Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 126 Xue Rengui kills the surrendered

April is the season when plums ripen and turn yellow. The weather is gloomy and rainy, and it is also called the plum rain season.

On the loess road between Shanzhou and Liangzhou, a grain transport team is moving slowly forward.

This grain transport team had just left Chang'an, and most of the people transporting grain were refugees from Hebei.

After staying in a county town near Chang'an for a few days, they registered as citizens and moved to Tingzhou.

The sky is gloomy with low-hanging dark clouds, and it seems that a plum rain will fall at any time.

The grain transport team was guarded by a battalion of 200 men. The leading captain looked up at the sky with a worried look on his face.

The grain-transporting teams fear rainy weather the most. Not only will the journey become more difficult, but the grain will also get wet and easily spoil.

"Hurry up! We'll reach the post station in five miles. We can rest for a while and get out of the rain."

The captain shouted loudly.

The postal system was very developed in the Tang Dynasty. There was a post station every thirty miles west of Chang'an.

The post station has houses, stables, warehouses, and is equipped with carts, cattle, horses, and mules. It can not only transmit intelligence, but also provide a resting place for teams transporting military supplies.

After receiving relief from the imperial court, these refugees had food and clothing along the way, had more hope for life, and worked extra hard to transport food.

The grain was transported by covered wagons. There were many mules and horses in the Tang Dynasty, and each covered wagon had mules and horses pulling it in the front, and people only needed to drive the wagons from the back.

You only need to push it for a while when you encounter an uphill slope or bad road conditions.

Li Moge and his family were also in the grain transport team.

It was an uphill slope at the time, so he put all his strength into pushing the car from behind.

Not only was his wife Cheng helping, but his young son Li Mutang was also pushing the grain cart with all his might.

After walking another three miles, it really started to rain.

Everyone put on straw raincoats and hats and continued on their journey. Finally, they arrived at the next post station before dark.

The food they transported was not only for the soldiers on the front line, but also for their own food.

Everyone rested in a room at the post station and cooked a meal.

There was an old postman in the post station. When he was young, he traveled all over the country and had not only been to Tingzhou, but also to Suiye City.

Everyone would settle down in Tingzhou in the future, so they listened to the old postman talk about the situation in Tingzhou while holding their bowls.

The old postman grinned, revealing a mouthful of broken yellow teeth.

"You are lucky. If you had gone to Tingzhou before, you would have had no peace of mind. If you go now, you might be able to live a good life for a few years."

Someone asked, "Why? Aren't there houses to live in and fields to farm?"

The old postman said, "Hey, there are too many houses and too many fields to till."

"Does that mean the taxes are very high?" someone else asked.

"That's even more unnecessary. After Helu rebelled against the Tang Dynasty, Tingzhou stopped collecting taxes."

"It's probably because Helu plundered Tingzhou." The captain walked in from outside.

The old postman glanced at him and smiled, "You know more. That's right. Ever since Helu rebelled against the Tang, he's plundered Tingzhou every year. Countless people have been taken as slaves by the Turks."

Li Moge frowned and said, "Doesn't Tingzhou have the Anxi Army? Why are we allowing the Turks to plunder?"

The old postman glanced at him and said, "They are just small groups of cavalry, coming and going like the wind, robbing a little at a time. The Anxi army can't do anything about it."

Someone laughed and said, "Fortunately, the imperial court has wiped out Helu. When we go there, we don't have to worry."

The old postman shook his head and said, "That's hard to say. Even if the Turks surrender to the imperial court, they will rebel again in a few years. I don't know how long we can live in peace."

Everyone's faces suddenly turned pale.

Li Moge snorted coldly: "Why don't the imperial army kill all the Turks?"

The old postman said, "Those Turks are very clever. When they realized they couldn't defeat our Tang army, they immediately surrendered. We can't kill the surrendered soldiers, right?"

Just then, the sound of horse hooves was heard outside.

The old postman twitched his ears and frowned, "From the sound of this, it seems like an urgent message has arrived six hundred miles away. Has something happened on the front line again?"

He stood up and left the house, and everyone followed him out to see what was happening.

I saw a postman riding a horse and running towards me, with a flag behind him with the word "Yi" written on it.

The old postman saw the color of the flag and said, "It is indeed an express delivery of six hundred miles."

The postman ran to the door of the post station, where a replacement postman was already waiting with a horse.

The two men handed over the flags and official documents, and the new postman spurred his horse and hurried towards Shanzhou in the rain.

The postman who came running was exhausted and was taken into the house by other postmen and provided with food.

The old postman walked in and asked, "Xiao Liu, what's the big deal? Why is there another urgent message of six hundred miles?"

The postman gulped down a few mouthfuls of water and panted, "I heard it from others. It seems that General Xue Rengui of Yancheng killed the surrendered people!"

……

At dawn, the sky is still dark.

In a room in the corner of the Chengxiang Palace, Wang Fusheng was asleep when he heard a faint sound and suddenly opened his eyes. He was always a light sleeper.

Sure enough, there was a knock on his door.

Wang Fusheng put on his clothes and pushed the door open.

There was a man standing outside the door. He was the eunuch in charge of cleaning and dusting the Ganlu Hall.

"It's not even daybreak yet, why are you disturbing me?" Wang Fusheng asked with a frown.

The eunuch said anxiously, "Master, the Ministry of War has sent an urgent report, saying it must be presented to His Majesty immediately."

As long as there is a war on the front line, officials of the Tang Dynasty's Ministry of War have the power to submit reports at any time, even at night.

Wang Fusheng frowned and asked, "Did the military officials say anything?"

The eunuch said, "I don't know the details, but it seems that General Xue Rengui killed the surrendered soldiers!"

Wang Fusheng's face changed drastically. He took the memorial, straightened his clothes, and carefully entered the bedroom of Chengxiang Hall.

In a daze, Li Zhi heard Wang Fusheng's cry.

“Everyone…Everyone…”

Li Zhi opened his eyes and looked sideways, and sure enough, there was a person standing outside the curtain.

He sat up, rubbed his cheek, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Wang Fusheng whispered, "An urgent report from the Ministry of War." He handed over the memorial.

Li Zhi took it and looked at it, his face changed slightly.

News came from the Ministry of War that half of the 30,000 heads beheaded by Xue Rengui were surrendered soldiers.

This news was brought by Su Dingfang.

Xue Rengui didn't say a word about this matter, so the Ministry of War didn't know about it until now.

While Li Zhi was stunned, Liu Chong'er also sat up and silently helped him put on his clothes.

Li Zhi came to his senses and asked Wang Fusheng, "Is this the only memorial?"

Wang Fusheng said, "For now, we only have this memorial. Perhaps new news will arrive in a while."

Li Zhi said in a deep voice, "Send people to the two provinces and the Ministry of War to guard them. Report back immediately if there is any news about Xue Rengui."

An hour later, just as Li Zhi arrived at Ganlu Palace, the Ministry of War received another memorial from Xue Rengui.

The officials from the Ministry of War didn't even have time to touch it before the eunuch took it to Li Zhi's hands.

After reading it, Li Zhi was silent for a long time and said, "Tell Gao Youdao and the others to collect all the memorials concerning Xue Rengui today and send them to the main hall."

Wang Fusheng agreed and went down.

Li Zhi spent the whole morning reading the national history.

Especially regarding the records of killing surrendered soldiers, there is only one record, which is the killing of Shan Xiongxin.

It was Li Shimin who took action, and it was Li Yuan who conveyed the order.

Li Zhi believed that there must have been more incidents of killing prisoners of war, but they were not recorded.

Emperor Gaozong of Tang had a vague impression of Li Shimin's massacre in Xia County.

Just then, Wang Fusheng came to report that all the memorials for today had been delivered to the main hall of Ganlu Palace.

Li Zhi left the bedroom and came to the main hall.

There is one more pile of memorials classified today, all of which are about Xue Rengui.

Li Zhi picked it up and looked at it carefully, and his brows couldn't help but frown.

All of these memorials were impeaching Xue Rengui, and not a single one of them spoke up for him.

Especially the military generals, they all chose to wait and see, and no one submitted a report.

Li Zhi sighed, this is normal.

The Tang Dynasty advocated martial arts, but did not encourage killing surrendered soldiers.

The Tang Dynasty implemented a policy of control over foreign ethnic groups. It would first fight a war against them, then appease them, confer official titles on them, establish control over them, and make them part of the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

If the killing of surrendered soldiers is not severely punished, other generals will follow suit.

By then, even if the Tang army wins on the front line, the enemy will resist to the end and will not surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

The battle will continue and become a burden to the Tang Dynasty.

However, there were reasons why Xue Rengui killed the surrendered soldiers, and since he had made great contributions and was promoted by Li Zhi, Li Zhi did not want to punish him.

In the current situation, even if the reasons why Xue Rengui killed the surrendered soldiers were made public, the officials might not accept it. Some arrangements had to be made.

While Li Zhi was pondering, a eunuch came to report, saying, "Master, Gao Youdao wants to see you."

"Summon him to the throne."

(End of this chapter)