There is no winter in the south of the Yangtze River, and flowers bloom all year round. Even the imperial capital Chang'an has already warmed up in February, with willows green in March and flowers red in April. But in this place in the northwest, the wind becomes less severe in March, grass grows out of the ground in April, and thick cotton clothes are barely able to be taken off in May.
There are two seasons of food in the south and north of the Yangtze River, and one season in the northwest. In June, the wheat is already ripe in the Central Plains, and the planting season has just arrived in the northwest.
It¡¯s early June, a rainy time in the south of the Yangtze River.
It also rained for the first time this year in the northwest. The rain was not very heavy but just barely wet the ground, so it did not affect the fighting between the two sides. Although the troops of the imperial court were slightly smaller in strength, they had always maintained a high morale. From the moment they crossed Luoshui, they only attacked, and they attacked continuously.
Although Li Yuanshan ordered a strict seal on the news that Meng Yuan and Gao Kaitai teamed up to defeat the left midfielder, as the saying goes, good things don't go out and bad things spread thousands of miles. This news couldn't be sealed at all. As a result, people in the rebel camp were even more panicked. . The law enforcement team killed people for two days in a row. They killed hundreds of soldiers who spread the news in private, but to no avail. The more they cut like this, the more convinced the soldiers were that it was true.
In order to prevent the spread of this decline, Li Yuanshan ordered the mobilization of three armies and nearly 40,000 people to attack the imperial army camp. However, the imperial army did not even defend, but took the initiative to fight. General Jin Shixiong personally commanded, and the high-spirited warriors pushed back the worried and demoralized rebels with just one charge. Jin Shixiong took the opportunity to march forward, sticking behind the defeated rebels and chasing them for more than ten miles. They did not retreat until they reached the gates of Xiping City.
In this battle, the rebels lost 80% of their troops, 40% of them were killed and captured, and 40% escaped.
This was the beginning. From this day on, soldiers from the rebel camp would escape every day. At first it was a few people, then dozens, then hundreds. On the most recent day, there were even two soldiers from the rebel camp fleeing on patrol. The opportunity escaped. Immediately afterwards, another unfavorable news began to spread. It was said that the imperial navy had docked and transported at least 500,000 reinforcements. Luo Yao was defeated and retreated to the south of Mangdang Mountain, losing most of his troops.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately covered the fragile hearts of the rebel soldiers like wild weeds, and they began to count the days until their death. If the 500,000 reinforcements were true, the non-stop journey from crossing the river to arriving at Xiping City would only take more than a month at most. Many rebel soldiers were thinking that if they did not escape, their lives would only be 30 to 40 years. Oh my god.
Li Yuanshan knew that the so-called dispatch of 500,000 reinforcements by the imperial court must be false, because the imperial court simply cannot mobilize that many troops now. The imperial navy has been patrolling the waters from Luoshui to the Yangtze River. Now it seems that its purpose is to prevent Luo Yao from taking the opportunity to cross the river to the east. This shows that the emperor has anticipated all possible things that may happen. What could be hidden from his eyes.
Li Yuanshan also knew that this false news must have been spread by someone sent by Emperor Yang Yi. This kind of news is sometimes more lethal than just slashing with a knife. A knife can kill one person at most, but a piece of false news can make hundreds of thousands of people panic.
At this moment, Li Yuanshan had to admit that he had indeed underestimated Yang Yi.
An emperor who did everything he could to join forces with the Meng Yuan people, an emperor who had given up all scruples and ties, was undoubtedly terrifying. He no longer cares about his posthumous reputation, what else is he afraid of?
It was at this time that Li Yuanshan realized that his situation had really reached the point of Lin Yuan. The saddest thing is that not only is there an abyss in front of it, but it is also an abyss behind.
In just a few days, Li Yuanshan seemed to have aged ten years.
Since the beginning of the army, he has never doubted that he could not turn his dream of turning his family into a country into reality. Over the past three years, he feels that he is moving towards success every day. When he proclaimed himself king, many of his subordinates advised him to take advantage of the victory to advance eastward or southward. The exhausted northwest was not a place to raise troops and it would be difficult to sustain troops for long. But he firmly followed his plan and never wavered. Now, he finally regrets it.
He knows that the northwest is exhausted, and he knows that the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River are prosperous.
The reason why he did not send troops was because he wanted to settle the overall situation in the northwest. As long as the emperor is forced to personally conquer this desolate land to get rid of the emperor, then the splendid mountains and rivers in the south of the Central Plains will suffer as little damage from the war as possible. What he wants is the entire empire, not just a corner. In his eyes, the tens of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains are his, and he is reluctant to destroy them. But the time has finally come when this dream is about to collapse.
Li Yuanshan always believed that the Yang family owed them, the Li family, too much. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, Li Xiao led his troops to capture more than half of the current territory of the Sui Dynasty. Such achievements were unprecedented and unprecedented. Li Xiao single-handedly held the Yang family in great glory. Without Li Xiao, this would not have been possible.An empire would not be so powerful.
But later, in order to prevent Li Xiaogong from relying on his own troops, the emperor sent him to the bitter cold and barren land in the northwest. It was said that he was reused as a guard, but in fact he was isolated in this place far away from the prosperity. Not only that, after depriving Li Xiao of most of his military power, two other soldiers were stationed to monitor the Li family, always on guard against Li Xiao's ulterior motives.
Very few people know that in his later years, Li Xiao once raised his head and sighed, regretting that he had made so many contributions to the Sui Dynasty that his descendants would be implicated.
Li Yuanshan hates, hates from beginning to end.
Why did the Yang family treat his Li family like this?
Since half of the world in the Sui Dynasty was conquered by the Li family, why can¡¯t the Li family get it back?
Standing on the wall of Xiping City, Li Yuanshan looked at the battlefield outside the city and was speechless.
Or the wind and sand are in tears.
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In June, Li Yuanshan issued sixteen orders in a row to mobilize Meng Wansui and Yin Poshan's rebels to join forces in Xiping City. However, these sixteen military orders were sent out without any news, not to mention that Meng Wansui and Yin Poshan did not come. , not even one of the people sent out to deliver military orders came back.
When you are proud, thousands of people admire you; when you are frustrated, the wall falls and everyone pushes you away.
After hesitating for a few days, Li Yuanshan finally made up his mind.
"We can no longer waste our lives like this. The soldiers in the city are all his cronies. Although their hearts are uncertain, at least they still maintain military discipline." A large number of soldiers outside the city have been fleeing every day these days. The generals have begun to plan a way out, and they have no idea to restrain their subordinates. If this continues, without the imperial army continuing to attack, those rumors will defeat Li Yuanshan and make him irreversible.
On June 28, the fifteenth year of Tianyou's reign in the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuanshan ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in Xiping City.
He announced the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, with the capital at Xiping, and the founding of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the cramped county guard¡¯s office in Xiping City, Li Yuanshan, who was wearing a dragon robe, conferred a great title on all the ministers. Li Xiaoche was the prince, Song Qianhui was the prime minister, and Zhou Dingguo Wan Yansong was the general of Zhuguo. The rebel generals, generals and civil servants outside the city all received rewards. There were more than a dozen first-rank officials, and there were hundreds of second- and third-rank officials. Suddenly, an emperor, dozens of princes, hundreds of marquises, and countless generals were born in the city.
After Li Yuanshan ascended the throne, he began to designate food places for his princes. Some people were sealed in the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and some were sealed in the Northeast and the sea. In short, they were all rich and prosperous places. But everyone also knows that they will probably never have the chance to visit their own fiefdom in this life.
Because there was no plan before, the emperor¡¯s enthronement ceremony in Xiping City was ridiculously simple. Li Yuanshan's dragon robe was still his black embroidered Dragon King robe, and some yellow satin was temporarily sewn on the collar and cuffs. Li Yuanshan had already thought about naming the country Dazhou, because Li Xiao's title a hundred years ago was Zhou Guogong. Because they could not gather the number of civil servants, they had to arrange for the guards to wear civilian clothes and pretend to be officials. And because there was no jade seal, the seal affixed to hundreds of decrees issued by Emperor Li Yuanshan of the Great Zhou Dynasty was carved from a city brick.
It¡¯s quite interesting to imagine that His Majesty, the founding emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, held a city brick and stamped the so-called imperial edict seriously and solemnly again and again.
As for the officials who were enfeoffed, it didn¡¯t matter if they didn¡¯t have suitable uniforms. No one cared about it anyway. Even the emperor¡¯s dragon robe was so suitable for them. What else could they not do?
That night, the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty was at the county guard's office no, it was a banquet for the ministers in the palace of the Zhou Dynasty. Because the food and grass in the city were limited, there were only two meat dishes on each table. A bowl of pork and cabbage and a portion of native chicken and stewed mushrooms were the most luxurious. The main course came. A group of lords from Guogong County sat at the table, shaking their heads and smiling bitterly as they looked at the food.
Of course, this was not what made them most upset. During the meal, His Majesty the Emperor of Zhou had dozens of decrees read out, giving everyone from his father to Li Xiao an emperor title, especially It's Li Xiao. The posthumous title has sixty-four characters in total. I don't know how much hair the person who thought of these words had to lose to come up with it. Then the decree was given to the descendants of the Li family. Li Yuanshan made more than a dozen princes and thirty-plus county princes in one breath. All the princes and princes in the county governor's office were immediately eclipsed.
Everyone had their heads lowered, and there was no joy at all on their faces.
but
Li Yuanshan did not seem to be affected.
He sat on a temporary high platform, raised his glass and made an impassioned speech, recalling the past and looking forward to the future. The conversation lasted for half an hour. When the pork and cabbage were already cold, he had not finished speaking. The hands of the officials below who were holding the wine glasses were already sore and numb.
Li Yuanshan kept laughing and looked really happy.
The banquet did not end until after midnight. The Emperor Zhou, who had enjoyed himself, was helped by his chamberlain to go back to his "chamber" to rest. Prince Li Xiaoche followed behind, walking with his head lowered as if he didn't want others to see the embarrassed look on his face.
Back at his residence, Li Xiaoche served Li Yuanshan, took off his clothes and covered him with a quilt. Looking at this drunk and unconscious man, the father whom he once regarded as the whole sky, Li Xiaoche felt bitter in his mouth. He knew how absurd his father's decision was, and he also knew how ridiculous this so-called enthronement ceremony was. But he tried his best to look solemn from beginning to end, just to comfort his father's heart that was actually broken.
emperor¡¡
"My father finally became the emperor. That's enough, isn't it?"
Li Xiaozong stood by the bed and stared at Li Yuanshan for a long time, his heart hurting as if a knife was gouging him out.
He didn¡¯t know how long he stood like this, before Li Xiaoche let out a long sigh and prepared to leave. Just when he walked to the door, he suddenly heard a low sob from behind. He turned around sharply and found his father lying on the bed, although his eyes were still closed, but tears could not stop flowing down.
Li Xiaoche hurried back and opened his mouth but couldn't find the words to comfort him.
"Che'er"
"Father"
"My father owes you a prince canonization ceremony, and my father will pay it back to you."
Li Yuanshan was murmuring, and Li Xiaoche couldn't tell whether he was awake or drunk.
"People from the Li familypeople from the Li family will never admit defeat!"
Li Yuanshan suddenly stretched out his arm and waved it, clenching his fist so tightly: "This is just the beginning just the beginning! Sooner or later, I will sit on the Nine Dragons Golden Chair in the Tai Chi Hall of Chang'an City, and let's see who let's see who dares I will kill anyone who dares to laugh at me or stand in my way!¡±