Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 241 My Rebellious Sons

"What? Ashina She'er deserted the battlefield?"

In Luoyang, in the study of Prince Wei's mansion, Li Tai's surprised cry was heard.

No matter how fierce the battle on the front line was, he remained unmoved.

It's not just him.

The eight princes who had led their armies to the capital to present their views on the pros and cons, after meeting in Luoyang, all returned to their respective homes, entrusted the command of the army to their generals, and stayed in the rear area themselves.

The eight armies under their command were nominally led by the most powerful general under the King of Wei, Ashina She'er. As for why the King of Wei was so fond of the Turks, don't ask. The answer is that the rootless Hu people were easy to control.

Of course, in reality these troops still fight on their own, and they tacitly do not subordinate to each other, do not inform each other, do not support each other, and do not cooperate with each other.

The result was again that "the army was not united, and moved in a hesitant and scattered manner."

With absolutely superior military forces, it took more than half a month to capture Hangu Pass, which was about to become a "material cultural heritage".

He vividly performed for His Royal Highness the King of Wei a scene of "The Thirteen Princes Fighting against Mr. Dong".

Then, when Li Tai was at home, he wrote a magnificent article "It is better to use the remaining courage to pursue the enemy" and was preparing to send it to the front line to inspire the soldiers.

It was a bolt from the blue.

The leader of the coalition forces and his top general, Ashina She'er, deserted the army and fled.

"How could he be so irresponsible! He should be beheaded for deserting the battlefield!"

Li Tai was so angry that he was shaking all over, feeling that all his good intentions had been in vain.

The soldiers on the front line were just sacrificing their lives and blood, but he wrote an article specifically for them!

"Your Highness, General Ashina did not flee from the battlefield. He said farewell to his soldiers after successfully conquering Hangu Pass."

The general who brought the bad news to Li Tai was Ashina She'er's Turkic fellow villager, Zhishisili.

Seeing Li Tai angrily calling She'er a deserter, he couldn't help but defend his old partner.

Zhishisili surrendered to the Tang Dynasty together with Jie Li Khan. He was originally the chief of the Zhishi tribe of the Eastern Turks and the old leader of the talented businessman Zhishi Buzhen. His family background was very prominent among the Turks.

But his background was still somewhat inferior to that of Ashina She'er.

Ashina, this surname is not ordinary. It means someone is one of the best among the Turkic tribe and will become the Great Khan in the future.

"How come you, a Hu general, are just like the Confucian scholar that Dao Zhi mentioned, only able to talk nonsense?"

Li Tai glared at Zhishisi Li:
"Before we recover Chang'an and severely punish Li the rebel, the whole world is a battlefield. If he leaves the army without permission, what else can he do but desert the battlefield?"

Although Zhishi Sili's Chinese was okay, being tested on Zhuangzi was a bit beyond the syllabus. He only half understood what was said and naturally ignored the prince's rebuke and remained silent.

There's no need to dwell too much on these small words with the big boss, there's no need... He reminded himself repeatedly in his heart.

"He actually had the nerve to say goodbye to his men... Who did that cowardly deserter think he was, a hero? I trusted him so much..." Li Tai felt very hurt and his whole body was shaking with anger.

Zhishi Sili couldn't help it anymore.

You can call a Turk a loser or a barbaric one.

But never call him a coward.

"General Ashina is not a coward, on the contrary, he is a true warrior!"

Zhishishili defended his old partner in a muffled voice:
"He left the army this time to go north to rescue His Majesty!"

"What? He's the only one going north to save our father?"

Li Tai questioned subconsciously.

In his mind, the "emperor" was just a righteous man who held high the banner of rebellion.

Could it be that among the elites who have climbed to high positions, there really is a fool who is willing to sacrifice himself to save the emperor?
You, a Turk, actually acted out the story of Yu Rang and Zhi Bo, "A gentleman will die for his friend", right?
"Yes, General Ashina went north alone." Zhishisili continued:

"Before he left, he also said that we are all citizens of the Tang Dynasty and your Majesty's flesh and blood, so why should we attack each other? Shouldn't we work together to fight against Xueyantuo in the north and bring back your Majesty and the Crown Prince?"

Through Ashina She'er's mouth, Zhishisili finally spoke out what had been in his heart for more than half a month, and immediately felt refreshed.

The political spectrum of the Turks who were dependent on the Tang Dynasty was close to a spindle shape.

Some are extremely rebellious, such as Ashina Jieshelu and his ilk; others are extremely cunning, such as Ashina She'er and Zhishishili.

Not to mention Qibi Heli who accompanied Li Shimin in the mountains in Shuobei.

Both sides are extreme, and centrists like Zhishi Buzhen are a minority.

Like Ashina She'er, Zhishisili also knew that the princes were using the banner of "welcoming back the emperor" to play the old trick of fighting for power.

There is nothing new under the sun. Apart from waving a big banner, the behavior of the Li Tang royal family was not fundamentally different from the behavior of the various sons of the Turkic Khan after his death.

This made the two great generals of the Tang Dynasty, who had been somewhat influenced by the Zhou rituals but had not yet learned "Sima Yi's oath by the Luo River," feel a little uncomfortable.

It’s just that Ashina She’er is stubborn enough. If he sees that the war situation doesn’t conform to his own values, he will just run away.

Zhishi's thinking ability is more moderate. Even though he knows that the road ahead is shit, he has to bite the bullet and lead the team forward.

"Humph, running away is running away. He is just making excuses for his cowardly behavior."

Li Tai was very experienced in "using Your Majesty's tiger skin", so he would naturally judge others by himself.

"You said he had said goodbye to the soldiers. Didn't you arrest him on the spot?"

"No!" Zhishisili's throat made a clattering sound.

Why are you shouting so loudly... Li Tai paused and decided to be rational and not get into a fight with his new coach over a deserter.

Moreover, several days had passed since the news reached Luoyang from the front line, and it was unknown where Ashina She'er had fled on his own, so it would be impossible to capture him.

Just leave it at that.

Li Tai brought the topic back to the point:
"When will our army continue to advance westward to Tongguan with its remaining might and wipe out the remnants of Li Nizhi's bandits?"

Zhishishili opened his mouth, looking as if he didn't know what to say.

Your Highness, you wouldn't think that Tongguan and Hanguguan are both the eastern gates, and if you can pass one you can just copy the same to pass the other one, right?

This is just the beginning. Tongguan is the best pass in the world today. It is much more difficult to conquer than the material cultural heritage now...

"I think that Li Zhi's army voluntarily gave up Hangu Pass in order to lure our army into the Zhongnan Mountains (Qinling Mountains) along the Xiaohan Ancient Road."

Zhishisi expressed his concerns:

"Tongguan is a dangerous place, while the ancient Xiaohan Road is narrow. If Li Zhi's army leaves an ambush in the mountains to cut off our retreat, our army will be at a loss and suffer huge losses."

"I don't want casualty figures, I just want Tongguan."

Li Tai ordered forcefully.

This was due to the fact that the fourth brother regarded human life as worthless, as well as the fact that he was forced by the strategic situation.

As mentioned before, Li Zhi holds two powerful weapons, "the capital" and "the imperial court". In time, he will be able to mobilize much more resources than Li Tai.

Li Tai's only chance of winning was to take advantage of the numerical advantage of his troops in the early stage and Li Zhi's unstable foothold, and seize the opportunity to make a rush.

If you are reckless, everything will be fine; if you are not reckless, everything will be fine.

Now he's halfway through shitting and has no way to retreat.

No matter what the cost, we must capture Tongguan and march to Chang'an!

And the Tang army under Zhishisili was that "price".

"This……"

Zhishisili was shocked by his leader's cold-bloodedness.

Li Tai slowly stood up, walked to the side of the chief of the Zhishi tribe with his big fat belly, patted his shoulder, smiled and said:
"Khan, you don't want the Zhishi tribe to lose this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn things around, right?"

"..."

Zhi Shibuzhen's expression was slightly distorted because of his confusion.

After a long moment, he bowed silently, turned around and left.

As the head of the tribe, his people are his weak spot, and he really can't be as carefree as Ashina She'er...

"Going alone to save 'that man'? Ha, I don't believe that."

Li Tai stood alone by the window, looking up at the sky.

The sky was as dark as ink, with sporadic snowflakes falling.

Snowing.

"At this time, I went to Shuobei alone...

"Oh, impossible."

Li Tai murmured again.

…………

The Luan River Valley is covered with snow.

This place is the intersection of Yinshan Mountain, Daxianbei Mountain (Daxinganling Mountain) and the remnant of Yanshan Mountain. It is also the meeting place of farming, nomadic and fishing and hunting civilizations.

But at this moment, in the cold winter, there is nothing here, only the vast snow-capped mountains and the frozen Luan River.

A moving black dot appeared on the white snow.

It was a fox, with its head tilted, listening to the movement in the snow.

Its ears moved, it located the vole hiding under the snow, and it leaped forward to pounce on it.

When it's in mid-air.

Whoosh!
With a sound of breaking through the air, a sharp arrow accurately hit the fox's heart and firmly stuck it into the ground.

The fox died after barely a few flutters of its feet.

"Your Majesty, you have great archery skills!"

Qibi Heli excitedly ran towards the fox's corpse and personally recovered the prey for the emperor who was traveling with him.

"Not bad, about 70% of the strength of the past."

Li Shimin smoothed the corners of his mouth and put away his bow as if nothing had happened.

He had an untidy beard, a dusty face, and wore a simple but thick fox fur coat, which did not show the majesty of a king. In addition, the divine horse under his crotch was replaced with a dwarf pony that was more adapted to the harsh climate.

He seemed to have become a local Khitan native.

Except the hair.

Even though he had to endure the itch in his felt hat, he still insisted on keeping his hair. This was his last act of stubbornness.

Starting from Shuobei and heading east along the Yinshan Valley, Li Shimin and his entourage walked for more than half a month.

For more than half a month, they had to fight against the severe cold all the way while carefully avoiding the pursuing Xueyantuo army.

Finally, we arrived at the Luan River Valley without any danger.

The geographical dividing line between the Northeast region and the desert region.

Further ahead was the dense primeval forest of Greater Khingan Range, where the Tiele people's nomadic cavalry had no place to use their skills.

Safe!
Next, either go east across the Great Xianbei Mountains - also known as the Greater Khingan Range - and enter Goguryeo on the Songliao Plain, or go south along the Great Xianbei Mountains and enter the Yanshan Mountains.

They are all our own sphere of influence.

They are all Li Ming’s sphere of influence!
I was wondering why that guy picked this scrap of Liaodong in the first place, I didn't expect it would have such a miraculous effect at this critical moment... Li Shimin smiled bitterly in his heart.

It was just a casual move, but I didn't expect it could save lives!
"Father." Li Chengqian rode his horse to Li Shimin.

After this period of hard training, the sissy prince finally became...

In fact, he hasn't changed at all. In fact, due to the lack of sunlight in the north, his skin has become whiter and more feminine.

This made Li Shimin feel as tired as if he had given birth to a daughter, and he had to be wary of Qibi Heli's followers at all times.

Qibi Heli himself is certainly trustworthy, and his respect for Li Shimin and his son has not diminished in the slightest over all this time.

But it is hard to say about his followers.

"We will be safe after crossing the Great Xianbei Mountain. We can finally return to the Tang Dynasty."

Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he had some conflicts with his younger brother Li Ming, compared with the Tiele people who howled like wolves, his insidious and cunning fourteenth brother became kind and lovable.

Yes, it’s safe, in every sense... Li Shimin looked at his son (?) with complicated eyes.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

Qibi Heli, who was going to pick up prey, suddenly shouted.

Li Chengqian immediately became alert, while Li Shimin bent his bow and drew his arrow:

"Enemy attack? Tiele or Shiwei?!"

"No, there are dead people!" Qibi Heli answered loudly.

Tch, what’s a dead person… The father and son looked at each other helplessly.

"It's a Turk wearing Tang armor... Hey, hey, hey! The dead man is alive again!"

Qibi Heli's shouting gradually became distorted.

Old Li and Big Li, father and son, also realized that something was wrong and immediately rode their horses over.

The corpse of a Turk wearing Tang armor suddenly came back to life. This doesn't seem right at all.

…………

"Thank you..."

The Turkic warrior who was pulled out of the snowdrift was warming himself by the fire. His teeth were chattering from the cold, and he thanked his fellow villagers who had saved him in trembling Turkic.

Unexpectedly, one of them, who looked like a Hu, shouted angrily in Turkic with a strange accent:
"How dare you! Do you know how to speak Mandarin? If you can, don't use bird language in front of the Supreme!"

What's wrong? Aren't you also a Hu people who speaks bird language... the soldier muttered to himself.

But his emotional intelligence was not so low as to argue with his savior, and he smoothly switched to Chinese to thank him:
"Thank you all for your help, I'm grateful."

The authentic Chang'an dialect surprised Qibi Heli, who spoke Chinese with an accent.

The soldier was not idle either. He took advantage of the short moment when the other party was stunned to take a quick look around.

Most of the members of the tribe that rescued him looked like Turks or Tiele people, and there were also a few people with Khitan appearance.

And this tribe is obviously not ordinary.

Because except for a "Khitan" woman, the tribe was composed entirely of men, cattle, sheep, weapons and war horses.

And this "Khitan woman" immediately attracted the attention of the soldiers.

She was so beautiful! She had fair skin and beautiful looks, and it was hard to believe that she could be raised in the rough soil and water of this area.

The soldier was stunned for a moment, then realized that he had lost his composure. He awkwardly turned his gaze away from the woman and looked at the uncle beside her.

The uncle had an ordinary appearance and was dressed in ordinary clothes, wearing a fox fur coat, just like an ordinary Khitan.

But for some reason, the other side always gives the soldiers the illusion that they are sacred and inviolable.

This was not an illusion, because the other people in the tribe clearly respected this foreign uncle very much... one could even say they were in awe of him.

"When we found you, you were buried deep in the snow, barely alive," the old man asked kindly, also in Chinese:

"What did you encounter on the road? I see you are wearing armor. Are you an officer of the Tang army? Why did you appear in this place alone?"

If the frozen man had not been wearing such special clothes, the fleeing tribe would not have bothered to save him.

The uncle's attitude was very gentle, but the soldier lowered his head unconsciously, not daring to look directly at him, with an urge to confess completely.

He resisted the urge and answered vaguely:

"My benefactors, I was looking for someone, but I got lost and wandered deep into the woods. I stumbled and fell into a valley and lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes again, I saw you all."

He took a sip of hot water and asked:
"How many of you are Han people from Chang'an? Why are you here too?"

The "woman" moved her mouth, but the voice that came out was a man's:
"Because I support the Emperor."

At the beginning, the Hu chieftain interrupted:
"Because the court insects said I was against the emperor."

The gentle uncle wiped his face with clean water, took off his thick felt hat, and his temperament suddenly became majestic.

"Because I am the emperor."

…………

"Your Majesty! The Eternal Heaven will not fail you, you are safe and sound!"

The soldier - Ashina She'er, who had escaped from Li Tai's army and went north alone to find the emperor - knelt on the ground and cried with excitement.

"Did you come all the way from Chang'an to look for me, all by yourself?"

Li Shimin helped this loyal minister up with a distressed look on his face. He felt as if a bottle of seasoning had been overturned in his heart, with mixed feelings.

The good news is that the Tang Dynasty has loyal ministers.

What’s worrying is that there is only one, and he’s a foreigner.

What about the other civil and military officials? What about his dozen sons?
"Your Majesty, I came from Hangu Pass." Ashina She'er reported truthfully.

"Hmm? Hangu Pass?"

Hearing this unexpected place name, Li Shimin was stunned for a moment:
"What are you doing there?"

The six states in Shandong are joining forces to attack Qin again?
"The armies of the eight princes fought a battle at Hangu Pass. The coalition of princes led by Li Tai defeated Li Zhi's imperial army, captured Hangu Pass, and are now heading westwards towards Tongguan..."

"What what what?!"

Not only Li Shimin, but also Li Chengqian, Qibi Heli, and the bystanders nearby were stunned and stood up one by one.

Everyone felt like they had missed a few dozen chapters.

"I...raised an army to the north to fight against Xueyantuo. It was this year, right?" Li Shimin even suspected that he had traveled through time, and held his forehead in confusion.

"Uh... I'm afraid so, Your Majesty."

Ashina She'er then gave a brief account of how the civil war between Li Zhi and Li Tai broke out after Li Shimin disappeared.

"Ha! Awesome!" Li Chengqian shrugged and sneered.

"It's not surprising that the fourth brother has rebellious intentions, but I didn't expect that the seemingly honest ninth brother would also..."

He did not hide his sarcasm, but when he caught a glimpse of Li Shimin's expression, he dared not add fuel to the fire anymore.

Li Shimin's face suddenly turned the color of liver, as if the blood vessels in his brain might burst at any time. His face was filled with shock, sadness, disappointment, and anger...

When he was in trouble, the first thing his sons thought of was not to save him, but to fight for the family property.

Anyone would be outraged.

What's more, these unfilial sons not only fought among themselves, but also dragged the whole world into it, turning it into a mess!

Those who were sent to the battlefield by them were all good family men from the Tang Dynasty!

He died in internal friction in such an unclear way!

What do Li Tai and Li Zhi want to do?
Do you want to dig up the roots of the Tang Dynasty?

How many years will it take for the people to have enough food to eat?
The princes started a civil war for their own selfish interests, causing chaos and public resentment across the country. Aren't they afraid that the people will rise up in rebellion?

What's more, the Xueyantuo and Western Turks in the north are still eyeing us covetously. Have you forgotten?

The false reputation of the Zhenguan Administration, the illusion of loving fathers and filial sons, and friendly brothers and respectful younger brothers, were shattered in Li Shimin's mind.

He suddenly became like an old man on his last legs, swaying helplessly in the cold northeast wind.

Everyone knelt on the ground, not daring to speak.

After a long while, Li Shimin slowly spoke:
"Where's Li Ming? What is he doing?"

Li Chengqian immediately took over the conversation and asked Ashina She'er:

“Yes, the current regent is Shisilang, and the government affairs should be in his hands.

"Why didn't he stop the civil war and the Rebellion of the Eight Princes?"

"His Highness the Regent..." Ashina She'er also began to tremble all over, his tone was sad:
"His Highness the Regent was killed by the rebellious kings and his country is doomed to fail!"

(End of this chapter)