On the ninth day of the first month of November, the northeastern border of the empire - Fanyang City. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

From there, 150,000 troops marched south. At the head of the line were the Iron Cavalry, their armor glowing with icy iron in the cold sun, the Empire's most feared troops, almost invincible once charged. Behind them were the black-pressed infantry, obscuring the entire horizon.

This army is a hodgepodge of a nation, in addition to the regular border soldiers of the empire, there are also barbarian troops such as Tongluo, Xi, Khitan, and Murowei. Different peoples, languages, and costumes mingle together to form a raging tide that rushes south.

Among the 150,000 troops, there was an iron chariot with a Hu man sitting in it, and he was An Lushan.

Today is the day he broke with the Tang Empire, and from today on, these 150,000 troops are no longer the army of the empire, they are only loyal to one person - An Lushan. He was going to take them to storm Chang'an and establish a new dynasty, which would be a brutal and bloody barbarian empire.

Many civilians looked at this large army and were dumbfounded, and someone whispered: "Fan Yang's army has always gone north. Even if he is a hundred-year-old husband, he has never seen Fan Yang's army go south. ”

They don't know it yet: this reverse march will completely change the fate of all people, tearing their lives in half.

An Lushan's troop drums shook the sky, and the smoke and dust were thousands of miles. They marched sixty miles a day, swept through like a gale. No one could stop the slightest in the way of their passing, and the city fell without resistance. The imperial officials of Hebei had only three choices, flee, surrender, and die.

The reason is simple, the wars of the empire are fought on the borders, and the interior has not seen a war for more than a hundred years. No one knew how to fight this army, and they fell like ripe fruit in the storm. An Lushan went south as fast as he could, without stopping along the way, and twenty-three days later, he had rushed to the bank of the Yellow River. The journey to Chang'an has been halfway so far.

Just seven days after An Lushan raised his army, Tang Xuanzong learned the news of the rebellion, and he was forced into a corner, and there was no way to retreat. Now there is only one way, go all out and meet An Lushan.

The incident came too suddenly, and the Imperial Government was unprepared and lacked the resources at hand. The current core task is to defend the two capitals of the empire, Chang'an and Luoyang. An Lushan's troops are advancing rapidly, and the troops in this area are seriously insufficient, and the situation is very critical.

But Tang Xuanzong also has good cards in his hand, that is, his two tiger generals.

The first was Feng Changqing, who served as the envoy of the Anxi Festival, which was located in what is now Xinjiang and was one of the most remote border towns in the empire. It happened that Feng Changqing had just come to Chang'an from the station this month to see Tang Xuanzong. This man was thin and slanted, but he was an outstanding general, and he had made great expeditions to the Great Bolu Kingdom and made brilliant achievements.

The second is Gao Xianzhi, whose prestige is even more prominent. Gao Xianzhi is a native of Korea, served in the imperial army for many years, has expeditions to today's Afghanistan, Pakistan, many kings, khans were tied by him with ropes dedicated to the Tang Dynasty, for many years he is a symbol of imperial mythology. After he had been defeated by the Arab army at the city of Talas four years earlier, he was called back to the capital, and at this critical moment, he was the best person to take on An Lushan.

Two fierce tigers go into battle to meet the wolves of the east. Feng Changqing first rode out of the customs and went to Luoyang to recruit troops and organize the defense of Luoyang. Immediately afterwards, Gao Xianzhi led the 50,000 troops in Guanzhong, and he was stationed in Shaanxian County, Henan, serving as the commander-in-chief of the counterinsurgency, forming the second line of defense after Luoyang.

The Imperial Government has cowered behind these two lines of defense, and the most crucial factor now is time. An Lushan is rapidly advancing towards the heart of the empire, and the empire is also rapidly drawing forces from all over the country, and time is passing minute by minute. The key is, who is faster?

But there is one more hope for the empire, and that hope is the Yellow River. An Lushan had advanced to the banks of the Yellow River, but his army needed a large number of ships to cross the Yellow River, and they were likely to be held back by the Yellow River. But this hope will soon be dashed, and there is one thing that is helping An Lushan, and that is cold ice.

On the second day of December, the clouds were thick, the wind was bleak, and the weather was bitterly cold. An Lushan's army was on the north bank of the Yellow River, and he ordered the broken ships to be strung with ropes, grass and trees to cross the Yellow River. The pontoon bridge was too fragile to cross the Iron Cavalry, but that night a cold wind howled. In the early morning, all the pontoon bridges were frozen, becoming a solid ice bridge, and the cold ice split the road to the south for An Lushan, and under an order, An Lushan's army galloped across the ice bridge and crossed the Yellow River safely.

The Yellow River fell overnight, and the hinterland of the Central Plains was like a lamb. The first victim was Chen Liu, which is now Kaifeng, the smoke and dust raised by the ironclad army flooded the city, and An Lushan captured Chen Liu like lightning. The Henan Jiedu envoy was beheaded at the military gate, and 10,000 defenders were also slaughtered.

The second victim is Xingyang, which is the gateway to Luoyang and the must-take place for An Lushan. As soon as the rebel drums sounded, the defenders of Xingyang fell like rain, and the city fell in an instant.

The following is Luoyang, it is not Chen Liu, nor Xingyang, there is Feng Changqing, who commanded an army of 60,000, and he wants to fight with An Lushan here. Feng Changqing led his army out of the Tiger Prison Pass outside the city to snipe the wolves, which was the first real collision between the empire and An Lushan.

The Tang army was lined up in a majestic array, spread out on the ground, all the spear tips pointed to the east, all the arrows were aimed at the east, and all the eyes were looking at the east.

Black dust and smoke rose from the eastern horizon, getting closer and closer, the sound of drums and horns gradually became clear, and the sound of thousands of horses' hooves hitting the earth. The Tang Army still maintained a beautiful formation, but cold sweat began to ooze from the foreheads of many people, and they watched as this cloud of black smoke and dust approached step by step, and finally stopped in front of them, and the tips of countless spears were trembling slightly.

The iron cavalry suddenly rushed out of the dust and smoke, and rushed all over the world, like a storm of iron, where the storm swept away, all resistance ended. In the blink of an eye, the array was scattered, and the Tang army was routed on all fronts, covered with dead bodies and discarded spears and shields. This is not a battle, but a massacre.

This army is not the opponent of the wolves at all, the 60,000 troops under Feng Changqing are all hastily recruited Luoyang militia, a group of rabble, and they are powerless to resist the impact of the iron cavalry, but Feng Changqing still refuses to give up.

He gathered up the remnants of his army, fought again in Kwai Yuan, and was defeated again, and was defeated again at the Upper East Gate, and was replaced by other generals, and he had already collapsed completely. But Feng Changqing just refused to give up, he knew that he would definitely lose, but he kept fighting like crazy. He fought five times in a row and lost five times in a row, and finally he had to tear down the city wall and escape from Luoyang.

In order to stop the enemy, he had people cut down trees and block the road, and only a few were able to escape, and the 60,000-strong army was almost completely slaughtered. It was snowing heavily, a foot thick, and in the misty snow mist, there was crimson blood everywhere, and eventually more snowflakes were sadly sprinkled, covering up these scarlet blood plum blossoms.

The Battle of Luoyang ended dismally, and the first line of defense of the empire collapsed, and at this time, it was only a short thirty-four days before Fan Yang raised his army. Feng Changqing ran all the way to Shaanxi County, where there was Gao Xianzhi's main force, and he stood in front of Gao Xianzhi with blood stains: "The bloody battle for days is useless, Luoyang has fallen." ”

For Gao Xianzhi, this was really a bolt from the blue, the defeat came too quickly, and no one expected that Feng Changqing's army would be so vulnerable. It seems that the rebels are much stronger than expected, and now that their 50,000 troops are trapped in the wolves, there may be no bones left, Gao Xianzhi looked at Feng Changqing in a daze, his mind was in chaos.

At this time, Feng Changqing made a suggestion, a life-threatening suggestion: "Return to Tongguan." ”

If the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan is a box, then Tongguan is the key to open this box. The Yellow River surging down from the north, and the Qinling Mountains in the south to meet, after being blocked by the Qinling Mountains, the Yellow River began to bend to the east, the Yellow River and the Qinling Mountains collided, leaving a small gap, it is Tongguan. Tongguan is sandwiched between the mountains and the big river, the danger is extremely precipitous, there is a saying that the door is closed and strangles Kyushu Island, and the birds can not pass. This small gap blocked the passage into the pass.

Feng Changqing asked to withdraw from such a place, and he made a fierce statement: "This 50,000 army has only a dead end in this decisive battle, but it is more than enough to hold Tongguan, and with natural danger, An Lushan can be completely kept out." Shaanxi County cannot be defended, nor is it worth defending, there is only one place worth defending, that is, Tongguan, which is the hub of destiny. ”

Gao Xianzhi hesitated.

At this moment, An Lushan's army is galloping towards Shaanxi County, and time is passing by minute by second, and a few hours of hesitation may bring about annihilation. Gao Xianzhi paced back and forth anxiously, and the invisible god of fate hovered and flew above him. At this critical juncture. The life and death of the empire is between Gao Xianzhi's thoughts.

Gao Xianzhi was not a timid person, but at this moment he was timid, and his cowardice saved the army. Gao Xianzhi finally ordered the whole army to withdraw to Tongguan.

Before leaving, Gao Xianzhi opened the warehouse and distributed the money inside to everyone. In the raging flames, Gao Xianzhi's army retreated to the west, and the local civilians also fled. The road from Shaanxi County to Tongguan is full of refugees and soldiers. Everyone's faces were pale and panicked. Behind them was a black pillar of smoke over Shaanxi County, and behind the pillar of smoke was the roaring Fan Yang Iron Horseman.

It was already late in the retreat, the rebel vanguard followed, and the army behind the palace was raided, trampled by men and horses, and suffered heavy casualties. If the main force of the rebels did not stop in Luoyang and pursued at full speed, Gao Xianzhi would probably be wiped out, but the rebels only sent forwards, and the Tang army finally stumbled away from the pursuit.

The gate of Tongguan was opened, and the surging flow of people rushed in. It's safe, it's finally safe, everyone including Gao Xianzhi breathed a sigh of relief, they finally broke through the road of death, and the wolves were locked out. Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing didn't dare to waste time, and immediately organized a defense, and sure enough, An Lushan's forward troops quickly attacked Tongguan. Here they suffered their first defeat, and the Iron Cavalry that swept across the Central Plains was defeated in front of Tongguan, where the terrain was too dangerous for the rebels to cross the Thunder Pond.

Everything now depends on this little threshold. Tongguan is the shield of Chang'an, a gift from God to Guanzhong, which blocked thousands of troops from the east for the empire.

An Lushan's army was like a raging iron stream, washing through Hebei and Henan, flooding countless famous cities and giant towns, until it rushed to the bottom of Tongguan City, and then it roared and retreated. This majestic pass between the mountains and the river cuts off the torrent of iron, and no one can cross this moat.

Chang'an was finally safe, the empire survived the crisis, and it won the most precious thing - time. The power of the empire was slowly gathering, thousands of new troops were marching to the front, and the Shuofang army in the northwest also began to advance to the east, attacking the flank of An Lushan, and the most terrible moment passed.

But Gao Xianzhi was faintly panicked, on the way to Tongguan, a thought kept lingering in his mind: how to give up Shaanxi County without a war, how to explain to the emperor? But he didn't have time to think about it carefully, he could only rely on his intuition and make what he thought was the most reasonable decision.

Then I hoped that Tang Xuanzong could understand him, but he was wrong.