Late Tang

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Under the wide corridor of the Changsheng Hall of Huaqing Palace, the sound of laughter echoed one after another.

On top of the golden glazed tile house, there is a layer of snow that has mostly melted.Over the majestic and magnificent dome of the main hall, the heat of the hot spring rises and condenses into a curl of white mist.

Holding a white dust whisk in his hand, Tian Lingzi stood under the corridor of the main hall in a brocade robe, with a smile on his lips, looking at the red, green and green on the white snow.The emperor was in high spirits today and was having a great time playing.The young emperor was always so carefree, no matter what happened outside, he could always find a way to be happy.In such a season, playing snowball fights with young court ladies in Huaqing Palace, such a thing can only be played by an emperor with a childlike surname.

Thinking of this, Tian Lingzi crumpled up an urgent report sent by an eunuch just now, and stuffed it into his sleeve.They are nothing more than thieves, but a group of salt dealers. Xue Chong, the commander-in-chief of the Ping Army that day, is really an idiot.Such a little grass thief, he couldn't get rid of it many times, and suffered a few losses, allowing the grass thief to run rampant in the states of the Tianping Army.With such a small number of bandits, he was ashamed to send letters to Chang'an to ask the imperial court to send a large army to wipe them out.

It's ridiculous, is such a trivial matter disturbing His Majesty's joy?If there is something wrong with the world, it will be taken to the court to bother the emperor, what does the emperor want them to do.

"Pfft!" A ball of snow suddenly flew across the sky and exploded on the face of a Qianniuwei soldier under the corridor.In the falling snow powder, the tall and burly Qianniu Guard's mouth twitched a few times, and even his hands were still on the Qianniu knife, and he didn't even wipe off the snow powder on his face, his body remained motionless like a sculpture.

The young emperor Li Xuan was wearing a gold-woven peacock fur cloak and a black gauze hat on his head, laughing and turning out from under a medicine tree.Followed by the silver bell-like laughter of the young court ladies.

"Mount Tai collapsed in front without changing his face, good. It is said that there is thunder in his chest, but his face is as flat as a lake, and he can be worshiped as a general. A snowball hit his face and he can stand still, which also has the aura of a general. Good. , good. Father, what is the name of this guard? I want a big reward!"

The young Qianniu Guard hurriedly knelt down to thank Xie En, Li Xuan patted the snow powder on his hands, and waved at Xie En's Qianniu Guard, "Fine, I will promote you to be a sixth-rank Qianniu Guard, to hold the sword, From now on, I will serve you around."

Seeing that the Thousand Bull Guard was rewarded with the rank six Thousand Bull Guard, all the maids were envious and asked for the reward one after another.

"Okay, okay, all rewards, all rewards!" Li Yan's still a little green face was full of smiles, and he laughed loudly: "Are you still afraid that I won't be able to reward you?"

Just talking and laughing, the guards reported to the Duke of Qi and the order of the Chinese Communist Party to make peace with each other.

"Li Aiqing is here, alright, don't you want a reward? My Aiqing is the most wealthy and well-off. You can ask Li Pingzhang for it in a while."

Surrounded by a group of beautiful court ladies, the radiant Li Xuan sat down by the brazier in the corridor.Tian Lingzi hurriedly held a bearskin robe and put it on the emperor, beckoning the maids and guards to return to their places.

A gust of wind blows the ground, and the snow on the several medicine trees in front of the hall whirls down.Li Jing, who followed the little eunuch all the way forward, looked at the snow scene, and couldn't help feeling somewhat emotional.It has been two and a half centuries since the Tang Empire came to this day. On the outside, the empire is still majestic, and with the subjugation of the Uighurs, the biggest opponent of the Tang Dynasty, Tubo, has also fallen into decline, and can no longer cause trouble for the Tang Dynasty Yes, Silla and Balhae, the two oriental countries, have experienced more than two hundred years, and now they are also weakened.

Looking at the world, it seems that only Nanzhao in the south is left, and the Khitan in the north can still cause a little trouble to the Tang Dynasty.Datang seems to be invincible in the world!

But Li Jing knew that the current Datang looked majestic on the outside. Although there were no powerful foreign enemies, in fact, the inside of the big tree of the Tang Dynasty had been rotten.The current prosperity is just the last glitzy feast before the curtain ends.

It's like the remaining snow after this night, the last night of snowfall, but now it's March after all, and time is running out.

It's a pity that at this time, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was still obsessed with playing all day long, and the eunuch in charge of the government was always thinking about intrigue and fighting for power and profit.

A burst of laughter interrupted Li Jing's thoughts. He straightened his clothes and returned to his usual smiling face.

"My subject, Li Jing, sees Your Majesty!" Li Jing took a few steps and knelt directly into the snow.

But before he knelt down, Li Xuan had already smiled and said: "Duke Qi is exempt from the ceremony, and there is no supervisory ceremony, it's just another palace."

Li Xuan sat there with a puff of white gas on his head, the young emperor was still full of energy after playing around. "What's the urgent matter, Duke Qi? Why don't you enjoy the hot soup in Huaqing Palace?"

Li Jing still finished giving the gift, then got up, and directly handed over the brochure he had drawn up earlier.

"Your Majesty, there have been salt dealers Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao in the territory of the Tianping Army in Henan Province for more than half a year. They have looted Hua, Cao, Pu, Ji, Yan, and Yi prefectures. The thieves are getting bigger and bigger. Just now, the minister has received the express report that a few days ago, this group of grassroots bandits had joined forces with the rebellious former Qingzhou tooth general Wang Jingwu. They set up an ambush in Yanzhou and almost wiped out the eight thousand elites of the Tianping Army, including three cavalry. Yizhou defeated the Taining Army Li's soldiers and horses, and wiped out another five thousand officers and soldiers. Right now, they are even more arrogant. After obtaining a large number of weapons, armor and war horses from the defeated officers and soldiers, their power has doubled. The Li clan surrounded the city of Yizhou."

"Grass thief? Where did this grass thief come from? Why haven't I heard of it?" Li Xuan frowned and leaned back, "Is this news true?"

Li Jing said: "These are not ordinary thieves. They have a large number of people now, and they have gathered Wang Jingwu's rebels, and after defeating the Tianping Army and Taining Army, they have obtained a large number of armor weapons and war horses. There are people, there are soldiers, there are soldiers, and there are even generals. Now that the bandits have become powerful, if they are not wiped out, I am afraid that after they capture Yizhou, they will immediately sweep the whole of Henan. Now the land of Henan, continuous After two years of drought, locust plagues and floods, there are displaced and hungry people everywhere. As long as the thieves stir up a little bit, they will be able to coerce countless people into chaos, and the whole of Henan will be corrupted. Even Chang'an, the eastern capital, is in danger."

Tian Lingzi snorted dissatisfiedly: "Mr. Qi's words are probably alarmist. How far can a few salt dealers and a traitor general go?"

Li Jing was tit for tat, not giving an inch.

"A few salt dealers and a traitor? Nowhere to go? Mr. Tian must not forget that Qiu Fu's rebellion was started by a farmer. What happened? Finally, it swept across the eastern and western Zhejiang provinces." In several states, how much did the imperial court pay to quell the chaos? Leaving aside, let’s talk about the Pangxun Rebellion in Xuzhou in the ten years of Xiantong. , even the Jianghuai River, the taxation land of the imperial court, was involved. How many soldiers and horses did the imperial court send, and how long did it take to wipe them out? Isn’t it better to take precautions before they happen, and have to wait until the people are in dire straits and the people are in dire straits , to spend countless money, food, soldiers and horses to quell the chaos?"

What Tian Lingzi said was at a loss for words.

Li Xuan's heart was shaken, and he said in shock: "Wang Xianzhi, Huang Chao, and Wang Jingwu, are they really so difficult to control?"

"Your Majesty, it will be easier to start early. The longer you delay, the more powerful the bandit army will be. This is like a snowball. At first, it was just a small snowball. We just held it in our hands and threw it into the brazier. It immediately turned into water vapor and disappeared invisible. But if we ignore it, and a malicious thief takes this snowball and rolls it in the snow, then it will not take long before the snowball will roll bigger and bigger, and in the end, even if we throw it again Put it into the brazier, not to mention whether it can be moved, even if you pick it up and throw it into the brazier, it is no longer the cremation that melts the snow, but the snow that extinguishes the fire."

Just as he was talking, another guard came up outside and said something in front of Tian Lingzi. Tian Lingzi frowned, and his face instantly became a little ugly.Then, the eunuch handed over a booklet to Tian Lingzi and withdrew.

Li Jing had guessed at this time that this book was probably about the situation in Henan.

Immediately said: "Eunuch Tian, ​​I don't know what is the urgent matter, if it is urgent, please let His Majesty take a look at it."

Li Xuan also looked at Tian Lingzi, Tian Lingzi could no longer hide it at this time, so he had to pass the memorial to Li Xuan.

The emperor opened the memorial, and after only scanning a few lines, he couldn't help but exclaim.

"Your Majesty, what's the matter?" Li Jing asked quickly.

Li Xuan handed the memorial to Li Jing, "Duke Qi has a look!"

Li Jing took it and took a look, only to see that the memorial was written in some scribbled handwriting, which was very inappropriate.But when he understood the content, he finally understood why the handwriting was so scribbled.

The memorial was sent by Li Xi, the Jiedu envoy of the Taining Army, and there was only one thing written on it.The Cao army and Wang Jingwu's army jointly defeated Xue Chong, and after defeating the Taining army, they surrounded him in Yizhou City all the way.Yizhou only held on for three days before being breached, and Li Xi escaped by disguising himself as a commoner.After looting Yizhou and various counties, the bandit army did not enter Haizhou, nor did they enter Xuzhou, which was the territory of the probation army. Instead, they killed their carbine and entered Yanzhou again.Last time, Huang Chao and the others only hit the eastern corner of Yanzhou, but this time they directly hit the entire Yanzhou, and then entered Songzhou.

No wonder Tian Lingzi also changed his face, Songzhou is different from places like Jeju, Yanzhou, and Yizhou.Songzhou is close to Luoyang, and only Bianzhou and Zhengzhou are separated from Luoyang in the northwest direction.More importantly, Songzhou is on the canal, and the canal passes through Songzhou for a long meal.If the thieves captured Songzhou, it would be tantamount to directly blocking the only taxed food and rice in the south of the Yangtze River that was still maintaining blood transfusions to the court.

Without the food and supplies transported from the southeast on the canal, Chang'an would have no rice to eat!

"Your Majesty, I am willing to lead the troops to hunt for the thieves immediately!" Li Jing said loudly. (To be continued.)