Seeing that Xue Rengui and Yang Rengong were ordered to go out for battle, the general came to protect his children and stood up to fight: "Your Majesty, the rebel Lin Shihong is entrenched in Fanyang Lake area. Although he is powerful, he is actually vulnerable. The veteran is not talented. I am willing to lead the army to fight for him." Your Majesty regained the lost ground."
Yang Gao nodded and said: "What you said is true. This thief Lin Shihong occupies a vast area. It is undoubtedly a pain in my throat. I will hand over this thief to the old general!"
Lai Hu'er was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately raised his hands and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, within three months, I will behead Lin Shihong and present it in front of the palace!"
"Then I will wait for the good news of the old general!" Yang Gao smiled slightly, looked around the ministers, and asked lightly: "Dear ladies, do you have anything else to report?"
"Your Majesty, I have a starting point!" Pei Ju, who had white hair and beard, held the wat board in his arms, walked out of the queue slowly, and said with a bow: "Your Majesty, due to Yu Wenhua and conspiracy, hundreds of officials in the court suffered heavy casualties. Now in the court, The serious vacancy of officials has seriously affected the implementation of His Majesty’s decrees.”
"What Mr. Pei said is true!" Yu Yunwen came out to agree, "The minister suggested that your majesty hold the imperial examination and sincerely recruit people from all over the world for my use in the Sui Dynasty!"
"Master Yu, what you said is wrong!"
The main reason why Pei Ju raised this matter was because his brother Pei Yun died in the mutiny, which dealt a heavy blow to the Pei family's power in the court, so he hoped that there would be more vacancies for officials in the court. He took this opportunity to place more children of the Pei family into the court and increase the power of the Pei family in the new dynasty.
Unexpectedly, Yu Yunwen came out halfway and proposed the imperial examination. This undoubtedly ruined Pei Ju's good deeds. He immediately stopped him and said: "Your Majesty, I think the imperial examination involves many things. In the past, Emperor Wu was criticized when he established the imperial examination." Despite all kinds of obstructions, His Majesty has just ascended the throne, so he still puts safety first!"
Yu Yunwen sneered, "Master Pei really loves to joke. The imperial examination system only gives talented people in the world a broad road to enter official careers. It benefits the country and the people. How can it involve so many people? The so-called obstruction in every possible way is even more nonsense. This is just a small trick used by some traitors with ulterior motives such as Li Yuan, Yuan Zhou, Dugu Zhen and others for their own selfish desires!"
Pei Ju murmured: "But now that the war is spreading, even if His Majesty opens the imperial examination, I am afraid that most of the scholars from Guanlong and other places in the Central Plains will be afraid of the dangerous journey and not come to Jiangdu to take the imperial examination!"
Yu Yunwen smiled faintly and said: "What Mr. Pei said is true, but I think that the strong wind knows the strong grass. If you are committed to the Sui Dynasty, you will come back here to take part in the imperial examination regardless of all the difficulties and dangers. Such people are the most urgent need of our government at present." Talents!"
"What Yu Qing said is absolutely true!"
Yang Gao, who was sitting on the Dragon Throne, nodded when he heard this and said in a deep voice: "I agree with Yu Aiqing's policy of opening up the imperial examination and recruiting scholars, and this time the Xiaoguo Army mutiny, our court lost not only hundreds of officials in the court, but also the army. There are also many vacancies in the general schools. Therefore, I have decided to open the civil and military examinations in this imperial examination. Those who excel in the liberal arts will become officials in the court, and those who excel in the martial arts will join the army and become generals!"
"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" all the officials in the court said with their hands in hand.
Yang Gao smiled slightly and continued: "As Yu Aiqing said, those who are willing to come to Jiangdu to participate in the imperial examination must aspire to the Sui Dynasty. However, the imperial examination is a merit-based admission after all, and it is inevitable that some people will fail. In order to encourage these people who aspire to the Sui Dynasty. , I have decided to build a Hanlin Academy in Jiangdu City, and all the scholars who have failed can enter the Hanlin Academy to study and prepare for the imperial examination next year!"
When Yu Yunwen, Xiao Yu, Pei Ju and others heard this, their eyes lit up, and they secretly praised Yang Gao for his youth and maturity. As Yu Yunwen said, those who are willing to come to Jiangdu to participate in the imperial examination must be people who aspire to the Sui Dynasty. Even if they fail this time, they will still be afraid of failing after studying in the Hanlin Academy for several years. Can the teaching resources in the academy built by the emperor be inferior? ?
On the contrary, these scholars who were originally devoted to the Sui Dynasty received such favorable treatment, they will definitely be more grateful to Yang Gao and do their best to be loyal to Yang Gao.
Just when Yang Gao ascended the throne in Jiangdu City, the battle of Guanlong also reached its final moment. Qu Tutong, the famous general who guarded Hedong, was trapped in the isolated city for several months. The food in the city was exhausted, and the army's mentality changed. Lieutenant General Sang Xianhe and others captured Qu Tutong. Tutong was dedicated to the east of the river. When Li Yuan heard that Qu Tutong had been captured alive, he was overjoyed and went to persuade Qu Tutong to surrender. Qu Tutong was finally persuaded by Li Yuan and surrendered to Li Yuan.
At this moment, the nobles of Guanlong had also overwhelmingly placed their treasures on Li Yuan. Various noble families had money and strength to contribute. In just a few months, Weinan, Xinfeng, Gaoling, Fuping, Lantian and other Jingzhao counties were all lost. .
Li Yuan's third daughter, Li Xiuning, persuaded He Panren, Li Zhongwen, Xiang Shanzhi, Qiu Shili and other large and small bandits in the Guanzhong area to march to Chang'an with more than 70,000 troops to respond to Li Yuan.
At this point, Chang'an City has become an isolated city. Outside the city is Li Yuan's army of more than 200,000, and inside the city are the Guanlong nobles who are ready to make a move. However, as the capital of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang still left a lot of heritage. Under the leadership of veteran Wei Xuan, General Yin Shishi, and Chang'an County Cheng Guyi, he repeatedly defeated Li Yuan's offensive.
Although Li Yuan had more than 200,000 troops, the real elites were only 50,000 elites recruited in Taiyuan. His eldest son Li Jiancheng and his second son Li Shimin were in charge of one army. The rest are all bandits from all walks of life in Guanzhong. Most of these bandits lack training and have extremely low combat capabilities. Although there were only 30,000 Sui troops left behind in Chang'an, they were all elites who had experienced hundreds of battles. The generals Wei Xuan, Yin Shishi and others were even more loyal to the Sui Dynasty and had a firm will to defend the city.
Since entering Guanzhong, Li Yuan has been fighting in succession, and he has become quite arrogant. In order to preserve his direct lineage, he used various bandits who had just surrendered to attack Chang'an City. As a result, the siege troops suffered heavy losses, and even the siege troops suffered heavy losses. The newly surrendered bandit commander Xiang Shanzhi was unfortunately shot to death by a stray arrow during the attack on the city.
The disastrous defeats in the past few days were undoubtedly a wake-up call for Li Yuan. This made Li Yuan angry and furious in the commander's tent. "It has been several days. Chang'an City has only tens of thousands of defenders. How many of us have we? We have been attacking for ten days and still haven't captured it. Instead, nearly 20,000 people were lost!"
Under the tent, Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, Liu Wenjing, Pei Ji, Li Xiuning, Chai Shao, Li Shentong, Changsun Shunde, Liu Hongji, Changsun Wuji and other civil and military generals stood on both sides, listening with trepidation to Li Yuan venting his anger.
Although all the generals knew that the reason for the failure of the siege was that Li Yuan underestimated the enemy and the siege troops sent were all bandits who had just been recruited, no one dared to come out to accuse Li Yuan. Everyone in the tent was either Li Yuan's relatives or his confidants. He knows his temper very well.
Although Li Yuan is tolerant and kind on the surface, he is vicious and narrow-minded in his heart. If you really want to get in trouble with Li Yuan at this time, maybe he will not fall out with you at this moment, and will show an open-minded attitude of accepting advice, but soon he will They will find any reason to suppress them arbitrarily.
After a long time, Li Yuan breathed a long sigh of relief and asked in a deep voice: "I can't say enough about the importance of Chang'an City. Do you have any good strategies to capture Chang'an?"
