Chapter 61 Rebellion
After a while, everyone left except Li Jiancheng, who was left by Yang Guang. Seeing him standing respectfully, Yang Guang was quite satisfied, but still asked, "Is there anyone in this hall that you like?"

Li Jiancheng didn't know what attitude Yang Guang was asking, but he couldn't help but answer or hesitate, so he lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty's use is of course the best treasure in the world, but it is not a royal treasure that a minister can look at at will, so I didn't pay attention to it."

There was silence in the hall for a moment. Li Jiancheng's heart beat like a drum. It felt like a long time had passed before he heard Yang Guang say with a smile: "What's on display over there is the tribute from the Western Regions. I like it very much. I was thinking that if you like it, I would give it to you as a reward."

Li Jiancheng was not relieved, but continued to respond with the words that were least likely to go wrong. As the saying goes, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger, which means that even if you do what you say and do well, you may not get any reward, but if you make a mistake or say something wrong once, it is easy to end up in a bad way.

When the time was almost right, Yang Guang said, "Go and spend more time with the Crown Prince."

"promise."

Yang Zhao has not yet been granted the imperial seal and is still waiting for the official ceremony to be held early next year, in the first year of Daye. However, as the eldest son, the emperor has already let him live in the Eastern Palace, so all the ministers call him the crown prince.

He arrived at the East Palace with ease. As the prince's eunuch, he did not need to go through too many procedures before entering, and the crown prince Yang Zhao had already come out to greet him personally.

Li Jiancheng stepped forward and bowed: "I pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Yang Zhao is five years older than him, and is now twenty-one years old. He is tall and has eyes and features similar to his parents, but is a little fatter and not as handsome. It is said that the prince is very strong and can shoot an arrow through a target with a strong bow from a hundred steps away.

Yang Zhao helped Li Jiancheng up and said, "Jiancheng, didn't I tell you that you don't have to stick to the conventional etiquette and can just call me brother?"

If Yang Guang had said this, Li Jiancheng would definitely not believe it, and would have worried whether this was a warning to him. But when Yang Zhao said this, he believed it.

The newly appointed Crown Prince does not resemble the emperor in character. Instead, he is more like the previous emperor, whose conduct is many times nobler. He lives a simple life and is loyal, humble, and benevolent.

This is not something that the current emperor pretends to be able to endure, but it is his nature. When he was young, he was praised by the late emperor: "He who is born grows up, who can teach him?"

Li Jiancheng called him "brother" cheerfully, and Yang Zhao contentedly pulled him to eat. There were only two dishes on the table, and he generously pushed them towards Li Jiancheng: "I didn't know you were coming. If I had known earlier, I would have asked for one more dish."

Looking at the simple old couch and bedding not far away, Li Jiancheng unconsciously recalled the time when he took great pains to go to Prince Jin's Mansion. What he saw at that time was very similar to today.

Yang Zhao was satisfied with the small amount of food. After finishing the food, he poured some hot tea into the rice bowl, and soon finished another bowl with a huff. He put down his bamboo chopsticks with an unsatisfied look and smiled a little embarrassedly: "I always feel hungry, but my father and mother told me to eat less. I'm sorry to make you laugh."

Li Jiancheng smiled and gave him another half bowl of rice, saying, "Being able to eat is a blessing. Without this appetite, how could you draw a hard bow?"

…………

King Yang Liang of Han finally received the news that the emperor had passed away and the prince had ascended the throne. He no longer hesitated and raised his troops and raised the flag in Jinyang.

The so-called "war has a legitimate reason", so among the many suggestions from his servants, the King of Han finally chose a slogan proposed by a fool, "Yang Su rebelled, clear the court!"

No one knows what the King of Han is thinking. Since he has raised an army, why doesn't he point the spearhead directly at the emperor, but at Yang Su instead? If the emperor kills Yang Su first and clears his own court, should we withdraw our troops?
No matter how much persuasion they were given, it was still the King of Han who made the final decision. With such a slogan, only 19 out of the 52 states under the King of Han responded to the call.

But they managed to gather 300,000 soldiers, claiming to have 600,000 soldiers. With the soldiers, the battle strategy was decided. The King of Han had never led an army before, so he could only rely on his generals for advice. It was the counselor Wang Yu who came up with the plan and said to Yang Liang in private: "The families of the generals and officials under your command are all in Guanxi. If you use them, you should drive deep into the city and occupy the capital directly. It is like thunder that can't stop your ears."

"If you only want to seize the old Qi territory, you should appoint the eastern people."

In other words, if they wanted to send troops directly to attack the capital, they would have to work hard to win over the Guanlong nobles and appoint them as commanders to march westward. If successful, they would become emperor themselves.

If he did not want to be emperor and only wanted to establish his own regime to protect himself, he would have to win over the civil and military officials of the Northern Qi Dynasty, that is, the nobles of Wuxing, and use them as the main generals to march eastward.

Wang Long felt that he had made himself clear, but unfortunately his lord was Yang Liang, and it was too difficult for him to make such a decision that would determine success or failure.

After hesitating for a long time, he still couldn't make a decision, and called a group of flustered subordinates to ask for advice. Wang Lu's face was extremely ugly, but he could only endure it.

Finally, someone saw the dilemma of the King of Han, and an official suggested: "Your Majesty now has many soldiers and generals, and the court will be overwhelmed all of a sudden. In this case, why not divide the troops to achieve the best of both worlds, with the elite troops heading west and the brave people heading east to recover the former territory of Qi.

Wang Long glared at the man and said, "No! Dividing the troops in battle is a taboo."

The man ignored Wang Hu and said, "I am willing to be the vanguard and capture Pujin Pass on the east side of the Yellow River for the king, so that the king's army can head straight to the capital. When the time comes, the capital will be shaken and will reveal its flaws. Then the great cause will be accomplished!"

Yang Liang liked people who could take the initiative to propose solutions and be responsible for their implementation. Therefore, after asking Pei Wen'an's name, he promoted him to the rank of Pillar of the State and let him lead the army straight to Puzhou City.

In addition, the plan of dividing the troops was not abandoned. General Yu Gongli was ordered to send troops to Taigu to attack Heyang.

General Qi Liang led his troops out of Fukou and rushed to Liyang. General Liu Jian led his troops out of Jingxingkou and captured the territories of Yan and Zhao. Pillar of the State Qiao Zhongkui led his troops out of Yanmen.

……

When the King of Han was gathering his troops, the imperial court also assembled a large army. However, because the emperor originally thought that he could easily trick Yang Liang into coming over, he only gathered tens of thousands of troops at a time, and the rest of the troops had to stay in the capital.

However, Yang Guang still issued an edict to denounce the King of Han for treason and announced that the imperial court would send 300,000 troops to quell the rebellion.

The emperor appointed Yang Su, the left servant, as the marching commander of Bingzhou Road and the ambassador of pacification of Hebei Road, to lead the troops to stop the rebels on the north bank of the Yellow River, and then wait for the troops from various states to gather and destroy the King of Han.

In addition, the court also sent Li Zixiong to Youzhou to mobilize troops in order to destroy the King of Han's army in Hebei, Henan and other places.

Li Jiancheng, Li Jing, Yu Wenhuaji and others all went with the army, each leading 1,800 soldiers and horses. Compared with Yang Su, Yuwen Shu trusted Li Jiancheng a little more, so he ordered Yu Wenhuaji to hand over the troops to Li Jiancheng, as long as he could get some military merits and come back alive.

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(End of this chapter)