Chapter 199 Jiangdu
Western Qin surrendered without a fight, and the rear area of ​​Guanzhong was completely stable. The prestige of the King of Tang was greatly boosted, and all the young men in Guanzhong enthusiastically joined the army and strived for merit.

Li Jiancheng stood with his hands behind his back looking at the map of the world hanging in the Wude Hall. He had already completely mastered the northern counties. Even without many other arrangements, this was enough to recruit soldiers to march south and gain the world.

In history, the Li Tang Dynasty was faced with the situation of Wang Shichong in Luoyang, Li Mi in Guandong, Liu Wuzhou in Hedong, Dou Jiande in Hebei, Xue Ju in Longxi, and Liang Shidu in the north. It can be said that it was surrounded by enemies.

But now, Xue Ju led Longxi and other places to submit, and Xiao Xing of Shu would inevitably surrender under the pressure of his family. The Qin Emperor, Han Gaozu and Beiwu Emperors, with their help, established the foundation for unifying the world.

Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu were defeated and fled to Bashu. Li Mi never escaped from Li Jiancheng's clutches. Wang Shichong was trapped in Luoyang awaiting death, with Zhai Rang's 100,000 troops under the city.

He arranged Li Shimin in Jiangdu, and generals such as Li Jing, Li Xiaogong, Qin Shubao, Luo Yi and others had already begun to march east and south. People like Dou Jiande were just a mob and were not worth mentioning at all.

As the news of Xue Ju's surrender to the King of Tang spread throughout the world, local heroes once again began to rush to respond to the King of Tang's order, such as General Guo Zi of the Left Guard, Prince Cong of Hejian, Li Gui of Liangzhou, and even the Turkic Khan Hesana who came to Chang'an to surrender to the King of Tang, and Shibi Khan sent his sister to pay tribute.

Because the King of Tang controlled the land of Liangzhou, he had tens of thousands of Turkic cavalry under his command. However, apart from presiding over court meetings, the King of Tang rarely appeared in public. Many of his old friends who were familiar with him began to become more and more awed by him.

At this time, Li Jiancheng was not worried about the remaining heroes in the world. The sword in his hand was already invincible, but the true dragon emperor had to hold the sword in one hand and preach with the other.

Convince the ruled to believe that he represents the divine power, the trend of history, the direction of justice, and the destiny!
He first conferred the title of Duke of Fen on Xue Ju who had come to the court because his ancestral home was Fenyin in Hedong, and appointed him as the Minister of War. Xue Ju paid homage to the King of Tang with great ceremony, praising his saintly virtue!

Then Xiao Yu, who had made great contributions, was promoted to Duke of Song and appointed Minister of Civil Affairs.

In June, Wang Tong's disciples came to Beijing one after another. King Tang specially selected them as scholars of Wende Hall. They discussed "Is the way of the emperor obscure and unclear?" and finally came to the conclusion that the rise and fall of a country depends on all kinds of talents, and the cultivation of talents must be cultivated in schools. Only with qualified talents can the kingly way be promoted and Confucianism be revived.

Before everyone could react, the King of Tang ordered people to discuss "The three religions can now be unified." All the eminent monks and Taoists in Chang'an were horrified and rushed into the Wende Hall to discuss the matter.

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"We have received great favors from the late emperor, but now we have to serve the enemy and be driven by him. How can we face the world? I must kill him, even if I die with no regrets!"

Shen Guang looked at the young and strong men in front of him, including Mai Tiezhang's son Mai Mengcai and the commander of the envoy camp Qian Jie. These people were the generals who were still loyal to Yang Guang.

It was almost time. Shen Guang looked over and saw Li Shimin drinking tea with General Chen Ling of the Left Guard in the Jiangdu prefecture. He was telling them about his distress that he had a lot of abilities but could not achieve anything because of the chaotic times.

Chen Ling did not listen to what he said, but just kept thinking, and finally nodded: "As Erlang Jun said, we will drive Yu Wenzhi out of Jiangdu."

Although Yu Wenzhi would have left in the end even if he was not driven away, the difference was huge. The most important thing was that Li Shimin could use this to seize the military power of the Xiaoguo Army and the Imperial Guards.

At this time, Yu Wenzhi was collecting the treasures of Jiangdu and delaying his return to Guanzhong. There is no doubt that Yu Wenzhi certainly did not want to go back, but he used this as an excuse to kill the king and usurp the throne. If he did not satisfy the wishes of the Guanzhong soldiers to return home, he would have no chance of survival.

He said to Yuwen Zhiji: "Guanzhong has been occupied by Li Jiancheng. If we go back, won't we be sending sheep into the tiger's mouth?" Yuwen Zhiji comforted him, "The Xiaoguo Army is the best in the world. No one can stop their homesickness. With this, we may be able to defeat Li Jiancheng, take back Guanzhong, and achieve our great cause!

Yu Wenzhi still didn't quite believe it. It was because he had never gained any benefits from Li Jiancheng in more than ten years, and that was even before he had his father Yu Wenshu to rely on.

In fact, Yuwen Zhiji knew that they had little chance of defeating Li Jiancheng, but fortunately, it was his brother who had a grudge against him, and it was also his brother who ordered the regicide.

If it is really impossible to do anything, then I can only protect myself.

Feeling somewhat guilty, Yuwen Zhiji comforted his brother and asked him to go and have fun with Yang Guang's concubines. However, Yuwen Zhiji was much more greedy and lustful than Yang Guang, so he put his worries behind him and went to have fun.

Just when Yu Wenzhi thought he could enjoy the pleasures of being an emperor for a while, Wuxing prefect Shen Faxing suddenly raised an army to avenge the emperor and kill the regicide rebels.

He gathered 8,000 soldiers and horses with the county soldiers and young and strong men in his clan as the backbone, and marched straight to Jiangdu, going all the way down to Yuhang County, advancing to Wucheng and attacking Piling. In the name of avenging the king, he gathered 60,000 soldiers.

In the city of Jiangdu, Li Shimin, Shen Guang and Chen Ling appeared openly, denounced Yu Wenzhi and others for treason and regicide, and threatened to torture Yu Wenzhi to death.

When Yu Wenzhi learned about it, he quickly ordered Sima Dekan to lead the troops to kill them. However, he did not expect that half of the Xiaoguo Army would directly defect on the battlefield, while the other half did not dare to take action, as they did not know that Guanzhong had already belonged to the King of Tang.

If he killed the King of Tang's brother, not to mention whether he would be able to return to Guanzhong, even his family and clansmen in Guanzhong would be implicated. Thinking of this, half of them turned against him.

Yuwen Zhiji hurriedly ordered his troops to withdraw, and then, without caring about anything else, discussed with his brother. With Shen Faxing outside and Li Shimin inside, Jiangdu could not be defended. He immediately decided to abandon Jiangdu and flee with the remaining 60,000 to 70,000 troops, so as to avoid losing every last soldier.

Li Shimin led his troops to rescue Empress Xiao and others, and then allowed Yu Wenzhi to escape. Li Shimin and Shen Guang and Chen Ling dug out the emperor's body and reburied it, and began the funeral according to the emperor's etiquette.

The people in Jiangdu City actually came out spontaneously to see the emperor off. The emperor never treated the people of Jiangnan, who were the people of a fallen country, harshly. Instead, he always respected their cultural achievements and improved their political status. The people of Jiangnan were quite grateful for this.

After burying Yang Guang, Li Shimin naturally took charge of Jiangdu. He promised the Xiaoguo Army that if anyone wanted to return, they could return to Guanzhong immediately, and if anyone hoped to return with honor and glory, they could stay.

Some people wanted to go back immediately because they were thinking about their wives, children and elderly mothers. These people could not be stopped, so Li Shimin arranged for his family generals to lead them back to Guanzhong.

However, some people were not so anxious. They took the initiative to join the Xiaoguo Army in order to make achievements and return home in glory by following the younger brother of King Tang.

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(End of this chapter)