The Tang army was defeated, and even though Guo Ziyi was a famous general, he was unable to gather the defeated troops.
The Tang army was routed from Baqiao to Qingqu, and then to Wugong County. Only then did Guo Ziyi stabilize the route.
With the help of the army brought by Li Siye, Wugong's defense was stabilized, and this prevented the situation from further collapse.
During this period, Crown Prince Li Chu saw that the situation was not good and ran very fast. His military flag fell too fast. An Shouzhong immediately asked the rebels to shout the slogan "Capture King Guangping alive", which further aggravated the defeat of the Tang army.
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Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Fuguo, who was supervising the army, ran very fast. He even ran all the way back to Fengxiang Mansion and reported the news of the Tang army's defeat to the emperor in advance.
When the news of the defeat of Qingqu reached Fengxiang Mansion, the entire court was shocked. The 150,000 elite soldiers of Bianzhen were defeated again!
Why use "you"? This is just like when Ge Shuhan led 200,000 Tang troops to defeat at Anlu Mountain, which once again exposed the weakness of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Fuguo was very loyal and told the emperor everything that happened on the battlefield, without adding any fuel or jealousy or favoring any side.
The emperor's health was not good, and he almost vomited blood after hearing the news.
These 150,000 elites were defeated, and more than half were killed or injured. These were all elites that the emperor had managed to support.
In order to reward these soldiers with rations, the emperor plundered almost all the treasuries across the country, and also sent Wu Qi and other ministers who were good at amassing money to collect salt taxes in the Jianghuai River.
The defeat of this war not only resulted in the loss of the army, but also made the recovery of the two capitals elusive.
When he thought of this, the emperor almost vomited blood.
But before the emperor could vomit blood, bad news came one after another.
First, Nanyang was captured by the rebels. This news was like a blow to the Fengxiang government.
Nanyang has been the iron-making base of the Central Plains Dynasty since the Han Dynasty. When Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty was able to revive, the biggest foundation was the iron officials who controlled Nanyang.
Nanyang is still the weapon and armor forging base of the Tang Dynasty. The fall of Nanyang means that it is difficult to replenish the armor and weapons of the Tang army.
This news was bad enough, but the other news even made the emperor's hands and feet go cold.
Suiyang, an important town on land and water in the Jianghuai River, has been besieged by rebels for almost a year. Now Suiyang has run out of ammunition and food and is asking the court for help.
Zhang Xun, the prefect of Suiyang, had been struggling for a year, but the court still had no reinforcements. He wrote in a memorial asking for help: "The people of Suiyang have no clothes to cover their bodies, no food to eat, and it is difficult to survive."
The middle part of the Bianhe River section of the Suiyang Grand Canal is an important town in the Jianghuai River Basin. If it is lost and the canal is blocked, the consequences will be disastrous.
The grain and silk collected from the Jianghuai River must go west from the Huai River, pass through the ancient canal, then enter the Bian River, and finally be transported to Fengxiang Mansion.
If Suiyang falls, the Fengxiang Mansion court will lose the financial blood transfusion from the Jianghuai region. That will be the most fatal blow to the Tang Dynasty court!
At this moment, the emperor finally couldn't hold on any longer. His head swelled up and he fainted completely.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Li Fuguo hugged the emperor and quickly asked Xiaohuangmen to send the imperial doctor.
When the emperor woke up again, all the prime ministers in the political hall were already standing in front of the bed.
When Prime Minister Wei Jiansu saw the emperor regaining consciousness, he quickly stepped forward and asked, "Sage, can you speak?"
The emperor cleared his throat and finally said: "I'm fine."
Although this sentence is weak, it finally reassures the prime ministers that the emperor still has the ability to handle government affairs, and then the court can be stable.
After waking up, the emperor immediately said: "Can Guo Ziyi come over with a memorial?"
Prime Minister Wei Jiansu said: "Guo Pingzhang's apology memorial has been sent to the Political Affairs Hall, and I am preparing to ask for His Majesty's judgment."
The emperor immediately said: "I will not read the apology memorial. I will remove Guo Ziyi from his post of Pingzhang and the important military and state affairs, and change it to Shangshu Zuopushe. Everything else remains as before."
Wei Jiansu lowered his head and accepted the emperor's order.
The title of prime minister was removed in name only, and Shangshu Zuo Pushe was still a high-ranking official. This shows that the emperor still had to rely on Guo Ziyi to suppress the rebellion, so the board was just raised high and put down gently.
The emperor continued: "Recall King Guangping, order King Guangping and Prince Yehu of the Uighurs to urge again, and ask the Uighurs to send troops quickly."
The prime ministers wrote down these decrees one after another, and these decrees still needed to be written into imperial edicts by Hanlin scholars, and then approved by the political affairs hall to formulate an imperial edict.
Then the emperor asked again: "Zhang Xun, the prefect of Suiyang, sent several memorials, saying that the rebels were besieging Suiyang. Do the ministers have any plan to rescue them?"
All the prime ministers were silent. As the prime minister, Wei Jiansu said bravely: "Your Majesty, the imperial court has no troops to send. We can only reward Zhang Xun, the prefect of Suiyang, and order him to hold on for a while."
The emperor could only sigh.
Asked again about the fall of Nanyang, Prime Minister Zhong was speechless again.
After handling several urgent government affairs in succession, the emperor was exhausted. He said to Li Fuguo beside him:
"Please ask the secretary to see you."
Prime Minister Wei Jiansu knew that the emperor was seeing off guests, but he still said: "I would like to ask the political affairs hall to be on duty in the palace."
When the emperor is ill, the prime ministers must be on duty in the palace. This is also to prevent anyone from causing trouble while the emperor is ill.
Naturally, the emperor understood that this was a necessary measure. He nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work, gentlemen. I have added Secretary Supervisor Li Mi to the rotating list. Let Li Mi be on duty in the palace today."
At this time, the emperor remembered Li Mi who helped him ascend the throne. When Huangmen arrived at Li Mi's house with the imperial edict, Li Mi, who was feeling unwell, dragged his sick body into the palace with Xiao Huangmen.
By the time Li Mi entered the palace, the prime ministers had already left the palace.
Seeing the emperor lying on the sick bed, Li Mi also felt a sore nose.
The emperor sighed heavily and said: "Migong Mi, I regret that I should not have listened to your wise words, which caused the situation to deteriorate to this point!"
Before entering the palace, Li Mi also knew about the dangerous situation in the court. He was thinking about how to solve the crisis situation in the court.
Li Mi bowed and said: "Your Majesty, although our Tang Dynasty lost troops and generals due to the defeat of Qingqu, as long as the water transportation to the south of the Yangtze River is not lost, it is still only a matter of time to regain the two capitals."
The emperor was obviously relieved.
Li Mi continued: "The siege of Suiyang looks dangerous. I know that Zhang Xun, the governor of Suiyang, is loyal to the country. Zhang is also good at military affairs. He has a reputation for caring for the people in Suiyang. I think Suiyang can still be defended!"
The emperor finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Li Mi's judgment.
Li Mi continued: "The only plan now is to borrow troops from the Uighurs, gather all the troops from the world, and attack the two capitals."
The emperor was stunned. Li Mi and Guo Ziyi had always been members of the Northern Movement faction, which meant that they believed that the Tang army should first pacify the Hebei region where the rebels were based.
Unexpectedly, Li Mi now firmly proposed to regain the two capitals.
Li Mi coughed for a while and said: "Your Majesty, now and then, the imperial army has been defeated again, the water transportation is unstable and Nanyang has been lost. There is no capital to spend with the rebels, so we can only make a desperate effort to regain the two capitals."
Li Mi was exhausted mentally and physically, and the emperor also got up from the bed. He whispered: "The position of crown prince?"
Li Mi said firmly: "The defeat of Qingqu was the prince's fault. But when the prince of a country makes a mistake, it is your majesty who makes a mistake. Now the Li and Tang royal family can no longer afford such mistakes."
"Guo Pushe wrote a letter to plead guilty, which means he took the blame on himself. If your Majesty changes the crown prince, the world will say that the battle of Qingqu is the responsibility of the royal family."
The emperor shuddered. His father's reputation for recklessly commanding the Battle of Tongguan had caused the royal family to lose a lot of prestige.
If King Quang Binh's mistakes were made known to the world again, the prestige of the royal family would be even worse.
At this time, Prime Minister Wei Jiansu, who had just left the palace, entered the palace again.
After Wei Jiansu entered the palace, he said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, the envoy from King Jianning has arrived, and he has brought 10,000 miscellaneous animals and 1,000 war horses from Longyou!"