Chapter 733: The Fall of the Eastern Capital of Luoyang
On the ancient road in front of the city gate, a man on horseback kicked up the dust and ran towards Xingyang City. When he came to the city, he shouted: "The rebels are coming! Anlu Mountain is coming!"
He was hit by an arrow in the arm, and blood was pouring out, but he kept shouting and driving along the straight road in the city towards the prefect's mansion. However, the people who heard the shouts rushed home, packed up their belongings and fled.
A child was sitting on the ground crying. When he heard the word An Lushan, he immediately covered his mouth to stop crying. He rolled up from the ground, grabbed his mother's hand and ran away.
Prefect Cui Wuxu was waiting outside the gate of the prefecture with thousands of county soldiers and recruited brave men. When the cavalry detective galloped in front of him, he grabbed the reins and jumped off the horse and knelt down on one knee to report: "Report, Prefect Cui!"
"How's it going? Where are the rebels and how many people are there?" Cui Wuqi asked with a worried look on his face.
"The rebels marched into Xingyang in two groups and were already forty miles away. The flags on the official road were like clouds covering the sun, the sound of war horses and drums resounded all around, and the smoke and dust on the loess road stretched for dozens of miles. The momentum was
It’s so vast that it’s impossible to estimate.”
The prefect took a breath of cold air and stepped back half a step. The officers and soldiers in the surrounding counties all turned pale: "The enemy army is so powerful, but we only have a few thousand people. How can we resist?"
Cui Wuqi took out the sword from his waist and said to his servant: "Go and carry the things out in the yard!"
The servants carried several boxes out of the yard and opened them one by one. Inside were silk and satin, copper coins, celadon and women's jewelry. He pointed to these belongings and said: "This is Cui's savings from decades of service as an official. Now it's all
Rewards are given to the brothers. I hope that the brothers can defend the city and kill the enemy with all their strength. Xingyang is the barrier of Luoyang, the eastern capital. If Xingyang is destroyed, the eastern capital will also be in danger! How can the territory and palaces of my Han family be owned by Ni Hu? You and I are both Han
A man from the Han family should have the blood of a Han family man!"
Everyone said one after another: "The prefect is so righteous, how can we not obey!"
Cui Wuqi led the soldiers up to the city tower with a horizontal sword and spread out at the crenellations of the city wall. Looking at the end of the earth in the distance, billowing smoke and dust were already rising. One after another, crimson flags appeared in their field of vision.
, two iron cavalry took the lead in approaching the city wall from the left and right, and the infantry front army gradually formed a formation? The swingers slapped their shields with their swords? They made threatening sounds of gold and stone. The strong men beating the war drums were bare-backed and bare-shouldered in the winter, and the cowhide drums sounded.
Like thunder? The sound shook the bile of the brave men who defended the city.
Seeing this scene of tens of thousands of wolves running around? I wonder who would not be frightened. Cui Taishou raised his courage and said loudly: "Brothers? Prepare wood and stones and let these rebels have a taste of it!"
Did the rebels arrive at the city without stopping at all? The trumpets sounded and they pushed the siege cart ladder to attack the city? The sound of the drums became more and more urgent, but the soldiers on the city wall were already so frightened that their hands and feet were weak, and some even stumbled from the city wall.
It fell down. The rebels climbed up the city wall through the siege ladder, entered the city and opened the city gate.
In less than a morning, the rebels broke through the four gates of Xingyang, and tied up Cui Taishou and a group of officials and escorted them to the city gate. An Lushan's iron chariot arrived. He looked out of the car, stretched out his hands to hold the tassels of the canopy above his head, and was cold.
He looked at them and asked, "Who are these people?"
An Shouzhong rode next to him and lowered his head and said: "Cui Wuxi, the governor of Xingyang, and his staff."
"killed."
The swordsman jumped from behind and dropped his sword. Cui Taishou and others fell in a pool of blood? An Lushan drove an iron carriage and ran over his body, laughing loudly: "Hahahahaha?"
!”
…
The commander of the Eastern Expedition Army, King Rong Li Wan, died of illness in the army. Gao Xianzhi sent people back to Chang'an for burial. The morale of the Eastern Expedition Army gradually declined. When Gao Xianzhi heard that the rebels had occupied Xingyang, he quickly asked Bian Lingcheng to lead some of them to stay in Shaanxi County. He led the Eastern Expedition himself.
Most of the army went to Wulaoguan to block the rebels by taking advantage of the geographical advantage.
There are more than 20,000 Guangqi and Feiqi under his command. The armor is excellent and the horses are strong. They are the strongest combat force in the capital besides the Longwu Army. However, these days the emperor's forbidden army seems a bit more unruly. Even Gao Xianzhi, his deputy marshal,
He is not highly regarded, let alone the bravery of the other frontier troops and temporary recruits.
Therefore, three forked ropes and a chain of contempt formed in the Tianwu Army of the Eastern Expedition. Guangqi Feiqi looked down on the border troops, and the border troops looked down on the brave men recruited temporarily. Gao Xianzhi knew that these people were no match for the two rebel armies.
, then built a camp at Wulaoguan to consolidate the defense line.
In order to avoid internal conflicts, he separated the Guangqi Feiqi, the border troops and the temporary recruits, and designated defense zones to defend each other. He also went to each camp to give lectures to stimulate the generals and boost their morale. He was able to unite this ragtag group of people.
Being able to achieve this, Gao Xianzhi is indeed considered a famous general.
An Lushan's three armies arrived at Wulao Pass in advance, and took advantage of the Tang army's unsteady footing to launch an attack. The cavalry charged several times at the weak points of the city pass. Although Zhuang Yong was afraid of strong enemies, Gao Xianzhi formed a supervising team with border soldiers and personally carried out the attack.
The two armies fought fiercely from the morning to the afternoon. Tian Chengsi's forward Heng Haijun lost many soldiers and shot all the arrows. The city wall was pricked with arrows like hedgehogs, but it was still difficult to conquer.
An Lushan personally brought Yan Zhuang to supervise the battle. The two of them rode horses to check the Tang army's disposition at Wulao Pass from a distance. Yan Zhuang pointed at the city head and smiled: "Wulao Pass can be broken."
An Lushan and Tian Chengsi asked about the method of breaking through the pass. Yan Zhuang pointed to the city wall in the distance and said: "Lord and general, please see, Gao Xianzhi will recruit Yong Yong, border soldiers, Guangqi and Feiqi each to guard the pass. It must be impossible to integrate
The armies are in conflict. Which army's defense zone does General Shouzhong think is easiest to defeat?"
Tian Chengsi replied: "Guangqi and flying cavalry should be the strongest, followed by the border troops, and the recruiting troops and bravery should be the weakest."
Yan Zhuang smiled and said: "General, you are bad. Although Guangqi Feiqi has excellent armor and complete weapons, they have been stationed in the capital all year round and are not accustomed to fighting. Moreover, they are mostly descendants of Chang'an Gaoliang and are far inferior to the frontier troops. Although the newly recruited soldiers are weak, they are not as brave as the frontier troops.
However, Gao Xianzhi focused on taking care of and personally supervising the battle, which can be regarded as making up for the gap. People in the world are not worried about the lack of numbers but the inequality. The general should re-adjust the offensive, feign attacks on the border soldiers and new soldiers, and focus on attacking Guangqi and Feiqi. This barrier will be broken."
An Lushan professed his kindness and immediately mobilized troops to start knocking on the pass. He ordered Gao Yang's army to use Fuyuan crossbows to focus on taking care of Guangqi and Feiqi on the top of the city. Tian Chengsi personally led the team to attack fiercely. Guangqi and Feiqi were defeated in just one hour.
The pass was captured within a short period of time.
Gao Xianzhi was defeated and retreated, regrouped the remaining soldiers, fought with the rebels again, and retreated to Luoyang City in defeat.
On December 12, Anlushan's nine armies gathered at the foot of Luoyang City, attacked the city from all sides, broke through the four gates and entered the city, burning, killing and looting. Gao Xianzhi led the remaining troops and retreated from the west of the garden.
Henan Yin Da Xi Xun led officials from Luoyang to surrender to Anlu Mountain. Only Li Xin and Yushi Zhongcheng Lu Yi led their troops to fight to the death. Li Xun said to Lu Yi: "We are all favored by the imperial court. Although we are powerless, we should die fighting for the country."
"
They gathered hundreds of remaining soldiers and fought fiercely with the rebels in the alleys of the city. However, they were defeated by the rebels in an instant and fled into the city.
After the two were defeated, they did not escape. Li Xin dismissed all the servants in the house and sat alone in the main hall. Lu Yi gave the official seal to his wife and children in advance, sent them to dress up and fled to Chang'an via a small road, while he himself wore court clothes.
Go to Yushitai and sit quietly and wait for the rebels to come.
By the end of the afternoon, the rebels had fully occupied Luoyang. If you looked down from a high altitude, black smoke was burning everywhere in this thousand-year-old imperial capital. The rebels raped, looted, and burned down the houses in the city, making the people miserable.
An Lushan took an iron chariot to enter the city from Dingding Gate, and then entered the Ziwei Palace from the main road through the Tianjin Bridge on the Luoshui River. This ambitious man's road to becoming emperor seemed to be one step closer.
His confidants, eighteen generals, followed behind him on war horses. The Marquises of Yu on the left and right lined up with flags and ceremonial guards to clear the way from the front. They stepped on the corpses piled in the middle of the road and headed towards the Luoyang Palace of their dreams.