When Shi Siming was killing all directions in Hebei, Guo Ziyi led the main force of Shuofang's army and divided it into two groups.
Guo Ziyi personally led the northern route, starting from Lingzhou. Along the way, he killed the rebel general Zhou Wanqing, defeated the rebel general Gao Xiuyan, recovered the Jingbian Army (today's Youyu County, Shanxi), and finally reached Yunzhong (today's Datong, Shanxi).
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On the southern route, Shuofang's army, led by Zuo Wufeng's envoy Pugu Huai'en, with 13,000 elite soldiers under his command, crossed the Sanggan River, conquered Tianchang and Jingjing, and finally passed through Tumen Pass and arrived at the county seat of Changshan County.
After Yan Gaoqing, the governor of Changshan County, was captured by Shi Siming's troops, the person stationed in the county was Yan Army General An Siyi.
After experiencing Shi Siming's butcher's knife and witnessing Yan Gaoqing's unyielding loyalty, the surviving people in Changshan County all had their hearts set on the Tang Dynasty. When they heard that Shuofang's army was about to arrive, they started a rebellion in the city without any hesitation.
When Shuofang's army arrived, the Changshan County City was already filled with flames of war.
Puguhuaien made a prompt decision and issued the order to attack the city.
The Yan army under An Siyi's command, under attack from both inside and outside, only lasted for an hour before surrendering to the Tang army.
Pugu Huai'en escorted An Siyi to the market in the city. The people of Changshan County rushed to watch and cheered.
The wheel of history has reached this point, and another big twists and turns have occurred.
In old history, the coach of Shuofangjunnan Road was Li Guangbi.
When Li Guangbi served as deputy envoy in Hexi, he and An Siyi were old acquaintances, and their relationship was fairly good.
In the history books, Li Guangbi took An Siyi captive, not to the market in the city, but to the military camp, and asked: "Do you know that you deserve death?"
This sentence is actually a disguised form of persuasion to surrender.
As long as the captured people are not too stupid and follow these words, they can survive safely on the steps.
Sure enough, Li Guangbi saw that An Siyi wanted to surrender, so he asked again: "Do you think my men can defeat Shi Siming? If you have a clever plan to retreat the enemy, I will spare your life."
An Siyi quickly replied: "The general has traveled a long distance and the soldiers are tired. I am afraid it will be difficult to resist Shi Siming's army. It is better to bring the army into the city and use it as an ambush. When Shi Siming arrives at the city, we can attack him head-on."
Li Guangbi asked An Siyi again: "Shi Siming has always been cunning and afraid of suspicion."
An Siyi then gave Li Guangbi two ideas.
The first was a letter written by An Siyi himself, urging Shi Siming to speed up his journey and support Changshan County as soon as possible.
Second, when Shi Siming led his army to the city, An Siyi would personally stand on the city tower, making Shi Siming paralyzed.
It was these two ideas that helped Li Guangbi gain an absolute advantage over Shi Siming in the early stage, and also caused the latter's elite to suffer a devastating blow.
On the second day after Li Guangbi captured Changshan County, Shi Siming led 20,000 elite troops (including Fan Yang's 3,000 cavalry) and rushed to Changshan County in the early morning.
Seeing An Siyi standing at the top of the city waving greetings, Shi Siming did not doubt that he had it and directly ordered the army to approach the city gate.
At this moment, Li Guangbi ordered 1,500 crossbowmen who had already ambushed Shi Siming's army to shoot wildly.
The troops under Shi Siming's command were almost exhausted after a long journey. Suddenly they were ambushed by the Tang army. For a moment, they were in chaos and tried to escape.
Li Guangbi ordered the city gates to be opened and sent out five thousand soldiers, intending to pursue Shi Siming's army.
Shi Siming tried to regroup his army and launch a counterattack midway, but was disrupted by Li Guangbi's crossbows, and had to retreat to nearby prefectures and counties to recuperate.
After this battle, Shi Siming lost more than half of his 20,000 elite soldiers, and the remaining soldiers were also demoralized.
Li Guangbi relied on the advantage of being the first to fight against Shi Siming. He won six battles and six victories, first repelling the latter to Jiumen, and then to Zhaojun.
In the end, Shi Siming was beaten and unable to retreat, so he fled north to Boling, where he hunkered down in the city and never dared to fight again.
However, in the new history, the coach of Shuofang Army South Road was replaced by Pugu Huaien.
Pugu Huaien was brave and good at fighting, and made many achievements in Mobei.
Guo Ziyi recommended him as the coach of the Southern Route Army, which was a decision made after careful consideration.
But Pugu Huai'en was from Tiele, and his tribe had always been at odds with Hebei. After hearing about Shi Siming's atrocities, he hated the rebels even more.
He showed no mercy to An Siyi and directly handed him over to the people of Changshan County.
An Siyi didn't even have time to shout "I surrender" before he was torn into pieces by the angry people.
The next morning, Shi Siming led most of his troops and rushed to Changshan County, only to find that the Tang army had already captured the county town.
At this time, Shi Siming was no longer in a hurry.
He first ordered the army to rest in place, and after the soldiers regained their strength, he finally ordered to attack the city.
In the battle of Changshan County, Pugu Huai'en led 13,000 Tang troops and raised 3,000 rebels from surrounding counties and towns; while Shi Siming's troops had 20,000 elite troops from Hebei, and later five more troops were transferred from Jiumen.
Thousands of reinforcements.
Sixteen thousand versus twenty-five thousand.
This offensive and defensive battle for the city also became the most intense battle in Hebei during the early stages of the Anshi Rebellion.
On the first day of the war, Shi Siming sent his most elite soldiers to form a trap, and under the cover of bows, arrows and shields, they began to climb the city wall.
Since the county city had experienced a previous war and the city's defense facilities were severely damaged, Pugu Huai'en demolished all the bricks, stones and utensils in the city and used them all to fill the gaps and build fortifications.
However, due to the rush of time, the city defense repairs were not perfect. Shi Siming's troops found the gap and forcibly climbed the city wall in the first attack.
Facing the elite of the Hebei frontier army, Shuofang's army was not afraid at all and directly faced them.
Both sides were the most elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. They struck each other like an anvil and a sledgehammer hitting each other, causing sparks to fly.
The two soldiers fought from morning to dusk.
In the middle, the front team died in battle, and the rear team took over.
The blood of the dead and injured flowed all over the tower, making the ground slippery. The soldiers who were following up for reinforcements even had to tie cloth strips on their feet to ensure that they would not slip.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content that follows! When the Yan army retreated after paying tribute, dead bodies piled up on top of the city, and it was difficult to even find a place to stay.
The next few days were like this.
The war lasted for more than half a month. Shi Siming saw that the county could not be captured for a long time. On the one hand, he was anxious, but on the other hand, he could not help but admire the tenacity and resilience of the defender Pu Gu Huai'en.
However, at this moment, Shi Siming suddenly received an emergency report.
Yan Gaoqing's younger brother, Yan Zhenqing, the governor of Pingyuan County, took advantage of the fierce fighting between Shi Siming and Pugu Huai'en to form an army with 3,000 soldiers and 10,000 soldiers, and then united with Qinghe County.
Captured Wei County (now Linzhang, Hebei Province) where 20,000 Yan troops were stationed.
After hearing the news, Shi Siming was so angry that he burst into smoke.
After killing Yan Gaoqing, another Yan Zhenqing appeared.
Moreover, the capture of Wei County meant that the Yan army would face two huge troubles.
First, Yan Zhenqing can lead his army to the west, open Fukouxing among the eight passes of Taihang, and join the Tang Dynasty general Cheng Qianli who is stationed in Shangdang.
Second, Yan Zhenqing could also lead his army northward, cut off Shi Siming's retreat, form a pincer attack with Shuofang's army, and completely overwhelm Shi Siming's troops.
When things developed to this point, Shi Siming did not dare to be too serious, so he could only abandon Changshan County and return to Jiumen.
While retreating, Shi Siming wrote another letter to An Lushan, saying that Guo Ziyi, the commander of the Shuofang North Route Army, would be able to invade Hebei in less than a month; Gu Huai'en, the servant of the Shuofang South Route Army, occupied Changshan County and could march eastward at any time;
And Yan Zhenqing has led the troops from Pingyuan County and Qinghe County to capture Wei County. Now, I am surrounded by enemies on three sides and the situation is critical. I ask your Majesty to send reinforcements as soon as possible.
An Lushan, who was far away in Luoyang, saw Shi Siming's letter asking for help. He was not vague and directly transferred 50,000 elite troops from his subordinates to go north to support Jiumen.
Just when Hebei was in chaos, although the city of Chang'an was calm on the surface, there were turbulent waves moving underwater.
In the Xingqing Palace, Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan were looking at the Gongchipu. The servant outside the door came to report that the right prime minister had arrived.
Li Longji frowned and said, "I asked him to sort out his expenses. What is he doing here?"
Yang Yuhuan advised in a gentle voice: "Brother, maybe there is something important."
Hearing this, Li Longji nodded, left the inner garden and came to the side hall.
Yang Guozhong's face turned pale. The moment he saw Li Longji, he quickly fell to the ground and cried: "Your Majesty, save me!"
When Li Longji saw Yang Guozhong's appearance, he was confused and said, "What happened? Get up and speak."
Yang Guozhong staggered up, hesitated for a moment, and gritted his teeth and said to Li Longji: "I heard that Brother Shuhan wants to rebel!"
Li Longji was so frightened that he trembled all over. He quickly looked at Yang Guozhong and shouted: "No nonsense!"
Yang Guozhong: "In the Tongguan Administrative Office, someone outside the house heard clearly that Ge Shuhan and his subordinates were discussing, planning to send troops privately to return the court and seize power!"
After speaking, Yang Guozhong took out a piece of paper from his arms, presented it to Li Longji and said, "Your Majesty, please read this. This is the personal letter of the complainant."
Li Longji hurriedly took the letter, and after just glancing at it twice, his face turned ashen.
"Leave 30,000 soldiers in Tongguan, then drive out the elite, cross the Chan River, and kill the king..."
Li Longji read the words in the letter, sat in the upper seat, and remained silent.
Yang Guozhong said anxiously: "Your Majesty, Brother Shuhan has to be on guard."
Li Longji thought for a long time and said: "Tongguan is an important place. It is inappropriate to convict the coach based on just one person's words."
Seeing that Li Longji had made up his mind, Yang Guozhong had no choice but to do the next best thing and suggested: "Your Majesty, just in case, it is better to send a group of elite troops from the North and South Yamen to garrison Chanshui to prevent Ge Shuhan from taking risks."
Li Longji felt that this was a sound strategy, so he agreed.
In the next half month, Yang Guozhong mobilized 3,000 elite soldiers from the imperial guards and recruited 10,000 young men to station in Chanshui and train day and night.
When Ge Shuhan heard that Yang Guozhong had trained 13,000 soldiers and was stationed in Chanshui, his first reaction was that Yang Guozhong was planning to stab him in the back.
Therefore, Ge Shuhan petitioned Li Longji and asked for the military power of the Chanshui New Army.
At this time, Li Longji had begun to deeply doubt Ge Shuhan's motives, but for the sake of the overall situation, he still agreed to the request.
However, once the monarch and his ministers become suspicious of each other, there will be irreversible consequences.