Li Longji, who had just drank the soothing medicinal soup, was lying on the bed and looking at the curtain with dull eyes.
Yang Yuhuan sat beside the bed, wiping her tears and calling Sanlang.
After a while, Li Longji turned his head and looked at Yang Yuhuan beside him, and said softly: "Please ask the prime minister and Zhou Erlang to come in together."
Yang Yuhuan nodded, stood up and left the room.
Zhou Jun was in the courtyard, talking with Wu Qi.
After learning that Li Heng proclaimed himself emperor in Xiangyang, made Jiankang the capital, and set up a new business, Zhou Jun was full of surprise.
After asking in detail, he was left with only sighs in his heart.
It's time and destiny...
In the history books, Li Heng went to Lingwu and proclaimed himself emperor. He successively obtained the support of the Hexi Army and the Shuofang Army, as well as the two generals Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi. Only then did he stabilize the situation and gradually gain the upper hand.
Zhou Jun originally thought that by blocking Li Heng's northward path, the historical Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty would lose his foundation and would never be able to stand up again. However, unexpectedly, he managed to survive and diverted to the south of the Yangtze River.
Moreover, according to Wu Qi's narrative, Li Heng was indeed under the influence of God.
When he went south to Xiangyang, the battle in Nanyang City was at its fiercest. The defender Lu Jiong was isolated and helpless, and he was about to lose the city and the ground.
Li Heng's arrival brought a timely rain to the entire Jiangnan battlefield, giving officials in the southern part of the Tang Dynasty a backbone.
Those who originally had the idea of rebelling against the Tang Dynasty and surrendering to the enemy did not dare to have second thoughts. Those who originally refused to support the friendly forces and only wanted to protect themselves also rejoined Li Heng's command.
The rescue of Nanyang City increased Li Heng's popularity in Jiangnan and attracted many people.
But for the whole of Jiangnan, the Battle of Nanyang was just a great victory. What really allowed Li Heng to gain a firm foothold was another battle that was enough to seal the victory of Jiangnan - the Battle of Suiyang.
Yongqiu is located south of Chenliu and is the gateway to Jiangnan.
Once the rebels occupy Yongqiu, they can begin to attack Suiyang (today's Shangqiu).
Once Suiyang is lost, the rebels can take boats, pass through the Suiyang Canal, enter the Huaihe River, then go down the Yellow River, and finally go south to directly attack Fengyang.
If Fengyang is lost again, then the rebels can attack Kangcheng (today's Nanjing). By then, the situation in the entire Jiangnan will be out of control, and there will be no room for change.
The general who was stationed at Yongqiu was named Zhang Xun. When Luoyang was lost, there were only three thousand Tang soldiers in Yongqiu city, and there was a shortage of food and supplies.
Facing the tens of thousands of rebels who were attacking, the senior generals in Yongqiu City persuaded Zhang Xun one after another that it was better to surrender to the enemy as soon as possible instead of waiting for death.
Zhang Xun pretended to agree to their request, and lied that he would discuss surrender after gathering all the soldiers tomorrow.
The next day, when the soldiers gathered together, Zhang Xun hung up a portrait of Li Longji, led the soldiers to worship together, and cried to the portrait, saying that in the face of a powerful enemy, he should be a loyal soldier of the Tang Dynasty, and he would die without regrets.
All the soldiers were grateful for Zhang Xun's sincerity, and they all swore to heaven that they would never surrender to the enemy while he was in the city.
Zhang Xun then ordered to kill all the generals who wanted to rebel against the Tang Dynasty, and ordered his subordinates to defend the city.
After dealing with the internal crisis, Zhang Xun led 3,000 soldiers to intercept the 30,000 rebel general Linghu Chao's army at Yongqiu.
This battle lasted for almost several months. Zhang Xun faced ten times the enemy force and used almost all tactics, including but not limited to night attacks, false surrenders, empty city tactics, alienation tactics, borrowed arrows, etc., killing more than 10,000 enemies.
people.
In this way, at the end of Zhang Xun's fourteenth year from Tianbao, he was able to defend Yongqiu for half a year with only three thousand Tang soldiers.
Finally, after An Lushan learned about this, he was very angry. He dismissed Linghu Chao from his post and ordered his general Yin Ziqi to replace him.
After Yin Ziqi received the order, he mobilized in full force, bringing not only the regular troops such as the Hebei Army, but also all the elites from the Turks, Xi tribes, Bakhna tribes, etc., with the strength reaching an astonishing hundreds of thousands.
Zhang Xun knew that Yongqiu City could not resist the enemy, so he could only withdraw from the city and lead his troops southward into Suiyang City, the last barrier to the Yellow River.
As a result, the entire Anshi Rebellion, or the most brutal city defense battle in the entire history of China - the Battle of Suiyang, officially kicked off.
In order to capture Suiyang City as soon as possible, Yin Ziqi launched a crazy attack as soon as he came up.
On the first day of the war, in just half a day, the two sides fought fiercely for more than twenty battles.
In order to boost morale, Zhang Xun had to go into battle himself and kill the enemy together with his soldiers. Only then was he able to repulse the first day's offensive.
A month after this, the rebel general Yin Ziqi saw that he could not attack for a long time, so he ordered a siege of the city.
Suiyang City originally had 60,000 hu of grain (about 7.2 million kilograms), which was basically enough to feed the defenders for a year (an average of 2.2 kilograms per person per day).
However, Henan Jiedushi allocated more than half of the grain to Puyang and Jiyin.
What is even more speechless is that after Jiyin obtained the food, he surrendered to the rebels.
Therefore, after the war begins, Suiyang will run out of food in just two or three months.
After the food supply in Suiyang City bottomed out, each soldier could only receive one spoonful of rice per day.
They were really hungry, so the soldiers in the city began to catch mice to eat.
When the mice finished eating, they ate the skins from armor and bows and arrows. When the mice finished eating the skins, they mixed the paper with bark and grass roots and ate them raw.
After that, soldiers of the Tang Army starved to death on the city wall every day. Zhang Xun had no choice but to send his general Nan Jiyun and led 30 cavalry out of Suiyang to Pengcheng, more than 300 miles away.
(now Xuzhou) asked for help.
Henan Province's military envoy Xu Shuji, who was stationed in Pengcheng, refused to provide food supplies and even closed the city gate tightly to avoid seeing him.
Nan Jiyun cursed outside the city. Seeing that he was helpless, he could only divert to Linhuai and ask for help from Helan Jinming.
After hearing the battle report, the latter believed that Suiyang City must be lost, and it would be useless to go to support it.
Nan Jiyun cried bitterly and prayed: "Maybe the city has not fallen yet. If it has, I will die to apologize."
Seeing that Nan Jiyun was so loyal and brave, Helan Jinming wanted to keep him for his own use. So he held a banquet to persuade Nan Jiyun to stay.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The latter pulled out his saber, cut off a finger and shouted: "Since Jiyun cannot complete the task, please leave one finger to show that I will live up to the commander-in-chief."
After saying that, Nan Jiyun left the severed finger on the table and left alone.
While Nan Jiyun was asking for help, all the soldiers in Suiyang City were devoured and they were so hungry that Zhang Xun had no choice but to order cannibalism.
If all the subsequent details were written out, they might be censored, so they are recorded in history books:
When the food in the city was exhausted, they exchanged their sons for food...Xun (Zhang Xun) took out his concubine and killed the three armies to feed the soldiers. He said: "The princes worked hard to defend the city for the country and were single-minded. They have been lacking food for many years.
Loyalty never fades. The patrol cannot cut off his own skin to eat the soldiers. How can it be a pity for this woman to sit back and watch the danger." The soldiers all cried and couldn't bear to eat, so the patrol ordered them to eat... They then surrounded the women in the city. After they were all gone, they used the men as their own.
Husbands, old and young followed, feeding a population of 20,000 to 30,000 people, but the people's hearts will never change.
Although this is the case in the history books, certain changes have occurred in the new history.
Li Heng led his troops through the Huaihe River and when they arrived in Shouchun, they heard about the bitter battle in Suiyang and sent angels carrying the imperial edict to various places.
The imperial edict stated that the emperor was on a tour to the south and ordered all the prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River to rush to the aid of Suiyang. There should be no mistake.
It was precisely because of this imperial edict that Nan Jiyun, who went to various places to borrow food, finally received reinforcements and food from Zhenyuan, Ningling and other places.
Zhang Xun, who originally defended Suiyang, saw a glimmer of hope for victory after learning that Li Heng had arrived in Shouchun.
After Li Heng issued the imperial edict, he ordered his son, Li Chu, King of Guangping, to sit in Fengyang and have full command of the frontline troops and grain and grass dispatch.
At this point, the entire Jiangnan defense line, which was originally a pool of stagnant water, was mobilized.
The early offensive momentum of the rebels was gradually curbed, and the two combatants began to enter a stalemate stage.
After listening to Wu Qi's narration, Zhou Jun sighed in his heart.
Li Heng proclaimed himself emperor in Xiangyang, which gradually stabilized the war situation in the south of the Yangtze River. This was certainly a good thing, but the Tang Dynasty had been split into two parts, the north and the south. Since the Anshi rebels were still separated in the middle, it made it difficult for them to fight in the short term.
It is almost impossible to complete unification.
Moreover, both Lu Jiong and Zhang Xun were famous generals in history.
Especially the latter, looking at the entire Anshi Rebellion, when it comes to the ability to defend the city, if Zhang Xun is placed second, I am afraid no one would dare to be ranked first.
Such a person will definitely be troublesome in the future if he works under Li Heng.
While Zhou Jun was thinking, a person hurriedly came outside the hospital, but it was Prime Minister Fang Guan.
The two of them looked at each other, and when they were both confused, Fan Jinian walked out of the room and said to Zhou Jun and Fang Guan: "Your Majesty has summoned you, please come with me."
Entering the bedroom, Fang Guan saw Li Longji lying on the bed, powerless. He was startled at first, and then after hearing about Li Heng proclaiming himself emperor, he angrily said, "This is an act of usurping the throne!"
Li Longji looked at Fang Guan and Zhou Jun and said in a low voice: "I know that I am old and have low energy, so I will entrust the important affairs of the court to you two."
When Fang Guan and Zhou Jun heard this, they knelt down together.
Li Longji waved, and Fan Jinian quickly stepped forward and helped the emperor up.
Casting his gaze on Zhou Jun's head, Li Longji said slowly: "Rebellions are everywhere and the situation is critical. I am worried that you are holding multiple positions and cannot take care of everything, so I asked the prime minister to help. Does Zhou Lang have any objections?"
Zhou Jun knew clearly in his heart that Li Longji's words were not only an attempt to decentralize power, but also to test himself.
So Zhou Jun bowed his head and said, "I have no objections and will obey your Majesty's will in everything."
When Li Longji heard this, he laughed happily and said to the two of them: "After the beginning of spring, the troops will be divided into two groups. On Tuesday, Lang went east to capture Hebei, and Fang Xiang went south to recover Chang'an."