Chapter 1154 The Storm Is Coming

In a small courtyard of the Luoyang Imperial Palace, the lights flickered, and eight big men stood around. In the middle of the room, Li Fuguo, wearing a mask, sat on a wide couch. In front of him knelt two middle-aged men, both of whom looked very similar to Li Fuguo.

These two were Li Fuguo's stand-ins, one surnamed Zhao and the other surnamed Xie, both eunuchs.

Not only did they look alike, but their clothes and hats were exactly the same, and they spoke very 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 under their feet and said, "There are 500 taels of gold each, all for your family."

The two stand-ins looked at each other, and suddenly kowtowed desperately and said, "We are willing to die for our master!"

Both of them felt the breath of death. Li Fuguo raised his eyelids and said lightly, "Old Zhao, go out first, I'll talk to Old Xie!"

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

Li Fuguo drank tea slowly. At this time, a strange sound came from the yard. It seemed that someone was struggling desperately. His throat was gurgling, and then it became quiet for a while.

A guard came in and said, "It has been dealt with!"

In the room, the stand-in surnamed Xie was so scared that he collapsed on the ground, trembling all over.

Li Fuguo said lightly: "From now on, you will stay by my side and not leave!"

"Yes! Yes! I understand."

Li Fuguo got up and left, and the guards followed him. The stand-in surnamed Xie was stunned for a moment, and quickly got up and followed behind.

Walking into the yard, Li Fuguo took a look at the body of the stand-in surnamed Zhao, and said coldly: "As I said before, put the body in my official bedroom and hang it with a white silk."

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

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

Li Fuguo walked into the room, staring at the map on the wall with his hands behind his back in a daze. The Jinzouyuan was closed and Li Dai escaped. He had realized that Li Ye was going to send troops and his overwhelming power was about to become a bubble. He began to prepare a way out for himself.

His way out was to escape and then use two substitutes to confuse the other party. As early as half a year ago, when Emperor Li Heng had serious health problems, Li Fuguo began to transfer his wealth. He had a manor in a subordinate county in Luoyang, which was handed over to his son to manage. His son was of course not born by him, but actually his nephew, who was adopted by his brother. This was his biggest secret, and no one knew the existence of this nephew.

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

Li Fuguo squinted at the map, thinking about how naive they actually thought Li Ye would admit the status quo. With 500,000 troops in hand, who wouldn't want to dominate the world? Would Li Ye not want to? Everything was about to end, his overwhelming power, his dream of being a Shangfu.

Suddenly, Li Fuguo felt a pain in his chest, so painful that he couldn't stand up, and 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's preparation to escape, Yu Chaoen was very tough. It was five o'clock at this time. He was in the big military camp in Xiyuan, looking at the 100,000 Shen Ce Army gathering. The rest were the four armies of the capital, Longwu Army, Qianniu Guard, Meihua Guard and Jinwu Guard, which added up to almost ten armies.

The main general of the Shen Ce Army was Yu Zhide, and the two deputy generals were Li Sheng and Du Xiquan.

The powerful eunuchs unanimously decided that instead of waiting to die in Luoyang, it would be better to take the initiative to attack, go to the Yaohan Road to occupy the advantageous terrain and block the Guanlong Army.

At this time, Yu Zhide urged his horse to run to Yu Chaoen, clasped his fists and said: "Report to the Privy Councilor, the 100,000-strong army has been assembled!"

Yu Chaoting nodded, "Let's go!"

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

Teams of soldiers set off, and the team began to run. The 100,000-strong army was overwhelming, and of course there were baggage, and 20,000 carts transporting 200,000 stones of grain and other supplies followed the army.

The army's target is Mianchi County. The Shen Ce Army will use Mianchi County as a logistics base and gradually advance westward.

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

Just as the army set out to the west, on the Yellow River, hundreds of 3,000-stone ships slowly sailed downstream in the night, gradually approaching Heyang Bridge.

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

Only when the army crosses the bridge, the suspended floating bridge will be lowered when needed.

As for civilians crossing the Yellow River, they can only take a ferry. The Heyang Bridge is used by the army or the emperor.

If ordinary people use it, it will not stop all day and night, and the Yellow River will be cut off.

Hundreds of large ships slowly sailed to Mengjin Ferry. At this time, the guards of Heyang Pass and Xiaopingjin Pass discovered the fleet. The soldiers were shocked and 2,000 guards immediately retreated to Mengjin Pass.

The fleet landed on the south bank. Xiaopingjin Pass and Heyang Pass could not defend and had to retreat.

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

The 20,000 troops were led by General Hao Tingyu. His mission was to seize Mengjin Pass and Sishui Pass, cut off the retreat of the eunuch party and the army to the Central Plains or the south, and completely blockade Luoyang.

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

Soon, the army arrived at Mengjin Pass. Behind Mengjin Pass was the Mangshan Grand Canyon. After taking Mengjin Pass, they could directly pass through the Grand Canyon and enter the hinterland of Luoyang.

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

But after Tian Shengong was defeated, Yu Chaoen no longer cared about Mengjin, but concentrated all his forces to defend the Guanlong Army at the Yaohan Road.

There were only 5,000 troops stationed at Mengjin Pass. Of course, 5,000 troops were not a small number. It was not an easy task for the 20,000 Guanlong Army to seize Mengjin Pass.

Hao Tingyu stared at Mengjin Pass. He had been stationed at Mengjin Pass before and knew the pass well. The pass could only accommodate 500 soldiers at most. The other soldiers were behind the pass and could be replaced at any time.

But it was important to take Mengjin Pass. The soldiers behind basically had no fighting spirit and would evacuate quickly.

He ordered coldly: "Firearm Battalion, prepare!"

The Guanlong Army had powerful firearms, so they basically did not need to carry weapons such as siege ladders, and ordinary pass cities could not stop Guanlong's pace.

Three hundred soldiers rushed up, carrying three accurate medium-sized catapults that could throw ten-jin long nail iron fire bombs on the city gate.

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

However, the Chang'an Firearms and Gunpowder Bureau developed a firearm specifically for suspension bridges.