Chapter 841 Ci Temple
Most of all, I left the temple in panic and cried to the palace maid.
This little poem about Li Houzhu, the future king of the country, exactly expresses Liu Xie's mentality at this time.
But now the object of his tears is not Gong'e, but Niu Fu who just came all the way from Liangzhou.
It's still dark today.
Niu Fu, who had finally arrived at the Xiliu area after running around day and night, was about to find a river to wash up, straighten up his appearance and go to Beijing to face the saint.
Suddenly, from the east road, the sound of crying and fighting was heard. There were some oxcarts on the side of the road, packed with people, heading west.
Niu Fu was shocked. Seeing those fleeing, there were broken soldiers, soldiers and civilians, as well as eunuchs and concubines wearing palace clothes. Everyone was running to the west with all their strength.
Soon, Niu Fu learned about the chaos in Chang'an from these people.
Dong Huang rebelled, His Majesty ran away, and Chang'an was in chaos.
This news shocked Niu Fu, and his first thought was:
"How is the Prime Minister?"
In fact, he already had the answer in his mind, that is, his old father-in-law was probably dead, otherwise Dong Huang, a wolf cub, would not have been able to cause such a big disturbance.
When he was thinking this way, he and several of his confidants began to discuss how to deal with it later.
That is, now that Chang'an is in such chaos, should we continue heading east? If not, should we station troops in Xiliu and wait and see, or should we return to Liangzhou immediately?
Several confidants have their own opinions. Some think that they can take the risk of staying in Xiliu, because Xiliu, as an important military station in Kansai, has permanent fortifications and can get a stay here.
Others think that the current situation is unclear, and the safest thing is to return to Liangzhou immediately and gather all the troops together.
Their view is that no matter whether the final winner is Dong Huang or not, there will definitely be chaos in this level.
But no matter whether they stayed or left, these people never thought about moving forward to Chang'an.
Just kidding, how many are there now? There were a thousand cavalry when we set out, and a few hundred cavalry were scattered on the road. How could we go to Chang'an with just this small force?
Even if you want to die, that's not how you die.
After hearing these people's ideas, Niu Fu hesitated, so he decided to follow the old method.
What's the old way? It's divination.
As the most pious example of a believer in divination by witches and ghosts, Niu Fu always carries two divination tablets with him. He silently recited in his heart:
"There are two positives and two negatives, so we will stay in Xiliu, otherwise we will go back to Liangzhou."
Thinking about it, Niu Fu recited the curse silently in his heart and threw the two divination boards casually.
The two divination boards, which were polished and rounded, rolled on the ground and rolled in circles for several times before they stopped unwillingly.
When Niu Fu and the other generals saw it, they saw that it was a positive and a negative.
Yes, God tells us to go back to Liangzhou, so we have to listen.
Thinking of this, Niu Fu was about to give the order to withdraw the troops, when suddenly he heard the sentry from outside rushing back, with a look of fright and unbearable surprise on his face, saying loudly:
"General, I meet His Majesty ahead!"
As a result, Ushifu's mouth opened like this, and then he burst into laughter.
We, old cow, are indeed lucky.
……
When Zhao Wen, the minister of humerus, fell to death in front of him, Liu Xie was desperate.
But life goes on.
And Zhao Wen's death is not without value. At least it tells Liu Xie that this yellow cloth still needs to be wrapped in a few more layers before it is strong.
At that time, Liangzhou soldiers had already entered the palace. Although Liu Xie didn't know what would happen to the ministers who stayed in the front hall, he still knew that it would be too late if he didn't run away.
After that, several younger ministers gritted their teeth and went down first. It was not until the emperor himself saw that the three ministers had landed safely that he began to get off the platform impatiently.
After landing, the ministers and Yu Linlang hurriedly protected the emperor and ran towards the west gate.
Stationed at the west gate was a small captain with an estimated two to three hundred soldiers. When he saw the emperor and a group of ministers coming on top of the city, he hurried to greet them.
Because this is a great dynasty, all these ministers are wearing court uniforms, which is too eye-catching.
Now there were officials from the city gate to help them. These ministers hurriedly took off their robes and put on the tight clothes and hakama worn by the soldiers.
The emperor himself also dressed up again, replacing his boots with straw sandals, and then asked the captain to prepare the car.
In a hurry, the emperor himself did not forget the female relatives such as Fuhou and Dong Guiren in the Gui Palace in the north, and asked Dong Cheng to lead people to meet them.
Dong Cheng nodded, then took away the four hundred warriors from the west gate and went straight to Gui Palace.
Fu Wan, who was following Liu Xie over there, was still commanding the city gate to prepare the car. Who knew what Dong Cheng's departure would mean to his daughter.
There were only three bullock carts on the Ximen side. Liu Xie took one himself, while other officials crowded into the remaining two carts. Because there were few cars, low-ranking ministers could only chase on both sides of the cars on foot.
In this way, after the team was ready, the emperor led a group of Habayashiro and Ximen warriors straight out of the city.
As soon as the group left the city gate, they met some Wuling young men on the roadside who were returning to Chang'an from outside to support them.
These people are the powerful sons of Wuling on the north bank of the Wei River. Before the chaos in Chang'an, they happened to be hunting outside the city. After seeing the chaos in the city, they hurriedly returned to the city.
The young people in Wuling all recognized the emperor and the ministers, and were shocked when they saw them leading Yu Linlang out of the city in a hurry.
Several of them were the nephews of the ministers here, and they hurriedly ran over when they saw the elders in the family walking on the road.
But the emperor's car did not stop at all, and the ministers in the car only waved to the younger generation but did not speak, so everyone understood that His Majesty was trying to run away.
The young men quickly gave their carriages to the ministers to sit on, and then rode horses on both sides of the team.
Of course, there were some teenagers who did not join the team because they did not see their elders in the team. Instead, they went straight to the city in the opposite direction.
In this way, with the carriages presented by the Wuling youths, all the ministers had carriages to ride in. On the contrary, some young men who could not ride horses could only follow behind the carriages and accompany them on foot.
The team expanded slightly and continued westward. Along the way, they met many people who ran out of the city. After these people caught up with the emperor's carriage, they crowded in front and behind, and hurriedly retreated toward the west.
This is not the first time Liu Xie has fled like this. When a Henan family stabbed him in the back, the late emperor hugged him and fled into Chang'an without stopping.
But no one expected that even after working hard for so long, he would end up like his father, running away in a hurry.
And this time, because he was the emperor, the feeling of bereavement was even deeper.
The convoy rushed along the straight road in a panic, and finally arrived at Xiting. There, everyone ate something hastily, fearing that the Liangzhou soldiers were chasing after them so they did not dare to stay.
The team did not stop all the way and rushed to the Xiliu area in one breath.
And the news that the emperor had escaped spread quickly throughout the city. When the news fell in Gui Palace in the north, it was like the sky had fallen. Because there is no backbone, the concubines, maids, and eunuchs in Gui Palace are all running around like headless flies. Many of these concubines were left over from the period of Emperor Ling, and they were all brought into the palace after Emperor Ling entered Chang'an.
You must know that this Ling Emperor has only been in Chang'an for a few years, and he has already accumulated so many concubines and maids. This is still when the imperial power is not obvious. If it were in its heyday, how many would it be?
No wonder men love to sit in that position.
But whether they were those left by the late emperor or those around Liu Xie, they all came to Empress Fu's side now, counting on the young empress to make her decision.
Queen Fu is not very old, but she is a person who can make decisions, because her family is one of the most famous Confucian schools in the world, and her knowledge ranks among the many illiterate women in the palace.
When all the concubines were crying and crying around him, Queen Fu had already asked the Huangmen in the palace to prepare weapons. The Queen decided to rush out before the rebels reached Gui Palace.
Just like the problem encountered by the emperor, there were not many carriages and horses available in Gui Palace. A large number of people could not get into the carriages and had to follow on foot.
The palace maids are a little better, because they work hard and eat well, so their physical fitness can keep up.
But those concubines were miserable. In order to cater to the aesthetics of this era, these most noble women in the Han Dynasty generally went hungry to maintain a slender figure.
And because they take care of their tender feet, these concubines hardly walk.
But at this moment, the tender feet under their feet were killing them. Not long after chasing the carriage and horse team, their feet were already covered with blood.
These concubines lay exhausted on the ground, crying sadly to the carriages and horses in front, but the team did not stop at all.
Even Empress Fu, who was usually the most kind-hearted, had no choice but to continue walking.
This is a cruel elimination match. What kind of misery will happen to those concubines who are left behind. How could Empress Fu not know it after reading the history books.
The team cried all the way and ran towards the west, and soon they encountered Dong Cheng's soldiers and horses who came to rescue them.
Dong Cheng saw his daughter directly in the crowd, and felt a lot more comfortable when he saw her sitting safely on the bullock cart.
But when his eyes once again glanced at Queen Fu in the middle, he felt fierce in his heart, but he was still held down by him.
Over there, Concubine Dong Gui saw her father coming to take care of her. Concubine Dong, who was already on the verge of collapse, cried directly, and then shouted to her father.
After Dong Cheng quickly responded to Queen Fu and others, he felt even more uncomfortable when he heard that they were able to leave the palace so decisively because of Queen Fu's orders.
Because he had heard the noise of the rebels, Dong Cheng did not dare to stay in the city anymore and hurriedly led his team westward to catch up with the emperor's chariot.
Along the way, Dong Cheng met several more waves of escaped aristocratic officials, and the number reached six to seven hundred.
But that's the part about escaping. A large number of people in the city had fled to Changle Palace before, so they lost their only chance to leave the city.
In fact, the emperor's departure should not have been so hasty.
The late Emperor Liu Hong learned the lesson of his own escape and often kept hundreds of good horses in the palace and temple, just in case something happened, he could jump on the horse and rush out of Chang'an.
However, Liu Xie did not dare to break out of the encirclement on horseback and slipped down from the Fudao side, so the late emperor's back-up tactics could not be used.
And why are there so few carriages and horses in the city? If there are few cars and horses in the West Gate, it is normal, but if there are no cars in Gui Palace, it is rare.
It turned out that the carriages in the palace had long been appropriated by the officials in the city. When the emperor himself wanted to attack Dong Zhuo, these people had already caused the family members to flee south one after another.
The smartest people in the empire also knew that they should not send their families to the west but to the south. Obviously they had their own judgments about the future situation.
But everyone has their own judgment, but they all pretend to be deaf and dumb to the emperor's actions. It's really more of an official than a human being.
Because a large number of people could not escape, the carriages and horses in Chang'an City became increasingly scarce, and finally the idle ones in the palace were used by these people.
But they probably never imagined that these misappropriated carriages and horses would be on their bodies today.
……
On the second day of October in the third year of Taiwu, the last emperor of the Han Dynasty left his city of Chang'an and embarked on the westward journey with hundreds of ministers and Yu Lin.
Of course Liu Xie, who lived in this timeline, had no idea that a great poet in later generations would write such a poem to describe his desperate and embarrassing scene:
"The emperor of the Han Dynasty was covered in dust and rushed westward in a hurry. The nine-layer city tower burned the Tianzhu, and the flying swallows in the Gui Palace chased him to death."
"Thirty miles have passed since the capital gate, but the wind still blows along the road. The king hides his face and calls to heaven and earth, looking back at the remaining smoke with blood and tears flowing."
Three years ago, Liu Xie's father fled from Luoyang to Chang'an in panic, and this time he embarked on the road to escape again, with the same panic, but the difference was that the son's starting point was the father's end.
After escaping from Chang'an, because he met Wuling young man on the road, the team suddenly numbered six to seven hundred people, and the emperor's panic improved a lot.
But when there are more people, eating becomes a problem.
Because the trip was so hasty, the emperor did not bring any of the royal food or traveling tools that he used daily. Even if Major General Wuling hadn't given him the prey he had caught, he would have been hungry by now.
Misfortune never comes alone. The emperor was already in such a miserable state, and he even encountered a thunderstorm at dawn.
You said it would be a rainy day if it hadn't rained for months, or it would rain suddenly.
The heavy rain was so heavy that the awnings on the emperor's chariot were knocked off, and everyone was soaked in the water. They were in such a miserable state.
As soon as the heavy rain stopped, the temperature dropped sharply. Many of the ministers accompanying him fell ill because they couldn't hold on.
But even if they were sick, they would still fall into the car, and they would follow the emperor whether life or death. They knew very well that if they were left behind in this wilderness, they would be dead.
Liu Xie had given up struggling. He did not cruelly abandon the sick ministers, but continued to rush west.
Fortunately, they met a village community on the way, where everyone changed into dry clothes and ate some food donated by the residents.
But the food was too coarse, and these embarrassed ministers were obviously very hungry, but they still couldn't swallow a bite.
The villagers here are very close to Chang'an, so they can see the black smoke burning over Chang'an. Now they see the emperor and ministers arriving here, and they already understand what happened.
They did not rush up to ask the emperor whether he wanted to abandon them, but did their best to buy things.
They rebuilt the canopy of the emperor's broken carriage and hung it with the only yellow cloth in the community, so that he could have the dignity of the emperor.
Liu Xie was very moved and immediately awarded the title of nobility to the three elders of Hulishe.
I don’t know if the title of the Han family will be useful in the future, so just give it if you can.
Also while resting here, Dong Cheng led his team to catch up.
The emperor was very happy, but after looking at all the concubines, only his Queen Fu was missing.
My heart sank.
He hurriedly went to see Dong Cheng, but saw that Dong Cheng was even sadder than him, and he told him what happened on the road in despair.