Above the main hall, Zhao Ziliang was sitting on the throne.
His Majesty Dan was flanked by ministers of civil and military affairs.
Even Irina was invited over.
Zhao Ziliang had a chair prepared for her to sit at the bottom.
An eunuch came in with a whisk in his arm and reported: "Your Majesty, all the generals are already waiting outside the palace."
Zhao Ziliang raised his hand and said: "Xuan" Upon hearing this, the eunuch immediately turned around and said loudly: "Your Majesty has a decree to announce the generals' presence."
Er Zhumou, Guo Xin, Xue Ping, Zhao Shuo, Li Su, Wang Gan and other generals walked into the hall from the outside one after another, stood in a row in the hall, bowed to Zhao Ziliang, and said: "Your Majesty, I have been ordered to greet you.
The army of the Eastern Roman Empire has been invaded.
Now that the war is over, I have come back to report to Your Majesty.
This is the head of Nicephorus, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and it is presented to Your Majesty."
Zhao Ziliang raised his hand: "Open" Wang dared to open the wooden box in his hand, revealing a human head with curly hair, pale complexion, and smeared with lime.
Irina raised her eyes for a moment, then closed her eyes again.
Zhao Ziliang sighed: "After all, he was a generation of emperors, and it is so sad that he ended up like this.
Since it is already like this, let it play some more roles.
Send an order to process this head, remove the flesh and blood, and leave only Lower the skull and find a skilled master to inlay it with gold, silver and gems and make it into a wine vessel."
The eunuch agreed: "I will obey the order."
Irina glanced at the head again, stood up and said to Zhao Ziliang: "Your Majesty, if there is nothing else, I want to go back first."
Zhao Ziliang looked at Irina, nodded and said: "That's fine, women will inevitably feel uncomfortable when seeing dead people, so you should go back first."
Irina bowed, turned and left the hall.
After watching Irina leave, Zhao Ziliang said to Zhu and others: "Please be patient."
"Thank you, Your Majesty" After Er Zhu and others retreated to the side, Zhao Ziliang continued: "This time the Eastern Roman Empire sent troops to attack our Western Qin Dynasty and was completely wiped out by the generals.
We can use this as an excuse to send troops to attack the Eastern Roman Empire.
Sirs What do you think?”
Immediately, a minister stood up and said: "It is disrespectful to come and not return.
Even what your Majesty said is that we, Western Qin, cannot allow our neighboring countries to invade and must fight back."
"I second the proposal" "I also second the proposal."
For a time, all the ministers agreed, and all the civil and military ministers had a rare unanimous opinion.
Zhao Ziliang nodded and asked: "Who can tell me how long it takes to prepare for sending troops?"
Li Muchen stood up and said, "Your Majesty, it depends on which legions are dispatched to participate in the war.
The transfer of ordnance, food, grass and other military supplies will not take too much time.
The first batch of logistics supplies can arrive at the border within a month at most.
Line.
Now our military officers are stationed in various places at different distances, and the time it takes to get to the scheduled location to assemble will definitely vary.
If troops are mobilized from the east, it may take two or three months."
Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and said: "This time we have made more preparations.
We spent half a year preparing.
We mobilized 100,000 and 50,000 troops from the Tang Dynasty and North Korea respectively to assist in the battle.
We also mobilized the First Army, the Slave Army, and the Tubo Army.
The Army Corps, the Mobei Army Corps, and the Tianzhu Army Corps are the main forces dispatched this time, with a total of 350,000 people."
"However, there is no emperor in the Eastern Roman Empire now.
If the news reaches Constantinople, there will definitely be chaos within the Eastern Roman Empire.
Powerful figures from all parties are likely to be caught in the vortex of fighting for the throne of the emperor.
This opportunity is for For us, it is a rare thing.
Therefore, after the Eastern legions arrive, the nearby standing army must immediately send troops to attack.
Taking advantage of the internal chaos, insufficient garrison strength, chaotic command and other weaknesses of the Eastern Roman Empire, we must strive to attack as much as possible.
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Where is Wei Gao as he advances westward?"
When Wei Gao heard Zhao Ziliang calling him, he immediately left his shift and walked to the middle of the hall, clasping his fists and saying, "I'm here."
Zhao Ziliang ordered: "I order you to be the vanguard general, command the first legion and the slave legion to take the lead in attacking the Eastern Roman Empire and open the way for the main army of the Western Qin Dynasty.
Gao Chongwen and Ge Shu Jingye will be your deputy.
The three of you must unite sincerely and The overall situation is the most important thing, don’t engage in disputes of will, do you understand?”
Gao Chongwen and Ge Shu Jingye immediately stood up and saluted Wei Gao with clasped fists and said: "I obey the order."
The army cannot go out immediately.
Even if the First Army Corps and the Slave Army Corps, which are the vanguard, are stationed on the border of Armenia and Syria, it will take time to mobilize the troops and they will have to wait for the arrival of advance food and military supplies before they can break camp and set off.
At this time, Leo and his three hundred men disguised themselves as merchants and hired several merchant ships to go to sea in Balut.
They escaped from the patrol ships of the Western Qin naval fleet in the Mediterranean, and there were no surprises along the way.
He landed dangerously on the southern coastline of the Asia Minor Peninsula and returned to his defense area, the Anatonian Military District, as quickly as possible.
In the Anatolia Military Region, Leo still had fifteen thousand soldiers and horses.
It was absolutely impossible for a military region to have so many soldiers and horses in normal times.
He also took advantage of an opportunity to expand the army to secretly recruit and train so many soldiers. horse.
Leo, who returned to the Anatonian Military District, did not make any stops or delays, and immediately gathered his army and marched towards Constantinople.
He knew that Nicephorus, Michael and the tens of thousands of infantrymen would definitely be finished without asking for information.
It was impossible for Western Qin to let them back, so he had the courage to directly gather an army and march towards Constantinople.
He wanted to seize power and become emperor.
During this period, he had never felt closer to the highest power than he does now.
The throne is so close.
At that time, Nicephorus sent troops to attack Alexander Taller.
It was a top-secret military operation.
Most of the Eastern Roman ministers did not know about it.
Only a few close ministers knew about this operation.
After the Eastern Roman army landed, they fought with Constantine.
Constantinople cut off contact with Nicephorus.
As a result, Constantinople did not receive any news from Nicephorus for more than a month.
Several confidants The ministers acted as a cover, and the subjects only thought that Nicephorus had been inspecting military and political affairs in various parts of eastern Asia Minor during this period.
Therefore, after the Western Qin blocked the news, the news of Nicephorus's death in battle and the annihilation of the Eastern Roman army did not come for quite some time.
It did not reach the Eastern Roman Empire within a short period of time, and the news was naturally not received in Constantinople, which was farther away.
Leo's army soon arrived in Constantinople, which shocked the civil and military ministers and royal family members of Constantinople.
They stood on the top of the city and couldn't bear to watch Leo's army coming at them.
I just wonder, what does it mean for Leo to bring troops here at this time?
Chief Minister Gritsis pointed at Leo at the city and shouted loudly: "Leo, you are not fighting with His Majesty in Syria, why did you suddenly appear in Constantinople with your troops?"
Leo rode out, raised his head and said loudly: "His Majesty the Emperor heard that someone was rebelling in Constantinople and wanted to depose him as emperor and become emperor himself.
Therefore, he ordered me to lead the army to quell the rebellion.
Why don't you hurry up and open the city?"
Let my army enter the city.
Could it be that Sir Gritches is the one who launched the rebellion?"
"You" Gelicis pointed at Leo and said angrily, "Of course I didn't launch a rebellion.
Although there was some chaos after His Majesty the Emperor left, it was suppressed by us.
No one here launched a rebellion." rebellion" Leo said loudly: "Based on your words, how can I believe you?
I came with the troops under the order of His Majesty the Emperor.
Unless you open the city gate and let my army enter the city, it will be difficult to absolve you of the crime of rebellion."
The ministers on the city wall all shouted, and one person advised: "Lord Gritsis, you see that Leo's army is coming with great momentum.
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Who knows whether he said that His Majesty the Emperor asked him to come to quell the rebellion is true.
I doubt it."
Is it his trick?
What if he leads his troops in after the city gate is opened?
Wouldn't all of us be finished?"
Following this man's persuasion, other ministers also began to persuade him.
Gritsis really didn't know what to do for a while.
He thought carefully for a while and shouted: "Open the city gate."
Other ministers exclaimed: "Sir, you can't open it.
Who knows what Leoan's thoughts are?
You must not open it."
Gritsis turned to look at the ministers and said coldly: "Do you all want to be accused of rebellion if you don't open the city gate?"
A minister said: "Sir, of course we don't want to be accused of rebellion, but can you guarantee that Leo's arrival is really the emperor's will?
You know that he should be fighting with the emperor in Syria now, rather than appearing here.
We We haven’t heard from His Majesty the Emperor and the army for a long time.
His sudden appearance here cannot but make us suspicious."
Gritsis thought for a while and felt that the worries of these ministers were not unreasonable.
He stretched out his head and shouted to the people of the city: "General Leo, you said that you came to Constantinople on the order of His Majesty the Emperor.
Betrayal, do you have His Majesty’s will?”
"Huh, I already knew you would be suspicious."
Leo snorted coldly and waved his hand behind him: "Come here, show them His Majesty the Emperor's edict."
A soldier walked towards the city wall holding an edict in both hands.
The ministers on the wall looked at each other, and they all thought to themselves, could it be that Nicephorus's will was not fulfilled?
Gritsis waved behind him: "Come here, put down the hanging basket and pull up the edict."
A soldier put down the hanging basket and quickly pulled the edict to the city wall.
The edict was delivered to Gritsis.
Gritsis opened the edict and read it.
Other ministers also came over.
After reading the edict, a minister said: "The handwriting was not written by His Majesty the Emperor himself, but the seal is His Majesty's private seal, and the paint on the edict is also the Emperor's special paint."
The emperor rarely writes edicts himself.
This is something everyone knows, but it is not impossible.
It is not doubtful that this edict is not the emperor's personal edict.
The seal on the edict is the emperor's private seal, which is normal.
Everything is normal.
No doubt.
Gritsis only hesitated for a moment, then shouted: "Open the city gate":