In Gaoping County, Zezhou, Hedong Road, Tian Shengong's 15,000 troops have been trapped here for almost ten days. Ten days ago, Tian Shengong's army had just crossed the Taihang Mountains and entered Zezhou when they received a piece of news that shocked Tian Shengong.
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Taiyuan has been occupied by his brother Tian Shenyu, which means that Tian Shenyu has replaced him as the lord of Taiyuan.
Tian Shengong simply couldn't believe that his brother would do such a thing, and immediately sent an envoy to Taiyuan to confirm. For ten days, Tian Shengong had been waiting for news from Taiyuan. He was worried and restless. What made him feel even more uncomfortable was that his
There are deserters in the army. Although the number is not large, only a few hundred, this is a very bad sign. The morale of the army is unstable.
The news of Taiyuan has spread to the army, and people are panicking. Most of these soldiers are from Taiyuan. His home has been occupied. How can they not be worried?
That afternoon, counselor Li Feng came with Tian Shengong's wife and children, as well as Wei Wang Li Bai's wife and two-year-old son.
When Li Feng saw Tian Shengong, he burst into tears, "I have betrayed my lord's trust in my humble position and failed to defend Taiyuan. I am guilty of my humble position!"
"I won't blame you, I just want to know how Taiyuan was lost?"
Li Feng wiped away his tears and said: "Not long after the prince left, Tian Shenyu came with the army. He said that he was attacked by the Guanlong army and was defeated and fled back to Taiyuan. He also said that he was seriously injured. It was a bit strange to hold such a low position. Li Ye was not
Do you promise not to attack us?
Then Wu Jiande took the initiative to learn about the situation. Soon, Wu Jiande came back and said that it was indeed very miserable. There were only more than 2,000 troops left, most of them were wounded, and Tian Shenyu was seriously injured.
I believed Wu Jiande's words and allowed Tian Shenyu to enter the city to recuperate. As a result, Wu Jiande, a dog thief, had been bribed by Tian Shenyu and deceived me. Tian Shenyu sent two thousand troops disguised as wounded soldiers into the city and suddenly occupied the north gate.
, and then his army entered the city and occupied Taiyuan.
Fortunately, in order to buy off the lord's 10,000 left-behind troops, he did not kill the lord's wife and children, but sent them all to Taigu County for resettlement, along with their humble posts."
"Damn Wu Dejian!"
Tian Shengong punched the table hard, and his heart was cut with a knife. He treated his brothers well, and would rather offend the court than take his remnant army to Hedong Road for resettlement. He was so cruel that he took over his own property.
At night, Tian Shengong was sitting alone in the temporary official residence in the county seat, drinking quietly and considering his retreat. At this time, the soldiers hurried over with his confidant General Jia Yinlin. Jia Yinlin hurriedly reported in the yard, "My lord is not good, the army is in trouble."
Massive exodus.”
Tian Shengong was shocked and immediately ordered: "Get your horses ready and go to the military camp!"
He got on his horse and rushed to the military camp outside the city with more than a hundred soldiers. There were people everywhere in the military camp. The soldiers seemed to have left their respective camps and gathered together in small groups, which looked very chaotic.
What made Tian Shengong feel bad was that the number of people had decreased a lot. He felt panicked. How many people had fled?
Tian Shengong immediately ordered: "Beat the drums and gather troops immediately!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The drum beat, soldiers and generals gathered, and when the number was counted, Tian Shengong was like falling into an ice cave, with only more than 8,300 people left. More than 15,600 people retreated to Zezhou, and they actually reached nearly half of them.
Lieutenant General Fan Zhixin stepped forward and said: "The main reason is that the news of the arrival of the lord's wife and children has spread. Everyone is worried about their families, so they all ran away."
Tian Shengong nodded, "I know, you kill some pigs and sheep to reward the brothers!"
"Master, why don't you say a few words to appease the brothers?"
Tian Shengong shook his head, sighed, and walked towards the Chinese army's tent.
Fan Zhixin had no choice but to order the entire army to disband and return to camp.
Just as Tian Shengong sat down, he heard a commotion outside, "We want to see the prince! We want to see the prince!"
Tian Shengong quickly stood up and walked out of the tent, only to see dozens of generals standing outside the tent.
"Generals, what's the matter?"
A general said: "Prince Qi, we have received news that His Highness the King of Qi has eradicated the eunuchs in Luoyang and established a new court. Why doesn't my lord go to serve in the court?"
Tian Shengong was startled and immediately asked: "Where did you get the news?"
“Everyone in the county says this, but I don’t know if it’s true or not?”
"Your Majesty, none of our brothers want to betray the Tang Dynasty. Our father and ancestors are all subjects of the Tang Dynasty. We don't want to betray our ancestors!"
Tian Shengong sighed secretly in his heart and said loudly: "I will not betray Datang. Let's go back first and let me think about it. I will definitely give you a satisfactory answer."
All the generals dispersed, and Tian Shengong returned to the tent, feeling annoyed. These generals were clearly trying to force him to surrender to Li Ye.
In fact, Tian Shengong now has two choices, one is to give in and return to Taiyuan to become the younger brother of his brother Tian Shenyu, the other is to surrender to the imperial court.
It is not impossible to submit to the imperial court, but what should Wei Wang Li Bai do?
These three kings are all of the same virtue. They all firmly believe that the throne is theirs and refuse to surrender to Li Ye. Do they still think they can make a comeback?
At this time, a soldier reported at the door of the tent, "His Royal Highness King Wei is here!"
Tian Shengong frowned, but nodded, "Let him come in!"
After a moment, Li Bai, the king of Wei, wearing armor and a sword on his waist, walked in quickly. Li Bai was now the nominal commander of the Hedong Army. He always wore military uniforms and rode horses to march with the army.
"Your Majesty, now that the family has arrived, we can set off."
Previously, Li Bai had been asking Tian Shengong to join forces with Xue Song, the military governor of Xiangwei. Xue Song was also a local warlord who openly supported Li Bai, the king of Wei.
There is no room for two tigers in one mountain, so of course Tian Shengong would not agree.
After learning that Tian Shenyu had occupied Taiyuan, Li Bai tried his best to persuade Tian Shengong to return to Hanoi and join forces with Xiangwei.
Of course Tian Shengong knew Li Bai's wishful thinking, and it was nothing more than two tigers sharing the same master. Of course Tian Shengong would not agree, but he did not refuse it explicitly, so he used the excuse of taking him home to delay time.
Tian Shengong shook his head, "Li Ye's hundreds of thousands of troops are on the south bank of the Yellow River. Huaizhou is too small to support them."
Li Bao thought for a while and said: "I have another plan. We can borrow 20,000 troops from Guo Ziyi and Xue Song to recapture Taiyuan, and then Hedong Road will be used as the foundation to seize Guannai Road and Shuofang Road to establish the Northern Tang Dynasty.
Establish a new imperial court to confront Li Ye."
Tian Shengong was inspired to establish Beitang! Is this kid crazy?
"Is it possible that my father-in-law is afraid of Li Ye?"
Seeing his son-in-law's expression of expectation and confidence, Tian Shengong suddenly felt murderous intent in his heart. This ambitious son-in-law would definitely kill his family.
Tian Shengong chuckled and said, "Our husband-in-law is thinking of going together."
Li Bai was overjoyed, "Father-in-law agreed to lend troops?"
Tian Shengong nodded, "Let's go look at the map and tell me the plan in detail!"
Li Bao happily walked to the simple sand table. Tian Shengong suddenly reached out and pulled out his son-in-law's sword, covered Li Bao's mouth, and whispered in his ear: "Xianxiang, I'm sorry!"
The sword struck Li Bao's neck hard, and blood spurted out. Tian Shengong immediately let go and stepped back. The sword clattered to the ground. Li Bao slowly turned around, glanced at Tian Shengong in disbelief, and pointed at him, with a trace of sadness and anger flashing in his eyes.
, he fell down on his back, holding his throat where blood was gushing like a spring, and tried to scream but couldn't, curling up in pain.
Tian Shengong knelt down and shouted, "A good son-in-law! A good son-in-law! Someone come quickly!"
Several soldiers rushed in, "Your Majesty, what happened?"
"Go to the military doctor quickly, His Royal Highness King Wei committed suicide!"
Several soldiers rushed out, and when the military doctor and a large group of generals arrived, Li Bai was already dead, his eyes wide open, and he could not rest in peace.
Tian Shengong slowly stood up and faced the crowd with tears streaming down his face: "I told His Highness that I had decided to submit to the imperial court, but His Highness refused to accept it. Taking advantage of my unpreparedness, he drew his sword and committed suicide!"