In December of the first year of Germany, Li Qing sent the generals Li Siye and Bai Yuanguang to lead 100,000 troops, and at the same time, Li Guangbi also sent his generals Ge Shuyao and Ma Lan to lead 30,000 troops to assist in the attack, and it took only two days for Li Siye's army to break through Weizhou, the rebel Xue Song was captured alive, and his 30,000 rebels were also annihilated.

In December, Li Guangbi's 80,000 horses and Li Qing's 300,000 troops officially began to besiege Xiangzhou, and until five days later, Li Qing never gave the order to start the attack.

The nearly 100,000 horses of the Lianghuai forces are like a big cake he swallows, which needs time to digest slowly, he did not kill Tian Shengong and others, but exchanged their lives for the cooperation of their military horses.

Li Qing first started with Tian Shengong's army, all the senior officers were transferred to the main camp to wait for posts in the form of promotion or transfer to local officials, and then dispersed their troops and establishments, and extracted the strong to supplement the Anxi army, and the old and weak people were disarmed and returned to the field, and then Li Huan's army, followed by Xu Shuji, one by one, the two Huai forces disappeared, and as for some local remnant troops, it was an errand handed over to Lu and Xi Yuanqing.

Early in the morning, a cavalry of about 500 people bypassed Xiangzhou City and rushed towards the southern camp of the Tang Army.

The leader was a soldier of about fifty years old, his expression was stern and his eyes were sharp, it was Li Guangbi, the general who crossed Hebei, and the place where he went was Li Qing's camp, and he was a general who led the army abroad to see the right minister of the Tang Dynasty and the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses.

Of course. Discussing military information is also an important goal, and Li Guangbi thought that the city of Xiangzhou was tall and had a lot of grain in stock. Siege is not the best way to go. Now the strength of the Tang army is far greater than that of the other side. Attacking the city and solving it quickly is the only way to solve the problem.

Horses are galloping. Li Guangbi's heart was a little heavy, he had already received the news that Li Qing was marching all the way east. First, in Lingbao, 100,000 Hedong troops such as Changsun Quanxu were collected. Immediately, he designed in Heyang to put Tian Shengong and other two Huai armies under his own. Now the Tang army in various places is in addition to his Li Qing's army of more than 300,000. There are only 80,000 troops left in his own land, and Li Qing's next target must be himself. But how is he going to settle himself? Will he let himself go for once? With doubts and confusion. Li Guangbi decided to visit Li Qing in person.

When he came to the Nanda camp, the soldiers told him that the general was in the west camp, and Li Guangbi led his men to the west camp and marched to the gate of the camp. Li Guangbi ordered people to report it. After a while, Li Qing personally came to the gate to greet him. Li Guangbi turned over and dismounted, and walked a few steps to Li Dian and knelt down. A military salute said: "Fan Yang Jie Du makes Li Guangbi see the generalissimo!" ”

Li Qing hurriedly helped him up. He said with a smile: "Brother Guangbi swept through Hedong and Hebei. Make an immortal contribution to my Datang. I should have saluted you. ”

Li Guangbi also smiled: "Xiangguo blocked Cui Qianyou and turned the tide of the Tang Dynasty. How can I compare with Li Guangbi? Back then, General Wang Zhongsi once said to me. The right minister will become the pillar of my Tang Dynasty, and now it seems that General Wang is really a discerning person. ”

"Alright. Let's not flatter each other. If you keep talking, the sky is going to fall. Li Qing said, glanced at Li Guangbi, and both of them laughed.

Laughter. Li Guangbi's mood relaxed slightly. He saw a kind of sincerity in Li Qingdi's eyes. He ordered 500 troops and horses to wait outside, and he and Li Qing entered the camp.

There were not many soldiers in the battalion. Most of them are craftsmen, and they are busy in an orderly manner. Huge machinery such as ladders and battering rams can be found everywhere.

While passing through a clearing. Li Guangbi suddenly saw a huge stone thrower, which was more than five feet high. Dozens of craftsmen are carrying out the final inspection and debugging, and he himself has used a large stone throwing machine in the battle with Shi Siming, which is as high as three zhang, and it took two hundred people to pull it at that time, which is one size smaller than the current one.

Li Qing saw that there was a strong interest in his eyes, so he smiled and patted him on the shoulder, and brought him to the stone thrower, "I heard that Guangbi used a stone thrower in Taiyuan and killed tens of thousands of enemies, come and see how my stone thrower is?" ”

Li Guangbi looked left and right three times, frowned and said: "This kind of giant stone thrower is good for defending the city, the attack is dense and the enemy army is extremely lethal, but it is used for siege. With all due respect, the city wall of Xiangzhou is tall and strong, I am afraid it will be difficult to shake, but the city can be attacked, and most of the people killed and injured are ordinary people, if you attack the city gate with a thunderbolt, the effect may be better. ”

"Guangbi only knows one thing, I don't know the other, come! Come and see what this is? Li Qing led Li Guangbi into a lonely stone house, only to see that the room was full of dustpans, which contained black powder, and in the corner of the room there was a row of huge red projectiles, each the size of a grinding disc, and a dozen craftsmen were busy in the stone house, and one of its old men was carefully adding black powder to a thin embroidery tube with a graduated funnel.

"Is this the gunpowder used by Xiangguo? I also used this thing when attacking Youzhou, in addition to the sound and the air wave is a little louder, the lethality is not strong, and it is extremely difficult to control, and the slightest negligence will hurt your own people, it is better to use the boulder directly. ”

Li Guangbi walked up to the old man, grabbed a handful from the dustpan beside him, and slid down from his fingers like sesame seeds, almost every grain of gunpowder was the same size, round and round, completely different from the coarse gunpowder he used.

Li Qing introduced to him with a smile: "This is sifted out with a very small amount, mainly used to make twisting, to control the burning time!" ”

"Twist?" Li Guangbi nodded and said: "This is indeed the most difficult place to control, either it will explode in advance, or it will be extinguished when it is thrown into the enemy, or it will burn for a long time, and it will be cut off by the enemy, so I don't use it in the end." ”

As he spoke, he flicked the black projectile with his fingers, and there was a buzzing sound inside, it was actually made of ceramics, and it seemed to be a double-layer structure inside, Li Guangbi glanced at Li Qing with suspicion, meaning to say, "Is this okay?" ”

Li Qing only smiled and did not speak, at this time. There was a cheer outside, and a soldier hurried to report: "General." The stone thrower has been successfully commissioned! ”

"Guangbi came at the right time today. Come with me to try it out. I'm sure you'll be blown away! Li Qingdi's eyes were full of a mysterious smile, and he pulled Li Guangbi and strode out.

The northwest wind hunted, and the stone thrower, draped in a huge black curtain, rumbled out of the camp gate. It was just upwind, the wind was blowing strongly, and the sand was full of dust. The stone thrower slowly pushed in the direction of Xiangzhou City. Dust shrouded it. Look at it from afar. As if a giant beast had come from the wilderness, nearly a thousand Tang soldiers followed it to cover its way.

Li Guangbi and Li Qing followed. From time to time, his gaze swept over to a flatbed. It contained four huge earth projectiles. The thick and long twist looks like a braid.

The stone thrower stopped until it was two thousand steps away from the city wall, and on the opposite side was a long city wall, far from the city gate, and the soldiers in the city had already discovered the situation, but because there were not many Tang troops from the land. There was no major commotion in the enemy forces either. Most of them gathered at the head of the city to look down in amazement, and no one dared to go out of the city easily.

He did not speak, but looked closely at the soldier. I saw the soldiers pulling the ropes of the curtain. The huge curtain resembles a kite. Drifting towards Xiangzhou City, revealing the hideous face of the stone thrower. There was an exclamation from the city, maybe they had never seen such a big guy. Fire-filled crossbows began to shoot at this direction. It's a pity that the range is not enough, and it's a headwind. I only shot halfway to the ground and fell to the ground.

Li Qing nodded lightly to the commander who led the troops, signaling that it was time to start, and the commander roared a few times, and nearly five hundred soldiers pulled several huge earth wheels, and the thick steel ropes slowly began to straighten, and then let out 'squeak and quack!' There was a screeching sound, and the towering stone pocket was bending down with difficulty.

Three soldiers carried a red projectile into the stone pocket, and the other soldier lit the twist, and the twist began to burn at a uniform rate, and when it burned to a scale, the soldier who lit the fire shouted, "Release!" ”

"Whoosh!" The red projectile rose into the air, drew a very beautiful arc, and flew towards the city, at this time, regardless of the city above and below the city, all the soldiers were looking up at it, only to see it over the city wall, and it exploded in the air with a "bang", and the shooting ground was not a life-threatening, quenched poisonous subway piece, but thousands of five-color pieces of paper, which were opened in the air, and a gust of wind blew and spread over Xiangzhou.

Immediately after that, the remaining three projectiles were also launched, one of them exploded on the way, and the pieces of paper were swept by the wind and scattered in all directions, Li Guangbi reached out and grabbed one of his red pieces of paper, only to see a line of words printed on it: 'Those who surrender first will be rewarded with 20 acres of land, and there will be no reward for surrendering after defeat.' ’

He grabbed another piece of blue paper, and saw another sentence printed on it: 'Those who surrender will be placed according to their original positions before the rebellion, and those who sacrifice the city or kill An Qingxu will be rewarded with ten thousand yuan, sealed the country, and awarded thousands of households. ’

Looking at other colored pieces of paper, there are all kinds of temptations or things like the general trend has gone, and there are even cases of the original surrendered rebels receiving rewards, all kinds of means.

Li Guangbi shook his head and smiled with a sigh: "Xiangguo actually came up with this method, it can really be described as 'a soldier who surrenders without a fight, and a city that pulls out people without attacking', I just said that Xiangguo's stone thrower is unfavorable, it seems that I am short-sighted." ”

"Back to camp!" Li Qing waved his hand, the soldiers quickly cleaned up, and the huge stone throwing machine began to rumble towards the camp to evacuate, Li Qing looked at the busy soldiers in the city, and a confident smile flashed in his eyes, as if he was talking to Li Guangbi and himself, only to hear him mutter: "Within three days, there will be chaos in Xiangzhou City." ”

.

Xiangzhou is also the county of the Three Kingdoms, now Anyang, Henan, is also the throat of Hebei, An Lushan failed to attack the pass, fearing that Li Guangbi would take Xiangzhou, cut off his connection with Youzhou, so he sent the generals Tian Chengsi and Zhang Zhongzhi to lead 40,000 elite garrisons in Xiangzhou.

Later, An Lushan was killed by An Qingxu, and then Luoyang was defeated, and An Qingxu fled back to Xiangzhou under the desperate escort of 20,000 tiger guards, but before that, he and Tian Chengsi had turned their faces because of An Lushan's death.

An Qingxu was in a disadvantageous position of weak cadres and strong branches, and had to endure it at first, but soon, he gave his most beloved concubine to Tian Chengsi's deputy general Zhang Zhongzhi, and successfully formed an alliance with it, pulling away nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses from Zhang Zhongzhi, and took advantage of Tian Chenghe's time to Weizhou to urge food, and ordered the Tiger Guard to pick quarrels and provoke trouble, and killed Tian Chenghe's generals Ling Huchao and Zhang Xiancheng for the crime of not abiding by military discipline.

Gradually, Tian Chengsi was forced into a corner by An Qingxu, just when he was about to go to Shandong for development. The Tang army began to attack Weizhou. cut off his way. Immediately, the Tang army of nearly 300,000 troops surrounded Xiangzhou.

The war was imminent, An Qingxu learned the lesson of Luoyang Cai Xide, took the initiative to make peace with Tian Chengsi, and beat Gao Hui and Li Riyue again, and ordered them to apologize to Tian Chengsi. The internal turmoil in Xiangzhou was barely quelled.

Today, Li Qing distributed leaflets to the section of the city wall. It was Tian Chenghe's henchman An Taiqing who was in charge of the defense, and the overwhelming leaflets made him uneasy, and he urgently ordered the leaflets to be collected, but the soldiers under his command hid their secrets, leaving three and turning in one, until the afternoon, tens of thousands of copies of the leaflets were only recovered. The rest has quietly spread in Xiangzhou City.

An Taiqing usually lives in the barracks. But in a small mansion near the west city gate, he raised a concubine, who turned out to be the daughter of Xiangzhou Thorn Shidi, after An Lushan occupied Xiangzhou. Assassin Shi was killed. His daughter was also sold into the Qinglou, and by chance she received An Taiqing, who had been fighting for half her life, liked her beautiful temperament, so she accepted her as a concubine. It is housed in a side house. and bought two maids to serve her.

This woman also knows how to repay her kindness. So he was determined to An Taiqing, so that An Taiqing had to spend the night with her almost every night. Today, An Taiqing was depressed, and after changing his guard, he hurried to the side house.

Returned home. I saw that the room was clean and tidy. A pot of fire burned brightly, making the room extra warm. There was still a faint fragrance, and an arhat bed was already filled with his favorite wine and dishes, and An Taiqing's nervous mood began to slowly relax.

"The general seems to be in a bad mood today?" The woman asked softly as she took off her coat for him.

"The Tang army is besieging the city, who is in a good mood?" Saying that, An Taiqing sighed habitually, An Qingxu was mean and short-sighted, and the general trend was gone, why didn't he understand?

It's just that Tian Chengsi was kind to him, he couldn't bear to abandon it, he gently pinched the woman's white porcelain-like face, and smiled: "Let's eat!" I'm hungry. ”

"The wine has been poured, so let's go first! I packed up my clothes and came in. The woman took a pile of clothes to the couch and folded them carefully, she had a clean ringworm, and she did not allow messy things in the room.

Suddenly, she saw a few pieces of red, green and green paper on the ground, frowned and thought for a while, it should be that she fell to the ground when she took off the man's coat, so she walked over and picked them up, only to see that they were all printed with words, she looked at a few curiously, her face gradually became solemn, suddenly, she felt a burst of boredom in her chest, and suddenly covered her mouth and rushed to the back of the screen, waw wow vomited.

An Taiqing drank a glass of wine, and sandwiched a few chopsticks and dishes, and began to ponder the things of the day, not to mention that the Tang army was the most important, even the containers used to hold leaflets shocked him, he knew that it was Li Qing's killer weapon - gunpowder, I heard that Cui Qianyou died on this gunpowder, and later Tian Chengsi was also ready to use gunpowder, but after several experiments, he felt that the effect was not good, plus the gunpowder was limited by the Tang Dynasty, the quantity was too small, and Tian Chengsi also gave up.

But today, although the power of this gunpowder used by Li Qing is about the same, the time of the explosion is controlled quite accurately, and the three clay pots all exploded on the city wall, which made An Taiqing very frightened, if the Tang army attacked the city on a large scale, and with this kind of sharp weapon, how long could Xiangzhou City be defended?

'Those who dedicate the city or kill An Qingxu will be rewarded with ten thousand, sealed the country, and granted thousands of households. His thoughts unconsciously turned to the leaflet, if he was not moved was false, but he did not dare and did not have the ability to betray Tian Chenghei, but the three words "Feng Guogong" scratched his center like a cat's claw, making him restless.

The wine glass was empty in front of him, and it was usually a woman who would pour it for him, but why didn't she delay today

Taiqing's brows were twisted, and he looked into the house, and suddenly, he seemed to **, and couldn't help but jump off and strode towards the back room.

Seeing her sitting on the ground, her head buried in her knees, her shoulders shrugged, as if she was crying, An Taiqing swept her eyes, and saw that she was holding the stack of leaflets in her hand, her heart suddenly became angry, and she stepped forward and pinched her arm to pull her up, snatched the leaflets away, and said angrily: "I have told you many times, you are not allowed to touch the things of my military aircraft, why do you still move!" ”

The woman hugged him by the waist, and her soft body fell on his chest and cried: "General, you surrender!" ”

"What did you say!"

An Taiqing pushed her away and said viciously: "If it weren't for the fact that you are my woman, I would have killed you with a sword, and you will not be allowed to mention this matter again in the future." ”

With that, he turned around and left, and the woman sat down on the ground, her chest churning again. She didn't have time to find the bucket, so she covered her mouth and spit it out.

An Taiqing was taken aback and hurriedly helped her up, "Don't you have a child?" Is your red case still coming? ”

The woman shook her head feebly. "I don't know, but this month's red case has long passed, and it hasn't come."

"That's it!" An Taiqing was so happy that his chest was about to explode. He was almost fifty years old. There are three daughters in the family. But there is no son, and he is still in Youzhou, and he has fallen into the hands of the Tang Army, and he is about to break off. Unexpectedly, this woman was happy, he thought about it, this woman has been with him for more than half a year, and she should be his child.

"Come on! Come! Come! Hurry up and lie down. ”.**。 Lay her down carefully, held her hand and comforted: "Don't ask about military affairs." Now that you have a child, I will think for you. ”

An Taiqing didn't want to eat again, so he called two maids to serve his concubine. hurriedly went to find Tian Chenghei, but he just approached the barracks. but met the person sent by An Qingxu to find him.

An Qingxu also got the news that Tang Jun had scattered leaflets, and even found such a leaflet on his guards, and An Qingxu immediately realized the seriousness of the matter. Shaking the morale of the army is still a trivial matter. If someone covets the reward of the high-ranking official, cut off his head in Anqingxu or sacrifice Xiangzhou to ask for merit. That is the end of his land.

And this person, he naturally thought of Tian Chenghe. His envoy had just spoken with Tian Chenghei. Tian Chengsi said that the sergeant would not be allowed to talk about the matter, and those who violated the order would be beheaded. And swore to him that he would never have two hearts.

Having said that, An Qingxu didn't believe it, only by getting rid of Tian Chengsi and holding all his 15,000 elite soldiers in his hands could he rest assured, but Tian Chenghe's army was heavily guarded, and he had to change several places to sleep in a night, even if the killer could get in, he wouldn't be able to find him.

But An Taiqing's identity made An Qingxu finally think of a way, An Taiqing was also his uncle, a member of the An family, but also Tian Chenghe's henchman.

"Uncle Qing! As long as you promise, I will reward you with 10,000 taels of gold immediately, haven't you been worried? This Xiangzhou city girl can be used by you, and I will hand over the soldiers to you. ”

An Qingxu saw that An Taiqing was silent, squatted in front of him again, held his arm and said sincerely: "The city of Xiangzhou is strong, there is a lot of grain and grass, enough to be defended for more than a year, Li Qing's army is outside, Chang'an will change over time, Li Qingyan can not rush back, so that we have another chance, then I will go south to Jianghuai, and make a comeback, Uncle Qing is my right phase." ”

An Qingxu saw that An Taiqing was a little shaken, so he stood up, pulled out an arrow, and said in two paragraphs: "If I break my oath, there will be such an arrow!" ”

An Taiqing was silent for a long time, and finally nodded and said, "I can help you, but I can't do it!" ”

An Qingxu was overjoyed and said: "As long as you can lead my people into the army, give him a pass card, and tell him where Tian Chenghei will stay overnight, you will be considered your first merit!" ”

"That's it! For the sake of the same clan, I will help you this time! An Taiqing lowered his head and hid a sinister smile in his eyes.

An Taiqing immediately rushed home after leaving An Qingxu's mansion, took away his concubine and hid it, this is the only person An Qingxu can coerce him.

As soon as it was dark, An Taiqing quietly hid the assassins sent by An Qingxu to ask to see him in his tent.

At the fourth watch, Tian Chenghe's camp suddenly stirred, countless torches were lit, the angry shouts of the soldiers flooded the entire camp, the commander Tian Chengsi was killed, and the head was missing.

"Brothers, this Ding An Qingxu, that dog thief killed Tian Dashuai! Generals, we have to avenge Tian Dashuai! Tian Chenghe's deputy general An Taiqing stood on a high platform built with a wooden box, his eyes were red, the fire, and anger made his face distorted, looking particularly hideous, he raised his arm and roared loudly: "He is afraid that Tian Dashuai will surrender the city, so he is poisonous, brothers!" Zhang Zhongzhi betrayed, General Linghu and General Zhang Xiancheng were innocently killed, we have had enough! ”

"Revenge! Avenge! Avenge! ”

Angry soldiers and generals responded to An Taiqing's mobilization with a vengeful cry, and An Taiqing saw that the time had come, he tore off the military uniform on his arm, exposed his arm, and shouted: "I want to surrender the officers and soldiers, no longer be a thief, and I am willing to show my right arm like those who work with me!" ”

Brushing the ground, almost all the soldiers and generals raised their bare arms, and a few soldiers who did not raise their hands or were even in a hurry to tear their sleeves were immediately cut to the ground. The tide is gone!

"Brethren! Capture the West Gate and surrender the city! ”

More than 10,000 soldiers burst into an earth-shattering roar and drove towards the west gate.

In December of the first year of Germany, the rebels had internal strife, Tian Chengsi was assassinated by An Qingxu, Tian Chengsi's deputy general An Taiqing immediately led his troops to seize the West Gate, and surrendered the city to the Tang army, the Tang army poured into Xiangzhou, the rebels surrendered one after another, An Qingxu saw that the general trend had gone, ignited the mansion ** and died, since then, An Lushan rebellion finally ended.

Li Qing immediately ordered: Zhang Zhongzhi, Gao Hui, Li Riyue and other generals were beheaded in the city, and An Taiqing dedicated the city to a great merit, rewarded Wanguan, Xu named him the prince of the country, and ate thousands of households in Xiangzhou, but An Taiqing immediately said that the people of Xiangzhou were poor, do not eat Yi, and were willing to return to the people, Li Qing called it virtuous, and then appointed him as the history of Xiangzhou Thorn; The An Lushan army was taken from its elite, removed its old and weak, and all of them were incorporated into the Anxi army.

At the same time, Li Qing ordered Li Guangbi to be the envoy of Fanyang Jiedu and Yan Qing to be the chief historian, and led 30,000 troops to guard Youzhou to prevent the resurgence of the remnants of Hebei, and ordered Li Siye to be the envoy of Pinglu Jiedu, Nanjiyun to be the envoy of Hedong Jiedu, and Xi Yuanqing to be the envoy of Huainan Jiedu, each leading 10,000 troops to maintain local security.

Immediately, he appointed Wei Yingwu as the observer envoy of Henan Province and Lu as the pacification envoy of Huaixi.

After all kinds of personnel were arranged one by one, Li Qing led the army to pull out and return to Chang'an, at this time Chang'an was already full of wind and rain, following the Xuanwumen incident, the most tragic palace struggle in the Tang Dynasty in a hundred years was quietly kicked off.