Chapter 1127 The End of the Road

Chapter 1127 The End of the Road

After receiving the tasks assigned by the emperor, the two kings were arranged to leave Ganlu Temple and return to Yedu to perform their tasks.

With them left, there were 30,000 soldiers who withdrew from the front line. As for the task of guarding here, it was handed over to the 5,000 imperial guards led by Ping Qin Wang from Yedu.

Since the emperor has withdrawn to the country, there is no need to leave too many people around him. Before, 10,000 divisions were sent back to Jinyang to calm people's hearts, and the remaining 30,000 soldiers were temporarily resettled in Yedu.

Originally, Yedu did not need to gather so many people, but the situation this year was a bit special.

The defeat in the battle with Western Wei was bound to make people's hearts unstable. As the political center of Northern Qi, Yedu originally concentrated a large number of Luoxia scholars who had passed through Northern Wei, and these families usually had inextricable ties with the Longxi Li family, and psychologically they were more likely to identify with them.

Now that Li Boshan of the Western Wei Dynasty is powerful, he has defeated the Northern Qi army in a direct battle. No one can say for sure whether there will be a vicious incident of mass surrender in the country. For example, when the East and the West were just separated last year, a large number of garrison commanders fled eastward from Guanxi. Moreover, the Western Wei Dynasty still exists, and those Yuan Wei clans undoubtedly have a strong motivation to surrender to the West, which is one of the reasons why Gao Yang forced Gao Yan to kill Zhu Yuan.

In order to stabilize the human relations in Yezhong, the number of garrison troops must be increased. When the two countries were at war, Yedu had more than 20,000 soldiers left behind. Before that, Gao Guiyan, the King of Pingqin, led 10,000 imperial guards from Jinyang back to Yedu to support the prince's supervision. Now, after some adjustments, the number of garrison troops in Yedu has reached nearly 60,000, which is enough to deter the restless people in the capital.

In addition, stationing a large number of divisions and brigades in the capital is also to facilitate the army's food. The previous wars had consumed and lost a large amount of supplies, and coupled with the severe drought this year, the Northern Qi's financial resources were already somewhat unsustainable.

Henan, Qingxu and other places were affected by the rebellion of Sima Xiaonan in Hulao City and the military operations of Southern Chen in Huainan, and it was difficult to mobilize funds and goods to Hebei. After Yedu urgently raised a batch of supplies and transported them to the station of the defeated army in Xiawei, the capital's treasury was also emptied, and there was no sufficient supplies to transport to Liaoyang.

Therefore, the army could only be arranged to go to the capital to get food nearby. Although the capital's treasury was also empty, there were so many bright swords and guns placed in front of them, so there was always a way to get food.

On the way back, Gao Yan was relatively silent, looking worried, and didn't communicate much with Gao Zhan. Gao Zhan didn't have such a heavy psychological burden. He was already happily thinking about how to concoct Gao Dezheng to establish his prestige. When he thought of the chaos and panic in Yedu, he even had some expectations.

Going south along the Qishui River from Liaoyang, they arrived at Yedu not far after exiting Fukou in the east. The soldiers who were traveling with them were picked up by their own personnel and settled in the military camp outside the city. Gao Yan and Gao Zhan had to go home to bathe and rest because they were exhausted from the journey.

After entering the city, when they said goodbye to each other, Gao Zhan looked at Gao Yan and said happily: "How do you plan to carry out the task assigned by the Supreme? There are still many relatives of the Yuan clan in the country now. If they cannot be captured and killed in one fell swoop, the news will leak out, and the group of people will inevitably flee in panic. At that time, things will be difficult to handle. If the Supreme blames you, I am afraid that it will be difficult for you to explain. If you think it is difficult to properly handle this matter with only the staff of the government, I can lend you a group of staff."

Gao Yan glanced at this brother who was afraid of chaos in the world, his face became more and more ugly, and he did not answer anything. He turned around and rode home. Gao Zhan looked at his brother's departing back and couldn't help grinning. After laughing, he didn't rush home, but sent his followers to gather his followers and went straight to Gao Dezheng's house.

In order to allow Gao Yan to complete the task more smoothly, Gao Yang also ordered his confidant Liu Taozhi to lead a thousand elite soldiers of the imperial guards to follow him back to the capital and obey his orders. In fact, they were monitoring Gao Yan.

After all, Gao Yan's wife was from the Yuan family, and it was inevitable that he would sympathize with the Yuan family and not be willing to kill them. If Gao Yan wanted to disobey the emperor's order and refuse to execute it, then these people would naturally come in handy.

When Gao Yan returned to the palace, the imperial guards led by Liu Taozhi also returned together and directly surrounded the entire palace.

The people in the palace were already worried because the King of Changshan was summoned. They had finally waited for him to return safely, but then there was another scene like this. They were naturally more panicked, thinking that the emperor was going to kill people and the whole palace would suffer.

Some people simply hid in the palace and did not dare to go out to greet the King of Changshan. Some even planned to jump over the wall to escape, but were caught by the imperial guards outside. The whole palace was in a panic for a while.

Seeing the panic of the people in the palace, Gao Yan was also very angry for a while. He tied up several slaves who had jumped over the wall and escaped and were caught and hung them in the front hall. He personally went forward with a whip and whipped them in front of the people in the palace. He whipped these people until they were covered in blood and even had no strength to scream. Gao Yan stopped.

The people in the palace gathered in the front hall. After seeing this scene, they were all frightened and silent, and dared not breathe. However, Gao Yan was still furious, pointing at the punished servants and shouting, "These unrighteous thieves are only a nuisance in this world. Drive them out of the mansion and do not allow anyone to treat them!"

After all this venting, the pent-up anger in Gao Yan's heart was relieved a little, and he immediately waved his hands to disperse the male and female servants present, leaving only Wang Xi and several other confidants to enter the central hall to discuss matters.

After entering the main hall, Gao Yan first ordered people to guard the doors and windows outside to prevent other people from approaching. After sitting down with all his confidants, he began to tell the story of his trip to Liaoyang to meet the Holy Spirit, and then he sighed again. : "In this meeting with the Holy One, the Supreme Being talked a lot about the future affairs. It seems that there is indeed a stubborn disease in the body that cannot be cured and he feels that destiny is not waiting for him. He even ordered me to kill all the Yuan Dynasties, and said that if the matter can be properly handled, I will To continue.”

The confidants of King Changshan who were present all had different reactions after hearing this. Some people couldn't help but secretly gasped. They didn't expect that the emperor was so cruel that he wanted to kill all the members of the Yuan clan.

Some people were happy, because as long as King Changshan could inherit the throne and ascend to the throne, then the old people like them would naturally rise to heaven and their status would rise.

"Since your Majesty has given this order, your Majesty should also obey it. The loss of the Wei family is due to heaven abandoning its sect, and it is not forced by human power. But if you want to achieve great things, you need to make sacrifices. There are many things going on in our country these days, and we must look up to them. Yu Changjun, your Majesty is doing this out of obedience to nature and not out of personal hatred."

Someone directly advised him that sacrificing the Yuan family, a has-been royal family, in exchange for a chance to inherit the throne was a deal no matter how he looked at it. They may be under a certain amount of moral pressure, but the Yuan family's current fate is also due to their own inability to protect the country.

After hearing this, several other members of the palace also nodded in agreement, thinking that such a sacrifice was worth it. Of course, some people thought that the princess was also from the Yuan family, and after taking this into account, they advised: "Although your Majesty has punished all the Yuan clan, since he has entrusted the matter to the king, he naturally acquiesces that the king can act according to expediency. , you can take appropriate care of your relatives and friends.”

After Gao Yan heard this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. He didn't feel that the emperor gave him any room for expediency. Instead, it seemed more like he was specifically trying to make things difficult for him. It is estimated that the emperor probably wanted to use this to test his execution of his orders, and then consider whether to pass the throne to himself.

However, while everyone was still discussing and expressing their opinions, Wang Xi, who had an elegant and slow personality, said: "You must not kill the Yuan Dynasties. If you kill them, the king will have no way forward!"

Gao Yan has always paid more attention to Wang Xi's opinions. When he heard his voice, and his words were shocking, his face suddenly changed, and he quickly said: "Why did you say this, sir? What does it mean if you kill Zhu Yuan, I Is this the end of the road? Your Majesty has given your permission, will there be any changes? "

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, is there an edict from the Supreme Being? Not only is Your Majesty the successor, but is there also a written order to kill all the Yuan Dynasties?"

Wang Xi did not answer Gao Yan directly, but looked at him and asked again.

Gao Yan's face changed slightly after hearing this, and he said in a deep voice: "Although there is no written order, the Supreme Lord said this orally. Besides, I was not the only one who heard this at that time..."

Wang Xi also did not directly answer Gao Yan's doubts, and continued: "There are many things going on in the family and the country, so we need to look up to the eldest king, coordinate internally, and resist externally. The king has been predetermined to be the heir due to his bloodline and popularity. If the supreme king is really unlucky, , should be the natural choice to defend the country and respond to the situation. If the princes are innocent, they will be killed rashly, which will definitely damage the reputation of the king and cut off the hope of the people.

If the Supreme Being really has the intention to pass on the throne, he should be praised and supported by the King at this time, in the hope that he will be welcomed by the public, so that the King can successfully succeed to the throne and control the inside and outside. How could it be that when he is about to pass on the throne to the king, he should force the king to be involved in this right and wrong? Therefore, the official asserted that if the king really acted as ordered, it would be difficult for him to do as he wished, and instead he would not cause any disputes! "

"This, this... If the Supreme Being really has the intention to harm me, why go to such trouble? I am just an idler now, how can I still refuse the emperor's order?"

After Gao Yan heard Wang Xi's reminder, his face became even more bleak, and he said half suspiciously and half helplessly: "But now that the emperor's order has been issued, even if, even if I don't, I don't want to follow it, I'm afraid I can't. The result is the same... Sir, can you teach me anything about this?"