Chapter 169 Plain Clothes
Having said that, he obviously had no intention of stopping Li Jiancheng. He allowed him to ride his horse to the county city and convey his wish to see the emperor.

After waiting for a full half hour, a sturdy basket was finally hung from the city gate. Li Jiancheng sat on it and was dragged to the top of the city wall. The soldiers, with blood on their faces, looked embarrassed, while others were relieved. They had all kinds of thoughts.

Li Jiancheng did not say anything to them and went straight to the emperor's residence. The civil and military officials watched Li Jiancheng come in and saw him solemnly saluted the emperor.

There was still some anger on Yang Guang's face, and it was obvious that he didn't want to see Li Jiancheng.

"Your Majesty, I have been following Your Majesty since I was a child, and it has been more than ten years until today. The late emperor appointed me as a Qianniu Bei, and Your Majesty promoted me to the rank of Right Guard General, which is extremely noble. This is all Your Majesty's kindness to me.

Today, the situation is dangerous. I have led the troops here to rescue you and preserve the country in order to repay your Majesty's kindness. Now everything has gone as I wish and I am very satisfied.

I only hope that after your Majesty's safe return, you will be able to revitalize the country, eradicate the accumulated evils, make a fresh start with the world, sort out internal affairs, and re-establish the majesty of our Great Sui Dynasty.

Today, Goguryeo is exhausted, but the court is worried about the frequent rise of bandits, and the external threat is that the Turks are eyeing us covetously. I believe that in order to resist foreign aggression, we must first stabilize the country. The people are the foundation of the country, as the saying goes, water can carry a boat…”

"That's enough!" The emperor stood up angrily and pointed at Li Jiancheng: "I don't need you to teach me how to do things."

All the ministers looked at this scene coldly. Today's Li Jiancheng is no different from them in the future.

Li Jiancheng silently took off his armor and leather belt, put on a plain white robe, bowed again, and walked out without saying a word.

The emperor was so angry that he was shaking all over. It was obvious that Li Jiancheng meant to return all the official positions he had been awarded to him. If Shi Bi had not been away, he would have killed this disloyal and unfilial traitor today!

Li Jiancheng came down from the city wall in white clothes. Shibi Khan took off his cloak and rode up to him: "Come on, my brother. Together, there is nothing in this world that we cannot obtain."

Although Li Jiancheng had been prepared, he still couldn't help feeling disappointed. The emperor was right to promote him, but his contributions were also real.

But in just a moment, Li Jiancheng swept away that useless emotion, took over Shibi Khan's cloak, rode his horse and followed him to the Turkic army, and began to withdraw in an orderly manner.

Under the command of Yun Dingxing, the reinforcements surrounded the county city, and then led officials and generals into the city to pay homage to the emperor. After Yang Guang received the news that the Turks had withdrawn, he finally felt relieved.

Without the life-and-death crisis, the emperor quickly thought about how much of a blow this incident would bring to his prestige. Repeated failures had already shaken his rule.

So after learning that Li Shimin was among the reinforcements, he first wanted to kill him, but he was also somewhat afraid of the Li family's connections. It might have been okay before, but now killing the nobles at will would only make the situation worse.

He first denounced Li Jiancheng for being disloyal and unfilial, and for having long harbored the intention of rebellion. He also said that the Turkic attack was deliberately arranged by him. In short, he put the blame on Li Jiancheng for everything.

Then he immediately promoted Li Shimin to the rank of General of Cavalry and Doctor of Silver and Green Guanglu, and ordered him to inherit the title of Duke of Tang in the future.

Then he could not wait to lead his troops back. When he arrived at Taiyuan, the Minister of War Su Wei reported to the emperor: "Now the thieves are rampant and the soldiers and horses are exhausted. I hope Your Majesty will return to Xijing as soon as possible to strengthen the foundation for the sake of the country."

In the current situation, only by stabilizing Guanlong can there be a chance to re-regulate the world, but the emperor has always disliked Chang'an, and Yuwen Shu advised: "Most of the wives of officials are in the Eastern Capital, so it is better to go to Luoyang."

In the end, he chose to rush all the way back to Luoyang. After the emperor had a good night's rest, he was ready to cheer up, but the news that followed made him completely embarrassed, because the whole story of the siege of Yanmen had spread throughout Luoyang.

Everyone was praising Li Jiancheng's loyalty and worried about whether he would be humiliated in the Turkic region. Although no one openly scolded the emperor, it was already a habit for the common people and scholars to secretly mock him.

Yuwen Shu understood as soon as he heard it. The emperor felt that the number of people killed in Luoyang last year was not enough. But before the emperor issued an order to execute these bold and unruly people one by one, another thing came into view.

The soldiers guarding Yanmen and those coming to reinforce all need to be rewarded, especially the soldiers defending the city, who must be at least promoted to the sixth rank.

This was obviously impossible. The court could not afford to support so many sixth-rank officials, so the emperor summoned his ministers to discuss the matter. Su Wei was already disappointed with the emperor, but he still cared about the late emperor.

So he would rather offend more than 100,000 soldiers and said bluntly: "The honor is too heavy, the court cannot bear it, we should consider it carefully."

But the generals who were guarding the city and protecting the emperor immediately said: "The soldiers have sacrificed their lives, and now we all hope for rewards from the court like we hope for rain. How can we reduce them?"

The emperor immediately slammed the table and said, "Are you trying to win people's hearts?"

The generals had no choice but to retreat because of these heart-breaking words. In the end, the emperor promised to reward everyone, but only the bravest 1,500 were rewarded. And they were not rewarded as Jianjiewei, the sixth rank, but only Lixinwei, the ninth rank.

Not only the official positions and titles, but even the 100 pieces of cloth reward for each person were gone. In other words, everyone fought to their death, but in the end got nothing.

The 1,500 people who received the reward also felt humiliated. They threw the official uniforms issued by the court on the ground and refused to wear them.

Even the soldiers defending the city were in such a state, not to mention the reinforcements that came from thousands of miles away. Everyone from top to bottom was filled with resentment.

Li Jiancheng's deeds became the focus of their discussion. In their eyes, the emperor had let down all of their sacrifices.

Li Shimin also keenly realized that although the 30,000 troops left by his elder brother were in his hands, the emperor would never send him to conquer Taiyuan. He would only appoint his clan confidants to strengthen the border defense of Taiyuan, Mayi and other places.

So he remained silent, waited quietly for the opportunity, wrote letters to his family, remained vigilant at all times, and fled immediately if anything went wrong.

...............

On the way back, Shibi Khan entertained Li Jiancheng almost every day and kept giving him gifts. Halfway through the journey, he already had ten thousand sheep, a thousand horses, and more than eight hundred slaves captured from Yanmen County.

The servants brought down the sizzling mutton from Shibi Khan's table. The Turkic ministers and tribal leaders in the account felt sad, because Shibi Khan had never been a very amiable Khan.

He was known to be cruel to his subordinates. If someone did not do as he pleased, he would cut off their hands and ears at the very least, or drag them by horses until their bones and flesh were worn away and their remaining limbs were no heavier than a lamb. He would not stop until he had done that.

I've never seen him treat someone like this before. It really makes me sick to my stomach.

Li Jiancheng thanked him with a smile, and then chatted with Shi Bi about interesting things that happened in recent years. The two of them got along very well.

…………

(End of this chapter)