Thief Emperor

Chapter 429 Cruel Reality

The emperor's words gave the three generals different looks.

It is undeniable that they do need to rely on the name of the imperial court to expand their own power, and in the future they may also need to use the name of the imperial court to conquer those local forces or other local vassal states.

but not now.

Now, these three generals want to bring the emperor back to the capital as soon as possible, make the emperor into a clay statue, and then control the entire capital in their hands. When the capital is completely stabilized and the emperor can no longer jump out of their hands, they will start to use the capital as the political center and begin to clean up the local forces.

And His Majesty the Emperor said these words as soon as they met. It seemed that he was doing what they wanted and giving them a reason and an excuse to start external expansion with justification. But in fact, he just wanted to create internal friction among these military governors so that he could find opportunities from it.

how to say?

There is nothing wrong with the idea, but it is too hasty and too deliberate.

General Wei thought for a moment, then whispered, "Your Majesty, we must punish the traitors, but wherever the rebels go, they burn, kill, and plunder, leaving the people in dire straits. Now all the states in Guanzhong are in ruins."

"I believe that the most urgent task now is for Your Majesty and the ministers of the court to return to the capital first, then reorganize the court and rebuild the imperial guards."

"Once Guanzhong is stabilized and peaceful, I will be your Majesty's pioneer and fight against those traitors who have evil intentions in various places!"

At this point, General Wei turned his head to look at the other two generals. Xiao Xian also looked up at Li Tong. After General Li Tong hesitated for a moment, he stepped forward silently and bowed his head with Xiao Xian and said, "Your Majesty, General Wei is right. The most important thing right now is to stabilize and recuperate. Once the court is settled, it will not be too late to get rid of those traitors."

His Majesty the Emperor looked at the three people, thought for a moment, and then nodded and said, "Since the three generals have said so, I really should not be too impatient."

He glanced behind him and said calmly, "I am traveling with about 40,000 imperial guards. General Wei just said that he wants to reshape the imperial guards. How do you want to do it?"

Wei Quanzhong thought for a moment, then bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, I have discussed this matter with General Xiao and General Li during this period of time."

He looked at Xiao Xian.

Xiao Xian hesitated for a moment, then bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, Wang Junping and his ilk are just country folk who gathered together to cause trouble. However, these civilians who have almost no fighting power can defeat the imperial guards outside Tongguan, and even break through Tongguan and enter Guanzhong. This is unimaginable."

"For a pass like Tongguan, I have the confidence that I can hold it with 5,000 men as long as there is enough food and grass, even if I face an army of 100,000. This shows how weak the imperial army is."

"It has been more than 200 years since the founding of our country. When Emperor Taizong of the Great Zhou Dynasty was in power, the men of Guanzhong were so brave and strong that they almost conquered the world. Now they are so weak that these imperial guards are completely unable to perform their duties of protecting the court and the capital."

General Xiao stopped talking here and turned to look at Li Tong. General Li's expression changed for a long time before he lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, after the three of us discussed, we all agreed that although Wang Junping's rebellion has been temporarily suppressed, there are still many rebels. There may be remnants of the rebels inside and outside Guanzhong."

"General Wei's meaning is that if we continue to let the imperial guards guard Guanzhong, they will most likely be defeated by the remnants of the rebels again, and then Your Majesty will face a second crisis."

At this point, Wei Quanzhong coughed and interrupted Li Tong.

General Li still couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart. He was too polite to the emperor and spoke too softly.

General Wei said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, what the three of us mean is to disband the current imperial guards. Each of our three military governors will send a part of their troops to Guanzhong to protect the capital. At the same time, we will select generals from the border troops to come over and recruit young and strong men in Guanzhong to form a new imperial guards."

"After two or three years, when the new imperial army is trained, Guanzhong and the Central Plains will at least be able to protect themselves."

"At that time, the three of us can withdraw from Guanzhong and retire with honor."

The smile on the emperor's face froze.

General Wei looked up and saw his expression.

If the old emperor was here, Wei Quanzhong might have been frightened at this moment, but facing the new emperor, he, a general who came from a soldier, no longer had any fear in his heart.

If it weren't for his reason, he would have been ready to teach the emperor a lesson.

Seeing that the emperor was frozen and silent, General Wei said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the fighting power of the imperial guards is too ridiculous. When the three of us saw it, we were all angry. How could the imperial guards of the Great Zhou be so weak!"

His Majesty the Emperor, his face turned dark.

What Wei Quanzhong said was no different from pointing at someone's nose and scolding him.

Even if he knew this situation in his heart, he could not say it directly in front of the emperor.

If someone really said it, it means that he has no emotional intelligence or he said it on purpose to embarrass the emperor.

Since Wei Quanzhong could sit in this position, it is obvious that he cannot be completely without emotional intelligence. He said this just to intimidate the emperor and to challenge him.

Emperor Wu Yuancheng's hands were already trembling slightly beneath his wide robe.

He said nothing, turned around and went back to his carriage, saying nothing.

General Wei looked up and watched the emperor get on the carriage. A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and then he lowered his head: "I beg your Majesty to grant my permission!"

Wu Yuancheng's emotionless voice came from the dragon chariot: "The three generals have said so, what else can I say?"

"Let's go through the customs."

The dragon chariot started moving again.

General Wei watched the dragon chariot passing by him with a smile on his face, with a hint of disdain and arrogance on his face.

If your father were alive, I might even give him some face. You are a runaway emperor, why are you pretending! Li Tong and Xiao Xian both came over, and General Li frowned and said, "Quanzhong, there are so many people, what you said."

"That's too disrespectful to His Majesty."

General Xiao couldn't help but whispered, "It seems that we should talk about it in private."

Wei Quanzhong didn't care at all and said calmly: "You two, the title of the emperor will last for a day, and this title can scare many people. It's time to cut his face."

"There will be many people standing quietly on your side in the future."

"To save bloodshed in the future."

Wei Quanzhong said calmly: "Don't be soft-hearted at this moment."

The original power came from violence.

However, after two hundred years of inertia, the idea of the emperor being the father and the ruler has been passed down from generation to generation, and many people naturally feel that the emperor should be born to control all power.

Even if he has no soldiers, there will be people around him.

At this time, humiliating the emperor would help General Wei establish his own authority.

It also made some people in the capital and the court realize the situation and the reality.

……

More than ten days later, the Emperor's carriage finally arrived at the south gate of the capital.

He left through the west gate, but was unwilling to enter through the west gate.

When the emperor's carriage entered the city, naturally, many people gathered on both sides of the road.

Even though the emperor had abandoned the people of the capital without hesitation when the rebels were approaching, many people still knelt on both sides of the road and kowtowed to the emperor.

It seemed as if kowtowing to the emperor was a natural thing to do, no matter what the emperor had done.

His Majesty the Emperor in the dragon chariot secretly lifted the curtain and glanced outside.

Even though half a year had passed since the rebels' defeat, the capital city was still in a state of ruin, with broken bricks and tiles everywhere.

The only lively place was the road where the emperor's carriage passed, with people kneeling on both sides.

The emperor only took a glance outside, and then he quickly shrank back as if his genitals were hurt by the sun, then lowered his head, almost hiding his head in his arms.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

Pei Huang rode with the emperor and whispered, "No matter what, the capital is back. Once we are back in the capital, everything will be fine."

"Sanlang, Sanlang..."

The emperor lowered his head and said with a sob in his voice: "Did you see outside?"

“Is this still the capital?”

Pei Huang was silent, then sighed and said, "Those rebels were all born as unruly people. They suddenly occupied the capital, so naturally they smashed and looted everywhere. It's not just the capital, I'm afraid Luoyang is the same..."

"Don't be sad, Your Majesty."

"Recover slowly. You will be able to recover in one or two years."

His Majesty the Emperor is still very sad and in an extremely low mood.

Pei Huang was also in a bad mood.

No matter how ambitious he is, no matter how confident he is.

Now, I have been defeated by the reality one after another.

The reality is that only the emperor takes him seriously, while none of the bigwigs take him seriously.

Now, they don't even take the emperor seriously.

Pei Sanlang lowered his head and sighed: "Your Majesty, everything depends on human efforts. There is always a way out. If it really doesn't work..."

"Your Highnesses are still in Xichuan."

"Da Zhou, Da Zhou..."

Pei Sanlang clenched his fist, his right hand trembled slightly, and he gritted his teeth and whispered.