Chapter 1412 The Son of Heaven Is Critically Ill

Luoyang.

The prime ministers came out of the Xuanzheng Hall and stood at the entrance of the hall, all with expressionless faces.

"Mr. Lai, you are the order of Zhongshu, and Zuo Tianzi is in charge of the government. In this situation, what should you do? Can you send someone to Luzon to ask the grand master to return to the court to preside over the overall situation?"

The person who spoke was Xu Yushi, the third rank of the same Zhongshu sect and Zhongshu's servant, and it was somewhat disrespectful to the prince to ask the grand master to come to the court to preside over the overall situation in front of the prime minister.

But at this time, Lai Ji doesn't care about this anymore.

In fact, Laiji was also considering this issue at this time.

Shangshu Youpushe and Jia Runfu, the third rank of Tongzhongshumen, shook their heads, "Saburo can't go back to the court, and it's useless to send someone there. In the current situation, I think it's better to ask the Queen Mother to listen to the government behind the curtain. I hope Shenggong is safe and healthy. "

Several prime ministers could not help but sigh.

The Zhengdan Grand Court Meeting in the second year of Longshuo has just passed, everything went smoothly, even last year's Western Expedition was fought very well under the command of Su Dingfang, Qin Jun, Xue Rengui, and Xiao Siye.

Qin Jun was even victorious in several battles, beheading more than 100,000 enemy heads successively. Tuqishi and Ge Luolu, two powerful western Turkic troops, were severely injured by this, and Rushu Nishi even directly asked Tang Jun for help. surrender.

Tuqishi used to take advantage of the death of the two Khans of the Western Turks to expand rapidly, recruiting tribes everywhere, and recruiting troops. At one time, he set up 20 governors, each with 7,000 soldiers, and claimed to have 140,000 elite cavalry, intending to capture Suiye. The town is Da Ya, and Yili's Gongyue City is Xiao Ya.

He even sent envoys to the Anxi Tang Army to ask the court to confer him the Great Khan of the Ten Surnames and the Protector of Mengchi, and also asked the court to confer him the title of Prince of Xihe County.

But Qin Jun killed more than 40,000 fine cavalry directly, and Wu Zhile had to flee everywhere. It turned out that the five crossbows controlled by Ashina, who was recruited by him, lost all tribes and other tribes. No longer listening to his orders, Rushu Nishi ran directly to surrender to the Tang army.

At this time, less than half of the twenty governors are still listening to his orders.

Under the two-way attack of Qin Jun and Su Dingfang, the Geluolu people suffered even worse losses, losing more than 60,000 people. The tribes to the east of Jinshan also suffered from Shi Liheli, the governor of the Northern Metropolitan Government of Datang Town, led by Tie Le and Qi Qi. When Bi and other tribes attacked, the beaten cattle and sheep were lost, and the women and children ran away.

These frequent good news made the whole court very satisfied.

However, after Wang Xuance was promoted to be in charge of the Privy Council, he led his troops across the Montenegro to destroy the three kingdoms of Brahmans, Arakan, and Brahmins. From Yongchang Lishui, across the Montenegro, to the west bank of the Tibetan River, a large area of ​​land , have become the new conquests of the Tang Dynasty.

The court's Xichang, Subi, and Tubo all had outlets to the sea.

Although the newly conquered three kingdoms have not yet been fully controlled and occupied, their kings have been defeated, the kings have been captured, and the upper-class nobles and monks have surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. It will only take time to stabilize slowly.

The imperial court has been able to free up more forces to transfer to the Western Regions to win this Western Expedition.

The Privy Council mobilized troops from all walks of life to gather elite soldiers and generals. Years ago, 300,000 elite soldiers were deployed to the front lines of the Western Regions, and countless military supplies were continuously transported on the road.

Although the confrontation is still on the front line, Qin Jun and Su Dingfang's report to the court also made it very clear that the situation is constantly tilting in the direction favorable to Datang.

Qin Huaidao, the governor of the Northern Court and the envoy of the Qing Navy, attacked the Ge Luolu people in the snowstorm under the Jinshan Mountain a few years ago, and beheaded thousands of people in Ge Luolu's tooth tent. The area around the Zhanhe River (Irtysh River) has gone. In the cold winter wind, countless Geluolu people braved the wind and snow and were forced to leave the winter pastures. Along the way, countless cattle and sheep froze to death, singing sad songs in grief. , Walking all the way and crying once, turning back while walking, but never daring to stay at the foot of Jinshan anymore.

Qin Huaidao, the newly-appointed governor of Beiting and the envoy of the Qing Navy, led the elite light cavalry, appearing like ghosts and ghosts. Even in snowy weather, he would appear in the Ge Luolu people's winter pasture at any time. Every time he appeared, he would show no mercy.

They will kill all the tribal men who are taller than Hengdao, and then they will not let go of their cattle and sheep. The remaining tribal women and children will either follow them back to Qinghai Haizhen or Tingzhou, or they can only live in the vast In the sea of ​​snow, it lives and dies on its own. But without cattle and sheep, without milk, without tents, they couldn't survive this winter at all.

The Geluolu people who have not been attacked can only migrate to the northwest with their whole family, and go further north along the Zhanxi River, regardless of the ice and snow.

Jinshan has no place for them.

In another direction of the Western Regions.

Sima of the Governor's Mansion of Anxi and Qin Shandao, an envoy of the Anxi Army, led 10,000 riders. After more than 100 days of trekking and marching, they crossed Kunlun and Congling Mountains, and raided Pantuo Kingdom on the roof of the world. The mountain is dangerous, and in the first battle, he seized its gateway, Princess Fort, and then took advantage of the victory to kill the king's capital, Stone City.

The royal city was empty, with only a thousand imperial guards. King Ge Sha was so frightened that he fled with the royal family and nobles overnight. When Qin Gui arrived with his troops, there was no one in the city.

The king city was captured without bloodshed, and Qin Gui simply split up with Wang Xiaojie and Li Xiubing to pursue it in three directions.

Then King Pantuo staged a ridiculous fleeing drama. They fled in front, and the Tang army chased after them. The king kept abandoning the city and fled. escape.

Of the Pantuo King City and the twelve important castles, only Princess Castle, the first national gate, resisted, and the other twelve cities had no resistance. More than half were empty cities, and the people in other cities really fled. He didn't move anymore, and simply stayed behind in the icy cold wind.

As soon as Tang Jun arrived, he didn't resist at all, and directly raised the white flag to surrender, and even took out some wine and meat to meet Tang Jun.

The king led a group of nobles, and finally they didn't even want the country, they directly crossed Tanju Ridge, fled into Little Bolu Kingdom, and became kings in exile.

Qin Gui finally left Wang Xiaojie to lead 500 people to guard the stone city, and was responsible for collecting food and grass. After stabilizing the Pantuo Kingdom, he and Li Xiu led more than 8,000 people to continue southward.

After accepting the exiled troops led by King Pantuo, King Bolu immediately sent troops to strengthen the defense of Tanjuling, the gate to the north.

Tanju Ridge is a famous steep mountain pass in Daxue Mountain (Hindu Kush Mountain), and the lower ridge is Anuyue Castle, which is heavily defended by Xiaobolu.

To climb to the mountain pass, one must go up the glacier. The length of the glacier is more than 20 miles, and the cracks in the glacier are like a net, and there are traps everywhere. If you don’t pay attention, you will slip into the abyss, or fall directly into the crack of the glacier and die.

At this time, Xiao Bolu stationed a thousand soldiers in the castle of Anuyue, and more than ten miles south of the castle, because of the danger of the mountain, he stationed nearly ten thousand reinforcements, including the king who fled from Pantuo Kingdom and several thousand people. .

Facing this natural danger and the heavily guarded Bolu people, Qin Gui, after analyzing the situation, did not heed the suggestions of some soldiers to stop advancing, or simply retreat to Pantuo Castle to rest for the time being, nor did he agree with what Li Xiu said. Said to divide the troops to find other river valley roads, bypassing the proposal of Tanju Ridge.

He first sent people to shoot books under the fort, and asked the Xiaobolu people to hand over King Pantuo and others, and then asked them to surrender and return to Datang.

Naturally, the little Bolu people would not agree.

Qin Gui sent people to shoot letters to persuade him to surrender every day. After a few days, he pretended to withdraw his troops, pulled out his camp and retreated, but led his troops to hide in a valley. He retreated, and sent some elite cavalry behind to intercept the scout Qingqi who strangled the little Bolu people, preventing them from approaching to find out the truth.

The little Bolu people really thought that the Tang army would just retreat.

Gradually relax.

Qin Gui had been lying in ambush in the valley for more than ten days, and then on a snowy morning, he suddenly led his troops to kill Tanju Ridge. They haven't found it yet.

Qin Gui personally commanded the mountaineering and attacking the city, and the little Bolu people were caught off guard. They didn't expect that the Tang army not only didn't leave, but could attack the city in such a ghostly weather.

Anximo's sword army made great achievements again, slashing all the way up the mountain. There were only a thousand defenders in the castle, and they couldn't support such a fierce offensive. At this time, Xiao Bolu's reinforcement army was still stationed at the foot of the mountain fifteen miles south of the city. In the snowstorm all over the sky, I don't know the situation here.

When they finally found out and tried to come for reinforcements, Li Xiu led the cavalry to ambush halfway.

As soon as the battle was fought, the Panduo people who came to reinforce them ran away first. They shouted while running, which greatly weakened the morale of Xiao Bolu's army.

The morale of Bolu's reinforcements immediately collapsed. Li Xiu took the opportunity to hide and kill more than a thousand cavalry.

Anuyue City, which had no reinforcements, only persisted until the afternoon before being killed by the Tang army, and the remaining defenders surrendered directly. After taking down the castle, Qin Gui and Li Xiu returned to their horses and shot towards the camp in the south of the city. At this time, there were less than 3,000 people in the camp. Finally, under Qin Gui's siege and persuasion, Sunaris, the little Bolu king, had to leave the camp. surrender.

King Pantuo, who had fled all the way, could only surrender.

After the king surrendered, the defenders of the other cities of Xiaobolu also surrendered to the Tang army under the king's order.

Relying on Qin Gui's astonishing record of winning consecutive battles and destroying the two countries in two wars, King Dabolu was so frightened that he had no choice but to send envoys to Tangying to beg for surrender.

Qin Gui then led his troops into the Dabolu Kingdom, and entered the Dabolu King City without bloodshed.

The small countries on the Congling Plateau were greatly shaken, and they surrendered one after another in great panic, so Qin Yu occupied the Humi Country and the Shini Country without bloodshed.

Crossing Congling Ridge, crossing the Great Snow Mountain, exiting the Wakhan Corridor, and entering the city of Saigashen, the capital of the Humi Kingdom on the north bank of the Michuan River, on the upper reaches of the Zhenzhu River west of Tocharo.

The Sun, Moon, Star and Three Stars flags of the Tang Dynasty fluttered here. When the news came out, the kingdoms in Tocharia and Hezhong were shaken. Hearing the news, Tocharo Yehu hurriedly withdrew his troops from Talas City and Dawanjun Town to defend.

The good news spread back to the imperial court, and even the emperor was very happy. He specially granted three hundred additional households to Qin Gui, granted a world title of governor, and rewarded one of his sons with the title of marquis of San.

The happy emperor even initiated the reform of the official system with the prime ministers of the two governments, changing the name of Zhongshu Province to Dongtai, Menxia Province to Xitai, and Shangshu Province to Zhongtai.

Zhongshu Ling was renamed Youxiang, Shizhong was renamed Zuoxiang, and Left and Right servants were renamed Kuangzheng.

Privy envoys are called ruling, deputy envoys are called participating in politics, and transit envoys are called ministers.

It is also determined that the right prime minister and the left prime minister will be the second prime ministers in the Zhengshitang. The rest who entered the political affairs hall with the title of the third rank under the Tongzhongshu sect were the deputy prime ministers.

The right prime minister is in power.

Changed Yushitai to Xiantai, Secretary Supervisor to Lantai, etc.

In fact, the redesignation of the names of Baiguan is not only a change of name, but the biggest change is to confirm the original system of the four powers of Zhengshitang, Privy Council, Transshipment Department, and Yushitai in charge of government, military, finance, and supervision.

But at the same time, the original group minister system in the political affairs hall was changed to a dual-phase system in which the right minister is the prime minister and the left minister is the assistant. The actual power of several other prime ministers who are the second rank of the same school has been greatly weakened.

They have no power to govern affairs, the right minister governs affairs, and the left minister governs affairs when the right minister is absent.

The political affairs hall is still the decision-making center of the administration, and the prime ministers are still the decision-makers, but the decision-makers are divided into the chief, assistant, and deputy, and the decision-making power of the deputy prime ministers is reduced.

This change is also because Qin Lang returned to the emperor when he left, but the emperor was young, had never been a prince before, had no systematic study of government affairs, and now could not directly preside over the military administration himself, so he still had to rely on the prime ministers.

In the past, when Li Shimin started to engage in group ministers, there was no distinction between the principal and the deputy, because he was the one who made the final decision, so the prime minister did not distinguish between the principal and the deputy, and always made suggestions when making decisions. Now the emperor cannot govern in person, of course he has to A prime minister instead of making decisions, if it is a group of prime ministers who control the wheel and govern affairs, there are still some shortcomings in this aspect.

The new official system has just been drafted and promulgated, and the right minister Laiji has officially become the prime minister, and Zuo Tianzi is in power.

As a result, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was not over yet, and the young crown prince suddenly died of illness. The death of the crown prince made the emperor extremely sad.

The emperor was also ill.

Now not only did it not get better, but it became more and more serious, and the imperial doctor had already hinted that it was time to prepare for the funeral.

The prime ministers panicked.

Just now they went to visit the emperor together again. The young emperor was lying on the couch and couldn't get up. He was so thin that he was out of shape. Hair, vomiting what to eat, and even started coughing up blood.

There is no cure for the medicine stone, and even the cause of the disease cannot be found.

The experienced old imperial doctor could only suspect that it was poisoning. As for the source of the poison, it might be the elixir taken by the young emperor.

The emperor, who was only in his twenties, was secretly taking the elixir. Even the empress dowager and the empress didn't know about it, but the imperial doctor couldn't be sure that the elixir was poisonous. The warlock who provided the elixir had already killed himself in fright, so now he didn't even know what ingredients were in the elixir.

The prince died young, and the emperor was critically ill.

This made the Luoyang court panic all of a sudden.

Now someone is proposing to establish a new prince as soon as possible, just in case. Some people suggested that the Queen Mother of Qin should be invited to listen to the government behind the curtain, and some people thought that the emperor's other princes were too young. To be on the safe side, the emperor's younger brother, Jin Wang Li Hong, should be appointed as the emperor's younger brother.

"Why do I always feel that there is a strong taste of conspiracy in this matter, do you think this matter is related to that person from Nangong?" Lai Ji frowned.

"Don't think so, that person can't even get out of the Hanfeng Hall of Shangyang Palace, let alone go to the Yanggong Gate, and has no chance to contact people outside. How could he murder the emperor and the prince? Besides, the emperor He is also his son, the prince is also his grandson?"

Lai Ji gritted his teeth and said, "We must immediately send someone to conduct a comprehensive investigation. We must not let go of the slightest possibility. We are not afraid of ten thousand, just in case!"