When the Tang Dynasty monarchs and ministers hurriedly dispatched troops, the hundreds of thousands of rebels in An Lushan had already stormed in the southwest and two directions. In less than half a month, the rebel generals under An Lushan, Shi Siming, Cai Xide, Gao Xiuyan, Niu Tingjie, and Ling Huchao attacked together, sweeping a large area of Hedong Province and Henan Province.

More than a dozen state capitals east of Luoyang were not garrisoned, and when they heard that the rebels were attacking, the generals and lords defending the city either fled, surrendered the city, or died in battle. The rebels were like a flood and an unstoppable beast, and soon included more than a dozen state capitals east of Luoyang.

Severe cold snow and heavy snow. It is the harshest season of the year. But the people of the land occupied by the rebels had to leave their homes and start a mass exodus. Because An Lushan's soldiers and horses burned, killed and looted all kinds of evil, especially those soldiers and horses of the Hu tribe in the north who rebelled with An Lushan, they were even more ferocious, and they did not take the so-called military order of not disturbing the people and not killing indiscriminately set by An Lushan in their eyes. They plundered, killed, set fire, and raped everything. But An Lushan also turned a blind eye, and needed to rely on their strength, An Lushan could only choose to indulge them.

In the snowstorm, the people fled their homes in a hurry, and they instinctively chose to go in the direction of Luoyang, the only place they could go to at the moment that seemed to be sheltered. Because to the south, the Yellow River is surging, and there is no big state capital to shelter it. And to the west to the east of Luoyang, the capital of Chang'an, the capital of Chang'an, is in the west, there is hope.

A hundred miles east of Luoyang, the avenue leading to Luoyang is covered with ice and snow. In the white snow, the black-pressed procession of fleeing people stretched for more than ten miles. In the procession, the coughing of the elderly and the crying of babies sounded from time to time. But other than that, there was a dead silence except for the sound of footsteps. The expressions of the people were confused, they didn't know why they lived a good and stable life, and then there was nothing left overnight, and they fell to such a point.

Because of the haste of the escape, many people did not bring enough dry food and clothing, and under the severe cold, countless corpses fell along the way to Luoyang. At first, the rest of the people greeted and comforted the families of the deceased. But as more and more people starved to death and froze to death along the way, the people also became numb. They don't know if such a fate will happen to them next.

A woman staggered through the snow with a baby in her arms, and the baby in her arms had been crying all the way, and now the cry was very weak. Because of the severe cold, the baby's face was already blue and his breath was weak. The mother noticed that the baby was not in the right condition and hurriedly asked the people around her for help.

"Uncle and aunt, help me see what's wrong with this child? Help me see, what's wrong with my baby? ”

An old woman glanced at it and shook her head and said, "No, this kid can't hold on." Dig a snow pit and bury it. ”

The woman exclaimed and shook her head, "No, no." My husband has such blood and blood left, he is a regimental training soldier in Qizhou City, and he died in a battle with the rebels, and left a message asking me to save his blood and bones, and asked me to take refuge in Luoyang. If this child is gone, how can I explain it to him? How can I be worthy of him. ”

"Hey, this can't be helped, this kid hasn't eaten for a long time, you feed him milk, adults can't stand it, let alone children." The old woman sighed.

The woman burst into tears: "I myself have not stuck to my teeth for two days and two nights, how can I have milk. Water to feed him? Auntie, you can do well, give a handful of rice, and I will boil some rice soup to save this child. ”

The old woman sighed, "Where did I get to eat, I ran out of dry food last night, and I only ate a few handfuls of snow today." I don't know if I can escape to the Eastern Capital. ”

The woman pleaded to the people who were hobbling around, "Which elder brother and sister-in-law will do well, and give a handful of rice to save my child." ”

The surrounding people walked by silently, and although there was pity in their eyes, no one stretched out their hands. Many of them had nothing to eat at all, and they fled for more than ten days without anything to eat. Second, even if there is still some leftover, the road ahead is long, and it will take many days to go to Luoyang, and it is not enough for yourself, how can you give alms to others.

The woman cried out in despair, without anything in return. The woman collapsed in the snow and lost her voice in agony, holding her child, who was about to freeze to death and starving, and cried loudly, but there was no echo except the whistling of the wind and snow.

A middle-aged man in a shabby cotton robe on the side of the road had been stopping to watch all this, his eyes full of pain. Finally, he walked up to the woman and whispered, "Sister-in-law, get up quickly, the snow is cold, if you are gone, the child will not be able to live." ”

The woman looked at the middle-aged man with a tearful face, and the middle-aged man reached into his arms, groped for a small piece of bread, and whispered, "That's all I have, melt it with saliva and feed it to this child." Find a sheltered place and start a fire, maybe you can save the child's life. ”

The woman knelt down and kowtowed, and called Engong. The middle-aged man hurriedly said: "Don't be like this, it's important to save the child quickly." This cotton coat is also given to you, and you wear it to wrap around your child, so that you can keep warm. ”

As he spoke, the middle-aged man dragged off his cotton robe and draped it over the woman. The woman hurriedly said, "No, you will freeze to death." ”

The middle-aged man smiled and said, "In such a world, what is the difference between life and death?" Besides, I am even strong, but I am not as strong as you women and children, even weak. Don't excuse yourself, put it on. ”

Tears welled up in the woman's eyes, and she knelt on her knees and kowtowed like pounding garlic. The middle-aged man turned around and walked forward, and the woman behind him shouted: "Engong, can you tell me the name and surname, in the future, when this child grows up, I will ask him to thank Engong for saving his life." Engong doesn't say his name and surname, we can't feel at ease with this clothes and food, and we can't report it in the future. ”

The middle-aged man turned around and smiled: "What a kindness and retribution, yes, you have to tell your child to be a person who knows how to repay kindness and righteousness in the future." I tell you my name, not to repay you, but to let your children know how to repay it. My surname is Du and my name is Du Fu. ”

Five days later, Du Fu arrived in Luoyang and temporarily gained a foothold under the reception of his friends in Luoyang. But when he saw that the wealthy families in Luoyang did not know that danger was coming, and they were still living a drunken and gold-obsessed life, he remembered the frozen corpses and starvation on the road to Luoyang, so he angrily wrote the famous sentence of 'Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road'. And Du Fu didn't know that the group of orphans and widows he rescued on the road did not arrive in Luoyang. That night, the baby froze to death, and the woman was found frozen to death in the snow the next morning. And the cotton robe he gave to the woman was also stripped off by the fleeing homeless and passed on her body, and she was missing.

……

On September 21, the twelfth day after the An Lushan Rebellion, Feng Changqing arrived in Luoyang City with the high hopes of the imperial court and only more than 100 guards and horses who followed him back to Beijing from the northwest. He had a huge responsibility on his shoulders, that is, to raise a soldier and horse in Luoyang to defend Luoyang out of nothing before Gao Xianzhi arrived.

On the afternoon of the day he arrived in Luoyang, Feng Changqing met with Yin Da Xi Xun of Henan, Li Cheng of the Eastern Capital, and Lu Yi, the middle of the imperial history, and other senior officials in Luoyang to discuss the defense of Luoyang. The situation was much worse than Feng Changqing thought, I thought that the soldiers and horses gathered to Luoyang from all over the country at this time would have a certain scale and number, but in fact, with the original 20,000 defenders of Luoyang, Luoyang City at this time was only 35,000 people. And the surging rebel army has hundreds of thousands of people, which simply cannot be held.

Henan Yin Da Xi Xun frowned, facing Feng Changqing's single coming, he was extremely disappointed. I thought that the imperial court would mobilize heavy troops to come to reinforcements, but a deputy envoy of Anxi came alone. In terms of fame, he is not as good as Gao Xianzhi and Wang Yuan, who have become famous in recent years, and in terms of ability, I have not heard that he has made any great achievements.

"General Feng, I think that Luoyang may be difficult to hold. We have no soldiers in our hands, and to fight the rebels is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg. In my opinion, we should abandon Luoyang and retreat westward to defend the capital, and it is only right to concentrate our forces to defend the capital. If General Feng thinks that his proposal is reasonable, how about we jointly go to the court and ask to give up Luoyang? ”

Da Xixun came up with this kind of tone, which made Feng Changqing very surprised. It turned out that not only Luoyang was short of troops, but even the officials in the city already had this kind of inevitable defeat.

"What are these words, Da Xixun, I am staying in the Eastern Capital, and I have the final say in Luoyang. In the imperial court, General Feng was sent to Luoyang to defend the city, and then General Gao Xianzhi would lead reinforcements to come, how could you say such frustrating words at this time? This made the soldiers and civilians in the city hear it, where is there still half a point of heart? Li Cheng frowned.

"Li Taishou, I'm telling the truth. I know that the court intends to delay the rebels and wait for reinforcements to arrive. However, it was at least a month or two later that troops and horses were drawn from Jiannan, Hexi, Longyou and other places to arrive here. That's just an empty phrase. By then, I'm afraid Luoyang will have been lost. I also want to hold Luoyang, but what about the soldiers? Didn't Bing say anything? Anyone can say big things. Da Xixun said.

"You can't say that, General Feng came to recruit troops in Luoyang, and now the refugees are flocking into Luoyang, just to get shelter in Luoyang, can these fleeing people not be able to breathe, so they want to flee again? This is not what you, Henan Daoyin, should say. Lu Yi said in a deep voice.

"It is for the sake of these refugees that we have to give up Luoyang. Don't let them leave at this time, and when Luoyang City is broken, they will have nowhere to escape. What I'm saying is the truth, I'm not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, I'm thinking about the overall situation. Da Xixun suffered the opposition of the two chief officials, in fact, he was also empty in his heart, but he still insisted on it.

Feng Changqing waved his hand and said: "The three of them are all for the sake of the overall situation, and there is no harm in arguing. But the three of them must understand a truth, no matter what, His Majesty and the imperial court's faction Feng came to recruit troops to defend Luoyang. Can you hold it, how can you know if you don't fight? The rebels are powerful, but what is there? The scene I Feng Changqing has seen is no smaller than what is in front of me. In this case, I will be in charge of recruiting troops with all my strength from today onwards, and Lee Taishou and Da Dao Yin must fully assist me. Refugees are pouring into Luoyang, and this is a good time for us to recruit. At this time, having a bite of food will attract people to join the army. Lu Zhongcheng was responsible for pacifying and arranging these refugees to ensure that there would be no chaos in the city. The four of us work together, and we may be able to do something. Time is pressing, and the rebels will arrive in Luoyang within half a month, so we only have half a month. Stop arguing and keep your head down in your work, otherwise you can blame me for being unkind. ”

Feng Changqing's words are knotty, soft and hard. Da Xixun knew Feng Changqing's current identity, but he didn't dare to refute it. Feng Changqing immediately devoted himself to the affairs of recruiting soldiers, he believed that things were done by people, and as long as he did his best, there would definitely be a turnaround.