Tibet

In a small courtyard of the Luoyang Palace, the lights flickered on and off, and there were eight big men standing around. In the middle of the room, Li Fuguo, who was wearing a mask, was sitting on a large couch, and two middle-aged men were kneeling in front of him. , all look exactly like Li Fuguo.

These two people are Li Fuguo's substitutes. One is named Zhao and the other is Xie, both eunuchs.

Not only do they look alike, they also wear exactly the same clothes and hats, and both speak softly. For a long time, the two of them played the role of chasing Li Fuguo on different occasions.

Li Fuguo pointed to the box at their feet and said: "There are five hundred taels of gold in each, all for your family."

The two substitutes looked at each other and suddenly kowtowed desperately: "We are willing to die for our master!"

Both of them felt the breath of death. Li Fuguo raised his eyelids and said calmly: "Old Zhao, go out first, I will talk to Lao Xie!"

One of them went out tremblingly. This old Zhao was Li Fuguo, who had previously played the role of prime minister. Now that Li Fuguo himself is in power, he has basically been idle.

Li Fuguo drank tea slowly. At this time, strange noises came from the yard, as if someone was struggling desperately, and there was a gurgling sound in the throat. It became quiet for a moment.

A guard came in and said, "It's been taken care of!"

In the room, the stand-in named Xie suddenly collapsed on the ground with fear, trembling all over.

Li Fuguo said calmly: "From now on, you will stay with me and you will not leave even an inch!"

"Yes! Yes! The villain understands."

Li Fuguo stood up and left, and the guards followed. The substitute named Xie was stunned for a moment, then quickly got up and followed.

Walking to the yard, Li Fuguo glanced at the body of the double named Zhao and said coldly: "As I said before, put the body in my official bedroom and hang it up with white silk."

Several guards carried the body away, and Li Fuguo walked slowly to another courtyard, which was his residence.

He pointed to another small room and said to the substitute named Xie: "You will live in that room temporarily."

Li Fuguo walked into the room, looked at the map on the wall with his hands behind his hands in a daze, entered the memorial hall and closed the door, Li Dai escaped. He had realized that Li Ye was going to send troops, and his great power was about to come to nothing, so he began to prepare a way out for himself.

His only option was to escape and then use two stand-ins to confuse the other party. As early as half a year ago, when Emperor Li Heng suffered from serious health problems, Li Fuguo began to transfer his wealth. He had a manor in a subordinate county of Luoyang. , and left it to his son to take care of. Of course, his son was not born by him, but was actually his nephew. His brother adopted him. This is his biggest secret. No one knows the existence of this nephew.

In three batches, he transported a huge amount of wealth to the manor and hid it, and used various means to execute all the soldiers and eunuchs who transported the property for him. In this way, no one except him and his nephew knew where his wealth was hidden?

Li Fuguo squinted at the map and thought about how naive they thought Li Ye would admit the current situation. With half a million troops in hand, who doesn't want to dominate the world? Would Li Ye not want to? Everything is coming to an end, his overwhelming power, his dream of becoming a father.

Suddenly, Li Fuguo felt a pain in his heart, which made him unable to stand. He slowly sat down to rest. At this time, the mask accidentally fell off, revealing an ugly face full of black spots.

Compared with Li Fuguo who was preparing to escape, Yu Chaoen was very tough. It was the fifth watch. He was in the military camp in Xiyuan, watching the 100,000 Shence Army gathered. The remaining ones were the Fourth Army of the Capital and Long Wu. The army, Qianniu Guard, Plum Blossom Guard and Jinwu Guard totaled almost ten armies.

The leader of the Shence Army is Yu Zhide, and the two deputy generals are Li Sheng and Du Xiquan.

The powerful officials unanimously decided that instead of waiting for death in Luoyang, it would be better to take the initiative and go to Xiaohan Road to occupy favorable terrain and block the Guanlong army.

At this time, Yu Zhide urged his horse to run in front of Yu Chaoen, clasped his fists and said: "Inform the Privy Envoy, a hundred thousand troops have been assembled!"

Yu Chaoting nodded, "Let's go!"

Yu Zhide rushed forward and shouted: "Let's go!"

Groups of soldiers set off, and the troops began to run. The 100,000-strong army was overwhelming. Of course, there were also baggage. 20,000 carts transported 200,000 shi of grain and other supplies, following behind the army.

The army's goal is Mianchi County, and the Shence Army will use Mianchi County as a logistics center and gradually advance westward.

In the dark night, a group of torches ran in front, followed by a mighty army.

At the same time as the army set off to the west, hundreds of large ships of three thousand stone were slowly sailing along the river in the night, gradually approaching Heyang Bridge on the Yellow River.

Heyang Bridge is a pontoon bridge. It is like a city-protecting suspension bridge. Most of the time, several sections of the pontoon bridge are pulled up to form two channels each more than ten feet wide to facilitate the passage of ships.

Only when troops cross the bridge and are needed, the hoisted pontoon bridge will be lowered.

As for civilians crossing the Yellow River, they could only take ferries. Heyang Bridge was used by the army or the emperor for travel.

If ordinary people used it, it would not stop all day long, and the Yellow River would be cut off.

Hundreds of large ships sailed slowly towards Mengjin Ferry. At this time, the defenders at Heyang Pass and Xiaopingjing Pass discovered the fleet. The soldiers were shocked and the two thousand defenders immediately retreated towards Mengjin Pass.

The fleet landed on the south bank, and Xiaopingjinguan and Heyangguan could not hold it, so they had to retreat.

A large group of Guanlong soldiers landed at Mengjindu. Each large ship was loaded with 200 people, and a total of 20,000 troops landed.

The 20,000-strong army was led by General Hao Tingyu. His mission was to seize Mengjin Pass and Sishui Pass, cut off the eunuchs and the army from retreating to the Central Plains or the South, and completely blockade Luoyang.

The 20,000 troops were assembled at the ferry. At this time, it was almost dawn. "Let's go!" Hao Tingyu shouted, and the 20,000 troops rushed towards Mengjinguan.

Soon, the army arrived at Mengjinguan. Behind Mengjinguan was the Mangshan Grand Canyon. If they captured Mengjinguan, they could directly pass through the Grand Canyon and enter the hinterland of Luoyang.

Generally speaking, heavy troops will be deployed in the Mengjin area, at least 30,000 people, to guard the north gate of Luoyang.

But after Tian Shengong was defeated, Yu Chaoen no longer took care of Mengjin, but concentrated all his troops on Xiaohan Road to defend the Guanlong Army.

There are only 5,000 troops stationed at Mengjing Pass. Of course, there are many 5,000 troops. It is not easy for 20,000 Guanlong troops to capture Mengjing Pass.

Hao Tingyu stared at Mengjinguan. He once stationed at Mengjinguan and knew Guancheng very well. Guancheng could only accommodate up to five hundred soldiers. The other soldiers were behind Guancheng and could be replaced at any time.

But if Mengjinguan is captured, the soldiers behind will basically have no fighting spirit and will evacuate quickly.

He coldly ordered: "The firearms camp is ready!"

Guanlong's army has powerful firearms, and basically does not need to carry weapons such as siege ladders. Ordinary Guancheng cannot stop Guanlong's pace.

Three hundred soldiers rushed up. They carried three accurate medium-sized trebuchets, which could hurl ten kilograms of long nails, iron and fire thunder into the city gate.

But the first thing the firearms battalion soldiers faced was the suspension bridge, which was raised high like a shield blocking the city gate.

However, the Chang'an Firearms and Powder Administration developed a firearm specifically designed to deal with suspension bridges.