Chapter 91: The Sui and Tang War (21)

Li Yuan died of illness a day ago, and the country could not be without a king for a day. The ministers supported Prince Li Jiancheng that night and ascended the throne, becoming the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and established the reign title Changxing.

Although the Sui army was at the city, Li Jiancheng cheered up his spirits. While appeased the ministers, he cheered up the people's hearts. At the same time, he ordered the transfer of 100,000 shi of official grain to be sold to the people at a fair price to stabilize the grain prices in Chang'an.

At noon the next day, news came from the defenders that the Sui army was found at the east and north sides at the same time. This news immediately made Chang'an City nervous.

On the top of the city, 20,000 Tang soldiers looked outside the city with nervous expressions. The 150,000 troops from the east had appeared in black several miles away from the east city, with flags covering the sky. From south to north, the army was more than twenty miles long, with a huge momentum. The Sui army was busy setting up camps.

At this time, a soldier shouted, "The Lord is here!"

The soldiers dodged one after another, and saw hundreds of guards appearing on the top of the city surrounded by a yellow umbrella. This was the news that the new emperor Li Jiancheng got the news and personally climbed to the top of the city to check the enemy situation.

Li Jiancheng had just ascended the throne, and he had not fully adapted to his new identity. The last emperor was not buried, the queen was not honored, the queen was not granted, and the prince was not established. These many funerals would be busy for at least more than a month.

But he had no time anymore. He ordered the closure of the inner palace and still held court discussions in the Xiande Hall of the East Palace to deal with the crisis. In fact, he had already been in charge of the government affairs, but except for his identity, nothing else had changed.

Li Jiancheng was wearing a red dragon robe and a sky-sky crown. He slowly walked to the battlements and stared at the Sui army in the distance, sighing in his heart. Now the court has finally stabilized, but it seems too late.

"Your Majesty, the morale of the army seems to be unstable." Chen Shuda whispered to Li Jiancheng.

Li Jiancheng glanced at the soldiers and saw that the soldiers around him were speechless, and everyone's eyes were full of anxiety and tension.

He should appease the soldiers, but what can he say? But Li Jiancheng also knew that so many soldiers were waiting for him, and as an emperor, he had to make a statement.

Li Jiancheng forced a smile, stood on a high platform, and shouted loudly to the soldiers: "All soldiers, I am the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, I will come to visit you."

There was silence on the top of the city, and nearly ten thousand pairs of eyes were staring at Li Jiancheng. In their memory, it seemed that the emperor had never seen him personally come to boost morale.

Li Jiancheng cheered up again and shouted loudly: "I want to tell everyone that there is sufficient food in our warehouse, enough to support for a year, but the Sui army is insufficient. They will withdraw their troops in a short while. Our Bashu army has not been lost. The Tang army is still fighting against the Sui army, and we have also won. Everyone must have confidence that the most difficult moment will definitely pass!"

There was still silence on the top of the city and no one cheered. It was Chen Shuda who suddenly applauded. He hinted at the guards, and the guards also applauded one after another, and finally led the soldiers on the top of the city. Applause suddenly sounded on the top of the city, and someone raised his arms and shouted, "Long live the Tang Dynasty's Majesty!"

"Long live!"

Cheers sounded from the city, Li Jiancheng's face turned red, and the cheers of the soldiers made him excited.

He inspected the city wall again and encouraged the soldiers to cheer up. Under his encouragement, the originally sluggish soldiers finally improved a little, and the city wall began to busy defensive preparations.

Li Jiancheng got off the city, but saw Xiao Yu rushing over, "Your Majesty!" Xiao Yu shouted, looking a little nervous.

"What happened?" Li Jiancheng asked a little uneasy.

Xiao Yu walked up and whispered: "Today I went to count the inventory of grains myself, and found that there were only 150,000 stones of grains."

"What!"

Li Jiancheng was shocked and asked anxiously: "But there are obviously 400,000 stones of grain stored in the account book of Taifu Temple, and where are there 250,000 stones left?"

"I also asked Liang Song of Taifu Temple. He was not very clear. He asked the people below and found out that the 400,000 stones of grain included the 25 s of grain from Guangtong Cang. They did not share the accounts. In fact, there were only 150,000 stones in the inventory in Chang'an."

Li Jiancheng suddenly became anxious, "Then has it been deducted to adjust the grain price of 100,000 shi of grain?"

Xiao Yu shook his head, "It hasn't moved yet. If we adjust another 100,000 stones of grain to stabilize the price of grain, we will only have 50,000 stones of grain left in Taicang."

Li Jiancheng was silent. He distributed 50,000 stones of grain to 40,000 troops, each of whom only had one stone more than one stone. Together with their family, it would be enough to eat for more than a month, not to mention that there were 500,000 or 600,000 people in the city.

He sighed, turned around and drove towards the car. Xiao Yu followed him again and lowered his voice: "Your Majesty, in fact, some of the wealthy families in the city still have a lot of food in their homes. I guess, the food in these wealthy families will have at least 200,000 stones in total."

Li Jiancheng stopped and hesitated and said, "Are you talking about the Guanlong nobles?"

Xiao Yu nodded, "Dugu family and Dou family control the grain and salt in Chang'an, as well as the Changsun family. They have huge warehouses in their mansions, and they store more than tens of millions of money and grain, if they can."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Jiancheng waved his hand, "Don't mention this again!"

Li Jiancheng knew very well that once the interests of the Guanlong nobles were affected, Chang'an City could not be defended immediately, and he could not make any decisions unless he had no choice.

"Can the 100,000 s of grain be allocated to stabilize the price of rice?" Xiao Yu asked again.

Li Jiancheng sighed, "Then let's allocate 30,000 stones first! Leave 120,000 stones for urgent use."

He got on the carriage and went to the East Palace under the escort of the guards. Xiao Yu shook his head helplessly and had to rush to Taicang to release grain.

.............

In front of the gate of Dugu Mansion in Wubenfang, a carriage slowly stopped. The window was already open. Dou Zhi poked his head out and looked at the changes in front of Dugu Mansion in surprise. The two rows of halberds that were originally arranged under the steps had been removed, and the sixteen guards standing in front of the gate were gone.

Dou Gui suddenly woke up. The Dugu Mansion began to pose. He thought secretly in his heart that if this is the case, it would be time for his mansion to remove the halberd and learn from Dugu Mansion.

The carriage stopped slowly, and Dugu Weiming, who had been waiting in front of the mansion, walked down quickly. Dugu Weiming was Dugu Huaien's son and the Qianniu Guard in the palace. Last night, after Li Jiancheng closed the inner palace, Dugu Weiming was sent home. When he heard that Dou Gui was visiting, Dugu Huaien ordered his son to greet him at the door.

Dugu Weiming stepped forward to pay tribute, "The head of the Dou family is above, but I am the younger generation, Weiming, is polite."

Dou Luo got off the carriage, nodded with a smile, and asked, "Is your father here?"

"My father is here, waiting for the head of the Dou family in the study, and ask the head of the family to come with me."

Dugu Weiming led Dou Gui to the mansion. Dou Gui actually wanted to come to find Dugu Zhen. He heard that Dugu Zhen was sick, which made him feel a little disappointed. Dugu Liang went to Bashu under the order, so he could only come to find Dugu Huaien.

"Is your head in good health?" Dou Gui asked without saying a word.

"The head of the family is very ill, and he is mainly old. Please give me a look at Dr. Wang. Dr. Wang asked us to consider the funeral. Hey!" Dugu Weiming sighed deeply.

Dou Gui was speechless. Soon, Dugu Weiming led him to the study room. He knocked on the door, "Father, Dou Xiangguo is here."

"Please come in!"

Dugu Huai'en's voice came from the room. Dou Gui walked into the study and saw Dugu Huai'en sitting on the table with something written. Seeing him coming in, Dugu Huai'en quickly stood up and smiled and said, "The courtesy is not perfect, and I have neglected the Prime Minister of Dou."

Dugu Huaien was the son of Dugutuo, Li Yuan's cousin, and Dou Gui's fellow generation. However, he was relatively young, only in his early forties. He was formerly the Minister of Works. At the beginning of the year, after Yang Gongren, the Minister of Rites, was transferred to Jingxiang, he was transferred to the Minister of Rites. Although he was not a prime minister, he was also a high-ranking and powerful minister.

Last night, after he and his important officials supported Li Jiancheng ascended the throne, he rested at home today, but Dou Gui came to visit.

Dou Gui said a few words of politeness, and the two of them took a seat. A maid came into the house to serve them tea. Dou Gui had no intention of drinking tea and sighed, "Just just got the news that the 100,000 troops from the West Sui Army have reached Chencang County and are expected to arrive in Chang'an tomorrow."

Dou Gui was once the governor of Fufeng County. He had some connections in Fufeng County and had a wide range of news. Before the court received this news, he got it first. Dugu Huaien said for a while: "In this way, 250,000 Sui troops will be besieged tomorrow."

"More than 250,000!"

Dou Gui shook his head and said, "There are also the 80,000 main force on the Yang Yuanqing North Line and the Cheng Yaojin tribe in the south of the city. It is estimated that it will arrive tomorrow, so that 340,000 troops will besieged the city."

Dugu Huaien was silent. He didn't know what Dou Gui came to him for, so he could only respond with silence. Dou Gui certainly came with a purpose today. He glanced at Dugu Huaien and asked tentatively: "Don't Dugu Shangshu feel that the Tang Dynasty is already out of power?"

Dugu Huaien smiled, "I'm afraid this is not what I think, but everyone thinks so."

"Shangshu Dugu said it well. Today I met Xiao Xiangguo, and he also thought so. He said that what he did now was just to protect the dignity of the Tang Dynasty."

"Yes, 340,000 troops besieged the city, and we only have 40,000 people. At most, the Sui army will inevitably break the city, and it will take less than a month. As long as the Sui army attacks the city fiercely, we will not be able to hold on at most three or five days."

At this time, Dou Gui took out a copy of the ** from his arms, put it on the table, and pushed it to Dugu Huaien. "This is a copy of the ** I contacted with some ministers. I hope the Tang Dynasty could end in a decent way. More than 100 ministers have signed it. I hope that Dugu Shangshu can also consider it."

Dugu Huaien looked through it and said it was a decent end. In fact, he was just persuading Li Jiancheng to open the city to surrender. The signs were full of dense names. The first twenty people were all Guanlong nobles. Dugu Huaien was secretly angry. It turned out that the Dou family was concealed by the Dugu family and had secret connections with so many Guanlong nobles.

He pondered for a while and said, "If I only attach the signature in my personal name, there is no problem, but if it is in the name of the family, I am afraid I will discuss it with the family and reply to the prime minister tomorrow morning. What do you think?"

Dou Gui smiled, "Okay then! We'll make up for it."
Chapter completed!