Also at noon on the third day of winter, a group of horse traders came to Chang'an West City.
Chang'an West Market has long been accustomed to seeing horse dealers and herds of horses, just like warriors have been accustomed to seeing cut knives and missing bows. After all, in previous years, the winter market in Chang'an was also the most prosperous time of the year in the West Market. Chang'an merchants' stables could often sell more than 20,000 geldings in a month, so the West Market was also known as the Horse Market.
But when these horse traders arrived, people couldn't help but be surprised. They brought so many horses. Just listening to the neighing and tramping of the horses reminds people of the scene when the Bafu went on an expedition. Then watching the horses entering the market, crowded one after another like a tide, people can't help but There was a lot of discussion: There seemed to be tens of thousands of horses here, and I didn’t know where the caravan came from.
This group of people walked deep into the West Market, and another group of people came out to greet them. They drove the horses to a fenced plain east of the Weishui River, and then dozens of people went to rest in a shed at the southwest corner of the city wall. Junshu Si heard that such a group of horse traders was coming, so he sent someone to inquire about their origins. Only then did I learn that they were all businessmen who had come all the way from Lingzhou under the orders of Lü Bu, the Mu of Liangzhou.
These people said that when Lu Bu, the Mu of Liangzhou, heard about the defeat in Guandong, he thought that Chang'an must be short of horses. He discussed with the governor Sheyuan, saying that Liangzhou was barren but only had many horses. It would be better to gather the horses from the people in the state and sell them to the country. This can not only alleviate the country's urgent needs, but also relieve Liangzhou's difficulties. After saying that, he took out the document stamped with the seals of Lu Bu and the shooting aid officer to prove his statement.
Jun Shuguan flipped through the documents, his expression gradually softened. When asked how many horses they had brought, the merchant replied, ten thousand two hundred and seven. This made Junsu Guan look embarrassed. According to common practice, Junsu Division should be responsible for state and private transactions, but horses are extraordinary, and now there are tens of thousands of them. The money consumed among them may not be Junsu Division's responsibility. Can afford it. He thought for a moment and told the horse dealers that the matter could only be reported to Sili Mansion for Prime Minister Chen to deal with.
The horse dealers showed that they were indeed like this. They said that Lu Shijun had already given instructions and written documents. They planned to rest today and go to Sili Mansion early tomorrow morning to ask for an audience. When Jun Shuguan heard this, he was happy and relaxed. After telling them the location of Sili Mansion, he waved and left.
"First Evolution"
After he left, Jia Xu asked Li Siam who came to meet him: "What did Yang Biao say?"
Li Xian whispered: "We have made an appointment and we will do it today."
Jia Xu nodded slightly and asked, "How confident are you that you can seize the door without armor?"
Li Xian said: "It is not difficult to seize the gate, but it is difficult to guard it. I wonder where Lu Bu's reinforcements are located and when will they arrive?"
Jia Xu pinched his beard and smiled and said: "The army has already descended to Pingling. According to this place, it is only two hours' journey away. It can be reached in three-quarters of an hour by horse. Can you insist?"
After Li Xian heard this, he immediately agreed and said: "In that case, I will definitely defend until the army comes to help!"
In the evening of that day, the Liang people left the market in batches and gathered secretly on the outskirts of the city. They put on black clothes to conceal their movements, took out the swords and bows prepared in the accompanying carriages, and then dispersed to the shadows in the north and south outside the city. At this time, snowflakes began to fall from the sky, falling on the Liang people one after another, giving them a chill. However, they were not anxious, but looked at the outline of the huge and majestic city not far away, holding their hands tightly The hilt or pommel of a sword.
Although no one mentioned it, each of them remembered the bloody battlefield in Longshouyuan and the years of struggling to survive in Wudu. Those days were like tonight, with the earth and mountains covered in a dark silence. There was no sound in the surrounding fields, except for the sound of the wind and the swaying of dead branches.
In the silence, human voices gradually began to mix in, and then turned into noise. As the human voices became louder, Liang people also saw blazing fires in the city. The fire was in more than one place, like spring buds sprouting green, growing everywhere in the east, west, north and south, and eventually turned into blazing flames in Xijing, and powerful and swaying smoke pillars, which could be seen within a radius of thirty miles.
This is the time to take action. The Liang people cheered up, pulled out their knives and swords from their waists, and rushed towards the twelve city gates of Chang'an.
There was a blazing fire ahead, and along with countless chaotic cries for help, it seemed like a dark cloud was rushing over. The soldiers at the city gate had no idea that the disaster was coming. They were either asking about the cause of the water leakage or looking for sandbags. At this time, they encountered a burst of locust-like arrow feathers.
The Liang people immediately showed their bloodthirsty faces, waving sharp cold fronts in the firelight. Except for the Qingming Gate and the Xuanping Gate, the ten city gates of Chang'an changed hands almost instantly. The remaining two city gates only held on for a moment longer and then fell.
After seizing the city gate, a few Liang people quickly put on Han army armor. Those who had no armor to replace held torches and set fires around the city gate, spreading chaos throughout the capital.
Zhijin Wu Qianzhao was guarding the palace at this time. He saw fires raging in the city and noticed that someone was causing trouble. He immediately summoned his eight hundred halberd-bearing and two thousand guardsmen to go out of the palace to check the situation. However, at this time, most of the people had fled outside their houses, so that the streets were bustling with people, which put him in a dilemma. He then sounded the gong loudly to clear the way, and the guards maintained order and ordered the people to take refuge in the palace. He led a hundred cavalry and went straight to Sili Mansion to ask for an audience with Chen Chong.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they arrived at Sili Mansion, Sili Mansion was even more chaotic. Many officials in the mansion were surrounded by the gates of the mansion, their clothes were disheveled and they were quarreling constantly. Thanks to Li Yi and Chen Deng, they could barely maintain order. This gave Qianzhao a bad feeling. When Li Yi saw Qianzhao coming, he immediately stepped forward to grab the reins of the horse and said to him in a tearful tone: "You're well-come, Qianzhao. We need you to take charge of the overall situation."
Seeing Li Yi's miserable expression, Qianzhao immediately realized that something was wrong and asked anxiously: "What happened?"
Li Yi looked at the knight behind Qianzhao and hesitated to speak. Qianzhao immediately dismounted and urged him to speak quickly. Li Yi suppressed his crying and whispered: "Longshou was deceived by Yang Xiu just now and fell into Lu Bu's trap by mistake. He has already been killed!"
Qianzhao was shocked, and Li Yi pulled him to the front of the mansion. I saw people crowding around a headless corpse. Its body was similar to Chen Chong's. There were more than ten arrows stuck in the body. There were blood stains everywhere on the clothes, and the neck was already a lake of flesh and blood. The only thing that could be identified was that there was a broken left hand. Little finger. Next to the corpse, there were more than ten heads, all of which were the bodyguards who accompanied Chen Chong.
When Chen Deng saw Qian Zhao approaching, he looked extremely embarrassed and explained to him: "It is said that except for Wu Yu who escaped and disappeared, the heads of the others who traveled with Long Shou this time were thrown here. Zijing , now we’re in big trouble.”
Seeing this situation, Qianzhao was stunned for a moment and couldn't speak for a long time. After a while, he asked blankly: "How could this be so?" Then he asked: "Where is the head of the dragon head?"
It is true that there is no head of Chen Chong, but no one can explain why. It turned out that these corpses were brought by a coachman. This coachman was also temporarily entrusted. He didn't know the whole story and stayed at the door with a look of fear on his face. He could only reply: "They said they wanted to give the missing head to the corpse." Liangzhou Mu, please ask your Majesty for merit again!"
When Qianzhao heard the words, he couldn't help but scream loudly, like an ape crying for blood. He said bitterly to everyone: "The country is full of thieves, hateful! Hateful!" Everyone was infected by his sadness, and the discussion stopped. Li Yi asked again Said: "But what should be the current plan? Now the city is full of arson, and there must be a lot of thieves causing trouble!"
Chen Deng said numbly: "Listening to the cries of killing outside the city, I'm afraid Lu Bu has led his troops to attack. The dragon's head is about to die. What can we do? Is it possible to rob and kill the emperor?"
Qianzhao thought for a while and reluctantly said: "Time is urgent. There should not be many thieves at the city gate, otherwise the city would have been besieged long ago. If we leave now, we can still fight our way out through Qingming Gate." Everyone immediately agreed.
Before setting off, Qianzhao learned that Li Yi and others had not informed his family of Chen Chong's death. Several people were in a dilemma, but since life and death were at stake, they had to put aside their worries and inform Cai Yan, Chen Kui and Chen Chen about the matter, and asked them to go with them.
When Cai Yan heard the news of Chen Chong's death, he felt sad and shocked. He wanted to go and see the body, but before he could go far, he fainted from heartache. But Chen Kui and Chen Chen showed expressions of sudden relief. Chen Chen said: "We are all old people. Running all the way, I am afraid that I will only become a drag on you. If you stay here, maybe you can rely on Ting Jian's support." Yi Ze, if you still have one life left, there is no need to bother. If you can really escape, take A Zhang with you."
After that, they brought out Chen Zhang, who was only three years old. Qianzhao took Chen Zhang's hand and looked at the child's blank eyes. He felt a pain in his heart and his mind was numb. He could only summon a piece of silk and wrap Chen Zhang around his body to show that he would live and die together. He whispered to Chen Kui and others, "Take care", no longer looked at their expressions, and immediately led everyone to ride away.
At the same time, Lu Bu had led the masses to cross the Wei Bridge and headed south of Chang'an City. On Longshou Plain, Jia Xu was leading 3,000 Liang people to fight against the remaining 10,000 Northern troops in Chang'an.
Meng Jian led the Northern Army to confront the Liang people. Seeing that it was already dark and there were many shadows of people on the opposite side, he was not sure how many enemies there were. So instead of ordering a charge, the soldiers were ordered to shoot arrows at the enemy row by row. In fact, most of the Northern Army wore heavy armor and held long spears one foot long, while the Liang people were wrapped in cowhide at most and held four-foot-long swords in their hands. They fought head-on. It was impossible for the Liang people to compete with the Northern Army. Although the archery caused a lot of casualties, it did not defeat the Ryo people in the end.
When the thunderous hoofbeats of Lu Bu's horses rang out from the north, the morale of the Northern army was greatly reduced. In addition, the Liang army shouted loudly, claiming that King Qin was attacking thieves and would not kill those who surrendered, so many soldiers fled again. With the situation gone, Meng Jian had no choice but to make a last-ditch effort and personally led his troops into the enemy formation, killing several people with his own hands. But in the end it was all in vain. When he got tired a little, some Liang soldiers gathered around him and kept stabbing and shooting arrows. Soon, only an unrecognizable corpse was left.
Qianzhao finally broke through, and Liang Jun took control of the entire Chang'an. In the first half of the night, the people were in chaos and fear, but they crowded at the city gate like ants, praying for refuge and leaving the city. However, the Liang army was unmoved. Anyone who wanted to leave the city was blocked and killed, leaving the people in the city wailing. Cry.
In the middle of the night, a steady stream of Liang troops came from the west. The sound of the armor shaking was like the sound of waves. The people were terrified, and Chang'an finally fell silent again. The only sounds in the wind were the falling snowflakes and the burning fire. At dawn, the fire had naturally extinguished, and Lü Bu led the crowd into Chang'an from Xiping Gate. As far as he could see, it was devastated. As a result, less than half of the residences in Chang'an were reduced to ashes, and only the palaces were left intact.
But before Lu Bu had an audience with the emperor, he got some disturbing news from Jia Xu: Yang Biao failed to set up an ambush and Chen Chong was hit by an arrow and disappeared.
