(2-in-1)

In the following year, Yan Zhenqing began to hoard a large number of food and materials, registering the number of strong men in the people of Pingyuan City, and preparing for what he was worried about. Pingyuan City is a small inland city, the city defense is very weak, Yan Zhenqing organized the people to strengthen the city wall fortifications on the grounds of flood control and waterlogging, digging deep and digging wide moats. And Yan Zhenqing is also very ingenious, the plain city is flat and stoneless, in order to hoard the bricks and stones that defend the city, he used the characteristics of the local brick kilns to fire a bowl-shaped round giant brick. If these bricks were placed on the main roads inside and outside the city, they would have made the flat avenues potholed, making it difficult for horses to penetrate them. In wartime, it can be arranged on the main road at any time, in order to deal with the cavalry of An Lushan. He also named the brick 'Tripping Horse Stone'. And these stumbling stones are piled up at the head of the city, and they can be used as stones for defense and siege, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

Of course, all these things were carried out secretly by Yan Zhenqing, or under the pretext of a high-sounding reason. Because An Lushan was cunning and suspicious, the more he was about to rebel, the more he would pay close attention to the movements of officials in his territory. Yan Zhenqing disguised it very well, while secretly completing these preparations, on the surface, he feasted and entertained and recited poems and texts, and invited scribes to play everywhere, giving An Lushan the illusion that he would only enjoy the mountains and rivers.

During this period, in order to raise troops smoothly, An Lushan once sent people to inspect the movements of various state capitals and counties on a large scale. Two of his henchmen, Yan Kuan and Li Shiyu, came to Pingyuan City to inspect. Yan Zhenqing personally accompanied the whole process, and after greeting him with good wine and food, he did not take the two to inspect the places of the city defense warehouse, but in the name of catching the wind, he took the two to visit places of interest and historic sites, and invited many local scribes and celebrities to accompany them. During the banquet, the celebrities and literati wrote a lot of poems and essays for the two to appreciate and appreciate. These two people have no interest in these things, but they have to deal with it for the sake of face, and they have a lot of foreign appearances. After returning to their residence in the evening, Yan Zhenqing told them that more celebrities and scholars would come to visit them the next day, which made both of them worried.

Early the next morning, the two of them fled and left, they could dance with knives and guns, but it was a fatal thing to dance and ink. After the two went back, they told An Lushan that this Yan Zhenqing was just a boring scribe, and he was busy traveling around the mountains and rivers all day long, so he didn't have to worry about him at all.

Yan Zhenqing used his unique means and wisdom to actively prepare for war under An Lushan's nose. In just over a year, Yan Zhenqing built this small city on the plain with weak defenses into a fortress with iron walls.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is an iron wall. The moat outside the plain city was widened to more than 20 zhang wide and more than 2 zhang deep. The walls of the entire plain city were almost completely renovated and reinforced, and the outer walls were raised to an unprecedented height of four zhang and a width of two zhang. It was twice as tall and twice as wide as the original wall.

Let me give you an example of how strong the walls of a small city on the plains were. The highest part of the wall of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty is three zhang and eight feet, which is only the height near the left side of the city gate, and the height of most city walls is only less than three zhang. In other words, the height of the walls of Pingyuan City is higher than that of Chang'an City. Although they are all rammed earth mud and rammed earth barriers, compared with the masonry and rammed earth walls of Chang'an City, the strength is quite different. But as a small city with a population of only more than 30,000 people and a radius of less than six or seven miles, this kind of city defense is already appalling.

That's all. In addition to the heightened outer walls, two additional inner walls were built along the middle street of the city. The height and width of these two interior walls are not as high as those of the exterior walls. But it can be defended just as well. In the middle of the interior wall was a storehouse of supplies and food, and a large number of houses were built around it for the people to live in. The intention is obvious, once the outer wall is breached, Yan Zhenqing will shrink the inner wall to defend. And it can still keep the people safe.

There are various other arrangements, but there is no need to repeat them one by one. All in all, in the hands of Yan Zhenqing, Pingyuan City has changed from a small city with weak city defenses to a fortress on the plain. Yan Zhenqing used his almost paranoid attitude to arm this small city to the teeth.

At the end of the eighth year of Tianbao, An Lushan really rebelled. When the news came, Yan Zhenqing didn't know whether to be happy or sad. He didn't want his preparations to come in handy, but when it happened, he had to rely on his own preparations to fight the rebels.

After receiving the news, Yan Zhenqing immediately summoned all the regimental training and garrisons of the seven counties under the jurisdiction of Pingyuan County, including Anling, Changhe, and Pingchang Jiangling, to Pingyuan City, and obtained 3,500 soldiers and horses. He also ordered all the people under the jurisdiction of the seven counties to settle in the plain city, and at the same time launched a recruitment operation.

Thanks to the registration of the county's strong population in the early stage, the recruitment of troops went very smoothly, and in the ten days after the arrival of An Lushan's army, Yan Zhenqing already had a soldier and horse of tens of thousands of people in his hands, and he was ready for battle.

An Lushan's army swept all the way from the northeast, and the state capitals near the left fled or surrendered one after another, like a wind sweeping away the grass, from north to south, more than a dozen counties and state capitals fell into the hands of the enemy. On the tenth day after An Lushan raised his army, the rebel soldiers and horsemen who attacked all the way south approached the city of the plain.

When the rebels raised their troops, the people also understood why this Yan Taishou stubbornly asked everyone to build such a high wall, dig such a deep trench, and prepare so much food. That's because Yan Taishou has already counted it to today. But even if Yan Taishou cleverly predicted that today, facing the situation of the army pressing, the people were still extremely panicked. Faced with the siege of nearly 60,000 troops led by An Lushan's Hu fierce general Kang Wuyebo, no one dared to say that this small city would withstand the attack of the rebels.

And Kang Wuyebo had already put down his words before the siege of the city, if he surrendered, the people of the whole city could live, if he did not surrender, the city would be slaughtered after the city was broken, and no men, women and children would be left. This made the people in the city even more panicked.

Yan Zhenqing understood the panic of the people, and he summoned the soldiers and horses of the whole city on the square of the east gate of Pingyuan City to hold a pledge meeting. Yan Zhenqing made a generous speech at the oath meeting, exposing An Lushan's conspiracy to raise troops, and telling the people that An Lushan wanted to be the emperor, not some Qing monarch. Expose An Lushan's lies in public. On that day, Yan Zhenqing, who was a scholar, shouted a heaven-shattering voice. 'The grace of the country, the death of the dead, there is no such report!'' How can anyone endure great rebellion? You must do your best, Gong Xingtian!' These words came out of Yan Zhenqing's mouth, which greatly boosted the morale of the army and the people.

Kang did not persuade Yebo to surrender to no avail, so he launched a siege operation, and the rebels who were overwhelming along the way did not take this small city into account at all, they almost attacked the city in an unscrupulous way, and even did not have a good organization and planning at all. Then, without any suspense, they were hit head-on. On that day, the rebels suffered more than 4,000 casualties, but they did not even attack the city wall once.

After this battle, the morale of the soldiers and civilians of the plains was greatly boosted. Kang was furious and launched an even more fierce attack the next day. After a day and a night of onslaught, Kang Nobo finally understood that he had encountered a hard bone. The fully prepared Plains City is not at all what his 50,000 soldiers and horses can attack, a day and a night of siege, countless corpses are covered under the city, but the Plains City is still standing, and there is no hope of breaking the city at all.

At that time, the main army was sweeping to the southwest and approaching Luoyang, An Lushan issued an order to all soldiers and horses to quickly advance towards Luoyang to conquer Luoyang, Kang Wuyebo had to obey the order and let his 25,000 soldiers and horses rush to Luoyang immediately. But Kang did not leave, he led 20,000 soldiers and horses to stay under the city of Pingyuan, and his mission was to clean up all the state capitals on the north bank of the Yellow River.

Kang did not understand that it was indeed difficult to conquer the hard attack, because there was a strong city defense to resist. But to deal with such a small city, in fact, it is only necessary to trap them. They were no rivals when they left the city, so they did not dare to leave the city, so they could only stay in the city. And for tens of thousands of people in the city to eat and drink, how many reserves can there be in the city? In a month or two at most, the city will be breached.

As a result, Kang Wuyebo besieged Plains City while capturing the surrounding state capitals. But he had no way to take the Plains City.

When most of the state capitals in Hebei Province were shattered by the momentum of the rebels, Plains City was like a pillar in the midst of the stormy waves. And, with Plains City as an example, the surrounding state capitals began to follow suit. Raoyang Taishou Lu Quancheng, Jinan Taishou Li Sui, Jingcheng Sima Li, Yejun Taishou Wang Tao and others all began to raise troops to resist, and Yan Zhenqing's actions seemed to have become a benchmark that could be emulated.

However, they were not prepared and were quickly defeated by the rebels. But even so, the actions of Yan Zhenqing and others still played a role in containing the rebels and bought valuable time for the imperial court to mobilize troops and horses. Although in the end, it was the imperial court that destroyed the Great Wall and lost two capitals, but this could not erase the credit of the rebels in the rear.

When Tongguan was defeated and the capital was lost, the surging resistance in the rear was also extinguished one by one by some of the rebels' soldiers and horses. Many generals of the state capital, including Yan Zhenqing's cousin Yan Gaoqing, were exterminated by the rebels. Only Yan Zhenqing and his Plains City remained, like an isolated island on the sea, holding on alone. If it weren't for An Lushan Shi Siming's goal to seize Xuanzong and completely destroy the Tang Dynasty, so that a large number of soldiers and horses were mobilized in front, as long as the army turned back, there would be no reason for the Plains City to exist. But under the misfortune, Plains City still stands here. It's just that after eight or nine months of perseverance, Plains City has been devastated and exhausted. Except for Yan Zhenqing's brave and tenacious heart, there is not much else left.

……

The afterglow of the setting sun dissipated, and the heat on the earth began to dissipate. At the head of the plain city, a fierce siege battle has just ended. The rebels besieging the city were slowly retreating after leaving behind hundreds of corpses. The thousands of plain county defenders at the head of the city finally recovered from the heavy pressure, and were busy cleaning up the mess at the head of the city, silently carrying away the corpses, and packing up the weapons and blades that were all over the place. Everyone's faces were expressionless, and even the wounded soldiers didn't say a word, without a ** voice or a voice.

It was the heaviest siege of Plains County in recent months. In the past, the rebels under the city did not attack the city violently, but only approached with bows and arrows, waiting for an opportunity to approach the city. Once they encountered too much resistance, they retreated and did not attack. But today they attacked the city several times a day, and each time they were fierce, which was very different from what they had done before. This made the thousands of soldiers defending the city a little overwhelmed. After all, after defending the city for months, everyone was tired, and even those who were beaten with iron could not stand it.

The entire city has undergone numerous attacks during the nine months of defending the city. These numerous attacks, fierce or not-so-violent, were already scarring the walls and gates. Because the drought and dry moats can no longer act as a barrier. The city gate drawbridge has long been destroyed, and the city gate is full of mottled traces of rushing cars, and everything is in danger. Therefore, the defenders of the city must go all out.

Every time such an attack was made, many people died at the head of the city, and many were wounded. Therefore, the soldiers, who have been tormented by this attack many times, have become numb and commonplace. Dead people are nothing, but the bigger crisis is not the cost of the city's broken defenses and the cost of dozens of people killed without a fight, but the gradual depletion of food and supplies. This was the last straw that brought Plains City to the brink of despair.

Yan Zhenqing, the plain guard, was slowly walking down the stairs of the Nancheng City Tower. Just after the battle, he was also extremely tired, and his whole person walked in a fluctuating manner. If Wang Yuan was here at this time, he would definitely not recognize this as the personable Yan Zhenqing he knew.

Now Yan Zhenqing's face is black, thin and dry, her cheeks are sunken, and the skin on her face is loose, forming wrinkled furrows. In the past, Yan Zhenqing was a person with a round face, a calm demeanor, and a calm bearing, but now Yan Zhenqing frowned, and there was anxiety between his eyebrows that could not be concealed. However, compared with the previous Yan Zhenqing, the eyes of this Yan Zhenqing in front of him are less easy-going at the beginning, and more resolute and resolute.

Yan Zhenqing, who was walking down the stairs, walked down step by step, and suddenly his eyes were dark, his feet staggered, and his body fell forward. Li Ze, who was following behind him and joined the army, quickly hugged Yan Zhenqing's waist, which prevented Yan Zhenqing from rolling down the stone steps.

"Yan Taishou, Yan Taishou, what's wrong with you? Are you okay. He Lin, Xu Hao, Ma Xiangru, Gao Kanglang and others who followed in the rear hurriedly rushed forward, helped Yan Zhenqing to sit down on the stone steps, and asked one after another. He Lin, Xu Hao and others are all commanders under Yan Zhenqing, and these people are all brave warriors of Pingyuan County who were appointed and promoted by Yan Zhenqing when they were recruited.

"I'm fine." Yan Zhenqing gasped slightly, closed his eyes and waved his hand: "Don't make a fuss, don't let the soldiers in the city know, you still think something happened." ”

"They are all hungry, Yan Taishou only drank a bowl of gruel from morning to night, how can this be done? Even the iron body can't stand it. Yan Taishou, you can't stop eating, otherwise something will happen. Li Zejiao, who joined the army, shook his head and sighed.

Yan Zhenqing smiled and said, "I don't shoot arrows to fight, why do I eat so much?" Soldiers need strength to fight, so they need to eat more. The old and weak women and children in the city can't bear their bodies, so they need to be fed. I'm hungry twice like this, so what's the point? ”

Li Ze said: "Yan Taishou, the food is exhausted, and the soldiers and civilians in the whole city are starving, but anyone can starve, you can't starve." You are the backbone of our army and people, if you are hungry, what will the people of the city do? ”

Yan Zhenqing sighed and said, "Help me up, let's go back and discuss." The city has been without food for two days, and there is only one way to die if it goes on like this, and I am afraid that it will be like a solution. ”

Everyone helped Yan Zhenqing up, descended the steps step by step, and walked along the messy street to the Taishou Yamen. Yan Zhenqing slowly looked at the dark, skinny people on both sides of the street, her face was extremely painful. In the shade of a tree by the side of the road, a woman sat in a daze with two children in her arms, who were whimpering and crying out for hunger.

Yan Zhenqing walked over slowly, and the woman recognized Yan Zhenqing, and hurriedly got up and saluted: "The slave has seen Yan Taishou." ”

Yan Zhenqing nodded, looked at the two crying children and said, "Are the two children hungry and have nothing to eat?" Why don't you go to the Yamen Relief Office to receive the donated rice? It's not much, but it's better than nothing. ”

The woman hurriedly said, "Thank you Yan Taishou, we didn't go to get it." ”

Yan Zhenqing was stunned and said, "Why is that?" Is too little enough to eat? That's also something that can't be helped, now there are only those, leading to boil some porridge and rice, it's better than nothing. ”

The woman hurriedly said, "No, no, it's already thankful to have a bite to eat at this time, why are you still picking?" We just didn't get it. ”

Yan Zhenqing frowned and said, "What the hell is going on?" Are they not giving you food? Li Zejiao, go find out what's going on? Who is so bold as to withhold the people's relief food? ”

Li Ze hurriedly said: "Gong Yan, no one dares to deduct it, and no one will disobey Taishou's order." ”

Yan Zhenqing said: "Then what's going on?" Could it be that I am going to starve to death in Plains City? ”

Li Zejiao wanted to speak and stopped, but the woman hurriedly spoke: "Taishou don't blame the military masters, it's true that we didn't get it." Not only did we not go, but the villagers in the whole city did not go to receive food. ”

Yan Zhenqing was surprised: "Why is that?" ”

The woman said in a low voice: "The villagers have all discussed, and they all know that there is no food in the city, so how can the remaining villagers bear to divide it." Everyone would rather go hungry than feed the desperate soldiers at the head of the city and kill the enemy. Rather we starve