In the Later Tang Dynasty, Luoyang, the eastern capital, and Yingtianmen, the south gate of Ziwei City in the palace city, were the occasions where major state affairs and diplomatic occasions were held in the Later Tang Dynasty.
Although the Guiyi Army was regarded as a natural member of China in later generations, at this time, in the eyes of the Central Plains court, the Guiyi Army was completely different from Ma Chu, Southern Han, Fujian, Yue, etc., and they were regarded more as foreign vassals.
At this moment, Long Bian, the chief envoy of the Guiyi Army, and Jia Yanchang, the deputy envoy, were thanking the emperor outside Yingtian Gate because Emperor Li Congke had agreed to the request of the Guiyi Army.
The imperial court posthumously awarded Cao Yijin the title of Taishi, Prince of Qiao County, appointed Cao Yuanzhong as the Inspector of the School, Guasha and Shazhou Jiedu to observe and deal with the fallen envoys of Fan and Shazhou, and appointed Zhang Zhao as the Inspector of the School and the envoy of the Yijun Army.
Although the envoy of the Guiyi Army inexplicably gave up the title of the Jiedu Envoy of the Guiyi Army, he invited an observer envoy from Guasha and Erzhou Jiedu, and then invited another envoy of the Guiyi Army.
But as soon as Jia Yanchang's silver bullet offensive, especially the five second- and third-generation Han blood horses known as Tianma, appeared, Li Congke immediately agreed.
Privy Council Scholar Xue Wenyu and others also accepted large amounts of bribes, so naturally no one objected.
Even as tribute envoys who presented Tianma, Jia Yanchang and Long Bian were rewarded with brocade robes and silver belts by Emperor Li Congke.
Now that they had been appointed and the official positions they applied for had been obtained, Jia Yanchang and Long Bian quickly returned to the post house.
As soon as they entered the door, the clerk of the post house who had been fed by their money ran over and reported that the Ganzhou Uighur envoys had arrived with their BMWs and gold and silver. It was said that they wanted to accuse the Guiyi army of unprovoked attacks on them and the occupation of Suzhou.
"The dog slave is here to beg again!" Jia Yanchang suddenly looked extremely ugly.
This was also a common trick used by the Uighurs in Ganzhou. At this time, they called the Later Tang Dynasty their uncle and nephew, which was much more reliable in the eyes of the Central Plains court than the Guiyi Army, which had a dark history of becoming an independent emperor.
In the past years, when there were conflicts between the Uighurs and the Guiyi Army in Ganzhou, they would always seek help from the Central Plains court.
"But they are late. I am afraid that the court and the saints have no time to look west. However, it will be a long night and many dreams. Jia Yamen, please leave immediately!"
Long Bian immediately said to Jia Yanchang, who nodded.
"I know that the master has the important task of being a military envoy, so I will not refuse. I will leave twenty followers for you, so be careful."
Seeing Jia Yanchang hurriedly pack his clothes and salute, Long Bian couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Everyone knew that he had a secret mission from Zhang Zhao, but no one could have imagined that his mission was to help Zhang Zhao abduct King Dongdan's young daughter to Liangzhou.
What is this? He, the well-known monk in Hexi Province, is now going to deceive other people's daughters, and he has to do it.
"Master, the commander-in-chief has sent someone to invite you again!" The inn clerk looked at the monk in front of him with envy and jealousy.
What a good trick! He coaxed the commander-in-chief of Huaihua Army to invite him every day, listened to him preach about Buddhism every day, and gave him countless gold, silver and jewels.
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King Yelvbei of Dongdan is now called Li Zanhua. This is the name given to him by Emperor Zhuangzong Li Cunxu after he arrived in the Later Tang Dynasty from Fuhai, Liaodong, and he was also given the official position of Jiedushi of the Huaihua Army.
Therefore, the post office officials did not call him King Dongdan, but called him Commander-in-Chief.
Yelvbei's residence was in Fuchengfang, close to the imperial city. Luoyang, the eastern capital of the later Tang Dynasty, was slightly repaired on the basis of Luoyang in the Tang Dynasty. This boxy city structure was of course inherited.
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However, from the end of the Tang Dynasty to the present, Luoyang has experienced several disasters, and the city has been in decline. Many buildings in the city have collapsed and are overgrown with thorns like a wild field.
The unruly people even took soil from the roads to build houses, making the whole of Luoyang full of potholes. The potholes on the ground in many markets were so big that even bullock carts could not pass.
The palace city was not much better, with the vermilion paint peeling off and occasional collapses, causing holes of various sizes to appear in many places in the palace walls, where foxes, rabbits and wild dogs roamed.
At this time, the entire city of Luoyang was actually connected to the suburbs. The so-called awe-inspiring sacred capital, bypassing the green fields refers to this phenomenon.
Now it still has the atmosphere of a national capital, that is, the palace city Ziwei City, which was renovated during the Zhuangzong period, and several cities such as Fuchengfang near Ziwei City.
But the Siyi Pavilion where Long Bian and other envoys lived was on the edge of the Yi River. By the time he rushed to Yelvbei's residence with a clanging clang, Abaoji's eldest son had already received a mixed message.
More than ten days ago, on the third day of September, Zhang Jingda, the deputy general manager of the army in the north of the Later Tang Dynasty, led an army of 110,000 to besiege Taiyuan.
The Tang army dug a long trench to besiege Shi Jingtang. Seeing that Shi Jingtang could no longer hold on, he closed his eyes and immediately gave up all dignity. On the condition that he ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun and became the emperor, he invited the Khitan Emperor Yelv Deguang's 50,000-strong army.
After that, the Tang army was forced to lift the siege of Taiyuan, and Zhang Jingda sent his generals Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing to take the initiative.
Yelu Deguang pretended to be defeated and led the cavalry led by Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing to the south of Fen River. Then he suddenly attacked in an ambush and cut the Later Tang army into two sections.
The two sides fought for three hours, and the infantry of the Later Tang Dynasty, which had lost the cover of cavalry, was defeated. As many as ten thousand people were killed, and almost all their clothing, armor, equipment, food, grass and baggage were lost. In fact, the entire army was wiped out.
Gu Zhuo
The cavalry team located in the south did not suffer much losses, but their numbers were too small and they could no longer change the situation of the battle.
Later, during Gao Xingzhou, Fu Yanqing led his cavalry to fight many times, but with little success.
Zhang Jingda collected the defeated troops and was surrounded in the Jin'an military camp. He only waited for an internal incident to withdraw from the stage of history.
The 110,000 troops in this battle were basically the majority of the elites of the entire Later Tang Dynasty. Once Zhang Jingda was defeated, Shi Jingtang and the Khitan cavalry could go straight south, and the Luoyang court was already in danger.
Yelvbei originally wanted to invite Long Bian to talk about Buddhism and painting techniques. This man was a rare educated person among the Khitan people, and he was very good in poems, songs, and paintings.
The Dunhuang painting school that Long Bian inherited was a fusion of East and West, and he was good at religious painting, which was quite new to Yelubei, so the two of them got along very well.
"After losing the battle at Tuanbai Valley, the imperial court may be on the verge of overthrow. I also fell in love with the master, so I didn't avoid speaking.
Although Yao Gu (Yelü Deguang), the lord of the Liao Kingdom, is the second younger brother of a certain person, the Tang Dynasty is my home country. Therefore, I have received such bad news unexpectedly. I really have no intention of discussing Buddhism with the master today, and I ask for your forgiveness."
Yelvbei had a sad look on his face, as if he was extremely anxious, but in fact he was doing it for others to see.
Long before Shi Jingtang invited Yelu Deguang to help in the war, Yelu Bei was aware of the weakness of the Later Tang Dynasty. He secretly wrote to Yelu Deguang, saying that the Central Plains was weak and he could go south to take advantage of it.
Long Bian's heart was beating wildly. Of course, he was not worried about the Later Tang court because of the tragic defeat in Tuanba Valley. He actually thought of Zhang Zhao's words.
At the beginning, Zhang Zhao told him that Wei Tuo Bodhisattva was wandering around in his dream, saying that there was a woman in Yelvbei, Dongdu, who had Buddha nature and could be a jade girl treasure, so that Longbian could rescue him when Dongdu was in trouble.
At that time, Long Bian felt that this was either Zhang Zhao or someone who had heard that one of Yelvbei's daughters was extremely beautiful and became lustful, or he was using this matter to strengthen his Dharma King's attributes.
But now it seems that it is so accurate. How did the Dharma King know that the imperial court was in trouble and Dongdu was in trouble? Could it be that Skanda Bodhisattva really had a dream?
"Jie Shuai cares about the court. The poor monk can only admire him. However, the day before yesterday, he signed a lotus with Jieshuai and said that there will be a disaster this year. Jieshuai must be careful!"
Long Bian was shaken and began to believe Zhang Zhaozhi's words, so today was the first time that he took the initiative to bring the topic to this aspect.
Yelvbei's complexion suddenly turned bad. In his opinion, the monk who returned to the rebel army was good at everything. He had profound Buddhist teachings and his paintings had merits. However, he always said that he would have a disaster this year and that he would have to give up a daughter or something.
Can be resolved.
This was in the past! He took it as a joke. These Buddha believers always like to preach scaremongering. Yelvbei was somewhat used to it, so he didn't take it to heart. But when the news of the Battle of Tuanbai Valley came, he couldn't calm down.
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Because since yesterday, he found that there were many strange faces around his residence, some of whom were from the Forbidden Army Guards Ma Buqinjun. This was an obvious sign that the Saint was beginning to be wary of him.
Yelvbei let out a long sigh, "It's not that I don't want to give up a woman to serve the Buddha, it's just that I only have two women at my knees.
The eldest daughter has been married for a long time but has not yet married, and the second daughter is still young, but at the age of 10, she is really someone’s pet peeve!”
"Jeshuai looks good. If the young lady had not been destined to be a Buddha, the poor monk would not have come from far away from Hexi for this purpose. He did not sacrifice his life for me to ask the young lady to live in the light of the ancient Buddha for the rest of her life.
Tingting is thirteen years old, in early February. Even if a poor monk wants a young lady of such an age to live alone for the rest of her life, the Buddha would not agree.
This is actually the Buddha, the wheel-turning holy king, who cannot bear to see the little lady in trouble, and it is also an act of a poor monk who has been favored by the commander-in-chief and is willing to help the commander-in-chief relieve his misfortune."
Yelu Bei thought seriously for a moment. Although he somewhat believed Long Bian's words, he still vaguely felt that something was wrong. There was a sense of coincidence everywhere.
"I wonder who the Wheel-turning Holy King is? Why can he know that my daughter is destined to be a Buddha even though he is thousands of miles away?"
"The Holy King Chakravartin originated from Tianzhu. He received enlightenment from the Buddha at Lingjiu Mountain and became the Dharma King in the human world. He has great supernatural powers.
In addition, the Dharma King was not a monk from Tianzhu, but was actually from China. His ancestor was Zhang Taibao of the Guiyi Army.
The master's treasures and the military treasures under his command have arrived, but they are in need of the jade girl's treasure. If the seven treasures are available, they will be able to make the light of my Buddha's compassion shine on the west of the river.
The jade girl's precious cardamom has arrived, and her hairpin has come out. If Commander Jieyuan is worried, he can also send his men, Xionghuhu, to escort him to Liangzhou.
The Great Guanyin Temple in Liangzhou has built a well-renovated house for the Jade Girl Treasure. If there is anything you don't like, it will be up to you to decide whether to stay or leave."
People have said this, but they just want his daughter to go to intensive training for two or three years, and she can come back when she is fifteen years old.
The Khitan people believe in Buddhism to begin with. If word spreads that there is a girl in Yelvbei who is closely related to Buddhism, it will be even more glorious.
In addition, Yelubei had been secretly observing Long Bian and the Guiyi Army envoys these days. He really did not see any motive for harming him, so he pondered for a moment.
"Then please allow me to think about it for a while, Master. As a parent, it is human nature to be reluctant to leave your children and travel far away!"
"That's it, I'll just wait patiently!" Long Bian chanted a Buddhist chant. He knew that Yelvbei was already tempted, and he only had to wait until all the imperial soldiers and horses in the Jin'an military camp were wiped out and the task entrusted to him by Zhang Zhao could be completed.