The first year of Tianyou (758), the end of February.
Zhou Jun rushed from Liangzhou to Fanyang, Hebei Province.
In the main camp of the Tang army, when the generals saw Zhou Jun walking into the middle army, they all stepped forward to sing "Oi" and called him "marshal".
After shaking off the snow on his body and rubbing his frozen hands, Zhou Jun said to Guo Ziyi, who was standing at the front: "Let's go to the tent first and talk about the military situation."
Guo Ziyi looked up at Zhou Jun with a complicated expression, bowed and said yes, then turned sideways to lead the way.
After entering the large tent in the middle camp, Zhou Jun sat in front of the desk at the far end.
After the generals entered the tent, they took off their outer robes and stood in two rows on the left and right.
Zhou Jun looked around and realized that most of the generals in the tent were injured, and some could barely even walk.
Zhou Jun looked next to Guo Ziyi, and Li Guangbi was also among them.
Although the latter's face turned pale, he could still stand, presumably because he had recovered well from his injuries.
Zhou Jun looked carefully for a while and found that the expressions on the faces of the generals were a bit strange, as if they were hesitant to speak.
Zhou Jun asked his attendants to hang up the map of Fanyang City first, then looked at Guo Ziyi and asked, "Tell me about the current battle situation."
Guo Ziyi came out, raised his hands and said: "Yes, Commander. Fanyang City has twelve corner forts, fifty-two beacon towers, six chain forts, the city is two feet eight feet high, and there is a moat, etc. In terms of city defense, it is
The most fortified city in Hebei."
"The Tang army has been besieging the city for several months. Nine corner forts have been breached, all beacon guards have been captured, and the moat has been dug and drained. There are four gates in Fanyang City, east, west, north and south. Among them, the west gate has been the most frequently fought. The west gate has been driven away by siege engines.
Once, the rebels poured cast iron and sealed the city gate, but the nearby city wall was already cracked."
Zhou Jun: "What about the loss of troops?"
Guo Ziyi hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and said: "The 170,000 troops died in the battle, and about 57,000 people died from illness. There were more than 15,000 people who were unable to participate in the war due to serious injuries or illness, and the rest were slightly injured and slightly ill.
……countless."
When Zhou Jun heard this, he closed his eyes and unconsciously rubbed his forehead with his fingers.
When the generals saw this, they quickly knelt down and claimed that they had done something wrong.
Zhou Jun saw people kneeling in the tent. He was quite surprised by the reaction of the generals and said: "Everyone, get up."
Guo Ziyi, who was kneeling on the ground, said in a deep voice: "Commander, I am the one to blame. Please punish me."
Before Zhou Jun could speak, the other generals in the tent began to plead with each other: "Commander, the Tang army suffered heavy losses, and it was not General Guo's fault. Please be more careful."
Li Guangbi came out at this time and said: "Commander, the soldiers of Hebei are brave and brave, and there is no retreat behind them, so everyone is motivated to die. Cai Xide, the general of the defenders, is very cunning. Whether it is a false defeat, false orders, etc., he will use all his tactics.
Ignore it and just defend the city with no intention of leaving the city. Our army has no choice but to attack by force. Moreover, at that time a year ago..."
Zhou Jun did not finish listening to Li Guangbi's narration, and directly waved his hand and said: "I'm not here to hear what you said."
He turned to Guo Ziyi and asked: "You just mentioned the damage, including the sick and deceased, what's going on?"
Guo Ziyi replied: "The bandit army boiled the dung of men, horses and livestock into gold juice, and soaked weapons and arrows in it. Most of the injured in the Tang army had high fevers after returning to the camp, and then died of convulsions. In addition, this year Hebei is
In rare years of severe cold, water droplets falling in the air can turn into ice cubes. Before the rebels defended the city, they cut down the nearby woods. The soldiers could not survive the cold, and they froze to death overnight, sometimes hundreds of them."
After a moment of pause, Guo Ziyi continued: "Fortunately, those who returned to the rebel army brought a lot of elixirs with them, which can treat wounds and save the lives of many soldiers. However, the stock is not much and has been exhausted. It is really a drop in the bucket."
Zhou Jun looked at Li Guangbi and asked doubtfully: "Elixir?"
The latter replied: "The commander is the garlic essence. When Lady Hua Yue was in Anxi, she collected garlic from the Tang Dynasty, mass-produced a batch of garlic essence, and then equipped it in every soldier's bag and returned it to the rebel army.
I also got a lot of it. In the siege of Fan Yang, the general survived the arrow wound he suffered with the help of this medicine. However, the quantity of the elixir was still too small, and many soldiers could not be cured in the end and died.
."
Zhou Jun asked: "Why didn't you give birth later?"
Li Guangbi: "Garlic is not a commonly used item, so there are not many goods in the market. And I heard Lady Hua Yue say that it is extremely difficult to refine this item. Maybe ten kilograms of garlic can't get half a bottle of medicine. So.
, after producing it once, you will never be able to find so many raw materials again.”
Zhou Jun nodded, keeping this in mind, and asked Guo Ziyi: "Where is Shi Siming now?"
Guo Ziyi: "At the beginning of the year, Shi Siming's troops were stationed in Changle, Weizhou (now Nanle County, Puyang City). In the first month of the year, the Yellow River froze, and Luoyang rushed to rescue Fan Yang's reinforcements. They crossed the Yellow River from Lingchang and went north to Changle, where they met with Shi Siming's troops.
We have formed an army. I am afraid that the whole army has already moved north and is approaching Boling."
Zhou Jun: "Who will lead the reinforcements sent by Luoyang?"
Guo Ziyi: "According to legend, it is Li Guiren, the king of Peking who pretended to be Yan."
Zhou Jun was stunned when he heard the name Li Guiren.
In the history books, this guy is a difficult character.
He was the commander of the Eight Thousand Yiluo River. Because of his outstanding military exploits, he was named King of Peiping by An Lushan.
Moreover, in the Chang'an recapture battle commanded by Guo Ziyi in the history books, Li Guiren faced the Tang army, went out to challenge the formation, and then fled back to the formation. When the government troops pursued him and approached the rebel formation, Li Guiren suddenly
He turned back and launched a fierce attack, causing chaos among the officers and soldiers led by Guo Ziyi, and they were defeated one after another.
Afterwards, if Li Siye had not taken the lead and stabilized the position with the Mo Dao Formation, and Pugu Huai'en led the Huihe cavalry to seize the right opportunity and storm the rebel flanks, the war would have ended with the Tang army's defeat, and history might have been different.
It will be rewritten accordingly.
After thinking about this, Zhou Jun said to Guo Ziyi: "Write a letter to Pugu Huai'en and ask him to stay in Boling City for two more months. After two months, everything will come to an end."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Hearing this, Guo Ziyi advised: "Commander, although the defenders in Fanyang City have suffered a lot of losses, they still have some strength left. I want to think about it in two months."
I'm afraid it will be quite difficult to win it."
Zhou Jun: "If we cannot defeat Fan Yang in two months, then there is no need to fight this battle again. We can only withdraw to Taiyuan and make other plans."
Hearing this, Li Guangbi endured the pain, knelt on one knee in the tent, and said loudly to Zhou Jun: "The last general is willing to be the vanguard and attack the city tomorrow!"
Zhou Jun glanced at Li Guangbi, shook his head and said, "In a few days, the reinforcements from Anxi will arrive at Fan Yang. Before they arrive, order the three armies to rest where they are and recharge their batteries."
Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi glanced at each other unconsciously.
Both of them have doubts in their hearts. Will reinforcements from Anxi come to Fan Yang?
Without mentioning the siege again, Zhou Jun asked Guo Ziyi: "The Huihe tribe, Pugu tribe, Ba Yegu and other border people, how are they doing now?"
Guo Ziyi sighed and said: "More than half of the four thousand elite cavalry of the Huihe tribe were lost. The general Hedari was also injured and is now recuperating in the rear camp. As for the tribes such as Pugu, Beyegu, Tongluo and so on, there were many casualties.
Some tribes saw that Fanyang City was so strong that they really couldn't capture it..."
Seeing Guo Ziyi's hesitation, Zhou Jun finished the second half of his sentence for him: "So he became a deserter and no longer accepted orders from the Tang army, right?"
Guo Ziyi nodded silently.
Zhou Jun couldn't help but sigh when he heard this.
In the Battle of Fan Yang, nearly half of the 170,000-strong army was killed or injured. For Zhou Jun, this had already exceeded the bottom line in his mind.
Shuofang Army, Anxi Army and Beiting Army, these three armies, with a total of 80,000 soldiers, are Zhou Jun's most elite army. Now they have suffered so many losses, which will affect the subsequent plan to regain Chang'an and Luoyang.
It has become the biggest obstacle.
Zhou Jun summarized the reasons.
On the one hand, it was because of the weak performance of the rebels in the battles of Changshan, Jiumen, and Zhaojun that Zhou Jun misjudged the enemy's strength and thought that he could easily capture Fan Yang with his military power, so he did not attack Fan Yang early.
The trump card of using gunpowder.
On the other hand, Fang Guan was defeated in Chang'an. Li Longji used this as an excuse to lure Zhou Jun to Liangzhou and put him under house arrest so that he could not contact the outside world. As a result, Zhou Jun was unable to learn the situation of the war in Hebei in time.
, causing Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi to fall into a bitter battle, and their subordinates suffered heavy losses.
This chapter has been completed!