Late Tang

On the morning of the Double Ninth Festival on September [-]th, the sun was shining brightly, the autumn air was crisp and there was a breeze from time to time.Murong Xue stood by the tower window of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, watching a wisp of black smoke rising from the west of the city, through some white floating clouds, straight to the sky, so shocking.At this time, Aunt Lan stood beside her silently, with loving eyes. "Aunt Lan, the grass thief is doing evil again." She said in a cold tone.

"A grass thief is a grass thief after all, even if Huang Chao puts on the royal robe, it's nothing more than a crown of monkeys." Aunt Lan's pretty face could not help but reveal a feeling of gnashing of teeth and hatred. "Look, Chang'an, the home of millions, was such a prosperous capital in the past, but now, the inner treasury has been burned to splendid ashes, and the sky streets have been trampled to the bone! Chang'an, with millions of people, is now a ghost prison!"

Murong Xue and Aunt Lan failed to assassinate Li Keyong that day and were captured and imprisoned in Yanmen for several months.After Li Jing knew about it, he expressed to Li Keyong that he would redeem the two of them.The two sides negotiated several times, but Li Keyong kept dragging it.After Shatuo Yizhou and Junduguan were defeated, Li Jing made a large-scale attack on Yanmen Town, forcing Li Keyong to initiate negotiations again. Finally, Li Keyong proposed to exchange Murongxue and Aunt Lan for Shi Jingsi and Aunt Lan. Guo Chongtao, Li Cunxin, and Liu Rengong four generals, and let Li Jing release the captured Shatuo soldiers, and the two sides signed an armistice agreement.

After the two parties had negotiated for a long time, Li Jing agreed to a ceasefire between the two sides. At the same time, Li Jing exchanged Li Cunxin and more than a thousand Shatuo prisoners for Murong Xue and Aunt Lan.Although Li Keyong was dissatisfied, Li Jing was determined. Finally, the two sides reached an agreement to exchange prisoners.

After Murong Xue was able to escape, she did not go to Yanjing, but asked the envoy of the Qin Army to bring her a letter to Li Jing, and then left with Aunt Lan.

In the letter to Li Jing, Murong Xue only wrote a sentence of Zhuangzi's words, it is better to forget each other in Jianghu than to be in love with each other.

The original text of Zhuangzi's words is Zhuangziyun: When the spring is dry, the fish are on the land, and they are wet when they are wet, and it is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes.It means that the spring has dried up, the fish are trapped on the land, blowing the bubbles on each other's gills, and splashing the remaining spring water on each other. However, this kind of life is not normal, but it is the most helpless.For the fish, the most ideal situation is that the sea water finally overflows, and the two fish finally return to their own world, and finally, they forget each other in the rivers and lakes.Go back to your most suitable place to live a happy life, forget the other party, and forget that painful life.

Murong Xue had indeed been in love with Li Jing, and even now she still loves Li Jing, but for a female assassin, the distance between her and Li Jing was too far, even Aunt Lan once assassinated Li Jing.Aunt Lan is half teacher and half mother, and Li Jing is the wife. In the end, Murong Xue chose to be with Aunt Lan.

But even though he didn't go to meet Li Jing, Murong Xue didn't return to the grassland, but set off again, heading for Chang'an in Guanzhong.

Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, is now the capital of the Qi State.

It’s just that I returned to Chang’an after a few years. It has completely changed here. There were millions of people in Chang’an at the beginning, but now the people in Chang’an are less than half, and the families of the soldiers who entered the Qi army are more than [-]. .

When Huang Chao first entered Chang'an, it was good. At least in the first two days after entering Chang'an, Huang Chao was still thinking about trying to implement the military orders he had in Luoyang.Huang Chao was very happy when he was welcomed into Chang'an by the civil and military officials left behind in Chang'an, so he was also very generous.Not only did he order to maintain military discipline and not commit any crimes against the people, but he also gave a lot of money and food to help the poor and poor people living in the chaotic and disorderly city of Chang'an after the Tang army withdrew, just like a true army of benevolent kings.

Everything is so perfect, so harmonious, so sweet, like a beautiful soap bubble in a bright light.

However, a fake is a fake after all.

The 30 soldiers who entered the customs in Huangchao only maintained poverty relief and order for two days, and on the third day, the soldiers of the Qi army couldn't help but started to do their old jobs, stealing the rich with ease.

In just three days, the order in Chang'an City that had been temporarily stabilized by Huang Chao's entry was broken again.The soldiers of the Qi army gathered in groups and began to burn, kill, and loot wantonly. This time, even Huang Chao couldn't control it. This magnificent and prosperous capital of the Tang Empire was once again overwhelmed by fear and fanaticism.

In the beginning, in the 30 Qi army, only some generals led their own soldiers to seize the mansions left by the relatives of the emperor and the dignitaries of the Communist Party of China in Chang'an City after they fled.Soon, learning from others, the captains of the Qi army also began to seize the mansions of the wealthy gentry and merchants.Immediately afterwards, the storm intensified, and the whole Chang'an was filled with a fanatical atmosphere. More ordinary soldiers of the Qi army began to rush out of the camp in groups and poured into the Lifang Market on the streets of Chang'an. Rob the store market.

Later, seizing the mansion turned into robbing property, and then robbing women...

Murong Xue didn't see this with her own eyes. When they entered Chang'an, it had almost turned into a city of hell, with panic everywhere, robbery, murder, and murder.After Huang Chao entered Chang'an, the collapse of the city was told to them by a former acquaintance mage in the temple where they stayed.As for whether the truth is true, Murong Xue has no doubts, just look at the current situation in Chang'an, and you will know that the mage's words are not lies. "Didn't Huang Chao perform well in Luoyang? How did he make such a low-level mistake after arriving in Chang'an? He is digging his own grave."

"Yes, Huang Chao is not a vulgar and stupid person. He is also a scholar who has read the books of sages and sages, and even participated in the imperial examinations several times. After seeing him fight in the world over the years and never die, you can see that this is no ordinary person. Back then After he entered Luoyang, he performed extraordinaryly, with awe-inspiring military discipline, no crimes against the people, good treatment of scholars and demotions, and won the support of many officials, local tyrants and towns, otherwise, it would be impossible to enter Chang'an so easily." Aunt Lan sighed, "Originally, many people were optimistic about Huang Chao's entry into Chang'an. Many people even thought that the Tang Dynasty should be destroyed and the Great Qi should be established. But now it seems that Huang Chao is not the real son. This is now in Chang'an. The perverse actions in the city are even more unbearable than the original Li family."

But why did Huang Chao do this? Could it be that Huang Chao was really complacent after taking down Chang'an?Murong Xue couldn't help thinking to herself, is Huang Chao really so confused?Although Huang Chao occupies two capitals, in fact, Emperor Li Tang is still in Xichuan at this time, and there are many Li Tang feudal towns in Guanzhong.And in the east, her wife, Li Jing, is the most powerful feudal clan in the world, holding elite soldiers that even Huang Chao would be afraid of, and controlling a territory far beyond Qi.Why did Huang Chao do this?Why didn't he take advantage of the victory to pursue Emperor Li Tang of Xichuan?

Descending from the pagoda, Murong Xue and Aunt Lan came to the underground secret room in Da Ci'en Temple.Daci'en Temple is one of the four major Buddhist temples in Chang'an. It is a royal temple and a national scripture translation institute in the Tang Dynasty. It belongs to Jinchangfang in the south of Chang'an.

But Da Ci'en Temple still has a secret, that is, it has already become a stronghold safe house secretly established by Qin Fan.Even several eminent monks of Da Ci'en Temple became secret spies of the Qin Fan Army Intelligence Department.Under the Da Ci'en Temple, there is an extremely large and complex underground secret palace.

Right now, the underground secret palace of the Da Ci'en Temple is a secret branch of the Qin Army's Military Intelligence Department in Chang'an City. It hides hundreds of officials in Chang'an City who were secretly transferred and protected by the Military Intelligence Department. Among them, former Prime Minister Yu Cong And his wife, Princess Guangde, as well as a large number of officials such as Song, Yu, Cui, and their families.If Li Jing hadn't sent the Military Intelligence Department to rescue them in advance, this large group of people would have fallen into the hands of Huang Chao. Among them, there were even a large number of princes, uncles, princesses, princesses and other royal relatives.

Not long after Murong Xue arrived in Chang'an, she went to assassinate Huang Chao, but was discovered. When she escaped, she was assisted by the military intelligence department, and finally took refuge here.

Da Ci'en Temple originally had an underground palace, but the Military Intelligence Division continued to expand it secretly. Today, the underground palace is extremely large, with many rooms and halls inside.As soon as Murong Xue came back, she happened to meet Xiangguo Yu Cong's wife, Princess Guangde, and her daughter Yu Qinghui.

"Sister, you are so beautiful today." Yu Qinghui was only 16 years old, which was the age of innocence.She is not the concubine's daughter of Princess Guangde, but the daughter of concubine Yu Luozhen.Yu Luozhen is an extremely beautiful kabuki, and the princess promised her to Yu Cong as a concubine. Later, Yu Cong loved Yu Luozhen too much and was not doing his job properly, so the princess sent her away again.When she left, she left behind a daughter, Yu Qinghui, who was brought up by the princess as her own daughter. When she grew up, she was as beautiful as her mother.

"Thank you, my sister's face makes me really ashamed." After Murong Xue was rescued, only a few people knew their identities, and they all called themselves kabuki from a singing and dancing troupe.However, the princess mother and daughter did not despise the two of them. In this underground palace, they quickly became rare friends.Murong Xue is wearing the clothes given to them by the princess today, a white palace dress, with a lavender mantle wrapped around her arm, and jewelry given by the princess on her head.The palace attire is a toga with long sleeves. The robe is so big that it just conceals a thorn and a short sword tied to her leg. In addition, there are two sleeve arrows tied to her arms.Even one of her hairpins is a special weapon, a poisonous hairpin with poison hidden in the hollow inside, as a top assassin, she is covered with weapons all over her body, even the ruby ​​ring on her hand is filled with Hollow, containing poisonous powder.

"What were you talking about just now?" the princess asked with a smile. Although she is now forced to hide in the underground palace, Princess Guangde still maintains a graceful temperament, a calm atmosphere, and no pessimism, sadness or panic.She stretched out her hand, took Murong Xue's hand, and Yu Qingzheng with the other hand, walked to the side of the stone table and sat down together.

When the princess heard Aunt Lan talk about Huang Chao's atrocities after entering Chang'an, she shook her head slightly: "Maybe Huang Chao didn't want to do this, but he couldn't stop these atrocities from happening, and he couldn't even acquiesce."

"Why?" Murong Xue was a little puzzled.

The princess said: "You may not know that Chang'an is such a prosperous city with millions of homes, but in fact it has always had one of its biggest weaknesses, that is, insufficient food supply. Chang'an has always had a problem of insufficient supply. Consumes at least 500 million shi of grain, most of which are supplied by Guanzhong, then Hezhong Henan, then Bashu and Jianghuai. Over the years, almost all the grain in Hedong, Henan has been reserved for the army of the vassal town, and no food has entered the pass. Bashu There is little grain in Hexi, and the distance is far and difficult to transport, so in recent years, Chang'an's grain supply has been relying on Guanzhong and Huainan."

"When Huang Chao occupied Luoyang, he could eat in Henan, and he was still occupying Huaibei at that time, so he was not short of food. And when he entered Chang'an, he had 30 soldiers and horses, and those family members were more than 50. , adding up to about 50 people entering the customs. Before Huang Chao entered Chang'an, most of the imperial court and officials withdrew from Chang'an and took away a large amount of food. Those who stayed in Chang'an were mostly ordinary people, almost [-] people. Together, After Huang Chao entered Chang'an, there were almost [-]% of them in Chang'an."

"One million people need at least 500 million shi grains a year, and at least 50 shi grains a month. Huang Chao used to travel around the world, eating wherever he went, and didn't do production or farming at all. Where did he come from? food? Although he has occupied Chang'an, in fact Chang'an has already run out of food because there is no food for Chang'an in the southeast. Now that Huang Chao enters Chang'an, millions of people are waiting for Huang Chao to eat and drink? Huang Chao was happy for two days, and then Has it been found that there is no food in Chang'an City? Therefore, Huang Chao's military discipline only lasted for two days, and immediately changed from helping the poor to robbing the rich. Because Huang Chao could no longer produce food by himself, many troops began to find food by themselves. Robbery, where else can food be produced."

"It is precisely because of the lack of food that Huang Chao has been staying in Chang'an, unable to pursue the emperor. How can he send troops without food? Without food, Huang Chao can't get out of Chang'an, and he can't even attack the towns in Guanzhong, let alone chase the emperor. Therefore, Don't look at Huang Chao's troubles now, but he is also a grasshopper after autumn, and he won't be around for long."

Murong Xue didn't expect the princess to say such a truth in one breath. Although it was a woman's words, she had already explained the current situation of Huang Chao clearly.Indeed, food and grass are the key to the success or failure of Huangchao.

Aunt Lan also glanced at the princess in surprise, and said: "It's not necessarily true. If Huang Chao no longer sticks to the gains and losses of the city, and continues to implement his previous strategy of fleeing and fighting, and gathers the army regardless, and directly attacks Sanchuan with all his strength and pursues the emperor. A dead end becomes a living end."

The princess shook her head: "This is indeed a solution, but Huang Chao will never abandon Luoyang and Chang'an. Capturing the two capitals is Huang Chao's greatest achievement in this life, but it will also become Huang Chao's biggest shackle in the future. He will never abandon Luoyang and Chang'an. The two capitals will be abandoned, so Huang Chao's defeat is already a foregone conclusion."

While talking, an excited shout suddenly came from a distance: "Good news, the Qin army has conquered Xuzhou, wiped out the puppet Qi's [-] troops, and captured the puppet Qi generals Huo Cun, Zhang Guiba, and Zhang Guihou alive. The general of the bandit army, the King of Qin called on soldiers and horses from all the towns and towns in the world to send troops to serve the King, conquer Luoyang, and regain Chang'an!" (To be continued.)