Chapter 371 Li Yu is captured
Poyang City.

Li Lu, Feng Jikang and Yuan Jingyao led a large army to the city of Poyang, but the Sima of Poyang City refused to let Li Lu open the gate.

Li Lu was furious and yelled at the foot of the city.

However, no matter how Li Lu scolded, Poyang Sima refused to open the city gate.

Li Yu was furious, so he burned the gate of Poyang City, allowed his soldiers to plunder the area around Poyang City, and then fled south.

Li Kui had just left when Lai Zhen, who led his troops to encircle Li Kui, arrived in Poyang.

However, the reason why Lai Zhen did not have time to outflank Li Kui was not because Lai Zhen's marching speed was slow, but because Li Kui ran too fast. No one expected that the person who controlled Jiangling could fight a battle like this.

Lai Zhen joined forces with Jiangxi envoy Huangfu Quan and changed the attack from encirclement to pursuit.

After chasing all the way to Dayuling Mountain, Lai Zhen and Huangfu Quan finally caught up with Li Lu.

Li Lu ordered Yuan Jingyao to form a battle array to cover the rear while he continued to flee.

Yuan Jingyao ordered his soldiers to form a circular formation to block Lai Zhen, but the soldiers he led had not seen a battle for a long time. They had fought a previous battle with Wei Zhi and suffered a great defeat. They were neither elite nor had morale.

Lai Zhen brought with him elite troops, including powerful generals such as Lu Jiong, Zhang Xun, and Nan Jiyun.

Therefore, the rebels were defeated after two rounds of attacks by Lai Zhen, and Nan Jiyun took the lead and killed Yuan Jingyao in the battle.

Not long after Li Lu fled, he saw the defeated soldiers following him. Li Lu knew that it would be difficult to escape if he continued to flee along the official road, so he said goodbye to his wife and children, left them in the carriage and continued to run along the official road, while he and his trusted guards fled into the mountains and forests of Dayuling.

Not long after, Lai Zhen and Huangfu Quan caught up with Li Lu's wife and children and arrested them all, but Li Lu was nowhere to be found.

Lai Zhen asked Li Yu's wife Dugu, "Where is Prince Ying?"

Dugu was so frightened that she trembled and shook her head quickly.

"King Ying told you to attract attention and run away separately." Lai Zhen looked around and said sternly, "Where else can he go except to the mountains? Tell me, did he go to the mountains?"

Dugu was shocked and said, "You... you dare to be rude to the princess?"

Lai Zhen said: "You are now rebels, even if I kill you, it is still within the law!"

After Lai Zhen finished speaking, he pointed his spear at Gu Du and pretended to kill her.

Dugu was completely scared, and pointed at Dayu Ridge behind him, saying, "Prince Ying fled inside."

Lai Chen glared at Gu Du.

Dugu continued, "What does their struggle for power have to do with a woman like me? Does the general really want to kill me?"

"As the queen of Prince Ying, how can you have nothing to do with Prince Ying's rebellion?" Lai Zhen refuted and asked someone to look after Dugu while he personally led people to Dayuling to search for Li Lu.

Li Yu was running in the forest of Dayuling Mountain, looking very miserable. Not long after, he heard the voices of Laizhen’s soldiers, shouting everywhere: “Capture the King of Ying alive! Capture the King of Ying alive!”

Li Lu was so frightened and desperate that he simply stopped.

At this moment, he thought of Li Ying, Li Yao and Li Ju.

He personally sent his three brothers on their way, and he thought he would not repeat their mistakes. However, not only did he follow their old path, he went even further and lived like a joke.

Li Lu sighed deeply, took off his belt, hung it on a tree branch, and prepared to commit suicide.

However, he hesitated for a long time looking at the belt, but ultimately could not make the final decision.

He dared not die.

Li Yu completely realized what kind of person he was and could not help but squat down and cry. The guards who followed him watched silently, at a loss as to what to do.

After a while, Huangfu Qun heard the noise coming from this side, and led his men to chase over and surrounded Li Lu.

The guards around Li Lu smoothly chose to lay down their weapons and surrender.

Huangfu Qun looked at the belt on the branch and said to Li Lu: "If Prince Ying chooses to commit suicide, he can still maintain the last bit of dignity. If he is afraid of death, he will only be laughed at by the world!"

Huangfu Quan wanted to incite Li Lu to commit suicide.

However, Li Lu's desire to live had already been aroused, and he did not want to die easily, so he said: "General Huangfu, what do you mean by this? I led my troops eastward to help Jianghuai and Jiangnan to quell the rebellion, but Gao Shi, Lai Zhen and others misunderstood me and attacked me, so I had no choice but to fight back."

Huangfu Qun was furious when he heard this and said, "You led the troops eastward without authorization and attacked Wujun and Guangling. There is solid evidence of your conspiracy. When you arrived in Poyang, you allowed your troops to plunder. Just now, you abandoned your wife and children. How dare you be so disloyal, unfilial, unkind and unjust? Are you going to force me to do it myself?"

Li Yu was terrified and replied, "I am your majesty's elder brother. No matter what I have done, you should hand me over to your majesty for punishment. How dare you execute me privately?"

"Why not?" Huangfu Quan walked towards Li Lu with a knife in hand, ready to kill him.

At the critical moment, Lai Chen's voice came: "General Huangfu, stop!"

When Huangfu Chen saw Lai Zhen, he put away his knife, pulled Lai Zhen aside, and said, "General Jie, shouldn't the King of Ying be killed?"

Lai Zhen said: "We shouldn't kill him."

Huangfu Qun said: "As ministers, we should think about what Your Majesty thinks and worry about what Your Majesty worries about. If we kill Prince Ying, Your Majesty will be spared from trouble."

Huangfu Quan meant that sending Li Lu to the capital would make things difficult for Li Heng.

Lai Zhen said: "If you kill the King of Ying now, people in the world will also speculate that it was His Majesty's order. If His Majesty wants to prove that it was not his order, he will have to punish you and me. When the time comes, how do you want His Majesty to punish you and me?"

"This, this..." Huangfu Qun stammered and was unable to speak.

Lai Zhen said, "Your Majesty is kindhearted. When Li Heng and Li Lin rebelled, he only imprisoned them. If you kill Prince Ying, does it prove that Your Majesty was wrong to imprison Li Heng and Li Lin?"

Huangfu Qun was horrified.

Lai Zhen continued, "Your Majesty is different from other monarchs. He doesn't like others to make decisions for him, nor does he like his subjects to guess his thoughts. He likes subjects who are upright and honest."

Huangfu Chen suddenly realized what was going on and said, "Thank you for your guidance, Marshal Jie."

Lai Zhen patted Huangfu Qian's shoulder to comfort him and said, "Capture Prince Ying and send him to Chang'an."

"Yes." Huangfu Qun took the order and left.

As soon as Huangfu Qian left, Lu Jing, who had followed him, came up to Lai Zhen and said, "General Jie, the Prince of Ying was defeated too quickly this time, and we didn't make any contribution."

Lai Zhen said: "Isn't this a good thing? A good warrior does not have to have great achievements. The smaller the achievements, the less damage to the Tang Dynasty."

Lu Jing said: "But if we do this, our reward will be smaller. Why don't we take this opportunity to enter Jiangling and wipe out the remnants of King Ying, and then plunder Jiangling. Jiangling is a rich place."

Lu Jing's intention was to plunder Jiangling under the pretext of wiping out the remnants of Prince Ying.

Historically, after the Anshi Rebellion broke out, not only did the rebels plunder the civilians, but the government troops also plundered. Luoyang, Bianzhou and other places were looted by the rebels, government troops, and Uighurs in turn.

Lu Jiong was a great defender of Nanyang in history, but he was also the most rampant plunderer. When the nine military governors were defeated in the siege of Yecheng, Lu Jiong, who was the governor of Huaixi and Xiangyang, was shot by an arrow and fled. Wherever his troops passed, they burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of atrocities.

When they arrived in Zhengzhou, Li Heng ordered Lai Zhen to replace Lu Jiong and demoted Lu Jiong to the governor of Zheng, Chen, and Bo. At this time, Lu Jiong heard that Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi had good military discipline and were stationed around him. Lu Jiong was ashamed and worried, so he committed suicide by taking poison.

(End of this chapter)