In the front hall of the Jiedu Embassy Office, Li Yuan was already neatly dressed, sitting in the position where Ma Xixu, Liu Yan and others had given orders, and solemnly conveyed the imperial court's will to allow the expansion of the army by 50,000 to everyone present, and ordered Hu Gui, the superintendent of military weapons, to report the recent results in the court, and everyone was overjoyed.

Later, Li Yuan announced that he was about to leave for Beijing, and appointed Liu Jiangsheng as the queen of Wuping to control the military.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the commander will rush to Jinling today to welcome his relatives, and Lin Sichang will lead a thousand light cavalry to accompany him, and the rest of the generals will do their jobs. When this marshal is not in Langzhou, you must urge Wuping to strengthen the city defense of the prefecture and county, patrol day and night, and do not take it lightly! Military and political affairs of all sizes are ordered by Vice Marshal Liu! If there is an urgent military need to submit it to the commander for decision, it can be reported to Xu Changshi, and he will send a message to me! ”

Liu Jiangsheng led all the generals to bow down and said, "The last general obeys the order!" ”

Before leaving, Li Yuan instructed Liu Jiangsheng again: "The soldiers and horses of Tianyin Mountain are estimated to arrive tomorrow, and the merchant ships will dock at the Yuanshui Ferry, and then let Ebony lead the crowd into the city from the north gate." Mr. Xu is all ready......"

This trip was to welcome relatives, so after setting off from Langzhou, Li Yuan did not dare to delay at all, and led the light horse to gallop quickly on the official road all the way. After passing Dongting Lake, it turned north to Junshan, passed Yuezhou and then went east along the Han River, and successfully entered the territory of Ezhou after five days. Originally, it was planned to rest in Ezhou for one night, and the next day everyone took the warship of the Long'an Army (Navy) here and went down the river, so that they could arrive in Jinling a few days earlier.

However, when he arrived at the city of Ezhou at dusk, Li Yuan saw a shocking scene. The city gate was tightly closed at this time, and a large number of disorderly routed soldiers were gathering outside the south gate in a disorderly manner, shouting constantly across the moat, and several military flags with the word "Tang" written on them had been discarded and trampled on, and the blades were also thrown on the ground crookedly, with untidy clothes and panicked expressions, and there was no military appearance in such a mess. But the Tang soldiers in the city turned a blind eye and did not open the city but did not expel it.

You must know that this Ezhou City is a well-known military town in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the Wuchang Festival of the famous general Liu Renzhan could indulge a group of routed soldiers crying outside the city?

At this time, Lin Sichang on the side said nervously and in a low voice: "Dashuai, Ezhou is the hinterland of my Tang Dynasty, and it has always been peaceful, how can there be chaotic soldiers?" And there is no movement in Ezhou City, which is really weird. Why don't the generals lead the troops to come forward and investigate? ”

Li Yuan frowned tightly and agreed, "Go ahead!" ”

A moment later, just as Li Yuan was closing his eyes and concentrating on the horse, Lin Sichang had already ordered someone to bring a few defeated soldiers straight to him.

Lin Sichang was dumbfounded: "This is my Tang Wuping Festival envoy Li Dashuai, why don't you hurry up and see the ceremony?" ”

I don't know what happened to these routs recently, they are like frightened birds, and when they heard this, they knelt down one by one with a few sounds, and then these dignified seven-foot men actually howled and cried.

Li Yuanhu was suspicious, and then said coldly: "How can I, Tang Jun's son, be a daughter? What kind of system is it to cry and cry like this? What the hell is going on, tell the truth with Ben Shuai! ”

A big man at the head said with red eyes trembling: "If you go back to the big handsome, we are all soldiers of Zhang Shao, the assassin of Gwangju, the day before yesterday, Shouzhou was in an emergency, and we went to the rescue with Zhang Tingshi, but unexpectedly, they were ambushed in the water, and Zhang Tingshi and the capital eunuch Zhang Chenghan have been martyred......"

Li Yuan immediately said angrily: "Nonsense! Shouzhou is an important town in the north of my Tang Dynasty, garrisoned by 50,000 troops of Qinghuai and Weisheng, how can it be lost? Speaking of this, I couldn't help but feel apprehensive in my heart, at this time, the Northern Expedition army should still be fighting in the territory of Zhou, and it has been half a month since Li Hongji, the king of Yan, led the army north to rescue, is it that all the defeats have been defeated, and the Zhou army has attacked Shouzhou?

Something went wrong, and Li Yuan hurriedly asked, "But the Zhou army is besieging Shouzhou City?" ”

The big man said in horror: "Dashuai, the villain really doesn't know!" Zhang Tingshi didn't say much that day, and after receiving the news of Shouzhou's emergency, he led me out of the city! In the battle of the water, we have never seen the banner of the enemy! ”

The Zhou army prides itself on being the king of the Central Plains, and against a group of Southern Tang state soldiers, how can it cover up the banner?

At this time, the more Li Yuan thought about it, the more confused he became, the Northern Expedition army was an elite division, even if it was a fiasco before, now with the new reinforcements of King Yan, there are at least 100,000 soldiers and horses, even if the Zhou army wins a complete victory, the casualties must be not small, with Guo Wei's always cautious temperament, at least he should order a rest for a while. Moreover, Guo Wei was personally conquering Murong Yanchao in Yanzhou at this time, and it had been several months since the victory or defeat were different, and it was difficult to get out, and it was already difficult to divide his troops to retreat from the enemy, so how could he have the energy to counterattack the Southern Tang Prefecture Mansion again? Could it be that his godson Chai Rong possessed him?

Li Yuan couldn't help but start looking at the defeated soldiers in front of him with questioning eyes, shook his head and said: "No, Gwangju is more than 500 miles away from Shouzhou, even if Shouzhou is in an emergency, he will definitely ask for help from the nearby Luzhou and Haozhou, where there are still two forbidden armies!" Why did you go to Gwangju? ”

Lin Sichang pulled out his saber with a "swish", put it on the big man's neck, and scolded: "Wait for the hasty rats, dare to deceive the handsome?!" Say, what is the intention! ”

Han Mang's eyes were within reach, the big man swallowed his saliva, and hurriedly bowed his head and said: "Dashuai, the villain's words are true!" When we were fleeing, we encountered the soldiers and horses that Liu Renzhan and Liu Dashuai came to rescue, so Liu Dashuai ordered us to come to Shouzhou City for help! After that, the villain has no way of knowing! ”

Now Li Yuan made a mistake in his heart, listening to what this big man said, he was reasonable.

A few days ago, Liu Renzhan's troops had indeed been ordered to transfer the defense of Haozhou, and Haozhou was the closest to Shouzhou, so he would not sit idly by. But the Wuchang army under Liu Renzhan is notoriously brave, if it is really Liu Renzhan can't cope with it, and orders these routs to come to Ezhou for help, which shows that the enemy army must be a hard bone.

Could it really be that the Zhou army went south? If it weren't for Zhou Jun, who else would there be? Li Yuan pressed his mind, calmly recalled what he had known all his life in his mind, suddenly turned over and dismounted, and found a few places of sand and soil on the ground, so he picked up a branch and squatted down to draw a few strange symbols.

Lin Sichang led his soldiers to surround him, and when he looked closely, he found that this symbol was extremely unfamiliar, but this pattern was obviously divided into three layers, which could be easily distinguished from the simple lines, the top circle was like the sun hanging high, an arc moon was in the center, and the bottom was dotted like stars.

Li Yuan threw down the branches, patted away the sand and dust casually, and beckoned: "Come and see, the enemy army is under this banner?" ”

"This ......" The big man hurriedly stepped forward, stared at it stunned for a moment, and then exclaimed: "Exactly! Dashuai is really a god, how do you know this?! ”

Sure enough, Li Yuan's face was gradually gloomy, and then he said in a deep voice: "This is the Sun, Moon and Star Banner of the Tuyuhun Clan. ”

(Note: Tuyuhun is a descendant of Murong Xianbei, taking the meaning of 'Mu Eryi (heaven and earth), following the appearance of Sanguang (sun, moon and stars)'.) At the end of the Tang Dynasty, although Tuyuhun had died in Tubo, the tribe did not die, and moved to Hedong in batches, changing his Han surname to avoid people's eyes. By the time of the Five Dynasties, he had been scattered all over the place, and there were many good generals)

When everyone was stunned, Li Yuan gritted his teeth and said coldly: "Li Jinquan is the opposite. ”