Let us also say that Ge Feng killed Deng Sheng at the foot of Chang'an City. The morale in Chang'an City was greatly boosted, and it no longer looked as depressed as when the Liang Army had just besieged the city. After the Liang Army learned that Bingzhou was about to send troops, the situation that they thought was bound to win changed. This shocked the morale of the military. How could Ge Feng and Guo Bang not know that they had made a big mistake? He hurriedly convened a military meeting to ask Jia Xu for advice.
Jia Xu was helpless. He explained to Guo Si: "I ordered the soldiers to call the city in Gaoling because they were of low origin and were temporarily recruited by Wang Yun. They were not loyal to the court and only needed a little inducement and coercion. , naturally willing to call the city for me.
Although Deng Sheng was wearing short clothes, he clearly spoke like a celebrity and must have come from a wealthy family. Now his family members are all in Hedong, and they know filial piety, brotherhood, and etiquette. If you can't induce him, you can't coerce him. That's why I asked you to behead him and don't cause trouble. It's also my fault that I didn't explain it clearly to you. "
Guo Si was extremely ashamed when he heard this. He could only apologize and said: "But the deal is done, what should we do now?"
Jia Xu pondered for a moment and analyzed: "I originally planned to use a plan to incite the people in the city and make it fall without attacking. But now the plan can only be combined with a hard attack. After all, the enemy defenders have many new soldiers, so they cannot last long. Even if we send out troops tomorrow, we still have some time. As long as we occupy Chang'an and sit on the throne of the emperor, Chen Tingjian can only look at the city and sigh!"
"A little time, how long is it?" Li Jue asked.
This time it was not Jia Xu who answered, but Xu Rong. He said slowly: "We still have 10,000 defenders in Linjin. As long as Yang follows their orders to prevent the enemy from crossing the river, conservatively, we can always stop them for ten days." .”
"We can't count on this." Jia Xu interrupted Xu Rong's words and said flatly: "Even though Bai Bo is a mortal enemy of Bingzhou, they are now clearly outnumbered and they may not dare to stop them. It's just that they have to cross the Wei River to reach Chang'an. It’s still a five-day journey anyway. If we want to take full advantage, we must defeat this high city within five days!”
All the ministries were awe-inspiring, so they raised hundreds of mountains of earth on Longshou Plain that day, and began to storm Chang'an City that night.
In Chang'an City, the news that reinforcements were on the way reached the court, and the court was reassured. The original wave of opposition to Wang Yun immediately subsided. After all, Zhong Yao, who conveyed this proposal, was also a good friend of Bingzhou Mu Chen Chong. After Zhong Yao learned the news, he did not propose peace, but took advantage of the situation to propose the release of Cai Yong, who was in prison. Unexpectedly, Wang Yun did not allow it, saying that Cai Yong had committed crimes and had no merit. How could he be pardoned? It is better to wait until Chen Chong's reinforcements arrive and wait for Chen Chong's initiative to discuss it. This statement chilled the hearts of many courtiers, and the originally relaxed atmosphere became tense again.
One night passed, and a messenger came to report that Liang Ren's first wave of offensive had stopped. If you ask about the losses in detail, the casualties are staggering. The Liang army seemed to be fighting with all their might when attacking. Nearly ten thousand people rushed from the mountains to the city wall. However, the sergeants guarding the city were mostly new soldiers and could not fight with all their might. Fortunately, Lu Bu personally went to the tower to take command, braved the enemy personally, and with the support of belief in having reinforcements, he put aside life and death and fought to the death with the Liang army. Therefore, although there were many casualties, the Liang army failed to break through the southern city.
This is good news, but the worst thing is that it comes after a temporary truce.
Liang people shot books at the soldiers in the city, trumpeting their past achievements and saying that they had served the country for more than ten years, but now they ended up being traitors. Is this their fault? The imperial court does not care about their lives today, and it will not care about your lives tomorrow. Think about the fate of General Chariot and Cavalry, and think about Cai Yong still in prison, why do you have to sacrifice your lives for Wang Yun?
Having said this, the Liang people laid out more than a hundred boxes of gold and silver plundered along the way at the foot of the city and publicly declared. The celestial phenomena showed the day before yesterday that the court would be defeated in this battle. They were just obeying God's will and did not want to kill more lives. As long as the defenders in the city abandoned the city and surrendered, the gold and silver here were at their disposal.
These words had little impact on the Shangdang army who had been with Lu Bu for many years. After all, they had been on the same level as the Liang people for a long time. Now that Lu Bu has risen to the top, they must be indispensable for their glory and wealth. But for the three auxiliary soldiers, it was very effective. They were the soldiers who were recruited by Dong Zhuo before Wang Yun's coup. Before they could actually fight, they were controlled by the imperial court and participated in the Battle of Xiwu. But at this time, they fought against the Liang army twice in succession. Even if they knew there were reinforcements, they did not want to fight anymore. Many people were ready to escape from Chang'an City from the mountains. Lu Bu noticed something unusual and led the trapped camp to kill a few of the troublemakers before barely suppressing it. But Lu Bu himself was unsure about the subsequent war.
After hearing this, Wang Yun said angrily: "The country is destroyed because of this group of heartless people! They eat the country's salary without thinking about serving the country. How can the country be peaceful? After the war, I will punish you severely!"
But anger would not help at this time. As the auxiliary minister, Wang Yun must appease the morale of the military.
Some people proposed to share the rewards of wealth, but Wang Yun had already rewarded gold and silver once before, and he was always frugal and had not much savings, so he did not distribute much to the soldiers. Wang Yun was unwilling to use the emperor's treasury, so the matter had to be dropped.
So someone else suggested that it would be better to promote some warriors who killed the enemy to be captain generals, which would also inspire people. But Wang Yun angrily said: "How can important national positions be hastily and privately awarded? The late emperor was indiscriminately handing out official positions, which led to today's disaster. Now that foreign aid is coming, do you want me to be almost defeated?" He gave up.
The release of Cai Yong had been discussed before, but no one mentioned it again. In the end, I have to say that Huangfu Song's body has not yet been buried. Situ might as well go to Huangfu Song's mansion to pay homage to him to show that the court respects him. After all, Huangfu Song has a high reputation in the army, so he can be a soldier in this way. Peace of mind.
This time Wang Yun did not refuse. He actually regretted exposing himself for framing Huangfu Song. At this time, he said: "Huangfu Yizhen had both merits and demerits in his life. Although he was not worthy of the late emperor, he also made merits for the country. I and him We were personal friends, but it was only because of Dong Zhuo that the troubles became like this. But if Dong Zhuo hadn't been jealous, how could he have died? Thinking of this, I sighed in my heart, and there was no harm in going to pay homage."
At the end of the day, he took a bus and arrived in front of Huangfu Song's Mansion with eight other officials. At this time, the Huangfu Mansion was still full of criticism and mourning, and it was quite conspicuous on the streets under martial law. This was the first time Wang Yun came here since the death of Huangfu Song. Only then did he remember that Huangfu Song had been dead for nearly half a year. .
This made him turn around and ask Chang Shi: "It's been so long since the mourning ceremony, why are you still hanging on the silk cloth? There is no need to do so in mourning."
Chang Shi raised his head and glanced at him, then quickly lowered his head and replied: "After all, the riders have not been buried yet, how can they not hang up?"
Only then did Wang Yun react and asked an embarrassing question. He gave Huangfu Song an evil posthumous title, but Huangfu Jianshou and others refused to accept it, so they refused to bury Huangfu Song's body as a sign of protest. Unexpectedly, the delay has lasted until today, and they still refuse to give in.
At this moment, he hesitated and didn't want to enter Huangfu's house again. But since he had already reported the matter to the emperor and walked to the palace in person, it would be absurd to return here. Therefore, Wang Yun calmed down his mind and still knocked on the door to ask for a meeting.
Huangfu's family had already received the news and had been waiting in the palace for a long time. When they opened the door, the clan members stood in two rows like trees in the forest, bowing their heads and saluting Wang Yun. Huangfu Jianshou and a Cangtou led him in front. The Huangfu Mansion was not big, and after walking only a few dozen steps, he saw the main room where the coffin was placed. Wang Yun saw a coffin at the gate from a distance, and felt a chill in his heart, but he still went in bravely.
What is in front of me is an ordinary pine coffin, no more than five feet high and no more than two feet long. It looks like an ordinary people's home. For Huangfu Song, who had a high official position, this can be said to be an extremely simple burial system. There was a sacrificial altar in front of the coffin, but there was no sacrificial tablet. Wang Yun knew the reason. They were still waiting for him to change his posthumous title.
"Situ, do you want to see me again?" After a brief worship, Huangfu Jianshou suddenly asked Wang Yun.
Wang Yun was stunned, then waved his hand and refused, saying it was disrespectful to the body. Huangfu Jianshou said that he replaced the ice cubes in the coffin every day to ensure that the body was not damaged. Only then did Wang Yun understand why it was so cold in the main room even though it was still the autumn season. He calmed down and advised Huangfu Jianshou: "The coffin of the chariot has been parked for a long time. Leaving it for such a long time is disrespectful. As a son of man, you should be buried as soon as possible."
After saying that, without waiting for Huangfu Jianshou's reply, he immediately read out the emperor's edict, saying that the emperor was grateful for Huangfu Songping's achievements as a moth thief, and rewarded him with a court uniform, a suit of clothes, three hundred thousand money, and a hundred pieces of cloth.
After the reading, Wang Yun didn't want to stay here for a moment. He turned around and was about to leave Huangfu Mansion, but was stopped by Huangfu Jianshou because he wanted to ask him to borrow a few stones of rice. It turns out that before Huangfu Song's death, he left no money in his family, did not hoard food, and did not interact with other families. By this time, the war had closed the city, and the family was eating porridge every day, and now it was almost without food.
Wang Yun didn't know that he was in such difficulty, and he didn't know what to say. He immediately ordered a Cangtou to go to his house to get ten stones of wheat flour, then he said goodbye and went back to the palace.
The two did not mention a word of posthumous title throughout the whole process.
Back in the car, Wang Yun breathed a sigh of relief. But he closed his eyes and immediately recalled what he saw and heard in Huangfu Song's house. The depression in his heart did not dissipate at all, as if a ghost was still entangled in him and tightened his throat. am I wrong? Wang Yun asked himself this for the first time, but he immediately replied to himself with certainty: What is wrong with eliminating evil for the country? Huangfu Song's small section is noble, but the big section has shortcomings. It is natural that this will happen!
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a scream, and the horses in front of him neighed again. What followed was a violent jolt in the carriage. Just as Wang Yun was about to make a move, he overturned with the car and hit his forehead. Standing on the beam of the car, his eyes almost went dark, but he lay on the ground for the time being, unable to get up.
Wang Yun looked at the dim light coming from in front of the car door, shining on his red imperial robe. His vision was sometimes hazy and sometimes clear. After an indescribable sound, he found a person breaking in, and the blazing sunlight came from that person. The light shone down from the gap in his body and shone on his face. He struggled to stand up, but his body refused to obey, and he could only barely see the dazzling light outside the carriage. The intruder lifted his neck and pulled out a piece of cold light from his waist. This cold light quickly covered the sunlight. Wang Yun saw his own appearance in this cold light, and then lost consciousness.
Huangfu Shi, an orphan raised by Huangfu Song, cut Wang Yun's throat with a knife and staggered out of the carriage. Outside the carriage, two attendants had been shot to death by arrows. The legs of the two horses pulling the horses had been chopped off. The horses were still alive at this time, shaking their broken legs and neighing.
After exhaling a long breath, Huangfu raised his head and listened carefully. The sound of fighting between the Liang Army and the Northern Army was resounding in the south. After listening for a moment, Huangfu Shi suddenly laughed and shouted to the sky, his voice extremely hoarse. Then, he slashed his face three times, wiped his neck with the fourth slash and killed himself, falling next to Wang Yun.
The soldiers who came over hurriedly reported the incident, but no one could find out the cause and effect. After all, the assassin was completely unrecognizable. No one could recognize the assassin's appearance. When he opened his mouth, they found that this man had even cut his own tongue. The official in charge of the case said privately: What a ruthless person. Even if this person failed to assassinate him and was caught afterwards, no one would be able to recognize him.
Chapter 18 Cause and Effect
