Late Tang

Yanying Hall.

The emperor was wearing black clothes today, with a golden crown on his head, and a Shangfang sword on his waist.Recently, the Son of Heaven has lost a lot of weight, but there is a compelling heroism between his brows.Since his assassination, the young emperor seemed to have matured a lot in the blink of an eye, and began to really care about military affairs.

For a long time, the emperor stopped hitting balls, betting on geese, watching theaters, and playing chess.The emperor summoned important ministers in Yanying Hall almost every day, and his usual activities and hobbies were all changed to horseback riding, archery and fencing.

Everyone was amazed that the emperor had simply changed into a different person.

But at this moment in the palace, facing the several military intelligence reports that the Privy Council envoy Yang Fugong had just reported, the emperor's expression became gloomy.

First of all, some time ago, all the soldiers and horses of the Taoist battalions were commanded by Gao Pian, and 11 soldiers and horses were assembled in Huainan, including the [-] town troops dispatched by Li Jing to the south, and they went south to Jiangxi to suppress Huangchao.

At the beginning, Zhang Lin, one of Gao Pian's subordinates, who was known as one of the two jades, killed the Yangtze River. Huang Chao sent the rebel general Wang Chongba to fight, but he was defeated in the first battle and surrendered.Huang Chao personally led the army to meet the attack, but was defeated again and again, and his general Chang Hong led the crowd to surrender.Huang Chao had no choice but to retreat to Raozhou.

Gao Pian went south this time, fighting very aggressively, and did not give Huang Chao a chance to breathe.

General Zhang Lin even took advantage of the victory and swung forward to attack Raozhou directly. Huang Chao had to lead his army to fight again, and fought against Zhang Lin in Dayuncang.

Zhang Lin was aggressive and led his army straight to the outside of Xinzhou City.

At this time, Xinzhou happened to have a plague again. Huang Chao's army, which was defeated all the way into the city, fell by [-] to [-]% in less than a few days, and the morale of the rebel army was greatly weakened.

When the emperor in Chang'an received these success stories from Gao Pian, he was already extremely excited, thinking that the yellow thieves had finally come to an end, and it was just around the corner to wipe out these thieves.For this reason, the emperor also issued a decree to reward Gao Pian and the generals, and to give Gao Pian the rank of Taiwei.I look forward to Gao Pian, the famous general, who can quickly wipe out the yellow thieves this time and solve the catastrophe in the southeast.

Huang Chao in Xinzhong City was trapped, unable to win or run away, so he repeated the old trick and asked Zhang Lin to surrender.

Huang Chao gave Zhang Lin a lot of treasures and asked Zhang Lin for a two-day truce because he wanted to surrender to Gao Pian.

Zhang Lin agreed to get such a large sum of money just by truce for two days.

When Gao Pian heard the news that Huang Chao was going to surrender, he sneered and didn't believe it at all.

I believe that the yellow nest will surrender, and the sows will climb the tree.

Gao Pian thought he had seen through Huang Chao's tricks, but then he thought about it, maybe Huang Chao was really desperate, but he didn't want to accept the grass thief's surrender at all, so he wanted to make a plan.

In his letter of surrender to Gao Pian, Huang Chao expressed his willingness to surrender to Gao Pian, but hoped that Gao Pian could recommend him to the imperial court and help him find a position as Jiedushi.

Gao Pian immediately wrote back to Huang Chao, agreed to Huang Chao's request, and asked Huang Chao to go to Yangzhou to surrender and seek security.

At the same time, Gao Pian immediately played to the court, assuring the emperor that Huang Chao would be wiped out by him immediately.Therefore, the soldiers and horses from other towns asked the court to transfer back to this town.When this memorial was passed to Chang'an, the whole court was full of jubilation again.At this time, the four towns in Hebei are rebelling, and the imperial court is using troops everywhere. It will be a good thing if the soldiers and horses of the Zhaoyi towns can be transferred back.No one in the court doubted Gao Pian's words. After all, Gao Pian, whether he was a member of the party or a member of Nanzhao, was almost invincible in recent years, and he never disappointed the court.Prime Minister Lu Xie was even more arrogant because of "proper recommendation". For a while, the court thought that the grass thief was just around the corner, so he immediately ordered the adjustment of the three towns of Zhaoyi, Ganhua, and Yiwu, and Zheng led the fleet in the Yangtze River. The town commander who escorted the merchant ships asked them to withdraw their troops and return to the town.

The towns received orders from Gao Dutong to return and leave the Jiangxi battlefield.

As a result, Huang Chao used this time to heal the wounded and sick soldiers, and encouraged the recovery of morale.Then, after Zhuzhen soldiers and horses left, Huang Chao tore up Gao Pian's letter and declared war on the Tang army again.

Gao Pian, who had been teased once, was furious and made Zhang Lin attack.As a result, Huang Chao's nemesis Zhang Lin, who had lost all vigor, fought a decisive battle with the rebels who were full of morale and full of intelligence and anger.

As a result, victory belongs to those who are prepared. Huang Chao won a big victory, Zhang Lin was killed in battle, the Huainan army was defeated, and the bandit hunters south of the Yangtze River could no longer resist Huang Chao.

After the great victory, Huang Chao went to Muzhou, Wuzhou, and Xuanzhou in eastern Zhejiang, and then crossed the Yangtze River north at the Caishi Ferry, directly killing Huainan Town Tianchang and ** in one fell swoop.It is only fifty miles away from Yangzhou, Gao Pian's handsome mansion.

At this time, Bi Shiduo, the commander-in-chief of Gao Pian's original grass army, urged Gao Pian to go out to fight, and called the town of Hudouzhou to land in Yangzhou to help in the battle.

However, Gao Pian did not accept his suggestion. Instead, he shrank the remaining Huainan army to the vicinity of Yangzhou. Not only did he take the initiative to give up Huang Chao's northward avenue, but he also transferred the most elite cavalry troops to Hailing, east of Yangzhou. , heavily guarded to prevent the town of the Yangtze River Estuary from landing in Yangzhou at this time.

At the same time, in order to shirk responsibility, Gao Pian sent Babaili to urgently appeal to the court.

In the emergency form, Gao Pian exaggerated: "Huang Chao's army has as many as 60, and it has been stationed in Tianchang, and it is less than fifty miles away from Yangzhou, which is defended by the minister!"

The people in Chang'an hadn't been here for a long time, and the soldiers and horses from the towns hadn't even returned to the town. As a result, Gao Pian had been beaten so hard that he didn't dare to leave Yangzhou, and he even dared to submit a memorial. He had the audacity to say that there were 60 grass thieves?

Huang Chao had 30 soldiers when he attacked Jingmen, but was annihilated by Cui Yunqing and Liu Jurong in the First World War, and nearly 20 were captured.The remaining 20 fled to Jiangxi, and only after sacking and looting fifteen states did they recover [-].

Then Zhang Lin was defeated in three battles and three times, plus the plague, there were only about 10 people left.

There are 60 thieves, but Gao Pian is ashamed to say [-].

And at this time Gao Pian still has about [-] soldiers and horses in his hands, and there are more than [-] soldiers in the town at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and Zhou Bao on the south bank of the Yangtze River also has more than [-] soldiers in his hands.

As long as Gao Pian is willing to fight, the official army is still stronger than Huang Chao.After all, although Huang Chao has [-] people, many of them are not old soldiers, but young and old.

The emperor's face became very gloomy!

Li Jing, who originally regarded it as the dry city of the country, played with self-respect when he was in Guan Jian, with an ambiguous attitude, and looked up.

Now, even Gao Pian, who he regarded as Zhu Guo at last, has started to play with self-respect.

Looking at Gao Pian's memorial full of lies, Li Xuan, the emperor who was determined to improve himself on the throne, had mixed feelings.Just now there was an infinitely beautiful mountain and river, and it is infinitely good to overlook the whole garden.In a blink of an eye, it has fallen to the bottom of the valley, and only black clouds are pressing down on the city to destroy it.

Numerous emergency memorials were rushed to Chang'an, and Huang Chao's army had already approached the Huaihe River.

At this point, the emperor couldn't even hold Gao Pian accountable.Gao Pian is far away in Yangzhou, and the emperor is far away.Now that Hebei is in reverse, Huang Chao is going north, but Li Jing cannot enter with his troops. At this time, the court neither reprimands Li Jing, nor dares to scold Gao Pian.

What's more, the situation has come to this point, and it is too late to pursue responsibility. The most important thing at the moment is how to deal with Huang Chao who is about to come north.Li Xuan looked around the ministers expectantly.

Henan is Huang Chao's hometown. This area has been overrun by grass thieves several times. In addition to the previous drought, locust plague, flood, and subsequent riots and military disasters, the Central Plains of Henan has already been riddled with holes, and the people's hearts are also the most unstable.Across the Yellow River, the four towns in Hebei were reversed.If Huang Chao is allowed to go to Cao and Pu in Henan's hometown again, then the grass bandit rebel army and the Hebei rebel army will be connected together.

All the ministers in the palace are now frowning urgently and worriedly.If both Henan and Hebei fell into the hands of traitors and traitors, this would no longer be a trivial matter.At that time, the entire canal will be under their control, and the Yellow River, Jihe River, and the North-South Canal will all fall into the hands of thieves.Without these arteries, Chang'an couldn't hold on for a few days.

Prime Minister Dou Luzhen suggested that Huang Chao should be appointed as the Jiedu Envoy of Lingnan Dongdao and let him go to Guangzhou.Huang Chao has always wanted to be a Jiedushi, and he also asked Guangzhou Jiedushi back then.Now we simply grant him the title of Jiedushi.He was no longer required to hand over his soldiers and horses, and he was asked to lead the troops directly to Guangzhou to take office.

In this way, Huang Chao went to Lingnan, away from the Central Plains, Luoyang, and Chang'an, so that the court could free up its hands to deal with the four towns in Hebei first.At that time, the imperial court mobilized all kinds of soldiers and horses to encircle and suppress Huang Chao, and wiped out this private salt dealer.

As the saying goes, this time, that time.

Emperor Li Xuan agreed with this proposal. Anyway, Guangzhou was slaughtered by Huang Chao long ago. Apart from Guangzhou, a prosperous trading port, Lingnan Dongdao is just a place that no one wants to go to.It's good to give this place to Huang Chao temporarily, just to buy time to destroy the four towns in Hebei first.

However, Lu Xie poured cold water on Dou Luzhen and the emperor's single-minded willingness. When Huang Chao begged the Guangzhou Jiedu envoy, firstly, he had nowhere to go, and the officers and soldiers chased him closely, and secondly, Lingnan was also very prosperous.But now the situation is different, Guangzhou has become a ruin.But Huang Chao's situation is just right, he has just defeated the famous Gao Pian.At the same time, the four towns in Hebei also relieved Huang Chao of a lot of pressure.Now Huang Chao is eager to go to the Yellow River.Unless the imperial court granted Huang Chao the title of Tianping Army Jiedushi at this time, he might agree.But how could the imperial court seal him the Tianping Army?

Therefore, Lu Xie, who had lost a lot of points in front of the emperor because of Gao Pian's ally, immediately proposed, "How can Huang Chao's appetite be filled by a Jiedu envoy from the East of the Five Ridges? It is impossible to stop him from continuing to attack, but it is just a waste of face for the court! What should be done now is to immediately mobilize all forces to guard Sizhou, and use Xuanwu Jieshuai as the commander of all armies to block the grass bandits in Huai and Si. The first line. As long as Huang Chao can't break through the line of defense, he can only turn around and plunder Huainan, and Gao Pian can't sit still. In that case, Huang Chao can only be caught in the pincer attack of our southern and northern armies, and in the end he can only kill himself .”

Li Xuan compared the proposals of Prime Minister Dou Luyu and Prime Minister Lu Xie in his mind, and finally felt that Lu Xie's proposal was more feasible, so he immediately made a decision and followed Prime Minister Lu Xie's plan.

Holding a white dust whisk in his hand, Tian Lingzi stood in front of the emperor's throne, with his eyes slightly closed, as if dozing off, not saying a word about the decisions made by the emperor and his ministers in the palace.And the ministers in the palace seemed to have forgotten this former powerful eunuch for a moment.

However, under Tian Lingzi's calm face, Tian Lingzi smiled coldly at the plan of the emperor and Lu Xie! (To be continued.)