense is very simple, it only needs to close the city gate and transfer the men and horses of the guard post to the city.

The Luoyang defense line has a different focus. This time, the empress mainly focused on river defense, supplemented by city defense, and the regular troops around the imperial court were basically mobilized to the line of the Yellow River, but did not allocate troops and horses into the city. The imperial court can rely on no more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in the city, among which the palace guards and guards are the mainstays, and there are also small-scale regimental training in the city, adding up to only a few hundred people, who were also transferred to defend the city at the same time.

On the third night of the sixth month, the empress sent a team of envoys to cross the river north in a small boat. This envoy served as a representative of the North King to negotiate head-on, and their purpose was simple, that is, to question the purpose of the North King's southward journey.

The empress was not in a hurry to fall out with the king of the north directly, and the king of the north himself led his troops to the south in order to quell the trouble of Xianbei, and whoever took the initiative in public opinion would occupy a leading role in the situation. The empress just wants to make the king of the north admit that this is a rebellion against Luoyang City, although this kind of rebellion may be dressed in a gorgeous coat with bells and whistles, but if the king of the north does not admit it, the queen will be nameless when he quells this rebellion.

The war of this era is very strong and famous, and the emphasis is on the righteous and the unjust, whether it is the king of the north or the empress, they all hope to get the support of the common people. Therefore, the king of the north went south, it can be said that he did not commit any crime against the local autumn, even when he entered the city of Changdi, he only killed an eyeless Zhizhou, the army entered the city without looting, nor did it burn and loot, it seems that the king of the north really came to pursue the Xianbei cavalry, and did not chase the Xianbei cavalry to the north of the Yellow River.

The empress hoped that this time she would send an envoy to make the king of the north admit that she was plotting rebellion. But the Empress was disappointed.

The envoy crossed the Yellow River and entered the camp of the Northern King, not only did not encounter rebuke, but even received the gift of honor. In the process of meeting with the envoys, the North King was respectful, and he received these envoys as courtiers, which made the envoys who had prepared words to scold the North King speechless. However, in the ranks of envoys, there is Cui Mingli, a learned Confucian with the reputation of "loyalty and martyr". Although Cui Mingli's official position was not high and he was not the official envoy of the envoy, he was the first to question the king of the north, asking why the king of the north wanted to ignore the laws of the imperial court, and Chen Bing north of the Yellow River made a gesture of going south to forcibly take Luoyang City to rebel.

Facing the questioning, the king of the north said respectfully: "...... Cui Boru misunderstood. In order to prevent the dog from going south to disturb the capital of my Wei Dynasty, the king had to Chen Bing here, ready to report to His Majesty, and unite the soldiers and horses of the Hebei state capitals to find out the hidden dog and exterminate it. ”

The words of the king of the north were neither humble nor arrogant, which made even Cui Mingli very embarrassed. Now the king of the north just doesn't admit that he wants to rebel, even if the army presses the border, as long as the king of the north does not have a head-on conflict with the court for a day, he can't say that he is rebelling.

"Again." Beiwang continued, "This king is chasing Fangou, and he is lightly armed, all of them are ordinary light horses, so how can it be a rebellion?" How do officers and soldiers cross the river? How to threaten Luoyang? Cui Boru still went back and told His Majesty that it was the right way to let His Majesty understand the old minister's intentions and send soldiers and horses to work with the king to exterminate the dog. ”

At this time, Cui Mingli knew that the old man of the North was planning and scheming. You have no evidence to say that people are rebelling, and people just don't admit it, what can you do? Cui Mingli, who has always been known for his eloquence, also returned in front of the king of the north.

By the next day, on the morning of the fourth day of the sixth lunar month, Cui Mingli and a group of envoys returned to Luoyang City to play the empress. The Empress did not blame them when she learned that they had returned in vain. It can only be blamed for the rebellion of the Northern King this time, the means used are unconventional, and now it is impossible to characterize the rebellion of the Northern King, it is difficult to say what the people say, the key is that the lyrics are dragged down, and the river defense line will inevitably be found by the Northern King Loopholes, which is the real disaster of the imperial court.

But there's something weird about it.

Just when the imperial court had no way to take the king of the north, and the king of the north was proud that the court could not take him, and his soldiers and horses would continue to confront the imperial court on the Yellow River, on the night of the fourth day of the sixth lunar month, many "pamphlets" suddenly appeared in the city of Luoyang, and these pamphlets seemed to have suddenly fallen from the sky. Despite the martial law in the city, the people of the Tingwei Mansion were patrolling the streets, and they still did not notice who had walked so many pamphlets to many places in the inner and outer cities of Luoyang.

The pamphlet was not distributed by the imperial court, but in the name of the "Northern King". In the booklet, the king of the north is extremely arrogant and considers himself the lord of the world, and at the same time claims that he has the blessing of the three emperors and five emperors, and is the lord of the world, so that all the people worship him, and even he claims to be the ancestor of Taoism.

The king of the north in this booklet, in addition to being arrogant, is simply insane, which makes the people of Luoyang, who are mainly believers, indignant after reading it. Many people spontaneously came out to denounce the rebellion of the Northern King, and on the second day, on the fifth day of the sixth month, some people went out of the streets to denounce the Northern King, despite the obstruction of the Tingwei Mansion. However, the imperial court appropriately did not stop the people, but added some fuel to the fire.

Public opinion suddenly fell one-sided, which not only surprised the king of the north, but also the imperial court. After a thorough investigation, the court was unable to find out the source of the pamphlet in a short period of time, and by this time most of the shops in the city had already closed, making it even more difficult to investigate thoroughly in front of the great enemy of the Northern King.

Although some people suspect that this kid was not issued by the North King, but was issued to discredit the North King, they also believe that this booklet will not be issued by the imperial court. Because there are a lot of "rebellious" words in it, these are not just anyone who dares to say it, and the self-proclaimed Taoist ancestor is such a lawless thing, even the empress does not dare to instruct anyone to do it, except for the king of the north himself, he really can't think of anyone who dares to send such a booklet.

But how the booklet flowed out and how it spread all over Luoyang City overnight has become a mystery in the hearts of many people.

The pamphlet incident made the king of the north angry. Originally, he thought that he had put on a good show in front of the court envoys, which made the court helpless, but in such a special period, someone actually issued a brochure in his name. So where is it to help him win people's hearts? It's just hurting him.

With the wisdom of the king of the north, he can't think of who will do it. The king of the north could only guess if this was a sycophant act made by his people in the capital in order to curry favor with him?

The king of the north thought that if he really found out who did it, he would have to dismantle him in eight pieces. (To be continued......)