Chapter 347 Public revenge and private revenge
Chapter 347 Public revenge and private revenge
Emperor Yang Yong was under tremendous pressure and lost more than ten pounds in just one month. He could never have imagined that his three brothers would lead their armies into Guanzhong at the same time.
He now regretted it deeply. In order to ascend the throne smoothly, he sent several brothers away from the capital. Now it seems that this was the stupidest decision he had ever made in his life.
I thought it would be easy to reduce the power of the feudal lords, but now instead of reducing the power of the feudal lords, I ended up reducing myself.
At this time, Yang Yong's heart was full of resentment. He hated everyone, his brothers and sisters, his ministers, and his own subjects. It can be said that he hated everyone except his own son.
Now that he had no control over the war situation, he focused his attention on the internal enemies.
In the imperial study, Yang Yong was listening to reports from his eldest son Yang Yan, his second son Yang Yu, and his nephew Yun Shide.
Among the three of them, one was responsible for maintaining order, one was responsible for internal security, and one was responsible for monitoring the royal family.
The second son Yang Yu said: "Father asked the families on the list to issue a statement to sever ties with the rebels, but the effect is not very good. Of the 37 families, only nine have issued a statement to sever ties with the rebels. The rest have remained silent so far."
"Where is the Cui family?"
Yang Yong asked: "Are they also keeping silent?"
"They too, they didn't even promise the second and third demands, and refused to send anyone to the palace as hostages."
Yang Yong snorted, "Send people to seal their mansions and put them under house arrest. The same goes for other families. If they refuse to agree to my three conditions, just seal the gates and don't allow anyone to go out!"
"My son obeys my order!"
At this time, Yun Shide whispered, "Your Majesty, I heard that Cui Hongzhou's daughter is Xiao Xia's fiancée. Can we capture this woman and either kill her or force Xiao Xia to withdraw his troops?"
Yang Yong was silent for a while and said, "No matter what, he is my nephew after all. Hurting his fiancée is against human ethics. Don't mention it again!"
Yun Shide didn't dare to say anything. After the three of them finished their report, they left.
After leaving Ganquan Palace, Yang Yan asked, "Is it true that Xiao Xia's fiancée is Cui Hongzhou?"
Yun Shide nodded, "Xiao Yu was the matchmaker, and I heard that Yan Du has already been sent!"
Yang Yan had one hand cut off and lost his position as crown prince. The first person he hated was Yu Wenzhi, and the second was Xiao Xia. It was Xiao Xia who informed his father that caused him to lose his right hand.
He has always hated Xiao Xia to the core and has always wanted to find an opportunity to take revenge on him. Although his father forbade him to touch Xiao Xia's fiancée, Yang Yan didn't care.
He immediately led a thousand soldiers towards Xiao Cui's mansion. Soon, the army surrounded the mansion, and Yang Yan led his troops into the mansion.
The mansion was in chaos. Cui Hongzhou came up and angrily asked, "What are you doing, Prince Ning? Why are you breaking into my mansion?"
"By order of the Emperor, all members of the Cui family are placed under house arrest!"
"You can put me under house arrest if you want. Just seal the door. Why are you barging in?"
Yang Yan snorted and said, "Before placing them under house arrest, we need to count the number of people first!"
"There are only my wife and I in the house, what is there to count?"
"Where are your children?"
"My two sons and two daughters are not in Chang'an!"
"Bullshit!"
How could Yang Yan believe it? He turned around and ordered, "Go in and search!"
Hundreds of soldiers rushed directly into the inner house. Cui Hongzhou was furious, but he was afraid that the soldiers would hurt his wife and concubines, so he hurried back to the inner house and dragged his wife and two concubines to the courtyard. Hundreds of soldiers searched around and even pried open the floor, but they did not find Cui Hongzhou's two daughters.
At this time, a general stepped forward and whispered to Yang Yan: "I interrogated several maids, and they said that Cui Hongzhou's two daughters were sent away the day before yesterday!"
"Where was it sent?" Yang Yan asked anxiously.
The general shook his head. "The maids didn't know. They only knew that their two daughters had been sent away when they found out that they were not at home yesterday. I'm afraid only the couple knew about it."
"Nonsense! Of course they know."
Yang Yan was really annoyed, but he could do nothing unless he tortured Cui Hongzhou. However, Cui Hongzhou was the Eunuch of the Internal Palace and a third-rank minister. No matter how bold Yang Yan was, he would not dare to arrest a third-rank minister.
"let's go!"
Yang Yan had no choice but to lead his soldiers away in disappointment, directly sealed the gate, and put them under house arrest in the mansion.
Cui Hongzhou's wife said with lingering fear: "They are actually here to catch Yu'er!"
Cui Hongzhou was surprised, "How did you know?"
"They just interrogated a few maids, asking about Yu'er's whereabouts."
"What did they say?"
"They said they were sent away, but they didn't know where they were sent to. Those people left because they couldn't find Yu'er."
Cui Hongzhou secretly thanked God that he had sent his two daughters to the Princess's Mansion in advance, otherwise if they were caught by the bastard Yang Yan, they would be humiliated at best, or even lose their lives at worst.
Three armies surrounded Chang'an from three directions. King of Han Yang Liang stationed his troops on the north bank of the Wei River in the north, King of Qin Yang Jun stationed his troops in Shiping County in the west, and King of Jin Yang Guang stationed his troops in the Taiping Palace in the south, all about 50 miles away from Chang'an City. King of Qin's 60,000 troops were a little further away, at 80 miles away from Chang'an City.
The King of Qin did not have many troops, and he was worried that if he got too close to Chang'an, he would be annexed by the imperial army or the King of Jin's army.
That afternoon, Xiao Xia led an army of 80,000 to Shiping County. As four dragons were fighting for the throne, of course the weaker ones would be swallowed up first. Yang Jun was the weakest, so he was the first to be targeted.
There was a reason why Xiao Xia led the army here. He received a letter from Yin Shishi, the leader of the Hexi Army.
Xiao Xia immediately decided to annex Yang Jun's army first.
When the news came, the army of King Qin Yang Jun immediately became nervous. Yang Jun ordered the entire army to enter a state of combat readiness, attempting to rely on the main camp to resist Xiao Xia's attack.
Yang Jun's army consisted of 40,000 government soldiers and 20,000 recruited soldiers. The government soldiers included 20,000 Hexi troops and 20,000 Longyou troops. The commander of the Hexi army was Yin Shishi, the military commander of Zhangye.
After Qin Wang Yang Jun took office, the first thing he did was to dismiss Xue Shixiong, the governor of Liangzhou. Xue Shixiong returned to Chang'an, and Yang Jun served as the governor of Liangzhou concurrently.
On the one hand, he demoted the generals promoted by Xue Shixiong, and on the other hand, he reused non-Xue factions. He took a fancy to the Hexi faction and appointed An Xinggui as the deputy governor of Liangzhou, promoted Guan Jin as the military commander of Zhangye, and transferred the former military commander of Zhangye, Yin Shishi, to the military commander of Wuwei County. This time, it was Yin Shishi who led 20,000 troops to follow him to conquer Chang'an.
The commander of the Longyou Army was Shangzhuguo Qifu Hui, who had previously served as the governor of Qinzhou. He had a strange and stubborn personality, was unpopular in Longyou, and had always been marginalized. The King of Qin supported him and appointed him to command the 20,000 Longyou Army.
The other 20,000 recruits were directly under the command of Qin Wang Yang Jun, and the commander of this direct army was also Xiao Xia's old friend in Jiangdu, Liu Shili, the top master of the Jiangdu Liu family. In the competition for the dock that year, Xiao Xia defeated him with one sword.
At night, two Generals of the Central Army, Xu Min and Cao Taiyue, found Yin Shishi.
(End of this chapter)