Tibet

When the fighting raged until dawn, the fighting in the city stopped. Almost all the soldiers who could escape fled. Those who could not escape were all killed by the Tang army. The 20,000 Yan army lost more than 12,000 people. The general An Taiqing was also killed by Li. Ye was killed with one arrow, but the Tang army also paid the price of nearly 3,000 dead.

Next, the battlefields in the city were cleared, and all the enemy corpses were transported out of the city to be burned and buried deep. All important institutions in Chang'an were separately occupied by the Tang army.

Li Ye came to Taicang and the armory, where Zhang Ping still led his men. When the two brothers met, they hugged tightly. Li Ye looked at him and smiled and said, "He is actually the county magistrate. It's not easy!"

Zhang Ping shook his head, "To be honest, although I have done a good job, I really don't want to be the county magistrate of Anlu Mountain."

Li Ye smiled and said, "That's easy. From now on, I will appoint you as Jingzhao Shaoyin."

"What if the court doesn't approve it?" Zhang Ping asked worriedly.

Li Ye said calmly: "If the imperial court does not approve it, you will serve as the governor of Xiangzhou. In my territory, I have the final say."

Zhang Ping nodded silently. At this time, Jiang Pingwang, the commander of the Taicang Bureau, stepped forward and said, "Jiang Pingwang, the humble commander of the Taicang Bureau, sees your highness!"

Jiang Pingwang had always been in charge of Taicang and was a technical official. An Lushan asked him to continue to be in charge of Taicang and also put him in charge of the arsenal. Li Ye did not intend to hold these technical officials accountable.

"Let's go check out the granary!"

Li Ye's biggest concern now is food and grass, which determines whether he can hold Chang'an.

"Reporting to Your Highness, there are currently 500,000 shi of grain in Taicang. We were originally going to ship 200,000 shi of grain to Yuanzhou, but we haven't had time to arrange the shipment yet!"

Li Ye looked around the granary and asked, "This is all grain, where's the horse feed?"

Forage and black beans were equally important, and both his camels and horses needed a lot of them.

"Reporting to Your Highness, the fodder is in the warehouse of Da Sinong Temple, but the warehouse is in Xianyang, not Chang'an. There are 700,000 dan of fodder, more than one million catties of black beans, and 70,000 shi of grain."

Li Ye suddenly thought of a very serious problem. It was actually a false proposition that the 200,000 troops in Anlu Mountain were cut off from food. They could completely loot food everywhere. He quickly asked: "How many food reserves are there in each county of Jingzhao?"

"Every county has storage. The key is that Anlushan doesn't like Guangtongcang, so he transports all the grain from Guangtongcang to Chang'an. If Chang'an can't fit it, he puts it in the warehouses of Jingzhao counties, so each county has more or less Or there is little food left.”

This was a big question. Li Ye immediately asked Zhang Ping: "Do you know how many people there are in each county in Jingzhao?"

"The population is less than half of what it used to be. They have all disappeared. Even Chang'an's population is only less than half of what it used to be."

"So all the officials in Jingzhao counties were appointed by An Lushan?" Li Ye asked again.

Zhang Ping shook his head, "They are basically all former officials."

Li Ye immediately said: "Immediately send your men to notify the counties that a war is about to break out in Chang'an, and ask the people in each county to bring food and move it to Chang'an City. Then I will be responsible for arranging the transportation of the food materials from the official warehouses in each county." Enter Chang'an."

Zhang Ping agreed and immediately started to deal with it. Li Ye immediately asked Pei Xiu to allocate troops and camels to carry grain and supplies from the official warehouses of various counties in Jingzhao Prefecture.

At this time, the martial law in Chang'an City was lifted and the gates were opened wide. When the people in the city heard that King Lu led his army to regain Chang'an, the whole city cheered and the sound of gongs and drums resounded throughout the city.

What Li Ye is most lacking now is officials. There are not many officials in Chang'an. Chen Xilie and others who surrendered to An Lushan have all gone to Luoyang. An Lushan's capital and court are both in Luoyang. An Lushan is only supervising the war in Chang'an, hoping to destroy the Tang Dynasty as soon as possible. The remnants of the dynasty.

Of course, even if Chen Xilie and Zhang Jun were in Chang'an, Li Ye would not use them, and would severely punish these traitors!

In the afternoon, two officials came from outside the city. It was Cui Guangyuan and Su Zhen who had fled before. They were arrested by various officials and checkpoints and could not escape at all. Su Zhen was born in the Jingzhao family and was the prime minister in the early Tang Dynasty. Su Liangsi's great-grandson was also Li Longji's consort. He and Cui Guangyuan were hiding in the house of Wei Tian, ​​the magistrate of Xianyang County.

In the morning, the Tang army went to Xianyang to transport fodder, and the two of them learned that Li Ye had captured Chang'an. They hurried back and went to the temporary military government office to see Li Ye.

Li Ye was overjoyed and quickly invited the two of them to take a seat, "I always thought you two had fled to Lingwu, but it turns out you are still in Chang'an!"

Cui Guangyuan smiled bitterly and said: "We wanted to go to Lingwu, but Anlu Mountain set up several checkpoints on Jingyuan Road. We couldn't pass it at all, so we had to come back and hide in the mansion of County Magistrate Wei of Xianyang. He is the son of Magistrate Su. Cousin."

Li Ye nodded and said to Cui Guangyuan: "Cui Shijun came back too timely. There are so many things going on that Zhang Ping alone is really too late."

Cui Guangyuan was startled and asked cautiously: "Why does Your Highness still want to use Zhang Ping?"

Li Ye knew that he had misunderstood, so he explained with a smile: "He is my brother. We grew up together. It was I who arranged for him to be an internal correspondent in Chang'an. He did not really surrender to Anlu Mountain. He was executing my orders." That’s all!”

Cui Guangyuan and Su Zhen looked at each other. Cui Guangyuan smiled bitterly and said, "It seems there is a misunderstanding!"

Li Ye smiled again and said: "Zhang Ping will not really betray you two. If he did, how could you escape from the capital?"

Su Zhen also nodded, "It makes sense, it is indeed a misunderstanding."

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said: "An Lushan will not be willing to escape Chang'an. He will bring an army of 200,000 to attack Chang'an. I estimate that we have at most five or six days of preparation. I need to mobilize all the counties in Jingzhao Prefecture. All the people and food have been moved to Chang'an, and I have to temporarily recruit another hundred thousand militia troops. Time is very tight. I hope you two can give me your full help."

Cui Guangyuan and Su Zhen stood up and saluted together, "It is our duty to do so!"

Li Ye immediately established the Jingzhao Temporary Jiedu Prefecture. He served as the temporary Jiedu Envoy, Cui Guangyuan was the chief historian, Zhang Ping and Su Zhen were the left and right Sima, and he also summoned more than 20 officials from various counties to join the army and began a five-day emergency war preparation. .

A large number of people from various counties in Jingzhao began to flock to Chang'an, bringing their wives and children, the elderly and their property, driving carts, and all the official roads were filled with huge crowds.

In Chang'an City, Zhang Ping led officials and soldiers everywhere to search for vacant houses and arrange tents. Fortunately, a large number of people in Chang'an fled south, with less than half of the people left. There were many vacant houses in the city, especially more vacant houses, and all the houses in Jiedu Mansion were empty. and houses were requisitioned to house the people who fled from various counties.

At the same time, twenty teams stretching for several miles lined up in front of Zhuque Gate, with as many as hundreds of thousands of people actively recruiting to join the army to defend their homeland.

This time the Tang army was recruiting militia soldiers to defend Chang'an. Li Ye knew very well that he only had 50,000 troops. Facing the 200,000-strong Youzhou army, he would definitely not be able to defend Chang'an. He would have to retain at least 100,000 troops, plus dozens more. With the logistical support of tens of thousands of people, it was barely possible to hold Chang'an.

Although the slogan is to protect the homeland and the country, the actual benefits are also important. Each militia soldier who is admitted will receive varying amounts of money and rice.