Wang Yuan once again begged Du Fu to stay in the army, and this time Du Fu was no longer hypocritical. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info He's desperate. Second, he has the ambition to serve the country but suffers from no one to know the goods, and now Wang Yuan is the number one person in the Tang Dynasty, which is an excellent opportunity for him to serve the country, and Du Fu, who is already in his forties, of course refuses to let it go.

However, Du Fu was very knowledgeable, and when Wang Yuan asked him what he wanted to do in the army, although Du Fu hoped to lead his troops to fight, he knew that this would make Wang Yuan embarrassed. So I asked to take care of the logistics. Du Fu's previous position as a state secretary Cao to join the army was actually an errand such as guarding weapons and armor and taking charge of the keys to the treasury, so he wanted to do something familiar and try not to feel like being taken in by interpersonal relationships.

Wang Yuan thought for a while and denied his request: "The position of Si Cao does not need to be held by Brother Du, I will give you a position to join the army, you can help me staff and staff the battle situation and come up with some ideas or something." Si Cao's work is too tiring, and it is better for others to do it, not for Brother Du. ”

Du Fu was very grateful, the position of Si Cao joining the army at the beginning was actually not an official position at all, but a position that Du Fu had to make ends meet. Si Cao in the army is actually not a high-level errand either. Wang Yuan obviously thought of the old relationship and didn't want to let himself be exposed to that kind of affairs again. The position of joining the army is equivalent to that of a staff officer in the army, and he can plan and advise on the war, but the position directly related to the war is obviously much higher than that of other positions.

There was no word for the night, and the next morning, the army left Zizhou for Tongzhou. That night, the urgent letter sent by Gao Xianzhi from Longyou Road finally arrived in the army, and Wang Yuan opened the letter and immediately laughed.

That night, Wang Yuan gathered all the generals in the big tent and read Gao Xianzhi's letter to everyone. Gao Xianzhi said in the letter that he had found out that the 200,000 so-called rebels who arrived in the vicinity of Ningzhou were really a trick, and only about 40,000 or 50,000 were rebel soldiers and horses, and the rest were disguised by the rebels coercing the people.

The so-called 200,000 soldiers and horses slowly cruising seventy or eighty miles east of Ningzhou, deliberately creating the illusion of a large army pressing the border, but they did not dare to attack. Gao Xianzhi told Wang Yuan that the rebels' move was bound to attack directly from the south road, and asked Wang Yuan to step up reconnaissance to determine the enemy's traces. The letter also said that once the battle in Tongzhou began, he would act according to the plan.

Wang Yuan smiled and circulated this letter to everyone, many generals in the army were quite puzzled by the marshal leading the army to Tongzhou, and they were also very puzzled about this matter in private, but at this time they finally all suddenly realized. It turned out that the marshal expected the enemy to take the lead and had already discussed it with Gao Xianzhi, judging that the enemy was a false shot. The generals were in a happy mood and asked what the so-called plan in Gao Dashuai's letter was.

Wang Yuan smiled but did not answer. The so-called plan was that once the rebels were fought in Tongzhou, Gao Xianzhi would lead the army of Longyou Dao to storm the enemy on the outskirts of Ningzhou, and then approach Chang'an. As long as he withstands the attack of the enemy in Tongzhou and makes the rebels in Shu in a dilemma, that is the turning point of the entire counterinsurgency war. But Wang Yuan couldn't tell everyone in advance, firstly, for the sake of secrecy, and also to let everyone have the heart to fight to the death when the battle situation was difficult, instead of pinning his hopes on Gao Xianzhi's containment.

……

East of the Qinling Mountains of Bashan, two hundred and twenty miles southwest of Chang'an City, in Jinzhou. Shi Siming's 180,000 elite soldiers and horses have been assembled. The plan to attack the east and the west and divert the tiger from the mountain is Shi Siming's proud work. When he was ordered by An Lushan to lead the army to attack Longyou and Jiannan Dao, he thought of this strategy. Because Shi Siming knew that if he attacked head-on, he might not be able to get good fruits to eat between the complex Shu mountains and mountains. Although he has an army of 250,000, he may not be able to capture Chengdu.

Therefore, although this plan to attack the east and the west will make him have to divide 60,000 or 70,000 troops to act in Longyou Dao, so that the troops in his hands will be reduced, but strategically it is worth it, of course, provided that this plan can be successful.

In order to ensure the success of this plan, during the rest period of Chang'an City, Shi Siming ordered the collection of more than 100,000 people in the city, regardless of the aged, young, sick or weak, all of them were arrested into the army, only taught them some simple rules in the army, and each person was casually issued a set of armor and blades, and let his general Yin Ziqi lead more than 60,000 soldiers and horses to guard these hundreds of thousands of fake soldiers and horses to attack in the direction of Longyou Daoningzhou. At the same time, in order to avoid people's eyes, he ordered his 180,000 soldiers and horses to be divided into several batches and go to Jinzhou in small groups to assemble.

Shi Siming successfully completed the assembly of 180,000 soldiers and horses in this cautious way, counting the days, the 200,000 so-called soldiers and horses have arrived near Ningzhou, Longyou Dao, Shi Siming deliberately waited for a few days, giving the Tang army a chance to transfer troops north. At the same time, he also knew that waiting one more day would make the Tang army farther away from the empty Shu land. Of course, we can't wait indefinitely, otherwise the soldiers and horses in the north may be exposed at any time.

During the seven or eight days of waiting, Shi Siming was not idle. He ordered people to drive the local people everywhere to work as hard labor, and gathered tens of thousands of people to repair the road into Shu. He didn't want to be trapped by the difficulties of Shu Dao. Once attacked, he needed to cross the mountains in front of him as quickly as possible, and capture Chengdu with lightning speed when the Tang army did not react. Kill or capture Xuanzong, and the overall situation will be decided by then.

On March 29, just as Wang Yuan was leading a large army on the way to Tongzhou, Shi Siming's 180,000 iron cavalry also set out from Jinzhou and rushed westward into the vast mountains. On the ancient road of Bashu repaired by the pioneer of tens of thousands of people, the dense convoy of soldiers, horses and baggage that stretched for more than ten miles swam towards the direction of Tongzhou like a huge winding black dragon.

Shi Siming has a strategic vision, and his first choice is to take Tongzhou, not only because Tongzhou is the most prominent state capital in the eastern part of Jiannan Province, but because of the topography here. The place where Tongzhou is located is the end of the southern foot of Daba Mountain, compared to Bazhou and Lizhou, which are closest to Jinzhou to the north, attacking Tongzhou actually has to take an oblique line to the southwest, and the distance seems to be farther. However, it is the main peak of Daba Mountain where Lizhou and Bazhou are located, and Bashan is connected to the Qinling Mountains, which can be described as a lofty mountain and continuous like a wave, which is the most difficult route to take.

Moreover, the territory of Lizhou, Bazhou is mountainous, and the two state cities are also built in dangerous places, and the siege of the city is also a problem, and it is easy for the Tang army to use the terrain to set up an ambush and counterattack. Although Tongzhou is also between the mountains, Tongzhou is at the southern foot of Ba Mountain, and the mountains here are only the remnants of Daba Mountain, and the mountains are not very steep and dense.

The territory of Tongju is isolated by three peaks running north-south, one is Daba Mountain, and one is Hwasan Busan. These three peaks isolate Tongzhou from south to north into three terrains. The north is mountainous, the middle is hilly, and the southernmost part is a small plain area that is rare in the Dongchuan region. Most of the many castles in the land of Dongchuan had to be built in high mountains and hills. This is not for any strategic defensive considerations, but because the terrain has to do so. Because in the land of Dongchuan, there have been high mountains in ancient times, so there is no need to worry about any defense problems. One of the other is Tongju Castle, which was built on the fertile plains south of Hwasan Busan.

In the past, Tongzhou was built as a city because of this fertile land, and it became the envy of many state capitals. And today, this has become its weakness on the top of Shi Siming. The small plain terrain where Tongzhou City is located is just the right place to use the large army to siege the city, so that its weakness in defense is as obvious as lice on a bald man's head. This is also the reason why Shi Siming worked tirelessly and sought the near and far and sent troops to Tongzhou.

There are 200,000 feints in the north to attract the attention of Jiannan's army, and there is a strategic arrangement to attack Tongzhou by surprise in the south, and once Tongzhou is successfully reached, Tongzhou will be almost inevitably captured. Thus becoming the first springboard in the Jiannan Road to attack Chengdu. Shi Siming was extremely satisfied with his arrangement, as long as everything went well, there was no reason why Chengdu would not be in the bag, and there was no reason why Xuanzong would not become a prisoner of his subordinates.

With the confidence of victory, Shi Siming's army finally walked out of the dense mountain range that stretched for more than 100 miles on the afternoon of the eighth day of October. Riding on a horse, Shi Siming looked back at the peaks and peaks when he came, and his heart was full of emotion, and he almost wrote a poem to express his excitement. It was the hardest journey he had ever led his army, and he didn't want to go back once, he just wanted to move forward.

In order to ensure that the whereabouts of the army were not exposed, Shi Siming announced that he did not have to move forward for the time being. Although the front is already the realm of Tongzhou, a wide road detours along the side of the low mountain in front of it to the west, and you only need to go around the side of the low mountain to see the shadow of Tongzhou City. However, for the sake of prudence, Shi Siming still ordered to stop and camp in the woodland outside the mountain pass, and at the same time personally rode lightly, leading a dozen senior generals and a small part of the escort cavalry to the front to investigate the enemy's situation.

An hour later, Shi Siming came to the bottom of the low mountain called Hwasan Busan, and the group abandoned their mounts and climbed through the dense wooded slopes to the top of the mountain, and after another hour, they arrived at the top of Hwabusan. Standing on the top of the mountain, Shi Siming and the others looked far away, but saw that under the sunset, on an endless flat land, the rivers meandered and crisscrossed, and the trees and fields were lush and dense, as if they had arrived in the northern plains where they had been stationed. And Tongzhou City stood quietly on the plain a few miles away from the mountain.

"I've got good eyesight to see clearly, to see if there are a large number of soldiers and horses in the city, to see if the Tang army has been prepared, and whether it has sensed that we have arrived." Shi Siming ordered.

The generals' eyes were bloodshot, and they tried their best to identify the situation in the city below with their hands covering the setting sun.

"Qiqi's father is handsome, and he seems to be calm. See, there are still people busy planting seedlings in the fields outside the city. There was nothing unusual in the city, and we only saw a small number of soldiers and horses on the city. Although the distance is too far to see clearly, it definitely doesn't look like there are a large number of soldiers and horses stationed. Shi Siming's eldest son, Shi Chaoyi, who has been following Shi Siming's campaign, reported after some careful observation.

Shi Siming laughed and nodded: "It's almost as I expected, the Tang army has probably all been attracted to the front line in Ningzhou, and there are probably less than a thousand soldiers and horses in Tongzhou City, so it's easy to get it." Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for meritorious service, who can take Tongzhou in one fell swoop for Ben Shuai tonight? I heard that the morning tea in Shudi is good, especially the herbal tea dim sum in Tongzhou is a must. Early tomorrow morning, Ben Shuai wants to have a snack and drink morning tea in Tongzhou City. ”